infinite_reflection | The Terminal Show (May 1st)

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The Terminal Show (May 1st)

April 22nd, 2012

After the events of April 19th, it had been decided that a meeting of sorts needed to be held between those that had been to the 'Mirror World'. Seiya, Ren, Kota, Gregory and Miho had gathered – three out of the five equipped with a strange new power called 'Persona'. It'd been a rainy day, with a tense and disquieting atmosphere. The meeting itself was confusing, given the small amount of information they had. The Mirror World was linked to the crimes and heavy atmosphere that had infected their city – normal and seemingly rational people were being driven to murder. For whatever reason, the three of them had faced themselves, and gained a new power. Perhaps a power to fight whatever was happening in their city? That was the consensus.

The Academy Defense Squad (A.D.S.) was thusly formed, and from that day forward they were going to try their best to fight an unknown enemy.

April 23rd, 2012, early morning

Miho jerked awake with a start, heart hammering like wild in her chest, and her skin covered in a thin layer of cold sweat. “W-what a nightmare, jeez...” She fumbled quickly for her oversized glasses on her bedside table so she could squint at the time. Late! Late! She was never late! This would surely go on her personal record! A quick glance outside (pouring rain again, sigh) and the girl wiped her thoughts of nightmares and monsters from her mind.

In her rush to get ready for school, she failed to notice the flicker of movement from her closet mirror.

April 25th, 2012, early morning

It was another rainy morning. A light mist seemed to hang about the city – it was the type of weather an umbrella wouldn't save you from. Somehow, Miho's foot falls felt heavy against the pavement. The last two nights had been horrible. She'd had all sorts of nightmares, and gotten very little sleep. Heck, she hadn't even done any of her homework for the past two days, or taken any notes in class... Or even studied. With an inhale she let her shoulders slump.

“What's even the point of going to class today...?” Truth be told, she really didn't feel well. It was probably the rain. The rain always made her feel suffocated, and made her think too hard. At least it was supposed to be sunny soon, though! The weather forecast called for one more day of rain. Miho forced herself to class, and tried her best to smile throughout the day.

April 27th, 2012, afternoon

Sunlight filtered in through the window, lighting the bathroom up and illuminating the figure standing before the counter. Miho hadn't gone to class yesterday. She wasn't able to force herself out of bed. Everything was fuzzy and distorted, as if she were somewhere else – floating in the air, watching her body lie there. Calls and texts went unanswered. And now here she was, standing in her Pjs in front of her bathroom mirror.

The girl, eyes wide, raised a hand. The mirror rippled with her touch like the surface of a lake. Tears were starting to form at the corners of Miho's eyes. What was happening? I don't want to die! But she couldn't stop herself. With little effort she climbed the counter and placed her palms against the cool (cold! It was cold like ice) surface. Her breath came out in a chilly puff of mist. She leaned in to easily push herself through, and then stopped at the last second. “W-what--”

A hand shoved outwards, grabbing her by the collar of her oversized t-shirt and dragging her in.

“SEIYYAAAA!”

That afternoon, at class, Kota would be hit with a pang, and then a nagging feeling that would gnaw at the back of his mind. This feeling would last for several days, until one morning...

May 1st, 2012

Miho had been missing for several days now. Her mother was frightened, the police had been called. There were no leads! No leads, that is, until during the morning while getting ready for school, Kota would suddenly be assailed with an image appearing on his bathroom mirror. The surface rippled and then, as if it were playing a movie, showed Miho being yanked into the Mirror World. It rippled again, this time displaying the image of an old and run down theater house surrounded by ice. On the 'Now Playing' were the words:

'The Terminal Show'

((Sorry about the length of that! This is going to be a little bit different, because I plan to lead y'all through a short little dungeon. You'll be fightan shadows and stuff! I might even throw in asking for some dice rolls for little random things to happen – if it works out, it should be pretty fun!))

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Kicking into a run, Seiya finally paused outside the school to take a breath.

'We need to meet up so we can go inside. But where?'

Biting her lip, she began to pace. So much for regaining her strength. Had the others replied yet? She decided against questioning Kota further. He knew little more than she did, after all.

Kota stared at the screen - Seiya wanted him to decide? Then he shook his head - of course, he was the one who'd gone all psychic, so he'd better see it through.

Even if it would've been nice if she'd just taken over.

The teenager himself was just inside the school gate as he responded.

Outside the school. The others might already be on their way here, and we won't be so obviously skipping than if we wandered around town in our uniforms. Plus there are mirrors here we know we can get through. I'll tell the others.

The next message went solely to Ren and Gregory:

Seiya-senpai and I are waiting by the school. Meet us so we can all go in together. And later I'm taking your phones and changing the incoming message sound to the most annoying thing you can imagine so YOU CHECK YOUR DAMN TEXTS.

...Okay, so Kota wasn't handling the pressure all that well.

By the time Kota had sent that last message, Ren had just arrived at the designated meeting spot, halting to a stop and leaning down on her knees to catch her breath. Her house was a 30 minute walk from the school, so once she got the first text message, she didn't waste any time before running the entire way there. Her phone blared with a loud electroswing tune in her pocket; sounds like Kota wouldn't need to change it after all. She reached in to turn it off, wiping sweat off her chin with her sleeve.

"You saw Mippon go into the mirror? She hasn't come to school in several days. What did the place look like? Was it at school? Or somewhere else?" Despite her shortness of breath, Ren was already lambasting Kota with questions. Oh yeah, she was definitely worried.

Greg's lack of a reply was odd, especially given the fact that he was always on his damned phone! It came a few moments after the more urgent (and downright mean, harumph!) one arrived...

I'm sick -_- No persona anyways

Looked like he wouldn't be coming in to school at all today, then. Oh! Hey, a second message.

Good luck

Kota would apologize (with varying levels of sincerity) but stress is just not his friend. He was going to send back a text telling Greg to feel better except for Ren's frantic arrival on the scene.

"Yes- No- Pretty sure it's-" He stumbled over the words, trying to answer her rapid fire questions as quickly as they came. That obviously wasn't working, so he held up his hands in a plea for time.

"This is what I saw," he said, and proceeded to describe exactly what had appeared in the mirror: Miho in her PJs standing in some unfamiliar bathroom, crawling half in before getting yanked the rest of the way, the old theater and its sign. "...And since it's surrounded by ice it has to be on the other side," he finished, shifting from foot to foot with nervous energy. "And if she's been gone several days, then I really don't think we can wait." The memory of his Shadow transforming and attacking was a little too fresh in his mind.

"So unless you know where she was, we should probably just try going into any mirror we can and see what we can find."

As Ren approached, a sense of relief washed over her. Seiya felt a bit more at ease, knowing her partner was here. She had counted on Ren in battle once before, so it was only natural that her friend's presence had a calming effect on her.

"We need to be able to go in together." Seiya gathered her wits. It wasn't fair to push the leadership responsibility on their newest teammate. As the leader, she took charge quickly. "Kota-kun, can you clear out the boy's locker room? Ren-chan, we'll need any type of weaponry you can find. Meet back here when that's done, okay?"

"Right," she nodded. She had already brought her bat with her. "But if she was in her pajamas, wouldn't that mean she was probably home? Would it take longer to get to her if we went in from the locker room?" Truth be told, she actually had no idea. Nothing seemed to make sense with the mirror world, especially when a mirror leading back out had just popped out of nowhere last time.

Still, she turned on her heels to go look for something for the two of them to wield. Something that would be used as a weapon without drawing attention.

Kota shrugged in response to Ren's question. "Who knows? But how would we get into her house in the first place? I don't think her parents would let us all in and then all go to the bathroom."

He felt better now that Seiya was taking over; he still had the sense that she knew more than he did - at least she and Ren had more experience. Surely they had a better idea about what to do! So after his response he just nodded to Seiya and ran off to make sure the way was clear.

As Seiya waited for her teammates to return, she attempted to remain focused. It was a coincidence. Miho's situation couldn't be connected back to her, right? It's not as if Seiya could have stopped all this...

She sighed, rolling her phone in her palms. C'mon guys...

After a trip to the baseball field, Ren came back, holding her bag snugly against herself. "I managed to find some old practice bats, but that's it... if this sort of thing keeps happening, we'll have to keep something on us to be prepared."

Kota returned on Ren's heels. "All clear, but I dunno how long it's going to stay that way. C'mon."

So saying, he turned and led the way to the locker room. Bats had been good enough last time and time felt more urgent than anything. The vision haunted him, and as much as he didn't want to be right, he didn't want to be wrong either. He owed these two; part of him wanted to prove that he'd been worth the effort. He didn't want to be the coward the Shadow had called him.

He stuck his head into the locker room just to double check before pushing the door open for them. "We're good."

"Good work, guys." Seiya followed her teammates, wringing her hands nervously. It was finally time to do this. No more planning, guessing, or anticipating.

As she eased into the locker room her stomach turned. This place wasn't exactly littered with good memories. Setting her bag down, she pulled out her phone. Shooting two quick texts she tucked it away, facing the glass.

"You guys ready?"

When they stepped through the mirror they would be presented with the ever chilling site of a massively long corridor of ice. It was much the same as when they'd rescued Kota – in fact, it appeared to be the exact same corridor. Strange noises echoed against the ominously glittering ice. Further down the corridor, if they looked, they'd be able to see chunks of mirror half embedded into the walls and other such oddities. There was, however, no immediate sign of Miho. Kota would be able to feel her presence very faintly, but far off. It appeared they'd have to do some exploration!

Some fast exploration, too, because several meters ahead of them it seemed that wisps of dark shadow were beginning to seep through cracks in the ice. Shadows, perhaps?

"Yeah," Kota answered quickly before impatience got the better of him and he darted through the mirror. Finding himself in a familiar looking corridor, he frowned - he would've been just fine forgetting all about what had happened, you know!

More importantly, his instinct had been correct: there was definitely someone else in here, though it was hard to pick up much more than that. And before he knew it he had the small mirror that Seiya had given him in hand as that same instinct that had been driving him all morning prompted him to dash it to the ground, scattering broken pieces of mirror about his feet. Dagr appeared, the warm light of his torch enveloping himself and Kota.

"It's Tanaka-san alright." The sensation was stronger just with his Persona there, but concentrating on the missing girl made it a bit clearer, like focusing on a single voice in a distant echo. Faint, but definitely there. He raised an arm, pointing in the right direction. "But pretty far off. Looks like you were right, Ren-san. There is some connection between where the mirrors are and where you end up." Kota looked at his teammates, able to sense their worry but also their strength, the same way he could tell that each of their Persona - Hlin and Gefjon, Dagr supplied for him - were ready to go. It was slightly startling, but he didn't have time to think about it as a new presence tugged at his mind.

"But, uh, I think we have company," Kota said nervously, looking back down the corridor at those strange wisps.

Ren's eyes narrowed at the wisps down the corridor, and she popped her knuckles, test swinging her bat in the air a couple of times. "Time for some warm-ups, then?"

The wisps seem to solidify, for lack of a better word, as they fell out of the cracks and onto the floor. A puppet-like monster with a mask took form and wobbled its way towards them, joints clattering. Ren didn't wait for it to draw its weapon - she didn't even stop to look at what it was - and took a few steps further, readying her stance. As soon as it was close enough (with its... whatever it was raising, raised and readied), she swung her bat at it with full force, sending it sliding back with a clatter.

Slipping into the mirror world, Seiya took in a sharp breath. The change between dimensions caused her bones to ache, though she pushed that to the back of her mind.

As Kota summoned his persona and Ren took out a shadow, Seiya allowed herself to think.

"The chunks of mirror down there. Would they work as portals, you think?"

Kota chewed his lower lip absently as he considered Seiya's question. The amount of information bombarding him was overwhelming, almost painful. The layout of the area, the mirror that exited back home, even things about the monster Ren had just dealt with. And above all else, the bright, shining beacons that were his teammates, so distracting that he actively had to shut them out to concentrate on the rest.

"...Maybe," he finally answered, a frustrated edge to his tone. There was his second problem: how was he supposed to explain that the mirror chunks felt similar to the exit, except not really? He didn't have the language to describe the way they seemed in his head. "They might, but there's no telling where we'd end up. It's a gamble: we're so far off that getting any closer would be great, but if we came out farther away I don't know if I'd even be able to sense her."

Obviously he was going to have to find a way to test his new power, figure out his limits, and try to get better at sorting through everything, but now was not the time to be experimenting! But thinking of the danger Miho was almost certainly in decided him.

"I say risk it. If Tanaka-san's been in here the whole time she's been missing, that's a hell of a long time. And warm-ups aside, it might be better to go into the theater with all guns blazing." And if they lost the gamble, well... he'd just have to be good enough. The thought made his palms sweat.

The puppet-like monster was sent flying back. It tumbled into a heap of twitching joints and strange groaning noises, and then with a sound rather like something fizzing… It dematerialized into a black and quickly fading haze. One shadow down, probably many, many more to go! Ren wouldn’t have much time to celebrate, however, because while she was taking out the first shadow, a small tendril of smoke had curled lightly around her ankle.

It became apparent quickly that this tendril was about to morph into an actual Shadow, though, and within moments it would feel like a hand was trying to dig into her calf! There was an odd screeching noise from the thing at her feet that looked oddly like the top half of a ball jointed doll. It seemed to be attempting to hold her legs in place so it could take a bite.

At the same time as this was going on, a wisp of shadow was beginning to form around Seiya and Kota!

Anyone could notice, at this point, but one of the mirrors further up the icy corridor seemed much larger than the others. Rather than being half embedded into the wall, it appeared to be mounted onto the wall. The thing looked very old, with a tarnished silver frame and dark smudges along the glass.

… There was also a bloody hand print, smack dab in the middle of it. Oh dear!

Ren clenched her teeth and grunted when the Shadow seized her leg. Son of a bitch, was this thing pretending to be a zombie? Turning her bat in her hands, she aimed the larger end downward and thrust it down in an attempt to run in through the doll's head. Pulling back up, she then swung her bat to break the arms away from her leg.

When she could afford to throw a glance back at the others, she cursed. Dammit, they didn't have time for this. Looking around, she spotted the large mirror and pointed at it. "How about that one?"

Apologetically frowning at Kota, Seiya was immediately distracted by the smoke. Swinging her own bat quickly, she bolted down the hall.

"Looks good to me!!" Shouting back at Ren, she attempted to clear a path to the blood stained mirror, keeping the strange creatures at bay. A knot formed in her stomach as she thought of poor defenseless Miho. The girl didn't even have a persona to keep her safe. What if they found her dead?

"You two in first!"

Dagr disappeared, and Kota paused just long enough to scoop his mirror off the ground before he was off and running for the mirror, only too happy to get away from those forming monsters.

Of course, it couldn't be that easy. As another puppet creature rose up to block his path, Kota shouted "North Star Dot Chime!" and swung his bat at it, tossing it out of his way. If it was good enough for Fist of the North Star, it was good enough for him, and as out of place as it felt it still made him grin. Okay, he decided. Maybe this wasn't going to be all terror and doom.

Good humor faded as he finally noticed the bloody handprint, but it was way too late to second-guess things. After all, if he was wrong he was about to run face first into a bunch of glass. Kota resolved to stop thinking so much about things as he threw his arms up in front of his face and dove through the mirror.

The doll that was currently attacking Ren made an altogether horrifying wailing noise before it was successfully batted away. That seemed to be a cry for help from it’s other shadowy companions, and within a few moments the amount of smoke and wisps forming around them would double. Had Miho ran through all of this?! Kota swatted another ball-jointed-doll out of the way. The thing chittered at him as it was sent flying to the side before hitting the icy ground with a clatter.

The surface of the mirror rippled and gleamed as the highschool boy through himself into it. With a bright blast of light he passed through, leaving the way open for Seiya and Ren. It’d be a turbulent ride, for sure, and when they were all through they’d immediately have the sense of falling very fast. They were spat out in a heap into another portion of the icy terrain. This area was noticeably darker, with only pale light from god knows where weakly reflecting off of the ice. Certain shards of said ice were an unpleasant deep red, as if they’d been dipped in something..

Despite the dim lightning of the cavern they were in, in the distance they’d be able to spot a flickering sign and hear the faint hum of electricity. Nestled in the back of the icy cave was a massive theatre, looming over them. It was damned hard to make out, but the sign definitely seemed to say ‘The Terminal Show’. Oh boy! The smell of popcorn was slowly wafting toward them! Buttery!

Ren followed them through the window. Oh shit, this was going to be a bad fall. But she would be ready this time! She managed to break her fall, tumbling a few times on the ground, and carefully picked herself up.

That must be the theater Kota mentioned. The smell of popcorn was enough to pique her interest, but not enough to distract her. She took a few steps forward when they arrived, looking up at the sign and the decor, as though assessing it.

She gave the other two a look - there was a twinkle of worry and another of impatience in her eyes. Please be okay, Miho.

Following her teammates through the glass, the world seemed to warp. As the mirror spat her out on the other side, Seiya hit the ground with a resounding thud.

Rubbing her tailbone gingerly, the girl eased up onto her knees. Staring curiously up at the marquee, Seiya's face twisted in a mixture of fear and doubt. The buttery smell in the air made her stomach churn, nausea washing over her.

"... The 'Terminal Show'?"

He didn't need his arms to protect his face from glass, but at least it stopped him from landing on his face. Small victories, even though those would definitely bruise.

"That's it!" Kota said when he pulled himself off the ground. "That's the theater I saw!" It was impossible to miss, with its flickering lights in the dim area (another unpleasant reminder he would've been okay with skipping, thank you very much). He let his eyes skim over those dark red shards per his new 'no thinking' policy, but despite the ominous backdrop there was at least one piece of good news:

"She's definitely in there. But-" there's always a but, and Kota hesitated slightly as he tried to interpret the signals he was getting. "I don't think this is going to be as easy as last time. You guys came in right after me, but this time it's had days to prepare. I don't think this was here before."

Meaning the theater was specifically made for Miho. Meaning that the Terminal Show was also meant for her, and that seemed a very, very bad sign.

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oops hope this bullshitting is okay

Re: oops hope this bullshitting is okay

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