After struggling to get Bro awake for another hour, both were sitting at the kitchen table with other students eating breakfast. Dave attempts to avoid any contact with the other students, accomplishing in this fact due to his shades. Quickly wolfing down his food(while still being cool), he stood up to bring his plate back to the kitchen, before grabbing bag-pack and leaving through the front doors. Bro had quickly told him where to go and what to do ("First check out the bulletin which class you're in. Going around asking is just not cool.") before informing him that he would be later due to him being 2 grades higher.
Dave had effortlessly found his way to the monorail, and just followed Aradia and Karkat to the school entrance, before finding his own way to the bulletin and overhearing Aradia and an unknown student with a cane and a dog. The "unknown student" had short maroon hair that curled up at the tips, and wore the blouse only, with the school jacket wrapped around her waist covering the black short skirt with underneath red and black striped knee socks. She had red sunglasses, wristbands and messenger bag.
"What class are you in this year? Probably same as all those stupid nerds like John, hehe." The older looking student asked, before laughing softly. Aradia stared at the bulletin. "2D, together with John and the cool kid I told about. You're in 4H, together with Bro, Gamzee, Vriska and Feferi by the way." The pale girl chirped in response. The older student grinned. "Well that's better than your class. Heh." She responded with another chuckle. Aradia shrugged lightly. "Ah, Terezi. I don't really mind though! It's a nice and cheery class."
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Dave coughed softly, cutting both Aradia and "Terezi" short from their conversation. Aradia turned around to face the blond male, before smiling. "Hello Dave. Terezi, this is the cool kid I told about. Dave, meet Terezi. Terezi, meet Dave. Also, did you know you're in the same class as me, Dave?" The cool kid merely nodded shortly in reply, before greeting Terezi. The maroon haired student didn't reply at all, except slightly swinging her cane around. She then came up close to Dave, casually licking his cheek. The male's pokerface even worsened, before throwing a questioning look at Aradia. "Sorry. That's her habit of greeting people." The pale female merely replied, not looking surprised at all. Terezi started grinning again. "Hey Dave. You taste like your brother, hehe." She said with a wide grin.
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Dave had ignored Terezi's last statement, before walking to their own class with Aradia after she had made sure the dog(which was apparently called Scale) had guided the blind girl into the correct direction. Aradia had told him a little bit more about the people in their class, giving him a little idea of who there was. She then showed him what classroom they would be in the rest of the year.
The history teacher(Ms. Eldonal) gleefully danced in front of the classroom. "What a gorgeous class I have this year! Oh, oh, I know. Everyone should come here and introduce themselves. You there, with the funny glasses, you first!~" She sang, before pointing at the boy sitting next to Dave. He stood up awkwardly, almost stumbling over his chair before successfully walking to the front of the class next to Eldonal's desk. He had short black hair that seemed to stick out in the front, funny square glasses and front teeth that had grown past his lower lip, giving him a derpy look. He wore the usual blouse and school jacket, but wore grey shorts with a belt.
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"Eh... Hello. My name is John Egbert. I'm 14 years old. I like movies, web-comics and magical tricks. And that is all...?" His voice trailed off at the last sentence, looking curiously at the dancing teacher. She chirped that he could sit, before pointing at Aradia.
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"My name is Aradia Megido. I'm 15 and I like anything archaeological." After that the rest introduced themselves (For several examples; "I'm Rose Lalonde, 15, I like knitting." "Karkat, 14, I like nothing." "I'm Jade Harley, 14, and I very much like gardening!" "Dave Strider. 15. Making sweet beats on my turntables.") and everyone silenced as Eldonal suddenly stopped dancing and looked angry. "Is that everyone?" She asked. When everyone was silent, she smiled widely before resuming her dance.
At lunchtime, John invited Dave to sit with him and his friends, which the cool kid reluctantly agreed to. He sat down next to Jade with on the other side of the table Rose and John. "So, you came all the way from Texas right? And your brother is here too?" John asked, curiously looking at him from behind the square glasses. Dave nodded slightly. "Yeah. He's sitting over there." He vaguely pointed at a different table. John and Jade both turned to look at the table curiously. "Why is he sitting next to Karkat and Vriska? I heard neither of them are the most friendly persons ever." Rose casually asked, her purple eyes fixated on Dave's aviators. He merely shrugged in response, before concentrating back on the sandwich he had.
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After filling 3 more school hours chit chatting with John, Dave made ready to pack in his books when Aradia walked up to him. "Hey Dave! I was wondering if we could maybe hang out tomorrow after school." She asked cheerfully. Dave stared at her for a few seconds, before nodding once. "That's okay I think." Aradia smiled brightly at him, before departing.
"Hey. Where have you been?" Bro had turned his head around to face his younger brother as Dave strolled in at minutes before 11PM. Dave didn't bother with reacting as he went up the stairs immediately.
Dave woke up a small hour later, yawning softly before rising up to see what could have woken him up when suddenly he noticed Bro's bed empty. The male was sure that no one was allowed on the halls after 11PM – And thus he got curious. He decided to wait another 10 minutes, but when the elder strider brother didn't return Dave got up, pulled his trousers on and his school jacket before softly exiting the room. He walked down the stairs shivering from the chilliness, peering at the red couches in the dark. He saw no one, but the wind came from a half-open door. Dave quickly walked towards the door, before slightly pushing it open further. He stepped out, and as he did so there was one of those cliché moments where the door banged close. He then stared up at the dark green sky with a full moon, then at the black ground with dark red puddles and frowned. "What the-?"
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Dave sighed loudly, but froze when he heard another sound, one that sounded like a giggle. He frowned again, before turning his red eyes to the alley beside the dorms. He was probably being paranoid again. The cool kid walked towards the alley to see if there was a way in from there, but nothing was there. He walked back out onto the street.
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Then there was a sudden bang behind him from the alley, and he turned to face towards the sound. The giggle then sounded louder, right next to his ear it seemed and the cool kid jumped slightly. Behind him, the trash bins got torn open and revealed a ghostlike thing with a huge grin on it's face with sharp teeth. Dave froze completely, before slowly stepping away from it. The thing then got the cool kid in it's sight, and laughed maniacally before suddenly shooting towards him. Dave flinched slightly, before jumping away while more of them came from other trash bins.
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Dave then turned tail and simply ran, knowing that late at night in this weird situation he couldn't win anyway. He silently prayed that they wouldn't follow him, but luck was not on his side. He ran down the street, before a voice sounded from far away. He followed the sound of the voice, before faltering in his step as he silently freaked the fuck out as he saw more of those things and tall coffins all over the plaza. And standing on the sidelines of it all he suddenly noticed Bro.
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Dave quickly ran straight at the elder brother, before stopping when he was several feet away from him. Bro had apparently not noticed him yet, and Dave almost yelled out there were strange things following him, before he saw how Bro casually lifted a gun to the side of his head and fired.
Instead of brain matter and blood, what Dave had expected, blue glass shards came out from the other side. (Blue glass shards?) when suddenly a dark grey puppet appeared. It had a very uncanny resemblance to a puppet Bro still owned, but this was a way darker and creepier version of it – the large shirt it wore was ripped on the sleeves and where the shirt ended with a dark purple flame swirling beneath it, and two puppets hanging from the strings the master puppet had hanging from a cross that floated underneath it's hands. Stitches were all over it, and random spots were stitched back on as stuffing escaped everywhere. The thing in it's entirety first hung silent in the air with it's head down, before the head suddenly snapped up and the puppets made a weird little dance. It then disappeared, but not before setting one of the ghost things on fire.
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Bro then finally noticed his younger brother, and shouted at him to get closer. Dave hurried up next to him. "What the Hell is going on?" He yelled, completely freaked out. Bro said absolutely nothing, only hooking his arm around Dave's neck and pulling him against himself. He then suddenly pointed the weird gun at the side of Dave's head.
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"I don't give a fuck if you have the potential or not, I'm shooting you right now. Can't do this all on my own." Bro said before pulling the trigger after Dave shouted out a scared "What the fuc-?"
Dave's head felt as if it split into two for a second, before suddenly another thing like the puppet master appeared before him. It was something that bore a resemblance to an old standing clock, but instead of the clock face and clock arms it had a human head with a drama mask in front of it's face, one half sad, the other half happy, and normal human arms slowly ending as pendulum. The clockdoor on it's chest was wide open, showing off wheel gears and tubes. The lower half of it's the body ended up as a normal standing clock, but it was designed with a lot more gears and tubes, following the inside of the clockhumanthing.
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The thing let out a shriek, before freezing one of the ghosts with a wave of it's hand.. clock.. thing.
Bro laughed quietly, with a mumbled "I knew it" as he shoved one of the guns in Dave's hand.
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"What the fuck was that all about?" Dave asked after they were done, frowning at his older brother. Bro shrugged. "You just experienced the Dark Hour and you just called forth your own Persona." He softly explained what those two terms were; The Dark Hour, the hidden hour where everyone transmogrified into coffins and only Persona-users would be conscious. Persona's, manifestations of your psyche that you could use to protect yourself during said Dark Hour.
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But no one Dave knew had experienced either of the two and thus he just stared at the elder. Bro laughed softly. "It's true though. Not nice, huh?" Dave glared. "Especially not because you practically shoved that gun against my head and pulled that trigger without explaining shit." Bro snorted softly. "Sorry for that, but hey I had to awaken your Persona somehow. Anyhow... I'll explain everything later, okay?" Dave rolled his eyes, then gasped. "Does this mean I'm a Persona-user? That's- ...kind of cool." Bro grinned. "Not just cool. It's motherfucking swag."
Maid of Time
She effortlessly dispatched one of the Shadows with a flawless and gracious swing of her arm, moving the Evoker to her head and firing. A scoff was heard from behind her - She smiled and turned around to the other teen. "Is anything wrong, dear?" She said, her voice almost a melody. The male teen behind her - he had 3D-glasses on top of his head, messy mouse brown hair and a light brown turtle-neck - answered. "No, nothin' is wrong." He said with a lisp, his differently coloured eyes glaring at the green and black pulsating ground.
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The female raised an eyebrow, still smiling. "Are you quite sure?" She asked again. He nodded while frowning slightly. The female teen turned back to where she was heading, and wasted no more time as she rushed forward towards the stairs, the male effortlessly following her. "To what floor are we sssuposed to go now?" He asked, curiosity apparent in his lisping voice. She squinted her eyes in thought. "Hm. Didn't Bro say floor 20? And then wait up for him?" She answered, looking over her shoulder back at the other for a second. The teen with the dual-coloured eyes just scoffed. "Knowin' him he's most likely already up there." The female explorer ignored it, as she hurried up to the stairs before climbing them. "..Hmm. Maybe." She eventually answered.
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After minutes filled with fighting shadows and searching for any kind of treasure, the male teen eventually stopped running. He panted quietly, as he raised his wrist to look at the black and white way-too-over-gadgetized watch. "Wait – In a few minutes the Dark Hour's over. We should use the teleport point. We wouldn't have reached floor 20 anyway.." He mentioned. The female quickly pointed at a close-by teleport point. "Alright. Let's go then." She reacted, with a crooked smile on her pale face.
Knight of Time
The clock that had frozen in time exactly an hour ago started ticking again. People once again started walking, even though there were not many at this ungodly hour. The Shadows that had been left vanished into thin air. The trains started back up.
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The younger Strider huffed softly as he made his way back to the dorms on his own – The elder had ditched his ass once the clock started ticking. He pushed his aviators back up his nose, as he hurried back to the dorm, cars honking at him when he crossed the street without looking at what happened or people grumbling when he pushed them out of his way.
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He made sure his pokerface was there, showing no emotions, as he seethed of anger on the inside at being left behind like that. He would make absolutely sure Bro would get zero sleep tonight, or he could engage him into a fight. ...Which he would lose anyway, even though he didn't like to admit it.
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He almost burst into the dorm, the door flying open. A girl with pitch black hair and a blonde fringe, wearing a dark green jacket, got the scare of her life when he stormed past her, running up the stairs and heading straight towards the room he had to share with the older Strider. Dave kicked open the door, jumping inside before screaming his brother's name(while still being cool) and flinging his Evoker(Apparently these things were indeed used for summoning Personæ) at his brother's head.
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Unfortunately enough, Bro had somehow managed the catch the Evoker, carefully placing it down on the desk he was sitting behind. Bro crossed his arms against his chest, smirking slightly. "That took you long." He merely said, before pointing at the ticking clock at the wall. 12:14. "Goddamnit, Bro-" Were the last words an outside would have heard before Dave pounced onto the older Strider in fury.
? (I-point of view)
To be quite honest, I hadn't expected anyone to come crashing into the dorm at 12:13, and I had feared the guy would stop and ask questions - luckily he hadn't and just ran past. I glanced a second time at the guy slumped against the back of the couch, his chin resting on his chest, mousey hair obscuring his face. I only knocked him out, really – He tried to stop me from reaching that damn clock, anyway. I kneeled down next to him, feeling around his neck for the chain that would contain the clock. I already had stolen two clocks from other filthy persona-users, and this would be my third.
After feeling around for a bit, I finally fell the cold sting of the metal chain, and I harshly pulled it off, snapping the chain in two. It seemed like it was my lucky day – Two miniature clocks dangled off the chain. I smiled to myself – This job would be done faster than I had expected.
Knight of Time
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GEKKOUKAN HIGH, 8:25AM. CLASSROOM
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Yawns were heard all over the classroom as everyone slowly started filling the seats. Dave calmly took the seat he always took, next to the king of Derp, John. He immediately turned towards the months younger male, gleefully telling him all about the movie he had watched last night after studying like the lovely student he was. Dave carefully calculated whether or not to tell John about his own eventful night, and has decided against it, while the buck teethed boy just kept on telling about the crappy romance movie.
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"And then they kissed, Dave! They kissed! Can you believe it?" John chirped, his face changing to one of terrible shock. The cool kid raised an eyebrow. "Egderp." He merely said, which made John focus on him completely. "...Eh.. Yes, Stri...derp?" Dave mentally facepalmed (Striderp? Really?) before sighing softly. "You sound like a complete woman." He managed to say before the teacher slapped his ruler against the desk, yelling about how silence was apparently golden.
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GEKKOUKAN HIGH, 10:30AM. CANTINE.
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After surviving another few hours about 'magic' (John started believing they were secretly on Hogwarts without knowing), Dave dropped his plate with food down unto the table with a loud noise, earning glares from Rose and a few other students sitting on other tables around them. Dave also dropped himself onto the bench, before staring down at the food he had picked out himself, slowly picking up the spoon that had been included.
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After a few slow swallows(He really, really didn't like rice), he choked on his food after being elbowed in his ribs. An angry glare up, and yes – That was indeed Bro, just as he had assumed. Bro unceremoniously pushed Dave away, making room for himself on the bench, which he happily(or as happy as he could be) took. He then pointed at the plate Dave had pulled along with him. "You're gonna eat that?"
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The younger Strider slightly shook his head, watching the plate move towards Bro. "Well, if you really aren't... It'd be a waste to throw that away, huh." He muttered as Dave quietly watched the elder eat.
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Bro forced down an mouthful of food, before slightly turning his head towards his younger brother. "Christ, little man. You're staring. Is it really that interesting to watch me eat?" He asked, pointing his spoon at Dave's nose. Dave frowned at the spoon in his face, slowly pushing it away with his hand. "It's amazing, really. Just watching you push all kinds of food in your face. Hot damn it's so nice to watch." He sneered in reply. Bro slowly turned his head the rest of the way towards the younger, before dramatically dropping his spoon. "Oh dear, now I cannot eat any more with your judging eyes set on me! How will I survive this dark hour?" Bro shouted, his dramatic actions drawing attention of people around him. He casually sat back(having jumped up to add to the emotional-level), picked his spoon back up and resumed eating the rest of the rice.
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("I still hope it was an ironic action.")
ARIMINA-DORM, 09:33PM. DORM HALL.
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"Dave!" A female voice called out from behind the blonde male, urging him to turn around with a frown. If he was honest, he was rather glad it was the grey-haired girl and not someone else... but something like that would be stupid to say out loud. Aradia walked up to him with a smile. "I asked you if we could hang out today, right? Well, I would like to meet you in front of the school gates at a quarter before twelve." She brought for, her smile not faltering even once as she said it with the suggestion. Dave blinked once, before nodding slightly in acknowledge. "Sure thing." He agreed. Aradia smiled again, before walking off again.
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ARIMINA-DORM, 11:27PM. ROOM XIII
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"Tonight, we're going to explore." Bro announced in their room. Dave threw up one glance to the white-haired elder. "...Explore?" He repeated with expertly hidden confusion. Bro nodded as he unclipped his watch from his wrist, putting it down on the desk. Dave sat back up from his lying position on his bed. "I can't go 'explore'. I'm going to meet up with Aradia." He pointed out, ruby-red eyes focused on Bro's identical ones. Bro grinned slightly. "I know. Aradia and I organised this meet up." Dave's confusion worsened, and he couldn't resist a blink or two. "...What do you mean?"
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Bro rolled his eyes with a sigh. "You're technically meeting up with both me and Aradia in front of the school gates." He explained. Dave nodded slowly. "...Eh, okay." He muttered, before standing up from his bed and walking to the shared desk, grabbing the black and green watch off his jacket and placing it somewhere else, picking up the jacket without throwing the watch off. "Well, I'm leaving now. So if you want me to meet up with you, you should hurry up there." Dave pointed out while grabbing his aviators. Bro smirked slightly, before grabbing his own jacket and removing himself from the room.
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GEKKOUKAN HIGH, 11:53PM. SCHOOL GATES.
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Aradia brightly smiled when the Strider-brothers approached the school gates. "Good evening! If you have a little patience..." She gleefully said, before turning around to the school gates, unlocking them with a key and swinging them open. She rotated back to the brothers.
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"Have you told him all the details yet?" She asked, her gaze on Bro. He slowly shook his head, his face unreadable like it usually was. Aradia made a soft "tsk, tsk" sound, before moving her gaze to Dave. "Well... I heard from Bro you already awakened to your Persona and experienced the Dark Hour. Well, we're taking this a little further. In a few minutes you'll see a strange transition from 11:59 to 12:00. I would prefer it if you didn't freak out about it." She elaborated. She made a vague hand movement to the school behind her.
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After a few minutes of sitting around in front of the school gates, Bro and Aradia stood back up from the cold pavement. Bro unzipped his jacket, wrapping it around his waist, as Aradia copied the same action with her cardigan. Dave slowly stood up as well, but left his jacket zipped tight. Bro grinned slightly as the world darkened sharply, the sky turning green, the moon brightening until it was a midnight sun, and water becoming dark red puddles on the ground. Dave glanced up at the school and his heart skipped a beat – instead of their school a large green gravity-defying tower stood tall, higher than any sky-scraper he had seen so far.
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Dave was slightly amazed at the big hall as he stepped in, glancing around. A set of stairs leading up to a huge clock – the red carpet – and the high ceiling made it look very serene, but hostile at the same time. Aradia walked up to the set of stairs without even looking up or down at any of the surroundings.
"We've been here before, your brother and I. We've been trying to get to the top for a week now." She said with a slight smile, before pointing up the stairs. "See that clock? There's a door in there. That leads to the inside of this Shadow's nest. We hope there's something of great value on the top, while we defeat the shadow's in here." She said.
Dave's attention suddenly got drawn to a purple door just to the left, and he narrowed his eyes slightly. He turned his entire body towards it, before walking up to it and attempting to open it. The door didn't budge the first few tries, before suddenly clicking open.
Dave raised an eyebrow, as a boy that couldn't possibly be much older than him appeared before him, sitting in a chair behind a large brown round table, stormy eyes focused on him, midnight blue hair obscuring his right eye, the slightest smile on his face. Behind him stood another male, with black swept back hair and a yellow scarf in front of the lower half of his face and a rather distinct mole beneath his left eye.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room. ..You must be a new guest." The one with the scarf called. "My name is Ryoji, and this one here Minato. We are very pleased to see someone here." 'Minato' turned his head towards 'Ryoji', sighing softly. "I blame you for accepting Igor's offer. If you hadn't we wouldn't be stuck with the ever lasting discussion about who's going to wear Elizabeth's dress and being forever alone."