video; return of the radio show (forward-dated to march 10)

[orphne]

[Okay, so when Goro Akechi asks nicely for a favor, Kotone isn't one to turn him down. People are probably more likely to listen if it's not-him saying something! Besides, it's kind of fun to pretend to be a real news anchor, sitting next to Minato at one of the desks in the club building, holding a piece of paper in both hands. In light of recent events, though, her usually-bright smile is a bit more subdued as she mouths a few words, skimming down the paper, and then immediately makes a face.

It's so obvious to anyone who knows either Minato or Kotone that there's no way what they're reading out loud are their own words. Their broadcast goes live not long after Ragna's post.]

Good evening Aldrip!

I'm certain that we all are aware of the current events. Especially since the perpetrator behind the latest explosion decided to grant us with a live broadcast and-- [She pauses, scrunching up her face, because what's written next is so passive-aggressive about "the person in question not having a plan, and how no one should be surprised that person didn't have a plan." She'll just leave that part out and skip ahead,]

Considering the nature of the Council, it'd be foolish to think this attack will be left unpunished. However, we aren't sure if they will come to us as a whole or just target the perpetrator. Honestly, both are plausible scenarios. Which is why I believe we need to gather all the information we have of The Council.

[ Why is this so long?? Minato leans over a bit, squinting at the mess of handwritten notes in front of him. ] A lot of people have theorized that they are the ones responsible for our presence here, or that they are godlike creatures. While I believe this is an important theory to keep in mind, I’m not sure that’s the case here.

The council was originally absent when The Chosen arrived here for the first time. They only became active back in October after we went through the Maze. [She makes another face, because the maze sucked.] For those who weren't here back then, here's a quick summary: One night in September the town transformed into a gigantic maze with different levels that we had to clear while facing our fears, insecurities and memories related to the crimes in our parchments. After a few days the maze disappeared and town returned back to 'normal.' That's when 'Jerry' appeared and began to act on behalf of The Council to rehabilitate the criminals.

…‘someone' suggested that we might have entered a whole different timeline after coming out of the maze. [ He takes a moment to shuffle through his papers because, what maze…? Minato glances over his shoulder at something off-screen with a puzzled expression before looking straight ahead again. ] There’s no concrete evidence on this, but we shouldn’t ignore it either. The odd behavior from the locals would suggest it. They’ve been seen freezing in the middle of action before suddenly changing their opinions and behavior, along with being… unable to offer any proper information about the world they live in.

It could be that the world is preparing for another world-altering change right now, just like back with the maze. [Maybe they should have led with that?]

We also believe that we are hardly the first group of The Chosen who have arrived. There have been mentions of previous "cycles", indicating that there were others before us. These cycles were mentioned in the graves that we came across during October's witch hunt — [ He glances at something out of view again with a curious tilt of the head. After blinking a couple times with a frown in that direction, he turns to his notes again. ] — along with… an underground grotto where we found pictures of the people from past. [ Minato frowns a bit because that’s… mildly concerning if true. Frankly, he doesn’t know whether anything in these notes is true at all. ]

The biggest indicator, however, that we are not the first ones here are the sudden images, video and audios clips we received after our expedition with the fairies back in July. [Her mouth opens in an "oh" as if she's only just realized something herself, then shrugs and continues reading,] Those clips showed people from the past discussing about their "crimes" very similarly to our own. They also mentioned dealing with similar trials and monsters like we have. So, it would make sense if we assume that everything that we have gone through has happened before, and that we are following some sort of a script...? [HUH?? Now it's her turn to stare off-screen mouthing 'what?']

Or at least, that was the case until the destruction of the City Hall. [ Finally, something he actually has firsthand knowledge about and doesn’t need to glance over his shoulder to make sure he’s reading things correctly. ]

[Apparently whatever she's looking at off-screen is prompting her to continue, because she makes a face but checks her papers again. And then makes yet another face, deciding to paraphrase what's written there.] The Council is really powerful and can alter people's memories and bodies, but maybe they're not the ones behind the maze...? 'Cause apparently we don't have any proof that they can change reality. So maybe they're just a product of maze instead of the ones behind it. [She scrunches up her face and checks the papers again, a little doubtfully,] Maybe like Jerry, they're being used as tools by someone with greater power...? [She's kind of regretting agreeing to do this... she should have made Akechi read his own hypotheses...]

We don’t know who or what that powerful being may be. It could be the ones that locals call Those Who Were Here, but they seem to be deities only to Aldrip. None of the other towns have shown any signs of religion as far as we know. They might be a red herring set out to mislead us. [ He speaks flatly with an impassive expression. Minato clearly doesn’t actually believe or agree with anything that’s coming out of his mouth right now. He maintains his focus though, eyes trained on the notes in front of him. ] Whatever it is, we believe we can all agree that their excuses and explanations about wanting to rehabilitate us is bullshit, along with our 'crimes.' [ Minato looks off camera again and gives definitely-not-Akechi-Goro a thumbs-up. ]

[Kotone puts down her papers and sticks out her tongue a little as if trying to figure out how to talk normally again after all that formal language.] Anyway, that's just a summary, so if anybody has any other information, go ahead and let us know! How was that, Goro?

[ ooc: Replies will mostly be from Akechi, but possible peanut gallery-ing from Kotone and Minato!

Also please feel free to tag each other too! Hop on in and let’s start cooking some theories \o/ ]

Comments

voice

[solitarysoul]

[All of this is way over his head and he'd rather let other people deal with it, but for some reason one point sticks out.]

Didn't the Ketsorian's worship birds?

[Or something like that, he remembers people from Rumpitur complaining about them.]

That's a religion.

voice

[orphne]

Did they?

[Her ass was not paying attention. With that in mind, though-]

Did they also worship "Those Who Were There"?

[Like, Akechi's script had said it was only Aldrip, but maybe he's wrong! She'll entertain the idea.]

[murderingjustice]

they did?

the encounters i had with them were only brief and none of them seemed to be interested in talking about their own city.

voice;

[drugsnotclubs]

[...Only one absolute Tool of a Fucker would be this wordy. And so Shinjiro sounds half amused when he responds.]

He really put you guys up to this to save his own pride, huh....

[Well he won't out him more than Kotone already did. His biggest hint was the """someone""" and then the mention of exactly what Shinjiro had told Akechi months before. Ah well at least this can be some kind of.... olive branch between them, too.]

...Speaking of what 'someone' suggested: I got some more info on that, too. It was a weird message Dara got a few weeks back about an 'environmental resent' in progress. It was about a third of the way through at the time.

voice;

[memori3s]

Senpai, were you here in October? Did you find any witches?

[ Because that's all he gleaned from Akechi's notes. ]

voice;

[orphne]

He asked nicely.

[That's it... that's why they did it...]

D'you know if that weird message ever got updated? Like, if it was in progress?

[murderingjustice]

it hardly has anything to do with pride.

hmm, that could be referring to the message we saw on our tablets before the blackout. something about updates being installed.

(AUDIO CLIP) + (TXT)

[opheliac]

( well, given ragna doomed himself, doomed her for a tag-team thing plan the council might accuse them for, or literally every single breathing thing on this planet, jinx might as well share this recording. kudos to her for transferring this to her toy monkey. with gears and mechanical sounds clanking together, something comes out: )

Person a: Duplicity? That's it? There's no way that that girl hasn't done other things.
Person b: Yeah, I think that crime isn't harsh enough. Some of them aren't harsh enough at all! Who--⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
Person a: Maybe we can ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛.
Person c: That'd be so much more interesting!!

( after that's done: )

ure welcome. dont say i didnt do anything for u.

text;

[orphne]

Wait, what's that?

audio

[bonobos]

Basically, we're fucked.

[ that was definitely not the point, but you know. ]

Sounds like the Council's a puppet for an even bigger bad. Kinda like a vessel of sorts. Back where I'm from, the whole idea of different timelines and universes ain't uncommon. We send people to different realms all the time.

I'm betting my money on the asswipes behind this bein' omnipotent or somethin'. Not like it matters, we're about to see some shit in the next day at this rate. Oh-- and Minato, you better hurry your ass up in the next 30 minutes or else I'm ditching you.

audio

[orphne]

Where are you going?

[She's not Minato, but she is nosy!]

[invinciblemikey]

kototan.

why is the newbie giving us exposition, he wasn't even here.

i'm for war. im gearing up myself.

not here

[memori3s]

[ yeah, what Mikey said... ]

voice

[threadmage]

[ Sandry definitely doesn't understand what's being talked about in this post and sounds very confused and a bit upset. She's listened to this a few times and picked something that she... kind of understands. ]

If there were graves of people like us, does that mean we're here until we die?

voice:

[memori3s]

[ He doesn't know for sure, but -- ]

Maybe.

[ There's one thing that hasn't been made clear to him though, and Akechi's script hasn't helped with it at all. ]

We don't know if those names were real though, I think.

[ He has no idea why Akechi's so sure they're the names of past Chosen. ]

audio

[killjoyprince]

[Naoto has to listen to the whole thing twice, rewinding certain moments. Thinking about. Putting her head in her hands.

But she can't dismiss it. Not after Izanami.

Eventually, there's the tail end of a sigh as she calls.]

Is your scriptwriter saying this is some kind of...virtual reality?

audio

[memori3s]

[ He looks down at his notes before looking over at Akechi, then looks back at his notes. ]

I think so... I guess that means none of us are real then?

action.

[murderingjustice]

[Well.... guess that was better than nothing? Although Akechi is regretting asking them to do it, seeing that neither of them really knew how to took his report seriously. He should've gone either to Caitlyn or Ange, really.]

That'll do, Kotone. Thank you, I suppose. Although, you both could've at least tried to pretend you care about this.

[orphne]

You're welcome!

[Listen, when he gives them that much work to do, he should be grateful they even did it all the way through in the first place.

She scrunches up her nose a bit, though, giving him a thoughtful frown.]

I do care about it. I just don't know if all of this theorizing is gonna help.

video;

[bulleting]

[Caitlyn doesn't reply to this immediately, even if she listened as soon as it came across her charm. Why doesn't she, you ask?

Because she's being nosy and poking around the remains of City Hall, of course. She doesn't know what she expects to see or find, certainly not bodies, but the white void fills her with a such an extreme sense of dread she hasn't felt since she got the strange message to her tablet.

She toughed it out as long as she could, finally returning to her office to write down all the details she can recall, before she finally decides to reply to Kotone and Akechi.]

Have either of you been to the rubble yet? It's... interesting. I recommended it, and soon, before they clear it away.

[murderingjustice]

i have not, yet. i wasn't sure if i could make it in time.

what did you come across, Miss Caitlyn?

video

[heartofsalvation]

I had yet to share any of this with the public as I was attempting to compile all that we know so far, but you two have covered most of it nicely. I will add to this, however; I asked Jerry some questions one-on-one and managed to get a few answers.

First, he said he has a superior, though he would not give any further details.

Second, I received some interesting answers about the previous Chosen -- on the one hand, he did say Aldrip has not housed Chosen before... but then went on to clarify that the desert ruins and the ghosts within are one example of a failed cycle. 'Twould seem the locations of each cycle have varied, if I had to guess.

Third, I asked him of the mechanism which brings us to this world, and he said he was not privy to that information. But based upon all we know, my best guess is that someone must have control over it, if not him. This superior, perhaps?

Fourth, the Council does not work with the gods "anymore".

video

[entreats]

I remember the recordings we found of the people out in the desert, before the ghosts and the infected people appeared. They were talking about being left by 'those bastards.' Couldn't those recordings have been from the end of that cycle, now I'm thinking about it? They all sounded so frantic.

audio

[melnik]

[ On one hand, he's appreciative to know that there are others here who are prepared to throw everything they've been theorizing about the situation right out onto the table. On the other... this video message really throws a lot out there. ]

If we're really gearing up for another shift... does anyone have a suggestion on what we should do?

[ Yes, they've established that blowing up city hall likely has them royally fucked, but now what? ]

audio

[entreats]

That depends, how optimistic are you?

[ .. look, yes, this does sound kind of useless, but Ange is going somewhere with this. She sounds serious enough, anyway, her voice kind of flat and emotionless. ]

audio

[thegtg]

Oh, now you care.

[this is sarcasm; obviously minato is just reading off something someone else handed him.]

Whatever. I think all this focusing on the Council is going in the wrong direction. Think about this: if you appear in a certain spot, couldn't you go back to that spot and...disappear? There must be some kind of barrier there if you passed through it in the first place.

audio

[memori3s]

[ Now that's a familiar voice... But now that he's here, all right. He'll play his part... ]

Have you tried?

voice;

[laserguy]

[So, Akechi is making them say all this, right? Right.

He's not surprised Kotone was roped into it, but new guy too? ...He's a Persona user, isn't he. Minato fits the qualifications in Scott's mind, mostly being: a teenager and Japanese. Well, cool.]

Shinjiro already mentioned the stuff that I thought it was weird, like the static monsters outside of Ketsora and the progress bar. [When Yosuke and him joked long ago that they were in a video game or something, it doesn't really feel farfetched anymore. Although, they only had that conversation because of Yosuke's revival and... man.]

...Do you think the Council are the people that revive Chosen here? Or this other force you're referring to?

voice;

[memori3s]

[ For what it's worth, that's a pretty solid set of criteria so far for what makes a persona Persona user... ]

But Aragaki-senpai said nobody saw the Council until the maze. What if they weren't here before that?

[ Also, wait -- ]

...did you say "revive"?

[emet_sulk]

Their aim is rehabilitation. They give us trials and monitor the results. Is it truly that odd for them to be reused between groups?

[murderingjustice]

so you believe that it is the Council that is calling the shots?

text / anon

[heartstopping]

Did you really not read this script before agreeing to present it?

[Those were definitely some live reactions to the words they were
reading. He doesn't know either of these people, but it's obvious even to him that neither of them wrote it, and it stills raises questions like "why get someone else to do this broadcast" and "why wouldn't you actually look at what you're going to be presenting in advance".]

[orphne]

Nope! Why read something twice when you can just read it once?

video

[coordinatroll]

My, Akechi-kun has a way with words, as always~ ♪

[ As if there's anyone else here who'd write this kind of essay and plan for someone else to deliver it... but no matter. She knows the situation is a bit dire right now, so she won't spend too much time teasing. ]

Thank you for sharing all that! It's a lot to take in, but it's something we should keep in mind if we're to understand our standing better.

[ Though obviously, trying to wrap one's head around a world that works in a completely different from their own is a tall order. They all have their own biases that will influence their way of thinking... but that can also be used to their advantage, since they can have a lot more different ideas. Mitama lets out a soft hum, tapping her cheek with her finger. ]

Now, that is purely a speculation on my part, so feel free to correct me if there is anything contradictory, but I can't help but wonder... since we all seem in agreement that our purpose here being rehabilitation is, questionable at best, [ and that's her being diplomatic, but we all know what she means here ] would you say there's a possibility where the powers that had brought us here not so much want our cooperation, but need it for some other purpose...? In which case, what we're accused of and how we repent for it are not important, as long as we do it.

[entreats]

[ You know it's either a brave day or desperate times when Ange is voluntarily entering a discussion with Mitama.. But this is important, okay. It's about something serious! ]

What sort of purpose do you imagine they need us for then?

video

[feintofhart]

There's a limit to how much theoretical understanding I have of this, or the terminology I've heard people using -- where I'm from, even something like the charms we use seems like a technological impossibility. But from what I've been able to piece together, people have proposed that this is something like... a false reality.

If that's the case, then shouldn't there be some sort of limit to it? We've traveled to different regions, but we haven't stretched beyond them, and why would they bother construct anything that they don't expect us to see? Maybe we can see how far we can push those boundaries. Maybe we'd find even more areas like the one left behind in all that rubble. If we stretch their resources to their limits, maybe it will be easier to find some sort of vulnerability.

As for the rest... [ He sighs, pressing his cheek into his hand. ] This would be a lot easier if all it came down to was a physical fight. But if that was possible, I think they'd be running this whole thing a little differently.

Video

[ae10d1f]

[ He looks like he's reeling a little from the very words he's about to speak. ]

I don't know if this theory also applies to this place, but... I once heard that, in a simulated world, only the phenomena that observers see and experience need to be calculated.

audio; i am so sorry for him.

[ashaya]

If I might make a suggestion, [ he says, more for the spirit of decorum than anything else, ] I believe this information would have best been conveyed in another format.

Humanoid species rarely have the capacity to singularly attend to a one-sided dialogue for more than six hundred seconds. Given the complexities of your suppositions and hypotheses, an open forum would have undoubtedly provided you more opportunities for meaningful engagement.

[ a pause. ]

If it would bring more insights to the fore, I have summarized the broadcast's key points for ease of recall.

[ he's asking if you want his meeting minutes for this. ]

audio;

[threadmage]

[ Oh good, someone who seems to know what was happening here. ]

Excuse me, could you give me the summary? I didn't understand most of this.

[ She doesn't sound bothered by this at all, she's not the slightest bit self-conscious about her lack of understanding. ]

[snowslip]

[ Marianne listens quietly and at the end of the broadcast, she contributes her own account. They may be able to make more sense of it than her. ]

Um, I have an observation to add. During my sentencing, I saw one of the councilmen freeze up much like the villagers.

[ William had tried to explain to her his theory. She's not sure she follows completely, but it appears the Council may not be as powerful as they initially seemed if they weren't spared what was happening to the townfolk. ]

There was also a strange message left behind on my device.