a room for how many?

sousuke eguchi | inkeeper | alive

[calico-blackwood-blog]

The Concept of Humanity I Open

Calico had been useless, yet again. 

He hadn’t contributed anything useful, he let himself be brainwashed, he even felt sympathetic for the killers being badgered so much.

He didn’t like any of this, the murders and the trials and this place, but none of them did, right? He wasn’t the only one stuck here. It wasn’t all about him. He couldn’t stop this by himself, no matter how hard he might try. Yet still, it made him feel sick, thinking about how he wasn’t doing enough.

When Leroy said that people were trying to rescue them, Calico felt a swell of hope inside him… but it was promptly snuffed out by his next words. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. With all that they’d been shown, with motives and executions… as much as he wanted to call it a bluff, he couldn’t doubt that there was a method in place to kill all of them if they came close enough to escape.

Why were they forced to go through this, anyway? Sick entertainment? Twisted science? What was the point?

Calico was sick of doing nothing, of being the weak, useless coward he knew he was. He was still too afraid to do anything drastic, to truly fight back. But he could at least do something. Little acts of rebellion, shows of individuality… even if he wasn’t human, he was still the same person he’d always been. 

Ayumu’s graffiti had inspired him, in more ways than one. Now, he could be found in the main room… carving directly into one of the side walls, totally engrossed in his work.

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Monster. Monster. Monster. That word seemed less and less like one as the days passed. He had thought long and laboriously on exactly what that had meant. Deep down inside, he was not human. Which means likely, he would not be human for much longer at the rate of deterioration. Those annoying ears perched at the top of Sousuke’s head were proof of that. Truth be told, he had nothing against cryptids. The revelation shook something off within him. Like a cap of formalities and inhibitions had. . . Not opened and been released. But instead, crushed by a new forcing weight.

In all honesty, he felt like a train with no fuel and nowhere to go that had its passengers continually push it along. Faking smiles out of sheer politeness had been overcome by annoyance and pure tiredness. Was it because he had failed at something? Because he had to watch as two people not only were killed in a night, but two executed. It’s a shame. Toubei and Caadia had seemed sociable. Takara was someone he could say he had respected, even Loic was given credit sparing his attitude.

Alas, the story had never changed for the positive. At the moment, he was certain most people had despised him. Their stares- he especially knew of one who would enjoy roughing up the innkeeper at any giving point had slowly gotten to him. To think, a compulsive liar too lazy to lie anymore?

(lying, lying, he did that a lot, lying outside of trials, lying in trials, what was the difference.)

Soon enough, he’d become too tired to even care about the murders anymore. The stench of blood had been jarring the first and second times around, but now became annoyances. Perhaps that was what was wrong with him. That he was animalistic enough to lose interest in helping others.

(a real monster, eh?)

Walking was the only thing that could clear his thoughts anymore. No more self reflection, no more even acknowledging he was here. Rather, simply pacing around brought some release to his spirit. Except, when he caught the eye of a figure traversing down the hallways with. . . Sharp. Whatever it was, he could tell it was sharp. His feet carried him faster than his mind could tell him to look and tell who it was.

Instead of a potential murderer, he found one Calico carving away in the main room. Eh, kids will be kids. 

“Heyo, heyo.”

The innkeeper made his way and jokingly removed Calico’s hat and ruffled the woodcarver’s hair. That typical polite tone of voice instead was replaced by something one could only describe as country.

“Mm, I guess at least one a’ us can still do their talent ‘ere.” The wolfish older boy smiled closed mouthedly, looking over to the work his companion had presented. “Ya really do gotta knack fer that.”

[eguchi-resort-blog]

projects, projects and work | open

The uniform is stiff with the smell of his starch blend that Sousuke always used on old clothes to make sure they didn’t start fraying. He plugs in a number- numbers he’s unfamiliar with and can’t quite recall around a knob. The locker opens and he touches books that offer no sensation back as he pulls far more novels than the small hip bag could handle. There’s a crowd around him, walking through the halls, though the hallway still feels cold like no one had been in there for years. He gently presses it closed, the hig bag suddenly gone as the sounds of ocean water and a sudden urge takes over him. There’s a blonde head of hair he can’t help but slowly trail after. He doesn’t know what hour it is, only to follow, only to slowly follow. The class bell rings, and suddenly green eyes meet his as the figure stumbles.

That’s all he can remember before starkly jumping up. There’s a thick layer of sweat of his skin, and the bits of fur coating the rest feel slightly damp as well. There’s a strong feeling of something bad, horribly bad after where his memory of the dream cuts off. The innkeeper covers his eyes. No matter how long he tries to recall the events of his imagination, instead it comes across with discordant noises and chills. A disgusting feeling. He could almost laugh at it. But there’s a somber note to that wispy dream. He gets up. No, he didn’t feel like wearing that yukata today. It probably needed to be washed, considering all the fur. Instead, a lazy button up and some dress pants with suspenders fall on him instead.

Tired. Funny enough, despite all the sleep, he’s tired. 

It’s the kind of tired that’s deep seated in his bones. It pulls down on Sousuke’s shoulders, making him exhale heavily and his head unclear. The days feel blurred. Moreso than usual, he should say. Everything’s been so unreliable when it comes to relaxing. He thought’d almost be relaxing to escape his old life.

What an adventure.

He covers his eyes in the early hours of dawn as to not jump at anyone from reflex. Somewhere new, somewhere he can clear his head. He could have sworn a figure was coaxing him, he was following someone with  little autonomy to this new place. His mind simply felt so fuzzy. It’d be something to laugh about if he didn’t feel like dropping to the floor that instant. Instead, this figure he follows leads him to the swimming pool. He’s readying, wanting to let something loose when it hits him. No one was there to begin with. A sigh leaves past the fangs that bore their way from his typical teeth. The water still remained as tempting as ever.

He goes to fetch a pair of swimming trunks, changing out from the arguably formal attire he had put on specially. Exposing this much fur still felt strange. But, there was a slight breathing to his skin that felt good. He quickly descends into the cold pool with care, simply wading with his back against the edge. It feels therapeutic, the immense cold of it all. His ears point when a noise comes through to reveal a figure. But this one isn’t a mind trick.

“Good morning,” he says, automatedly. “Did you come to take a dip in the pool, scold me, kill me, or all three?”

It felt appropriate if he were to giggle, but instead there’s a gaze as starched as his imaginary school uniform.

“Just kidding. Don’t look so serious. Go ahead, talk if you want. I don’t have much to do.”

[shslcelestial-blog]

☆ 輦道二 ☽ [sousuke & caadia]

[eguchi-resort-blog]

There’s a palpable distaste and bitterness chilling the innkeeper’s bones. Upon those feral ears listening that he was not human- but a monster simply guised and raised as one shifted his demeanor. It seemed the preppy and upbeat ‘service with a smile’ slowly faded into the background. Somethings simply had an ache that no amount of time ticking by on a clock could ever hope to mend. A heavy load on his back. Crushing his bones, shattering his ankles, unable to keep walking forward.

So he stands.

All he can do is stand, rigid and in place, neutral and unbiased. To try and ignore all the thoughts and feelings in place. The room he and Kerry shared- or at least his portion had been thrashed to the point of being almost unrecognizable over surfaced gnarled by new found fangs and new found strength. Standing as a statue, watching things go by while silent in reflection. There’s nothing to a stone obelisk but his own thoughts.

Even though he worries.

Even though he notices. 

These feelings are artificial- drafted by the medicine which transformed the feral beast he is into a human. A beast left alone- standing under the rain, working until his feet hurt trying to stay alive. In reality, not much separated Sousuke Eguchi from a feral monster. By now, he may as well begin to lose whatever humanity he has left.

A familiar wetness comes across him. Ah, she must be around again. His eyes stare at the floating corpse. Out of all people, it was Loic to fall prey and perish. Funny. He almost thought it was certain someone would be out for Squid’s blood thanks to the last murder debacle. Yet it still chills him. Loic, no matter how pretentious and conceited still was no fool. Someone had stepped up their game high nowadays.

Previously disgusted at bodies, now more disgusted at his own being, Eguchi peers at the corpse and goes to check the blood on his head and open his mouth to check for any foreign substances. Filthy, defiling a body like that.

“Dead as a doorknob, Miss Xue. No need to do that.”

[shslcelestial-blog]

Xue closes a hand over her mouth, more in utter disgust than in surprise this time when Sousuke opens Loic’s mouth. She immediately goes to grab at his other arm, making sure his hands are no longer touching the corpse’s mouth. She bursts in full mandarin, talking at a much faster pace than usual. “<No, no, you are not touching that. Loic is dead, of course, no need to pry into his disgusting mouth and search for things! No need to shake him either, touching corpses are bad, bad bad bad and we have to move on. Right now.>”

She tugs him away from the corpse, as much as she can with her weak arms and current wet state. She continued dragging him away as much as she could before realizing she was probably, raining on him and let go. “<We do not touch the corpses, yes? Then, the heads will fall and you will regret everything you ever did as a teenager. As a monstrous teenager.>” She continues rambling on in another language, and stops as if something occurs to her. 

“We have to go.” Then, she takes his hand as she drags him back to where the rooms are, peeking into every room until she finds the room she’s looking for. “His room.” She points in, she’s never really been to Loic’s or Apollo’s room, well, she guesses it’s Apollo’s room now. She doesn’t care for her rain cloud seeping into the room as she goes to what assumes is Loic’s side and starts digging around for something. 

“I need to find something. Help me search too. Should be pink. Strawberry.”

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Dirty work needs to be done by someone, he supposed. If the poor guy really did croak from poison, there might as well be some evidence in the supposed entrance point. Over time, he simply began to care less and less. His hair was scruffy and unbrushed, even curlier than usual against those beastial affinities. The dodgeball game’s aftermath shook his core to the point he’d simply like to forget everything about it. But it felt nice to be natural. He never thought that he had been pushing himself to always be so chipper. But it was true. He had a lot on his mind all the time.

When Xue pulls his hand away, all he gives is a short look of confusion before shrugging it off. Her eccentricities were no longer a point for his ridicule. Surprisingly, the innkeeper had grown slightly fond of her odd tendencies. He didn’t understand all of them, nor did he exactly want to. But a few moments alone revealed a lot about himself.

“Ya really gotta start talkin’ in a way I can understand you if you’re gonna go on those lil’ rants of yours.”

He shakes his head gently, shrugging as Xue takes him along for an escapade. Apparently their search now expanded past fondling the body. He was pretty glad for that fact. Loic’s room? Sousuke had no room to agree, the tall boy practically being ushered along by his purple haired companion. Like anyone could get a good night’s sleep in this place anymore. Everything smelled like sadness and leftover corpses. 

Wait, find something?

“Please, god, tell me you lended him something before he croaked. I’d even accept you mackin’ on him or somethin’. Or. Do you know something about this? God, I’m like your older brother or something.”

Sousuke sighed under his breath, beginning to ransack through Loic’s room with his new found animal speed to find whatever strawberry pink object Xue was detailing.

[shslcelestial-blog]

☆ 輦道二 ☽ [sousuke & caadia]

Her feet aren’t grounded this time as she makes her way through the halls of the facility. Her feet are in fact, very slippery due to the rain cloud hovering over her head still as she went to the destination Leroy had stated over the speakers at three in the morning. She had barely gotten any rest the night before– hell night wasn’t even over yet before she was woken up by the sound of Leroy’s voice. She didn’t bother to get dressed, simply going out with her silk night gown and her rain proof blanket wrapped around her body. She didn’t bother to even grab any shoes, so she was walking barefoot through the halls as the rain was at a small drizzle stage.

Leroy hadn’t lied to them ever, well, only sometimes, but never on the topic of corpses. He seemed rather eager at times, to announce one of the residents at the facility dead– or he didn’t seem to care. This was his job after all, to take care of a bunch of rotten kids, or monsters, or kids turning into monsters. Xue didn’t know anymore, she was getting very tired of how Leroy handled his job. She liked Ellen much more, despite her strict nature and she didn’t also seem to care about their situation. 

She stepped into the area, pouring rain where she went as she saw the others around Loic’s corpse.

Xue paused for a second, a smile stretching across her lips. The smile looked nervous, at most. “..<He’s dead?>” Xue had to admit, she mostly made fun of Loic, but she.. she didn’t know how to feel anymore. Bad? She mostly felt most of the victims in cases are idiots– they should have learned, all of them. Loic, on the other hand, always looked like he knew what he was doing.

What did any of them learn from this? 

Xue backed away from the scene, her smile fading as she turned. She bumped right into someone and was knocked back a step. “<Fuck! Goddammit, watch your–>” Upon seeing who it was, she stopped cursing in a foreign language and looked up and down at the person. 

“Hi.” She blinked, looking back at the body. “Leroy did not lie to us this time, he is dead, I think. I am not sure, I can shake him to see if he will awaken.”

[eguchi-resort-blog]

There’s a palpable distaste and bitterness chilling the innkeeper’s bones. Upon those feral ears listening that he was not human- but a monster simply guised and raised as one shifted his demeanor. It seemed the preppy and upbeat ‘service with a smile’ slowly faded into the background. Somethings simply had an ache that no amount of time ticking by on a clock could ever hope to mend. A heavy load on his back. Crushing his bones, shattering his ankles, unable to keep walking forward.

So he stands.

All he can do is stand, rigid and in place, neutral and unbiased. To try and ignore all the thoughts and feelings in place. The room he and Kerry shared- or at least his portion had been thrashed to the point of being almost unrecognizable over surfaced gnarled by new found fangs and new found strength. Standing as a statue, watching things go by while silent in reflection. There’s nothing to a stone obelisk but his own thoughts.

Even though he worries.

Even though he notices. 

These feelings are artificial- drafted by the medicine which transformed the feral beast he is into a human. A beast left alone- standing under the rain, working until his feet hurt trying to stay alive. In reality, not much separated Sousuke Eguchi from a feral monster. By now, he may as well begin to lose whatever humanity he has left.

A familiar wetness comes across him. Ah, she must be around again. His eyes stare at the floating corpse. Out of all people, it was Loic to fall prey and perish. Funny. He almost thought it was certain someone would be out for Squid’s blood thanks to the last murder debacle. Yet it still chills him. Loic, no matter how pretentious and conceited still was no fool. Someone had stepped up their game high nowadays.

Previously disgusted at bodies, now more disgusted at his own being, Eguchi peers at the corpse and goes to check the blood on his head and open his mouth to check for any foreign substances. Filthy, defiling a body like that.

“Dead as a doorknob, Miss Xue. No need to do that.”

[shslcelestial-blog]

☆ apodis ☽ [sousuke & apollo]

When she awakes in the bathtub, she finds the rain cloud is gone and she was simply sitting in a puddle with very damp clothes on. Gross. She sits up, rubbing her face tiredly as she started to strip off the damp clothes. On the days the rain was reaaal bad, Xue would sleep in the bathtub. All of the rain water would go down the drain and even if cold bits of water dropping onto her face was annoying and clutching an umbrella to prevent that, she found it was quite comfortable. 

It wasn’t. Having a rain cloud was a total pain in the Uranus. 

After getting dressed with a new set of clean and warm clothes, she found she had the electric shock still. Frowning, she grumbled as she picked up her rain coat in case the cloud had come back to make her life more miserable and winced as she picked up the fabric. She didn’t notice, but on the speakers was Leroy’s voice. A usual thing, she had figured it was something about fantasy football or maybe– he found he had some type of toe fungus. Something in his voice bothered her a little though, maybe for once in his life, he sounded proud of himself?

Then, Ellen’s voice kicked in. She slowly turned to the speaker located in the bathroom and raised her eyebrows. 

Everything else was tuned out after she reported the body. She stormed out of the bathroom, knocking a few things over in the process (sorry, Jericho) and without waiting to see if Jericho was even in the room with her still, she made her way to the movie theater. 

There was no stench of blood. No spilled blue all over the floors. Arielle was just there, peaceful as she can be with bruises on her. 

“..<Foolish..>” She muttered, feeling herself move away from the body. She froze when she realized she passed someone and pointed a finger at them, yelling. “<AAHH– it’s you! You you you!! You!>” What the fuck, Xue. 

[bibliotheca-apollonis-blog]

Apollo had the distinct impression that he was being yelled at. He didn’t like that. He had, of course, followed the summons to the movie theatre like all the others, and found a corpse, as the woman over the intercom had said.

He shuddered; he was always cold, but an even sharper chill went down his spine. Arielle Johnson wasn’t a person he had paid any particular attention to - as if he paid attention to any of these people - but rather the scene was conceptually frightening. A dead body. She had been up and walking around yesterday, and now she was dead.

It wasn’t even like Butler, who had been brutalised so badly. Arielle looked just as if she had fallen asleep. Strangled while watching a movie, or perhaps after falling asleep in here. It was yet another reminder that none of them were safe, that it could just as easily have been Apollo lying dead.

And then shouting ripped him from his thoughts. “I don’t speak Mandarin,” he stated, looking contemptuously at Xue, “Try again in English, or German, or something.” Wasn’t sure what she expected of him like this. So he turned his back on her without waiting for a reply and stepped toward the corpse that had until very recently been Arielle.

He took a look at her neck to see if there were any ligature marks, and, if so, to see if he could reason out what had made them. He then, ever so gingerly, checked her pockets to see if anything of note was on her person.

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Silently, he hoped that this wasn’t happening again. Maybe this time Leroy and Ellen had got it wrong and they just caught some kid asleep outside their room. Blissfully ignorant of the fact they probably gave everyone a heart attack. It was fine though. Everything has just dandy. 

He noticed the foul blue liquid had stopped pouring from his head. His seething rage dissipated once more. Was this it? Was this the end? Did he bleed so much he was going to die? Hah, he wished. He felt the top of his head. The ears were still there. Was he doomed to live like this forever?

Lazilly, he walked down to the movie theatre after Ellen and Leroy came on. Someone else had died, just like he thought. Wasn’t that a sight to behold? Arielle, with ears as pointed as knife tips. He would have been sick if he wasn’t accustomed to the smell of blood by now.

“. . .”

He simply gave a hand wave to Xue and Apollo, walking up to the body directly. Dead. Actually dead, once again. He hoped it wouldn’t come to this again, feeling goosebumps riddle his skin. But he couldn’t show anyone he was afraid. That just wasn’t professional, wasn’t it, Mr. Eguchi? If you could even call yourself a human worth being professional now. He had ears! What a freak!

So he instead checked Arielle’s body for any other kind of injuries save for the one are her neck, then investigating the seat she was rested on and underneath it as well. He proceeded to slowly walk around checking the other seats as well.

“. . . Hey.”

[shslsquidsquad-blog]

Red Squid...Blue Squids || Open

It was a  shame, everything had been going so well too. A tie game, neck to neck, back to back…and various other body-touching sayings. Either way, that game was close! And then, darkness. 

Now Squids wasn’t afraid of the dark or what was in it, especially since it was only his friends. What made this predicament interesting is what happened when the lights came back on–everyone looked…terrible. Banged up, screaming, bleeding. It was  a living hell as some could call it. His voice had definitely joined with the cries of pain but soon everything felt alright when his friends were hugging him, and another was tending to a broken arm while several offered to scratch his back. It was very surreal but soon there was nothing more to bare and he was out of there quickly.

He couldn’t handle seeing others in pain–it made him feel queasy. If not for his own issues he would’ve thrown up in the room. Every scream, every visualization…he felt like he could feel it, and too many at once was hair-raising, so he had to go. There weren’t too many options on where to go from there, so he decided to start digging through the prep rooms, beginning with winter. Maybe he could at least find some kind of scratching utility in here–because he sure was tickly-itchy right about now. 

“H-h-heys…do you….t-thinks…u-usings a backscratchers on a-anywheres besides y-your backs is wrongs…? I do! Pffff–i-is t-thats weird?” Then he broke out into a laughing fit. 

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Well, there was one unforeseen problem from suddenly becoming very furry. He could probably dig up some hat or hood to hide the ears, but at they same time they not only heightened his hearing. . . They were kinda cute. The hair on his limbs did begin to irritate his skin slightly, but the innkeeper assumed a nice shower of some sort would ease his discomfort. Besides his less physical condition, which worry for always lay in the back of his mind, he didn’t have it too bad. That worry wouldn’t just dissipate, however. . .

Everyone was hurting, still. He couldn’t be able to rest quite yet. How could everyone be able to go back to normal like the time before? The answer of course, he knew. Someone would once again have to. . . No, he didn’t want to think of that. But it was only then that those administrators let some kind of. Cure, kick in. It’s simply a zero sum kind of game. No matter what happens, everyone looses on both sides.

He sighed, trying not to focus on the looming dark thoughts that soon filled his mind. His hands slowly chilled with the dropping mood, as he began to cup them together. Maybe he could find some kind of gloves to cover them? After his head was thoroughly done and wrapped, staring at his hand’s cut from earlier only gave a fairly sick feeling in his stomach.

When he came upon Squids, his worry was slightly put aside at the sight. At least he was trying to lighten the awfully heavy mood in the place. Sousuke gave a slight laugh, not really concerned about the ethical use of backscratchers. Hands were the best scratchers of them all!

“Heh, I’m not too concerned about it. If ya need to scratch somewhere, just get on it! But I guess it was made just for your back. . . I don’t know?” His ears started to turn and pivot to follow the sounds of Squids searching, a bit concerned that he couldn’t quite control that movement. He just looked more and more like a dog by the second. . .

[eguchi-resort-blog]

the animal within | symptom reaction | open

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Sousuke Eguchi.

Known as Mister Eguchi, the fucking devil to Miss Luo.

It’s really not everyday you get accused for murder, and she honestly understood why he did. They were all desperate. She was desperate, but she did not murder Lacey Butler. She never thought she would ever hold a grudge this hard, but nobody’s ever mistreated her before for her to hold a grudge. She was very good at hating someone, she had a dirty mouth and only two people knew she was saying most of the time. She ignored them, she absolutely despised them.

She wanted Sousuke Eguchi to eat shit.

Then, it so happened they were on the same team for Capture the Flag. She didn’t fully understand how terrified Sousuke was of Xue, but she slowly bonded with him. His laugh was cute, his smile was cute, and he was cute. She wasn’t in love no, she found a lot of people cute. Sousuke was never cute to her before Capture the Flag.

The lights turned off, and then on and she had her rain cloud. She just wanted to lay on the ground and not bother with the world, alas she couldn’t sit and almost had her face clawed at.

By Sousuke Eguchi.  

So, he was back to being the devil to her. Her mind sure did work in weird ways.

She was wandering around in the hall, after getting ready for the day and sleeping in the bathroom due to the rain. She never had to sleep in rough conditions, but everything was a first. This rain cloud was a first. She spun her umbrella, just walking around aimlessly, spraying the water all over the facility. Everywhere she walked, she left small puddles. She stopped when she noticed someone bump into her and she turned to see who.

Her eyes narrowed and she greeted him with a frown.

“Hello, Eguchi.” No formalities needed. “I apologize as well.” She tried not to be snarky, she was trying at least. Her frown grew with his question and she looked down at the puddle she was making by standing still. “..Doing swell. Things cannot be worse, right.” Her voice was bland, and she obviously felt down. She refused to make eye contact, she wanted him to move on from her.

There was a lot of things he didn’t quite understand about the world. Most of it was general things people wouldn’t know unless they specialized- like how exactly people worked. Also, some things like rocket science, the proper way to tie a knot when you have rope, trigonometry, why his internet kept dropping when he was alone, stuff like that.

At the top of that list however, was Xue.

Sure, he was grasping at straws during that trial, but he was only trying to help. It’s not like he said point blank everyone he accused was a murderer, not at all. It was right to be suspicious when some poor girl had her head fall of. He didn’t really mean to offend anyone- hell, he got suspected as well. It was over now, he assumed. The body was gone, the perpetrator was dead. Eye for and eye, it was over.

Xue, admittedly confused him to no belief. He was a people oriented person- he had to be to successfully run a business. He thought he could make some friends here- Xue looked nice. But then, she started wrestling him- he was pretty afraid to be honest. The next moment he was laughing, she was slapping him with sand and they were. Getting along? Then next moment his symptoms got to him and now, she was. . . Apathetic? Gods, he had absolutely no idea what to even say to her. But he knew he hated the feeling of well- not being liked. Was it selfish? Very.

“Yeah, I guess. . .Things could be worse.” He could be going wild at random, for instance. “. . .I’m sorry about what happened. I really didn’t want to try and hurt you, it’s. . . Like the ears. The place is making it happen, like some kind of symptom of a disease. I. . . I’m sorry if I scared you.” Then, he offered one simple bow to her, head getting a but wet in the presence of her rain cloud. 

His ears folded backwards to the feeling of the cold liquid, tips twitching with discomfort. He did really look like a wet dog, to be honest. He realized it was probably be more uncomfortable for Xue- in the cold constantly. The cold was always one of the biggest enemies, he thought. Suddenly, those two big ears perked back up and leaned forward, facing the astronomer as he picked in the delicate nature of the sound. The feeling of the sound reverberating through his head perked up a memory- as well as his ears.

“Hey, if it helps. . .” He pauses. “I know a technique to waterproof your clothes so you don’t feel all wet and soggy. I think I can find everything I need in one of the season prep rooms- they seem full of all kinds of stuff. Maybe they have some of the material needed in the camping section. . . ?” Well, he may not understand trig, but apparently he’s a happy camper.

[eguchi-resort-blog]

the animal within | symptom reaction | open

There was no doubt that for a moment, he was almost. . . Elated.

CTF wasn’t just fun- it was a distraction. His blood boiled for a few moments, running free and wild with no care. There was no long list of chores and tasks to carry out. No, it was only will and the inherent mission ahead. Get the flag, anyway you could and bring it back home. He laughed, he smiled, everyone was laughing and smiling. It was a moment of bliss, of happiness. Who cared about anything but the game at that point!

Then, the lights came off. He was exhausted from running from everyone, surrounded by the opposing team. He didn’t have a care in the world for once. He was no one’s boss then. Just his own. He was just Sousuke Eguchi, another kid in the group. He didn’t need to try and hide anything from anyone, no backbreaking work that kept him up at night. He was free- free from responsibility. And that feeling, that sheer emotion swelled his chest felt like something he hadn’t felt in years. He could just relax. Be himself.

It was all gone when the lights came back on. That flush of uncontrollable rage had pulsed back into his veins like some sort of stigma. He felt branded- with the hot iron against his skin driving him wild under the curse of this place. But now, the same horrid atrocious terrifying ugly strange sight of the same dark blue blood, profusely pouring from his head with the accompanied. . . Ears. The bleeding was bandaged up- but he couldn’t get used to the sight of having. . . Those on his head. At least his clothes were long enough to conceal the patches of fur running down his arms and legs.

But that responsibility rushed back to him at the sight of the other kids. They were hurt- some far worse than he was with even for disfiguring afflictions. Feathers, flowers, broken limbs. . . He had to do something, and yet was powerless to do anything. There was no way he could help, nothing he could do and nothing to offer but his words. So he could only lie, lie that everything would be fine and lie that he wasn’t afraid. Just keep on lying for everyone’s sake. No. It was, deep down, for his own.

There he was, pacing down the halls of the second sanctioned floor in a fervor. He was worried, but had virtually no way to mend any other kid’s injuries. How do you treat grow ears anyway? This fate felt like some nightmare. He kept walking- solely because he feared resting. Which, caused him to bump into someone in the way.

“O-Oh gosh, so sorry about that.” He stammered out, a bit on edge to knock anyone over regarding what had just happened. He took a step back, nerves getting the best of his confident facade. He needed to be ready to bolt if the feelings came back.

“. . . Are you. . . Keeping up well?” A rhetorical question, as everyone was clearly. . . Not their best.

[eguchi-resort-blog]

my head hurts | post trial reaction | open

[calico-blackwood-blog]

Sousuke told him not to worry. He had it under control. Did he? Could Calico believe that? Should he? Blood wasn’t blue. He knew that, Sousuke knew that. It was a simple law of the human body. Was this a side effect of those weird changes they’d been through, part of Sousuke’s symptoms? Maybe that was it.

He suddenly remembered something Leroy had said once, while telling them they were supposed to kill each other, before he was cut off.

‘After all, you’re all just mo–’

What was he going to say?

Thinking about it sent shivers down his spine, and he squeezed the hand that held his. He remembered holding tightly to Florian with that same hand not long ago, and suddenly his palm and fingers burned and he gently pulled away from Sousuke’s grip.

After a period of simply staring at Sousuke’s wound in silence, thoughts tumbling through his head like a rock polisher, Calico looked up, furrowed his eyebrows, and slowly nodded. He took a deep breath, in and out, and then tugged Sousuke over to the sink. He spoke quietly, distractedly, still in deep thought but instincts and concern prodding him to help his friend.

“W-we should… clean the wound… um, I don’ know if there’s any alcohol anywhere, but I’ve got bandaids…”

He trailed off, turning the water on and sticking Sousuke’s injured hand underneath. He noticed the knife in the sink, dripping blue, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. Sousuke said he had it under control.

He turned the water off once most of the blood had swirled down the drain, and he dug around in his jacket for the bigger bandaids he was pretty sure were in there. He found one after a few moments in his inner pocket and pulled it open– oh. It was covered in a Hello Kitty pattern. Where had he even gotten those? Oh well, better not to sweat the aesthetics when a man was bleeding blue blood.

As he gently smoothed the bandaid onto Sousuke’s cut, he thought. He thought of how they’d said that the blue stuff at the crime scene was Lacey’s blood. Of how white liquid had come out of Florian’s injured hands during his execution.

Why had Lacey’s head come off? Why was it that whenever Calico thought back to the execution(he didn’t want to think, but his mind kept going without his approval), he saw what looked like horns on Florian’s head?

The boy’s hands stilled. He retained a contemplative expression, but his face was pale, and his voice was a whisper.

“Do I… do I have blue blood, too…?”

‘You’re all just–’

What are we? What am I?

[eguchi-resort-blog]

He could only watch as Calico began treating his wound. Moving from one place to another as he looked with concern. What was he supposed to do like this? Everything slowly worsened by the second. The poor kid was just watching the wound- bleeding the potent blue still as it stung. The pain lingered despite how much he wanted to ignore it. The boy walked him over to the sink.

Just like that, he caught the glimpse of the knife in the basin. It gleamed at him with an almost sense of malcontent. He really did do it just to prove some idea- some notion. And now said event had gone all butterfly effect and now shook more people than he wanted to see him like this. What had Calico done to deserve any of this? No, nothing of the sort. The kid had good intentions and was fairly meek. He didn’t seem like the type to hurt anyone.

That knife still lingered in the back of his mind. Everyone was right at the trial. At first, it was just attacking someone because of the symptoms. But then, what if it evolved into something else? What if he wasn’t going to hurt anyone else like that? What if he did worse? What if he. . .

His thoughts were disrupted by the sting of the water flowing through his wound, thoughts jolted by the intense feeling of it. His eyes narrowed slightly, looking down at his feet in silent thought. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. But what if he couldn’t stop himself?

Then once again, his thoughts subsided when he felt the bandage cover his wound. At least the bleeding had been quelled for now. He smiled to express his gratitude, but was distracted by Calico’s look of horror. He was paler than alabaster for pete’s sake. What was the meaning of anything here? Blue blood, white blood, blue blood, headless people, executions, death. Sousuke didn’t even want to know. He just wanted to live. 

“. . . I don’t have an answer for that, Calico. This place is confusing without adding that fact in. It’s best just not to worry about it. The more you worry, the more antsy you get. I’d like to think not, though.” He paused for a moment.

“Hey, let’s go somewhere, huh? How about we check out that new room, huh? It’d be fun. Let’s check it out.”

His unwounded hand took Calico’s as he began walking.

[eguchi-resort-blog]

my head hurts | post trial reaction | open

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Calico wasn’t buying it.

He could plainly see Sousuke was trying to hide his hand, and he admitted to being hurt. Despite his cheerful attitude, Calico could perceive that something was off, and he stepped forward, brow creasing further with worry.

He brushed off Sousuke’s question, mainly because he didn’t know how to answer it. He wasn’t alright, really. He felt betrayed and upset, and he really didn’t feel up to dwelling on it for too long. Besides, if the other boy was injured, that was more important to Calico than contemplating his own mess of feelings.

“Are you sure…? Here, let me take a look at it, um, I’m used to treatin’ injured animals in the woods and stuff so I should be able to do somethin’ to help you…”

Without giving the inkeeper a chance to respond, Calico reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling it towards him and removing the top layer of napkins to take a look. Why was the paper stained blue? That was weird. Maybe Sousuke had just had some jam or something. Unfortunately, all hopes of that being the answer were dashed the moment Calico uncovered the wound.

The boy froze. His face went pale and his eyes widened, looking from the cut to Sousuke and back to the cut. The wound was a little deeper than Sousuke had implied, but that didn’t seem to be the main issue at hand.

“E-eh…? What? Why is it… how.. huh?”

Sousuke froze.

He pupils contracted at the touch of the other boy, his breath hitching slightly as the realization of what was going on came to be. Calico could obviously see it now, unless by miracle’s favor. He needed luck more than ever right now. What was he even supposed to say? His hand was still bleeding out of what looked more like a gash than just a cut. And now it was clear he wasn’t seeing things. This wasn’t just blue blood. It was his blue blood, from his own body. What the hell was happening?

He didn’t want to admit his fear. That wouldn’t help anyone, after all. Everyone needed to stick together. Help each other. What would him being such a lowly coward do to help? He had to make everything right. He’d just have to keep lying, keep running with it. He couldn’t admit to being caught. He should have just denied help outright.

His face scrunched as his brain racked every convinceable option to choose from. He couldn’t have said he got something in his cut- it was clean. He couldn’t be bleeding blue dye. What was he? He didn’t know, he didn’t know but he wanted an answer so badly. He looked Calico in the eyes, but quickly closed them. He. . . That’s it! He just needed to pretend! Pretend like it was all fine! As long as you believe in something, it’s bound to come true, right?

“. . . It’s. Fine. Don’t worry about it, please. I’ve got it under control.” His face stuck with it’s concerned, yet fairly serious look. His voice was flatter and reminiscent of a monotone ring. He spoke slowly, but with force and command. He sounded serious, yet did sound like someone who knew what they were doing. Almost like a mentor. He breathed in, and out, in and out. “Just calm down, okay? Don’t freak out. You shouldn’t have. . . You’re already. . .”

He couldn’t even collect his thoughts besides reaching out with his free hand to clasp the other boy’s hand firmly. His face softened a bit, as he looked at Calico with earnest, hoping that he could be convincing enough not to shake anything up. One, two, three, here he goes.

“Calico, I’m sorry about this. Just, don’t worry yourself more than you already are.”

[eguchi-resort-blog]

my head hurts | post trial reaction | open

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Calico was tired.

He wondered what time it, was, briefly, before figuring it didn’t matter much. He hadn’t slept since the trial, at least, and he hadn’t even bothered changing his clothes. Even though they had long since dried, his shoes and the bottom of his pants where he had trudged through the flooded area still felt sort of uncomfortable. The boy figured he should at least change, and then maybe take a nice long nap, but the rumbling of his stomach told him to eat first and foremost. He didn’t have much of an appetite after everything that had happened, but unfortunately, his body needed sustenance, so he slowly traveled to the kitchen in a bit of a daze.

He wasn’t too surprised to see someone in the kitchen, and upon seeing it was Sousuke there he was kind of glad. It was at least someone he knew, someone he felt he could probably trust. Actually, after everything that had happened, he wanted to talk to the inkeeper, and now he might get a chance.

However, the desire to converse took a backseat as Calico noticed Sousuke’s less-than-calm expression and the napkins wrapped around his hand. If nothing else, the boy was observant, and his face immediately took on a look of worry as he stepped into the kitchen.

“Sous, a-are you okay? What happened? Er, are you hurt, you look like you might be hurt, uh…”

His voice cracked slightly as he spoke, since he hadn’t exactly said much for a while.

Sousuke kept mentally kicking himself. Now not only were his eyes under so much duress that he was still seeing the blood wrong, but now his palm ached like hell. Dear god, he barely knew how to provide medical attention and now he didn’t even hand some materials he could use that were actually meant for medicine. The napkins were compacted tightly as if they were gauzed, yet tied together like a handkerchief or a bandana. He’d have to change this pretty often until it healed, wouldn’t he? Maybe he should head to find something to hide the wound. He quickly stuffed away several napkins down his shirt, only to turn around and be greeted with. . .

Calico.

Shit, was the only thing his head could muster. Maybe he could have lied if he hadn’t seen him already so banged up. But the poor kid just watched his roommate and kind of friend just die. After killing someone in cold blood. How great must that have been for a kid. The innkeeper could handle it, right? He just had to get his head straight. Then it would be alright. Despite the fact he had quite literally just eaten, he still felt a thirst pitted in his stomach. But now he had to do something else.

He turned around, trying to conceal the fact that his blood was dyed such a peculiar color, tightening the grip around his palm in order to conceal it by draping the sleeve over the visible part. He waved with his free hand to the boy, giving the warmest smile he could to mask his fear and uncertainty.

“Ah, hey there Calico.” He spoke, with artificial cheer. “Oh, that? I accidentally prodded my hand. It’s nothing big, just a small cut.” Small, but it was a bit deep. “Don’t worry about it, trust me. I can take care of myself. Uh, what about you? Are you alright?”

Years of practice did make his composure seem to be fairly tied together. But there was a slight feeling that something was wrong.

[eguchi-resort-blog]

my head hurts | post trial reaction | open

#tw knives and self inflicted injury

He was played like a damn fiddle.

To think, he actually liked that guy. He didn’t seem bad, no, he was friendly to both him and Calico. But they investigated his murder together. Florian smiled, like it didn’t even matter that he had taken a life. That this was his plan. Did he have any regrets? Was the sorry just superficial? This was just a game to him, wasn’t it? And the florist played. He played the inkeeper, he played Calico, he played everyone. And he even killed someone to do it. And what happened? He died. Drowned in wine like some metaphor.

Blood. Blue blood. Lacey’s blood. Blood. White blood. Florian’s blood. That wasn’t blood. It was impossible. Blood is that dark sanguine color- maybe a slight bit pinkish or darker when dried. But white. Blue. White. Blue. No, that couldn’t be possible. His head hurt so much.  That had to be it. He was just so dizzy and disoriented that is looked different. He. . . Felt tired. Dead. They were really dead. Not like ghosts. Dead to never come back. He placed a hand over his stomach, feeling the rumbling inside out of hunger. He pouted, walking over to the kitchen.

He stared at his barcode. Like they all were some object. Sousuke shook his head, reading the bar across the scanner. Out popped a thermos with some kind of warm drink inside, and a small lunchbox. He carried the two over to a place by the wall, softly positioning his food by it before running to get silverware. He fiddled around in the cupboard until he pulled out an appropriate fork. He opened up the lunchbox to find a few pork cutlets. One went in. Another. He kept emptily shoving it in his mouth with little meaning. He drank, it tasted like tea, until it was all gone. Then he simply put the plating on the counter.

Blood.

He opened the counter. His hand reached for a knife. He held it firmly between his fingers, spreading his hand out on the counter. That hand raised up, and swung the blade down. He firmly winced, screaming out a bit from the pain. A dark blue- but lighter liquid seethed out from his hand. His eyes widened as he threw the knife into the sink, turning on the water and washing the blood off of the knife. He ran his hand under the water, suddenly panicking. He needed something to patch this up, quickly. He reached out to the napkins, quickly wrapping up the would like a makeshift bandage. This can’t be. His blood couldn’t be. . .

“. . . Shit.”

[calico-blackwood-blog]

A Sorry Sight (Calico I Body Reaction I +Sousuke +Florian)

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Calico frowned a bit as he thought. He hadn’t interacted with many people himself, but the few he had didn’t seem violent– even Matthias, who looked kinda scary, was really friendly and kind. He didn’t want to think any of them had done the deed… but that was too much wishful thinking, huh?

“I haven’t really talked to anyone, either… everyone I’ve met has seemed really nice, though! I guess… we should, uh, probably wait til’ we’ve actually found some kinda evidence to suspect someone, right…?”

His frown only deepened with confusion as he looked over the game board on the floor. He remembered playing a game like that once with Oliver, long ago, but this game certainly didn’t seem to follow the same rules. He picked up the “Claire” piece before standing up, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the table thanks to Sousuke’s example (which he gave the boy worried look for).

“Well, here’s somethin’ but… is there anyone named Claire here? Or, uh, well, I guess there wouldn’t be, i-if if says it’s for Claire…? I don’t know what we’re supposed to make of this… is whoever did this… t-tryin’ to taunt us to figure out who they are…?”

Calico shivered a little at that thought, not liking the idea of the culprit toying with them. He held the piece up for the others to see before putting Claire in his pocket for safekeeping. His eyes furrowed a bit as Sousuke spoke about his behavior. He definitely didn’t seem like the loud, angry type, but whatever effects they’d experienced seemed to have a wide range.

“Eheh, well if you said you didn’ hurt anyone, I believe ya. E-er, except for punchin’ a guy, which I can’t really see you doin’ now. I mean… that whole weird stuff did weird things to us, right? Er, at least, I don’ think you’re a suspect.”

Very eloquent, Calico. To distract himself from his embarrassing speaking skills, he scanned the tops of the tables and chairs in the room, looking for anything he hadn’t seen yet.

He fretted to himself, wondering if anyone (by anyone, he specifically meant Loic) would definitely harp on him for his previously violent behavior. at least Calico didn’t seem to be too worried about it. At least he seemed fairly confident in the innkeeper. That was nice to know that someone had his back if things went for the worse.

He stared at the game piece in Calico’s hand for a bit, wondering exactly why only that single piece was turned over. He never actually played Guess Who, but had a pretty general idea of what it was about. Does that mean they finished playing with only her left? It’s likely this exact Claire wasn’t the person they were doing it for. . . But then what was this supposed to represent?

He wishes he wasn’t so shit at puzzles, sure, crafty resourcefulness came in hand when you’re trying to plan a budget, but murders? No, the dead weren’t really supposed to be messed with. Ghosts might float around this place pretty soon. What happens if you get haunted by the ghost of a nun? He doesn’t quite want to find out.

“I wonder- the rooms all have a correlation ta each other regarding sound, right? It means there’s a room, uh, the library I think, that could have noise heard from over here. Maybe someone heard over from the library something that happened here? At least, it’d give a. . .” Quick, use that cool cop terminology from your dramas! “. . . A susp with a clean al that will make ‘em not be the perp?” What are you even saying, Sousuke.

He quickly does a final scan of the game room’s floor, even under the shelfs with the games to find anything significant. He sighed, nearly tripping over himself and taking a chair with him. Nice going nerd.

[calico-blackwood-blog]

A Sorry Sight (Calico I Body Reaction I +Sousuke +Florian)

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Both boys seemed otherwise occupied with investigating the room but Florian hooked a chair with one foot, sitting on it in reverse and  placing his chin in his hands thoughtfully. “Bien, I agree that we should not be suspecting others. However we should similarly not have a blank list of suspects for it is without a doubt someone among us committed such a heinous crime – it would be best, I think, to find a gentle compromise. Who then would show the most inclination to harm, I wonder…? We have not been much in our right minds as of late, but has there been anyone particularly violent or malevolent of spirit who would harm such a summer flower?” Florian shrugged at his own question before sighing gustily. “Alas, even in that I cannot be much of assistance. I was not one for socialization before now.” At the discoveries made by the two boys, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his brow into a frown.  “Ah… we came here under the assumption that someone had taken the facial covering board from here, but more missing? Where are they, I wonder? I am not anything of an expert on Western games – many of my classmates were, but I was always too busy assisting in my mother’s shop to play much. I’m afraid I will not be much help in fingering the culprit.” “Regardless, if you find anything, mon amies, please bring it to my attention and I will do my best to offer what help I can. I trust you two.” And he flashed a beaming smile at them, tilting his head gently. “We must stick together in trying times like this, no?”

Geez, this place sure was a mess. there was only one board on Lacey’s head, right? So then why was enough to last a game night missing? Someone must really love their checkers or something. He scrunched his face, shaking his head at the collection of games. He stepped away with a sigh, rejoining the other two boys.

“Well, you’re right in the fact we shouldn’t start fires underneath people just yet- but it still could potentially be a lead. Everyone’s innocent until proven guilty, but it doesn’t mean we can’t go easy on people. I’d say Lacey’s roommate is definitely suspicious- if they went and saw the video. It was completely optional, right? So if they didn’t see it, that’s a lead lost. No harm done.”

He notices the gameboard underneath the table, sliding his way over to check out which game it was. Maybe there’s some kind of secret message spelled out in Candyland cards. He wasn’t much of a gaming person, but he’d still enjoy a game of othello or checkers now and then. Except, coming back up his head straight on collided with the table. Ow. How rude, table. 

When he heard Florian mention anyone malevolent or violent, he paled considerably. Of course, he’s tried to keep it under control. He’s made sure to take all the precautions so he doesn’t randomly start punching people again. Alas, poor Loic’s face. I knew thee well.

“Well, I mean, uh. . . The effects. . . Gave me spurts of violence here and there. B-But I didn’t hurt anyone! Just some yelling and. . . It was unpleasant for me and anyone who happened to come across me. . . And. Uh. I sort of clocked Loic straight in the face. . .B-But it was an accident! And I said I was sorry! And I’ve been trying really hard for it not to happen again! But, after this, it just. . . Went.”

Sousuke Eguchi, SHSL Shady Character.

[calico-blackwood-blog]

A Sorry Sight (Calico I Body Reaction I +Sousuke +Florian)

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Putting a name to the face he’d just grabbed took a few minutes, but after his attention was allowed to wander from Calico he had it – Sousuke, was it? An entirely foreign name that he’d pronounce wrong the minute he tried. Pet names really came in handy when you were deaf and relying on lip reading; enunciation of proper nouns was never a problem at all. And he’d presented a location, the game room, which Florian firmly nodded along to and set off for with a steady determination.

The question Calico propositioned him with on the way wasn’t a suprising one, given the circumstance, but he started reguardless. “Ah… cheri, I did see a vide, oui – but the primo uomo was you. It was subtitled which was a… nice touch. I do not believe whoever manufactured it was aware of my ability to read lips. By your words, though, I’m taken to believe you saw the same video but with me as the star, no?” Pausing for thought, he turned away from Calico – with a reassuring squeeze to the boy’s hand – and addressed Sousuke instead. “Perhaps the pattern continued for you as well? Did you peruse a filming of your dormmate agreeing to this?”

Of course he thought it was ridiculous – as a motive, as a video in general. Anything could be manufactured in this day and age and he was still under a bit of the impression this whole thing was a large performance someone had failed to include him in. It wouldn’t be the first time he missed an obvious queue spoken aloud out of eyesight – maybe the first message Leroy had delivered had been to tell the kids to act scared for a filming or the like. Like normal, he’d gone along with it.

“Love, I don’t remember anything but setting foot on a plane from France to here– much less agreeing to this! But if this trend is a thing, perhaps we should turn our suspicions to the roommate of the late Ophelia? If they saw her agree to this, they may have assumed the worst.”

Drawing even with the door of the game’s room, Florian turned both their hands loose so that the trio could funnel into the room without slamming into the door frame. There was the shelf which held the games, tables, and chairs. “Ah.. I’ve never done this sort of thing before. I’m sorry, please be gentle.. but where should we start…?”

The innkeeper was honestly getting lost in his thoughts more than he ought to, but there was no doubt that there was certainly a lot to digest in a few minutes. The death of Lacey was certainly sudden and unexpected, but he couldn’t fret. He had to be a leader of course! Cracking under pressure now would totally ruin his image. He was about to step forward to survey the area, until he felt the squeeze of Florian’s hand. A strong grip for sure- but it was still gentle and soft- woah stop right there mister. Focus on the task at hand right now. Not how nice a dude’s hand fe- SHIT.

He tuned back into the conversation- about the videos, right? He remembers walking in to see Kerry. She scared him at first- waking up on the floor of a room with a girl you barely even knew existed wasn’t the average joe’s day. After talking to her during an episode, she seemed rather cool and level headed. Surely someone like that wouldn’t agree to something without a good reason, right? He wondered, does that mean she saw one with him? But he’s never even been in America, if they were really at this school place before.So how?

“Uh, yeah actually. Kerry- The one with the kinda greyish hair? I saw her, she agreed to the same thing.  . . So I guess she probably saw me do the same thing. . . But I’ve never even been to anywhere out of the country. Last thing I remember I was saying goodbye to everyone at the inn. Shinji hailed a cab for me. I’m old enough to drive, but I never bothered getting a liscense. Didn’t have the time. Uh, oops, went on a bit there. Short answer, yeah, I did.”

He smiled at the fact Calico seemed to be doing better, before all of them shuffling into the room. He looked over to Florian, trying to figure out what to say next. He put an arm around his shoulders- completely forgetting about two seconds ago before starting to speak again. “Let’s just start somewhere small and work from there. There’s twen-. . . Nineteen of us left. If sure we can all cover it and find something to tie up this mess. Uh, how about we find out about that gameboard or something?” Sousuke probably realized he could let go now, but he gently took Florian’s and Calico’s hands and eyed over the stack of games, before letting them go to search on their own.

[calico-blackwood-blog]

A Sorry Sight (Calico I Body Reaction I +Sousuke +Florian)

[eguchi-resort-blog]

Everyone else seemed just as shocked as he was feeling, stumbling through their words in ways that made Florian frown trying to read. “A… woman…?” But he’d thought that Leroy figure was the one speaking from what he’d picked up on. It really would have been more convenient if the messages from whoever was in charge didn’t come verbally alone. “But I thought… the man…”

Oh, bother, Calico’s tears had made his vest soggy. Hopefully that wouldn’t stain.

At least Calico seemed calmer and the one he’d grabbed willing to go along with them. “A manhunt for the killer. How… inhumane. Ah, but then, what is humane about any of this?” His lips twisted into a sour look of displeasure and he plucked at his tie momentarily while he thought. So that’s how it was going to be, hm? A pity whoever had done this had kept it a secret – for what reason Florian could only guess. Shame? Fear? Guilt? Without knowing they would be hunted, it would have been logical to simply complete a clean kill and then demand reciprocation. “First they goad someone to kill, and now they goad us to find the killer? Ah, but we do not have to do that here, in the room with the sweet Ophelia – surely we could not be punished for searching elsewhere as well, no? And then you will not have to look at the ‘dead thing’. Let us pick another room to ah, ‘hunt’ in. We must play their game, but at least let us play it on our own terms.”

He grabbed both of their hands in his, marching determinedly out of the kitchen and into the hallway before pausing and stopping to look around. “Where would you have us go? I admit I didn’t do much exploring, before – the previous effects were a bit hard on me. Perhaps the source of whatever was covering her face, or…?”

Well, at least they weren’t going near the body. He didn’t mean it to offend Lacey, but death was something he definitely didn’t want to come across any time soon. Who knows, this place might get haunted by her vengeful spirit sometime soon. And he didn’t want to be a victim of it for touching her corpse or anything. So, perhaps going into another room was the best idea.

Except, none of them, to his knowledge knew how to solve a murder. This was the inkeeper’s first time actually seeing a full blown corpse. The whole area filled with a sense of unease and hopelessness. What were they all going to do? What was going to happen once they found the killer, they already knew not finding them would mean. . . Retribution. They were on a hunt. Someone here was acting as everyone else’s prey. The morbid metaphors seemed to keep piling in, didn’t they? What was preventing anything worse from happening? A corpse might as well fall from the vents.

“Well, it was a man, but she said he. . . Had to step out for a bit. What matters now is that we actually find something of use.” He brought a finger to his chin, pondering where to go. 

The library had the nice smell of old books, but the darkness of a library in a murder case didn’t seem to friendly. The information was going to keep playing in the theater anyway, so people were bound to cross through there. As much as he the stigma of the room seemed to stick around, unless he wanted to snoop through people’s rooms, it seemed their best bet.

“Uh, the game room, maybe? That thing on her head- it looked like one of those. . . Uh, whaddya callits.  Chessboards? I dunno. I don’t play a lot in my spare time.” He hadn’t even noticed Florian grabbing his hands before he turned to Calico.

“Hey, kid, don’t sweat it. This is a pretty. . . Dire thing for all of us. It’s okay to feel a little spooked. But you gotta keep your head up. There’s no use being all caught up in the moment. The least we can do for her is find out whodunnit.” He didn’t want to mention the impending feeling of doom in his gut.

[calico-blackwood-blog]

A Sorry Sight (Calico I Body Reaction I +Sousuke +Florian)

Calico had ended up running away from most other people as the symptoms of whatever it was he was affected with worsened. He felt so dry, and his skin was cracking and peeling, bloody patches appearing all over his body. They stung at even slight contact, causing the boy to retreat to a safe corner in his room or the library for most of the time. He’d watched the video in the theater out of curiosity, but while it was confusing and slightly unsettling and he wanted to talk to his roommate about it, he hadn’t gotten the chance.

Despite how uncomfortable it was, Calico had been sort of starting to get used to his new skin condition. He figured that if worse came to worse, he could figure out a way to wrap his body in some kind of protective gear, like plastic wrap but hopefully more comfortable and environment-friendly. As he contemplated the feasibility of such armor, safe in the corner of his bed, he started to notice, to his surprise, that some of the peeled spots were starting to heal up. It wasn’t long after that the announcement came, and the excitement he felt from starting to get better suddenly plummeted and disappeared.

No way… someone hadn’t actually died, r-right…? Haha, no way that would actually happen… but he found himself dragging his feet out of the room and down to the kitchen, following everyone else, needing to confirm it was a prank and not actually–

There it was, a dead body, lying on the floor. Calico let out a noise of surprise and fear, stumbling back and tripping on his own feet. He fell to the ground on his butt, face pale as a ghost. He could only be thankful there was something covering her face, because it gave the impression she was sleeping, and not dead in the middle of the kitchen, motionless, lifeless–

Calm down, Calico. Take deep breaths. He followed his own advice, sucking air in and pushing it out, feeling rather lightheaded from the shock. He backed away as far as he could, still on the floor, scooting towards the door… only to bump into someone’s leg. He looked away from the body, forcing himself to stand up and address whoever he’d bumped into, still extremely frazzled. 

“I-I-I’m s-sorry I-I, I can’t… I’m sorry…!”

[fleurettiste-blog]

His legs worked again!

His legs worked and he felt like he could sing and dance despite the fact that oh goodness yes that was most definitely a dead body and he probably should not be celebrating around that not to mention he might have to throw up —

Calico crashing into him saved him the trouble of deciding which of the three actions he most felt like doing, reaching out automatically to stable the other boy by the shoulders before forcing Calico to look into his eyes. His roommate had… one of the less attractive effects happen to him, but despite not being very visually appealing of late Florian was quite fond of the boy. He was like… briars, yeah, that was it. Not very pretty, but practical.

“Woah there, love, calm down alright? Panicking won’t make this any better – calm, calm. Easy now, shhh.”

And for lack of something better to do, he simply pulled the boy into a hug while trying to ignore the still fresh wounds on Calico’s body. He’d arrived not long after the crowd, knowing from their expressions that the man (Leroy?) was probably speaking again and following when the whole crowd rushed as a whole into the kitchen. There… the body of that one girl, Lacey or whatever her name had been, the plumber he’d likened to a watercress in his head. Dead…?

The word dead kept showing up on people’s lips, so maybe. But blood.. wasn’t blue. So what was going on?

“Here, stick with me, alright? We’ll figure out what’s going on, cheri, and then everything will be alright.” Reaching out, he snagged the sleeve of someone else at random – was this the innkeeper? Florian hadn’t spoken to him yet. “Pardon, pardon dear – do you know what’s going on? I simply followed everyone here but I assume there was another announcement.” Pausing, he gestured to his ears. “These simply don’t work like they used to – or at all. Could you fill me in?”

[eguchi-resort-blog]

He hadn’t slept well the past few nights. At any time, he could just lash out with no provocation- he still had to apologize to Loic for clocking him straight in the face. But perhaps, the relief he felt once he didn’t completely go beserk was too short lived to mean anything. Walking into the kitchen, he covered his mouth with his sleeve, nearly choking on the fresh smell of blood. He hadn’t even talked to Lacey, but god, she’s certainly dead.

Which means someone killed her. Someone in this building, might be someone he’s spoken to, might not, but someone definitely had blood on their hands. Arrays of feelings warped across him, disgust, anger, sadness, but he needed to stay calm. If everyone ran around like a headless chicken, then no one would bring justice to the late Lacey Butler. He eyed the body from afar, thinking about going to it when he was pulled into a debacle between two people he hadn’t spoken to. 

The one on the floor, was he okay? Well, he had no choice but to be pulled into this, with the one who seemed to be more calm literally tugging him in. Did he have hearing problems? Eh, no matter. There were bigger matters at hand than this, after all. Dear? Well that was a new one to be called by someone close to his own age, usually it was- Nevermind that. You have a job to do, Sousuke.

“Well. . . She- Lacey. . . She died, someone here killed her. And apparently, we have to find out who it is.” He gulped, unsure of what to really make of it. “It’s. . . Ugh.”