CHAPTER 5 ; INVESTIGATION

[themodsgrimm]

The Story Continues... CHAPTER 5 - WEEK 5??? 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]

[BECAUSE OF THE RAIN, PROBABLY. It's still raining, which sucks, and is probably why what would normally have footprints is just a muddy mess.

Anyway. Will Magnus and Natsuo follow the path into the woods? Or will they just stand there and eat hotdogs?]

[wearys]

[ let the rain drown them.

magnus will start on the path, but also. looks at natsuo. looks at hotdogs. back at natsuo. ]

Have you been feeding the swans hotdogs?

[randori]

What? No.

[ He doesn't explain it, though, just forces Magnus to take them and then he turns down the path too.


What's down here?? ]

[themodsgrimm]

[So long as they don't deviate from the path, they'll be just fine! It's muddy, and there are one or two scattered feathers around. Hmm. Maybe the swans chased someone away?

Eventually, they get to the lake. It's very pretty! ...if one ignores the swans in the middle of the lake playing a vicious round of six-swan tug-of-war with... something. It's hard to tell what it is from here at this distance, but they're rather intently trying to rip it up.

Hm.]

[wearys]

[ he takes them but. now he is More concerned. but sure, whatever???

what a beautiful day for

that to be happening. ]

That's going to be bad.

[ what if he just. throws a hotdog at them to get them to release the Something? ]

[randori]

Stop wasting hot dogs!!

[ THAT'S NOT WHAT THEY'RE FOR

but okay, Natsuo's too slow to grab it out of the air, so it goes sailing towards the birds and hopefully doesn't hit them on the head? why did you do this. ]

[themodsgrimm]

[SPLASH!

The hot dog hits the water and starts to sink. Two of the swans abandon whatever they're fighting over and swim toward it, and then commence hot dog tug-of-war between the two of them. That still leaves four swans working at the mysterious something, however.

But that also leaves a small gap. From here, they can see that whatever they're trying to tear up is orange.]

[wearys]

Wasting? What are they even for?

[ oh hey, progress.

sorry natsuo, he's throwing another hotdog to try and get rid of more swans. ]

[randori]

Stop that!!

[ He swipes the rest of the hotdogs from Magnus' hands, he's re-confiscating then. Magnus lost his hotdog privileges. ]

Shut up, shut up, let's sneak closer.

[ No need to WASTE HOTDOGS, let's try sneaking closer without drawing attention to themselves. ]

[themodsgrimm]

[The only thing throwing another hotdog does is prompt one of the swans fighting over the first one to go for it. Now there are two swans munching on hotdogs and four swans still tearing at the orange thing in between them.

...pretty viciously, too! One of them manages to tear off a pretty big chunk of it and swim away. They may be able to catch a flash of black along with the orange as it moves to the far side of the lake. The other three swans continue to fight for the remainder.

As they inch closer to the water, Magnus may feel his foot knocking against something. Look down or keep walking?]

[wearys]

[ he didn't even want hotdog privileges he's just confused. ]

Okay, fine.

[ well that's. hm.

magnus will look down, he's learned his lesson about ignoring oddities!! ]

[randori]

[ Natsuo hesitates as he waits for Magnus, getting out on of the hotdogs and tears it up into smaller chunks.

He keeps an eye on that rogue swam at the far end of the lake, though. ]

What is that?

[themodsgrimm]

[In the middle of the lake, a second swan tears off a chunk of the orange thing and swims away. There's a flash of beige among the orange as it retreats.

The two remaining swans are now duking it out over the rest of whatever it is.

Meanwhile, when Magnus looks down, he'll find a glass vial on the ground! It's pretty muddy on the outside, but that's to be expected, given that it's on the ground in the rain with mud.]

[wearys]

A vial?

[ he'll pick up the vial and wipe it off on his shirt, because who gives a shit. ]

[randori]

[ The last time Natsuo cleaned off evidence he screwed everybody over, but. He won't say anything to Magnus.

Two swans are good enough— Natsuo edges towards them and shouts out at the birds in the middle of the lake. ]

Hey! Whatever you're playing with, I'll trade you for that!

[themodsgrimm]

[Once the mud is cleaned off (thanks Magnus), it's easier to see inside. There are a few droplets of water and some now-soggy breadcrumbs in it.

Weird.

As for the swans in the middle of the lake... the two fighting over the orange thing pay Natsuo no mind! They don't speak Human, and they're rather intent on keeping the thing for themselves. Each one glares at the other, as if to say, if you want this thing you're going to have to take it. It's straining the longer they pull at it.

But the other two swans who had been distracted by hotdogs earlier... well, they're all finished with their snack. And they can smell more meat coming from Natsuo's direction, so they're swimming his way.]

[wearys]

[ it's covered in mud there can't be prints!!! hopefully

who tf would put breadcrumbs in a vial. ]

Uh, dude, swans incoming. Might want to sacrifice the dogs.

[randori]

[ no ]

Magnus, quick— can you swim?

[themodsgrimm]

[That's a good question, Magnus! Maybe you guys will figure it out at trial.

The swans are getting closer. And closer. And closer. Magnus and Natsuo are going to need to make a decision quick.]

[wearys]

[ SACRIFICE THE HOTDOGS ]

I'd rather not! [ he's had too much water this week and only has one good arm? ] But if we're going to do it we better do it now.

[randori]

I need you to get out there and grab whatever that is! Punch the birds if you have to!

[ Magnus is going to have to swim with one arm, because Natsuo cannot swim :( He does, however, finally heed Magnus' advice and hurls the hotdogs— they fly far, one by one into the air towards the far end of the lake. ]

[themodsgrimm]

["Now" sounds like a good time to do that, because with one last great ripping sound, the swans fighting over the orange thing stumble back from each other as it tears apart. They retreat to opposite sides of the lake to hoard their spoils of war.

The approach of the other two swans, meanwhile, is slowed by the hotdogs. They're swimming after them and leaving the boys be for now, but that will only last as long as the hotdogs do.

Then they will be back for Flesh.]

[wearys]

Gods damn it!

[ he's going to swim first to where the stupid birds were fighting to see if they left anything behind. he hopes so, because otherwise, he'll have to chase down one of the fighting birds and somehow fight it for whatever they're eating. ]

[randori]

[ gl

Natsuo will, uh. I guess run around the lakeside towards that other end too, trying to keep as close to Magnus as possible. He will punch a bird if need be. ]

[themodsgrimm]

[Sadly for Natsuo, there aren't any remainders of what they were fighting over left unattended in the water - all the pieces seem to have gone with the swans. The first swan to break away with a piece is... actually taking flight and flying away now, yikes. But that still leaves three more with pieces he could potentially fight?

Meanwhile, the other two swans are about 1/4 of the way done with their hotdogs...]