noisecontrol: (BROMANCE!)
sakuraba neku ([personal profile] noisecontrol) wrote2013-10-20 09:36 am
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Proceed to Cat Street. Time limit: fifteen minutes.
Significant Neutral
Week two, day three
small bone disks, surprisingly soft and worn. (They might smell funky.) Scratch one side with your fingernail to view. Two uses. (1/2)

Neku: Where...? (The scramble again? And Joshua? ...He's on the phone again.)

Joshua: Yup... I'll be there today. You'll have it all ready for me, won't you?

Neku: (Who's he talking to? Same person as yesterday?) ...... (Well, shouldn't be long till the mission shows up.) ...... ...... ...... (OK... What's the deal? It never takes this long. Am I even getting reception?)

Joshua: Say, Neku.

Neku: (...That smile makes me nervous. What are you scheming now?) Yeees?

Joshua: You're coming with me today, right? There's someplace I'd like to go.

Neku: ......

Joshua: You never followed through on your promise yesterday. So today, you're making it up to me. ...Right? We haven't got anything else to do yet. So let's go take care of my stuff first.

Neku: No way! I told you yesterday-- first, we do the mission. Then you can play around. Besides, the mission could show up any sec--

[Joshua's phone beeps]

Joshua: ! Whoa, you're right. There it is, Neku! Let's see... "Proceed to Cat Street. "Time limit: 15 minutes."

Neku: Fifteen minutes!? That's on the other side of Shibuya!

Joshua: We'd better hurry, then.

Neku: No joke! Shut up and start running! Come on!

Joshua: Yes, sir!

| Neku: We've only got fifteen minutes! We better haul ass!
|
| Joshua: Definitely. For Cat Street, we'd want Route 2. From here to
| Cadoi City, then on past Towa Records.

> [If you go up Center St. to AMX]
> Joshua: Say, Neku. Hate to bother you when you're in a hurry, but--
>
> Neku: What do you want!? Just run!
>
> Joshua: If we're going to Cat Street, it's a lot faster to go past
> the Shibu Department store.
>
> Neku: Wha-- Why didn't you say so before!?
>
> Joshua: You seemed to know where you were going. I figured you had
> some brilliant plan. Hee hee...
>
> Neku: (Like beating you senseless?) Ugh, fine. Let's just hurry!

[Cadoi City]
Reaper: ...

Neku: Ugh! Not one of THEM?

Joshua: Looks like there's a wall up ahead.

Neku: Dammit, we don't have time for this! (...There's only one way to Cat Street. And that's through here.) Quick, let's clear the wall!

| Neku: Rrgh! His timing sucks!
|
| Joshua: Hmm, sure does. Wonder what today's challenge will be.


Reaper: ...... Want past this wall? Then beat three of these-- where I can see ya.

| Neku: We can't waste time here!
|
| Joshua: Three of the Noise symbols he showed us, right?
|
| Neku: Right. Let's do it!

[clear the Noise]

| Joshua: Whew...
|
| Neku: Done! That should take care of the wall.

Reaper: ...... Objective met. Wall clear!

[Towa Records]

| Neku: All right! Let's sprint from here!
|
| [Neku leaves]
|
| Joshua: Oh, dear... Feeling energetic today, isn't he?
|
| Neku: You run, too!
|
| Joshua: Coming, sir!

[Miyashita Park Underpass]

Reaper: ...... Want past this wall? Then bring me one Pop Pendulum. It's a pin. Noise No. 56 has got 'em. Set your difficulty to Normal.

| Neku: Rrgh, we need a specific pin!?
|
| Joshua: This could be a good time to crank down our level. Taking
on
| Noise in a chain battle may help, too.

[after getting the pin]

| Joshua: Nice work, Neku. You got today's magic pin.
|
| Neku: Right... Let's just get the wall cleared.

Reaper: Objective met. Wall clear!

[Cat Street]
Neku: Huff...huff... Made it! Did we clear the mission!? !? Huh? No timer... Wait! Was there ever a timer? I never stopped to notice before... But our phones got the... What? There's no mission mail...

Joshua: Whew! We finally made it. It's that café just over there, Neku.

Neku: Wait... Don't tell me... You lied to me!?

Joshua: Kinda, yeah. I'm surprised it worked this well.

Neku: You...UGH! I can't believe you!

Joshua: Oh, come on. No harm done. It's not like we have a real mission yet.
Anyway, here we are-- so let me get this done.

Neku: ......

| Neku: Augh! You must love jerking people around.
|
| Joshua: There there, Neku. Just be grateful this wasn't a real
| mission. If it were you'd be erased. You took forever
getting
| here.
|
| Neku: Hey, I... Why are you doing this!?
|
| Joshua: I felt like coffee. Cat Street has a lovely café. Care to
| join me?

[WildKat]
Joshua: Mr. H? You in?

Mr. H: Heyyy! I was waiting for ya, Josh.

Neku: Mr. Hanekoma!?

Mr. H: Hmm? Oh, Phones! What, you're in the Game again?

Neku: Yeah... And because of that, Shiki's... She was my entry fee.

Mr. H: They took the young lady, huh... Well, buck up. Nothin' you can do about that right now. 'Sides, boss, I'm sure she understands.

Neku: ...Thanks.

Joshua: I see you two are acquainted.

Neku: Yeah. He saved our asses more than once last week.

Joshua: What a coincidence. He's been in the business of saving my ass for some time.

Neku: (The two seem to go way back. Is this where Joshua learned all about the UG?)

Joshua: I hate to seem impatient, but could we, you know?

Mr. H: Sure thing, J. Lemme see your phones.

Joshua: Yours too, Neku.

Neku: My phone? What do you need with it?

Joshua: Just doing a little upgrade.

Mr. H: More features the better, right? Gimme just a sec, guys.

Joshua: I told him we were coming, so it shouldn't take long.

Neku: Told him how? Wait, so you the person you were talking to on the phone was--

Joshua: Mr. H, of course.

Neku: (Man, now I feel like an idiot. Mr. Hanekoma's got his secrets, but I'll trust him over this kid. I guess... if Mr. H is OK with him, I don't have to worry quite so much.)

Mr. H: Sorry for the wait, guys. Here ya go.

Joshua: Thanks. Now we can finally go on a little hunt.

Neku: A hunt? For what?

Joshua: You'll see when we find it. Let's step out front and give the tracker a whirl.

[outside]

Joshua: Hmm, no response around here.

Neku: ......(Just what is this tracker tracking? )

Joshua: Ready to go, Neku? We'll canvass Shibuya and look for signals.

Neku: (Should I really go along with this?)

Mr. H: What's up, Phones? You look like ya got something on your mind.

Got any questions for Mr. Hanekoma?

> The café

Neku: So this is your place?

Mr. H: Yup! I call it "WildKat." Pretty hip, right?

Neku: Yeah... (It's a nice enough looking place, but... nobody's here. How's he paying the rent?)

Mr. H: Always did love me some beans. I got to be such an addict, I started up my own café.

Neku: Because you love... beans. (Who gets into coffee because they like BEANS? That's just... No.)

Mr. H: Oh, hey! I said I'd fix you up with a cuppa last time, huh? Have one for the road, man. ...Only 520 yen.

Neku: (You're CHARGING?)

> Joshua

Neku: So how do you two know each other?

Mr. H: What, me and Josh? I've known him for a while now. He'd swing by when he was bored, and we'd talk. See, he's a little special...

Neku: "Special"?

Mr. H: Yeah. He sees things.

Neku: Things? Like what? "I see dead people," kind of sees things?

Mr. H: Pretty much. That's how he knew about the Game. He saw Players and Reapers and all when he was still alive.

Neku: Oh...

Mr. H: And when he wanted to talk about it, he came to me. There aren't many folks who'd listen, if you know what I mean. In a way, he's been alone all his life. He's pretty aloof, and can get prickly from time to time, but he's not a bad kid. In any case, he's your partner. You're gonna have to make friendly.

Neku: ......

> The mission

Neku: The Reapers are supposed to give out one mission per day, right? We still haven't gotten one today.

Mr. H: That's what I hear. The Game Master's the one who handles all the missions, so I can't tell you what I don't know. But yeah, usually it's one mission per day.

Neku: (The Game Master... This time, it's that whack-job junk collector. He's capable of anything... Doesn't matter, though. I'm not letting the Grim Heaper trash Shiki's life. I have to beat him, for her!)

Mr. H: The missions are guaranteed to show up on your phone. When one's issued you'll know. So don't go losin' that phone, Phones.

> The phone

Neku: So what's this phone upgrade you gave us?

Mr. H: Oh, the tracker?

Neku: Whatever you call it. So...what, it picks up some kind of signal?

Mr. H: Pretty much. I set both your phones to locate energy spikes now. The tracker will point you towards the nearest spike.

Neku: What exactly is an energy spike?

Mr. H: You can ask Josh what you guys are looking for.

Neku: ...... (Not if I want a straight answer.)

Mr. H: There's one other feature in there now, too.

Neku: Another one? What's it do?

Mr. H: I told Josh how to use it. Ask him.

Neku: ...... (Not if I want a straight answer.)

> No more questions!

Mr. H: If you're bored, go take a walk with Joshua. You still don't have a mission, right? It'd be a waste to just sit around all day.

Neku: Yeah, but...

Mr. H: You don't look convinced. Did you forget already? If you wanna survive in this Shibuya, you gotta--

Neku: Trust my partner, I know. It's just...

Mr. H: You still got a long way to go, Phones. Knowing it in your head doesn't mean much if you don't act on it.

Neku: ......

Mr. H: Enjoy every moment with all ya got.

Neku: ! What!? What did you just say?

Mr. H: Huh? I say something weird?

Neku: "Enjoy every moment with all you've got." That's the motto of the one person I respect. I've made it my mantra. It's the way I live.

Mr. H: You coulda fooled me.

Neku: Well, now's not really the time to be enjoying life.

Mr. H: Uh-huh... You really have got a long way to go. Listen up, Phones! The world ends with you. If you want to enjoy life, expand your world. You gotta push your horizons out as far as they'll go.

Neku: Are you kidding? I'm stuck in the Reapers' Game. I can't even leave Shibuya. How an I supposed to expand my world?

Mr. H: That's for you to figure out.

Neku: (Expand my world...)

Mr. H: Now go on! Git!

| Neku: ...So. What are we looking for with that thing?
|
| Joshua: Hee hee... What, indeed? We'll know it when we see it,
silly.
|
| Neku: (Gee, thanks for confiding!)

[Neku and Joshua head back in the direction of the scramble. Towa Records,
exiting to Cadoi City]

- Neku will know that Mr. H and Joshua are involved with one another. I'm going to use a bit of canon understanding here (or rather, have been) because we know that knowing they're connected doesn't make Neku warm up to Joshua right away. Neku doesn't like him and he rubs him the wrong way.
- He'll know about CAT.
- He'll know Joshua is special and also that Joshua has a tendency to trick him into things (or rather, that this is just a thing that Joshua DOES).
- He'll be very fond of Mr. H. But also baffled by his existence.

Skill: Imagination

Countless numbers of such parallel worlds exist within a single plane, be it the RG or the UG, and travel among them is possible through the use of Imagination.

As Reaper and Player alike progress through the Game, engaging in Imagination-driven combat, their Soul is refined.

We Angels do not consider it a loss if a talented Player elects to return to the Realground, as their superior Imagination will inspire other humans.

Upon returning to life, the exceptional Player's creative activities soon make their mark upon society. His art, music, and other output become a part of culture, spreading and persisting through time, refining people's Imagination even without personal contact with the Player. I imbue my art with two command codes. The first is "Enjoy the moment more". This strengthens the Imagination. The proxy received this signal loud and clear, though past trauma precluded him from responding accordingly.

Okay, so Imagination is a force that allows individuals to inspire and change people around them. The implication that it's a slow process means it is for Neku, but one thing that's important to note is that Neku is able to have his Imagination alter and grow because he's lacking memories of that trauma in canon until the second week. The same thing has happened in Aather, where he's lost that memory. Therefore, his Imagination will be able to grow and change as time passes. How I've determined this is going to work is:

1. with his Imagination strong and embued, he will naturally inspire others with his art ... at least after a while.
2. He will be drawn to artwork and artists. he is ALREADY because he got himself gushing over CAT in a memory, but this will just amp it up.
3. Joshua will eventually be able to tell that he got this back. Other people will be able to tell that he is harnessing a lot of potential power. Like reality shaping power.
4. Neku's approach to games that involve stories and art will slowly shift.
5. And this will also begin to make him be affected by the team dynamic, as I do think that the setting of Aather would alter his Imagination ever-so-slightly. Immediately, I think this will mean that once he gets his partner skill, he will be able to partner with his entire team.

Neku otherwise will grow with the setting. I'm thinking I'm going to give him a general "pins" ability once he gets partnering back and he'll have to quest for pins. It's hard to tier Neku's abilities, so as time passes in Aather, he'll be able to quest for more powerful pins (unless he stubbornly stunts his growth in some way). He will not have the ability to alter reality, even if it's indicated that he can, and I personally believe that a lot of Neku's development is his Imagination driving and changing and allowing him to open. The thing about Imagination is that it's not something attached to him by an outside source. Neku's Imagination is embedded in him, so that's important to know. So without it, he's only shallowly attaching to others, but with it, things will change. He will care more, and he'll be able to adjust and figure out things. But in stages. The big thing is that things will impact him more than they have.

On a meta-level, Neku is someone who is definitely the "protagonist shaped by their surroundings." That's a huge part of the game, and while the title is different in English, it says a lot that it's "The World Ends With You." Of course, the Japanese title is fitting, too. (It's a Wonderful World.) His Imagination allows him to impact it, but he comes to want to save those surroundings by the end of his journey, literally becoming their savior in a way. Essentially this will mean that Neku really will want to save Aather, too, I think, and be driven to do so. It will be because of the people involved, but yeah.

More than anything, Imagination is a more abstract ability. I will be keeping it in mind as I play, and it will definitely affect his heart game, but it's more of a developmental necessity. I considered giving him something else, but any of his other abilities won't work the same way without it.
trope_attack: (Default)

[personal profile] trope_attack 2013-10-21 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
Neku and Pecan will have some interesting synergies, given Pecan is both a trained musician and many of Pecan's abilities are for boosting teammates' abilities via his music/speeches*. Once Pecan gets those skills back.

* Any performing art skill will work.