WEEK ONE

[lockdownmods]

[ Well that Orientation... happened. Whether you feel more informed or not, the truth remains. Here you are, within Fayflower University. You have your run of the campus, indoors and out.

There's also your tablets to play with. There are several apps-- and even a game! They didn't leave you without some entertainment. The music is a bit dated though...

And should you wish, there's still time to talk to the "staff" in a more... private setting. The office. They're not hard to find. Well-- your Professor, Han and Megumi aren't. Oswald is a bit more... difficult. ]

LOCATIONS | PROFILES

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

Comments

[covertizer]

Like a wall collage?

[ That'd definitely brighten things up. A little odd, given the circumstances, but he gets why Max would want to do something like this. ]

That's a poetic way of putting it. But, yeah. People who trample on others and put themselves above the law to escape the consequences - those people are our targets.

[reshoot]

[Nodnod...]

When society turns a blind eye, the phantom thieves spring into action?

If they're your targets...what exactly do you do? Expose them? Or...

[covertizer]

[ They should make that their tag line. ]

We make them confess their own sins, openly, where they can't hide from the weight of what they've done. [ So, yes. Perhaps so. ]

[reshoot]

How do you get them to do that? It's not like you have a gun to their head, right? [...right?]

[covertizer]

Not literally, no.

[ I mean. He’s definitely shot some of them. And held them at gun point. But it wasn’t THEM, exactly. ]

...

So, what do you do with your time travel? Can you go really far back in time, or only a few minutes—? [ Oh look, a topic change. While he figures out how to describe the Metaverse to someone who’s never been there. ]

[reshoot]

[Message received, Mr. Kurusu. Max taps her finger against her chin.]

Usually just a few minutes but...The farthest I've ever been able to send myself back in time was five years. They way that it normally works, is I do this. [She extends her hand towards Akira.]

And time starts reversing itself around me. But if I have a photograph, say from five years ago, I can concentrate my power on that, and it makes me able to travel back to the time the picture was taken. It doesn't last forever though, eventually I get shunted back into the present.

But...If I changed something, the present isn't the same as it was before I went back. It's...a lot of responsibility, I guess.

[covertizer]

They talk about that in sci-fi, don’t they? There’s usually some variation of being cautious with what you do and change because it can have far reaching consequences that you couldn’t have predicted. What’s the word for it... the Butterfly Effect?

[ He turns away from the walls now and flops into the free seat nearby. Time travel with limitations... it sounds powerful regardless, being able to immediately rewind and fix little things that had gone wrong. All that must add up to something big, if you play your hand right. ]

So, you did both then? Both the short time hops and the ones using photographs as a guide?

[reshoot]

I...definitely learned about all of that stuff the hard way. The Butterfly effect. Chaos theory.

[It's exasperating even now.]

I did it both ways, yeah. The latter one got me out of a few really tough jams, but it also...God, Akira, I fucked up really bad a few times, too.

Messing up that bad and seeing the kinds of things I did, I think that's the only reason I'm able to even kind of deal with this place.

[runs her hands through her hair.]

I mostly tried to use my powers for good, though. Warning people about things, going back and fixing people's silly mistakes...I was the ultimate meddler--though I wonder how much of a good thing that actually was.

[covertizer]

[ Akira sinks a little further back in his chair, and peers up at the ceiling. Wanting to do good, yet making things worse in the process. That was something they'd had to consider as well, when dealing with the Metaverse. Powers beyond your understanding, and finding no other option but to just use them anyway. ]

Even if you go back and fix what you broke, you would still remember what changed. Is that it?

[ Powers, it seems, are always dangerous. ]

I think in order to change things you need to meddle a little. Most attempts to help other people are just good-natured meddling, when you look at it without any frills or excuses.

[reshoot]

Yeah...except sometimes, there's no fixing it. Sometimes the more you try to fix something, the more it breaks.

[another lesson learned the hard way. The hardest way possibly, actually.]

...But for as much bad that happened, I was able to do a lot of good, too, even if it was meddling.

Yeah, you meddle too, so I'm sure you know the feeling.

[covertizer]

Not at all?

[ ... ]

Yeah. Being able to help someone when they felt there was no way out of their situation, and no one willing to help them... it's a good feeling. [ A powerful one, too. ]

[reshoot]

[She shakes her head.]

Definitely. What was it that made you want to, uh, become a phantom theif, anyway? [Her lips twitch briefly, before curling into a frown.]

Did something happen to you...?

[covertizer]

A few things happened.

[ You must be at least confidant rank 5 to unlock his Tragic Backstory. Probably.]

It was partially out of necessity, partially for myself... and also because there was someone who needed help, and no one else was going to offer it.

[reshoot]

[akira you're offensively cool, she hates it]

Okay. That's as good a reason as any.

When I got my powers, it was kind of random––I just had this weird vision all of a sudden, and after that I was able to rewind time.

Was it the same for you? Did your powers just show up?

Or were you like...bit. By a radioactive, uh, personality?

[covertizer]

[ He's a natural. At faking it he's a giant hecking dork, shh it's a secret. ]

Kinda? There was a catalyst that triggered it, but my powers are... kinda just an aspect of myself but given a form. Something to defend and protect myself with, and a symbol of harnessing a lot of my own wishes and allowing myself to act on them.

Personas won't answer you, or form a contract with you if you're not ready for them.

[reshoot]

[she wants to know what the catalyst was SO BAD but she's not going to be rude and ask when he didn't explicitly state it, probably for a reason]

It really does sound like a comic book.

[hmm...]

Harnessing your own wishes and allowing yourself to act on them...

So your persona helps you, for lack of a better term, beat up the bad guys? Until they confess?

[covertizer]

[ He waves a hand, in the universal "sort of" gesture. ]

When we pick a target, we're out to take something from them - something that represents all their corrupt or negative thoughts and desires. Ultimately, it's something they want to protect, so we might have to fight them to obtain it.

That, and they help protect us from any Shadows that are prowling around. The more aware they are that we're around, the harder the infiltration becomes.

[ A pause, and then... ]

We do have different outfits while we're on an infiltration mission. So maybe we are comic book anti-heroes.

[reshoot]

So basically...[holds her chin because she needs to thonk about this weird complicated business]

You sneak into someone's place, and take their prized possession, which makes them confess their crimes?

But they have some sort of shadow thing that protects it?

And you do this while wearing cool superhero outfits?

[she just kinda lays back for a sec...]

Dude, your world is crazy.

[covertizer]

[ ... Man. That's an interesting summary. Hearing it from a third party who hasn't been involved with it at all. ]

Essentially. Except it's sort of... in a world that isn't my world, but can be access from it?

[ Hold on to your hipster jeans, Max, this gets more intense. ]

If we'd done all that in the real world, we'd have been arrested within about four seconds.

[reshoot]

In the real...

Hold on, let me guess...

[pumps her fists excitedly]

This all takes place in the digital world! It's like that one show!

[covertizer]

[ Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. ]

Nope.

It's... a little more complicated than that. I mean... really complicated, trying to explain it can get a bit tongue-twisty.

[ Digital world would be waaaay easier to understand. ]

[reshoot]

Well, I'm not forcing you to, I just think it's interesting. I think I'll be able to pick it up pretty quick, though. So if it's not the real world or the digital world, that means this other dimension is...?

[covertizer]

It's... [ Hm. ]

It's like people's perceptions made into a semi-reality. I've seen it called cognitive pscience. The idea that something you perceive becomes the truth, and while it's limitless in potential, it's kinda fragile too.

Really strong feelings, or beliefs can form their own world that bends to will of the person who created it. Unfortunately... I've only really seen it happen in conjunction with negative emotions. Someone in the real world isn't aware that there may be a cognitive copy of them living in a version of the world only they perceive, but with a little ground work we are and we can access it. We call them Palaces.

Steal that person's "treasure" from their Palace, and you remove the source of their powerful negative emotions, and the once you remove the item the Palace itself crumbles. And with it, so do those thoughts and desires and feelings.

[reshoot]

So...you're able to go to a world created by people's cognition? So you go into this other world, and what you do there affects the person in the real world, right? So when you take their treasure, it causes them to fundamentally change.

Oh, and that's why they confess! Just like the persona is the manifestation of your thoughts and wishes and junk, the other world is filled with other things like them, right? The shadows you mentioned...

[tilts her head...jesus this is some real high concept stuff]

I think I'm getting it. Sounds pretty dangerous. On top of, you know, insane.

[covertizer]

Yeah. We try not to cause any permanent harm to the people, in case it causes trouble in the real world. But when you take away the thing that was fuelling the corruption, and the feel the weight of their crimes again.

[ He shrugs. ]

We're careful with it. We're not out to cause anyone permanent damage, just to... knock them down from their untouchable pedestal. Make them pay for things they've done that should have got them locked up, at the very least.