third loop

[cancrymods]

SUPERBIA

On midnight of the fourteenth day, it happens again. Time rewinds itself back to the Executors' starting point, putting them right back at the beginning of the loop. This is now their third time experiencing the events of the two-week Superbia loop and while they've made some good progress on the investigation, they still have a ways to go in bringing it to and end and escaping. Use this log to investigate during this two-week time period and drop a comment down to the Investigation Request subheader if you'd like to explore. If you're continuing or building off of a previous loop's investigation results, please link to it in your comment. If you need a refresher on the loop mechanics, check out this post. Good luck, Executors.

Comments

tell the class what you found

[schardynfreude]

[All right cool good great everything's looped again, so that's two weeks gone by. How...odd it is, how easy to slip into a rhythm and barely notice.

Chess club at lunch again! Chiron shoots off a notif saying as much. He's brought snacks this time! He may have pilfered them. Shh.]

Phoenix and I took a look inside the gymnasium... Terrible wreck of a place. Looks like something interrupted graduation and tore through whoever was in the way. And the atmosphere is...distressing. Someone up on the stage left of a sort of psychic impression, the awful state of anxiety and fear and bottomless despair...

[touches ground something terrible happened here, basically]

[mementomoritz]

Ooh, is there pneuma? I've been meaning to take more samples! [Medic, honey. Priorities.]

[schardynfreude]

Dear, we've a nurse's office. Could you not simply set up some form of, mm, blood drive, of a sort? Willing participants, live samples.

[alcahest]

I don't know how I feel about using the nurse's office for that...

[ STEALING CHILDREN'S BLOOD....... ]

[schardynfreude]

Then Medic can take whatever supplies she needs and set up elsewhere. Orange juice and cookies, yes? Surely we can scrounge that up. [that! isn't the point chiron!]

[ourtomorrow]

[ Monarch has brought a chess set this week. He is in the process of setting it up - camouflage? - when Chiron shares his experiences and he fumbles a rook. Clatter.

Excuse him. ]

They'd reached graduation?!

[ And then...a disaster. Which is chilling. But doesn't that imply... ]

So the loop is purposeful. Someone's avoiding...something. In the future.

[ But is it that they don't want to graduate? That they don't want someone else to graduate? That they don't want.....whatever awful thing happened......to occur, and are trying to prevent it?

More information means more possibilities! ]

[schardynfreude]

[Monarch honey there are chess sets for the chess club, but, you know what, that's really cute. Just...let Chiron help with that rook.]

Avoiding the graduation itself, or avoiding whatever happened during it. Everyone's been trapped here; I suppose when being stuck it makes the most sense to have a school year that never ends.

[ourtomorrow]

[ Monarch nods. ] There's something else. That Miss President said. It - might not be important, given what you discovered, but....

[ In case it's useful, he may as well. (Though now he's chomping at the bit to go take a look at the gym. Apparently he is the sort of person whose reaction to "there's trouble" is to...run right at it? ]

She wants the school festival to be something "everyone can look forward to".

[ He frowns. ] The loop resets right when the festival is set to occur. That's two key days the loop prevents.

[schardynfreude]

Normally, one would want to avoid disaster. A festival...doesn't seem like it. Unless it was all bundled together? I'm afraid my knowledge of, ah, school timelines is a bit lacking.

[etincelledefierte]

Just to add to that, there was a picture hidden in the back of the snack cupboard in the student council room. I took a picture of it -

[she’ll pull out her phone, showing the photo]

- and noticed something about it. See here? The girl we know as Miss President isn’t wearing her armband. Instead, this other girl is.

There’s something written on the back of it, too. It’s signed R.

[schardynfreude]

...So perhaps the damage to the gym was after this? It's troubling, at any rate... Have we known any of them to be in possession of mementos from their living lives, anyone?

[discutio]

There was a butterfly of some sort up on the roof. I don't believe we caught it, but...it's a bit difficult to explain.

[But he'd at least make an effort to detail what they saw, vague as it felt.]

[schardynfreude]

Normally that would be one of Rei's...to my knowledge. [But it doesn't fit with the previous butterfly images. Hm.]

[phantasmagorial]

[ Rei looks deeply uncomfortable. ]

That... doesn't sound familiar but... we should all know by now that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

[etincelledefierte]

[There’s a blonde peeking in the doorway, a touch of nervousness on her face. It’s only a touch, though.]

Hi. I’m Etoile; I’m new to this whole thing.

[mementomoritz]

[Medic waves cheerfully from where she's sitting when she sees her. She's not super reassuring, but at least she's familiar.]

[etincelledefierte]

Hey, Medic. How are you doing this loop?

[schardynfreude]

Oh! Another to add to our ranks! Have you met Amber? We've recently acquired him as well~

[etincelledefierte]

I have! We talked at lunch before things reset.

[daughterofthemark]

It's wonderful to meet you, Dame Etoile. I am Royal Veil.

...I'm not clear on what makes me "royal."

[etincelledefierte]

Please, call me Etoile.

[she’ll smile and extend a hand.]

It’s good to meet you. I think all our memories might be a little bit fuzzy, so don’t worry about that part.

[heir_to_ruin]

[Guess who skulks in at the last minute, looking a touch harried and carrying a few sheets of printed library records?

He's hardly left the library at all last loop and looks like he just..... picked up where he left off straight away this morning.]

So... the loops are getting shorter. Whatever they're running from whether they like it or not they're... uh... going to have to face their mistakes eventually.

[Who said anything about facing mistakes? Are you projecting Ruin?]

[emberserker]

What, so you suppose that's what their motive is? Avoiding whatever mistake led to the masssacre by avoiding the graduation itself and any other gatherings like the school festival?

[heir_to_ruin]

[Oh no. Not Wolfsbane. No no no no

He looks sheepish, almost, struggling for that usual cavalier mask he hides behind. In the end he shrugs and sets the pages down on the table, fanning them out so people can see. Each one has a line with the date and how many books were checked out on that date. The first is short, only 14 lines. A number in red pen scribbled at the top reads 678.

The next page, however, has 30 lines and Ruins, sharp, slanted writing at the top 109

After that the pages start being double-sided and then stapled into sets. Each with a different number.]

I don't know... but something is pushing everyone and everything closer to that date.

[daughterofthemark]

Last time, I removed objects from the forest, added new ones, and caused damage to some trees. All of those changes have remained even now that time has reset.