[For a moment, Ryuji's too preoccupied to answer either of them- biting down on his lip as hard as he can to divert the stinging in his hands. He wants to do the thing where water starts jumping ship from his eyes, but with the combination of both Ren and Dave on the scene, that sure as hell ain't happening.]
A... ah... shit.
[Ren's goading at his hunched up figure gets him to try and turn toward his back. Slowly unfolding his hands that were clasped together to protect himself, he starts to see the damage as he brings his hands closer to his face. Electrical burns; there's raw skin that looks ripped in weird markings up one hand, and the other, the point of the current's exit, looks blistered and blotched. It's hard to keep either of them still, he's shaking- not sure if it's the after effects of being shocked, or just how goddamn horrible that looks to begin with.
He doesn't care for secrecy anymore, it just hurts and he's on his back, trying to compose himself into something that's not anymore of a mess than he already is.]
[ Ren glances uncertainly between Ryuji and the blond stranger, intuiting his role in saving Ryuji from himself in the moments before Ren's arrival. While he'd prefer to keep their abilities underwraps, they don't have much of a choice at the moment, and if their masks are returning there is the distinct possibility that they will be able to access the Metaverse in some capacity. What would be important is to not draw a line explicitly from their masks to the hearts being changed, when it comes down to it.
Exhaling softly, Ren looks worriedly over the the ruin Ryuji's palms have become, his own hovering steadily underneath, cautious to touch. One last probing look is sent at the stranger before he wades into any Persona-related talk. ]
Without your commands Seiten Taisei probably doesn't know he's doing it. He's defending himself.
[ Or that's the best conclusion Ren can come up with for now. But considering he's defending himself from himself this is a problem that needs solving now, before anyone else gets accidentally electricuted.
He takes Ryuji's hands carefully in his, keeping the palms turned up. ]
Stay still.
[ Whew. This'll be the easy part, he hopes. Like riding a bike.
Grey eyes flash a brief glowing yellow, and in the next instant a white birdlike mask familiar to Ryuji grows out of a scattering of blue flames framing the top of Ren's face. ]
Cybele.
[ The flames explode again, sweeping the mask off and up into the faint shape of a lithe, horned woman behind him. Her blue-purple hands twirls the thin blades held in either hand and they're crossed before her.
It backlights Ren's head, time seeming to still briefly until a flurry of motion emanates from their hands, blue sparks passing into Ryuji's hands and not so much knitting the skin back together as reversing the fiery burst of the lightning itself, starting on the outside and drawing slowly back inward until no mark remains.
Ren presses his thumbs in, seemingly satisfied with his work if the quiet smile playing around his mouth is any indication. ]
[Dave once watched his bro slice an actual fiery meteor in half with nothing but a katana and his apparently superhuman strength. he once stood by and watched as a version of himself from a different version of the future turned himself into a ghost bird sort of deal, and then proceeded to be his personal game guide and also have a host of ghost bird sort of issues. hell, he even stood around in the afterlife for way too long while a fish alien ranted to him about building an army using an inscrutable number of fish puns.]
[and yet. AND YET. he still has no point of reference for masks exploding into sword-wielding monster ladies and also healing spells.]
Okay, I have no idea where to even begin deciphering what the fuck just happened here, but I think I've got the general message. [the message is that Thor, since he's already forgotten what Ren called him, is currently, uh. making a current in the pool.]
And I'm pretty sure I can fish this guy out of the pool.
[he has to do something other than just standing around and watching like an idiot. Dave starts walking the perimeter of the pool, examining the mask's location from all possible angles. electricity travels an insane number of miles per second, but that's irrelevant when the seconds aren't actually passing — and that happens to be something Dave can do. by use of fraymotif, he should be able to pop in and fetch the mask with no issues.]
[Gratitude doesn't even begin to explain it. Ryuji's entire kit was made up of offensive and support ability, so even if he had his persona with him, it wouldn't have been much help. If the situation were reversed and Dave had accidentally gone into the water... man, he wouldn't forgive himself for a second. He can only make the people around him stronger, not cure them. Doesn't have versatility like Ren does.
The reversal of his injuries happens all too familiarly, like it's been done so many times that he can barely count. He's been knocked out, had his life drained to the brink of death, been shot at more times than he could count. It's only because of his friends that he ever stood a chance of making it out alive, and as he feels the pain start to fizzle away like a can of soda going flat, he closes his eyes and smiles appreciatively.]
Thanks, man.
[What else does he have to say? That Ren's always bailing his ass out of trouble? That he's sorry for being reckless, again? It's underpinned beneath everything that he is, and he knows he doesn't have to say much more than that for Ren to get what he means.
Now the question of how they explain this crosses his mind as he looks at Dave wandering around the pool, sizing it up.]
Stupid... goddamn monkey has to be as much a stubborn ass as me. [That probably makes no sense.] Yo, Dave! What're you.
[ hey, he is here for saving Ryuji's ass as often as necessary. he owes nothing less to the guy that heard all the scuttlebutt that Kamoshida disseminated throughout the school and still decided, yup, this is the guy he's gonna go all in on risking everything - his schooling, his reputation, his freaking future - on. You can't be chosen like that and not do everything to keep him safe.
Apologies? Nah, miss him on that. ]
No prob.
[ More pressingly -
Ren follows Ryuji's line of sight to their third party, watching carefully and drawing his arms across his chest. Hard to say whether it's a good thing that Ryuji gets excited over something on a good day. ]
[this is going to take all of his cunning. not because he doesn't think he's capable of doing it, but because his ability to stop time and move within it is moronically, he thinks, limited to a small window of time before it gets too draining.]
[well, maybe it's not actually that moronic. if someone were able to stop time for an extended period, like, say, a year, wouldn't it look like they had randomly aged a year in a split second when time started flowing again? that seems like it'd cause way more problems than a largely negligible amount like a few minutes would — and, this isn't admittedly an ability that Dave is all that familiar with, even though he'd gone and bought it up immediately when they first began the game. he can't even remember what all exactly he bought, now that he thinks about it.]
[anyway, that internal monologue up there isn't actually internal, as Dave is prone to talking to himself, whether it's just in general or whether he's trying to figure something out. if Ren is still working on formulating a first impression, Dave's probably not helping out much by mumbling like the weirdo he is over on the other side of the pool.]
[but then he stops, and rolls his shoulders — and then, he goes ahead and takes a step like he's about to walk right into the pool.]
[from Ren and Ryuji's perspective, though, it probably looks like he'd just teleported across the pool, feet landing squarely on the ground next to them, like he had been floating. the mask is safely out of the pool, a good distance away from them, because Dave wasn't sure if it'd arc or do something worse when time started flowing again.]
[mission accomplished? mission accomplished. he's pretty sure he managed to get away unsinged, too.]
There you go. Dunno if you should wait for it to dry off or not, but, you guys would definitely know better than I do. My face accessory's pretty boring compared to yours.
[It's not like he was expecting fireworks or some ridiculously fancy, crazy fanfare type of thing- but nonetheless, he absolutely sticks to his guns on this one. Cool. It wasn't even a blink of an eye, less than that, a division of time by 0, and as he had kept his focus spun completely on the edge of the pool, Dave is suddenly back behind them, and the mask has been displaced from that sublimely nasty body of water.
Ryuji, from an angle below, gives a good thumbs up. What else do you do in a situation like this anyway?]
Hahaha... YEAH! Did you see that? [As he sits up, he gives Ren a friendly pat on the shoulder- complete with a small amount of static shock that ensues from electrons jumped to a less excited state. Pikaryu in action.] Freakin' unbelievable. Holy shit, you two would make... like... the world's biggest kickass team the universe has ever seen!
[He's way too amenable about this for someone who nearly just endured heart stopping wattage jolted right through his heart. Probably should take it easy and get a moment or two of rest instead of raring to go, but perseverance is practically Ryuji's middle name. He staggers a bit upward, holding onto his side and swaying once vertical again. As if to dispel any worries about his health or well being, he remembers the small shock he gave Ren when he touched him, and holds both hands forward from the sides of his body, hovering over both of their heads... just to see if their hair would start rising upward.
And when his carefree attitude to this is enough for all three of them, he starts walking over to his persona's vessel. It's wet, and, yeah, he's slightly worried that this shit is going to zap the hell out of him, but he doesn't think he needs to touch it to get it to accept him.]
Hey old buddy. Good to see you're still kickin'. I missed ya. [He holds his hand out over it as it starts to glow with blue fire, then simply... disappear. He'll leave whatever explanation this should need up to Ren. He's the ringleader of this operation, anyway. And besides, Ryuji never really understood all of it anyway.]
[ Time travel??? Is this what they're doing now????
Ren nods and allows Ryuji to sign him up for a superhero duo with Captain Time over here for lack of any concrete protest to the wackadoo stuff he just witnessed. Til the static shock - ow, jeez, Cybele why so weak to electricity?
So, Personas, Dave. ]
Not sure how much Ryuji's said stuff, but seeing as I've born witness to time-travel and summarily had all my personal accomplishments wiped out in one fell swoop, I suppose it couldn't hurt to let you know.
That - [ He points to Ryuji and the skull-shaped mask that flares and dissolves in a flurry of blue flame, Ryuji's eyes glowing that same piercing bright yellow. ] - is a magical representation of Ryuji's rebellious spirit, also known as a Persona.
He and a few other people aboard the station have them, and they lend us the power to fight Shadows in the world we come from. Or a parallel world, to be more accurate, but details. Our powers were gone when we got here but somehow [ he indicates the precarious electropool boogie Ryuji just jumped headfirst into ] we've begun recovering them because someone decided we needed them, I guess.
[ Ren smiles a bit more broadly at Dave though, unsure of who he is except Ryuji likes him, so Ren likes him. ]
Thanks for your help slash making sure he didn't get himself aced/
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
A... ah... shit.
[Ren's goading at his hunched up figure gets him to try and turn toward his back. Slowly unfolding his hands that were clasped together to protect himself, he starts to see the damage as he brings his hands closer to his face. Electrical burns; there's raw skin that looks ripped in weird markings up one hand, and the other, the point of the current's exit, looks blistered and blotched. It's hard to keep either of them still, he's shaking- not sure if it's the after effects of being shocked, or just how goddamn horrible that looks to begin with.
He doesn't care for secrecy anymore, it just hurts and he's on his back, trying to compose himself into something that's not anymore of a mess than he already is.]
It's... my persona.
no subject
Exhaling softly, Ren looks worriedly over the the ruin Ryuji's palms have become, his own hovering steadily underneath, cautious to touch. One last probing look is sent at the stranger before he wades into any Persona-related talk. ]
Without your commands Seiten Taisei probably doesn't know he's doing it. He's defending himself.
[ Or that's the best conclusion Ren can come up with for now. But considering he's defending himself from himself this is a problem that needs solving now, before anyone else gets accidentally electricuted.
He takes Ryuji's hands carefully in his, keeping the palms turned up. ]
Stay still.
[ Whew. This'll be the easy part, he hopes. Like riding a bike.
Grey eyes flash a brief glowing yellow, and in the next instant a white birdlike mask familiar to Ryuji grows out of a scattering of blue flames framing the top of Ren's face. ]
Cybele.
[ The flames explode again, sweeping the mask off and up into the faint shape of a lithe, horned woman behind him. Her blue-purple hands twirls the thin blades held in either hand and they're crossed before her.
It backlights Ren's head, time seeming to still briefly until a flurry of motion emanates from their hands, blue sparks passing into Ryuji's hands and not so much knitting the skin back together as reversing the fiery burst of the lightning itself, starting on the outside and drawing slowly back inward until no mark remains.
Ren presses his thumbs in, seemingly satisfied with his work if the quiet smile playing around his mouth is any indication. ]
no subject
[Dave once watched his bro slice an actual fiery meteor in half with nothing but a katana and his apparently superhuman strength. he once stood by and watched as a version of himself from a different version of the future turned himself into a ghost bird sort of deal, and then proceeded to be his personal game guide and also have a host of ghost bird sort of issues. hell, he even stood around in the afterlife for way too long while a fish alien ranted to him about building an army using an inscrutable number of fish puns.]
[and yet. AND YET. he still has no point of reference for masks exploding into sword-wielding monster ladies and also healing spells.]
Okay, I have no idea where to even begin deciphering what the fuck just happened here, but I think I've got the general message. [the message is that Thor, since he's already forgotten what Ren called him, is currently, uh. making a current in the pool.]
And I'm pretty sure I can fish this guy out of the pool.
[he has to do something other than just standing around and watching like an idiot. Dave starts walking the perimeter of the pool, examining the mask's location from all possible angles. electricity travels an insane number of miles per second, but that's irrelevant when the seconds aren't actually passing — and that happens to be something Dave can do. by use of fraymotif, he should be able to pop in and fetch the mask with no issues.]
no subject
The reversal of his injuries happens all too familiarly, like it's been done so many times that he can barely count. He's been knocked out, had his life drained to the brink of death, been shot at more times than he could count. It's only because of his friends that he ever stood a chance of making it out alive, and as he feels the pain start to fizzle away like a can of soda going flat, he closes his eyes and smiles appreciatively.]
Thanks, man.
[What else does he have to say? That Ren's always bailing his ass out of trouble? That he's sorry for being reckless, again? It's underpinned beneath everything that he is, and he knows he doesn't have to say much more than that for Ren to get what he means.
Now the question of how they explain this crosses his mind as he looks at Dave wandering around the pool, sizing it up.]
Stupid... goddamn monkey has to be as much a stubborn ass as me. [That probably makes no sense.] Yo, Dave! What're you.
Ohhhh.
Shit, this is gonna be cool.
SORRY I SUCK
Apologies? Nah, miss him on that. ]
No prob.
[ More pressingly -
Ren follows Ryuji's line of sight to their third party, watching carefully and drawing his arms across his chest. Hard to say whether it's a good thing that Ryuji gets excited over something on a good day. ]
What is, exactly?
NO YOURE GOOD <3
[well, maybe it's not actually that moronic. if someone were able to stop time for an extended period, like, say, a year, wouldn't it look like they had randomly aged a year in a split second when time started flowing again? that seems like it'd cause way more problems than a largely negligible amount like a few minutes would — and, this isn't admittedly an ability that Dave is all that familiar with, even though he'd gone and bought it up immediately when they first began the game. he can't even remember what all exactly he bought, now that he thinks about it.]
[anyway, that internal monologue up there isn't actually internal, as Dave is prone to talking to himself, whether it's just in general or whether he's trying to figure something out. if Ren is still working on formulating a first impression, Dave's probably not helping out much by mumbling like the weirdo he is over on the other side of the pool.]
[but then he stops, and rolls his shoulders — and then, he goes ahead and takes a step like he's about to walk right into the pool.]
[from Ren and Ryuji's perspective, though, it probably looks like he'd just teleported across the pool, feet landing squarely on the ground next to them, like he had been floating. the mask is safely out of the pool, a good distance away from them, because Dave wasn't sure if it'd arc or do something worse when time started flowing again.]
[mission accomplished? mission accomplished. he's pretty sure he managed to get away unsinged, too.]
There you go. Dunno if you should wait for it to dry off or not, but, you guys would definitely know better than I do. My face accessory's pretty boring compared to yours.
no subject
Ryuji, from an angle below, gives a good thumbs up. What else do you do in a situation like this anyway?]
Hahaha... YEAH! Did you see that? [As he sits up, he gives Ren a friendly pat on the shoulder- complete with a small amount of static shock that ensues from electrons jumped to a less excited state. Pikaryu in action.] Freakin' unbelievable. Holy shit, you two would make... like... the world's biggest kickass team the universe has ever seen!
[He's way too amenable about this for someone who nearly just endured heart stopping wattage jolted right through his heart. Probably should take it easy and get a moment or two of rest instead of raring to go, but perseverance is practically Ryuji's middle name. He staggers a bit upward, holding onto his side and swaying once vertical again. As if to dispel any worries about his health or well being, he remembers the small shock he gave Ren when he touched him, and holds both hands forward from the sides of his body, hovering over both of their heads... just to see if their hair would start rising upward.
And when his carefree attitude to this is enough for all three of them, he starts walking over to his persona's vessel. It's wet, and, yeah, he's slightly worried that this shit is going to zap the hell out of him, but he doesn't think he needs to touch it to get it to accept him.]
Hey old buddy. Good to see you're still kickin'. I missed ya. [He holds his hand out over it as it starts to glow with blue fire, then simply... disappear. He'll leave whatever explanation this should need up to Ren. He's the ringleader of this operation, anyway. And besides, Ryuji never really understood all of it anyway.]
guess who just found this again
Holy shit.
[ Time travel??? Is this what they're doing now????
Ren nods and allows Ryuji to sign him up for a superhero duo with Captain Time over here for lack of any concrete protest to the wackadoo stuff he just witnessed. Til the static shock - ow, jeez, Cybele why so weak to electricity?
So, Personas, Dave. ]
Not sure how much Ryuji's said stuff, but seeing as I've born witness to time-travel and summarily had all my personal accomplishments wiped out in one fell swoop, I suppose it couldn't hurt to let you know.
That - [ He points to Ryuji and the skull-shaped mask that flares and dissolves in a flurry of blue flame, Ryuji's eyes glowing that same piercing bright yellow. ] - is a magical representation of Ryuji's rebellious spirit, also known as a Persona.
He and a few other people aboard the station have them, and they lend us the power to fight Shadows in the world we come from. Or a parallel world, to be more accurate, but details. Our powers were gone when we got here but somehow [ he indicates the precarious electropool boogie Ryuji just jumped headfirst into ] we've begun recovering them because someone decided we needed them, I guess.
[ Ren smiles a bit more broadly at Dave though, unsure of who he is except Ryuji likes him, so Ren likes him. ]
Thanks for your help slash making sure he didn't get himself aced/