The air felt strange, and Naoto had the distinct impression that the room was moving; she found herself laying her head on Souji's lap as he sat wide awake, gently stroking her hair. She stirred, and lifted her head to look around; this was the Velvet Room.
"This place…" muttered Souji, "never thought I'd come back here." He looked to Naoto, who seemed bewildered, and placed a hand on her lap, "Don't be afraid; we're fast asleep in the real world."
"I'm not afraid!" said Naoto. "I-I just find it strange that I keep having lucid dreams about this place in particular… that's all." She got up and examined the room, running her fingers along the velvet lining, inspecting the wine glasses nestled carefully in the cupboard, and peering over to the table where the hook-nosed man had sat before; on the table lay a single card face-down, which felt warm to the touch. Naoto looked her card in the face: Fortune; she felt the pulse of power coursing through her veins, dynamic and thrilling. The world was alive! She was but a single node in a matrix of millions of millions; yet not like another grain in a pile of sand; she was a vital cog in the world machine.
"Naoto!" Souji said; she was trembling. "Naoto wake up!" Her vision slowly came into focus; she lay on Souji's bed, drenched in a cold sweat, and Souji was shaking her awake.
"Huh? Souji, what?" she grumbled, but felt something in her hand; it was that card, Fortune. Their eyes met through the card: "…So it wasn't just a dream."
Souji held Naoto close to him; her head settling naturally into her nook. "Remember back then at our headquarters, when we couldn't figure out why my shadow never appeared? I think that room had something to do with it." He scratched his head "Although I still don't understand it." Sensing the gears in her head whirring, he let her down to think.
"I see… so there's an underside to everything we can't see, and neither can we expect to completely understand or even know of every individual phenomenon."
'Regardless," she said, holding up the card "this has given me a lot to think about concerning the case."
A dusty hotel room overlooked a tropical beach. Thick, but tattered curtains let some scattered sunlight pass over piles of books and dated magazines. Pin-ups of scantily clad babes covered much of the faded wallpaper, and some of the bed. An unusually large TV set loomed over the space, and suddenly it went static. From the TV a tall man in a black trench dove onto the bed, rolling into a crouch and aiming a long-barreled magnum at the door. Alcee twirled it around his finger and slipped it into a holster at his thigh.
"Still got it" he said, winking at a poster.
He opened the curtains to let in the sun, and then plopped down on the bed; travel through the TV world was exhausting, but at least it was less of a hassle than air travel. Letting out a heavy sigh of relief, he groped around in his pocket for a particular cell phone, and called a certain Mitsuru Kirijo, head of Kirijo group and owner of this remote Pacific island. After a couple rings she picked up.
"Ah, Alcee… It's been a while" said Mitsuru. "Interested in restocking your suppression pills I presume?"
"Ah, Mitsy-chan you read me like a book!" said Alcee 'But I might have some ulterior motives for seeing you as well."
"Very well, the usual for our rendezvous then?"
"Ça a l'air bien."
"Vous y voir"
Alcee closed the phone and stretched his limbs out. Dearly he wished he didn't have to keep making these trips, no matter how useful his ability was to him. The suppressants were necessary just to keep Proteus, his Persona, from killing him. He was one of those unfortunate souls artificially awakened to their Persona by Kirijo group's experiments… the heartless bastards. If it wasn't for the pity of that Kirijo's son and later his granddaughter Mitsuru, he would've died along ago. Not that he had long to live anyways, considering the lethality of the suppressants themselves; the rest of the children had all passed on as far as Alcee knew.
He got up and rummaged around in his nightstand, eventually extracting a photograph; it was of him as a child with Shirogane-sama, the only memento he had of the man who had rescued him from that place. Under the bed was some wine which he fished out; he uncorked it held it and the photo aloft.
"To you, Gramps" said Alcee, taking a swig of wine, "and to the Shirogane name." He took another swig, and placed the photo in his pocket and the wine on the table before sweeping over to the closet to get a duster; he would need this place looking presentable for Lady Kirijo.
She arrived at the usual midnight hour, dressed as an executive and bearing a briefcase; bowing before letting Alcee take her coat.
"I hope I'm not late" said Mitsuru "board meetings can be rather tedious."
"And I imagine sneaking out for a midnight rendezvous with a dashing young rogue can't be good for your marriage" said Alcee.
"Excuse me?! Hideki knows that I… well," Mitsuru retorted, as Alcee gave her a penetrating gaze, "well he doesn't know much of anything about me!"
"There, there" said Alcee, placing an arm around her and leading her to the bed. "Arranged marriages aren't famous for their confidences, but at least you have me" he gave her a handkerchief to dab her eyes with, which she politely declined.
"I'm fine" said Mitsuru, "It's you that concerns me." She opened the briefcase and handed Alcee several large bottles of icy blue pills "that should suffice for a couple months."
"Merci beaucoup" said Alcee, tucking them into his coat. "Mitsuru, if I may ask you another favor?"
"You may" said Mitsuru.
"This world" he said, indicating the TV "that I travel through… Do you have the ability to monitor it?"
Mitsuru considered for a moment. "I could look into it… it is known that some with the potential develop Personas with such abilities, but I couldn't tell you whether or not the same ability applies within the TV." She brushed her hair aside, "Of course, I have full confidence that it is possible." Just then there was thunder, and a heavy rain pounded the roof.
"Ah" said Alcee, smiling, "this reminds me of a story I once read from my native New Orleans."
"Which one was that?" asked Mitsuru.
"The Storm by Kate Chopin" said Alcee, brushing back his long, lustrous hair "A good experience if I do say so myself" he looked Mitsuru right in the eye.
But her phone went off at that moment. She pried Alcee's arm from her shoulder and stood up: "I apologize, but I have important matters to attend to."
"But Madam!" started Alcee, grabbing her hands "You shouldn't rush off so blindly into this din!"
Mitsuru shook him off and left him grasping air. She got to the door before saying "Sorry midnight rider, but I've read The Storm."