cityofcoba | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHO: You!
WHERE: Around the city!
TIME: All Through Day 1
DESCRIPTION: CITY TOUR MINGLE!

Maybe you stayed in Coba, maybe you went home and came back, or maybe this is your first time here, but everyone is suddenly greeted to a friendly, female voice over an intercom (or maybe it's a some other device? Depending on where you're from)

"Welcome citizens. We hope you're enjoying your visit! Transport will leave in twenty minutes for the Coba city-wide tour!"

If you follow the voice, you'll find yourself at a bus stop. Or is it a fancy monorail? A carriage? A couple of horses? Coba is flexible and will change herself to suit you, after all. And if you get left behind, don't worry! There's free cabs anywhere in the city, who also will be more than happy to give you their own version of the tour.

The Coba city-wide tour boasts an hour of informative information regarding Coba's most important locations, some extra brochures (with some extra savings in there, of course), and will finally return you to the place you left from.

Of course, maybe the tour isn't for you. After all, the party is still going on, and now Coba's businesses are really beginning to open and advertise what they have to offer. Have you checked out the free hotel room? Or maybe you're grabbing a free meal? Or maybe, just maybe - you're looking into an apartment!

Either way, Coba hopes you've been enjoying yourselves. She has so much to offer you.

(welcome to the first official post! Mingle to your hearts' content, and don't be afraid to make your own posts, either!)

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Chie laughs - it's meant to be funny, right? Framing the torments she suffered (him too, from the tone) with those words, relaxing and vacation - but it's not her normal, joyful laugh. The sound that rises from her throat is something half-strangled.

"Definitely not," she says, shaking her head. Her time in Demeleier was everything but relaxing.

But at least it answers her question with certainty. This isn't the same Souji. He doesn't know what Chie saw him - the other him - do.

Edited 2015-06-24 02:20 (UTC)

"Most of the team is here," he says after a moment, looking for a segue to fill in the silence. "Mm... and a house that belongs to us, if you're looking for a place to stay?"

After a moment, he offers his hand, to hold or shake or clasp or... well, he's not quite sure, but it's a gesture.

And yet - knowing that this Souji isn't the same one, the one who'd killed Adachi, the one she'd shared terrifying, gruesome nightmares with, it's still not as much of a comfort as she'd like. He holds out his hand to her, and all she can see is the bloodied hand she gripped so tightly when she thought he was dying, after battling Adachi. She hesitates.

But she can't refuse outright. Souji was still one of her best friends, and the bond she has with him may be weakened, but it's not broken. She takes his hand in hers; her grip is limp, unsure.

"I guess I do need a place to stay." She nods.

"Then I'll show you where we're staying," he says, nodding back along the path and falling into step, leading the way, until the three-story Greek-styled house, with its greyed picket fence, arched windows, and wide, sloped yard comes into view - and rising on the hill behind it, most of the Inaba Shopping District, which makes him pause and blink.

"... That's new."

"Hm?" Chie glances up, pulls herself from being lost in thought, and quietly gasps. "That's ... " Home. "Is it ... ?" Real.

She doesn't trust her eyes; she doesn't trust that what she sees is what it appears to be.

"Do you think it's a trick?"

"That depends," he answers, slowly, still stepping curiously forward. "It's not Inaba - see, the cross-street isn't the same at all past the bus stop. And I saw Tokyo Tower across town earlier, and now it's gone. I don't recognize the people, either. But..." he tilts his head, and glances down the cross-street another way. "...The Amagi Inn is here, too. And closer than usual..."

"Is Yukiko here?" Suddenly, this is the most important thing on Chie's mind. She hasn't seen Yukiko in five months; she isn't sure what she hopes Souji's answer will be.

"I haven't seen her since I got here, but I think so - I've talked to people who talked to her. Except Teddie and another version of you, I think the whole team came with me..."

"Oh ... " And when his answer comes, Chie's feelings are decidedly mixed. On the one hand, she's elated at the prospect of seeing her friend again, after so many months apart. On the other? She's here, which means she isn't at home, safe, where she belongs.

"I was there too? In Atia, I mean."

"Two different versions, about a year apart. I've met two Yosukes, two Kanjis, and two Naotos as well, but the ones I lived with most recently are the ones who showed up here."

"Sounds pretty confusing." She bites her bottom lip, imagining this; she was told in Demeleier that people often left and returned, but had never witnessed it for herself. "Well ... I guess it's good that you ended up here with people you know, right?"

She wonders if anyone from Demeleier will find their way here as well.

"I think so," he agrees. "Although... it's a little strange. From what people have been saying, you can go back to Inaba from here, but if you do, it's to your original timeline. So if we went... we'd see different versions of each other. It makes my head hurt a little - and it's been long enough for me that these are the versions of everyone I know best."

There was a time when Chie would have embraced an opportunity to return home to Inaba. Now? The idea of facing her friends again - those who had never experienced interdimensional travel, didn't understand the particular horrors that went along with it - sends a shiver down the back of Chie's neck. How can she expect to return to an ordinary life, after all she's been through? How could she face everyone with how badly she'd failed?

"Maybe we should get inside." Suddenly, Chie is very tired.

"Here." He unlocks the door, ushering her inside, where they're greeted by three curious, sun-warm cats with the scars and lean, muscular build that mark them as former strays. "Your bedroom's downstairs at the end of the hall - I can show you now, or give you the full tour, or we can just step into the dining room for a snack."

"Maybe ... just a quick tour?" She waggles her fingers at the cats, waiting to see if they'll come any closer. "So I know where everything is."

They nuzzle her ankles fearlessly, and Souji smiles and leads the way into the expansive, sunny open living room - couch and kotatsu, bookshelves and big-screen television. On the left, a patio is framed on one side by a hot tub, and on the other by a garden. On the right, there's the dining room and lavishly appointed kitchen, along with stairs up and down and a bedroom sandwiched between them, decorations on the door clearly belonging to Rise.

"...This is the living room," he says, unnecessarily.

She takes it all in with an appreciative nod; the house is definitely an upgrade. "This looks like a pretty nice place." She didn't even have electricity, back in her croft. "How did you end up with so many cats?"

"I fed a few strays in the neighborhood," he says, unembarrassed and smiling at the thought. "And... a few other neighborhoods. That was back in an apartment, before we moved into this place when everyone arrived on the island..."

He turns and gestures, pointing. "Rise's room is in between the stairs. Yukiko and I have rooms upstairs, and you, Yosuke, Kanji & Naoto, and Chloe have the four rooms downstairs, although Chloe's not here anymore. And that's Izanami's room, behind the door in the mural on the far wall."

The mural is of a sprawling castle on a hill, a blue, impressionistic night behind it, and it very plainly doesn't have anything to do with Souji or anyone else on the Investigation Team."

"So the cats came here with the house?" It's weird, but not the weirdest thing she's seen, considering. And they seem friendly enough. She shrugs, following Souji as he points out the various rooms on this floor.

"Who's Chloe?" She can't even deal with Izanami right now. That can wait.

"And the rabbits downstairs," he adds, and pauses thoughtfully. That's... a tricky question.

"Chloe-san was... our landlady. She was a little alarming at times, but we went through a lot of hardship together, so when she needed company and support, we asked her to move in. She was a good friend, and very close to Naoto as well."

"But she didn't come with you." Chie frowns at the idea of someone close to her friends being taken from them.

"No. She didn't. Mm... she's probably having a pretty tough time, right now." He swallows, surprised by how hoarse his voice is as he says it. There aren't many things he regrets about waking up in Coba, but leaving Chloe behind...

Chie lets her head drop, gaze settling on her shoes. "... I'm sorry."

"It's the way things work there," he says, slowly, shaking his head and pushing himself to recover his placid composure. "I can regret it, but for now, right here, I can't change it. I won't stop looking... but I can't stop living my life in the meantime, either."

He nods forward, and takes a few steps until they come around the corner, continuing almost stubbornly with his tour speech.

"Here's the kitchen and dining room. We've all got different schedules, but I usually cook an early breakfast and a late dinner and leave it covered, on the counter or in the oven. I do bento for lunch when I have the time, or always for Naoto, who might forget otherwise. And there was always take-out and seafood in the fridge... I haven't had time to find the good restaurants here yet."

Edited 2015-07-20 00:45 (UTC)

Chie nods, dutifully taking in what Souji tells her.

"Do you suppose Aiya's here too? Or Souzai Daigaku?" The shopping district is here, after all.