[IC] ANKL. Part 2

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia flinched at Lilith's movement, afraid that the girl was going to attack her again and potentially do worse than before. Her body was stiff when Lilith wrapped her arms around it, but relaxed when she realized she wasn't about to be strangled on top of everything else that had just happened. It took a moment for it to click, but once it did she pulled Lilith tighter against her own chest. She was still crying herself, making it hard to speak, but she sniffled and tried to manage it anyway. "Lilith, I'm sorry. . . It's not your fault. I keep m-messing things up for you. Please don't hurt yourself even more because I screwed up."

[Shamitako]

Sharp

 

Everyone seemed to be settling in, with Platinum and Esyllt taking up the second bunk bed, and Caliko returning to her previous state of lounging and reading a comic. Sharp considered climbing up to his top bunk, but decided against it and sat on the floor. Caliko's teasing had definitely made Platinum uncomfortable, but there wasn't anything Sharp could do about that, he hoped that it wouldn't make things too awkward for them in the future though.

"So, for a girl who wanted to keep a low profile, why do something as open as moving into the school dorm? Staying incognito in a crowded dorm doesn't quite seem like the best way to go about that, even for a publicity stunt." Esyllt asked Caliko.

"The other option is staying in a busy city and riding an equally crowded train twice a day." Sharp explained for Caliko, "There's less chances for discovery if she hides in the dorm."

"No, that's not it at all." Caliko corrected, "Isn't it just important to enjoy life as a schoolgirl in the proper way? Staying in the dorms is just the way to go to get the full schoolgirl experience."

Sharp rolled his eyes, "It's not like it was your choice."

"Shush, yes it was." Caliko insisted, though her tone showed it to be a joke.

 

Sharp enjoyed having Caliko as a roommate, she was a good person. She was a little overbearing at first, but it was easy to get used to her and her antics could even be fun at times. And she knew how to keep a secret, which for Sharp was the most important thing of all.

 

Lilith

 

Lilith pushed away from Arturia and tried to dry her eyes with her hands, but the stream of tears just spilled over them. "No. D-don't." She sobbed, "I don't want you to suffer b-b-b-because of me..." Arturia didn't understand, Lilith had to hurt herself. Trying to avoid pain just caused it for others, that's why mommy wasn't around anymore. Everything went better if she just accepted the burden herself. No one deserved to suffer, so she would take all of the suffering for herself.

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia dried her own tears on one still-unsteady arm, letting Lilith out of the hug but keeping the other arm on the girl's shoulder. She was still sniffling a bit, but seemed to be slowly recovering. She laughed a little, ruefully and just a touch bitterly. "Listen, I'm gonna be suffering whether I'm around you or not. This way it's at least something I can try to fix." She shook her head. "Besides, I chose this. It's my fault. You should be mad at me for causing all this." Arturia sighed. This was a hell of a mess, and she was trying not to let herself slide back into thinking too hard about the consequences her meddling had caused for Lilith. She'd be captured for who knows what if I wasn't here. I'm still making improvements. . . right? She wanted to hurry this along; the entire situation was something she wanted to escape from, even if it was into dealing with police.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

Once the conversation seemed to shift away from Platinum (thankfully), the small girl removed her hand from behind her head, nodding at the reasoning for why Caliko/Azrael had ‘chosen’ to remain in a dorm. Having to be around people everyday to get to school and back would rather quickly make he noticeable, but being able to retreat into a dorm in the downtime hours would make it a lot easier to stay under cover.

 

“So, Aker, how long have you been roomed with Caliko? I’d guess since the beginning of the year?” she found herself asking as she straightened her outit which was a bit of a mess after Caliko's surprise hug. There were a lot of things that were still on her mind, but she decided to give it a short rest for now. There’d be plenty of time later to bury her nose in another book for research.

[Stalkerkain]

Esyllt

 

Sharp's explanation had only made her more curious. Esyllt leaned over the side of her bunk to face Caliko and Sharp better.

 

"What do you mean that it wasn't your choice in staying in a dorm? There's nothing quite like the comforts of home, as many would say," she said playfully. "Oh, and by the way, is there anyone else who knows about this little arrangement, that we don't have to tiptoe around? I'd assume Mother Opium, to start."

[Shamitako]

Stole Tys

 

Tys led Kaede to their usual meeting place: a small conference room in the dorms that the school let church members use for the purpose of mentoring. They sat down, Tys uncharacteristically choosing to sit on the other side of the desk, though it was not unexpected since they were practicing a professional skill. "Before we get started, do you have any idea what might have happened that the church would take interest in?" Tys asked, "It would make preparing much easier if I can plan for something specific. Otherwise we'll just focus on the basics."

 

Lilith

 

Lilith was going to insist that everything was her fault, not Arturia's, again when the police lady from earlier reentered the room. Lilith was immediately wary of her, they hadn't had the greatest first impression. She didn't say anything, instead just standing halfway in the doorway waiting for Arturia or Lilith to give her a clear indication of whether or not she could enter. Lilith shielded herself with Arturia, but then said, "You can come in, I won't hurt you." She recognized that the police lady was just trying to help, or at least she was pretty sure that was the case, so she tried to be open to interacting with her.

[Chevaleresse]

Artura sniffled again (really it was a fairly unattractive sound) and wiped at her face for a final time before pulling herself to her feet, and offering Lilith a hand too. She glanced at the younger girl; she didn't seem to have an issue with the woman coming in. What the hell have I gotten myself into, here. . . ? Everything she'd encountered today had been. . . unexpected, to say the least. She mostly wanted to go home right now, but she figured that she could get and hold it together long enough to weather the remainder of whatever happened today. Arturia took a deep breath, and then exhaled in a sigh, starting to speak at the tail end of such. "So. Now what?"

[Shamitako]

Lilith

 

The police lady walked a little closer, but still kept closer to the door than to Lilith. "Well, let's start with introductions, because we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot." She said, "My name is Knife Bonnet, I'm a member of the Nayo secret service. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Lay- Er, Lilith Perdita." Lilith was too upset to properly respond to Knife revealing her affiliation, but she did recognize that it made the woman a whole lot more than just a police officer.

 

Caliko

 

"I'd appreciate if you tiptoed around everyone just in case, but the teaching staff are all aware of my identity." Caliko told Esyllt. She ignored the first question, it wasn't something she was comfortable talking about, even though the explanation wasn't all that complicated.

"The start of the year, yes." Sharp confirmed for Platinum, "Keeping her secret isn't too hard and Caliko is a good friend, so it's been pretty pleasant."

Caliko smiled to herself, of course Sharp would say that. Secrecy was the bond between them, no matter how challenging the secret was to keep, she was certain they would both find it easy to keep for one another. Caliko might have been a good friend, but she felt that Sharp was a simply amazing one. A twinge of pain shot through her heart, reminding her that she had an even deeper secret. She had every intention of sharing it, she just had no idea how to explain to Sharp that she was a superhero. In the comics she read, it was always such a dramatic thing for the hero to reveal their secret identity to their closest friends, she wasn't sure how to approach that drama in real life.

[Chevaleresse]

Secret service? The hell. . . ? The secret service had no reason to be here, unless they knew about Lilith's actual identity. In which case, this woman went from extremely helpful to. . . well, an unknown factor. "Arturia Eberhardt, like I said before. I'm just a student at the Opium Institute." She had a bad feeling about this, but she wasn't sure if it was actually about the woman or just because she had rapidly gone from someone attempting to press her into child prostitution to someone else supernaturally scaring the everliving shit out of her, not long after recovering from a hospital stay. "You're from Nayo?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

At Aker’s response, Platinum nodded, “I see. Well, it should be an easy secret for us to keep as well” Platinum commented, her glaze shifting to Esyllt for a split second. She had a slight worry that the other girl would accidentally let it out, but… Well, she couldn’t judge a book by its cover. Besides, if the teachers know, then there’s a reason they would be moved in, because they were trustable enough to know about the entire thing.

 

Still… Caliko as a roommate. If her life hadn’t been as weird recently as it was now, she would’ve thought she was dreaming. It felt a bit too good to be true. It very well could be, and she could just wake up at any moment, but considering what had happened earlier… She doubted it.

 

At the very least, it would be nice to have a place to feel comfortable in with Caliko herself. Especially when she had to figure out all the weird occurrences that had happened at that camp...

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede

Kaede wracked her mind trying to think of any possible information the Church could've wanted from her. There was probably plenty but how feasible was it that they knew? How much could've they have gleaned and known enough about to want to pry into... that was certainly the question. She didn't want to play out any hand she didn't have to. After all, she doubted that they knew the full extent of the events, after all, they wanted to speak to her. "l do not know what they could be possibly after Tys. l'm afraid that insight isn't one that l possess. l'm sure they are after something. Specific...more than likely. However, l cannot say what that is. Perhaps the incident at the field? That... hole that opened within the very ground... l wasn't present for that however and not really sure what could possibly be the cause of that pheomonon past the force of nature itself." Kaeda paused for moment such wsn't convincing enough so she decided to weave some more in without revealing her powers or that of the others.

"Though... l'd hope they have other sources for something such as that. Perhaps my assistance of that young woman? l did relocate her shoulder. But that feels too mundane a matter for the Church to meddle in."

[Shamitako]

Stole Tys

 

Tys nodded. "Let's move forward under the assumption that it has something to do with the crater." She said, "There's been an effort made to call it a meteorite impact, but there's too many whispers around the church for me to believe that to be the case. A lot of people think it was some kind of terrorist attack." Tys wasn't sure what she believed herself, but right now her own opinion wasn't important, she needed to prep Kaede. "If you weren't there yourself, then it's possible they either think you were or think you know someone who was. Normally you should avoid giving unnecessary information, but if they take an antagonistic tone, consider dropping a name, it might get them off of your back."

 

Alva

 

Not long after Kaede had left with Stole Tys, Alva heard another knock at the door. When she opened it, she'd find a teenage girl standing outside. It wasn't someone she recognized, but it wasn't like she knew everyone at the school. The girl had fiery orange hair and an eyepatch with a flame pattern over her right eye. She was wearing a black leather jacket over top an orange tank top, with some kind of bandaging peaking over the edge of the tank top on the left side.

[Twinwolf]

Alva blinked at the visitor at the door, before smiling politely. "Hey there! What can I help you with? Kaede and Arturia aren't here right now, so if you needed one of them you'll have to come back later." she said cheerfully. She didn't really have any idea what she'd want - she'd only just moved to this room, and her roommates, if she was being honest, didn't seem like the sorts to get a lot of visitors, so she really had no idea what it could be. 

[Shamitako]

Knife

 

Knife nodded. "From Nayo, and not officially here." She said, "I was trying to be discreet, but the bitch in the other room ended up ruining that plan." She still couldn't get over the feeling that she should have ignored the shouting when she came to the door, if she'd known it was a third party she might have let it be. But her conscience still pushed back and said that she'd made the right decision regardless of whether she saved Lilith or Arturia. "I work directly under Nigh Abigail, and I'm supposed to ask one Lilith Perditia to return to Nayo with me." Knife left out that she had been ordered to shadow Lilith first and not give the girl a choice if she saw anything extraordinary. The thing was, Knife didn't think she had any hope of forcing Lilith along, so playing nice was the best call. "The story as to why is a little crazy, but I get the feeling you both have a lot more crazy going on than I do, so I'll go ahead and tell it:

"An upside down girl showed up in Abigail's bedroom a few weeks ago, she was caught on camera so we know it wasn't a dream. This girl spoke in odd riddles, but managed to communicate two things: The name Lilith Perditia, and that the four goddesses exist in our world. She then vanished. Normally the things she said would seem insane, but when an upside down girl appears out of thin air to tell you them, you at least have to check it out. So that's why I'm here."

 

Kindle

 

A look of annoyance flashed on Kindle's face for just a moment, but she quickly shifted back to a neutral expression. Her arm reached up and started idly scratching her chest as she stepped into the room, something about her presence intimidating Alva into letting her through. "My name is Kindle, I'm here to see Kaede." She said, "I'll wait here until she gets back. She turned her head so her visible eye was looking over her shoulder at Alva, who was now between Kindle and the door. "That won't be a problem, will it?" She asked, with the clear implication that if it was a problem, Alva would be the one going out the door.

[Stalkerkain]

Esyllt

 

Esyllt flopped back onto her bunk, as she started playing with her hair in disinterest. "Hm... is that so. Seems like a pain to always keep in the back of my mind. I don't think it'd be something that would just casually let slip, but perhaps I should take you up on that bribe money, fufu~" she said jokingly, though Esyllt's tone was such that it was difficult to tell whether she was serious or not.

[Chevaleresse]

An upside down girl that mysteriously appeared and spoke in strange riddles? The upside down part was new, but the latter parts weren't. "Makes sense." It didn't, really, most of this didn't make sense and it might have been stressing Arturia out if she hadn't been occupied with more pressing concerns lately. "So you're some kind of secret agent, then?" She laughed a little; it felt like she'd fallen into three different movies at once. "Sorry, yeah, I've been experiencing more than a little crazy myself lately." Arturia glanced over at Lilith; she hadn't responded immediately to the idea.

 

"Nayo, though, huh. . ." She didn't really want to let Lilith go - not that it was her choice - and it came through in her voice. She also didn't relish the idea of following the other girl to a foreign country, and besides - at least one of the other goddesses was here, and she was trying to help reunite them. Arturia wasn't about to just abandon Lilith either, even if that voice in the back of her head insisted that she kept screwing things up for the girl in the course of trying to protect her. "Lilith, what do you think?" She wasn't sure what she wanted to hear.

[Shamitako]

Lilith

 

It made sense? No it didn't. None of it made sense. "What do the goddesses have to do with me? Why do I have to go anywhere?" She protested, "I don't want to leave Arturia. I want to stay here with her." Lilith wasn't sure what that even meant, she couldn't really stay here, Cora wouldn't keep her anymore after this. She didn't want Cora to keep her anymore. She didn't have anywhere else to go, she didn't have anywhere to stay, but she didn't want to let Knife take her.

Knife sighed, the tone warning Lilith of precisely what to expect next. "Lilith, I looked through the bitch's phone. I know what you did." Knife said, "Now I'm not gonna hold it against you, I already smashed the evidence, but I did see it. I don't know about the goddesses, but you have to go because you can't stay. I won't force you to come with me, I doubt I could if I wanted to, but do you have another option?" The question was asked to Arturia just as much as Lilith, and seemed sincerely open to any suggestions either might have.

Lilith wasn't listening anymore, she stopped when Knife revealed she'd seen. "You... You saw mommy?" She whispered the question, barely able to accept the reality of what she was saying.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede

Kaede wasn't really sure as to what to say. She had left the area, and hadn't really known what had happened there, though... she had ideas but nothing that was really attached to anyone she knew. "Tys, there'd not be any names to drop past more than half of the girls on that trip that were present at the time of occurance. My whereabouts were more than well known as l had prior to leaving helped to relocate a girl's shoulder and more or less made myself a known element at that point. The teacher present in the moment had sent myself and Alva, the girl whom l had helped to seek out the nurse. Two others came with us." 

Kaede stopped talking for a moment. She began racking her mind for details, passing over everything that had happened tht she could remember, taking out the info that had no purpose here and trying to file it around in her mind. Tys had seen her do this many times before, so she knew the pause wasn't because she was done speaking. "l cannot think of any names currently that would fit this criteria. l wasn't present l do not have enough information to know anme that would have import over any others that were present at the scene, at least not that l can remember."

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia pushed back her hair, trying to think. "Uhh, shit." Lilith couldn't stay at her house. Maybe a dorm? It'd put her closer to Arturia, at least, but that paperwork would take a while. She did have an in, however. Arturia wished she could just explain everything to Lilith, but she wasn't sure how much she could say around Knife, and how much was too much for Lilith to take in; it was dangerous, apparently. Her ponderings, though, were interrupted by Lilith's question. A question that made her more than a little nervous. "Lilith," she began hesitantly. "who is your mommy?"

[Shamitako]

(OOC: I haven't settled on precisely how I want to proceed with Plat and Esyllt, give me another week and then yell at me on Discord to get my shit together)

 

Stole Tys

 

Tys nodded in understanding. "Alright. Just keep it in mind." She said, "If there was anyone who left before you, they could be the one the church is after. If it comes down to it, you can lie to get suspicion away from you." She cleared her throat to indicate she'd be moving on. "We'll proceed forward by assuming they believe you're involved, and you don't have any way to redirect them. Since you weren't involved, you need to convince them that they've got the wrong person. Hard persuasion is a weak spot for you, so you'll be at a disadvantage. Since you're not involved, you can tell the truth, just be careful to avoid leaving any gaps in your story. Focus on the bit about helping the girl with the dislocated shoulder, it means you were preoccupied and wouldn't know anything. Maybe we can get the teacher to come by and vouch for you? If not we can potentially get one of the other girls involved, but their word will be worth a lot less."

 

Lilith

 

"Mommy is mommy." Lilith answered Arturia firmly. It was as much an answer for herself as for Arturia, confronting what Knife was saying was impossible.

"Lilith. I can't possibly imagine what you've gone through to make you do that." Knife said, treading carefully, "But I need you to accept it, you can't stay here alone."

"I'm not alone, Mommy is with me." Lilith insisted, but her faltering voice revealed the truth. Lilith didn't believe what she was saying herself, not really. It was a false reality she'd constructed to protect herself, and now it was going to break. Even without Knife's interference, it had to break if she wanted to be friends with Arturia. And she really did want to be friends with Arturia. Her eyes were tearing up, the look in them pleading with Knife and Arturia to fix her cracking world before it shattered entirely.

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia still wasn't entirely sure what Lilith meant. Was it a voice in her head, some kind of hallucination? Some kind of weird split personality thing? Unless there was some real weird supernatural possession shit going on - maybe "mommy" was Layla? Though that had some disturbing implications about her future. . . Whatever. She had to do something for Lilith right now, regardless. 

 

Arturia wrapped her arms around Lilith, pulling the smaller girl into a tight hug. "Lilith, listen. You're right, you're not alone. I'm with you, alright? You can stay with me, we'll figure something out. I can talk to, uh, Miss Katherine, she'll help us work it out, alright?"

[Twinwolf]

Alva stepped back as the girl forced her way into the room. Something about the girl - something struck her as wrong. "I don't see why it would be a problem..." she said, unsure. "Uh... what is it you want with Kaede? I don't know how long she's gonna be. Are you friends?" She didn't want to be mean but... Kaede didn't seem the sort to have that many friends. Maybe she was wrong though.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede

Kaede nodded at the suggestions thus far from Tys. lt all sounded like what she should try to do in the events such was the case. However... she still wasn't exactly sure who she could indicate to to get them off her back. The girl that had thrown that ball maybe? She'd run off after doing so. But... that'd probably lead to Arturia. She didn't want to throw the Church towards her friend... so she'd not mention her if such had to be the case. lt'd be a last resort, if she had nothing else. Kaede hadn't seen that teacher since the incident though, but plenty of girls had seen the incident and all of them could attest to what had happened, it wasn't as if she was alone. 3 others were with her and more or less an entire class worth of girls had seen the events. "Even if we can't get the teacher there was an entire class at the minimum of girls who bore witness to such... the testimony of one or a handful... sure l can understand how that'd not be as credible. But it'd hardly be the word of one that'd be attainable. So unless the interrogator's just being unreasonable..."

The more they discussed this the less and less sense it seemed to make that The Church should have any inkling that she'd have anything to do with the events or that Kaede knew anything about what had transpired. Everything pointed to the opposite. What exactly were they after?

[Shamitako]

Caliko

 

"Well, we can talk about all that more later. Right now, I could use a snack." Caliko said. In moments she was dressed in her street clothes, complete with mask and sunglasses. "We can't go into town, so it's vending machine time. You guys want anything? If you say no I'm getting you celery sticks." Though her face was concealed, it was pretty clear she was smiling as she tried to avoid laughing at that statement. Sharp seemed equally amused, much to the newcomers confusion.

"If you don't mind running by the group lounge, I'd like a cup of chicken soup." Sharp said.

"Ah, a stealth mission, I see." Caliko answered in a devious tone, "Sending me to the microwave at this time of day, you truly have it out for me, don't you Mr. Dog?"

"But of course, Miss Cat. These games would be no fun were there no challenge." Sharp replied, taking up his own character.

"Well then, I must counter with a challenge of equal intensity when we next meet, are you prepared for such a thing, Mr. Dog?"

"Why Miss Cat, I am prepared for anything you could throw at me. Even celery sticks."

 

At that last line, the two burst into laughter. When she finally remembered there were others in the room, Caliko reiterated her earlier question to them between stray giggles. "Anyways, I'll be going by the lounge to use the microwave, in addition to the vending machine. Either of you want me to buy you something?"

 

Kindle

 

"Friends?" Kindle shook her head, "No, Kaede and I are not friends." She glanced around the room and noticed newly arrived belongings. She couldn't know whose they were, but her gut told her they belonged to the girl that had answered the door. "Is Kaede your friend?" She asked, the way she spoke yet again suggesting that a wrong answer would have a very poor result.

 

Knife

 

Lilith didn't hug Arturia back. Despite being physically touching, there seemed to be a barrier between them. Lilith's face was cold and empty as she said, "Why would she help?" Her voice was completely unfaltering, matching the chill of her face. "We aren't here for her to assuage her guilt." Arturia felt a sting like static electricity, and then Lilith fell limp in her arms, sleeping soundly.

 

Knife wasn't sure what to think of the whole thing. She didn't know who Katherine was, and she didn't really know who Lilith or Arturia were. She held off on saying anything just yet, she was waiting for Arturia to address her first, but it didn't sound like Lilith had a better option than letting Knife take her back to Nayo.

 

Stole Tys

 

Tys nodded in agreement. "Yes, they'd have to be rather unreasonable to deny more than one or two of your peers testimonies. Do you know any of them personally? And the girl you helped, can you contact her especially? It would be best if you could contact them right after the interrogation so you can ensure their testimony is handled swiftly." Tys was starting to feel a lot better about this. She'd been really worried at first, but now they had a solid strategy. "If you can give me their information I can even potentially contact some while you're being interrogated."

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede

"Not all of them no... l'm sure you're aware l don't exactly fit in the best around here." Kaede said, it'd be a bit tougher to get some of the random girls present at the scene to vouch for her. However, not all was lost in that sense. "However, the girl l had helped to relocate her shoulder has moved into my dorm recently, you met her when you had picked me up. ln addition... the two others that assisted me to take Alva to the nurse, one Riley and another girl by the name of Esyllt." Kaede tried rattling off the name of literally any girl that she could remember having been present at the incident without mentioning Arturia or the girl she had chased after specifically. She took painstaking measures to rattle off any important information she could remember. Luckily, she was quite good at information retention and further gathering it. lt helped when most peopledidn't ever pay attention to your existence in one's ability to eavesdrop or wander about unnoticed. Kaede might not have been the best talker, but information was a powerful weapon and one she knew how to wield.

"The others... aren't quite reliable. Alva will for sure be helpful. The others it's a little less certain though l'm sure they'll know not to mess with the church and just tell the truth, That we weren't there. After all, l'm sure they won't be stupid enough to bring the Church down on themselves. Given they were supposedly with me, so if they lie suddenly they might have information and just be making themselves targets. lf you want to throw someone else under the bus... you don't throw yourself under in the process."