Location: Pinefall High Campus (Main Access Route)
Phase: Morning Phase
Date: 08.09.1994
Weather: Overcast
“Hunters? Helping and healing? Then why weren’t you and yours there, on that night? Why didn’t your church help me? WHY DIDN'T YOUR CHURCH HEAL ME!?”
...
Those words were never spoken. They did not even enter John’s mind. They cannot exist in his mind, for he does not—or cannot—resent nor lament what happened that night.
John only nods, acknowledging what the ladies say, as well as what they do not. If anything, the very fact that Lucille Faraday stands in front of him very much alive tells him that “sainthood” means something very different in the Turnside.
“I will place my trust in you, and believe that the things you say are the things you believe I must know, and those you do not are things I do not need to know. However, allow me a piece of advice: if you truly have something you wish to keep hidden, please be more mindful of where you go at night, Elise Marie.”
He quickly turns to Lucille Faraday.
“For that matter, I hope you can share the results of your exploration of the outbuilding, Miss Faraday. I happened into some intriguing footprints near that building; perhaps you might have an explanation for them. But I guess I first have to respond to your honesty in kind.”
With that said, John rejoins the other two and they can resume their walk outside the campus and into the town proper.
“As you well know by now, my name is John Dove.”
He cannot ascertain that this was always his name, though.
“I am not associated with the Church, nor with any other organization of the Turnside. A supernatural being saved my life years ago. That is all I will say for now; my past is not immediately relevant. I will instead go over these past few days.”
Well that is not being evasive at all.
“Might as well start from last night and go backwards in time. However, let me start with stating that, yes, I did meet Muse in a dream on our first night here. From what Prushka told me, though, it seems Muse presents a different appearance to different people. Anyway, last night.”
He pauses for a second or two to gather his memories and shape them into words.
“As you are both well aware, I was paired with Liana Skye. As you are also well aware, Liana Skye was not part of the student body in the previous iteration of this week, and she has effectively replaced Adelaide Cheshire. Just so you know, Prushka and I already briefed her on the situation, or at least our understanding of it, as she is clearly of the Turnside and already harbored strong suspicions.”
“The trip to the graveyard was fortunately uneventful,” John lies unabashedly and effortlessly. “However, I noticed something strange when visiting the McLampet graves, but we can save that for a discussion on the family itself. I also found the tombstone of one ‘Remington Hartley’. From the age and date of death, I strongly suspect this is the one you mentioned, Elise—the Pinefall student that died before the school was shut down. It is a secondary detail, but it was useful to get a name at least.”
“Skye and I were the first to return to the school, eventually followed by Montjoy and Prushka, both of them in a rather…foul mood. Something might have happened in that forest cabin; Prushka did not share and I did not ask. However, Prushka also carried resentment towards Momoi and Pyry. I am not confident in my ability to read people’s emotions, but I believe it was about the very nature of the Test of Courage and its rigged lottery. Prushka concluded that Momoi was scattering away her classmates into potentially dangerous locations so that she would be unimpeded to explore the old dorms with her ‘sweetheart’. I suspect that exploration of the old dormitory was Prushka’s idea in the first place, and she did not take kindly to being pushed out of it. Well, they have been associating with each other since last week, so there might be a lot more to it than just last night’s ‘game’.”
There is something particularly awkward about John’s description of supernatural teenage drama in his usual flat, emotionless droning voice. However, it comes to no surprise that Prushka and Momoi came into conflict. They are both egocentric to a degree incomprehensible to a young man mostly devoid of ego himself; it is only natural that they cannot reach a common ground.
“Miss Faraday here might have a better analysis. You got the details from Montjoy, right?”
Indeed, she might be better suited to grasping the feelings driving the actors of last night.
“Ubon also learned what happened and…did not take it well. There was some screaming, a short bout of violence, and, well, by the time you arrived the atmosphere was not adequate for resuming the test of courage.”
Something he said—or rather, the way he said it—urges him to make a clarification.
“Please do not assume I am making light of what happened; I am merely trying to be concise. After taking Prushka to her bedroom, I walked around campus for a while, waiting for the students who stayed at the beach to return. Now, regarding yesterday morning…”
Another pause to recall and find the right words to describe what he deems necessary.
“…Momoi and Pyry wanted to investigate the storage shed attached to the school’s track. Momoi sent Ubon after the keys to the shed as a means to get her away from any potential danger. Perhaps she also believed Ubon is not of the Turnside, which I strongly suspect is patently untrue.”
“In any case, there was indeed a being of the Turnside in that shed, although I could not pinpoint exactly what kind of…existence, she is. She introduced herself as ‘Bambi Doubleday’, a merchant of sorts, offering both information and objects of power. Now, I should talk about Sunday.”
A longer pause follows. After all, even he needs some time to gather his thoughts before describing that Sunday. He needs to sift carefully through everything that happened to him that day, for there are things that he deems he should not share, and things he believes are for others to share, not he.
“As you said, on that day I left with Elaine Winters with the intention to report the situation to the local police. However, on the way there, Elaine’s car was disabled by a sniper, Ramia Ramalsaqr. Elaine rushed ahead to engage Ramalsaqr, but she claimed to hold Ubon and Sakura as hostages.”
Of course, he remembers that vividly. How, upon hearing that, he pushed himself to follow Elaine, deeming a hostage situation an unacceptable event that demanded correction. In that moment, John Dove concluded that Ubon’s and Sakura’s safety and well-being were a matter of his concern.
“This turned out to be a lie; Ramalsaqr was producing their voices in some other manner. However, she then declared that Ubon and Sakura were in fact dead.”
There is no need to share the accusations upon Elaine Winters and thus generate additional hostilities and suspicions among people who should be working together. While John has already inferred from Elaine’s own words that the “mysterious masked person” who killed Alexstrasza and likely died at Elaine’s hands was indeed Sakura Tsukioka, it is also true that he has no decisive evidence that supports this.
“The confrontation, unfortunately…attracted the attention of a powerful entity of the Turnside, who killed them both. As to why I was spared…is a story I guess I will have to share at some point. Not now, though, and not here.”
He cannot fully explain why, but his own words leave a bad taste in his mouth. To trivialize Elaine’s and Ramalsaqr’s final moments like that…
…this must be, indeed, the true wickedness that can only be born of a soul as wrecked as John Dove’s.
“With no other plan, I attempted to continue the trip to the sheriff’s office on foot, but the whole town was swallowed by a fog that distorted my sense of direction. Despite having exact directions to the sheriff’s, I ended wandering the fog without getting anywhere, until…”
What can he say at this point? He still has yet to make sense of what happened at that point. However, there is at least a part of it he believes he must share. Therefore, he will have to choose his words carefully here.
“…I had…some sort of vision. It was very confusing, but it nonetheless concluded with a number of mysterious personages speaking scattered sentences; omens of sorts.”
"There is a key in Amber House.”
“The woman with the eyepatch laughs in the woods.
“It's a drug that forces you to see the truth.”
“Beware of the man who died.”
“You can blame all of this suffering on the one without body."
He recites the sentences well committed to memory.
“The meaning of some of those sentences is clearer to me now, of course. In any case, after that, I happened to meet Mercedes West, but then a strange atmospheric phenomenon took place: the sky flared with all the colors of the rainbow; an utterly unnatural aurora.”
There is no need to describe the…violent nature of their encounter, or that he witnessed that psychedelic sky while resting on Mercedes West’s thighs.
“That phenomenon…bothered me on a personal level, so I decided to seek out its source. Miss West chose to accompany me against her better judgement. On the way to the likely point of origin of that strange manifestation, the Disembodied Man appeared before us. I exchanged a few words with it and then…well, that is where everything ended.”
With that, he regards Lucille Faraday.
“I am aware you have developed a rapport with Miss West. That she did not flee the town when she had the chance is unmistakably my failure. I have no excuse.”
Indeed, many things went wrong that day. However, most of it was objectively outside of his control or his ability to intervene. He could not stop the deaths of Sakura and Alexstrasza. He never could have saved Cesarina Feroce or the unknown girl in the school building. He never could have stopped Her from killing Elaine and Ramalsaqr. He never would have been able to reach the sheriff’s office, unable to figure out the nature of the fog or the means to dispel it. However, convincing Mercedes West to leave on her own and save her life was something he definitely could and should have done, and thus will remain a lifelong regret.
Mercedes West…and Colton Davin. Their deaths are on him. It is not precisely that their deaths weigh on him, or that he feels guilt or blame. They are, after all, colorless people.
It is the simple fact that those deaths could (and should) have been prevented, and that he had the power to do so, yet did not. Having made the choice of colorless life and the possibility of meaning over death and insignificance, he has to mind every single human life, even if he feels no personal attachment to them.
After a solemn inclination of the head towards Lucille Faraday, John glances at the other girl.
“I believe I have answered your questions, Elise Marie; hopefully to your satisfaction.”