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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"It's her," Kota confirmed. His voice was subdued; either he was still feeling some of the effects of that head wound or he'd caught the anticipatory mood of the audience. His knuckles were white around the bat as he stared grimly at the stage. You'll forgive him if he doesn't want to go rushing up and draw attention to himself. "The show's about to start."

It was definitely her, but... At the same time not quite. A spotlight clicked on, centering on the figure on the stage. It revealed her, hair hanging over her shoulders in waves instead of the usual braids, glasses no where to be seen, make up, and a short but stylish black club dress. A deep purple feather boat draped across her shoulders and down her arms, and she was gazing at the three with an odd smile on her face. This seemed like the complete opposite of Miho Tanaka, honestly!

The sound of her high heels clicked against the wood of the stage as she walked forward. The spotlight followed. “My goodness, what an audience we have here tonight...!” A hand rose to her cheek to cup it, and she practically damn well fluttered her eyelashes. “The show is just about ready for you, boys and girls.. The main feature?!” The curtains snapped closed, revealing the same smiling drama mask that had been on the door opposite of the one they chose earlier.

“Me!” When they opened again, they revealed the proper Miho. She was still in her PJs, and suspended from marionette wire like Ren had been. Shadow Miho's gaze lingered on her friends in the audience, and her smile got a little wider. “You're all really very special, aren't you? So much more quality...”

Meanwhile the girl suspended by wires had begun to wiggle a little. “G-guys, aha- guys don't listen to her!”

Ren's jaw clenched. She knew it would come to this, even though she came in here hoping it wouldn't. After hearing the voices earlier, she had at least a basic idea of what that Shadow represented for Miho.

Don't listen to her? Ren had no intention of doing that. What she was worried about was whether or not Miho would listen to her, and how that would turn out. She adjusted the grip on her bat warily.

As the curtains revealed a marionette Miho, Seiya gritted her teeth. What did poor Miho Tanaka do to get dragged into all of this? Nothing, really. At least, nothing that came to this girl's mind.

Stepping forward slowly, she attempted something she hadn't before. Lowering her weapon, Seiya cautiously inched towards the edge of the stage. "Miho-san." Calling to the shadow, Seiya extended her hand. "Get down from there. Come on. Put Micchan down." Attempting to keep her voice even, the tiniest bit of fear shook her vocal chords.

Kota grimaced. No wonder he'd sensed two presences, but he still didn't like being tricked. Not wanting to do anything to wreck Seiya's gambit, Kota simply remained silent, focusing on both Mihos with Dagr and trying to look confident and reassuring. (Keeping his mouth shut definitely helped with that.)

Miho squirmed against her wiry confines, hissing quietly in pain as they bit into her skin. What was her... weird clone even going on about?!

The girl on the stage, however, seemed more than delighted at the situation. Her head tilted as she cupped her own chin. Her made done up lips spread into a vicious little grin as her gaze lingered on each of them individually. Seiya’s words were all but ignored as the shadow hopped down from the stage. Her heels thudded softly against the plush theatre carpeting, and she swung her feather boa to one side. “Miura, Yamada, Satou, huh?” Her golden eyed stare glanced backward to her other self.

“So quality. So perfect. The athlete,” She smiled sweetly at Ren, stopping some distance away from them now. “The gorgeous one.” A slight sneer in Seiya’s direction. “And you. The new kid. I bet you all think you’re pretty wonderful, don’t you? Maybe all my perfect friends are going to replace me with another perfect person.” That last line was directed at Kota, with a forced and brittle smile. Her voice dropped an octave, and she took another step forward. “You’re not though, you know. None of you. I want to be noticed for once! Studying?! Helping my friends?! What good is that if I never get to be the center of attention?! The star!”

“Don’t listen to herrrr!” She was squirming pretty hard now, shaking the wires she was suspended by hard enough to cause dust to fall from the rafters. “You don’t, ah- aha, you don’t know what you’re talking about! At! All!” The model-esque version of Miho stopped to gaze back at the stage. “Of course I know. I am you, aren’t I~?”

Oh no. This was going to get ugly fast, wasn't it? It hadn't occurred to Ren that Miho might have thoughts like these - of course not, she was too focused on herself to notice. But... thinking on it now, it didn't surprise her all that much, but it still pained her to not have realized it sooner.

All it would take was three words for everything to turn bad. Ren took a step closer. "Mippon, it's going to be okay..."

Tilting her head to the side, Seiya's nose scrunched up. What was this shadow on about? "Miho-san, what are you...? It's not like that at all."

Advancing closer to the shell of her best friend, Seiya bit her lip. Reaching out, she tried to touch Shadow Miho's hand. "Come on... let her down..."

Between Miho's Shadow's smile and the shadow that had tried to open a new hole in his skull, Kota was discovering that he liked it better when things ignored him.

"Easy, Tanaka-san," he said to the real Miho, Dagr picking up on some of that pain from the wires. "It's okay. None of us are perfect." After all, hadn't he had his own things he'd wanted to hide too?

Miho shook her head stubbornly, eyes closed behind her glasses. None of this was true! Not a word, not a word! “I don’t think of my, my friends like that..! I don’t! I love my friends!” The shadow stepped forward, grinning practically ear to ear, advancing on the trio of Persona-users. “I’m so pathetic, you know?! I’m so jealous of all of you! Perfect, pretty, athletic, shiny and new, always the center of attention- Well not anymore!”

The girl confined above the stage continued to squirm despite Kota’s protests, and despite Ren and Seiya attempting to calm the situation down. She didn’t want anyone to hear this – no one was ever supposed to know any of this! This wasn’t her! Her shadowy double had different ideas however, and was now standing far too close to Seiya for comfort. “You’re so pretty, Senpai… I wish I was as pretty as you.” Had there always been a pair of scissors in her hands?

“S-stop it! Stop it! You don’t know anything!”

Shadow Miho glared at her own form near the stage. “I know how I really feel! Because I’m YOU! The real you!” Her head whipped back to Seiya. One of her hands had curled painfully tight around her ponytail. “I wonder if you’d be so popular if you were as plain as I was, huh?!” Snip, snip! In the blur of an eye Seiya’s ponytail was cut right off. The dolled up version of Miho began to laugh, throwing the hair to the side. It scattered.

Miho screamed. “You’re not meeee!”

Oh, shit, here we go again. Ren braced herself, bat at the ready, when the Shadow had gone up to Seiya and chopped off her hair, and then the magic words happened. "Mippon, don't-!" Too late. The girl took a step back and shielded herself with her bat, rooting her stance into the floor to prevent being knocked back by the expected transformation.

Attention drawn to the real Miho, Seiya hadn't noticed the girl's shadow advancing. By the time everything caught up with her, a sharp pain caused her to yelp. Ponytail in the hands of the monster, the girl's eyes widened. "What are you-" Snip! Jerking free now that her hair had been cut, Seiya stumbled to the side.

This was how Miho felt, right? Jealous and insecure? Tears welled in her eyes as Seiya turned upwards to lock eyes with her friend. "You have to own up to it!!" Throwing her bat at Shadow Miho, she clenched her fists in anger.

Kota started moving when the Shadow grabbed Seiya, because shit shit shit her face, her eye, her throat but he stopped as Seiya broke free. Her...hair?

Girls.

He then took a page from Ren's book and braced himself, figuring it was more important for him to stay out of the way and learn as much as he could. This place wasn't screwing around on them.

“I am a shadow!” The voice called out from where shadow Miho had been – the real Miho had fallen to the stage, the marionette wires that had held her in place gone. “The true self!” The form left in Miho’s place was a figure at least four times larger than a normal human. She was sprawled out with her legs elegantly to one side with the skirt of a fancy Venetian dress pooled out around her. Any skin that was showing was pitch black, like the colour of tar, and her arms were raised and suspended by marionette wiring.

An expressionless pearl white carnival mask sat upon her face, feathers and ribbon attached to the left side. Most concerningly, however, were the two white theatre masks floating in idle, lazy circles around her. “I’ll make you see how dazzling I really am!!” The mask with a smile immediately zipped to the front. “Love me!” The shadow was enveloped in a bright glow – Kota would be able to detect that her defense had increased!

Speaking of Kota, if he and the other two girls didn’t move, and quick, they’d be hit by what appeared to be a whip of marionette wire flying toward them from the shadow’s outstretched hand.

Ren spotted the whip first. Acting quickly, she grabbed both Kota and Seiya and pushed them out of the whip's attack zone, sending the three of them down on the ground. It may not have been the best course of action in retrospect, but it was the quickest way to dodge the attack. Having calculated and broken her fall, Ren zipped right back up and pulled her compact from her pocket. "Gefjon!" she called out, crushing the mirror with the end of her bat.

Gefjon rose from within Ren's psyche, waving her branch in the Shadow's direction to cast Tera under her feet.

Well that was something! One minute Seiya was lamenting the loss of her locks, and the next she was on the ground, having been saved from the giant beast of a shadow that'd formed. Glancing appreciatively at Ren, she hopped up as fast as she could, watching Gefjon cast a spell. Good idea!

"HLIN!" Smashing her mirror with her fist, the persona rose once more, summing a gust of wind in an attempt to help out Ren.

Kota pushed himself to his knees and scrambled to his feet. "Owe you," he called breathlessly to Ren, too preoccupied with the Shadow to more properly thank her for her quick thinking.

Speaking of the Shadow, he backed up a few paces, trying to put himself out of range and give himself a little more vision. "Careful, she's protecting herself. I think it's the mask!" He glanced at the pair with trepidation. If comedy shielded, then tragedy...

"Dagr, help me," he murmured, feeling the reassuring presence of his Persona by his side.

As the ground beneath the shadow cracked and crumbled, and otherwise jutted in unnatural angles, she shrieked – not a pleasant sound by any means! The added slice of wind from Hlin only caused the shriek to grow in volume. “I’ll make you love ME!!!” One of her arms, suspended by wire, was jerked forward as if there were some unseen puppet master. Her open palm slammed into the ground, sending a small shockwave forward – and more dangerously, the mask of tragedy had zipped forward!

“Adore me! I am a STAR!” A warm pink glow would envelop all three of them, a spell cast by the mask. If it worked, they’d feel suddenly… Oddly unencouraged to attack her! Hmm!

And that was something Ren couldn't defend against with just her bat. Bringing her hand to her head, she lowered her bat and just stood there, face flushing a little. Huh? What? Attack? No, why would she attack? She was perfectly content with just standing there and raising her eyes to admire the Shadow's form for a while.

Ecstatic that she'd landed a hit, Seiya pumped her fist. That is until Shadow Miho shrieked, sending out a wave that rumbled her feet. The girl wobbled, suddenly running at the shadow with her bat raised. Um. What. "G-Guys?!"

The pink glow competed with Dagr's light, and Kota felt himself wavering, almost falling under the spell. Whether it was his Persona or sensing the others or pure dumb luck, Kota didn't know or particularly care for the moment.

"Don't get distracted!" he yelled, scrambling to think of some way to snap Ren out of it. "She'll kill Tanaka-san!"

The shadow tilted her head back, the masked face emotionless and unmoving. Despite that, however, hollow laughter echoed around the theater. While Ren was distracted with admiring her, her attention zoned in on Seiya and Kota. Both of her arms were jerked upward by the marionette string, and her palms slammed into the wooden floorboards. Twin shock waves raged towards the two! Meanwhile, up on stage, Miho was beginning to stir. She groaned quietly, eyebrows furrowing at the blurry sight before her.

Ren slowly blinked out of her charmed state at the sound of Kota's warning. What? What? She shook her head once, twice, and then saw the shockwaves heading towards the other two. Oh--shit! With the distance between them, she would never be able to pull them out of the way in time.

"Gefjon!" Returning again, her Persona rode into the shock waves' path and snapped her branch forward, summoning her four oxen to rush into the Shadow in a miniature stampede.

The ground beneath her feet rumbled, causing her legs to wobble. Seiya hit the ground with a thud, falling flat on her face. This just wasn't her day. Tilting her head up, she noticed her friend stirring. In a desperate attempt for some sort of progress, she shouted. "Miho-chan!"

The other shockwave hit Kota squarely, knocking him flat on his ass and the wind out of his lungs. He used his half-forgotten baseball bat to help push himself to his knees, thinking frantically. Which would be better: to concentrate on Miho or her Shadow? That wasn't something Dagr could help with, and thus pretty much where he ran out of answers.

Wait, the masks. If they could just take those out, it might weaken the Shadow. "Ren-san!" he called, wary of just telling her his plan while the Shadow could plainly hear them. Let Seiya handle Miho as he stood and charged the nearest mask, silently cursing himself for being incredibly stupid as he took a swing at it. But it was the only thing he could think of.

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SEXY DANCE-- lololo, it's totally up to you guys if your characters get effected tho c: I don't mind

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