Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Go Shijima	Last Time, on the Lodge: Lilian and Tamamo discovered that Twin Peaks hides more than a potential Orphenoch. Through scrying and magical analysis, the two discovered the name of a malevolent entity hounding Laura -- BOB -- and signs that benign spirits may also have had an interest in her.     The supernatural element didn't end there. Shinnosuke visited the sheriff's office to meet with the woman known around town as the Log Lady, who offered him a cryptic warning. He also examined the pages of Laura's diary, stained over with rain and dirt as they were. What little is left mentions volunteer work with several people around town, but the only name still intact is 'Harold.' It seems like Laura had a lot of kindness in her...     But that's not all she had. Haru spoke with Bobby Briggs, a troubled young man and (so he believed) Laura's boyfriend. Bobby confided in Haru that he's been laying low (for good reason--he's wanted for questioning.) Bobby also mentioned to Haru that there is a side of Laura that not even her closest friends and family see. He seemed frustrated at the secrecy behind her kind exterior, and questioned how well he truly knew her.     Perhaps he was right to--becuase Xion unlocked Laura's heart locket, discovering that Laura Palmer was involved with James Hurley, another local delinquent, unbeknownst to Bobby, or even the sheriff's office.     Strawberry resolved to find James, one of apparently many secrets which Laura kept. Word is that James is looking to skip town--the three are advised that his preferred method is a motorcycle, and he's known to take the roads out into the woods to think. Keitarou and Mari apparently made headway in finding some of Laura's friends--Mari, a determined woman with a calm, almost infectious exuberance, informs her that James and Laura had a few mutual friends who might be able to give a more specific idea than 'in the woods.'      A few new arrivals stopped in late last night from other worlds. What role might they play in this mystery?
Go Shijima	February 26, 1989 Twin Peaks, WA Great Northern Hotel 11:00AM     There's another morning meeting in the dining hall. Agent Cooper is there, as are Sheriff Harry S. Truman, Keitarou Kikuchi and Mari Sonoda. You can spend a minute coordinating with everyone, or choose to get right to pursuing your leads. Those of you who chose to take advantage of your complimentary lodgings in the Great Northern last night will have found them to be quite comfortable and cozy... but you may have had some strange dreams. More on that later.         LEADS: Bobby Briggs - Allegedly Laura's boyfriend; he was among the last people to see her, along with... James Hurley - Another bad-boy type, involved in a secret relationship with Laura. Laura's parents - Laura's grieving father Leland is apparently taking it very hard, and is not 'all there.' Mari has spoken to him, but noted she didn't feel comfortable pressing too hard given his state. Mrs. Palmer is evidently more composed, but also more reserved. Gen. Garland Briggs - Bobby's father, assigned to a top secret posting somewhere near Twin Peaks. Lilian or Cooper can set up a meeting if necessary. Ronnette Pulaski - A girl who was with Laura when they were both attacked. She managed to survive and was hospitalized in a catatonic state, but has recently escaped the hospital and may be wandering through town. Harold - A shut-in with agoraphobia who Laura delivered meals to. He is mentioned in Laura's diary. BOB - Without a doubt, the most difficult and esoteric of your leads. Little information exists on this entity. Ben Horne - A business partner of Laura's father Leland. He has a daughter of his own, Audrey, who you've yet to meet. Horne admitted a fondness for Laura to Agent Cooper. He wouldn't know her like her parents, James or Bobby, but he did mention a willingness to cooperate wholly with the investigation.
Go Shijima	GAME PLAN: Throughout your stay in Twin Peaks, you will have opportunities to advance the INVESTIGATION, to get better acquainted with the PEOPLE (either to aid the investigation or out of interest), or to witness EVENTS which unfold in town--the people here after all do have lives of their own, struggles and conflicts with each other. Solving the mystery and healing the many broken hearts in town will require a balance of all three approaches, as this small community is friendly but guarded. Keep your eyes open, make friends and stay active--you'll be surprised who sticks up for you and when, and at what secrets you may uncover. AGENT COOPER can help with the INVESTIGATION, combining the resources of the Bureau with his own extremely unusual deductive style. Dale Cooper is a strange man, with strange methods, but they're undeniably effective... KEITAROU and MARI can clue you into where EVENTS may be going on, the both of them quite used to jet-setting around in Keitarou's well-loved van. Occasionally, one of them may give a call if they believe there is something you ought to see... SHERIFF TRUMAN has lived here all his life, and knows the PEOPLE of Twin Peaks well. There is a certain understanding between him and his deputies that seems to transcend just professional rapport...
Shinnosuke Tomari	Shinnosuke Tomari spent the night at the Great Northern, after he got his 'message' at the Sheriff's Office. As soon as he got it, he texted the others. <"if you see any owls, please let me know ASAP. no matter what they're doing."> Once he's actually on his investigation, he talks to the SHERIFF. He asks Sheriff Truman about Harold, where he lives, and if it'd be fine to deliver him some food. After intel, if Truman doesn't deny him, he stops by the nearest grocers, tries to shop for essentials he thinks someone in America would need (unless given a grocery list), and pays for it himself. He's still in his detective suit. But Tomari isn't going solely as a detective. Even if this man may be able to give some insight into Laura, he also likely doesn't have anyone else helping him out. Kindness is an essential key to policework (in his eyes).
Hellwarming Trio	Rin: "You sure this is the right way?" Utsuho: "Not as sure as I was ten minutes ago." Rin: "Why are we even here, anyway?" Utsuho: "'cause solving human mysteries'll make us smarter and stuff like master wanted." Rin: "We coulda started with something easier. Do you even know where we're supposed to meet this guy?" As Utsuho leaves Rin's question completely unanswered, the pair of questionably informed youkai wander about the town, and it takes them a fair bit of time to actually start recognizing/identifying landmarks to use as reference points. They had heard of COOPER's involvement in this investigation, at least, so they do have one lead. Beyond that... The dining hall meeting is the best place for them to start their involvement in all of this. If there's a breakfast/brunch bar, they're going to spend a fair bit of time attacking that, but they do finally approach COOPER to inquire about the investigation directly. Rin: "Yo!" Utsuho: "Hey!" Rin: "You know if Laura had any enemies?" Utsuho: "Or if she hung out in the woods a lot?" Rin: "Maybe even animals." Utsuho: "Nah, that'd be too easy. She'd be dead already if that was the case." Rin: "Yeah, but then we could track the body down quick!"
Lilian Rook	BOB is certainly the least unusual name Lilian has ever had in following a paranormal trail of any kind. Somehow, the generic, three letter name, makes it feel more menacing. Rather than a boring filler vibe, or an obvious pseudonym, thinking about that particular definition makes her mentally envision the bright red warning colour and frown.     She had, actually, stayed overnight for travel convenience's sake, porting what passes for textbooks with her and some changes of clothes and such in a trivially portable duffel-equivalent, certainly not wanting to run back and forth for materials for the rural rituals she expects to need to pull off here. After getting dressed, she'd spent crack o'clock in the morning going into the woods, beelining for local growing things and certain stones on an hour long trip. Refreshing pre-sunrise walks in spooky woods seems to have the effect on her of a comfy morning jog. Provided there actually are any owls out, she makes sure to tell Tomari.     She'd previously assured the group that meeting with Garland Briggs should be no issue for her, despite his position and schedule. She fully means that. Today. A letter in immaculate calligraphy mysteriously appears where he is serendipitously likely to find it, though it is signed properly, with double ranks and insignia, to let him know that she isn't fucking about, nor is she just a nosy Paladins freelancer, but partial to military protocol as well, and ostensibly somewhat important. Lunch is ideal, but she has plenty to do to fill the day regardless.     Of course, any number of reluctant underlings are of no issue whatsoever, given her great familiarity with minds worked over by boot camp as a formative experience. Until then, she spends some amount of time buried in books in the hotel, and sketching out something incredibly complicated on an easel-sized square of amber paper, as well as frequently going outside to interact with a small flock of especially large and especially black crows. It's remarkably cozy, all things considered, though she insists on lighting her own candles everywhere.
Go Shijima	SHINNOSUKE: Speak With Harold     "I think that sounds like a great idea, Officer," says Sheriff Truman. Pausing in his appreciation of the Hotel's cantaloupe breakfast, he tears off a scrip of paper from a notepad and bums a pen off of Cooper, jotting down Harold's address. "Handle the food however you like--just know that Harold doesn't trust so easy. Be patient with him and he'll let you in." Shinnosuke knows enough about people from his own experience to know that Harry means more than just 'let in' in the literal sense.     "You know, I had the strangest dream last night, Harry," says Cooper. "Shinnosuke was there. We were in this red room, and..." As Cooper explains, Shinnosuke realizes he had the exact same dream. A room with red curtains, and zig-zagged black and white floor tiles. Furnishings for four. A lamp. A little man in a red suit, and Laura Palmer, apparently alive and well--though the little man said she was his cousin and not the real Laura, it had to be. Every sound in that dream, save for Shinnosuke and Cooper's voices, was backwards, yet forwards--like it was being reversed for the benefit of their own understanding. "She whispered the name of her killer in my ears, and then Shinnosuke's! But..." Keitarou, Mari and Harry all lean in with interest.      But neither he nor Shinnosuke can remember it. Bummer. PEOPLE: HAROLD SMITH      When Shinnosuke arrives at Harold's apartment with food, there is movement inside. He's peering through the blinds. Suspicious, just as Sheriff Truman warned. He's also pointedly not answering the knocking--but neither is he telling Shinnosuke to go away. If he wants to be let in, Shinnosuke is going to have to start talking.
Muramasa	To become an ally of justice ... that had been the dream Shirou Emiya inherited. It was something that he found beautiful. It was something that he, selfishly, inherited for his own self-satisfaction, that he might learn the meaning of what he'd seen that day. It isn't a surprise that Muramasa is here, in the American mid-west, then -- that even though he was far from an investigator, paranormal or no, he had come here because "it's not wrong to help others". It goes without saying as well that what he could contribute was painfully limited something he became aware of more or less on the night of his own arrival.     His sleep was fitful and uneasy. He didn't mention this to anyone, of course, given they were kind enough to provide him lodging. He just hoped what he'd dreamt of had just been his nerves, rather than some kind of omen. For the sake of not looking so anachronistic, he garbed himself in somewhat more modern clothing, something stylish enough that you can just tell he didn't really pick out his own clothing, beyond perhaps insisting on the koi-fish print wrapping around his silk button up. "Hah ... well, if even those two troublesome youkai are being this energetic, I better get a move on." From his understanding of the situation, the victim - Laura, he reminded himself - was attacked while alongside her friend ... and while she had unfortunately been killed, that friend had not. Yet, mysteriously, the other girl had gone missing overnight, despite having been comatose to that point. If she wasn't already in danger, there was a good chance that she would be. If the killing was premeditated, it was unlikely the killer paranormal or no would let the chance to tie up loose ends slip. And, that is truthfully what Muramasa was suspicious of, given that a more instinctual form of killing would atypicially be indiscriminate, which is to say that because there had only been one victim so far, he was beginning to hedge his bet that there was some kind of motive at play.     Slinging his white garment over his shoulder, holy shroud tucked into his back pocket, Muramasa sets off to begin locating the lost RONETTE. Since she escaped from the HOSPITAL, he supposed it would best to begin looking there to try and pick up some kind of trail. Since she was still missing, unless her parents were hiding her for some reason or another, she must still be wandering about, is what passes through his mind.
Go Shijima	RIN and UTSUHO: The Story So Far      "Hi. Agent Dale Cooper, FBI," says Cooper, offering a hand to both Utsuho and Rin in that order, and shaking firmly. He smiles broadly at them. "I'm glad to have you two on board. What are your names? Wait! Wait. Don't tell me..." Cooper shotguns his coffee and peers into the empty cup, watching the grounds settle. "Something with a U... and something with an R. Right?" >Did she have any enemies?     "None that we know of," says Harry. "But..."     Cooper finishes. "But so far, it's looking like Laura was leading a double life. James Hurley and Bobby Briggs are two boys that have a hard time staying out of trouble, and that's putting it lightly." >Did she hang out in the woods a lot?     Harry nods, stirring his coffee idly with a spoon. "If she hung out with that crowd as often as it's beginning to seem, then yeah, I'd say she might've gone into the woods often. It's a popular place for that crowd." It makes sense. The delinquent scene in town would want someplace they could get into trouble without being caught. "If you want to see the body, I can take you down to the morgue."
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry sleeps with her phone within arm's reach. She's done the math- or, well, Director Velt has, to be exact. If there's an Endling situation only she can take care of, they'll ring her up. She can fire up her wand, shriek down to Seattle in exactly five minutes, take the Warpgate there back home, get reloaded with a new plutonium core, and--      But the call never comes. She sleeps through the night, to her own disbelief in the morning. It's an eventuality she hadn't entirely prepared for. She takes a cold 6 AM shower to wake her up in the absence of a klaxxon, pulls on new clothes that are identical copies of her old ones- consistency of image is important!- and staggers downstairs with her hair three-quarters dry and her face not made up (not that it ever is). Black coffee and two aspirin work for breakfast, unless anyone can successfully nag her into eating anything more substantial.      She wanders outside, sits down companionably close to Lilian and her crows, and gives her friend a warm, tired smile and wave. "Hey, Lilian. You, uh- you got enough sleep? I know you... you do that weird thing. Maybe it's silly for me to ask." There's a borrowed phone book in her lap; she starts thumbing through it as they chat. Is there a phone number for 'Hurley'? If so, she'll dial it up. It's just early enough to not quite be unreasonable to call.
Go Shijima	LILIAN: Lunch With a General      The Double R diner is a good, public place to have a meeting. The owner, Norma, and the waitress, Shelly, are both friendly and helpful enough. Lilian can tell that both of them have something other than work on their minds here and there. The way Norma (a woman in her late thirties) wistfully glances out the window when she thinks no one is looking. Or the way that Shelly focuses a little too much on work, as if there's something she's trying to avoid thinking about.      Garland Briggs receives a friendly wave and a hello, smiling warmly at both ladies. When he takes a seat with Lilian in a booth of her choosing, he offers to pay for the food. He's a stocky, bald man with a deep Texas baritone--but the way that he speaks naturally commands respect in a passive, non-threatening kind of way. The 'presidential voice,' as it's called.      "Dame Rook," he says, extending a hand to shake. "I have seen many strange things in my time. Many more, since I began living here. It's a hard thing, for someone to reach me while I'm at business. Accordingly," he says, as he settles into his seat and reaches for a menu, "I thought it best to meet with you as soon as possible. It is my experience that people like yourself don't take 'no' sitting down," he adds with a wry smile.      "What can I do for you?"
Shinnosuke Tomari	THE DINER: Shinnosuke verifies Cooper's story. He had the same exact dream. "Sharing a dream...this town's certainly got its secrets, huh?" HAROLD SMITH: Shinnosuke drops the groceries off by the door. His knocking is ignored, but Harold can hear him, so he speaks. He's a little lazy still, but he's got a Do-Good charm about him. "Hello, Mr. Smith. I'm Shinnosuke - Shinnosuke Tomari. I'm a detective, but that's not really the only reason I'm here." A foot towards the groceries. "I'm sure they're not as good as what Laura brought, she likely knew the aisles better than I did, but they should tide you over for a while. I tried to avoid the highly allergenic stuff, bananas, peanut butter, stuff like that, but if you want it, I can run back and grab some more? It's really no problem."
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho and Rin have learned enough about western society to understand the importance of handshakes, and they both do so with gusto! The former's grip is firmer while the latter's is more animated, for whatever little difference that might make to the agent. When he guesses the first letters of their names, they both let out awed "Whoa"'s in unison. Utsuho: "Utsuho Reiuji." Rin: "Rin Kaenbyou. And we are...!" Utsuho: "..." Looking mildly disappointed at Utsuho not picking up on the bit, Rin nevertheless pipes down once Agent Cooper gets to answering their questions about Laura, her apparent double life, and her likely dealings in the forest. "So she hung out with two potential suspects, and one or both of them might be involved in weirder stuff than just killing her..." Utsuho starts, crossing her arms and nodding slowly as though she's trying to channel her inner wise man. "But before they could finish their work, the body was found in the forest, and-" "Wait, hold up. If she's dead already, then they must've been really slow doing whatever it was they were doing to still have someone grab the body and bring her here." Rin interjects, already jumping to conclusions like Utsuho is. "But if she got killed by them, then that doesn't match up with... Y'know. How fairies or demons or whatever might have done it." "Right, right. Unless... Those two were working with them!" Utsuho sounds confident at first, then slumps after a moment. "Nah, couldn't be that easy. Otherwise, Cooper here would've already solved it. Uh... Yeah, let's go check out that body. Maybe we can use it later." Rin raises an eyebrow, but shrugs. She doesn't seem too confident about whatever 'using' the body might entail. "How long was she out there? Any weird markings or burns or missing parts?"
Hamada Haru	Haru stayed at the hotel, but he doesn't bother coming out the normal way and socializing with any other guests. Kamen Rider Tetra left through a wall, de-transforming partway over to the Wrong Side Of The Tracks to go hang out with Bobby Briggs again. He arrives by the traintracks -- this time on his motorcycle -- and just sort of mills around at first. At this point, and with the information that the others provided, this guy's probably a dead end. Still... Assuming that Briggs eventually does turn up, Haru just starts talking. "I feel like this was the exact wrong time to end up in this town," he muses aloud, leaned back against his sidecar, staring into eternity. "Like the scales of this place were perfectly balanced, until..." He flicks the air. "And now it's like a fault line, or a volcano is about to go off. I've lived a lot of places, and I've even seen beloved community members die. But I don't think they were as important to their surroundings as this person was to here," Haru carries on. "There's a word for that sort of person, in mythology. A Fisher King. As long as the King's healthy, so is his kingdom. But if the King is wounded, or sick..." He rolls a shoulder, lapsing into silence.
Go Shijima	MURAMASA: INVESTIGATE Hospital     "That poor girl. When she was here, that nice Agent Cooper tried speaking with her," says an elderly nurse Muramasa manages to stop. "All she kept saying was 'don't try it.'" She shakes her head sadly, then leans in for an exaggerated whisper. "They say she's the reason he got involved--that she wandered across state lines. Her room is right this way. We haven't put anyone else in, at the Bureau's request."      The nurse leads Muramasa to the room where RONETTE was being cared for. The bed is still disturbed. An IV stand lies knocked over. There are, oddly, burn marks on the sheets, where her limbs must've rested. It's like looking at an outline of a person. Cinders from burnt bedsheets lead to a broken window. If it weren't for Muramasa's excellent sense of sight, he wouldn't see it.      A feather, blowing beneath the radiator. Dull grey, stuck between the coils.
Go Shijima	STRAWBERRY: PEOPLE - James Hurley     There is indeed a Hurley in the phone book. 'Ed' Hurley. Hm...      "Hello?" "This is Ed. James is my nephew. Me and Nadine take care of him, since his grandpa passed. What's this about, Miss Princess?" ...      A resigned sigh. "Okay. That's too bad, but I know a few places he likes to go. You have a pen and paper handy?"      "Okay. He's also got a friend--Donna Hayward. You seem like a nice girl, but you might wanna bring her along so he don't get the wrong idea. James doesn't cotton much to badges, if you catch my drift. One other thing--I run a gas station in town. Big Ed's Gas Farm. I'm gonna be there rest of the day. You find James, you mind giving me a call?" ...      "Okay. Alright, you too."      Strawberry has a list of places James likes to visit--the woods near the LUMBER MILL, and near the TRAIN TRACKS where Bobby is also known to haunt. BIG ED suggested bringing along Donna Hayward to talk to him. She volunteers for Meals on Wheels too and ought to be driving today--just look for her car.
Lilian Rook	Lilian is of course made up by five (she has strong views on that) albeit what constitutes 'underdressed' for her, given the area, with a folded uniform next to her. Currently she needs sleeves up for the amount of ink she's using and some green stuff ground up in a tiny stone bowl. The process of Strawberry Princess Feeding And Care begins, involving eggy bread and fruit, and potentially sharing the nutrition bars she'd brought to supplement an unusual balance of menu selections.     "I took a little extra." she replies to the pertinent question. "This entire place is asleep all through the night, so I might as well get it all out of the way whilst there's nothing to do. Aside, I was using a lot of magic yesterday, and I likely will today, so recharging all at once is just efficient. Besides that, I was hoping something or other might come to me, but . . ." She shrugs. "I have no such luck with nonsense dreams as Agent Cooper, nor Tomari's confabulations of memory. Now, more importantly, will you be alright? You don't often stay far from home, and that luggage . . ."     Some of the morning is spent on finishing that drawing and rolling it up to put in a case. Some of it is spent stuffing things into vials. More spent on writing up some kind of paper, by hand, like a monk. Some is spent in front of a holoscreen staring at line graphs, headlines, and pressing buy and sell buttons. 30 minute breaks go towards local television and talking about a game she wishes she'd brought.     The time before lunch is spent finding a quiet spot close to the woods but with a view of the inn, spending a regimented period in meditation, warm ups, flicking finger-sized firebolts at stone targets, then practising forms and cuts on the same ones, and a quick flight drill around town.     Then she actually puts on that uniform --charcoal and white, with polished gold buttons, a pulled in waist, a formal summer skirt and tights, and a convoluted insignia with a latin motto-- before heading out, taking extra time to double comb down hair, apply slightly heavier lipstick, and remove the bulk of the *really* fancy jewels and accessories she likes, downgrading to understated earrings and a signet ring. She's meeting an American general.     At a diner, albeit, but still. Of course, she allows him to pay; this is exactly the opposite of one of those situations to assert your independence, and the kind where you let the traditional old man perform. Owing to the straight testimony she hopes to get out of him first, she pays special attention to keep the unnaturally cooperative haze around her to a minimum, though that doesn't stop her from trying to spread her awareness to the minds of the two women while the brainless pleasantries are in progress. She remembers to smile when the topic moves on.
Lilian Rook	"Indeed. I'm pleased to see you're a sharp one." Lilian replies, flatteringly, though not dishonestly. "You may be aware of the unusual overlap of jurisdictions taking place surrounding the current disruption on this town's mind. I felt it best that it be my own to speak to you personally; the others, I fear, aren't quite up to the same standard of decorum and lack experience in matters of intelligence and security." Using the menu, she makes sure to order something well outside the 'trying to look slim and disciplined' date category, finding something grilled or seared (rather than fried or boiled, owing to being a diner). Even the choice of tasteful amounts of red meat is deliberate.     "What you can help me with is, unfortunately, the sort of thing I understand you'd be most reluctant to revisit. However, I feel it necessary to visit the topic of your son, amongst some more secondary questions. Allow me to be clear that I find no issues with any of the information you've already given; rather, I'd like you to be able to speak outside of a legal context; that is, without detectives and agents and Riders performing their various obligations to justice." She slices through at least an inch of meat with slightly uncanny ease. "To be more precise, I believe those matters should be left to those who've dedicated themselves to justice. As for myself, I've dedicated myself to solving these peculiar problems, rather than simply finding blame for them. I'd like to clear your son, and in doing so, I'd like to start from some particular leads, for the purposes of swiftly ridding this surprisingly lovely town's need for anxiety.     "I've assumed you would feel more comfortable, and more motivated, dealing with a familiar sort of action plan, rather than matters of cases and suspects. This is a matter of what you can give me to work with, and what I can and will do. Intelligence and briefing, if you will."
Muramasa	"Is that so..." While not usually one to entertain gossip, it was useful enough in this case for him to partake in it. The more he knew, the more likely he was to pick up on something. "So she must've come a ways away, if that's true ... "         The door opens.         "Thank you, I'll be quick." His frown deepens as he examines the room; the IV Stand seemed to have been knocked over .. a hurry, or perhaps thrashing from panic? And those scorch marks ... she couldn't have been lit on fire. There'd be more damage if that were the case. Was her body so hot that it was singing whatever she touched? He bends down to place a finger against the black soot, looking left and right to ensure he wasn't being watched, before using Structural Analysis magecraft on it. "Trace on." With that he'd be able to determine the composition of the burns and try to deduce how she'd caused them, or perhaps, whoever else might've. And as keen as his eyes were, he still nearly missed a crucial detail. "Hm...?" With a gentle, dull light, he utilized Projection to provide himself with a pair of temporary tweezers to gently reach in and finagle the feather out from its resting place so that he could get a better look. "And what have we here?"     Muramasa recalls the owls mentioned by Tomari with a frown
Xion	Xion had not slept at the Great Northern, even if she had been granted a room. She had been deeply entranced by the mysteries, but overnight -- a funny thought, really, as it was more until the events progressed and after dozens of quirky subquests, had disappeared. UNTIL NOW!!! Now, Xion in her red hoodie and flannel shirt is back in the town of TWIN PEAKS to... Xion checks her to-do and makes a face. "Relationship drama, huh...? Well, it's for someone who can't see to it themselves, so it's fine, right?" Unbidden, a thought occurs to her. 'I bet I know just the type, too...' But she doesn't have any leads, so. . . She orders a plate of bacon and pancakes for breakfast, pours a generous dollop of warm maple syrup over melting butter, and goes to town. She has time to wait! To bide her time and compose herself at the periphery of the Paladins group, a table over, doing her thing. "So you found a lead on James Hurley, right? I bet it's some sad boy with memorable hair, but something inside me is already over everything about this, so I'm happy to just back you up today, if you'll have me!" She offers to Strawberry after she gets off her call.
Go Shijima	HARU: PEOPLE - Bobby Briggs      "A fisher king? Feel like I've heard that before," notes the young man, skipping another stone across the lake as he had last time. He appears to be alone, save Haru, for the moment. "Maybe in the stories my dad used to tell me." There's a lightening in his furrowed brow and frown as fond memories bubble up. And, as boys his age often are, he seems momentarily unsure of how to reconcile those fond memories with his current disillusionment. Instead of skipping the next stone, he turns it over in his hand.      He drops it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woUt7wPe8Ow      A tear rolls down his face. "I don't know what to do, man," he says with a shaky voice. "I feel like... like Laura was sick before I ever met her. And I know for a fact I didn't help with that. Maybe it was me that got her killed. She was using me..." His fists clench at his sides, unable to face Haru.      "And I was fine with it. Because I guess I was using her too."
Go Shijima	XION: Back Strawberry Up      "James'll like you, I think," says Sheriff Truman, finishing his meal. "You're kinda like Cooper, only without the badge. From his perspective that's a home run."      "I don't know if I can measure up to the hero of everyone's hearts, Harry, but I'm flattered," says Cooper with a fervent thumbs up.      Sheriff Truman slips his hands into his pockets and chuckles quietly. "Just try and keep him from leaving town, huh, Xion? I can hold off on bringing him in for questioning, but if he skips town like people are saying, then it's a different story."
Go Shijima	SHINNOSUKE: PEOPLE - Harold Smith      There is a tense silence after Shinnosuke speaks up. But as surely as Sheriff Truman said, patience is key. The blinds shuffle and *several* locks and latches are undone.      Harold Smith is... likely not what Tomari expected. The man is his age, for one. Meeting him with cautiously wide eyes, Harold steps back, as if shrinking away from the light. "Come in. Please."      "Laura was... a ray of sunshine. People are cruel. You can't trust them. But Laura wasn't like that," he says. "You could talk to her. And she would talk back," he says.      "I would show her my greenhouse, my garden... and she would tell me things." He closes the door behind Tomari literally as soon as he can, as if he's in a hurry. "Dark things. Scary things," he says, his expression darkening. "I tried to tell her they weren't real. But I could tell that to her, they were. I hope she's less scared, now."
Hamada Haru	"Yes. It's something associated with the Grail Cycle," Haru says, matter-of-factly. A breakpoint is passed. Haru remains coolly melancholy, because even though he's fairly good at talking to people, he's not really that great at confronting some issues. These, at least, he can understand. Whether he can say the right thing... "Do you know what it is to like someone? Not to 'love' them, just to like them," he asks, rhetorically. "We like people because something about them makes their presence enjoyable to us. Perhaps it's a shared interest, or a personality trait that appeals to us, or simply because once, they did us a good turn. For most it begins with a shared interest. Love is different, and messier. But fundamentally we engage with people because something about them is enjoyable to us." "Sometimes we continue long past the point where that is true... but even then, there's usually something making us hold on." He kicks the ground a couple of times, stirring up dust. "You can't change what's happened. And saving just one person's life, really saving it, across the totality of your lifetime is more burdensome than you can ever really even hope for. People use each other, but it's not necessarily out of any ill will. We don't engage things we find unpleasant if we can help it." "'Using her', 'being used', that is just a description of one form of relationship. Is there a reason to think that you were an extraordinary poison to each other?" He wonders.
Go Shijima	UTSUHO and RIN: INVESTIGATION - Morgue      Sheriff Truman calls ahead, and Cooper takes Utsuho and Rin to the morgue at the sheriff's office.      Waiting there is ALBERT ROSENFIELD, a cranky, dour forensic specialist with the FBI.      "Well, I'm glad to see that we're just letting every off-world hick in on this investigation."      Cooper doesn't dim from Albert's dour display at all. "I am, too, Albert," he says, clapping Rin on the back. "These fine ladies are Utsuho Reiuji and Rin Kaenbyou. And they are..."      Cooper is giving them the pointer fingers for them to try the Bit again. Either way, they have questions. Albert is fine enough answering them, once he's gotten his sour grapes out of the way.      "Two or three days," he says. "The body was like this when we found it--hard as a rock. And these," he says, pointing to some sort of blue flame evidently frozen in place. "Are what made us consider calling in Rider Services. Nothing on the books mentioned anything like this--wasn't until we got in contact with experts in the Paladins that someone mentioned this might be a 'kaijin.'"      "There are a couple of markings you should be aware of. Number one," he says, procuring an evidence bag. A small 'r' is inside, looking like it was cut from the pages of a magazine or newspaper. "We found this underneath her fingernail. There was a murder last year in Tacoma. Victim, Teresa banks, 'T' located under the same fingernail."      "Finally, look there." A spot on Laura's finger looks as though it might have had a ring. The ring is missing.
Shinnosuke Tomari	As soon as the door opens and Tomari is invited in, he comes in with the groceries, a soft, comforting smile, to show he's not a threat. There's no gun or anything on him, or at least not visible. "It's okay, Harold - if I can call you that. I'm sure she is. But she was still taken too soon, and we need to find out why." A flashback to that dream. 'My cousin'. If it was an emanation of how Laura is or some weird psychic stuff, at the least, she didn't seem scared. "What sort of things did she mention? Did owls ever come up?" It seems weird, for a detective to be interested in the weird stuff some possibly insane girl said, but Tomari seems Serious about the answers. The feather Muramasa found has him trying to piece things together, but there's still things missing. If he can get more insight, perhaps he can make a deduction.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry, of course, gratefully (and sheepishly) accepts being fed eggy bread and fruit. As impossible as it is for her to care for herself (though she's distinctly improved over the course of the last year), it's equally impossible for her to reject being cared for. "I don't think anybody could make you dream something you didn't want to dream," she answers with a little laugh. "It's not... you're not bendable like that, I think. I might have to take the bus ride back to Spearmint Page if I have to fire up the wand, but otherwise the luggage-" the slender carrying case is slung over her shoulders even now- "should be fine."      As she dials in Ed Hurley's number with one hand, she waves at Lilian's crows with the other as if greeting a friend, smiling sunnily. She seems good with animals in a very mundane way, maybe because she's used to the science of moving nonthreateningly.      A brief but fruitful phone conversation follows. Strawberry has a pen, but no paper except the phonebook itself- which is very borrowed- so she scribbles the addresses on the back of her hand instead. (Lilian can see that her handwriting is terrible, but extremely girly; she dots her i's with tiny hearts.) "... Thank you, Mr. Hurley. I'll see if I can't find Donna. James isn't in trouble, I promise. We just want to get to the bottom of this."      She snaps her phone shut and smiles over at Xion, wiping some residual Lilian-originated fruit juice off her lips. "Sure thing. We've got time on our hands. I've got to- we have to find Donna Hayward. She'll help us talk to James, the... the boy from the locket. She's doing meals-on-wheels things, I think. Wanna help me look for her car?"      It's a small town, right? How hard could finding one car be?
Xion	"Well, I can definitely stop him from leaving town if he's got a favorite bike!" Xion decides amicably, nodding and grinning. "You can't really stop people from leaving. Really, it's more important you provide the right reasons to stay, or return." Strawberry reveals they are looking for... a MEALS ON WHEELS. "Oh, I know who'd know." Xion snaps her fingers. "Detective Cooper. I bet he's already memorized the schedule, so he can get delicious breakfast or lunch. And if that doesn't work, we can ask at the hardware store! They'll know." Xion winks. "They always know."
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho: "The regulator of the flames!" Rin: "... Eh?" They'll get to do the bit one day. Just not today, it seems. Utsuho does at least seem to appreciate it, although Rin's already distracted sniffing around the morgue at all the weird chemical smells. They both take the hick comment in stride, too, with Rin likely reinforcing it the next moment she opens her mouth. Utsuho: "So the body was already sitting out there for a while." Rin: "And that fire showed up? Doesn't look like anythin' we could make." Utsuho: "Hey, I could make it if I wanted to." Rin: "Heh. Really, sis?" Thankfully, their potential bickering is cut short by actually looking at the frozen flame and the mention of kaijin. "But ain't this place pretty far from Japan?" Rin asks while sliding past Utsuho to take a look at the letters. "There shouldn't be any kaijin out here. Maybe something like... Uhhh." Utsuho checks the finger's likely missing ring spot, squatting in place to get a really close look. "I dunno. But this doesn't make a lot of sense. Who would go through all that trouble of sneaking a letter under fingernails?" "Oh! Maybe she did it herself when she knew she was kickin' it!" Rin exclaims, but settles down moments later. "Wait, but why 'R' instead of 'L' if her name's Laura?" Utsuho strokes her chin lightly. "Maybe it's 'r' for... Ring? But you figure she'd use the letter of whoever killed her instead of the thing that got stolen."
Go Shijima	LILIAN: PEOPLE - Garland Briggs      Norma thinks of Big Ed--a man who she loved, and still does, but cannot have, for her own mistake. Shelly tries not to think of her life outside this place; about how Leo yells and threatens her. At least she has Bobby. Seems like Laura wasn't the only one who was unfaithful...      The food is great. Norma is legitimately proud of the place, and the cook, Toad, loves his work, too. He's simple, but honest. Shelly puts her all into it to keep her mind from thoughts of home.      "Bobby..." Garland shows Lilian a side of himself past the work veneer when he sighs. "He didn't like moving around even when his mother was with us. Every day, now, I feel him slipping further away from the little boy I knew. I do my best, when I'm able... but people like you and me don't tend to have the time we'd like for the people we care about. But I love my son, and one day I hope the turbulence of youth will leave him--that he can find something to pour himself into the way that he used to."      There's a wistful twinkle in the man's eye. "So I will tell you everything that I can. Bobby is in some kind of trouble. He won't talk to me. But I can tell, by the way that he began to avoid me, the agitation, that there's something he's running from. Often, he would talk about Laura Palmer. I believe he loved her."      Shelly doesn't know that. She doesn't appear to have heard.      "We first moved here five years ago, around the time that his mother passed. In that time he began acting out at school, becoming distanced from me." Though Garland keeps his voice even, Lilian can feel genuine hurt coming from the man. "At that time, it was what you'd expect--pulling the girls' hair, fighting the other boys. Now..." There's a heavy sigh.      "Now, he keeps odd hours. He doesn't speak to me. He comes home not himself, frightened of something. It's as if he's stuck between two great forces, and he feels as though he must escape or be crushed by them. Perhaps he's gotten involved in drugs. Or perhaps something else, of a darker nature."      Briggs reaches into his coat pocket. "I brought this. My posting is top-secret--but what I can tell you is that it involves deep space radar telemetry. Our arrays have been quiet for nearly my entire posting. But there was one day when not one, but two messages came through, my first week there. I have never shared these messages with anyone, but I present them to you now in hope that it may help your efforts here."      An envelope is slid across. From the moment she touches it, there is a feeling of residual malice. Two. One, the raucous amusement of a voyeur witnessing misery and suffering. The other, the wild glee of a vicious predator. WITH THIS RING I THEE WED I HAVE THE FURY OF MY OWN MOMENTUM      The second is undoubtedly BOB.
Strawberry Princess	"The... hardware store?" Strawberry is abruptly halted in her attempt to walk-and-talk; that degree of enigma-deciphering requires a hundred percent of her brain, including the part that runs her legs. Her face scrunches up, but she still utterly fails to decipher it. "Why would- the hardware store, know? What do they..." She shakes her head as if clearing out cobwebs and starts punching in numbers on her phone, walking again.      "Agent Cooper? It's- yeah, it's Strawberry. Do you know the Meals on Wheels schedule around here? Or where I could get it? I'm trying to get ahold of Donna Hayward..." She's headed into town whether or not he has any good answers for her, though! Maybe their paths will cross by chance. Xion is a good luck charm like that.
Go Shijima	MURAMASA: INVESTIGATION - Hospital      The burns came from within Ronnette--the result of a rapid alteration in her metabolism. It's almost like spontaneous human combustion, but it doesn't appear to have killed her. No... Some kind of change overtook her in rapid bursts. A tremendous amount of energy was discharged.      What's more... examination of that feather correlates precisely with what Lilian said. It's an owl feather.
Xion	"Because hardware store work is hungry work, so you'll now where the food trucks and stuff is, duh, right?" Xion may think Donna Hayward runs an actual lunch truck. Like for work sites. She does have a 'do you think she does enchiladas' face on. Hopeful with a hint of daydreamy expectation.
Go Shijima	XION and STRAWBERRY: PEOPLE - DONNA and JAMES      "Strawberry! Hi. ... The Meals on Wheels Schedule? I sure do--I grabbed it earlier, looking to see who Laura spoke to. I'll call Mari and have her 'Text' it to you. Those phones you guys have are really something else! Oh, and tell Xion I said hello."      Xion's upbeat attitude and Strawberry's gentle nature win them both an in with Donna, once they're able to find her. She's just finishing up a delivery, hopping back into her car when the two arrive.      She cranes her neck to look up at Strawberry. "Wow. I thought Big Ed was tall, but he'd have to look up to talk to you!" Donna's smile is infectious. She wears a sweater with a grey-white chevron print, jeans right out of the early nineties, and wears her dark brown hair fairly short.      She takes a bit of convincing to make the introduction--but if Xion sticks to her guns about 'giving people the right reasons to stay' then it really helps their cause.      James is hiding out in the woods near the LUMBER MILL. Donna has been bringing him food until he can make arrangements to leave. Just as Xion predicted by the presence of a favorite motorcycle, he is a boy with memorable hair (it kind of stands up) and a rather sad disposition.      "Who's this?"      "It's Xion and Strawberry Princess. They're not from around here."      "Yeah, I figured," says James, looking up at Strawberry as she's surely accustomed to.      "They want to ask some questions about Laura. I think with their help, we can find out who did it."      James looks suspicious. "They're not cops, are they?"      "Well... not... technically?"      James mulls it over. Both Xion and Strawberry are certain that for a moment he's thinking about booking it. But he's clever, in the way that people who are used to ducking authority are. "I guess if you were gonna arrest me or whatever, you'd already be trying. So what do you wanna know?"
Muramasa	Pausing to consider the implication, Muramasa sighs deeply. At the end of the day, even if his magecraft gave him an edge for forensics, he wasn't an investigator. While he could discern that Ronette somehow transmogrified, painfully, he couldn't reach any conclusion based off of that. Really, unless it was about fighting or making swords, or fixing things, he didn't have a particularly varied amount of expertise. "So, her body combusted, but it didn't kill her .. no, it's like ... " using magical circuits. A faint memory bubbles forth from a lifetime ago, of a boy sitting alone in his shed, burning his body up like a tinder as he slowly and painfully retrofitted nerves in his spinal column into magical pathways. "The heat, it was a release of energy, a product of a "change". I'm sure of that much." Owls aren't what they seem    Ronette "Changed"         Owl Feather The Broken Window    Scorch Marks Leading To The Window         "....ah?!" It seemd strange to consider it, but, could she have been transformed into an Owl, herself? It's not like something like that would be impossible. It still felt like a jump, so he probably shouldn't mention the idea to anyone just yet, but he should try and keep it at the front of his mind to consider. Using Projection a second time to apparate a small tube to deposit the feather in, he allows the feathers to fade away and caps the magical construct to tuck it into his pocket. Muramasa leans over the window and peers around, applying Reinforcement to his eyes to sharpen his vision further, and thoroughly scour the outside for anything strange as a final check on his to-do list before departing from the Hospital.
Lilian Rook	Lilian listens to Garland more thoughtfully than people ought to be able to while spying on other people's thoughts. She is exceptionally good at both listening and visually appearing to be listening. She has her own thoughts, from the perspective of being a few years out of teenagerdom and into Respectable Career Path age herself.     "Everyone spends their childhoods thinking of their parents as perfect. All-knowing, all-capable, whose advice is always right, even if they don't like it, and who know everything about the world. Reaching that age is where you gain the ability to realize that your mother and father are, in fact, not perfect, but just people."     "The years where your emotions are the most irrational and strong are the ones where you feel the most disillusioned with your parents, like they lied to you but it's not really their fault. You look all over for something to replace them. Then you become an adult, and you understand what they went through to raise you. It's unavoidable that they drift. Making certain they feel that they can return is the important part. And the most important part of that, I think, is realizing that at the same time, you're just now realizing that your children aren't as perfect as they used to be. That they too are becoming 'just people'."     With that oddly sympathetic exchange over (albeit, the empathy of it somewhat feigned, from a more introspectively motivated, pre-existing opinion of her own), Lilian listens with more open interest to the rest. "From the intelligence gathering I've been able to do, I believe what you've surmised of Bobby is correct. His involvement with Laura appears to have been genuine; enough that the both of them were more or less at an uneasy peace with the fact that they couldn't have all of one another. However, I also believe that his reluctance to speak isn't exclusively rooted in lack of faith in the father figure, but rather, the feeling that others won't understand. Won't believe him. Can't believe him. That perhaps he doesn't believe himself."     Lilian steeples her fingers a little when done with her food, adopting an extremely professionally, calmly serious expression. "I also believe that Bobby is in danger; not in an immediate sense, like being stalked by the killer, but in a way that I believe he has intuitively sensed."
Lilian Rook	"This diverges from a strictly military perspective, mind you, and certainly from matters of law enforcement. Incidents-- things, like these, have certain habits. They prefer to move between certain links. Relations between people and places. Your son has the instincts to know that he is likely next to be pursued by what Laura was; that same 'darkness' others describe about her. They isolate, they drive away, they haunt and harry, they toy with the mind, fill their victims with doubt and uncertainty, scare those with whom they should be close, and then take them at their most vulnerable. I've heard much the same about how Laura went, and as is typical, many people knew, and none how to, or even if they could, help her. Such is the intangibility of our problem."     Lilian touches the papers gladly, replying with a silent, knowing nod. The moment her fingers brush over the text, her lip curls with displeasure; Garland would get the feeling that someone else would flinch. Her tone becomes as if she is speaking of something loathsome. "Bob." She clears her throat, briefly inking the signet, then stamping the envelope with a crest that combines a sword and solar cross inside a sun and moon ring. "This is far beyond what I expected." she replies to Garland, now very genuinely. "Perfect, even. This will save me an immense amount of time. Ideally, it'll save Bobby as well."     Blowing once on the ink to dry it and tapping it into her bag, Lilian continues a little bit. "That is to say, I'll be finding precisely where these came from, and as in the proud family tradition, I'll be personally sure of aggressive pacification." A general obviously knows the meaning of such. "Did you have any experience with Laura yourself? Or only through your son? Has he spoken of-- no, I don't suppose he would. Perhaps it may be best to watch for abnormal sleeping patterns, beyond simply the hours. And I suppose you don't mind that I exchange a few words with him myself; not for a formal questioning of any sort, but I believe I can get a very good picture of his mind from interacting with him for a while." An understatement. But it'd be true even without that.
Go Shijima	HARU: PEOPLE - Bobby Briggs Haru's answer is heard. And it is considered, in serious, weighty silence. Bobby isn't used to someone getting through to him. Or if he is, it's been a long time.      "Maybe she wasn't poison for me. But I was for her. I don't know what it was, but I knew that something was wrong, behind that pretty front that she put up all the time. I saw how she smiled at people, and how she laughed, and how she gave so much of herself to other people. And I wanted that."      He shuffles over to the rusted-out carcass of a truck from easily thirty years ago, a skeleton that weathered rain and wind silently as countless trains passed it by. Bobby leans against it. "So I told her I could get her drugs. And I did. First it was just dope. Then it was coke." He grimaces. "And I got her hooked on it... because I thought it was the same as getting her hooked on me." It's difficult for him to admit that.      "And then..." He can't look at Haru. "Then we started selling. And when you sell, you never use. But we did. And I ended up five grand in the hole with some very, very bad people. That's why you can't tell anybody I'm here, Haru."      "Because I killed one of them. I panicked and I just... did. If people know I'm here they'll kill me. Or the cops will get me, and that's just about the same, for the stuff I'm mixed up in."
Go Shijima	TOMARI: PEOPLE - Harold Smith     "Sure," says Harold with the faint hint of a smile. "Harold is fine." >What sort of things did she mention? Did owls ever come up?     "Often," says Harold--and he immediately relaxes when Tomari asks this question. It's as if he knows now that he can trust Shinnosuke, if the detective has asked a question like that. "She was convinced they were watching her. That someone named BOB was after her, and that the owls would tell him where she went and what she did."     Harold heads into the kitchen and begins putting his things away. A TV in his living room is playing some sort of soap opera. It's an older model. He turns a knob and shuts it off once all the groceries are put up. "As a matter of fact, there's something else you should know. Wait in here a moment. I'll get it."     'It' is a diary. He comes back into the living room with it in hand. "Her 'secret' diary. She kept two." He opens it, and reads a passage to Tomari...     "But still I'm afraid to tell her of my fantasies and my nightmares; sometimes she's good at understanding, other times she just giggles, and I don't have the nerve to ask why things like that are funny to her. So I feel badly again and shut up about it for a long time. I love Donna very much, but sometimes I worry that she wouldn't be around me at all if she knew what my insides were like. Black and dark, and soaked with dreams of big, big men and different ways they might hold me and take me into their control."     Another:     "February 22nd. Last night I had the strangest dream. I was in a red room with a small man dressed in red and an old man sitting in a chair. I tried to talk to him. I wanted to tell him who BOB is because I thought he could help me. But my words came out slow and odd. It was frustrating trying to talk. I got up and walked to the old man. Then I leaned over and whispered the secret in his ear. Somebody has to stop BOB. BOB's only afraid of one man, he told me once. A man named Mike. I wonder if this was Mike in my dream. Even if it was only a dream, I hope he heard me. No one in the real world would believe me."     And, most disturbingly: "February 23. Tonight is the night that I die. I know I have to because it's the only way to keep Bob away from me. The only way to tear him out from inside. I know he wants me. I can feel his fire. But if I die he cant hurt me anymore."
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry laughs a sweet little laugh- somehow she never quite comes off and condescending, even when circumstances say she ought to- and shakes her head. "No, it's- it's not like a taco truck, Xion. It's like... a charity thing? I think. For people who can't go out and get their own groceries. You can get your own groceries, can't you, Xion? So I don't think we should ask her for enchiladas.      Finally, they catch up with Donna. Strawberry Princess is to other adults as gangly teenagers are to children. She draws her limbs in towards herself in a flinching-but-smiling, amiably sheepish way as Donna points that out. "It's- ahaha, sorry. It's a bone condition, Ms. Hayward." Strictly true- Martov's Syndrome is medically-recognized. The fact that it's caused by pulling too many flight hours doesn't need to be brought up.      "You're not... this won't take you off your route, will it? I know you're doing really important work. We just... I'm hoping to talk to James. And I hear he wouldn't... wouldn't take it too well, if we came knocking alone. But he's not in trouble, I promise- we're heroes, not cops. It's only about Laura."      Segue to the woods by the lumber mill: Strawberry gives James much the same sheepish, awkward smile as she leans against a tree. The timid expression juxtaposes nicely with the awful scar spanning half her face, the curl of her lips making its edges crinkle slightly. Altogether, she comes off as a person it's very hard to be scared of.      "Don't worry, Mr. Hurley," she says- he's too old for her to crouch down to his eye level, but she still does the trick of talking to him like he's more grown than he quite is. "We're... we just want to know about Laura. Anything else- it isn't our business."      She glances over at Donna, trying to read the mood between the two of them. Is it going to cause a fight if she mentions James was in Laura's locket? She decides to play it safe. "She and Ronnette were... out in the woods, on the night they died. Do you know why she was out there?"
Xion	"Ohhhh, capital M capital W. Not, like, *descriptively* 'meals on wheels'. Sheesh, every time I think I've got a handle on something it turns out some capitalized letterythings lean into frame and go 'ha ha actually, it's reverse world again! Time to make plainly described things be actually the opposite! It's just like the Make A Wish Foundation, I thought they were all genies and so when--" Xion carries on like this as long as there is open time, recanting the tale of PRINCESS CHORES but for a dubiously Bollywood prompt. Reassuring Ms. Hayward that she is, in fact, the 'hero of everyone's hearts' -- and making a sad frown at 'a medical condition' -- she's shown to their real target... JAMES PROTAGONIST, OF THE NORTHWESTERN PROTAGONISTS. "You definitely look like a James." Xion decides, a soft and mysterious smile joining Strawberry's bashful-hopeful. "I'm a magic person from another dimension and I'm helping Kamen Rider. Ever heard of them? They're really cool! They ride motorcycles like you and go around helping people. Do you want to do something like that, if you leave?"
Go Shijima	Muramasa extends his senses. When he does so... it is beginning to look like his initial suspicion was correct. There, on the roof of a department store a few blocks away, he can see it, just as the wind is about to blow it away. A single feather, of the same dull grey coloration--but torn, bloodied. She may very well have transformed into an owl. But there's an interruption. Someone is trying to get a hold of him!     Lilian is making headway with Garland. "Only through my son--but he spoke very highly of her. If you believe it'd help keeping him safe, or in solving her murder, I invite you to speak with him, by all means. He has a few friends in town--Donna Hayward, James Hurley. Both good kids, though I can tell that James is no stranger to trouble himself. You--" Garland pauses. Lilian's communicator is buzzing with an urgent message. Wordlessly, Garland slides her a business card where he may be reached during working hours.     Strawberry and Xion make good headway with James, who seems particularly amused by 'Mr. Hurley' coming from someone as tall as Strawberry. "I dunno, but I have an idea. She was involved with Bobby," he says with a note of distaste. "And the two of them would go out there to do drugs where their parents couldn't find them. Laura... she didn't talk much about her dad, but I think they didn't get along. I had talked her into going clean, and she did, for a while, but... something scared her." He and Donna both share a pained glance. "And I think that was her way of dealing with it. I was with her, that night, and the day before. She told me that Bobby had killed somebody, and she was acting really strange. She... told me she loved me, and she ran off into the woods."     Donna appears bewildered by Xion's belief that the Make a Wish Foundation involved genies, but James seems again amused, however sad he might be at the circumstances. "You're one of a kind, Xion." There is a clear sense of guilt in James--enough so that when Xion asks him, he nods fervently. "If I could put something good into the world... yeah. I think I'd like to."     "But what would that even look like? How would that worlk?" asks Donna. The two are both interrupted by 'new text' alerts ringing on Strawberry's and Xion's choice of comms.     Rin and Utsuho get an affirmative nod from Albert. "Very far. As for why 'R,' I'm not sure. We did find her wrapped in plastic, floating in the nearby lake. Exactly like Ms. Banks was found in Tacoma. One other thing--we found a letter 'B' on the scene too. Maybe that was meant for the Pulaski girl." Albert is interrupted by the loyal but slightly slow Deputy Andy, who comes barging into the room like he's seen a ghost. "Lucy's got Ms. Sonoda on the line! She says you two gotta get down to the bank right away! There's a monster on the loose!"
Hamada Haru	"You're saying two different things," Haru points out, about Laura. "Firstly, that you meant enough to her to poison her against her will. Secondly, that you never mattered to her quite as much as you wanted to. Are you sure those two facts line up? People can make their own decisions, and those around them can guide them one way or the other. Maybe the road you showed her wasn't good." "... But do you really think she wouldn't have found it anyway?" It's not a /nice/ thought. It might, he thinks, be the thought that Bobby needs. On the subject of murders, he says, "Shot another drug dealer? It's not good, but it's not so strange. How do 'they' know? How does anyone know?" He presses something on his belt, and his motorcycle promptly rides away on its goddamn own. A little ways out though, a hazy rider materializes on its back as it starts to ride across surfaces that are definitely not that even.
Go Shijima	EVENT: OWL ORPHENOCH      Everyone's phones light up with text messages from Mari. There is an Orphenoch at the bank, rampaging and screaming about 'him' and how everyone is trying to take her back to 'him.' She's trying to get into the vault, and the elderly owner-slash-teller has taken a fall from trying to get away from her. Delta and Agent Cooper arrived to try and talk her down, but Cooper got knocked out by a blast of wind conjured from her wings. Keitarou is desperate for a way to fix this without 'finishing' her--can you help?      Upon arrival: Cooper is out cold, a potted plant and lounge chair splintered by the force of his impact. Delta is there, in armor made of black plates with white stripes accentuating the motion points. He is decently skilled in hand-to-hand, which the Owl Orphenoch seems to prefer--but his strength seems to be in that unusual blaster he carries with him, and she knows it.      The Owl Orphenoch, a humanoid creature standing roughly Delta's height, has arms lined with feathers and feet that resemble the half-way point between boots and talons. She screeches, the sound waves enough to crack the marble floor--and Delta again pleads with her.      "No one is 'with' anyone! We're only trying to see what's the matter!"      A bright green-blue energy flashes from her form--projecting onto the wall the image of a high-school aged girl with dark hair. "You're with him! With BOB! He was here, and you're trying to take me to him so he can finish me off!"      "But...! The only people here when you came were Mr. Mibbler, Mr. Horne and Mr. Palmer!"
Go Shijima	HARU: PEOPLE - Bobby Briggs      "I..." There's a sigh. "I guess you're right. Is it... I dunno. Vain? To think that maybe in a different life I coulda kept her off that road? Probably." He pushes off of the truck and shakes his head. At least Haru's gotten through to him. He wipes his eyes with a sleeve.      "It's like this. I was deep in the hole with my guy. His name's Jacques. He's a bartender at the Roadhouse. So I need to make what I owe him or... you know." He shrugs bitterly. "So, he tells me he can set something up for me as long as I can move it for him. I say, sure. Me and Laura go to meet the guy he sent--Cliff."      Bobby tenses slightly. In that way that shows this wasn't what he expected, nor anywhere near what he wanted. "He shows up with a brick, alright. A brick of baby powder and a gun. They know because they were gonna kill me to begin with. Now I just gave them another reason."
Muramasa	Before Muramasa can act on what catches his eyes, his communicator begins buzzing in his pocket, drawing a stern frown. Just after getting the low-down that there's something out at the bank, Tomari is also urgently trying to pull details from him; Muramasa provides what insight he can in the time it takes him to step out the window and plummet down to the ground, bending his legs to absorb the impact of a drop that would have killed a regular person. Pumping his legs and arms in aerodynamic motions to help build speed and momentum, the Pseudo-Servant takes off like a bullet, sprinting up a telephone pole to use as a springboard to a nearby streetlamp, which he launches off of in the same motion to propel himself in the bank's direction, repeating the springy-jumps as many times as necessary to get there in record time. The longer he took, the more people who might need his help won't be receiving it. He wouldn't forgive himself for not arriving on the scene at top-speed. That he was breaking the masquerade was the farthest thing from his mind.     "Trace on!" Performing Reinforcement magecraft on his whole body, as well as the clothing he is garbed in, Muramasa leaps from his final lamp and hits the concrete, darting inside the bank. >But...! The only people here when you came were Mr. Mibbler, Mr. Horne and Mr. Palmer! Launching forward, Muramasa attempts to slam his knee into the Owl Orphenoch's head before rebounding off of her, a variety of weapons appearing in his mind's eye from within his inner world. The "gun" in his head is loaded with these blueprints. "Stop it! You're just lashing out at people completely unrelated to what's happened, Ronette!" He'd try his best not to kill her. He wanted to save everyone in front of him, and that included her -- but he'd clip her wings, if that's what it took.
Hellwarming Trio	Rin: "Plastic? Like a..." Utsuho: "... Sandwich? Weird. But that still doesn't explain the-" Rin: "Wait. Pulaski... There was that Ronette chick with her when she died, right? Maybe that's what the R was for!" Utsuho: "So... It wasn't about her ring?" It took a bit, but they've finally got the identity of the mysterious R figured out! Maybe. "But nobody found her body yet, right? So why would Laura have the 'r' when the other person had the 't' that matched their name?" Utsuho's still trying to puzzle it out as Deputy Andy arrives, grabbing her and Rin's attention when he addresses them specifically. Rin: "Bank?" Utsuho: "Monster?" Rin: "... That's the culprit! Now we can solve this case!" Jumping to conclusions once again, the two hurry on out of the room, barely waiting a moment in case any of their fellow investigators/morgue handlers/alarm sounders need a flight over. Either way, they just take off towards the bank through the skies above town, subtlety be damned in favor of speed. Spotting their quarry some time later, the pair of youkai waste little time in blasting massive and slightly-less massive rings of fire right at it to announce their presence. Utsuho: "Regulator of the Flames, Okuu!" Rin: "Corpse Hijacker, Orin!" Utsuho: "We got you now, murder culprit!" Rin: "We can make it easy for ya if you confess, or we can burn ya up and solve Laura's murder later!" Muramasa mentioning Ronette, though, has them both staring at him in confusion. "Ain't that the..." "... One that was with Laura?" They're not connecting the dots there.
Shinnosuke Tomari	The diary entries are read to Shinnosuke, as is the information on the owls. BOB is unfamiliar, but there's a malicious energy to this town - he doesn't think it's a normal person. And then, the final diary entry. Suddenly, Shinnosuke's making a call. It's not to the Paladins. Kiriko picks up the phone. "? Aren't you in America? What do you need?" Tomari's thanking Harold profusely, as he asks to read the diary entry again, for his own eyes. "I need you to get the team together, stat. Speaker phone!" She obliges, and he calls over. "Lieutenant Otta! I'm transfering you my case details. Use your instinct!" "Kyu, I need you to pull whatever strings you can to find a 'Mike' in the town I'm in, or around it. I know there's probably dozens of them, but it's crucial!" "Rinna! Do what you do best! We might have an Orphenoch on the loose!" "Chief, I need you to work the political angle, if there is one! Make sure this goes cleanly!" "Kiriko, help the others. I believe in your mind, too - help Gen where he won't be able to figure it out." Everyone starts working, with a cut-in on each of them, as Tomari straightens his tie. "Harold, thank you. I think I'm just one step away from solving this case." The others are fighting a monster - but Tomari has no time to join them. He needs to find the key to finding BOB. He heads to find the Final Clue to this case, the one at the end. The clues come in. Tomari leaves, closing the door quickly for Harold, and jumps in the Tridoron. Destination: the woods. Specifically - Glastonbury Grove. The place where the birds sing the pretty song.
Hamada Haru	"Vain? No," Haru says, shrugging. "My senpai died. I wasn't able to do anything about it. I think I should have, but I couldn't. The feeling doesn't go away. Our brains don't work like that. We hate to think we're helpless. It's why some people will drive instead of flying, even though flying is safer mathematically." He gestures loosely to the horizon, "Where does Jacques keep his stuff?" ELSEWHERE... Kamen Rider Tetra turns down the street on which the bank is situated, because he is a Kamen Rider in a Faiz spinoff, which means that he is instantly near wherever he needs to be. He revs his motor pointlessly for a moment and then crashes through the wall like a ghost, screeching to a halt several feet behind the Owl Orphenoch. All else being equal, his appearance should be at least as alarming as anybody else's. Maybe more. But with the way things are, and the way they look, and the time period they're in... He decides to just try to improvise a way to make the Orphenoch's panicking lizard brain comply with 'maybe I don't need to fight'. Kamen Rider Tetra whips out one of his tonfa, turns it so that it's in projectile-firing mode, and fires at Kamen Rider Delta. "Come with me if you want to live," he says to the Owl Orphenoch.
Strawberry Princess	Though they can't match James' sadboy eyes, Strawberry's own are tinged with a bit of melancholy even at the best of times, and that helps to give her a sympathetic air here. Her face tenses in a sincerely commiserating grimace. "You think that... she saw something. Encountered something. And it scared her bad enough she turned back to drugs to get away from it." She shifts her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "It's- she told you she loved you? Do you think... she knew, she was going to--"      Strawberry's phone chirps with what sounds like the first five notes of a theme song's melody. She flips it open, and her eyes immediately snap wide. "I'm sorry- Ms. Hayward, Mr. Hurley. I- something's happening." Already she's unslinging her carrying case from her back, pulling out a pink feathery wand with a gray gunmetal reactor bolted to it, and flipping switches on it while very carefully keeping its tip pointed at the ground. "We're... they need me and Xion back in town. Right now. Let's talk more later, okay?"          --a flash of pink, the trees shake, and--      There's no sonic boom in the sky above Twin Peaks, but Strawberry comes very very close. She punches it from zero to six hundred in five seconds flat. The air parts ahead of her with a sustained shriek; it Dopplers in as a building howl, and then abruptly stops overhead as she pulls a near-blackout deceleration.      Peeking in through the top half of a window upside-down, Strawberry smashes it in with the end of her wand to get a line-of-effect for her magic as quickly as possible. Orphenoch are people. Don't know motivation, don't know threat level. Play it safe. One, two, three shining spherical forcefields materialize inside the bank: one around the bank's elderly teller, one around the unconscious Cooper, and- after her teammates have gotten in their beating- one around the Orphenoch, to blunt the monster-person's outgoing retaliation.
Xion	"If she told you she loved you, then she probaby did, James. People have a hard time saying it, unless they're the sort to say anything to get what they want. I don't think Laura knew what she wanted -- and that's scary. Sometimes people lose sight of the importance of their own life, and when they think it's over, start prioritizing other people's. That's a really sad state to be in -- so if you find someone in it, you should always try your best to help." Xion gets a ringading on her moogle-themed smartphone with kupom dangle-charm, and lifts it to her ear. "Kamen Rider is fighting one of the victims. You wanted to help, right?" A CONVENIENT SCENE TRANSITION FAST TRAVEL PORTAL yawns open behind Xion as she holds out her hand to James, a curiously expectant look towards the woofy-haired young man. "Do you want to try and make a difference? Maybe it's Laura, and you'll be able to talk them off a cliff. If it's not--..." Xion smiles. "I'll do my magic stuff then." ONE LEAP TOWARDS THE CONVENIENT TWIN PEAKS TOKU FOREST When Kamen Rider is already on-scene and calling for reinforcements, but also pleading with the monster, you know it's more complicated than the Rubber Moustache Twirling Monster That Puts You In A Fishbowl Or Kills You Ironically. "Delta! Don't worry!" Xion calls, holding out a medallion bearing Chase's cyclopic yellow-eyed Mashin Chaser mask. "The reaper who doesn't kill - Mashin Chaser!" Leaping into battle with a hard rock guitar riff and a loud BREAK UP, Xion's flannel jeans and red hoodie is enshrouded in a matte black undersuit and a set of heavy purple armor that suggests heavy mechanical engine parts -- that leap into the way and are struck thrice by sprays of sparks to intercept Tetra's interception shot. "Hey! Tetra, I have Chase's power! Ma-shin Cha-saa!" She lowers her smoking arms, monoeye incredulous. "You can't fight everyone, but this isn't a fight to the death either. Even if pushed beyond my limit -- I still won't kill you. That's my power."
Go Shijima	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0znypSiMSk      "Wow! Look at that guy in the print shirt go!" Someone on the street corner points at Muramasa.     "Get inside, dummy," calls someone from inside a clothing store. "There's a monster loose."     Ronette--for that is who it is--reels from the force of the blow. His knee against her temple forces her into an awkward stumble to regain her balance. Muramasa is taking the right tack--but she's still at an Eleven out of ten right now, still high on the adrenaline and fear and uncertainty of this transformation.     In a panic, she hurls razor-sharp feathers his way, calling back, "HE WAS HERE! I saw him wearing his mask! But he can't fool me--not any more!"     She swivels her head completely around in time to see the flaming barrage from the two well-intentioned would-be detectives, bringing up her wings to shield herself. The impact of those little explosions pushes her back against the ground, her talons digging scores into the once pristine marble floor. Ronette grunts as her back is slammed into the wall.      She glances behind her, then over towards Cooper, as protective fields appear around him and Mr. Mibler. "Who--" One appears around her--and that *really* pisses her off. The shield ripples threateningly as she begins trying to screech herself out! An explosion of force and ear-piercing noise rings out, blunted to manageable levels by Strawberry's quick thinking. She hasn't found where Strawberry is, yet...      But she's taken to the air, making use of the bank's high-vaulted ceiling to get the advantage of height over the others. Delta's set that strange blaster to its lowest setting, attempting to stun her with slim bolts of white energy.      MaXion Chaser, Kamen Rider Tetra... and James Hurley arrive in Faiz fashion, before the insert has gotten to even the halfway point.      "Eh?!" Delta is utterly baffled, when Tetra not only attempts to shoot him, but Xion interposes. "What's going on? Xion is a Roidmude?" No, Keitarou.      Ronette hesitates. Something about the way that Tetra said that confused her--to say nothing of how he attempted to shoot Delta, or how Xion swore to defeat her without killing her. She pauses, in the air, waiting for everyone's reaction. Delta doesn't shoot (thank God we have riders here who can Use Their Words and not a certain red and white shoulder cape afficionado).      And James takes advantage of the silence to step in and add another plea to the list.      "I wouldn't recognize you to look at you, but I'd know that voice anywhere. You're Ronette Pulaski."      "...James Hurley?"      "Yeah," he says, nodding once. "Look, Ronette, nobody here wants to hurt you. If anybody's getting hurt, it's the guy who did this to you. Okay?"
Hellwarming Trio	At first, things seem like they should be resolvd rather easily. The murderer's a monster now, it's shooting them, and everything should be fine! Aside from having sharp feathers lodged in several of her parts, Utsuho's actually looking rather fired up by the way things are going! Rin doesn't, but she's also not dealing with teh feathers cutting into her quite as well. She even seems to be getting angrier despite coming away from it in relatively better condition thanks to the raven taking the brunt of Ronette's projectiles and bringing them both to the ground (definitely not for the camera's convenience). Alas, things start getting confusing. Kamen Riders shooting at each other, telling the Orphenoch that she can be defeated without killing her... It's all getting to be a bit much for the visibly dumbfounded pair. <J-IC-Scene> Reiuji and Rin | Utsuho says, "Wait, wait, wait. Now I'm getting confused. Who are we supposed to be beating up?" <J-IC-Scene> Hamada Haru says, "If you don't get it I'm not explaining. Keep doing what you're doing." <J-IC-Scene> Reiuji and Rin | Utsuho says, "What? Gah... Why do humans always have to be so cryptic about this stuff?" It really would be so much easier to just keep going along with that, and Utsuho's already preparing another spell card in the form of BIGGER FIRE. She doesn't launch it, though, as Rin jabs her side and points around rapidly to indicate the barriers, the apparent pause in the action when James says that nobody wants to hurt Ronette. Utsuho: "Hey, speak for yours-" Rin: "Shhhbsbshbshshutup they'll all start yelling at us if we keep this up!" Utsuho: "Nngh... Fine, fine! But I already made this." Utsuho looks from Ronette to the giant ball of plasma floating overhead, back to Ronette, over to James, then to Kamen Rider Tetra. "... Hmph. Fine, don't explain anything. We'll figure this out without anyone explaining it!" She yells over at him defiantly, then just launches that ball of fire into the sky where it explodes in a shower of largely harmless (to the people here) sparks. "Hey! Ronette! Do you know who put Laura in that bag and took her ring? Is it BOB?" A beat. "And who's BOB? You said he has a mask... Is he a Kamen Rider, too?"
Muramasa	The hammer falls and fires the "gun" inside of his mind. Flashing from simple shapes formed from grids of glowing light into fully formed weaponry, an armament for each razor is projected and fired like a missile, crashing into Ronette's own projectile -- a hail of quills for a hail of weaponry -- swords, apears, axes, and other similar implements enact a precise point defense in shooting down her counter-attack. The projections were simple, cost-effective blades that could be found anywhere, made by anyone, and used by anyone. They weren't special, and fired as they were, they shattered apart into motes of light on impact. They did their jobs, and that was enough for Muramasa. The gang was all here now, and the only thing that really stayed his hand from switching targets to Tetra was a short interaction that indicated that although he clearly didn't understand the point of attacking Delta. Hurley, at least, makes a successful looking attempt at getting through to Ronette, which the Saber throws his yen behind, "I really don't want to hurt you. But we can't let you go on a rampage, either, so please .. let us help you, however we can. We'd all deeply regret having to escalate things further than we have ... everyone here came to reach out to you. To help you, and to protect you. Please trust us."
Go Shijima	TOMARI: INVESTIGATION - SCD Assistance Genpachiro: I spoke with Deputy Hawk at the sheriff's office. I'm sending you what I found. One other thing... I spoke with Deputy Hawk about the place where Laura's body was found. He said there's a clearing not far from there where strange things happen. It's called Glastonbury Grove. Be careful, Tomari. Kiriko: More than 'strange.' People have disappeared there. Kyuu: This place is pre-internet! Which was annoying. But there are ways to find things even without the internet. There are two Mikes in town: one's a high school student named Mike Nelson. I couldn't get much info on him because of his age. But! The city's census says there's also a Philip Michael Gerard, who's apparently a traveling salesman? You should find him before he leaves for business! Chief: Tomari, there's no risk of anything thorny happening--not politically speaking, anyway. The only concern is the sheriff's department and the Bureau, but it seems like Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman get along well. ...Really well, actually! They've only known each other a few days, but I spoke with both of them and each one seems impressed with the other. Hm... you should take some time to cultivate your social life, Tomari. Solve the case, but make a few friends before you go. Rinna: Okaaaay!~ I'm going to start work on something that should help you resist the Orphenoch energy. I'll keep you posted and have it delivered as soon as I can! GLASTONBURY GROVE      It is about three p.m. When Tomari arrives. From the moment he steps out of the car there is a feeling that he is being watched. As if the endless rows of pine trees had eyes within them that stabbed into his shoulders like pointing fingers. Though the sun is high in the sky, though beams filter down and clearly light his path... it comes with none of the comfort that humans normally take from sunlight.      When he comes to the clearing, there is a sound like something burbling. There, surrounded by a ring of stones, is something black. Like tar, or oil... but he knows, in the pit of his stomach, that it isn't. Not at all. It bubbles, and foul vapors rise into the air. It all becomes too much.      The smell, the sound. The hostile presence. Everything dims. He feels light headed. Then... darkness. The howling of wind--or Something--is the first thing that he hears when he comes to. The same sound from his shared dream with Agent Cooper. The Man in Red is in the seat across from him, rubbing his hands together like the forelegs of an insect and grinning widely. He speaks, in that unnerving backwards-but-forwards voice.      iSSiT futuRE oRR... iSSiT pasT? dO yoU knoW whO I yyyAM? he asks, with a knowing smile.      I yyyAM thE arM. anD I sounD liKE thiS. His eyes widen like dinner plates and he cups his hand over his mouth as Something howls outside. A warbling sound follows. ssomeOnE elsE... haS thE rinG.      His eyes fixate on Tomari. He stands up from his seat, and moves to the center of the room, where a black polished table lies that wasn't in the dream. His hand rests upon it as he studies the detective. yoU aRRE 'erE. noW therRiS... nO placE... tO... gO... He grins with malicious amusement.      BUT HOME! His backwards laughter causes his short frame to rock with delight. He begins to dance, arms and hips swaying, his laughter overlaid with the sound of a bass. It, the laughter, and the raspy notes of a saxophone are the last thing Tomari hears before, hours later, he awakens in the Grove. The sun is going down.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry spreads her wings and lunges away from the window when she sees the forcefield around the Orphenoch start wobbling. It shatters a moment later, and she almost but not quite outpaces the shockwave with her quick juke. Her Shimmer Aura is poor at blunting attacks that are already blunt and diffuse, and she's flung backwards through the air- fortunately, her quick thinking and costume-integral earplugs save her from hearing damage.      When she swoops back in for round two, the atmosphere has palpably changed. Strawberry stands right-side-up on the other side of the shattered window, holding her wand very pointedly down and away- basic firearm safety. She stays ready to bubble James Hurley just in case things go sour again, but...      "Ronnette! We're here to take down BOB too! Please, help us. We don't..." Her voice wobbles a little, switching modes from 'pastel justice hero' to 'stressed young woman'. "... I know you're hurting. I know- something terrible happened in that forest. You're so brave, trying to fight it on your own. But I promise you don't have to! Please... please let us in."
Hamada Haru	"If you want me to explain, you'll have to pay me," Kamen Rider Tetra says to Utsuho, flatly. He twirls his tonfa, tucking it away at his side. Xion has promised to do things in the way he wanted them done, and along the way she blocked the shots he didn't REALLY want to hurt Delta all that bad. Actually, he targeted Delta because Delta is one of the people present he knows who can just experience a BELT OUT! Belt-outs are dramatic, but nonlethal unless you're huffing nebula gas like an asshole. In response to the Owl's ascent, Tetra... angles his motorcycle up and very literally just ramps up along the air to spiral up alongside her. He leans a fist against his helmet, a little disoriented and headachey from all the offensive screeching. "You need to stop. You're a posthuman now. The things you're doing will hurt ordinary people easily," he says. Kamen Rider Tetra tilts his head to one side, almost quizically. "Probably this BOB, too. If that's the sort of power you need."
Xion	"I'm not a roidmude, Delta. Right now, I'm the hero of everyone's heart's - Mashin X." Pronounced Mashin Key. She lifts a hand to the side of her mask - a comedic moment of false 'conspiracy'. "It's a form change thing." Like it explains everything. Delta doesn't even have a belt action! Or a phone! He's *retro*. The screeching burst causes Xion to turn forward and refocus her attention fully towards the Owl in the air - Ronette. With a soft grunt, she clenches her fists, the energy washing over her heavy metal armor but not unsettling her resolute spirit. Light sparks at worst. "Muramasa is right. And so is James! I don't really need this cheat of a power when I've got a just-as-good 'finisher that doesn't kill'." Xion's armor flashes, the purple metal turning to energy that surges back into her right hand, the Chase medallion reforming and her undersuit popping into a waft of smoke to return her to a hoodie and jeans. "Let's skip to the part where we try to help you, okay? It's fine to skip some of the painful stuff in the middle. The end's the same, and being hurt doesn't make things more earned."
Go Shijima	Utsuho and Rin don't present the most convincing argument. But that's fine, because they're about the only ones who don't, and she really wasn't banking on a boy she barely knows coming to talk her down.      "Okay. I'll trust you. If you really feel that way..." She glances between Xion, who swore to defeat her without killing her. Whose point that 'hurting doesn't make things earned' draws a meaningful glance from James.      To Tetra, who wants her to use her strength responsibly--she evidently hadn't considered that. Muramasa, who throws in his lot with James. And over towards Strawberry, the evident source of the bubble, and yet another person who's done the opposite of what she thought.      "If you're really here to stop him. Then... okay."      The Owl Orphenoch... transforms. Back into a human. James looks bewildered, but knows better than to remark on it. She's wearing a hospital gown.      "Yes," she says, answering Utsuho. "And he *was* here. You have to believe me. He's not a... I don't even know what that is. But he wears a mask so that people can't see him. If you're damned... or if you're gifted, you can see through it. But then you can't see the mask."      "So you saw him in here, and thought he'd come back to hurt you. Ronnette... I'm so sorry," Keitarou says, 'hanging up' the blaster on his belt and removing it, the armor disappearing to reveal his 'guy next door' attire. "But they're right. You don't have to fight it alone."      A grunt from Agent Cooper, just now getting to his feet. He has to lean on the split chair to keep upright, at first. "Ronette, let me tell you--I haven't been clocked like that since my junior year. You've got a crackerjack left hook!" He doesn't at all seem bothered--he's even smiling, though he's still a little woozy. "We're going to find BOB and stop him. And if you want to help us, you can--but no one will force you to do anything."     "Okay... okay." Ronnette nods firmly. "I want to help you. But... first, can we go get my clothes?" Hospital gowns aren't renowned for their comfort or style.