" "=speech
' '=thoughts
**=sfx
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Adam Sampson wasn't the best when it came to being social, instead resorting to playing games to pass the time, when he wasn't struggling through the pressure of school life, he was in his bedroom, usually playing a game in the Persona series, that was his vice, his escape from the constant pressure he felt. one day, Adam was playing the newly released Persona 3: Reload, at around 11:30pm, the only light being from his monitor.
Adam: "hehe, stupei, good one Yukari...man I really am a loner...eh, whatever, most people are assholes anyway"
he muttered as he played the game, after visiting bookworms to advance the social link, his character was in the dorm
Adam: "alright, full moon time, let's get Fukka on the team and then sooner or later it's aigis time"
Before he knew it he was reloading his save over and over because of a tough enemy.
Adam: "Dammit, Dammit, DAMMIT!!! They keep changing affinities!"
The monitor suddenly went dark and his PC suddenly turned off
Adam: "w-wha- no! I didn't save! The hell happened?!"
he said, he looked at the clock on the wall, the oddly green moonlight shining on it, showing it to be exactly midnight
Adam: "...no...but, that's impossible..ain't it? I-It's just a game!"
The monitor suddenly turned back on, shining a velvet blue light over the room, Adam was suddenly lifted off the floor and sucked into the screen.
Adam screamed in fear as he was flung through the portal, when he finally landed, he found himself in...a disturbingly familiar location, the pale green moonlight shining down...on iwatodai station.
Adam: "w-w-what the hell?...am I freaking hallucinating or something?...am I really...here? If...if that's the case then I need to get to that dorm building before a shadow finds me..."
As if on que, a phantom mage landed infront of him, it was a lot taller than in game, and much more intimidating
Adam: "shit!"
Adam started running away from the station, hoping that he was headed in the right direction
Adam: "oh yeah this is such a balanced first encounter, just tossing a Phantom Mage at me!"
Adam could feel his lungs burning as he overexerted himself
Adam: "*huff* never *huff* ran this much *huff* before *huff*"
The dorm was in sight, he ran faster, or as much faster as he could manage, when suddenly felt a ball of fire knock him off his feet, he grunted in pain as he fell on his face, before he'd even scrambled to his feet the Phantom Mage was already there, another fireball in it's hand, ready to incinerate him.
Out of nowhere, an arrow struck through the shadow's hand and a girl with neck-length light brown hair and brown eyes emerged from the shadows with her bow in hand.
Adam 'holy shit, Yukari for the win!'
Yukari summoned her Persona, Io, and blasted the Phantom Mage with a wind attack before finishing it off with her bow.
Yukari then turned to look at Adam
Yukari: "hey, are you okay?"
Adam: 'thank fuck, I don't know Japanese' "uh, yeah I'm fine"
Adam got up and dusted himself off
Adam: "agh, still a little sore from the fireball..."
Yukari: "well you're lucky you came running down this street, my dorm's just there, you should come in, it's relatively safe in there"
Adam nodded and followed her into the dorm, inside he saw Junpei, Mirsuru, Shinjiro, Fukka, and Akihiko sitting around in the lounge, Junpei was impatiently tapping his foot.
Junpei: "man I'm sooo bored, we could be in Tartarus tonight, we're all awake"
Akihiko: "we can't just go in blindly, our leader's helped us get to where we are now"
Adam: 'well that rules out me replacing Makoto...'
Mitsuru: "Akihiko's right, without their guidance we would've gotten seriously hurt or worse"
Fukka: "I don't detect that shadow anymore, Yukari must be back"
They turned to look at the door and greeted Yukari with a smile then they noticed Adam.
Junpei: "uhh, who ya got there, Yuka-tan?"
Yukari: "oh...this is...uh...wait what is your name?"
Adam: 'quick, think of something Japanese sounding!' "Uhh...Kosuma, Kosuma Hakari"
He bowed as he introduced himself and his new, made up on the spot, name.
Junpei: "well Kosuma, welcome to the club"
Kosuma: 'oh right, they don't know I know' "club of...what exactly?"
Yukari: "is being attacked by monsters a daily occurrence to you? have you not noticed that every person's disappeared? Or that the sky's green?"
Kosuma: "oh right, forgot about that for a moment...what's up with that by the way?"
Mitsuru: "that is the Dark Hour, it happens every night at midnight, all electronics cease function and everyone is transmogrified into coffins and made unaware of anything that happens, with the exception like people like us, anyone not in a coffin is at risk to be attacked by shadows"
Kosuma: "you mean like that thing that tried to roast me alive?"
Mitsuru: "yes, but shadows can come in all shapes and sizes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses"
Kosuma: "oh...so why am I exempt?"
Yukari: "it means you have the power to fight shadows, can probably summon a persona now that you can experience the dark hour, either that or you'll wake up in the morning with no memory of what happened"
Kosuma: "a per-what now?"
Akihiko: "a persona is kinda like a spirit, a manifestation of your inner self that you can summon to fight against your enemies"
Kosuma: "oh, sounds cool!"
Junpei: "you bet it is! Not only that but we also get to explore Tartarus"
Kosuma: "explore the who and the what now?"
Junpei: "think of it like a video game, each night the floors rearrange themselves so that there's always something new"
Mitsuru: "Iori, that's a terrible explanation, it's not a game, the shadows are a real threat, and so is Tartarus, but you're right about how the floors rearrange everytime it emerges, but there are a handful of floors that remain the same, luckily we have a teleporter that takes us to those floors"
Kosuma: "well at least I won't have to worry about climbing all those stairs"
Junpei: "tell me about it, my legs are hurting just thinking bout it"
The sound of someone walking down the stairs caught Kosuma's attention, he turned and saw a girl with red eyes and auburn hair styled into a high ponytail with silver barrettes in it that resembled the Roman numeral XXII, she wore the female Gekkoukan High uniform with the addition of an MP3 player attached to a necklace complete with a pair of red ear clip headphones.
Kosuma: 'huh, guess we're going with Kotone'
Kotone: "hm? Oh! A new member?"
Mitsuru: "we don't know for certain yet, we don't even know if he goes to Gekkoukan"
Kosuma: "uh, yeah I have no idea what that is"
'Wow, I'm really good at playing a fish outta water'
Junpei: "wait, so you came here but you don't know what Gekkoukan high is?"
Kosuma: "uhh, honestly I think I just took the wrong train"
Mitsuru: "for some reason I highly doubt that, for one there's only one line that leads to this island and it's only stop is the mainland station and iwatodai...what is the real reason for you coming here?"
Kosuma: 'ah fuck, gotta think fast'
"Uhh..." 'dammit, of all the times to draw a blank!'
Mitsuru: "well?"
Kosuma: "I, uhh...I got nothing"
Yukari: "wait so you just up and decided to buy a seven thousand yen train ticket to an island that's pretty much centred around the school...on impulse?"
Kosuma: "uhh...yeah?"
Junpei: "...I ain't buying it"
Akihiko: "seems too much of a coincidence that you just so happened to show up just after a full moon"
Mitsuru: "so tell me, Kosuma Hakari, why are you here? and be truthful, you're surrounded by multiple powerful persona users"
Kosuma: "...alright fine, to be honest I have no idea how I got here, one minute I was in my room, the next I was outside Iwatodai station and being chased by a shadow, but I thought that would be too outlandish of an explanation to make any sense"
Mitsuru: "you were...transported here? That would explain the lack of reason for being here if you're not here of your own accord, in any case I think it would be in our best interests if you were to stay for a little while, do you have any objections?"
Kosuma: "not really, I'm cool with sticking around for a while"
Junpei: "aww yeah, one more score for the guys!"
Mirsuru walked up to Kosuma and handed him a hey with a room number on it.
Mitsuru: "for the time being, you'll be in a room on the second floor opposite Kotone's, she'll lead you there, for now get some rest, we'll see if you have the potential to be a member in the morning"
Kotone smiled as Kosuma began following her to his new room, a little while later he was laying in his bed when he felt a little uneasy. Meanwhile in the control room, all the members of SEES were gathered around the screen that was displayed footage of Kosuma's room.
Junpei: "uh, Kirijo-senpai, there aren't any cameras in any other rooms right?"
Mirsuru: "there were at first, but after being moved into the cameras are removed"
Fukka: "still, i-i can't help but think about how invasive this is"
Mitsuru: "it's only to see if he has the potential, and it's not like he knows that we're watching him sleep"
Meanwhile in Kosuma's room
Kosuma: '...they're definitely watching me right now, oh well, I'm too tired to have social anxiety right now'
Kosuma slowly drifted off to sleep, in his dream he awoke on a harp shaped chair in an impossibly sized blue elevator, sitting across from him was a man with a very long nose
Old man: "Welcome...to the velvet room"
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Alright! First chapter done, finally getting back into the grove!