>>28124268
Let's check on her Aunt who's name I forgot

>>28124268
What about that meeting with Mr. Coombs? Did that get taken care of?
We need to tell Miranda that Jill and her mother have disappeared again.

>>28124443
((That is not, in fact, taken care of. Fortunately for you, you just remembered it. Of course, you might still decide to blow it off to go look for Jill. Priorities and all that.))

>>28124473
let's go meet him

>>28124473
Goddammit. Then let's go and accept the consequences of our stupid actions.
But first, find Miranda and tell her that Jill is missing, then go to Mr. Coombs. The detour should only take 3 minutes or so.

>>28124473
go meet the teacher

>>28124494
>>28124525
>>28124550

>>28124441
>>28124443
((Okay, writing.))

Rolled 28

Fuck. Teacher time.

>>28124610
I agree, we should spend more time with Miranda

File: 1383690225540.jpg-(57 KB, 400x406, image.jpg)

57 KB JPG

>>28124869
Indeed

>>28124869
We'd be able to spend even more time with her if we didn't cock up our Biology class.

>>28124595
You do still need to worry about your mundane responsibilities, and you need to take responsibility for your earlier stupidity (and on a more pragmatic note, it's possible that Mr Coombs hasn't submitted your coursework mark to the exam board yet). Time to face the music.

You're not sure where Mr Coombs' office is, but when you go up to your usual classroom you find him sitting at his desk, writing something. He doesn't look up as you enter.

"You're late, Phillips," he says without even turning his head. "I hope you don't intend to be this sloppy when it comes to your exams."

"No, sir. Look, about -"

Mr Coombs raises one hand and makes a quick chopping motion, cutting you off.

"I don't care, Phillips. Whatever your disagreements or problems with Miss Donaldson may be, I don't care. I simply don't want them in my classroom, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry."

Mr Coombs puts down the paper he was writing on, slides his chair back, and stands up. As he turns to look at you, you notice that he doesn't look quite as angry and intimidating as he usually does. He mostly looks... tired.

"I don't even care if you're sorry or not, as long as you don't disrupt my class again. They really don't pay me enough to care. What I do care about, however, is a student wasting his potential. You're markedly less idiotic than most of the cretins who pass through these halls. Don't let yourself throw away your future. You'll regret it, in time. This is the point in your life when you can either make something of yourself, or trap yourself in some useless dead end forever."

He turns away, almost slumping back into his chair, and waves a hand in your direction.

"Get out of here. Don't let me catch you screwing up my lessons ever again. And for gods' sake try to pay more attention in future."

Well, that was... informative. Who do you need to talk to next?

[]Let Miranda know what's happened.
[]Coordinate with Avril.
[]Ring Annabelle and get more information
[]Other

>>28125029
Call or text Miranda while we round up Avril.

>>28125095
This.

>>28125095
seconded

>>28125029
>[x]Let Miranda know what's happened.
We need to find her, since we don't have Miranda's phone number. We can instead message Avril.

And like Coombs said, don't be a fucking idiot next time.

>>28125095
>>28125108
>>28125116
>>28125129
((Right, writing now. Although may have to swap things round to calling/texting Avril and finding Miranda since, as >>28125129 helpfully points out, you don't actually have Miranda's phone number.))

>>28125292
Ok.... Sorry

>>28125292
You need to get as much as possible sorted, as fast as possible. You head down towards the front of the school, pulling out your phone so that you can send Miranda a text and keep her in the loop.

Okay, now... oh. You don't have Miranda's number. That's something you should remember to do something about, when you have the chance. For the moment, you fire off a text to Avril instead, letting her know what you're doing and asking her to start working out anywhere Jill might have gone, and turn towards the History classrooms.

"Chris, hi!" Miranda smiles as you poke your head around the door. "I was - oh, that's not a good expression. Come in. What's happened? Did you not manage to find Margaret last night?"

"We found her, and got her home. But now Jill's gone missing again, and her mother with her." You give Miranda a quick run-down of last night and what you know of Jill's disappearance - not that much, really. Miranda nods along, her expression slowly getting more worried.

"That's everything. Is there anything you can do to help us find Jill? Telepathic tracking or something?"

Miranda shakes her head. "I can do a little bit of telekinesis and that's about it. My skills with the Fae magics of contracts and glamours are fairly well developed, but the psychic stuff, it's a kind of magic that I never had all that much talent in to begin with. I can talk to my contacts in the Court and see if anyone's heard anything. There's a couple of people who occasionally get oracles, too, and even one vision could give us some useful clues."

"Wait, you know people who can see the future?"

"It's not as useful as you'd think - always full of symbolism and riddles, and basically impossible to control. It can give hints sometimes, though."

"Right, well, it's worth a shot. Me and Avril are going to hit the streets."

You meet Avril outside the school as Miranda heads off to speak to people. Do you have any specific plan or location, or are you just going to wander?

>>28125951
DO WHAT WE PLANNED THREADS AGO AND BREAK AVRIL

>>28125951
How much danger does Avril have to be in for Jill's gease to start pulling? I mean, could we just start punching her in the arm until Jill shows up? Not that I'm saying this is a *good* idea, but the principle might be useful.

Other than that, we should go to Jill's house and try to pick up the trail from there.

>>28125951
Go to Jill's house first, to try to find some clues.
And GET MIRANDA'S PHONE NUMBER!

>>28125951

Well, is it possible to use the geass to track Jill from Avril? If not, then I guess it's time for the old fashioned LOOK EVERYWHERE method.

And get Miranda's number.

>>28126049
>>28126192
>>28126237

((Okay, writing. And yes, you now have Miranda's number in your contacts list. She does warn you that reception can be a little patchy in the middle of magical forests that are only fuzzily connected to the real world, though, so you can't rely on her being instantly available.))

>>28126318
You and Avril head straight for Jill's house. On the way, you ask Avril if there's any way to trigger Jill's geas to serve as Avril's bodyguard to make her show up where Avril is.

"Well, it's not like she has a special sense when I'm in danger or anything. You'd have to ring her, hope she picks up the phone, and then tell her I need a bodyguard to protect me from something. And even then, if she's upset enough..." Avril sighs and shakes her head. "A Fae pledge isn't unbreakable. It's just that breaking it is very, very unpleasant. I don't know exactly what penalties my father would have set in case Jill tried to break her geases, but they're likely to be very dangerous to her. I'd rather not risk asking her to come to me and having her say no."

There doesn't seem to be anything obviously missing from Jill's house. No drawers emptied of clothes, no missing suitcases. There's a stack of Jill's school books on her desk.

Looking around downstairs, you notice that the closet where Jill originally locked her mother is open and empty. The padlock is on the other side of the room - it looks like it was just ripped off the lock and thrown across the room. Avril points out something more worrying - the kitchen is spotless, and contains a variety of pots and pans and some nice cutlery. But no knives of any kind. Not a single knife, from a carving knife to a little butter knife.

There's no signs of a struggle - apart from the busted-open padlock, nothing is obviously out of place, there are no marks on the walls, no bloodstains on the carpets.

You step outside to try and call Miranda, when Avril taps your arm and points up at the sky. Storm clouds are suddenly gathering in what was previously a nice, clear blue sky.

The storm clouds thicken rapidly as you watch, starting to spin in a wide circle. The centre of the circle must be somewhere in the centre of town. You have a funny feeling that it's somewhere near the park.

>>28127152
To the park we go. Call Miranda on the way.

>>28127152
((I'm terribly sorry for the delays tonight, everyone. I'm massively busy lately and no longer have various other periods of free time that I usually use to do the things I'm having to do in between writing updates. I can't even particularly promise that this will change next thread, because I have no good timeline for when things will change. All I can say is that I'm going to keep running this quest as much as I can, as frequently as I can, until the bitter end.

On a more happy note, I will see you all on THURSDAY for the conclusion to yet another devious cliffhanger. Q&A, etc., below. ))