just another day in paradise

[safeguarder]

Who: all you cool kids
What: family meeting
When: 9/15
Where: by the poool
Warnings: none yet


[bro this is all so disorganized. Shepard can hardly stand it -- but she's heard of the meetings that they had had in the past, and she's going to take it upon herself to do one of her own. they had to get all of their facts together somehow, at least.

it's the Leader Things in her.]

Everyone meet me near the pool. Between the apparent disappearances last month and what's been going on at the pool, we need to get our facts straight. Meet me here after school's over for the day.

[aaand she's there at her designated time, hoping that they'd at least try to listen to her and gather as she intended...

she's not going to lock anyone in or anything, but if you try to pass her by, she's going to give you A Look like you'd better mind her message. not that she's even close to punching someone out, but. there's probably something a little bit intimidating about the commander who's looking at you expectantly if you try to ignore her meeting.]

Comments

[safeguarder]

[okay, mayyybe she might herd someone near the group if they're acting like they don't necessarily want to be there but have passed by anyway. she's not being super aggressive, but it's probably more like a cattle dog following sheep in a group. like you just Know you don't really want to try to get away from her.]

The sooner we can all have the same information, the sooner we can go back to whatever we need to be doing.

[which is nothing, really.]

So let's just get it over with, and start telling us what you know.

[unimmune]

[Don't mind Tali, she's just lurking behind Shepard and letting the Commander do all the talking. That's usually how this worked. Shepard pressed for information, convinced them to be honest, and if she felt like they were hiding something important, she'd get a bit...er, tough on them. It was one of her favorite things to watch, Shepard's commanding presence.

When there was a break in the people Shepard was pressing for information, Tali stepped closer, tilting her head.]

This isn't going badly. Considering most everyone here are children...

[safeguarder]

[Shepard just shrugs a little, and then shakes her head.]

It's not. I just know that there were a few that looked like they wanted to try to skirt it -- it's hard when they all are children.

[she could just punch adults if they were being avoidant. she definitely wouldn't do that to a child.]

[unimmune]

[Tali would give anything to watch Shepard punch an idiot refusing to cooperate, again.]

And you convinced them anyway, without even having to use your fists. [Or a gun, for that matter.]

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this quickly, with everyone working together.

Nene Talks About A Body

[mermaidcursed]

( well. she really didn't want to come to the next family meeting, because the stress of literally everything was suffocating sometimes, but, well, given that she was one of the investigators... she's gotta be responsible. so.

here she is, sitting on one of the poolside chairs, definitely staying away from the water. )

So, um- I dunno about everyone's absences, but there's something in the deep end of the pool. I can't see what it is, though- just that it's there. ( no she does not realize not everyone can see the thing. ) I think it was involved in... um. The body... they were missing their lower half. But torso-wise, t-they were about the size of an older teenager.

...

There weren't any identifying features, they were burned through. After that they were wrapped in a black, hooded cloak.

( anyways, she's going to inhale and just. yeah. 16 year old girls shouldn't be the body touchers and yet... )

[silentabyss]

Wait, there's actually something in the pool?

[He had that hypothesis and shared it with several people, but, uh.]

I can't see what's down there. I dove down about thirty feet, but it was too dark.

[mermaidcursed]

Yeah- I can't tell how far down it is either, but maybe we shouldn't be trying that... I also don't know how big it is, but considering I can still see it from that depth...

( that would imply it's at least Pretty Big? )

[silentabyss]

...the water down that low is salty, too, like what the ocean's supposed to be.

["Supposed to be" because he's never seen the ocean, but he knows that it's salty.]

Do you think we can kill it? I mean... it bit someone in half and it's clearly... still hungry. [Do not perceive the fact that he fed it. In fact, he's just not even going to say anything about him and Komaeda feeding the fucking mystery leviathan.] I could lure it to the surface and kill it before it kills anyone else.

[crystallomancy]

( natsume.... is also sitting away from the pool, but he can add his own two cents on the body— )

Their wrapping wasn't burned howeVER, but it was torn at the bottom; that correlates with the torso-chomping they suffeRED. AdditionalLY, there were three large rocks in one of their pockets that hadn't fallen out despite the HOLE.

( ...he has them in his lap, they're bigger than the gacha rocks. the size you put in snowballs when you really want to hurt someone. )

The little lamb is right too—they were burned completely to the BONE, with particular care to making them as unidentifiable as possiBLE. ( going by the level of scarring and burns on the face, at least. ) They were thrown in after the fact—they nor whoever did it to them was putting them in the pool to try and put the fire OUT.

[sisters]

( amami wasn't around for any of this, so all he has to go off of is what the gang shares here and now. still, the rocks and wrapping definitely ping him. )

In that case, the culprit must have been trying to hide it. Pretty sure we all know by now that the deep end is a lot deeper than you can swim to the bottom of, yeah? They probably thought that if they tossed the body down there, nobody would be able to find proof of the crime.

( he pauses, grimacing. knowing it was hidden, he supposes that's one step in the right direction, but... )

How did they get it so severely burned, though? I feel like we'd have noticed, if there was a fire hot enough to leave a body in a state like that.

[safeguarder]

[Shepard frowns a little bit when she hears Nene speak. even though she's a soldier and has seen a lot of bad shit in her life, that doesn't mean that people much younger than her should have to go through it.]

...Hey.

[she always feels kind of awkward trying to reassure someone she barely knows, even if she doesn't really show it.]

You alright? I appreciate the info, but you don't have to push yourself either.

[mermaidcursed]

... I'll be okay. I have to be. This place won't allow for anything less.

( and when they get out, she'll hold her parents and bawl her eyes out like she's six and not sixteen again. hah. haha. )

... I've been learning about first aid from a combat medic. So, even if it's not the same thing, I think I need to push past it anyways.

( and then nene smiles up at shepard, just a little. )

Thank you though.

locker / bathroom

[commences]

While everyone else took a trip into the void, Akehoshi-kun and I checked around... I stayed behind at the lockers.

Most were already open, a few closed, and so I broke into the ones that nobody was there to claim. Inside were a pair of glasses, a watch, white candle stubs, dirty rags, a half empty box of chalk, and Shopkeeper-kun's gacha rocks.

( that's what he can recall from his memory, and he hums in thought. ) I took the glasses and watch, everything else I left there... as to who found that, I hope you're willing to speak up with the rest of the group.

( not only that, he brings a hand to his chin in thought, looking down at the ground. )

In the boy's bathroom, it smelled heavily of cleaning solution... it seems the janitor's stash had a round two... ahaha... ( maybe it's not funny. ) But there were empty bottles of cleaning solution inside... And I mean, a copious amount, more than a normal amount meaning it feels excessive... but I don't hate your crime, Criminal-kun, you must be pretty good at cleaning.

( hum... hum... )

I noticed a bit of wax by the sinks as well...

[decrypter]

That would be me, for who took the rest.

[Helena's voice is soft as it always is, but she has her bag with her, and opening it can produce everything but the glasses, watch, and rocks.]

Subaru took the rocks for his own, but the rest is all here. As well as this.

[and reaching in again, she pulls out the burned length of narrow red ribbon that they had found.]

I'm not sure exactly what was being cleaned, but I know by scent that apart from the chemicals, there's some kind of alcohol that was used as an accelerant. I can't tell exactly what, but it's there, so that might explain how much charring we have. And there was also wax between the boys' room and the pool - someone can go check that right now, if they like, if it hasn't been cleaned away.

[commences]

( he wonders if he should be shocked that it was helena, but he isn't, instead he stands right next to her in thought. )

I checked every bottle of what was left in the trashcan, nothing stood out aside from it all being cleaning solutions, we also have a storage in our dormitory, so we should have someone check that as well... if anything appears to be out of place.

( he stares at the ribbon she pulls out, and he uses his mechanical arm to reach out for it — allowing her to know that he's moving close without saying so. )

Where was this found, Adams-san? Would this be enough to say that they were half dressed if a ribbon managed to get burned... what did Sakasaki-kun say about the clothes, he's too far away... will you repeat it for me?

[safeguarder]

[Shepard notes that this one is much less hesitant to speak up, and she's a little relieved but not at the same time. the way that a bunch of kids are discussing this sort of thing is...

she doesn't want to think about it much.

she processes the info carefully, because he had a whole lot to say...]

Wax? You think they were burning a candle or something? And...it must've been a mess, to have used so much cleaner.

[ugh. she wants to punch the criminal in question.]

Anything interesting about the watch? Any clues on it or anything?

[commences]

Nope, it runs properly, and there's nothing amiss.

( the glass isn't cracked to a specific time, there's nothing noting when all of this could have happen, and didn't happen — they're still trying out the way this case started. )

Even the glasses were in perfect condition, but nothing too out of the ordinary from when the shopkeeper wore them and spoke to me.

( don't ask him where the items are, because he definitely doesn't have them in his hand. )

[devouringdeep]

Off the subject of the body, I'm fairly certain we've all noticed the radius of that void is continuing to spread. I wanted to pick everyone's brain on that one, one of you is bound to have some sort of game plan on how to stop it, right?

Apologies if this has been brought up before, this is my first meeting after all. I just want to be sure we're all on the same page, now especially given the circumstances..

[He's still got his legs in the pool, although now he's migrated to sitting on the top step, so he's up to roughly his thighs in the water.]

[starrypoint]

[float...☆]

Yeah, so, what's the deal with that thing? It's kinda ominous and eerie when you're just trying to look for useable sports stuff.

[he just wants to play basketball again....... he has too much energy to expend that's why he's in the pool!!!!]

[devouringdeep]

[given enough time and encouragement he will absolutely join in the floating. It does not matter to him that he's currently fully clothed in his school uniform. He Will float on request.]

It's interested me for a while now, though I don't have very many answers on what its 'deal' is, which is why I was hoping someone might be more well informed than I am. I would like to know where it originates from, or what causes it. It has to be here for a reason, I refuse to believe its existence is mere coincidence.

[carpevinum]

I have noticed, yes. I have personally taken several trips into the heart of the void in the auditorium to try and discern what exactly the cause of such a rift is, but I have yet to find anything on how to stop it. Several others have taken trips with me, as well.

[Lucifer isn't in the pool because that would mean showing skin and he refuses. He is in fact wearing his stupid sweater and glasses today.]

[devouringdeep]

[Hello you’ve caught his attention, Lucifer. Childe’s head tilts directly into his location, a sort of intensely focused look lingering around his eyes paired with a thoughtful crease in his brow]

Into the void itself? And you’ve survived it?

sidney talks about a special field trip

[wolfetracks]

( sidney is also sitting down but he also lost an arm like, just barely four weeks ago, he deserves a sit. as soon as this is all over, he will be taking himself a goddamn nap. )

I suppose you can say I'm from the first batch of disappearances. It was myself, Hiyori, Hajun and... one other, but I never caught his name. I don't know how we all wound up there, but I'd noticed that the door to the fourth floor's right wing was open, so I went to investigate.

The four of us found ourselves in a hall of mirrors- from floor to ceiling, though some were cracked, smeared with blood or knocked over. The reflections were... strange. Sometimes they were normal, other times, it reflected us but dressed differently, with different backgrounds, or the reflection would lag behind, like the mirrors do.

Eventually the reflections were watching us, pressing against the glass despite us not doing anything like that- their eyes were golden.

( there were some hinky reflection things happening, but that was more things shin was dealing with, so i'll leave that to him. )

Eventually we had a choice to make, since the reflections were getting more aggressive. There were several empty mirrors that lead to a cottage in the woods, a pirate ship and a castle. We decided on the cottage... and found a gruesome murder of a child. Her father returned shortly after, but before we could truly learn anything, an eight-headed wolf made it's presence known by devouring the boy that had been with us. We tried to fend it off, but it eventually caught the father as well, and Hiyori was able to find us a way out. While covering for them, the wolf got my arm- but I got one of it's heads.

Our way out was a pond by the cabin- ( he's not sure what shin saw to make him choose it, but it worked. ) -and we landed in the school library, but different. We could talk, and. There was... a little girl. Haruka. She'd been practically starving, locked in there for who knows how long. There was smoke and blood, and she'd said that there'd been a fight, something that sounded like a wolf outside and she'd been told to stay in the library and be quiet until it was safe. We were going to get Hiyori through the crawlspace to open the door for us, and then... we found ourselves in the right wing again, just the three of us and a wolf head.

I know that Hiyori had been looking around, saw things I hadn't. Hajun... was gone again, soon after we came back.

( but also, he was recovering from the immediate aftermath of a five-foot-on-all-fours, eight-headed wolf bite. he's forgiven for not being the most aware in that last bit, he thinks. )

we all had a fun time and nobody got eaten

[notsosou]

Atsushi... that was his name. It disappeared from the roster after...

[Shin checks the roster for changes fairly religiously, given his own true name is still on it. Feels strange to only know it after he died... he turns away from that unhelpful line of thinking.]

...Sidney's covered most of it. I ended up in the mirror room after opening the fourth floor door as well. Safe to say all of us did... [His thumb runs over the returned orange laser pointer in his pocket. After the lighter, he's not going to play that card in the open but... if someone else ended up in the mirror dimension for some reason...] Shining a light in their eyes made them back off... but only for so long. When they came back they were starting to control our movements... [His hand around his throat, his arms open wide for him.] Good thing we left, ahaha!

............ [He really doesn't like thinking At All about what came next. Found a way out huh... he can't help but wonder why Sidney's spinning it like that.] The pool didn't reflect the sky properly. We already knew mirrors could be moved through... [It was visible in the one he'd intended to return through - which the wolf was in the way of.]

[The passage between was a confused blur of eyes and being watched and blood and... Shin's not entirely sure if that wasn't Just Him and the incredibly high stress levels he was under at the time, so he doesn't mention it, hand buried in scarf.]

Sounds unbelievable but we came out through a storybook. Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf... that was us. [...Haruka...] Didn't really find anything in the library... the crawlspace had old dry blood in it. When I tried to open the library door Hajun and Sidney were on the other side... in the fourth floor hallway. That's when the smell of vanilla stopped.

[He's only realizing it in hindsight, but it was one of the indicators they really were back. His expression flashes pained as he recalls the very last detail.]

...there were bloody wolf footprints going down the stairs. [Nobody panic but there might, there might, be a ghost wolf loose in the school.]

[safeguarder]

[Shepard is going to listen to all of this patiently, thinking that there's a lot of information coming at her all at once. but she just takes it in stride, letting the words wash over and trickle down her mental filter.

but the ending...]

So what you're saying at the end is...we might have to keep our eyes out for a ghost wolf. Great.

[that's the first thing that comes out of her mouth, but she crosses her arms, leaning to one side slightly as she considers the rest.]

Did you recognize anything about the cottage? Or was it just as weird as appearing here in general?