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It's a peaceful day at Leblanc. Sojiro has a couple customers in his shop, both sipping coffee, one eating a curry. Mellow music is playing, the lighting is cozy, and the coffee is as good as ever.
He nods a greeting as Akira enters the shop on her way home from school.
Joker returns with the two large pieces, one in each hand.
"Care to do the honours?" she asks Akira.
Akira carefully lets go of Julie, and takes the electronic device out of the left-hand chunk of geode. Turning it over in her hands, she inspects it.
It's a handheld touchscreen device of some sort. One surface seems to be clear crystal, while the other is a smooth black stone with hints of red swirls through it. It seems to have a power button on the right edge, and a small mystery button on the bottom edge.
Somewhat ominous.
"Hold this for a moment, I want to see what's in the box."
She passes the device to Joker.
Joker sets down the empty chunk of crystal, and takes the device. Then she extends the chunk of crystal with the box in it.
It's an elegant box made of a dark-looking wood, with delicate carvings of vines crisscrossing the surface. There's a little piece near the edge that she can twist, and that unlatches the top, allowing it to open almost like a book. Inside is a slim deck of cards. They appear to be the major arcana of the tarot, with a few atypical arcana included as well. They're done in an inky graffiti style in black and red. A few of them — Lovers, Chariot, Resurrection, Death, Magician, Heirophant, Fool, and Lust — are faintly glowing red.
A tarot deck...?
That's certainly a potent symbol. And it's not the usual arcana, either...
She closes the box again.
"Let's experiment with these upstairs. I can hardly breathe down here."
Joker nods. She sweeps the crystals into a pocket of her coat, then takes the device in both her hands and leads the way up the steps to the living room.
Joker settles on the left side of the living room couch and waits for the others to join her.
Akira sits in the middle, and pats the seat to her right for Julie to join her.
Julie sits down next to Akira with a smile, wrapping an arm around her and gazing at the prizes from the geode curiously.
"This looks quite interesting. I wonder what it will do?"
"I wonder as well."
Akira takes the device from Joker and thumbs the power button.
It boots up with a bright splash of red, with black graffiti-style writing declaring it an ArcanaPad. Once it's loaded, it has a clock tracking the outside world's time, judging by how slowly and inconsistently it seems to move, and two icons currently available. One is labeled "Confidant Tracker", while the other is "Persona Manager".
It opens and displays a black screen with large red-outlined white text that reads "No Arcana Inserted".
So it goes with the cards.
She opens the box and picks a glowing card off the top — the Fool.
Now how does she get this in there? Does it use this second button?
She tries pressing the second button.
A hidden panel on the back of the device pops open, revealing a miniature scanner bed, just big enough to snugly fit a tarot card.
She lays the Fool card face down on the scanner bed, and closes the panel.
It closes with a satisfying snap, and when she turns the device back over, the display has updated. At the very top are a small image of the card, along with a small stylized graphic of Joker's head. Just below that, it provides some information:
Fool Confidant
Name: Joker
Persona: Julie (Shared with Akira)
Rank: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Bio: One third of the Trickster System. The alternate version of myself that suddenly woke up in my head after I visited the Metaverse a few times. Seems to enjoy criminal activity, recreational surgery, lying, and sleeping with everything in sight. She's surprisingly good at diagnosing my issues, though. Is this really who I am deep down?
Recently: I've introduced her to the Thieves. The reception was generally positive, if awkward. I'm not sure where we're going to go from here.
Akira's eyebrows rise. "The Trickster System? Okay. I'm glad it includes Julie in that..."
She looks over at Joker. "Uh, I — yeah. Maybe don't read over my shoulder for this part."
"It's nothing I don't already know. It's cute that it rates the relationship out of ten, though. You always did like your ranking systems."
She raises an eyebrow. "What does the persona manager do?"
A similar failure message as when she first started the Confidant Tracker appears, reading, "No Fusion Suite Paired."
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