dormition | IC Contact Post

[Minato waits a little longer to make sure he's done before typing, all patient.]

Sometime since they got here. I asked if they were at home but senpai said no. It wouldn't have surprised me, though... I think there was just too much going on.

[You know. Before he died.]

Ok well I'm gonna get to the bottom of that.

[Jaime, this Minato doesn't know you. He shouldn't give a shit.]

So many things make so much more sense now. It's nice that they have the chance to go for it here

[...because Shinji is dead back home. Shit. Poor Akihiko.]

[Minato already thinks Jaime is a good friend, as he'd said, so to him there's nothing odd about him caring.]

How is it something to get to the bottom of?

Ah... yeah. That's how I feel, too. That it's another chance. [For Shinjiro and for him.]

Because I want to know how long they've been together! They're my friends I've totally missed out on this

[Because he's nosy.]

Yeah exactly. And hey I know you've already got a few people here but if you ever want to use this chance to do anything here that you're not sure of I know the place pretty well. Consider it an open offer

You think as a friend I should be more interested in their relationship?

[This hadn't seemed likely to Minato before, but he'd trust Jaime's evaluation of it, so watch out. Or you'll end up with relationship counselor Minato.

Statements like this are why he thinks you're a kind person, Jaime.] Thank you. I don't know that there's anything I'd like to do except spend time with people. It's my only regret, really... I haven't even known everyone a full year. I'd be happy to spend time with you, too.

I dunno be as interested as you wanna be. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule I'm just interested in the important things going on in my friends lives and that's a big important thing!

Well we can do that. And maybe some of your other friends will show up here too

I was just happy that they could rely on each other.

Is it selfish to hope that they do...? Although if it's from before, I'm not sure what I would say to them. I don't want to keep any secrets, but I don't want them to be upset before they have to be, either. Ken-kun doesn't know yet.

I think they'd take the chance to spend some more time with you even if it meant being trapped in here for a while.

I dunno about the whole secret thing. Trust me, that always comes back to bite you in the butt but Ken seems like he's already got a lot to deal with. And he's still pretty young too. That makes it tougher

You're probably right. Aigis and Yukari-san especially... I hope I'm able to see them again.

That's why I didn't want to tell him yet. He's had a lot of people die, and I don't think he really understands how to handle it yet. Once he's in a good place with Shinjiro-san, maybe then. My end is fated, so it won't make a difference either way, whatever anyone would like to do.

Yeah. I know something happened between them but I'm not really sure what. I just told them to talk about it but I dunno if either one actually will do that ever.

But who else knows? Secrets like these have a bad way of coming out when you're not ready for it

I can tell you what happened if you want. Normally I'd say it should be something they'd reveal themselves, but I'm not sure they'd ever tell you.

Akihiko-san and Shinjiro-san know as well, and so does Hiro-kun. I think that's it.

[DARN IT... he really, really wants to know. He's dying of curiosity.

But Shinji's his friend. He needs to do right by him.]

He won't. Shinji let me know something was up and he wouldn't tell me what was up. If it was just a question of him not wanting to talk about it I'd want to hear what happened but if it's just something that he doesn't want me to know

[Curiosity is killing him.]

If he's keeping it a secret from me on purpose I don't want to betray his trust like that

I can't speak for him, but as his friend, I think you'd be better able to help him if you knew. It's something he's very ashamed of... so I understand why he won't speak of it. But it's also not something that will go away if he doesn't look at it.

In short, I should say that I'm worried.

That bad huh?

[That's actually all he sends for a few minutes, no matter what Minato texts in the meantime, because he needs to take some time to ruminate over what he wants to do.]

Okay sure tell me. If I can help I will. You might know how better than me though

[Minato waits patiently, aware that's not a real answer. He is wondering himself if he's betraying Shinji and Ken's trust by telling Jaime thus, but greater than that, he truly does believe it would help them if someone else knew. Minato doesn't mind being a source of support, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have more.]

I do what I can but it's a complicated situation. Before I say anything, what do you know about Persona already?

Not much.

[Shinji's not big on detailed explanations.]

[Normally, Minato is not a verbose person; he's very circumspect and concise. In this case, however, he doesn't want to do a disservice to anyone involved. He doesn't want to leave anything out, and he also doesn't want to attach his own feelings to the story. He's sure Jaime will draw sympathetic conclusions without any pushing in that direction, and the story itself, he feels, deserves to be treated plainly, to be told with respect for the truth.]

Persona are an expression of the user's soul, in essence a mask that faces the world to protect us. Everyone has a persona as a psychological mechanism-- for a Persona user, ours take physical form.

However, if we're mentally vulnerable... if there's a disruption in our lives that makes us dislike who we are, profoundly, so that we don't believe we deserve protection... For a normal person, this might manifest as a self-destructive personality. For a Persona user, it means we lose control of our Persona.

Shinjiro-san has never had good control of his. He's been relieved to be here without it, I think. Years ago, there was one night that he lost control, and his Persona, Castor, killed Ken's mother. Ken-kun swore that he would have revenge... and joined SEES to find Shinjiro. But when he faced him, he learned that Shinjiro-san had been taking rare pills to suppress his power entirely, ever since that day, and due to that, his death would soon be coming anyway.

An enemy of ours was there, and tried to kill Ken, but Shinji intervened, and died to save him. Ken-kun changed his mind about how he saw him, but it was too late.

They've both arrived from shortly after that.

Thank you for telling me. I'm sorry. None of you have had it easy have you? I just need a minute.

[The thanks comes immediately, but he needs a lot more than a minute to digest all this information. He knew Shinji had died, and he had suspected that he died in a way that was more worthy than even Shinji himself would admit (he doesn't see that there's still goodness in him, even if Jaime knows it to be true, deep down in his gut), but seeing it all plainly laid out like this makes him feel ill at ease.]

[And then:]

They haven't talked about it yet, have they?

It's all right; it's a hard story. I've often thought that Persona users are required to face the hardest parts of themselves. Sometimes that means tragedy.

I don't think so. I know they've seen each other, though, and Ken-kun said he didn't mind working with him. They both feel a lot of guilt, and I think becoming at ease with each other will help them absolve it. I'm also truly worried about Shinjiro-san's relationship with his Persona, even if he doesn't have access to it here... but it's a little personal to talk about with him. Anyway, you can see why I thought they could both use another friend that knew what had happened, and would support them.

I'll do whatever I can to help but I think you know them both better than I do. Me and Shinji have talked about some stuff before [Shinji's suicidal tendencies, specifically] but I'm not sure how good I was at helping him out.

[Not very good, he suspects. He had felt like he'd been plunged into the deep end, floundering to say the right thing, like if he could only figure out the right combination of words, things would be better. That didn't happen.]

Either way this is their chance to work some of this out.

[What he leaves unspoken is that it's the only opportunity they'll get, but Minato will understand.]

Don't discredit yourself, Jaime-san. Things like this take a while. If you spoke to him at all, it's more than he's had someone to speak to about it for a long time, I think. The same is true for Ken-kun.

I hope they do, so they can both be more at peace with themselves. I know them pretty well, but at home, we're very isolated from everyone else. These aren't things we could explain to normal people. Having someone else be concerned... it's valuable.

If you say so. I can at least do that much. You're close to both of them right? Maybe you can arrange something.

Not like with just the two of them but so long as you and Akihiko are around it's gotta be a little less weird for them right?

Like a team night? We had team dinner to introduce Hiro-kun and Tadashi-san to everyone.

That's a good idea. Next time, will you come, too? I know you're not part of SEES, but it's sort of like a plus one.

[Plus one for who?? Minato's making a joke in his own very dry way. Maybe the conversation can lighten up a little now.]

Sure, I'll come. We should probably meet in person one day anyway.

Though I'm not sure as whose plus one

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