[IC] Persona: Beyond the Looking Glass

[Omnial]

"Oh God...No..No! You Can't be real! It was supposed to be-" bbbzzzhht

"And these are the last words recorded by Richard Dekart. Is their a serial killer loose in ? Or is this one of the most elaborate hoaxes to date? Interview's with the potential victim's parents and closest friend's rev-" Beeeooop.

---

"Dang tele, giving out again." A man with a shiny head, thick beard and a smoke in his mouth got up to smack the old television set. "Bah! I think it might actually dead this time." He stepped back looking at the old machine letting out a sigh, a clearly noticeable dent on its side from constant beatings, "Well, I guess things just aren't built to last any more." He shook his head, and gave the television a final smack before gently caressing it, speaking softly to the machine, and walking away. "Conner, Conner my boy, you're still home right? Come help your old man buy a new tele!"

"Nope, First day of class for the year, andddd, I'm running late." Conner flew down the stairs his father shouted up, wizzing past the older man, and quickly grabbed his bag, which had been sitting neatly prepared by the front door. "Get a big one thats not older than me this time!" He slammed the door and kept running till his house was out of sight, then slowed down to a leisurely walk. He wasn't late, far from it, Conner was right on schedule for being early. He let out a yawn and fixed his hair as he walked towards the train station. His school wasn't too far away, with how much time he had, he could probably even jog it, if he was the athletic go getter type. He wasn't though, and watching the many colourful people on the train had always been a slightly odd hobby of his. He got to see so many shades of life on there! So many characters in such a small space, the fact that it lead him straight to his destination just made it all the better. He sat down, waiting for either his train to arrive, pulling out a sketch pad and starting to draw a surreal train station.

"Early as usual I see." A cheerful voice danced through the air, A blonde girl in a blue sun dress poked her head over Conner's shoulder and stared at his drawing, cocking an eyebrow as she tried to make sense out of the incomplete art.

"Alice." Conner tried to ignore his friend and continue drawing, but, it was to no avail. "And here I thought I would catch the train before you." He put his pad away and stood up, almost smacking his shoulder into Alice in the process, "Well, we might as well get to class." He looked at her and couldn't help but smile. She was an oddity even in Conner's eyes, yet there was something about her that seemed to just draw people in.

After a few stops, the train pulled up to the college's stop. Students rushing off the train to get to their early morning class, other's to eagerly meet up with friend's that had gotten there earlier and had been waiting for them. Conner and Alice didn't speak much for most of the ride, Alice smiling and staring out the windows like an excited tourist, even though she had made the journey many times before, and Conner tapping a pen to his lips and staring at the roof, occasionally jotting down a few words on a notepad.

"Fooey." Alice pouted, "I thought I signed up for the same class as you, but I am in the room next door." She grinned, "Oh well, play nice and I'll see you during break!" She waved and disappeared quicker than a magic act.

Conner shook his head and sat down in a vacant seat in the middle of the class, pulling out his note pad and flipping the page before starting on another drawing.

[Katakon]

Gwen and her Father were eating silently in the messy kitchen, with several piles of boxes upon boxes, Gwen had to dig though a couple boxes to find a plate to put last nights leftover on, a slice of pizza and breadsticks, not a really healthy breakfast for a growing girl but it all they had since her father had to move to a new city. Gwen's father was unpacking a box of pots and pans into the cupboards, he had plan to work early on moving stuff while Gwen was sleeping but that plan changed when Gwen woke up early and he woke up late. Gwen was just poking away at her pizza and nibbling on her breadsticks, she didn't feel hungry. She only wanted to start school so she doesn't have to be around her father he was nice but overbearing and protective, she just wanted to get away from that.

"Gwen, do you need a ride to your school?" Her father politely asked, Gwen glanced down at her pizza again, "No thanks dad, you should just head to work, I can my way and besides, your terrible with directions." Gwen said, her father chuckled, "Yeah I guess I do, it's a good thing you're so reliable Gwen, but just be careful when you wander the city I heard news about a possible killer." Her father spoke with worry in his voice. Gwen nodded and got up from the table and threw out the remainder of her pizza and breadsticks in the garbage and put the dirty plate in the sink and waved her father bye as she went down the kitchen hall to the front door and grabbed her school bag and went through the front door.

The train station was only a block away from her house and she made it on time, and the train was packed but not uncomfortably so. She was on her cellphone, she was looking at a text she had received a half an hour ago, it was from her mother. She closed her messages after reading the short message of love and miss you from mom. She quickly went on the internet while waiting for her stop, she looked up the news and it was talking about the thing her father was talking about but it didn't really interest Gwen it was all a confusion mess to her and she didn't really care.

At her stop she put her phone away and walked to the school, keeping her head down and not looking people in the eyes, she just wanted to be on time, and not give people a bad impression of her on the first day. She has already knew which class so she has no excuse to be late. She went straight to her classroom and sat next to a boy drawing, since she has time to kill she pulled out her phone and went on the internet on it. After a few solid minutes of reading all things she already read on the train she got bored and decided to look at her neighbor and try to see what he was doing.

"So, what are you drawing?" Gwen asked.

[Card Captor]

Ethan bolted upright in his bed, cold sweat covering his body as he gasped for air. After a few seconds, he began to calm down. His breathing and heartbeat both slowed down to normal levels. As he was calming down, he did a quick visual inspection of his body 'no blood' he concluded. That all done, his nerves were finally calm. 'Just a dream...it was just that dream again' he added to his previous conclusion. While he had gotten a lot better since the incident, he still had the occasional nightmare about what happened. Granted, they weren't exact recreations and more like dramatized adaptations, but he was unable to realize that with his mind firmly in the grasp of the nightmare.

Quickly realizing that he was drenched in sweat, he quickly moved into the bathroom connected to his bedroom and stripped. Getting in the shower, he got to work on cleaning himself. 'I can't believe I was ever that naive' he thought to himself as he worked 'how could I ever find tools of death like that fun? I just don't understand' he wondered to himself. Once he had finished in the bathroom, he returned to his bedroom to put on some clean clothes. 'It's been pretty quite this morning. I wonder if mom and dad already left.' His parents had planed to leave today to go on a trip. Ethan couldn't remember the specifics, but that wasn't really a big deal.

As he made his way downstairs, a thought occurred to him. He climbed back up the stairs and went into his parents room. Opening up the secret compartment in the bedside table on his father's side of the bed, there was a familiar handgun inside. The very sight of it caused his heart to race, but that's all it did. 'Maybe I can do it now' he thought to himself. Reaching down, his fingers brushed against the metal and it bright back memories. Going paintballing with his dad, the very first real gun he ever held, going to the shooting range for the first time, the loud bangthetriggerscreamingbloodbloodbloodeverywherehiseyesthathautinglookinhisfacejudgeinghimthebloodthebloodthebloodthelifeslowlyseapingoutofhimhewatchedhimDIE! With a jolt, Ethan pulled his hand away from the firearm. After his heart rate had returned to a normal speed, he closed up the compartment with a sigh. 'Dammit, that was even worse then last time. Is this going to follow me for the rest of my life!? I can't stand it anymore!'

As frustrating as it was, it was a frustration he was used to, so he quickly got over it. With that done, he returned to the stairs and went all the way down this time. Going to the kitchen, he got a bowl of cereal. After downing it quickly, he made him way to the train station. Lucky for him, it was within eyesight of his home (something that his parents had been looking for when they bought the house) so the walk was very quick. The train ride itself passed by pretty fast for him, and he was at school before he knew it. By now, he had more or less gotten over his failed test to see if he could touch a gun, and was more disappointed then anything else at the moment. So when he walked into his classroom and took his seat, he had 'kinda blue' aura as opposed to a 'post mental breakdown' one.

[Efreas]

Berwyn woke with a start. He looked at the clock sitting on his bedside table and its bright red digital numbers glared back at him. "Balls!" He was late. For his very first day back at school no less. Berwyn threw the covers off his body and pushed himself to the edge of the bed, wiping the drool from his mouth as he did so. Daylight filtered through the half closed blinds on his bedroom window allowing Berwyn to get dressed without taking the time to find the light switch. Mornings were never the young man's forte. Every day he would rush out of his bedroom, stubbing his toe on the door jamb and swearing to high heaven that the damned thing moved closer to his poor toes whenever he walked by. On a table in the kitchen downstairs Berwyn found a note left by his sister that read,

"Good morning! It's your first day of school! I tried waking you up a few hours ago but you were unresponsive. Honestly, Berwyn, I almost called the paramedics! Anyways, I went on ahead. Don't be too late!

-A"

Berwyn chucked at his little sister's handwriting and tucked the note into his back pocket. On his way out the door he grabbed a banana and started a brisk jog towards the train station that would take him to class.
Through a miracle, Berwyn made it into class before the last bell. He picked a seat as close to an open window as possible as he was hot from his run to the train and then a sprint to class. He hoped that he didn't smell too badly. Now all he had to do was pray to the powers that be that he made it to the right class.

[Omnial]

People starting to walk into class? must be close to starting then...or close to a bunch of preps walking into class to take the front seats. Conner looked up from his drawing as someone was talking in his general vicinity. He looked left, then right, confirming that it was him being spoken to. Class hadn't started yet, and it wasn't the teacher...A classmate? "I am drawing an answer to the question, I am puzzled to the question so don't ask for it though, but if you do know the answer, do pray tell." He smiled. It was a common response when he didn't know how to share what he was drawing. Simply telling people 'abstract art, I am fusing a raven with a desk.' "Art is about freedom, so you can interpert it as you would like." He put his pencil down after staring at his drawing for another moment, "The name is Conner, What is yours?" He held out his hand to shake, rather polity.

[Card Captor]

It seemed that he had gotten here earlier then he needed to. It was going to be awhile before class started by the looks of things. Ethan sighed as he put his face down on his desk as he waited for the teacher to get here. 'Feeling tired' as it turns out, Ethan didn't have a very restful nights sleep last night. So on top of his blue mood, he was also feeling a little drowsy. 'This is just great. I can tell that today is going to be wonderful'

[Efreas]

"That's the spirit! Keep up with that optimism!" Berwyn piped up from his desk. He sat at an angle, his back resting against the wall and an open window behind him with a cool breeze coming from it. There was an empty seat between him and Ethan which allowed Berwyn to get a kind of look around the room. Kids filed in one after another, eyes downcast with terrible posture. It looked like roll call for a bleedin' prison. Am I the only one that actually wants to be here today? Chriast. Berwyn sighed and slumped a little in his chair. At least the breeze was nice. He wondered which class his sister was in, he hadn't seen her on his way in though that wasn't surprising. She'd probably find him right before the first break began.

[Omnial]

Gwen cocked her eyebrow whilst staring at the drawing, the answer that the boy gave made even less sense to her than peculiar piece of art. "Right..." she slipped back into her seat and pulled out her phone without saying another word to him.

And that is how you stop people from becoming your friend! Conner smirked, then went back to his drawing for a time. His train of thought was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice chime through the room. That sounds like Alice's brother, Sitting up straight, his back cracking as he did so, He peered around the class, getting a better look of who all was in the room with him. "Berwyn, that guy with the funny hat, the guy with a funky nose, that girl with the big ego..." He muttered to himself. Yup, there was certainly some faces that he did recognize, some he didn't, some he didn't care about, others he would.

But that would have to wait, before he could even get a chance to pick up his pencil again and bring it to his paper, the door slammed shut, causing him, along with a few others in the class to jump. "JAaah!" He let out a whelp. Then he caught the eyes of the one who made such a commotion. His first teacher of the year. The heartless one. The cold, the miserable, princess in pink, Ms. Hartly.

[Card Captor]

'Just great' Ethan moaned internally. While he knew that she would be here, it didn't soften the blow that her arrival left on him. Quite frankly, Ms. Hartly didn't have a very good reputation at the school. Hell, if you've got an entire student body calling you 'the heartless one' behind your back, than clearly you're doing something wrong. 'I still can't believe they trust her to be alone with children' He thought to himself as he did his absolute best to blend in with to crowd and stand out as little as possible