OOM: Futaba's recovery

[dwellsinthedetails]

August 21, 2016

Akira: Futaba's awake.
Yusuke: Oh? That is indeed good news.
Akira: Yeah, she came over to Leblanc and everything. About gave Sakura-san a heart attack.
Yusuke: After refusing to leave the house for so long, I can see where her suddenly doing so would be quite a shock.
[...]
Akira: She almost forgot about the Medjed thing, but says she can 'handle it' today. She invited me over.
Yusuke: Ah, excellent. Our own lack of ideas was rather frustrating.
[...]
Akira: Yeah, it was.
Sorry about that, Morgana insisted we clean.
Futaba hyperfocuses on stuff nearly as badly as you do. She hasn't even noticed yet.
Yusuke: I do not hyperfocus so much as get caught in a wave of inspiration. There is a difference.
Akira: Of course, of course. My mistake.
[...]
Akira: There we go, she finally noticed... aaaaaand she's asleep again.
She did say she's done, though.
Yusuke: I suppose we can only hope the results show themselves quickly, then.

It's not until the group chat gets active later that Yusuke realises he was the only one receiving real-time updates. In any case, they agree to meet in the cafe tomorrow, and see what the news has to say about current events; with the entire nation holding its breath, there's sure to be something.

***

August 22, 2016

The next day does indeed bring news: Medjed's website has been hacked to display the logo Yusuke drew for the Phantom Thieves' calling cards (Ryuji had started out with a good idea for the first one, but it needed some improvement), and the personal information of a Japanese man believed to be a part of Medjed's movements has been publicised. The latter was perhaps overkill on Futaba's part, but in any case, it seems to have done the trick, along with Medjed's 'cleanse' never actually happening; there were some rumors of ATMs having problems, but nothing more.

Futaba herself comes into the cafe not long after the news moves on to other topics, and promptly squeaks and hides behind Akira when she sees the crowd in their booth. Makoto suggests they move upstairs, so Futaba doesn't panic at complete strangers coming in as well; they do, and it quickly becomes apparent that Futaba still has a long way to go. She may be functional enough to leave the house and no longer suicidal, but she barely acknowledges the rest of them, even while sitting in the same room. She hasn't removed her headphones, and Yusuke can't help wondering if she keeps her hair so long in part to act as another shield between herself and the rest of the world.

She's silent until they end up on the topic of Medjed. Without turning to face the group, she says, "I knew the Medjed members in Japan weren't anything special, so I wasn't worried."

Ann frowns. "How did you know that?"

"'cause I'm the founder." Futaba had been carrying out her own acts of justice under the Medjed name, until others online swiped her code and began using it to carry out cybercrimes; she considered actually stopping them to be too much of a hassle, changed her alias to Alibaba, and let it be at that.

(Early in her Palace, Futaba's Shadow sent them to the cognitive town to recover a map of the place from a bandit; that encounter is beginning to make more sense. She wanted her legacy in her own hands, or at least those of someone who would do good with it, but lacked the impetus to pursue the thief on her own, and presumably she'd like to think these other hackers would be as sporting about the matter as that bandit was, even in defeat.)

"Say, Futaba," Makoto says. "How did you find out about us?"

"Secret."

"Where did you learn to hack?"

"Private."

"When did you obtain the Nav?" It's a good question; the app that lets them into the Metaverse didn't add itself to Yusuke's phone (apparently, this is standard procedure for the thing, but Akira's not worried) until after he fell into Madarame's Palace with Ann, but Futaba managed to let herself into her own Palace despite claiming not to know about the app before they headed in to steal the Treasure.

"I refuse to answer."

This is going to take a while. They decide on a course of action: One or two of them, along with Akira, since Futaba already seems to trust him enough to hide behind him, should spend a bit of time with Futaba over the coming days, to help get her used to social interaction after going without for so long. Ryuji and Ann had expressed interest in going to the beach before summer vacation ends, before the news, but they can't very well leave Futaba out of the fun, if she's willing to come along; they set that outing as their end goal.

***

August 23, 2016

Makoto volunteered herself to pass the first day with Futaba; Yusuke, having nothing better to do, decided to come along as well. Makoto suggests they go to Futaba's room, to start her out in a more comfortable place, but she still doesn't open the door until Akira and Morgana join them, and she's gotten out a full-head-covering mask.

"What is that supposed to be?" Makoto asks.

"Don't worry about it," Futaba says, her voice muffled by the mask.

For his part, Yusuke rather likes it. "Such an avant garde design. You have excellent taste."

Futaba finally turns her chair away from her computer, with a giggle - or is it more of a cackle? He really can't tell, and Makoto declares that they should get started; Futaba takes off the mask, and Yusuke gets distracted by a set of action figures, tuning out of the conversation in favor of moving them about.

"...We're just going to talk about ordinary topics today," Makoto says, briefly pulling Yusuke back in.

"And what do you mean by ordinary topics?"

"You know, things like food and the weather."

With that, Yusuke tunes out again, dimly aware Makoto's not making much headway and neither Akira nor Morgana have much to contribute; when he's nearly done with his impromptu project, Makoto addresses him directly again. "By the way, Yusuke, what have you been doing this whole time?"

"Ah, superb." He steps away from the action figures to show off his repositioning - which did, admittedly, involve re-attaching pieces that came off in perhaps different configurations than the manufacturers intended. "Some of their heads came off when I was moving them, but I made sure to rearrange them pleasingly."

Futaba shrieks. "My children... what have you done to my children?!"

"They appear to be quite shoddily-made." Really, were they supposed to come apart like that? His experience with wooden drawing dummies would indicate otherwise.

"They're from 'Phoenix Rangers Neo Featherman'! No, Yellow and Pink's heads... and Red's been hacked to bits..." Futaba's attention is on undoing Yusuke's hard work. "This is all Inari's fault."

"Inari?"

"Your thief clothes were like a fox," Futaba says. "According to Japanese folklore, foxes like inarizushi, thus Inari."

If she's less than impressed with Yusuke's work, at least he can be less than impressed with that logical leap himself. They already have perfectly serviceable code names; she doesn't need to go making wild extrapolations like that. Still, he suspects there's no talking her out of it.

"Rghh, they were in the perfect poses, too! It was so much work getting them set up just right! You wouldn't know aesthetics if it hit you in the face, Inari!"

"How dare you say that to me of all people?"

After a rousing argument that only ends when Yusuke agrees to help Futaba put the Feathermen back as he found them, they settle down again, and he better understands why not asking before letting inspiration carry him away upset her. They are meant to be somewhat more malleable than the models he's used to working with, but he did admittedly take things to an extreme.

"I see... so their versatility allows you to recreate almost any dramatic scene you can imagine."

"Mm-hmm! Victory is great for action, and Neo's got the best transforming suit. So cool." He believes Futaba's referring to different iterations of the Featherman show, but even though he's not certain, her enthusiasm speaks for itself.

"Fascinating. Art depicts a flash of inspiration, but models offer a much different means of enjoyment."

"Huh, take a look at that," Morgana says, breaking the moment. "Futaba's having a regular discussion."

Makoto nods. "It seems she doesn't have a problem talking to others as long as the subject interests her. I suppose the topics I brought up were not the right ones."

"So this is all I gotta do?" Futaba says, considerably more relaxed than when they first came in. "What a breeze!"

"In that case, we should advance to the next step," Yusuke says. "How about we have her spend time in someone else's room?"

Futaba's less than pleased by that idea, but grudgingly accepts the overall point - if the idea is to ease her out of the house, then sooner or later she's going to have to leave the house. She relaxes a smidge more when Akira reminds her he'll be right there to help, and his bedroom is already in familiar territory for her.

It's slow progress, but it's also a measurable difference compared to even yesterday.