#insanitystudents

Ren sat in the mess hall, doing one of his favorite activities: people watching. Or, perhaps, he wasn't all that fond of it. It was mostly just something he was used to doing. When he thought about, a lot of things he did were things he only did because they'd been made a habit, through the suggestion of someone else (mainly his mother). He dressed nicely and presentably because she wanted him too, and eventually it had become ingrained into his psyche. He watched people for the sake of his talent, a talent which he had never been entirely fond of, and yet he honed it regardless.

People watching was simple, and revealed a lot about his fellow students. Watching their body language when they interacted with others, watching their body language when they were alone. Seeing what they did when they thought others couldn't see, and what they did when they were sure others were watching. Ren could analyze and dissect their movements, and relay what it said about their personality, for the sake of seeing which two people could put up with each other best. That was what it all came down to, wasn't it? As if he hadn't been jaded before, after a talk with a certain snake charmer, it had become worse. Not to mention, if he hadn't had that stupid talent in the first place, he'd never had gotten into this living hell passing off as a school.

Dead bodies flashed through his mind. Too many. All killed in varying horrific ways. Even the tamest death (Suzu's, in his opinion) was made terrible by the fact it had been carried out a friend. No, worse than that was how she'd been used a shield by a coward. This school was only bringing out the worst in people, which was contrary to its original purpose- to foster students overflowing with hope and promise.

Billy's last words resounded in Ren's head. He had a point. The game was far from over because they had apprehended him. First blood had been drawn, and it would only get more tense. The thespian had showed that, yes, one of their friends was willing to murder another one of their friends, leaving people to second-guess one another. If Billy could do it, who else could? Would it perhaps be better to kill, before you're killed? The matchmaker wasn't so sure he was even capable of such of thing, but Billy had probably thought the same. Most of his classmates, in fact, were probably in that mindset. He wasn't sure whose death was worse. Yukan? His face mutilated, and then finished by his very own axe, held in the hands of a friend. Billy? His violent death was a show, an exhibition, concocted for them all to see. The murder of Yukan Mori was done in a fit of desperation. The murder of Billy Shates was a gleeful performance put on by Insanity. Ren felt like the robotic cat had been dying for that moment to come, when lives would finally be taken. That was the entire point of the game, wasn't it?

Kenneth trudged back to his jail cell dorm room, ready to just collapse into bed. It had been a very long day. 

He kneaded his temples, locked his door and let loose a long-suffering sigh that'd been building in him since early this morning. He still had no real idea what was going on (his classmates were admittedly not very helpful.) All he had to go on were only vague, jumbled references to cats and axes and stage lights. And, more importantly, he was no closer to getting out of this madhouse.

Well, that was gonna change. One (hellsih) day was enough to tell him that he needed to get a game plan going. And scheming planning was something Kenneth was pretty good at, if he did say so himself.

And he did. With a particular one in mind, actually.

Smirking bitterly to himself, he walked though each of today's encounters  and started to think himself up a new campaign.

All he had to do was turn on that good ol' fashioned Campbell charm of his and let everything else fall into play.

Oh, and not get murdered.(Hopefully, he could at least manage that.)

But, first things first, he needed someone on the inside. Preferably, someone gullible. Someone innocent.Someone stupid.

And he thought knew just the one.

Consciousness flooded back into Kenneth like a tidal wave. 

He was groggy, confused.... and his head was absolutely throbbing. Slowly but surely, he regained his senses.

He was laid out on a bed, fully clothed. In his school uniform, no less. Strange. Stranger still was the fact he didn't even recognize the room. Had he passed out? It wouldn't have been the first time, but he didn't remember any party...

Another wave of pain beat against his brain and sent him jolting upright. If he wanted to sort any of this out (or kill this goddamn headache) he had to start investigating.

The room was well decorated, but... sterile. Like a hotel suite. The bathroom even had those complimentary soaps. Was he at another competition? There was no way, the debate team's semi-finals weren't for another- Wait.

It was coming back to him. 

The transfer. The move. It hit him like a brick. This... this was the Regal Academy. It had to be. He left St. Vincent's for the exchange program nearly a week ago (or, at least he thought he did.) He remembered the conferences and the paper work and the interview. Everything.

But it still didn't explain how the Hell how he got there.

Confused, angry, and with a splitting migraine he marched out the dorm and made a point to demand the first person he met what exactly was going on.

Ren could never say he had woken up on the floor of a mall before. Especially not after having been gassed by a crazy stuffed cat who was holding an entire class of students hostage. The situation had been crazy- practically impossible!- from the beginning, but he felt like this "field trip" ramped up the ridiculousness a few levels. How exactly did they even all get there? Did a robot cat really pile a bunch of unconscious students into a bus and drive them to the mall? How did no one see that? Why wasn't she stopped by the police or something? Really, why hadn't some authority realized something was weird and set out to rescue them yet?

The matchmaker groaned and held his head in his hands. All he'd managed to do was work himself into a headache. He climbed to his feet, a hand still pressed to his skull, and glanced around. It seemed to be a relatively normal mall...besides the fact there seemed to be no one there besides for his classmates, some who were still a tangle of sleeping bodies on the floor, while others were in various stages of waking up.

"Right. Well. Might as well do something since I'm here," he mumbled to himself, stepping over a few legs, as he made his way to the large map in the center. Once there, he adjusted some of his clothes which had become askew. Always look your best, came his mother's chiding voice in his head, even now. With his bow tie and blazer perfect and straight, he began his inspection of the mall's layout.