[center][color=0076a3][h2]Zachary Ackerson[/h2][/color] 
[h2]Jezebel Volcov[/h2]
[img]http://pm1.narvii.com/6479/4ef068eaaecab2c2ab0654f8360c652b88a691de_hq.jpg[/img][img]http://i.imgur.com/dUaKI5w.jpg[/img]

[b][color=0076a3]"All ships sink eventually, remember that."[/color][/b][/center]
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[center][@Everybodyintheroleplay][/center]
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The search had been going on for a while. Something as small as a handbook, as important as it was, was pretty easy to hide. Even though there were only two floors, the number of places such a device could wind up were astronomical. Jezebel had proven she was pretty good at doing room searches, but even something like a tiny handbook in Axis Mundi would be tough to find. She was at the beach resort, dragging a sand rake behind her that she had snatched out of the zen garden. Today was a bad day to be back in her jester's outfit. The light hanging in the sky was every bit as hot as the sun's rays, and her uniform was quite heavy. Despite all the chaos going on, and even her discomfort, she managed a smile. And Jezebel would continue to smile, even as her efforts provided no fruit.


The door to the beach resort had opened, and Zach appeared at its entrance. [color=0076a3]"Jezebel, are you in here?"[/color] he asked just before he spotted the woman in the jester outfit. Despite what some might call them "sharing a moment" days earlier, Zachary still could not adjust to her choice of apparel entirely. He still seemed at... unease when he saw it. 

She had turned to look at him and that is when he caught sight of her smile. [color=0076a3]"Er... well, I see you're enjoying yourself with the search, but it seems we've found the handbook. I think there was also some kind of fire or something but I decided to leave before figuring out what it was."[/color] 

In truth, he wanted to be nowhere near that place, at least not without any mental preparation. 

[b]“Oh? They found it? And a fire too?”[/b] She slapped her hands together, allowing the rake to fall to the ground beside her. [b]“ Tripendicular!”[/b] She giggled before running up to zachary. Her makeup was running a little bit with her sweating. [b]“Thanks for getting me, I'm pretty sure you'd of had to drag me out of here if you had come much later.”[/b] She wiped her head with her gloved hand before placing a hand on Zachary's shoulder, smearing a small amount of makeup on his outfit. [b]“Well, let's go see what the commotion is. Then I'll get something to drink.”[/b]

While he was glad to see she appreciated the spent effort, he would have preferred if it didn't come at the cost of his cleanliness. Thankfully, he was no neat-freak. [s]But maybe he was a NEET-freak[/s]. But more importantly, he found himself confused at her choice of wording, being unaccumstomed to the slang she slung. 

[color=0076a3]"I.. don't believe we're on a rollercoaster, so I can't say I feel that way too."[/color] he honestly declined. [color=0076a3]"A-anyway, we should probably go."[/color] He looked at her expectedly. Seemed he wasn't too comfortable with physical contact [s]FROM A GIRL, FROM A CLOWN[/s] just yet. 

Jezebel must have been able to sense his unease because she moved her hand off of his shoulder. Jezebel was unusually quiet. She would occasionally look at Zach out of the corner of her eye but otherwise seemed focused on getting straight to the patient's quarters. It wasn't until the staircase came in view that Jezebel sprinted in front of the archer and spun on her heel. She hid her hands behind her back like a shy schoolgirl. But that smile never left her face. She wasn't making eye contact with him, however. [b]“So a few days ago, I actually caught Geina slipping my motive note under my door. She wasn't happy to be discovered but we talked a bit.”[/b] She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. [b]“What's this about you and her almost getting into a shootout?”[/b]

Although he noticed the infinite stealing glances at him, he wasn't able to bring himself to ask what was on her mind as they walked. He felt a bit of guilt at his awkwardness at being touched, by someone who presumably had more reason to act like such. But eventually, Jezebel decided to confront him herself, so Zachary stopped, watching Jez spin and face him. 

It would not be right to say Zachary had a smile or a pleasant expression on his face to begin with, but upon hearing Jezebel's inquiry, it noticably darkened for a second before his features broke out into a grin. [color=0076a3]"Oh, that? That was uh just me being very good at archery, and Geina being jealous, is all."[/color] he laughed, but dared not to meet her gaze either. 

[color=0076a3]"...it wasn't anything serious, nobody was hurt."[/color]

[b]“You beat her then?”[/b] Jezebel giggled. [b]“I got the impression she totally creamed you. She seemed tre mad, so...”[/b] The cloun slowly spun until her back was faced towards Zachary. Though she was still looking at him. [b]“This totally gnarly fire, where is it?”[/b]

As was tradition when dealing with Jezebel, Zachary found his hand on the back of his neck. He desperately needed to break this habit of his. [color=0076a3]"I mean... if you count her being disqualified and the game being called off a win...?"[/color] he couldn't bring himself to simply say "Yes, I did" and move on. While not a fan of lying in general, Zach couldn't bring himself to outright lie to Jezebel, perhaps because she was the only one he'd made any sort of personal connection with. 

How ironic, given his dislike of clowns, and his inability to understand her eccentric way of speech. 

[color=0076a3]"...Anyway, it sounded like the source was Shaun's room. I... can't say I had a good feeling about it."[/color] he admitted to his fellow Infinite. 

[b]“Well, that's why we're going to go together.”[/b] She started to walk down the stairs, careful not to walk too far ahead of Zachary. [b]“Besides, everyone else is going to be there too, right?”[/b]

Once they both got down stairs, they could see that most of the smoke had cleared out. But the group of people outside of Shaun's room didn't look happy. The looks on their faces. What was that? The clown turned around again to look at Zachary. [b]“It looks like everyone's here, but I don't see Marianne.”[/b] She wasn't smiling anymore.

All Zach could do was nod in response before continuing down the stairs with Jezebel. And once they had finished descending the steps, the bad feeling only got worse. A group had formed of everybody aside from Marianne and Felix, whom Zachary just barely caught sight of running away as he and Jez arrived. 

...he already knew what had transpired, of course. 

[color=0076a3]"...I, well... this is all some sort of prank, right? Allow me to check first."[/color] This time, Zachary took the lead, quickly forcing his way into the room. Maybe something silly, something dumb was causing people to freak out? Some kind of drama? Yeah, that had to be it. 

...of course, that wasn't the case. The moment he spotted the corpse that had once been Marianne, Zachary knew that she was not among the living anymore. He was somebody who could tell from experience. But even worse? Someone else trapped with them was likely the culprit. He was, more than anything else, angry. Angry at whomever would do such a thing. Because that meant they were willing to kill off the rest of the Infinites to get out of here, not simply Marianne. And even causing her death alone was terrible.  

[i][color=0076a3]...being a -------- is unforgivable...![/color] 
[/i]
But sorrow also took hold in his heart, as well. The girl murdered did not deserve this, and while he wasn't especailly close to them, the others might have been. She gave him zero reason to dislike her, even in this tense environment. Someone like that couldn't have been bad, and it was a shame he would never get to know Marianne personally. But for those that did... parting in such a way...he could sympathize.

Making his way back out of the room, he couldn't exactly play this off. His solemn look probably betrayed the severity of the situation, just like the others, but if that wasn't enough, he could only really tell her, [color=0076a3]"You should prepare yourself before you go in, at the very least."[/color] 

The gloomy atmosphere was starting to sink into Jezebel. She was no dummy either, even if she acted a bit silly sometimes. The trickster weaved between the other infinites, careful not to bump into any of them. Before long she was at the door opening. Everyone was in the way of course, some had even moved inside Shaun's room already. But she could see enough. The body of another Victim, suspended and butchered like some animal. The clown's initial reaction was to stumble backwards. This time she nearly bumped into a grieving Bliss. Anyone around could see that her body was injecting itself with adrenaline. She was sweating even more despite no longer under the heat lamp in the resort. Her breathing was ragged. Perhaps in some attempt to calm down, she inhaled sharply and clamped a hand over her mouth. Her eye lids lowered as she exhaled softly. It appeared to be working. She continued to hold her hand over her mouth when she walked back over to Zachary. When she lowered her hand, Zachary could see she was... smiling.

[b]“Wow!”[/b] Jezabel said a little too  loud. The rest of her words were much quieter.[b] “I guess someone wanted to take a stab at getting out of here, huh?”[/b] Her eyes looked wet, and her body was visibly shaking.

Zachary was entirely unsure what to do in this situation. Jezebel seemed to be trying very hard to smile, but that only appeared to be making it harder on herself. Or at least that is what he gathered from her actions. He wasn't entirely an expert on dealing with emotional social situations like these, so he wasn't confident in this case. Speaking confidently in a public setting didn't translate to being confident in more private settings. Aside from his father, Zachary never really got very close to anybody, so it was not like he was ever required to help someone through a difficult time in their life. That being said, Jezebel was the only person he shared any true connection with in this place so far, and he should probably give her a real reason to place her trust in him. He could at least put in effort to comfort the grieving woman.  

So, awkwardly, his hands did a few pointless motions in the air as he tried to find out what they should be doing. Ultimately, he settled for placing on on her shoulder and giving a light squeeze as he looked her in the eyes. His father would do this when he was sad (and a lot younger, but it's all he remembered at the time), and then he would say something that made things less bad. So, Zach tried doing that. But he didn't know what exactly to say and it probably looked pathetic.  [color=0076a3]"...erm... please don't... push yourself so hard to stay in character. I'm sure it's already tough losing someone as-is."[/color] he... comforted? Said? Tried? He said words, at least. 

Zachary remembered getting nervous and not being able to say everything he wanted the first time he was interviewed, but it was nowhere near as bad as this. It hurt knowing that currently, this was his best, and he didn't feel it was even approaching "acceptable". 

Jezebel chuckled. [b]“Is it in character for me to tell jokes after someone has died, hmmm...”[/b] Jezebel lifted a hand to her chin, but she didn't spend much time thinking about it. She gently brushed Zachary's hand aside. [b]“I don't think it is. That's totally twisted, and I don't think you'd hang out with me if I was always like that.”[/b] She stopped chuckling and her smile vanished from her face. [b]“But I'm glad you still remember our talk, Zachary.”[/b] She blinked. [b]“We need to  keep trusting in each other.”[/b]

The Infinite Archer mustered a small smile. [color=0076a3]"Certainly."[/color]

That had settled it. He was new to dealing with any true relationships, but he decided Jez was his friend and he'd be damned if he was going to let his first friend die down here. Also, he didn't particularly desire a death in this place, so that helped too. Either way, he felt the best way to ensure their continued survival was to take an active part in this investigation. He was no detective, but being up close to a corpse wasn't entirely foreign to him and the more people helping, hopefully, the better. 

The murderer would be brought to justice, whoever it was. The only thing that was for sure was that it was an Infinite who took Marianne's life. Currently, he couldn't truly trust anybody in the group besides, well, Jezebel. Everybody else was equally likely to be the murderer in his eyes, but hopefully, some evidence would point the group in the direction of whom really killed the innocent Marianne. They deserved punishment, after all. 

[color=0076a3]"..."[/color]  his smile had gone and his teeth had started to clench. 

[color=0076a3][i]Yeah, because killing someone for selfish reasons like rage or desire is absolutely unforgivable...![/i][/color] 

Gluing his calm mask back together with his determination to get this case started, Zachary turned his attention to the group at large. There was no time to lose, to find the culprit, they would need to investigate. 

[color=0076a3]"If we've all... gotten a chance to confirm that this has really happened... then I believe it best to begin the investigation immediately."[/color]