Fantasy &nbsp; Noah&#039;s Ark | IC [CLOSED]

CS

With that suggestion, Alex nodded and headed to the girl's locker room. Walking in, she winced a bit and scrunched her nose. Heavy deodorant AND a burnt smell... great...

After confirming her grayed out note just beyond the entrance, Alex strolled on further into the room. After making sure nothing was gonna immediately harm them, she turned to find Aria staring at some destroyed locker. Intending to get a better look, she narrowed her eyes at the state of the surroundings. Odd how only this is destroyed. Maybe it is a bad social...

Then for some reason, Aria suddenly launched herself at the shower room handle next to it, before turning back to face Alex with her simple comment.

"Err... okay," was all she could say. Alex could only think of it as similar to the way a few back in her high school, and some newbies in the arcade, acted like, though for what reason she still didn't know. Shaking her head, Alex moved forward to examine the locker, and pulled out her phone, ringing up Luca.

"We found something here... Yep... destroyed locker... Looks like... 324?" She said into the phone while letting her gaze wander across their "evidence" that was scattered around. "Feel free to enter. You'll probably do better than us." With that, she hung up.

Turning back to Aria, she saw the doll back in her arms. Thinking nothing of it, Alex simply replied back to the mutter, "Probably... sounds like my old high school as well..."

... and that was the limit in terms of small talk she could come up with. ... LUCAAAAAAA!!!!! VINCENTTTTTT!!!!!

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Cryptids · Jun 16, 2020

At the words “special mission kit,” Enoch looked up. He watched Evee unveil her state-of-the-art electronics, nodding along with her explanation. Looking over the technology, he had a moment of appreciation for his friend’s boldness. Even in carrying cases, with how expensive the gear must have been, he’d be too paranoid about any of them breaking to bring them along on a mission.

As if on cue, Thea handed him one of the cameras to look over. Holding it like a newborn puppy, Enoch turned it over in his hands, squinting as if he had any idea how the thing functioned or communicated with the tablet. He could identify a screen, at least? And there was clearly an “ON/OFF” button towards the top. That was about as far as he got with most electronics.

One brief exchange about the camera’s positioning later, it was time for the group to set off. Enoch followed behind the rest of the group, mulling over what they might look for in the dumpster.

---

His train of thought didn’t get far.

Enoch jolted a little when the raccoon lunged out of the unseen depths of the dumpster, but by the time Rosie had caught and righted herself, he had to pretend to cough in order to disguise a laugh. The glare she shot in their direction, in addition to Thea’s apparent struggle to control her own laughter, didn’t help matters.

He did feel bad for her, he really did. A bite from a raccoon was no joke. Considering everyone was fine, though, he might have felt a bit worse for the animal whose day they’d just ruined. Not that he would ever say anything about it, but Rosie was fine, wasn’t she? Meanwhile, the poor raccoon had probably been terrified.

Still, Enoch couldn’t blame Rosie for opting out of sifting through the dumpster herself. A quick glance at the wall facing them ruled out his first idea of using ivy vines to move things around. Of course the school was prudent about keeping its walls clear of free-growing plant life, like almost every other building in the city. Nevermind that a few strands of ivy might have improved the building’s aesthetic, or granted an opportunity to let high schoolers learn about local flora. Everything had to be barren.

Wrapped up in his own thoughts, Enoch missed Thea volunteering to dig around in the garbage herself. It was only when she approached him that he snapped back to reality.

He blinked in surprise at her suggestion to climb atop his shoulders. “You sure?” he asked, tugging at the strap of his messenger bag again. It did make sense, Enoch supposed—more raccoons could be waiting in ambush. But if he lost his balance and dropped her…

Thea’s reassurance about not being too heavy earned a smirk from him. Well, if she was so confident, there was no harm in giving it a shot. “Alright, then,” Enoch said, crouching down. “Climb on.”

Once Thea was situated, he carefully made his way over to where she could get a good view of the dumpster. As it so happened, she was right about not being too heavy, though he wondered how much more difficult this would be if he didn’t keep in shape. Don’t drop her, don’t drop her, don’t drop her, Enoch repeated in his head like a mantra. He maintained a rigid stance in front of the dumpster. Thankfully, Thea didn’t move around much.

Although Enoch didn’t mind lending his height, he had to acknowledge that at this point their mission felt more like “breaking and entering” than “important investigation.” If he shut his eyes, he could imagine the 2-story window they would be trying to open in secret and slip through, like characters in some old cops and robbers show.

At any rate, he couldn’t see much of the dumpster’s contents himself; from the sound of Thea’s chain clanking around inside, though, Enoch guessed there must be a decent amount of trash to search through. There were several thumps on the ground, and then he was crouching again to let his friend climb down.

Rolling his shoulders, Enoch glanced in the direction of whatever Thea had found. Books? He confirmed that nothing hurt and nodded at her thanks. Not that he felt he’d really done much.

He approached the others and frowned at the sight of the textbooks. That was odd. Even if the school had decided to retire a certain edition, didn’t they typically donate or resell them? Throwing them in the dumpster seemed like a waste.

The name made Enoch pause. It didn’t ring any bells. “Has anyone heard that name before?” he asked, looking towards the rest of the group. Who knows, maybe he’d missed a news report. And if all the textbooks belonged to this Jane Clarke, it might point them in the direction of the arsonist.

Or just another troubled teen.

Either way, it was better than finding nothing.

Tags:

Hella Downweather · Jun 17, 2020

Maybe blowing her pay in buying new and cool gadgets wasn’t the best idea ever. But hey, it was kinda her life on the line. Plus they were cool to mess around with...and if they broke because of their mission...Well, she could always try and negotiate with Babel right? At the very least she took the most ultimate guarantee plan ever, that covered any kind of breakage. Surely, there was the inclusion of explosion damage in the package.

Surely.

At Rosie’s answer, Evee answered with a cheerful :

"Sir, yes sir!"

She didn’t expect Thea to snatch one of her toys however, but it didn’t prevent her from laughing at her friend’s quips. Watching as Enoch carefully took over she answered with :

“HEY! They were on sale...and they looked cool...But yeah...maybe I should save for Smash instead of buying whatever toys look amazing on Amazon…”

Seeing as Enoch seemed pretty mesmerized by the device, Evee waited for a minute for him to finish looking at it, smiling brightly. It was nice to see her friends interested in something that was important to her. Plus, she had to admit that she enjoyed the attention that came with it. Taking back her precious electronic baby, she used her skin wire to connect with the device, giving it its specific set of instructions. It was to register everything that was going on, sending the video feed every 5 minutes unless there was movement. If anything moved in its vicinity, it was to send a video every 10 seconds and send an alarm text. Now...she only had to prop it somewhere where it wouldn’t attract much attention...Searching for a few rocks she tried to half prop the device up, half hiding it so that one would only notice it if it was close enough.

And by then...he should’ve been detected.

Coming back, the brunette didn’t expect to be greeted by a scene that seemed to be coming from a cartoon. Or Pokemon. As Rosie encountered a wild raccoon, who used not only a throw move when it launched a cellphone at the girl but also a Flee move to disappear quickly in to the school grounds. What a cheater! But god, was that funny. Laughing a bit at the sheer improbability and stupidity of the scene, she jogged back to the group.

"Seems like the arsonist isn’t the only vermin that is plaguing the school…You ok Rosie?"

Then Thea and Enoch teamed up, like true friends, to search through a dumpster. Really, it was more and more like a badly written episode of the Looney Tunes. Maybe if they weren’t in danger of being attacked by a mysterious arsonist, Evee would’ve enjoyed the whole sleuthing episode. She settled on taking a picture of Thea’s on Enoch's shoulders with her cellphone. That was a cute moment she didn’t want to forget.
At the mention of Jade’s name, the girl made a quick Google search didn’t find much...but a theory was quickly forming through her head…

"Google isn’t really helpful...BUT! I have a theory on our mysterious arsonist. Imagine the scene...A bullied girl. Her books thrown into the garbage as a mean prank. But one day the pranks go a bit farther...and she gets lured into the school by her bullies. It goes too far this time...and she dies with vengeance the only thing on her mind. That why she burned everything around!"

Yup. Her theory was perfect, it was like the Korean drama’s that she liked to watch. Dramatic as hell.

Mentions :

Cryptids

A Murder Of Corviknight · Jun 19, 2020

If looks could kill, the sheer coldness of Rosie’s intensified glare would have slain Evee right then and there. Instead of commenting on how she didn’t even attempt to hide her amusement like how the other had, Rosie ignored the other girl in favor of tucking the grudge away to deal with on a later date. With a deep sigh, she also firmly resolved to eat a regular McDonald’s meal right in front of Thea with no Happy Meal the next time they saw each other. Betrayal this deep from a close friend deserves a petty betrayal in turn afterall.

While shining the mobile flashlight for the others, the dark haired woman was starting to wonder if she should get a burger or a box of chicken nuggets this time. (Maybe she can get UberEats?) Unfortunately, the thoughts didn’t get to get very far when Thea promptly dropped the textbooks in front of them one by one. Considering that she only expected to find one or two textbooks maximum, Rosie frowned thoughtfully while flipping open the textbooks with her Last Words.

‘This is...unusual. If I remember correctly, both public and private schools give textbooks as free rentals. But they still dish out penalty fees if they are damaged or lost. Older editions get their covers torn before being thrown out by the school or get disposed of so dumpster divers can’t attempt to sell them online, if I remember correctly...’

Her gaze sharpened when Thea took out the last textbook and noted the latest name on the borrower’s list. While still shining her phone’s light overhead, Rosie quickly flipped to the inside covers on two or three other textbooks near her and scanned for the latest name on each of them. Each of them had different names for the previous years but the borrower of the recent school year was this “Jane Clarke”.

"Google isn’t really helpful...BUT! I have a theory on our mysterious arsonist. Imagine the scene...A bullied girl. Her books thrown into the garbage as a mean prank. But one day the pranks go a bit farther...and she gets lured into the school by her bullies. It goes too far this time...and she dies with vengeance the only thing on her mind. That's why she burned everything around!"

While the theory wasn’t completely farfetched, Rosie automatically gave the other girl a disapproving look for the way she presented her theory, “...This is or was an actual life. Don’t disrespect the girl by dramatizing her life like that. Especially without solid evidence. While it’s true that it’s likely that someone else threw her books into the dumpster, remember that this case isn’t here for our amusement.”

Her face softened into a more solemn (and maybe a touch frustrated) than disapproving expression as she continued, looking down at the name again, “If this really is a Regret...we should all know what that means at this point.”

“...Her will to live probably wasn’t strong enough to keep her alive.”

The last sentence was said in a quiet tone, barely above a whisper. A part of her, even after four years, still resented these jobs from Babel. It usually ended up in an invasion of privacy for those that left behind Regrets. Not to mention, Babel didn’t view them to be more than numbers and statistics...

“Anyway, that aside, we should probably move onto the other affected areas…”

------------------

NAME. Rosalind “Rosie” Berne
OBJECTIVE. Figure out what and who Jane Clarke is
MOOD. Mixed/Conflicted?
NOTES. Ahh sorry for the suddenly dark turn of the conversation. I just wanted to address how such thoughts about Babel aren't unusual. Also to retouch upon the Regret topic. And how Rosie does take these missions with a serious view because of...certain things that I don’t want to fully address right now. Too tired to expand on Rosie’s views as an Elegy in this particular chapter. (Also nano needed me to stall so Group 1 doesn’t fly so far ahead we end up in outer space. u w u)
TAGGED.

voracity |

Hella Downweather |

Cryptids

Quark · Jun 20, 2020

.

Fighting crime by daylight, winning hearts like starlight, always there to break up a catfight, the one and only Patrol Officer Felix is here!

On today’s adventure around a school, the American Shorthair stopped his patrol on the street when he noticed the person from the opposite direction halting in a blearily confused manner. Sensing the familiar presence of the boy, Felix meowed a perky greeting. The interaction was cut short, when his sensitive ears caught the sound of agitated rustling of leaves. [1]

Pointy ears twitching curiously, Felix turned his head to face the trees past the fence. Giving a lively meow of “leave it to me!”, the cat darted within the sidewalk bushes.

EMIYN YUEN

"Ah, hey!” the teenager gave an alarmed yell as the cat disappeared past the bushes. He quickly crouched low, pushing aside some parts of the bush to find himself looking at the bottom of a fence with a hole [2], and no Felix in sight. He glanced nervously at the school building, then at the overshadowed tall trees and fence, and finally back down at the hole in the fence.

"...” With some hesitance he looked back at the deserted street, before pushing the branches aside even further.

… …

A new notification from the hunting video camera would be pinged to Evee. In the recording, in several short frames there would be a flash of a grey blur shooting from the bushes then disappearing around the building corner. Merely half a minute later, the same bushes would shake a bit more before a teenage boy would emerge.

After brushing off the dirt and leaves from his white jacket, Emiyn stepped over the bushes to the path, looking around with a searching look for something.

NOTES[1] Racoon is back in business

[2] This is a loophole in the school fence that police investigations have overlooked.

Tag: (Field Investigation Group)

Cryptids

CS link

Hella Downweather · Jun 22, 2020

Annnnd...thank you very much Ms.Buzzkill. This case was doing so well too...the raccoon episode managing to steer the little group away from the usual angsty mood, Thea and Enoch were adorable cooperating together and the picture Evee took was for sure going in the yearly photo albums she liked to do for the cafe. But nooooo, there needed to have another freaking angsty moment. As if it didn’t happen every.single.time they had to deal with a Regret. It was tiring really, having to care for every lost soul, dealing with them with reverence, like they did not deserve to be currently alive and were lucky to even serve Babel.

Well, at least it’s going to be over for her soon…

She needed to move. She was staying still and it wasn’t good for her mental state. Arguing with Rosie would not lead to anything but more resentment from both sides AND more time wasted. So, Evee did the most mature thing she could muster at that moment. She shrugged and ignored the problem, trying to reorient the group in a more neutral state :

"Whatever you say, boss."

She was too proud to rely on Thea or Enoch for moral support. Besides...it wouldn’t be fair to them, to put them in the middle of all this. So the girl did what she did best, she went back to her tablet, trying to Google anything else with Jane Clarke that would make sense. Fortunately for the group, it was at that moment that a small ping appeared on both of her devices.

"Guys? We have some movement in the field!"

The brunette gave her cellphone to Rosie, instructing it with her wire to make the video play on repeat while coordinating with her tablet so that it did the same. The adrenaline was enough to shake her up to a somewhat jovial mood. After all, it was the first time she’d get to test her new toys! Angling herself so that other people could look at the screen, she was surprised to see a flash of grey pass by, followed by a face she recognized as one of the cafe regulars...How he managed to enter the school with the police in front of it was a mystery...
The petty part of her hoped that the grey flash was the raccoon, ready to pick a fight once again with Rosie if they moved closer to him.

"Hummmm...the guy in the video...I’m sure I’ve seen him in the cafe before. What was his name already?"

--

Quark

Cryptids - Team Field

Author's note : Evee has a hard time dealing with the fact that she has an Elegy + needs to hunt down Regrets and it shows a lot in this post. She usually tries to get her mind occupied by doing a ton of things at the same time, but when stopped or when she gets called out for being insensitive over stuff...she doesn't really react well. It's another perspective on the whole problem, certainly not the best to have, but the girl is coping however she can.

SilverBlack · Jun 25, 2020

Vincent Huo
Location: East Ryde Technical High School- Gymnasium........................................................................................................................Interaction/Mentioned:

Alteras

Sometimes, the lad wondered, that if his sister or his boss knew that working in this cafe basically meant to take on this additional job, would they still be as supportive of him being here as a “kitchen staff”? Will the pay he’s getting right now make up for everything he’s doing right now? And if one day in the future, he is not able to become a chef and is forced to look for a second career goal, might there be a chance he can put this experience onto his resume in addition to preparing food for Noah’s Ark…?

Vincent knows well enough to doubt the possibility of the last question. Their identity as supposed “Elegy,” their supernatural abilities, and the very fact that they technically came back from the dead, are all secrets that no one’s supposed to know. No regular citizens, at least. In the end, to put it more bluntly, if not more harshly--they became mere useful tools for the government. At least, this is the conclusion Vincent reached. But he did not particularly despise this new identity or job. Obviously, it still needs time getting used to, but the optimistic thought that what they’re doing may be helping people in the end allows him to keep going--as long as nothing bad comes out of it.

The same thought passed by his mind as he listened to their “mission briefing” for their new case. To no one’s surprise, they’re put to help investigate the recent arson cases at East Ryde Technical High School, with additional details about it being sent to them via their phone. Like how the routine for their past cases went, they arrived at the school, were greeted without much respect by Babel’s agent, and were told to split into two groups. The agent’s attitudes toward them reminded him of the type of attitude a distrusted rookie intern would be greeted by when starting the first day of job at a small department of a huge company, who really only offered the position because of some unusual power the rookie holds but nothing else.

Luca, Alex, Aria, and Aria’s doll, Jerod---Vincent quickly noted the co-workers he was split into a group with. He’d seen Jerod before--his snotty, sarcastic and talkative personality (that he used to be amused of when he first met him) reminded him of those tiny brats in elementary school that tried to act cool (and Aria’s the confused babysitter.) Eventually, Vincent began to treat Jerod’s sarcasm as mere background noises, though he picked up this time when the doll asked who their brains might be. Naturally, Vincent thought that Luca would probably take on the position of their “leader,” or at least their brains. Spending a couple months working with him in the kitchen was enough for him to recognize that Luca has the ability to be one, even if there’s some sides to him that Vincent admits he still needs time to get used to.

Alex, on the other hand, is someone Vincent found a bit intimidating. She seems to live and die by music, and even during this investigation, she put a decent amount of attention on the songs being played. Vincent wasn’t able to get to know her better yet, but his first impression of her was someone who is able to pair up with Luca. Luca and Alex might make a good pair of leader and vice leader, or so he thought.

The door to the gymnasium opened with the push of Luca’s gloved hands. Vincent heard his words, the fact that Babel may be hiding a lot more things about this mission, and memory manipulation might even be involved. This caused Vincent to glance back sideway at Babel’s guards once more by the entrance, but his mouth remained shut.

The destruction done against the gymnasium entered into view.

The arsonist was careful to only destroy the equipment only and not the building itself. This specificity made him ponder on the arsonist’s intention. Alex decided on the song she would be playing, but it was low enough to not hear the percussion. The only thing Vincent could hear from his distance was Luca and Alex’s exchange of words that he paid half his attention to as he spent the rest inspecting the gymnasium.

Ceiling lights, flags, banners, bleachers, paddings…

Whenever their school has a game tournament, be it basketball or volleyball, the bleachers would be filled up with people cheering for their school team. Flags and banners hung proudly to represent their country and school and team motto, the ceiling lights shone brightly at the team players, giving them the biggest spotlights, as if they’re idols on the stage, receiving all the attention.

Ironically, at the same time, the same gymnasium that can glorify some people can be equally detrimental to others. In his first year, he remembered being left out by the rest of the classmates in the gym class when they’re told to make two teams to play dodgeball. He recalled everyone else getting picked on for teammates except for him. Then later he was the prime target for the dodgeball, and was quickly eliminated from the game after getting hit.

Luca’s words about what might be the next place the arsonist would visit next entered Vincent’s ears. He recalled how he said the arsonist might appear tonight as well, which might be related to why they’re assigned to be here tonight.

Alex’s suggestion that the culprit might have bad socials clicked well with what Vincent had in mind. All the places that classmates and friends seemed to be able to bond best in as they play and eat together--gym, cafeteria, and friends--they were all target places for the arsonist.

But something else still made Vincent pause from the idea. What’s the arsonist’s thinking, exactly? If bad socials was the cause of all these arson cases, does that mean he harbored hatred against the school and these locations in particular? Then why don’t he just burn everything down?

As a fellow person with the ability to control fire and also suffered through some bullying in school, Vincent knew that if his personality’s just a bit more screwed up and his patience more limited and maybe the bullying more extreme, he might as well just burn the whole school up---or at least, try to.

So is the arsonist just trying to destroy evidence? Evidence of anything, maybe even evidence that connects him or her with another person. But won’t burning specific places that contain those evidence make it too obvious or suspicious instead? Or did he actually still love the school, so he just wants to destroy the things that ruin the love he has for it, or he can’t bear burning the whole thing down?

Vincent was lost in thoughts.

Which is quite surprising. Back in the days he probably didn't even have the time or the brains to think about stuff like this.

Either way, he’s glad Hana doesn’t go to this school.

Under Alex’s suggestion, Luca seemed to have formulated the next plan. Lockers, he said. The lockers may be something worse investigating, and there are lockers that may be more damaged than others. Vincent nodded, agreeing with the idea. Lockers, in a sense, is one of the best places to show how someone’s being treated in school, if not reflect some people’s personality at times.

They once again split into two even smaller groups, with the two girls entering the female locker rooms, and he and Luca entering the male’s. However, upon entering, all that came into sight are innocent rows of male lockers. There was nothing special here.

After taking a look up and down the rows of lockers carefully, the lad shook his head. “Not here,” he said, as if there should be something, just not in this particular locker room.

As if responding to his words, Luca’s phone rang. From the way it seemed, the girls probably gained some good results from investigating the female lockers. After he learned of what the call was about, he nodded.

“ Let's go to the PE office now to see who that locker belongs to,” he said, and after confirming that what he suggested was the right thing to do next, he would walk with Luca out of the locker room into their new destination goal. This might be their first crucial clue.

“...Should we have Aria and Alex come up with us too…? Maybe they can take a picture of the locker so we don’t have to go down and see for ourselves, to save time…”

In a way, he said half of those words out of just an insignificant but kind concern. He recalled Aria being all shy and awkward around him and pretty much other people. He’s the same in the fact that he speaks little and usually doesn't know how to make a conversation last, but at least he himself won’t feel too awkward even if the atmosphere screams so. (There’s a difference between failing in small talks and making things even more awkward than just bearing the awkwardness, and Vincent always chooses the latter.) He considered the possibility that Aria and Alex might be stuck down there together breathing awkward air together. He decided it might be possible considering Aria’s personality, and even Alex’s.

As he was thinking so, they would have reached the PE office.

The door was locked.

After a small amount of silence on thinking what to do, Vincent turned to look at Luca. Either they waste time to try to find the PE office key, or to use the illegal method to try to pick the locks. Of course, burning the door down isn’t an option.

Vincent doesn’t know how to pick locks. He’s too proper of a student back at school to do so, and the need for it never came up anyway.

Nano · Jun 29, 2020

» Luciano Bianchi

『 TAGGED 』

When Luca unlocked the boys’ locker room door and cautiously stepped inside, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Whatever it was, the pristine condition of the room and all its furnishings took him by surprise, as backwards as that statement was. Considering how viciously the arsonist had torn up the gym and the damages reported on the girls’ locker room, he had almost figured that they had missed something. Yet, just as Vincent confirmed that there was nothing of note, even the second room towards the back appeared untouched. They had been the only intruders so far.

A phone call from Alex confirmed that there was indeed a locker in the girls’ locker room that had taken a considerable beating. Number 324, to be exact. Luca frowned at the news. Considering that the arsonist had attacked the girls’ locker room but not the boys’ locker room, his first guess would be typical high school bullying. However, why had the arsonist targeted only one locker? He doubted a single bully could cause someone to hate physical education and lunchtime so much, so was it destruction of evidence, or was the arsonist burning up their own gym locker for some unknown reason?

Whether it be an ordinary human, Regret, or Elegy, the motives behind destruction weren’t always pure anger. Was it truly disgust? Or were bittersweet and hopeful memories mixed in with their hatred? Unfortunately, discovering these reasons weren’t necessarily part of the job. Even if they wished to understand the perpetrator out of respect or morbid curiosity, the mindless nature of Regrets made it difficult to ascertain whatever conjectures they might come up with. More often than not, the most they could do was do their part in aiding the upkeep of public safety.

Instead of ruminating further on the subject, Luca nodded and followed Vincent to the PE office. When Vincent brought up calling over Aria and Alex, the brunette shrugged. “They’ll know to head over when they’re done with business on their end.” he said. Based on the contents of their call, Alex already expected them to head over to the office ahead of her and Aria.

By the time Luca had moved on to unlocking the PE office’s door, he was silently glad that Stella had convinced Babel to hand the school’s masterkey over to them. There were way too many doors to unlock compared to the usual. Unfortunately, the small but tidy office had a desk with a drawer with a lock that very much obviously would require some lock picking as opposed to opening it the legal way.

A quick scan of the office revealed only two points of interest: the office desk’s locked cabinets and the small bookshelf sitting against the wall next to the desk. Knowing that Vincent likely didn’t know how to pick locks, Luca requested for him to check on the manilla folders and dividers on the shelf before pulling his lock picking kit out of his pocket space to get to work.

“Oh, right,” Luca said as he eased the hook pick into the keyhole. “Remind me to teach you how to pick locks if you want. These kinds of situations are pretty common...”

He trailed off when he heard the final lock pin click into place. After torquing the tension wrench to twist the key cylinder, the brunette slid open the desk drawer and began to rifle through its contents. Fortunately, it seemed that whoever managed the paperwork for the PE office was neater than most teachers by leaps and bounds.

“You can also ask Rosie, Thea, Alex- Well, a lot of people, really.” Luca said while pulling out a thick binder labeled “2020”, adding on to what he had suggested previously. Though it would be a lie to say that he was wholly unconcerned by the fact that Vincent wasn’t entirely comfortable with him, he didn’t intend on making things purposefully awkward for his coworker. He also had to admit that Rosie was better at teaching the serious types due to the dry and direct delivery of her instructions.

Leafing through the binder, Luca found paperwork concerning injuries and other conditions that excused students from PE classes. In an attempt to respect the students’ privacy, he quickly flipped from section to section, only scanning the bare minimum required to identify what kind of papers each section of the binder held. However, he couldn’t help but pause when he noticed the same name appear on several different pages.

Luca shook his head. It wasn’t good to snoop, especially on a student that seemed to have a multitude of issues keeping them from participating in PE regularly.

He shut the binder closed with a sigh and returned it to the drawer. Upon confirming that the binder he found was the only one labeled “2020”, he turned to inspect Vincent’s progress. “Found anything?” he asked. From what he could tell, the desk’s main cabinet only contained health-related paperwork, and the smaller drawers didn’t appear suitable for holding files. If the list they were looking for couldn’t be found in the shelf, either, it was likely that it didn’t exist or was thrown out already.

Suddenly, a loud bang rattled the boards lining the office’s ceiling. Seconds after, the entire room seemed to tremble slightly as something heavy hit the floor followed by a rain of lighter thumps barely audible from the first floor.

“Upstairs?” Not yet having recovered from the startling noise, the word that Luca finally managed to squeeze out was more so a question than a statement. Taking a few extra moments to gather his wits, the brunette pulled his phone out from his pocket and pulled his thumb out of his gloves to scroll down to his work contacts.

“Alex,” he spoke into the speaker in an urgent tone, “are you done on your side? And did you hear the sound from upstairs?” While motioning towards Vincent to follow, Luca cautiously opened the PE office’s door. He peeked towards the right and then the left, only stepping into the hallway completely after confirming that there was no imminent danger.

“In any case, let’s meet up by the staircase,” he said. Initially, he hadn’t wanted to carry their investigation onto the second floor. As Babel had failed to send them the school’s layout, he wasn’t entirely sure about the location of the surveillance cameras. Well, if worse came to worst, Babel would take care of erasing the footage. Maybe the extra work would make them be more considerate of the materials and information they provided Noah’s Ark, though he knew it was all just wishful thinking in the end.

code by

Alteras · Jun 29, 2020

Alex Fayfield

LOCATION Locker Room > Gym > Staircase

INTERACTIONS

CS

Mildly unsure of what to do in their awkward silence, Alex decided to meander around and see if there was anything else.

"That locker is probably all there is in here... seeing as everything else seems to be in good condition."

After having completed her umpteenth lap around the locker room, Alex gave up and decided to bring the group out of there. "We can probably just wait out in the gym..." She said, urging Aria and her plushie out of the locker room. Once they started moving again, she placed herself at the front again and pulled out her iPod in search of music to break her out of the forcefulness.

"... so... Uh... what kind of music do—" At that moment a bang loud enough to exceed the sounds of her current song shook the gym. The already broken and burnt equipment rattled, causing her face to sour a bit in concern. Immediately, she put her arms up to stop Aria from moving. After the shaking stopped, and making sure none of her notes turned red, she put relaxed her arms.

What the hell was that?? No sooner had her mind begun to wonder the origin of that sound did her own phone ringed. Answering with a bit of haste, she replied "Mhm... ya... We felt it in the gym, all safe here... Okay, got it." Turning her attention back to her iPod, she flicked through the menus. While doing so, she turned herself to face in Aria's direction.

"... 'Dimension Ninja' will be needed here. We're going to the staircase and grouping up with Luca and Vincent. Let's go." At that, she began the song and started a moving towards the exit of the gym and out into the hallway. With the high paced opening of the song, many silhouettes of herself appeared before her, filling her path with notes of safety. It's time to get to work!

Alex's Music: Dimension Ninja by Street

Dawnsx · Jun 30, 2020

Aria folded her hands and bounced on her heels as she watched Alex make her rounds in the locker room. The older woman didn't have much to say to her, so Aria remained quiet too. Jerod, on the other hand, was more than happy to chatter right into her ear.

"The culprit must have some beef with this girl, huh? But why wreck an empty locker instead of just actually finding the girl and settling things with her? And wonder why they destroyed the whole gym too... You humans are pretty weird. Why not just do things more straightforward?"

It was... Morbidly interesting to learn that Jerod would much rather just burn his enemies to a crisp rather than settle for petty revenge. Well, putting that aside...

"We don't know if it's a revenge thing. Plus, it might be a Regret, not a human," Aria argued, then immediately felt a little squeamish about her own words. Regrets were humans at one point, weren't they? People who were just like her... Not particularly eager to contemplate the existence of Regrets or the logic (if any) behind their actions, Aria quickly changed the topic, "I wonder if Mr. Luca and Vincent found anything."

"They'll be fine. Dunno about Vincent, but Luca looks smart enough to know what he's doin'," Jerod said, waving off her concerns.

Before Aria could huff out an indignant defense for Vincent, Alex suggested that they move back to the gym. She snapped her mouth shut and nodded, then followed her back to where they came from. Luca and Vincent weren't back yet, but they probably needed more time to file through the documents to find anything useful. Realizing this, Aria shuffled her feet uncomfortably and considered all the bad conversation starters that she'd seen online. It was just so easy to talk to Annette and her dolls and plushies, and Alex... She was much rougher around the edges than what Aria was used to.

Hyperaware of the silence that stretched between them, Aria immediately perked up when Alex started her question. But in the next second, a loud bang reverberated from somewhere upstairs. Aria's heart leapt into her throat as her hands shot up instinctively to cover her head. Jerod's arms tightened around her shoulders, and both of them remained still until the gym stopped shuddering.

"The hell was that?" Jerod grumbled, loosening his hold on Aria. The girl shook her head in bewilderment before settling frantic eyes on Alex. She looked... Calm. And she was on the phone with Luca. Okay, that was good, she supposed. Her mind was already leaping to the assumption that it must've been the culprit who made that noise, but if Alex was calm about the situation, then maybe things weren't that bad yet.

Aria managed to get her legs to stop quivering by the time Alex got off the phone. She followed closely behind Alex as they headed to the staircase, trusting her Last Words to keep them safe in case the building decided to collapse on them. Still, she worried at her lower lip at the prospect of going upstairs to find whatever (or whoever) made the noise, but she didn't think there was much of a choice except to trust that her companions knew what they were doing.

At their destination, Aria felt some of the tension leave her body upon seeing Luca and Vincent. Not that being alone with Alex made her feel tense. Nope, definitely not.

"Just so you guys know, fire and I don't really mix well together," Jerod said, jangling his wooden joints for good measure. He eyed their way to the second floor suspiciously.

Partly in hopes to delay their possible trip upstairs, Aria hesitantly asked, "Was there anything in the office?"

voracity · Jul 3, 2020

Thea gently set the textbook down as they began to do some searching on the name they had found. There wasn't much to be found, and that did not sit well with her. Sadly, her own investigations had to be cut short when her phone reported to her that she had 5% battery remaining. Without any proof or solid pieces of evidence to connect the name to any possibilities, it was inevitable that speculations were thrown around - though Thea found that she had very little trouble stilling her tongue after Evee had given her own opinion on the matter. That Evee could dismiss the gravity of the tragedy that had taken place, or of the bullying that had taken place worried her a little bit. She didn't know if it was a coping mechanism or some hidden nature that the girl had that they just never quite captured beforehand - but she decided to give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

After all, it wasn't like Thea wasn't without her own ugly opinions on the situation. If Jane Clarke was dead, then what were the things she left unsaid, undone, unheard, unattended to ... and critically, who profits from her silence? She also entertained the thought that perhaps the girl was alive, as well - but it was frustrating that there wasn't more information to make a definitive conclusion.

Clicking her tongue, she turned to Rosie. "Do you have an alcoholic wipe on you?" She asked, quietly. Bringing around her chains, she gave an exaggerated look of disgust, recalling what those extensions of hers had been forced to sweep around. The mere thought that she'd have to retract them, and bring it back under her skin was all-around uncomfortable.

But that seemed to bring the shorter woman out from her solemn mood though. With a chilly, but mischievous smile, Rosie only gave her a simple retort, "Suffer."

This was absolutely for the racoon incident and being laughed at. Damn it.

...

"What's his name again?

Squinting at the screen, Thea does a double take when she recognizes the face and messy hair. "I ... wow, does he go to this high school?" She couldn't help but to wonder out loud. Turning to everyone else, she was quick to inform them that: "His name is Emiyn, really quiet and polite, and Felix takes a shine to him," she adds, because the animals at the cafe were definitely qualified to be used as a measure for someone's character. "He's always quiet and really mature for his age ... I mean I thought he was older, even though there was a lot of baby fat ... nevermind that last part," she waved her thoughts away.

Honestly, Thea felt it was smartest to try and sneak away. They were all adults sniffing around a public institution (primarily for minors) at suspicious hours, what exactly were they going to do in a confrontation with an equally suspicious young lad sniffing around what was likely his own school? Yet, that was what they had been called to investigate. Weird people sniffing around school grounds. But she felt anxious and uncomfortable all the same - this was someone she knew on a first name basis. Turning to the others, she had to ask, "maybe we should send one of us to run into him? Ask him what he's up to? If he is our arsonist ..."

She turns to Rosie, "do you want to send a message to the other group? If we get tangled up, at least we don't leave them without what we ... I, dug up - and speaking of ... seriously, do you have a wet wipe for me? It's super gross thinking this is going back under my skin."

Quark

Cryptids

Note 1: Rosie's cameo here was done with LeBirb's awareness and consent.
Note 2: This post is completely lackluster and something I'm not proud of at all. My mental is somewhere in the deep dark and I'm painfully aware this post is mediocre and entirely an under performance on my part, I can't even bear to reread it in order to make edits, nothing in it is something I am motivated with or interested in having to write or think over - I'd hate to keep people waiting any longer though, but I hope in my next post I regain the ease of words and structure which I have typically employed in my previous posts. Sorry!

Cryptids · Jul 5, 2020

So, Google didn’t bring up any useful results on the name. Not a big surprise. Enoch doubted they would all be here if it would’ve been that easy. However, it seemed Evee’s report didn’t stop there—he listened to her theory, a frown forming on his face. The story sounded feasible, he supposed, but assumed a lot based on a few textbooks fished out of a dumpster. That wasn’t the main thing that bothered him, though.

“If this really is a Regret...we should all know what that means at this point.”

Rosie said what Enoch had been thinking, albeit more bluntly than he would have put it. Had anyone else made light of the girl’s life like that, he may have reacted the same. But they knew Evee; she wasn’t a callous person. At least, Enoch thought so. With a slight wince, he glanced in Rosie’s direction with a look that he hoped conveyed the general message of Maybe a little gentler next time? They were all coping in their own ways.

Adding to the conflict wouldn’t do them any good, so aside his silent communication to Rosie, Enoch opted to hold his tongue on the matter. In truth, he had been trying to avoid thinking about the fact that, if this was indeed a Regret, they were dealing with a high school kid. One who may have died as a result of bullying.

While he felt a bit of guilt for not backing up Evee, she didn’t look in his or Thea’s direction for support, so maybe she didn’t mind. Enoch was about to agree that they should move on to inspect the other affected areas, but then Evee announced that her camera had picked up movement. He gathered with the others around the screen, watching the video play with narrowed eyes.

A flash of gray, too big to be a squirrel or rabbit...a cat, maybe? Followed by a familiar face. As for who he was, Thea beat him to the punch, and good thing, too. Enoch had almost called the kid by his usual order, milk foam earl gray tea, instead of his name.

He furrowed his brow. There was a chance he could be the arsonist, but the thought didn’t sit right with him. The quiet, polite kid who loved the café’s animals, coming to a high school and setting fires? “There was that gray blur right before he showed up in the footage. We’ve seen him with the animals before, and you said Felix likes him. Maybe he’s chasing a stray cat,” Enoch suggested. Quite a coincidence, but not impossible. “I don’t know about him being the arsonist, but even if he’s not, we ought to send someone to run into him anyway. It could be a problem if he happened to see all of us here.” Not to mention there was still a chance of things turning dangerous before the night was over.

Overhearing Thea’s request, Enoch rummaged in his messenger bag on the off-chance he could provide anything to help. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the habit of carrying wet wipes, but he could offer napkins and a water bottle if Rosie came up empty. It wasn't much, but it was probably better than nothing, right?

Tags:

Quark

A Murder Of Corviknight · Jul 9, 2020

Once she said her piece, Rosie took to just ignoring whatever else was said. She knew her way of speaking was harsh but regardless it wasn’t like she would ever regret saying such words. The woman was firmly of the belief that you can’t be afraid to speak up for others, even strangers, or no one would be speaking up for them at all. She also believed that as people with different views and values, Rosie was better off just not swapping opinions with Evee in general.

That said, it was hard to ignore the look Enoch gave her. Though for what, she didn’t know. Contemplation? It definitely didn’t look like confusion.

But before Rosie could make any further guesses, Thea had asked her for a wet wipe to clean her chains. She did, in fact, have wet wipes in her bag. But of course with the previous racoon incident still in mind, with a gleefully vengeful heart, she replied with a simple retort.

“Suffer.”

Before she could savor the very small but satisfying taste of friendly (petty) revenge, Evee had announced that her cameras had caught something. She gave Rosie the phone to look at the footage and the woman held it so the others could look with her as well. Rosie nodded at the points that the others had made about Emiyn to let them know that she was listening. But along with the boy, the grey blur had caught her attention as well.

‘The fur pattern even with the blur. The way that it passed by the camera…’

As Rosie continued to stare at the phone silently with the footage playing on loop, the shape and the gait of the small animal kept bothering her until she realized who it reminded her of.

...Felix.

He is definitely so very grounded.

----

One wet wipe tossed at Thea’s face and several clarifying text messages to Luca later, the group managed to track down both the cat and the wayward student. Thankfully for them, the cat had turned the corner of the building first. If Rosie wasn’t pressed for time, she would have probably laughed at the face of silent dismay that cat made when he realized he was caught. Instead, she whispered so quietly that only the cat could hear, “You can plead your case to Stella later.”

Ignoring the sad “Puss-in-Boots” face that the cat made at her, Rosie silently picked up the cat and waved back at the others to move back so Emiyn wouldn’t see all of them immediately the moment he turned the corner.

The moment Emiyn cautiously turned the corner and came into view, Rosie immediately moved and made sure to get a firm grip on the boy’s shoulder with her unoccupied hand. The dark haired woman gave a wry smile at Felix’s puzzled meow once he recognized the boy. This solved the mystery as to whether or not the cat had asked a civilian out of all people to help them with their case.

‘One mystery down. A hundred more to go.’

“Sorry to…” she briefly glanced at the others behind her. “...Surprise you like this. I imagine this is a pretty strange situation for all of us.”

------------------

NAME. Rosalind “Rosie” Berne
OBJECTIVE. Interrogation will start soon
MOOD. Rosie is tired
NOTES. I’ll talk to quark and nano about it later. But I think I might want to make the interrogation a short collab? Possibly over the weekend.
Also this post hasn’t been proofread. Will proofread tomorrow morning.
TAGGED. group 1 |

Quark

SilverBlack · Jul 10, 2020

Vincent Huo
Location: East Ryde Technical High School- PE Office/Staircase............................................................................................Interaction/Mentioned:

Alteras

Oh, he got the masterkey, Vincent thought as the PE office door was unlocked. The reason why Luca would have the key seemed obvious enough, considering that they are here because of a mission that was properly assigned to them, after all. At least, if it’s a legal investigation, then getting something like a masterkey should be something within expectation.

However, when it occurred to him that all the rest of the tinier locks for drawers and cabinets all still require some lock-picking skills, it made him question again the legality of their actions. Though, everything they do should be permitted...As long as it doesn’t cross the line? As blurry as that line may be occasionally.

The PE office wasn’t too large, and nothing much seemed to be worthy of attention except for the locked cabinets by the office desk and a bookshelf filled with manilla dividers and folders stuck in between. Luca told him to check on the shelf while he proceeded to take out his lock-picking tools to unlock the cabinets, probably aware that Vincent has yet to gain this supposedly essential skill that by now looks like a must-have if he wants to continue working in Noah’s Ark. Vincent obeyed quietly, moving to the bookshelf, his eyes scanning across the dividers and folders that he should look through, pondering quietly which one he should start by, before randomly grabbing one of the manilla dividers out to take a look.

Luca’s suggestion that he should learn how to lock pick as well drifted into his ears. As if taking Vincent’s feeling into consideration, he proposed that he doesn’t necessarily have to go for him to learn, there’s plenty of other seniors in Noah’s Ark who know how to pick locks. Vincent quickly looked through papers about sports team and members distributions before putting them back into where they came from, placed the divider neatly back into the shelf before pulling another folder out.

Aside from conversations that were strictly work-related such as these, there’s really not much else that the duo would talk about. Luca’s the type of person that the lad wasn’t really used to interacting with, and Luca was aware of this as well. Therefore, if it’s not for work, the atmosphere that shrouded them might not have been any better than the awkwardness Aria would currently be freaking out about with Alex.

But six months of partnership together in the kitchen was enough to build a basic mutual level of trust, if not a decent respect for the fellow senior. Vincent took just a brief moment reflecting back to the time he had spent in Noah’s Ark so far, and the various co-workers he had interacted with. He recalled the moments he had with each of them, particularly the ones Luca named. Well, half a year is naturally long enough for him to share some brief memories with each of them but not enough to make any of them worthwhile. He doesn’t have the personality to push himself forward and bond with them, after all. In the end, despite the occasional tensions in the air, the only person he’d spent the most time with, occupying the same space at work, and exchanged the most conversation is...well, Luca.

“Mhm,” Vincent answered his senior’s suggestion simply. “Teach me next time.”

He didn’t talk about the rest of the people that Luca mentioned. Although he didn’t really specify Luca either, it’s already his way of saying “just you is fine.”

He proceeded to get back to work.

Opening the folder, Vincent scanned the contents within the papers tucked inside, confirming that they’re merely different types of documentations relating to students’ PE activities, or about equipment, teams, some flyers...Quickly, he checked folders after folders, opening some binders occasionally, and put each unrelated folders back onto the shelf as Luca worked in the background as well. With the PE office filled with briefly nothing except for the rustling of papers, it almost seemed all efforts were futile--

“Found anything?”

Vincent pulled out a couple pieces of paper stapled together from another folder just as Luca asked from behind.

LOCKER RECORD IDENTIFICATION...The lad read the bolded capitalized words typed on the top of the paper, and proceeded to look at the neat list that followed the rest of the page. Series of locker numbers, lock combinations and their corresponding students entered into view. “I found this,” he replied, waving the paper in his hand to show the other, then proceeding to search for the locker number according to the information that Luca provided him with earlier that they got from Alex, quickly locking onto a particular name.

Locker 324 | 23 18 36 | Jane Clarke | Senior

“Jane Clarke,” Vincent said as he located the information that they’ve been trying to find, then repeated it more clearly as he looked up to Luca. “The locker belonged to a senior named Jane Clarke.”

As soon as he finished his sentence, and before the other could reply, a sudden loud bang could be heard from upstairs, rattling the ceiling boards. The whole room trembled slightly as something hit the floor, then rapid thumps followed. The loud noises broke the peaceful silence that they were originally surrounded by, and caught Vincent by surprise. Perhaps too much of a surprise, though--his grip on the paper tightened as he was abruptly startled, and almost in an unintentional defensive reflex, a tiny burst of flame sparked from his hand.

But just as it was about to light the paper onto fire, he clapped his other hand over it to cease it just in time, so the paper only turned slightly brown. “M-mhm,” he replied awkwardly as Luca stated the location of the loud noise, his eyes still wide open from the brief second of panic earlier. He wondered if the other caught the small accident he just caused right now--which fortunately didn’t leave much damage.

He exhaled a long but quiet sigh as Luca proceeded to make a call with Alex to all meet up by the staircase, and stared at his own palm. Even though a decent amount of time had passed since he acquired this new power, and he already could use it fluently, even mastering some skills with it--sometimes, small incidents like these could still happen. He still needs to work on his control…

He couldn’t help but think about the arsonist who was the key culprit to this whole incident, and how well the person managed to only burn and destroy the specific areas and things he or she wanted gone. The precision and accuracy...Vincent frowned. The arsonist would probably be more skilled than him on different levels.

Hopefully this mission doesn’t require him to come in one on one contact with the other…

By the time he followed Luca out of the PE office after the other motioned for him to tag along, his face had already resumed to the original blankness. Previously, he had taken a picture of the list before placing it back into the folder and onto the shelf, just in case they wind up needing it again. With Luca in front of him, he could see how careful he was, and he tightened his guard as well, eyes proceeding to check the edges of the ceiling to catch sight of any surveillance cameras.

The lad couldn’t help but think if they’re crossing over the line, despite the potential of it being a necessity. He wondered if Babel is actually that trustworthy. He wondered if in the end they’re just discard-able tools, and if those authorities feel the need for them to be gone, what might possibly happen to them.

He wondered how the other group was doing, if they had noticed something strange happening too…And, well, how the investigation was going on their end in general.

Upon reaching their destination, the familiar figures of the two girls entered into sight as well as the staircase that would lead to the second floor. With the four of them together again, the atmosphere was no longer as awkward as it used to be for both duos now, especially when Jerod was present.

Vincent arrived just in time to hear the doll’s comment. His own finger twitched a little as if in a guilty response. The blonde could still feel the hotness on the skin of his hand from the tiny accident earlier.

Aria’s question re-directed his attention, and he turned to face the girl who joined Noah Ark two months after him. Out of the other two people here, they’re both rookies and much closer in age gap. Although it wasn’t something Vincent would actually say, he did feel a bit more comfortable with Aria here.

“Nothing much,” he said. “But we found the student that the locker belonged to,” with that, he showed the two girls the photo of the locker record identification list on his phone, where the column with Jane Clarke’s name was circled red, including her year number. From the photo, it could be seen that the paper itself was a bit wrinkled and somewhat burnt brown, but that wasn’t really important.

Then, Vincent looked toward Luca, as if waiting for him to say more words or further directions before they went upstairs--if not a direct motion for them to proceed.

Nano · Jul 15, 2020

» Luciano Bianchi

『 TAGGED 』

Upon noting that everyone had regrouped unharmed, Luca heaved out the breath that he hadn’t known he’d been holding. His expression was quick to crease back into a light frown the moment Vincent mentioned the owner of the locker again.

“Right, about that,” he started hesitantly, “there was actually some medical paperwork I accidentally peeked at that had a matching name. I didn’t look at the details for privacy reasons, but it looks like this Jane Clarke was excused from gym often. Someone either really hated her for ‘special treatment,’ or she felt left out, I guess.” The brunette shook his head. The unfortunate reason that the evidence hinted at aside, they hadn’t managed to obtain any information that would be directly useful for dealing with the arsonist.

“In any case, lead the way, Alex,” Luca said, gesturing towards the stairwell. If they dawdled for too long and let what was probably the arsonist get away, he could see Babel giving them a lot of flak for it.

Fortunately for the group, the round head of the sole surveillance camera in the hallway leading to their destination had been expertly taken out by their arsonist. Aside from the small sprinkling of glass shards on the floor, none of the doors or walls had sustained any damage, prompting them to move along. Upon reaching the corner of the hallway, Luca took note of the double doors of the school’s library which showed evidence of having been forced open—presumably via a strong kick.

Even when danger didn’t appear to be evident, Luca peered cautiously into the library before tentatively stepping inside. On the right side of the library, neat rows of books were stacked on well-maintained shelves, with the occasional couch or table squeezed in-between the shelves. In comparison, the left side of the library was in utter disorder. The broken shelves and books strewn about had likely been the cause of the large racket they had heard from the 1st floor.

What Luca hadn’t noticed, however, was the petite figure of a young girl seated by the windowsill, staring blankly into the dark scenery overlooking the field below. Dressed in a simple blue shirt and light grey shorts and possessing brown, neatly plaited locks without a hair out of place, the teen almost seemed as if she were an ordinary student present in the school at the wrong time.

Having heard the shuffling behind her, the girl turned slowly to face the newly assembled crowd. In strict contrast to the mundane image of her back, her eye sockets were hollow and soulless. Should the quartet squint within the dim lighting, they would also be able to make out an oddity present in her abnormally pale skin. Starting from her elbow and knee joints and traveling down her finger and toe tips, her flesh gradually grew transparent, revealing the ghostly skeletal structure underneath.

As she moved her gaze from Luca to Alex to Vincent, her slumped shoulders and softly creased brows made what remained of her visage appear forlorn. However, the moment her head turned towards Aria, she sharply rose out of her seat. Her bony hands thumped loudly against the table, and she gripped the table’s edge before violently twisting and throwing the table towards the pink-haired girl. Small sparks crackled threateningly in the air, followed by a low hiss and angry stomp, as if the Regret were a child throwing a tantrum.

Unsatisfied with merely a haphazard table toss, the Regret ignored the other three present in the room and charged straight for Aria. Though her manner of knocking away any obstacles was clumsy and unpracticed, the sparks that crackled between her outstretched fingertips were quickly brought to life with ease. Upon having deemed that she was close enough, the small flame held in her palm abruptly detonated, sending broken furniture, burning books, and the medium-sized blast towards anyone who was unlucky enough to fail to duck out of the way.

code by

Dawnsx · Jul 15, 2020

Aria peered at Vincent's phone and nodded thoughtfully at Luca's brief recount about what they found. She blinked as she took a closer look at the photo. The paper seemed a little burnt and wrinkled...

"Huh... Did the arsonist do that?" Aria asked quietly, pointing out the edges of the paper. Before Aria could ponder more about the little detail, Luca was already ushering the group to proceed.

Following closely behind her coworkers, Aria's eyes darted around the halls nervously. Everything looked normal and mostly undamaged, and the arsonist was nowhere in sight, but being in an empty school at night was scary enough in itself. It didn't quite help that Jerod would snort each time Aria jumped at shadows. The group eventually reached what looked like the entrance to the school library. The doors were kicked in, and Aria felt chills run down her back. Either the arsonist was still inside, or they'd already left to wander in the halls. Out of paranoia, she checked her six before following Luca in. The last thing they needed was for the culprit to pop up behind them while they searched the library.

Aria took note of the disarray of the left side of the library first and felt a little bad for whoever would have to clean the mess up. Just as she was about to shuffle further in, Jerod gasped sharply and pointed to the windows.

"What the hell's that?" Jerod breathed out. Heart in her throat, Aria's gaze followed his finger, blood running cold when she saw a girl by the windowsill. Aria brought hand to her mouth to keep any frightened noises from coming out, but the girl was already turning around. For a second, she thought that it was just a normal girl around her age, but a closer look brought a wave of anxious nausea to Aria's stomach. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the girl was anything but human, what with her deathly pallor and transparent flesh . Too stunned to notice the girl's gaze trailing from one Elegy to the next, Aria jerked out of her stupor only when the girl suddenly stood and grabbed the table's edge.

"Get down!" Jerod yelled.

"Wha-"

Aria didn't have time to process Jerod's hasty command. She could only watch with leaden limbs as the girl threw the table directly towards her. She vaguely heard Jerod swear loudly, then, in a split-second decision, the doll grabbed one of her braids and launched himself off of her shoulders. Aria cried out in surprise as she was pulled sideways before losing her balance and falling roughly onto her arm. The table narrowly missed as it flew past above her. Tears welled up in her eyes from the sting in her scalp and arm, but there wasn't any time to recover. Jerod was desperately trying to tug her up by her good arm.

"Get up! Get up!" he screeched. Aria looked up in alarm just in time to see the girl making a beeline for her. She scrambled to her feet, eyes widening when a small flame sparked to life in the Regret's hand. Aria's gaze snapped down to Jerod, then back to flame in the girl's palm. Steeling her nerves, she lifted Jerod by his collar and, ignoring his shocked protests, flung him to the side and out of the range of the incoming attack. At the same time, the small fire flared larger and was launched their way. Aria screwed her eyes shut and brought her arms in front of her head in a feeble attempt to protect herself from the projectiles and blast.

Alteras · Jul 16, 2020

Alex Fayfield

LOCATION Library

INTERACTIONS

CS

Leading the group towards the library, Alex made sure she could see her notes appear before her. It wouldn't be fun if their group was jumped on the moment they walked by the doors. But thankfully, her concerns were unmet, as she could see her notes at the entrance to the library just fine. Walking through the open entrance, she started to look around. It was weird, with the two halves of the library looking like two different movie sets smashed together. But before Alex could explore the rest of the room, her gaze caught sight of the young girl.

A regret...

Her eyes silently pitied the poor soul, before quickly sharpening at the job at hand. Alex thought of walking forward to the girl, but before she could, a table was hurtling towards Aria. Immediately she turned to watch the poor girl and her plushie barely dodge the table. Now, instead of walking, she wanted to tackle the girl. However at her first step, she saw all her notes around Aria turn red. And it wasn't just red at a single body part, it was pure complete red.

Shit!!!

She didn't think much about what was coming, but rather where was safe. Alex ran towards Aria, bent down, grabbed one of her arms, and yanked her along to the nearest non-red note, which happened to be near Jerod. And in good time too, as an immense heat whooshed past them, accompanied by the sounds of items crashing.

It was clear the regret's target was Aria, and so Alex decided to first get her into a safe place. She pulled Aria along to the next safe note she could find, and the next one. With her song's tempo, there was no shortage of notes to pick from, each one appearing and disappearing at rapid pace. And with different shapes too, as she spotted a note where she wasn't in a running pose. Having decided that is a safe spot, behind what seems to be the Librarian's desk, she increased her pace to match her arrival with the note's disappearance.

As she dragged Aria along, she yelled back, "I'll keep Aria safe! Ya handle the Regret!"

A Murder Of Corviknight · Jul 19, 2020

“UWA!”

Emiyn gave a startled jump, eyes following the hand that still firmly kept a grip on his shoulder. Missing the mew from Felix, his blanched face turned up towards the black-haired young woman.

As she began speaking, Emiyn’s eyes followed the direction she glanced at, seeing three other adults. Under the low light in the late evening, recognition flared in his eyes and his body jolted again.

“Thea….” He turned back to the girl grabbing his shoulder. “Noah’s Ark…?”

Rosie smiled slightly, trying to keep the amusement off her face, “Yes but we’re technically not here as Noah’s Ark employees today.”

Addressed directly, Thea offered only a casual smile accompanied by a wordless wave of her hand in greeting.

“…” Seeing Thea’s casual greeting, Emiyn lifted his hand as well.

It was only when Emiyn was trying to give some waving greeting back, that he realized he had bunched the fabric of his jacket tightly. With his hand back by his side, this time they were clenched into a fist.^[1]

“Um…” he started, as though wanting to ask something, but his voice soon died down into the silence.

Feeling a bit sorry for putting the teen unnecessary stress, Rosie finally let go of the boy once she realized he wasn’t going to bolt the moment he saw them. Hoping futility that they didn’t look too suspicious, she decided to bite the bullet and ask for the others, “Do you go to this school? Or did Felix actually lure you all the way out here…?”

Emiyn shifted his weighting when his shoulder was free, and this time he faced the group properly.

“… Yes,” he answered Rosie as she freed her hand. His tone lost some of the tension, there was still some hesitance in his voice but he seemed to have recovered from the initial raw panic and confusion. “I study here… “^[2]

The guilty cat in question didn’t know much of what exactly was going on, but felt that he was very much already in a lot of trouble. He also felt that Rosie wasn’t his good heroic ally at this point. So the cat decided to slip himself into Rosie’s bag before more blame could be dumped onto his head.^[3]

Rosie had the best of intentions, no doubt, but seeing the youthful boy nearly quaking in his shoes tugged at Thea’s fragile heartstrings, with open hands and a more comfortable smile - typical of the laid back woman - she tried to smooth over some of the blunt edges from Rosie’s approach, “Felix does get a little lonely during closing times … I wouldn’t be surprised if he just wanted to play with Emiyn here, he’s always been a night critter anyway,” she peeked at Emiyn with a disarming gaze, “are you a night-person too, Emiyn?”

“Night person… no, um… I was visiting a friend.” He explained. “And about Felix… he didn’t do it. Lure me, I mean.…I, um… I followed him here.“

Perhaps realizing that his answer sounded rather silly, he quickly stuttered an additional explanation for good measure. “Recently, it’s not safe here….”

Standing a little further back than the others, Enoch mostly listened to the exchange; it didn’t surprise him to learn that Emiyn had followed Felix here. It made more sense than him being the arsonist. At the mention of the school not being safe, he spoke up. “I assume you’re talking about the arson that’s been happening lately. Only at night, right?” Enoch said, trying his best to sound casual. “With so many repeated incidents, I wonder if whoever’s responsible has a grudge against this place. I don’t know, like someone who’s angry about getting cut from a sport’s team, or being bullied?”

"Why-" he stopped himself, remembering that he was outnumbered, but it was too late to realize he had flashed a look of suspicion at the adults. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Um… things like that, in sports teams or bullying, i haven't heard much from friends...but it happens in a lot of schools, I think..."

Thea nodded, happy that Enoch was able to put into words their collective assumptions so far without giving much of their own motives and reasons being here away. Though she did turn her gaze over to Rosie, mouthing ‘Jane Clarke?’ for Thea could not help but to immediately think of the girl whose name had come up during their short investigation.

In turn, Rosie gave a slight confirming tilt to her head to Thea before adding to Enoch’s question, “We’re helping someone right now. Due to privacy reasons we can’t mention who, but it would help us a lot if you could give us more information about what’s been going on in this school lately.”

"...I see," he said, with a face showing the quick progression of the boy digesting what the dark-haired woman said. "I understand. If it is school-related I might not know as much but I'll do my best."

With the (possibly naive) hope that once they were done questioning him he could leave the school grounds discreetly, Emi took a moment to think.

"Aside from the incidents of destroyed areas in the school… I suppose some of the most recent would be the memorial for one of the senior students at our school. That was last week, on the last day of school. Hm…” he frowned, trying to remember the name. “Jane Clarke, I think that was the name, spelt with an “e” in the surname.”

“Other recent events… we had our end-of-term exams last week as well. We were told two students were caught and suspended for using their phones. Names were… ” he stopped again trying to remember the announced names.

At the specific name, Rosie blinked as if she never heard the name in her life and asked simply, “Jane Clarke?”

Emiyn looked up at the woman. “Ah, yes, Jane Clarke was the name…is… something wrong?” he asked, not sure if they wanted him to continue thinking of relevant events.

She briefly weighed the pros and cons of pursuing the trail that was Jane Clarke before just deciding to go with it. Worst came to worst, they would just seem extremely invested in their odd job. “We’re not sure, but she seems to be related to what we were asked to look into. It seems possible that she was...bullied?”

Emiyn was able to answer this time in a less hesitant manner. “I’m in 9th grade, so we don’t know very much about what happens in the senior classes… but since her death, we’ve heard rumours of bullying from her classmates.. Though...” he frowned, speaking his thoughts. “This is just my opinion… but the places where the fire incidents happened, I don’t think they’re related to Jane Clarke’s accident” he said, thinking back to Enoch’s question, “We were told that she never got to come to school often, due to her personal circumstances.” ^[4]

Thea only gave a solemn nod, hearing the troubles and dramas that plagued the school. Critically, she found a sound conclusion hearing the young boy’s perspective in things, “you’re probably right,” she told Emiyn, “the police would have found out a lot more on the arsonist case if her name was anywhere near the incidents.”

With an apologetic smile, she scratched her cheeks sheepishly, “we’re not allowed to say much about what we’re looking for, but you’ve definitely helped a lot. Rumors or not, I’m happy to say that you’ve given us a lot to go and review up on, if I could ask one last thing though?” She coughed, “You said you were meeting up with a friend? I’m not okay letting you walk around this late around here … I could at least walk you out?” She offered.

“Ah… I was already returning from home after the visit,” Emiyn clarified, to explain why he was so late out. Not wanting to make further fuss, he gave a familiar polite nod. “But yes… I should head home now… Um… All the best with what you’re looking for…”

Ending the last phrase in a slightly sheepish and shy tone, he pointed towards the front entrance while looking at Thea, silently asking if it was fine for them to start walking now.

While Thea was arranging for Emiyn’s safe passage to the front gates with their group, Rosie worriedly glanced at her phone due to the lack of reply from the other side. As the group started to walk away from the north side building they were lingering around, she decided to send the group another message just in case they were too busy to miss the first message.

“Need to drop off someone past front gate
will pass your building
let us know if you need help
we’ll loop around back to you”

“Right this way, then~” Thea said, with a musical inclination to her words, steering them away from the direct path to the entrance. Given the distance, she knew that the guard at the front didn’t have even the faintest clue that Emiyn had somehow managed to smuggle himself in - and she intended to keep things that way.^[5]

------------------

NAME. Group 1 + Emiyn
OBJECTIVE. skedaddle
MOOD. trainwreck
NOTES. ^[1]He's trying to stop his hands from shaking unconsciously
^[2]At this point he is wondering why the group is here, but given the context, he’s decided to not question further, in case he might get roped into something troublesome.
^[3]This is here because I don’t want to constantly remember that the cat exists in this scene q w q
^[4]About Jane coming to school not often, he heard about this information from the memorial speech
^[5]The collab ends near the building that group 2 is in. Our job is done for now. This is so group 2 can catch up.
^[6]Emiyn is blue, Rosie is red, Thea is purple and Enoch is green.
TAGGED. ….everyone

SilverBlack · Jul 31, 2020

Vincent Huo
Location: East Ryde Technical High School- Staircase......................................................................................................................Interaction/Mentioned:

Alteras

An awkward “uh” escaped his mouth when Aria questioned him if the arsonist was the one who burnt the list upon seeing the picture with the locker combinations. Fortunately, Luca ushered them on, and the group quickly changed their focus of attention into moving onwards instead of lingering on a small particular detail that Vincent would much prefer to not dwell further on.

The conditions on the second floor was of no surprise to Vincent. At this point it was pretty much a confirmation to him that the arsonist had some sorts of targets in mind when he or she settled for destruction. Unlike Aria who was easily startled, Vincent remained relatively calm, following behind Luca and Alex while slowly inspecting their surroundings.

However, even if it came to him as no surprise, the condition of the library still caused him to shift uncomfortably. The way the whole left side was destroyed while the right side remained eerily safe and left alone somehow managed to pick on his nerves. Perhaps it’s the sense of imbalance that he’s getting? The desire to figure out why just the left and not the right too. It’s almost funny that ever since they started the investigation, Vincent had wanted to try to understand--or even guess--what the arsonist may be thinking, and the intention behind each specific location he or she chooses to destroy. To understand the arsonist, not purely just to solve the case, but maybe to try to relate to the person too. Even if the person has turned to a Regret…

Vincent did not linger long in his own thoughts. By the time the word “Regret” popped up in his head, the group already noticed the girl sitting by the windowsill. Instantly, a chill went down his spine as the girl turned her head around, revealing her hollow and soulless eyes. Yet the most disturbing part about her would still be her transparent skin and the visible skeleton underneath.

The lad held in a sharp breath, tensing up. His hands tightened into a fist, as if preparing to defend himself. But reality showed that the Regret really didn’t care about him at all.

Instead, as if Aria’s mere presence had triggered her, the Regret picked up a table and tossed it violently in her direction.

Chaos escalated in the library where the whole left side was already destroyed, and the actions that followed were fast. In his head, Vincent screamed for himself to act fast, yet he found himself hesitating. Instead, he stood there and watched as Jerod, a plushie who couldn’t stand fire, acted faster than him in yanking Aria away by her braid. Alex leapt in next, dragging Aria to a safe spot near her plushie.

"I'll keep Aria safe! Ya handle the Regret!"

Alex’s words rang into his ears, serving like a grim reminder and knocking some senses back into his head. Now’s not the time to hesitate! He shouted in his mind and finally took action. Sprinting forward, his arms were set ablaze as he defended himself against the pieces of broken furniture and books that flew his way from the detonation of the Regret’s flame in her palm. He could not bother to see what the medium blast had done to further destroy the library. His prior concern was that nobody got hit and that they’re still safe.

Before the Regret could move onto her next action, Vincent reached out a hand just enough to grab the girl by her back collar, yanking her back in his direction, then quickly locked his elbow around her neck as an attempt to trap her in his grasp while trying to move backward himself to take her away from Aria, dragging the Regret with him. Both his arms were still aflamed, and with the girl against him his flame spread down to his chest. He’s not sure if he could burn the Regret when he’s countering fire with fire. One thing he was just a bit more confident of is that he could tolerate flame better. To be honest, he was actually impressed and thrown back a bit by the similarity in their ability, and just how much more fluently the Regret seemed to be able to control hers.

With his left arm locked against her throat, he raised his right fist, aiming to punch down against her cheek. However, he stopped the second he was about to punch down. Focus on the skeleton beneath her skin, he had tried to persuade himself since he took action, but the very fact that she still looked like a girl--was a girl--made him hesitate.

He couldn’t hit a girl.

Nano · Jul 31, 2020

» Luciano Bianchi

『 TAGGED 』

Alex’s shout and affirmation that Aria would be kept safe under her watch was reassuring. If there was someone in their group who had all bases covered, it was Alex and her Last Words which allowed her to foresee danger.

Ducking to the side to avoid the flying debris, Luca took to skirting around the perimeter while Vincent dashed straight for the Regret. Remaining vigilant, he kept an eye out for any opportunities to assist from a few feet away, as he’d only get in Vincent’s way if he faced the Regret head on. His coworker’s pause, however, suddenly reminded him of the fact that he was currently working with a newcomer who hadn’t yet disconnected Regrets from human beings.

Fearing for the worst, Luca shouted, “Vincent! Get back!” Even if Vincent were more resistant to fire, he doubted the same went for the force behind the Regret’s explosions. If the Regret managed to land a blast on him from a point-blank range, the situation would quickly turn ugly—or so he thought.

Unexpectedly, nary a spark crackled in sight. The Regret frantically clawed at the arm wound tightly around her neck. Letting loose a series of hoarse shrieks, her struggling grew more violent until she took advantage of Vincent’s hesitation to harm her to forgo all caution. Mustering great strength in spite of her thin frame, she twisted her torso in an unnatural way to roughly shove the brunette away while attempting to dig her elbows into his stomach.

The moment the two separated, a badly burnt toaster manifested itself in Luca’s right hand. With a swift arc and flick of his wrist, he sent the kitchen appliance flying towards the direction of the Regret.

Though her wary gaze remained on Vincent, the Regret seemed to have spotted the flash of silver in her peripheral. Given that the brunette’s throw hadn’t had the best aim in the first place, a mere sidestep sent the toaster crashing through the window behind her.

Upon hearing the glass shatter tragically from the poorly set trajectory of his toaster, Luca gulped. He couldn’t help but briefly consider whether or not Babel would notice if he simply tacked the broken window on the Regret’s head in his damage report. Sure enough, ordinary civilians weren’t particularly cut out for these kinds of jobs.

Regardless of the party of four’s next actions, the Regret finally seemed to have come to the realization that she was outnumbered and that some of them—or at least Vincent—posed a threat to her. Or perhaps there was a drawback to her ability that caused her to be unable to use it under certain conditions, Luca guessed based on the fact that she hadn’t used her Last Words to struggle away from Vincent.

After throwing one last chair with great force Vincent’s way, the Regret swiftly kicked off towards the direction of the broken window. She slammed her body into what remained of the window and, without an ounce of hesitation, rolled off of the windowsill to freefall down two floors. Due to the unprepared method in which she had jumped, her body collapsed and sprawled out on the dirt the moment she hit the ground. As if jointless, her limbs bent in unnatural angles. Yet, like a possessed ball-joint doll from a horror movie, she slowly stood back up unsteadily while popping her limbs back into place after only a few seconds had elapsed.

A few meters away, the figures of the rest of Noah’s Ark’s staff could be seen. Paying them no heed, the Regret began to amble her way towards the back of the school, swaying unsteadily.

Back in the library, the shock that had left Luca frozen finally wore off, and the brunette fumbled around to remove his phone from his pocket. Quickly ringing up Rosie, he let out a nervous breath and managed to speak calmly into his phone. “We found the Regret, but she jumped out the window. I don’t think any of us can safely jump from a second story window, so we’re counting on you if you happen to see her.”

Without waiting for an answer, Luca apologized in his heart and hastily hung up. No matter how ghoulish they looked, he always managed to forget in some way that Regrets weren’t bound by the same physical limitations as humans. Of course a fall from this kind of height was nowhere near fatal to them.

“Is everyone alright?” Luca asked, looking around to observe the other three in the room. “We’ll have to regroup with Rosie and the others if we can.”

Though this wouldn’t be the first time they’d have to potentially spend multiple days on a case, the damages had already escalated enough to make the situation urgent. Ideally, they would have to finish the job tonight. But where was the Regret’s tether? Jane Clarke had a weak heart among other health issues, but had she succumbed to an illness or had she been involved in an accident? Was the Regret even Jane Clarke?

He just hoped they’d be able to put her to rest as painlessly as possible, though he still wasn’t sure if Regrets could truly feel pain in the first place.

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