John Dove & Lucille Faraday
Location: Pinefall High Main Building
Phase: Evening Phase
Date: 10.09.1994 (SAT)
Weather: Storm
Thus, the capsule was consumed by John Dove.
--- A medicine, some would say.
Immediately, the boy felt a momentary rush in his head, a bit similar as before - but this time, much more noticeable. It was like he could hear the sound of the blood moving within him, and the veins in his head itched for the briefest moment. But then, the sensation was gone - just as quickly as it had appeared. He blinked his eyes open, gazing at the group that had gathered around him... and saw that they were all still there. None of them had disappeared, none of them had been too tied to the Turnside to just be rejected by the medicine altogether, and none---
--- Wait.
Hwan Bin. He looked normal. Lucille Faraday. She looked normal. Xeni Techne. She looked normal.
But Kean Loinnir...
... His appearance had changed from before, that much was certain. Of course, this change had happened earlier today already. But what had come with that change in appearance were clearly inhuman, machine-like parts of his body that he had been trying to hide with his clothes - bits of inorganic sticking out from the seams, so to speak.
But those were gone now.
There was nothing of the sorts remaining.
For all intents and purposes, Kean Loinnir looked just like a... normal human.
"You good?" Hwan asked, arching an eyebrow and snapping his fingers in front of John's face a few times. "Eh, seems like he's not going crazy loco on us. Good enough for me."
With that, he turned around and took a look at the body of Souma Nubatama that they had been carrying so far. Then his eyes wandered towards the storm outside, and he grimaced.
"... Let's just get this over with. The faster we're out of the rain, the better."
Kean, upon hearing that, snorted.
"No complaints here. We've still got a long night ahead of us..."
With that, the group started towards the doors of the main building. The school around them was as silent as a grave, as if nothing outside of them had ever lived there to begin with. The empty hallways, classrooms and staircases... it was all shrouded in darkness that seemed to be groving by the minute. Soon enough this whole campus would be wrapped in those same oily shadows that were threatening the lives of everyone in Pinefall, and perhaps the Road's End as a whole. Sunday was just around the corner, and everyone could feel it...
... And they weren't sure if they were any closer to answers than the first time.
"... I don't. Like this," Xeni muttered while carrying Souma, so quietly that only Lucille could hear it. "It's like. The night. I was attacked. And got. Some of. My tech. Stolen."
Even the one most out of the loop, the panda-eyed android, seemed wary.
But such thoughts soon were wiped away by the storm as the rain hit the group with full force, once they exited the main building.
"I'd suggest the woods!" Hwan yelled over the winds and motioned towards the treeline. "Soft ground there, shouldn't take so long!"
It was a decent enough suggestion, and a patch of freshly-disturbed dirt shouldn't raise too many eyebrows there. Or draw any unwanted eyes.
Though speaking of which...
As John let his stare scan the perimeter of the campus...
Something strange caught his eye.
Namely, the dormitory building, and the fact that there were lights on in some of the windows facing the center of the campus - namely the second floor.
Sure enough, he could put a name and face to most of them, like the light shining from Xylia Pheme's room. But at the same time...
Something was off.
After all, there was one window where light was streaming through, and he didn't know whose it was. In fact, there was another room right next to it, but there were no lights on there. Yet, as far as he knew...
--- There were no rooms there to begin it.
It was just the empty space...
... Right next to the second floor laundry room.
"~~~~~!"
A blue robin, sitting under the eaves of a large pine tree, seemed to giggle at his confusion.
Still, there was much to do...
--- Like giving Souma his final resting place.
Until the day after tomorrow.
[SCENE END /// Move to NEXT Phase!]
Vier
Location: Hunter's Shack
Phase: Evening Phase
Date: 10.09.1994 (SAT)
Weather: Storm
"Unfortunately..."
Lobo took a hold of a fire iron and adjusted the embers for a moment.
"... What I need to do tomorrow ain't something you can help me with. And not because I doubt your talents or anything," the man in green answered. "But because that's just how things are. It's my duty... my penance. And I have to do it, whether I like it or not."
With a self-derisive, extremely bitter grin, the man turned to look at Vier. Then he mimed putting hand on his throat and tightening it like a noose of some sort, to the point that a normal person would be left gasping for breath.
"Got a leash around my neck. Pitiful, right? My name comes from a proud wolf, yet here I am, bound like a bloodhound - to a master I despise," he explained. "I have to do their bidding when they want it and how they want it, no matter what my own heart tells me. Then again..."
He, for a moment, gazed at Vier's gear as well.
"... I'm sure you can understand that sentiment."
Silence fell over the shack once more. The only sounds that bothered the two were the howling storm outside, how it rattled the wooden planks, the creaking of the floorboards and the crackling of the fireplace before them. In a weird way, it was like two wolves, both bound by chains they had never asked for, sharing just one moment of peace before those chains were tugged once more.
Looking at his eyes, perhaps Lobo, in some strange way, saw himself - only younger and with more to hope for - in Vier... and perhaps that was why he sympathized with her.
He didn't pity, no.
But he looked at her like he understood, if only a little bit.
"Still, if you're serious about wanting to pay your debt..."
The man's voice cut through the silence.
"... There might be something you could do," he spoke, slowly, deliberately, as if weighing his own words. "I doubt that you could do anything about this leash of mine. But maybe..."
His eyes narrowed as he gazed into the flames, their dance reflected on his face.
"--- You could take the bullets out of the gun my master's holding to my head."
He paused, again.
But only for a short moment.
Like a man hesitating just for a second before jumping into an ice-cold lake.
"Say... have you heard of Suzume Bianchi before?"
[SCENE END /// Move to NEXT Phase!]
Elise Marie Pelltier
Location: Big Boy's Gas Station - Bar
Phase: Evening Phase
Date: 10.09.1994 (SAT)
Weather: Storm
"Oh, simply heads of state," Augusta responded with a slight chuckle as she got up as well. "As for the original Cesarina, well..."
She left that sentence hanging in the air, with a small, sad smile on her face. Travis, on the other hand, frowned. Frowned like he was angry at something. Not at Augusta, not at Elise, not even at himself, but rather... like he was angry at this situation itself, and the roads that had forced them and taken them to this point in their lives. Like he was angry at the unfair nature of the world itself.
"... The original Cesarina isn't around anymore. That's more or less it," he grunted as an answer, and Auggie gave a small, quiet nod. "Bother this quartet if you want more information. Or maybe Noah or Hisa Momoi - the latter also, apparently, read through those files."
With that, the boy stood up as well and pulled his jacket on him. He took a moment to check his pockets, as if looking for something specific - and then let out a satisfied sound as he found what he was looking for. For the briefest moment, Elise could see a flash of metal in his hand, what looked to be in a shape of a knuckleduster, before he pocketed those weapons once more.
Thus, the trio started towards the door - to the direction where the group from before had disappeared to.
"The more I learn about this town, this school, and this goddamned project, the more furious I get," Travis muttered as he walked. "Everything they touch seems to spiral down into the exact opposite of what it was supposed to be."
Hearing that, Auggie chuckled again, though it didn't sound very happy.
"Mm, could be? There's definitely an air of misery permeating this town. Like someone doesn't want there to be a happy ending to anything," she commented. "Though, oh, don't misunderstand me. Cesarina didn't come here to get healed. Not really - it was more of an excuse, and an additional benefit."
She put her hand on the doorknob and pulled it open.
"... The real reason why Cesarina - and us - are here is because we're on a mission," Augusta revealed. "For some reason just about every supernatural organization from here to Japan wanted a piece of this Road's End Pie - and not the kind that Avery Walker makes. Some sent agents outright, others sent them under false pretenses, but they're all here for some reason... and I think most are in your class. Heck, not sure if they even know why they're really here! But everybody's after something... and they wanna be the first one to get it. Meanwhile, we wanna know why."
With that, the green-haired girl stepped out into the storm.
"Or so said our contact - a certain tech-wizard who goes by the name LiGhTs."
[SCENE END /// Move to NEXT Phase!]
Hisa Momoi
Location: Pinefall High Dormitory - Hisa's Room
Phase: Evening Phase
Date: 10.09.1994 (SAT)
Weather: Storm
Pyry frowned.
"The ones at the mansion felt very... artificial, I'd say. Not right. They might be 'Glass-Eyed People' too, but... I doubt they're the only ones. Or if they are, maybe they're just pale imitations," he suggested, before shaking his head. "I dunno... I just feel that it would be wrong to call them that. Or rather, they don't feel like the right answer here... though it's just my gut feeling."
To-Totesh nodded.
"Perhaps 'Glass-Eyed' is not single type of entity, but concept. Those were manifestations, right? Something made stronger by the machines, slight possibility blown out into full manifestation - only weak? So maybe there's real 'glass-eyed people', and those things are just made in same way... cheap knockoffs of the real thing. But for convenience sake, they're technically the same," the native girl answered. "But that's weird... Coyote is supposedly the one who made the glass-eyed people. And didn't the notes from the secret lab under the hospital say this 'Mother' was supposedly she who watches? That doesn't sound right."
The group fell silent once again, mulling over this apparent contradiction... until Mercedes, of all people, lifted her eyes.
"Like, what about this?" She started, lifting both her index fingers separately. "Those, uh, creations... like, the ones that you guys saw? Those are 'glass-eyed people' or 'glass-eyed units' or whatevah. And making them is, like, manifesting something that's not super real. Like, for example like, taking a rumour and making it real. Or an urban legend. Or a lie. Or hell, a thought. Unreal made real or whatevah, point is, something that normally, like, couldn't exist in this world of ours. This Coyote had the power to do, but so did She Who Watches. And there's, like, the distinction. This Patient Zero wasn't, like, looking for Coyote - they were looking for the Mother. Mother who could be..."
Surprisingly, Leena cut into the conversation, her eyes being far more serious than usual.
"--- The Lady. The supposed woman to whom the lighthouse was originally built for. Or perhaps she appeared when the lighthouse was built. Still, she was the reason why Road's End was known as 'Lady's View' before. A name that... sorta matches She Who Watches, doesn't it?" She asked, sounding a bit unsure herself. "But then, gosh... could it be that the lighthouse was what the vikings were searching for? Or, well, um, not the lighthouse but this possible asteroid? I think the Kincaids are descendants from nordic settlers after all... and I mean, Road's End has three meteor-impact lakes, that is, the Star Lakes, so maybe they got confused and thought it was here at first... or maybe they needed the Grove of Fetters to be at the same place? And that's why they dragged that stuff from Mt. Saint Helens all the way back here?"
Pyry, upon hearing that, hummed quietly and folded his arms, his brow furrowed in deep thought.
"... Technically, magic does take into account a so-called 'home field advantage'. Especially back in the day. So a place where some other religion or rules were in place, whatever mystical powers you had were being suppressed since they didn't necessarily 'fit'. Or conversely, if they fit, they'd be far more powerful. So if the vikings carved their own little slice of Norway here, then dragging something they wanted to use back here would make some sense..." He replied. "And technically, an exploding volcano - especially a violent one - can throw things thousands of kilometers, and high up in the atmosphere. It would be rare, but not impossible I think. So what if..."
He looked at Hisa with a question in his eyes.
"What if the catastrophe that the vikings faced threw something far up in the air that it ended up all the way here... and the vikings came after it? I'm not 100% sure if that's plausible, but it would make... some sorta sense, I guess?" He suggested. "I dunno... the problem with legends is that you can read so much into it, and they're such a bad case of a game of telephone that what really happened often gets lost. Hell, in this case Coyote turning the Chief to stone could be that they turned her into a mountain, made a statue of them, had them frozen in time or even something as ridiculous hitting them with a petrification attack in a heated battle. Who even knows?"
The boy let out a frustrated sigh and leaned back on the bed, his back hitting the sheets.
"We should get to those caves somehow, I bet they would make things clearer... or so I hope."