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

[disclosures]

[Honestly she doesn't want to touch the dead body.

So like. it's all Fane's.]

Check for a pulse?

[alchemenace]

[ there's something hysterical about a skeleton dragging out a dead body ]

He... Fane doesn't have a sense of touch, I'll. I can do it?

[ hes going to have to take his gloves off but. there he go. kneeling next to the body. Please don't make him touch a corpse so soon ]

[themodsgrimm]

[Wow, you guys. Be nice to the child pope, he's never done anything wrong at all ever in his life. In any case, looking at him, his skin is white as a sheet--he definitely looks like he could be a corpse.

Fortunately, that's pretty normal for Ion. He's solidly unconscious, but if you look close enough, you'll notice he's breathing shallowly.]

[faceripper]

[ Fane at least holds out a bony hand once he notices that Ion is, in fact, breathing. ]

Luckily, no need. It seems that he simply has an exceedingly poor taste for where to take a nap.

[ He drops his ankle not at all gingerly, so it probably falls with a thud. Fane will let the two of them take care of Ion, since he instead starts to look around the room. Is there anything notably out of place? ]

[disclosures]

Oh thank god, he's not dead.

[... She'll prod his face and wonder if he'll just wake up.]

[alchemenace]

[ Varian immediately falls from crouched to sitting on his butt with a relieved sigh ]

See? I. I knew he was just sleeping.

[ did he tho? That said, he's putting his glove back on ]

Um. Miss Bunch, should you really be just prodding him like that.

[themodsgrimm]

[He's absolutely not waking up, unlike some of the other faking fucks in this castle. But he's fine? It's fine.

Fane will discover that, for the most part, everything is as it should be. The dining hall appears as if it hasn't been used for breakfast preparations, and Gi-gan's tapestry continues to drip black ink down onto the floor. It does look, however, as if some of these ink splatters have been streaked across the floor.]

[faceripper]

[ Fane walks up to the puddle of ink, and though he's carefully to not walk into it (he hardly wants to tread that mess anywhere else, thank you), he does take a closer look at the streaks of ink. He's mostly looking to see the size of whatever was dragged through it or if it's approximately foot shaped.

He doesn't say anything yet though because he sucks... I'm sorry he's like this ]

[disclosures]

Maybe we should wake him up? He probably knows what happened to him.

... And I definitely can't pick him up.

[alchemenace]

Yeah, I... Don't think I can either. Ion?

[ ion is taller than he is rip

He'll try shaking him?? Maybe?? But. Also. ]

Fane, what are you doing over there??

[themodsgrimm]

[Shaking him accomplishes his head swinging back and forth on his neck in a way that looks uncomfortably as if it may snap. Be careful, he's fragile. Also, his headpiece falls off. He does make a soft noise, so maybe he'll wake up shortly (when a certain someone isn't doing mod tags).

The ink smears do look approximately foot-shaped. Well, approximately half-foot-shaped. They resemble the toe area of the bottom of a shoe, but there are no shapes that resemble the back end of one. Curious!]

[faceripper]

Hm—

[ Fane reaches inside his cloak and pulls out... A napkin. He very carefully starts to lower the napkin over the half-foot-shaped ink blob, but he's trying to only get a slight impression of the ink onto the napkin. It's going to bleed into it, so he's doing his best not to saturate it and preserve the shape. ]

What else? He's clearly fine [ fane you don't even know that ] so I'm looking elsewhere. The ink dripping from that tapestry has been disturbed.

[disclosures]

How can you tell how he is? Are you a doctor?

[But she will stop prodding poor Ion for now.]

So somebody stepped in it?

[alchemenace]

Do we even have a doctor here? I don't remember that being on anyone's tapestry... Miss Bunch, I will be right back.

[ he's scrambling up to go look at the ink with fane to not acknowledge the doctor word. Also he's curious ]

Is it just the ink?

[ can he see anything fane can't etc ]

[fragileprophet]

[There's nothing else to be found out of the ordinary in the dining hall, and as such, Ion finally opens his eyes. His movements are slow, and he struggles in his disorientation to even sit up, nearly falling back over in the struggle.]

What...where am I?

[He puts a shaking hand to his forehead.]

[faceripper]

Quite a good one, since I've obviously managed to overcome that most dire of afflictions— What is it... Ah, yes. Death.

[ AKA he's absolutely not a doctor, and the sarcasm makes that clear. ]

It does appear that someone stepped in it, though... Gingerly, perhaps? [ He tilts his head slightly as he looks at it, then points towards Varian's foot ] Though it doesn't appear to be complete. The ball of the foot, perhaps, rather than the whole thing?

[ He holds the napkin out to the side, but flat in his palm to let it dry. ]

Does he have ink on his feet by any chance?

[disclosures]

Do you have ink on your feet? I mean we can take your shoes, but it would be for the best if you just showed them to us.

[alchemenace]

[ slightly louder because ion is now a few feet away: ]

Hi Ion! I'm Varian! We thought you were dead!!

[ this is appropriate. Anyway he turns back to Fane ]

Only the balls... Were they walking around on tip toes? That's weird.

[fragileprophet]

H-Hello...

[This is very confusing. He blinks blearily outward, slowly allowing the knowledge that they're in the dining hall to take proper shape in his brain. At the question, he obliges without complaint, sticking out his legs so the bottom of his flats can be easily seen. They're white, so there's really no way he could have hidden ink stains. They're completely ink-free!]

I'm sorry, I'm a little confused. What time is it?

[faceripper]

Quite.

[ He dips into a quiet thoughtfulness for a few moments as he waits for the ink to dry, then holds it up. It's probably decent, but not perfect. ]

All I can think of is to perhaps obscure the size of their foot? Though if so, that is quite a bit of thoughtful planning.

[disclosures]

I mean if somebody is going to murder somebody else, then I'd assume they're going to have some kind of plan.

That ink puddle has been there since the tapestries were up.