Closet Skeletons [Frederick]

[Kate Minola]

{{Frederick Cooper bit of socializing after smashing monsters?}}

Kate put away her bow when the last of the Shadows that ambushed her and the other man died. The darkened University was quiet once more.

"I'm sorry about before," she said with a sheepish smile. "You startled me. I wasn't expecting to meet anybody here just now. I'm Kate, nice to meet you."

He was a stocky fellow and he wasn't Japanese by the look of him. His Persona had been a veritable beast, assaulting the Shadows with fury and power that matched its robotic design. He clearly was at ease with his Persona abilities, which was a good thing. They needed all the skilled fighters they could get at this point.

"So, uh... what are you doing here? Just exploring?"

[Frederick Cooper]

”Could say the same to you, you know. If I had been a little more eager to swing on sight, you might've been been ahead of the game a little.” Decapitation joke prepped and fired with zero hesitation. But it was an absolutely true comment. Had he been a little more anxious or fidgety, he very well might've cleaved her head off. That would've been bad. ”Well, fortunately, didn't come to that. Frederick. Nice to meet'cha.” He circled around the corner to give the area a sweep. Nothing in sight from any direction. No more scares. Everything was good. As good as it would be, at least. Plans might have very well been scrapped for the time being, though.

”Same as you, right?” He fired back in a light-hearted tone. In all actuality, his question was brief not as a lie, but as a means of clouding the truth. He wasn't a genius, but he had told his share of lies. He knew how to not lie, but keep the truth hidden, too. He sent the woman a glance after making sure everything was good. Something about the situation stank. Oh, wait. That was his cap. The one that smelled like burned shit. He was going to need to get a fireproof cap. That shit was happening too much.

”I haven't found too much of note here, though.” He pushed the topic onward, not content to leave it on an awkward return-question. Progression kept it off of the situation at hand.

[Kate Minola]

Kate snorted a bit at Fred's joke, even though it was a little... grim. Yeah, he probably could have with that axe although she wasn't any better with her bow and her Persona. She was rather amazed she hadn't incinerated someone yet.

"Eh, yeah, more or less," she said. "I work at the nearby library and one of the professors here is overdue returning a book that a lot of students need to check. I guess I thought about looking up the guy to see what the hell he's doing with that book. If he's damaged it or something I'll probably have to file for a new copy."

She didn't dare mention just who that professor was, though. She wasn't here to vandalize (not unless the book was damaged) or to snoop but if she had to, she would.

"I'm kind of amazed how different universities are in Japan," she confessed. "You'd think Unis are the same everywhere but this looks so... uh, sterile? Kind of. Do you attend classes here?"

It was a casual question, really. He looked the right age.

[Frederick Cooper]

Maybe it was just him, but something about this woman's logic kind of just went clear over Frederick's head. And he was a pretty tall guy, so that was saying something. Now, he wasn't sure why anyone else would lie, per se, unless they had intentions similar to him. But it wasn't good to assume that of a stranger. It was safer, nicer, and just altogether better to assume that, er, well, she lacked common sense, maybe? Really, why would someone come to a monster-filled location to find an overdue book? That was either really stupid or really creepy. Like book-stalker creepy. Poor book.

”This is just me, but, uh, it'd probably be a bit safer, and easier, to look for the professor, and the book, during the day. You know, when those things aren't around. But that's just my opinion. Don't mind the peanut gallery.” It was a polite suggestion. ”For that question, though, I take the occasional class when something interests me. Part-time, no-time. It varies.” Wasn't much else to say on that bit, though. The man sent another quick glance around before leaning against a corner. He wasn't quite sure what to say about the woman's opinion of the place being “sterile”, though. What was she looking for? Rainbow walls?

[Kate Minola]

Kate could see it in his eyes that he wasn't buying it. Of course, who would? Yeah, she was concerned about that damned book but not that much.

She groaned and sagged her shoulders. "Aw who am I kidding," she said with a wry smile. "I was just deathly bored and wandered in here to see what the place looked like during the Dark Hour. It's kind of embarrassing to admit to finding this whole thing interesting. It's just so grim and awful, like you're in a real-life version of Silent Hill." 

Then she steered the conversation elsewhere. "Part-time, huh? What do you do for a living?" she asked, oblivious to her bluntness.

[Frederick Cooper]

Wait, so the girl lied? That was a rather silly thing to lie about. Now, if it was some idol's room, or something, and trying to steal used panties, or something like that, he'd understand. Did the university even have dorms? Doubtful. Frederick wasn't quite sure to do with this girl. Either way, she seemed eager to move away from what seemed like an embarrassing topic. Fair enough. He wasn't going to grudge her on that. But, boy, did she enjoy asking questions. It was like she was- wait. He was joking about her being a book stalker. There was no way she was a stalker. He never met stalkers. That'd be creepy. No, she was just nosy. That was the best way to sum it up.

”Curious little thing, ain't ya?” He casually commented, not rudely of course, but enough to point it out. He never said he worked, but it didn't take a genius to figure that he had to get money elsewhere. Sure, he had a wealthy father, but it wasn't like he was some chipmunk that did nothing but mooch off of his parent. ”Either way, I make sandwiches for people.” If he said he cooked, that'd probably open the next can of questions. If he just said sandwiches, maybe she'd assume he worked in the fast food industry? Well, it wouldn't be incorrect, though. He made his babies fast and efficient. Had to to keep up with demand and whatnot. But that was besides the point.

”So you're peeking around and enjoying this hour, it sounds like. You're among the bunch that think it's a game?” He wasn't accusing her. He wanted to get an idea of what he was dealing with here. If she said yes, then he at least had an idea of what sort of thoughts she had going on in that little head of hers.

[Kate Minola]

Kate blushed at his observation, which made her realize she was being a Nosy Parker.

"Oh," she blurted. "Jeez, I... I'm sorry, you're right. That was totally blunt. Ahaha," she laughed nervously. "Sorry, I'm just... really terrible at socializing. I didn't really know what else to say."

With her dignity now in the toilet, Kate groaned a bit. "Oh, I see. It's been a while since I had an honest-to-goodness sandwich," she mused.

But she felt a little... offended at the implication she treated this as a game. "No, actually. I don't," she said, her tone quite sober. "I might joke about it, but I don't. You were at the Cerberus fight, you saw how nuts it got. We almost got killed. This shit's too real to be a game. But I have to keep telling something to myself to keep a grip on things. I mean... you gotta admit, all this," she said, gesturing around them, "is just one tick away from full schizophrenia when you try to put it into words. I've got to keep my morale going somehow. So I crack Silent Hill jokes when I'm not in immediate danger of dying. You must have some kind of 'defense' yourself."

[Frederick Cooper]

”No need to get defensive over it. Just a question.” As if to give verification to his words, he offered a slight smile. ”Can't say I've got a 'defense', though. I've got one simple want with all this shit: for it to end. I want my normal, everyday life back. I want to be able to actually stay up through midnight and watch what the hell I want, or play what the hell I want, without being interrupted by 'Granma Gorey's Horror House Fun Time'. I want to be able to walk through the city and not see portals reminding me of the RPG shit that's quivering and squirming like last year's science project.” He had a very simple motivation. Of course, it might have sounded like things hadn't quite sunk in. In reality, he understood what was happening. It was bad, sure, but his baser emotions outweighed any real fear. He hated RPG shit. He loved his normal life. Hatred and desire came together as the biggest reality check for him.

”If making jokes and references work for you, then more power to you. For me, this is just someone copying a generic fucking RPG over reality and tossing a few humans in for the hell of it. Whether its a god or a devil, I don't care. Some asshole with a twisted sense of humor threw the one person that loathes fucking RPGs into a live one. Me? I just wanna bust that guy's head and get back to my life. That's all.” He took a moment to lean around the corner. Scanning all the major directions, seemed like they were good for the time being. Getting wordy was fine, assuming nothing came and screamed that it was time for surprise butt-rape.

[Kate Minola]

Aaah, the normal life. Kate missed it too but her longing for it was tempered a bit. She also liked this action, this fascinating ability to do things that nobody could. It felt like being a superhero... kind of like the stuff she was writing before all her creativity ground to a halt, just before this whole mess started.

"I miss doing late-night stuff," she agreed. "I did most of my best artwork late at night, staying up till dawn sometimes. The fuck-you-o'clock inspiration window, I call it. Hah. I haven't pulled one of those in ages."

She mimicked Fred in checking their environment, covering the other side. She peered into the dark and examined dark corners closely. They were still in the green, it seemed.

"Do you really think there could be one single person behind this mess?" she asked. "It seems kind of... uh, how do I put this... It seems strange. If this Dark Hour is their doing, how on earth are they doing it? What are they even doing, now that I think about it? I can't think of it in a way that makes sense. Nobody would go and create a horror world and fill it with monsters and demons and inflict it on people out of nowhere."

She paused. "Nobody sane, anyway... But if we're dealing with a person that somehow has the power to do this kinda thing... how much can we bank on sanity?"

[Frederick Cooper]

Seemed the other topic got discarded. That was fine. Brushing unpleasant things under the rug and then jumping on said rug was actually one of the best ways to take care of things like that. For the most part, it seemed like Kate was in the same boat regarding a desire for the return of normalcy. But it seemed like she thought sanity was required for such a situation to ooze out of the pimples on hell's asshole. Sure, if a normal person were involved in creating all this, they'd probably have ten or twenty, to a certain power, screws removed. He'd bite on that theory. Of course, he was suspecting something much more. . . annoying.

”Not really worried about a sanity scale. I figure that if we're dealing with monsters from pretty much every bad bedtime story ever, we're probably dealing with a god or devil, like I said. The 'God of Assholes' has an especially nice ring to it. Devils don't really need motivation, since they're just assholes on average. So I don't imagine sanity matters too much.”

[Kate Minola]

"So we're really going with the supernatural theory," she said thoughtfully. "I dunno, before all this started I was a pretty big damn skeptic. Now I'm up to my nose in... in magic, fighting demons and shit. I still haven't swallowed the idea that we might be fighting a non-human foe. I never really believed in gods or devils before all this. So it's kind of weird for me."

She squirmed uneasily for a sec. "Of course, it's not like we have a lot of information to debate upon. There's that weird blonde woman in the terminal but how much of what she says can we really trust?"

[Frederick Cooper]

"Doesn't really matter to much for me. God, devil, force of nature- I'll find what started this shit and punch it. More than once. Forcefully." That really was all that mattered on the terms of enemies for him. He wasn't a hero. He didn't care if they had some holy reason for their choices. He didn't give a shit if they were a woman, either. Now, he wouldn't punch them if they were a kid, but then he'd just whip their ass with a belt. Old school discipline worked wonders. Brutal to some modern wimps, maybe, but hell was it effective when distributed as necessary- that is, as necessary. Some idiots assumed everybody willing to whip a child was some sort of abusive entity. Idiots. Idiots and "Warriors".

"If you can't trust her, then ignore her. Use her for what good you can get from her, then split yourself from her." His words were very cold, if one considered them. It was essentially a message to treat the blonde as a tool and nothing more. Which, to be fair, she did have a chance of being their enemy later on, so it wasn't really an insane concept. "Take what she says with a grain, or a pound, of salt, if you really need her guidance." He gradually pushed himself up off of the corner. He whirled and took in the halls. Still nothing. Moving out wouldn't be a terrible idea soon.