Just a Few Questions (Open to 3)

Naomi was in a chipper mood, as usual. Except this time it was because of what she was planning to do. Not too long ago, she had put up posters all around San Malrus and on some websites she often visited. They were simple: ‘meet in the park of San Malrus for a quick survey and examination. There will be cake.’ Three different cakes actually, just in case they wanted different kinds. She had set up a tent so that anyone who chose to come out could have some privacy. She would have help this study in her house, but her mother wasn’t comfortable having strangers over. She took a seat in a folding chair, across from a few others. She honestly wasn’t expecting many people to show up. She just needed two or three to confirm a suspicion she had been having. Now, she just had to wait for anyone to show up so she could examine them. While they took their time getting there, she would dig through the bag she had brought, making sure everything she needed was there.

Mikhail wandered into the park looking over the flyer he had found, "Cake huh?" he muttered to himself, "I really hope someone doesn't try to mug me...again." he sighed folding the paper and slipped it into his pocket. Mikhail looked around, "Now where in the park did they...." he trailed away from his internal question seeing a tent a few yards away, "Is that it?" he thought. "This would be awkward if it isn't" he sighed continuing down the path and off into the part of the park the tent was.

Mikhail stopped outside the tent and shut off his music, "Do I knock? Or do I just ask if this is the person who put up this flyer?" he thought to himself. Tents aren't well known for solid sections which you can actually knock on to produce sound, guess calling out is the best option. "Excuse me!" Mikhail called out looking around the tent, "I'm here for the "quick survey and examination"....please tell me this is the right spot and if so then also please don't try to mug me, I don't like dealing with that crap."

    The posters had been a little hard to ignore. They were practically everywhere Julian looked, and it was a little disconcerting. How in the world did someone manage to get this many posters up all over town so fast? He kind of doubted it was a company putting on this "examination", since no business he knew of would bribe customers with food; there'd be a mascot or a cheesy jingle or something along those lines instead of "there will be cake". Maybe a small store was behind this instead, or a political committee or something. It was kind of hard to tell, since the posters didn't have a signature or anything to indicate who was running the survey. But his curiosity was sparked, and he had nothing better to do today, so why not check it out? He could probably back out if things seemed fishy.

    Despite how much they advertised this little event, there wasn't really anyone here. Well, there was a tent. Was that where they were holding it? Not having much else to go on, Julian walked in that direction, seeing another person about his age head that way as well. Judging by what that guy was yelling out, he must he looking for the same thing Julian was. Well, if nothing else, at least now he had someone to go through this survey with. Which, depending on the survey, might be a good thing. Finally reaching the lone tent, Julian popped his head in and glanced around curiously as he waited for a response to that guy's question.

Naomi would stand as she heard a voice call out for the first time. Someone actually came! She knew cake was the best motivator, “Yes, this is the right place. Please feel free to take a seat. I don’t want to put you through unnecessary strain.” What she was looking for was going to be hard enough to find already. She would point both her visitors to the seats, “Would either of you like your cake now? I have chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet.” The last one was her favorite, the other two were just standard flavors. If they said yes, she would cut them a slice and hand them the piece on a plate. If not, she would cross her legs and begin with the most basic of all questions, “Well, I’d like to begin with your names. Also, do either of you have any problems I should know about before we begin? I don’t want to accidentally make you uncomfortable.” This was all a formality before she got to the real point of her experiment and survey. She could already tell this was going to be fun.

Mikhail sat down and set his bag beside him, "Unnecessary strain? I think I'll be fine.' he commented. Mikhail's ears perked up as he heard the word cake, "Oh, right. Um....Chocolate?" he asked before receiving a piece. "So far this doesn't seem to be a trap....unless this is full of stuff to knock me out." he thought to himself before taking the first bite, ".....Hell, if this is going to knock me out at least it's good cake." he thought before taking a second bite.

Mikhail swallowed the cake in his mouth before speaking, "Mikhail Kujo." he answered, "Problems? Um....Not really. As long as you aren't going to mug or kidnap me then I have no problem with what's going on. Just hope that I don't end up wasting your time." he answered before taking another bite. "So good~" he thought.

    Oh, so this was the right place after all? That was nice. The teen walked in and took a seat at one of the chairs the girl gestured to, politely declining her offer of cake. Seems the posters hadn't been lying after all. But he wasn't really one to accept food from people he just met. You never knew what could be in that stuff, as the guy next to him so kindly pointed out by mentioning drugs and muggings.  Besides, it seemed like all he'd been eating lately was sweets; it was time to get back to his normal diet and get off of this binge he'd inadvertently gone on.

    "I'm Julian. And no, as far as I know, I'm in pretty good health." Now his curiosity was really piqued, although he was a bit more wary now. Why would this girl need to know that? ...If she whipped out needles of something and said this was a drug test, he was definitely leaving.  "So what is this survey for, exactly?" He tilted his head at the girl. She didn't look old enough to belong to a business, so was this a school project or something?

Naomi would reach into her bag and pull out a small white bundle. She’d turn away from her two visitors and slip her arms inside the sleeves. When she turned back around, there would be a wide grin on her face, “Do I look like a doctor or what?” She was proud of her transformation into a lab coated semi-unprofessional. No one would mistake the importance of her work now. She dug deeper into the bag and pulled out a small flashlight. She was glad to hear that neither of them had any health problems. At least none that they knew about. She would look to Mikhail and shine the light in his eye, “I don’t plan to steal anything but your time, and you’re getting paid for that.” Paid with delicious cake. She would have to write down everything she found out from these two, “Have you been sick anytime within the last three months? If so, how long?” She would take note of his answer before turning to Julian. She figured someone would ask her what this was about, but she couldn’t tell them the truth… Or could she. She lifted her tablet with the other hand and held it towards the man. It had a yellow face with a thermometer sticking out of his mouth. She was obviously indicating something about illness, “See, not too long ago, some people in the area seemed to be. Well, maybe not sick, but that’s the only word I can think of for it.” Namely, right after a certain event, but she would leave that out, “I’m just seeing if I can figure out why.” She would then move onto him and point the light into his eyes, “So, what do you two like? Can I assume you enjoy volunteering for random surveys or is this a first?” She was trying to keep this pleasant.

Mikhail was surprised to have a light shone in his eyes, "Oi, least give me a warning..." he sighed rubbing his eye, "Sick? Uh, not really." Mikhail finished his cake, and saw Julian with the thermometer in his mouth. He kept listening to Naomi explain what she was doing, "I see....well....actually, what do you mean by sick? Like, the closest thing I can think of to me being sick was a couple weeks ago I've started having trouble sleeping. I have no idea what causes it, now I have to try to tire myself out physically to try to help my body rest but even then I can't feel comfortable." he explained, "Even sleeping medications does nothing."

"I enjoy music." Mikhail answered the first part of the question, "Oh, um...I came to this really just because...Um..." Mikhail sat thinking for a moment, "I'm not sure....I saw the flier and just thought to....every time I took a step my mind was telling me not to bother but for some reason I kept waling." Mikhail was silent for a moment but then cracked a small smile, "Maybe I was craving cake and didn't know it." Mikhail lowered his head, "I really do feel like I was drawn here..."

    ...Okay, this was a little worrying. Julian really hoped this girl was just joking around and didn't really believe she was a trained medical professional. So far, all she did was shine a light in the other guy's eye and ask a simple question about any recent illnesses he's had. So far, so good he supposed.

    The girl showed him a tablet that had been resting on the table. The smiley on it was one he could've sworn seeing somewhere on IM or a search engine. Was that supposed to be her doctor's sign or something? "What do you mean? Were people generally fatigued or something?" His forehead creased in a frown as he folded his arms and thought back to the past few weeks. He couldn't remember a pandemic or anything going around, and it wasn't as if a lot of people were acting strange. So what did she mean by "sick"-?

    Gah-! Bright light...that guy was right, a little warning would've been nice. After blinking a few times, he adjusted vaguely to the light, keeping his eyes open long enough for the girl to do...whatever she needed to. "Can't say it's a hobby of mine. I was just curious." Maybe that was true for the teen beside him as well; his curiosity was so overbearing he just couldn't leave it alone and came here, same as Julian. Except the dark-haired teen didn't have that inner struggle that Mikhail did. When the girl would finally move away, Julian would rub slightly at his eyes before shooting her a pleasant smile. "Sorry, I might've missed it...what's your name again?"

She’d sit back in her chair, a little confused by what she had found; nothing. She wasn’t a trained medical professional, so maybe she shouldn’t be talking, but she had expected something. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but she was sure it would have been there. She’d look up at the two with a smirk, “No. It’s nothing serious. Just some light-headedness that I wanted to look into. Neither of you two has felt that recently?” Granted, she didn’t feel it because she wasn’t frozen during that time, but she didn’t think these two would have been moving, “Maybe you two weren’t affected for some reason…” She couldn’t think why. Science always had answers; supernatural, events on the other hand, did not. She would look at Julian with a shocked look on her face, “I’m sorry. I completely forgot. My name is Naomi. How could I forget something so important?” Not that this was the first time, but… “How could I be so careless? You’re always supposed to introduce yourself first. I’m so sorry you two.” It was like her brain was suddenly in a panic and trying to fix itself, “You’ll have to forgive me. I usually don’t work directly with people.” Until recently, but that was another story she didn’t need to tell them.

Mikhail shrugged, "It's fine, professional social skills isn't what I always expect from everyone. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to make people feel this way?" Mikhail crossed his legs and looked Naomi with a serious expression, "I feel like that I should at least know in case I do feel these symptoms you're speaking about and know for sure that I should find you and not just go to any other hospital." Mikhail was very serious with what he was saying, "Please excuse my rude tone but I would feel happier knowing what it is. The fact that you aren't just saying that a Flu or Cold is going around and you're leaving it very vague is what leaves me concerned, not just for me but other people. Please don't tell me it's light-headedness, light-headedness isn't something that's widespread and should be the concern of someone who pitches up a tent in a public park and leaves around flyers requesting people to come in for a survey."

Mikhail sighed and lightened his expression, "Please. At least tell the two of us"

    He was going to say something along the lines of "it's fine" or "nice to meet you...officially", but Mikhail jumped in before he could. Not that Julian minded; at least Naomi knew that it was alright that she forgot to introduce herself. No harm done.

    But his focus shifted quickly to the other teen's line of logic. He'd been thinking along the same lines; fatigue normally wasn't something people got worried about, and they never labeled it a "sickness". Mikhail had pretty much every right to ask what he did. Maybe he could've been a bit more gentle about it, since they were talking to a stranger and it'd set a bad precedent to be heavy-handed now, but Julian could handle that, he supposed.

    "I'm with him on this one." he made sure to keep his tone light, so the girl wouldn't feel like the were attacking her or something, but that was all he'd contribute to the blond's plea for answers. What more could he say? Mikhail already outlined some pretty good points. Adding any more right now would just make this whole thing sort of convoluted, in his opinion

She would indulge herself in a slice of cake, seeming to forget what the point of her test was. It wasn’t a large piece, just a sliver, but she made it no secret she was enjoying her little treat. She’d give a small hum while she thought about how to answer them without sounding like a complete idiot, “If I knew what made it happen, I wouldn’t be looking for the cause.” That sounded like an obvious enough answer to her. She had no clue where to go from here. She had been thinking that finding the cause would be easy, but that was proving to be her biggest mistake, “Sorry Mikhail, Julian. I wish I could tell you more, but the phenomenon also seems to be short lived. It was a long shot asking random people to volunteer.” She sighed heavily and considered what she had just done. Looking for the cause of anything related to the supernatural seemed to be the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack, “If you notice anything weird though, I’d love to hear about it. I live right here in San Malarus. I can even give you my phone number if you’d like. I’m the acting detective of the weird things that happen, so if you get any leads…” She hopefully wasn’t scaring them off, yet. Trying to understand all of this would drive her mad in time, “Are you sure nothing weird has happened to either of you two within the last two or so months? Absolutely nothing of note that could help me out”

Mikhail clenched his fists for a moment but released them with a sigh, "I see....I'm sorry that I couldn't be very helpful with your search." Mikhail stood up and started to leave but stopped with the last thing that Naomi said, "Well...." he looked back to her, "It's nothing like what you described....I just have a hard time sleeping recently. It's been going on for a few weeks, thought maybe it was just the recent heat making it hard for me to sleep but even with the room cooled I just have a hard time even closing my eyes for a moment. It's like a....hot sensation sometimes. I'll be laying down in a cooled room with no covers and my arms, legs, and face feel like they're in the blazing sun. Not sure if that helps at all but that's the strangest thing to happen to be recently."

    Not exactly the answer he'd been hoping for. Of course, they'd been kinda stupid to ask her why it was going on when she had told them earlier she was trying to find the cause through her little test. And apparently she was dejected as well, judging by the way she sighed. Wow, they really didn't help her at all, huh? Julian smiled sympathetically, trying to convey his condolences through his expression rather than words.

    ...Anything weird, huh? // Well, a few days ago I was kidnapped by a chick from another dimension and given a weird-ass power that is supposed to help me do something in this world. I dunno. You know anything about that? // Yeeeeah, probably not the best thing to say. He'd keep that in his head where it belonged. Mikhail at least had a normal, if not concerning, problem on his hands. Maybe he was experiencing hot flashes or something? Julian was no doctor, so his guess was probably wrong. "You should probably get that checked out. Sleep deprivation can kill you if you're not careful." Not the cheeriest bit of information, but death or health problems weren't normally something to joke about. His calm, unfazed expression and voice reflected that.

    "Do you mind if I ask you something?" Julian turned his gaze to Naomi, a light smile coming across his face. "What made you want to look into this whole 'lightheadness' thing? Just curious?" Cocking his head slightly, he blinked his silver eyes at her a few times. Maybe she was just a concerned citizen taking matters into her own hands. Or she was just weird; most people didn't hold random surveys like this, after all.