thenearshore | -Overflow- for 24

Okay, then. Here goes. Secret sharing time.

[She takes a deep breath. What she's about to give up is a bit of a risk, but she needs to establish a deeper trust here. Leaning in, she whispers in a low voice.]

...I'm actually a phantom thief.

[Shun leans in only very slightly so she doesn't have to speak louder to account for that distance, and he considers the remark before replying, voice equally quiet in consideration of her clearly not wanting the information spread.]

That could mean a lot of things. The last person here claiming to be a phantom thief was an idiot doing it for show. [Trying to steal a random sword of no real relevance from a museum and leaving letters in advance to get attention had not gone down the best with Shun.]

Well I'm not that kind of phantom thief, okay?

[Her brow furrows as she stamps her foot for extra effect.]

I'm more the super hacker type.

[That's not what he'd call a convincing way to swing his opinion, but he's at least willing to hear her out, though he looks somewhat skeptical there.]

So what exactly are you planning to hack here that'll get you anything of use?

[The old gods rarely use the BBS, and they're so archaic at times he doubts that's the only modern thing they neglect to use.]

[Her voice goes a bit flat at this point. She's getting exasperated with his attitude.]

Would you even believe me if I told you? You've been treating me like a little kid making up stories up until now.

If I wasn't prepared to believe a word out of your mouth, I wouldn't still be here talking to you. I just need information a bit more specific than what you're offering.

[He would blame Hibiki for tainting the term "phantom thief" already, but then, he's never been very trusting regardless, so it wouldn't have been much different if she was one or not.]

Good, because the answer is really gonna sound like I'm just a little kid making up stories. Fair warning.

I've been here a while. I've heard a lot of things like that since I came here.

[So while there is probably a line somewhere for how ludicrous something can be still, it's far removed from where he used to have it. He bases his belief more on factual inconsistencies and similar lie-picking methods these days.]

I hack reality to steal the distorted desires of people with warped hearts and minds.

[Well, there it is, said as plainly and directly as she can manage. Futaba will be watching his reaction closely.]

[Still, somehow, not the weirdest thing Shun has ever heard here. The only surprise he expresses is a brief blink as he processes the information, and then he raises a brow as if running into some issues piecing it all together.]

Must be a weird world you come from if it's that easy to "fix" someone whose mind's been warped. Do you have any guarantee that's actually going to work here?

[Futaba grins a little. Seems like she really isn’t being dismissed out of hand.]

I never said it was easy. And not just anyone can do it, either. As for guarantees...

[She shrugs her shoulders before pushing up her glasses.]

...Not really. But I don’t have any guarantees that it won’t work, either. At the very least, I haven’t ruled it out. I’m still putting together a few ideas.

[The first two things seem reasonable enough, but as soon as she mentions she has no guarantee it'll actually work here, Shun's interest wanes somewhat.]

There's a good chance you'll have to rule it out eventually. Some people's abilities come through to here intact, but some don't, and that sounds more like one rooted in your world.

[An ability that relies on other people's desires being in a form she can thieve doesn't seem to him like one that would transition from place to place. Then again, he's somewhat biased on the subject considering the stripping-down his duel disk got when he came here.]

You'd think that, but I can do something here that I can usually only do when I'm inside peoples' mindscapes.

[He's not talking her out of this that easily.]

So you got a god power that builds on the power you had back home. [Shun looks singularly unconvinced of this being a good plan in any way, shape, or form. He's been here long enough to have heard his fair share of half-baked ideas.]

Nope. That doesn't have anything to do with the power I had at home.

[She remains cheerful in the face of his no-fun-ness.]

Then the Heavens might be more flexible than the normal world. You're still trying to build trust in future plans when you can't even guarantee the cornerstone of them will work.

[Which, in his experience, is about as far from a good idea as things can get. Then again, his battlefield experience has made him a little jaded on that front besides.]

So what's your suggestion, then? Sit around and do nothing?

[Man, this guy is boring.]

Try actually thoroughly testing the things your plan relies on before trying to pitch them to people. Anyone with enough caution to pull off a stealth mission isn't going to jump at joining something that uncertain.

[And presumably, since she was discussing hacking, it is a stealth mission of some description she's after.]

I told you, this stuff isn't easy. If it does work here, I'm probably only gonna get one shot at it to begin with.

Then you're going to have to figure out what it is you want to do with that one shot if you want to convince anyone to join you.

[It's an incredibly rare and generally not very intelligent sort who'll jump in on a "one shot or failure" sort of mission without knowing exactly what it is, in his experience.]

I already have a pretty good idea.

[Grinning a little, she pushes up her glasses.]

I just need backup to pull it off.

Good luck getting it if you're not going to tell them the actual plan. [He puts that very bluntly, since it seems like something she needs to hear - even in saying it's not easy, she seems a little too assured she'll find support and success.]

Fine.

[She doesn't expect him to agree, but if he wants to hear it, she'll tell him.]

Back home, my powers only worked in the cognitive world. Basically, an alternate reality created by strongly distorted thoughts and desires. We called them 'Palaces,' and my friends and I had the ability to enter them. Once we were there, we would infiltrate our way in and steal the target's Treasure - a literal manifestation of whatever was at the core of their distorted thoughts. And that, in turn, would fix the distortion and affect their behavior in the real world.

[Pausing for a moment to make sure he's following, she continues.]

The fact that my powers work here strongly suggests that we're in someone's Palace already. Given that this place calls itself Takamagahara and the Amatsukami are in charge, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that it belongs to Amaterasu herself. And based on the fact that she appears as an innocent little girl here instead of as a powerful shining goddess, and that her major problem seems to be the constant invasion of faceless enemies that no one has ever seen and who don't seem to leave behind any trail, I'd say there's an equally good chance that her distortion is paranoia or some kind of persecution complex. Basically, the helpless little girl is the way she sees herself, so that's how she manifests in her own cognition. And her enemies might not even exist at all, which is why no one here has ever been able to catch them. So if all of that is true, what I need to do next is get into her temple, find her Treasure, and steal it.

[He wouldn't have gotten along very well here if he was incapable of listening to other people describe the mechanics of their own worlds, so he pays close attention to the explanation. He doesn't look convinced at any point, though - on the contrary, his skepticism of the idea subtly increases as she goes on.

When she finishes, his first reaction is to sigh quietly.]

You have an inflated idea of your own world's importance. [Assuming this entire place is a concept that exists, to their knowledge, only in her world...it's not something he can see a lot of people rushing to support her for.]

Those enemies have been seen and acted in the human world as well, multiple times. So you're suggesting that not just the Heavens, but this entire world is one of these "Palaces", and I don't think I need to explain exactly how unlikely that is. Not to mention there's a reason she's a kid, which you'd know if you knew anything about how this world worked.

[Futaba just groans at the response.]

Yeah, that's exactly what I expected you to say. I knew I was wasting my breath.

[She shakes her head.]

That doesn't mean I'm wrong. Most Palaces aren't very big, sure, but one created by the distorted thoughts of an actual goddess? That's on a whole other scale. Plus, we don't know how long this has been going on. The gods have been around for a really, really long time. If Amaterasu started to collapse under the pressure of being in charge early on and nobody did anything about this place, of course it would only start to grow, and maybe even draw people in to sustain itself.

[Still, she's not ending it there. It seems like he has more to say.]

You have to know how hypocritical you sound right now, lecturing me about not understanding how the world works when you're making plenty of assumptions about mine, but humor me. What's the reason? I think I've shared more than enough with you to have earned some information, even if you don't believe me.

Edited 2018-03-08 01:22 (UTC)

-Overflow- for 24 - Autumn Reception

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