Day 03: After Midnight [Plot/Closed]

Takes place after the events of The Masquerade Ball

The several civilians who had been at the square had been taken by the Expiate to the nearest headquarters. Those who had been injured had been taken to the infirmary, but others such as Higini, Cassima, the theif from earlier and Goibniu would find themselves sitting in an isolated room with a desk with a light on.

The officer who had escorted them had told them they were simply going to be asked questions about the events to gain more information. Granted, the stark gray room, the weak light above them, and the metal bars over the window wasn't that self-assuring.

The girl in red from earlier was the first to express her distaste.

"None of this makes sense," she said with crossed arms as she rested against her chair. "We were literally trying to help out and we're being kept in here like suspects! I'm not the only one upset about this, am I?"

Cassima sat in she presumed to be a room for questioning with Higini, the woman in red and Goibniu as she remained quiet, although she was annoyed with how the woman in red was annoyed that they were being treated like suspects.

"I'm sure that's not the case." Cassima told the woman.

"If anything, these officer's just want to know our side of the story." Cassima theorised as she continued to wait for anyone else to enter the room so they can likely be questioned.

Well, the good news? Perhaps he wouldn't spend the rest of the night filling reports about what happened. No matter how much he tried to sugarcoat it, that was definitely one of the most boring aspects of his job, specially when the reports needed to be made literally overnight. The bad news? When he was asked to go with the three ball members to the interrogation room, he thought that he would be the one doing the interrogation, something which was far, far away from the current reality.

And it definitely didn't help his current mental state. Now that the battle high was completely gone, the grim reality began to set in Goibniu's mind. He had to see fellow officers die on his watch, and he was unable to provide proper assistance to the survivors, as the intruders slipped away from their hands. He was not attached to those officers in a personal level, but he knew that at the end of the day, all Expiate members were members of one unified home, and to lose only one was already a tragedy.

After all, he was already all to familiar with such tragedies.

The Enkidu looked out of sorts as they all sat, as if he wasn't even registering where he was, which was a total contrast to Higini, who was visibly trying hold going into a fit of hysterics. "B-But I don't understand! If they want to know our side, then why are were here? It's like they think we are the real criminals!" He said, looking around him in a very concerned manner. "They even have an officer here! Something is up, I know it!" And of course, if this is the situation he was on, he couldn't help but be worried about Kassandra. Did she manage to escape the grasp of the Expiate? He definitely knew he couldn't ask this directly, he didn't want the wrong people to make a connection between him and her.

"See? He agrees with me!" the red-cloaked girl said. She then sighed and relaxed back into her seat. "Anyways, I guess we'll be in here awhile before we see them. Something looks like it's happening outside."

The girl would jerk her thumb towards the opening in the door. The blonde-haired officer from earlier who had pulled the crazy spells and teleported the other guy was in the hallway with a violet-haired girl dressed in fancy clothing.

While what they were saying wasn't completely audible, the girl was definitely shouting and the blonde-haired man seemed to be following suit.

The girl with the red cloak looked back to Higini and Cassima.

"Oh, I'm Ginger, by the way," she said extending a hand. "Sorry again if I...attacked you all earlier. What are your names?"

Cassima noticed how worried Higini looked and quickly grabbed his hand to make sure he calmed down. She was going to slap him and tell him to get a hold of himself, but Cassima knew that wasn't a good idea in this situation, besides the Enkidnu beside them will just tackle Cassima to the ground if she used violence.

"Don't fret, we'll be fine. It's not like the're going to execute us..." Cassima then looked at Goibnu.

"Can they? Is the death penalty legal here?" She questioned the Enkidnu, but then she turned to the woman in the cloak as she tried to open the door, but failed and so decided to apologise to Cassima and Higini for causing a scene at the ball earlier, as well as ask for their names.

She had already given hers, her name was Ginger.

"Cassima, mind telling us why you decided to steal those people's loot?" She quickly began to question Ginger. If she was the right person that Cassima was accusing.

"You were the thief right?" She asked.

He didn't feel any better when Ginger advised them to calm down, and in fact Higini was ready to protest to her some more, before he felt something hold his hand. Surprised, he turned to see it was Cassima, the gesture making him look at her with a look of utter surprise, his cheeks blushing ever so slightly. "What... are you doing?" He asked, before she turned to Goibniu for question.

Sadly, Goibniu was wholly unresponsive to her question, a vacant look in his face as he merely stared at the door, the mistakes committed tonight keeping his mind from responding to Cassima. Higini didn't ignore that, but felt that perhaps further prodding would... well, he didn't know how Goibniu would react, but he opted not to chance it. "I believe it is... but only for very grave crimes, and we didn't do anything like that. I think." He answered, as he looked at the figures at the other side of the door screaming at each other. Whatever it was, he was worried it would spill here, but not like he could check them, as he thought the officers wouldn't like them getting off of their seats.

And then, Ginger decided to introduce herself to the two, with Higini looking a bit hesitant about it. "... I'm Higini, Thorburn." He replied, shaking her head in a very ambivalent manner. Goibniu didn't reply to her either, remaining silent.

"H-Hold on, sir! You're seriously injured! You need to recover!"

"There's too much going on for me to just sit about! I gotta do my part just like everyone else. Is this the room?"

"W-wait!"

The door swung open with officer Jinn Brettman standing in the frame. He strolled inside with a frantic woman urging him to go back and for good reason if you just looked. His right arm was in a sling, bandages were wrapped around his left eye, and under his unbuttoned shirt you can clearly see his entire torso equally bandaged. His signature brown jacket hung around his shoulders and his bowler hat is a bit more lopsided than it usually is. In his one good hand, he had a clipboard which he angled so he could squint at it with his one good eye.

He turned to the frantic officer behind.

"What are you doing locking these people in here like drunkards? They were helping out with the incident!"

The lady officer gaped like a fish apparently unable to come up with a respond.

Jinn turned back to face the group, stepping closer towards them.

"Sorry bout all this, folks," Jinn said very casually. "But we do need an account of what happened. I promise, once we're done here, we're just gonna do a quick check and let everyone go. So, let's start with a general summary of the incident from everyone's perspective. Who would like to start?"

"Calming you down, what else?" Cassima answered to Higini before replying to his name.

"I like your name by the way." She said as the door swung open, and the group were met by a man who goes by Officer Jinn, who would like to know what happened... Despite the state he was in, which Cassima looked at briefly before looking at Jinn.

"Uhh..." She didn't want to say anything about the arm in the sling and she was still thinking about the incident in question so she turned towards Higini and Goib.

"You two go first." She said to the two.

"I'll go next." She pointed at herself after.

A gasp escaped both Goibniu and Higini as Jinn burst open the door, with another officer in two. Quickly, the enkidu stood up from his chair, and gave Jinn a salute only a fellow officer could do, all while Higini looked at him with confusion. "... At least he snapped out of it?" He thought to himself, before turning to Jinn. The man would petition the team to tell them what happened earlier, and while Higini struggled for a moment to put all his thoughts together, Goibniu replied without hesitation.

"The incident struck us without realizing. The match at the Arena was interrupted by the two intruders, of which proceeded to confront everyone around them. I tried to stay behind to help, taking cover and waiting for a good moment to strike. When lethal force was authorized, I tried attacking the female intruder with my weapon, but she managed to cover my bullets every time I shot at her. Sadly, she and her partner vanished before we could be taken to justice." He said, his tone not sounding quite like himself, as if trying to null anything in his voice that wasn't pure neutrality. "Uuuh... yeah! What he said. For my part, I wasn't there the exact moment those two attacked. I was," He said, before stopping for a moment, unsure if to reveal the true nature of his absence, and by extension, Ginger's. "I was... absent at the moment, and once I returned to the area, all I could do was getting some of the Officers out of the way. I had no means to retaliate like the officer." Meanwhile, it was quite clear that Higini was shaken and a bit scared, his eyes darting left and right in fear, unsure of what they would do to them.

When Cassima asked whether or not Ginger was a thief, the girl's eyes darted around the room.

"Thief? What thief? Pssh...NO! I was uh...redistributing wealth, is all," she said. "And thank you! I like my name a lot, too!"

Of course, before Cassima pressed her on further, someone came in. Normally, this would be a close call, but it was an officer who came in and insisted that the group wasn't supposed to be treated this way. Everyone eventually started explaining the events. Cassima pointed to the others to go first, including Ginger, which would cause the latter to glare at the young woman. The Enkidu started talking though, and Ginger decided to pipe down.

"We all just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and tried to help out," Ginger said calmly with a shrug. She didn't seem all to fazed by the chaos of the events. "Now that you know, can we go home now? I have folks waiting for me and, if you haven't noticed, I'm a kid."