Metaphors and Shadows

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Persona 4 Past Will Tell AU (protag swap + Average AU)
second person yosuke pov + game mechanics
Chapter Summary: reassuring chie
Word Count: 640
Rating: Teen

 

        “Yukiko is not like that!” Chie screams into the phone the instant you answer, and you pull it away from your ear with a wince.  She’s an awesome friend, but sometimes you wish she came with a volume slider.
        You hum to fill the silence and to show you’re listening as your thoughts race, trying to put together words for concepts you haven’t even fully thought through yet.

>Maybe not to you.
>Well, it is her Shadow.
>This Midnight Channel thing is lying. 

        “Well, it is her Shadow,” you say eventually, hesitant.  You’re not at all used to being the authority figure, and still need some time to come up with the kind of Confidence you’d need.  Though maybe it’s all right; Chie reacted pretty well to you stopping the blustering act like nothing gets to you.  “I hate that I’m about to relate this to class, but do you remember all the stuff about metaphors?  How they’re stand-ins for something else?  I’m pretty sure you don’t actually want to be a dominatrix, for example.”
        “Low blow,” Chie mutters, calmer and quieter now.  She’s finally listening.
        “Well, for example, she’s been really busy at the inn, right?  I can’t say for sure, because I don’t know her too well, but if it’s like with me and Junes, it feels like my entire life is that place sometimes.  Maybe this is her Shadow’s way of trying to be selfish, seeking out something that’s only hers.”  A long silence follows.  Who knows, maybe she even reads romance manga on the side, or plays dating sims.  Even a few minutes of imagining you’re not a worthless prince of trash a day is something nice.  That eventually someone will accept you for who you are—though, as much as it doesn’t feel like it, maybe this power is your ticket, because you’re already a lot closer to Saki-senpai and Chie than before, and shockingly you didn’t even need to date them to get some validation.  You’re probably not going to recommend any of that to Yukiko-chan, at least not right away, because they’ll probably just see it as being a perv instead of an honest recommendation from a painfully shy boy wanting desperately to be helpful.  Longing to impress, rather than disappoint.
        You laugh nervously.  Yosuke Hanamura being dumb again, what a surprise.  “Sorry, just me running my big mouth again—”
        “You might be right.”  She still sounds hurt, but…a lot calmer, and he can hear just the trace of her fighting spirit coming back.  “We’ll just have to find that out when we face her Shadow.  Thanks, Yosuke-kun.”
        You grin and rub at the back of your neck.  Score!  You were helpful!
        “Yeah, no worries.”  It’s a good note for her to hang up on.
        No worries for her, that is.  Worries for you, of course—your work schedule is packed this week, and you’re going to have to come up with some sort of excuse for your dad as to why you’re shifting your schedule again—
        Hang on, there’s an idea.  How do you get a club started again?  That could be the perfect excuse, if you can figure out the exact right things to say on paper.  And even if it doesn’t work out, just telling him you’ve been doing a bunch of work to try to make one might just be the ticket.

>Maybe not to you.
        “I am a better friend than that!  Yosuke!”  Chie-chan’s nearly in tears.  Whoops.  There goes your big mouth.

>This Midnight Channel thing is lying.
        “Oh, yeah, that’s gotta be it.”  Chie-chan sounds very relieved, but you have a sudden, ominous feeling….
        (This choice can actually lead to a Bad End directly, as Chie’s acceptance of Yukiko’s Shadow [as well as Yosuke’s and Teddie’s] is necessary for Yukiko to accept her own Shadow.)