#nonmeta

Hey everyone! I finally managed to convince Gabby to draw the stuff, and now she’s pretty excited about the whole ordeal so she’ll definitely keep going every once in a while. Also, if you have questions to ask her, she’s available! She’s just next door after all.

Anyway, right now I bet you’re all wondering what the heck that was all about. Who are all these guys, how they arrived in such situation, what the deal is with pretty much everything they did and said. Well, no worries, this was just a little flash forward in order to give y’all a little perk at what this is going to be like in the future! A little teaser, if you want. Hope you’re hyped, ‘cause this is just the beginning.

Oh, c-coffee? Ha, ha— thank you, but I’m… I think I’m fine for now. But— well, I do understand that you might need it yourself, though. So many testimonies to hear in such a short time, I— I admire your courage. I just hope you will believe us, because… well, j-just keep an open mind, alright? Your coffee will… probably help with that. At least I suppose it’s what allows you to keep your calm all the time, right? Some things just have this ability to… let you forget all your worries. Tea is one example among many: it’s an absolute delight for anyone’s taste, it allows everyone to pause for any thoughts they wish to wonder about— Tea clears your mind, and always makes you feel all the more ready to face any difficulties you might encounter.

…

And then comes music. So light and heart-warming. Music is timeless. Music lets you forget up to the mere existence of reality. It would let us forget up to the very reason why we are here.

… And the reasons why, perhaps, we shouldn’t have been here.

…

Ah, um, well— yes, sometimes I… do wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t been there. But though we went through many dangers and despite the fact that I would probably have preferred avoiding this— I actually am glad that we did. Under retrospect, things would have gone much worse if it weren’t for our journey back there.

…

Oh, um— yes, sorry, of course. You want me to actually explain it, right. From the very beginning? I… will do my best.

Everything began on the day we received this letter. Luke warned us about a mystery revolving around Inglewood, a little Irish village not too far from Dublin, where he has been living with his parents for a little more than two months.

Some inhabitants from this village had started to disappear mysteriously a few days earlier. You would first think about a simple kidnapping case, but the other piece of the puzzle he gave us… made us realize that the truth was far more intricate.

Luke had joined to his letter some pictures showing very peculiar equine creatures who, according to his sayings, had started to appear in the nearby forest around the same period of time. Due to some of the inhabitants’ legends and folklore, these creatures were the first suspects for the disappearances and some organized monster hunts had begun; but this would only increase the risk of one of these men to disappear themselves. Besides, Luke firmly claimed that he was positive of these ponies’ absolute innocence: the professor and I trusted him, and as it turned out— they really didn’t have anything to do with the actual case, besides being victims themselves of the same phenomenon.

That being said— though we did prepare our departure as soon as we could, we did not leave immediately. Part of it was because the ferry would only leave a few days later of course, but… Something else happened as well in London, just the night before we left.

  Ono-B2.2β Covent Garden, London (England) March 4th, 1964 — 09:42 PM

Janice Quatlane’s talent was just as impressive as the professor had told me. She had offered us to attend her concert a week earlier, so we could not just break our promise at the last moment; besides, I wouldn’t have missed a concert like this one for anything in the world! I have to admit— though I was already thinking about the case we had to solve, I was just happy and overjoyed over practically anything at this time. I was looking forward to finally reuniting with Luke, and I was also eager to solve puzzles with them like before. The professor had even promised that I would really accompany them and actively take part in the investigation, this time! I was… Why, yes, I was excited about this case. Ecstatic, even. But this concert… should have been a first warning to me. I should have known that the case from three months ago was… not as singular as I wished.

There is so much we don’t know about this place.

There is so much we don’t understand.

Our world is dangerous.

When she was kidnapped under the entire audience’s presence, the panic that resulted was immediate. The professor ordered me to call the police, so I straightaway ran to the hall as fast as I could. Back in the theatre, the commotion was suffocating. Some people claimed they had seen men in black outright abducting her, but this flash of light was so intense, it was hard to tell whether they really were wearing black, or even if they were there at all. Well, now we know for sure that there indeed were agents back there, but— we only learned about these facts on the next day.

On that night, I found the professor on the stage, intensely trying to make some sense out of this phenomenon; needless to say, all of his theories were deconstructed as soon as he was considering them. Even when the police arrived and the forensics ran tests on the scene, not a single hint could be found. No trapdoors. No traces of flare bombs. A perfect alibi for the technical crew responsible for the spotlights. Out of the two puzzles we had to solve on that night, none met a conclusion. Despite the long hours of investigation, neither the intense light nor the fact that they had disappeared from the entire audience’s field of vision within less than a mere second could be explained: the flash of light seemed to have simply come out of nowhere, but this was impossible; the potential abductors would have found some way to not only escape from the stage on their own, but to also supposedly drag along with them a resilient victim, all of this within less than a second, without making a sound. This, too, seemed impossible.

The opera’s exits had been secured all along, obviously, but despite the police’s intense searching, neither Janice nor any potential suspects could be found. It seemed impossible at the time, but they were long gone by then. We simply had no idea how far from us they already were…

Many attempts to find a rational solution to this miracle followed, always getting more extravagant than the last. None of them ever found the slightest ounce of relevance. Even an elaborated and meticulously premeditated escape, using the multiple ropes, their respective counterbalances and the numerous beams hidden behind the stage’s curtains in order to escape through the ceiling, eventually proved to be impracticable. The inspector was tearing his hair out each time the professor was proving his theories wrong.

One single word repeatedly showed up in their debates. “Impossible.” And even the professor’s look seemed to tell that it was impossible.

…

Maybe because it was the answer we would have preferred keeping in mind.

For various reasons, the chapters actually won’t be published directly on tumblr anymore. Sorry guys, but the fight against tumblr’s html was lost. Way too time-consuming :/ Anyway, have nonetheless a little teaser of the actual chapter here! The actual chapter can be read thanks to the link at the top of the article.

⚠Warning: Due to the characters’ multiple origins, different languages will be spoken simultaneously in-universe. All of them will be written in English (aside from some potential puns or idiomatic expressions every once in a while, perhaps), but in order to easily keep track of which language is used at which moment, here is a visual code. The color of the text indicates which language it’s originally written/spoken in: black for English, red for Japanese, blue for French.

Ono-B6.8 Rue de l’Université (7e), Paris (France) May 12th, 2013 — 11:17 AM

The sky rumbled again. Clouds were gathering and darkening, quickly forming a somber and downy dome over the city. Mere moments later, a thin layer of rain poured and ricocheted on the paving stones, emitting light and harmonious tones. Most passersby had seen the shower coming, thus they were for the most part already heading indoors as soon as they had heard the first warnings from the thunder; the others, who couldn’t find shelter soon enough, were now all waiting under the stores of random shops, bus stops, or any other place which could keep them dry.

Having taken cover under a florist’s pergola, two teenagers were waiting along with the others, staring at this threatening black angry vault. The first one was a young college student with red messy hair, nonchalantly wiping the raindrops away from his glasses. His friend, right by his side, yet again gave another concerned glance at the ever falling river. The ground was now buried underwater, while every single paved stone of the street was reflecting the sky. For fear of damaging the violin case she was holding, she squeezed it further against her chest, as her blue eyes seemed to stare at every single translucent drop hitting the ground. A small squeal resounded between them both; a little dog with white short hair laid down on the dry portion of the street, dropping his disheartened head on his front legs and blowing a long sigh. For certain, as soon as they would get home, he would once again have to take a bath. He hated baths. Why would they always keep making him go through something as useless and wet as this. Seriously.

The young lady subtly shook her head in order to pull away some of the wet blonde hair that was now covering her face, but she reluctantly had to use her right hand to succeed. She carefully rolled up her other arm’s sleeve to perk a little glance at her watch: as she bit her lip in worry, she turned a shy look towards her friend.

“It seems like it won’t stop anytime soon, Raphaël…” she whispered in a soft, but anxious tone. “The rehearsal starts in less than ten minutes. We’re going to be late…”

The teenager in question put his glasses back on his nose and glared at the sky irritably. He frowned, but immediately sighed. As he kept his brown eyes staring at the clouds, he suddenly asked:

“How far is it yet?” “Not much, we were almost there. Hardly two minutes… It’s too bad, isn’t it?” “If we run, it should take less than a minute.”

She jumped a bit in surprise, turning towards him in a sudden; but he was smirking with that smile she knew all too well. She responded with a little nod. The actual storm was still pretty far away from their current location, and though it looked like it was headed towards them, it wouldn’t reach them this fast. They hopefully wouldn’t get too wet if they truly made it as fast as her friend thought, and even if they did— well, he had already made up his mind, and there was no changing him. In any case, this only was a rehearsal, not an actual concert; whatever happened, the blame could not be put on them, could it? The only hesitation left was because of her violin, but the case was probably watertight enough so she could allow running under such shower for at least a few minutes. The young man seized her right wrist carefully but firmly, still with that same smirk of his.

“ Marie, Fondue, are you ready?”

Following a signal that initially sounded more like a joke rather than a serious order, the little group suddenly dashed through the rain as if it were a mere game. Laughing obliviously as their steps echoed against the paved street, their incongruously blissful tones contrasted deeply with the surrounding showering orchestra.

However, the joke did not last.

A great light burst. The redhead first thought it was just another bolt, which would have just been much closer than the others; but as the accompanying thunder somehow didn’t follow, he understood that it definitely was something different. Given that he had already let go off his friend’s wrist in order to run faster, only her scream made him realize that something really was happening. He would have recognized her voice among thousands, and when he turned around, he effectively saw that the blonde girl was now harassed by three suspicious individuals. They seemed to drag her somewhere, and she obviously was doing her best to escape from their grasp.

While Fondue was barking as loud as he could, his handler dashed towards them to help her; but one of them, a tall brunet in a black suit, immediately targeted him instead, and before he could even fully realize it, the college student was already immobilized and stopped by the end of a gun stuck in his neck. Although the agent seemed to use his weapon more as a means of intimidation rather than as its initial intended use, Raphaël was still frozen by terror, as he had apparently not noticed that the safety tip had not even been undone in the first place.

The last member of the mysterious group, a woman with dark hair, came closer to the young violinist and forced a handkerchief against her face; the chloroform that was probably imbibed in it took effect, and in a few seconds Marie lost her consciousness, immediately putting an end to her struggles. The agent who was detaining her took her in his arms, as the woman carefully picked up the violin’s case. Losing his nerve, the redhead almost forgot the threat stuck in his neck. He quickly reasoned that, if he managed to be swift enough…

At the same time, the white dog tried to help his handler and started biting the mysterious man’s leg with rage, and successfully had the agent drop his guard when he cried in pain and released his grasp, if ever so slightly. A shot was launched from his gun, but given that the aim was completely off, it felt obvious that it was only intended to scare the little pet away. Fondue indeed yelped in fear and ran away immediately, but now Raphaël had finally obtained the opening he had needed.

Paris’ paved stones are locally known for being particularly slippery— even more so when the entire street was drowned under such shower. Seizing this chance to his advantage, Raphaël feigned slipping on one of them and used the smooth surface to let him quickly arch his back and escape from the agent’s grasp by hitting strongly his stomach, turn around to face his aggressor, and benefit from the residual kinetic energy to send his foot on the line of a swift and well-placed chassé—

The agent dodged it so fast, the Parisian hardly saw him move.

Still stunned by such incongruous skill from a person he had obviously underestimated, the teenager froze. The speed of his previous move, instead of letting its energy dissipate within the hit, consequently induced the paved stones’ ability against him and his short distraction was all that was needed for him to lose control over his other grounded foot, which slipped as well. Raphaël was sent flying in midair, and eventually landed painfully one meter away, the back of his head banging violently against a stone. Since the hit left him barely conscious, he was effectively powerless for long seconds.

The brunet agent came closer and helped him up, but also restrained him even more firmly; the young redhead, still dazed, couldn’t fully grasp his surroundings anymore, let alone struggle.

When the man in black turned towards the two other agents, he called them out on something— but Raphaël didn’t understand a word, though he reasoned that the sentence had sounded like a question. The woman’s voice echoed in return, and her response was probably some sort of order. The group was then dragged through a nearby alley, followed by a distressed little white dog.

What the hell are you doing? What do you want from us!?

The young boy wanted to yell all the questions (and possible French swears) that were passing through his head, but his foggy mind and unresponsive body prevented him from doing anything further than barely mumbling these words. His round glasses were hardly hanging on his face following the fight. The man who was maintaining him looked particularly calm, almost sad. Upset. It was obvious that he did not want to harm anyone, so what was the meaning of all this mess? And he was not even taking his battling skills into account. The very teenager who had been able countless times to easily outwit and deceive the entire police forces together was now stopped so effortlessly by just some random man with the reflexes of a freaking ninja who was not even trying to hurt him! Who the hell was that guy?!

“I’m sorry…”

Raphaël tried to mumble that he had no idea what he was saying, but a wide blinding light burst around them before he could utter a single word.

Fondue stopped suddenly and yelped, covering his eyes from what he believed to be a bolt which had fallen right in front of him— without making a single sound, however. A split second later, the alley was empty. The little dog howled, not caring anymore about the cold shower ever falling on his short hair and trembling legs. Who cared if he was soaking wet. His owner will not be there to give him a bath anymore.