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

[axilium]

[brotome!!]

... I swear, if we have an arsonist around here—well, first, it wasn't me.

[psychedelica]

[ side eye. ]

You're going to get yourself killed talking like that.

[ whatever! he pushes open the door to creepy puppet hell and hopes a spooky fire doesn't jump out at him. ]

[themodsgrimm]

[As soon as they get inside, they'll be assaulted by a heavy cloud of smoke and a dim orange glow, suggesting that something further in is still burning. That might be their first priority.]

[axilium]

Oh, come on.

[he reaches up to cover his nose and mouth with his sleeve. he takes a step in, though, before stopping.]

I'm getting we don't have a freakin' extinguisher around here, do we...!?

[psychedelica]

[ faintly, Hikage wonders if the smoke could actually kill him here... probably best not to take chances. He takes a step back from the door, holding his hand up over his mouth and nose as the smoke billows out. ]

Shit. What are we supposed to do about this?

[ run all the way back down and get a water bucket? by then, whatever's burning might be destroyed, and it's probably important evidence someone is trying to get rid of. ]

... I've got your back. Keep your head down.

[axilium]

[getting water occurred to belph, but—yeah, evidence burning, and water isn't always a good idea, so.

he nods, doing as hikage says as he heads towards the glow.]

[themodsgrimm]

[As they travel deeper into the theater, they'll find the source of the fire without too much trouble: it looks as if a set of drapes has been steadily burning. Fortunately, depending on your opinion on the matter, it seems pretty separate from the puppets, so doesn't show any danger of spreading toward them. Still might be a good idea to try and put it out somehow.]

[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??]

[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.]

[psychedelica]

[ well, thank goodness. there's still a lot of smoke, but this at least reduces the risk of... burning to death. Once the fire's out, Hikage goes to see if he can open up the window the drapes came from. Probably not, but it's worth a try!! ]

What's the point of burning some curtains?

[axilium]

Who knows?

[meanwhile, belph will take a closer look at the drapes, now that they're not on fuckin fire.]

[themodsgrimm]

[The drapes came from the stage, so unfortunately, there are no windows in the theater that can be opened. The two of them are just going to have to deal with the smoke. Aside from the fire, nothing back here seems out of the ordinary...hm, maybe someone wanted to draw attention away from something somewhere else inside of the room.]

[psychedelica]

[ hikage's just over here doing window-opening charades then i guess........

just kidding. He shakes his head, clamping a hand over his face again. If they keep the door open, hopefully, it won't get too toxic in here.

For the time being, he turns his attention upwards towards the hanging puppets, looking to see if anything unusual's on display on the stage. Or if any of them are dismembered. Either or. ]

... The fire was a distraction?

[axilium]

Why draw attention to this room, though...?

[belph will go look at the pulley system or whatever it is, then.]

[themodsgrimm]

[Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but, wait, it's hard to tell, but is that the shape of a body back behind them, toward where the entrance is? It's a bit easier to notice now that the smoke is flowing out of the doors.]

[psychedelica]

[ hmm. Hikage looks over at Belph, warily, then, keeping a hand at the pistol still at his side, starts approaching the body. ]

... I'll check it out. Keep your eyes open... This feels like a trap.

[ something is fishy!! he doesn't trust anything here. except belph, apparently. ]

[axilium]

Don't worry, I've got your back.

[but you know hikage is the one with a gun, belph is completely useless.]

[themodsgrimm]

[The body gets only more body-shaped as they get closer. Through the smoke, they'll recognize Jae-ha


...'s puppet. It's been cut from its strings and burned, but it's no longer on fire.]

[psychedelica]

[ of course it's a puppet. Hikage squats down, cautiously nudging the puppet with the barrel of his pistol before calling out. ]

-- It's a puppet. Jae-ha's puppet - looks like someone set it on fire.

[axilium]

... I swear, if something's happened to him...

[HE LIKES JAE-HA?? YOU ASSHOLES.

anyway, he'll leave hikage to examine the puppet if need be. he's going to check out the props just in case, because i think that's the only thing left mentioned in the locations page???]

[themodsgrimm]

[The rest of the puppets are fine, and no props are missing! It seems like someone was just really mad at Jae-ha in particular. The binch probably deserved it.]

[psychedelica]

[ flatly: ] He was asking for it.

[ honestly yeah hikage is thinking he totally deserves it after that love potion shit from earlier this week...

he is checking the puppet out more in-depth, though! any missing body parts? fingies, perhaps?! ]

[axilium]

Don't be so bitter, Hikage.

[he'll wander back to the puppet. also, because it's closer to the door, and he'd really like to stop inhaling smoke sometime soon.]

[themodsgrimm]

[No missing fingies (or other body parts)! It looks like aside from being set on fire, they were respectful of Jae-ha's puppet. I mean, as respectful as an arsonist can be.]