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

[themodsgrimm]

[Nothing else around the room seems out of place at a glance! Good try though, Shirasu.]

[discardia]

I wonder...

I suppose we could ask everyone else if they found any of them in strange places, but it really might just be that there weren't any there in the first place.

[wagashis]

I suppose that's possible. They aren't something I'd looked at before, unfortunately.

[so he wouldn't know if anything was missing beforehand.

actually clarification question are these 3 individual tuning fork boxes, are we missing 1 solitary tuning fork, or were there three Boxes O' Forks?]

[resumed]

So what, the boxes might just be decoys? [Dumb. Shirasu can look at the boxes, Nico's going to frown and look around the room.]

...you think...that's it then?

[themodsgrimm]

[They are three individual tuning fork boxes! Uno fork is all that's not accounted for, if we're comparing the number of forks found to the number of empty boxes.

The missing fork is probably sparkling elsewhere in the castle.]

[discardia]

I think that might be it.

We checked everything else, I believe.

[wagashis]

-ah, wait a moment, actually.

[hey, about those practice rooms this place has!

let's get a door in here, shall we.]

[resumed]

[...? He just focuses for a moment.]

You think...? [There's something else?]

[themodsgrimm]

[And as they start to think about finding a quiet place to practice...

...a door appears in the wall.

It's closed, but like. They could open it. If they wanted.]

[discardia]

... Oh.

[ Well. She's going to go ahead and open the door. ]

[wagashis]

I should have recalled this sooner.

[and shirasu follows, peering in over her shoulder, because let's see if someone left their things lying around in here instead.

or something else lying around.]

[resumed]

Of course it's a magically-appearing door. Of course it is. [But with that, he's also following right along.]

[themodsgrimm]

[There's a body!




No, really, there is. The very fashionably dressed body of someone with blond hair is lying face-down on the ground in the soundproofed room. There's a glint of something metallic a foot or so away from the body's left hand, but they'll need to get a little closer to see exactly what it is.

One other thing they'll note - there is no ink on or around the body. Hm.]

[discardia]

[ Cardia's breath hitches in her throat (because unlike some people she's never actually found a body before), but then she's hurrying forward to the body, crouching down, and trying to carefully turn said body over to a.) identify who the hell it is because surely it isn't someone familiar and b.) SEE IF THEY'RE STILL GODDAMN ALIVE. ]

Please--

[ please just be taking a quiet nap in this totally deserted room. ]

[wagashis]

[while cardia is busy with the body, shirasu investigates whatever that something metallic is! she's fine, right? yeah. she's fine.

is this our missing fork of one type or another...]

[resumed]

[And meanwhile Nico's just lingering in the doorway, watching the two of them carefully. Cardia has the body, Shirasu has the shiny object, and he has answers about this room. So that's something. He's on standby, watching the pair of them and briefly examining the crime scene. It's a dead body…but no ink or blood.

He seems to be waiting for Cardia before he'll help examine the body.]

[themodsgrimm]

[Cardia's careful turning of the body reveals that it's Francis Scott Fitzgerald who was lying on the ground. He's definitely not alive, though. He has absolutely no pulse, and in fact... there's a pretty deep-looking stab wound in the general vicinity of his heart. Deep enough to connect to his back, actually. There are also various slice wounds all over his body - his clothing has been sliced in the same places. Strangely, however, there is no blood or ink. Maybe if Cardia handles him a little more roughly, she can find out what color he bleeds! Nico can help.

Also, Shirasu will find that the metallic thing isn't a tuning fork. It's a dagger, which is also clear of blood or ink.]

[discardia]

[ Wow no she's not going to handle him roughly, she's not the emotionless homuculus Hikage wants her to be!!

Rather, even though Fitzgerald murdered a loudly-screeching child last week, she still looks pretty damn distressed for all of five seconds before she's remembering-- right, she probably has to investigate and stuff. And with that stab wound...

She still checks for a pulse like someone absolutely in denial before she speaks. ]

He's dead. But I can't find any blood - or ink - on him.

[ She's so damn tired. ]

[wagashis]

I suppose they've cleaned up-- or perhaps he just didn't bleed much to begin with.

[there are probably things that would slow bloodflow...

but he's going to very cautiously inspect the dagger, covering his hand with his sleeve before touching the handle just in case. does it just look clear, are there traces of ink/blood having been wiped off, does it... have any ink or blood scent on it...

hey i hate that i had to type that but this is a dude who canonically calls someone out on their faint scent ok, we're sniffing up in here.]

[resumed]

[Weird? He'll finally approach and crouch down near Cardia to examine the body.]

A little weird to not bleed much if you're stabbed in the heart, don't you think? [Cardia's checking for a pulse and Nico's going to...check the stab wound. His hand comes up to start checking all of the wounds, actually, and probably accidentally applying pressure as he tries to find if the source of death is blood loss from multiple stabs or what.]

Should we check if there's anything else on him? Like with Natsuo's wallet last week. [A quick glance at Fitz's hands, too, to see if they're bloodied or scarred from maybe fighting back.]

[themodsgrimm]

[There is absolutely no visible trace of blood or ink on the dagger - but Shirasu will be able to sniff out the faint scent of ink clinging to the dagger's blade. Hm!

Meanwhile, when Nico applies pressure to the wounds, he'll... well there is no elegant way to say this but it makes some crimson ink seep out. Yikes.

Also, Fitz's left hand looks fine... but his right hand is missing three fingers.

Double yikes!]

[discardia]

[ Great. Per Nico's suggestion, Cardia will at least check to see if there's anything else Fitzgerald's got on him besides one hell of a stab wound and some ruined expensive clothing. ]

Why his fingers? Would they have been incriminating?

And he really should have bled more, too...

[ Ugh. She feels sick. ]

[wagashis]

...they've cleaned it well otherwise, but this still smells like ink. It's possible they took care of the rest, if he did bleed more.

[he'll turn his attention to the body there, though it looks like they have it pretty covered-- he's just observing and looking over those wounds while they check things.]

Go ahead and see if anything else is on him.

[resumed]

[Cool, just what he wanted, crimson ink! He pulls his hand back anyway and he thinks on Cardia's question.]

That's a lot of blood to get rid of. And I don't know. Maybe the fingers were incriminating somehow? Like he scratched his attacker or something. [But yes, is there anything left on Fitz?]

[themodsgrimm]

[The only thing left on him that they'll find, other than the slash marks and wounds, is a wedding ring in one of his pockets. It looks too small to fit on any of his fingers.]