ic inbox [ota]

[pancakeboy]

[Text him! Or do whatever, I'm not the police, and neither is he, thank God. Just specify if you want the more-fun-but-less-stable pre-11/20 guy or the grumpy third semester/postcanon guy. Pancake only for VRDR guys please, he's not third semester yet]

Comments

[pancakeboy]

[Yeah, shit. Magpie registers the caller with much the same pleasure as he would the four-minute warning.

After a long moment of this is either the most important phone call of recent times, or I really get to destroy him this time, he takes the call.

In silence. Go ahead, you seething pool of discarded medical waste.]

[willowandoak]

[ Yeah, hello to you too. ]

I have a question for Crow, but you'll do a better job getting the information out of him without causing stress. It's an emergency.

[pancakeboy]

[...a. what the fuck. b... interesting. He takes an excruciating moment to properly mask up.]

Say what you want, then. It had better be good.

[Hm. No insults. Definite ring of doom here.]

[willowandoak]

Why would someone without a Persona or the Metanav vanish in Odaiba so completely that their phone can't be traced? What's there?

[ Not even this guy can say that's not urgent, surely. ...Though actually, who knows? ]

[pancakeboy]

[Odaiba, again. Quickly, he runs through what he knows—the Apathy Syndrome cases centred on Tatsumi Port Island, the ten months of his life he spent there with his mother's cousin Tomoko's cat-obsessed aunt, and the research facility that allegedly exists there in Crow's world...]

Who's disappeared?

[First things first, shitheel.]

[willowandoak]

None of your business.

[pancakeboy]

Then what I know will continue to be none of your business, won't it?

[He sounds bored. Actually, he's picturing Worst Ren melting in a vat of acid.]

[willowandoak]

Guess I'll just have to talk to Crow, then.

[ He doesn't want to upset Crow, but he's not going to give up his friends' secrets. (Unlike Crow himself, whispers a little voice in his head.) ]

[pancakeboy]

Yes, why don't you do that? Rub in just how worthless you are, rather than play a little give-and-take.

[Don't get him wrong, he'll be incandescent if Ren stoops to that. But it's inevitable something like this will come to Crow's attention. Magpie will have to tell him.]

I thought you were meant to know how these things work.

[willowandoak]

This is time-sensitive, Akechi.

[ That is to say, he's not going to sit around on the other end of the line while Akechi spits vitriol, and he's not going to bite back. He can deal with any preteen-induced emotional fallout related to that how worthless you are later, as well. ]

[pancakeboy]

[Oh, the way he says that. Akechi boils inside.]

Then tell me who's in danger so I can tell you what I know, and go from there. Or is your pride too much for you to get over?

[willowandoak]

Maybe it's normal for you to give up your friends' secrets as soon as it's convenient.

[pancakeboy]

If you like. [The cool tone is a struggle.]

Didn't you say something about this being time-sensitive, Ren?

[willowandoak]

[ Ren's mouth hangs open for a second; no less than the use of his given name, the absolute fucking outrageousness of the question has stunned him. The only thing that keeps him from losing his temper is carefully, deliberately revisiting the memory of Makoto's text messages. It last pinged around Odaiba... ]

Yeah. So are you gonna tell me what you've got or will I have to hang up and call Crow? I won't ask again.

[pancakeboy]

You know, talking to you is like talking to my boss.

[In other words, Ren, you sound exactly like Shido—unfair as that is. All his disgust at this situation and all his loathing of being manipulated slips into his words. Worse than that, Crow's text still burns in his vision. Did you honestly think that was going to help?

And Crow is such a fucking mess, right now. His hand shivers over the end call button.]

In 2016, Takuto Maruki is associated with a cognitive research lab in Odaiba. The 2009 Iwatodai area is also in Odaiba, of course. But that lab would be the first place I'd check for a Palace, which I know Maruki has.

Don't forget you owe me now. [And the growl he puts on that as he hangs up does, indeed, sound remarkably like his father.]

[willowandoak]

[ Ren catches his breath at the comparison, outrage swelling—but it's true, isn't it? Shido would say what Ren said. All that time dealing with him, there was no way Ren wouldn't eventually...

It's almost funny, after that, that Akechi proves he's no better before he hangs up. Maybe it's just impossible not to turn out like this. Maybe Shido is corrosive. That would explain why Ren feels so corroded.

He blinks. He doesn't have time for self-pity, with Makoto vanished into Maruki's fucking Palace, probably. Makoto doesn't even have a Persona. Ren drops his phone and goes to fetch his emergency Metaverse supplies bag. This isn't quite the emergency he pictured, but experience has taught him there's always going to be something, eventually. And he was right. ]