clarke "no chill" griffin (
skaikru) wrote in
come_sailaway2022-10-01 08:19 pm
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( catch all | october ☠ ) windows cracking, heart attacking, cryptic laughing
Who: clarke griffin & you
What: natsuno nurder nystery, & tba
Where: throughout the ship
When: october
Warnings: blood & gore, dead body, more will be added as necessary
What: natsuno nurder nystery, & tba
Where: throughout the ship
When: october
Warnings: blood & gore, dead body, more will be added as necessary
i'll make this prettier later, also hmu with wildcard options
( x )
✝ to jade
Are you in your room?
no subject
When he's around, anyway.
Which he...isn't, this morning.
The same way he hadn't been around pretty much all day yesterday, either. An odd chord struck...and then, a text from Clarke, just as Jade's debating on stepping out for a coffee--]
Yes, I am. [Hadn't stepped out yet after all, and doesn't now, hovering by the coffee table to frown down at his phone now instead. He and Clarke Griffin aren't exactly on casual texting terms, necessarily, so. This is...hm. A sardonic "good morning to you too" might have been added about here, on a more normal sort of morning, but...] Incidentally, just out of curiosity: Yuuki wouldn't happen to have been in your room lately, would he?
no subject
( and suddenly —
WHAM WHAM WHAM
that's a closed fist hammering at your door in a disproportionately aggressive knock, which is better than absolutely shooting out the lock and barging her way in again, but still a bit over the top. it's the external manifestation of internal conflict because see, while clarke's texts are still legible and she'll be the picture of pinched, fraught composure when jade opens the door, her palms are sweating and she can't quite deep-breathe her way to an acceptable blood pressure. keeps shifting her weight between feet, too, and by the time the day is out will have chewed on the inside of her cheek so excessively her whole mouth will taste like copper. )
no subject
Well, that's rather surprising for an entirely different set of reasons, actually--but it's a notion to be set aside for much, much later review...or forgetting about in entirety, which is rather likely with how the trajectory of the day's currently shaping up. (Clarke and Natsuno really do just sort of hang out with each other in 109 nigh-constantly anyway, in retrospect--)
Still, it's hardly a handful of seconds after reading the text message before those hammering knocks resound off the door. Which would be enough to give most people at least a bit of a jump, and manages to be startling even to Jade at the very least. Pocketing his phone and moving to open it...
No surprise to find Clarke on the other side.
On countless occasions past, Jade tends to greet he prospect of Clarke seeking out Natsuno with obnoxious cheer and idly cajoling barbs about their hangout tendencies; not this time, though. He might paint an entirely opposite outward picture to the drawn tension pinching Clarke's features and bending her frame already--fully dressed in his usual uniform and not a hair out of place, demeanor still flatly composed--but he meets her fraught expression with a neutral one of his own.
Promptly:] What happened?
[Because something, apparently, is happening...if it hasn't already come to pass....
If Clarke wants to move into the cabin, Jade's not going to stop her; steps aside easily enough, attention still focused steadily upon her as he awaits an answer.]
no subject
but it's the nothing — the absolute lack of anything, the absence of communication, the dearth of hide nor hair of him out and about on the ship — that's the issue here. because clarke met natsuno on maybe her second day on board; watched him be spat over the siding of the deck, clinging to a horrific swan floatie, and had bent to ask what he'd seen out in the water before even asking if he was okay. and from then on it's basically just been constant. in room 109, behind friday's desk, out on the excursions, in the arcade, learning and teaching to drive, bleeding into his clothes, embracing him despite her own death a black rorschach spread across his jacket, in the library, on a roof top, in a life boat, huddled in the corners of social events discussing emotional manipulation or molotov cocktails, at laser tag finishing each other's fights, watching awful horror movies, learning to shoot guns made of plastic or metal... there's no singular identity here, they're not inseparable or unable to function on their own. but that's yet to change the fact that — when one called? the other answered.
and the sudden withdrawal of that status quo is enough to send clarke into personal panic alongside the existential crisis that skulduggery's meeting had instilled. she is still wholly furious with jade over the after dark island excursion — also completely on jenny's side in terms of who should have been allowed to die — but it doesn't matter here. he answers the door, doesn't put up a fight when she takes two steps over the threshold and intently scans the room for signs of
afterlife (it also doesn't matter than jade just said he wasn't here, she wants to see for herself). he's also staring intently at the side of her head while the former all unfolds, but clarke's not moved to answer his question until her initial assessment is complete.cabin 109: two signs of life, when it should have been — she'd hoped — for three. )
Nothing specific. ( this will later be the same answer she gives rita, but here clarke's a little less manically distressed. her voice is that cool sort of calm that survivalists affect in the face of dire straits; unflinching and more geared towards action and problem solving, than absolutely dissolving into hysterics. finally, she looks at jade again. )
I've just been trying to talk to him for the past twelve hours, and haven't gotten any sort of response. You really haven't heard from, or seen him recently?
no subject
Where, in the face of an entirely different concern revolving around a mutual friend, other grievances are now rather firmly set to the wayside...
Indeed, Jade's the only person in the room at the moment, more's the pity. Natsuno's side looks rather the same as always, his personal affects scattered about in their typical (slightly more organized lately) fashion--and unfortunately, unlike Jade, he doesn't have any notebooks lying around containing possible scribblings about clandestine undertakings. From behind Clarke, Jade pulls the door shut more out of habit than anything, but doesn't move from the doorway after that to leave her to her inspection, frowning at the answer-question combo she goes on to provide.]
None whatsoever? [That is--unusual. They really are thick as thieves on a given day, after all--anyone could tell just from observing Clarke and Natsuno from a distance for any length of time, really...] ...No, I'm afraid I really haven't. Last I saw him was yesterday morning; we both went to the information meeting, though he left before I did.
[A slight pause of thought, as Jade slowly folds his arms.]
I don't exactly tend to follow him about on the ship. ...And there were occasions, earlier on, where he'd avoid returning to this cabin for fairly long stretches of time, considering he needs rather less sleep than most. [But those were indeed earlier times--and after the battle royale, he hadn't seemed to find 109 nearly so objectionable to linger around in even when Jade would be present, as something of an agreeable compromise had formed between them. Natsuno's even taken to sleeping on the bed a bit more often nowadays...although, Jade's pretty sure it's more to rudely emphasize his ownership of said bed than anything else most times. Either way, though, the fact remains that Jade had been ready to qualify that longer absence as a slight relapse to that early habit on Natsuno's part. Except..] He hasn't responded to any of my messages since yesterday as well, however, now that you mention it...and he does tend to be prompt about those.
--I don't suppose you two got into an argument or anything like that at some point yesterday, did you?
no subject
self aware enough to recognize her doomsaying character flaw, self assured enough to still trust her gut.
focused enough to let most of jade's words following the general no answer wash over her like a gentle mist when there's still items of natsuno's to stare at and attempt to silently bully into giving up his location. but also insulted enough to turn sharply around at the man's last question. )
Of course not. ( seething, scathing. they've butted heads once or twice — unstoppable force, immovable object, etc — but never fought to the point of ignoring one another. and, really jade, between the two teens, which is a hell of a lot more likely to be petty and avoidant if they got their feelings hurt? hint, it isn't the vampire, and the natblida is the one here, pounding on doors like a lost bloodhound. )
And I've checked most of his usual spots. Lifeboats, library, here. Honestly, unless he's stuck somewhere or lost his phone, I don't see any reason he wouldn't want to investigate a distant explosion with me. If he'd gone out on the water again, I figured he would have told one of us.
no subject
I was just starting to wonder about that myself--whether he might have taken a lifeboat out once more. [Not that the tidbit about a 'distant explosion' is being filed away for some form of potential future review, about now; Jade can't recall having heard any such thing himself, yesterday, but the ship is large enough that such a sound could likely be missed on certain deck levels. (An explosion, though. Someone letting off steam after the library meeting, perhaps...? Seems most likely. At any rate--)] Still, he did tell me of his plans at that time--and he told you as well, I'm sure. I've had no arguments with him lately myself, and if it's the same for you...the reasons he would decide to make himself scarce grow thinner, do they not?
[A pause, here, in which a slight sigh pushes its way out. Jade draws away from the doorway at length, if only to drift over beside Clarke instead; still at a more professional distance than not, prescient of their recent disagreements even now. But she's now being joined in staring at the scatter of Natsuno's possessions about his empty bed, as if some form of answer might yet be buried somewhere in there...]
I'm starting to wonder if this is a willing disappearance on his part at all. [....] How many others have you asked so far, about him?
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dread overrides being pissy, anyways. as jade curtiss speaks aloud what clarke had struggled to not dwell on since the beginning. )
We looked around last night, and got nothing. Here was the next logical stop. ( and a gigantic let down. ) Then I guess... Rita Mordio.
( ugh. another person she can't really stand, and another uncomfortable interaction she'd put herself through a hundred times over if there was even the minute chance natsuno was okay and could be located by someone other than clarke. )
no subject
But he never really has been one to shy away from dangers to himself when there's larger matters at hand--not beyond what would be practical--and it feels...slightly more prudent, to have this particular talk in this particular way. Beside each other at a decent range, like this, as opposed to speaking from behind her back a few feet away at the door. For all that's Jade's quite certain a disagreement or two still sits between them...this, at least, is an entirely different matter that demands mutual address.
He doesn't try looking sidelong at her when she answers, at least, still studying Natsuno's effects himself and still just as unable to derive any answers from the sight of them. Even the way they're moderately scattered is about typical as it gets, nothing particularly out of place or distinctly missing. He didn't exactly gather anything in anticipation for a long absence to himself, it seems...]
Logical steps all around, so far. In your place, I'd have expected him to be in his cabin as well. ...Though that unfortunately isn't the case. [Hm. Maybe he should have noticed something amiss sooner, last night, no sign of Natsuno's presence or even a response to any messages in those later hours. They'd developed such an agreeable system of not fussing overtly over each other's chosen hours for activities on the ship, though.....well. All beside the point now, one way or another.] Rita may well be your next best bet. She visits this room about as often as you do, of late, to see him. She might have heard or seen something the rest of us haven't. But if she doesn't know anything either, then...
[...Who else might there be, after Rita? Jade's not certain. He hasn't really been keeping extremely close tabs on the sorts of people Natsuno interacts with, either, besides the ones that barge frequently into 109 of their own volition. Now he almost wishes he had any other ideas. But as he does not...]
Is there anyone else you can think of? ...And what will you do, if any other leads from others are exhausted?
no subject
and that's really all she should need here. he isn't in 109, she ought to just turn and continue the search; take palamedes' advice and not jump to conclusions, smother the sucking black hole of dread that's formed in her stomach and feed it on the stale scraps she didn't know had been leftover in her pocket. got what she'd come here for, or rather — came here and got disappointed, and now needed to go. so why won't her feet uproot? why can't she stop staring at his bed? it'd never been an important feature in the room before, more a half-joke at jade's expense and half-makeshift desk whenever they got deep into murder-boarding. seldom used for the intended purpose, yet somehow so starkly empty right now that it...
after a moment, clarke shakes that off. her feet move when she forces them to, and she half turns to face jade properly. )
Rita's on my list, after this. ( oh the delight at the prospect of reaching out to the other girl... but no matter, the issue is pressing and overrides any established loathing the two hold for each other. ) Then... Probably Mizuki. Then Darcy if I get desperate — I think they're friends too. And past that —
( what? if all else fails, then what? pray? weep? beg, crawl to the bridge or front desk and ask for help? what will you do, clarke, if that fear-grip around your lungs proves grounded in reality and he's never coming back...
no. fuck that. fuck all of that. doggedly, she shakes her head as if to rid terrible ideas from the very stem of her brain. sets her teeth, and raises her jaw in a pointed sort of stubborn defiance (don't you love having teenagers, jade?) and decisively proclaims — )
Look again. Look harder. ( even if it proves to be a fools errand, clarke griffin has a hard time... stopping. ) And beat the hell out of him for scaring me like this once he's found. ( sound familiar?
anyway, it's that note where she's completing her turn and making to exit 109 in a flurry. )