Simple day, complicated problems [Julian]

Its been a while since Hyde met with Julian, so he decided to call Julian out in order to see if he wanted to hang out or something? “Slurp….slurp…” Hyde was drinking some coconut water and waited on a nearby bench for his friend Julian to show up, if he showed up. He wanted to talk about a few things as well, like the potential of thee being an angel in alternate penecia and the possibility that Julian might of ran into that angel. ““ Well, I guess waiting is the most I can do. “

    Running a hand through his loose hair, the teen gave a quiet sigh. Hyde had some of the strangest timing. No, it wasn't even that; the guy was just strange. After the broadcast aired, Julian had been sending text after text to the pink-haired boy with absolutely zero responses. Now, out of the blue, right when he was about to do some digging on his own and forget about Hyde for now, the guy decides it's a good time to hang out. Splendid. Of course, he couldn't just say no, exactly; as ticked as he was, Hyde was still a potential ally and person to call in case he got into a sticky situation on the other side. For now, he couldn't afford to lose him.

    Julian walked into the park as directed by Hyde's text, pulling out a ponytail holder and starting to tie up his hair again as he glanced around for his schoolmate. Might as well see exactly what Hyde wanted. Now, where was he...

Oh, there he is!” Hyde would say as he decided to hide in a nearby bush and wait till Julian comes over. [color=#ffccff]“…….” Hyde was silent; he really wanted to surprise Julian. After Julian came close enough, Hyde jumped out and screamed out Julian’s name while patting him on the back. “ Julian!” After that, Hyde looked over to Julian with a smile. “Hey there man, what’s up? Don’t get mad or anything, I didn’t really get the chance to answer your text messages, but I’ll explain everything today. Trust me..” Hyde knew that Julian would be mad at him, but friends forgive each other.

Strengths

Spoiler:

Julian looked around, a light frown crossing over his features. The benches were empty, the few people out in the distance definitely didn't have pink hair...where the hell was-?

// Holy fucking shit-! //

He felt the touch before he heard the words. The teen didn't even think; he whirled around, one hand clenched into a fist, and swung. The pink caught his eye too late, as his blow had already struck somewhere on Hyde's face before he could do much about it. Julian immediately cringed more so at the thought of what his punch had done than out of remorse. He wasn't aiming to hit hard (it was more like a reflex than anything), but it had to have stung, maybe even knocked Hyde down if he wasn't expecting it (which Julian severely doubted he was). "Ouch...you okay there?" he'd question with a sheepish, lopsided smile.

...Right. "Don't get mad". Uh-huh. Sure. Well, on the bright side, Hyde didn't have to worry about that. At the most, Julian was exasperated. He probably should have expected this kind of behavior. ...Ah well. "Uh-huuuuh. Sure. Consider yourself trusted." He let out a slight sigh, quietly adding a "for now" to that sentence in his head. Should Hyde have fallen onto the ground, Julian would offer a hand and hoist him back up before speaking further. "So...why'd you call me?"

There was a big blow to the side of Hyde’s cheek as he fell to the ground. He was trying to block, but the punch came so fast that he didn’t really have anything to defend himself with. *Thud* Hyde hit the ground and was holding his face with wit a frown. What was that for? I didn’t know you would be that mad Julian… I said I was sorry.” After Hyde took Julian’s hand and got back up, he rubbed his cheek and chin while Julian asked what he needed him for. “Well, were friends…. Wouldn’t I like to see how you are doing? Plus, heard about what you done for mae, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. I was held up in the other world, my friends shadows have been going AWOL lately. They already have their persona, but… I think..even after facing yourself… your shadow comes back a second time around… so… that’s a thing.”

Weakness

Spoiler:

    He'd "heard"? From who? Mae? The Velvet Room, who was sending the requests? When? Yesterday? An hour ago? Friends'...shadows? ...What the hell was Hyde even talking about?

    Julian held up a hand, signaling the pinkette to stop before he spoke any more. "Hold up." As much as he might want to look completely unfazed at this slew of information, Julian allowed himself to frown. After taking a moment to breath, he began again in a slow, direct tone. "Start at the beginning. Who told you and when did they tell you?" Hyde better say something that would put him at ease. The last thing Julian wanted to deal with on top of all of this nonsense was the possible threat of someone watching them as they went into these other worlds.

Mae basically spilled the beans. She was kidnapped by her shadow and you saved her, and she also told me about having a persona. So I decided to fill her in….” Hyde would say as he showed the velvet room voice message. “ Anyone that was friends with her go his text, but I couldn’t get it in time. I don’t think we get service in the alternate worlds. “ After putting his phone away, Hyde folded his arms. “Do you know about the angels already Julian?” Hyde was going as slow as he possibly can with the amount of information that he had.

    Julian felt his tensed shoulders relax as Hyde admitted that it was Mae who told him. It was news to him that the two knew each other, but it definitely made things easier in the long run. His network of persona users was growing a little more, and he was glad for it.

    As Hyde continued to speak, Julian started fitting pieces together. So, assuming Hyde's information was correct, Mae wasn't drawn in by a person, but a monster. A monster who was...her? Her from the other world, maybe? ...Wait. During Mae's awakening, the shadow said something that had been eating at him...maybe he should ask Hyde...?

    Of course, the pinkette changed topics rather fast, so Julian couldn't get his voice to work in time. "Yeah, I do." The angels. Yeah, that would have been nice to learn about, oh, two weeks ago. But for the moment, he had more things to do and think about than just getting angry. "Have you seen any yet?"

    Once Hyde had answered, Julian would nod before backtracking for a second. "That shadow of Mae's? She said something strange. 'Those two in the sky sent me to test you.' Think she meant the angels, or a primordial or something...?"

Besides angel herself? The girl from the broadcast. She’s like the rulebook of this game, she counts but at the same time, her dream is for us to find our own wish for humanity the angel’s help. Though it would take a lot of power, and some people might not think it’s possible. In the meantime, it said that there is an angel in each alternate world. There is a world you have the most experience in, and that’s alternate penencia. Maybe you know someone who knows the angel there? Anything? I’m sorry if I don’t have much for you as of yet, but there is a chance that the angel in san Malarus doesn’t like me too much…”

Though, the shadow’s words made Hyde suspicious. “Let’s make a guess, it isn’t the angels. It’s the primordial that are trying to awaken the creator. There are two of them. However, what kind of power do they have over the shadow selves? Maybe they made it a bit stronger than it was supposed to be, Thesis has that kind of power. She showed up in sandsten too, we are pressed for time.

    "Like I mentioned last time, I'm on pretty good terms with the people in Penecia. I think a bunch of people there will be willing to talk to me. I can see if they know anything." Of course, he didn't mention that he was planning on going there today. Best not to make the guy thing he was getting in his way or anything. After this outing, he'd probably head over there, though. A moment later, a disturbing thought crossed his mind. "Shit..." he muttered, frowning lightly, "We have a problem if the people I know have nothing. You know that place is in a war, right? Well, that means the only other place that might know is the opposing side. Something tells me though that if I try waltzing over there and they find out who I am, I'll be dead in ten seconds flat." That was one downside of being the expressed "hope" for one of the sides; no doubt that the Nyarlathotep side would know who he was too and take any opportunity to shoot him down. ...Shit.

    No need to tell Julian twice. They were running out of time. "You've got a point." Sighing lightly, the teen stuffed his hand in his pockets. "It's a working theory. We won't know until we start digging a little deeper. I'd recommend trying to talk to the shadows after you've beaten the crap out of them, though; maybe one of them will spill something more. It might not work, but it's a shot."

That’s a bit illogical; they just disappear after you beat them. Hmm….” Hyde would say as he put in his hands into his pocket. The only thing we can do is end the war by going after the Nyarlathotep champion and taking him down. I think there is an unspoken rule that the angel isn’t going to appear if the other side isn’t taken care of. I think I’ll be fitting if the angel does, I don’t think a standstill is what that world needs right. So…..we need to amass a group of people that are willing to help us fight if we really are geared to help his girl….”

Hyde would then look back a Julian. “I can talk to some of my friends and see I’d they are willing to help, this is dangerous and could risk their lives. There is always a risk…… but.. for safe measures.. we can ask her to….ahh sorry if I don’t say her name it’s a bit long and I don’t want to mispronounce. Bu you know who I’m talking about, if she has no clue about the angel… I guess the theory of beating the nyra followers benefits us the most. Did you ask rita?”

    "It's not 'illogical'. They stick around for almost a full minute before they fade away to God knows where. That's enough time to ask them a question." If they just disappeared right after getting beaten, he couldn't have gotten that information from Shadow Mae, now could he? It wasn't a lot of time, certainly, but just enough.

    Julian let out a small sigh. "Hold up there, Hyde. We don't know for certain that winning the war is the only way. Let me talk to Emmilene first, see what she knows. If there's no angel sightings, then fine, we'll work something out." After a moment, Julian's gaze would harden and he'd look at Hyde seriously. "And damn straight we might die. Do you know how long some of the people over there have had their personas? How long they've trained? When you compare them to us, we're complete amateurs, and I can bet you that the other side is just as strong. That's why I don't want to rush into that war. Azores needs us right now, and if we go off and die in some other world, who the hell is going to fix what's going on here?" As he spoke, Julian's voice had been growing terser and terser, although it never increased in volume. Normally he wouldn't get this riled up, but this was fucking important and he needed Hyde to realize that right away.

    Taking a moment to compose himself, the teen allowed his tensed features to soften and his balled up fists to uncurl. Hoo boy, now he remembered why he tried to play nice all the time. Getting mad was tiring. Rubbing a hand at the back of his neck to loosen the muscles there, he shook hsi head lightly. "I haven't been able to really talk with her lately. The most she told me was to head to the radio tower if I wanted to get the lowdown on what happened with that broadcast, but that was about it." A little annoying, but in the end, it worked out.

    "Anything else to tell me? 'Casue I've got nothing for the moment."

Hyde raised his hands up in order to calm Julian down.” Easy man, I’m not trying to say that we should forget what’s happening in our world. But if there is an angel for every alternate world, what could an angel be doing in an alternate world involving a war with two opposing gods? Any kind of angel that would want to stick around in a hellish time must have some strong backing. I don’t know, I was just expecting it to be one of the strongest simply because atmosphere of the place. “ . Hyde would then put his hands down. “ But this is the universe thing, nothing ventured…nothing gained… if we need the help from an angel.. they won’t come to us…. We gotta find them. Ontop of that, we need to find the right one….”.

With a deep breath, Hyde would reveal some information sparingly to Julian. “This has nothing to do with trust, im withholding the name of this person for safety purposes. Their safety…. But I got something Julian. Someone had contact with an angel and now represents them, but that angel’s “Champion” hates persona users.. contact with such an angel is risky with a champion like that. The other person involved, I’m still in good terms with thus person…. And… that’s a very important person to me that’s willing to cooperate and help us. I guess I you want to look at it from a cumulative effort, besides angel in the tower that another angel we can possibly have access to. But it’s a dead end maybe… if the champion is like that…who know what that angel represents..its probably not the one we want..

    He was starting to think Hyde was completely missing the point. Did his logic make sense? Yeah, it did. But he was kind of ignoring the whole "don't jump to fighting as our only solution" point and the "we could fucking die so let's take this one step at a time first" thing. Was it likely that Emmilene knew exactly where the angel was? No. But he still had to try. Otherwise, they had a hell of a fight on their hands and probably a lot more trouble than they really needed. At least Julian could tell Hyde wasn't purposefully ignoring him. That at least helped calm him down a little more.

    So contact with an angel had already been made. Hyde's explanation was a little convoluted, though. Was this "person" and "champion" one and the same...? ...No, apparently they were two separate people. Alright. So they had a shaky connection so far. It was a start. "The 'one we want'?" Julian frowned, mildly confused at the phrase. "Hyde, there is no right or wrong angel. They're all entities with their own ideas and whatnot about the fate of the worlds. Right now, we have to find all of them and deal with them, whether that means coaxing them to our side, agreeing with them, or getting rid of them. This isn't a 'spot the difference' game. This is divide and conquer here." Not exactly the way he thought of it, but that metaphor would do.

    Speaking of the different angels...should he mention the "forgotten forest" to Hyde? ...Agh, might as well. He needed someone on his side, and he highly doubted the pinkette would double-cross him or some other such nonsense. "Hey, do you know where the 'forgotten forest' might be?" As he said this, the teen folded his arms and cocked his head, passively studying the other boy as he watched him think.

What exactly is our side? Us having free rein of whatever benefits and information that the angel has without siding with them? What kind of leverage do we have for that? Would they have an obligation to side with us in that sense? It’s nothing more than a battle of representation, I only said that the angel that would be ideal might not be the same for each. Though, if you are looking for an angel that can function like that, for once, I doubt it. You either represent them in this candidate fight between angels or you don’t. But your philosophy, we get rid of them all and take Angel’s side from within the tower, simply because she said that her ”wish” was that we solve this case with our own power without heavy reliance on the angels, which is still didn’t with an angel in a way. Maybe I’m misinterpreting what you’re saying, but if we choose, might as well be someone we like. ;

With that being said, Hyde shook his head. Never heard of it, the only forest I heard of is Lunapa. Maybe that’s the alternate Lunapa? Why?