mylittlejamjar | 1st Candlebraum [Visual]

[There's a very somber, very sour looking foal looking into the scroll, laying flat on the ground and just glowering at the scroll like it bit him. His light blue coat somehow seems jarring against the green of the grass he's laying on, and the blonde mane doesnt help. He looks very much like any pouty little boy, but there's almost something off. As if the wounded dignity he seems to have would never be worn by anyway boy. The mismatched red and blue eyes don't help either.

It's clear wherever he is from the scroll, it isn't Ponyville. The grass is too thick. The trees, to dense.]

I suppose there could be worse things to wake up as, or places, though I am havin a hard time discerning what they would be at the moment.

[The child's voice is bitter, suitably young but with a tone underneath it unbefittin a child. He turns his head away from the camera, one of his hooves scraping and dragging at something to the side of him. Something that's flat on the ground and has weird, scaly chicken feet.]

Being stolen away from home is scary, isn't it? Do you wonder if we can go back home? Do you wonder how we might appear once we go back? The world, the universe, both are frightening places. It makes you wonder: how long has something like this perhaps happened in other, perhaps darker, corners of the Earth?

You'll have to forgive me. My mind tends to wander, and I'll admit I find the town very boring.

This forest, however, is quite agreeable.

[The foil finally drags what he was poking with his hoof at in front of him. The thing he brings out is ugly as hell. It looks like a large, winged lizard about the size of a chicken, which is fitting considering it has the head of one. The cockatrice is lying flat. Still, face down to the ground, not making a move or sound. Not even, it appears, breathing.

The foal studies it, not with the wide-eyed curiousity common in boys, but genuine scrutiny.]

The wildlife is amusing, too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well that's amusing, though in truth Lucifer expected no other response. Most times he would have hidden what he was, or tried to, better. But here why bother? He'd always been poor in blending in with mankind, and here he would be even worse. He may try and protect his identity, but his nature?

He supposes it won't hurt to let a few know it. Those who bear personas, especially a wild card, would almost certainly discover it sooner or later.]

I could explain it to you, if you like.

Although. It is a long and convoluted story.

I'd like to hear it.

[If whomever brought them here, even unintentionally, could have enough power to bring in a Persona and put them into their own body, then something was seriously wrong here.]

The world as you know it is a reflection of another. No. A mirror of a mirror, in a way.

[Lucifer crosses his hooves in front of him a bit, getting comfortable as he speaks.]

Once, there was a world were demons and figures of mythology had found a way to break out of their prisons and escape on to Earth. Part of it was because a demon summoning program had, in fact, been invented by man. Mostly, it's because it was simply time. With the demons beginning to spread in Tokyo and throughout Japan, God, the creator of all, took action to ensure their spread could be stopped. In order to do this, he appointed a god from one of the pantheons loyal to him. This god was named Thor, and in order to stop the demon's spread Thor, posing as a U.S. Ambassador and general, issued an ICBM strike against Japan known as Thor's Hammer.

It is here that a divergence occurred.

[Lucifer spread his hooves out over the ground, ruffling the thick grass as he gives an image to emphasize the split.]

In one timeline, the hammer strike occurs and issues in the beginning of the apocalypse. In the other, the hammer strike never occurs as the demon situation is far more minor, and rectified.

It is from the world where the hammer strike did not occur that your world is a mirror of.

In short: in one timeline demons escaped to the material world. It is the essence of these demons who manifest in YOUR world as Persona, or at least the ones you can summon as a wild card.

I'll mention now that this is only a prelude to the story. There is much more I can say, and for the moment, will reveal if you wish it. Though you must answer a question first.

[Yu sat down, listening intently, his tail flicking back and forth behind him. Wow... there were so many different versions of his world, and it was amazing how one alteration, no matter how big or how small, could change everything drastically. It was difficult to imagine, and trying to process it all made his head swim. There were no words he could come up with to properly express how mind boggling it was.]

[...and he had to admit, he was really interested in hearing more.]

I'll answer if I can.

It's a question only you can answer.

On your journey to find the truth, what have you found? How far down the path have you walked, for I must know how much further you have to go.

[Ah, yeah.]

We've found the real murderer. We were fighting against him before Yukiko and I ended up here.

[...and it still bothers him. He's worried for his friends, and what Adachi could do to them with some of their number missing.]

I see.

Do you fear?

I'm sorry?

For your friends. For your family.

Do you fear for them?

...yes.

[He hated admitting being afraid, but it was true. He was worried for his friends in the TV world; he was worried for Nanako and his uncle, because who only knew what was happening to the fog covered real world. Everything depended on if they could stop Adachi, and he had been pulled away from all of them.]

[Of course he was scared.]

[Lucifer was satisfied. He had no clue why it satisfied him to hear that the boy was scared so. He could easily tell him that, in the end, the battle with Adachi would be won without speaking of the intentions or actions of the real being behind the mist.

He supposed it just interested him. Fear. Lucifer had so long forgotten what it was like to fear that he almost found the notion quaint. Still...]

Good.

Fear has ways to make one strong.

After the world was divided, demonic presence began to diminish. Not outright flee from the world that never knew the thunder and the fire of Thor's Hammer, but it weakened, the seal never fully breaking. It did once, in a school in Japan, although that invasion was repelled by a few people who attended there.

With many of the gods who oversaw the demonic and heavenly realms separated from this split world, different gods began to form. But unlike the gods of old, these gods were formed not by their own will or as the creators of the world, but by mankind's necessity. By mankind's desires. And unlike the old gods, there were not several of them, but two.

One was born from mankind's desire to grow. To learn and become more than itself. This "god" was known as Philemon, and it is from him that the power to create and summon Persona's comes from.

But all things, all people, cast a shadow, and Philemon was no different. Where he desired mankind's growth, the flip side of himself was a god who desired to see mankind die. To be crushed under its own aspirations until all sentient life was cast into perpetual nothingness.

This "god" was named Nyarlathotep, and the Shadows are of his domain.

[Yu was silent, trying to absorb all that information. It was a lot to take in, the fact that the world had been close to ending once before was a bit mind blowing, not to mention the fact that Personae and Shadows all came from just two people.]

So... everything that's happened... these two higher beings started it?

They "started it" in the sense that a struggle that had always gone on in mankind was now being given an external form. Without the higher gods to govern the planes, mankind itself took even greater precedence. Philemon and Nyarlathotep were formed from this increased precedence and presence, and like the gods who'd preceded them mankind was both their chess pieces and their own masters.

Mankind could live without Nyarlathotep and Philemon's influence. They, however, could not live without mankind.

[So... because mankind desired it, these two beings became reality. Philemon was responsible for the Personae, and Nyarlathotep was responsible for the shadows. And... if he was understanding this right, instead of helping and guiding humanity, they were using people as pawns... and yet at the same time, they were dependent on humans to exist.]

[...wow.]

I think I understand.

I thought you would.

There is more I could tell you. From the beginning, until your journey, if you wish. And of Nyarlathotep's siblings, who Philemon won in their wager.

Then again. It might be a tale for another time.

Later may be best. This is a lot of information to take in at once.

1st Candlebraum [Visual]

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