Gentle Persuasion (closed)

[devouringdeep]

Who: Childe & Shiraishi
What: Just a casual conversation between two pals who have yet to speak to each other
When: 9/23 (backdated just a bit bc I'm The Whole Circus)
Where: Just outside of 1-E
Warnings: CW Childe Tartaglia, TBD

Comments

[outvalue]

[ It's okay, if Snezhnaya doesn't have cigarettes exactly, you can't tell me the fake French people don't, I refuse to believe it. But anyway, don't worry too much about why it was handed to him in the way it was, Shiraishi just lives to be annoying, make no sense, and test people's patience without even trying to half the time.

He brushes damp hair backwards over his shoulder, before sticking his hands back in his pockets. ]

Someone... or a group of someones, but finding even one in these cases tends to lead easily to the rest.

[ For obvious reasons, but regardless, he turns to start walking towards the school again, when he seems to remember something and lazily offers it back over his shoulder in the process. ]

Oh, right. I almost forgot since we veered from the topic, but about what we mentioned earlier.

Normally, the sensible assumption about the track would just be that the culprit forgot it, maybe because they weren't thinking clearly in the moment. But in this case... coupling it with the specificity of the victim's state, [ you know, burnt to a crisp and thrown into the pool as a snack, ] it's a lot more likely it didn't serve their purpose.

[ Now, what purpose could that be? A mystery... Basically, this is only further evidence that the burning has to have been on purpose, that there's a reason for certain why they didn't want the identity of the body in the pool to be known. Or maybe they'd even wanted to sink it, for it to never be found at all, and the burning was a backup plan which... obviously, had been a good idea given how things went. ]

[devouringdeep]

[SOMEONE has gotta have cigars at least. You can’t tell me Signora wouldn’t walk around holding those long smoker things like Cruella. He’s opening his uniform coat to tuck the cigarette away in the inner pocket, that way it’s a lot less likely to get crumbled up and destroyed during his day. A glance up at the sky tells him that yeah, he should probably head inside about now as well. He’s got a mostly perfect attendance record to uphold after all, and so he ends up trailing along behind Shiraishi back towards the main building.

This meeting of theirs had included a lot less physical fighting than he had anticipated, though that didn’t seem to be all that bad of a thing given the amount of intrigue that was now dangled in front of him. He’d never been a big fan of puzzles, but this one seemed like one he wouldn’t mind sinking his teeth into. Given the company he was now keeping, it seemed like it would - at the very least - be entertaining.

Staring contests aside, he felt like he knew enough about Shiraishi now to form an actual opinion. He was eccentric, though in a way that reminded him less of Dottore and somewhere more along the lines of Zhongli. There was that sort fundamental lack of understanding of basic social cues that was almost... Endearing. When it wasn’t focused on conning him out of a Gnosis.

Yes, he rather enjoyed the company, and it made him feel just a little homesick. Not enough to let his guard down just yet, of course. But that was a given.

He gives a little thoughtful nod, absentmindedly drawing ahead once more so that he can hold open the door again once they inevitably reach it.]

Yeah, you’ve got a point there. Definitely seems like covering something up, doesn’t it? Especially considering... Well. The lack of actual clothing. The robes they were found in weren’t burnt, which means they were definitely wearing something that would have probably identified them fairly easily. [He pauses, a light smirk crossing his face.] Hey, maybe they actually did use the track. And then the burning came afterwards, sort of as an afterthought? I can’t recall if the body had any grievous wounds other then... Well. The fire. And the legs.