forum The Society of Scientific Improbabilities // oxo // Closed

Started December 27, 2019 by @croccin-champagne

tune

Even from just the short conversation, Ronan was already beginning to gather more information, though he didn't say anything. Although, he did wonder about the opposing emotions that he was getting off of Jo. The shadows in his eyes indicated that he too, had something to hide, but the easy grin on his face… Perhaps he was only trying to mask his own secrets? Ronan's own personality tugged at him, wanting to get away already. His natural introvert was setting in. But his mind had other ideas. He wanted to stay, figure out the mystery, the secrets behind Catori and Jo. He settled a compromise. He wouldn't say anything in return, but he'd silently watch them, observing.

"God, the Fall Carnival that year was insane." Jo said, nudging Catori and earning a snort in response. Considering the state both of them had just gotten out of in time for the event… "You and Cisco started shooting eyes at each other, and then Everette and Aella confessed their undying love for each other…" He continued to talk, obviously over-exaggerating everything he was saying. Though none of it ever really came close to anything serious, skirting around it artfully. "Hey, Ronan. What kinda events do they do here? I think I heard something about a Winter Solstice Formal, but that's about it."

"Well… we do have a winter formal, and the PTA always hosts a couple fundraising events each year. They usually partner up with some local restaurant, so I would highly recommend going to those. The food is pretty great. Also homecoming and prom, but I don't go to them so I don't know if they're good or not," Ronan explained. Relax. Just answer the questions, but don't act suspicious. You don't want to scare them off, he told himself. And with that, he took a deep breath to calm himself down, he could feel his muscles tensing up. But as for the reason for that, he didn't know. But he did know that he would need to be relaxed as so to take in all the hidden information he could gather.

"You should just come with us." Catori said, eyes travelling up and down Ronan like she could see right through him. "We've always gone group, but now it's just us two. Plus, then you've got a reason."

"Damn, I wish I'd thought of that before she did." Jo complained, crossing his arms with a dramatic huff, even as he couldn't fight a grin. "You should totally go stag with us though. Unless you decide to ask out someone and go with a date, which would be unlucky for us but lucky for you. Hey Catori, any of these guys caught your eye-?" He trailed off as he looked at his friend, who was watching something near the wall carefully. She met his eyes briefly to nod, before standing up and making her way off without a word. "Speaking of! Do you have any possible romantic interests around here?"

Ronan stayed silent for a beat or two, then spoke. "I have the feeling that if I told you, you'd probably drag over that romantic interest to, I don't know, ask them to go to one of the dances with me or something. But that's if I told you, and if I had any romantic interests." Truth to be told, he never really thought about romance, or who was cute or not. Ah, who was he kidding? He was only lying to himself when he told himself that he never thought about who he thought was cute or not. Of course he had his own opinions on who was cute. Though… that didn't happen too often. Besides that, as far as he was concerned, he was only interested in girls.

"So not guys, is what you're saying." Jo said, nodding. "You're half right, I guess. I'd talk to 'em, definitely, but I wouldn't make you do anything you didn't want to do. Unless it was drawing you into conversation with them until you told me to stop." He winked, keeping his gaze off of Catori even after she had disappeared out of the main hall, unconcerned with missing roll, if it hadn't already happened. "Shit, man, do you know how many girls I know who would love to go out with a guy like you? You ever get lonely enough, or don't get the chance to meet anyone any other way, just let me know. I'll hook you up."

"I mean… I'm quite a bit of a disaster myself, so… I don't exactly do dates," Ronan managed. "Not to change the subject, but where'd Catori go?" he asked, wondering where she had gone. Jo didn't seem to notice. Either he didn't notice, or just didn't mind, or perhaps he knew where she was going and let her go. Ah, you messed it up, again! he told himself. You're supposed to act, well, not suspicious! And then you went and blew your chance! Ronan yawned a bit, rubbing the expected tears from his eyes. "Sorry, I'm still a bit tired."

Jo snorted, waving dismissively. "Dude, same. Catori kept me up all night putting up things on the walls that she didn't put up earlier. And who knows where she went. Girl disappears constantly. You know, back in high school, she did the same thing. Once stood up in the middle of our bio teacher's lecture and left. Cisco found her an hour later eating french fries on the school roof." He said, changing the subject from what was happening now to something that had happened before.

"…Cisco? Who's Cisco?" Ronan asked. He noticed the clear subject change but said nothing. Although, he had to admit that he was glad that Jo had left the whole dating thing behind. He always did have a tendency to get quite nervous when it came to things that were unknown to him. Especially things like dating. There were unspoken rules, and all sorts of things that one could only learn by experience. Things like math were much easier. There were pre-defined rules and everything could be learned quite easily. Or at least, in his opinion.

"Oh! Right, you don't know him. We're a group, all met in Little Leaf. Cisco, Catori, Kasper, Ga-uh, and me." Jo said, fiddling with the marigold charm on his bracelet, just like the one on Catori's. The rest of his charms, beside the handcuff, were different. A potted plant, a leaf, and a tiny American flag. "We're best friends. Well, Kasper and I are dating, and Cisco and Catori were for a little. Anyway, yeah, he's a friend of ours." He shrugged a shoulder. "Kas would like you. He's the only one of us who isn't a dumbass."

"Speaking of your other friends, where are they?" Ronan inquired, not seeing anyone else around that might be Jo's friends. Catori had already left, and now it was just Jo and him. "Also… I don't mean any offense but… what kind of name is 'Ga-uh'? It's strange, and doesn't seem like it would be a name…" he ran a hand through his messy hair, sighing lightly, and leaned back slightly in his chair. "Anyways, uh, your friends seem nice."

“There’s no one else. It’s just us four.” Jo said with a shake of his head, as though he hadn’t just started to say another name. “And the other two? They don’t go here. Cisco’s mom can’t afford to send him here, doesn’t help that he’s still on probation, and Kasper had to stick around home and help out at his family’s shop. Catori’s only here cause she managed to convince the dean she would be a good alumnus. Helps that she’s the first girl here.” He said, wrinkling his nose slightly with a laugh, tapping his fork against the wood table. “They are. We’re family, pretty much, after everything we’ve been through.”

(okay!)
"I see," Ronan nodded, taking in everything Jo was saying. He stayed silent after that, though. He wasn't too much in the mood for small talk, and he was getting a little impatient for school to start. However, he still had manners, so he gave Jo a small smile and went back to thinking. About what? About nothing and everything. About how the world worked, about what secrets he though Jo was hiding. And especially about the secret Catori was hiding.

Jo went back to talking about completely inane things, nothing he said really requiring a response. He wasn't expecting one, anyway. He could tell Ronan needed time with his own thoughts, so he babbled on about the classes he was excited for and the classes he wasn't looking forward to, letting Ronan do his think to a soundtrack of casual conversation between one person and a brick wall, nearly.

Meanwhile, Catori weaved her way through the school hallways, committing each turn and hall to memory. She was following after a familiar sight, one that she had been expecting to see in a building this old, but had been hoping to avoid for a little while.

The dead.

A teenager, to be precise, a boy who looked around her age, dressed in clothes from the fifties. A painful reminder, but something she had to get over and deal with. Even if the boy looked so much like Garrett when his back was turned, hair just a bit darker than Garrett's had been. Looking a bit closer revealed him to be taller and more muscled, but she still couldn't get over the similarities. Or the phantom pain in her chest, and the actual pain in her heart. That's not him. It's someone else. Once there were no other people in the halls, she moved up next to him, greeting him in a low tone and earning a surprised look and returned greeting in response.

Ronan started off his thinking with making noises of agreement every now and then, but soon enough, he had zoned out and completely in a state of his own mind. Before he knew it, he looked up and Jo was talking about something completely different than the last thing he remembered him talking about. Oh well, it wasn't too big of a deal, he thought to himself. He resumed his deep immersive experience with his own thoughts once more, seeing that Jo didn't really mind him not answering.

What had he been thinking about again? Ah, right. Secrets. Why did one keep secrets? Perhaps one might think it could protect someone, or perhaps it was because one might think it was necessary in the long run. Perhaps… it was just a painful memory. Maybe, maybe, maybe. All these options tired out his mind. But what he really wanted to know was why were Catori and Jo hiding secrets? Why these specific parts of their life? Clearly, the two used to have five other friends. But now they had only four others. What had happened to the fifth?

It didn't take long for Catori and the boy—who's name, she learned, was Elton—to start talking. Her end goal in conversing with the dead was always trying to help them move on, but sometimes it was easier to do so after starting a sort of…friendship. And teenagers were the easiest to click with. Even when they remind you of Garrett?

About five minutes later, she was slipping back into the main hall. Elton had warned her that the dean was going to make his speech soon, and promptly disappeared with a wink. Leaving her to make her way back to her best friend and Ronan. She got side tracked a few times, finding herself roped into conversation with a few different boys, most of whom only actually wanted to warn her about other boys who weren't too happy about her being allowed to enroll, or other boys who were a bit too happy.

When she finally returned to her table, Catori sat down inbetween Jo and Ronan, tossing her hair over her shoulder and huffing. "There are so many halls in this building. I can only imagine how bad it'll be with all the other buildings too. Looks like I'm making a couple more maps."

Ronan jumped slightly, startled by the sudden appearance of Catori. She even sat down between him and Jo, making it even more startling. "Oh- it's just you," he let out the breath he didn't even know he'd been holding. Though, to be fair, he had only started holding it a couple seconds ago. Well, more like thirty seconds, but still. "Where'd you go?" he asked once more, hoping that Catori would give him a straight answer this time. "…you don't have to answer if you don't want to, though," he added as an afterthought. Maybe these questions made them uncomfortable.

"Just me? Ouch. I think that hurts more than getting stabbed." Catori said, blinking as though she was hurt by that and placing a hand over her scar. "While I would love to answer that, I'm not actually entirely sure where I went. Might've been the West wing, if my sense of direction hasn't failed me." She admitted, dropping her hand. Her tattooed arm lay on the table, and her hand moved to join it, fingers tracing the date and words as though the movement was comforting. "Out the doors, down the hall to the left, straight, right, right again, straight and straight and then left, then two more rights."