[IC] ANKL. Part 2

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

... Well, judging from the fact that the conversation seemed to be coming to a close with Caliko planning to leave to get something to eat, Platinum decided to reach into her luggage again, before pulling out a rather plain looking book. The contents were mostly focused upon the four Goddesses, though out of all of them, she found herself focusing on the topics about Alexus, almost like she was drawn to them.

 

At least, she would've, if she had not been distracted by Sharp's and Caliko's conversation, peering up from her book to raise an eyebrow at the two. Whatever they were talking about, it seemed to be a personal joke between the two. The two mentions of celery sticks caused Platinum to narrow her eyes, before she shrugged at Caliko's offer, "I'm fine. I already ate earlier" she stated, before returning to her research.

[Stalkerkain]

"Hm, I think I will go with you. All this lying around has made me a little restless," Esyllt replied with cheer, though her tone still retained a little of its prior edge. Despite everything, she was still unable to hide the unease at the back of her mind and this was a perfect opportunity to put some concerns to rest. Esyllt lazily made her way over the railing of the top bunk instead of using the ladder, and landed crouched at the foot of the bunk with a soft thud. The railing gave a disapproving creak, indicating that it wasn't a good idea to do it a second time.

 

"I'm quite opposed to celery sticks, and I'd like to see what wonderful selection is on display," she said jokingly, knowing full well of the boring availability. "This will also give me an opportunity to get to know Caliko better."

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia jumped at the shock, more out of startlement than actual pain. "Whaaaat the fuck." It was a declaration, really, not a question. She supposed she couldn't fault Lilith for passing out, but this seemed like something other than a stress-related faint. She took a deep breath, and adjusted her hold on Lilith a bit to make it less stressful on her arms before speaking. "Uh, I have no idea what that was, but I do have a couple ideas I want to try." Mostly because she didn't know what she would do if Lilith was carted off to another country. She didn't want to leave her home country, even with as many issues as it had. Not yet, anyway. She didn't want to abandon Lilith, either, even if chasing this girl had nearly gotten her killed or worse. "I was going to take her back to my dorm - my roommate will understand - and then try to arrange things so she can stay there or in another dorm while we figure out a long term plan. There's some staff at the Institute that will probably help if I ask." 

[Shamitako]

Caliko

 

Caliko understood what Esyllt was up to, but any potential reaction was concealed by her disguise. "Having a partner along for such a dangerous mission would be much appreciated." She said, leading Esyllt out of the room. She walked down the hall towards the vending machine, deciding to stop at the nearest one before heading to the common room for Sharp's request. She didn't say anything, instead waiting for Esyllt to broach the subject on both of their minds. 

 

Sharp

 

Once Caliko and Esyllt had left, there was a silence between the remaining roommates as they both retreated into books. They didn't know each other well, and their main shared experience wasn't exactly a positive one, so Sharp wasn't really sure what to say. And he wasn't very outgoing in the first place. But that shared experience made him curious, he wanted to know Platinum better. He decided to start with the simplest icebreaker, asking, "What are you reading, Miss Platinum?" 

 

Knife

 

Knife pursed her lips. Letting Arturia handle Lilith seemed like the best call right now, Lilith seemed to trust her more than anyone else, at least. But putting something as volatile as that in a dormitory with many other people seemed extremely dangerous. But she had given Lilith the choice, and it seemed like she wanted to stay, so Knife couldn't well contest Arturia's plan without making herself a liar. "Alright," she said finally, "it's not ideal but it will have to do. It's probably best not to take a train with her like that, I'll drive you." Knife paused, there was just one more thing, but it was a big thing. "Before you take her in, there's something you need to hear. I should probably leave it to Lilith to tell you, but I don't think she'll even admit it to herself. It's a lot to take in, so I'll tell you once we're on the road." Knife cursed herself internally, she'd become a liar anyways. Truthfully, she was only delaying for her own sake. 

 

But delay she had done, and so she went to get her car, leaving it to Arturia to bring Lilith out. On the way out, she passed by a struggling Cora, whom Knife had left bound and gagged. She debated leaving the vile woman to rot like that, or even outright killing her. But she resolved to inform the local authorities. She had a contact in the Kayo court system that owed her a favor, Cora would be locked up for a long time. It was hardly what the woman deserved, but she wouldn't hurt anyone like Lilith again.

[Stalkerkain]

Esyllt

 

"Since it would be pointless to ask whether or not you are a friend or an enemy, I'll cut straight to the point; what was your business in stopping that girl Katja, and what did it have to do with Alva?" Esyllt said, as she inserted a coin into the vending machine. The fact that Caliko was still here meant that she had power either on par or greater than that of Katja. And that was something to be even more wary about. Esyllt pressed her palm against the buttons, the inputs producing a random selection of snack which dropped down. If Esyllt could figure out where Caliko stood relative to all the events, it would be easier for her to assess whether or not she would become involved in more peculiar events in the future, and if siding with Caliko would produce an invaluable ally. "I'd hardly like to believe that you were saving us out of sheer altruism."

[Shamitako]

Caliko

 

"Well I'm a superhero, I'm supposed to save people." Caliko said with complete confidence, "You're one too, wasn't that why you were there? Though that villain girl didn't seem like the cause of the earthquake, she just makes those weird bubbles. I cut her off from her hourglass and she ran, but I didn't get to check out the crater." 

[Chevaleresse]

"I might already know," she commented as Knife left the room She adjusted her grip on the sleeping Lilith again; she wasn't exactly large, but Arturia was only a bit taller than average and not exactly noted for her physical strength. "At this point I feel like it might be too late to make a joke about getting into a strange woman's car, given, you know." She chuckled a bit at her non-joke to the air. Arturia took a deep, still-shaky breath before she hefted Lilith. "Up you go." And here she'd thought the day of the forest incident was stressful. She carefully made her way out of the darkened house, belatedly realizing she'd never transformed back. "It'd be weirder if I did. . ." Maybe Knife knew what was going on? Or she thought Arturia was really into cosplay. She didn't have too much time to ponder the question, though, as she got out of the building and made her way to the vehicle she assumed was Knife's.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

"Mythology book. I've taken a bit of interest in the Goddesses lately, so I grabbed this" Platinum stated bluntly, before looking up from her book for a split second to make eye contact with Aker, "You?" she asked. Like him, Platinum wasn't a very outgoing person, but she was thankful he was the one trying to initiate a conversation. She was, obviously, not much of a skilled talker.

[Stalkerkain]

Esyllt

 

"Not... quite. I just happened to be there by coincidence, that's all." Her entire thought process had skipped a beat when Caliko gave her explanation, leaving her rather speechless. Perhaps she overthought how much Caliko knew, and that she could have unlocked her powers more recently, just like her. In that case, Riley was still her best chance at grasping the overall situation at hand. "How did you manage to find us? From what I could tell, we were enclosed in some kind of time space. If there had been some sort of earthquake at the time, none of us had felt it."

[Shamitako]

Knife

 

Knife helped Arturia get the unconscious Lilith into the back of her SUV, still keeping quiet about what she'd said inside. It wasn't until they were out of the neighborhood that she finally explained herself. "You might have figured out already that Lilith's mother is gone." she said, her tone cautious, "But that's not all. There was a set of pictures on Cora's phone. They showed Lilith and the body of a woman that Cora claimed was her mother. I'll spare you the details, but it wasn't pretty." 

[Twinwolf]

Alva

 

Alva... felt really nervous, all of a sudden. She had no idea why - this was just some girl here to see Kaede. "I think I am?" she said, almost cautiously. "We just met, but we've gotten along really well, I think. I hope she thinks of me as a friend." she elaborated. "Why?"

[Chevaleresse]

"Oh," Arturia replied, somewhat blankly. She wasn't quite certain how to respond to that. It wasn't what she'd been expecting, to say the least. Given what she'd seen, though, Arturia supposed that it made sense. "Gods, what the fuck have I gotten myself into here. . ." she sighed quietly, trying to think about how to deal with the situation. So Lilith had, accidentally or intentionally, killed her own mother. Taking what had happened thus far into account, she was leaning accidental, or at the very least in self-defense. Though maybe that was just being optimistic. "I see why you don't want her in the dorms. I just don't have any better ideas at this point, it's not like some superhero show where we've got a secure base to keep her in or something." She glanced back at Lilith, checking to see if the girl was stirring or not. Arturia hoped Miss Katherine had some kind of plan, if she could even trust her, and Lilith didn't lose it and attack her or something. . . The long-haired girl rubbed at her eyes, trying not to let her stress and frustration show. 

[Shamitako]

Kindle

 

"You've only know her a short while, I see." Kindle mused. She ignored Alva's question, pressing further with her own instead. "When did you meet her?" Kindle knew she had total control of the situation, the entire room was in the palm of her hand. Kaede's unfortunate roommate had become a sacrifice on the alter of poor location and timing as Kindle flayed her mind with relentless questioning. 

[Twinwolf]

Alva

 

"At the camp a bit ago. She helped fix my arm after someone dislocated it during dodgeball." Alva answered simply - no reason to lie, so the truth was fine. She was, however, increasingly nervous and wondering what the girl wanted with Kaede... she didn't look like another church person... 

[Shamitako]

Stole Tys

 

Stole Tys nodded as she stood up. "Alright, I'll go talk to the administration and see about contacting them." She said, "Even if they're unreliable, it's better than nothing. While I'm doing that, you should head back to your room and explain what's going on to Alva." She smiled warmly, adding, "May Kallisto shine on you." Before leaving the room. 

 

Tys still wasn't sure what the Church wanted with Kaede, probably just being nosy because they had an excuse, the higher ups loved to poke into peoples' lives every chance they got. Whatever it was, she was certain that Kaede would be able to handle it, especially with three testimonies to back her up.

 

Kindle

 

Kindle raised an eyebrow, apparently that response was interesting. "Do you and Kaede have any other friends?" She continued, not giving Alva time to regain her balance.

 

Caliko

 

Caliko looked rather shocked. "Well I know you were caught in that bubble, but you didn't feel the earthquake?" She asked, "The crater and earthquakes everyone was talking about, you really didn't feel that?" Caliko guessed it was possible, that bubble did seem to be cutting them off from the rest of the world somehow. But Caliko had been able to get in, so it was weird to her that something like a massive earthquake wouldn't at least have effected it a little.

 

Sharp

 

Sharp glanced down at his book, contemplating how to explain it. "It's about a world where machines do everything and people just have fun all day." He said, "It's a mostly critical look at the concept, the people become lazy and stupid. Very different from most interpretations where automation makes life easier."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

"I see. That sounds like an interesting book. Perhaps I'll read it myself once I find the time" Platinum replied, flipping the page of her own book before speaking up again, "A more off topic question, but if has been a while since we last talked. What have you been doing since the trip?"

[Stalkerkain]

Esyllt

 

"Care to fill me in, then? I'd hardly like to believe that we were too focused to notice an earthquake, but we're having this conversation now, aren't we," Esyllt said, as she opened her snack and began munching on its contents. "You're saying this earthquake caused a crater, but is there anything special about it that would be worth checking out? Otherwise, forgive my terseness, but I think I'd rather worry about what our common villain was up to."

 

That being said, Esyllt didn't have a clue as to where to start looking. At the very least, having a look at the site of the crater would kill some time, if anything.

[Shamitako]

Knife

 

Knife held her tongue at the mention of a secure base. Lilith had already decided against returning with her to Nayo, it would help anything to try to push it right now. "Well, whatever you've gotten into, you're not alone. And I don't just mean me." Knife reassured, "This is the fourth proven supernatural occurrence that Nayo has been tracking. In addition to Lilith, there's longstanding evidence of a few craftsmen in Layo having magic weapons, the ghost girl that gave us Lilith's name, and the church has a girl in their care who can create an aura of flame. We've been at this a while, and while I won't deny a bit of ulterior motive, we can help."

 

Knife didn't elaborate, instead switching gears to small talk until they reached the school. Upon parking, she grabbed a small pad of paper and jotted down two phone numbers for Arturia. "My number. I'll be in the general area, so call if you need immediate help." She pointed to the top one, "The other one is a friend of mine who's unaffiliated with the government. Call her if you just need someone to talk to about all this."

 

Knife helped Arturia unload Lilith, but couldn't help carry the unconscious girl into the dorms, explaining, "Sorry, not supposed to let anyone know I'm here, just being in this parking lot is a bit risky." She continued to hang around until Arturia made her way inside. Afterwards heading off to check that everything was handled with Lilith's unsavory benefactor.

 

Sharp

 

Sharp mused on how truthful he should be. He hadn't even told Caliko the whole truth yet, so that was out of the question, but Platinum had been there for dodgeball... "I've been trying to learn more about that Lilith girl, thats the one that dislocated a shoulder with a dodgeball." He said finally, "The dodgeball was charged with electricity, and I suspect somehow her body emits electricity to supercharge her muscle tissue. Though I don't know how actually possible that is, because I was studying her and not biology. Unfortunately, she's a laylite, so I couldn't find much. Apparently her mother vanished under mysterious circumstances, but that just gives me more questions."

 

Caliko

 

Caliko was pretty surprised that Esyllt hadn't at least heard about the crater, since it was a pretty big deal in the news even still. But she explained anyway, "There was a huge earthquake that shook the whole camp. A crater appeared near the fields. According to the government it was some kind of space rock. That's why they cut camp short. I was on my way to check it out when I ran into you guys. Luckily my powers were able to stop that ne'er-do-well. But I never did find out the true cause of the crater and earthquake."

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia nodded. She supposed it made sense, if Knife was some kind of secret agent. One who had, apparently, put herself at nontrivial risk in order to save her. Her head was still spinning a bit; she still hadn't quite come to terms with magic existing at all (though she was mostly over it, after having plenty of time with nothing to do but ponder it) and the last hour or so had held a lot of things to process. She shook her head slightly at herself; she had things to take care of before she tried to sort through everything. "Come on, Lilith, wake up, all the bad parts are over," she mumbled, mostly to herself. Nevermind all of the further issues with keeping her in the dorms; Arturia wasn't exactly fond of carrying another person any distance. She did her best to shift Lilith into a hold that would hopefully make her easy to move around, and hurried toward her own dorm, hoping that nobody would appear to accost her.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

At Aker's explanation, Platinum nodded, closing her book, though making sure her finger was still on the page she was on so she didn't lose her progress, "I have been doing the same, actually, though I did not realize electricity. I knew she had to have done something in order to create a flash of light from hitting that ball but..." she trailed off, bringing a hand to her head with a sigh, "... I've only been meeting dead ends in every place I look" Platinum added.

 

At that point, she brought her hand back down, opening her eyes again as she did so, "The closest I've gotten to anything worthwhile is by looking into these mythology books, and they aren't the most concrete of evidence. At this point, I'm not even sure if I should be caring about it" she stated.

[Shamitako]

Sharp

 

"So that's why you have that book." Sharp mused, largely to himseld. He hadn't even considered looking at mythology, and wondered what had prompted Platinum to follow that path.  Perhaps she might even have new information. "I don't know much about mythology." Sharp admitted, "You dont sound like you've found much, but you're still reading, so it can't be totally fruitless. Maybe if we put our information together we can figure something out?" 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

"Neither did I, until now" Platinum responded, closing her book with a bit more force than she intended, "I'm sure there are other places I haven't looked for answers yet, so being able to share information might help... Us in that regard" she added with another sigh, "Unfortunately, all of my leads haven't been fully concrete. You always have to take mythology with a grain of salt. Or large grain of salt, in this case" Platinum finished as she placed the book besides her. Honestly, that wasn't entirely true on her end, but she lacked any real sources. Mythology was becoming her avenue because after what she had experienced, that was her only explanation. Of course, she couldn't tell Aker about that upside down girl she had encountered... She wasn't even sure if she was real.

 

But, either way, it gave her more questions than answers. Like the question of if she was actually going insane.

[Shamitako]

Sharp

 

"But you have leads?" Sharp pushed a little. Platinum seemed convinced she hadn't found anything, but Sharp was sure she'd have given up already if there was truly nothing of interest for her to discuss. Myth was often based in reality, perhaps the miracles and magic of old were real in some way. Sharp already knew that the supernatural existed, but knowing of it didn't actually give him any answers about Lilith or himself.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

"Well, yes some" Platinum replied, tapping the book next to her, "I've been studying old Layo Mysticism and ancient figures. From what I've learned, Layo Tribes saw the Goddesses as not... Well, Goddesses, but humans. So, they worked to figure out how to unlock their power within themselves. I've been able to read multiple tales of those that walked with certain Tribes that were said to do impossible feats with just their minds, and furthermore, those with the capabilities to create weapons that could channel said power" Platinum explained, bringing a hand to her chin as she thought. Being able to talk about her findings was already proving beneficial, as there were things she had taken for granted until now, "Unfortunately, who those people were and how to create said weapons are unknown. Apparently only a dozen people knew how to do it at any given time"

 

"As for ancient figures, I've looked at Kelsey of Taela, as she apparently had the reputation of performing incredible feats. However some of those feats are a... Stretch, to say the least, but she still was known for her immense and inhuman strength. More interestingly though is Tressa Hannit, because she wielded an enchanted spear that was said to freeze whatever it pierced, given to her by her mentor. Not only is there a connection with what I've learned from Layo Mysticism, but both Kelsey and Tressa were believed to have existed" Platinum finished, now bring her hand down,

 

"It's hard to say that it has a relation with what happened at the camp, but there's a precedent, at the very least. I'll have to continue my research to find out more. Perhaps we'll need to talk to Lilith herself..."

[Shamitako]

Sharp

 

Sharp listened intently to everything Platinum had to say. He'd heard of Kelsey and Tressa, of course, but he didn't know all that much about them.

 

"Humans with godlike powers and magic weapons. Seems as good a place to start as any." Sharp wished he had more to add, but it seemed Platinum had been much more successful in her research than he. There was the one thing, but he still didn't feel comfortable sharing it with Platinum.

 

"Considering that Lilith seemed to have some sort of super strength, Kelsey seems like a good place to focus." Sharp suggested, "Have you read anything about where her strength might have come from?"