prismatica overflow

[foolaround]

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[foolishjustice]

...You're the first other person I've met who knows about it. I didn't even know it had a name.

[foolaround]

[ she shrugs a shoulder. ]

I'm surprised you remember it. Most of the people who knew about it forgot, after it stopped... After that, I wasn't able to use my Personas until I came here.

[foolishjustice]

I forgot about it for seven years. I didn't remember until I summoned my Persona for the first time, while I was thinking about...my motivation.

[foolaround]

The Dark Hour was... it started when the lab exploded.

[foolishjustice]

Ah...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to question about painful memories.

[foolaround]

No, it's okay. I wasn't... there, anyway. [ she shakes her head. ]

The Kirijo Group was carrying out experiments on Shadows, I think? They were trying to... form Death. They'd heard of a prophecy, and... [ she drums her fingers on her knee. ]

They did it. Death escaped, but with that many Shadows being condensed together and then... [ she makes an explosion sort of hand gesture with both hands and makes a fwoooosh sound ] That caused the Dark Hour. They sent someone to... y'know, try to defeat Death, or recapture it...

[ she feels longing twist inside her ]

She couldn't. Sooooo... part of Death was sealed, [ in me, she doesn't say ] the rest of it split into twelve Shadows of other Arcana that appeared during the full moon, and the Dark Hour kept going for eleven years. That's how Apathy Syndrome was spreading--the Shadows. Iwatodai was the center of all of it.

[foolishjustice]

I...do remember seeing monsters around when it was happening in Tokyo, but they didn't look anything like the Shadows I've seen in the Metaverse. Well...except for wearing masks and having black bodies. But the most formless Shadows I've ever seen still had more shape than those.

[foolaround]

[ that's... strange. and worrying, almost. ]

What did they look like when you dealt with them?

[foolishjustice]

It depends on the environment. Ones in areas controlled by an individual's Shadow take on appearances that match the setting, frequently as appropriate security personnel - though, I've also seen them take the shape of secretaries, waitresses, and other staff not normally associated with security. In Mementos, where there's no form of authority, they simply appear as vague humanoid shapes.

[foolaround]

Different, but... [ it doesn't sound totally at odds. it's similar enough, and the metaverse sounds like it has its own rules. ]

It makes sense, I think? The Dark Hour wasn't about cognition, just... an anomaly, you know? Part of everything that was going to lead up to the Fall. A lot of the Shadows had shapes, but not ones that always made sense... like, I've cast so many Ziodynes on tanks.

[foolishjustice]

I've never seen any tanks, but I have fought my share of floating stars and blobs of ooze. Though, I think the strangest was the disembodied...body part in a chariot.

[Why does Mara exist.]

[foolaround]

Wait, they looked like Personas to you?

[foolishjustice]

Once their masks were removed or they were prepared for combat, yes. Is that really so strange?

[foolaround]

I--the kind of thing you saw during the Dark Hour is how they always looked, for us. Death looks like Thanatos, but that's really it...

[foolishjustice]

That's...rather strange, considering Shadows and Personas are opposite sides of the same coin. If you recognize those descriptions as Personas, then you must have had someone with the power to gain new ones in your group, right?

[foolaround]

Yeah, me.

[foolishjustice]

Did the Shadows change form after you recruited them?

[foolaround]

After I what?

[foolishjustice]

Recruited them. The person I...knew with that power negotiated with Shadows once he had the upper hand, and they became new Personas if he could reach an agreement with them.

[foolaround]

None of the Shadows really cared what we had to say, I think. No, sometimes after a fight, uh... I'd see some Minor Arcana cards, and have a chance to get something good from one of those? And a Persona would be mixed in, sometimes.

Mostly I just fused new ones, though...

[foolishjustice]

I've never...heard of anything like that happening. Everything I've ever known to come from the Metaverse was found there.

[foolaround]

Oh, it wasn't the Dark Hour that let me fuse them. It doesn't matter now, anyway, pretty sure I'm not their guest anymore...?

[ at the periphery of the scene, a wall twists, and an ornate blue door in a blue frame appears, with blue light spilling out from behind it. ]

[foolishjustice]

[Akechi glances over at it with a start.]

Um...I think your memories might be influencing the projection.

[foolaround]

[ minako glances up and then waves a hand, even as a shining blue butterfly goes past both of them. ]

That'll happen. I wouldn't worry about it, Akechi-kun.

[foolishjustice]

Alright...anyway, I was talking about objects rather than Personas. I kno-knew someone who could use multiple Personas, and he'd sometimes take some time to somehow trade older ones for new ones. I never asked how he did it, but it sounds safe to assume it was this 'fusion' process.