sixth loop

[cancrymods]

SUPERBIA

On midnight of the seventh 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 sixth time experiencing the events of the Superbia loop. Some of the school's long hidden secrets are starting to come to light... but is it enough to bring them close to breaking the loop once and for all? Only time will tell. Use this log to investigate during this seven day 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

[emberserker]

[Wolfsbane gets up and ditches class again to pay the art room a visit. But unlike the poor Pottery Club in those first few weeks, she isn't wrecking shop in there. Instead, she's thrown on a paint shirt (you know, the sort of thing nobody actually wants to wear for any purpose other than ruining it instead of your good clothes) and seems to be hard at work mixing paper, glue, and water and moulding them into... some kind of person shape.

She's surprisingly good at it, really.

Which might make it disturbing at night if you notice her sneaking up to the roof of the student dorms with a very familiar-looking paper-mâché figure, setting it in the middle away from any fire hazards, transforming, and promptly setting it ablaze with a small fireball.]

That's the last time I try to be nice and accommodating, you selfish, usurping little demon!

[...yeah, Sword left her on read.]

art room

[mementomoritz]

Wow, that's very realistic! You even got the hair to look right. [Listen, Medic's not here to judge why you're committing incredibly angry acts of paper mache. That's your business and she respects that. She's just here to appreciate your art as a friend.]

[And also to steal the cadmium red, she's doing some chemistry experiments and the science labs here have shockingly few toxic sulfides.]

[emberserker]

[Wolfsbane takes a slow, deep breath and then lets it out before looking over to Medic.]

Ah, Medic. I suppose you've also heard there's been progress made?

[mementomoritz]

Mm-hm! It's good to finally have the Authority's identity confirmed- now that I actually know what an Authority in their own layer feels like to my powers, it should make tracking them down much easier in the future.

[She frowns slightly for a brief moment as she rummages through the cabinet. Have they locked up the more toxic paints again? Rude.]

But the part I'm really curious about is what they said about seeing her memories! Depending on how it works, it could have some fascinating implications! Executors and Authorities seem to be the only cases of someone seeing memories that belonged to someone else, after all.

[emberserker]

So do you suppose it's because we're awake, or because we're special? Regular Eidolons are in short supply to test, of course, given that we recruit them all.

[She looks over at Medic's rummaging, but doesn't say anything.]

[mementomoritz]

Good question! I should ask the next one we find if they want to volunteer for some tests before they become an Executor.

[Ah-ha, there it is. ...They were keeping it on the highest shelf so the younger students couldn't get to it, and she was having trouble finding it because it's too far above her normal line of sight.]

[She's just gonna pull a chair over to stand on and keep talking.]

I guess I could try asking Alice, too, the next time we're back in Invidia- she seemed perfectly lucid, last time we spoke. [Hopefully this will go a lot better than the last time the Invidia Authority worked with Alice on something.]

[emberserker]

Which, of course, would require being able to get out of this place. ...You do still have that Authority, right? I'd suspect she'd have taken it from you, given how it's determined in Invidia, but none of you mentioned feeling any differently.

[mementomoritz]

As far as I can tell! And hopefully we'll be able to get back out soon- which is good, because I had some time-sensitive experiments running in my lab when we left, and I should really check on those as soon as possible.

[Muttered quietly to herself:] ...hope they aren't getting hungry in there...

[emberserker]

You've got lab animals now? I'm surprised, with how hard it is to track down any here.

[Carefully shaping some wire and adding on bits of Sword's hair.]

[mementomoritz]

Oh, I know! It's absurd, I can't even find insects anywhere- I've had to resort to buying raw meat in bulk just to have something biological to work with for my cell cultures.

[It's fine. She's probably not growing an undead mutant cow out of a slab of beef in there. ...It's fine.]

At least we're still finding a reasonable amount of plants! And fungi, the mold in Avaritia was everywhere. It's actually the bulk of what I've got on hand at this point... [Squinting into the cabinet.] Do you want any more wire? It looks like they have some extra in here.

[emberserker]

Oh, thank you. It could use more structure just in case, though I can't waste too much as I'm going to end up burning it. I do wonder what it is you'll come back to with all that research you were doing. Though I must say it sounds interesting, concerning or not.

[mementomoritz]

[Medic dutifully hands over the package of spare wire.] Hmm, you might want to be careful about which paints you use, then- or wear a face mask when you do. Some of these can give off some pretty nasty fumes when exposed to heat!

[Just not even questioning why she'd be burning one of their teammates in effigy. It's her art project, she's allowed to do what she wants with it.]

Thanks! Hopefully the containment procedures should kick in if something goes wrong with it, so it shouldn't be too bad. And if it turns out well, I'll be able to show you all when we get back!

[It'll be a fun surprise. ...Or a terrifying one. Either/or.]

[emberserker]

It wouldn't do to poison the layer, you're right. [She frowns and takes the wire, measuring some out.] I do suspect your findings will be interesting, even if it'll sound worrying. Though by now, you likely know what you're doing. You've never let me down before.

Roof

[calculated_risk]

...is this how you usually resolve your disputes?

[emberserker]

He's being unreasonable. The real one, of course. The paper-mâché can't do much.

[calculated_risk]

Yeah, I figured that was the case. I mean, it'd be pretty hard for a paper statue to do anything, right? [She laughs just the slightest bit nervously.]

[emberserker]

[That earns a glare, but she quickly turns back to her burning creation.]

I've tried to be nice to him or at the very least tolerate his continued presence, and he acts like it's my fault. He's the one who marched in here late and then acted as if he mattered more than I did.

[calculated_risk]

[She was legitimately worried for a moment that the papier-mache statue would come to life and attack them for some reason. But why would that happen? That's impossible...]

Oh...yeah, I can see how that'd be annoying. If he came in late he should be listening to the people who are more experienced! [She adjusts her glasses dramatically as she says that.]

[emberserker]

Precisely. But all he ever did from the start is complain about how everyone else fights as if he were the only one who knew any better.

[calculated_risk]

Ugh, I bet that's annoying! Must make it harder to coordinate too if he keeps trying to do his own thing.

[emberserker]

Naturally. Of course, he's decided to ignore me, so I have to vent my frustration. What brings you up here?

[calculated_risk]

Well, I thought it would be good to take another look around this place now that I'm actually aware of what's going on here. See if there's anything else I've missed.

[She pauses, adjusting her hair.] Though most of it seems to have been pretty thoroughly investigated already.

[emberserker]

Attribute that to how long we've been stuck in this place. We can only hope to clear through the next one faster.

[calculated_risk]

Yeah...hopefully that one won't keep resetting us. I mean, school's nice, but you can't learn anything when the teacher just keeps repeating the same week's curriculum over and over again.

[emberserker]

I assure you, that isn't how it normally goes. We weren't stuck in the last layers, either.