Not-with-a-whimper

(Damion Strife's internet is currently down, but he told me what would happen in each room and the labyrinth, so as soon as people have decided to enter, I'll spring the traps and what not.)

Lol Tobuscus for the win!!! For me, though, it's more about what my friends see and like or what I see trailers of. After I'm interested in things then I might look to previews or reviews, but often, once I'm sold on something, I'm getting it.

(OOC: Gotcha. It'll just be an isolated incident, then. Also, just curious, but if Anthony's the student body vice-president, then who's the president?) Kusarigama jerked away immediately, his hands flying to brush off his pants, but long after the flames were already put out. "Did anyone see what happened just there?" he asked to the general populace. When everyone around him shook their heads in a confused manner he quickly attempted to reclaim what little dignity he had left, a difficult feat with Koneko giggling about it off to the side, and turned to face the new kid. "Well no worries. I'm Kusarigama, but everyone around here just calls me "Gum". Speaking of which, what are your favorite flavors?" he asked, taking the strap off of one shoulder and twisting his backpack so that he could access the contents inside. "I try to find out what everyone's "usual" will be and remember them by that from then on. Turns out that a person's three favorite flavors of gum can say a lot about the kind of person they are."

"I'm set," added in August as he gestured for Mariah to join him in stepping through the door marked with an arrow. "You two can go ahead and wait on your buddies with tools to arrive to get you through the steel reinforced walls or ceiling. It'll take them a bit to get here, though, and hours after that for them to make a hole large enough for you guys to fit through," he said to Victoria and Paul, trying to get them to see the futility of their hopes of passing up the trap doors. (Come on Xeveemon! What fun are traps if none of them are ever triggered? Be a sport! Mariah and August are going through the Arrow door, Jared and Chuck are taking the Bear door, and Joy and Calder are taking the Flame door. Your move. After you choose, though, we'll need Damion to tell us what happens.)

"Going in through the roof would be a good idea except for the fact that the roof is super reinforced. The walls are as well. If we're going to get to Cain, we're going to have to use the doors. Good plan, though," stated August in response.

What exactly did you like better in this version than the way it turned out? I can't seem to find anything that would have been better.

(GRRR! Okay, now it's fixed. I swear, sometimes my mind just leaves me.)

(OOC: Edited! My bad.)

(OOC: Lol. I'll let Azure Flame or Damion Strife respond next, then I'll respond accordingly. Kusarigama really isn't a player or anything, he just doesn't want to meet the girl of his dreams and accidentally let love pass him by, having learned from the tragic romances of his parents. I wouldn't be opposed to a love triangle between the characters, but if anyone has any objections I'll have "Gum" back off. Also, I figure that, as a "weapon" himself, Kusarigama would work well with Kazumi, his void probably taking the form of either a scythe or a broom, perhaps even a combination of the two.)

August didn't want anything getting in the way of his defeat of Cain, but he also knew that he could handle the situation, whatever the situation was, better than some of the less experienced like Paul, Victoria, and Jared. Besides, how important was it really that he be the one to defeat Cain? What was important was that as many people as possible make it out of this alive. He was decided. "I feel like it would be good if someone else come with Mariah and me into the arrow door. I'm fine with dealing with the problem inside, and I've got plenty of confidence in Mariah. The third person had better be prepared to handle the trap activating, though. Also, who's to say that the symbols aren't there just to mislead us? I've got a feeling he was telling the truth about the three person thing, but each symbol could be representative of someone else's path, or they could have nothing to do with the challenge inside. The groups of three had better be prepared for anything."

(I'm really sorry I was gone for so long. It stinks not having internet, but the story progressed nicely without me.) "Arrows or flames, huh? Well I've got an idea as to how I could handle either, so I guess it's really up to you, Mariah. I'm just looking forward to getting all of this mess over and done with," August responded.

"Hey there Gum!" Koneko shouted to Kusarigama, who was just entering P.E. class coming from his Magic Tools class. Having just been in a class for a while with Koneko's mother, Kusarigama could see the resemblance in both attitude and looks, although she still favored her father, Dante. "You should come and hang out with Anthony and the rest of us! There's a new kid here who's pretty cool. He said he came from the Soul Society and that this is his first time in the land of the living." "First time in the land of the living huh?" asked Kusarigama. "I wonder if he knows Lord Death? Perhaps not, but I'd like to meet him none the less. Besides, I've got to figure out his regular gum order. I have a reputation to keep, after all." With that, Koneko smiled in agreement and led him that way. "Hey!" called Kusarigama to Anthony with Koneko following shortly behind. "Mind introducing me to the new kid?" Then, noticing the girl in the group, who looked familiar but whom he didn't know, Kusarigama added "And of course I would be honored to know the name of the lovely lady." With that he bowed, took her hand, and kissed it. (Not trying to step on Azure Flame's toes here, but this is how my character acts and I wanted to see how everyone else would respond to it.) Jykell stepped into the gym hesitantly. He wasn't sure how he felt about all of these students just wandering around like that. He'd much rather them all be in organized groups, or, even better, lines. Yes, lines of students would be nice. He didn't ever quite know what to expect from Mr. Goku, and that's why P.E. was one of his least favorite classes.

After all of the training, Anfang was rather hungry, so he took Taylor with him to a nearby all-you-can-eat restaurant where he ran into Kyle and Valcon. "Hey you two!" shouted Taylor upon seeing them. "How've you been and how was training?" asked Anfang. "Put food in my belly!" was all Uncle Leroy could think to Anfang as he had a rather one track mind.

(OOC: I'm going to be gone for the next few days, so I'm giving Always, Damion, Number XV, and Azure Flame the ability to control August. If you feel it necessary that he die, then that's fine too.)

Koneko boldly stepped out in front of the rest of the Gunslinging class and faced the target. "Why don't we get this started, shall we?" she said with a wink. In a flash, Ebony and Ivory, her twin pistols, were in her hands and she began firing shot after shot until she got to the point where she would have emptied a clip in each had her guns needed reloading and hadn't had a seemingly bottomless clip. Not all of the shots had hit the target, but the ones that had left a strong impression. She then turned to Anthony with a playful smile. "Alright, Mr. Class President, it's your turn to show us what you can do." (Damion is going to be controlling my characters for the next few days while I'm out of town.)

(Number XV, Cain is the next big villain that everyone's going to fight. That's coming up really soon.) August looked Jared square in the eye and nodded. "Right, to the warehouse!" (At this point I think it would be best to say that Jared and August head that way and will arrive at about the same time as the others.)

(Always, does that mean that Jared wants to go straight to warehouse 59?)

(Lol, posting Inception!)

When Jared showed him the video from the news August's face turned quickly to fury. He quickly calmed down, however, as he realized that fury would only cloud his judgement. "We need to head over there as soon as you feel prepared for it. You're the most recent person I know of to become a host for an inhabitor, so you don't have much experience yet, I assume. If you have any questions or anything you want to try out or practice then just ask and I'll do my best to help. I'm sure that the others will have seen the news and will head that way, but I'll send Mariah a text telling her to check the news just in case. That girl has everyone's number. Something tells me that this will be the main story on the news here for the next good while."

August woke up feeling much better than he had when he'd talked to Jared, but he wasn't quite at his peak. He guessed that there was only so far one could push their body without repercussions. "Hey Vaan?" he asked. "What is it?" Vaan responded. "Just wanted to apologize for the way I was acting earlier. Marcus dying, it really got to me. I realize now, though, that it's no good to shut out the world. I've got to keep living and live to the fullest. Not just for me, but for Marcus as well. I don't want anyone saying he left behind a broken comrade." August could feel a warmth coming from Vaan. The warmth of a smile. Just then, August heard the door to the clinic open up. "Hey Jared!" he called out. "I'm in here. You heard anything from the others? I've got this weird feeling in my gut that something's going down."

(OOC: Oops, sorry about the confusion, AnsemTheWise, and sorry if I came across gruffly Azure Flame. That wasn't my intention. I wonder what my characters' personas would be.) Jekyll arrived to school with no real fanfare. Goodness knows that his father could make enough noise on his own. Dr. Stein, his dad, was a good man, but he was crazy and prone to eccentrics. Jekyll's father taught medical classes and some of the uppermost level biology classes, but luckily Jekyll didn't have to take any of those this year. He was a junior, so he still had to take some basic academic classes, but he also had P.E. with Mr. Goku, Standard Hand to Hand combat with Mr. Goku, Ranged Combat with Mr. Ishida (Bleach), and Strategy 101 with Mr. Near. He didn't expect the year to be anything much, but was fairly content with his role in life. As he walked by others in the hallway he smiled politely and they smiled back. As he was walking along he ran into Anthony, Jonah, Koneko, and Kusarigama. "Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a pleasant break," he said with a smile, though his eyes looked a million miles away. "Great!" shouted Koneko in answer, while Kusarigama smiled that sly smile of his and offered Jekyll some gum. "No thank you," he responded and continued on his way. "Hmm," said Kusarigama under his breath, "that's one of the only guys who refuses gum. He calls me by my actual name to boot, which most people don't. Weird. Oh well, he's always seemed nice enough."

(OOC: Yes he did. It's the last post on the first page, right under your character. Also, to AnsemTheWise, is there a Persona 3 anime? I know that it was a game, and a good one at that, but I didn't know it was a show as well. If it was just a game, then I'm not sure if Damion will accept the characters, seeing as how this is all centered upon anime. Also, even though this wasn't made clear in the intro post, all of the new generation of people living in southern Italy go to one centralized school with several key anime characters in charge of it.)

Me too!

(Azure Flame, would you mind to edit the post with a link to your character's picture? The picture itself isn't showing up. Thank you!)