#abnormdays

[undyingxiv]

Nice, greenhouse is undisturbed... what about the actual garden? Are the roses alright?

The roses do look quite enticing! As vivid as ever. Everything here remains undisturbed and tranquil.

[bounward]

dawson | darkness, decay, and the red death (chapter one)

Dawson was already awake, making a cup of coffee at his kitchenette when the televisions jolted to life. The sound of Prix’s voice made him jump, dropping the canister of coffee creamer straight into his full mug. He only half-listened to what the rat was saying, trying to dry off the creamer, until --

“Looks like SOMEONE finally decided to get this ball ROLLING – thanks for breaking the seal, hee-hee!”

Immediately, a lump formed in Dawson’s throat. No.

“There’s someone waiting here, who’s dying to see you all!”

No.

As if sleepwalking, Dawson found himself walking toward the lobby of the Classics building in a haze. No, he thought. This is a setup for something - another one of her lackluster attempts to stir things up.

That thought fizzled the moment he saw... Chirin.

Chirin’s body almost appeared to be serene, were it not for the slice along her neck. Dawson’s gaze lingered on her soft expression. He hadn’t spent a great deal of time with her, but still felt a pang of sadness to see her lying there, lifeless. She had always been kind to him - so full of life, like the vines she created. Truly, he hadn’t expected anyone to resort to violence on behalf of the pink rat - and hadn't expected Chirin to be the target of their violence. Part of Dawson was just thankful that it wasn't himself. He allowed himself a moment to mourn her loss silently.

“We were all together, just a few nights ago,” he finally spoke, touching the moonstone necklace Chirin had given him at the dinner party - before Prix arrived, before all of this became a possibility.

Dawson shook the thought away and averted his gaze from the body, his mind racing in search of something. A reason. A motive. A connection. An answer. Shouldn’t Chirin have seen this coming, shouldn’t she have been able to foretell it?

Perhaps - no. Perhaps... she knew.

"And darkness and decay and the red death held illimitable dominion over all," Dawson murmured, turning away.

Perhaps it was inevitable.

[ephemeralxiv]

VIERZEHN FILE:

VICTIM: Keizo Ito LOCATION OF BODY: Nurse’s Office CAUSE OF DEATH: Asphyxiation TIME OF DEATH: 6:26 pm

Keizo Ito’s body is lying lifelessly on the ground. His eyes are closed and a pained expression is visible on his face. His right ankle is contorted in an unnatural way. White bandages soaked with blood are wrapped all around his ankle.

[hadeanic]

What Needs to be Said || Shu || CH4 || Closed for Jito

An hour spent in her dojo had done nothing to calm Shu's spirit. She felt just as terrible as she had when she left, minus the urge to cry, which she had mostly taken care of. She knows the only way to truly fix this feeling (not that she should be feeling any better) is to face things head on.

Not wanting to go straight to his room, the most likeliest place Jito would be, Shu wanders around Station Gray. It's a delaying tactic. She's borrowing time for herself before she admits what she's done.

Her stalling comes to the end once she enters the War Area. Shu steps onto the projected line that halves the room, and looks over at Jito with a serious expression at odds with the silliness of the space.

"Yuji-kun. We need to talk."

[bounnostra]

we all fell in the pit.

....

...Is it a little surprising... that someone didn’t use the time ... to find a way to kill MOSS?

Perhaps, but--

“What a losing race, my friends!  Or is it that we always put our bets on the losers?  Hoo-hoo.”

...Though GAMBIT is looking at Ivan with... a sense of pity.

“...Ah, regardless.  It should be said, you all are completely cured -- though it may take some time for all of it to leave your system.  And what marvelous sports you are!  I couldn’t have that running over my hotel forever, you know.”

A little nod.

“It should also be said that... this was a discovered body.  It hasn’t been the full timespan.  Surely that helps.”

“Well, you all know what to do!  I’ll have your hoots call you over when the time comes.  As it stands, please!  Take your time, and good luck.”

(INVES, START!)

[rewoundcircuit]

Monofile: Death

Victim: Takeru Nokubo Location of Body: Tunnel 20 Cause of Death: Cardiac Arrest Time of Death: 5:23PM

The victim is Takeru Nokubo. The time of death was 5:23PM. The body is located about two metres away from the electric grid that is blocking off wherever the tunnel for track twenty leads towards. The victim appears to be in a state of perpetual shock and suffers severe burns on various parts on the front of his body.

[lowellaquaregia]

To trust or not to trust | Lowell | Chapter 3 | Monotheater | RE: Execution Reaction, Mika, ATTN: Junpei

(What was she trying to prove here?)

Lowell grimaced as Shinobu started to reprimand them, as if she had any right to do so whilst excusing her own actions with her past. As if she knew what any of them had gone through in their life, hah, so much for trying to understand others, huh--

Was she trying to cash in some pity for revealing her life story? Did she really think that she would be forgiven for what she’d done if she was just sorry enough? Was she actually attempting to guilt-trip them, to make them feel bad for not thanking her for her sacrifice? For not liking her with that kind of attitude that she displayed during her stay here? Did she simply assume that everyone would believe her just like that?

(Humans were surprisingly good at faking their emotions and using that to manipulate others.)

(However, she sounded so genuine--)

(Don’t they always sound like that, only to turn out to be the absolute worst--)

Don’t judge a cover by its book.

Even if he wanted to say something, there was simply not enough time, as Shinobu had been already dragged off to her execution. He only lasted until the first bullet, before he looked away. There was no point in watching someone’s cruel demise - especially when it was the murderer of your friend, circumstances be damned--

(Funny, really, when he considered that--)

(... Let’s not go there. Ever.)

After the execution was over, Lowell was about to head straight to the elevator, away from all these people here, but as if to call on his empathy, his thoughts steered itself to Junpei’s direction. Although he hadn’t said anything, he certainly did agree with most of the points he made. However, that wasn’t important right now, as the poor guy didn’t look like as if he would manage to get to his room by himself.

Sighing quietly, Lowell made his way to the other’s podium and asked him in a concerned tone:”Hey, Wakatsuki. Want me to carry you to your room? You, uh... really don’t look too hot.”

Suddenly, Mika stormed off to confront Suji and Lowell stared at her in surprise, taken aback by how daring she was. When Mei came in and planted the publicist against the floor, Lowell was already taking a step forward, ready to get the maid off the girl.

“ASO--!”

Fortunately, Mika was let go only a moment later, but his blood was boiling by how those two dared to absolve themself from any guilt in that matter. As if their rage towards them wasn’t justified.

“... I hope Karma ain’t gonna spare you one bit when the time will come, you lying, fucking scumbags.”

He hissed, his tone holding nothing but malice towards their supposed caretakers. God, he couldn’t even describe how much he loathed those two (and he definitely needed to burn that goddamn Mei charm for good).

Lowell turned his gaze to Mika, his expression looking more concerned now, but it was clear that he probably held a lot of anger back about... everything, really.

“Hey Aso, you alright? That fucking bitch didn’t hurt you too bad, yeah?”

If it weren’t for Junpei being so sick and in dire need of someone to be there for him, he would’ve rushed to Mika’s side. Hopefully, someone else could look after her - and as much as he doesn’t like her on a personal level, it would be good for Umika to check her for any possible lasting effects of that display.

[abnormalthoughts]

Thomas crashes a party

[shsl-doubttora-blog]

A Soft Place To Land | Holly | Re: This Entire Goddamned AbNormdays Where Have I Been

Holly wasn't sure what was going on, honestly, and she hasn't been sure for some time now. She was going to chalk it up to dehydration-induced hysteria. What else could she do? She was prepared for the people in their group to resort to murder and violence, she was prepared for the motives to do so that Doce threw their way, she was prepared for her friends and acquaintances to be hiding big secrets about themselves and their pasts. But robots? Fucking ROBOTS?

“.....”

She wishes she could have contributed to this trial somehow. Offered her voice up in support of Akio, her friend, or….said anything at all, really. But every time she tried, she found herself at a loss for words, more and more confused by the minute. She was having a lot of trouble processing all this information, and her frustration at that fact certainly didn't help speed the process along. So she just drifted, carried along by the ebb and flow of the arguments that were presented, and she waited for a time that might never come when she could be useful again.

Her eyes cut over to the big bug person, someone she most certainly wasn't a fan of, who she hadn't even spoken to since their fight weeks ago. They didn't seem to be in the best condition, and…..Holly glanced at Michiko, who clearly was in no state to effectively handle this, and sighed, before freezing as she came to a horrific realization (to her, the drama queen) all at once - did this death leave her the only one here who….

She stifled a groan. This wasn't exactly how she'd expected things to turn out.

“Michiko,” the athlete started, her own voice sounding distant and garbled to her ears as if she were hearing it from underwater. “After this is over, you should go lay down. I'll come up later to check on you, but this kind of took a toll on you, right? You did great, obvs, like you always do, but your job here is done. I promise I'm not ditching you or anything, there's just, uh, something I need to take care of, first.”

She gestured vaguely towards Chou, her eyes raising to the sky as she did as if questioning why the universe was playing some sick joke on her, one that no one around her except maybe Michiko herself would understand. After a moment of silence, she leaned forward and hugged the medic quickly - an easy task, seeing as apparently she hadn't so much as bothered to go to her own podium this trial and had instead been nodding off on Masashi’s shoulder the entire time.

Without saying anything else, she gently disentangled herself from her best friend and, with a Look to Masashi that clearly meant “make sure she's taken care of for now”, walked over to their lovely culprit and stopped a few feet away, looking conflicted.

“Um, so, I don't….really get all this robot stuff, Doc, but I'm sorry you have to go. I'll….really miss you. Please take care of everyone who's been taken away too early from us, too. And I mean everyone, even the people who did, um, really bad things, and the victims that weren't so kind to most people. I'm counting on you, okay? And I'll….I mean, I'll keep taking care of your dolls, if you want me to. And I'll take care of Shoji-chan, too.”

Hesitating, she stuffs her hands in her pockets and turns away, before apparently abruptly changing her mind and darting back over to tightly hug her friend.

Once she pulled away, she set her jaw, turned towards her Real Problem, and made a beeline for poor, long-suffering Chou. Holly looked more exasperated than anything, staring down at her, and she couldn't stop herself from pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers and taking a deep breath before placing her hand on Sarara’s shoulder.

“Hey, Durarara-chan. I can take care of her from here. Don't worry - Michiko has been teaching me a lot, and my dad and brother are both medics in the army and I picked up a lot from them. As soon as I can, I'll get them out of here and get them some ACTUAL medical attention. I mean, no offense, but self-doctoring isn't exactly the most exact of sciences, like, you know?”

As if to reassure the curator that the bug collector was in good hands, Holly flashed her one of her characteristically cheery smiles (which had recently been few and far between) and knelt down next to her classmate to try to look over the injury as best she could in this less than optimal circumstance.

“Don't worry. I've broken my ankle like, twice. It's NBD.”

…..Good luck, Chou.

[undyingxiv]

Gonna smell some flowers in the greenhouse... someone better not have done anything in here.

The greenhouse is undisturbed this time around! Hey, some crops might even be growing back too!

[bounward]

CH.1 | O'MALLEY | 迷える羊 [RE: BODY]

O'Malley barely remembered how he got here. How he got fully dressed. Everything was a blur from the time Prix woke them up with the implication that one of them was...

"....................Hh--"

He remembered the frustration he felt at seemingly being the only one to take Prix's words seriously, back when she first shook them up. His brand new crewmates surrounded him with those pitying eyes, trying to quiet and calm him say that there was no way they could kill each other. And though he had felt so unheard, so stifled, so upset...maybe he'd started to believe it.

The twenty of them together at this resort weren't peaceful by any means, but still, these days that could have been filled with fear were actually filled with fun. Even if O'Malley had already embarrassed himself in front of them enough times to fill a book, he didn't feel repelled. Nobody was ever excluded. Nobody ever got seriously hurt. And they managed to have a good time.

Of course he never wanted his worst fear to be fulfilled, but maybe he'd actually started to believe it would never happen.

But here it was in front of him. 

And of all people...

"Ch... Chirin... Wh..."

He couldn't look. He didn't know from his one shaky glance how she had died, but he couldn't bear to see for himself. But he had no doubt that was Chirin. A witch, and yet one of the most stable presences here, he thought. He couldn't have imagined she would go, just like that. He couldn't think about her killer, her murder, their situation... Just the sheer shock that it was her stunned him like a punch to the stomach. 

"Why...?"

That first week and a half, Chirin had always been nice to him. She had always been fair. A stable presence at the parties, and a wonder with her baubles jingling against her horns and her beautiful displays of plant magic. He'd kept kicking himself all that time. Why hadn't he spoken to her in person? What was he waiting for? Now he felt like a fool. He'd waited so long to finally text her to meet up. And they had their one dance together... 

She had grown him a corsage out of rose and mint so he would look nice.

"Got a favorite color?"

He remembered how her hand felt in his.

"Never worried about falling if I have a partner who'll catch me."

...

"Mmgh..."

He buried his face in his hands and cried.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm an idiot... If I'd known how little time... You didn't deserve...th-thisss... Chiriiiin...!"

And just like that, he was swept off into a new group. His hands lowered at the sound of a snarl, and with his tear-stained face he regarded someone hurting over this even more than he. And O'Malley reached for her...

[ephemeralxiv]

The Likely Story | Trial 1-1 | RE: Jin

Hikaru seems pretty pleased with Jin's deductions at least, especially at how he shut down Naruki.

“Nah...I think you’ve gotten them on the right track, not bad kid.”

Hikaru crosses his arms, tilting his head from side to side as he considers the information before them. 

“In a criminal trial, you need to get in the head of the killer. If you were put in the circumstances whoever killed Goro was in, what would you most likely do? I, for one, would certainly prioritize swift escape over hiding a pot that someone would likely find anyway. Overall, it isn’t important, just something the killer used during their trap. It being bait is about as likely as this case being a suicide.”

I mean...probably not, one of those is certainly not as reasonable as the other, but the point here clearly is that Hikaru agrees with Jin. Which is shit for anyone who hopes to disagree with them! There’s a feeling that these two teaming up is a disaster for everyone.

“Now...one last thing, though keep in mind this is no way damning evidence but I wish to bring up the strand of black hair found in the pot. If I recall, Goro most certainly didn’t have black hair, so wouldn’t it be most likely the killer accidentally left their evidence? This would lead me to believe a dark-haired individual is responsible.”

  "As such, congratulations to Naruki, Cris, Yuna, Hoshi, Reo and Junko. You are all officially off my list of primary suspects."

He makes a few notes in the notebook he is still carrying around, seeming pretty pleased with himself.

"...As for Jin, Akash, Miharu, Keizo and Hinata...I expect you to prove yourselves."

[hadeanic]

ice cream cake || SH1BA || closed for mayumi

With the motive now announced and her list submitted, Shiba felt like she deserved a bit of a break from it all. That included people as well. She didn't stick around for people to try and preach to her the same monologue she had gotten from Jito about ten times already. She had spent a good amount of the day just literally running and doing anything to keep her body moving faster than her mind. 

Which meant that now, late at night with less of a chance of running into anyone, Shiba was hungry. The idea of having to make a meal, while staying quiet, and cleaning up right after wasn't... very inciting. If there was someone else requesting it of her, she could probably cook something, but since it was just for herself it was hard to really wanna focus. 

So here she was, standing in front of the open fridge of Mayumi's lab and... eating shredded cheese straight from the bag. At least it looked like she was trying to think of something else to snack on. Either way, she was so invested in staring and figuring things out that she didn't notice someone else coming in. 

[bounnostra]

...Excuse me...?

You’re struggling to get your bearings -- or maybe you’re saying hi to PINCER, CONVOY, GHOST DOG -- anyone, really--

When GAMBIT cuts in -- a tad vaguely:

“See, now this -- I’ve never -- to think!”

“I had this so well-- Well!  I do have to get to the bottom of this -- which is to say, why don’t you all?”

A long pause from the owl.

“...I don’t know how any of this happened.  It’s as if my-- well, that’s of no matter.  What is of matter is that I must decipher as to what is going on!  Because this simply will not stand!  I suspect hijinks!  Foul-play!  Some other third thing that means someone was up to no good!”

Nodding, now:

“...Treat it as an investigation, and begone!  Three groups, as always.  And you -- you dead lot--”

“...I have no idea how this happened or why, but I cannot help but suspect you’re involved.  Hence.  Join the groups with the hoots that take you, and out of my sight -- henceforth!  Until we’ve settled this!”

[rewoundcircuit]

Cheer Up || Takeru || Chapter 1 || Closed: Ikuko

The train that travels between the main hub and the newly opened areas runs on a strict schedule. Right now, the train is scheduled to return to the home location from the second area.

The train comes to a stop, so Takeru hops out of his seat and exits. His hands are in his pockets and he's whistling a tune, really taking his time. Once he's in the main concourse, he's strolls towards the lounge.

"Hm?" His whistling comes to a stop. Takeru lifts one hand up to his forehead to shield his eyes from the lights above. "A new friend?"

Takeru closes the distance between him and the girl he had spotted. Given their current situation and the motive that was presented, Takeru appears unfazed.

"Hey there," he smiles. "We haven't really talked yet, but we really should! Everyone seems so stressed, and it's kind of a bummer." He puffs out his chest. "I guess I need to cheer everyone up!"