D A Y 0 2

[founds]

CHAPTER 1

NOV 1ST | 58℉☂

▸ In a sad turn of events during last night's activities, local teenager Bela Gage was found dead at Gainsbourg Resort as festivities were wrapping up. Local authorities have opened up an investigation regarding the circumstances around her death.

▸ Several houses were egged in height of last night's events. Locals are offering a small reward to anyone with information that may lead to identification of the culprits.

▸ Now for the weather, expect light showers from late morning to mid afternoon. Blackwell is expecting the storm to keep rolling through overnight, so drive safe!

▸ That's the News In today. Now back to your regularly scheduled tunes. This one goes out to the Gages, may you find peace in these difficult times.

THE RISING IS NOT IN EFFECT

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gainsbourg resort / morning

[eternalboy]

[ well that was a special Halloween night. ]

[ he steps out of the front doors, on his way to his motorcycle and to work, but stops when he sees the wrecked car that's now surrounded by police tape. it looks even worse in the morning light. ]

[avers]

[ he's already at the crime scene, talking with another homicides investigator with a grave look on his face. asshole or not, oliver is, at least, good at his job and takes it very seriously. adam and him might have history and their families have always had their disagreements, but that does not come into play in a situation like this.

even the award-winning jerkass has his limits in indecency. ]

corner store : early morning

[sciophobic]

[perusing a selection of junk food ranging from moderately junky to why even bother calling it food, turning over a $20 his mom gave him in his hand as he contemplates the severity of his junk food craving. the store owner is watching him out of the corner of his eye, in no small part because he has his hood up but colby interprets it as apprehensiveness stemming from his reputation and shoots him an antagonistic look every so often.

he was up late and so looks bedraggled, but so does half the town, so when the news on the store's mini tv starts blathering about the eggings and rewards for information, he doesn't sweat it. it's not until he's plopped his junk food bounty on the counter that the report gets into the death, and he pauses with his hand halfway out of his jacket for change. he watches it with trepidation for a second, a ringing in his ears drowns out whatever the cashier is saying. it grows in intensity until all he hears is high pitched squealing, watching the silent image of the highschool portrait of his schoolmate on the screen. he only snaps out of it when his phone interrupts loudly to the tune of some obnoxious pop song of the week, and he apologizes distractedly to the cashier as he finishes paying.

the caller id reads as the samsons. they don't talk for long, but they thought they'd extend him the courtesy of explaining that their daughter had been found.]

[nowheres]

[Once he makes it outside, Colby might just have his attention drawn to a little more commotion. While he's still trying to bounce back from a sleepless night, Petre's look of drowsiness just stems from a near-constant state of daze, lines deep and dark under bright blue eyes. That might just be what gets that small group of older boys to hover over to him, demanding he hand over whatever it is he got from last night. They proceed to call him freak and other names between demands, shoving the kid between them. Finally one push too hard makes him drop down on his ass, skin of both palms scraping against concrete. Ow.]

No money - go away.

[Accent thick and voice helpless, he tries to shield himself with both arms before one of the boys are grabbing his shirt to yank him back up.]

gage residence | early morning

[brabble]

[ as an old friend of the Gage family, and nearly surrogate daughter after Robert passed away, Bela's death hit Sophie pretty hard. even with her tenacious want to be a good photo-journalist, there are some lines she's not willing to cross and being on board with the Blackwell Mail to report this was one of them. she's taken a day off from the office as well.

there's very little she can say to sooth this - or anything at all, really - but sophie does stop by the gage residence in her little honda scooter. the dog doesn't bark because it knows her so well and sophie waits by the door for a second. because she wants to knock but her gut is twisting like it wants to crawl out. she's there for a couple of moments and finally, she gathers up the courage to ring the bell and once the door is open, there's a torrent of nonsensical, awkward jumble of words that come out of her mouth before she shuts up instead and gives them a tight hug. ]

I'm so sorry.

[weiners]

[ it was a feat for her to try and answer the door-- she hadn't even gotten out of bed yet. sophie's gut could twist even longer as darla forced herself out of bed, sliding a robe over her pajamas. she struggled down the steps, listening a bit to see if adam was still even home. she hoped he didn't leave her here alone.

darla pulls open the door and is immediately wrapped in sophie's arms, overwhelmed. her own arms linger awkwardly beside the girl, unsure if she can handle the contact from someone other than adam. adam had been okay. sophie was a different story.

sophie was a welcome addition to their family but at the moment she was just a reminder that all darla had left with this girl that wasn't blood. it was terrible and she knew it, sophie came all this way this early to try to comfort her-- but it was hard to be grateful for it. ]

You should be at work.

[ as if that were important. what else is she supposed to say while trying not to acknowledge sophie's words. ]

Elkins - RCSO / morning

[overworn]

[ Adrian was meant to be at the station an hour earlier but decided against being punctual on the account of being exhausted. instead of get to working on the cases she had come to work on, she sits and gives statements about the incident last night. her curiosity pries the sheriff for more information but seems to come up with little to squat.

he doesn't like that she's here.

this was supposed to be her first day working with the RCSO, going through the motions of rolling up her sleeves and digging into records. they always loved how she invaded their personal spaces. there will be time for that, but for now she's sunken into a chair with a cup of coffee. it's her third already, and it's taking its time doing its job. she secretly thinks it's because it's Folgers and Folgers is shit. ]

[shinshia]

[ she walks past Adrian but stops and eyes her from head to toe. fresh meat but apparently rotten, if her looks are anything to go by. her gaze stops on the coffee cup she's holding. ]

The coasters are in the kitchen.

[ no one ever uses them. but she's new. she might as well. and the kitchen is more like a sink and a cupboard than an actual kitchen. ]

elkins - rcso / midday

[prizewinner]

[ chloe's busy in the exam room, bela's body splayed out on the table in front of her. the room was filled with many black candles, lit, even though the overhead lamp was on. the smell of sage hung in the air, a few sticks laying on a counter top on the other side of the room. chloe had burned them to eliminate what she would say was the bad energy that surrounded bela's body. understandably, of course.

when a detective is ready to receive information, she'll be here. ]

[avers]

[ he hates that smell, but at least the room is clean. he walks in a little after he's been told doctor Strickland has the report; he's been busy mulling over the crime scene ]

You got some results for me? [ he calls out, entering the room with his hands in his pockets. he's a little wet from the light rain outside ]

chew, breakfast

[clipping]

[Eating by himself. Looks like he's trying to bounce back from a hangover, but really Cole just spent the night up because he was busy killing two teenagers and burying the bodies. Micah helped. But he's not here right now.

Cole doesn't drink ever, he just plays a really good drunk. People who saw him at the party last night will think he left early with Micah because his little brother wasn't feeling well. Just as planned.

He plays with his fork, stabbing a stack of four small pancakes idly.]

[sabotagen]

[ stops by his table, wearing an apron over her dress. she's working the morning shift. ]

[ she stares at him for a moment as if she was waiting for him to speak up first but then continues like she was always supposed to. ]

Would you like anything to drink?

[ even though she's always polite and does her job as she's told there's something abrupt about the way she addresses the customers. ]

piggly wiggly, late afternoon

[ex_vacuous481]

[ ah, grocery shopping.

cypress pushes the cart down the aisles slowly, occasionally putting an item or two in it as she waves at familiar faces. there were brief flickers of annoyance across her face when no one was in view. she plucks a bag of chips from the rack and flips it over to compare it to another one advertising a similar chip flavor, and she ends up choosing the one in her hand.

what a menial task. if grocery shopping wasn't such a great place to talk to people, she would just pay a bagboy to bring her groceries by the apartment weekly. it'd be much more convenient. but sometimes you just have to buck up and do things you don't want to do.

stops her cart to compare prices on pickles. ]

[icide]

[it's saturday and he doesn't have class. he always kind of flounders in his free time because it's a weird concept, to not have anything more important he should be doing. sometimes he just stays at home and does schoolwork anyway, in advance like a fucking nerd. sometimes he kicks around in the hollowed out orphanage. today he is wandering the piggly wiggly. as you do.]

[it's actually a good bet for him because cole would only be caught dead here if he had pretenses to hold up and he doesn't feel like he can look him in the face today. he stops at one of those little dorky halloween themed displays, mostly cleaned out already, one earbud in playing some morose affair with a slow tempo when he spots cypress and her pickles. he immediately ducks back around the corner hoping she was too enthralled with pickle jars to notice. of course in the process of avoiding cole he'd run into the other last person ever he wants to deal with today]

West park : noon

[sciophobic]

[sits on a park bench with a hood pulled up against the drizzle, tapping his phone against the palm of his hand anxiously. he doesn't really remember what sophie looked like so he glances up at every person that passes by, mostly joggers and dog walkers, looking in general like a lil punk asshole about to get up to no good]

[brabble]

[ there's a pink bike approaching. it's one of those hipster bikes too, with the basket and the little old style bell. but it's in tip top condition and it doesn't even squeak when sophie pedals it. she stops a safe distance away from him and chains the bike to a lamp post, sliding the key in her pocket

then she approaches him, pulling down her puffy scarf so he can see her face under the big wooly wood ]

Hey. Thanks for the text. [ she buries her nose down the scarf again; her voice comes vaguely muffled ] You okay?

Some shitty chinese buffet in blackwell : 6ish

[bluecode]

[it's been almost a full 24 hours since his daughter died. he doesn't think of it in terms like that, though, hasn't rightfully kept track of time since he couldn't feel a pulse, everything that has happened since the party might as well have been a shitty dream he's bound to wake up from sooner or later. at least that's what it feels like, slogging through a trauma-induced haze - at least he doesn't have to go back to work. in fact, they expressly forbade him until he was able to meet with the department psychologist, and he didn't have the stomach for such business at the moment.]

[that is how he's come to be sat in a corner booth at the hole in the walliest chinese buffet, the kind that serves overcooked squid in bins and smells like toothpaste for some reason. none of the locals come here, which makes it an ideal place to conduct unsightly business, and it has been his and chloe's "usual place" for some odd years now.]

[he has a messy pile of documents and files at his elbow. the servers usually know not to bother him when he's here with drink refills or whatever, but they must have had a new girl today, because she came by with her pitcher and looked appropriately appalled at the gory police photos he didn't bother hiding at the top of the stack. he apologized because she was sixteen and dressed in white and he wasn't talking to her at all.]

[prizewinner]

[ chloe had been reluctant to text adam, let alone meet him. she was convinced he shouldn't be anywhere near information regarding his daughter's death, at least not for a few more weeks. but it had been her fault, she made first contact. it was almost out of habit. something happened, talk to adam. it was a routine she developed over the past few years and even though this directly involved him-- it felt wrong to keep things from him.

she slides into the booth with him, setting her plate of overcooked food down on the table. there's a frown when she notices what else is on the table, pushing some of the photos aside to make more room for her plate. ]

Should you really be looking at this stuff?

[ holds out a cheese stick for him. ]

Between Gainsbourg and Blackwell, 0900

[espish]

[living in new york, sam has never had much of a reason to want a car. the trouble with being brought out here to the sticks is, of course, that there aren't any goddamn trains. well, no subways.

sam got up tired this morning and it's only gotten worse. he'd nearly been asleep last night when something white fluttered down past his window, and that pretty much killed any notion of rest. then this morning the kitchen had been closed because pretty much everybody had gotten the day off to deal with their trauma.

which is fine, except it means sam's running on a cup of shitty hotel coffee and not much else, and he's got a hell of a ways to go before he gets to where they found the samson girl's body. on foot, with his collar turned up, and hat jammed nearly to his nose, along the side of the narrow country road. because he doesn't drive, and he wasn't about to ask the kid in the parking lot.

and it's raining.]

[espish]

[it may not be a heavy rain, but even a light rain will soak you to the bone if you're out in it long enough, and sam sure is out in it. there's not quite enough of it collecting in the road for the odd passing car to splash it in sheets over his shoes, which is something of a blessing.]

sophie jones studio apt | six-ish

[brabble]

[ it's a little past lunch time when she texts izzy, knowing very well she might be the only person that she would want to help her through this mourning. she has known bela since she was born, spent most of her christmas with them. she has seen her grow. it's unfair to see her go. she was like a little sister, but there's a big abyss in her stomach when she thinks about her right to claim that sadness of loss for herself too. she doesn't want to tell it to the gages. it would be wrong, wouldn't it?

so instead she wallows in self-misery alone throughout the day, trying to busy her mind with mindless chores. she even cleans up her apartment. she goes to the library and gets the food from the supermarket and then cries a little more by herself.

it's a little past six when the bell rings and sophie peeks outside the window to see who it is, as the comm is broken (has always been but she was always too lazy to fix it). she lets izzy up and opens the door. ]

No trouble switching schedules?

[singlestrand]

No trouble.

[ she shoots a smile at sophie, holding a grocery bag full of various goodies in one hand and a pan with ingredients for their dinner tonight in the other. isabella leans forward to kiss sophie's cheek before inviting herself in, making a beeline for the kitchen to set every thing down on the counter top. eager to get dinner started, she starts to pull out some of the cookware she had left at her best friend's apartment during previous meals. because this happens a lot. ]

It's my dad's restaurant. Who is going to fight me on a shift, really?

Waybright Library, 1300

[espish]

[he's one of those jackasses who's taking up an entire table, between his still-damp overcoat spread out over the back of one chair, his hat and scarf laid out at one end of the table and his suit jacket over the back of another chair. everything's damp, really, which is why it's spread out like that and he's been ignoring the stinkeye from the librarians.

mostly he's here to get in out of the gentle misting, but he's got a few books spread out in front of him, mostly gathered from the local history section. one or two are from the west virginia state law section, since he can see how one or two finer points of the law are probably going to be really useful to him soon. the chair directly across the table from him has been recently cleared of books and clothing.]

[sciophobic]

[drops into the cleared chair without announcing himself first, reaching across to flip his book shut. his knuckles are wrapped in a hasty bandage job.]

They hired you to find her? Right? [turns the book around to read the title. some detective if he's reading law books. what are you brushing up for huh. i guess someone had to graduate at the bottom of the class] The point of hiring a detective to find someone is usually to find them before they're dead. You really suck.

Gainsbourg Resort, 1900

[espish]

[apparently there's a shuttle that runs between blackwell and gainsbourg resort, if you ask. sam hadn't asked before setting out on foot the first time, but it definitely made coming back a little less rough on him, even if the light rain had let up by the time he was leaving the library. he's got plastic bags from the local supermarket in his hands, since his budget is probably going to be a little tight for restaurants.

he stops at the edge of the cordon around where the girl's body had lain and looks up at the front of the hotel. her body had been face-up when he'd looked out of his window to see what the noise and fluttering had been. and sam remembered blood.

he looks back down.]

Interstate between Blackwell and Lost Lake / 4pm

[overworn]

[ It didn't take much to get Adrian out of Elkins after the mood set back at the office. The sheriff decided to be as much of an inconvenience, but at least she'd grappled a case file or two before getting all but thrown out.

which is why she's dragged her buddy out to the side of the interstate instead of to the Samson's house like they'd been told. she'd parked with the emergencies on, windshield wipers lazing across the dash as the rain sprinkles in a very soft fashion. she flips through the file, scanning for information on the scene of the crime, matching trees for trees until she knew for certain it was the right place]

Looks like this is the place. [ she sighs, snapping the folder shut ]

[eternalboy]

[ he was more than happy to leave the office after all those days he spent inside going through paperwork. not even the light rain can ruin his mood. he looks up happily thinking how there are advantages to cars too, like having a roof over your head. his coat is still quite not dry from the morning journey to the office. ]

[ he sits up better so he can peer through the window. ]

What, they didn't even mark the place?

[ he was expecting police tape or something. it hasn't been that long since she was found. ]

3410 summers street / 1pm

[eternalboy]

[ he arrives to pick up Izzy as promised. he steers his bike to the house with the correct number and stops there. the helmet for Izzy is hanging from the handlebar. it's their first date and he's ready ready ready. ]

[singlestrand]

[ this'll be the first time ben sees izzy in relatively normal clothes. she's dressed for the fall weather-- jeans, boots and an oversized sweater in a plum color. since she had no desire for ben to meet anyone in her family, she burst out of the front door of the house the second she heard the motor of his bike. (why would she? they'd just ask too many questions. particularly ones she really, really isn't that interested in answering for anyone. including herself.)

isabella holds her hands over her head in a feeble attempt to stop the rain from getting in her hair before she decides she doesn't care, running the rest of the way to his bike. she snatches the helmet, getting it onto her head quickly. ]

It's in this strip mall on 8th. Do you know where that's it?