[ic] shadow pheasant's mementos inbox

[pheasantboy]

Feel free to tag here, if you want to run into Shadow Pheasant in Mementos.

He doesn't have a phone, and must make his own fun. Be warned that he's level 99 and will attempt to eat all Akirens (and probably many others) on sight.

Comments

[fogboundcrow]

"There has to be a way to get to him..."

His Shadow hums in the back of his head. I could probably navigate, but I really can't advise doing this alone.

Raven shrugs. "Crow likely knows I'm here. No doubt he's made an attempt to pursue me, and if not him, then Magpie. I have a Goho-M. I know how to maneuver via the trains now."

Which is precisely why he's headed in that direction. He's done it before, and he can do it again!

[pheasantboy]

Well, he's still not worried, even if the kid is getting onto the train. That will only get him as far as the Depths of Mementos, with all its hazards, and beyond the Hall of the Grail all of Da'at lies between them. Plenty of lesser Shadows will be happy to do the Shadow's dirty work for him.

The warm glow in his stomach dims, reproachfully. Oh, for fuck's sake.

[fogboundcrow]

It takes a bit of time, but eventually he gets down there, right near the Depths of Mementos. He stares them down, his Proof of Justice clutched tight in his left hand, and his saber in his right. He probably looks like a badass, actually.

Like the coolest person in the room.

Granted, he's also the only person in the room, but still! He has to be brave.

His Shadow sighs again. I really cannot advise this. The Shadows down there are of an extremely high level. Even with Loki, you may struggle.

"We know now that death is temporary, and I have a Goho-M."

Death is unpleasant. Don't do that.

[pheasantboy]

Fortunately, a disgruntled voice sounds in his ear, from the Shadow some distance behind him. "What are you doing here?"

[fogboundcrow]

Oh, well... that makes his job easier, doesn't it? Raven tucks his blaster back into its holster so he can prop a hand on his hip. It'll help him look more composed, anyway.

"I came to see you."

[pheasantboy]

He looks the kid over— the sharp red mask, the defiant hand on his hip. The bright blue sword. All of it oozes bravado.

"If you're that tired of life, perhaps I should let you move on. The puzzles won't challenge you." Just the Shadows,

[fogboundcrow]

"I didn't come here to die." Huff. Excuse you. Allow him to just... remove his backpack and dig out his peace offerings. "You're stuck here with very few people to engage with, and as I understand it, my older self nearly lost his shit. I wanted to offer condolences for his behavior."

Also offer a stack of books, of course, which consists of psychology books, mystery novels, and a book of very edgy poems by Poe. Because of course.

[pheasantboy]

The Shadow looks from the books, to the boy, to the books again, matter-of-fact. "What if I don't want your books? What if, instead of your condolences, I'd rather eat you?"

His teeth still have that nacreous gleam, like fish teeth. He hasn't said this time that he doesn't want the books.

[fogboundcrow]

"Then I'll make my daring escape, obviously. But as I understand it, you already had a rather filling meal." Is he calling the bluff? Perhaps. The slight upturn of his mouth into a little smirk suggests as much.

[pheasantboy]

Oh, that's cute. He slowly smiles in return—and then his arm flies out faster than the eye can see, elongating into a tentacle, seizing the poetry book on the top of the pile and flying back as cleanly as a crack of a whip.

"The Raven. That's you, isn't it?" The gloved hand turning the book over looks perfectly human again.

[fogboundcrow]

Oh. Oh, that's actually a little unsettling, but... but! It's fine. He's seen scarier shit down here. Though he stares for a few seconds, he forces his face back to a more composed, confident look before long.

"I suppose it is. The poetry in general is so bleak yet captivating. I thought you might favor it over something more saccharine."

[pheasantboy]

He flips it open to a random page. "I wonder if I ever knew this book," he muses, turning another page. "Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door. It is you."

Leave my loneliness unbroken. Nevermore.

[fogboundcrow]

"I can't imagine that you actually enjoy the maddening solitude of this place." Sorry, Shadow, but he's rather fluent in Akechese. "Shadow or not, the mind can only withstand so much isolation. Even a large enclosure is useless if there's no meaningful enrichment."

[pheasantboy]

"That's what you don't understand. It's our nature to be isolated. We don't have a society down here, you know. We just exist. Sometimes we eat each other.

"We're just manifestations of things unspoken, things repressed." His hand flows experimentally around the corner of the book, taking a small, unsatisfying bite; he scowls. "The true self."

[fogboundcrow]

"So you say, yet you're obviously different from the Shadows that lurk these tunnels and the cognitions that shamble above." So eerie. So uncanny. He still doesn't like them.

Raven watches the Shadow as he nibbles... how weird. Is he seriously trying to eat the book? "That Ren came back, by the way. I have no fucking clue what he's doing now, but it seems yours was a hollow victory, so I'm surprised you're so calm."

[pheasantboy]

"You think?" His face screws up in anger; he doesn't so much stand taller as get bigger, elongating upwards. But the little light that tastes of Ren is warm and bright inside him.

Twisting his mouth, he does indeed calm, changing the subject. "Something tells me you haven't spoken to enough of the others to know. You just want to believe I'm special."

[fogboundcrow]

"My Shadow literally exists in my head and is relatively chatty. You saw him before." Granted, he's technically also a Persona and decidedly more of a special case, but still. His point still stands. "And even if you are like the others, am I not allowed to care? You got the short end of the stick by far, trapped in this place after being carved from your body."

[pheasantboy]

"Don't make me tear out your pity and garrote you with it." Even if everything the kid's saying is true. Apart from the bit about caring.

"I only came up here to stop you trying to go by foot. Tax my patience enough and I might just forget." And yet he's still here.

[fogboundcrow]

"God. It's like looking in a fun house mirror of how I was a few months ago." The aloofness about pity. How funny that he's grown so much in such a short time. "I understand that you have very few reasons to trust in the intentions of others, especially after what your Ren did to you. Astonishingly, I'd still like to find a more constructive way to help than simply ignore your existence."