September 4, 2015 – Friday, Evening – Clear
Lydia returned to her room and found an unexpected sight waiting inside: a glowing blue door next to her closet, with an elaborate golden design on it. She looked behind her to make sure no one else was around, and then closed her door.
Well, this is... I'm not sure whether to be glad I've finally come across one of these, or creeped out by the fact that it's in my room. At least I'm the only one who can see it. I guess since I finally have something I can do in there, now I can go inside while I'm still awake.
She pulled out the Velvet Key from her pocket and saw it react to the door, which she noticed didn't actually have a handle. The closer she got to it, the brighter the glow emanating from the key grew. When she had gotten close enough to it, a blue light enveloped her and then she found herself sitting in the guest's chair at the Velvet Room, with her bags of clothes set beside the chair.
"Welcome back. I see you have found one of the entrances from your world, and that you have brought with you a few things. I do not sense any new Personas within you, so I surmise you are here to make use of Victor's services." Igor said to Lydia, smiling at her. Even though she knew he was only here to help her, she still hadn't gotten used to that creepy smile of his. Victor gave her a respectful bow as he was acknowledged, the Persona Compendium held in his hands.
"What is your request?" The silver-haired man asked Lydia. She turned to see the bags of clothes and grabbed them with her hand.
"There are clothes in here that I want you to enchant."
"Of course. Ah, but... might I offer you a suggestion?" He said as Lydia got up from the seat.
"Yes?" Victor opened the cover of the Persona Compendium and turned a few pages to show her Ophelia's name under a heading that read "Fool Arcana", along with a whole page's worth of blank spaces where Personas were meant to be recorded.
"You currently have only Ophelia to draw power from. Are you sure you would not prefer to wait until you have obtained more Personas to use for enchanting?" Lydia felt slightly annoyed by this question, as she was aware that she only had Ophelia right now. Victor's polite manner told her that this was probably something he had to ask regardless, as a formality.
"Ophelia's power will be enough. Here, there are three separate garments that need the enchantment." She took the clothes out and laid them out on the table underneath the mirror, with enough space between them such that it was clear they were all separate jobs.
"I see. That will be..." Victor quoted a price that was near what she had paid for her own clothing. Lydia handed him the money, and he then proceeded to draw out three copies of Ophelia's Persona card, infusing their power into the clothes Lydia had brought to him. When he was done, she put the clothes back into their bags and looked up into his golden eyes.
"Victor, let me ask you something. If this place exists outside of the real world, what purpose does money serve to you? You said you're a resident of this place; does that mean you leave here to do things in the real world with the money?" Victor closed his eyes and smiled, before deciding to respond.
"I am indeed allowed to leave here on occasion, but only if I am accompanied by my guest. As for the money, neither I nor my master have any real need for it. It is a curiosity that Master Igor allows us Velvet Room attendants to possess in order to provide our services to you." Lydia crossed her arms and huffed.
"Well, if you don't need the money, why I am paying you with it? Isn't there something else I can use instead?" Victor was unfazed by her response, and looked to Igor for a moment before responding to Lydia.
"In your world, people ascribe quantized values to pieces of paper and metal in order to maintain economic balance. It is not so much about the medium of exchange, but rather, the value bestowed upon it that is important to us. Any form of growth has a cost; there is always something expended in the formation of new and better things. To part with something largely recognized as having value amongst human beings is the particular necessary expenditure Master Igor has decided upon." Lydia took in his explanation, letting the ideas sink into her mind.
In other words, these services cost money because money is considered valuable. It's more accurate to say that the Velvet Room takes what is valuable and converts it into something else that's valuable. It's also probably just easier to deal with than trying to haggle over the worth of some other object.
"I see. When you put it that way, it makes sense. It's actually pretty deep, when you think about it. Still, I don't know where I'm going to keep getting the money for this. Well, thank you for the enchantments, Victor. I'm sure I'll be back once I've obtained some new Personas." Lydia looked behind the guest's chair to see that there was indeed a door going back to the real world, the very same one that she'd used to come here.
"We will be looking forward to your next visit. See you then, Lydia."
Lydia found that she did not need to use the key to return; just approaching the door with the intent to leave was enough to warp her back to her room. Victor had said he was only allowed to leave the Velvet Room if accompanied by his guest, which in this case, meant her. The implications of what that meant considering the location of this particular door were not lost on her, and she shook her head free of those thoughts before deciding to go to sleep.
As it turned out, even though the Velvet Room gave off a constant blue glow, its light did not actually illuminate her darkened room. It was also positioned such that she couldn't see it from her bed, not unless she turned around specifically to look at it. Lydia sighed as she fell back down onto her pillow, once again having a feeling of nervousness about tomorrow. Her eyes instinctively moved towards Junebug, and she decided to hold him close to her once again as she fell asleep for the night.
September 5, 2015 – Saturday, Morning – Cloudy
Damien had texted Lydia his address and made sure that she knew how to get to his house before she left. Her parents had asked her the same question Gerald had about the extra bags of clothing, and she had had to give them the same excuse as well. It weighed on her that at some point, she would have to stop by a supermarket or an arts and crafts store to pick up the necessary materials to make that collage.
Damien's house was much farther away than the high school, and for someone who was used to being able to drive across town in under five minutes, it almost felt like she was going out of town. His house was situated in a neighborhood similar to her own, except the houses were situated in cul-de-sacs as opposed to being linearly arranged.
910 Yolanda Circle. This is it. Another two-story house, and Damien said to park by the curb. It's not a bad-looking house, either.
She got out of her car and brought the bags of clothing with her. Damien opened the door before she reached it, and let her into his house.
"So, that's the dress you bought, huh? Not bad, not bad at all. Come on in." Lydia walked in and saw a bunch of pictures of Damien and his family on the walls as she entered. The living room had a large flat screen TV situated in the middle, with two entire bookcases full of DVDs beside it. There were colored pieces of paper inserted at certain points amongst the DVDs. Allie was sitting on the leather couch in front of the TV, watching a sitcom.
"So, uh... make yourself at home. Do you want something to drink?" Damien asked as Lydia sat down next to Allie.
"Just whatever cola you have is fine." Lydia said. Allie raised her hand and chimed in her own drink request.
"Let me have some of that Bestea!" Damien went into the kitchen and began poking around in the fridge for the drinks. He gave the girls the drinks and then sat on the couch on the other side of Allie holding his own can of soda.
"You said you wanted to use the bathroom mirror to go this time?" Lydia asked. Damien took a gulp from his soda and put it on a coaster sitting on the small table beside the couch. Lydia noticed there was a whole stack of coasters there, likely to keep the wood finish on the furniture as clean as possible.
"That's what I was thinking. Actually, didn't we throw around the idea of using your mirrors from the other side, too? Let's try that before we use the bathroom mirror." Damien said. Lydia reached for her purse that was sitting on the coffee table in front of her and pulled out her mirror. Allie had retrieved hers from her pocket.
"Wait, hold on. We should change first." Allie said to Damien as she put her marble-lined compact mirror on the table and got up from the couch.
"Yeah. Sit tight, Lydia, we'll be right back." The two of them took their clothes and split ways; Allie went down a hallway towards one of the bathrooms, and Damien went upstairs to his room. Lydia had already come wearing her new dress, and so decided to have a closer look at Allie's mirror. It felt smooth and as hard as real marble, with gray swirls decorating its white finish. Lydia wondered for a moment if she could actually use Allie's mirror to summon a Persona.
Probably not. The mirrors seem to be individually designed for a reason. To Allie, this is how she'll summon Medusa, but to me, this is just a very pretty compact mirror. And there's still the question of whether or not Personas can be called in this world... but I have no idea where we'd be able to test that without being seen. It's not exactly a discreet thing.
She heard the sound of Damien's footsteps coming down the stairs and turned her head to see him wearing his new t-shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans and sneakers. Being at home, he hadn't bothered to spike his hair up, and so it sat flattened on his head.
"I should probably turn the TV off. We'll need the quiet." He walked over to the remote that was laying on the coffee table and turned the TV off. The door from down the hall opened and the light inside turned off, Allie emerging with her hair done in the side ponytail and wearing her new dress with a pair of pink-and-black hightops.
"Fry me up and serve me on a platter. Now that is quite a look for you." Damien commented, taking in her new appearance. Allie looked down at herself and smoothed out the dress, letting out a breath.
"Yeah. It's going to take time before I wear something like this to school, though. A lot of time." She sat down next to Lydia, who had moved over to the center of the couch, and got her mirror back from Lydia. Damien sat down on Lydia's other side and looked at the girls' mirrors.
"Lydia's is larger. If we all need to be looking into it, then we should use hers." Lydia nodded, and held the mirror out from her as far away as she could.
"Scoot in closer. You both need to be touching me if we're all going to warp together." They did as she told them, and all of three stared into Lydia's mirror.
A whole minute passed by in silence, and nothing happened. Damien's eyes began to flitter about, focusing on different things in the image. Another minute passed by, and still, nothing happened. Allie was now beginning to get distracted, and Lydia remembered that the last time something like this was done, something had already happened by now. After almost three whole minutes had passed by without any sort of change in the mirror or in each other, Damien broke eye contact with the mirror entirely and leaned his head back on the couch, sighing.
"This isn't working. Based on the video footage that Allie had of when it happened to her, she started feeling different after a minute and then both of you were gone within a couple of minutes. The only thing I feel right now is awkward." He reached for his soda and took a couple of gulps from the can.
"I guess we'll have to use the bathroom mirror, then." Allie said, getting up from the couch.
"Use the one upstairs. The bathroom down the hall is a half bathroom, so its mirror's really small." The three of them followed Damien upstairs to the larger bathroom, that had various personal care implements organized by sections, demarcated by color. Its organization was impressive given that all of Damien's siblings were girls, Lydia noted.
"Okay. I hope this works. I'm gonna be bummed if it doesn't." Damien said as he began to look into his bathroom mirror. He looked into his eyes and gradually felt himself being drawn towards them. The girls watched as the image of Damien in the mirror began to shimmer, while theirs stayed the same. Allie saw for herself how her friend's eyes began to glaze over as his image in the mirror began to change; his hair was now spiked again, and his clothes morphed into a tuxedo, complete with bowtie and rose pinned to the breast. Damien's facial expression changed from an annoyed frown to a mesmerized smile.
"Allie, put your hand on his shoulder. Now." Lydia said, her hand already on Damien's right shoulder. Allie did so and watched as Damien's other self reached his hand out to him, smiling widely and nodding. The real Damien copied his grin and attempted to reach out to him as well, but before he could do so, everything flashed white and the three of them were thrown into the valley once again.
Lydia shook her head and looked around to see where everyone was. Allie was sitting up on the ground next to a quartz deposit, and Damien was standing still, facing away from the both of them. He began to walk off.
"Damien, wait! Stop!" Allie stood up and ran up to him, grabbing his wrist and turning him towards her. She was shocked to see that his eyes had dilated, his pupils large and devoid of conscious thought.
"I have to see him. I need to see him!" Damien shouted as he pulled himself free from Allie's grasp and took off running across the valley. Allie tried to follow him, but was stopped by Lydia calling out to her.
"Wait! You don't know what's going to happen next!" Allie stopped and watched what happened as Damien ran away. From the ground, the quartz deposits reacted and burst upwards, forming in seconds a huge gray building that was as tall as a skyscraper. Damien was standing on the top of the skyscraper as it was being created, and was encased in it as the building's shape finalized. Around the building, the grass was flattened as the quartz covered it. A flash emitted from the quartz on the ground and suddenly it had become completely smooth, a gray pavement meant to emulate a parking lot right outside the entrance to the building. There was even a logo emblazoned onto the "pavement": the very same stylized phoenix that was on Damien's t-shirt.
"Whoa." Was the only word Allie could think to say about the whole thing. Lydia walked up next to her and looked up the height of the skyscraper.
"He's at the very top of that, isn't he? I swear, there better be an elevator in there." A coagulating sound reached Lydia's ears and she immediately looked towards the surrounding quartz deposits, which were beginning to turn black.
"Allie, get ready. The Shadows know we're here." Allie looked around her and saw the Shadows solidify and jump out as moving blobs of goo, and looked down at her compact mirror, opening it.
"I just have to... call her name, right? What am I supposed to do after that?!" Allie said, backing up towards Lydia, who already had her mirror at the ready. The Shadows took form as humanoid thugs wielding knives, each of them wearing a mask that looked like a roulette wheel with its distribution of red and green colors. Four of them had spawned before the two girls.
"Medusa probably has a magic skill you can use! You'll know what it is when you call her, now do it!" Lydia looked into her mirror and beheld Ophelia's image in it, and willed her to come forth.
"Let's go! Aqua!" The mirror was consumed in blue flame and Ophelia appeared, firing a jet of water that knocked the nearest Shadow back, but didn't destroy it. Allie looked into her mirror and saw Medusa's face looking back at her, with a confident smile on her face.
"What do you say we get this party started?" Her Persona said, and Allie nodded, drawing in a breath and steeling herself.
"Okay! Come on out, Medusa!" Allie was startled by the mirror suddenly being consumed in blue flames, and was relieved to see Medusa come into existence before her, in a ready stance with her fists clenched. She then suddenly knew that Medusa could do three different things – use earth magic, use a focused physical attack, and petrify a single opponent for a short time. She decided to see how the last option worked.
"Stop them in their tracks. Petrava!" Medusa responded by focusing her gaze at one of the Shadows, and shrieked at it as her eyes glowed with a golden hue. The Shadow jumped before turning to stone in mid-air, landing as a statue face down on the ground.
"Aqua!" Lydia called for another blast of water to finish off the Shadow she had hit before. The remaining two decided to split up in their retaliation. Allie closed her eyes and willed Medusa to shield her, but felt a sharp pain in her abdomen from where the Shadow's knife had pierced her Persona.
"Ow! It really does hurt!" She said, and glared at the Shadow that attacked her.
"Lunge!" Medusa surrounded herself in a veil of green energy and rammed the Shadow, which knocked it back a few feet. Allie felt some of her physical energy go into Medusa for that attack, as if she'd done an entire set of exercises in an instant.
"Guard." Lydia commanded, and Ophelia crossed her arms in front of her chest and took the other Shadow's attack. Lydia felt a dull pain on her arms and then looked to Allie, who she noticed was doing pretty well.
"Allie! You take the one in front of me! I'll get the one on the far end!"
"Okay!" There was only one attack she hadn't tried out yet: the earth magic attack. She directed Medusa's attention to the Shadow directly in front of Lydia and called out,
"Magna!" A rock formed in the air above with the Shadow and was smashed into it, defeating it in one blow. Lydia directed Ophelia to attack the other Shadow, her attack reducing it to bits after Allie's attack had weakened it. The girls then turned their attention to the petrified Shadow, who was still stuck in its fallen-over state. It began to shake, Medusa's petrification beginning to wear off.
"Lydia! It's wide open! Let's finish it now!" Allie said, and Lydia nodded. Both of the girls focused on the remaining Shadow, and each of them commanded their Persona to use her elemental attack on it. The attacks collided with each other before they hit the Shadow, with the water splitting the rock into pieces that flew in every direction. The Shadow was destroyed instantly due to being so close to the impact, and as soon as it evaporated, Lydia noticed a set of small quartz crystals on the ground from where the Shadows had been destroyed.
Ophelia's voice echoed in Lydia's mind once more.
"It appears that we have once again grown stronger. I am now able to utilize the healing skill Dia. Also, you and Allie have created what is known as a Fusion Spell via your combined efforts. Its name is Ripple Smash." She was grateful that Ophelia could now heal them, which was going to be necessary if they wanted to be able to save Damien. For now, her attention turned to the unusual quartz crystals on the ground. As she approached one, it sprouted open and grew a thin, ropy vine that blossomed into a tarot card. The other three crystals then did the same thing, such that there were four crystalline vines growing up from the ground in front of Lydia, each of them with tarot cards for flowers.
"The seeds of opportunity... that was literal, huh?" Lydia muttered as she looked at the card nearest her. It had the image of a golden coin on it, along with the number one in the corners. She looked at the other cards and saw a green vine-like wand on one, a blue cup on another, and the image of something on the last one. Allie attempted to touch one of the vines, but she saw her hand phase through it as if it didn't exist.
"What are these things? They came out of the Shadows we just beat, right?" Allie asked, waving her hand back and forth through the vine. Lydia went over to the one that had the image of something on it, and saw the portrait of a blue-haired woman with a wheel for a torso, her billowing clothing also forming the shape of a circle around her. Looking at it long enough inserted the name of the figure into her mind: Fortuna.
"This is a Persona card." Lydia said, and plucked the card from the vine. The other vines reacted by shriveling and dissolving before they hit the ground, with the cards they held also disappearing into the air. The card that Lydia held emitted a blue glow before sinking into her hand. She then felt the presence of another entity in her mind, one that had wind magic at its disposal.
"I am Fortuna. Together, we will alter the course of fate..." Lydia heard the Persona's voice in her mind, and smiled as she realized she now had two Personas to utilize in battle. As she concentrated on Fortuna, however, she felt Ophelia's presence weaken. Startled by this, she reached deeper into her mind to pull back Ophelia, and as her presence became stronger, Fortuna's fell into the background.
It looks I can only focus on one of them at a time... well, that's disappointing. Maybe I just need to become stronger before I can use two Personas at once.
She was curious to see what Fortuna's abilities looked like in battle, and so brought her to the forefront of her mind. Allie had dispelled Medusa, and felt her mirror reform in her hand.
"Oh. There it is." She said. The two girls looked towards the skyscraper, wondering what it could mean in terms of Damien's Idol, which was no doubt in there with him right now.
"Wait. You remember what we we supposed to come here to do, right? If Damien hadn't gotten hypnotized?" Lydia asked.
"Ohhhhh. Yeah. I totally forgot about that." Allie said, remembering the ghost girl that had called herself F.Z. If she could sense when people were in here, why hadn't she came of her own accord already?
"F.Z.! Where are you? I know you're there!" Lydia called out to her, and felt a wind blow blades of grass by her. The blades of grass coalesced to form the shape of a human being, and then F.Z. appeared in full in front of her, wearing the exact same outfit from before. The translucent girl took a moment to take in her surroundings.
"Holy shit. You two really did come back! And at the same time another person got caught in here, too. Looks like some pretty swell timing. So, what are we gonna do?" She cracked her knuckles and stretched.
"Our friend Damien is inside there. We're going to go save him from his Idol. You want to come?" Lydia asked F.Z., who gave her a wide smile.
"You're gonna fight the Shadows, huh? Now that sounds like a good time to me. I didn't even know what the hell we were gonna do, anyways. Hold on a sec, though." She kicked off her shoes and ripped off part of her grass dress, such that her knees were exposed and she was barefoot. She then used one of the nearby quartz deposits to quickly fashion for herself a pair of flats, and put those on her feet. The removed items of clothing both disintegrated.
"There. If we're gonna be running around, I want to be mobile. I can't run around in those clunky shoes. See, I might be a ghost or whatever, but I can't levitate. I can sort of phase through stuff by turning into wind, but if it's an airtight space, I can't go through it any more than either of you could. Also I can't actually see when I do that, and I don't wanna miss any of the fighting." Lydia began to walk in the direction of the skyscraper.
"We should get going. There has to be a way we can get up there quickly. Just so you know, Allie, Ophelia can use a healing spell now. Let me know if you need it, okay?"
"Healing? Oh, good. That battle sort of took a little out of me. One of Medusa's skills makes me more tired when I use it. Show me how that healing process works." Lydia nodded and brought Ophelia to the forefront of her mind, and brought her forth so that she could use Dia. Allie was briefly enveloped by light and then felt her tiredness go away, like the light had filled up her stores of energy again.
"Alright! Yeah, we can definitely save Damien now! Let's go!"
