[Event Post - Backdated]

[danse_etoile]

::You can visit Asuka while she was in the hospital having, you know, broken many bones from that whole mess with Seku with her being a centaur lady with a whip.

She's in a hospital dress, reading a book. It's apparently an analysis of The Snow Queen.

Feel free to give condolences or ask questions.::

Comments

[danse_etoile]

::Looks up.::

Yes...? How can I help... uh. Name's skipping my mind. I think we've met once or twice before...?

[becomeanwarrior]

Ah, yes. Onni. Haita Onni. Mr. Haita is fine if you're not feeling informal, Mrs. Yuuki.

[He's going to stay by the door unless invited closer. Mostly out of professional courtesy.]

I'm with OOPARTS, we work with your husband's institute semi-regularly. Bit of the the stiff arm compared to the gentle hand of Spirit-Arcadia.

I wanted to get your statement on what happened, for our investigation. I am obviously under law required to state you are entitled to have a lawyer present, if you so wish.

[danse_etoile]

Mr. Haita.

And yes, I know of your organization.

... Can I think for a few minutes on that?

::Tapping her chin.::

[becomeanwarrior]

Of course, Mrs. Yuuki.

[He's taking out a small notebook, scratching notes in it in a heavy hand.]

Would you like me to step outside while you think? If you would like to reschedule, we can also do that.

[danse_etoile]

No.

Just let me think, and maybe contact my family's on-call lawyer. The one on my parents' side, just to double check, if it's not too much trouble.

[becomeanwarrior]

Of course not, Mrs. Yuuki. Please, take all the time you need.

[Looking up at her, before looking back down as his notes. poking at his tongue with the pencil lead.]

I mostly want to get an accurate summation of the facts at hand, is all. Take any precautions you feel are warranted.

[danse_etoile]

::Takes a bit, using her hands with a laptop, wincing every so often. Messaging someone.

It takes a bit...::

My lawyer has advised me to record it on my end. Nothing personal. Just. Precautions.

Is that acceptable, Mr. Haita?

[becomeanwarrior]

Yes, that's perfectly acceptable. I will have you know I will be recording this myself - for personal internal review, you understand.

[Pulls out and sets a small tablet on the table, where the light is blinking as it records the audio.]

Whenever you're ready on your end, Mrs. Yuuki.

[danse_etoile]

::Taps the record button for her end.::

I picked up a crystal on the top floor of the main building, heard the chorus of angels and became a centaur.

[becomeanwarrior]

[Right. Time to go through the usual list.]

About what time would you say you picked up this crystal, Mrs. Yuuki? And were you alone when this incident occurred, to the best of your knowledge?

[danse_etoile]

Don't remember what time, and for the most part, yes, I was alone.

[becomeanwarrior]

[Writing the notes down diligently. As the tablet record us, nodding.]

Please define 'for the most part' if you could for me, Mrs. Yuuki. Were there people in the immediate vicinity before you picked up the crystal? Anyone that stuck out?

[danse_etoile]

No hallway is really completely empty during school hours. And I don't pay attention to people that clearly. Real life isn't like a manga where you have super attention skills. Probably another teacher, some other students.

[becomeanwarrior]

[Scritch scritch scratch on the memo pad.] Just doing my due diligence, Mrs. Yuuki. Anything small could be a clue to who did this to you, you understand.

Let's move on. Can you describe what happened immediately upon and shortly after you picked up the crystal? Describe the moment of transformation for me.

[danse_etoile]

I heard the voices of angels, speaking in tongues, when I picked up the crystal. And after that, I felt a pulse, and I tumbled, tumbled, down down down forever, and I drifted into a state like a dream.

[becomeanwarrior]

Just doing my due diligence again here, Mrs. Yuuki - did you understand anything these... 'angels' were saying? Anything at all.

[He's continuing to mark down notes. So far there's nothing here he wasn't really expecting.]

...And I'd like to know about this dream, if there are any particulars you remember.

[danse_etoile]

... No, not exactly. Just... a feeling of utopia. A door had been cracked open. A way needed? Needs? to be pathed open.

And it was a state *like* a dream. I'm vaguely aware of what I did while transformed. The transformation was the dream. The dream was the transformation.

It's best to explain that it was a near religious experience for me, and circumstances in my life have made me bitterly agnostic and suspicious of religion. ... And yet...

[becomeanwarrior]

... [That gets his eyes to narrow, quietly. There's an uptick in the scribbling of notes.]

While it would have been before my time at the Academy, we do have historical notes about the... 'Society of Light' incident on file at OOPARTS, for completion's sake, yes.

Are you saying that this... 'rapturous experience' was not just something that overrode those feelings but then compelled you to open a... path...?

Just so I'm understanding things here, Mrs. Yuuki.

[danse_etoile]

Yes. Them. I'd would like you to not mention them again, or else I'll need to ask you to leave. But to answer your question.

...I felt blessed? sanctified? holy? Like a feeling of ecstacy of being chosen to do something or being asked and trusted. And like I had a Purpose with a capital P.

[becomeanwarrior]

Of course, Mrs. Yuuki. They won't come up again.

[He's leaning forward a bit. He's still mostly focusing on the notes, but there's a feeling like he's close to -something-.]

...And could you say what this purpose was, Mrs. Yuuki? What you had been... chosen to do? While you were transformed, I mean.

[danse_etoile]

I told you: To pathe open the path to The New World. At least that's how I can articulate it, because I couldn't understand it. But it sounded like the language of Gods and Angels.

[becomeanwarrior]

[The path to the new world... Could the two cases be related? Is that what this is about? Are they looking for the Silver Key and Yellow Sign to open the path...?]

[He's closer now, he can feel it.]

...I'm going to ask you a question, Mrs. Yuuki, and you are within your right not to answer, as you well know.

Do the words 'Yellow Sign' or 'Silver Key' strike you with any familiarity?

[danse_etoile]

::Thinks for a moment, what an unusual question.::

Yes. An artifact in "The Yellow Sign" by Robert W. Chambers, and a key to the ultimate gate, in a collection of stories concerning Randolph Carter, by H.P. Lovecraft.

They're both classic gothic horror writers. Well, Chambers was more of a romance writer, but the first four or five tales of "The King in Yellow" are rather... imprinting to say the least.

[becomeanwarrior]

[He taps at his nose a bit. He may need to go digging into this. Maybe there's a clue? It wouldn't be the first time classical fiction was the key to a breakthrough.]

Out of curiosity, Mrs. Yuuki, does that concept - a key to the ultimate gate - seem to resonate with what you were... feeling, when you were transformed? Your 'purpose'?

[danse_etoile]

... Isn't that a leading question?

::Blinks.::