Mission: Question Rinna

It was not too long ago when the team had gone into the alternate Lunapa to find the girls. When Naomi had first brought them back, she was worried for both of their health. However, she only had the time in her schedule for one of them. She trusted her teammates to talk to the other one and figure out how she was holding up. But she felt like the one that had the best chance to talk to Rinna. She wanted to make sure Lune was alright too, but she couldn’t be in two places at once. The real problem was going to be getting permission from the front desk to see her. She hated how uptight people were sometimes, but she supposed that was the only reason that Rinna wasn’t constantly being bothered by others. It was just something she would have to deal with. She would approach the front desk a little nervously, holding her head down and keeping her voice low so she wouldn’t draw attention to herself, “Umm… I’m here to see Rinna Lauderdale. I’m a friend of hers and I’ve been really worried since I heard she was found and brought here.” It wasn’t a complete lie. She really had been worried about Rinna since she was brought to the hospital. She was concerned for her health and wanted to make sure she would be alright. If the woman at the front desk asked her to confirm that she knew Rinna and wasn’t just the press trying to get in, she would continue speaking, “My name is Naomi. You can tell that to her and she can tell you that she knows me.” She didn’t know what else to say to prove that she was just here to make sure Rinna was alright.

Naomi would give the nurse a nod before heading to the room that she was told Rinna would be in. She wasn’t going to get discouraged that there was a cop watching over her. In fact, that made her a little happy. It meant that they were keeping an eye on Rinna to make sure that she stayed safe. Now all she had to do was get past those same defenses so that she could make sure that Rinna was really getting better. Her resolve was absolute. She would wander the floor until she found the room she was instructed to go to. She wouldn’t run headlong into the room, even though she wanted to. Instead she would calmly approach the room where the guard would be standing and speak up, “Hello. I was told that Rinna would be here. I’m a friend of hers and I was worried about her, so I came to see her now that she was doing better.” She was hoping she could get permission to go inside. If she didn’t, she would have to ask why she wasn’t allowed to see Rinna. If she were allowed to pass, she would try to remain calm as she entered the room, in case the girl was still groggy from whatever she likely had to be on to help treat that wound.

The moment the police officer recognized her from the incident where she and her friends brought Rinna and Lune back, Naomi would swallow a hard lump in her throat. She was hoping that no one had noticed her during all the chaos. Although, she wouldn’t say she brought them to the police. She just teleported them out of an alternate world using a magical bead… That made her sound crazy though. There was something the woman said that made her eye twitch, however, “Actually, I’m not ganguro. I’m just darker with naturally blonde hair.” She would pull out her ID and hand it to the cop, “Umm… Can I ask who you are? I know you’re the officer watching Rinna, but what’s your name?” She really didn’t want to answer any questions, but she had a feeling that would be unavoidable. She would just have to keep calm and stay away from anything supernatural. Her eyes would turn away from the woman’s cold gaze. It was as if ice was being poured over her from that stare, “E-excuse me, but you’re looking at me like I just the last slice of cake.” She would pull a sucker out of her purse and offer it to the woman, “Do you want one?” She was trying to make nice, but she couldn’t tell if it was working. This situation actually terrified her.

As scary as this situation was, Naomi would smile when the woman took the sucker. When she was given a name, she would light up, “Hello Officer Briggs.” She figured it was polite to address her by her last name rather than her first in this situation, “I’m Naomi Epona, but I guess you can read that on my ID… You must have been watching over her for days by this point. Thank you for keeping Rinna safe.” She would bow ever so slightly, since reaching out for a handshake could be seen as a threatening action at the moment, “And, yes, I am here to see her. Rinna is a friend of mine, so I’ve been worried about her. I would have come sooner, but I thought it would better for her to get rest for that wound she had.” Was that too much information? This woman was already aware that she was the one to find them, meaning she should know about the wound, “I should have brought you something besides a sucker. You’ve done so much for Rinna.” She suddenly felt bad for only bringing candy, “Do you like fish or Italian food? Maybe I can bring you something from Martha’s place sometime. I think she recently added some kind of asian chicken to the menu, but it’s supposed to be spicy.” Was food any better than candy? She would flip back to the topic at hand though, “Can I, maybe, see Rinna though? I’m sure she’s fine, but I would like to make sure.”

Naomi would bow again, “Thank you, Officer Briggs.” As the door was opened for her, she would step inside, attempting to stay quiet. She was happy to see that Rinna was lying in the bed, watching TV. She would hold up her hand to signal to Rinna that she didn’t need to sit up, “If it hurts, you don’t have to do that. That injury needs to heal.” She would go up to Rinna’s bed and sit down in one of those chairs that hospitals always had. She’d give a small smile when Rinna thanked her, “You don’t have to thank me. As for what happened, I pulled you out of the water and we made our way back to the town so we could call for help. You and Lune were then brought here via helicopter.” She thought that was the least incriminating way to speak about it.

She would blush as she looked to the side, “Actually, I haven’t seen Lune yet. You two were separated, so I can only see one of you at a time. According to the news, she’s doing just fine. We’re lucky she got to the hospital so quickly. We’re lucky both of you go to the hospital so quickly.” She would point to her shoulder, the one that was equivalent to where Rinna’s wound was, “How is it doing, anyway? I was worried that you may have lost a lot of blood.” She would pull out her tablet and pull up a program so she could write. And how are you holding up now that you have a Persona? She didn’t want to say it out loud in case Officer Briggs was listening. She would pass the tablet to Rinna so that she could speak without having to say anything out loud either. As long as they kept up a normal conversation with their words and kept anything sensitive to the device, they could talk about anything. She would signal to Rinna to use the arm that didn’t hurt to write.

She would nod to calm Rinna’s worries, “Yes. Lune was unconscious when the helicopter came for both of you, but someone did get her.” She didn’t want to mention how the girl stopped breathing for a bit, since she was fine when the two were taken away. She leaned bad in her chair and hummed as she thought about what Rinna said about the news, “I suppose that’s true. They’ve been all over the place with theories about what happened. I don’t think they would lie about how Lune is doing though. They have no reason to. As soon as you’re both allowed to leave, you can see how she’s doing for yourself, right? Then you’ll know for sure how she’s doing.” Maybe that would make Rinna feel better. She and Lune were both alright, she was sure of it.

Naomi would almost get a sad look to her face seeing Rinna suffering so much from this. She hated this situation. Rinna looked like she was going to lose her mind from having a Persona. However, her situation seemed different from Naomi’s. She never had to deal with Intertwined doing anything to keep her up or anything that was against her wishes. The two bears seemed to follow her instructions and desires to the letter. To have Rinna complain about her own Persona doing something so strange, she was puzzled. She reached out to rest her hand over Rinna’s good one as she lowered her voice and continue speaking, “I understand what you mean. This thing makes you different that everyone else, and that can be feel isolating, but they aren’t all bad. You saw what they are good for first hand. If it wasn’t for you, we may not have reach Lune when we did. You helped save her.” She didn’t know how Rinna would react to that, but she needed her to find something good in having a Persona, now that she was stuck with it. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Rinna how much she was actually starting to dislike them. They come along and changed the life you’ve gotten used to after so long. They invade your life and mess up what you know. They don’t appear to do anything but mess up your life. She was starting to hate their existence and what it meant for those who got involved with them. They only brought disaster for other people.

She would take back her tablet and write her response. Yes, I have one. They don’t appear to have any other purpose than to assist you when you try to fight. They can’t even take form in our world, it seems. As for getting rid of it, I don’t think you can. I haven’t found a way to do it myself, so I wouldn’t know. As soon as Rinna had time to read her words, Naomi would pose her next question: What did your Persona say to you right before you called it out for the first time? Maybe that will give you a hint as to its nature? She recalled Intertwined telling her that she could count on them to help. They hadn’t failed her yet, either.

She would continue to keep her voice low, despite Rinna’s obvious pain, “I know it may be hard to talk about, but think about it: would you going alone really have changed what’s happening now? If you had gone there alone, you would still have had to use the same method we did. Not only that, but you would have had to do all of that by yourself. We made it out because we worked together.” Naomi rummaged around in her purse attempting to find something so Rinna could wipe her eyes. She didn’t carry anything like that though. Instead, she looked around the room. Hospitals always had boxes of tissue lying around so they could prevent the spreading of the common cold or something like that. She stood up to get the box and brought it to Rinna’s bedside. She pulled out one of the tissues and handed it to her, waiting for her to take it, “Never say we fought to hard for you.” She went there wanting to save Rinna and Lune. She wanted to bring them home safely, and they did that. If Rinna said they fought too hard, that would be the same as saying that what they did wasn’t necessary. She would never say that. Ever, “I’m just happy you’re safe and doing well.” Her normal giant smile would return.

Someone else put their own mind inside of Rinna’s? That wasn’t how the Persona she knew worked. She had her suspicion that Rinna was somehow different, but now she knew for sure. Though, it didn’t sound like it was hurting Rinna physically, it was definitely putting stress on her mentally. I’ll see what I can find out about situations like yours, if you want. It may take a little while though. She let Rinna read the message before continuing on with the other reason she was here, besides to check on her. Forgive me, but I may have to ask a few questions so we can find the people really responsible for this mess. I can’t promise you revenge, but I can do my best to make sure we stop those people from doing anything else. Do you think you’re up for it? I’ll try not to ask anything too bad.

She shook her head when Rinna continued acting as if she hadn’t done anything, “You helped bring down those things that were getting in our way. Honestly, we may have been in some real trouble if you hadn’t. I don’t know if you noticed, but if you’re there for too long all of your strength gets sapped away. I’m sure by that point most of us were getting tired. If it weren’t for you, that one altercation would have taken even longer. Maybe you won’t ever believe me, but we were able to do what we did because we all worked hard.” The smile on her face never faltered as she spoke. She really believed that Rinna had helped. She brought those Shadows to their knees with one attack. She would blush a little when Rinna said she was glad that Naomi was safe, “I’m glad you’re safe too.” Her and Lune. She had been worried about them this entire time. The only thing that put her at ease was seeing them in front of her.

She was almost sad to get to the questions instead of just speaking with Rinna. She wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, however. Let’s start from what is probably the beginning. How did you know that Lewis was likely trying to find Lune and once you knew that, how were you able to follow him into the other place? It should have been impossible for you to see where he went before what happened, so how did you manage to get there? She wanted to get these events in order so it would be easier to keep track of what happened.