CHAPTER 3 ; INVESTIGATION

[themodsgrimm]

The Story Continues... CHAPTER 3 - WEEK 3??? Narrators Remain ; The clock begins to chime, and on the first note, curfew lifts. Your doors swing open, whether you are ready or not. Leaving your room is a blur. The person you fell asleep beside — are they still there? Have they vanished? Were they ever there at all? You can't seem to recall clearly. What you are most aware of is the pervading sense of wrongness in the air, and how you can't hear anything but the chime of the clock. Even the sounds of your own voice and your own footsteps do not reach your ears. By the time the time the clock strikes nine, you know one thing to be true: blood has been spilt. Search the castle carefully — you wouldn't want to miss a single important detail, would you...? Welcome to this week's investigation post! This time, the mods will be providing top-levels for you to search. Please note the Locations page for your reference. Evidence — or lack thereof — will be noted in these threads. We ask that group threads consist of no more than 2-3 characters. After the discovery of the body (or bodies) and any pertinent evidence, an IC announcement concluding the investigation will go up. You are then free to make your own toplevels on this post for any threads you would like to have between the end of the investigation and the start of the trial. If you have any questions, please ask on our Discord server or ping us on plurk. Please direct pings to Britt (bloodthirstiest) and Danielle (entrappings), as they will be taking point on this investigation! Instructions on this week's investigation can be found in a pin in the General chat! full navigation. locations taken (statuses) stories (profiles) info & faq wishing well private conversations

Comments

[doublecrows]

Yes, that's precisely what happened to Dave. We still don't know his cause of death.

[the knitting needle cases first! all five of 'em]

[resumed]

Yeah, I saw him, too. [To Cardia. Belph is something else. But he holds up the empty boxes.] These are empty, but I'm not sure they were ever filled. It seems weird for someone to take all of them don't you think?

[He's going to re-sort the boxes, though he's glancing at the wall in thought.] Especially if nothing else was touched.

[themodsgrimm]

[As the two of them move closer to inspect the body, they'll notice how peacefully it's positioned. In fact, it look as if Monika is simply sleeping.]

[alchemenace]

[ are they leaking blood or ink or are they surprisingly clean fingies. also how many. also what's an American.

Also Varian is dead inside and croaks ]

What I am sincerely hoping is puppet fingers.

[ please let it be fucking puppets ]

[themodsgrimm]

[When Shirasu takes a closer look at the tuning forks, he won't find any blood or ink on them! Thank goodness. Apparently these have only been used to tune some violins, not to murder.]

[asswipe]

Yeah... It's weird that it's so well kept compared to everything else, isn't it? [And with a resigned sigh, she slips on the gauntlets so she can pick up the katana without leaving her fingerprints all over it.] It doesn't look like it has any ink on it, though.

[If it's unrelated, well. One more sword for Natsuo's sword pile, maybe.]

... Let's take a look at the cabinet.

[Maybe there's a decapitated head inside. That would be nice. (No.)]

[themodsgrimm]

[Fortunately, the water does the trick! The flames are easily doused, though the smoke is hard to see through, and the fire had already begun to spread toward the kitchen cabinets. Still, Sanji should be able to get all of it quenched without too much trouble.]

[sanguinairy]

[THIS HAS HAPPENED TO HIM BEFORE AND THE PERSON ACTUALLY WAS SLEEPING... So as he did with Nico, he'll scoot closer and reach for her wrist to feel for a pulse.]

[psychedelica]

[ it sure does! Hikage is fortunately not as clueless about fires as he is about blogs and extinguishers, so he immediately runs out from behind Belph with little more than a grunt of surprise, trying to find a safe place to grab onto so that he can yank them down and start stamping them out on the floor. ]

[axilium]

[well, belph will assist with this, because putting out the fire seems like a good idea??]

[londonstar]

[ waver takes a look at it. affection? sikod? he doesn't understand that last one but the first one is obvious. he clicks his tongue, clearly angry. ]

I bet that's what happened to Reyna... someone must have made some sort of charming potion.

[ he puts those back in the cabinet with a roll of his eyes. but then he turns to the carbon. he takes it, opening it to see how much there is inside. ]

This...isn't something I would use in a charming potion. Someone must have used it for something else.

[concasse]

[They are lucky the kitchen door is behaving and staying open. Still, Sanji will duck from time to time, taking fresher breaths and then continuing until he's put out any fire within eye sight.

He is tired. Let him rest. Except hiS KITCHEN WAS ON FIRE, THERE IS NO REST.]

You still with me?

[Calling out to the other before he starts looking at the counter island. Specifically, he wants to know what in the hell was on fire in the first place.]

[randori]

[ Awesome. He's working his way up to three so he can be Zoro. ]

I'll meet you there- I'm going to put all this stuff back first. [ With his gauntlet protected hand! he will shove everything to the side, looking out for ink or blood, and re-positioning some of the axes and stuff next to the suits of armor.

These are empty, right? He knocks his knuckles against each chest plate as he walks by. ]

[selfinserting]

[Meanwhile, Evan freezes. Once he recognizes who it is, he sucks in a breath and holds it for a moment, bringing a hand to his mouth. Softly:]

Is she—?

[themodsgrimm]

[No...no, those are definitely human fingers, Varian. They're completely clean of any surrounding mess, blood, ink, or otherwise.]

[discardia]

Are tuning forks used for anything other than musical instruments?

[ ... and seriously, all of them?? ]

[vigilantics]

[ well, once it becomes apparently that throwing water at it does not make things worse, stephanie immediately reenters the kitchen to see what's happening. ]

Why the hell did they do this? To destroy evidence?

[themodsgrimm]

[There's no movement, and more importantly...no pulse. Monika is dead.]

[faceripper]

[ Oh. That rings a bell, and Fane's tone is extremely flat when he replies. ]

It was Jae-ha. The idiot also got it on me. No, I don't wish to talk about it.

[ He'll just. Get that out of the way. He shakes his head, then actually grabs them out of the cabinet again. ]

If you don't have any objections, I'm going to keep these to destroy after the trial this weekend. I'll not have anyone else spreading this stupidity.

[themodsgrimm]

[Inside the western wooden trunk, Rebecca will find more women's accessories! She can sort through them, but she'll just find more jewelry and shoes, each one more fashionable than the last.

The first four cases Akechi opens contain knitting needles! The last is empty.]

[thesettingsun]

[Now Dazai turns. And sees the fingers.]

...Why don't you give those to me to hold onto? So you don't have to look at them anymore? You can just tell me how many papers are here and how big the numbers are instead.

[Easier job!!]

[themodsgrimm]

[Between the two of them, it doesn't take too long to put out the fire. With that immediately out of the realm of the concern, they're free to resume looking around...of course, they'll have to deal with the haze of smoke as they do.]

[themodsgrimm]

[The less-than-pristine weapons are abandoned on the armory floor. They'll remember that, Natsuo.

As he crosses over to the cabinet and raps on the chest plates of the suits of armor, they all make roughly the same sound - a hollow sort of echoing noise.

Meanwhile, if Veronica opens up that cabinet, she'll find a few dusty cleaning cloths and a few vials of oil! No decapitated heads, thank goodness.]

[disclosures]

So it wasn't either of you?

[She'll walk over to the eastern trunk and pop it open.

Right now she's humming something completely off key. Even if they find evidence here, she doesn't think she'll find a body.]

[sanguinairy]

[WELP. You can't be lucky every time...

Once it becomes clear that there's no pulse to be found here, Souji gently sets her wrist back down, shaking his head.]

She's dead.

[Even if she looks very peaceful?! He'll carefully look her over for visible external injuries or blood after setting her hand back down.]