HouseDerouxScribbles
There is a single circur stairway that leads into the Percheron Nightclub. It spirals clockwise downwards like those stairways in ancient Vespano castles. Not that I've seen any of them intact of course, but there sure are a lot of brick ruins around the Bylon Isnds!
hai. Ayano des. As I walk down the nightclub, sultry music pipes through the very walls themselves. Lit with purplish clubbing glow, the entire downwards stretch is decorated with gold-framed portraits of people I don't recognize. All probably famous people from the entertainmento world of ages past, if I had to guess! Check out THIS guy in full white who's standing at a snted angle!
Further descending into this underground of yabainess, the furnishing becomes more chic and polished. A completely different feel from the halfway red-roofed houses of New Coimbra! A pair of velvety curtains are drawn open for a gss paneled viewing window that shows the dance floor below! Eventually, the pce runs out of portraits to dispy, and I reach a windowed cutaway carved right into the solid wall!
Peeking through the long, curvy rectangur window, I notice that I am quite high up above the main dance floor. This stairway isn't connected to anypce else, its just a small preview into a world unknown to me. Countless party goers are raving on the blue-carpeted floor, drinks and servers are passed around at an arming rate by suited bouncers, and bodies move in amoral manners that cannot be described in a PG-13 visual novel!
So much for a closed circle mystery, with so many people in the nightclub, ticking off suspects one by one would be extremely difficult!
At eye-level but far away, there is a balcony-like loft that is illuminated with golden-orange light, a stark contrast to the purple-tinged night club it overlooks. If the fashion of the Percheron nightclub is chic, sleek and modern; then the loft would be extravagant, in-your-face, and brimming with chin-chin [2] energy!
There are also far less people on the loft. I can see some sort of [Observational Orb] setup floating at the sides, but otherwise, the very exclusive clientle is attended by a small cohort of beautiful dies in ced, mono-colored cocktail dresses.
Finally, we have to mention the gring oddity that hangs above the dance floor.
A giant silver disco ball hangs in the center of this room, overhead the dancers! It rotates in celestial glimmers, occasionally flittering sparkles onto the dance floor below! How it is hung from the metal rafters, I don't know! It is probably one of those 'this is magick, don't think too much about it ehehehe' moments isn't it!
Logically speaking, there should be a string or cable where it hangs from, but the string would lead above me into an attic region, completely covered by unlit parts of the club. It wouldn't be visible from the dance floor either, considering that the upper portion of the club is not very well lit, probably by design so party-goers keep dancing and carrying---
[SFX:FIREWORKS BOOM]
"Nanda sore?!?! [1]"
Just as I was about to take my phone out to take a picture of the dance floor below (purely for detective reasons, thank you very much) an explosion rocks me off my cute little feet, causing me to tumble backwards hitting the steps behind me!
[SFX:Ctter]
W-what just happened? A bomb attack?! Small bombs! We are being attacked by small bombs! Someone set up a minefield in the nightclub...?! The whizzing explosions go on for a little longer more as I clutch the back of my head which hit a staircase step!
I'm okay... I'm okay!! If this little thing could kill a detective, Sherlock Holmes would have died a hundred times over by now!
Crawling and reaching for my phone, screen illuminating in the darkness with the time, my blue eyes automatically swivel with a casual detective's gnce to take note of the time.
It is now 19:50.
That's when I notice that my phone isn't the only thing under these purplish club lights, a pair of soft-clothed brown shoes are standing right beside; their owner leans down to pick my phone up, and I look up to stare at a familiar innocent-but-devilish face.
"Aya-chan? What are you doing here? The show's already started??"
This familiar belongs to our blunt-banged priestess, Annalie. Wearing [Hauntsgirl's] standard dark blue bzer with whitish-brown shorts, with zero sense of clubbing etiquette! If I had a choice, I would have run back home to grab a party dress like Madi-san did! Her own VIP ID card is stuffed by the nyard into the pocket of her tight shorts, so it hangs just above her thick, fleshy thighs. What are YOU doing here, Annalie! And why are you completely unperturbed by the explosions going on behind you? Is it normal to have explosions go off in a nightclub?!
"Ehhh... Those are fireworks for the show! The DJ stage controls all the fireworks that go off there, you really missed out on all the fun!"
Helping (yanking) me to my feet, and sliding my phone back in my green jack pocket, she dusts helpfully (not) dusts me off by patting every bit of my clothed body with heavy thumps!
[SFX:THUMP THUMP THUMP DU-DU-DING!]
"Y-yamero you lightning goril...!!!" I gasp for air with each painful thump, "Stop...! STOOOOPUUUU!!!"
Annalie stops, completely puzzled by my reaction!
It is a completely normal reaction, if you are being hit by someone who put all their points in STR!
Why is your mennefest 'lightning' anyway, you don't even have a single INT!
"This'll make the pain go away!" Annalie's face lights up with radiant innocence, completely at odds with this sultry nightclub!
"I... you...! No, matter at hand, matter at hando!!! Did you check the thing I asked you to check?"
Earlier on, while I was stuck in the recording room, I gave our local priestess a 'suggestion' to look out for any suspicious people who may be lurking around the dance floor. I also got her to look for Rufti too, for that matter!
Now that I've seen just how many people are on the dance floor...
I'm not expecting anything from Annalie!
"Nope! I didn't see anyone suspicious on the dance floor!"
For some reason, Annalie's words briefly illuminate the rounded stairwell, passing the visualized red truth passing from windowed panel right through into the brick wall on the other side! Arghhh!! Don't just randomly use MY mennefest like that! Its already bad enough that you haven't wrung out any culprit-sans'...!
"Don't tell me you didn't see Rufti as well..."
I have to hold a single hand to my head to express my frustration at the incompetence of this fake priestess! Don't just stand there with your hands behind your back and looking downwards! You think that'll get you any sympathy?? Your little guilty act won't save you from me staking you in my mind!
Thankfully, unlike Madi-san, she cannot hear my thoughts, but I'm just going to put them aside anyway! Just know that if I were capable of doing so, I would be punishing her for her uselessness right now!
"S-sorry, Aya-chan. There's too many people down there...! Annalie here couldn't spot your girlfriend!"
As expected of Annalie... she can get nothing done!
...
... ...
Girlfriend?
Girlfriend?!?!
>girlfriendo???>implying for all the wrong reasons>getting your info from veetubas like Val-sama>the only yabai one is YOU>implying you don't>you probably get up to stuff with Oracion!>Oracion's a sadist>she probably gets off to this>see i can do it too>i can do this all day even!
That is NOT my retionship with Miss Galopin!
See, this is the result of an overactive mind!
Our priestess got none of that, thank whatever strange saint she worships for that!
Annalie tilts her head at an angle reaching out a hand for my forehead...
"Aya-chan...? Are you ill? It really is like Madi-san says, you've been acting weird---"
With an extended arm, I point at Annalie with gritted teeth to get her to shut up, our priestess taken aback by this sudden assertiveness! You've never seen this side of 'silly little Aya-chan', because up until now there wasn't a mystery to solve. Well, there is now! Only the whodunnits and howdunnits matter, and if you aren't helping... you are in the way!
Truly, what I need is a personal Watson!
Someone I can exchange thoughts with!
Someone that can help me solve a mystery!
And Annalie, is not that kind of person!
"Fine. I'll have to do it myself, then."
Thoughts of strapping Annalie to an electric chair and pulling a lever with extreme cruelty float through my mind, as your detective very politely pushes past our local incompetent fake priestess! The only person getting blush-faced here is her, not me! She shouts something to me from behind, but I don't care to listen! If you are not solving the mystery and giving me crucial truths, we don't need you! That's right, we don't need Annalie for this mystery, she's just a hanger-on!
The detective, enters Club Percheron!
Go Go And Learn Moonrunes With Aya-chan![1]Nanda sore- It means "what is this?!?!" Usually to epxress shock at seeing something unexpected!
[2] chin-chin [2] "..." "NO! What are you thinking, Madi-san! Chin-chin is the sound of coins dropping!" "Aya-chan... is yabai."
