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Brendan
Brendan had his fists clenched hard enough to turn his knuckles white, and his stomach felt like a bottomless pit while his mind reeled in disbelief. In other words, he felt the way most people would after having just been shown their deepest fears by a seemingly supernatural clone of themselves in a creepy and inescapable dreamscape. He was just about ready to turn tail and run, no matter how futile it would be. The only thing stopping him was stubborn outrage at his captor - he was determined to not let this impostor get the best of him.

"What's your point with all this, [&@%!]?" Brendan demanded, though he had to try to keep his voice from faltering. "What do you even want?"

Kieran frowned. "What the hell? So you make us say all this, then.. Goddamnit." He stated. "I can't just stand beside, if someone is in trouble. Damned if we stay damned if we go. Fine. I'll stay." He grumbled, stepping towards the left door. "Drop your potential rubbish."

The Lonely Ice Rink

Shadow Brendan crossed his arms. The smoke tendrils emanating from his feet had shifted from blue-and-black to red-and-black. "It's not what I want... it's what it wants. I... you... We're just a conduit for something greater." it explained, quite vaguely. "Wouldn't it just be easier to just... give everything up? Let it all take care of itself? Come on... let go." he said, offering his hand to the 'real' Brendan.

The Velvet Room

Oscar and Makoto made their way to the door, and Oscar opened it. Before him was an overhead view of the Ice Rink in which Brendan was confronting his shadow. A shimmering set of snaking stairs appeared, leading down to the rink from the door.

Igor was quite pleased that some of them went to the door, but continued to answer the questions asked; starting with Igor. "Such things were not my doing, no; interference with the 'real' world is beyond our power in most situations. There is another that did such a thing, though I cannot say that I know any more than this. My role is to preside over this room and guide you in your journey to introspection; beyond that, I hold no survey nor control."

"That being said... I know more than you would think." Igor told Max. "You have my condolences, but I would indeed wager that the victim in your life was one of the malicious force than pervades this place." he continued, and then looked to Kieran. "You always have a choice." was all he said.

The Lonely Ice Rink

Brendan saw the stairs descend from a seemingly floating door in the dark midair. Shadow Brendan was visibly angered by this development. "What? Here? Again?" he spoke, in a far deeper voice than before; a voice that was not his own.

Keira stared over at the door that Oscar opened. She could see white light beyond, but as yet moved no closer for a better look.

"You don't know any more, but you know more than we think?" She quizzed Igor exasperatedly.

"Why can't you just talk normally? There's no way I'm going through that door just because some freaky imp guy tells me that 'malicious forces' are out to get people. I think this is all [&@%!]. You expect us to choose a door?...nah, I don't think so."
Keira's initial fear of the situation was now accompanied by anger. Who did this smug guy think he was, bringing them all here and demanding they make choices based on nothing?

"It's not real. Don't you wanna' see what's down here?..." She looked back a bit, before taking a step or two outside. Stairways... She was barely in the mood for a conversation, let alone listening to an argument between some girl and this long-nosed weirdo. She shrugged, and started to make her way down the stairs. Looking down, she saw a familiar scene... If it was visible enough from where she was, that is.

Wasn't this what was in the crystal ball? She was really starting to question her accusation of this place. This cold felt pretty real... But she pressed on. She'd rather be sleeping peacefully as soon as possible than having to listen to everyone bicker, or sit around in the odd blue room.

The realization that this wasn't just a weird, pizza-fueled dream was dawning on James. He had a practiced imagination, but all this metaphysical, philosophical junk was beyond him.

His mind, though it seemed odd to call it such, given that he was apparently somewhere in his subconscious, was a jumble of confusion. He had a lot of questions, but he only managed to articulate the simplest, "Are you a real guy, or are you just in our heads? Are you a ghost or something?"

Oscar Nigel Tarinson

Oscar Nigel Tarinson ignored Kiera as he opened the door and hoped it would not end up being a mistake. That would be rather inconvient and would make him a bit miffed. He wasted no time in starting his descent down the stairs out of a sense of curiosity.

Maria rubbed her temples. This was all just a dream, wasn't it? But no, it felt too real. Everything from the unease in the pit of her stomach to the reactions of the other people in the room seemed too authentic to be figments of her imagination. The strange long-nosed man wasn't being of much help, either. Dream or not, the doors appear to be the only way out of here. It's just a question of which one...

"What's through that door?" She called to the two who had begun to descend the stairs, as she started to walk towards the other door. "Maybe if we know what's behind both of them, we'll have a better idea of what's going on."

Either this was just a very strange dream, or it was real, and he had a chance to kick evil in the jewels. Max hesitated for a moment, before following the others through the door, down the stairs, and further down the rabbit hole.

"If this isn't just a dream...What're your names?" Max asked of his schoolmates. Right. I wake up tomorrow, and...well, whenever I go back to school, if I find them again, they probably won't have the same names. Uh, unless this is real.

Keira watched some of the others going through one door, and Maria going towards the other.
She too was curious what was behind the 'No' door, but instead of going over to look, she went and sat back down at her desk.
The other times I've been here, I've woken up back in my room. It doesn't feel like a dream, but it certainly doesn't feel real either. I'm just gonna sit here and wait til I wake up.
Keira closed her eyes, even though closing one's eyes in order to wake up seemed counterintuitive.

Kieran frowned, following after. Down and down they go. "Kieran Ikeda. If this isn't a dream I'd be somewhere in the library or swimming.. I'll say about.. I guess this weird room."

Makoto shrugged, and would continue to go down the stairs. This was looking that ice rink alright. No doubt that those two were down here, too... She picked up the pace, getting a little excited. It was totally because she wanted to have normal dreams, and not because she wanted to see what was really going on at the bottom of these stairs.

The Velvet Room

Keira closed her eyes. She remained like this for a moment before realizing that nothing was happening. She remained in the Velvet Room.

Igor was clearly not able to explain such complicated matters in a simple way, but indeed did the secretary attempt to do so. Victoria tapped a pen on a clipboard in her hands as she tried to explain the situation to James. "This room and the realm beyond exists within the sea of souls, the collective consciousness of humanity. You were called here because you possess a gift to combat the forces that encroach upon your kind. Should you choose to deny this, you will be abandoning them to the fate that seeks to prey upon them." she said, then looking to the door that Maria had mentioned. "Through that door is the exit from the Velvet Room. Should you choose to go through, you will never return to the Velvet Room again. You will wake up, blissfully unaware that any of this has ever occurred.

The Lonely Ice Rink

The four students that chose to descend the stairs; Max, Makoto, Oscar, and Kieran; made their way onto the ice rink and to the stand-off between Brendan and his shadow. The red mist emanating from Shadow Brendan's feet began to intensify, to the point that he was beginning to become obscured. "What is the meaning of this? Why are you here? He was supposed to be mine!" protested the supernatural entity.

Oscar Nigel Tarinson.

"Supposed to be yours? Well, that sounds a bit iffy. Would you kindly bugger off?" Oscar Nigel Tarinson told the entity. He knew it was a bit daft to confront the thing but he was confident in himself.

Keira huffed when nothing happened after closing her eyes. She could wait longer, but it was hard to just sit with your eyes closed when weird things were going on around you.

She opened her eyes again and got up off her seat.
Walking over to the doors, she glanced at the open one, then at the closed one.

"Hi, again." Keira said to Maria, giving her a strange smile that indicated that their meeting was an odd one.
"What, err...what d'you think about all this? I have NO idea what is going on."

Maria listened to what Victoria had to say, then turned at the sound of Keira's voice.

"Oh, hi," Maria replied with a slightly concerned look on her face. "I can't say that I know any more than you do. This is all really strange. It seems like something out of a book." She paused for a minute, looking at the others in the room. "This is everyone from the waiting room, right? But who do you think that guy in the crystal ball is? Do you know him?"

"No, I don't think I recognize him. But, yeah, it's everyone from the waiting room. I don't get how our lost records have anything to do with this though. None of it makes sense."

Keira briefly turned to look over at Igor and Victoria, then leaned in towards Maria.

"What do you make of those two?" She whispered.
"Do you believe all this stuff about gifts and bad stuff happening if we opt out? I mean, he could be making up all this stuff. How do we know that going through that door," she pointed to the ice rink door, "doesn't mean we end up giving up our souls or something?"

Makoto raised an eye-brow once the students that came reached the bottom... And herself, of course. This dream was starting to drag on, and was way too vivid. "Two?... Uhhh... I know this ain't real, but I'm startin' to get the feeling we shouldn't be messing about with uhhh..." She shut up, looking puzzled. She new dreams could be weird, but it was starting to seem like too much of a coincidence. Everyone around her sure talked like real people. "Whatever that guy is." The whole evil red smoke was pretty alarming, to say the least.

Max snorted at the sight of the ice rink. "Go team? ...Not really much of a hockey guy, to be honest." He eyed the monstrous apparition with equal parts amusement and hesitation--was this thing a threat?

He began to pace towards the two figures in the middle of the rink. "Supposed to be yours? Uh, nope, he's my man now. Get out of here, spooky." By this point, Max was feeling pretty self assured that it posed no danger to him or anyone else in this place--probably still a dream. "And didn't you read the sign on the way in? No smoking."

Brendan
Brendan was in equal measure relieved at the arrival of interlopers - it could be another of his adversary's machinations, but his frustration seemed to indicate otherwise - and exasperated at the increasing strangeness of this insane dream-but-not-a-dream.

"Okay, I'm gonna hope that you guys are real - whatever that even means here," Brendan called to the newcomers. "Can you get me out?"

Maria - Velvet Room

"They're weird ones, for sure." Maria lowered her voice so that only Keira could hear it. "I'm not sure whether I believe them or not, but if there's anything I've learned in life, it's that the easiest way out isn't necessarily the best. This door that lets us forget everything seems like a worse option than the other one, I think. It's just a bit too simple."

Makoto blinked. If these people were real, that means she'd been talking to real people the whole time. She felt herself retreat back into her shell... But she was at least going to give an honest, but vague answer. "Uhhhh... I dunno. You could try these stairs..." She felt like she had said too much. This red smoke guy seemed like he was going to be a problem. She wasn't exactly a ghost buster, however. She just tried to figure out what the hell was going on, her face becoming a bit less expressive.

"Or maybe...that's what they want us to think." Keira squinted at Maria, trying to psychologically analyse the situation.

She let out a loud sigh and put her hands on her hips.

Maria - Velvet Room

Maria shrugged. "Well, some people already went through the other door. Should we go and see if we can watch what they're doing now?"

Beckoning at Keira to follow, she walked over to the door that the others had gone through.

"Yeah, let's go see what's happening."
Keira followed Maria to the door and carefully peered down, though she was careful to not let any body part cross the threshold as of yet.