It was a quiet morning, a desperate attempt on everyone's part to remain totally cool and collected considering the chaos that was continuing to unfold around them. Wake up, shower, contemplate oblivion, eat breakfast, ignore all the dead animals, go to class, refuse to watch the news report about the beached whales, etc.
By the time all the girls reconverged, it was nearly noon, and they decided to meet at the Two Whales for a briefing. Unfortunately, there turned out to be a few elephants in the room. Max was covered in hickeys and wearing borrowed clothing, Chloe was knocking back coffee like an addict, Kate looked like death warmed over, and Victoria was fawning over her and constantly making sure she was okay. But no one was particularly ready to talk about any of these oddities, so instead Victoria opted to set up the plan.
"So... Nathan clearly has some explaining to do. And he won't like that we saw his private stuff from therapy, so I'll be taking care of that..." She didn't look terribly thrilled about the idea, but no one else was chomping at the bit to do it either. "Max, you're such a puppy dog yourself, I thought you might be able to worm your way into Frank's heart and chat him up for a while. Rumor has it he'd kill a man for his dog, so use that to your advantage. He sold shit to Stella, maybe he knows who captured her interest enough to tear her away from school." Victoria paused to bite into her sandwich, encouraging Kate to eat something. She wasn't fond of being babied, but she knew she needed to eat something.
"Chloe, you go with Max back to campus. I want the two of you going over Stella's computer with a fine-toothed comb. I know you found some good stuff yesterday, but sometimes... um..." Here is where the old Victoria would have dug in with everything she had, and all three of them were fully aware just how much tact she was showing at this moment. "Well, we have lives and shit, so I understand if you didn't get through much yesterday. I would also check up on any social media accounts and whatever else you can find, maybe ask some folks, try to see who had eyes on her last. I wouldn't be surprised if things went down at that party..."
Chloe knocked back her third cup of coffee and set it down with just a little too much force. "And Rachel Amber...? Or are you guys giving up on that just like everyone else?"
It took a great deal of effort from both girls on the other side of the booth to not share any kind of significant look. Once again, Victoria was quick on the uptake, saving Kate who had been plagued with nightmares pretty much the entire previous evening. "Kate has some theories and ideas she wants to run by you. Once you get a good lead on Stella, you can switch off and work on finding her too. Besides, she mentioned something about special study tea? She won't tell me what the fuck that means, so just... y'know, be responsible..."
The reminder of the promised tea did help entice Chloe, and naturally she had some pretty quality stuff in her truck just begging for a brewing. Kate tried her hardest to seem eager too, but in the end she hardly even made it through half her burger, and only from some very intense prodding from Joyce did she agree to take the rest of it back to the dorm with her.
"Oh shit, looks like Max's target is right here. Heads-up, hippie, he's gnoshing hardcore on some beans, so approach with caution. According to Joyce, he's one of the only people who gets them, and he orders them a LOT..." Chloe gave a smirk and a wink as she stretched out. Kate gave her goodbyes to Victoria before joining Chloe in her truck as they returned to Blackwell. After they departed, Victoria broke the news of their discovery the night before to Max and passed her the bracelet they'd unearthed. With any luck, Max would find something.
Unlike the previous day, the ride to Blackwell and the approach to the dorms was silent, but not comfortably so. Kate was deep in thought and Chloe was a little restless and it wasn't meshing as well. "Hey, I don't mean to press my terrible luck or anything, but could we... maybe start with Rachel Amber stuff first? I'm just... I-It's nice to finally have some back-up, and I'm itching to actually make some real progress for the first time in months!" Kate smiled wearily and led the way into her dorm.
"I hear you. Tell you what, let me know whatever you've got on her so far while I get that tea going..." Chloe tossed her the weed in question, and Kate retrieved the butter from her minifridge and got to work mixing and brewing. All the while, Chloe rattled off a general sort of timeline as she understood it – how the two of them met, all the shenanigans they got up to, the way she started to drift apart, the new person in her life, and then... nothing.
Kate finally passed her a cup as she sat down on the floor with her, idly looking some things over from both investigations. "Well, I know it's not much to go on, but there seems to be something going on with Frank. Stella was likely supplied by him, and I know Rachel was the supplier for the Vortex Club for a time. It's up to Max to find out if that's coincidence or not. Hopefully with enough rewinds she can work something out." With a single gulp, her own tea was gone, which wasn't like Kate at all, not even when the tea in question was narcotic. A warming glow came over her in slow, soft waves. Finally, she was feeling some peace. "And of course Nathan. God, he's really been getting worse, not to mention the whole... gun... thing..."
Ugh, death. Kate had always respected the process of death, the cycle of life, all that. But now she was beginning to loathe it. "Chloe... In just a few days, I've seen you die a handful of times... I... I saw myself from another universe commit suicide yesterday. I'm terrified that Stella is probably already dead. And... And there's no way for me to properly process this anymore..." The concern was obvious on Chloe's face, both for Kate, and for what she was about to say. "Rachel Amber is... She's in the junkyard. Her... Her body. I had a premonition thing... So just on a whim we went and checked it out. Chloe, she had been there too long. Way too long. I'm sorry. I-I'm so sorry..." Kate had really hoped to do this after a while, when the tea had taken a full effect, but her nerves made her jump the gun and now here they were.
The change was immediate, Chloe's breathing became rapid, her pupils dilating slightly. She was almost... huffing, emitting this low inhuman sound, not quite a growl. Like Kate, she killed the drink in one go and set the mug aside, then got to her feet and started pacing slowly. It was as if there was a countdown, and Kate could see it visibly, noting the seconds until Chloe exploded or imploded or just started going rick-shit-riot or... really anything. She was such a canonball, anything seemed possible.
Well, almost anything seemed possible. Which made it that much more impressive to watch as the impossible still managed to happen instead. The butterfly, all but forgotten at this point, was suddenly front and center in the room, placing itself squarely on Chloe's forehead. It looked as though the girl was about to smash it or rip it away, but suddenly the glow of its wings intensified and spread out, until the butterfly seemed no more, just a kind of gentle spreading mass of blue light. It kept right on going until it was nearly the same height as Chloe, the shape of it slowly enclosing back in on itself until it was the rough form of a human girl. Features appeared slowly – fingers, hair, a general approximation of clothes, facial markings, and finally a feathery piece hanging down one side.
And where the butterfly once was, lips kissing Chloe's forehead with love and affection and understanding.
Max suddenly burst through the door, looking like she had some big news to spill. "Guys, things just keep getting-!" She stopped the moment she saw her childhood friend (and if Kate had to guess, much more after last night) being tenderly kissed by the ghost of her dead replacement friend (and if Kate had to guess, etc.). "...weirder and weirder..." She stared on longer as the two continued to have a Moment.
And finally, Victoria was the last to join. She stumbled forward, shoving Max out of her way – though not so much from a lack of compassion as a lack of consciousness. She was pale, withdrawn, completely out of it. She only barely managed to make it to the center of the room where she was able to fall into Kate's lap, revealing two bloody red marks on her neck.
Kate glanced over toward her alarm clock and sighed. "One o' clock. It's just after one and I'm already content to give up and just go to bed."