05-28-2017, 09:00 PM
You know, Akira thought to himself as he floated in the uncaring black void that surrounded him, the Velvet Room was a prison, but I'd still prefer that to nothing. Though it probably helped that I could leave the Velvet Room whenever I wanted. The Joker sighed mutely, all sound seeming to be consumed by the murky blackness that surrounded him, and twisted around in mid-nothing, trying to find something he could use to orient himself and coming face to face with a blank white space, in the shape of a person, with a wide grin and caps of deepest black between its teeth. Immediately, Akira tried to recoil in shock and reach for his mask, intent on calling Arsene to help him deal with what seemed to be a Shadow of some kind, but he was thwarted on both accounts; he had no way to move under his own power, having no ground or walls or solid objects within reach, and he was wearing his school uniform rather than his Metaverse outfit, and thus lacked his mask. The being spoke to him, introducing itself and handing him a ball of some kind of substance that it called Omnilium. It felt like a Persona, like the energy that he could absorb into his mask and copy the Shadow it came from, but it also felt like... more than that, somehow. Like it wasn't just the base material of the mental mindscape, but the physical one as well. That might be what it is, since it "ties the Omniverse together."
The entity, Omni, released him from the uncaring black void into, by all appearances, an uncaring white void, but with a nice park fountain right next to him, and a sense of gravity, and a floor, so... small improvements. Akira stood from the white floor, looking around at the vast expanse of featureless white. He stretched, noting that he was still dressed in his Shujin Academy uniform. Rummaging through his pockets revealed three things; a sheathed knife in his front right pocket, a model gun holstered by his back left pocket, and his phone in his front left pocket. After a brief inspection of the blade, he strapped his Black Kogatana inside his sleeve, where it belonged, and unlocked his phone with a practiced combination. The first thing he checked was the Metaverse Nav, which proved itself utterly unhelpful, displaying only one error message.
Recalibrating for local Collective Unconscous topography.
Because that told him exactly what was wrong.
A quick search through some other apps revealed a similar lack of function; no wi-fi, no cell signal, nada. With an exasperated sigh, Akira pocketed the device, pushed his glasses up, and picked a direction to start walking. He was pretty much out of choices, after all. Standing around by the fountain and waiting for something to happen was a pretty dumb idea.
Half an hour later, Akira was thinking some very uncomplimentary things about Omni. Seriously, at least the Velvet Room had decoration, what is it with this Omni guy and his endless stretches of nothingness? Meanwhile, in the middle distance, a pair of individuals in white armor made plans for the immediate future. Plans that concerned the strange teenager with the messy hair and hideously tacky school uniform.
"I'm not going! I don't care how harmless he looks! In fact, it's probably because he looks harmless that I don't want to go!"
"He's just a high schooler! Take the speeder bike, go introduce him to the Omniverse, and maybe we'll luck into recruiting a skilled Prime and get promoted off of Gate duty!"
"No way, man! For all I know he can summon giant monsters or throw fire with his mind or whatever! You want to approach a new Prime so bad, you take the speeder and go meet him."
"You know how much I hate speeder bikes, especially in the Nexus. No reference points, too much speed, it's just strange."
"Ugh, fine, you big baby. I'll do it, but you better use that sniper blaster and back me up if he's hostile."
Their argument resolved, the two stormtroopers went their seperate ways, one to take up a position just outside the gate to Coruscant, and the other to mount the aforementioned speeder-bike, similar to a motorcycle but with some kind of hover system instead of wheels, and ride to meet the fresh Prime. He approached quickly, causing Akira to slow his own pace and observe the rapidly approaching rider with caution. He pulled the tail of his school uniform shirt out of his pants, draping it over the holstered model gun; not as good at concealing the small weapon as his Metaverse outfit, but it would have to do. The armor the approaching individual wore covered his entire body. He supposed this could be a Shadow, but he didn't think so. For one thing, the Metaverse Nav was inactive and, for lack of a better word, patching. For another, he was still in his student clothes. If this were a mindscape, he'd have transformed into his Joker ensemble when the mindscape began to consider him a threat, and if he wasn't a threat a Shadow wouldn't have been dispatched.
These thoughts kept him relaxed even as the Stormtrooper stopped his bike a short distance away. Akira raised a hand in greeting, which caused the man to flinch ever so slightly. He didn't think he'd have noticed had he not gotten so good at reading people over the past few months, or had he still not been on high alert from having to power through that truth serum and play Niijima Sae like a fiddle just a day prior. Still, after that almost-insignificant delay, the man (?) inclined his (her? its?) head in reply and spoke.
"Hello, and welcome to the Omniverse! My name is Private Michaels. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but right now it'd be best if we moved towards the Coruscant Gate. Summoning a vehicle would probably speed things up a bit."
Akira nodded, smiling blandly. This man's speech sounded like it was rehearsed hundreds, if not thousands of times. It was hollow and wooden. The sheer conformity was almost enough to turn the Joker's stomach, but Akira was nothing if not good at hiding his disquiet with the way people acted. "Private Michaels, my name is Kurusu Akira. Of course, I'll gladly follow you, only... well, I don't know what you mean by summoning a vehicle."
For his own part, Michaels was repressing things, too. His fear of an unidentified prime with unknown capabilities, yes, but also his exasperation at having to explain Summoning, of all things. He was a secondary, what the hell did he know about Summoning? "Alright, I'm not sure how to explain it, but... try thinking of a vehicle. Picture it clearly, then reach for that Omnilium that Omni must've given you, and pull it out to fill in the mental image of the vehicle. That's how it was described to me.
"Described to you?" Akira questioned even as he followed the instructions, finding the Omnilium firmly right next to that spot in his consciousness where his Persona energy was "stored". "Can't you do it yourself?" The rainbow hues of swirling Omnilium began to coalesce into a motorcycle, similar in appearance to Makoto's Persona, Johanna, though lacking the face or the pulsing nuclear power.
"No, sorry. Only Primes, people summoned by Omni, can use Omnilium to Summon things. I'm a Secondary; a Prime summoned me, so I can't summon anything on my own."
"Huh," the high schooler remarked before returning his focus to the formation of the bike. Five minutes passed in surprisingly companionable silence as the Johanna look-alike resolved itself into reality. Awkwardly mounting the bike and glad he'd asked Makoto for pointers on riding a motorcycle, Akira started the engine, revving the bike a couple times. "Alright, we're good to go."
Michaels raised an eyebrow inside his helmet at the strange design of the kid's bike, but nodded. "Alright, Kurusu, was it? Follow me to the gate." Without further fanfare, the stormtrooper spun his speederbike around with the practiced ease of someone who's been working with the floating bikes for longer than he cares to remember. Akira awkwardly follows him on the bike, managing to keep upright and maintain a good rate of speed due to his great balance and reflexes but clearly not comfortable on the vehicle.
A few minutes where the roar of the two engines was the only sound passed before the pair of them slowed to a stop, Michaels smoothly dismounting and Akira awkwardly waddling like someone had kicked him in the testicles. Michaels and the other stormtrooper both stifled a laugh at this, but Michaels swiftly began to explain. "You'll want to Extract the Omnilium from that bike before you go through. Just... do the thing you just did, but backwards." Akira looked skeptical, but that proved to be sufficient instruction to get the bike to begin breaking apart. "This is the Gate to Coruscant. The Omniverse is made up of the Nexus, eight main Verses, the Astral Verse, the Underverse, and the Void. All the Verses have a Void Gate somewhere, supposedly, but nobody's found all of them yet. The Astral Verse is some kind of Dreamscape or something, never really looked into it. Then each Verse has a gate to the Nexus and two gates to other main Verses."
Akira nodded, not wanting to ask for an explanation even as he finished extracting the bike. "Sounds pretty straightforward. I'll fill in the blanks myself, but thank you very much for the overview."
Michaels nodded politely back. "Of course. If you like, feel free to sign on with the EPD and help out in the city. We can always use more people helping keep the peace. Tell them I sent you."
Akira smiled in that hollow way that meant he wasn't really, truly pleased, but nodded all the same. "I'll be sure to do that," he lied without hesitation. There was no way he'd join a police department or anything similar. Sure, it was a decent enough cause, but... it wasn't him. He was the Wild Card, his other self was the Phantom Thief Arsene Lupin. There is good in the system, yes, but the system is anathema to his very soul. He'd wash out of a police department inside of a week. Still smiling blandly, the high schooler walked through the gate and into Coruscant.
A few minutes later, when they were certain he wasn't coming back, the two Stormtroopers sighed. "No way is he going to sign on. No promotion for us this time, Michaels."
"Damn."
The entity, Omni, released him from the uncaring black void into, by all appearances, an uncaring white void, but with a nice park fountain right next to him, and a sense of gravity, and a floor, so... small improvements. Akira stood from the white floor, looking around at the vast expanse of featureless white. He stretched, noting that he was still dressed in his Shujin Academy uniform. Rummaging through his pockets revealed three things; a sheathed knife in his front right pocket, a model gun holstered by his back left pocket, and his phone in his front left pocket. After a brief inspection of the blade, he strapped his Black Kogatana inside his sleeve, where it belonged, and unlocked his phone with a practiced combination. The first thing he checked was the Metaverse Nav, which proved itself utterly unhelpful, displaying only one error message.
Recalibrating for local Collective Unconscous topography.
Because that told him exactly what was wrong.
A quick search through some other apps revealed a similar lack of function; no wi-fi, no cell signal, nada. With an exasperated sigh, Akira pocketed the device, pushed his glasses up, and picked a direction to start walking. He was pretty much out of choices, after all. Standing around by the fountain and waiting for something to happen was a pretty dumb idea.
Half an hour later, Akira was thinking some very uncomplimentary things about Omni. Seriously, at least the Velvet Room had decoration, what is it with this Omni guy and his endless stretches of nothingness? Meanwhile, in the middle distance, a pair of individuals in white armor made plans for the immediate future. Plans that concerned the strange teenager with the messy hair and hideously tacky school uniform.
"I'm not going! I don't care how harmless he looks! In fact, it's probably because he looks harmless that I don't want to go!"
"He's just a high schooler! Take the speeder bike, go introduce him to the Omniverse, and maybe we'll luck into recruiting a skilled Prime and get promoted off of Gate duty!"
"No way, man! For all I know he can summon giant monsters or throw fire with his mind or whatever! You want to approach a new Prime so bad, you take the speeder and go meet him."
"You know how much I hate speeder bikes, especially in the Nexus. No reference points, too much speed, it's just strange."
"Ugh, fine, you big baby. I'll do it, but you better use that sniper blaster and back me up if he's hostile."
Their argument resolved, the two stormtroopers went their seperate ways, one to take up a position just outside the gate to Coruscant, and the other to mount the aforementioned speeder-bike, similar to a motorcycle but with some kind of hover system instead of wheels, and ride to meet the fresh Prime. He approached quickly, causing Akira to slow his own pace and observe the rapidly approaching rider with caution. He pulled the tail of his school uniform shirt out of his pants, draping it over the holstered model gun; not as good at concealing the small weapon as his Metaverse outfit, but it would have to do. The armor the approaching individual wore covered his entire body. He supposed this could be a Shadow, but he didn't think so. For one thing, the Metaverse Nav was inactive and, for lack of a better word, patching. For another, he was still in his student clothes. If this were a mindscape, he'd have transformed into his Joker ensemble when the mindscape began to consider him a threat, and if he wasn't a threat a Shadow wouldn't have been dispatched.
These thoughts kept him relaxed even as the Stormtrooper stopped his bike a short distance away. Akira raised a hand in greeting, which caused the man to flinch ever so slightly. He didn't think he'd have noticed had he not gotten so good at reading people over the past few months, or had he still not been on high alert from having to power through that truth serum and play Niijima Sae like a fiddle just a day prior. Still, after that almost-insignificant delay, the man (?) inclined his (her? its?) head in reply and spoke.
"Hello, and welcome to the Omniverse! My name is Private Michaels. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but right now it'd be best if we moved towards the Coruscant Gate. Summoning a vehicle would probably speed things up a bit."
Akira nodded, smiling blandly. This man's speech sounded like it was rehearsed hundreds, if not thousands of times. It was hollow and wooden. The sheer conformity was almost enough to turn the Joker's stomach, but Akira was nothing if not good at hiding his disquiet with the way people acted. "Private Michaels, my name is Kurusu Akira. Of course, I'll gladly follow you, only... well, I don't know what you mean by summoning a vehicle."
For his own part, Michaels was repressing things, too. His fear of an unidentified prime with unknown capabilities, yes, but also his exasperation at having to explain Summoning, of all things. He was a secondary, what the hell did he know about Summoning? "Alright, I'm not sure how to explain it, but... try thinking of a vehicle. Picture it clearly, then reach for that Omnilium that Omni must've given you, and pull it out to fill in the mental image of the vehicle. That's how it was described to me.
"Described to you?" Akira questioned even as he followed the instructions, finding the Omnilium firmly right next to that spot in his consciousness where his Persona energy was "stored". "Can't you do it yourself?" The rainbow hues of swirling Omnilium began to coalesce into a motorcycle, similar in appearance to Makoto's Persona, Johanna, though lacking the face or the pulsing nuclear power.
"No, sorry. Only Primes, people summoned by Omni, can use Omnilium to Summon things. I'm a Secondary; a Prime summoned me, so I can't summon anything on my own."
"Huh," the high schooler remarked before returning his focus to the formation of the bike. Five minutes passed in surprisingly companionable silence as the Johanna look-alike resolved itself into reality. Awkwardly mounting the bike and glad he'd asked Makoto for pointers on riding a motorcycle, Akira started the engine, revving the bike a couple times. "Alright, we're good to go."
Michaels raised an eyebrow inside his helmet at the strange design of the kid's bike, but nodded. "Alright, Kurusu, was it? Follow me to the gate." Without further fanfare, the stormtrooper spun his speederbike around with the practiced ease of someone who's been working with the floating bikes for longer than he cares to remember. Akira awkwardly follows him on the bike, managing to keep upright and maintain a good rate of speed due to his great balance and reflexes but clearly not comfortable on the vehicle.
A few minutes where the roar of the two engines was the only sound passed before the pair of them slowed to a stop, Michaels smoothly dismounting and Akira awkwardly waddling like someone had kicked him in the testicles. Michaels and the other stormtrooper both stifled a laugh at this, but Michaels swiftly began to explain. "You'll want to Extract the Omnilium from that bike before you go through. Just... do the thing you just did, but backwards." Akira looked skeptical, but that proved to be sufficient instruction to get the bike to begin breaking apart. "This is the Gate to Coruscant. The Omniverse is made up of the Nexus, eight main Verses, the Astral Verse, the Underverse, and the Void. All the Verses have a Void Gate somewhere, supposedly, but nobody's found all of them yet. The Astral Verse is some kind of Dreamscape or something, never really looked into it. Then each Verse has a gate to the Nexus and two gates to other main Verses."
Akira nodded, not wanting to ask for an explanation even as he finished extracting the bike. "Sounds pretty straightforward. I'll fill in the blanks myself, but thank you very much for the overview."
Michaels nodded politely back. "Of course. If you like, feel free to sign on with the EPD and help out in the city. We can always use more people helping keep the peace. Tell them I sent you."
Akira smiled in that hollow way that meant he wasn't really, truly pleased, but nodded all the same. "I'll be sure to do that," he lied without hesitation. There was no way he'd join a police department or anything similar. Sure, it was a decent enough cause, but... it wasn't him. He was the Wild Card, his other self was the Phantom Thief Arsene Lupin. There is good in the system, yes, but the system is anathema to his very soul. He'd wash out of a police department inside of a week. Still smiling blandly, the high schooler walked through the gate and into Coruscant.
A few minutes later, when they were certain he wasn't coming back, the two Stormtroopers sighed. "No way is he going to sign on. No promotion for us this time, Michaels."
"Damn."