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

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OBSERVATORY

[themodsgrimm]

A winding staircase connects the fourth floor to the eastern tower. The room it connects to is circular and domed, but when you enter and the door closes behind you, you're engulfed in darkness. There's a very faint, pulsing light coming from a crystal sphere at the center of the room, and if you feel your way along the wall, you'll find your way to a door on the eastern side of the room. If you've been up here before, you may know already that it leads out to a balcony.

[sanguinairy]

[SOUJI'S STILL DEAD INSIDE but he's a little more like, generally helpful than yesterday, at least... As in he's not just sitting out the investigation and staring wistfully out a window which he very nearly did.

Instead he just gets to stumble around uselessly in the dark trying to find the balcony exit to get a little more light in here!!]

Maybe we should go fetch a better light.

[selfinserting]

[The darkness here is indeed Not Ideal, so he's going to head towards the faint light in the middle and put his hand on the sphere, hoping the light from the constellations above will help illuminate anything here while Souji looks for the door.

He glances towards him.]

Can you see anything...?

[sanguinairy]

Not just yet.

[He feels around for the door once he gets to the eastern end though, opening it up to let more light into the room. He'll also step on out there to make sure there's no blood n' guts on the balcony itself and peer over the edge to check for fallen bodies.]

[selfinserting]

...Thanks.

[Now that there is (presumably) more light in here, Evan is looking around the room itself to make sure there are no corpses chilling there while Souji checks the balcony.]

[themodsgrimm]

[With light coming into the observatory now, Evan will notice that nothing seems outwardly out of place. Souji, however, will find a body resting against the wall on the balcony.]

[sanguinairy]

[HEY UHHHHHHHH A BODY. Maybe they'll be lucky and it won't be a dead one!?]

--There's someone out here!

[They're cursed!! But Souji will move forward to get a closer look and see who exactly is resting out here and whether or not they look dead.]

[selfinserting]

—What?!

[He didn't want to be on a body finding roll!! But anyways, he's coming out, moving closer to try and see who it is as well.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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]

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

[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.]

[selfinserting]

[He breathes out, distressed, and just - takes a moment to press the heels of his palms against his eyes. That's fine!!

After a few moments and a thick swallow, while Souji checks for injuries, he finds he can't look at her like that. Since he didn't see anything in the observatory itself earlier, he'll glance around the balcony to see if anything else is amiss.]

[themodsgrimm]

[Nothing else is amiss. It's strange, actually, just how immaculate the place is. As for Monika, she's just as spotless. The most unusual thing about her is that her hair is down, missing the white ribbon she usually wears. Oh, and there's the stab wound directly over her heart.]

[sanguinairy]

[WHO ARE ALL THESE CLEANASS KILLERS.

He'll double-check just to make sure he doesn't miss anything obvious - scratches, blood beneath her fingernails, anything to indicate a struggle had happened. He'll also take a look at the stab wound to see if there's just one, if it extends through her back, and if it's clean or messy.]

It looks like she was stabbed in the chest.

[selfinserting]

[His expression tightens again as Souji says that, but he doesn't trust his voice, so he only gives a nod. Since the balcony doesn't have anything there, he'll go back into the observatory once more to make sure there wasn't anything missed there.]

[themodsgrimm]

[No scratches or any evidence of a struggle, actually. Outside of the stab wound and any other wounds that Monika had already had beforehand (known to the game at large), her body appears to have been handled efficiently and with care. Back in the observatory, nothing appears out of place.]

[sanguinairy]

[He'll give the balcony one last check, looking back over the edge to see if maybe there are any glints of metal in the grass that can be spotted to indicate someone's chucked a weapon over. After that, he'll head back in for now, even though he'll go get Monika's body once they've checked things over.]

Have you found anything else?

[selfinserting]

No. There's, there's nothing.

[He says, voice cracking slightly despite his best effort.]

[themodsgrimm]

[There's no sign that a weapon was left behind. Monika's body itself appears to be the only notable evidence.]

[sanguinairy]

[Thanks he hates it.

Anyway, since Evan looks like he's having a Bad Time and is already on his second body find of the week--]

I'll take her down to the foyer.

[selfinserting]

[He heads back out to the balcony as he hears Souji and, because I'm Paranoid, he's going to give the telescope a quick glance to make sure there's nothing amiss with it.]

...Are you sure? I-I can if you, if you need.

[themodsgrimm]

[The telescope is perfectly fine!]

[sanguinairy]

[realass fear of missing evidence

Souji shakes his head though.]

You've dealt with enough this week.

[He, on the other hand, is at least used to people dying all around him so he'll go back out to pick up Monika's body.]