{ EVENT } The Train That Couldn't Stop - Main Dining Cabin

[Samuel Carlin]

((Not accusing anyone just yet!))

Breic had taken a seat in the middle of the car. That was, after all, the best position for checking everyone out. People had to walk by him, some sat in seats across the aisle, and he had plenty of opportunity to look them all over. Girls to the left of him, boys to the right, and more than a few he wouldn't mind chatting up. Oh yes, this was going to be a very good school year.

As a matter of fact, he'd just leaned forward to introduce himself to the pretty girl across the aisle when the lights went out and something zinged by his head and clattered to the table. A scapula? Not as much fun as a frisbee, but it'd do in a pinch. Except he had to give it back. Drat.

And now he watched as fingers were pointed and the accusations began. The girls were banding together, others were jumping on board. And only one of the others asked the question Breic had been about to voice.

"He has a point," Breic gestured toward Puck. "The conductor or the attendant there. They were the ones moving around most when everything went dark, weren't they?"  

[DarkHeartedSorrows]

((No accusations yet))

An interesting new adventure; that was how Faint saw this trip to be. At least, before the attack. He'd been sitting calmly in his rich, clean clothes, arm resting at the top of the cushioned seat. He'd been eying an adorable girl who was obviously shy, and enjoying the moment. There was little else more pleasing than seeing a girl who didn't let a little attention hit her right in the ego. Then the lights went out and they were left with this awful situation.

He scratched his ginger sideburns with a sharp dark nail, his tail twitching in thought. So many accusations were flying around that he wasn't even sure he was entirely understanding half of the reasoning. He did have to admit that there was some sense in the accusation of the staff. "I have to agree. The staff are the most knowledgeable about how this train works. They'd know how to get in and out quickly." He hummed in thought. "And the attendant's outfit seemed strange."  

[DraconicFeline]

((Balumf does not think it is Oliver, and thinks its Perlie, but isnt pointing fingers yet.))

Balumf didnt really care. So what, if a skeleton had been attacked?
It was only natural that someone stronger should take out someone weaker. That was how a sahuagin would have done it. But~ she'd been out of her colony just long enough to know that it wasn't true for everybody else. Some even kept the weak ones- she couldnt figure out why. Did they have some other use?
She looked out the window, somewhat frustrated. Why did they stop anyway? It wasn't as if the Skeleton had died. Re-died. Whatever.
But it seemed like it was going to be that way for a while. She sighed wetly and listened to the proceedings. People were pointing fingers everywhere. Mostly at some acid-beast-thing. Hmm.
She looked at the bones being reassembled nearby. It really just looked like some force had sent them flying apart. She thought that the fox thing had a point. Why should an acid beast not use acid?

The poltergeist was annoying her. Alot. Balumf wasnt one for bright and happy people in general, and this one was getting on her nerves.
But... The reaper had a point. The reaper was calm. We should deliberate first.
She cleared her throat with a croak.
"Agree... We should not point before knowing..."
"But..." She points at Perlie, "You have alibi, but I not hear you say such thing about candy. Besides, you are ghost. You can talk and do at same time, yes? How we know you not talk and attack this skeleton at same time?"
She stopped, out of breath. it was hard to make her natural croaking sound like proper language.  

[AyeAvast]

((Belladonna does not accuse anyone.))

The possibility of a train ride had seemed fun, at first. But then the smoke from waiting on the platform had made her hair frizz and she couldn't even get a room to herself. What did lots of pumpkin seeds pay for now days?! With an agitated sigh every so often, Belladonna had been content to huddle herself against the window, annoyed with the fact that Binx's carrier case had been stuffed with her luggage and not allowed with her. The idea of soon being at Amityville was starting to lift her spirits, but that came crashing down when she discovered a bone on her plate. Just the idea of a poor skeleton being tossed to pieces made her feel sick to her stomach and when everyone started accusing people, she just got mad.

"Who is that attendant to pass the blame so nonchalantly?" She said quite loudly, jumping up in her seat to be better heard. "And you!" She shouted at Ahikiko, "Accusing people because of their gender? That's awful!" After a moment she pointed to Kashiyoru, softening her voice to a more normal and acceptable level. "You got a good look at the bone, didn't you? If anyone else got a decent look, please tell us what you saw! If we can figure out what damage was done, we can figure out who attacked!"

Hopefully the others were willing to participate, but everyone seemed very on edge, as they well should be with the threat of danger on board.  

[Quirm]

Perlie had calmed down after Betty had taken a stand (reproachful glares were even worse than angry ones, seriously) and sat back to grumble a bit. Okay, so perhaps she'd been a bit hasty.. but that didn't mean she was going to retract it! She'd stick to her guns, even if they were ridiculous ones.

Except that apparently someone still thinking it was her.
"Yeah, but last time I checked being a ghost didn't mean you could be in two places at once, although that would be sort of cool. Just not right now. And if I was talking and attacking someone in another part of the train, the acoustics would have given me away, wouldn't it?" She nodded to Balumf, clearly intending the little speech for her.

"And I didn't even think of the staff. D'you really think the staff would try to harm us?" She looked more worried at this prospect than she had of the prospect of a student attacker - the staff did know the train like the back of their (occassionally metaphorical) hands, so would they even be able to stand a chance if that was the case?  

[medigel]

(( Haku refrains from voting for now, needs to learn more about the other people with him~ ))

Purposefully the small inugami had settled himself at the back of the cart to avoid being seen - he was a short specimen, Haku, and a boy that liked as much privacy as possible while on the public transport. And surely nobody wished to be by the doors that seemed as if they were malicious enough to swallow patrons whole and leave them scrambling either in the open air or hanging on for dear life as the train impassively moved on. Well, so he thought. So far it was somewhat working.

Haku's head had been bent intently towards a book of law, and not even the scent of food pulled him from it; just a glance, then a double glance at the hostess barely as she (he . . . it . . .?) passed by. Aaaand then back to the book it was. Three quarters of the page he didn't understand the least bit about, but he enjoyed the sense of intelligence he got for just playing out the action. This was the stuff a true business man would know - not intimately for the court per se, but even bandying about a few legal terms would make the dullest of Halloween denizens bob their head and agree; and sometimes that was nice, particularly if a client stank to the twilit moon.

Not that Haku had had the chance to really start doing business with anyone yet, but still: preparation was never a sin, not even over-preparation.

As such, he grew restless when the lights went out, squinting in the darkness to find the words he still couldn't decipher. The loud clatter of course made him perk up in surprise, though not nearly as much as when the newly severed carpals and metacarpals of a finger flung themselves into the crease of the book. The young inugami stared at it as the lights flickered on, an ear turning to follow the ensuing bout of accusations from several girls and the plead to calm down from others. Should he bother getting involved? Hmm . . .

Well if he didn't, odds were he was going to be dragged in under negative circumstances. Best attempt to enter the conversation before accusatory glances were thrown at him too.

Haku waited until there was a slight lull in the conversation, shut his book on the finger bones like they were a bookmark, and stood to go join them. "Perhaps he or she is not staff, but only wearing the guise of one," he offered, slipping through the seats easily. "I'm not sure of you all, but the hostess that was here prior to the lights going out looked odd. Or rather something wasn't right," he amended, as there was hardly such a thing as "normal" here.  

[Tuatha De]

Betty shuddered visibly at the idea that the train staff might not be on their side. Sure, the guy who'd come in didn't look precisely all together, but malicious? Certainly not! "The staff do know the train better than anyone else... But surely they would take some kind of precaution?" Still, she didn't sound too certain. They didn't have a Bogeyman on board. No one had been expecting this. Why would they bother to suspect the staff?

When Belladonna stood up, however, Betty immediately gravitated to her fellow witch, who also seemed to be speaking perfectly reasonably. She nodded in agreement to the idea that an acid monster probably would have left some kind of acid traces on bones. "That's a good idea. I didn't really get a good look at the bones myself... But maybe someone else did? Or maybe there are, I don't know, footprints or some clue?"

Right, because this was sure to work out like a murder mystery from a cheap novel. But Betty wasn't exactly an ace detective. None of them were.  

[Ary Keeyara]

(( Salali is keeping her vote only because she doesn't have another one to make at the moment ))

"Me? Me?" Piped Salali to herself, seeming surprised. If someone could look scared at...well themselves, that would be the best way to describe her expression. "Perhaps me, unknown to me... a secret kept from myself? A flytrap thinks it's a flower...? But it would know when it ate something else...no no..." She ruffled her mess of curls and looked at Akihiko with her fingers still on her head as if he could answer the question, "...no?...yes...?"

At the mention of it being a staff member Salali stood in her seat, not increasing her height by much really, and shook her head about. "Too easy, too easy...not seen, it is not seen, so don't look for where you can see it no..." Perhaps she was trying to say that it being a member of the train staff was too obvious and therefore a position of too much vulnerability. Or perhaps she was talking about something else entirely. It wasn't really easy to tell.  

[DraconicFeline]

Balumf thought for a moment. And thought. She was good at thinking. That is why she was still alive.
What the annoying ghost said, it made sense. But she was still annoying and too bubbly, and not in the good, relaxing way.
But even Balumf wasn't going to say that the poltergeist had done it. She wasn't the sort. Too weak, she thought, judging.

She frowned as she pondered the theory that it was the staff that had done it. The Staff? The ones who ran the train?
"The staff get paid. They have job to do, and if we not get to our destination on time, they do not get paid, right? So why would they stop the train?"
She was quiet again. Her mind was getting less tangled.
But she needed WATER. She gulped down a bottle from the drink tray. Oh, it was good.
Suddenly an idea came to her.
"We all should give alibis for ourselves, then we point fingers. It more logical that way than pointing, right?"
"I begin. I did not move from my seat until just now when i got water. I was sitting here looking out window. Very distracted."
Like hell she was going to tell them why! Or even why she COULDNT have done it. To say that she was Weak was to BE weak. To say she was worried about being weak... that was doubly worse.  

[Arrien]

((Vic is looking pretty suspiciously in Salali's direction. She has no problems with leaping to conclusions!))


Vic was getting an awfully strong feeling that she knew just what had happened. Listening to Salali ramble on, in fact, she was just as sure as a compass pointed north who was to blame, and damn her for a bilgerat if she wasn't going to have her say about it!

"Oi, mate. Y'might be a couple'a herrin' short of a basket, now, don't ya?" The ghost didn't just speak to Salali; she had the nerve to get up from her seat and advance into the Reapers's space, each step punctuated by a wet slap of soggy shoes on the train floor. She took a long moment in looking the girl up and down, taking her full measure of the gibbering shaman before her jaw set at an aggressive angle.

"Now here's how I sees it, mates!" She whipped around to address the room, one hand resting firmly on the pommel of the beat-up saber at her side (the fact that it was sealed into its sheath by a thick layer of rust was one the room didn't need to know, just yet.) "There's two sorts'a crazy in this world - there's the haha-funny sort, and the stabby-stabby, kill-for-giggles sort." Vic paused a moment. "Granted, a'course, they're both some sort of the haha-funny kind... one just gots a bit more screaming than the next. But that ain't the point! The point here is, I knows for dratted sure that if we was all on the Captain's boat," she drawled out the name, invoking the memory of the thick-bearded, ill-tempered pirate whose flag she (un-)lived to sail under, "we'd be chainin' up all the haha-funnies to the anchor and lettin' them go for a drink."

"Seein' as we don't have a friendly ocean to toss this'un into...." The swabby's eyes gleamed as she went to regard Salali one more time. "I guess we'll just have to improvise, aye?"

Pirates liked to improvise. Vic thought that she would be quite good at it, if the chance came to her - and by Davy Jones, maybe it just did!  

[Hes a Trap]

((Not accusing anyone right now.))

Kenatrou just snorted and rolled his eyes at the one accusing him. Just because he is a werewolf doesn't mean he is going after a skeleton. He slammed his hand on the table standing up to look at Andrugora "What the hell is your problem? Because I am a werewolf I am going to jump somebody for a damn bone? You got a lot of nerves!" Kenatrou snorted his faced fixed in a different type of frown one full of anger and malice. Kentarou turned his head sitting back down and crossed his arms sinking into his seat. He was pissed for being accused but more pissed off at the fact that he was sent away to this school.

Kenatrou was having so much fun at home in his books and torturing the staff that dare enter his library. Kentarou looked around and rolled his eyes these people were to loud. He just pulled out one of his books and stuck his nose into it. You would think people would be used to death by now but guess not. He sighed and kept his nose in his book and not concerning himself of the people around him.  

[DarkHeartedSorrows]

Faint stood up quickly as the soggy pirate-ess ghost stamped across the car to the crazy that kept talking to herself. Somehow disabled or mentally-ill or not, that did not give anyone right right to make a malicious advance at a poor girl. Not even another girl.

He held up his hands in a calming gesture. "Whoa now. Take your seat, please. There's no need to get overly dramatic here. We can discuss this logically. Random accusations hold no reason. In fact..." He snapped, flaring slightly at lost patience for all the accusations floating about, "it's a pretty damn good reason to bring blame upon yourself. Now, I agree with this girl," he motioned to Balumf. "We should ask for alibis."

l He tucked his hands in the pockets of his expensive vest and turned to Salali. "Darling," he asked sweetly, trying to coax her out of the self-fear she seemed to be expressing. "Do you mind telling us exactly what you were doing when the lights went out?"  

[Ary Keeyara]

Salali seemed genuinely saddened by Vic's accusations. When she drew near Salali shrank back in her seat and it looked almost as if she'd fall under the table. Her quivering hadn't stopped from the moment the lights had returned and she remained in the fit of tiny shakes even as she was told to be the one who had done it.

"But...I don't have herrings...I don't like fish. And we're not on a boat, we're on a train," she said pathetically looking terribly distraught at her own confusion. "Though if we were on a boat I'd understand why you were wet..."

She then jumped a little as Faint addressed her directly. Dropping her gaze, she began poke her two pointer fingers together repeatedly. She wiggled in her seat again. "Well, I was looking out the window. We're moving...moving...moving! But we're not moving...we're not...it's so strange. And then it was dark and I thought maybe the moving outside had wanted to come in but then the lights came back so I guess it hadn't..."  

[Sosiqui]

"Could've been a disguise," Puck agreed, tip of his ghostly tail flicking, pleased. "Whoever likes bones, all hidden up, like. Any other bone-crunchers here? Bonemen? We're probably safe, us. No bones here." He poked his spectral form.  

[Mediciner]

(( Ol-j-man and Mediciner are the same people, honest, and was stated so in the form. It's a long story! 8D; ))

"Alibis are best," Haku agreed for what it was worth; seemed it might take some effort to pull this grab bag of mixed personalities. Really, what with the pirate ghost and the werewolf about in one cabin, all they'd need was a ninja of some sort to make this ragtag "team" complete. Inopportune luck that a Boogeyman or FEAR-pumper wasn't currently with them at the same time . . .

"Check the uttermost back seat and you'll find what's been occupying me this entire train ride. A fascinating book when it isn't miring me in its pretentious language." Like he was one to talk! Anyone who used "pretentious" was, well, more often than not pretentious themselves. Haku looked to the minor interrogation already going on upon some poor specimen of a reaper, wondering why she was being so terribly nervous when earlier she had been voting off someone else without too much fuss . . . Nonetheless. "You might want to give her some room or she'll jump herself into a heart attack.

"Now, another thing we might have to take into account are the doors. Are they locked proper?" If they were, well . . . They might not have to look far for the perpetrator then; comforting. He might have to go fetch that finger bone again for further examination as well . . . Perhaps they could identify the means of attack if it left marks on the scattered skeleton, though he didn't recall seeing any on his.

When the poltergeist piped up, Haku tapped his chin. "Maybe. Though if it did like bones, why scatter them? Why not take the skeleton rather than pick it apart? It seemed more like an attack or malicious trick . . ."