[Week 4, Friday: Lenka]

[fallbymyhands]

[when all is said and done, Mitsuru excuses herself from the crowd. she wanders aimlessly around the camp grounds until her feet somehow, someway, bring her to the beach near the lake. and there she stands while facing the now-calm waters, arms folded, eyes closed and head bowed]

[she could probably use a pep talk, or two]

Comments

[soylentprotag]

[Eventually, Lenka does find her.

Somewhere in all the mess of the post-investigation and all its noise he'd been able to spot that Mitsuru wasn't acting as usual -- he'd mostly stayed out at the firepit and had only returned late to check in and listen in on what other information was still circulating. There are so many mysteries surrounding Kanji's death, still, and the fact that the RVs are involved is... not good.

He's not sure, himself, how to feel about tomorrow.

But as little pep as there is in his step and in general at camp... he firms his walk and comes over anyway, pulling up next to her and watching the lake silently for a little while. Companionable.]

... You knew him?

[fallbymyhands]

[she starts at the sound of his voice, having been so out of it that she hadn't even heard his footsteps. there's a sheepish note when she speaks because of that]

Yes.

[well]

Supposedly he met my future self. I didn't recognize him upon coming to this camp, but. . . he recognized me.

He was another Persona user.

[soylentprotag]

[He notices the startling, doesn't comment on it. He knows what it's like to look put together until something stirs the waters.]

Your future self... [this is going to be one of those discussions he has trouble following, but he goes with it] All of you, with your Persona, you came from the same place but haven't met before.

[It sounds funny put that way. He's starting to lose track of scale with all this talk of worlds and timelines.]

[fallbymyhands]

[and that's exactly what happened here, truthfully. Mitsuru is great at being put together, until something punches her in the heart]

Yes. . . that's correct.

[it sounds funny, but]

I know it may not make much sense. But Ren, myself and Tatsumi are all from different periods of time.

[soylentprotag]

[You'd think they'd learn by now to close off the heart for a break, but at least half the camp is terrible at it, and the other half are about twelve on average. It's a bad time for everyone.]

I think I remember him talking about it. Kanji, a while ago. I was wondering how he knew.

[He'd been thinking it over and matching it against what he knew of camp when he had time to spare -- it's been more a point of curiosity than anything that seems like it would help them, and so much else has happened. And now this.]

What was it like? Meeting someone from the future...

[He hadn't known Kanji all that well, but it sounds complicated.]

[fallbymyhands]

[as icy as Mitsuru may seem at first, she has a pretty soft inside. she's never been good at shutting off her emotions, and she won't start that now]

It was. . . strange.

[but as strange as it was?]

But not bad. I only asked him about the events surrounding our meeting, and that's all. Most of the time, I forgot he was from my future completely.

[chatting with Kanji was nice-- it's always nice to be able to talk openly with someone who understands how Personas work-- but it was still just like talking to a normal person for her]

[soylentprotag]

[And that, oddly, may be what gets them through this. There's perhaps a strange toughness in being soft enough to keep reaching out beyond when it seems reasonable anymore. A bad and necessary habit.]

Hmm. Yes, you'd start on the same page.

[Rather than having to painstakingly lay out how the foundation of the world works, and build from there. There's a comfort in having seen and heard and taken for granted the same things, even if it's just the lack of those things here. Though...]

You weren't curious about the future...?

[One has to wonder.]

[fallbymyhands]

I was. Of course I was. Who wouldn't be?

[she shakes her head, glancing back out at the lake ahead]

But there would have been no point in asking him about that future. After all. . . the future he saw for me is no longer set in stone, is it?

[she may very well die in this camp. if that happens, then there might not be a future for her at all]

[soylentprotag]

[Lenka is quiet for a moment, because that's -- unfortunately something they all understand and may not often talk about. All the same, he thinks he would have asked. Futures, even those that might not come to pass, are a look ahead. Something that exists beyond the present moment, all of the things currently dragging you down and obscuring your vision.

Even visions of a bleak future are better than none.

But that's just him, and the way he sees things. He knows.]

... I don't think any future is set in stone. Not even the ones that happened. [they did talk about timelines, too, and the things he believes might be different here too] Not even the one here.