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Our site takes places in an original universe set within the realm of Shin Megami Tensei's "Persona" video game series. We are an English-literate roleplay that emphasizes detailed, story-driven character development with a pseudo-statistical format that seeks to emulate the experience of playing the games. Form bonds with characters and roleplayers alike in an interactive Persona experience unlike any other.
Events
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this project as much as we have had making it.
- The Velvet Room Staff
A PLACE BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY, MIND AND MATTER
Deep within the furthest reaches of the unconscious mind, a faint blue light glimmers like crystal before a candle. To gaze at this point is an instinctive reflex, a yearning to drive away the cold embrace of nothingness. Reaching for this twinkle in the void, however, produces a sensation comparable to falling through the air without a working parachute. It takes less than an instant for the azure speck to transmogrify into a whirling tunnel of blue and white, the 'falling' now closer to 'dragging', until every possible sense that could be imagined falls awash with numbing warmth.
The soft melody of a piano creeps its way into earshot. Following this is a return of vision, which is greeted by an abundance of stunning blues in varying shades and hues. Smell is the next to return, and it is greeted by the distinctive odor of poppy flowers. The exquisite choice in decorum suggested this place to be a smoking lounge, perhaps even a private drawing room, and the presence of a minibar stocked to its brim with a collection of reserves seemed to betray its inescapably surreal atmosphere.
Of course, this was not the true elephant in the room. Rather fittingly, and not without a hint of irony, that privilege belonged to the mysterious fellow with the long and pointy nose, who just so happened to be sitting squarely across the person that now existed as an occupant of this strange blue space. Sitting next to the bug-eyed gentleman in the black suit was a tall and handsome man with dull cobalt hair and pale xanthous eyes, wearing what appeared to be a stylish Inverness cape, whose stoic porcelain features painted a sharp contrast to the other person's seemingly crazed smirk and fixed stare.
"Welcome—" Speaks the old man at last, addressing his new visitor in a prolonged manner, "—to the Velvet Room."
Post by Chandra Teller on Oct 12, 2018 15:29:17 GMT -6
When Chandra had first went to bed, it was from a feeling of mental exhaustion and a lack of care for herself and her surroundings... Her body had ached as it drifted to a slumber, her mind losin lucidity as it blanked out.
And then... Blue. An ocean-blue more vibrant than any abyssal sea she had ever laid her eyes on.
The recovering senses of the girl became alert and fine-tuned their surroundings as she arose from the void of her mind... A feeling more acute plaguing her. It was... actually kinda nice... It was that kinda flight-y feeling that you feel when you are just a little buzzed, but you stay alert. That distant sound of a piano being played eased her jump-y nerves as she recognized that she was sitting down on some of the finest upholstery she had ever had the privelege to sit on. Her usual unalert expression was not visible tonight, her eyes darting around taking the sights of this new location she was in... only to recognize she was not alone here.
Yick. The way that this old man gazed at her with that mannequin-esque smile... Now THERE was something that was clearly crossing the line of uncanny. That nose looked like it could poke an eye out as well. S-still, no reason to be rude now... Right? After all, this place was rather fancy-looking and neither he nor the handsome-looking man beside her host seemed particularly hostile. "... Thank you, but uh... Did I stumble in here by accident? I hope not I was not intruding or anything."
This was the only way her mind could rationalize this right now... She must have like sleepwalked or something. She remembered having this wicked headache earlier before going to bed, but she sure as hell didn't remember walking into a place like this. The last thing she wanted to do was get into trouble for home invasion.
A PLACE BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY, MIND AND MATTER
"On the contrary, my dear! Your presence here is certainly no accident." The goblin-faced fellow replies with a strange song-like melody to his voice, almost as though he were trying to hypnotize the young blonde child that now sat across from him. "You are here because destiny itself has conspired to arrange this very encounter between us." He then giggles rather impishly, like a child that simply cannot keep a secret to save his life.
"My name is Igor, and I am utterly delighted to make your acquaintance," the creepy-nosed man identifies himself at last, lowering his head in a polite bow of courtesy as those bulbous, bloodshot eyes dart over to the placid-faced gentleman in the fancy bluish cape, who just barely manages to allow his lips to form something resembling a smile. "This is my Attendant, Virgil." Igor returns his billion-mile stare back over to the visitor, matched only by the intensity of his Cheshire grin.
Like so many others that have been given permission to enter the Velvet Room, Igor allows himself to humor a certain degree of theatricality for the sake of demonstrating his guest's circumstances in greater detail. And, just like the countless other instances before, he dramatically sweeps his hands across the circular table as if he were clearing objects off its surface. In that same uninterrupted motion a blue satin tablecloth topped with a deck of ornately leafed Tarot cards appears from nothingness, now extant and fully real when mere seconds ago it was not.
Igor's display is hallmarked with a single question: "I wish to know — do you believe in magic?"
Post by Chandra Teller on Oct 13, 2018 12:04:44 GMT -6
Big nose already lost Chandra... Was he meaning to say he was expecting her here? The blonde was not much one to believes in quirks like destiny... If anything, it sounded like some bizarre way of workig around describing a kidnapping. Then again, what kinda kidnapper had a place this fancy? She would have expected to be locked away in some grimy basement if that were the case.
That aside... This Igor guy was at least polite; gentlemanly even. Their voice was smooth and gentle, which only further made the contrast of their appearance more extreme. Someone must have been a fan of literature to have names like those... First time she has ever met people named Igor and Virgil, though she still had questions. Like for instance, why was she here then? Actually, where WAS here...? Big nose called it the Velvet Room, but where exactly WAS this room? "I never heard of this place... Is it downtown? Or... Somewhere else?"
Look, she wasn't a superstitious gal... but there was a very surreal vibe to all this. It didn't make sense why she was here, and her addled mind was trying its best to piece things out. Yet... Seeing Igor call upon a beautiful cloth seemingly from the aether (her eyes had for a moment considered it just a trick, but there was no mistaking what happened just now) was enough to cause pause for the young woman.
"I don't really believe in magic... But my gut is telling me maybe I gotta reconsider that statement now." she responded, gazing at the cards laid out now. Were they going to play Texas Hold-Em or something? Of course not... but her mind just had a way with thinking up of immature responses.
A PLACE BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY, MIND AND MATTER
"This is a place that exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter." Igor's response is so fluid and timely one would think it were scripted before this conversation ever began, like a robot programmed to speak a series of lines in a facsimile of true peer-to-peer dialogue. He eyeballs the deck of cards before him, both literally and intently, practically bathing in their mere presence.
"Magic is merely an expression of that which the mind cannot fully comprehend. It is the concept of 'mystery' given form," Igor segues cleanly into his next act by twisting his hand palm-side up; from the middle of the deck flies a single card, which dances through the air until it spins facing towards an understandably dazed young woman. On its surface appeared a pair of eyes crowned with a lemniscate, the symbol of infinity, as two hands cradle a wand glowing with the flames of creative force, action, and willpower.
"Take The Magician, for example," Igor pauses, another layer of intrigue to the demonstration, "He is a character who exemplifies the pinnacle of personal achievement; he manifests that which we see as miracles, because he deeply understands what must be done to bring these dreams into reality. The wand he wields signifies the tools at his disposal, and can even be seen as a symbol of creativity itself." His eyes then proceed to squint rather impishly; it is the closest he has ever been thus far to completing a full blink. "The Tarot reveals a great many secrets about the nature of the soul, my dear. And this card tells me that you have untapped potential, waiting for the chance to reveal itself."
With another sharp click of his bony fingers, Igor seemingly triggers a fantastic metamorphosis before the young girl's very eyes, causing The Magician to suddenly burst into a bouquet of stunning blue roses, a direct visual metaphor for mystery and dreams the human mind somehow rationalizes to be impossible. To reach for it, even on a reflexive scale, causes the bunch of flowers to dissolve into a harmless flutter of iridescent Morpho butterflies, which themselves dissipate into a luminescent shower of aqua-hued flecks.
"I must confess that my demonstrations are rather superfluous, for I cannot influence or engender such beliefs in others; those are something that you, and you alone, must determine for yourself." Igor chuckles in that evasive manner of his, his shoulders rolling somewhat from the supposed humor (or was it irony?) of his position. "What we are able to do is provide and offer assistance to those who choose to accept the terms and conditions of their contract with the Velvet Room." Yeah, still evasive.
Post by Chandra Teller on Oct 17, 2018 10:43:08 GMT -6
A place between dreams and reality? She wished that Igor could be more clear, but somehow she got the feeling that wasn't his modus operandi. How do you get between a dream and the real world? What even exists there? Well, apparently this Velvet Room for instance, but all these vague metaphors baffled her about the meaning as to why she was here. Magic she supposed COULD be described as just the unknown and not understood... which was a good way of describing the well-dressed old man's tricks with those cards.
The Magician.
Igor had a flowery way of speaking, eloquently stringing words along without fail describing the archetype of the Magician... A being of potential and knowledge that brings on what others call miracles.
So the exact opposite of who she was... right? She found it hard to believe that even such qualities still existed in her... Maybe when she was younger and more talented, but that was in the past. She was just a free-loader who made garbage that could technically be called art. She felt big nose far more embodied what they were describing than her, what with the fanciful tricks of the mind with beautiful roses transforming into delicate morphos... So what did he see in her?
Chandra had remained quiet during the demonstration, absorbing the man's words... Trying to decipher a meaning to them all. "So it in the end comes down to the individual...?" she calmly mused. Man, what a weight on her shoulders... It wasn't like she wasn't already juggling a dozen other aspects of her life at one time. More curiously though was the mention of the contract... What terms and conditions? And what kind of assistance could a place like this provide to her? This caught the pastel-haired girl's attention. "A contract? What kind of terms and conditions are you wanting me to agree to?"
There was no gurantee in her mind that she even WANTED to accept these claims, but she wanted to know what this was about. Her own curiosity was just too strong to not be swayed by the flutist's song.
A PLACE BETWEEN DREAMS AND REALITY, MIND AND MATTER
Igor smiles even more intensely than ever before, a feat that almost seemed impossible given his fixed facial features yet was somehow achieved without the slightest hint of effort. It has been so long since a guest had taken the initiative to ask about the true nature of the Velvet Room's so-called 'contract' — while the young girl with bright hair might not have realized the overarching redundancy of her inquiry, it was her honesty, her desire to understand, that made it worthwhile to answer the question.
"The terms are as follows," Igor says as his spindly frame leans forward, stick-like fingers curled into one another like the gnarled roots of a tree older than time itself. "From this moment forward, you must accept full responsibility for each and every decision you make." He chuckles next, as if he were deliberately building up to a grand reveal just to sweep the rug out from beneath the girl's feet, except he lacked any of the malicious intent that some might attribute to a bully.
"I feel it necessary to reinforce the importance of my master's words, young lady." Finally speaks the handsome fellow named Virgil, projecting this dialogue with a pronounced British accent. He smiles, very faintly, at the young woman in a way that almost seemed to match the uncanny element of Igor's crazed bloodshot expression. "Another note to consider is this: we cannot force you to accept these conditions. Only you are able to determine for yourself whether or not our assistance will help you in the coming days."
It is a series of statements that poses a rather important conundrum for the Velvet Room's only other occupant: exactly what was supposed to happen in the coming days? Were these two figures deliberately withholding this knowledge from her, or were they just as clueless and uninformed as she?
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