Chapter Text
???
Iridescent.
That was the best way to describe this dream.
It has to be a dream, right? I’ve never seen anything like this.
Snapshots flashed through Ren’s mind at a blazing speed. He wasn’t able to, couldn’t, hold on to any of them. Flashing bulbs on a slot machine, a city sculpted out of ice and snow, the white sterility of an impossibly large…lab? That felt right.
Palace…Jail…?
Ren couldn’t land on specific words to associate with the images before they flitted off as fast as they came. Just faint sensations, echoes of emotions that they evoked. Wherever he was right now felt almost like that? Maybe? Not quite.
He was vaguely aware that he was walking. Or at least, his body was moving and his mind and senses were getting dragged along. He tried to push through the fog and focus on what was around him. Rock underfoot. Rock above, high above. Crystals of various shades, one moment blue, the next violet—
Sumi?
—the next pink. Crates, ropes. Old. And everywhere iridescent shards floating in the air. Either they were untouchable—
Iwai.
—or he couldn’t feel them. He couldn’t really feel anything right now, just the vaguest sense of motion as, hey look at that, his legs are apparently still moving forward, and so was time apparently, because it seemed as if every time he blinked, his eyes took in a new location, similar but different (this is like living through street view images, good one Ren), and WHY CAN’T I FOCUS.
This is like the interrogation room all over again…
And so it went. Ren gradually gave up on the quest for clear-headedness and let himself flow with the dream. He was underground, maybe, and the air felt charged like it did whenever he was doing Phantom Thievery, whatever that was. And there was a tickling at the back of his head, like someone or something was trying to push through, to get him to notice, but it’s just so much easier to not do that thing.
And perhaps a thousand or so eye blinks later, he came across a slime. Or something that looked like a slime, only it didn’t have eyes or a mouth, and it was clearly a lighter shade of green than he was used to (why did he know what a slime was supposed to look like, anyways?).
After blinking again without his location changing, Ren realized that his legs had stopped, which was probably a bad thing because it seemed like the slime noticed him. That tingling in the back of Ren’s mind was sharper now, more insistent. As the slime moved closer, that tingle became more pronounced, and while it impressed upon him feelings of fear and danger, a large part of Ren’s mind was perfectly okay with doing nothing, because dreams are gonna do what they’re gonna do.
That part of his mind was winning right up until the slime reared back and struck, and wow, is that pain? Ren found himself on the ground, his brain scrambling to re-contextualize the situation, the tingling now a blaring siren indicating that this is not a dream, call on me NOW. Somehow Ren managed to find himself upright again, and he shouted something in a voice he vaguely recalled as being his own:
“ARSÈNE!!”
And with the Pillager of Twilight's appearance came a brief but welcome moment of clarity. Ren quickly took in the fact that wherever he was was dangerous and that he needed to get out as soon as possible. The presence of the slime-like shadow in front of him meant that he had to be in the Metaverse, even if it didn’t quite feel the same as what he was used to. After taking care of this enemy, he’d have to check his phone for the Metanav or Sophia or anything that could return him to reality, because whatever brought him here also clearly messed with his head. He’d want to take stock of everything someplace a little less murdery.
Deciding against using any curse skill given his current mental state, a quick One-shot Kill was all that it took to eviscerate the slime. Arsène vanished as quickly as he appeared, settling into the back of Ren’s mind along with his other Personae. Still sending feelings of danger, of a need to be cautious.
Ren’s first thought once he was alone again was, It’s probably a bad thing that I couldn’t feel that attack’s cost to me physically.
His second was, why is the ground getting so close so fast?
His third was—