smash_logs | Oh, no. You are DOOMED.

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Oh, no. You are DOOMED.

Mother Nature had one hell of a temper, and if not that, then perhaps a sadistic sense of humor. The world was Her plaything, a marionette at best, and the people who lived on it, rather unfortunate victims to Her sometimes violent moodswings. For only She could start with an overcast, grey sky, and splatter across it heavy clouds, treacherous storms, and relentless armies of snowflakes that had lost all endearment only to become companions of inconvenience and burden. Someone or something had maddened her greatly - or so would have been the assumption if one gave reason to believe in Sprites of Nature who controlled an entire world's plethora of environments.

Yet Smash Academy had only been given a taste of what was to come. And since they were such diligent and well-behaved little pets, She had reason to reward them. With more entertaining obstacles that would, no doubt, impede their precious plans that somehow took precedence to pleasing and sating her. No, they had not appreciated their darling sunshine days, clear blue skies, and painful sunburns.

"Stop playing at your human-made technological machines and bask in the glorious sun I gave to you!" she wished she could have said. But somehow winter's torment, she knew, would be a far sweeter revenge upon ungrateful children.

And that was how it had begun.

By stand alone days of simple snowfall and ambitious winds, there would be no suspicion of greater minds and hands at work. Steadily through the week, each day became harsher than the last. And like a great many number of battles in a war, there came a pinnacle for Her success. She sent the most worthy blizzard down to the surface in its invincible path and rendered for them a weekend She was certain the town and academy's citizens would remember for some time to come.

One moment was mostly peaceful, and as calm as unruly weather would allow. In some places music played. In some places, lights were dimly lit to provide a pathway. In some places, there was the happy clicking and tapping at a computer. In some places, showers and baths were being taken, savored, and enjoyed. And in other places, unsuspecting people had taken to idle chitter and chatter with other friends who were likely down the hall.

But in the next...

All went black and silent, save for the whipping wind and strangling branches of trees, as if whispering threats of what people would find in the dark.

[OOC Notes:
The following is a reminder of how things are going down for the next few days.

♦ This will last from January 18 ~ 20.
♦ The following are affected by the blizzard: electricity, heaters, hot water, TVs, gadgets, gizmos, the network. Congratulations, you've been officially stripped of your luxuries. (No computers for you.)
♦ The school's backup generators will work for about one hour before mysteriously failing. What's causing it to fail? Maybe some of you should go check out the generators themselves...
♦ The blizzard causing this blackout is pretty powerful. You probably don't want to go skipping through it lest you get blown away (in a bad way) and never return.
♦ Power will be restored, and the generators repaired, by Monday morning, January 21.]

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"Okay."

It was the last thing she said before she finally managed to find the 'End Call' option. Then she stayed put, didn't even move a muscle. At least not until she heard him.

Well. Felt him.

After a moment of fishing, she opened the door and through the dim light of her phone, she reached up to him, as if to make sure it was really him. "Knuckles...?"

"In the flesh!"

His cellphone screen was on, so she could clearly see it was him. He gave a little wave, his jacket rustling as he did so.

"How you doing in here? I guess your roomie is out for the evening? Did you guys exchange phone numbers, yet?" He hoped Cammy was alright - They'd spoken a few times and had Majima as a mutual friend so he was pretty chill with her.

She shook her head and finally managed to move away from the door, wondering where she should sit. And when she considered she was more likely to topple off a chair, she settled for the floor right beside her bed.

"No... I'm not used to the phone thing, so I haven't given it to anyone except you. After the power comes back on, I'll talk about it, so people know."

She looked at the door for a moment before looking back to Knuckles. "Cammy is really strong. I'm sure she's okay. Nothing in the dark would get her at all."

Knuckles sat down across from her and closed his phone.

"Sorry - gotta conserve battery in case I need to call folks later. But don't worry - Nothin's gonna happen so it's alright if it's a little dark."

He smiled reassuringly at her which was entirely futile.

"Yeah. Cammy seems pretty tough - never did get to sparring with her though. Oughta try it sometime."

It was a good point. As much as she didn't want to, she did end up turning her phone off as well, but not without leaving in her lap. Just in case she needed it.

With just being alone with him in the dark, Voile realised it wasn't how she imagined her first... time... would be. Being alone with a boy in the dark, anyway. Not that she'd had any expectations either.

"When the power comes back and I see her again, I'll... I can ask her for you," she said, feeling more like she was talking to herself than to him.

"Oh! Thanks, Voile. I appreciate that. We had talked about it this one time, but it never did come about."

Knuckles stretched a little bit and then rubbed his hands together. Now that the central heating was off, it was a little chillier. Still, warmer than it was most nights outside in the city.

"Believe it or not this is actually kind of restful compared to how I've been spending my nights over the last couple months. I was planning to meet a friend of mine just outside campus to go patrolling in the city together, but the weather kinda put paid to that idea."

Sitting as she did, childishly a bit, her hands splayed out in front of her and pressed to the carpet, she was a bit relieved he couldn't see her. As she listened to him, she was attentive.

It was still strange and she was still tense. Idly she wondered where her closest blanket was. Probably the comforter from her bed. Would he get cold before she did? Maybe...

"You think this is restful?" she asked, a bit incredulously. "I wish I could view it like that. I can't wait until power comes back on. I wonder... when it will."

"Compared to wandering around the city looking for clues and breaking up petty crimes? Yeah. This is actually kinda nice. Don't worry though - I bet they get things fixed real soon. The school has a backup generator, after all. Not sure why it ain't running right now, but it's helped the place out in extreme weather before. Might just need a little fixing is all."

He was sitting cross legged, hands resting on his knees. Almost in a meditative position.

"There's lots of technical knowhow folks in the school. Should just be a matter of time."

She nodded slowly, unsure of what to say. But Knuckles was right. The power outage had affected the entire school. Maybe even the town. There was no way they were just going to make everyone wait. They'd start working on it right away.

"They're probably looking into it as we speak. I'm sure you're right."

Then she rubbed her hands together, as if fishing for something to say that didn't involve nightmares and horrible monsters under beds and inside closets. "You... said you had something to talk with me about...?"

"Yyyyeah. There was."

His tone changed a bit. He was a little hesitant and unsure of how to carry on this particular conversation.

"You know how you asked me to find out a little more about your new friend? Seth? Well, I did. And without actually asking anyone anything directly, either. I meant to talk to Bulba but I haven't seen him around so didn't get the chance."

Friend? Was Seth someone she'd consider a friend? He was... a boy who seemed to be interested in her at least. She wasn't even sure. Just the way Knuckles began caused her stomach to tighten.

"I... haven't seen Bulba much either. They used to be roommates, I think. And his current roommate is Blake, who I don't know either. I saw his dormitory once and I saw Seth... Uhm. Before the power outage, anyway. Briefly."

She rubbed at her cheek, "So what did you find out? Who is he?"

"Blake... bla--Oh. His trainer is Blue. She seems nice. I haven't met him. But yeah, Bulba was his roomie so I thought that would be a good place to start."

He paused, thinking about how to phrase the information he'd gathered without sounding too negative.

"Look, I was talking to someone on the network yesterday - a little girl called Mary. She's one of those who were selling the drugged candies to people. I asked her where she was getting them and, well, she said Seth was supplying them to her. I didn't want to ask too much more about it bein' she's just a kid. And for all I know, he doesn't know what those things are or didn't know before. But they are a BIG part of what's going on in the city and they're a big part of what got Kitty killed."

She said nothing. What could she say? Hypothetically if Seth was actually responsible, and with his interest in her... It meant she could be in some very real danger. But if it turned out that he wasn't guilty, then... His interest in her was simply interest?

And even if he was guilty...

It was all very confusing for her. Confusing because she didn't know how to feel. She knew how Knuckles felt regarding Charlise's murder and so on. That was obvious. He'd done very little to hide it.

"She's a little girl, though. Children often don't know or understand situations and can very easily place discrepancies in things like that." Her head tilted and she found herself eying what must have been the floor. "Uhm... So he's a suspect... Should... I ask him? Would that help you guys? If he's behind this and he's so interested in me, I... can potentially get this information, right?"

"I know she's a kid. From my experience, kids are some of the most honest folks you could meet, though. Like I said, I didn't ask too many questions - gonna look into it further. But you wanted information so... that's what I got."

He crossed his arms and shook his head - she probably couldn't see it, though, she'd probably hear his dreadlocks slapping against his jacket.

"And no. Nuh-uh. I'd actually suggest keeping that bit of information between us. I mean, it's not exactly PRIVATE or anything? Like, the conversation I had with Mary wasn't encrypted. But he doesn't need to know you know. If he's actually involved with something shady, he might take exception to you askin' questions. But that's still an 'If' so far as I'm concerned."

There was no way to hide the frown in her features, and she was, at once, relieved it was dark. Part of her thought it was karmic retribution. If Seth turned out to be a horrible person, it was fitting, wasn't it? But did she really deserve something like that? No. There was no way.

She shouldn't bring it up. She shouldn't act like she knew anything either. Otherwise Seth would notice she was distancing herself. If he asked her why, could she lie? No. Voile couldn't. She couldn't condone of doing that.

"Okay," she said after a few moments. "I'll... I'm not really sure how to feel. Thank you for looking into it for me. I really appreciate it."

"LIke I said, it just kind of came up. I really wasn't expecting to hear anything about him when I was asking after the candies." he replied with a shrug. "You're welcome all the same, and I meant what I said. I'll ask around a little more and see what I can find out aside from that."

He'd still have to get in touch with Bulba. And maybe meet Blake and see what he had to say. All he even knew about Blake was his name and what he could garner from a very brief conversation with his trainer.

"I'd like that. The looking a bit more. I think I'll ask around as well."

She stretched her arms above her head with some thought. "What are you going to do for the rest of the blackout? I mean, you can't stay here the entire time. I don't know why you'd want to, but you can't..."

"Just be careful who you ask - stick to people you trust, OK?"

He didn't want her asking the wrong person the wrong kinds of questions and arousing suspicions. Frankly, Seth might be a great guy caught up in something he didn't know anything about and he might just wind up hurt that people were doubting his sincerity.

"I'm gonna go and see if other people need any help or any company. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to attempt to get food and water to the Library by gliding there. That's where Goombella is right now. It's just too dark and snowing too hard right now to make it and I bet they're snowed in there."

"Something definitely to tend to. I can't imagine being caught in the library. At least here we have the student kitchen and what not. The only thing the library has is... books..."

She frowned, even though he couldn't see it. After wringing her hands together briefly, she began to move over the floor, using her fingertips to map the territory.

"How long... did you want to stay?"

"As long as you want me to, I guess. I don't wanna overstay my welcome if you need to get some sleep or whatever." he replied with an invisible shrug. He could hear her moving around in front of him and wondered what she was trying to find.

"I just wanted to stop in and see if you were alright and let you know what I found out. I can go any time."

"No, no." She shook her head, "It's not like that. I just... I'm a little on edge. That's got to be obvious." A moment to regain her composure and she drew in a deep breath that wound up being a bit of a sigh. "I'm... not really used to the dark. It reminds me of being in a pokeball, I guess. And scary stories, too. I haven't been in it for... a really long time."

Voile tried to smile, which likely wound up as a wasted effort, but at least she put in the time to make the attempt. "I feel really restless. Like I don't want to just sit here, but I also don't want to try crawling around everywhere either. I'm not really sure what to do."

"Well, if you want to go for a walk, I can walk with you. My night vision is pretty OK, even though it's darker in here than I'm really used to. You can hold my shoulder and I'll do my best to make sure you don't bump into anything?"

It was about all he could think to offer - restlessness was a terrible feeling.

"I'm not sure I'd want to try the whole walking thing." She lifted her left hand and idly waved it through the air, "Not that I don't trust you! I just feel a bit conflicted. Over a few things? A lot of things. I'm not sure, myself. Maybe it's the consequence of the black out. Not everyone's as composed as you are. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of the people in this dormitory aren't exactly at ease."

She looked back to the windowsill where her gracidea flowers sat and she stared for a few moments. "Do you mind if I curl up with you for a little? Just until I fall asleep? Then you can go whenever you'd like to."

"Oh? Sure. I don't see a problem with that at all."

He was blushing relatively heavily at the idea of course, but that was to be expected.

"You want me to sit on the bed and you can get under the covers?"

"Uhm..."

She didn't reply immediately. Then as she stretched back an arm and grabbed for her top blanket. With her free hand, she held it out ahead of her simply so she could feel around, and hopefully find him.

"Stay where you are," she instructed him gently. "Just stay put and I'll find you. If you don't mind me falling asleep on you, you can just bundle me up like a wurmple evolving and I should be good."

Oh, no. You are DOOMED.

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