maskormenacelogs | [open] ain't no party like a normandy party

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[open] ain't no party like a normandy party

WHO: The Normandy Crew + YOU!
WHERE: Some restaurant + bar in Heropa. Underage characters can totes get in!
WHEN: Evening of April 11th
WHAT: It's Commander Shepard's "surprise" birthday party!
WARNINGS: Excessive Fun?!?!

[ It's a mild, warm evening in Heropa, and although parts of the city are still recovering from the Hornet attack in February, many parts of it are bouncing back, and many local businesses are even celebrating as such, especially on a Saturday night like this.

It just so happens that one such mega-hip establishment has a particularly festive mood to it, tonight--the presence of balloons by the entrance (some of which say "Happy Birthday!" on them) might say as much. Inside, there are more balloons around one section of the joint, decorating both part of the bar and some of the tables and chairs. The place feels quite open, and they've opened up some areas to create an open-air feeling in addition to having an actual outdoor patio area. The general vibe is laid-back but energetic, the crowd a mix of regulars having dinner, people looking for an early start to getting down for the night, and people who are apparently gathering for some sort of party.

Usually, there's a live band that plays regularly at this place, but tonight? The jukebox is playing almost exclusively a selection of 90's music. For those who find themselves unable to take this music and would like to take matters into their own two hands and vocal chords, there's a karaoke machine in one corner of the restaurant, on a platform where the band would usually be playing.

For those who might get hungry, the restaurant's menu is comprised of typical bar/restaurant food. Those looking for something light might look at the appetizers like nachos, sliders, or mozzarella sticks, but those who are looking for real dinner might order a burger, pizza, or pasta. And for those who are looking to get their drink on, there's a fully-stocked bar, of course.

Also, there's a miniature model of this ship floating around, as if by magic.

So? How about it? It's Saturday night! ]

( ooc: this is an open mingle log for Commander Shepard's ~*surprise birthday party*~! if you're a friend of Shep, Kaidan, or Kasumi's, feel free to assume that you've been personally invited--otherwise, it's totally cool to have your character randomly wander in and meet people! top-level! tag around! MINGLE! PARTY! also, it's not really a surprise because Kaidan sucks at keeping secrets and let it slip to Shep. also, it's being held in a restaurant (and bar) so underage characters are more htan welcome to crash c: )

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[He's so prepared for college life though.]

Why don't you eat with your roommates? Do you eat at different times? [Sometimes his mom made food in the morning for him to eat up at night. When she was especially busy she asked him to get take-out, too, but portions back home were so small that they ended up eating it during that meal anyway.]

[He is absolutely prepared for college life! Yeah, not having a kitchen!]

Yep. I used to, but most of the roomies I had a schedule with wound up moving out -- [thanks, Kaidan, Shinji] -- or getting Ported out. [Thanks Brenda.] So mostly, I just eat on my own now.

[Oh.

Ken's face falls a bit. That's sad. He knows it is. He has experience.]

... You were in Heropa, right? Koromaru and I go there sometimes because he likes the park there. If you don't mind, um... we can drop by, sometimes. [to fill that lonely dinner table of yours.]

[Jaime sees the way Ken's face falls and holds his hands up in reassurance.] Aw, it's okay, I don't really mind!

[Shinji had to move out with his boyfriend, and Kaidan needed to move out with his boyfriend (is everyone around him hooking up...?), which made sense. He does mind Brenda's absence, but it runs deeper than having someone to eat with, but honestly, that's the sort of hole he's not willing to admit to himself.

He smiles, though, because it's a sweet offer.]

So long as it's not out of your way, though, I wouldn't mind the company. And I'm sure Koromaru wouldn't mind a few extra treats.

[Ken's not doubting Jaime's words, but it can still suck. Especially if you're used to being around people for activities like that and it's suddenly not a part of your life anymore. And Jaime's been good to him; this is a way to be good to him back, right? (He tries to squash the voice that asks if he thinks his company would be any good because he wants to believe that Jaime has given him no reason to think it wasn't.)]

It's not, don't worry. Sometimes if we're out later we end up buying food somewhere anyway, so it'll be nice to have somewhere to eat that's not a park bench, too.

Okay, yeah, then definitely come over. You need to eat dinner at a table! Or on a couch, at least.

[He's not above eating in front of the TV if he wants to turn his brain off, but frankly, Khaji's decent dinner company so long as nobody else is around. He's hoping nobody else will catch onto the fact that he seems to mumble to himself an awful lot whenever he thinks he's alone.]

Are you sure it's such a good idea to be out late, though? Do you still have, you know... all your powers here? It can be dangerous here, sometimes.

[Ken wouldn't think much of Jaime's mumbling should he ever encounter it. He's nodding with a rare genuine smile at Jaime accepting his company, and he answers that question easily too.]

I can still summon Nemesis, and I have access to my usual weapon, too. I guess it's magical? I can make a spear out of thin air. Oh, and I can run really fast now, too.

Well... those are all good things. [Jaime's had enough experience with preteen warriors to know exactly how well suggesting that they stay home and safe comes across. It still makes him nervous, though, knowing that Ken is out there without someone to walk him back and forth.

It's not like he has it back home either, but at least it's in a place that's familiar to the kid.]

You fight against Shadows, so I know you can take care of yourself, but humour me and be careful when you're out there late? We've had some pretty nasty people get ported in.

[Actually, Jaime's warning makes perfect sense to him. Humans with critical thinking are actually a lot more dangerous than Shadows who only have mind to fight or flight. Ken doesn't even look put off by it.]

Of course! [People are also far scarier than Shadows.] Honestly, most Shadows aren't that dangerous to me as long as I'm leveled up enough. [The pros of having a weakness that rarely ever hits!] We'll be careful, though. I'm always armed.

Okay. Just don't be shy about asking someone to walk you home, if you need it! [He taps his knuckles on the table, smiling a little.] It's funny, if we were back home, I'd be telling off someone your age for having a weapon with them, but here, I'm glad you do.

[It's more dangerous here on a daily basis. Everyone should know some measure of self defense, and if they don't, they should at least have something on them to ward off any attackers. It's just common sense.

And Ken's no ordinary boy.]

Well, if we were back in Iwatodai, it would be the same thing for us, too. We can get our weapons from Officer Kurosawa at the police station, but that's only because he's helping the Kirijo Group. But we don't usually carry them around; Kirijo-senpai has us store them in the dorm.

[Outside of the Dark Hour, it's just a normal city, after all. Most people don't know about their lurking monsters.]

But my jacket can usually hide my Evoker, and I'm glad I have it, too. Nemesis is useful for things other than just fighting; we know a few healing skills.

Oh yeah?

[Jaime raises his brows. If there was one thing he wished he could do, it was heal. He'd gladly give away a few of his more destructive capabilities for the ability to cast healing spells, but then, he'd give away a few of his more destructive capabilities without getting anything in return.

He's a little jealous of people who have powers that can only help, not hurt.]

What kinds of healing skills do you mean?

Diarama can heal injuries to an extent. If it's a big injury, I can get it to stop bleeding and close up some. It's a mid-level skill, and I can only get one person at a time.

Nemesis' other skills are based in electricity and light. Sanada-sab's Persona uses electricity, too.

You guys really have a whole system for this, [Jaime says admiringly.] It's so much more organized than the superpowers we have in my world.

[Nobody knows how to qualify anything. That guy? He can fly, shoot lasers out of his eyes, and crumble boulders rocks with his bare hands. Traci uses magic, but she can probably do anything. And then there's that other girl he knows, who just explodes.

It would be so nice if they could narrow it down into tidy little categories. Jaime appreciates order. Sadly, the world around him does not.]

How do light powers work? Is that just to startle people, or...?

Yeah. We don't really know why. Shadows use similar skills, too.

[That's the nice thing about being from an RPG game. Your players need to understand what the characters can do. Sorry, comics.]

Light-based skills are also "Hama" skills, so I think you can say they're like purification. You can see wards sometimes. Hamaon only hits half the time, but if it does, it's an instant kill.

[In case you needed your Peewee to be more dangerous.]

Koromaru's Persona, Cerberus, is like my opposite. He uses "Mudo" skills that are based in darkness, and those are instant kill, too. Aah, but when we get hit by it, we don't die. [Obviously.] We just get knocked out completely.

Edited (i woke up to cerberus spelled wrong oh my god) 2015-04-19 16:49 (UTC)

I wouldn't have guessed that Koromaru had, um, darkness skills. Something like that always sounds a little nasty.

[But Koromaru's adorable, and probably the second sweetest dog he's met, so that rules that one out. It's odd, the rules in Ken's world, but he can roll with it.]

If there's something that can just -- [he snaps his fingers] -- knock you out instantly, then what happens if it gets all of you?

Yeah. But some Shadows use hama skills, too, so I guess it doesn't matter to Personas and Shadows. [Which would make sense, Ken guesses, since neither of those speak the human language and all that. Philosophical stuff.]

The Shadow would have to be really lucky for Hama or Mudo to hit all of us at once. They have a low chance of hitting, and if they do, Recarm or an equivalent item can wake us up.

...but this isn't normal for you guys, right? I mean, it sounds like half of you only found out that these guys existed a few months ago. [He shakes his head.] It's crazy that you managed to memorize this whole system of magic and... items so quickly.

[It sounds like an RPG. It has to be said, if only in his mind, because Jaime quite enjoys RPGs, but he's never referred to anything as an item in his life before.]

The guys in the Kirijo group really did their research.

They've been studying this stuff for years. Actually, I only found out I can summon my Persona after they did a few tests on me.

[You know. Because.]

Fuuka-san's Persona has analytical powers, too, so we can learn a lot from her.

Sounds handy. But... what d'you mean by tests? What sorts of tests would you need to do to see if someone's got a Persona?

[Nothing bad, he hopes, but he has slight suspicions. Tests are never a good thing. There's a reason he's kept the Scarab under wraps for so long, and that's because he doesn't want to be ET on the slab. No, thank you.]

Well, they had to make sure I was actually going to be okay in the Dark Hour, for one. Even if I can see it, if my potential wasn't strong enough, I'd just become a target for the Shadows. If I got through the Dark Hour but I didn't remember what happened during it, that also would've meant that I wasn't compatible enough.

They had to monitor me, basically.

Oh. Well, that doesn't sound so bad! [He grins.] When you said tests, I was thinking more like, nefarious dudes in lab coats.

[It's a word with bad connotations!]

But no, that actually makes a lot of sense.

Oh, they had lab coats. And kept me in a room just in case, too. It would've been dangerous if I couldn't control my Persona...

Persona are dangerous, in the end. We use them to fight Shadows, but in the end, they're monsters all the same.

It's not really the lab coats I was worried about, [Jaime reassures Ken, the ghost of a laugh on his lips. It's still a funny thing for him to latch onto, to focus on, but that's kids for you, sometimes.

(People could accuse Jaime of doing the same, but he lacks the self-reflective nature to acknowledge that.)

He does, however, choose his next words carefully. It's awfully hard, talking about this with Ken, any conversation about Personas and their nature studded with hidden landmines. It only takes one misstep to set one off. Still, he has to be curious, as one person with a supposed monster within him speaking to another.]

I know they're dangerous, [he begins, a little blandly.] But are they not, um... sentient?

[Ken blinks a couple times, confused why Jaime would mention lab coats if they weren't that important, but he decides to let that drop. One way or another, he hopes he answered Jaime's question on that topic, and he fiddles with the straw in his glass, poking at some ice cubes as he considers that next question. Sentience in Persona?]

Well, no. I've never spoken to Nemesis, and I only knew her name when I first awakened her because... she's a party of me? She is me, technically. And I feel her presence, but she's not her own person or anything like that. Um...

[How does he put this? He can explain this to Jaime without messing this up, hopefully. He has to?]

When we use Persona, it's kind of like we're using our minds to fight, so I think they're affected by that. If someone gets upset, or they lose confidence or stability, their Persona would be just as berserk and dangerous. I think that's why we're given Evokers -- it's probably too much of a strain to push something like that out of our minds without help.

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