#A Hacker Strikes at any Time (Persona 5/Strikers)

[oraclememehacker]

Online Meeting IRL (Futaba/Sylvia)

Location: Akihibara Time: Afternoon

"Damn, the Featherman search was fruitless." Futaba let off a sigh as all she was finding was the usual common stuff in all the stores that she usually perused. It was either stuff she already had or stuff that she didn't have room for in her really small room or that she just wasn't interested in to begin with. Well, she decided to check out another shop that sold figures.

It was a nice little shop, and had figures from various pieces of media, including Pokemon/Pocket Monsters. She always found it amusing that the west basically shortened the name and it became the standard for everywhere. Well, it was a more fun name to say anyways. As she was perusing the place, some Pokemon music playing through her headphones, she saw something interesting.

They were rare minifigures from Tomy from 1998. And they were just standing there out in the open. Maybe the owner didn't quite understand their value. She went to pick up the Charizard one when she felt a hand grab hers. She jolted back in surprise as she saw who it was. She didn't know who they were but she was certainly taken by surprise.

"Oh um...s-sorry about that...h-heh, you um, took me by surprise...I'm glad I didn't knock those down."

@sylviareviar

[oraclememehacker]

"You gave me the information that you had. That's all that I really should have expected. But as I said, I expected too much. I expected it to be something that it wasn't and never was going to be. I just wanted my mom to be more important and to mean more than she apparently was. She really was just a step stone in the end." It was upsetting and it was clear in her face that she was disappointed, but there was nothing to do now.

Shaking that off, she pushed herself up and was getting ready to leave. She would just get something from big bang burger with the money that she had on her way home. But before she did, she looked at him. "Still, I appreciate everything that you told me. I'm sure the others will understand as well. Especially Akira. I think he took it the worst out of all us when you seemingly died."

There was just one more thing. "And as for earlier uh...I know I didn't exactly respond well to what your mom did. I have no problem with it I just...didn't have any good response to it. I'm still learning to socialize it seems. I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable with some of the stuff I brought up. This was uh...a pretty heavy topic after all." With that, she turned around and was starting to head off. "I'll see you later, wehehehe."

...Mental note. Probably don't bring up his mother's occupation for the next time...especially watching Futaba's reaction to hearing that. Though, the others might be able to handle it better, but...

He never blamed her. He knew, even as a child, that she was doing everything she could. In the end, it had all been Shido's fault.

"Mm...Thank you," he took a moment to make sure his hair was still tucked under the hood, then got to his feet, pushing his chair in. At least he still had manners to some degree. "I know I didn't provide the sort of information you wanted, but I know you can tell the conversation is done. I'll probably message Akira next. I don't know how long that'll take, but..."

He was going to continue working on himself in the meantime.

"Guess I'll see you around."

[oraclememehacker]

Continued from here

[Text to: Inari] Futaba: This is ice soup

Futaba: It's just a meme don't worry about it :-P Futaba: Anyways, my idea was that I wanted to be painted wearing the Featherman Pink outfit. Futaba: I can give you references if you want :-3

@autonomousxselves

[oraclememehacker]

Continued from here

"Yeah, that's true. It's been colder than usual this year." She had to put on some more layers than usual. Plus they had been talking about ice forming on the streets and about how to avoid slipping on black ice that can't be seen easily. It was crazy to say the least. "Well, I know it isn't much but I could get you a warm drink from a vending machine. That should help the both of us warm up and bring down our cold meter. Don't need dad yelling at me about that."

@nijimx

[oraclememehacker]

"Panther! Watch out!" They were in the middle of a battle in mementos when an enemy got an attack that was heading right towards Ann. With its strength, and the fact that they had been in there a while and were all starting to get tired, she realized that was going to knock her completely out. With just a few moments to spare, Futaba casted final guard, blocking the attack outright.

She let off a sigh of absolute relief, her heart racing in her chest from the adrenaline. "You'll be fine Panther, let's just wrap this battle up and get out of here. Two more enemies left. Let's do this!" Once they wrapped things up, it was time to lick their wounds and head back out for the day. "Are you alright still by the way Panther? Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Just felt like I barely managed to succeed in a QTE event, heh."

@pansmaki

[oraclememehacker]

She was continuing to love this conversation. It was just an exercise for her to geek out and Ryuji was receptive enough to listen to her. She hadn't really spoke this much in a long time, at least not for this length of time anyways. Grabbing a drink, she took a long swig of it so she didn't wear her voice out as much. Once that was done, she let off a little unladylike burp. "I'm glad you asked that Ryuji."

"An iso generally refers to stuff that are on disk, since we're talking about games here. You know, like the playstation 1, or any disc based system. So when you download them or rip them from a disk, you'll find them in an iso format. Now roms are usually found on cartridge based systems like the famicom, super famicom, etc."

It wasn't too complicated anyways, at least she didn't see it anyways. "Now, it's harder for someone to rip from a cartridge to be more legal but there are ways." She went on to give a small explanation of the stuff that was needed in order to rip from a cartridge. It was more involved than a CD burner but it worked anyways. "So there you go, that's the difference and how you more legally get them, though most people will just find a pirate site."

"I didn't know they changed that for the handheld version," He hadn't really paid attention to that sort of stuff - as what he had mostly noticed in terms of handheld versions was a small downgrade in graphics, but then again, he never really remembered playing his handheld all that much - had he even brought it with him when he moved to Tokyo? Or was it sitting in some dusty corner of his closet...? Maybe he'd go looking for it later.

"I guess companies don't like the idea of people being to able to play their older games...?" That was what made the most sense to him anyway as he'd sometimes heard about fan games being shut down. Of course shutting down any emulation or fan games was obviously pretty shitty in his opinion but if older companies got wind of people playing their games, he could see some of them being spiteful enough to try and shut things down. "I don't know all that much about the legal stuff of it," She seemed to have that all covered. "But it's good that emulation seems to be protected."

"Is there a difference between roms and isos...?" He bemusedly asks as there's two more terms he doesn't quite recognize. "I think it's definitely awesome that you do your best to support official creators and I'm definitely with you on never pirating any indie games - they were probably made with a lot less money and smaller teams so they deserve our official support," This much he was in full agreement on. "Plus, a lot of indie games out there are just really creative and cool!"

[oraclememehacker]

Oh, Futaba This is a.. interesting question to ask, so hope this is alright to ask But if you were a Lesbian (or Bisexual) which of the Phantom Thieves girls would you fall in love with?

Ann Takamaki, Haru Okumara or someone like Makoto Nijima?

"I am bisexual, with a leaning towards girls actually. As for who I would fall in love with? Not sure. I don't think Makoto and I would particularly work together. We're kind of...incompatible, mostly. Ann maybe. Haru terrifies me though. I would be so worried about my computers around her."

[oraclememehacker]

"Shujin won't let me wear my custom featherman pin to school this is tyranny."

[oraclememehacker]

@webbedphantom

"Do you have any idea what could've caused this? Anything out of place you can recall before you got set to half opacity?"

Yeah, she could definitely recall what happened before she suddenly became transparent and flickery like this, but she didn't understand how the two things correlated. At least not yet. He was right though, it probably was something metaverse related. Maybe her cognition got changed and now she was seemingly seeing herself as a ghost. That would be very weird though.

She went on to explain what had happened to her that morning. She was just working on her usual coding stuff when she felt a sudden pain in her stomach. Of course, she thought it was just because she hadn't ate or drank much. But the pain got so intense that she had to get up and try to calm herself down. That's when she suddenly became transparent.

At the very least the pain went away afterwards which was a little bit concerning. There was one major issue that she was really worried about. "If I'm like this for too long...won't I end up dying because of starvation since I can't eat or drink?" That would be a very bad way to go, along with the other possible issues that she had been thinking of. "I did notice something when I got close to my computer though. I went through it but my body reacted a bit strange...like I was seemingly connected to it."

[oraclememehacker]

"Well then it was probably Inari's fault. Or Akiren's fault. I've done absolutely nothing today. Well, I did troll a featherman hater on a forum but I doubt that's what you're talking about anyways."

"Ryuji thinks a computer chip is something you can eat, Futaba. He didn't do it."

[oraclememehacker]

Escaping the Computer (Futaba/Makoto)

@nijimx​

“Ah, I see. How interesting. I think Makoto would love to see this.” Futaba had heard through the grapevine that Makoto was a big fan of the Like a Dragon games. Like a massive, huge fan. So when she found out about some new games that were coming out in the future, this was the perfect time for her to show this. Normally it’d just be through a text but she didn’t want to give her hand away that easily. So, she decided to ask Makoto to come over so she could show her directly. But first, she would text.

[Text to: Makoto] Futaba: Hey, are you busy? Futaba: Makoto: No Futaba, I’m done studying for today. Futaba: Good :-) Futaba: Anyways, please come over to my place if you can. I promise I won’t scare you like the first time, when you all broke into my place. Putting her phone aside, she noticed something weird with one of her screens. It was flashing and acting all weird for a moment before it would disappear. Huh, that was an incredibly weird thing, but well, probably nothing to be overly concerned about. Computers were weird and didn’t make sense sometimes. She grabbed one of her energy drinks from her mini fridge and opened it up, taking a drink. She did get a response, and Makoto was going to be over soon.

That was good. As she was waiting for her to arrive, she had a few things on her mind. How cute her Buchimaru obsession was, and how easy she was to get messed with in that regard. There was also the fact that she was pretty damn scary and cool, and a bit kinky in her phantom thieves outfit. That part she would never take away. It was so funny her response to that. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she lost track of time for a bit, until she heard the door to her place be knocked on.

Rushing down the steps, she opened them and had her usual smile. “There you are. I have something really cool to show you.”

[oraclememehacker]

Futaba couldn't remember how it happened, but she found herself falling towards the water. Was it an accident? Was it on purpose? She wasn't sure. All she knew was that she was looking up at the sky as she felt the air to her back. There was only one problem with this situation. She couldn't swim. It wasn't something that she ever had any reason to learn really, and her mom didn't exactly push her to learn it either.

She hit the water and it overtook her vision immediately. She tried in a desperate attempt to get herself to go back up, but she found couldn't and was slowly sinking downwards. Air bubbles escaped her and she was getting increasingly more desperate. It was a futile struggle as she found herself getting light headed now from a lack of oxygen. This was it, she was going to die, wasn't she?

Drowning like some fool...

It was then that she started to feel a bit euphoric as her vision was getting dimmer. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad. Maybe everything would be alright in the end. After all, this meant going to see mom, right? She missed Wakaba so much still that she was dreaming about her. Maybe, maybe this was just how things were meant to be.

She closed her eyes, ready to go.

[oraclememehacker]

"This isn't something that you see every day..." Futaba was outside of her house, examining a thing that had appeared out of nowhere. It appeared to be some sort of green pipe that was sticking out of the ground. It wasn't sticking out too far, but it was big enough that she would be able to fall into it and be in it. "Reminds me of something from a video game." She told to herself. It seemed like nobody else cared though as they passed by the alleyway.

"Is there a reason why it's here?" She was wondering since things didn't exactly appear out of the ground for no reason. Was this metaverse related? It could be, but she doubted it. There wasn't exactly any metaverse activity around here since her palace was dealt with. So that idea was crossed off her list quickly. "Welp, might as well be curious like a cat."

Regardless of whether it was a good idea or not, she investigated the pipe and saw nothing but black and darkness. When she said something, it echoed and echoed until her voice faded. She grabbed a rock and threw it in there and she never heard it land. "Okay then..." Suddenly, she would feel a suctioning sensation and she was being drawn into the pipe! Try as she might, she couldn't escape, and she ended up falling down the pipe, yelling as she did so.

She didn't know how long she had been in the pipe, but it felt like an eternity. The next thing she knew however, was that she ended up getting spat out in the middle of nowhere. But the atmosphere of the place wasn't exactly inviting. The air felt thick, everything was dead, and she could see smoke in the air.

"Where...where am I...?" She asked herself, managing to push herself up. Thankfully her headphones were fine, laying on the ground. So, she put them back on and looked around. She saw a castle off in the distance, and it looked about as inviting as everything else. On top of that, there was suddenly these weird creatures walking up towards her. Some weird turtle looking things that pointed their spears at her!

Well, this certainly wasn't going to end well...

[oraclememehacker]

"English has so many rules and such that contradict itself or doesn't even follow it's own rules. It's kind of crazy. I don't know any french though aside from some meme phrases." Japanese and English were the languages she knew, and her English was definitely not all that great. Just good enough for the online forums and such that she frequented and such.

The sounds of people talking about the subway heading to Yongen filled the area as they were getting close. "And yeah, it's called Didactic memory. Whenever I close my eyes, I can visualize something perfectly. It doesn't last too long, just long enough for me to really be able to see it. And that's how I was able to remember books from memory. Along with me just loving books in general. I'll have to try out some international books then."

Soon the subway stopped at their destination and they got off, Futaba stretching and moving her arms around. And then they were heading towards her neighborhood. "It's pretty narrow around here, as expected of these sorts of areas. The cafe is just up the road from here, and then my house is in the area. Not a big house, but it works enough for me and my dad."

"That's really cool!" Kotone stood closer to the aisle, letting Futaba have the window spot more away from the people. Seemed right since Futaba was shorter and less good with people. "That's called uh... Edi...? No... Gie...? No... Didactic Memory! That's the one! Where you can recall images vividly from memory! That is super cool to have!"

Kotone smirked. "I've been reading a couple light novels, but a friend of mine has suggested more international books actually. I use a translation app to put the books in Japanese when I take a pic of the pages. It's super cool! Though I know a little English and I'm learning French." Was she learning French to impress Mitsuru? Yes. She liked showing off to her for... reasons.

[oraclememehacker]

Voices from Beyond

There was an individual who found themselves stuck in the realm of the living despite having died, their spirit refusing for whatever reason to go to the afterlife, whatever that would be anyways. This person wandered around and was trying to figure out what was preventing them from moving on. In this case, it was none other than former esteemed researcher and cognitive psientist Isshiki Wakaba. She had been killed in order for her research to be stolen and used for nefarious purposes, and now was stuck as a cognitive ghost.

At first, she was unable to recall much aside from her name and the fact that she was apparently dead. But overtime she was able to remember a bunch more, and was looking over Futaba as her poor daughter was hating herself. She had watched her daughter cry and accuse herself of what had happened, and while she still didn’t know for sure what had caused her death, she knew for a fact that it wasn’t Futaba’s fault, and wanted nothing more than to assure her that wasn’t the case.

However, over time it seemed that Futaba received the help that she so desperately needed and now was surrounded by friends. Something that she remembered wasn’t really the case when she was a kid. It would bring a tear to her eyes if she was still capable of crying. She thought that maybe this was the reason why she was still around; to see her daughter get better. However, despite that, the afterlife didn’t call for her. And now she was hanging around the cafe, as Futaba was waiting for someone.

“Yamagishi-san said she’d be around soon. Hopefully she brought her laptop with her.” Futaba felt a little chill in the air, the chill coming from Wakaba’s spirit cooling the air around her unintentionally. She just took that as feeling a sudden bit of cold air from the door or just a random cold chill. The familiar ringing from the door would be heard and Futaba’s attention was immediately fixated on that. There she was. She just waved and motioned for the older woman to sit down at the booth with her, pointing at her laptop and other stuff she brought. It was gaming time.

@tacitusauxilium

[oraclememehacker]

@silver-strings-of-fate

"Kill them"

"W-What? I'm not going to kill them! I'm not in a joking mood today, please don't suggest that..."