Oh? I'll bet she poured her heart and soul into making it, too! Homemade curry is the best! Especially when it's made by someone you love.
I can't really explain it... the way he makes it is perfect. He got the recipe from a guy whose practically his surrogate father, and like... he was able to replicate it perfectly. [ She sighs, twirling the end of a pigtail around her fingers for a moment. ] Then again, he manages to do most everything he puts his mind to without a single flaw. What an absolute jerk.
[ Except she sounds far, far too fond to really mean that whole 'jerk' comment as any sort of insult. ]
A 'friend' from home just recently arrived, speaking of spicy... [ The fondness that was in her voice dissipates, even though she continues smiling. ] He can't tolerate spicy things at all. I don't think he'd be very good at our game.
[ Ah, yes. She can see Akechi's face turning a bright red, his voice rising a few octaves....
...her smile sure is getting wider at the mental visualization. ]
[Ann has Atem's full attention! Games and learning about each other? They are conversations topics so much easier for him. Friendship is great, they should all talk more about their friends. Though that tone indicates this guy isn't really. Hmm. Definitely someone she'd like to see lose. He'll keep that in mind.]
Actually about your home... I've been meaning to ask. Carmen, I think you called her back then, is she your Ka?
[ Man, she'd entirely agree. She does love friendship, and conversations like this are great. The entire bonding experience is great, though, if you ask her. She's never been very good at it, at least not the last six or so years, but she'd like to think she's getting better.
She's glad they're alone right now, too -- then again, she knows Atem would probably never bring Carmen up in front of anyone else, and in the big scheme of things it probably doesn't even matter who knows what, because this isn't home. It's literal Hell. Old habits die hard, though. ]
Oh! Well, she's my Persona. She's always been with me, but I wasn't really able to awaken her until something really, really bad happened a little over a year ago. And usually, at home, I wouldn't be able to just call on her whenever I want. Usually I'm only able to access her in something called the Metaverse.
[She lost him. He kind of understood what she about how she was recently awakened. What's this Metaverse thing? There isn't enough information for him to puzzle it out on his own.]
A Persona, huh? I've never heard of it before. I was under the impression she's a part of your soul given form through your strength of will... That's what makes a Ka, anyway.
[He concentrates and summons Osiris wrapped around his body with its head resting in his hand. Out of his three summons, it is the smallest in hell, its serpentine body only 7-feet. The other two wouldn't make for a very good example.]
Osiris is one of the three Ka that I can call upon.
[ Her head tips to the side as she listens in to his explanation, and her eyes visibly light up because a Ka sounds very much like a Persona. Maybe it's the same thing? ]
She is part of my soul! Essentially, she and I are one in the same. Maybe... maybe it's the exact same thing, then!
[ Huh. Ancient Egyptian Personas... and even a demonstration. Her eyes widen as Osiris appears, and it's cute so she can't help herself when she claps excitedly and bounces up and down. ]
Wow! Wait, you can call three!? That'd make you a Wildcard in my world! My friends and I can only call on one, but our other friend, the leader of our group at home, he can call on as many as he wants.
Really? It takes years of study to summon just one!
[That sounds so cool!! But for another world to have such a similar concept as Ka? He doesn't know much about all this multidimensional stuff so a lot of remains lost to him. Still... And a wildcard? Like the jokers in a 54-card deck? Osiris wings fold close to its body while they talk.]
And most people from the future can't at all. Neither Kaiba or Yugi can do it. I believe Pegasus can, if you've met him, but he does so with the aid of his Millennium Eye. That's why I was surprised when I saw yours! A Ka, a Persona, as strong as yours speaks of your sense of justice. You possess a very special gift.
Wow! I didn't know that! [ No study involved here, it just took a really traumatic experience -- but she's not going to mention that. Right now. ]
I've met Pegasus once, but we haven't had any contact since and it's been months. He seems nice, though. [ Listen, don't judge her. She doesn't really know anything about Pegasus other than Kaiba calling him a horse on occasion. Also, he speaks English and they got to talk about America once. ]
Thanks! Actually... as silly as it sounds, justice is why my friends and I do what we do. We have a group at home, we're known as the Phantom Thieves. We do steal stuff, but not in the traditional sense. We steal hearts and make bad people 'change', so to speak. Millennium Eye, though... I've never heard of that.
It's a little hard to explain what the Millennium Eye is.
[They steal hearts to make people change their ways... And willingly call themselves thief, too? Hhh... His free hand instinctively reaches for the Millennium Pendant to squeeze it around the edges. Ann hasn't done or said anything wrong-- the word thief makes his skin crawl for other reasons-- but for how close that sounds to what he and his priests once did in his court. He sends Osiris away and turns his gaze back to the food on the counter. How many demons has Ann seen spill from the mouths of criminal? No one should ever have to see the ugliest part of humanity, especially not her.
That she can keep such a cheerful disposition...]
But they are magical artifacts from my time. There are seven in total. [Technically eight? He doesn't know what's going on with that Quantum Cube thing. He supposes it wasn't part of the original seven so it doesn't really matter for his explanation.] My Millennium Pendant and Pegasus' eye are two of them.
[He refrains from telling her more than that. She doesn't need to know the gruesome truth of the Millennium Items and his bloody past. Ignorance is bliss.]
And what you've said isn't silly at all. If you say you're doing it for the right reasons, I believe you.
[ His reaction to the word 'thief', and talk about the Millennium Items is easy to pick up on, at least; and it makes sense. She knows enough about Ancient Egypt to know that thievery was a big thing back then, and even worse when it came to grave robbers and things like that. She's very interested in what he has to say, though, especially because the items in question are magical and ain't no one do magic like the Egyptians. ]
Wow! They must be really powerful... and to have seven of them? What happens if they're all in the same place at the same time?
[ Sorry for stupid questions like that, Atem, but she's genuinely interested. ]
We do do it for the right reasons... granted, we're not really 'heroes', not by a long shot. But sometimes bad people who wouldn't be caught otherwise... need a little push.
[ She shifts a little bit, trying to find an example, before sighing and just settling on her own ordeal. Kamoshida makes a good explanation. ]
So, you know how I told you that Carmen came to me during a really bad time? I don't really wanna bore you with all the details, but... I'm not from Japan. I'm actually from Finland, but I lived a good portion of my life there and the states. My parents are fashion designers, so they travel a lot. They left me in the States with some American family members for a few years, before deciding they wanted to go to Japan.
[ She loves her parents. That much is obvious, even if sometimes she wants to throttle them for not ever being around. ]
So, I said goodbye to the friends I'd made in the States and went to Japan to start middle school. The thing is, my parents didn't hang around. They went home to Finland and left me alone. Being a foreigner, I wasn't really well accepted. I got bullied a lot, got my ass kicked I don't even know how many times, all because I had blonde hair and blue eyes. I just didn't fit in, and no matter what I did, I couldn't make any friends. And I hate to say it, but that really changed me in... not a good way.
[ She became more stand offish, more willing to overlook things, and generally closed off. Something she's still working on even now, although she can say without a shadow of a doubt that she doesn't just sit around and watch when shit hits the fan anymore. And that's something she's proud of. ]
So, one day, I was in art class. And this girl comes up to me while I'm painting and casually tells me how much it sucks, and how much I suck as an artist. We've been best friends ever since, and for a long time, she was my only friend. Shiho is an amazing person, and an incredible athlete. She was a star on our high school volleyball team and everything!
[ Shiho is still her best friend, and she's still a little hard to talk about. She hasn't even seen her since she moved, and although they do text and call when they can, life isn't the same... ]
...She was offered a position as the starter for the volleyball team, and I was really happy for her. She deserved it, she worked so hard. But her coach had ulterior motives. He knew Shiho was my only friend, and he used that against me... he told me that if I didn't do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, he'd bench her and make sure she never played again. He texted me constantly, called me, called me into his office... and it wasn't just me. He was beating students up, having some kicked out of school. No one stopped him.
[ It's only now that she finally glances away, chewing on her lower lip. ]
There were so many rumors about me already, but after Kamoshida started calling me into his office and giving me 'special treatment', the rumors got worse. I was called so many names, called a slut, everything in the books you can think of. Especially when Kamoshida started trying to get me to go to his house. I think... you can probably figure out why. By this time, we had a new student in school. I didn't know anything about him, no one did, other than he had a criminal record. For reference? That guy ended up being one of my very best, closest friends, and part of the reason why I'm the way I am now.
...Anyways, he talked to me because he'd noticed what was going on. Ryuji, too. He gave me the courage to tell Kamoshida no... but that just made things worse. He ended up taking it out on Shiho, he beat her up so badly, and he... forced himself on her. It screwed with her so badly mentally that a few days later she went onto the school roof and jumped. Because of Kamoshida, and because I didn't let him have his way with me, she tried to kill herself. And no one did anything about it. That was also when I noticed the new guy and Ryuji getting buddy buddy, and Ryuji's got a loud mouth. I knew they were up to something, so I followed them... and that's when I found out about the Metaverse. I ran into them, and Kamoshida, but it wasn't Kamoshida. It was his shadow, or essentially the shittiest part of him.
[ This is probably really confusing for Atem, and probably way too much info, but... he's trustworthy, and she has a feeling he's not going to judge her for having diarrhea of the mouth. Not this time, at least. ]
He was gonna kill me. And I was gonna let him, but he made a big mistake. He was going on and on, telling me it was my fault that she tried to kill herself, and how if I'd just given him what he wanted, it never would have happened. And he was right. But his mistake was saying he didn't even remember who she was or her name, he just kept calling her 'that girl'... a and I guess that was my breaking point. I could finally hear Carmen for the first time, and we forged a contract that day. She's been with me ever since. Shiho is the reason why I'm able to call on Carmen, because if no one else was going to avenge her and get justice? Then I'd do it myself.
[Wow. What does he say to her? He kept silent the entire time, listening... He reaches out, a hand on Ann's shoulder, and gently pulls her into an awkward hug since he's shorter than her. It feels like the most appropriate thing for him to do.]
I wanted nothing more back then than to make him suffer for what he did to her. To the other students, too, but mostly Shiho. When it came time, I wanted to kill him, and another friend even told me that it was my call. The boys didn't want me to, but I wanted it. The problem... is if you kill someone's Shadow in the Metaverse, their real selves have some sort of mental breakdown and they actually die. He deserved that.
[ Atem reaches out and pulls her into a hug, and she's quick to return it, giving him a very gentle, appreciative squeeze. ]
Thanks. For the record... I didn't kill him. I wanted him to confess his crimes, I wanted him to go to jail, and I wanted him to live with what he's done for the rest of his miserable, sorry life until it drives him insane. That's a fate far, far worse than death. At least, that's what I think. And he did confess like the sniveling coward he is. As for Shiho... she recovered. Physically, at least. She moved away after that.
...Kamoshida messed with more than just me, or Shiho, though. He screwed with my friend Ryuji so badly that it ruined his track and field career. And he tried to expel both him and our other friend.
[He rubs her back in a way he hopes is encouraging. This is very awkward for him. 'By the way, Ann, if you see him down here, tell me and I'll personally destroy his feeble mind ten times over. The demons will be merciful compared to me.' He's thankful she didn't kill the man, but...]
That's not an easy choice to make considering all that he has done to you and your friends.
[ She's sort of also glad she didn't kill him, even if the urge is still there. She knows damn well that if Kamoshida ever decided to finally kill himself and end up here, she'd just continuously kill him over and over herself. She'd wait for him to come back and immediately kill him again, like clockwork. So it's probably... a very good thing the coward hasn't offed himself.
Atem is so sweet, and she's grateful for his understanding. It's why she presses a gentle kiss against his cheek. ]
Thank you for being so kind, Atem. You're right, it was a terrible choice to make. But he's right where he needs to be for now. And one day, he'll be here, too. And I'll be ready when he does show up. As long as Shiho never comes here, I'll be okay with that.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2022-03-20 09:14 am (UTC)I can't really explain it... the way he makes it is perfect. He got the recipe from a guy whose practically his surrogate father, and like... he was able to replicate it perfectly. [ She sighs, twirling the end of a pigtail around her fingers for a moment. ] Then again, he manages to do most everything he puts his mind to without a single flaw. What an absolute jerk.
[ Except she sounds far, far too fond to really mean that whole 'jerk' comment as any sort of insult. ]
A 'friend' from home just recently arrived, speaking of spicy... [ The fondness that was in her voice dissipates, even though she continues smiling. ] He can't tolerate spicy things at all. I don't think he'd be very good at our game.
[ Ah, yes. She can see Akechi's face turning a bright red, his voice rising a few octaves....
...her smile sure is getting wider at the mental visualization. ]
no subject
Date: 2022-03-21 03:33 am (UTC)Actually about your home... I've been meaning to ask. Carmen, I think you called her back then, is she your Ka?
no subject
Date: 2022-03-21 03:42 am (UTC)She's glad they're alone right now, too -- then again, she knows Atem would probably never bring Carmen up in front of anyone else, and in the big scheme of things it probably doesn't even matter who knows what, because this isn't home. It's literal Hell. Old habits die hard, though. ]
Oh! Well, she's my Persona. She's always been with me, but I wasn't really able to awaken her until something really, really bad happened a little over a year ago. And usually, at home, I wouldn't be able to just call on her whenever I want. Usually I'm only able to access her in something called the Metaverse.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-21 06:41 pm (UTC)A Persona, huh? I've never heard of it before. I was under the impression she's a part of your soul given form through your strength of will... That's what makes a Ka, anyway.
[He concentrates and summons Osiris wrapped around his body with its head resting in his hand. Out of his three summons, it is the smallest in hell, its serpentine body only 7-feet. The other two wouldn't make for a very good example.]
Osiris is one of the three Ka that I can call upon.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-21 07:38 pm (UTC)She is part of my soul! Essentially, she and I are one in the same. Maybe... maybe it's the exact same thing, then!
[ Huh. Ancient Egyptian Personas... and even a demonstration. Her eyes widen as Osiris appears, and it's cute so she can't help herself when she claps excitedly and bounces up and down. ]
Wow! Wait, you can call three!? That'd make you a Wildcard in my world! My friends and I can only call on one, but our other friend, the leader of our group at home, he can call on as many as he wants.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-21 08:04 pm (UTC)[That sounds so cool!! But for another world to have such a similar concept as Ka? He doesn't know much about all this multidimensional stuff so a lot of remains lost to him. Still... And a wildcard? Like the jokers in a 54-card deck? Osiris wings fold close to its body while they talk.]
And most people from the future can't at all. Neither Kaiba or Yugi can do it. I believe Pegasus can, if you've met him, but he does so with the aid of his Millennium Eye. That's why I was surprised when I saw yours! A Ka, a Persona, as strong as yours speaks of your sense of justice. You possess a very special gift.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-21 08:27 pm (UTC)I've met Pegasus once, but we haven't had any contact since and it's been months. He seems nice, though. [ Listen, don't judge her. She doesn't really know anything about Pegasus other than Kaiba calling him a horse on occasion. Also, he speaks English and they got to talk about America once. ]
Thanks! Actually... as silly as it sounds, justice is why my friends and I do what we do. We have a group at home, we're known as the Phantom Thieves. We do steal stuff, but not in the traditional sense. We steal hearts and make bad people 'change', so to speak. Millennium Eye, though... I've never heard of that.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-22 04:52 pm (UTC)[They steal hearts to make people change their ways... And willingly call themselves thief, too? Hhh... His free hand instinctively reaches for the Millennium Pendant to squeeze it around the edges. Ann hasn't done or said anything wrong-- the word thief makes his skin crawl for other reasons-- but for how close that sounds to what he and his priests once did in his court. He sends Osiris away and turns his gaze back to the food on the counter. How many demons has Ann seen spill from the mouths of criminal? No one should ever have to see the ugliest part of humanity, especially not her.
That she can keep such a cheerful disposition...]
But they are magical artifacts from my time. There are seven in total. [Technically eight? He doesn't know what's going on with that Quantum Cube thing. He supposes it wasn't part of the original seven so it doesn't really matter for his explanation.] My Millennium Pendant and Pegasus' eye are two of them.
[He refrains from telling her more than that. She doesn't need to know the gruesome truth of the Millennium Items and his bloody past. Ignorance is bliss.]
And what you've said isn't silly at all. If you say you're doing it for the right reasons, I believe you.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-22 05:51 pm (UTC)Wow! They must be really powerful... and to have seven of them? What happens if they're all in the same place at the same time?
[ Sorry for stupid questions like that, Atem, but she's genuinely interested. ]
We do do it for the right reasons... granted, we're not really 'heroes', not by a long shot. But sometimes bad people who wouldn't be caught otherwise... need a little push.
[ She shifts a little bit, trying to find an example, before sighing and just settling on her own ordeal. Kamoshida makes a good explanation. ]
So, you know how I told you that Carmen came to me during a really bad time? I don't really wanna bore you with all the details, but... I'm not from Japan. I'm actually from Finland, but I lived a good portion of my life there and the states. My parents are fashion designers, so they travel a lot. They left me in the States with some American family members for a few years, before deciding they wanted to go to Japan.
[ She loves her parents. That much is obvious, even if sometimes she wants to throttle them for not ever being around. ]
So, I said goodbye to the friends I'd made in the States and went to Japan to start middle school. The thing is, my parents didn't hang around. They went home to Finland and left me alone. Being a foreigner, I wasn't really well accepted. I got bullied a lot, got my ass kicked I don't even know how many times, all because I had blonde hair and blue eyes. I just didn't fit in, and no matter what I did, I couldn't make any friends. And I hate to say it, but that really changed me in... not a good way.
[ She became more stand offish, more willing to overlook things, and generally closed off. Something she's still working on even now, although she can say without a shadow of a doubt that she doesn't just sit around and watch when shit hits the fan anymore. And that's something she's proud of. ]
So, one day, I was in art class. And this girl comes up to me while I'm painting and casually tells me how much it sucks, and how much I suck as an artist. We've been best friends ever since, and for a long time, she was my only friend. Shiho is an amazing person, and an incredible athlete. She was a star on our high school volleyball team and everything!
[ Shiho is still her best friend, and she's still a little hard to talk about. She hasn't even seen her since she moved, and although they do text and call when they can, life isn't the same... ]
...She was offered a position as the starter for the volleyball team, and I was really happy for her. She deserved it, she worked so hard. But her coach had ulterior motives. He knew Shiho was my only friend, and he used that against me... he told me that if I didn't do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, he'd bench her and make sure she never played again. He texted me constantly, called me, called me into his office... and it wasn't just me. He was beating students up, having some kicked out of school. No one stopped him.
[ It's only now that she finally glances away, chewing on her lower lip. ]
There were so many rumors about me already, but after Kamoshida started calling me into his office and giving me 'special treatment', the rumors got worse. I was called so many names, called a slut, everything in the books you can think of. Especially when Kamoshida started trying to get me to go to his house. I think... you can probably figure out why. By this time, we had a new student in school. I didn't know anything about him, no one did, other than he had a criminal record. For reference? That guy ended up being one of my very best, closest friends, and part of the reason why I'm the way I am now.
...Anyways, he talked to me because he'd noticed what was going on. Ryuji, too. He gave me the courage to tell Kamoshida no... but that just made things worse. He ended up taking it out on Shiho, he beat her up so badly, and he... forced himself on her. It screwed with her so badly mentally that a few days later she went onto the school roof and jumped. Because of Kamoshida, and because I didn't let him have his way with me, she tried to kill herself. And no one did anything about it. That was also when I noticed the new guy and Ryuji getting buddy buddy, and Ryuji's got a loud mouth. I knew they were up to something, so I followed them... and that's when I found out about the Metaverse. I ran into them, and Kamoshida, but it wasn't Kamoshida. It was his shadow, or essentially the shittiest part of him.
[ This is probably really confusing for Atem, and probably way too much info, but... he's trustworthy, and she has a feeling he's not going to judge her for having diarrhea of the mouth. Not this time, at least. ]
He was gonna kill me. And I was gonna let him, but he made a big mistake. He was going on and on, telling me it was my fault that she tried to kill herself, and how if I'd just given him what he wanted, it never would have happened. And he was right. But his mistake was saying he didn't even remember who she was or her name, he just kept calling her 'that girl'... a and I guess that was my breaking point. I could finally hear Carmen for the first time, and we forged a contract that day. She's been with me ever since. Shiho is the reason why I'm able to call on Carmen, because if no one else was going to avenge her and get justice? Then I'd do it myself.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-22 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-22 07:50 pm (UTC)[ Atem reaches out and pulls her into a hug, and she's quick to return it, giving him a very gentle, appreciative squeeze. ]
Thanks. For the record... I didn't kill him. I wanted him to confess his crimes, I wanted him to go to jail, and I wanted him to live with what he's done for the rest of his miserable, sorry life until it drives him insane. That's a fate far, far worse than death. At least, that's what I think. And he did confess like the sniveling coward he is. As for Shiho... she recovered. Physically, at least. She moved away after that.
...Kamoshida messed with more than just me, or Shiho, though. He screwed with my friend Ryuji so badly that it ruined his track and field career. And he tried to expel both him and our other friend.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-24 12:21 am (UTC)That's not an easy choice to make considering all that he has done to you and your friends.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-14 10:49 pm (UTC)Atem is so sweet, and she's grateful for his understanding. It's why she presses a gentle kiss against his cheek. ]
Thank you for being so kind, Atem. You're right, it was a terrible choice to make. But he's right where he needs to be for now. And one day, he'll be here, too. And I'll be ready when he does show up. As long as Shiho never comes here, I'll be okay with that.