PROLOGUE ; INVESTIGATION

[themodsgrimm]

The Story Continues... PROLOGUE - WEEK 0??? 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 your first investigation post! This time, as it is tutorial week, we will be posting toplevels for searchable locations; moving forward, you will post your own toplevels for locations you wish to searh. Evidence — or lack thereof — will be noted in these threads. We ask that group threads consist of no more than 3-4 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 Danielle (entrappings) and Britt (bloodthirstiest), as we will be taking point on this investigation! full navigation. locations taken (statuses) stories (profiles) info & faq wishing well private conversations

Comments

[asswipe]

[it's probably going to be something awful.

but hopefully not here??

otherwise, hi. veronica's just going to check this room out, as well.]

[themodsgrimm]

[The tailor is a goddamn mess.

The first thing they'll notice is it looks like there are multiple bodies scattered around the room, covered by mismatched fabrics.]

[parodeity]

[ OH...GREAT...JUST WHAT HE WANTED....

dave goes up to the nearest body, toes it with his foot, and will investigate it further if it doesn't attack. ]

We totally picked the wrong room.

[londonstar]

[ waver is unfortunately used to murder. but only one corpse at a time.

this...brings a lot of dark memories and waver's already pale face turns even whiter at the site.

but he'll...approach another body, kneeling to observe it closer. ]

How unfortunate.

[asswipe]

—Holy shit!

[Shrieking. Immediately. She's covering her mouth with her hands, taking a step away from the Schrodinger corpses. Sorry that she's kind of useless here, but, uhhhhh. Yikes.]

Please, please tell me that those are— I don't know! Christmas trees wrapped up to look like bodies?

[How many are there, even? Jesus.]

[themodsgrimm]

[The body Dave prods does not attack. It's fine.

He and Waver will notice something as they examine the bodies in more detail: they don't seem to have heads. That's, uh, concerning. Maybe.

Remove the fabric?]

[parodeity]

They might be cunnin' decoys. Look away just in case, okay?

[ he shrugs and removes the fabric. he's had to handle his own corpse often enough that the possibility of a dead body is simply unpleasant rather than debilitating. ]

[londonstar]

If you consider the possibility of non-scientific methods, we could be under some sort of illusion or spell. If you feel you cannot handle this, Lady, then I also believe you should look away.

[ either way, this is very unpleasant to look at, but he needs to remove the fabric to get a better look. ]

Excuse me.

[asswipe]

[Grimacing. She takes a deep breath, shaking her head and stepping further into the room just to see if there's anything else that's off. Besides the obvious corpses, that is.]

No, no. I'm sorry. I'm fine. It's just. [God.] There's so many. They can't all be real, can they?

[themodsgrimm]

[Actually, it's just fine! When they draw the fabric away, they'll see that the so-called bodies are just headless mannequins.

The fabrics, however, seem to have some kind of purple stains on them.

Veronica, in her quest to find something that isn't a body, will notice that there's a clothing rack tipped over. Will she take a closer look at it?]

[parodeity]

[ dave examines the purple stains. is it jam or ink or what? ]

Huh.

[londonstar]

[ well, waver doesn't have his instruments to investigate properly, so...he's just going to examine the purple stain as well. what could it be? ]

What a mess. But I doubt it is unintentional.

[asswipe]

[Oh, Jesus. Thank the lord??? She's sighing in relief, but not before starting to walk towards the ripped over clothing rack. With the corpse situation not... being an actual corpse situation, she's going to call over her shoulder:]

Hey, uh... Guys? Do you remember if this was tipped over yesterday?

[With that, she's crouching down to take a closer look. Besides the fact that it's tipped over, is there anything else readily apparent about it?]

[themodsgrimm]

[The purple stain looks more like ink than jam, but you'll probably have to lick it to find out for sure.

There are five empty hangars attached to the rack. From the rest of what's on there, those hangars probably contained dresses at one point in time.

On the floor by the rack, though, there's some scattered tobacco, and a pipe half-hidden by the clothes still on the rack.]

[parodeity]

[ can he smell the stain instead of lick it ]

[londonstar]

[ he is not licking it fuck you. ]

I definitely do not remember it being tipped over. What else have you found?

[asswipe]

Um... I think someone took some of clothes? There's five empty hangars here.

[Though, who knows when that happened? She'll check the hangars to see if they look like they've been tampered with before reaching for the pipe. Does it look as a pipe should, or is there anything wrong with it?]

Someone left a pipe here, too. The— The kind you smoke with. [JUST TO CLARIFY. She'll grab a piece of tobacco and give it a sniff to confirm. God.] ... And some tobacco?

[themodsgrimm]

[Dave can smell the stain. That's fine. It smells like ink.

There are a few other purple stains on the other fabrics strewn about the rooms, which also smell like ink. The hangars don't look as though they've been tampered with, the tobacco just smells like tobacco, and the pipe is just a pipe... bit it's a little scuffed, as if it was dropped in the commotion of whatever else happened here.]

[parodeity]

It's ink. Do we bleed ink?

[ legitimate question. ]

Maybe they were movin' mannequins.

[ he doesn't care for the idea. ]

[londonstar]

[ ink. at the question, waver shakes his head, unsure. ]

I've yet to be injured, and I'd rather not find out yet.

[ however, he frowns when he sees the pipe, but decides to look at some of the other fabrics strewn across the room for something else. ]

There is only one person I have seen smoking a pipe. However, in relation to the ink...if we imagine that this is the case and our blood has been replaced by ink, then this would be the site of a physical confrontation.

[asswipe]

... There was one guy who sounded like he wanted a pocket knife to injure himself a couple of days ago. Maybe he knows.

[Calling Dazai the heck out here. Jesus.

That said, she takes a look at the area surrounding the clothing rack for any signs of a struggle. Is it just the pipe that looks scuffed up, or is there something else?]

[thesettingsun]

[HE HAD A PERFECTLY GOOD REASON]

[themodsgrimm]

[The clothing rack itself is vaguely scuffed up. It is, apparently, not good quality enough to stand up to a violent scuffle.

The three of them will notice one other thing as they wrap up their investigation: a letter opener and some broken pencils that were here earlier in the week have gone missing. That's all!]

[parodeity]

I think fake mannequin murder is all we got. You guys?

[ he stands from his kneeling position and glances around. ]