damned_institute | Day 37: Intercom, Evening

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Day 37: Intercom, Evening

"And I believe it's time to start wrapping up the day," was what the Head Doctor said after the intercom's initial jingle. "Now that everyone's all cleaned up, I think it's time for some... that's right, dinner!

"Tonight, we're serving some scrumptuous rotisserie herb chicken, seasoned with rosemary, lemon juice, and other delicious seasonings. On the side, we have cooked asparagus with bits of grilled onion, as well as small roasted potatoes with garlic and butter; for dessert, we'll be serving vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top. Our normal assorted drinks and specialized diet alternatives are available.

"Some of you might find that you have new roommates since your old ones were fortunate enough to recover and leave us. Hopefully, you'll be able to see them again the next time we have visitors if you wish, but in the meantime please treat your new bunkmates kindly.

"I believe that's all for now. I hope you had a wonderful day and that you have a delicious dinner! ...Well, you'll definitely be having a delicious dinner, but there's nothing surprising about that, is there? Hahaha..."

With a seemingly good-natured chuckle, the Head Doctor turned off his mic.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. Find your character's room assignments here.

All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you! ]

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"Mitsuru Kirijo," she replied, sticking the maps in the inside cover of the journal and moving on to cut herself a piece of chicken. "It's nice to meet you, Argilla."

She looked back up at her roommate, giving her another glance over. With all the pink, she thought vaguely that Takeba might get along with her.

"I apologize if my friends coming by is an inconvenience," she continued, stabbing a piece of the chicken with her fork and bringing it up to her mouth. "We can always go to another room, if you would rather."

"You too," Argilla replied, easing herself into the parts of conversation that people seemed to use as standard here. It would be nice as long as Mitsuru didn't take objection to her eating habits. Not that Argilla got a choice in the matter anyway.

She shrugged in response. "I don't mind," she replied honestly. It didn't bother her. "I have things to do during the night anyway." The longer she was out, the longer she had to find some food.

Mitsuru bowed her head in the other woman's direction. "Thank you. Please feel free to let me know if it ever becomes a problem," she replied before turning back to her food. She thought back to everything that she needed to prepare for as she ate, and remembered something she hadn't heard too much on throughout the day. Shiki had mentioned the demons that she and others had saved Amada from, but the shift had ended before she'd been able to ask too much. She'd even seen sketches of them, but perhaps any mentions of them had been buried on the bulletin.

They hopefully wouldn't affect the meeting tonight, but in the future, it would do her some good to ask more. It may even do her some good to ask some more now, since Argilla had likely been here longer than she had.

"Out of curiosity, I was wondering if you could tell me something," she began after a moment of thought. "I was told earlier today about two demons who attacked a friend of mine two nights ago, but I wasn't able to hear much. Have you heard anything?"

Argilla couldn't see it becoming a problem unless she ever felt like eating here. Or if Mitsuru's friends turned up while she was too hungry to control herself. That could be bad. She finished off the ice cream slowly, only just stopping short of licking out the bowl because she realised that it wasn't something that normal humans really did, and then set the bowl aside on the desk.

She gave the girl a curious look when she asked her question, but tense up a little at the mention of the demons. That had to mean Indra and Agni. They were the only two demons that she'd heard of being here after all. "Only what was on the bulletin," she said with a shrug. "A big red one with two heads and another one with a giant lance as an arm. They could use magic too. Agi and Zio spells. Or the equivalent from whatever world they're from."

"Hmm, that's all that I really heard as well..." Mitsuru trailed off as she realized what Argilla had said. Those were definitely spells that she was familiar with, and apparently so was her roommate. Shiki had also mentioned the spells looking familiar to Yukari and Ken, so apparently they were very similar to the spells that S.E.E.S. knew.

Of course, that still didn't explain how Argilla knew them. "Agi and Zio?" she asked after a moment, ignoring her food to give her roommate her full attention. If Argilla had the potential, they probably would have found her at some point, so just what did this mean? "Fire and electricity, yes? Does that mean you're from a world that calls them that, as well?"

That was good to know. She didn't want information about her Tribe to be spread around. It would be too dangerous for them if they were exposed. But still, the other night had been too close. Roland hadn't seemed happy with what had been said.

Argilla nodded in response when Mitsuru asked about the spells. "Fire and electricity spells, yes," she agreed, frowning slightly. "I met a boy who knew about those spells too, and a girl called Yukari. They're spells in my world."

So, Argilla had already met Amada and Takeba, and this had come up before. But neither of them had mentioned anyone else from their world with the potential being here. Was it really pure coincidence, then, or had they even asked her about that?

"A boy named Ken Amada? He and Yukari are two of my friends, actually." She frowned slightly. "What sort of world are you from?"

Argilla nodded, smiling slightly at the girl. "Yes, them. I've spoken to them a few times about things. Seems our worlds have some similarities when it comes to magic." Although she still didn't quite understand the idea of a Persona. it sounded a lot like a demon to her.

"A world a lot worse than this one."

"I see. That's tres magnifique," she commented, her expression turning into a bit of a smile. It might be irrelevant, but somehow it was comforting to know that if she said she used Bufu spells, Argilla would probably understand what she was talking about. Just how close those similarities were, she wasn't entirely certain, but they could always discuss that later.

Worse than this one was rather vague and a bit unhelpful, but Argilla probably had her reasons to not say anything, just as she hadn't immediately asked the woman what she might know about Personas. Certain things she was used to keeping secret, and this place would be no different. "Are you not from Earth, then?"

"What does that mean?" Argilla asked curiously, when Mitsuru suddenly said something which made no sense to her whatsoever. It didn't sound anything like a mantra either and that really was the only other language that Argilla had ever heard, mantras and Sera's song.

Well, she'd told other people, she'd told Ken, so why was it a problem to tell this girl? It might make people seem a little less confused when she said that she liked the place. "It's complicated," she replied. "I come from a place called the junkyard originally. It was a battleground. The different tribes fought for control of the other areas and it was always always raining. But then the Junkyard was destroyed and my tribe ended up somewhere else. It was supposed to be Nirvana, but it wasn't. The sun was black and there was no vegetation and humanity had been forced to live beneath ground or be turned to stone by the Sun's corrupted data. It wasn't a nice place."

"It means 'splendid,'" she explained, realizing that Argilla must not have ever heard French before. "I wasn't aware that there were other worlds that had such similarities to my own, so it's a rather pleasant surprise in a place like this."

Of course, that pleasantness didn't last long after Argilla explained her home. "Nirvana?" That certainly did complicate things. As far as Mitsuru had learned through her years in school, nirvana was a spiritual state, not a physical place. In this sense, it certainly seemed to be more literal if she was from a battleground, but it certainly wasn't the ideal nirvana. Far, far from it. Data, she'd said. Was there any way for them to come into reality, then, so that they could have a better place to live?

"It doesn't sound very pleasant, no," she agreed. "What will you do if you go back?"

Splendid? Huh. Why not say 'splendid' then? "I'm glad there aren't worlds like mine. It isn't something that people should have to go through." Not being infected with the virus, not having to devour other demons to live.

Argilla nodded seriously. "We were told by the Karma Temple that the Tribe who defeated all of the others and presented themselves to the Temple would be sent to Nirvana, a paradise where it wouldn't rain and there wouldn't be fighting. They lied to us. Nirvana was worse." It had been such a bitter disappointment, to wake up in the underground city and find nothing but ruins and a blackened sun.

"I'm not going back," she replied with a shrug. "Unless it's to get my tribe and bring them here." They'd like it, she knew, and they could see the ocean.

No matter how dangerous the Dark Hour could be, or how awful humanity could act, it sounded far, far better than where Argilla was from.

"Do you plan on leaving this place, at least?" she asked curiously. "Maybe finding a place in the world outside here to live? This sounds far better than where you're from, but even so...I can't imagine captivity is very pleasant, either."

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Day 37: Intercom, Evening

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