cancry | fourth loop

Wolfsbane has had quite enough.

Every single investigation she's done has turned up nothing, so it's time to drag the answers out into the open. In the very early morning, she'll sneak out of the dorms and into the pool area, just enough to burn up her magic meter filling the water with ice shards. Given what happened when she sabotaged the poor Pottery Club, that should be enough of a distraction to confuse the students and faculty out of their routines today.

...she'll check out the area for anything weird while she's here, but she doesn't expect much.

And distract them it does! The students are absolutely thrilled at the prospect of an ice-cold pool in this summer heat and the faculty are split between trying to find the prankster who pulled this off and fruitlessly attempting to keep the students from sneaking into the water to enjoy the cold.

The ice will all have melted by noon, but that's enough time for Wolfsbane to get her investigate on.

Where does she start?

She'll first look for anything around the pool or lockers themselves, but if there's nothing in there, she'll take note of who's moved to the pool (students and faculty alike) and pop into classrooms, milling around unattended desks and lockers. She's paying particular attention to faculty members, but students aren't left out; someone has to know about the principal.

Nothing out of place at the pool, apart from all the troublemaking teens dunking themselves in ice water.

Notably, as Wolfsbane looks around, there's just... no trace of the principal anywhere at all. No matter where she looks, they don't show up anywhere. None of the staff mention them and none of the students do either – which is strange because they did at least have opinions on the principal when Monarch was able to ask.

It's like they've just... vanished from everyone's memories.

That... probably isn't good. And if their prime suspect is gone, then that leaves... the supposed red herring.

Is there still no way into the principal's office? Does it even exist this time around?

The principal's office was busted open by Lion in the first loop, so it's accessible! Wolfsbane can investigate it if she likes, but there isn't any new information there to find.

At this point, no new evidence is new evidence. She'll take that to the next meeting... and she's a little happy with herself, for some reason.

Is there anywhere else she plans to investigate or is that it for this loop?

Well... she might as well check around the soccer field, since she's not going to be setting it on fire.

There's nothing weird on the soccer field, unless you count a couple of Specters ditching class to kick around on the field.

When they see Wolfsbane hanging around, though, they call out to her excitedly, inviting her to come and join the game.

ugh you have to be kidding her why would she ever -- okay fine. Sigh. Let's do this and then never mention it again, to anyone.

Is there a faculty office Etoile can just sneak into? Maybe late at night?

There certainly is! That late and with her Executor abilities, Etoile should have no problem sneaking into places she wants to investigate. Where would she like to look?

She's going to start in the student records, if there's a centralized place for those. She's specifically looking for any girls with the first initial R.

The teacher's lounge has a copy of the student records and it's relatively easy to break into there, so in she goes!

Unfortunately, searching the student records isn't as easy as you'd think – many of the names listed are scrambled and illegible and quite a few students just flat out don't have any names at all. It seems to be a consequence of Purgatory Weirdness, as some of the students who do have names listed are Etoile and Amber – people who have names they do, in fact, remember.

There are one or two scrambled names that seem to start with R though, if she wants to investigate those?

She's going to definitely be trying to puzzle those out. Anything make sense in either of the languages she's fluent in (French and Japanese), or even English?

The text doesn't seem to be in any particular language, not that Etoile can pule out – it's more akin to a computer program spitting out garbage data in a panic, jut to display something.

It does at least indicate that only one of these mysterious Rs was on the student council, though, so that's probably our girl.

She’ll just go immediately to that file. What do we have?

-mentioned graduation to Miss President! it wasn't very effective...

- had an extremely surreal experience with a butterfly
- got his mind blown by possible different definitions of "pride"

Found the photo of Miss President and friends; also found a ridiculously packed schedule for the festival.

[Welcome back to chess club lunch information dump and roundup, everybody. Feel free to bring your own snacks and/or lunches for the meeting! Surely No One Will Knock This Time]

[Chiron, for his part, looks deeply in thought on the black side of an in-progress chess game. It's only been a couple hours, who did he start it with? Don't Worry About It. When he speaks up, it's apparent it's not the game that concerns him.]

I wonder if the Student Council President isn't the one we're after. Perhaps it is the principal after all? Or another student who is prudently not showing themselves to us? [He waves a distracted, gloved hand.] I had sought her out to bring up the idea of planning things for graduation, hoping to get a spark of something from her. She didn't so much as blink, save for the fact that it's apparently early to start thinking about it all. Honestly I have no idea when in the school year we are.

[ Rei looks a little thoughtful. ]

... You know...

Has anyone seen the principal at all since we got here?

[He opens his mouth to reply...and then...closes it again...] Huh. One would think the faculty would at least...have seen them. At some point.

I certainly haven't, but I haven't turned up a thing the entire time we've been here. Honestly, what if the principal just died in the graduation and -- wait. If they did, then what?

Hm-mmm... [Medic looks over at Rei.] Sufficiently damaged Specters revert to a kind of base form, right? Sort of like your memory butterflies!

[See? She paid attention to the setting exposition, she appreciates you. ...And knowledge. She really, really appreciates knowledge.]

In theory, they can eventually heal up enough to become full-blown Specters again and start making their way back towards the Cogs- but with things the way they are right now, who knows where a stray soul could end up! And even if they did, it would probably take a while...

Then, the butterfly I found....and the other one....

[ Were possibly victims of whatever happened at graduation? Maybe even the principal?

Thoughtless him. Rei had told them all that, but he'd been so focused on associating them with her. ]

So they weren't Rei's. They're what's left of other people, not fragments of her. And there are like to be a lot of them.

N–no, wait, that can't be right...!

[ Rei breaks in sounding a little panicked. ]

When they're broken down... Specters disperse and return to Limbo so they can start their journey again. Even being trapped in this layer wouldn't be able to prevent that process – it's more powerful than any Authority.

A–and... they have to be my memories...! I remember the chess game myself and... I...

[ She trails off, looking upset. ]

You mean the ones who perished in the gym went back to Limbo, Authority or no Authority. And you're sure you're not the only one whose memories turned into butterflies?

W–well, who else's would they be?!

[ She snaps that back surprisingly quickly and uncharacteristically defensive. ]

[ oh no they're fighting

are they fighting because of him?

Monarch gulps, but steps forward with his hands raised placatingly ]

--n-now, now....It's clear we don't have enough information. Why don't Rei-san and I look for the other butterfly? We might learn more....

Go ahead. [She frowns and shakes her head.] I suppose she's got a good deal to investigate, regardless. I'll search on my own.

If it's not Miss President, maybe it's this R, from the photo. Has anyone found anything with the initial R anywhere?

There was another butterfly.

[ ...he should back up, shouldn't he. ]

I encountered one that looked like a memory fragment. But on contact, it shared emotions. Whoever's feelings they were - they were terrified. And upset.

But then the feeling faded, and someone...was there. I couldn't see them, but that's the sense I had.

They

[ this is the weirdest part to admit, because he doesn't know what he did, but the fact he seems to have helped makes him happy ]

thanked me.

fourth loop

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hope you brought enough for everyone

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