[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]

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.::

[becomeanwarrior]

[Sigh. Of course it's not as easy as that. But he feels like he's on the verge of a breakthrough.]

...Question respectfully rescinded.

[Lets out a quiet 'tch' as he closes his notebook, stowing it in his jacket.]

...I believe that's all I needed, Mrs. Yuuki, unless you have any further comments you'd like to add for both your record and mine.

[danse_etoile]

Just.

I think you have a conclusion you've already decided on. And you're just looking for something to prove your biases and priors. And are expecting me to confirm it.

I've told you the general feeling I had, but it's hard to explain feelings and emotions, or 'vibes' as my students put it, into words. And all I had was 'vibes'.

But I think you're running about the logic here a bit backwards?

[becomeanwarrior]

[There is a moment of silence.

And then a very tired sigh.]

Right, yes, I suppose that's worth checking my own logic, so I'm not just trying to confirm my own biases.

I will... take your criticism to heart, Mrs. Yuuki. Thank you.

If there's nothing else. I'll be taking my leave.

[danse_etoile]

... Hrm.

Just that you look very very... there's a word.

Haunted. I think?

[becomeanwarrior]

... [Pulls himself together, trying to make himself feel more composed than he is.]

I suppose, in some ways, Mrs. Yuuki, I am. If we're being honest.

But... that's not related to the case at hand.

Though I appreciate the concern.

...If you don't have any further commentary on the case, I suggest we end our meeting - as much as I would like to explain myself, I do not believe my right to question you gives me a right to make you bear the burden of my own thoughts.

[danse_etoile]

Yes. I'd like to order some lunch and get some apple juice if you don't mind.

::Slides down a bit.::

[becomeanwarrior]

Of course, Mrs. Yuuki. My hopes you make a speedy recovery.

If we have any more questions, we'll be in touch.

[Collects his tablet, stops the recording, and exeunts, stage right.]