Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking..."
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
"We'd like to apologize for the delay, but in about five minutes we shall be clear for takeoff."
Tick. Tick…
The passengers of the plane took a collective sigh of relief. They had waiting for several hours for the flight to start, and it seems as if their wish was finally granted.
The plane was sparsely filled with your usual passengers on a mode of transportation such as this: Businessmen and women, families on vacation and people visiting relatives. There didn't seem to be many a person on the plane who could be considered 'out of the ordinary' just from a quick glance. That is, of course, excluding one young man sitting by a window near the middle of the isle.
Though to be fair, it wasn't his appearance that would seem strange. On the contrary, he looked rather ordinary. He had short brown hair, a plain face and an average build, albeit slightly spindly. The most interesting thing about the young man's looks was that both of his irises had a discoloration, so there were small splashes of grey in his mostly hazel eyes.
No, what most people would consider strange was how the young man was seated and what he was doing.
Granted, the first piece wasn't necessarily 'strange', maybe lucky more so than anything. While many people were forced to sit near strangers on the plane, the young man had nobody sitting near him. He had a row of three seats all to himself.
That alone would catch most people on a plane off guard, but what the young man was doing would do that even more.
What he was doing was staring at a pocket watch. Now, normally, a person wouldn't bat an eyelash at this. To be fair, pocket watches were rather obsolete in today's age of technology, but most people would just brush off somebody owning one with 'to each their own'. However, it wasn't the ownership of such an item that made people somewhat questioning of the young man, but rather the intensity he was looking at the object.
No matter what person passed by or what noises the other passengers made, his gaze could not be drawn away from the pocket watch. It was as if some form of ethereal or supernatural force had gotten a hold of the young man and was forcing him to look towards the time-piece. He seemed to be saying something as well while looking at it, though nobody in his immediate area could hear what it was he was saying.
He wasn't so much saying anything, however, as he was just following the clock: keeping time as it were. Whenever the watch moved a second, he counted along. Some of you may wonder why somebody would do such a monotonous task, but the reality was the young man didn't have much else to do.
That is until now.
With the announcement from the pilot, the young man finally closed his pocket watch and thought:
'Finally. Now I don't have to sit here and count my brain-cells as the die one-by-one.'
Putting his pocket watch into its namesake, he reached over to his carry-on he was keeping in the seat next to his and rummaged around until he found a pair of headphones and an MP3 player. Before he started to listen to it, though, the young man stopped for several reasons: One, because he knew that if he turned on his player now, he knew that he was just going to be asked to turn it off a few minutes later. Secondly, he wanted to take some time to think about just where he was heading.
When the young man thought of the destination he was about to arrive in, images of the Space Needle and Puget Sound filled his brain.
'Seattle. I haven't been there in so long, and even then it was just to visit sis. I hope it's a decent place to live.'
Thinking of the times he, his father and brother made the yearly visits to his sister in the Emerald City, the young man smiled. He loved the city and what it offered. It certainly was more interesting than Butte.
'Eh, you shouldn't be so hard on Butte. It's been your home for the past, what, ten years? Its treated you well in that time, hasn't it?'
The young man had to agree it did. While it was true that Butte didn't have too much to do (At least things to do that the young man found interesting), the food was good, the people were nice, and the views were absolutely gorgeous. Excluding his father, those views were probably what he was going to miss most. The young man would've added his brother to the list of the things he was going to miss, but…
The young man cringed mentally. It had three years and he still hadn't gotten over his brother's death. That may seem like a short amount of time in reference to an event that monumental, but the young man was a rather prideful individual. You could say that he thought he was better than this, letting this get him down. He reassured himself, however:
'Stop it. You know that brooding over this isn't going to change anything. What's done is done, you should just learn to move on from it.'
As the young man was recuperating from his rumination, he felt the plane start to move. The young man smiled and thought:
'Good. Now we're getting somewhere.'
A few minutes later when the plane was finally in the air, something hit the young man like a ton of bricks: Drowsiness.
'Damnit, I already took a nap before I got to the airport. Well, I suppose another couldn't hurt. It'll pass the time." The young man thought with a yawn.
With that, he leaned back in his seat and looked out the window, taking a last look at the mountains he grew up with.
'See you, Montana.'
And so, the young man closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him.
When the young man opened his eyes, he was in a place he least expected to be. Granted, anywhere besides the plane would be a place he wasn't expecting, but that's beside the point.
He appeared to be in a… church? He wanted to say it was a church due to the stained glass in front of him. It was blue with hints of yellow, making light from outside shine in with a haunting azure glow.
The young man came to the conclusion that he wasn't in a church, however. For you see, the young man was in what appeared to be a mausoleum. He could gather this due to the fact that directly in front of him, stood a coffin. However, that wasn't the most intriguing thing about the place that his was in.
That title went to the man in front of him.
He appeared to be short in stature (though the young man couldn't tell for sure since he was seated), his hunched back giving an impression of leaning forward most of the time. He actually was doing just that, his form leaning forward with his head resting on his hands.
His face, though, contained the strangest of features in the room.
His eyes were large. Extremely large. So large in fact that the young man was afraid that they were going to jump out of their sockets. They were slightly bloodshot as well, giving off signs of not blinking much.
Nothing could hold a candle, though, to the spectacle that was the man's nose.
In combination with his eyes, his nose made it look like he was wearing a mask. A very comical one at that. At the same time, however, the man seemed to carry himself with a sense of eloquence and importance that you couldn't ignore. His smile, thought slightly off-putting, accentuated this.
After several moments in silence, the odd man spoke.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor."
The young man was about to ask what this place was and how he got there, but was beaten to the punch this Igor person.
"Do not alarmed: You are fast asleep in the real world." Gesturing with his hands, Igor continued with "This is a realm that exists between dream and reality. Mind and Matter." Looking the young man straight in the eyes, he asked:
"Tell me: What is your name?"
The young man was hesitant. He wasn't sure whether this was real or not, but for some reason Igor put him at ease. Maybe it was the sincere tone of his voice or his kind smile that put him off guard. Whatever it was, the young man decided to tell Igor his name.
"Wesley. My name is Wesley Holton."
"I see." Igor replied.
After saying such, with a flick of his hands he drew forth a deck of cards.
"Tell me, do you believe in fortune telling?"
Wesley was slightly taken aback by this question, but responded with:
"I've always been slightly skeptical about it, but it does seem like an interesting process."
"I personally find it fascinating. You can achieve so many different outcomes, yet the cards always remain the same."
"I have to admit, that is an interesting way of looking at it."
Igor laid out four cards, using the coffin in between him and Wesley as a makeshift table. Three of them were in a row and one was placed above said row.
"Now, why don't we see what fate has to offer you?" Igor asked rhetorically.
Flipping up the first card in the row, Igor revealed what appeared to Wesley an arrow with two people kneeling beside it, and in each of the top corners of the card there lay a key.
"This card represents the Hierophant. It is a symbol of knowledge and wisdom." Said Igor.
Wesley nodded along. He didn't understand why he was being so accepting of all this strangeness, but he supposed that was a question for another time.
Igor turned over the card next to the Hierophant. This next card depicted what seemed it be a man of royalty, a scepter and an orb of some sort by its sides.
"This card is the Emperor. This symbolizes power, or the want to control one's surroundings."
"I see." Replied Wesley.
Taking the last card in the row, Igor flipped it over to reveal what looked like the skull of a goat with two people chained to it. A major difference that this card showed was that it was upside down in relation to the Emperor and Hierophant.
"This card is the Reverse Devil. This most of the time represents greed and want to use one's abilities for selfish purposes."
"That sounds… ominous." Wesley said.
Igor flipped over the last card, the one above the row of others. After viewing the card in his hand for several moments, he said with the same smile he had been wearing all throughout his and Wesley's time together:
"Not as ominous as this, I would imagine."
After Igor laid the final card on the table, Wesley would've had to agree with him. The last card depicted a staircase leading to a door. On that door, there lay a large skull.
"W-what card does that mean?" Wesley asked nervously.
"This card represents Death." Igor said.
Wesley's nervousness must have been rather apparent to Igor, because soon after he said:
"Fret not, my new friend. This card doesn't necessarily mean the literal death of someone. In traditional tarot readings such as this, Death is an interesting card. It means the end of one thing, yet at the same time the beginning of another."
"I… observe." Said Wesley, still not thoroughly convinced. "What exactly does this all mean for me, though?"
"What it means," Igor started, his hand over the Hierophant. "Is that soon you will come to learn something of great importance." After saying this, Igor moved his hand to the Emperor. "With this knowledge, you will gain power, and with it will try to control your environment." With his hand over the Devil, Igor continued. "But be warned: This power can easily taint the mind and corrupt the soul. Be cautious when you achieve it, for the Devil can easily lead the lesser minded astray."
Finally, placing his hand over Death, Igor said:
"Keep this in mind above all else: You are going to lose something dear to you. However, you will also gain something. Possibly something than can unlock your destiny."
"Unlock my destiny? What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean is that it is my job to help guests of this room, such as yourself, to unlock their potential. This potential for you is a power known as 'Persona'."
"Persona? I don't understand."
Igor chuckled. "In due time you will. I would love to tell you more, but you are about to wake up."
Igor was right. Wesley could feel his consciousness (could you call it consciousness if you were dreaming?) slipping.
"Wait! I have so many questions!" Wesley shouted.
"Which will be answered in due time." Igor waved his hand in goodbye.
"Until we meet again… farewell."
Good Morrow, People of Fanfiction! I take it was pretty obvious to tell, but this is my first Persona story. With that being said, any and all criticism is welcome. Nothing much else to say except leave your reviews and tell me what you think!