"What Is Real?"
Adventure Log - December 8, 2023
[Location tag - Central Square, near the Central District Adventurers' Guild]
The square is still its usual wintry self, though a lot of yellow tape has sealed off The Adventurers' Guild from entry pending further investigation from The Agency. Many police officers are stationed outside of it. Murmurs abound from the citizens in the city about what could have happened in there. The air vibrates as Violet appears, looking at the new crime scene set up that the Adventurers’ Guilld now adorns, “Hm… seems that the police got that covered… I’ll have to check out that door later too.”
There is a LOT of yellow tape that says "Do Not Enter - Crime Scene" all over it. One of the police officers notices Violet looking over and asks her, "hello, can I help you miss?" They're wearing a black suit with a silver police badge that says Agency of Arcane Affairs - Criminal Justice Department on it. They are masculine and have a somewhat pleasant demeanor to them.
“Hello, officer. My name is Violet Naomi. I'm a friend of Rebecca Wright. I was informed that inside the Guild Hall, a room is hidden and I was sent here to investigate the matter to see if the allegations are true and if so, to help with the investigation.” Violet holds her ground, hoping the demeanor she portrays comes off as the semi-truth.
The officer shakes his head, "We have it under control, Miss Naomi. Please stand aside."
This is when Rebecca walks out of he Guild with her demeanor just as bright as she usually is, "Oh hello Violet, what's going on?" The officer responds, "this woman, a Miss Violet Naomi requests investigative rights. As she is not part of the Agency I cannot allow h--" Rebecca shakes her head, "no, no it's okay. I am the lead investigator for this case. Let her inside if she wishes."
"But miss Wri-- ugh fine. It's not my head on a platter." The officer stands down.
Violet nods to Rebecca, “Thank you.” Then she promptly makes her way inside the Guild Hall, making her way though the same doors she went though when finding Luna and Hinata.
The Guild is just as Violet remembers it, though a lot more brightened up. The glass is all cleaned up thankfully, but tape is on the ground in various locations shaped like human outlines. There are five in various locations. "Ugh, welcome to the Guild Violet." Rebecca sighs
"Thank you, what is with the outlines? When I was here it seems that no bodies were here." Violet tilts her head in confusion
Rebecca shakes her head, "You're correct. There were no bodies found, but there are evidence of people dying where the outlines are. Specifically we found pools of blood. The bodies were never found unfortunately, but we can make some assumptions based on where the blood pools are at. That being said, we have done some blood tests and three of the blood samples are Solaire employees and two are Full Moon Syndicate."
"I see... thank you,” Violet looks to Rebecca, "I know you said it was not there, but I want to see if the door is there or not myself. Mind if I go and have a look?"
Rebecca nods, "Be my guest, just make sure not to disturb the crime scene. We've looked over the area where you claimed it was, but we found absolutely nothing weird about it. No door, no traces of magic."
Violet nods as she make her way though the doors, taking the same path she did as the other night, seeing if the claimed door is there or not. It is just as Rebecca claimed. The door is completely gone, almost as though it never existed in the first place. The wall is solid except for a single metal door that leads into the alley. This wall is directly opposite of the curtain that separates backstage from the greater dance hall.
"What the hell…” Violet shuts the curtain, turning back around as she touches the wall where the door is supposed to be, "Maybe it was magic... or something else?"
On touching the wall where the door was, Violet feels her Flamebearer feather become a lot warmer. Not burning, per se, but a lot warmer. Doesn't hurt at all. Strange. Just as soon as the warmth is felt, it's gone.
[Krystal - Wait what? How does that work?]
Violet looks curious to the feather, taking it off her neck and holding it up against the wall, seeing if it does anything
It reacts to a certain part of that wall by getting warmer, but in terms of magically opening up a door, it does not do so.
Rebecca checks in on Violet and sees her rubbing a feather against the wall, "any luck?"
“Hmm kinda? It seems that the feather is reacting to the wall… maybe it’s missing something?”
Rebecca raises an eyebrow, "uhm. I mean don't get me wrong, I believe you about the door, but that doesn't make sense. I looked behind the wall and there's nothing there. What you're describing is impossible. Specifically, what's behind there is the alley. You can go investigate that if you want, just head out that door over there." She points to the door to the alley.
"Alright... yea that sounds like a plan." Violet moves her way over the door to the alley, opening it up.
The alley isn't that wide. The buzz of various neon signs is heard back there, as well as various bits of graffiti. The alleyway leads out to the main street of Central Square . Violet looks the wall that matches to the inside where the door is supposed to be, seeing if the feather reacts to the other side of the wall. It does, but just like the other side of the wall, no doors open. It’s in the exact same location relative to the other reaction.
Violet looks and keeps that in mind, exiting out into the Central Square as she make her way to her intended location, but realizing how massive Capital City is, she goes back inside to ask Rebecca for directions, "Thank you for letting me into the scene, I'll definitely be back, but can you direct me towards the slums? I have some investigating to do there as well as some asking around."
Rebecca nods, "Right, I did show you that. So when you leave the Guild, hang a right and follow the road all the way down. You'll come across an unfinished dirt path. That's the entrance to Australis district. Ever since the Explosion happened 17 years ago, a lot of the projects to expand Australis ended. So that's the best we got unfortunately."
"Thank you. I see you around!" Violet waves as she follows Rebecca's directions to the slums
--------
[Location tag - Australis District - Slums]
[Now Loading - One Moment Please]
On entering the Australis Slums, things seem to freeze for a moment. Birds that were once flying stop in mid air. A tennis ball that seems to be headed directly for Violet's face freezes in place. The silence in the area is overwhelming. The only thing capable of moving is Violet.
[Krystal - No really, what the fuck is this? Has Luna or Hinata experienced anything like this???]
[ALAIS - Not to my knowledge.]
Violet moves out of the way of the ball, continuing to walk and look around while confused about the freezing of the moment, "Hello?"
Things are still frozen for a few moments, but a couple moments later, the Slums return to life. The tennis ball headed directly for Violet's face misses its target, the birds continue their flight as if nothing happened. A few children are playing with a football in the street. Past that, it's quiet within the Australis Slums. Seeing a new person enter, people outside stare at her in confusion.
[Now Playing - Life in Australis Slums]
Violet shakes her head, confused and weirded out by the sudden freezing of the slums, but moves on as she pulls out a stack of posters that she made. She starts putting them up and around, hoping someone takes note.
A few of the people watch this crazy person with the weird machine hand put up signs all over the place. A couple of them take notice and shrug, just finding all of this shit weird as hell. She hears a couple of them mutter something like "Freezing of time? What kind of drugs are they on?" It doesn't seem to be getting the kind of notoriety Violet is hoping for, but perhaps keeping them up might be fruitful.
Then someone taps Violet on the shoulder while she's putting signs up. They have an extremely gruff voice and a long beard that goes down quite far down, but aside from that, they seem decent? They sound like they're drunk, however, and the smell of alcohol reeks on them. "Time freezing?"
Violet turns around and notices the man, "Indeed. I seem to be experiencing what feels like time freezing often. I’m unsure what it was about and wanted to see if anyone else experienced the same."
His eyes seem rather unfocused, "yeah? I felt something like that a couple d- hiccup! - days ago. The bitch I married called me crazy, but i'm not the crazy one here!" He points to himself while swaying, "I felt something watching me! And then everything STOPPED! Even the BIRDS, the fake fucking birds in the sky stopped in the air!" He sways so much to the point where he falls to the curb. He seems okay at least, just out of his mind? Probably? People outside are staring at them both, muttering things under their breath.
“Ok…? Um… do you know when this happened? Or what happened for the time to stop freezing?” Violet is very unsure about this person, being that he is clearly drunk
He continues from the ground. His speech is becoming even more and more slurred by the minute, though while trying to continue recalling his experiences, he begins to forget. "It was uh-- uhhh--- I dontremember. But I swear on my pappy's goldfish that it happened! I swear... I--" He goes silent. The man passes out on the ground.
Violet sighs as she finishes putting up her posters, making her way to Krystal’s house to check it out.
She's able to find it rather easily despite the sheer size of Australis district. It's on the same dirt road she used to enter, though a mile or so down.
[Now Loading - One Moment Please]
[Krystal - AGAIN??? Alais, you are processing these correctly right?]
[ALAIS - Affirmative. I am unsure what this is either.]
Walking down the road, she feels everything around her freeze again.
[ALAIS Note - For some unknown reason, the log ends here. I am incredibly confused as to how this keeps happening. And what was with the birds and the tennis ball at the very beginning of the Slums? I did not process anything like that. It is… an anomaly.]