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

[ourtomorrow]

Monarch is going to listen carefully to everyone's descriptions of what they've been up to at the meeting and then go exploring any significant area on campus no one has been yet! Covering every inch of ground is important.

No matter how awkward to access the destination ends up being. There is an wurme waiting(?) for him. He is filled with determination.

[cancrymods]

Well if we're talking grounds, then why not the garden? That's a nice place. Sure to be all kinds of relaxing and – never mind, there's a butterfly here.

It seems to be the same butterfly the other Executors had spotted on the previous layer. It's perched atop a flower and it tinkles gently when Monarch approaches.

[ourtomorrow]

That's - that's one of Rei-san's, isn't it? And it's not the kind of butterfly that's already been spotted, the one that seemed different. This one matches the earlier descriptions.

It's delicate. So....so memory is this fragile a thing.

Monarch will step closer quite carefully indeed, lean down, and offer his hand, palm-up. Hello. He's a friend.

Would you like him to learn what you have to say?

1/2

[cancrymods]

The butterfly's wings quiver as he approaches but it doesn't look as though it's going to leave. When he offers his hand, the butterfly steps forward and–

Something strange happens.

Instead of the rush of memory previous Executors had described, Monarch feels a high-speed flood of feelings that aren't his own. Panic, confusion, betrayal, terror and intense claustrophobia. It only lasts for a few moments before the feelings vanish like smoke on the air and the butterfly goes with it.

[cancrymods]

In its place, Monarch will feel a presence at his side.

There's nothing visible, no physical person stood there. Just the feeling of someone suddenly close by, and yet... still so far away.

A sound like tinkling bells rings through the air again.

[ourtomorrow]

This isn't right, is it? Or not - not what's happened before. It's almost like...almost like what he'd experienced with Esme, being the last person to land a blow (why avert his eyes? the one who killed her). Where you - you are the person, or you know what it was like to have been -

His heart is still hammering when the feelings fade, and he can sense something prickling on the edges of his perception. The butterfly's gone, but...

But....

Carefully, still a little wide-eyed, he turns.

"Who's there?"

[cancrymods]

He won't see anything, but... there's definitely something there. If he puts all his focus into trying to perceive it, he might be able to see a subtle shifting in the air like a heat mirage but it's impossible to properly make out the shape of it.

Not that it really matters because eventually, a voice speaks up.

... it... hurt...

The impression of their words is so faint it's impossible to work out anything about who they were. But you get the feeling, somehow, that they're... grateful?

... doesn't hurt... anymore...

There's a warm pressure, like a beam of sunlight. It almost feels like.... someone patting him on the head.

Th... thank you...

Then the feeling fades.

Executors... Thank you.

And just like that, the voice and the gentle presence are both gone.

[ourtomorrow]

"Wh..."

It's probably futile. But Monarch stares up at the air, asking instead. "Who are you? Why..."

Why a butterfly.....Is it a voice he would recognize? Because - if that - if that wasn't Rei-san's memory butterfly, then who was it?

And what does that mean...?

And is it okay, even with his confusion and mounting sense something in this Layer is Very, Very Different and Very, Very Wrong, to be glad it seems he was able to help...?

[cancrymods]

It isn't a voice that he would recognize, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything either way, given how hard it was to parse literally anything about the voice.

[ourtomorrow]

This is troubling. Monarch doesn't know what to make of it. He could theorize, but he doesn't have enough information....

He's going to spend the rest of his breaks during school for the next several days trying to see if he can't track down the other butterfly. To gain more clues.

But also because whoever had been communicating with him through the butterfly had clearly been frightened, and somehow, he'd done something to assist. If the other butterfly is cagey and wrong because it's suffering, he needs to help it.

And if it's tied to the disasters going on here, he has to stop it!