Neither life nor death is static,
Change will always come to all life,
As one undergoes the journey to death,
One's soul metamorphoses, transforms, and evolves
The wanderer moves towards an uncertain future,
And the reflection of his past in the mirror changes.
Prologue: Butterfly Dreamer
In his dream, he was a butterfly.
His wings were blue, slowly unfolding within his shell, cracking open the confines of the cocoon. The first ray of sunlight nearly blinded him, but the silky mist smothering his resting place blanketed him from its piercing radiance. Then, gradually, he shook, the motion tingling his newly formed wings. With a struggle, he burst free from the confining cocoon and into the hazy, bright world.
There was a voice:
"Change is inevitable…" it said, a lovely chorus of masculine and feminine tones, the lilt of a child and an adult settling in his ears. He knew this voice, this speaker. I am thou…Thou art I…
"Change is inevitable," the voice of humanity repeated, and he fluttered his wings gently with its cadence, "As one goes from birth to death, down the path to the inexorable end, the soul changes, transforms…"
It whispered:
"Metamorphoses and evolves, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly."
Suddenly, the light vanished, leaving him quivering in empty darkness.
"But change does not come without a price. A lesson learned without pain is meaningless."
He was floating, but he was fluttering down, down, down, unable to stop his slow descent.
"Change will come when the pain of staying of staying the same hurts more than the pain of changing."
Abruptly, his descent stopped, and he realised he had landed on a smooth, reflective surface. Reflected on the mirror was himself; red eyes, dark hair, and slim, lanky build.
"But the pain that will come as you make your was through destiny will be too much for you to bear alone. And so I offer my help."
From the centre of his reflection's heart, a crack formed. Slowly, it spread, weaving fragile spiderweb fractures all across the smooth surface. The face in the mirror looked back at him with wide, fearful eyes.
"Do you wish to form a contract with me?"
The mirror shattered.
A new rumour had spread in Ikebukuro.
It is said that once the clock struck midnight, a new world would open.
A world inside a reflection.
In certain places—in certain mirrors or bodies of water—it is said that one could find the gateways to that other world.
A world without humans.
A world filled with monsters.
It is said that the new world had an otherworldly ambience. A black, starless sky as a backdrop, and the city painted in all shades of purple.
In the first couple of months since the rumour's birth, there was a trend among the young and adventurous to seek out this new world.
In the same couple of months, the number of missing person reports had increased.
Most of those missing people were later found dead in front of mirrors or bodies of water.
Their cause of death was said to be bizarre. Inhuman. As if a monster had ripped through them.
The few who returned gained an aversion to all kinds of reflective surfaces.
And so it came to be that the realm in the reflection was called the Floating World.
Following that, the time in which the gateways were opened was named the Witching Hour.
A new rumour had spread in Ikebukuro.
When Orihara Izaya opened his eyes, he stood in a room filled with mirrors.
Mirrors of all shapes and sizes were hung up everywhere. Some of them magnified his reflection, some minimised it, some inverted it, and so on and so forth. They came in eccentric frames too. There were gothic-style frames, modernistic stylish ones, bizarre ones that didn't seem to be made of any known metal or wood, and more. The most peculiar thing was, however, that they were all in blue.
In the centre of the room sat an old man in a black suit, his long nose reminding Izaya of a tengu's beak and his large grin reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat's. He sat in a plush blue sofa, and in front of him was a modern, glass-covered coffee table with a comfortable looking chair facing him. Right behind the old man was a large, elaborately-crafted, floor-to-ceiling frame. Izaya assumed it was another mirror, but he couldn't tell for certain since swathes of blue curtains covered it.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the old man with the long, hooked nose and large grin greeted Orihara Izaya, "I am Igor, it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance."
.
.
.
End of Prologue
AUTHOR'S NOTE
So…a Durarara/Persona fusion fic…
I'm kind of excited to write this, but at the same time, the idea just came to me today and I haven't fully fleshed it out yet. Moreover, I am nowhere near done with First Impressions, and I want to update that fic twice a week. As it is, I'm not quite sure if I'll continue this yet, or simply let it be like this, but well, we'll see, I guess…
Fun Facts:
1. The poem you see in the very beginning of this story is something I made up to mimic what Igor says every time you get a game over. As I'm writing this story, I'm imagining playing a new instalment in the Persona series with the Durarara cast as the characters and Ikebukuro as the setting. So I wanted to make some kind of game over quote that Igor may say if the game was real. ;)
2. The Velvet Room changes its appearance according to its guest. In Persona 3, it's the inside of an elevator that is endlessly ascending, at least until the protagonist creates the Universe Arcana. In Persona 4, it's a limousine while in the Persona 5 trailers it seems to take the appearance of a prison. In here, it is a room filled with mirrors, representing Izaya's many facades and masks which he wears every day. The large, floor-to-ceiling mirror at the back of the room is supposed to reflect his true self, however it is covered up to show that Izaya hasn't yet discovered/accepted who he really is.
3. On the subject of butterflies and dreams, a Chinese philosopher by the name of Zhuangzi said: "Once, I dreamt I was a butterfly. I forgot myself and knew only my happiness as a butterfly. Soon, I awoke, and I was myself again. Did I dream that I was a butterfly? Or do I now dream that I am a man? Yet there is a distinction between myself and the butterfly. This is a transformation of the physical." Interestingly, this quote was used for the opening of the first Persona game.
4. The voice Izaya heard in his dream was Philemon, who is also Igor's—and by default the rest of the Velvet Room denizens—master. Philemon is the anthropomorphic personification of all of humanity's good points, such as their creativity and will to live, and he is the one who grants Personas and make contracts with the protagonists of the Persona games, giving them the Wild Card ability. He is often represented by a blue or gold butterfly.
5. On that note, in the Persona series, the Wild Card is the ability to form a contract allowing one to access and summon multiple Personas and switch between them in battle, and the ability to change bonds into strength (Social Links). The Wild Card is most closely related to the Fool Arcana, with its Tarot numeral being zero (0). The term is also associated with the capabilities of Fusion Spells, where multiple Personas are summoned at the same time in order to execute a powerful attack. Those who possess the Wild Card are often symbolised with multiple of masks. (Taken from Shin Megami Tensei wikia)
6. During Japan's Edo period (1615–1868) the phrase "the Floating World" (Ukiyo) evoked an imagined universe of wit, stylishness, and extravagance—with overtones of naughtiness, hedonism, and transgression. Implicit was a contrast to the humdrum of everyday obligation. The concept of the Floating World began in the Japanese heartland, migrated eastward, and came to full flower in Edo (present-day Tokyo), where its main venues were popular Kabuki theaters and red-light districts. (Taken from Khan Academy)
When I read this I thought 'Hey, isn't that a good name for a world created by humanity's warped desires? It sounds poetic, and it's really fitting for Durarara, I believe.'
7. The main theme of Persona 3 is death, while in Persona 4 it is truth. In contrast to that, the main theme here, as shown in the poem and dream, is change. When you really think about it, the only character that doesn't develop is Izaya. Celty grew to accept her situation, Shizuo learned how to control his strength a bit, Mikado showed his badass side, Kida stopped running away, and Anri came to believe that even though she harbours Saika, she can still be accepted by others. It is ironic that the person who said "The only way to truly escape the mundane is for you to constantly evolve," is the only one who doesn't change or develop. Instead, he continues on trolling and wreaking havoc for fun (and a chance to start Ragnarok). This is why I posed some questions as I made this chapter:
Can a person so set in his ways change? Can somebody who wears so many masks, who is so good at crafting them that he deceives himself, face his true self and evolve? Can a monster become a human, a human, a god, and a god, a monster?
8. On that note, the main colour motif in Persona 3 and 4 is blue and yellow respectively. In here, it's purple, hence why the Floating World is described as "…city painted in all shades of purple". Purple symbolises magic, mystery, the sub-conscious and dignity, but it can also mean decadence, conceit, and pomposity. It can also be taken as the colour of mourning.
9. If I really do end up continuing this, then it'll probably be set before Awakusu Akane met Izaya, so before the Dollars and Blue Squares arc.
This fun fact seems to go on longer than it meant to be…