>>
|
629f2e.jpg
Floating Sea
629f2e
...
JoJo didn’t show up to class today.
You expected to hear the worst, but she’s just Sick according to your teacher. Aside from her absence, everyone else was present to your knowledge. No graduations, no missing children, for the first time in days there were no strange disappearances. It made things a little less tense, if only briefly.
No news about Lemmy’s whereabouts though. Chamberlane warns us again that if he doesn’t show up soon, there are going to be some Safety Protocols set up under the assumption that he was Kidnapped. You don’t have a clue where that boy got off to, so you couldn’t rat him out if you wanted to.
The rest of class goes by painfully slow. It ends, after what feels like an eternity, and at lunch you’re dragged over by Albert to a table with his friends yet again. That includes, unfortunately, The Artist. He doesn’t seem any more comfortable with your presence than he did before.
[The Suspicion surrounding members of your party has changed.]
Party Suspicion Levels:
[Clive: 55/100] (+2 for being around others)
[Albert: 21/100] (+2 for being around you)
[Franklin: 35/100] (+2 for being around you)
[Lillian: 5/100] (+2 for being around you)
[Enid: 10/100] (+2 for being around you)
[The Artist: 5/100] (+2 for being around you)
[Those who had pleasant dreams lost Fear.]
Party Fear Levels:
[Clive: 46/100]
[Albert: 43/100] (A little better than yesterday)
[Franklin: 44/100] (What happened there?)
[Lillian: 15/100] (Probably from her fight with Albert)
[Enid: 0/100] (Looking a lot better than yesterday)
[The Artist: 6/100] (Seems fine)
...You have to stare down at the table to avoid The Artist’s burning gaze. It’s uncomfortable
The Artist: “Okay, so... Yesterday did anybody…”
The Artist: “ ...I’m just gonna ask it: Why is Clive here? Did I miss something?”
Albert: “I invited him yesterday. He was already investigating on his own, so it made sense to combine our efforts.”
Lillian: “Oh yeah, you missed that because you were out playing baseball, didn’tcha? How was that?”
The Artist: “Ugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
The Artist: “I could spend the rest of lunch just complaining about it. Don’t get me started.”
Enid: “...There weren’t any problems yesterday, right?”
Albert and Lillian share a look, both clearly thinking of the same incident.
Albert: “...None involving Clive, if that’s what you’re asking.”
The Artist: “Wait, why did you specify that?”
Enid: “...If that’s the case, then it’s fine if Clive is here. If he didn’t do anything bad yesterday, I don’t think he will today either. Don’t you think so, Roger?”
The Artist: “H-Huh? Well…”
Oh, so that was his name. Try not to forget it this time, it’ll be annoying having to pick it up again.
Roger: “...I guess if everyone else is okay with it.”
It was a begrudging acceptance, but you’ll take it if it means you don’t have to fight to stay around people you barely want to be with. It’s easier like this.
As the others start to eat, you slide Albert the items you brought from home. He accepts it quickly and eats with... fewer table manners than you would have expected. You get through your own sandwich quickly.
As the others finish eating and giving Roger and Enid a summary of yesterday’s investigation, the discussion starts on a sticking point from yesterday.
Roger: “The Cattenom Nuclear Plant?”
Lillian: “Have you heard of it?”
Roger: “Nope, never. This town has been all about recycling for as long as I can remember.”
Enid: “I also haven’t heard of one before. Though, I didn’t know much about the Recycling Center either to be honest. Daddy never mentioned either of them much.”
Clive: “...Hey, Alien. You said it sounded familiar yesterday. Remember anything?”
He rubs his head in thought, mumbling to himself as he does.
Franklin: “...Hmmmmm... Nuclear plant... When was it that…?”
Franklin: “...”
Franklin: “...Nope, I don’t have it. Sorry. I probably heard it a long time ago, but it’s all fuzzy back there.”
You’d be disappointed if you expected anything to change. It’d be nice, but you don’t need his memory to investigate the plant.
Clive: “...I Found something about it.”
Albert: “You did!?”
Clive: “Yesterday. After we split up.”
You pull a newspaper out of your bag and pass it to him. He quickly begins flipping through it, reading quickly.
Albert: “This was at the library?”
Clive: “...They had some old newspapers in the back.”
That you weren’t meant to be in the back didn’t need to be said. Albert seemed to understand just fine.
Roger: “Hey, mind sharing with the rest of the class? What does it say?”
Albert: “It’s the front page article that’s relevant. Here, I’ll read it out…”
“Cattenom Goes Nuclear!”
“Civilians celebrated the opening of Cattenom’s Nuclear Power Plant this morning with much revelry. With the plant going into operation, this marks the first Nuclear Plant in the whole of North Carolina, and the fifth ever to be completed in the states. This government funded facility has opened the doors to many new jobs, and will introduce a surplus of funds to be spent on the town. While many are on board, some oppose the plant, citing concerns over radiation…”
Albert: “It goes on from there. It’s the headlining article.”
Lillian: “So there really was a nuclear plant? Huh. How come we never heard about it until now?”
Roger: “...When is that paper dated?”
Albert: “June 15th, 1959.”
Roger: “It opened at the tail end of the 1950s…?”
Enid: “That’s less than 10 Years Ago! How long does it take to replace something that big?”
Lillian: “They had to notice something was wrong with it first. If it didn’t go wrong immediately, it could have taken even less time than that.”
Enid: “And the recycling plant had to be finished before any of us were alive to hear about it…”
Clive: “...That’s a tight timeline.”
The dates don’t seem to add up on the surface. There’s something you’re missing, some angle where all of this could happen naturally in just a few years time.
Roger: “Some of the middle schoolers might have been alive while the nuclear plant was around. I guess we could ask Carol and Barry, maybe John?”
Clive: “‘Bec could know something. Though it’ll cost us if we want her to talk.”
Albert: “Or, we could check it out ourselves.”
Everyone turns to look at Albert, who passes the article over to Enid beside him. He sits with a smug grin, as if daring you to ask for clarification. It’s irritating.
Roger: “What?”
Albert: “This article gives us a strong clue as to the plant’s location. It’s further in, listen:”
“Several attended the opening ceremonies, just South of town, where city councilman Robert Butler and plant manager Leopold Stiff both spoke about the opportunities it will bring to Cattenom.”
Enid: “It’s to the south? But, how far away will it be?”
Roger: “...It’s going to be just past the Death Forest, isn’t it?”
The others all pause to consider his suggestion. It made sense to you, and most of the party seemed to feel similarly judging by the nods. There was one outlier of course.
Enid: “I... don’t know what that is yet.”
Albert: “You live in the good houses on the Southern part of town, right? Have you seen the forest close to there? The one that doesn’t lead to the field I mean.”
Enid: “Yeah?”
Lillian: “Well it’s totally off-limits to everyone. Nobody plays there, ‘cuz of the Corpses.”
Clive: “That’s just a rumor.”
Roger: “I heard that they had a strand of poison ivy so bad it’d kill you if you even touched it there.”
Lillian: “Nah, that ain’t it. The place is covered in landmines from an old war, so nobody’s been able to go out there and collect the bodies, out of fear of blowing up.”
Franklin: “...Jhonen told me he discovered a big-footmoth-woman at the forest’s edge once.”
Roger: “He did say that, but Jhonen also believed that garden gnomes were a conspiracy to give real gnome’s camouflage in our yards, as part of a plot to break into our homes and steal all our batteries.”
Franklin: “...Are they?”
Roger: “Franklin, no.”
Enid: “There are a lot of different rumors. So, what’s the actual reason nobody’s allowed to go?”
Albert taps the newspaper in her hands.
Albert: “I’m willing to bet that it’s because of This. The adults don’t want us finding the nuclear plant beyond it perhaps.”
Lillian: “Yeah, that’d track.”
Roger: “You never see adults head towards it, right? It’s probably abandoned. If that’s the case, maybe we really could take a look for ourselves.”
Lillian: “Hold on, that’s true, but is that really how we want to spend today?”
Roger: “Huh? Did you have something else in mind already?”
Lillian: “...C’mon, it’s obvious isn’t it?”
Lillian: “We should go spring Phillip and the others from that high school prison already! We know it’s shady, why do we need to dig up proof it’s even shadier?”
...She had a point. A good point. One you completely agreed with.
You know where Rodney is, and you know that he shouldn’t be there. Why should you waste more time investigating the why of him being there?
Would it change anything? What if while you’re searching an abandoned power plant for clues, he’s being tortured?
There were still lingering questions about the nuclear plant, granted. Why did it matter if anybody found out about the nuclear plant? Why did Cattenom switch away from it in the first place? And how did it happen so quickly? But would any of those questions change anything about how you go about saving your little brother?
Roger: “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not yet, I mean.”
Albert: “Ditto.”
Franklin: “I’d love to go hang out with Jhonen at the high school too, but I can’t.”
Lillian: “Whaaaat, even you’re against it, Franklin? I really thought I’d have you on my side here.”
Franklin: “...Huh? Oh, I agree with you. I want to get Jhonen, and Phillip, and Rodney back already, but I can’t. Just like how I can’t go to the nuclear plant either.”
Roger: “Wait really? Why not?”
Franklin: “I have a Playdate with Temmie after school.”
...The conversation shifts drastically to discussing that, so you take a minute to gather all your thoughts.
Two of them voted to go to the nuclear plant, and two of them voted for the school. Enid hasn’t given her own opinion yet, so right now the vote is tied. If you want to say something, you’d better say it right as the topic of where to investigate comes back. Go with the flow and choose the nuclear plant, or go against the grain and suggest checking out the school, so that you can get outvoted and go to the nuclear plant anyways?
Nothing like the illusion of choice, right?
Are you okay with investigating the Nuclear Plant?
A: Clive: “...”
-Hold your tongue and investigate what’s left of the Cattenom Nuclear Plant
-This seems like a waste of time...
B: Clive: “I vote for high school.”
-Try to sway the group towards investigating the high school building instead
-As if you could persuade anyone...
C: Clive: “Those both suck.”
-Suggest something else.
-What else even is there?
|