[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.

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[pheasantboy]

He shimmers a little, and when he reforms he's standing above her, considering her where she lies on the floor. "So much self-pity. But there again, I'm in no position to judge you on that."

[cybermask]

She smiles up at him. "I guess, though you have to have somewhat of an idea of yourself to have that."

Should she be laying on the floor with a shadow above her? maybe not. but she wasn't scared either. When was she scared with shadows? It's hard to have fear when you don't care.

[pheasantboy]

His face wrinkles up, very much in a way she might recognise. "Of course I do. I'm a Shadow."

He shimmers again, and when he reforms, he's sitting against the tunnel wall, beside her. He doesn't feel very much; doesn't feel anything much of anything good. He's still looking down at her as if he's not sure whether to talk to her or eat her.

"You said you were my sister?"

[cybermask]

Interesting topic change. "Yeah, I am?" Where was he going with this? He at least seems a bit more at ease.

[pheasantboy]

"You sound like you could be my sister. Murderous, pathetic. Desperate for some self-worth. Cherishing a sick little sadistic streak." He says none of these as if they are bad things, or as if they might not be entirely true.

"But Oracle was nothing like you. It would be fallacious to say that proves anything. Perhaps my counterpart just ruined you with his presence."

[cybermask]

Ouch, even if somewhat true. "Oracle might have been. I wouldn't put it past the guy who could," she gestured to the all of him.

She sighed, "Fuck him."

[pheasantboy]

"Who are we fucking? Anyone in particular?"

He sounds absolutely exhausted, and drops his head back against the tunnel wall. His eyes flash momentarily, and an Eigaon impacts on the tunnel wall in a flash of red fire.

[cybermask]

"Everyone I guess, people suck." she sighed. Yeah, go ham buddy. She wouldn't say the guy who did this, though he probably would get drug down here. The shadow deserves his revenge.

[pheasantboy]

"Each and every one of them." Another Eigaon impacts on the wall. It's better than television used to be, that's for fucking sure.

"I can still do that, you know. Look into people's souls. Used to think it made me so important, so much better than everyone else. The worst thing is I still rather think I am." He lifts a handful of rocks from the tunnel floor, and hurls them after it.

[cybermask]

"What do you mean look into people's souls?" That wasn't something she had known about before. She peered at him curious. It might make him important and better, was certainly a skill she didn't have.

[pheasantboy]

"You don't know about that?" He's relaxed enough to trace with his fingers in the grit and dust and bits of bone between them, as he speaks. It's rather odd to see.

"My ability, Glitch. The only one that's mine alone—though I guess there are countless versions of me with it. All thinking they're so damned special."

[cybermask]

She rolled to face him, eyes sparkling. "I don't know about that. It sounds so cool. Tell me more!" She was very very interested to hear about this. "I can tell you that you're more special than the ones I know with a cool ass ability like that." There was no hint of just inflating his ego, it was truly her own thoughts.

[pheasantboy]

Heh. Heh heh... what a strange, rusty little sound. Beside her, half-drawn up into a ball, the Shadow is laughing.

"Don't give me that shit. I've been manipulated by experts, you know."

[cybermask]

Her eyes widened as he laughed, he actually laughed at her, strange. She frowned, "I wasn't manipulating you." How horrible were people to him that he felt like that when she had genuine interest. She added a little huff. "I really don't know anything about it. It sounds cool."

[pheasantboy]

The laughter comes to a slow, gritty halt. "Are you really telling me your Akechi doesn't have Call of Chaos?"

Because that... even now, it's so critical to how he conceives himself. Without it, what would Goro Akechi ever have been? How would he have held on to even the ends of sanity?

"So what does he have? What does he do? I suppose it's going to piss me off again."

[cybermask]

She shook her head, "as far as I'm aware, no he doesn't." She couldn't place why call of chaos sounded so familiar.

"He's just a guy? I don't know what he's supposed to do? I've never seen him use something out of the normal." Granted she hadn't been around a lot of persona users.

[pheasantboy]

Okay, no, there's no way that can be as it sounds. "He has a Persona—but not Call of Chaos."

It occurs to him she hasn't named him, either, as any of the Personas he also was. "What Persona does he even have? I suppose he's as different as you."

[cybermask]

"Hereward?" She tilted her head. Why was he acting so strange? This was really strange to her, but she hadn't discussed personas with others yet, only the other Futaba had seen Necronomicon.

[pheasantboy]

It's all just so puzzling to him, the difference of it. The lack of that one thing he feels defines him.

"So he's entirely different. Or"— and he falters, so strange to see from him; even though the name rings true and pure inside him, he was never Hereward; rather than beginning to trust, he was betrayed.

"That's what I do. Instead of skinning people alive, you understand. I send their Shadows for a little rampage in the surface world. All but one, that is." He scowls.

[cybermask]

She snorted at the little joke. She knew better than to ask who the one was. "I wonder how that feels," she hummed, more pondering out loud than anything else. Her eyes were back to sparkles when she focused on him again. She was so happy discovering more about him. "I think that's really cool. Do you get tired using it? What are the effects it has on you? Can you use it on yourself or just others?"

[pheasantboy]

But the scowl deepens, as he contemplates it. "I can use it on myself. It was the first thing I tried, when I understood my situation. It didn't work."

[cybermask]

Ah, she should have thought about that. "So you can still use it? That's so cool!" She was still looking at him like he had brought her the sun. Who was she not to live up to the self assigned role. It didn't make her any less honest. "Can you show it to me sometime?" That might not be a good question to ask, but she did, before she could even give a second thought to it.

[pheasantboy]

Not a good question, that. Turning to look at her, quietly, and increasingly more wickedly, he starts to laugh. She's as naive as any Phantom Thief.

[cybermask]

Okay, laughter. That was a strange way to react to someone just wanting to know more. "You know 'no' is an option right?" She moved sitting back up tilting her head. What did she get herself into?

[pheasantboy]

"But isn't forbidden knowledge your whole thing, little flayer of your enemies?" He doesn't stand or shimmer so much as he glides upward, still bubbling up with laughter, more and more unhinged as sick red fire crackles around him.

It's his ability, his power, his judgment. The only thing that's his alone; the only thing he has left. And he will be delighted to show it to her.

The red fire washes over her. The mad laughter fills him to bursting, overflowing. And just for a moment, just like it had been for Goro once, he's free, he's free, he's free.