Surprise, persona-users!

Day #1 of my Christmas advent/challenge thing. Every day until Christmas, I'll make a post featuring either the character from the Arcana assigned to the day (apologies in advance if I fuck up their personalities) or an event of my choosing if no relevant character exists for the Arcana. Arcanas are assigned numerically, as in Fool (0) is today, and the World (21) is Christmas Day. Stories have no set theme and they have no minimum length. And so, the first one up is Rui Shinichi, our resident Fool!

If you want to, you can find updates/info [url=https://arcvalerik.titanpad.com/1?]here![/url]

[hider=Day #1]The doors behind the boy ended with a [i]chunk[/i], ushering him away from itself. He respected the wishes of the doors and carefully wandered to the next set of doors as he made sure to keep a steady balance on the deceiving rocking floor beneath him. It took effort similar to the last to open the door to the next cart, and as expected, it made a vicious sound as it shut closed. At first glance, no bodies appeared to inhabit any of the old velvet-red seats, but upon another look, Rui noticed the older looking woman resting by the window on bench directly behind the one he was headed to. The highschool student paid no heed to the elder as he was going to listen to his music with headphones anyway to get through the few hours it'd take to arrive in his city of destination.

At first, when he sat down stoically, Rui merely stared out the window at the snowy landscape that was quickly passing by, but it got bored faster than he expected and turned to his bag that he placed next to him on the seat, withdrawing a headset and MP3. He held the side button until the screen flashed on and was greeted with a "Battery Low!" warning message upon booting up. The boy had tried to will himself from using it before he got desperate but he already [i]was[/i].

Rui slid the headphones over his head with his one free hand and positioned them so they comfortably rested on his ears. He flipped through the varieties of music on the device until he found a band he recently discovered and decided he was feeling that genre at moment. A press of play later and he was gone immediately, staring at both the window and directly in front of him at the same, focusing on the vocals and instruments of the song. The song itself was slow and strong, causing the lyrics to become even more emotionally charged than Rui had initially thought. He had truly lost himself in the piece.

That is, until Christmas music started playing instead of his tunes. Jingle Bells; one of the most generic ones out there. The vocalist sang in a deep yet jolly voice that Rui figured would be what Santa would sing like, but he had no time for further analysis, as he instinctively ripped off his headphones and checked what song was playing on his device. The player still read the song he was listening too, about half-way though he track. There was no way to change the song besides a button which Rui was exceptionally confident his fingers had not pressed. He was indifferent to the song too so it wouldn't even be on there. Brushing it off as a auditory hallucination, Rui restarted the song, put his headphones back on, and leaned into the seat even further.

Christmas music again. Carol of the Bells this time. While he actually didn't mind the song itself, the unexpectedness, volume, and the sheer fact that he was listening to it instead of his own music scared him. He practically threw off the headset, hitting his bag with it and knocking it off the bench as a result. The old lady made a confused sound at the noise of it but quickly returned to whatever she was doing when she saw the young man that was picking up the mess of spilled items.

He checked the screen again; the song had finished playing and it had automatically started playing the next track on the album, which was [i]still[/i] not Christmas music. Tentatively, he brought the outside of the headphones to his ear to preemptively get a listen of what was coming out of them. What was playing was what should be playing. All seemed fine and Rui chalked it up as some weird day dream he had from blanking out. That is, until he slid the on again.

The song still played like it was, but an incredibly quiet murmuring was in the background of the music. Specifically coming out of the right speaker. The boy's heart rate grew faster as he realized that the sound was becoming louder, and he started to make it out. "m...r...chr...m..." It still wasn't completely audible even when it stopped increasing. Against his better judgement, though, Rui slowly increased the volume on the device until the words became clearer.

Just as he figured out what was being said, a voice loud enough to break his headphones came from behind the music's "MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOTHERFUCKER." In a bit of a shocked state, Rui lowered the headphones from his head and smoothly turned off his MP3 Player, stuffing it back into his bag as soon as the screen went black. He was done.[/hider]