vatheon | SHUSH LEVI I AM THE BEST LEADER.

It is, isn't it?

[She's always thought so, too, though she knows it was probably also because she hadn't seen the beach and sun for so long. Still, though, it really is a sight for sore eyes. The sunset is especially beautiful.]

You're welcome. It's, uh...safe to swim around in, too, if you're into that sort of thing.

[Still kind of curious about how strong their reaction is. Hm, but she doesn't exactly know how to bring it up as a question, so...she'll just let them enjoy themselves for now.]

[Swimming? That sounds pretty fun. Cielo, however, is happy enough just being there. Instead, he bends over and scoops up a handful of sand. It's soft and warm and he watches as it slips through his fingers.

Really, he could just sit there all day and be content.]

[Unlike Cielo, Serph's more interested in the water than the sand, and he walks towards the water's edge. He's not used to having the ground shift under his feet the way the dry sand does -- there's something not right about walking in the sand like this, but he can't place what -- but it's not long before he reaches the wet sand where water rolls in and out from the beach.

He stands there, watching the gentle waves for a moment before striding into the water itself. So much for drying off, huh?]

[WELL, you know. They can always dry off later. This is obviously an important moment, after all. She watches the two of them; Cielo, playing with the sand, and Serph with the water, and though it does feel a bit awkward, without a conversation going, she decides she's pretty content as well.

It's rare to find people to be around, where you can feel kind of comfortable and at peace, even without constant chatter. So...there is that.

Rather than forcing any more words, Yukari follows Cielo's suit, picking up some of the sand as well. She's closer to where Serph is, though, so the sand is wet, and she finds it easy to mold it into whatever she wants.

She certainly doesn't want to get dirty, but...well, she's not rolling around in it. And she can always wash her hands later...]

[Serph going into the water catches Cielo's attention and he turns away from the sand to get closer to the water. He's not really thinking right now, the sights, smells, and sounds are just all so new to him that he just has to explore it all.

Oh, what's that in the water? Wading in, Cielo finds that the water is warm. But that's not what has his attention right now. Sticking his hand into the shallows, he pulls up a strange object and he examines it, admiring its beautiful colors and spiral shape. He doesn't know what it is, and he doesn't feel a pressing need to ask Yukari about it right now.

Time spent asking questions was time not spent seeing and experiencing things.]

[Meanwhile, Serph's wading deeper in the water until he's far out enough to submerge himself fully. While the surface of the water is warm, underneath is blissfully cool. Maybe it's the influence of Varna, but the rush of water past his ears as he swims beneath the surface feels right.

This is far different from the dip they'd taken in the waterways of Svadhisthana; the salt and the gentle roll of water feels much more organic than anything he's experienced in the Junkyard. He doesn't have an oxygen tank here, though, so he can't stay underwater for too long.

When he surfaces, he turns to check on Cielo and Yukari. ......Oh. The shore sure seems pretty far away...]

[Okay. So maybe Yukari doesn't really know what to mold the sand into at first, but she settles on the shape of a star. Maybe it's the shape of their communicators, or maybe it's the Chocobo she got to name, whose coat color reminded her of the bright shining lights in the sky...

But either way, she is making a star shape when she sees Serph all the way out there. She...

laughs a bit, but also thinks maybe he should go out so far. :|a]

H-Hey! [She calls out to him, waving, which would either be interpreted as "hello, wow you're really far out" or "get the hell back here"—

But she turns to her other companion for the moment.]

C-Cielo, does Serph know how to—

[...she stops mid-question, instantly distracted when she sees what's in his hand.

That's a really pretty color.]

Oh, cool! You found a seashell...

This?

[He holds up the seashell so they can both get a better look at it.]

It's very pretty, same color as the ocean, ja?

[He then looks up and out towards the water. If there's anything that the beach can't shake Cielo of, it's his natural instinct to make sure Serph is all right. An instinct that's only gotten stronger once he realized that he is essentially Serph's lone protector here.]

Hey, bro, don't go out too far or I'll have to go get you.

[He'll do it too, Serph. He'll fly right out there and pluck you out of the water like an eagle snagging a fish. But for now, Cielo simply sits down in the water because there is this thing with pincers and six legs scuttling sideways across the ocean floor and that it's really funny looking.]

[Serph can't hear a word of what either Yukari or Cielo are saying this far out. They seem fine though, so he gives them a wave before submerging again.

Yukari had said the beach isn't dangerous, and there certainly isn't anything he can see as dangerous. No random strong water currents that sucks him through narrow passageways into solid walls, nope. And he's swum farther distances before, so he's not tired at all.

So he doesn't think too much of it when he swims out further, surfacing when he runs out of breath. Serph squints out at the distance. How far does an ocean stretch for, anyway..?]

Ha, what d'you know? It is! [She laughs a bit, taking another look at the shell.] You can actually go ahead and keep that, if you want.

[Then Yukari's looking back at Serph. He shows no signs of coming back, nor...any signs of having heard her in the first place, really. Not sure whether to be worried or not, but she's giggling again at Cielo to try to hide the fact that she is.

...She doesn't want him to drown on his first day here, if anything unfortunate were to happen out there. :|]

Heh. I guess he can't hear us.

[Cielo really likes it, so he's going to keep it. Into one of his item packs it goes! He looks out towards the open water when Yukari mentions Serph not hearing them. And his dear leader has gone even further out into the ocean.

...that's really, really far away. Further than Cielo is comfortable with.]

I'm going to go get him.

[Yukari might have expected him to dive into the water and swim, but NOPE. Completely oblivious to how some not from their world would take this, Cielo holds both his arms out and the brand on his right leg glows a bright blue. And his body changes, growing taller and when it's finished, a demon stands where Cielo was. Lifting off, he flies over to Serph and dives, gracefully plucking him out of the water with his clawed feet. Cielo returns to the shallows, gently setting Serph down, growling as he does.]

Don't do that! At least let me go with you next time.

[The voice coming from the demon is deeper, more bestial, and yet there's a hint of worry in there. Serph is all Cielo has of the Tribe right now. The next time he pulls something like that, he's getting a Ziodyne in the face, leader or not.]

[The dark shadow that falls over Serph while he's in the water startles him, but not as much as suddenly being grabbed out of the water. But as soon as he realises that it's Cielo that's ~~rudely~~ interrupting his swim, Serph allows Cielo to cart him back to the beach.

When Serph's back on solid ground, he silently takes Cielo's berating -- has Cielo been taking nannying lessons from Gale? But he nods; he understands Cielo's worry, so he won't go out so far next time.

He'll just be fixing his hair so it's not all in his eyes right now.]

[ . . . oh.]

[LJDSLKJAS WHAT WAS THAT EVEN. She doesn't even have a chance to stop him; she shields her eyes from the blue glow and in a moment he was gone. She blinks and suddenly she can see the strange demon coming back with her new friend in tow.

...]

[Okay, but no.

It's okay. Because Serph seems totally okay with him. He hasn't even said anything, simply nodded as he was scolded. It must...

It must still be him.

She stares at the demon form curiously with widened eyes.]

Ci...elo?

[Yes, of course Cielo has been taking lessons from Brother Gale. When you hang out around the guy long enough, you pick up some things from him. Even if you're Cielo, who's more or less the Anti-Gale.

But Cielo can't stay seriously miffed by his friends for very long, and once he's done, he gives Serph an affectionate nudge with his head to show him that he was forgiven.

When he hears his name, he turns to face Yukari. Even though in this form he has no eyes to see her with, his other senses tell him that she's staring at him. And...oh.

She's never seen Atma before, has she?

...well then.

But...she doesn't seem scared.]

That's me.

[Serph doesn't have any outward reaction to Cielo's nudging, but he doesn't mind it at all. Cielo's the one who pokes at the people he cares about, after all.

However, it seems they're wrong about everyone here having Atma, if Yukari's reaction is anything to go by. Perhaps the tattoos mentioned in the brochure from Zelda have nothing to do with Atma; Vatheon is strange enough for that to be true. In some ways, he is glad for that; no one should be required to go through what they do to feel.

But Serph won't hide what they are, especially not from friends.]

Our demons are part of who we are. Dyaus is still Cielo.

[But the eating people thing? That's not something he'll advertise.]

[Hearing them both speak so calmly does wonders for her; so, being a little short on breath aside, she actually feels like she can think rationally about this now. She can handle anything, right? No matter what these guys were trying to pull...

If anything at all...

She's confident she can take care of it.

She looks at the both of them sternly, trying to sound demanding or threatening...but sadly, she doesn't have the same effect as someone like Mitsuru might.]

He's...part demon? You both are?

[She notes Serph's use of 'we' here.]

I-I don't understand.

[This doesn't seem at all like a Persona; which are their own separate beings. No, Cielo had actually transformed...]

[It's probably not a good idea for him to stay like this any longer, so Cielo reverts back, the transformation process reversing itself. He doesn't speak until his brand stops its glow. Cielo can't blame her wariness and tries not to be bothered by the change of tone in her voice. For everything she's done for them, they at least owe her an explanation.]

It's something that was forced on us one day.

[Everything changed then. Everything except the one thing in the Junkyard that couldn't change no matter what: the war. It simply adapted to Atma and raged on, just more brutally than before.]

As demons, we can do things we couldn't do before, like use magic. And...

[He pauses a bit. How does he explain this?]

And ever since we became demons, we changed as humans too. Started to feel things, learn what it means to be happy and sad and everything else, ja? And we started remembering things too. That's why we wanted to come here, because we remember a beach even though there's no beach where we come from.

[Serph is a little saddened by the change in Yukari's tone, but he... can understand, if she's not used to Atma. He hopes Cielo's explanation soothes her.

Serph remembers the things that have happened before they'd gained their Atma. Shooting others, getting shot at, forming the Embryon, engaging in skirmishes... but he doesn't remember how he had felt about those things. He doesn't think he'd felt anything at all. Those memories are so disconnected from how he currently experiences things that it's almost like that time had just been a remarkably vivid dream.

He gives a nod, confirming Cielo's words.]

We desire a peaceful world where no one needs to fight.

[Their Atma may have made them more powerful, but the Atma had also given them the ability to desire a world without fighting. Serph can't reject what the Atma have given them. He hopes Yukari will be placated by the fact they don't want to fight.]

[...Who? Who forced something like this upon them?

That's probably the first thing Yukari wonders. Because during her "journey," she found herself asking many times who would be cruel enough to inflict her own ability on her...on all of SEES? This ability of summoning Persona...why entrust it to a bunch of kids? Why put the world in that position...?

It's always easier when you have someone to blame. And judging by the atmosphere she remembers in the Gekkoukan dorms, she wonders if they would have even gotten along otherwise.

But this isn't about her anymore, and it isn't about SEES. In a place like Vatheon, many worlds came together, and all of them are equally important to consider.]

That's what we've always wanted, too...my friends and I.

[She frowns. In a way, she never got to see if they succeeded. She's been told that they did...all thanks to Aigis of course. But hearing about it just isn't the same.

Not when she supposedly was there.]

But, all the confusing memories and emotions...it doesn't seem fair to make you guys go through that.

[Although thinking about their words again, it...

almost sounds like a good thing. The ability to feel and be happy, sad and angry...where is their humanity, without that? There is definitely a lot about their transformations that she doesn't understand. And while she isn't sure she has the right to pry, she is definitely curious and nosy enough to.]

[It is rough sometimes. There are things about their Atma that even they themselves don't fully understand. And emotions, they can hurt. They're sometimes hard for Cielo to bear. And with feelings came thoughts. Thoughts that would have never occurred to him if had never felt happiness or sadness. Things he'd never think about if he had never watched his comrades' pain and shared in their grief.

Such thoughts weigh heavily on them, because they lead to questions that Cielo can't answer. Nobody can answer them, not even Serph.

And yet...]

It's okay.

[He sounds a little weary saying that.]

I'd rather be like this than what I was before.

[The things he's seen and experienced, he thinks they've changed him for the better. And with Atma, Cielo feels that he's more useful to his Tribe. More able to help and protect them.]

It's hard. But that's how things are, ja?

[They just have to go on. The only other choice is giving up.]

[Fair? Serph's never considered the 'fairness' of their situation, only the ways their lives have changed... and the ways they haven't. It's hard to consider fairness, when he's been starting to think there's something bigger out there -- something they have not even begun to grasp, something they have no way of comprehending right now -- ever since they had taken down Varin. God, perhaps? He doesn't know.

However, he agrees with Cielo; he'd rather be how he is now than before he gained his Atma. Can blindly following Junkyard law as they had really be considered living? Even now, Serph still doesn't know why they are alive, but he'll make sure they survive this... and find their own answers.

...But at the very least, Serph is glad Yukari seems to be more relaxed now than she had been after first seeing Dyaus. If she and her friends wish for the same thing as he and Cielo do, then Serph can't see anything wrong with friendship here.]

We hope we can still be your friend.

[He says it sincerely, out of a genuine wish for things to be so. He's sure Cielo feels the same way.]

[Life is hard; he is right about that. And that's something Yukari realized even before she joined SEES: with her father's death, and her mother being the way she is, causing them to fight all the time. She hasn't always accepted it, though, and it's people like Cielo who can just say "that's just how it is" that baffle her so endlessly.

Words like that are the ones most often seen accompanying the kind of inactivity and passiveness that Yukari has grown to hate. The people who can simply take what fate has given them and go along with it, without trying to reverse or do anything about it...

If Minato had done that...

If SEES had done that, they would've never been able to accomplish what they did.

There is no telling whether Cielo and Serph are the same way. She is forced to remind herself that she still doesn't know the first thing about them and their life back at home, aside from this. And judging by the way things are going, they're only scratching the surface.]

...Well. You guys would know better than me about what things are like.

[She's not really sure she has a voice in the matter; at least not until she knows a bit more. But she can tell they're at least in agreement on that point.

Neither of them seem to mind having these demons inside of them for now. And if they don't, Yukari can't find it within herself to mind either.]

But yeah... of course we can still be friends. If that's what you guys want.

[After all, it isn't as if they're the only ones with something like that lurking inside them...]

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now with working image link I guess

SPOILERS TEN'S NEVER SWUM IN BEACH WATERS DESPITE LIVING IN BEACH COUNTRY

[1/2] THAT'S OKAY you're also in australia everything would try to kill you

[2/2] also help i talk too much

Nothing to worry about, Yukari, you should see what they've swam through

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