text.

[phantomshow]

[Since there are grocery stores to raid in this city, Ren’s spent some time stocking up on supplies, including whatever spices he can haul back to the convoy. Bland food just will not do.]

There’s curry in the kitchen. Should be enough for everyone, but I can always make more if we run out.

[That’s right, Ren made dinner and everyone’s invited.]

I’m Ren Amamiya. It’s nice to meet you. Unless we’ve already met, obviously.

One more thing. Someone here started a rumor about me, saying I shot a god in the head. I want to clear up any misconceptions about that, because it’s not true.

I shot TWO gods in the head.

[Is he joking? You’ll have to find out for yourself. Why not grab a bowl of curry while you’re at it?]

Comments

[firstsoldier]

Shooting a friend in the head is the definition of complicated. As they are both gods, do they both live?

[phantomshow]

[Hm, that’s a good question. Ren knows the answer to one, but the other …]

I’m not sure about the God of Control. After we shot it, the only thing left was a Treasure, the Holy Grail. It could still be alive and trapped in that form. But I hope not.

[Especially not if it were to follow Ren and Akechi here. Ren has a deep emotional attachment to Arsène, his first Persona, but he’s nowhere near as powerful as Satanael.]

Dr. Maruki wasn’t really a god, but yes, he’s still alive. I didn’t shoot HIM, just his Persona.

[That might need further explanation.]

Have you already heard about Personas from someone else here?

[firstsoldier]

No. Is this something you're comfortable discussing over open radio, or would you prefer in person? I admit I'm curious about what a persona is in this context.

[phantomshow]

It’s not really a secret. Apparently SOMEONE here can’t stop talking about me and my history of shooting gods (or pseudo-gods) in the head.

[That would be Akechi. Go go Goro-san!

Ren has definitely relaxed a bit since that first time he’d talked with Sephiroth, when he’d been much more inclined toward secrecy. At this point, Ren figures there’s no real need for it, at least when it comes to Personas.]

”Persona” is a power some people have, where I’m from. It’s a part of who you are, your “spirit of rebellion.” One of my friends says her Persona is part of her soul. They all have different magic abilities for fighting monsters, and they’re based on stories of some kind - legends, fairytales, fiction, even myths from different religions.

Dr. Maruki’s Persona was Azathoth, a god in a series of fictional stories. In the middle of our fight, he evolved Azathoth into Adam Kadmon, who is from myths in a few religions I’m not too familiar with. But from what I was able to find from researching, he’s a messiah, or some kind of divine perfect prototype man. Close enough to a god, I guess.

But Dr. Maruki is still alive, as far as I know. I saw him right before I ended up here.

[firstsoldier]

It sounds like they view your abilities and record very highly.

Based on the context of you having shot one, these spirits of rebellion/parts of a soul are also physical beings? How independent are they of you?

I do not recognize the myth, it must not be one our planets share. What happens if you kill a Persona and not its' human part?

[phantomshow]

I guess so? I mean - yeah, they’re physical when they’re summoned, but when they’re done, they just disappear. It might be easier to show you mine sometime.

[Ren has honestly never given much thought to these sorts of questions when it comes to Personas. Maybe because they felt like such an innate part of himself, he didn’t feel the need to question the ins and outs.]

I’ve only seen a Persona act independently of its user once, with one of my friends. She was unstable, and her Persona went berserk and attacked us.

It wasn’t really her fault, though. Dr. Maruki had a hand in it. He had a unique power to “actualize” reality as he wished. But for everyone else I’ve seen, their Personas only respond to them directly.

[But now, Ren has to wonder if that was an isolated incident or if there have been other instances of Personas working on their own. Too bad he can’t access the Velvet Room anymore - Lavenza and Igor might know.]

I’m not really sure it’s possible to kill a Persona but not its user. But Dr. Maruki seemed fine after our fight.

[If you can count a grown ass adult having a fistfight punchout with a teenager as “fine.”]

And all of my Personas that were “executed” were really just fused into different ones, or into weapons, or converted into power that was given to another Persona.

[firstsoldier]

[Nothing like this has ever been in his encounter list before, but Sephiroth isn't dismissing the likelihood that on some other planet it could happen. Is happening.

Could be happening right now in a different part of the convoy. He should go get some curry and ask if he can see one.]

I admit most of this is both fascinating and completely alien. Nothing like this exists that I know of, on my own planet.

Does anything remained of a fused Persona, or is it simply upgrades all down the line? Do you ever miss what came before?

May I see one?

[phantomshow]

I didn’t even know about it until a year ago. I know there’s at least one other place in Japan where people can use Personas, but it’s completely different from how my team and I did.

[Man, Sephiroth is asking a lot of really good questions.]

Yeah, I do miss my other Personas when they’re gone. They’re all a part of me in their own way.

But I worked with a guide who kept a Compendium of my Personas. As long as I registered them with her before they were fused, I could always get them back, for a fee. The Persona I have with me here is the first one who came to me, actually. I bought him back a few times.]

[There’s just a special connection between a Wild Card and their initial Persona. And Ren is a sentimental fool, according to certain people named Goro Akechi.]

But I’ve never seen any pieces left of a fused Persona, if that’s what you mean? They’re just combined into a different Persona altogether.

[The idea of Personas leaving parts behind after being executed by guillotine is a horrifying one. Ren had not considered that scenario either, and he’s pretty grateful. The executions were macabre enough as is.]

Sure, you can meet Arsène. Come to the kitchen when you have some time, I’ll still be here for a while.

[firstsoldier]

[Maybe in another life he'd have taken after his scientist parents and not been shaped as a weapon, he certainly had the endless curiosity for it.

And he has so many more questions he wants answered, like how a compendium could, for CURRENCY, regain a lost aspect of oneself. Things Ren might simply not know yet simply because he's only been learning about it for a year. Long enough for some, but few had opportunity to simply explore when, say, fighting gods.]

I am currently unoccupied, I am on my way.

But for clarity's sake I meant by anything remaining of a merged Persona, being temperament, or appearance, or abilities and behaviors. The echo of what once was in what it has become.

[phantomshow]

[Ren decides to wait for Sephiroth to arrive before elaborating on his answer. He’ll use the time to ponder the questions he’s been presented - deeper questions than he himself ever thought to ask. Ren had simply accepted the information he’d been presented - not blindly, he did try to ask questions here and there, but his status as a guest-slash-prisoner in the Velvet Room shaped like a prison made it clear he wouldn’t be given more information than his wardens thought necessary.

When Sephiroth appears, Ren immediately hands him a bowl of curry rice and picks up the conversation right where it left off.]

Personas do inherit some abilities from the … I guess you could call them “source Personas”? When they’re fused, but the rules of how that’s determined was never explained to me. I was able to pick from a pool of skills which ones the new Persona would keep, but not every ability from the source Personas made it into the pool as an option. And every new Persona had a few of its own abilities that were automatically included in any fusion.

[And that’s not even accounting for skill card options. Persona fusion could get quite complex.]