avalar | [Voice] Arcana III

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persona 3: minato arisato

[Voice] Arcana III - so much to lose

[Minato couldn't not notice, this time. He'd thought at first that he might be wrong, but well... A few days and no contact can only mean one thing, can't it? The message comes late at night, and is brief. His voice is level and calm, but trained ears could tell it's only barely so.]

...I know not many of us were close to them, but I figured it's worth knowing: Marie, my housemate, seems to be gone. I'm pretty sure Shirogane Naoto is, too.

[He shuts it off quickly. Two of his closest friends here, vanished. He doesn't know if they went home or what. He's...never really thought about where the people who are no longer in Avalar may have gone. Home? Some other world? He can't help but be sad about it, no matter what the case may be. It hurts.]

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[She won't bother to analyze his voice too much for the moment. He sounds like he needs company, and that's exactly what she's going to give him.]

Okay, be there in ten.

[She's there in five, having run from her own house to his. She knocks on the door.]

Minato-kun, it's me.

[He answers the door promptly, his face an expressionless mask.]

Hey.

[Don't give her that face, Minato, she knows you're upset.]

Hey. I'm sorry about your friends. Let me make you some tea, huh?

[Actually no first she's going to come in the door and give him a really big hug.]

[He is, but who is he to ever actually express his pain? He isn't surprised at the hug - he returns it, gently.]

I'll be okay. I'm pretty used to losing people.

[She gives him a hardy squeeze.]

Hey, don't do that to yourself. Don't do that to me. You're upset. You don't need to be strong for me about that.

[She pulls away and brushes his bangs to the side to get a look at his eyes. His eyes show far more than his mouth or words do.]

Stop protecting me from yourself.

[Finally, his resolve crumples under his pain. one moment Minako is making eye contact with him and the next Minato is crying. He can't...do this.]

You don't get it, do you? You're from all the way back in July, before we even found out the origin of Tartarus. You have no idea what's coming, y-you're still so...happy. And I remember how happy we were back then and then how it all went to hell.

[That was a lot more than he'd meant to say, but...seems like his fellow Wild Cards break down his walls.]

[Ah, that's what she was expecting. The minute she sees those tears she's back on him for the hug, rubbing his back and holding him tight. Despite the pain and the worry, her primary emotion was relief. He trusts her. She knows that for sure now, and she knows he has someone he can lean on. The way he is... the way she is... she wasn't sure he would let himself rely on anyone else.]

Maybe I don't, but I do get that you need someone to take care of you sometimes. You need to let other people help you. I will do that. You can trust me, even if I don't know everything you do.

[She knows enough. She needed him to do that, to do this, maybe as much as he needs to do it.]

[He's still clearly holding something back. He's not letting the words come spilling out in an avalanche of raw emotion.]

P-Promise...you won't take anything I say back to Souzen. I want to trust you but...I can't trust him.

[He's still telling her something and that's a big step. He doesn't need to give her all of it at once. She just needs to know he will open up to her in some way.

That... was not totally unexpected, but not quite what she thought he would bring up at this particular moment.]

I promise. I want to know why, at some point, but you don't need to explain that now. You're my focus for the moment, okay?

[She's quite sure it has something to do with Seito's strange persona and emotion issues. How could it not? But that's not the purpose of her visit.]

Because he's a murderer. [He gives up. He wasn't sure how to break the news gently, and he wanted to do it somewhere he was sure Seito wasn't spying - like his own home.]

I-I've been keeping an eye on him for months, trying to make sure he doesn't try to kill anyone else... I passed out in November from the stress. I-I'm sorry... [He's still stressed. The words spill out now. It's partly because he needs to say something, and this is the only thing he can really safely say. News about the future - how's he supposed to know it won't affect hers? She'd have signed the same contract, she has to be responsible for her own choices.]

He-He's....

[She shuts down. Everything that she was thinking, everything she was about to do, all forgotten. She's frozen for a long moment, staring at Minato, staring at nothing.]

[She lets go of him, backing up very slowly. There's no way... Seito? Her quiet, shy, sad Seito...

But Minato wouldn't lie to her. He wouldn't.

And that uncontrollable persona...

Had she been lied to this whole time?]

N... o.......

[She feels something bump against her legs and she sits on it, hard. Not noticing or caring what it even was.

Something in her mind is shattering, even as the puzzle pieces slip into place.

He... lied to her. He lied to her]

I made a horrible mistake.

[Many horrible mistakes. Her face slowly sinks into her hands. Her eyes start to sting but she fights the tears.]

[One deep shuddering breath. She needs to hold it in, for him. Be brave, Minako, be brave.]

I'm so sorry.

[She's already let him down. After she promised. She'd broken the promise even before she made it.]

[He crumples to the ground where he is as she reacts to the news. Finally. he finally told her. Why doesn't it feel any lighter? The tears spill over. He hadn't wanted it to go this way.]

I-I'm sorry. I should have told you right away, should have...said something... C-Can you forgive me? I just...d-didn't know how to tell you, and didn't want him o-overhearing and twisting my words... I'm sorry I let things go on this long...

[He won't let her. Minato lifts the blame off Minako and places it on himself. Because it's his fault. He's the one who kept this secret, who couldn't find it in himself to trust her once he knew she was involved with Seito.]

Don't...hate him.

[She's frozen again, stuck there with her face in her hands and her mind unable to grasp the reality Minato is setting before her.]

I-I understand. I'm. So sorry. I should have known better I shouldn't be so gullible... god he really had me fooled...

I'm an idiot. And I broke my promise.

[And that's when she breaks, and the tears come. She isn't letting him take that blame. It's snatched right back. She's responsible for her own fate, damnit, let her be!

Her fingers slowly curl into fists and she presses the heels of her palms to her eyes in an attempt to slow the crying.]

That's the worst part I couldn't hate him. I couldn't ever hate him.

[She takes a deep shuddering breath.]

Shit, Minato... I loved him.

No, it's not your fault... I'd have trusted him too. I just h-had a reaction to go on, until S-September...

[September confirmed everything he'd feared since that first conversation. He'd been suspicious, but only wary, he'd...actually hoped they could be friends. And then Seito had his hands around Minato's throat.]

You haven't broken it yet. I-I knew the situation when it was made. I just...sh-shouldn't have let this...I wish I'd said something. I-It's my fault this is how you had to find out. [He's responsible for the choices he makes...and also for the actions he doesn't take. Not acting when he knew the situation led to this. He's responsible.]

He...isn't evil. He's... He's exactly like I used to be... [Only more extreme.]

[SHe shaking her head and fighting the tears.]

I never even suspected anything! I just... blindly trusted... like always...

[At least he had a reaction, he had been wary. She was just a foolish girl, and idiotic baby who trusted too much. She's still shaking her head.]

It's my own fault for not realizing something was wrong... his eyes... the way they never showed anything. I should have had some reaction, like you.

[She's a worse wildcard than he is. She's more gullible and more dangerous. She won't let him blame himself for being better at this than her.]

I-I know he isn't but... [Hang on. That makes her look up, struggling to see him through her tears and the stars in her eyes from mashing her palms into them]

Y...you?

[That explains so much. What he said out in the snow, when they first really bonded and she had made that promise. The emptiness he had. All that love and caring and pity she had always shown Seito was back on her face, for Minato. She's open to him, open hearted and open armed, if he wants her comfort. It's written all over her face.]

You haven't experienced No-November yet. I can't blame you for...not realizing.

[Betrayal. Once you've felt it once you don't forget it, and you can never be quite as trusting.]

H-He only reacted when I called myself a Fool in front of him. E-Even then I knew he was only suspicious, like I was of him... He could have strung me along so easily.

I-I'm sorry.. This isn't how I wanted to tell you.

[He's very good at holding himself together, even when he's broken and falling apart. He needs that comfort, that support - but he isn't going to it, not yet.] I-I don't know how much I can even say around you.

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[Voice] Arcana III - so much to lose

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