Title: Apotheosis

Summary: "Welcome to the Velvet Room," the old man with the long, hooked nose and large grin greeted Orihara Izaya, "I am Igor, it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance." A Durarara/Persona fusion fic.

Apotheosis(from Greek ἀποθέωσις from ἀποθεοῦν, apotheoun "to deify"; in Latin deificatio "making divine"; also called divinization and deification) is the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.

I've awaken to a new world, bright and clear,

But the trails of dreams linger on,

Bleeding in the corners, seeping through the seams,

The dream hasn't ended,

It has followed the dreamer into the waking world.

Chapter 1: Waking Dream

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the old man with the long, hooked nose and large grin greeted Orihara Izaya, "I am Igor; it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Izaya let a smile tugged his mouth, affecting a friendly façade to mask his confusion. "Ah, Igor-san," he purred, sauntering over towards him and seating himself in the chair in front of the stranger, "Forgive me, but it seems I am lost. I certainly do not recall ever coming here."

"Perhaps you did not intend to come here, but you arrived here anyway because of necessity," Igor replied, still smiling that large, Cheshire Cat-grin. He pushed forward a slip of paper on the coffee table, "You have signed a contract with my master, Orihara Izaya-san. Henceforth, you are a guest of the Velvet Room and may use its services to prepare for the trials to come."

Izaya glanced down at the sheaf of paper, inwardly frowning as he saw his signature. 'I chooseth this fate of mine own free will,' it said, and nothing else about its purpose, goals, or limitations. What was that supposed to mean? What was he supposed to do? As an informant, Izaya was used to reading and signing contracts, looking over the written words to find loopholes and cracks he could use. But this? It was so vague, he couldn't understand what he was supposed to do, let alone cheat himself out of it.

"I don't recall ever signing that," the brunet said, still smiling pleasantly. His crimson eyes, however, gained a hint of ice.

"And yet there it is; your signature," Igor replied, unperturbed by the silent threat, "And further proof of that is your presence here. Only those who have signed the contract can enter the Velvet Room."

The lack of concrete information sparked a slow simmer of irritation inside Izaya. It was like dealing with another Tsukumoya Shinichi, much to his annoyance. As an informant, it was practically a necessity for him to have as much information on anything and everything, to affect the appearance of an omniscient god and maintain his survival value. To be left in a place he did not remember going to, to lack knowledge of his current situation and location…it aggravated the brunet more than he cared to admit.

"What is the Velvet Room, then?" he asked, voice honey-sweet and viper-poisoned, "And where is it located?"

"The Velvet Room exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is invisible to all except those with high spiritual sensitivity, and can only be accessed by those who have formed a contract," Igor explained, "It is rooted in humanity's collective unconscious, and it is where one can summon and fuse Personas in preparation for the trials to come."

"Interesting," Izaya remarked, and this time, he really meant it. He leaned back against his chair, crossing one leg over the other and observed the strange being in front of him. Perhaps others would have questioned the validity of that statement, but to someone who has dealt with headless fairies and monsters in human flesh regularly, the possibility of a realm within humanity's collective unconscious was not only acceptable, but thrilling. To know that only he could access it—well, doesn't that made Izaya special? "How very Carl Jung of you."

The old man grinned at him, and while it may looked creepy to others, to Izaya it was the softness in his eyes which indicated a kindness he wasn't familiar with that made him uncomfortable. "I understand that you still have many questions, but rest assured, they will all be answered in time," he took out a blue key from his pocket and offered it to him, "This is the Velvet Key. With this, you can return to this room anytime you like," Igor smiled, "Now, I believe our time is up. Time marches onward in your world, and I shall not delay you from returning to it."

"Very well then," Izaya said, standing up, his fox-like grin still in place, "One more question before I go, though. What are the requirements to fulfil the contract?"

"I cannot tell you that, for this is your path to take; the destination—yours to decide," Igor chuckled, grinning up at him, "All I ask is that you take responsibility for your actions, whatever they may be."

Before Izaya could counter ("That's not an answer!") his vision went black.

The dreamer had awoken, but that does not mean the dream had ended.

Izaya woke up with the brunt of the morning sun hitting his cheek.

He groaned, blearily rubbing sleep off his eyes. A glance at his bedside clock revealed the time to be 9 a.m.—he overslept. Given the strange dream he had though, the brunet thought that it was reasonable. He didn't have any meetings in the morning anyways, and at least the dream had been entertaining. What was it called again—the Velvet Room? And that strange old man, too, with the tengu-like nose—

There was a weight on his chest.

Slowly, disbelievingly, Izaya reached up to his neck and gripped the necklace he didn't remember putting on. Incredulously, he brought it to eye level and opened his fist, revealing the blue key Igor had given him in his dream.

It wasn't a dream.

First came shock, and then, like a wave, laughter spilled out from his throat. Giddiness bubbled up in his chest and he grinned widely as he stared at the key. He laughed and laughed and laughed, nearly manic in his intensity. Doubling over and clutching the sheets, his mind swirled with endless possibilities and future scenarios.

"Oh," he purred into the morning light and empty room, "things are going to be interesting."

He had a meeting with Shiki at his base at 4 p.m., but since he had time, Izaya decided to crack open his books and do some research.

As a lover of humanity, Izaya had many psychology books. How could he not, when that was the field of study that offered the most insight to his most beloved subject? And, oh, the things he learnt from it. From Freud's psychosexual development to cognitive psychology, from classical conditioning to observational learning—who cares if there wasn't any Grand Unified Theory that connected them all like physics? That was what made it interesting! There were so many theories on humanity's actions, that if Izaya found himself bored with one lens in which to view them, he could swap it with a different lens. And through seeing humanity through different lenses, he could see all the colourful, twisted facets they had to offer.

And wasn't that what lovers do—saw their beloved so perfectly; they could gaze at all their expressions forever?

Humans are the most intriguing creatures on this planet.

He chuckled to himself. Yes, that was true. Humanity was so interesting! They never stopped to amaze and amuse him. Like now; the Velvet Room, Igor—located in humanity's collective unconscious, he said, Izaya mused, fingers skimming over the spines of his books, until his eyes alighted on the one he was searching for. My, my, who would have thought that Carl Jung was right?

Grinning, the brunet took out the Red Book by Carl Jung from its resting place. Meandering to his armchair, he curled up by the window with the book in his lap. Technically, he had work to do downstairs, but he was certain that Namie could handle most of the load. Besides, if she complained, then all he had to do was remind her of who was signing her paychecks.

Gently, he opened the book and ran a hand over the colourful calligraphy and pictures drawn by Jung, retelling his journey to the unconscious. Back when he was a university student, Izaya had never taken much stock in the man's work, though he did find it amusing. No one else did either; Jung's work was considered pseudo-science at best in the field of psychology as there was no way to provide tangible evidence on the existence of the collective unconscious. Now though, all the proof he needed was right here, resting against his heart in the shape of a key.

As he read the book, Izaya tried to remember what he learnt on Jung. The Swiss psychiatrist believed that archetypes are models of people behaviours or personalities, and he had suggested that the psyche was made up of three parts: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. According to Jung, the ego represented the conscious mind, while the personal unconscious contains memories, including those that had been suppressed. The collective unconscious was a unique component in that Jung believed that this part of the psyche served as a form of psychological inheritance. It contained all of the knowledge and experiences humans share as a species.

Jung identified four major archetypes; but he also believed that there were no limits to the number that may exist. The first is the Self, which represented the unification of the unconsciousness and consciousness of the individual. Second is the Shadow, which existed as part of the unconscious mind and was composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and shortcomings. After that is the Anima or Animus. Females have the Animus, which represented their masculine side, while males have the Anima, which represented their feminine side. When the Anima and Animus are combined, it was called a 'syzygy', which created wholeness, unification, and a feeling of completeness. For this reason, the Anima and Animus were representative of a person's 'true self', and were the main source of communication with the collective unconscious.

The last major archetype he identified was the Persona, and Izaya was especially interested in this one because Igor had mentioned it. The Persona was how people represent themselves to the world. It protected the ego from negative images—akin to a mask one wore to face hardship—and could appear in dreams in many different forms. What does this mean in his situation though? How would Izaya use Persona? What form would it take?

It's interesting! It's all so interesting!

Izaya couldn't stop himself from grinning for the rest of the day.

Four o'clock came and went and before he knew it, Izaya was seated on a sofa in front of Shiki.

"Have you heard about the Floating World and the Witching Hour?" the yakuza executive began.

Izaya grinned. "Of course I have, Shiki-san," he purred, then ventured a guess. "I assume something happened relating it? Did one of your men get lost in the Floating World?"

"Yes and no," Shiki replied, "In the past week, ten of my men went missing. Five of them were later found dead in front of mirrors, puddles or fountains—any kind of reflective surface, like the rumours say—but three of them managed to return." He leaned back, the lines of his mouth set in a neutral frown. "Tell me, do you know what happened to the survivors?"

"I heard that they gained a fear of any reflective surfaces." Izaya answered.

"There's more to it than that," Shiki's voice was rough, but it carried no hint of a grumble or grouse, "They completely reject change. The first couple of days, they seemed fine, but when they were given new tasks to do or told to do things differently, they completely refused. And if we forced them to change their routine, they would go hysterical or berserk."

How interesting!

Crimson eyes gleamed with curiosity, his grin twisting up into a smirk. "Fascinating," he said, "All three of them exhibits the same symptoms?"

The yakuza executive nodded. "Yes, that is why you are here. You are to gather information on the Floating World, find my missing men, and report back to me."

"Very well then," Izaya nodded, smiling like a fox, "You may consider it done, Shiki-san."

With Heiwajima Shizuo around, Ikebukuro was a dangerous place to be in during the day. At night, however, when the brute got off work and was most likely tired after a day of beating up debtors, the probability of his survival grew to Izaya's favour, and so he returned to the city he loved a little before midnight.

The part he had chosen was a secluded one, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the city's neverending crowd of people. The streetlights lining the park were its only source of illumination, the light glinting off the pond in its centre. There was no moon tonight, and the smog and light pollution from the city blocked out all the stars. If he was a lesser man, he might have been frightened.

Orihara Izaya was no lesser man though, and all he felt was the thrill of the unknown.

He flipped open his phone. The brightness of the screen was a stark contrast to the darkness surrounding him, and he had to squint his eyes to read the time: 23:59.

The brunet grinned, counting off the seconds out loud.

"Ten…"

"Nine…"

"Eight…"

"Seven…"

"Six…"

"Five…" a cold wind blew across the pond, and despite the warmth of his jacket, Izaya shivered reflexively. There was something ominous in its coldness, something that settled chill against his bones. He grinned wider in response. "Four…"

"Three," another gust of wind blew, sending ripples across the still light-specked pond. Giddily, Izaya skipped towards it, hands in his pockets as he leaned forward to look down at his reflection in the water. "Two."

He whispered:

"One."

Violet light illuminated the pond, washing away his reflection with its luminance, and whisking him away to another world.

The dream had now merged with reality.

FUN FACTS

1. 'Izaya had many psychology books' – My personal headcanon is that Izaya's a psychology major back when he went to university. It fits, considering how he loves humans and psychology is the science of understanding the human psyche.

2. Freud's Psychosexual Development – First up, let me tell you that there are many theories of human development in psychology, and Freud, while famous, is just one of them. Freud proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of fixed stages.

These are called psychosexual stages because each stage represents the fixation of libido (roughly translated as sexual drives or instincts) on a different area of the body. As a person grows physically certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration (erogenous zones), pleasure or both. These five stages are: Oral Stage (0-1 year), Anal Stage (1-3 year), Phallic Stage (3-5/6 year; it's in this stage that the Oedipus Complex emerge), Latency Stage (5/6 year to puberty) and Genital Stage (puberty to adulthood).

3. Cognitive Psychology – A field of psychology which studies human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving. Cognitive psychologists study internal processes including perception, attention, language, memory, and thinking. I find it interesting because we often take it for granted that we can think and automatically organise knowledge, when in fact the process is actually pretty complex. When dealing with memory, for example, we have to go through three stages: encoding (how we capture the information), storage (how we store and retain the information), and retrieval (recalling or recognising information that have been previously stored).

4. Classical Conditioning – Discovered by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist back in the 20th century. Classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behavior via the process of association. In simple terms two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal. There are three stages of classical conditioning:

Classical Conditioning Diagram:

Meat (US) Dog drools (UR)

Bell (NS) Dog doesn't drool

Bell (NS): Meat (US) Dog drools (in this stage, the bell is presented with the meat)

Bell (CS) Dog drools (CS) (after multiple pairing between bell and meat, the dog comes to associate the bell with the meat. When the bell rings, the dog anticipates meat will appear and so it will drool)

Legend:

Unconditioned Stimulus (US) – Stimulus which you don't have to learn to react to

Unconditioned Response (UR) – Response to a stimulus which you don't have to learn to do

Neutral Stimulus (NS) – Stimulus which holds no meaning to you/Doesn't trigger response

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – Stimulus which, through multiple pairing, you come to associate with a US and trigger a reaction

Conditioned Response (CR) – Response to a conditioned stimulus

5. Observational Learning – Observational learning, or modeling, is a type of learning most associated with the work and social learning theory of psychologist Albert Bandura. In order for observational learning to occur, the observer must pay attention to an action, remember the observed behavior, be able to replicate the behavior, and be motivated to produce the behavior. Furthermore, if a model is rewarded for his or her actions, an observer is more likely to replicate the behavior. The more an observer likes or respects the model, the more likely they are to replicate their behavior.

6. Grand Unified Theory - The Grand Unified Theory is a vision of a physics theory that can combine three of the four fundamental forces into one single equation. The four forces are the Strong Nuclear Force, the Weak Nuclear Force, the Electro-Magnetic Force, and the Gravitational Force. The EM and Weak forces were initially thought to be two separate forces until scientists discovered one theory (the Electro Weak theory) to explain both of them and then went on to observe this unified force in action (much like Maxwell unified the electric and magnetic forces into the Electro-Magnetic Force).

7. '…who would have thought that Carl Jung was right?' – Carl Jung's theory on the collective unconscious and archetypes isn't really accepted in psychology because, well, how can you observe and quantify it? It's still used in the arts and humanities field, though, and his theory on personality is the base for the MBTI personality test.

8. Red Book by Carl Jung - A red leather‐bound folio manuscript crafted by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung between 1915 and about 1930. It recounts and comments upon the author's imaginative experiences between 1913 and 1916, and is based on manuscripts first drafted by Jung in 1914‐15 and 1917. Despite being nominated as the central work in Jung's oeuvre, it was not published or made otherwise accessible for study until 2009 (though I can imagine Izaya using his connections and influences to get a copy).