A Dad RP Persona: Philosophy of Man [IC/PG-16/No Longer Accepting]

Alaina · August 2, 2018

While the feeling of dread had started to creep behind her, Avery dared not to look towards the sound of the rattling chains. The girl, instead, focused forward at the shadows that were in front of them. Putting all of her attention to taking notes on the both of them, with sweat forming on her brow as her hands shook trying to write down everything she was observing. The girl hastily slammed her book shut, and began to move forward into the room past everyone, trying to get away from the hallway they were just in. However, out of the corner of her eye, the girl was able to see something glimmering at the corner of the room.

With curiosity overcoming her fear, the girl made her way over, finding a strange white key in the process. As the girl was called out to by Paul, she ran out alongside him, catching her breath once the feeling of dread had subsided. Taking a few deep breaths, the girl was confused as to what had just happened, and how it was possible to go away so suddenly. After closing her eyes for a moment, the girl seemed to be in deep thought until she opened them back up, not seeming any bit shaken. Looking at the wolf she said, "um, Grendel. What uh, what was that thing back there?"

Super Chaos Sonic · August 3, 2018

I'm Sorry...

Jason was sitting a bit a ways from the others, still incredibly shaken up after his attempt to sneak past the Shadow. He held his left wrist, rubbing is slowly. Right now he couldn't do anything except stare at the floor and watch everyone's feet shuffling around. Was he feeling...fear? That can't be it...he hadn't been afraid of any type of boogeyman since he turned eleven. So why...why was this different?

That thing's eyes... he thought, shaking his head slightly. They were just like his...I'm fuckin' sure of it.

After a few moments, he looked up to see the others just conversing right now. Letting out a small sigh, he made his way over towards Paul and Grendel. He cleared his throat a bit to get their attention. His face showed everything right now: fear, apologetic, disappointed...most likely at himself.... Finally, Jason spoke.

"I...I wanted to say I'm sorry." he said, looking at Paul. "T-That was a stupid thing...and I...I don't even know what happened. I-I'm sorry I put you guys at risk."

Hakima · August 3, 2018

Tyler stumbled through the door just after Paul. Immediately, the grip of terror that... thing, had on him loosened and he gasped for air. “Holy sheet…” he wheezed. With the survival-fueled adrenaline leaving his system, his temporarily forgotten exhaustion returned and hit him so hard it threatened to knock him off his feet. “Just… need a minute…” he rasped, hobbling over to the corner to sit down.

He was in a helluva lot of pain. His legs burned and and he had resorted to an awkward shuffle thanks to his ball-and-chain, not to mention the fact that he was scaring himself and probably everyone in the room with how it rattled when he moved. Great. Now he was going to sheet his pants anytime someone waggled a chain in his direction.

Tyler tried his best to relax. His head sagged back against the wall and he squeezed his eyes shut, his lips parted slightly as he panted for breath. His jacket had fallen off sometime during the chase and his t-shirt was so drenched in sweat that it was glued to his skin, adding to his discomfort. He tried to pull the fabric away from where it had bunched up on his stomach and suddenly hissed in pain.

His eyes snapped open and he brought his hand up to see it covered in blood. Further inspection revealed a slowly growing red stain in his t-shirt; great, he had torn open his stitches at some point and yet he was somehow in so much pain he hadn’t even felt it.

“Here.” Paul stood over him, shoving a blue vial in his face. “Should help you recover.”

Tyler took the vial from him, popped the cork and downed it. If Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes had some liquid feel good to offer, who the hell was he to turn it down? It took a few seconds but slowly the medicine managed to take the edge off his aches and pains. The cut in his side didn’t heal up, but it did stop the bleeding so it wasn’t something he was going to complain about.

Tyler pushed himself into a better position to look at the rest of the room. Several conversations seemed to be going on. His eyes flicked over to Jason. “Oh yeah, that helps a lot,” he snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. “How about instead of apologizin' you just don’t do it again? I ain't tryin' to die for your stupid ass. Speakin' of…”

He surveyed the room again. “Where the fuck is the Pipsqueak?”

King K. Azo · August 10, 2018

Reno stared at the Reaper, seeing if it would do anything... but it wasn't moving at all, instead opting to stare straight ahead. At least at first. as the battle inside raged on a cold chill began to go down Reno's back, despite the apparent lack of danger he was in. After all, they could get away from this thing any time it tried to move, right...? Right...

The eye of the Reaper suddenly moved, looking Reno straight into the eyes. The feeling of dread now exploded into full on fear as Reno's hearing was filled with what almost sounded like static, his head starting to feel fuzzy, and his vision seemingly flickering in and out.

Ï̢̡͖͓̣͔̈̓̌̅͌ a̶͖̩̦̟͉̦͗̌̈̽̒̓͟m̸̨̖̻̘͙̣̂͌̌̐̀͠ͅͅ t̵̗̤̱̯̾̆͌͒̄͐̅̂͜͜͝͡h̗̟͍̬͙͎͍͑̅͛͌̅̋̕͞ó̵̬͈̰̯̗̹̞̒͆̒̍̀͋̔̏u̧̞̼͇̮͒̽̑̈́͑̇́̚͜,͍̮̹͓͉̥̑̈̓̔͢͝ t̸̖̤͉̣̱̞͓̘̑̑̋̑͒͘͢ͅḧ̷̛͈͍̪̪͚́͂̀̈́͋͒̚͢͜͠ő̯̦̩̠͈̱̫̌̄̒͂́ư̡̡̨͕̰̳͕͙̬̩͐̑͂̿͌ ȃ̷̭̻̲̯̤̖͋̏̐̈́̐͘̕̕ͅr̴̛̭̯͖̫̲̱̃͑͐͂̎͢͝t̛̲̝͍̟̜̮̦̠̎̈͌͋̅͋̐͗͘ͅ I̵̧͕̤̥̮͍̽́̉̽͗̿͟

Reno gripped his head, the voice causing him pain as he fell to his knees.

Ï̢̡͖͓̣͔̈̓̌̅͌ a̶͖̩̦̟͉̦͗̌̈̽̒̓͟m̸̨̖̻̘͙̣̂͌̌̐̀͠ͅͅ t̵̗̤̱̯̾̆͌͒̄͐̅̂͜͜͝͡h̗̟͍̬͙͎͍͑̅͛͌̅̋̕͞ó̵̬͈̰̯̗̹̞̒͆̒̍̀͋̔̏u̧̞̼͇̮͒̽̑̈́͑̇́̚͜,͍̮̹͓͉̥̑̈̓̔͢͝ t̸̖̤͉̣̱̞͓̘̑̑̋̑͒͘͢ͅḧ̷̛͈͍̪̪͚́͂̀̈́͋͒̚͢͜͠ő̯̦̩̠͈̱̫̌̄̒͂́ư̡̡̨͕̰̳͕͙̬̩͐̑͂̿͌ ȃ̷̭̻̲̯̤̖͋̏̐̈́̐͘̕̕ͅr̴̛̭̯͖̫̲̱̃͑͐͂̎͢͝t̛̲̝͍̟̜̮̦̠̎̈͌͋̅͋̐͗͘ͅ I̵̧͕̤̥̮͍̽́̉̽͗̿͟

"I--- I am---," Reno tried to speak, but his tongue felt heavy, and it felt as if a bus was pressed on top of his chest, making hard to breath.

Y̵͙̬̭̫̯͗̒̆̃͊̿͐͗͜o̴͇̥͕̦̘̦̔̂̉̈́̿̚͜͡͡ŭ̶̢̬̬̫̤̜̃̓̀͘͘ s̷̮̺̓̌̐̅̾̑͌͊͋͘͜ͅͅh̡̛̟̳̜̞͖̮̺̫̅̍͒̂͜͠͡a̡̨̼̙̻̠̻͕̜̼̒͛̋͒̃͋l̵̹̦͓͖̤͉̭̙͓̍̊̊͑̐͟͡l̞͉̯̮̗͍̠̗͆̀́͋͂̑̂͢͟ ó̭͉͕̘̬̥́͒̇̆͠ͅv̜̭͙͕͍̋̐͆̆͐͛͟e̡̡̛̲͚͕͇̓̈̐̄͊̈́̂̾̕͟͢͟r̸͎̱̦̻̤̖̱̆́̏͋͠c̘͕̻͙͕̭͕̤̈͋͌̾̓̃̇̓͘o̷̦͍̗̗̝͓̗͙̤̱͗̀̆̽͐̒͘m͚̻̟̻̲̀͆̌͗̓́̃͑̇̚e̸͎̲̱̥̞̻̰͎̾͐̌͋̚͟͡͝ t͔̖͇̼͔̙̟̹̉̌̆̆̑̐̊̎͘͟͢͞h̗̮̮̹̲̮̦̟̎̔̌̕̚͟ę̷̹̗̗̳̙̩̉̇̃̀͑̕̚ w̵̨̛͇̫̳̱̺̉̈́̓̾̂̀͞͞ͅe̵̢̼̼̯̰̩̼͓̬̓̓̏͗̈́̅̋̄́a̼̲̯̞̙͛̾̽̍̓k̡̡̧̦͚̻̜͙̼͐͑͑͗̅̋͋́̂ņ̮̥̜̳͍̪̖̋̿̈́͗̈́̄̌ͅe̴̖̤̲̱̠̙̲̖̓̒̐̎͐̊͡ͅs̶̨̤̱̜͉̎͗̾͒͘š̵̢͉̯͕͍̖͕̪̿̂̋͛̚͟ͅ w̵̢̖͖͕͎̱͆͂̒͋͊i̶̱̝̜̼̫̟͈̬̊́̑̄̌̐̓̃͒t̶̠̮͚̫̠̳̽̓̍͒͆h̷̨͙̻̤̖̿̒͆̆͊̓͜i̮͓̼͚̰̐̂̾͆̈̃̀͑́͘n̳̬͚̗͖̖̎̒̄̈̈́̌̊ ỷ̯̲͙̝̫̎̋̎͛͞o̴̠̝͕̹͛͆̽̀̈̔̌̏͘͢͠ṷ̸͚̤̖̜̝͔̓̈́̐͗̑͌̑̚ͅ

"Lucky Punch!" Reno could barely make out what Paul was saying, like trying to hear a whisper in a hurricane.

Ï̢̡͖͓̣͔̈̓̌̅͌ a̶͖̩̦̟͉̦͗̌̈̽̒̓͟m̸̨̖̻̘͙̣̂͌̌̐̀͠ͅͅ t̵̗̤̱̯̾̆͌͒̄͐̅̂͜͜͝͡h̗̟͍̬͙͎͍͑̅͛͌̅̋̕͞ó̵̬͈̰̯̗̹̞̒͆̒̍̀͋̔̏u̧̞̼͇̮͒̽̑̈́͑̇́̚͜,͍̮̹͓͉̥̑̈̓̔͢͝ t̸̖̤͉̣̱̞͓̘̑̑̋̑͒͘͢ͅḧ̷̛͈͍̪̪͚́͂̀̈́͋͒̚͢͜͠ő̯̦̩̠͈̱̫̌̄̒͂́ư̡̡̨͕̰̳͕͙̬̩͐̑͂̿͌ ȃ̷̭̻̲̯̤̖͋̏̐̈́̐͘̕̕ͅr̴̛̭̯͖̫̲̱̃͑͐͂̎͢͝t̛̲̝͍̟̜̮̦̠̎̈͌͋̅͋̐͗͘ͅ I̵̧͕̤̥̮͍̽́̉̽͗̿͟

"I am... thou...,"

Ó̸̢̗͉͔̗̦̫̗̦̱̔̊́̕n̯͈͉̯͕͔̼͖͕̽̊̾͗́͠e̼̰̺̾͌̐̍͋͆̌̓͆̕͟͟ t̙̜͈̣̪̤͂͛͐̇͆̎h̴̡͔͙̞̼̮̗̤̆̔̈́̈́̉̉a̷̢̞͚͍̫̐͒͂̒͝t̸̺͙̺̖̞͈̒̋̇̿̔̅̂͌͢͠͠ s̶̮̘̩̖͍̭̠̱̈́̅̾̈́̉̾e̡̜̣̟̰̟͔͆̓̍̄̏̐͞e̛̼̟̭̙̮̳͉̭͋̔̓͊̇͌̀̕̕͢k̰̼̟̝̳͍̎̍̆͆̊̂͒̅̚͜͞s̡̰̹̹̼̝̳̒̀̽͆͢͞ p̶͈̟̻̯̯͇̜̠͆̑̌̎̑͛̀ỏ̴̤͙̜͎̹̒̇͊́̌͑̚͢w̶̢̡̪̙̫͓̺̉̔̀̐͊̊̄è̩̩̬̖͖͕̼͕͍̌͆͊͝r̴̡̢͈̹̭̣̲͍̻̅̿̏̑͋͆͗͘̕͟ s̨̨̺̪̞̗͚̈͂̐̊̿̏̍̅̒͢͡ư̶̛̞̪̰͖̔̀́̽͂͗͘͟͝ĉ̸̛̳̹̭͖̖̙̐̐̌͒̍h̸̠̱͈̞̰̤̍̈́̋̈́̌̍̍̚ ả̶̳̺̠̝͈̘̪̺̽͊̀͊͞ș̼͇̱̬͎̥̀̋̈́̑̇́̽̓̆͒͜ y͙̺̺̰͚͑̾͂̓̊̃ö̶̧̟̲͕̼̱́͐̓͋͂́́̂̕͠u͚̱̯͕̬͔͓͈̒̆̒́̀̓̎͡͠ ẉ̷̢͍͉̭̺̪̖̎͊̈̓͒͂̒͐͜i̺͍̫̩̜̍̅̈̽̒̊͆̚ͅļ̷͇̞̳̙͚̟̣͖͚͗͂̍̍̍̊͝l̸̛͍̠̞̣̞͒̽̈͊͊́̍͗ͅ b̭̺̥̭̙͐̌̑̔͝͝͡ȇ̘̞̱͇̖̍̋̽̓͞͡ͅc̵̢̨̡̥̙͈̟̭̐̇̒͑̓̅̀̈̂̃͜ó̧̦̰̟̥͎͇̫̜͇̀̄̅̀̂̀m̵̫̟̰̗̯̜͗͛̐̅̎͒̊̍͜͜͡͠e̷͚̺̩̱̺̘͙̫̍̽͒̌̈͘͞ t̸̘͔̰͔͗͛̇̏̓͊͋͜h̶̼̥͉̗͍͔̺͌̓̽͑̇́̇̏̃͝ȅ̶̡̢̟̦̠̟̪̼͊́̀̓̿̾̒̑ d̵͎͕̯̙̟͇̥͔͔̽̓̿̔̓̕͢ȩ̷̠̭̣̠̘͍̗͌̓̎̐̀̅͌̚ṃ̴̧̼͚̙̝̥̘͕̍̂̂̈́̓̋̊̀͢͡o̴̥͎̟̠͈̣͈̽͆͒̊͝n̸̘̩̬͈̙̠̼̔̏̍͛̆̓̏̒ͅ ǒ̡͈͇͉̟̦̦̼͗̉̎̏͌̐͐̏̄ͅf̧̢̥̝̠̗̺̰̄̆̊̌͐͟͠ͅ d̶̬͇̙̱͈̜͙̗͚̋̄̎̓̓͛̂́͝͠è̢̢̝̭͔͉̣̋͗͂̓͒̾̉͞͞s̨̡̟̫͔̰̏͐̓͞͡͝ť̶͎̗̮̹͙̘̗̭͓̻̿̄̍͌̒͒r̵̡̨̲̣̪̜̃̒̇̔̚͜͠͠û̙̫̻̞̰̟̾̾͒͡͞c̴̢̟̟̫̰̫̦̣̋͋́̓̌̓́͂͠t̴͇̺̻̤̤̦̪͈͓̂̔̿̄̇̔͒ȋ̧̖̥̤͉̬̣͓̊́̽̓̓̀̽͟ͅơ̯̯̹̜̯̺̄͑̊̎̄̿͒̏͢͢n͉̪̲͔̰͖̞̟̝̾̋͗̈́̏̎.̷̨̜͍̫̱̙̘̗̙̻̀͂̾̈͠.̻̤̣̯̳̊̽̐̿̌̐͗̚͠͝.̧̛̫̟͇̗͇͋̄̓̏̿ A̸̡̜̩̦̗̣̓͊̆̑̓̂͗͘ŕ̡̺̥̤͎͈̜̯̪́͗̀̐̀̕ï̢͕͙͎̘͐͑̽̽̚͘͟͠s͎̙̱͓̝̮͒̃̋̆́̓̄̈̚͜è̶̛͕̙̱̯͓̘̀̒̇̒̎͐̚͝ ä̶̛̱͍̩͕̱̞̥̌̆̎͒͐̿͆͢n̨̘̮̣͎͌̓̏̎̄͞͠͡d͕̠̜̹̻͉͇͓̋̾̀̌̒̐̿͞͞ ï̷̻̫̗̹̤̟̳͊̒͆̇́ǹ͇̥̳̗̭̘̺̟̐́̐̉̓̿̉̔͘c̸̳͈̥̥̰͎̖̝̾̾̓̒͋̾ͅï̵̢̪͈͈̣̪̲̪̒̎̈́̔͟͡͡͞n̮̱͖̹̺̻̻̙̰͒̊̀̓͗̾͛͡͞ę̴̠̩͍̮̙͋̉̌̂̆̄̔̍͘͟͟r̡̧̧̙͎̹̘̘̆́̐̉́͊̓̕͢͞͠ȃ̺̠̘̦̥͚̱̞̓͌͗̐͟͟ţ͇͙̻̭̗̩͉͒̓̇͂̑̀̋͠e̸̛̤͕̫̥̟͙͔̍̌̆̌́̑̚͜͝͝ a̸͇̜̞͍̭̖̞̭̘̫͆̈́̏̿̇͂̕̕l̸̨͔̙̳̻̗̗̏̌͂̆̑̃͢͟͝l̶̻͎̼̤̝̈̾̐́́ ȉ̛̠͕̥̺̰̑̋͛͆̕͘͡n̸͖͉̪̳̯̖̥̓͑̋͆̃̾̓̆͒ y̼͔͚̩͚̝̺͆͐̊̌̅̈́̋̄ò̢̥̥͇͙͔̯̑̃̕͝͡u̵̳̖̖͖̪̭͕͋̔͛̑͑̎͊͢͝ͅr̵̢̥̳͍̹̐̑̈͆͗͌ ṕ̸̧̟̙̤̠̋̍̒̽̚á̧̛̗̺͇̳̤̖́̾̅̀͟ṱ̳̣̺͕̗͌̒̓̒̋̄̾̿̃ḩ̶̙̲̹͚͔̗̬͊̓̅͊͘͢ͅ.̢͉̬̞͖̗̊̄͊̿̀̐̇̚͜͠͞.̡̖͓̙̠̤̞̞̓̆̆̀͢͟͠͝.̸̡̞̗̮͐̄͛͆̔̾̈̀͜͢͜͞.̷̡̡̯̺͈͇͙̈͌̽͘͢͠

"Sukukaja!"

Ơ̮̝̼̼̦̖͎̿͌͐̂͆̕͜͠n̘̘͍̞̣̘̟̭̈͌͛͌̋͠ẽ̸̢͉̥͎̮́̇͛̆͟ t̢̢̨̙̣͈̖̹͚͍̑̾̇̎̿h̺̠̜͍̣̀͐͌͆͂a̸̱̼̩̘̩̘̘̞̳̘̎͂̈́̄̀͆̈̄̔̚ẗ̢̨̼̼͇̫̫̺̒̾̀͒̿̑ ṡ̷̨͔̪̟͓̯͔̤̏͑̐̒̒̒̋͘͜͞ê̶͓̬͇̫͈̯̅̐̒̅͛̐̉͞͠ẽ̸̳̺̮̝̦̙̼͒͑̃͆̑͆̈k̸̡̠̮͉̰͗̏̒̇́͆͆͜s̨̢̢̺̩͕͙̩͎͆̃͐͋́͐̓̿ p̡͈͚͎̝͔̝̥̘̽̾̑̓̊̔͝o̟͖̭͖̙̙̯͎͓̎̇̍͘͢͡͡w̷̤̜͙̗̳̄̽̑͆̒̓͌͌̚͞e̛̫͉͖̰̜̓͋̽̊̃̏̉͂͞r̴̲̖̯̥̜̰͒̍́̽̉̎͑̅̀͌͜ͅ s̴̢̛̭̖̞̈͛̿͑̍̽̑͆̋ͅû̙̭̖͚̩͐̅͌̿̚ͅç̵̛͖̪̺͎͒̕̚̚ͅȟ̵̞͚̯͙̯̈́̾͘̕ ả̸̠̖̲͇̝͈̤̦̞́͊̓͋̇̚s̩̺̤̬͖̓̍́̓͋̏͌̕͠ y̧̧̘̥̦̜̙̳̅͛̍́͆̅̚͞͝o̥̪̳̮̬̼͌̀̉̾̀͢ư̶̳̭͓̭̹̖̝͚̆̔̎́́̔̈̇̀͟ͅ w̶̨̢͓͚̼͈̰̼͓̯̆̆̉͂̇͘̚i̶̮̜̳̞̠͈̙̰̿̋̈̃̌͒͊̋̚͠l̸̻͇͕̮͔̯͉̓͋̍̄́͑̾̂͆l̻͔̳̠̟̪͍̬͌̐́̌̚͘͢ͅ b̵͚͉̦͇̥̃̿̆̌͝ė̡̨̝̱̜̗͉̦̋̍̔̓͛͑̄̀͒c̡̨̘͎̣̙͋̏͒̌̇͂̔͟ő̶̘̹̫͇̠͇̇͒̒̄͘͟͟͡m̨̞̯͉̤̝̰̖̃̈́̃͌͋̈́͐͂͞e̢̨͙͓̜̓́̽͊̑͘͟͝ a̷̱̼͚̲̰͆̊̿̔̐́̓͊͘ s̴̮̟̼̣͇̩̻̉͂͊̓̂͢ḫ̵̡̢̛̰̣̭̈͂̾́͋̕͜ỉ̥͖̹͇̯̲̥̙͒̋̋̋́̎̒̚ę̷̡̧̡̛̲̫̫̲̊̓̋͆͜͞l̷̹̟͓̬͈̫̩̞͇̪̋͊́͊̒̕ḑ̘̠͇̩̜̈̾̃̉̐̓̾̽ͅ t̸̤̳̹͈͙̍̊̈̀̚ợ̝̫̗̲͔̜̜́̂̊̊͂̊̍̈́͟͝ͅ ḏ̷̨̢̟̞̞̝̌̐͗̀͘͜ê̴̬̞̗̝̫̗̂̿͑͒̎̋͛̓f̶̖̞̙̜̩̅̽́͛́͒̊̋̄́͢ę̢͙̝͚̤̀̇̄́̚n̵͉͈͕̝̹͙͙̺͗̂͌͑̾̋͒͡d̵̡̘̖̠̲͐̆̀̄͊͒̏̒̈́ ť̴̲̺͔̫̼͓̫̺̙͎̀͘͠͞͞͡h͖̯̭̞̻̓̈̓̋̍ͅḛ͙͉̠̠̫͋̋̊͌͌̀́̄̚͜ ẅ̡̨͚͇̼̩́̐̌͗̓͊̚̕ȅ̢̜̬̳̤̘̞̋͊̀͌͛̚̕a̴̳̘̞̜̱͎͛̐̍͂͆̿̕͞͠͡k̛͙̤̱͎͉̬̏̀̄́̋̕͢͠.̸̟̼̪͈̇̄̀̒̓̈̀̚͢ R̨̯̻̻͈̫̓̒̍̈́̿͜͝i̸̠̥͉̠̟̭͗̿̈́̌̇̃́́͡s̷̨̛̩̥̝̻͎͛̐͛̆͒͋͠ĕ̡̺̜̗̥̒̌̎̿ͅ ṵ̶̢̧̻͔͔̫̤̋̄͒͌̀̐̀̕p̭̗̦̮̞̝̾̈́́̑̌̄͆͂̕͢͠ â̢̡̟̯̲̰̫̜̦͗̽̓̾̌͜n̢̫̠̖̏̉͒͛͋̌̂̏̌͗͢d̷͈͍̬̣͙̳̤͑̈̆̉́̿̇̄̕͜͟͞ d̛̗̥͉̳̽͐̆͌͟͟͝e̵̛͙̠̩̐͌̍̐͂̽̾͜͟ͅf̡̲̬̫̻̺̥͉̲̐͆̿̂́͌͘͟͠e̡̩̘̼̠̤̟͋́̃̾̿͗̈̕͢͝n͖̬̪̺̪̻͙͚̽̔͐̿͂d̶̘̳̘̬͓̽̈̊̾͋̓̈͜͢ ẉ̵̧̠̝̺͇̦̟͓́̆͛̂͂̕̚͟͠͡͠h̪̝̲̥͙̩͐̐̐̌̔͘͢͝͝a̗̠̩̠͚̯̽͂̌͒͂̄͜t̷͚̜̩̺̺̰̤͛͊̃͌͠ į̷̪̦̫͕̘̬͋̓̇̆̃͘̕͢͡͞ͅs̶͙͇͔͚̻͐̄̍͂͐̌̿͘͜͟͝͡ p̷̹̪͙͙̥̙͔̱͐̃̆̄̅̃̌̄̚͘͜r̷̡͍̬̪̟͑̆̌͐̈́͒͌̏͢e͈͚̹̪͎̰͍̬̖͚̓͌̉̈̕̚c̸̡̯̲̼̻̓̎̈́̎͝į̲̯̬̖̈̋̍̒̿͜ő̸̝̱̻̙͔̆̿̓̐̉̿͛ǘ̴̢͎͖̖͕̩̽́͆͗͌͋͞s̢̧̪̜̲͓̥̳̪͊̋̊̒͊̋̉͐̽͘ t̲̣̫̪́̀̊̔͜͡͡͡ǫ͓̩͉͚͈̩̀͒̆̅̂̚͘͟͜͝ͅ y̷̢̥̩̣̣͓̻̗͋́̿̄̆̚͜͡͞ö̴͓̰̖̪̯̦̜̲͉́̄̓̋̈́͂͛͊͜͝u̢͙̘̣̳̱̝̰͉͉̐͑̂̕͞͝.̘̮͓͔͍̫̜͕̯̱͋̀͆͐́̿̍͠.̡̝̮̭̤͛̈́̅͋̂̚͜͝ͅ.̷̱͎̲͇͂͌̅͆̚͞͡ͅ

"Thou... art... I...,"

R̷̢̡̧̪͔̗͕̭̮͋̐̀̃͛̆͘̕͡į̶̨̢̮̮̬͔̠̪͆̎͗̍̋̀̓́̐ś̛͍̩̝͉̟̝͈̩̙͗͌̇͌͋e̙̝̮̰̰̥̻̫̍̈̊̐̊͜͝ͅ,̮̲̜̥̄͆̎͆̿͢͡͡ ţ̶̡̩̞̜̣̖̦̑͑̎̇̏̑̊͘͠͠h̸̛͖̞̪̳̤͓̐̽̂̿̅̓̚ĕ̮͍͉̦̖̯́̽̅̃͢͠ ṙ̸̢̡̝͎̫̼̼̫͖͂̈́̆̈́͟͞e̵̢̧͖̩͕̪͌͛͗̃͋̔͞͝a̶̧̟͕̮̳̖͓͌̽͌̊̆͛̃̈͢͝͠p̷͈̫̘̲̬̅̂̀͐̉̓̚̕e̡̧̗̭̠̫͖̔͌̋̓̚͠͝͝r̶͓̗̣̬̬̦̻̍̑̑͌͜͠ͅ o̶̪̝̟̪̗͉̔̑̅͂͛̄̚̚͜͠f̵̛͚̟͉̹͔̺̭̭̏̇̋͜͝͞͞͡͠ ś̹̱̭͎͔̰̝̼̤͛̓́̉͗o̵̤͍̲͎͙̹̣͒̓́̊̑̓̃u̵͚̫̟̪̺͔̇̊̂͗͊̆̕͜͝l̶̩̞͖̘͖͙̥̜̓̀́̿͋̋̊̄͛s̵̘̮͎̮͖͖̼͌̏̊́̄̎,͇͖̳̰̹̟̎̾̓̒̒̓̆̕ ṯ̵̠̺̥̥͉̱̓̌̈́̚̚͢ȟ̸̨̡̯͙̱͈̈̎̄̽͝ê̵̡̡̬͙̯͉̈́́̓̃̀̂̓͂͝ d̢̠̣̜͉̞͇̮͔̜͗͊̾͗̓̓͌̋̕̚í̸̧̦̖͖̙͉͓͔̖̇͑̇͒̔̃̎̃ͅv̧͇̘̙̤̺̘̹̋̅͒̆̽͡į̵̧͙͓̺͚͐͆̔̒̅́̂͘͘͜͝n̘͙̥̜͍̈͐̉͐͑̕͜ȩ̴̛̠̰͍̳͉͉̻̾̾͗͛̑̕ p̩̫̺̜̹͓̅̆̀͐͘̕͠u͎͉͔̓̾͌̉̿͘͜͟ͅn̹̯̝͋́̓̾̕̚͘͟͢î̶̘̙̺̮̩̜͙̪͈̑̈́̚̚͢͠ş̵̼̱̤̙̌͊̚͝͡h̷͚̺̲̗̭̥̱̝̹͔̓̽̅̓͒̽̄̓͘͘ṃ̴̥͚̯̯͕̌̆̑͛̆̋̔̆͘͡ȩ̷̱͙͖̂̇̌̆̽͢͝ņ̲̺̬͎̞̙͔̀̓͐̈́̉͟͜ţ̵̲͇̠̫̦̎͗́̓͊̓̾͋͗.̲͚̦̝̩͉̤̒͗͛̋͛́̉.̶̖͎̗̦͈͂͒̇́̑̏̈́͋̅͂.̶̪̹͇͔̟̳̝͆̄̆̂͋̈́̌͗̄̎ R̛̖̺̗̙͍̘͙̂͂̈́͌̋͒ỉ̵͇̘̜͓̺̤̻̭͒̐͆̽͑̊̽̌͟͡ş̤̮͓̪̪̈́̃́̋̀ȇ̞̗̦̠̜̲̊́̔͋͢ͅ,̡͎̣͕̟͔̖̣͕̎͆͌͒͜͞ t̴̛͎̥̭͈̼̎̋͌͗͐̚͟ͅh̢̨̨̩͔̱̩͕̮̘͐̊͊͆́̀͒ḙ̸̳͎̜̱̻͔̞͒̅̂̀̓̍̾̀͝ v̛̥͙̰̠̦̠̄͋̂̏̕͟͠͝ę̢͉̻͓̠̗̟̈́̈̽̏͠ŗ̵͈̳̻̳̮͂͑͒͌̊͌̓̊̐̿͢͟ͅy̴̡͙̯̝͍̹̦̘̪̐̉̋̇͌̚͝ f̸̧̛̹̲̦̯̞̭̅͑́͊̅ǫ̴̛͈͚̞͔̟̥̻̰̟̎̓̅͠u̯̱͕̺͓̖̹̲̲͂̍̃͐̓͢͠ņ̷̡̢̡̟̥̱̗͚͖̊̄̆͐̑d̪͍̼̯̎̎̿͗̏̓̚ͅạ̧̛̩̲͈͇̜̫͒̽̐̒̑̚͘̕͠t̢͈̤͈͙̰͕͉̪̝̒̃̏̉͠i̢̨̹͖̭̝̺̪̐̐̀̿̒͒̄ͅo̲̺̟͙̣̞̥̖͍͆̓́̓̿̊͡n͔̪͍̙̤̤͐́̎̓͒͑̽̐̉̌ͅ ơ̸͉̖͍̙̭͙̆̃̇̊̍̇̕͜͜͜͝f̧͈͔̳̹̻͈̓̆̌͌̓̊̈́̕͠ ṯ̡͉̗̱͙͔̭͆̅̆̆̕͜͜h̴̭̭̝͉̍͊̆͂̉͟ę̧̙̟͔͖̩̪̰̞͌̍̒͌͘̕͠ w̢̱̣͎͉͈̩̌̂̄͐̆̈̄ǫ̠͔̣̥̂̌͊̉͂͑͋r̨͓̹̪͚̗͖͑͌͗̐͆͒͠͠l͕̱͖͈͚̹͇̦̖͕͊̀̋̄̐̎̆͘d̷͍̞̬̯͒̉͒̂̃͠͝͠ͅ.̸̡̛̫̬̲͙̉͋̿̾̈́͛.͈͙̣̠͚̒́͑̎̀̓̓̿͛͞.̴̨̝͕͙̤̖̦̹̽͐̈́͐̏͌̓͠͠͝ t̨͖̼͈̝͈̣̠̘̳̿̅̔̊̔͒͝͡h̵̨̺̼̥̲̳̞͌̒͑̉͑̎ͅͅe̦̤͓̞̝̪̣̒̓͌̅͋̚͝͡͠͠ ḏ̷̰̥͖̲͔̜͈̮̖̌́̀́̍͛͐̿̊͡ĩ̴̡͓̭̳̇͒͊̈̀͜͜͝v̧̧̳̤̩͈̩̓̌̐͑͐̋͝i̴̬̟̥̥̔̓̇̒̔̍̇̍̚͟͜n̸̲͉̪̪̳̎̆̑͌̿́͆̚̕e̙̫̪͍͕͗̉̒͌̔̂̐̕͞͠ p̶̘̘͔̖̺̆͋͐̑͠r̪̺̘͈̬̤͍͙͗̄́̔̈̂́͟͡o̳̠̺̩̍͒̅̈̏̃̊ͅt̫̰̘̰̱̱̠̫̬̀͋̊́̀͌̍̋e̤͚͚͔̟̔̅̂͌̇̽͠͠c͕̝̖̦͔͌̈́̄̄̈̅͢t̷̛͎̞̟̲̳͚̀̎̐̌͛̀͐̚͘͜i̶̡̠͚̦̮͇̇͊̈̈͌͗́ò̵̫̗̙͕̺̆͊̔͆̽̒̉͟͢n̸̠̥͚͖̟̩͓͔͉̾͌̒̚͡.͍̝̳̣̯̼̰͕̀̋̄͆̂͜.̷̧̢̡̩̰̥͙̙̖̮̏̈̏̆̈́̾̑.̶̛͓͎͉̳̩̣̠̩̘̺̅̆͋̐̈͝͡

"If you don't have fangs, don't flap your gums!"

Ļ̸̡͇͉͚͉̪̦̭̒͆̈̐͂͠é̴͕̪̞͈͉̞̎͑̎̅͢͝͝ͅt̥̺̣̺͎̪͖̿̂͑̊̏̑̈́͠ͅ ū͈̣̦̦̞͓̣͗̋̎̉͒͐͞s̨̛̯̹͓̥͔̳̝͙͛̔́́̚͞ f̧̢̤̹̪̀̎̈̽̎̾͘͟͝ô̸̟͇̻̥̖̤̈́̑̚͞͞ŗ̛̛̝̲͓͖̟̥̝̀̑̊͡͞m̲̼̼͔̗͚̬̜̑̒͆͋̈́̃͟͜ ą̛̘̜͈̫̱̣́̌̓̊̿̌̑͟͝ p̹͙̳̱̮̱̔͒͒̅͘͡͡a̧̠̩̜̙͚͇͖̼͈͂̍̋̊̊̽͂̚̕c̸̨̬̜̪̭͈̥̬̹͆͋̽͑̓͘͘t̡̛͉̮͓̣̿̅́͛̀.͍̗͉̗̺̺͙͊̄̅͛͌̒̐͋̽͡ Š̸͇̳̬̜͍́̓̓̐̈͋͊͜͠a̵̢̫̝̖̼̮̪͇͕͒͋̏̌͘͜y̶͉̯͕͈̮̅́́̿̊͋͢͡ t̶͇̜̣̲̫͊̀̆͗̿̈͛̐̇͞h̵̭͉̘͕͚̓̽̆̓͘e̵͈͚͇͖̳̠͒̑̊̀͋̎͢͠͡ͅ w̶̢̧̙̳̲̠̙̰̲͇̑̀͐̋̋͝o̢͔̙̥̯̠̗̔͆̄̅͘͟ͅṙ̴̢̢̲̠̙̆̾͛̃̉͜͞ḋ̨̧̢̧̹͇̺͖́͌͗͋͞ş̟̟̝̭͚̼̔̀͐̆̚.̸̡͍̠͕̻̲̲̗͂͂̾̀̒ Ş̭̣͍̦͍̍́̿͐̍̇͗̎̕͟͟a̷̢̧͓̮͇̓̓͒̓̋͘ȳ̷̢̛͚̪̮͗̌̌̋͆͘ͅ t̷̙̰̬̬̠̫̓̏̇̊͋̽̏̊̌͘h̰͔̦̥͖̣̟͗̃͆̈̈́͋̃͜͡͠ȩ̰̻̤̰͖͇̙͕̼̍̂̈̊̋̏̎̕m̷̧̢͍̠̺͑͐͂́̿̎̚͢͠ w̶̱̺͈͈̳̰̽̒̏́̅̈̚͘̚͟͜i̵̡̺͔̖͔͕̊̒͊̈͆̅͜t̙͈̗̅̆͋́͑̓͛͘͢͢͜͡ḩ̵̲̙͉̭͇̳͌̉̉̓̍̎̊̅̌͝ c̷̢̘̘̘̪̫̥̟̈́̄̌̎̒̃̎̚͢o͍̝̗͕͈̯͒̄̔͑͗̀͜͡n̵̛̛̛͚̬̲̹̣͋́̆̋́̂͟f̵̡̤̝͓̠̭̀̉͛͝͠i̷̡̢̻̭̪̭̅̿̍͒͞ḋ̢͚̲̤̩̤̘̺̌̋̏̀͛͂̆̐ḙ̴̡̲̞́̑͗͆̿̉̾͊̓̎͟͟͢n̡͓̹̮͙̘̺̈́̓̄͗͊́͜͟c̢̼̹͙͉̱͕̞̓͛̀̊̓͢͡͞e̟͔̥̗̥͕̼̥̅͑̔̈́̇͘͡ͅ.̵͎͖̬͚̾͑͐͐̄̽̂̊͢͝ Ḭ̮̦͙̲̱̪̓̿̃̂̿͋̂͞͝ ḁ͍͉͚͖̮̫͉́̋̾̄̅ͅm̧̛͉̰͖̰̜̻͊̍͌͐͆͠͡ t̴̡̨̡̜̰̙̯̩͍͋̀̍̂̽͂̾h̡̳̱̜̗̼̱̫͙̽͊̑̓̑̉͆̍ͅo̢̮̞͔̥̮̹̻̒̓̽̈̀̾͂̕͝u̷̫̤͇̙͗̂̎͊̐͜͟͡,̶͈͉̯̲͓͍̳̠̑́̉̌̔͜͟͞ t͔̦̪͎͕̠̖̦̲̫̐͋̅̄̐́́̓h̻̻̲̜̩̹̜̼̐́̔̑͆͗̕ͅo̵̰͍̳͔̖͔͚͂̓̔́̄͡ȗ̸̪͍̤̤̝̜̥̈̊͐̋̌̉̚͟ ą̴̞̺̼͙̯̑̌͑̀͒̈͝ͅr̺̳̻͕̦̰̩̍́̏̀͗̓͟͞t̴̼̗͓͉̬͖̟̻́͆́̽͛̉̕͡ Ḭ̸̛̹̻̱̘̘̥̠̼̞̈́̓́̋͐̐̉̕.̢̠̤͈̩̟̖̟̺͙̿͗̓̾͆̄̋͑̒̀

"I am thou...," Reno muttered, almost like he was in a trance, as he stood up to his feet. "I am thou! Thou art---," then, at that very moment, his head cleared, and the pain went away. Looking back into the room, Reno saw that the others had vanished, probably headed into the next room. Turning his head back to the Reaper, he saw the thing reaching for him. The tall man broke out into a sprint, rushing into the room where the others were, nearly running over Tyler in his panic. He leaned against the wall, breathing hard with his hand over his heart.

Grendel looked over at the giant with a raised eyebrow, but before he could say anything, one of the females, the really quiet one, asked him a question. "Um, Grendel. What uh, what was that thing back there?" Grendel narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin, thinking about how to answer this.

"Well, to be honest, I can't really explain what da bloody 'ell dat thing is, but it's called da Reaper... and it lives up to such a name... nothin', and I mean nothin', has ever gone against it and lived... well, I did run into it twice, tryin' to fight it like a fool mah first time... lost badly. That's how I got this here scar," He mentioned as he motioned to a giant scar that ran across his snout. "Dat thing could probably kill the Owner if it really wanted to...," He shook his head. "Anyways, it appears if we stay still for too long. Movin' into a new room will make him go away... for some reason I don't understand...,"

“Where the funk is the Pipsqueak?” Tyler suddenly asked, before Reno had nearly ran him over. He looked over after hearing Grendel's explanation to answer Tyler.

"She went off by herself back where the hallway split," He explain. "Was gonna go after her, but you know... giant Grim Reaper I had to stare down while you all fought," If he had his own Persona, maybe he could have gone after her... but no... he had to look death in the face...

I̙̤͇͚͍̞̋̒͋̆͂͌͘͠͡͠ à̗̙̭̦̝̩͙͈̺́͋̇̌̀̇͞m̢̨̳̝̬̩̞̳̐̏͛̑̋͂͌̕ t̶͕̻̣̱̔̃̄̇̌͛̄͟h̨̢̛̼̦͕͕̘̖͑͂̅̍̇̇́̒̚͜ͅő̙̳̱͕͕͚̝͓̒̾͒̂͢͜u̶̼͎̭̥̣̒̑̿̊̿̆͞,̹͉̜̙̪͖̂͊͆̈͒͐̉̕͠ t̨͔͔̱͕̹̝͌̂̏̏̕͝͠͝ͅͅḥ̡̣̲̺͚̯̿̃͊̉͌̀̌̎̿͜͠o̫̘̹̩͗̋̂̊̄͟͝ȗ͓̭̯̥̪́̋͒̌̕ a̝̻͎͕̯̐́͑̒̀̍̓͘r̶̻͚̖͈̜͕͑̇̈́̿̊̒̐́̓̕͢t̶̛̪͕̤̟͙͆͋̏̓̍̾͆̕ͅ Ḭ̷͖͉̺̹̠̮̻́̃̽̋͒ͅ.̶̡̛̮̫͎̯̗̍̑̀͌

Yui · August 10, 2018

<Oi! There's a nice tasty human here, ripe for the picking! Come get me!>

A loftily thrown pebble skipped gently past the shadow’s feet and caused it to turn around. It stood at five feet and eight inches, just barely taller than Haruka. It was disguised as an explorer, with a plush beard and spectacles. It approached Haruka without care or caution. In addition, it could speak her language with ease.

<I will judge how delicious you are,> it replied in Japanese.

The shadow’s disguise begant to melt at Haruka’s feet, dripping onto her shoes and covering them in a thick plasma. Revealed, the shadow’s form of a dual-horned black horse, reared back on its hind legs, threatening the tiny girl. This was a Bicorn. It’s body was much more massive than its disguise, and as it crashed down in front of Haruka on its front legs, the ground trembled. The Bicorn kicked its back right leg violently and began to lower its head, targeting Haruka with its horns.

<It will be easier to eat you when you’re a splattered mess!>

As the Bicorn charged forward, Haruka would find herself frozen with fear. Her decision was rash, impulsive, and selfish. But something within her would not let her die. Not here. Not now.

An impressively blinding light erupted from around Haruka, and an indistinguishable voice filled her head. She would fall to her knees as pain wracked her body. The pain grew more and more severe by the second, and Haruka would feel her right foot going numb from the intensity of her agony. Something was pushing out of her flesh, protruding to the surface of her foot, and ripping through her boot. A glass orb.

So eager to run to your death. If you thought a paltry sum of flesh like yours would suffice as my sacrifice, you were wrong. I have a better idea.

The pain in Haruka’s foot worsened, becoming a hot stabbing sensation, as if someone had applied a taser to it while it was in boiling water. Haruka desperately grabbed at the orb, as the enemy grew closer and closer. “Shut up,” she seethed through clenched teeth. “I’m not here to die.”

Of course. You seek power! MY power. It’s right there, in your hand. Let it loose, and forge a pact with me! Your god commands you!

Haruka screamed. It felt very similar to the one Tyler had let out earlier, and unless everyone else had already ran off to the next floor without her, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine they’d miss it if she wasn’t so focused on the pain.

BGM

I am thou. Thou art I. Let us rain divine redemption and retribution upon this undeserving world!

Despite the pain, Haruka forced out a smile. Everything was working exactly how it was supposed to. Without a moment’s notice or hesitation, Haruka slammed the glass orb against the wall behind her, shattering it. Instead of pain now, all she could feel was the sheer energy unleashed from the orb, as a black cloud engulfed her figure. She couldn’t see anything for a moment, until the cloud moved aside, giving her room to see once more as a large, green-skinned figure emerged from it.

“I am released!” it cried out.

“Good for you,” Haruka grunted, more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice as she slowly stood back up, bracing herself against the wall. “Now let’s hurry up and kill this thing before I look as bad as Tyler did after his fight.”

Dad · August 16, 2018

Split

"The Reaper, huh?" Paul said softly to himself. So, whatever that thing was, it was clearly dangerous. Some kind of omen of death. He didn't want to run into it again. "Then we better keep moving so we don't attract that thing anymore."

Paul tightened his backpack on his back and was ready to continue their journey through the hotel. "Everyone accounted for?"

“Where the funk is the Pipsqueak?” Tyler suddenly asked.

"Pipsqueak? Oh, Haruka? Well she's right--oh. Oh sheet," Paul suddenly gasped sharply. "Shitshitshit. She ran off again!"

"She went off by herself back where the hallway split," Reno explained. "Was gonna go after her, but you know... giant Grim Reaper I had to stare down while you all fought."

"You can blame me later. We gotta find her. We gotta go back," Paul said quickly. "Hopefully, that Reaper isn't behind us." Paul yanked on the door of the entrance that he and his comrades had just come through. However, he quickly discovered that it was locked. "What--what the hell?" No matter how hard Paul tried, the door would not budge. There was another force sealing it shut. Fortunately, there was a long corridor that led out and away from their current position.

"Guess we're going the long way. Let's go," Paul said as he made a mad dash for the hall to the south.

There were no shadows in sight. Instead, this hallway was riddled with broken tiles. Paul stepped carefully forward, hoping not to lose his footing and injure himself.

"Watch your step," Paul called over his shoulder. "You never know what could happen with one of these tiles."

Alaina · August 26, 2018

Avery was all the more curious about the creature that went by the title of, "The Reaper." Her expression didn't seem to change much as the wolf explained it to her, merely having her notebook open and beginning to write down everything that she was informed about. With explanation, and the realization that they were split off from one of their other groupmates, the group didn't have much way to go but forward. The girl hung back a bit, waiting to see who would go first, with Jason being the first to begin his trek down the right side of the room.

Deciding to hang to the left herself, without waiting for much more, the girl began to make her way forward, walking across the floor tiles. After stepping across three of them, her foot seemed to sink a bit as if triggering something. Standing there, the girl was a bit confused as to what was going to happen next, but as the "what" turned out to be nothing she merely kept moving forward. After taking yet another few steps forward, however, the girl seemed to trigger yet another trap. This one far more apparent then the others.

As a shadow had appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, the girl froze where she stood. Her eyes went far wider at the sight of the creature, now being far more up and close with it then she had been the two other times the group had fought them. It was a much different experience, and she could begin to see all of the details of the demon up close. The aura it seemed to give off, the very essence of it that seemed to be contrary to her well being was something a spectator look couldn't give. She was frozen, not able to move forward but not wanting to move back in fear of alerting the creature to her presence. Of course, it was only obvious that she would fail at the latter.

As she stood there, the demon turned its attention towards her, now fully noticing the human right beside it. The loftily floating demon edged closer to Avery. “You look kind,” it hissed. “Will you be my friend?” Of course, the demon had no intentions of befriending a human girl. In fact, the moment she gave her answer it would strike. It would take but a moment to pierce her heart and take her life.

With the murderous intent all the more noticeable now, the girl stood there now shaking. Her voice trembled as she began to stammer out, “I- uh - I don’t think we should-,” starting to back away as best she could.

“It’s too late for that!” the Incubus screeched. It’s sharp tail was pointed directly at Avery’s heart and swooped in to end the battle before it began. Fortunately for Avery, there was an ace up her sleeve that she had not foreseen.

A brilliant light emerged from Avery, stopping the shadow in its tracks. Though the light was marvelous, Avery would still experience an intense anguish originating at the light’s source: her shoulder. A glass orb, much like the ones Paul and Tyler removed from their bodies, was now embedded in her flesh.

Avery's breathing began to accelerate, both from the assurance that she was going to die, but now the sudden maddening pain that was pulsing through her shoulder. Her eyes started to go wild as the pain was becoming all the more apparent in her voice, the girl started to claw at the glass sphere. Scraping all around her shoulder with her hand, practically clawing at the orb, she eventually managed to firmly grasp onto it.

“Thou who hast hidden in shadows, the time to shine has come.”

With some strain, the girl begin to press her fingers down harder onto it as she removed the orb. Now in her palm, her breathing began to slow as her eyes fixated on the strange object.

"Hunter of Fantasy, there are mysteries ahead that only you may solve."

Her eyes followed the flames that danced within the orb, though, eventually merely gazed to the ground as she raised the orb as high as she could.

"It is time to seek out the truth of this world, and form a contract. I am thou..."

With one sudden motion, the girl tossed the orb to the ground, it harmlessly landing there.

"Thou art I."

Raising her foot up, the girl stomped hard onto the glass orb, causing it to shatter under the weight of her foot as the blue flames flickering inside erupted into a large column of fire. While the fire seemed to envelope Avery at first, the column eventually began to coalesce above the girl into one large sphere, a pair of wings spreading themselves out from the flames. With one large flap of these wings, the fire subsided and in its place, a large black bird listlessly floated above her.

With hair covering her face, the girl raised her head back up as the look in her eyes seemed to be filled both with a sudden enthusiasm, the terror from before practically erased. A wide smile stretching across her face, the girl began to slowly laugh, which slowly picked up in volume as she shouted, "I got one! And it's- it's perfect!" The girl's gaze looked towards the large bird with great joy as she seemed to be hyperventilating from the raw excitement she was feeling.

The Incubus’ face changed drastically at this new change that had taken place in his target. It’s look of malice quickly morphed into one of fear.

“Uh-oh…” it whispered aloud.

As the demon spoke up, Avery's head snapped instantly towards it. With a simple look of joy in her eyes she said, "Lucky Punch!" As the command was called out, the stoic steadfast bird began to flap its wings more, floating back. As a small distance was formed between it and Avery, the bird suddenly became a blur as it darted forward towards the shadow, slamming into it. Having been clearly caught off guard by this, the demon was knocked off its balance, falling to the ground. Seizing the opening, the girl said, "and Garu!" Flying upward, the Persona merely raised both of its wings up and with a mighty flap send down a powerful gust of wind at the downed shadow. As the wind connected, the demon was slammed harder into the ground, exploding instantly into nothing more than a pile of money.

With the fight finished, the bird began to slowly hover towards her as Avery herself was jumping with joy. "That was amazing! You were amazing Vedfolnir! Everything was amazing and hahaha," the girl seemed to laugh jovially to herself as she continued to gawk at her own persona. As she was doing this, however, she soon remembered where she was. Her eyes looking to see the others of her group, her laughing was abruptly cut off as she herself seemed frozen in place, hand twitching a bit. After a second or two, the girl cleared her throat saying, "and-um, yeah...yeah."

Hakima · September 2, 2018

Tyler pounded his fist into the ground. “Damn it!” That stupid bitch. “What the hell’s her problem?” He had met her kind before; idiots who had never experienced real consequences for their actions, so they thought they couldn’t die. “If she’s not already dead when we find her, I’m gonna kill her stupid ass,” he growled, hauling himself back up to his feet as everyone started to leave the room.

He lagged behind them thanks to his ball-and-chain. The added weight had forced him to resort to doing an awkward shuffle, stepping forward with his left leg and then dragging his right leg forward to catch up. It was painfully slow and his muscles screamed with every step; Avery and Jason had disappeared into the hallway before he had even made it out of the room.

“Don’t ‘spose you know any magic tricks that would make this damn thing disappear?” he said to Grendel, gesturing toward his the mass of metal chained to his ankle. The telltale sound of combat resonated from the hallway before the wolf could respond, however. “You know what, fuck it. I don’t have time for this! ” Tyler grabbed the chain and wrapped it tightly around his forearm several times, then lifted the ball of iron off the ground and tossed it over his shoulder.

Now free to walk normally again, Tyler bolted down the hallway towards the noise. The lump from before was forming in his throat, and he reached up to find the smooth orb protruding from his throat again. He briefly hoped that summoning his Persona wasn’t as painful the second time around, then he tore the orb out of his throat and smashed it against the wall.

Edward Teach manifested with a haunting laugh, his glowing red eyes bathing the hallway in creepy light as they prepared to fight… only to watch Avery effortlessly slay a Shadow. An incubus, if he was going to be specific--one of the two types that had almost killed him a few minutes before.

Tyler unintentionally dropped the iron ball to the floor with a weighty ‘thud’.

How in the fuck?

Ignoring the minor irritation that the weird one of all people had kicked more ass than him, Tyler crossed his arms over his chest and—only grimacing slightly when he brushed his stab wound—smirked. Edward Teach was still floating above him ominously, tattered sails fluttering from an unseen wind. “Little underwhelming, isn’t it? Goody Two-Shoes gets a Thunder God, I get a demon ship, and you get minority Big Bird?”

Alaina · September 12, 2018

While Avery seemed to be trying to recover herself back to her "normal" self, the first comment to be made had come from Tyler and had been one far more mocking of her persona then anything else. At first her expression was stunned, but then turned to oddly aggressive as she said, "excuse you! Birds are far more than just underwhelming. They have been used as symbolism across various tales and myths and prophets, foreboding harbingers, omens and even those that symbolize death! And they're quite wise at that. Sure they're overused but at least they're not as dull as a simple demon ship. And haven't you ever heard of Odin? He's the father of a thunder god and he's way associated with ravens, so they're clearly superior to that too. Minority big bird, he says. Underwhelming he says." The girl seemed to mumble to herself at the last part, but quickly stopped and looked more curious.

Pulling out yet another notebook, the girl began to jot down a few things before putting it away. With a much more excited expression then when she had first started traversing down the hallway she began to step swiftly and nimbly, without paying much mind to her surroundings. After stepping on one tile, a click could be heard as her foot pressed down and the girl noticed something began to rumble overhead. This would have been bad had Avery not stumbled forward into a roll as she was startled by this sudden click, effectively managing to avoid the rocks falling overhead. Letting out a sigh of relief, the girl got herself back up, finding a small item in the rubble and pocketing it, before continuing on her journey with renewed vigor.

Stepping forward again, the girl stopped once more as her foot eventually sunk into another panel, though it appeared that nothing had happened. Looking at the ground, then looking back, then seeming to count something in her head. Looking to Tyler, who had been following behind her she said, "follow my lead." With laser focused determination, the girl began to step forward. Three panels forward, hop over one, land on the one beyond it. The fifth panel didn't give, and it seemed that no trip was sprung. The smile on her face seemed to grow even larger as her plan had seemed to work, causing the girl to start skipping forward in quite the same rhythm as before. After getting through most of the hallway in her skips, she was eventually tripped over herself, falling face first onto one of the panels. As it sunk down, a monster of sorts had jumped out to greet her.

Getting back up on her feet, the girl looked to see the monster was the same kind that the males of the group had fought in the room prior, but now face to face with this creature herself, she couldn't help but start to observe it more closely. "An adorable little creature, entirely different from the demon creature in both appearance and demeanor and likely abilities as well and yet we're still in the same place and they are not too far apart from each other and of likely the same species - unless of course the umbrella of monster would be too broad to classify as a single species, of course it would Avery how could you be so callous and misguided - yet still I wonder what causes it to keep such a happy expression on its face all the time, does it merely take pleasure in fighting or is it just a trap that it uses to lure in creature but -" while the girl was mumbling to herself at incredibly fast pace the Jack Frost didn't seem to interested in being observed.

As it moved forward, the girl's thoughts were broken with an "aaeep!" as she was startled by the creature's movements. Striking with a swift and violent kick, the girl managed to strike the frost right in the head with her foot, launching it into the wall and forcing it down the to the ground. "Garu!" Calling out the name of her the attack, Vedfolnir appeared above the Jack Frost, flapping its wings and striking it with a mighty gust of wind only blowing the creature back further. Before it could get back up a large metal ball attached on a chain smashed into the creature, destroying it in the process.

As Avery had began turning around to face her ally in combat, she paused. He had been behind her this whole time. She had spoken aloud hadn't she? That was bad. Bad. Bad. Thinking more on it, her response to him earlier hadn't been entirely level either. That too, was bad. The girl stood there, frozen for a moment with her expression unmoving until she let out a very uncomfortable sounding, "ha, HAH, haaaaa. Good - good job Ty- uuhhh, good job! Let's - let's go!" Pointing forward, her posture far stiffer then before, the girl continued walking through the halls and jumping when she felt the need to until making it all the way to the end.

Stepping on one last panel, it sank slightly under her feet, letting out a clicking noise. This, in turn, caused the entire rest of the room to resound with a similar noise, and as nothing had happened following that the girl was lead to believe that the room was likely disabled. Letting out a huge sigh of relief, followed with clearing her throat, the girl adjusted her glasses and looked back to everyone with a far less exuberant and more level expression saying, "good job...team."

Dad · September 15, 2018

After tripping over his own two feet, Paul forced himself up. He managed to land on his knee and scuff it, but suffered no major injuries. "Ow," he whispered to himself. "What the funk."

Dusting himself off, Paul looked up to see, in the blink of an eye, Avery was approaching the end of the hall. She leaped across the final plate of the room and landed gracefully at the finish line. As she did so, a slight rumbling beneath the floor and several loud THUNK sounds beneath the feet of these adventurers indicated that this hallway's traps had been completely disabled. Out of sheer caution, however, Paul removed one of his shoes and threw it forward across several stone plates. With no reaction from the world around him, he assumed that it was safe to cross the hall in its entirety.

Paul skipped over to his shoe, shoved it back on his foot, and jogged painfully to the end of the hall. "Let's go find Haruka before she gets herself killed," Paul said quickly.

"Good job... team."

Paul chuckled. "That was all you. Nice job, er... well this is embarrassing. Sorry, but I forgot your name."

The girl looked towards him, briefly like a deer in headlights before clearing her throat yet again and going back to normal saying, "Oh, well, I don't believe we've really 'met' yet, but I'm Avery. I'm not particularly great with names either so, could you remind me of yours?"

Paul extended his hand forward. "Paul. It's good to finally meet you, Avery. You did a helluva job just now."

As Avery shook his hand her expression became a bit more awkward saying, "Ah, it was nothing really special or anything. But... thank you," her voice getting quieter towards the end.

Paul smiled, hoping he didn't come off too strongly. "Alright, let's move."

After rounding the hallway and exiting through a crumbling doorway, the wall collapsed behind the adventurers, preventing them from returning to the hall. In front of the adventurers awaited a portly yellow shadow. He appeared as a young man with a large floatie of a rubber duck around his belly. He held a wispy shadow lollipop and flicked it out of his mouth with a POP. He giggled as the adventurers approached.

"You lookin' for some'fin?" asked the shadowy young man.

Paul approached the shadow carefully. "We are. A friend of ours. Have you seen her?"

With the lollipop back in the shadow's mouth, it yelled a muffled "Nope! But I seen some'fin else!"

Paul dared to question the shadow further. "And what did you see?" he asked.

The shadow crunched down on its lollipop and smacked gleefully. "I seen you die!" It bounced forward on its fat bottom and turned on its side, barrelling toward Paul on its rubber duck floatie. Paul dove out of the way as the shadow exploded above his head, and a tiny enemy emerged from its bile. A fairy, no bigger than a house cat, smashed into the wall behind Paul and stunned itself.

Its wings were translucent, and the red-headed fairy in her long blue leggings and tattered blue top, had harmed herself enough that she could not afford to do battle now.

Paul stood up as Shango appeared above his head. The god of storms peered down over the fairy and lightly tapped it on its head, nearly causing the fairy to faint. It shrieked and turned around to face Paul and Shango.

"Wait, wait! Whadda ya want!? Don't kill me, please!" the fairy screeched.

"I--wait what? You're a shadow. Why are you begging for your life?" Paul asked.

"Because I wanna live, dammit!" the fairy pouted.

"Okay then. There's only one thing you can do for me. Tell me where my friend is," Paul demanded.

The fairy looked around cautiously. She knew something.

"Tell me!" Paul demanded, threatening the fairy with his Nguni staff.

"Okay! Okay!" the fairy whined. "I peeked into the room to the north. She was there with a comrade of mine. They're fighting right now."

"Then that's where we need to be," Paul said as he lowered his weapon. "Let's go."

"Wait!" the fairy screamed. "Wait."

Paul turned around back to the fairy. "Be quick."

"I'm remembering something," the fairy began to say. "That's right. My name is Pixie. Take me with you."

"Take you with me? Why would I work with a shadow?" Paul's answer came more quickly than he expected. The fairy burst into particles of lights and showered itself over Paul's head. Paul instinctively covered his head, but as the particles touched his skin and were absorbed into his body, images flooded Paul's mind and he could feel a change in his body. He could see the fairy clearly in his mind as if it were always a part of his memories.

Paul looked around carefully, but sure enough, the fairy was gone. "Pixie, huh?" Paul wondered aloud. As he said the shadow's name, Shango disappeared from above Paul's head and Pixie emerged beside Paul, floating near his right ear. Paul nearly fell to the ground again as Pixie appeared suddenly at his side. "sheet! You scared--what are you doing here!?"

Pixie said nothing; it smiled and vanished away, awaiting its next call.

Paul raced northward and burst through a rickety wooden door just in time to see Haruka summon forth a bolt of lightning down on her enemy. She had summoned her Persona.

With that bolt of lightning, the Bicorn before Haruka was finally vanquished. Haruka's Persona seemed to get swallowed up by its own storm cloud, before disappearing entirely, as she fell face-down onto the floor. From her new viewpoint, she could see the others arriving. "This room's clear," she nonchalantly commented.

Tyler shoved past Paul before he could say anything. “Do you think this is funny?” he said, stomping over to her in a few long strides that rattled the chain on his ankle loudly. He didn’t give her a chance to come up with a quip, snatching her up from the ground by her collar and pinning her to the wall with one hand.

He held her high enough that her feet dangled in the air. “Are you just trying to die?” Tyler was past mad. He was almost nose-to-nose with her, spitting every word. “Just ask if so. I’ll wring your neck for you right here.” He tightened his grip, pressing his knuckles into her throat. “Is that what you want?”

"Of course not," Haruka spat back. "If I wanted to die, I could have dealt with that myself way before ever coming to this stupid island today! I'm not helpless, you know! I'll admit it wasn't the best idea ever, but all that matters is it worked, right!?" With a scornful look in her eyes, Haruka looked down at her arm briefly. That attack from the Bicorn before Haruka zapped it dead had left her with a pretty decent cut, but other than that... "Besides, I got out of my fight in way better condition than you did, didn't I?"

Paul marched forward and he pointed to Haruka first. "You got greedy. You decided you wanted to be a superhero so badly that you could've gotten yourself killed. You got lucky. But you jeopardized our safety too with your actions. We need to get out of here alive," he said, annoyed. Finally, he pointed at Tyler.

"And you. Unless you two have some kind of weird kink, you ain't her daddy. I dunno if this is your idea of playing hero, but you need to back off. Get your heads together so we can wrap this up."

Tyler snorted. “I dunno where you got the idea that you’re the leader of these idiots, but I sure as sheet ain’t takin' orders from you.” He relented though, unceremoniously dropping Haruka onto her ass before turning to leave. “Hurry the hell up. Pipsqueak has me wanting to hit somethin', and if we don’t find a Shadow soon it’s probably going to be one of you.”

"You're just like my brother," Paul said with a half laugh, half pity grunt for Tyler.

Haruka, meanwhile, looked on from her spot on the floor. She moved to stand up... only to fall over back to her lying position on the floor. She made several attempts at standing up, before finally commenting "I know I said I'm not helpless, but um... this is kind of embarrassing to say, but for some reason I can't stand up."

Haruka was put down at last and at Haruka's words, Paul sighed heavily. He motioned over to her and extended a hand. "Sorry in advance." He pushed both his arms beneath Haruka's as he stooped down. He threw Haruka's arms over his shoulders then grabbed hold of her waist. "Up you go," he said as he hoisted the girl onto his shoulders.

"Okay Haruka," Paul said as he walked carefully back toward the way he came in. "Since I'm carrying your ass, you're gonna guide me. Where to next?"

Haruka reached lazily for her pocket, procuring from it her phone. Even getting her arm back over Paul's shoulder was a trial of its own in her weakened state. This is actually pretty pathetic. Pointing on the room on the map with the white star, she said "Unless you all got the key in this room, we'll have to go back for it. As you can see, the path to the next floor is only available with that blue key, but to get there, we have to get through..." Pointing to the X on the map between the group's current room and the blue star, she concluded "This door. Which needs that key."

"Actually, Avery picked up a funny looking key earlier. I think its the one. It was white," Paul said quickly.

"Oh?" With a look of surprise, Haruka remarked "Wonderful. Then we can get straight to that other key. The sooner we get up this hotel, the sooner we can have a word with this 'owner' and his shitty choice in location."

"Got it. So we're heading south. Let's go find this blue key," Paul said as he bobbed with Haruka in his arms. "I thought she would be light but this is like carrying my mom's purse. Does she weigh like... 80 pounds?" Paul thought to himself.

Alaina · October 3, 2018

Standing there, not saying anything and a bit blankly as Tyler had stormed off down the hall, Avery merely went with the flow and nodded as Paul mentioned getting the blue key. Following slowly behind, the group began their trek through the hallway and while Paul had gone straight Avery’s attention was caught by a branch in it. Without saying anything, the girl slipped away from the main group and began walking to see what was down there.

“Oy, oy, y’all like separating from the group without tellin’ nobody,” Grendel muttered as he followed Avery. “The lot of ya are gonna need bells or somethin’,” he began to sniff the air, seeing if he could notice something.

A tall, cylindrical device stood before Avery. It was made up of two large, rounded frames of heavy glass, and a cold steel. It’s base was wide, sprouting four metal legs. Whatever this object was, it could fit at least four people inside at a time. It crackled with electricity, and an electronic panel inside of the device was clearly meant to operate it. And here, just isolated in a dark corner of the floor, the device sat alone.

Avery looked and examined the strange machine up and down.Tapping on the strange device, a curious expression on her face as she did so, she wondered what the function of the device could have been. “Elevator? Teleporter? Cloning Machine - no, probably not that.” The girl tapped her chin for a bit before figuring out that she had no idea what to make of this.

“Ya watch a lot of sci-fi, doncha?” Grendel commented. “Just because yer in a strange world that defies yer comprehension, it don’t mean everythin’ is something fancy, ya know?” He looked over the device and shrugged. “I nevah figured out what was innt,”

"Is that so? Unfortunate." Avery mumbled to herself before continuing on. Once the two had finished looking at the device, they began to move down the hall proper to continue their search for the blue key.

They came across a large room that was mostly empty. The exclusion to this was a number of the adventurer’s portraits hanging on the southernmost wall. Avery, Tyler, and Haruka’s portraits had all changed to now include their newly summoned Personas. Other than that, the room was empty.

Still curious and eager to explore, Avery gleefully walked over to her portrait, seeing the bird persona now behind her. “How curious! I wonder where they got these portraits from and why they hang them all over the place...I wonder…” The girl removed the portrait from the wall, examining it only to see that it was indeed just an average picture. Though, she had the eerie sense that the persona in the image was tracking her with its eyes. “Oh, well...Unless…” Focusing a bit, the girl called her persona out, the bird now appearing behind her. The two stared at the image, and the image stared as it always had. Looking to Vedfolnir, the bird looked to her and smiled, though Avery merely let out a disappointed sigh. “I suppose it’s just ominous decour.” With that, she placed the portrait back on the wall.

Paul was curious about his own portrait. It hadn’t changed at all but he approached it all the same. “These things creep me out,” he said softly aloud. Paul moved away from the portrait and proceeded forward.

“Oy, why da hell do you all get fancy pictures?” Grendel muttered as he looked over the wall. “They took pictures of you wankers but not of the mighty Grendel? What the bloody funk is wrong with da cameraman? If I evah find the wanker takin’ ‘ese, I’ll strangle ‘em with me bare hands and then I’ll---,” He went off into a long rant, going on and on about how he’d kill the person and feed them to the Reaper among other things.

Winding a long hall, Avery, Paul, Haruka, Grendel, and Tyler, came across a wide room with mirrors and a strangely placed sofa. There were four mirrors, one on the south, east, west, and north walls respectively. The sofa, which sat idly in the middle of the room, was missing a cushion. “Weird place for a nap,” Paul commented. He couldn’t help but wonder what this room was for. The mirrors especially made Paul curious.

Still feeling Haruka’s weight on his back, Paul shifted slightly. She quietly pointed out an indicated “safe room” on the map, to which Paul gladly obliged.

Inside, a Shadow Nurse waited for Paul and Haruka. It was the same nurse as before. “Greetings Masters,” she said politely. The safe room was once again lined with with beds, amenities, and food.

“Er, hi… again,” Paul said nonchalantly. “She’s injured,” Paul said, thumbing to Haruka on his back. “I’m going to leave her here to rest for now.” Paul gently sat Haruka down on a bed. “Hope you get your strength back soon,” he commented. “I’m gonna help out Avery and come back for you when I’m able.”

Paul left the safe room abruptly to return to Avery, Grendel, and Tyler.

Avery had, meanwhile, been searching the room. Her eyes locking onto the couch instantly, the girl had walked over to it and began examining it thoroughly. Deciding to go and pick up the two cushions, the girl examined to see if anything had happened once the couch was bare, though, there didn’t appear to be any apparent change in the room. Tapping her chin, the girl decided to go and put the cushions back on, though before she had, she noticed there were two pressure plates that had been previously obscured by the cushions. Furthermore, there was also one in the seat that was missing a cushion.

The girl thought about what would be needed to activate them, mumbling to herself, “maybe if I sat on it it’d be enough weight to trigger the plates but there’s a chance that the cushions aren’t heavy enough to press down them on by themselves which means I’d probably have to lay down across all three or maybe get two other people to sit beside me and -” The girl cut herself off, thinking about how both of these solutions would look and froze for a bit. Shaking a bit as her nerves were beginning to surface, the girl decided it was probably best to look for something else to weigh it down first.

Paul emerged again and noticed the odd expression on Avery’s face. “What’d you find?” he asked. He approached the sofa and examined it.

Letting out a small “eep” as her concentration was broken, the girl looked over to the source of the voice. Seeing that it was merely Paul, the girl cleared her throat a bit before saying, “um- yes, well - the couch. Er, the couch needs weights - things to weigh it down where the cushions are...yeah.”

“Betcha five bucks a cat stole ‘em to sleep on,” Grendel commented.

“Hmm.” Paul looked around. He didn’t see any weights. “Maybe we should check another room nearby?”

“Y-Yes.” The girl’s voice cracked briefly before she cleared her throat again saying, “that would probably be good.” While her body’s posture was still stiff, the girl’s voice seemed to be mostly calmed as she pointed over to the south of the room saying, “there’s another room over there, so, how about that?”

Paul stretched as he approached the southeastern door. He stooped down a bit and peered through the peephole into the other side. “Another shadow. And a few more mirrors too,” he commented. Ready to rock?” he asked.

“Oy, maybe you should wait fer the others. Ya know, for meat shield purposes, and wakin’ their personas to be put on dat wall of wankers!” Grendel called out.

Avery seemed to find the idea amusing, letting out a small chuckle, which was then replaced with a rather serious expression as if the idea of it had gotten her going into serious deep thought. All the same, she nodded to Paul, and contrary to Grendel's advice the girl let her anticipation give way as she opened the door.

Paul entered Room 5 with Avery beside him. The shadow in the room stared them down immediately, already alert to their presence. Paul stood at the ready, and he could hear the shadow mumbling something beneath its breath. However, the shadow turned its back to Paul and Avery, then vanished from sight.

Paul let out a sigh of relief. “That was odd.”

Avery had taken a notebook out at the sight, jotting something down, before saying, “they come in all kinds even before fighting…” Curiously musing to herself, she didn’t say much more before putting her notebook back into her bag and moving to the east side of the room. Given the map they had, the key was likely to be at the end of the adjacent hall, yet there was a snag in their route. Or, more specifically, a handless door that barred their path. Looking at the door, Avery commented aloud, “it’s blocked.”

“Dammit,” Paul swore. He started walking back toward the previous room. He stood in the doorway between Room 5 and Room 14. The mirrors were in the same locations in both rooms. “Hey. What do you think about these mirrors? They strike you as odd?”

“Broken mirrors always strike me as odd,” the girl stated matter of factly. She seemed to then block out the fact that there were others near her as she merely looked at each mirror. Walking over to the south mirror of the Room labeled as “14,” trying to see if she could move it. As it was fixed to the wall, she instead moved to the wall in the other room. While the mirror was certainly broken, it didn’t look too much different from its counterpart. While she was observing it, though, her ears perked up at the faint sound of whispering wind coming from behind it.

Curious, the girl grabbed onto the mirror and, unlike its counterpart, it was not fixed. Removing it, the girl saw a vent...with a sofa cushion in front of it. Seemingly taken off guard by this, the girl raised an eyebrow, before merely stating, “curious.” Grabbing the cushion, Avery nearly dropped it as it seemed far heavier than the other two in the previous room. Unzipping the pillow, the girl’s eyes perked up as she pulled out three heavy metal plates inside of it. Staring at them, confused for a second the girl then was struck by epiphany as she shouted, “I’ve got it!”

Moving back to the other room, the girl removed the cushions from the sofa once more, before placing each plate onto each seat. As she did so, she heard a loud “thunk” noise coming from the other room. With a smile on her face Avery simply jotted down something in one of her notebooks before excitedly running from the couch to the metal door that had barred her path earlier. After a few moments passed, Avery made her way back into the room everyone was in, a smile on her face as she said, “I’ve solved the mystery,” a blue key now in hand.

Paul applauded earnestly. “Nice job. That was good work,” he said to Avery. “Then according to the map,” Paul said, glancing at his phone now. “We’re almost out of here.”

As she had received the praise, the girl seemed to be trembling a bit, as her smile remained, simply saying, “yes! We almost are!” Checking the map hastily, only looking for a blue “X”, the girl then said, “s-so let’s go!” Her voice seemed to carry the tremble as well as she began to practically bolt out of the room and to the south west of the floor.

Paul followed with haste. “Where to?” Paul asked as they arrived at the split that led back to Room 1.

“Oh well, um, how about this one- this way.” Avery pointed to a room on the map, though, wasn’t actually close enough to Paul for him to see and rather than wait just started walking in the direction of the room marked “20.”

Paul followed Avery closely, keeping right on her tracks. Almost immediately upon arriving at Room 20, they stumbled into another shadow. “More of them. They’re just fuckin’ everywhere.” Paul readied himself. “Let’s ambush this one.”

Avery looked towards Paul and merely nodded, waiting for Paul to take the lead on this one.

Paul snuck ahead and creeped behind the shadow. He drew forth his bladed staff and broke into a sprint. He kicked in the back leg of the shadow and brought it to a knee, then pierced the enemy’s back with his blade before kicking it forward to the ground.

The shadow splattered into a black ichor before revealing its true form: a knighted horseman shadow who was known as Eligor.

The shadow was winded, having been taken by surprise. “Sneaky bastard!” it barked.

“Should’ve been watching your back,” Paul said as he concentrated. Shango appeared in a cloud of thunder above Paul’s head. “Kouha!” he demanded of Shango. The god spun its hammer wildly before bringing down an afterimage to the ground. Then, a bright pillar of light erupted at Eligor’s horse’s feet, striking a non-lethal blow. That was the best Paul could have hoped for, for now. His stamina was exhausted, and it was Avery’s turn.

“Vedfolnir!” As she called out her Persona’s name, it appeared behind her, flapping its wings. With one more mighty flap, it let loose a blast of wind that struck the horseman, knocking it down onto the ground. “Once more!” The bird flew overhead of the knight and fired yet another blast, destroying the shadow as it connected with them. With a giddy smile on her face she said, “good job Vedfolnir!” The bird let out a caw before vanishing away again.

Paul smirked. “Nice. That wasn’t too hard.” Paul stood beside a blue door, knowing Avery had the key. “After you,” he joked.

“Right.” The girl sped forward towards the blue door, and with her newfound key managed to open it. After opening it, there was only a hallway to be seen, and peering down it, the girl started to walk through it. Eventually, she made her way to a dead end with nothing but a chest in it. “Oh…” The girl looked at the map again, and she felt a weight on her chest as she realized that she had gone in the exact opposite direction of the exit. Staring blankly forward for a second she weakly said, “I made a mistake.”

After blinking a few more times, the girl went ahead to the chest before her to try and focus on anything except her mistake. Opening it up, she found what appeared to be a pair of armored plated women’s pants and a very large jacket. She stared at it, confused for a moment beginning to mumble, “now why would anyone leave a pair of clothes just lying around like this, does someone live here? Are these someone’s clothes? The shadows live here so many it’s their clothes, but they don’t all wear clothing anyway and beyond that why go to the trouble of putting it in this container unless someone put it in here to simply be found in which case maybe someone wanted us to have new clothing, though that seems a bit presumptuous to force their choice of style on us but then whose style would it be…” The girl continued to rattle off to herself as she examined the clothing and stuffed them into her bag.

Paul scratched his head. She was right that finding clothes in an… otherworldly plane of existence was strange. But these clothes specifically were made to fit humans. How did they get here?

“Don’t work yourself up over it,” Paul said, examining the jacket from afar. “Maybe we’ll find a use for it all. For now, let’s make our way back to the exit,” Paul said, heading back to Room 20.

“R-right.” Avery agreed as the group began to head towards the correct direction of the exit. Making their way out of the room, they began walking backtracking through a few rooms and hallways, until they had finally made their way back to the white door at the northern end of Room 2. Using the white key, the girl went to open it, seeing there was another shadow inside. Seeing it was distracted, Avery looked back and asked, “ambush this one?”

Paul nodded. “Let’s.”

Nodding, Avery moved forward first this time. Moving forward, the girl was able to move silently and swiftly, managing to sneak up on the shadow. However, after about closing half the distance, the girl had the front of her foot hit the ground at an awkward angle, causing her to lose balance and effectively trip on nothing. Letting out an “aaaah” as she fell, the girl landed on her face, alerting the shadow to their presence.

The shadow snapped around, annoyed. It snarled at Avery and Paul. “You thought you could sneak up on me?” It asked as it stepped forward out of the darkness. The shadow was a towering bodybuilder with beach shorts and a striped towel and sandals. “How dumb are you!?” it asked as it dissolved into a mess of ichor.

It revealed itself to be Jack Frost. “Gonna put you down, ho-ho!” it said with a rather sinister giggle.

Paul was suddenly caught off guard as Jack Frost set its sights on him, and cast a series of ice shards in his direction. Paul blocked the attack as best he could, but it was a critical strike and took Paul down to the ground. With Paul down, Jack Frost then targeted Avery.

“You die now, ho-ho!” Jack Frost quipped. It fired more ice crystals in Avery’s direction, but failed to take her down all the way. “... ho-ho?”

It was Avery’s turn now. Trembling both from the cold of the ice and the embarrassment she had just suffered, Avery was red in the face as she kept looking at the ground. Grinding her teeth a bit, the girl look back to the Jack Frost merely screaming, “Garu! Garu! Garu!” In response to her command, the bird Persona appeared and let loose a gust of wind that knocked the Jack Frost off of its feet. Letting out a string of caws that sounded like a mock laugh at the shadow, Vedfolnir sent out one last blast of wind towards the downed Jack Frost, striking the shadow and turning it into its dark remains, felling it.

Not daring to look at anyone else’s face, the girl began to make her way down the hall to the locked door leading to Room 4.

Paul, Avery, and Grendel arrived just outside of a blue door that led to Room 4. Thanks to Avery's key, the door was unlocked. Behind this door, two more shadows patrolled the floor.

“Right. Let’s get after tha yellow one, then,” Grendel commented.

Grendel slinked into the darkness and drew upon the yellow shadow. Without warning, he sprang upward and sank his jaws into the shadow’s neck and brought it down. With a violent tear, Grendel wrenched a chunk of the shadow’s flesh from its body, forcing it to reveal its true form.

The knighted Eligor and the horned Incubus were the trio’s foes once more.

Thanks to Grendel’s quick, sneaky work, he was able to strike first in the battle. “Y-you-- you bastard!” Incubus snarled.

“Beowulf! Cleave!” Grendel howled. The Persona struck quickly, slashing its weapon across the horned demon, Incubus. A critical strike was dealt, and Incubus fell with ease. “Again, Beowulf!”

The Persona followed suit and easily finished off Incubus, causing it to burst into a wisp of smoke and ember.

“Go for it, kid!” Grendel said to Paul.

“Kouha,” Paul demanded of Shango. The storm god appeared in a crash of thunder and slammed its staff to the ground. A pillar of light erupted beneath Eligor, blinding the shadow and taking it to a knee. “Kouha!” he said again. Another sparkling ray of light washed over Eligor and it cried out in agony.

“Avery,” Paul said quickly.

“Right!” The girl shouted out as she quickly made her way over to the downed Shadow. With one swift kick, the girl smashed her foot into the shadow knocking it away and causing it to explode into shadows. Still bouncing on her feet, the eventually settled down before looking to see another of the shadows still patrolling. “We should-,” the girl stopped herself and merely pointed to the door, to indicate moving to the next room. Walking over to the door, the girl pulled out her key and unlocked the door, moving into the next hall.

While there was a bit of twists and turns, the path was still free of danger, and as the group made their way over to a staircase. With a sudden refreshing feeling washing over her, Avery looked to the others and said, “I uh, I think we made it.”

As the girl made her comment, she noticed something that caught her eye. Down the hall from where they were standing was a chest far more unique and brilliant looking than any of the ones they had come across previously. Making her way over to it, the girl seemed to start examining it, looking all around the daunting box and feeling a bit intimidated to even try opening it. Yet, all the same, her curiosity overwhelmed her and she went to attempt to check the contents of it.

Paul had followed behind Avery as she went for the chest. “Good luck,” he said softly as she prepared to open it.

After a bit of messing around with it, Avery managed to pry off the lid to it, with her eyes immediately going wide with shock as she saw the contents inside. Nervously shaking as she reached for the inside, the girl pulled out two small, yet perfectly cut diamonds, shaking with excitement and disbelief as she turned to face the others and present what she had found.

“Are--are those diamonds? Like… real diamonds?” Paul stammered.

“Y’never seen diamonds before, boy?” Grendel huffed. “I’ve laid eyes on treasure bigger n’ that lot. Maybe it’ll do you some good, but, ya could do better.”

Paul sneered at Grendel. “Yeah, thanks. Diamonds are worth a lot in our world,” Paul commented. “Hope you can find someone who’d be willing to buy those,” Paul said. “... without asking where you got them from,” he added rather softly this time.

Avery, still in shock, stiffly nodded at Paul’s comment, still looking at the diamonds in her hands. Eventually, she managed to put them away and pocket them, looking back to the others. Clearing her throat she then said, “well, um, ahem - should we uh...look for a way out now?”

“Yeah,” Paul agreed. “Let’s get the hell outta here.”

Dad · October 5, 2018

"Let's head back to the saferoom. Haruka's still there, and if nothing else, Piper, Reno, and Jason can meet us there too," Paul said.

The saferoom was packed with adventurers but was still somehow roomy. "We've done enough for the day," Paul said as he entered the room. He walked over to Haruka's bed to discover she was out cold. "Haruka?"

"She has been indisposed since your previous departure, Master Paul," the Shadow Nurse said.

"Huh. She must've worn herself out trying to summon her Persona," Paul commented. "Then I guess we should take off and try to get her home. It's gonna be a long walk back to the lobby."

"There is a more direct route, Master Paul," the Shadow Nurse announced. "Might I have a look at your map?" she asked.

"The map? Oh, yeah, sure," Paul said, unfolding the original map from his backpack. He handed it to the Shadow Nurse politely.

"Thank you." The Shadow Nurse ran her fingers along the map, her nails gently applying pressure to its surface. Her hand stopped as her index finger reached Hall N, and she began tracing her way to the side corridor where Avery found a strange device. "I should be able to activate the Quick Access Warp Device remotely. This will allow quick travel between floors and make your time here much more efficient."

"Wait. You can do that from... a paper... map?" Paul asked, scratching his head. He watched with wide eyes as a drop of what he thought to be black blood dripped from the Shadow Nurse's finger. It landed precisely on the marked device, and a bubble emerged from the map.

"The Q.A.W.D. (quad) should be active now. Returning to it will allow you to travel to any floor you've already been to, including the lobby, at predetermined points on that floor. The device will hold up to four persons at a time. But, do be warned, your first time using the device may make you feel ill."

"Kinda like the first time leaving this place, huh?" Paul chuckled. "I guess we'll try it out. Especially if it saves twenty minutes. Thanks, Nurse."

The anomaly Shadow nodded in response.

Paul picked up Haruka gently from the bed and held her over his shoulder like a newborn. "Okay. Let's go home."

"This should be it," Paul said as he rounded the corner to the Q.A.W.D. "Jason, Reno, Piper, Tyler, you guys can go first. Avery, Haruka and I will be right behind you."

Tyler, Piper, Reno, and Jason stepped inside of the large, cylindrical glass device and stood still, unsure of how to operate it. But before long, a crackle of electricity surged inside the device and began to travel over their bodies. After a moment, a beam of blue light appeared above the occupants of the Q.A.W.D., and slowly washed over the width of their bodies as it sank to the floor. In a bright flash, Tyler, Piper, Reno, and Jason were suddenly gone, hopefully having emerged back on the lobby floor.

"I'm not looking forward to this," Paul said softly.

"Well kid," Grendel said behind Paul. "I busted my ass for ya today. I expect ya ta pay me back later."

"I owe you, Grendel. I won't forget it," Paul replied.

The door to the Q.A.W.D. opened wide, and Paul, Haruka, and Avery stepped inside. "See you around, Grendel."

The door to the Q.A.W.D. was shut, and electricity surged around Paul, Haruka, and Avery. The blue light appeared above them and spanned the width of the machine's innards. It coated them from head to toe before a blinding light caused Paul and Avery to close their eyes.

Paul felt like his skin and his insides were on fire! Everything from his head to the soles of his feet was in excruciating pain. It was like someone had put his body through a cheese grater. When the light subsided, Paul stumbled and fell out of the Q.A.W.D. Georaldo was ready and waiting for them, catching Paul and saving Haruka from falling.

"Easy, Master Paul, easy. Come, sit. Having your body reassembled is quite a sickening feeling until you get used to it," Georaldo said.

He ushered Paul over to the lobby sofa where Tyler, Jason, Reno, and Piper, were all sitting, huddled over buckets in case they needed to vomit. Paul took an end seat and snatched the pail from beside the sofa and stuffed his face into it. He threw up his lunch and wiped his mouth in disgust.

Avery was seated alongside Paul and a pail was sat at her feet.

"Apologies, young Masters. The Q.A.W.D. is a bit out of date. And we don't yet have the means to fix the darn thing to keep it from making you ill," Georaldo said. "You should take a moment to recover before you depart."

"What the hell is that thing? Why does everything hurt?" Paul asked, sitting up.

"Well," Georaldo said. "It was initially meant to quickly transport cargo and other non-living material. It was never meant for organic creatures such as you or I. However--"

"Well, the Nurse led us on. I'm startin' to think we shoulda just taken the long way," Paul complained.

"The Q.A.W.D. was recently transfigured to accept biological life-forms, you see. It is actually a prototype to a safer, much more tolerable machine. But... unfortunately, the plans to said device are still being held by the Owner," Georaldo explained.

Paul took a miniature bottle of mouthwash from his backpack and took a swig from it. He swished it around his mouth and spat in the pail. He wiped his mouth and sighed. "Then I guess we better get to the top floor sooner rather than later. If it means not having to deal with using that funking thing again."

A fifteen-minute breather allowed the adventurers to shake off their aches and pains before traversing the jungle again. They reached the beach, having memorized the way through by now. Standing beneath the storm of static, they prepared themselves to leave the island once more.

8/28

Tuesday

Evening

"Still gonna need to get used to that. Feels like I'm in a vacuum every time," Paul said as they returned to their own world.

Haruka was still slinked over Paul's shoulder, unconscious. "I'd call her an Uber, but I don't know where she lives. And right now she can't tell us," Paul said. "Anyone know where Haruka stays?"

*Get Haruka home safely.
Close out your day as you see fit.

Yui · October 5, 2018

Last thing Haruka knew, she was being set down on that bed in the hotel, because she was suddenly too weak to stand up on her own. Now? Sitting on the very fringe of consciousness, she felt that familiar sickening sensation of leaving that stupid island. Like I'd be able to stay asleep through that. How long did I sleep, anyway? However long it was, it didn't feel long enough. It felt like her strength was returning, but she wanted to not open her eyes, and just fall back asleep. But how was she supposed to do that on somebody's back? She wasn't some grade-school brat.

"I'd call her an Uber, but I don't know where she lives. And right now she can't tell us. Anyone know where Haruka stays?"

"I can make my own phone calls," she muttered, forcing her eyes open. There would be time to sleep when she got home. Haruka reached for and grabbed her phone, but before she could make the phone call, she noticed she had one new text. That was odd; there was only ever one person who texted her. Her uncle. Sure enough, it was from him, and her face visibly soured as she looked it over.

I'm sorry that this is so sudden, but I've gotten a job offer in another state that pays much better than the sushi restaurant's been doing. We've got some time before I need to be there, but we still have to do some moving.

Useless old man. He could at least tell me he was looking for other jobs. "It looks like I'm moving away in the near future," she commented, wriggling free of Paul's grip and - rather shakily at first - setting her feet down on the ground beneath her. "Just as well. I never liked that island anyway, and I won't have to think about it if I live nowhere near here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

With that, Haruka started off, dialing a number into her phone. The keen listener would be able to pick up on the start of Haruka's end of the conversation, but not quite understand what she was saying. <Hello? Yeah, it's Haruka. I'd say 'thanks for the warning' but you didn't really give me any. I need a ride home. Can you pick me up at that coffee shop?>

Super Chaos Sonic · October 6, 2018

...Only Human

-BGM-

It was all pretty much a blur for the young man. What he saw was Paul, Grendel, Tyler, and Avery being the ones to trek forward through the floors of the hotel. At this moment, he felt absolutely useless. But why? Was it because the others had these...Personas? Was it because he froze when he tried his best to sneak past that Shadow? Honestly, he wasn't sure if it was something singular or if it was a combination of everything. Nevertheless, what Tyler said continued to come back to his mind.

“Oh yeah, that helps a lot. How about instead of apologizin' you just don’t do it again? I ain't tryin' to die for your stupid ass.”

He wasn't trying to put anyone in danger...he was just... I-I...I was just trying to help... he thought, as the group now returned to the real world. The moment they returned to where they met up, he tossed on his hood and slunked away, making sure no one noticed him leaving immediately. The whole ordeal that happened today was just...no...

"Hey mom...I'm heading home. Just got finished over here." Jason quickly sent a text home, as he exhaled sharply. Sliding his phone back in his pocket, he made his trek back home. He wanted to forget this day ever happened. But right now with it turning evening, the shifting shadows from the lights even began to make the young man uneasy.

Jason finally made it home, luckily with his father not being there. Right now, that would've been the last thing he needed to have tonight...especially after the day he had. He shuffled his way up to his room, before locking himself in his room. Slinging his back down in a nearby chair, Jason finally broke down. He slammed his right fist into his wall, feeling tears running down his face at this point. He felt so many emotions and feelings right now. Worthlessness... Sadness... Fear... Pain...

And it all stemmed from that Shadow and it's eyes filled with evil. Just like his...that's all he could think of.

He leaned against the wall and slunk to the floor, holding his left wrist close to his chest as he kept crying. Truth be told, he wished he didn't have to deal with this whole fear coming up to rear it's ugly head yet again...but then again, he knew it was inevitable at this point. He just...at this point he just needed to talk to someone. Thinking about it, he started going down the list of possible people to help...

Alice? No...I couldn't just unpack all that with her. I don't need her to relive that too. The Video Game Club? Kevin? I could...but no...trying to explain most of this sheet to them, save Reno and Avery, would be coming out of left field. Jason thought, before glancing over at his phone. Maybe...maybe Paul...

Paul was right there in the general area that he was and actually saved him. Maybe he would be the best person to talk to about this...maybe just confide in him everything. After calming down, he sighed and grabbed his phone.

"Hey Paul...it's Jason. Look...can we talk after class tomorrow? I need...I need to talk to someone and you seem like the best person to." he typed up and sent, before tossing it on his chair and then climbing in his bed. He just wanted today to be over...

Hakima · October 6, 2018

Tyler breathed a sigh of relief when his boots were firmly planted on the concrete sidewalk. “Damn. I was starting to think we were never gonna make it home.” He pulled his jacket on, zipping it up to his neck to hide his bloody t-shirt. “Dropped my gun back in that f*ckin’ hallway though. Probably won’t ever see that thing again.”

Paul—the self-appointed babysitter—reminded them of Haruka. “I’d call her an Uber,” he said, “but I don’t know where she lives, and right now she can’t tell us.” He looked around at the group. “Anyone here know where Haruka stays?”

Tyler wasn’t about to spill. He knew her address, but he wasn’t going to be giving it to everyone that asked. Luckily Haruka woke up almost immediately. "I can make my own phone calls," she mumbled, stumbling up to her feet and grabbing her phone. Her expression soured as she read her messages.

"It looks like I’m moving away,” she finally said. “Just as well. I never liked that island anyway, and I won't have to think about it if I live nowhere near here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

Pipsqueak was moving out of town. The thought bothered him, but Tyler shoved his hands into his pockets and pretended it didn’t. Why should he care? She was just a suicidal midget. Still, it was a long way back to her house from where they were now.

“Hold up, Pipsqueak,” Tyler caught Haruka before she got too far away. “I owe you one. I’m not saying that your plan wasn’t stupid, but it woke my Person-thing up.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and pressed a button on the keyfob. His car rumbled to life. “I’ll give you a ride home. Anyone else need a lift while I’m at it?”

Regardless of who took him up on the offer, he would swing around town and drop everyone else off before Haruka. Her house was the last stop. Tyler tightened his grip on the steering wheel as they pulled up to her driveway. “Hey. I don’t say this often, but—I’m sorry. I went too far back there. So… yeah. I just wanted to get that off my chest, since we probably won’t be seein’ much of each other after this.”

He sighed as she opened the door and got out of the car. The day had been long, and he was just ready to go to bed. “You have a good one, Pipsqueak. And tell your Grandma I said she’s a b*tch.”

He put it in drive and rocketed off after that. It was early for him to go home, but he really wanted to have dinner with his old man. He needed that sort of stability in his life right now.

Alaina · October 11, 2018

Once back outside of the labyrinthine hotel and back out on their own home plane, Avery seemed to have calmed considerably. Though there was a look of disappointment on her face as they first made their touch down onto concrete once more, the girl's expression soon shifted to become more of a neutral one. As the group began to move their seperate ways for the night, it had appeared that one of them was leaving the group, as they had to move. While Avery knew little about Haruka, there was certainly a feeling of disappointment that went through her yet all the same, she didn't do more than give a small wave goodbye to the girl. With Tyler offering a ride, Avery merely said, "no, I'm fine walking from here." With that, the girl merely made her way away from the rest of the group, calmly walking home.

Once home, Avery did little more than give a short greeting to her parents and forge food from her cabinets and refrigerator before retiring to her room. Wading through the mess that it was, Avery opened her laptop up and unloaded her backpack of notebooks onto the floor next to her. Opening one up next to her, the girl began to type furiously into the keyboard, logging down all that she had written on the sheet of paper into a document. With great fervor in her fingers and a look of enthusiasm across her face, the girl spent the night copying down and cleaning up the things that she had written down for the day. Once she had finished, the girl let out a laugh in joy of her success, before this was abruptly cut off as she passed out on her desk, the fatigue of the day's events finally catching up with her.

King K. Azo · October 14, 2018

Reno's day was really weird.

He really didn't know how to react to everything going on. They had traveled to the strange new world, only to be assaulted by creatures he could only call demons... and snowmen. The others had unleashed a super power... well, almost everyone. He was some of the few that didn't. So what made him unable to summon it. He was the one that had to stare down the Grim Reaper while everyone had fun throwing around their magical superpowers.

He didn't even get a single word of thanks.

Sure, he should have been used to it. That was his life after all. He probably just needed to calm down. He'd get it next time, he was sure. He just had to believe that was the case. At the very least, it couldn't get worse.

"It looks like I'm moving away in the near future," Oh. So the one person that talked to him willingly was moving. Okay. "Just as well. I never liked that island anyway, and I won't have to think about it if I live nowhere near here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

Looks like it got worse.

That was fine, that was fine. It was just a reinforced life lesson. He couldn't depend on anyone, only himself. Tyler had apparently offered everyone a ride, but Reno had simply slipped away quietly, the giant surprising quiet on his feet. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and opening the music app. He decided that he needed to hear the

to both calm himself down... and to drown out the voice.

.

I̢̧̨̛̖͓̞̭̜̓̔̉̄́̄̂̾͢ a̢̢̧̛̝̭̯̝̩̒͛̾̃̑̈́͗͌͢͞ͅm̨̻̣͈̯͚̲̍̑̊̈͆̎͐̚̚͡ͅ t̴̡̡̥̪̺̠͎̐̒̀̆̄͆̍̔͋͟͠ͅh̶̨͇̭̭̞̣̊̓̊̑͝ơ̪̼͈̣̦̑͑̏͌̉͘͟ú̴͍̩̜̪̘̖̜̗͐͗̌̕͝͡͞,̧̛̠͕̲͉̆̓̽̾ t̷̡̛̘̮̞̱̋̏́̍h͕̲͕̦̰̺̰͓̹̱́͐͐̾̄̒̚͡o̸̢͎͔̼͍̠̪̻͂́̌̈́̌̑̕͢u̟͓̰̜̤̹͂̂̌̌͡ ą̷̪̯̹͇͔̥̟̒̇̑͘͝͞r̶̟͉̘̲͎͕̦͕͋́͛́͋̄̽̏ť̡̺̟͕̹̻̪̥̣͒̊͑̂͝ I̸̡͉̮̞͕̮̣͇̱͊̿̆̌̀̄̄͆

.

Dad · October 15, 2018

8/29

Wednesday, Morning

Hot and Humid

FROM: Nathan
TIME: 8:08 A.M.

Think I know who keyed your ride. Couple uninvited sophomores got wasted and trashed a bunch of stuff. If you want, I can give it a buffing and a new paint job. I've got some new air hoses I wanna try out.

Nathan sent his text to Tyler and was sitting in his first class when Hensley got called out first thing.

"Hensley. Your cousin is here to see you. Something about a family emergency," said their trigonometry teacher.

"My cousin? But she's in Ala--oh. Oh! Yeah! Be right there," Hensley said as she darted up from her seat.

Nathan only watched curiously.

FROM: Jason
TIME: 10:00 PM, 8/28

Hey Paul...it's Jason. Look...can we talk after class tomorrow? I need...I need to talk to someone and you seem like the best person to.

Paul didn't reply. His mind was on other things at the moment.

"sheet, I'm late," Paul thought to himself. He had missed the first bus to school and it was already past 8:00. He had slept sporadically and it caused him to wake up well into the beeping of his alarm clock. He'd had another dream about the Velvet Room, and a lot happened. He was going to have to sit down with his counselor for sure this afternoon to talk about it.

Or... perhaps that wasn't a great idea. He had just visited another world. If it was related to the Velvet Room and somehow and his Persona, what kind of trouble could his blabbing to the counselor cause? But then, who could he talk to? This entire situation only drove Paul to ask more questions and cause him more mental anguish. He couldn't keep holding it all in much longer. Paul sighed and glanced back at Jason's text. Maybe they should talk.

FROM: Paul
TIME: 8:12 A.M.

Yeah. We should def talk.

The text was sent back to Jason. The time was 8:12 A.M. Paul begrudgingly pulled the bell on the bus and hopped off at the City Park Center Circle. He carefully checked both oncoming and outgoing traffic before sprinting across the street to campus.

There was a note pinned to the inside of Tyler's locker. It had been sealed very neatly with a special insignia. It was a bold red stamp of an old English "R".

Its contents were as follows:

"Tyler.

Your previous employer has been bought out and integrated into my company. They have asked me to extend a warm welcome to you for your incredible work ethic. I would like to do so at your earliest convenience. This Saturday, I will be opening the business in Kenner, Louisiana, at the address listed below:

5949 Veterans Memorial Boulevard

I would love to meet with you in person.

Yours,

R."

Inside the envelope were ten one-hundred dollar bills, with an attached sticky note that read, "Your severance package".

Paul waited patiently outside of their American History class to speak with Jason. He was standing near the lockers in the east hall. When Jason emerged from class, Paul called out to him.

"Jason. Over here," Paul called. "I'm kinda glad you texted me."

Reno and Avery would find that there was a "new" student in his morning Economics class. Though, new was a big of a faux term. She had been there quite some time, but until today, she had been practically invisible. That is until she was called on to answer a question.

"Ms. Farros," prompted Kelsey, their laid-back Economics teacher. "You seem a bit drowsy this morning. Allow me to pique your interest with a question."

Kelsey propped herself up on her desk and leaned back on her hands while folding her legs.

"True or false: for a producer to have an absolute advantage, the producer must produce the same goods at a lower opportunity cost."

"What's takin' you so long cuz?" asked a tattooed, slightly older female with broad shoulders. Hensley was not happy to see her.

"Whaddya mean? I've tried makin' moves on Tyler. He's not into me," Hensley said, folding her arms. "I already told you and your people it's a no go. I was given the o.k. to move on."

"Well you ain't got an o.k. from me. Either you nab Tyler or you're gonna catch hell," the nasty woman spat.

"Your people know you're here? Or you running a rogue op?" Hensley retorted.

"He's competition, Hensley. That's all I need to know." The older woman stormed off and out toward City Park. She slid into an expensive, modified Jaguar and peeled off out of the school parking lot.

"jabroni," Hensley mumbled under her breath.

Go to school and advance as you please through 8/29.
Meet the new student.
Attend any club meetings that you're a part of.

radio414 · October 15, 2018

From: (504)555-6942
To: (504)555-8213, (504)555-2084
Heyyy howve you all been?
Feels like I havent seen either of you in actual years

From: (504)555-2084
To: (504)555-6942, (504)555-8213
We hung out, like, right before school started, you goof.
It’s been two weeks, tops.

From: (504)555-6942
To: (504)555-8213, (504)555-2084
ACTUAL YEARS

From: (504)555-8213
To: (504)555-6942, (504)555-2084
Hey sorry just got a new phone
Don’t have any of my contacts yet
Which one of you is megan?

From: (504)555-6942
To: (504)555-8213, (504)555-2084
Lol me
You didnt tell me you were getting a new phone!

From: (504)555-8213
To: (504)555-6942, (504)555-2084
Lol lost my last one at kevins party
You should of seen my dads face
Speaking of
Your gonna have to buy lunch for a while megan

So went that particular morning’s conversation. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in the goings on of her friends, especially since Megan was right, they hadn’t actually seen each other since before the school year had started, but the three-way group chat had quickly devolved into a one-on-one between Megan and Beatrice, and she felt she’d rather mute her phone than deal with a buzzing phone all throughout breakfast. Besides, she had a book to read, cereal to eat, parents to deal with, and, on occasion, a combination of all three.

For example, the cereal of choice this morning was Multi-Grain Cheerios because the previous weekend, her mom had found moth eggs in all the normal-person cereals and thrown them all out, not even bothering to answer her daughter’s (frankly obvious) question of “Why do you think the moths didn’t bother with this multi-grain slop?” Instead, she’d told her daughter that she should consider herself lucky that any cereal had survived at all.

She certainly didn’t feel very lucky.

Her father, who was responsible for bringing the accursed cereal into the house in the first place, had shared his wife’s view, though at least his breakfast consisted of a much larger bowl of the stuff, which at least by this morning had helped turn the almost-full box of sawdust and pain into a half-full one. By the end of the week, the house would probably return to its usual cereal normalcy.

In the meantime, she had to deal with the other intersections. Her book distracted her from the food in her mouth, but her father, in turn, had decided to distract her from the book. “Whatcha reading, kiddo?”

For one, she was seventeen, certainly not a kiddo. For two, she knew for a fact that her father wasn’t blind. Sure he had astigmatism, but he was wearing his glasses. He could see the title of the book just as well as anybody else. But she still answered. “The Schwa Was Here,” she said. “It’s a, uh, a YA novel I had to read in sixth grade. It’s about this kid that nobody notices, even if he’s always been there.”

“And you’re rereading it, what, five years later because…?”

“I remember liking it.” She looked up from her book, a little annoyed. “It’s not like I’ve got English this semester to give me books I wouldn’t like anyway.”

“Hey, I’m just making conversation,” her father said. “I’m actually pretty glad you’re still reading honest-to-God books still. It shows good character.”

She almost said “Whatever” but settled for just an eye-roll.

Her next bite was worse than normal. It had more of a goopy texture compared to the previous few’s unsatisfying crunch. She looked down and saw that the little hellspawn Os had broken apart, turning her bowl into a mostly-milk, partially-wheat mess that, even if it did once have decent cereal in it, would certainly be inedible in its present state. Making her way over to the sink, she quickly disposed of her breakfast, made some excuse about having to finish getting ready for school, and disappeared into her room.

Her excuse wasn’t a complete lie. She did still have to shove some things into her backpack, mostly notebooks, pencils, and her calculator for Physics. She also grabbed the small cloth pouch that contained her cards in case she decided she’d rather skip Physics today instead.

After going through a mental checklist, making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything or, if she had, that those forgotten things weren’t very important, she hugged her parents goodbye and began the maybe-just-a-bit-too-far-to-walk-but-she-didn’t-like-the-alternatives-length walk to school.

She checked her phone. The most recent messages were:

From: (504)555-6942
To: (504)555-8213, (504)555-2084
Lol yeah like I always say
Its never too late to be fashionably late

School was, yeah it certainly was a school, wasn’t it? She sure did love all the stomping through the halls and the idle chatter and the constant percussive sound of lockers slamming closed. That was why she was always wearing headphones with her old brick of an iPod always blasting Philadelphia Harmonic or Chicago Symphony or whatever performance of old greats suited her fancy at the time. Because she looooved school.

One of school’s few saving graces was how lucky she’d been to have her locker really close to her first class, Economics. It meant she had time to let her song finish before shoving her backpack into her locker, walking the last little bit to the classroom at her own leisure, taking her seat -- second row, furthest to the right, as always -- and still manage to catch a few extra Zs before the bell rang and everyone else shuffled in.

Kelsey, the teacher, was the last one in, and today she carried a clipboard with her, “I know normally this would be the attendance sheet,” she said, “but I realized I wasn’t learning anybody’s name’s that way, so I’m just going to do a standard roll-call this week and we can switch back after that. How’s that sound?”

The classroom murmured.

“Hey, no need to speak up all at once,” she said. “Okay, let’s start with… Aaron?”

“Here.”

And so on down the line she went. Sometimes Kelsey would recognize a student by name and wouldn’t even bother calling it out. And sometimes…

“Thomasin?”

“Present,” she said. She waved her hand, too.

Kelsey, though, didn’t seem to notice. “Thomasin?” she said again. “Thomasin Farros?”

“I’m here,” Thomasin said. She raised her hand a little higher. “I’m here.”

The “excitement” of roll-call didn’t make the rest of the class any less boring, though. It wasn’t that Kelsey had a tendency to drone on because she didn’t. As far as Thomasin could tell, Kelsey really tried to make high-school-level economics as engaging as possible for her class. It just didn’t always work. It especially didn’t work at morning-o’clock when, in most students’ cost-benefit analyses, not being engaged had far, far greater benefits.

Even when the costs included being cold-called out of nowhere.

“Miss Farros,” Kelsey said. “You seem to be a bit drowsy this morning. Allow me to pique your interest with a question. True or false: For a for a producer to have an absolute advantage, the producer must produce the same goods at a lower opportunity cost.”

Perhaps not being recognized was an omen of things to come. At the very least, there was little doubt in Thomasin’s mind that if she had recognized Thomasin on sight, she might have let a little nodding off slide. Kelsey would have called on somebody else; she’d try to get somebody else’s name committed to memory. But no, instead she put Thomasin on the spot all for maybe -- maybe -- not paying attention as much as she should have.

Fortunately, she was pretty sure she knew the answer. “Um, isn’t that comparative advantage?” she said. “Absolute advantage is just being able to make more stuff, right?”

“Correct,” Kelsey said. “You're as attentive as ever. But will you apply that to next week's test, I wonder.” She smiled, Thomasin didn’t, and the class moved on.

When the bell rang (when the bell finally rang, though the “finally” was probably implicit given the setting), Thomasin was one of the first ones out of the classroom. Again, with her locker so close to the classroom, she could afford a little time to idle around as all the other students trickled past her.

As she shuffled notebooks and textbooks around, she put a single earbud in her ear, and her music started to play.

Alaina · October 16, 2018

It had never really mattered when a class was for Avery. She had always been up late and awake early, finding other times during the day to get her sleeping done. As such, she was always perfectly fine and awake, or as awake as she needed to be for any of her given classes. The girl would always manage to feign relative interest in her class, not enough that she was too excited about it nor too little to make her seem like she'd rather be anywhere else. She had always taken care to have a notebook out and whenever the teacher would say something, at the very least appear to be, writing something down in it. And thus, the sight of Avery at her desk barely able to keep her head from resting atop it was a definitely abnormal one.

With pen pressing against the blank paper of one of her notebooks, leaving an ever increasing black ink splotch there in its path, and her eyes having to fight to stay open the girl was very clearly tired. Eyes centered on her desk, the girl was merely doing her best to fill a seat yet she was hardly paying attention to any of the noise being spoken out of the mouths of both the teacher and the students.

"-reaux." Something stuck out within the white noise of class. "-Moreaux." The girl's eyes seemed to grow a bit more attentive as she looked around. "Miss Moreaux." As if a balloon popped in her face, Avery looked up, startled as she saw the teacher calling for her. Staring at them, like a deer in headlights, Avery said nothing as the teacher continued, "since it helped Miss Farros wake up, how about you answer the next question?"

Oh no.

Having managed to survive class, feeling a tad mortified though, Avery began to walk with all the speed, grace and posture of a Romero zombie. Letting out a huge yawn as she walked along, the girl was soon tapped on the shoulder and a "boo" came from behind her. Becoming far more alert as her body froze up, the girl turned around, only to see the smiling face of her acquaintance Lindsay. "Gotcha."

As Avery let out a deep sigh, the other girl started laughing. With a somewhat tired, "good morning Lindsay," Avery's expression seemed to reset as she continued walking down the hall.

"Morning Avery. Or, it looks like you still think it's night." Examining the girl's face she said, "what's got you so tired this morning?"

Trying to appear more cordial, the blonde said, "I was...working on something."

"Work? It's like the second week of school - not exactly all nighter territory yet. Unless," with a gasp and look of faux surprise, the more enthusiastic girl said, "could it be that the elusive Avery has a hobby?!" With a giddy expression on her face, the girl said, "well c'mon, tell me. What is it? Coding? Art?" Leaning in closer and whispering, "is it drug related?" Avery's fatigue did little to hide the scowl on her face, looking at Lindsay, causing the girl to back off saying, "yeesh. But this is a rare opportunity, so you gotta tell me."

Avery understood the persistence she was facing against and sighed saying, "I was, uh, writing something." Lindsay's face seemed to get more eager as she wanted to prod even further, causing Avery to say, "it's nothing interesting, really. Just a bunch of spreadsheets and notes to help me stay more organized."

Though she still looked like she was expecting more, Lindsay merely said, "well, who would have thought that Avery Moreaux was such an organization freak. Well anyway - wait..." The girl stopped as she seemed to remember something. "sheet, I got class on the other side of the building. Later Avery," with a wave, her friend bolted off.

Letting out another sigh, Avery just made her way to her next class.

Super Chaos Sonic · October 16, 2018

8/29

Wednesday, Morning

Hot and Humid

Jason didn't get a text back from Paul like he was hoping to wake up to. He sighed and got ready for class, pretty much thinking that the guy obviously didn't want to talk. Not surprising to him, actually.

With the sheet we went through yesterday, not surprising that he probably doesn't want to talk... Jason thought, tossing his bag over his shoulder and left outside the house. However, he had quick eye contact with Gary, who seemed to be coming home after a long night at work. Jason immediately looked away and proceeded to move away from the front door.

"Jason!" Gary said sternly, making Jason flinch slightly. "...you comin' home on time today or what?"

His grip on his backpack's strap grew tighter. He wanted to shout at the man, but with another look at the man, he looked back. "...I should. I-If anything changes...I'll text either you or mom."

"You better." he huffed, walking into the house.

Jason shook his head quickly, making his way away from the house and towards the school.

When Jason got to the campus and got in class, he felt his phone vibrate and he glanced down, immediately seeing a text from Paul. A bit happier about seeing this, he quickly opened up the message.

FROM: Paul

TIME: 8:12 A.M.

Yeah. We should def talk.

A bit of relief washed over the young man, seeing this message. Just meant that now, Jason really had to unload a lot of everything to Paul. But at least something.

Opening Up...

Class seemed to drag on for quite a while, but nevertheless, the American History class finally ended and Jason gathered his things and immediately made his way towards the exit. That's when he noticed Paul standing near the east hall's lockers.

"Jason. Over here. I'm kinda glad you texted me."

He flashed a small smile at Paul, nodding. "...truthfully...I'm glad you texted me as well. I've...I've been meaning to talk to someone about this for a bit now." Jason said, walking a bit a ways from the lockers with Paul.

"Listen...I never wanted to talk about this...like at all." he started with a sigh. "But...ever since yesterday and looking at that creature's eyes...I-I had the feeling of me seeing those eyes before. ...and I have. Y-Ya know about that big game last year...right?"

Dad · October 21, 2018

Jason finally emerged from class and approached Paul. It was clear he was worried about something. He flashed Paul a smile, but it didn't seem like a happy smile. It was almost forced from Paul's perspective. They stepped a bit further away from the classroom to get what little privacy they could in the halls of a high school.

"...truthfully...I'm glad you texted me as well. I've...I've been meaning to talk to someone about this for a bit now."

Paul's curiosity peaked.

"Listen...I never wanted to talk about this...like at all. But...ever since yesterday and looking at that creature's eyes...I-I had the feeling of me seeing those eyes before. ...and I have. Y-Ya know about that big game last year...right?"

"Couldn't forget that game if I tried," Paul replied to Jason. "I'll be honest and say I was hoping that you had gotten past it. But it's clear that it's still bothering you, and I can understand why I think." Was this still about his injury? Was he getting bullied for it? Paul had no idea what was going on, but...

That game was still fresh in Jason's mind, and Paul remembered it too. It was before he and Jason became friends, but there was nothing like seeing your star player get their wrist shattered and being taken out of the game for good. Everything after that went downhill. And most everyone on the basketball team, save for three or four players, blamed Jason for their loss.

"What's buggin' you?" Paul asked. "And how does it relate to the island?"

Super Chaos Sonic · October 22, 2018

Truth

"Couldn't forget that game if I tried. I'll be honest and say I was hoping that you had gotten past it. But it's clear that it's still bothering you, and I can understand why I think. What's buggin' you? And how does it relate to the island?"

Jason stopped and leaned up against a wall in the hallway and exhaled sharply. His right hand slowly and gently grasped his left wrist. With another exhale, he looked at Paul for a moment. "...that's the thing. I thought I got past this whole thing." he began to explain. "Until yesterday, all I had to worry about was the bullshit I get from Ivan and his posse."

He paused, before shaking his head slowly. "That encounter in the hotel...with that shadow that you and Shango saved me from..." Jason's left fist clenched as he exhaled again. "I...I froze because I saw something in that shadow's eyes...something I hadn't truly seen since...since that day." He could feel himself being in on edge right now. Just thinking about that creature's cold dead eyes were sending red flags and chills down his spine once again. "...I-I need to talk to someone about this. A-And out of everyone I-I've been friends with...y-y-you seem like the most trustworthy."

Letting go of his left wrist, he started running his hands threw his hair slowly. "I...I lied on how I got this injury. Yeah, big shock...a teenager lying about something. But...there was a reason..."

Thusly...he began to set the scene for Paul, telling him...more or less the truth.

Fallen Star

The Night of the Big Game

Jason was hyped up as he got his things ready. This was the biggest game that he had ever played and this would more or less get the Greater Orleans High's Horsemen basketball team a championship! His nerves were already on edge at this point, but he was excited nevertheless. Dressed in his basketball uniform, he made his way downstairs, about to make his way to get to the campus...however...when he made his descent down, he saw that Alice and his foster parents standing at the bottom of the stairs...dressed all nice.

"What's with the dressy threads?" Jason asked.

"That theater production that Alice has a lead role in." Gary simply spoke, crossing his arms slightly. "You're coming to support your sister tonight."

"Uhhhh, I can't. I've got a game tonight." he quickly said, seeing his mother, Julia, stepping into the situation now.

"That's fine dear. We can drop you off to your game and we'll meet up later!"

"Julia...keep quiet." Gary quickly said, glaring at Jason. "Jason. You get your ass back upstairs and change now. We haven't got all day."

"Dad...it's not a big deal..." Alice started, only to be quickly silenced by a quick glare from Gary.

"Jason. Change...NOW!"

The young man shook his head greatly. He couldn't just not show up to this game, this was the biggest game of his life. The team was waiting on him. "I can't! I got to get to the game! They need me!" he said, starting to move past Gary. However, before he could do anything else, Gary's arm stopped him as he shoved the kid back some. "H-HEY!"

"I've had it up to my ears with your selfish attitude!" Gary began to raise his voice. "Ever since the start of this school year you've been playing sports rather than supporting your sister's possible career in theatrics! I don't know what's gotten into you, but you better shape up or I'll kick you out of the house myself!"

"Gary...please calm down."

Jason's fists began to clench, as Gary was full-blown shouting at him at this point. He had enough right now. "First off, I've ALWAYS supported Alice! She's supported me in my dreams, when YOU haven't!" his voice raised as well. "And yet your calling me selfish for wanting to do this? Newsflash: I'M NOT ALICE! I don't want to do what she does! So stop trying to make me like her and let me do what I funking want to do!!"

He moved forward again, trying to head for the door, but immediately felt resistance from his left arm as he glanced back and saw Gary gripping his wrist tightly and giving him the most deadly glare. Jason felt himself being yanked back as Gary grabbed him and threw him into the nearby bookshelf on the wall. At this point, Jason was freaked out, and before he made another attempt to leave the house, Gary grabbed his left wrist again and threw him over on the ground. It was a fall he hadn't ever seen coming as he was slung into the wooden coffee table, it breaking and Jason finally letting out a pain-ridden scream.

He tried to break his fall with his hand...more specifically his left hand. Jason felt it...his wrist... Gary had gripped his wrist hard both times and this raging side of him ended up breaking his left wrist. For the young man, the world seemed to go slow around as he, with tear filled eyes, looked at Gary giving him the coldest, deadest glare. This was a look he wouldn't forget...only lock away in his mind...never to be remembered.

Present Day

Jason sighed heavily, holding his left wrist as he looked at Paul once more. "...my foster father...his eyes were l-like that shadow's. T-That's why I immediately froze yesterday." he explained. "...I've...I've been holding on to that for a while now...and yet yesterday's encounter forced me to remember that image..."

Hakima · October 23, 2018

Tyler was in a surprisingly good mood as he walked into the Shell gas station. “I thought you all went out of business,” he said to the cashier behind the counter, a greasy looking man who was wasn’t much more than skin and bones. Probably a junkie.

The man grunted and shrugged. “I couldn’t tell ya man. I just got hired a few days ago.” Correction: burnt up junkie.

“Either way, I’m glad. Nowhere else to stop on my way to class.” Tyler threw two bottles of NOS onto the counter, along with a king-sized Snickers. “Gimme a pack of Marlboro Reds too. Shorts, not the 100s,” he said, fishing his wallet out of his back pocket.

The cashier didn’t bother IDing him. “That’ll be fourteen-fifty.”

Tyler opened his wallet to discover he only had two crumpled up ones and a ten. He hadn’t gotten paid for his last run and he was almost out of cash. “Sh*t. F*ck the Marlboro, just gimme a pack of whatever is the cheapest.”

He just barely had enough to pay for everything after that. That soured his mood. He wasn’t sure what was going on with DK, but he still hadn’t been paid for his last run and all of his contacts were ignoring his texts.

Cranking his system until his windows shook, Tyler rocketed out of the gas station toward the campus.

BGM

FROM: Nathan
TIME: 8:08 A.M.

Think I know who keyed your ride. Couple uninvited sophomores got wasted and trashed a bunch of stuff. If you want, I can give it a buffing and a new paint job. I've got some new air hoses I wanna try out.

FROM: Tyler
TIME: 8:15 A.M.

sure. club after class? also you got names? wanna talk to ‘em.

History passed by painfully slow. Tyler set his phone to record the lesson, which was a good thing because his notebook was empty when the bell rang. Frustrated at his inability to absorb any of the information, he roughly shoved his stuff into his bag and stormed out of class. “Stupid ass class. Who the hell even cares?” he grumbled under his breath.

His reputation spoke for him in the hallway. People couldn’t get out of his way fast enough once they saw who it was. Even the holier-than-thou Horsemen that the school worshipped had learned to steer clear of him after he had threatened to break both Ivan the Ugly’s knees.

Tyler dropped his bag in front of his locker and started on the combination. Biology was his next class. He hated that one even more than history. Was he supposed to care how his body worked? As long as it kept working, he couldn’t be bothered to remember what mitochondria was the powerhouse of.

When he pulled the door open, a letter tumbled out. “Huh?” Tyler stared for a minute. It was an envelope, but it wasn’t the kind the dollar store sold. The paper was thick and high-quality, and it was sealed with a stamp he hadn’t ever seen before.

Looking around to make sure no one noticed, he scooped it up and peeled it open. His eyes widened when he saw the green. The envelope was filled with cash; ten crisp hundreds bound together by a rubber band.

Beside the money there was a sticky note that read, "Your severance package".

Tyler hurriedly shoved the money into his pocket before any could notice. Something was wrong. That was almost twice what a deal normally paid, not to mention the sticky note.

He shoved around the contents of his locker, looking for anything else, and eventually found another letter pinned to the door. It read:

"Tyler.

Your previous employer has been bought out and integrated into my company. They have asked me to extend a warm welcome to you for your incredible work ethic. I would like to do so at your earliest convenience. This Saturday, I will be opening the business in Kenner, Louisiana, at the address listed below:

5949 Veterans Memorial Boulevard

I would love to meet with you in person.

Yours,

R."

Any other emotions he was feeling were immediately flushed out by an overwhelming amount of anger. That wasn’t how this worked. They were never supposed to come near him; not to his house, not to his school, not any of his friends. Where the hell did DK get off selling him out? If DK was even actually still alive. He knew how these turf wars worked--they weren’t a friendly walk in the park. Most of the time the competition was just killed.

The money was good though. That was hard to deny.

Tyler almost sh*t himself when the class bell suddenly rang. “Damn it!” he snatched up his bag and took off in a dead sprint for his Biology class. He couldn’t afford to be late again.

King K. Azo · October 26, 2018

Reno woke up that morning in a bad mood. He wasn't sure why, but he was just grumpy. With a sigh, he got ready for school, heading to the kitchen to get his lunch. He could hear the snoring coming from the living room, and the bottles scattered across the table told him exactly what he needed to know. He was quiet as he grabbed his things, turning to leave, but he accidentally knocked over a bottle.

"sheet," He muttered before he heard the sleepy grumbles of the man in the living room.

"What the funk... who fuckin'...?" Reno didn't stick around to hear the old man finish his sentence, instead opting to rush out the door, slamming it behind him as he ran away. That was all he was ever good for, wasn't it? Despite his big size, his fighting prowess, he was nothing but a coward in the end, wasn't he?

"I need to change that...," He thought to himself, his grip tightening on the backpack's handle. "But how? It's not like I can just stand up to the old man...," He then remembered something important, something that could change everything.

I̴̔͌͌ͅ ̵̧̰̳̫̯̹̙̱̩̞͖̲̗̻̘̖̟̫̓͋̂̋̿͛̃̍̌̒́a̶̢̛̯̙̹̭̞̬̥̖͎̭͙̟͇͓̩͍̬͂̓̾̉̌͒͐͛̀̽͘͝͠ͅm̷̛͔̠͈̟͈̥̮̹̪̞̺̼͎̼̬̪͂̅̄̃̓ͅ ̴̨̨̬̩̺͔̯̟͚̼̘͍͋͗̀́͌̑̌̂̓̽̆̆̔͆̄͜ṫ̸̢̛͔͉͍͕̭͔̔̏̅́̅͌̃̄̑͑̃́̕͜͠͝͝h̷̨̥͖̹͓͙̮̱̲̞̻̫̪̀̉̄̇̅̉͒̾̃͜ͅͅͅȯ̴͉̯͐̇͗̊̊̇̈́͑͒͐̔͐̓̌̍̚̚͘ư̶̪̞̣̰̭̦̲͍͙̮̈́̒̿̐̿̆̑̃̋̀̕,̸̯̯̮͇̝̇̀͗̈́́̓̍̒͌ͅ ̷̡̛̜̗̲̟̠̙̖̥̠̦̭̞̤̟̳̼͇̄̌̀̍̊̾͆͑̽͐́̎̚̕t̶̨̧̨̨̛̛͍̭̮̺̦̲̺̯͔͖͈̘͛̈̓̽̏̔̆͋͂͗̈́͘͝͠͝ͅh̷̛̝̮͇͈̋̈́̍̇̽͆͊ȏ̸̧̠̜̈́̏͋̿̌̇̆͌̄̉͆͂͝u̴̝͂̂̂̒̔̆̈̽̀̃́͗̊̈́̏͆͘͜͝͠ ̶̡̗͙͉̰̝̞͙̺͇̥̞̀̓a̸̻̟͎͖̙͎͇̠̙͈̤̒͆͊̍͒͌̑̊͘͝ṙ̵̫͆̌͋͛̄͘͝͝t̵͕̟̮̪̟̭͉̗̦͍̑̀̿̔̍̋̒̏̀̒́̓̍͘̕͘͜͠͝ ̸̢̢̢͍̯͍̱̠̻̀Ī̴͈͉͚̦̬͎̪̦̮̱̍̏͒̓͐͂̀́̏̚͠͝

If he could just awaken his Persona, things would change. He wouldn't just be himself, he'd be... some sort of savior of the world, someone that people needed, that they could... had... to depend on. He wouldn't be feared, nor would he thought of as some stupid brute. That's all he needed... he'd get his Persona... he swore it. He turned down the alleyway, down his usual little shortcut, where he noticed the usual goons, Diego and Oscar, lying in wait for some sucker to rob. Reno knew that the two of them wouldn't mess with him, so he just kept walking. True to form, the two snapped up and panicked as they saw the big guy approach.

"H-hey Ren--- boss!" Diego said.

"We were just... headin' to school! Yeah, yeah, we weren't doin' anything unsavory!" Oscar added. Reno looked down at the group, mulling over what he should do right now.

Ţ̴̢̨̧̢̗͎̜̼͖͈̉̂̽͂̈́̎́̎̈́̿͜͝͝h̴̜̗̋̂̉̒͊͆̀̍̓́̉̚͝e̷̡̨̡̡̬̼̠̺͉̲̋͊̄͌͊͛́̈́́͒̎̐͑y̵̢͚̟̙̦̎́̓̽͒̀'̴͔̯̹̭̗̭͙̲͙̣͔̩̊̿͂̅̇̄̍̅̔͝r̵̨̻̤̖͍̤͍̣̝͉͆̈́̒̎̎̚͝ͅȩ̸̛͓̫͖̺̑̿̄̏̒̽̐̑͐͘͠ ̶̮̩̝̤͚̖̼͎͕̱̮͔̅́̂m̴̡̼͔̹͑͌o̶̻̤͔͛̈͂̆̊͒͆̓̓̇̕̚͘c̴̯̮͖̼͉͈̮̫̝̋͗͗͒̃͜k̶̨̥̱̦̞̞̽͛͗̒͐̂̈́̕̕̕̚͘͠͠į̴͓̥̭̼̠͐̈́̔̂ṉ̷̓̿ǵ̷̢͖̋̋̈́̃́̍̚͘ ̷̡̘̘̤͇͇͔̲͊͊̆̅̔͊͆̾͘y̸̨̧̛̥̱̻̦͔̞̬̜̟̋̅̿͆̃̈́͒̑̀̓̈́̈́͂ǫ̴͖̺̦̩͙̰̟͔̫̯̤̓ų̶̢̯͔͎̺̖̮͙̦͍̠̓͌̓̋͋̌̒̂̑̇͗̕͘͘.̵̧̪͇̯̹̪͎̬̦͈͌͛̃̈́̊͊̈̎͂̽͆̐͘ ̸̨̡͉̬̥͙̺̻̪̲̾́͌͛B̶̘̥͎̝͚̳̺̑͛̓͌̀͑̏̋̓̎͝ͅǫ̸̩̲̺͚̦̰̬͖̝̇̓̏͊̉̾̿͆̊̎̏̿̈́̓s̸͔̥̝̻̟͎̳̫̻̻̿̿̈͛̎̋̃͘͠ș̵̖̮̕?̴̨̼̦̜̭̫̦͔̘̰͓͎̞̄̂̍͂̎̏̽́̅͐̃͘͠͝ͅ ̶͉̮̰̝̮̮͎̜̾̈́̊̆̐̀ͅT̸̩͖̹̪̺̹̟̱͎̃̊̈̈́̔̽̔̎̆͘͘h̴̨̡͙͎̥̹̱̪̩͊̋̂̐̓̄̓̈́̃͌e̷̫̤͇̹͖̳͇͉̗͎̰̒̃͌́̍͐͘ͅỳ̶̨͑͂͗̌̈͒̉͊͘͝ ̴̧̦̞̘͔͎̮̼̉̎̕̕j̶͙̭̖̭̩̘̦̞̏͑̅̐͐͋̆̇̇̚ư̵͚̫̜̱͇͋̐̑͊̋̈́̕͠ͅs̶͔̫̞̪̫̲̗͛̈ͅţ̵͎̆̈̓̂̓̿̂̂̌͋͆̐̚͝ ̸̳̗̱̯̦̙̠̗̐̊͐f̶̡̯̝̜̺̳̖̥̼͈̯͗̔̈́͌̌ē̷̫̳̱̣̜̰̙̰̮̲͇̠̟̤̒̽́̿ä̵̧̛̙̲̾̒͋̇̆̿̔̒̃̓̀͘͜r̸̡̘͉͇͓̪͓͈̫̹̖̉̂̈́̀͛̽̅̿̃͘͠ͅ ̶̝͉͓͕̻̯̞͉͈̗̩͕̅̈́̽̽́̈́͌́̐͐͘͜͜y̸̫̝̾͑̋̿̓͗̾̑̈́ó̶̳̠̖̠̂̿u̶̢͕̥̰͕̎͐̽̃͋͒́̇͠ͅ.̶̯̮͙̣̼͍̙̹̭̻̬̩͒̋͋́̓̑͐̈́̐͝͝.̶̣̱͎̖̪̦͙̮̮̘̜̉.̴̡̨͔̥́̕ ̷̨̼̞̲̫̼̙̥̩͔̣̆̓͌͒̈́̅̅̽͐͛̚͝s̴̞̦̘͖̏̌h̴͎͓̰̥̞͙̼̓̊̌̎̆o̶͎̱̱̘̺̦̺̯̥̬͒͒͐͑̐̓̍̿̏̈̂w̶̞̪͚̙͙̠̝̖͋̃͒́̐̇̄̀̕͜͠͠ ̷̢͙̰̙͇̗̘͚̒͆̾̓̌̕̕͝ͅͅt̶̪̲̒̂͂h̴͎̼̼͍̮͎͓̪̜̱͇̅͗̏͐̄̄̚ͅę̴̟͈͔̝̺͖͖̪̠̩̰̐̍͌̾͐̒̈́̀͋̀̅̽ͅm̶̝̯͗͌̄̃̈́̐̊͛͠ ̷̡̨̤̳͙͓̭̄̈́̈͘w̶̳͉̭̾̂͑͊̍͆͝h̶͎̓̿y̵̡̙̣͔̬̖̜͖̆͆̽̀̀̅͐̎͑̈́̔̐̚͝ ̶̨͙̊̂̇́̊̋̋̓̇͒̔̋͘t̸̡̛͈̘͂̍͌̔̇̕͜h̵̡̠͉͍̺̱͈̟̭͈̥̣͂͛̉̂̽ͅȩ̴̨̙͎̬̞͊̔͐̓̒͠y̸͕̤̓̈͂͑́̒̇͠͝ͅ ̵̟̯̩͎͇͔̤̥̅̇̋͂͑͋͛s̶̢̡̛̗̞̠̽͛͂̊̊̓̌͂̄̏͝h̴͔͓̰̦̬̪̱̯̬̺͇̖͌o̷̥͎͕͒̐̂̄̈́̐́͘ṵ̵̙͎̩̙͙͉͙̟͎̣͍́̋̄̀́͗̔́̐͋̚͝͝͠l̸̢̨̳̼̭͉̰͇͖͔̂͌̆͊̍̌͑͘͜d̸̨͉͇̤̩͍͚̖̯̲͗̾̿̌̅̂́̇̏.̷̨̬̮̃̂͝

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" Reno's voice rumbled, causing the boys to pale.

"Wh-what? What do you---?" Diego started, being interrupted by Reno.

"I SAID DO YOU FUCKIN' THINK I'M AN IDIOT?!" he roared. "I'VE PUT UP WITH YOUR MOCKING LONG ENOUGH," he accentuated his point by slamming his fist into the brick wall, the fist burying into the hard material. "BOSS? IF YOU THOUGHT OF ME AS SUCH A WAY YOU WOULDN'T KEEP funking DOING THIS!!" The two thugs began to back away quickly. Usually, Reno would just tell them to get lost, and if they didn't comply, he'd make them. Right now though... it seemed like he was going to violently beat them down... no matter what they did.

So they ran.

Reno watched as they left, gritting his teeth as he did. He shouldn't have let them leave like that. He should have followed them down, destroyed them... he make it up. He'd destroy any shadow he came across once he got his Persona. He let his fist out of the wall, hissing as he looked at his bleeding fist. Punching the wall was probably really stupid. He'd need to wrap that up when he could.

His fist was wrapped by the time he got to his class. He looked over, seeing that Haruka's desk was empty. It was an odd feeling, knowing that she awakened a Persona and just... left. Would that effect her daily life? He just didn't know. Class had passed by without incident, and he did his best to leave class. He walked ahead, not paying attention to anything, and so he was taken completely off guard when he rammed into that 'new girl', the short haired, short girl. Seeing as he was about a foot bigger than she was and probably had more than hundred pounds on her, he couldn't imagine that was pleasant.

"Sorry about that," He said as he looked over to see if he had knocking anything of hers over.

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A Dad RP Persona: Philosophy of Man [IC/PG-16/No Longer Accepting]

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