thenearshore | [School Repeat Investigation Log]

Entry tags:

[School Repeat Investigation Log]

Who: Tsuzuki Asato and all other planned participants!
Where: The school from the April 5th ayakashi attack
When: April 18th
What: Log for Tsuzuki's planned school investigation. There are still questions he'd like to see answered. Here is where they'll go work it out!
Warnings: None at the moment; will update if this changes!

[It's a normal-looking Monday morning at the school... so normal that it's as if the events of a week and a half ago never happened. It seems like there are more students here than before, and the rest of the teachers have returned from their sick leave and can be seen in the classrooms or keeping order in the halls.

The school year is winding swiftly down towards its end, as the last of the Near Shore cherry blossoms fall and tulips bloom in the flowerbeds on the school grounds.

But what really did happen here? And why?

There are a few new faces here, ready to find out....]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I will. I'm just sorry I didn't think to pick one up when we were there. At the time, I was just trying to limit my presence...

[Also, because she felt an instinctive shirking at the idea of simply taking something without a good reason. She started grabbing more tea, before stopping herself - there still had to be some for others, after all.]

Is there anything else you think should be checked while we're there?

If there's anything left of all those occult items that were lying around the place, I want to get a closer look at them. I didn't find anything but books myself, and there weren't any spells on those.

[He shakes his head.]

I mean, it might not do any more good having the charms on hand, but at least we'd have more of a chance of guessing what they do!

Yeah. At the very least, it doesn't hurt to have something to refer back to then not at all.

[She fiddled with a strand of her hair as she thought over it. The more she thought about it, she couldn't help but comment]

You seem pretty familiar with these sorts of things. I'm guessing it's a lot more common-place from where you're from?

[From what she 'knew', there was fantastical things in Prism City but charms and the supernatural were just plain nonsense. There, at least.]

What, you mean supernatural stuff? I think it's commonplace everywhere! Most people just don't run across it.

I was a god of death for a pretty long time, so yeah, I've seen plenty.

[He filches another donut and takes a bite that leaves powdered sugar dusted over one cheek.]

[Psyche blinked. Once. Twice.]

Sorry...what do you mean by 'god of death'?

[Tsuzuki was one of the 'new' people too, right?]

God of death. The Summons department hired me after I died -- that's where they pick up their employees, the recently dead with some kind of reason to hang around and enough spiritual power to make them a useful worker.

[He shrugs, working his way through the donut bite by bite. He's really going to have to do something about the powdered sugar explosion on his face before the rest of the investigators get there.]

[Psyche blinked again, absorbing that. However, after a few moments of turning that around in her head, she said slowly]

Really? So something different than what's going on here, then? I mean, I haven't heard of anything like a 'Summons department' while I've been here...so that'd make it sound like you died before, became a god already, then got called to be a different god?

[As she talked, she absently slipped Tsuzuki a napkin. Paying more attention to his words than the mess on his face.]

Yeah. A god of death's not the same thing as the real gods here, though. You can think of us more like... more like shinki, really. Dead spirits that get recruited by Lord Enma to, well, make sure spirits show up on time.

[That's exactly as unpleasant as it sounds. He's grateful for the distraction of the napkin; he pops the last bite of donut into his mouth and accepts it, trying to clean up around his mouth. It's more or less effective.]

-- Thanks. Anyway, yeah, you've got the idea! That's exactly what happened.

I see...And it's not problem, just watch the powder intake.

[She said, with a small smile. She didn't know anything about 'Lord Enma' but the context was similar enough to the current situation it made some sense to her. Not to mention grim reaper stories. It did make her curious, though. She fiddled the napkin she had on hand, rubbing off bits of chocolate crumbs from her fingers]

Then...um, when you died...was it the same way as here too?

[Tsuzuki smiles, sadly, and glances away.]

Not exactly. We didn't forget anything.

Oh- [She shifted, the flash of awareness flicking across her eyes almost immediately.] Sorry. I should've thought about that.

[When she thought about it, it made some sense. Yumi had said they all came from different worlds and times. Different planes of the afterlife had to be possible, then.]

It's...easy to forget that possibility, with how it works with shinki, here.

... Yeah. That really worried me at first, but I've started thinking it's just how being a shinki on this plane works. Shinigami are a little different, because we've started to move on before they hit us with the recruiting offer, as far as I can tell. Shinki are a little more like ghosts.

[At least, the normal shinki. The ones who come here spontaneously... there's a lot more questions with them. Tsuzuki clears his throat and glances away.]

Anyway, I've got some experience with the supernatural!

I guess....Referring to myself as a 'ghost' sounds better than something like a 'lich', at least.

[She said, with a small, amused smile. It was equally easy just to say she could see dead people, in certain contexts. She allowed herself to relax a little more...and furtively took another cup of tea (well, no one else had shown up yet, she supposed) to go with her second doughnut. ]

More than some of us. Where I'm from, I don't think the supernatural was much of a thing. So someone with any experience would help a lot.

Oh, you mean, a dead soul animating a dead body? These aren't our actual mortal bodies, don't worry about that!

[By now, that'd have gotten really gross.

Besides, mortal bodies don't spontaneously transform into weapons and clothes no matter how good your spell is. Tsuzuki figures shinki bodies are similar to Shinigami, if maybe a little slower to heal.]

Yeah, a lot of the shinki here don't have much experience with the supernatural, but that makes sense. There are gods that don't, though, too! That surprised me.

Well, most gods here were human so it makes sense. And becoming gods doesn't seem like it's given people omnipotence or power over everything, compared to what I think most people would expect.

[Based on stories...and an unconscious internal sense.]

Well, yeah, omnipotence isn't really a god thing. Power, sure!

[He sneaks another donut -- glazed, this time, to avoid the powdered sugar explosion -- and takes a bite, continuing to talk as he chews.]

I would've expected to see mostly people with strong spiritual powers being recruited, though.

Or something...in myths, when someone ascends to godhood, it's usually because of some great feat or because they already have some divinity in them to begin with. Based on the people I've seen so far, if the Heavens do have a criteria for how they're picking people, I can't make sense of it.

[She absently took another doughnut, a nice one with lemon filling. The sweetness causes her lips to twitch up briefly, before she continues her train of thought.]

But I guess it's harder to make out things like patterns when half the group doesn't have their memories.

[She doesn't seem distressed by that as much as...vaguely troubled, for reasons she can't fully place. She took another bite of lemon goodness and the feeling faded.]

... Yeah. We aren't being deified in our own right or anything here, though. It's like they're asking us to step into some other gods' jobs.

[He frowns, shaking his head.] I don't know if there's a pattern, either. Some of the gods know each other, though, and if there's not a pattern, what are the chances of that?

[It's probably not a conversation he should be having with a shinki, though. He sighs, shaking his head.] Anyway, let's just figure out what we can to begin with. If we can link anything at the school back to one of the gods, maybe that'll be a good starting point.

Really? That's something worth considering.

[Gods knowing each other before they got pulled there would imply some sort of a connection, even if most people sounded like they came from a different place. For shinki..]

Do you think it's the same for shinki?

[She hadn't met anyone else who knew about Prism City. But then again, Psyche hadn't found herself thinking too deeply about that place for some reason.]

Shinki don't remember, so it's hard to say.

[Tsuzuki's not meeting her eyes. He could say, yeah, but he doesn't know if that's going too far. He's not risking it with a shinki, not when he doesn't know anything about her and doesn't know what's safe to say.

This would be easier if he were a better liar.]

Yeah...

[However, Psyche couldn't help but stare at Tsuzuki with curious, focused eyes. Again, there was a sensation of being vaguely troubled by something she couldn't quite describe and it increased just as the thought of pressing further on this topic came to mind. Finally, she blinked and looked away, absently taking a bite from the doughnut as though to distract herself from that sensation.

[The moment hung in the air for a long while before she, consciously and unconsciously, moved on to something else. Such as]

Oh-um-I was wondering. If you have any leftovers after the meeting, would it be okay to take some of this back with me? I'm sure my god would love to try some.

[Provided everyone didn't eat as much as her and Tsuzuki had all conversation.]

Oh, yeah, sure!

[That troubled look on her face speaks volumes, Tsuzuki thinks. She was getting too close to thinking about it herself, wasn't she? Way too close. It's definitely time to switch to talking about donuts.]

Actually, I should go see if anybody else's showed up yet. Want to hang out here or come with? It's getting to be that time.

Thanks, really. And-

[There was a flicker of hesitation - as though Psyche was still thinking about something (chiefly, whether she needed the moment to resettle her thoughts or to distract) - before nodding with a smile.]

I don't mind coming with. I'm a bit curious who else is showing up, anyway.

[And it was probably better than eating the discomfort out of her. She grabbed her cup of tea and moved to follow.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[School Repeat Investigation Log]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject