WEEK FOUR: INVESTIGATION

[retellers]

WEEK FOUR: INVESTIGATION (?? remain) On Friday morning at 7am, all the doors will unlock and the participants may traverse between areas again. Participants will find that, as they leave wherever they slept, everything feels... unclear? Did they see whoever they were with? They can no longer remember. Even for those who spent the night alone, they can feel that something is off. It doesn't seem as though the Leaders are around, but at this point, everyone should realize what has happened. Time to investigate. ༶•┈┈⛧┈｡o°✥✣ 　　 ✣✥°o｡┈⛧┈┈•༶ Welcome to your fifth investigation! We will be posting top-levels for searchable locations—one set at 6pm EST and another set at 7pm EST. Each location will contain evidence to find, though it's up to your efforts as to whether you find all of it. Please coordinate investigation groups on Discord, as we ask that group threads consist of no more than 2-3 characters. We will stop tagging each top-level two hours after it went up, i.e. at 8pm and 9pm EST, respectively. Don't worry if you don't find everything! Characters will get the chance to revisit locations tomorrow at trial. At 9pm EST, an announcement will go up, confirming the victim(s). If you have any questions at any time, please let us know by pinging us on Discord!

NAVIGATION locations ₓ˚. statuses *+:｡ ic profiles :ₓo ic rules ･ﾟﾟ･｡ audience requests murder proposals ｡✧o private conversations ･ﾟo｡ curfew ･ﾟ✧ memories

Comments

GRAVEYARD

[retellers]

[bisouled]

[ the graveyard is not her favorite place to be and also seems like a particularly tasteless place to commit a murder, but here they are - someone has to check it. She's relieved to see Homura and especially Rufus still in one piece. ]

Looks like we get stuck with the dirty work.

[ let's go in through the gates and see if anything's amiss... ]

[horologia]

... A poor choice of location, but I suppose there aren't actually any real dead here to disrespect.

[ yeah we're just erasing all of the rich people nonsense from two days ago. it's fine. rich people are stupid.

all right, what's the obvious damage. anything off at a glance to someone who's spent a lot of the week haunting the grave? ]

[soulus]

[Rufus stares blankly at Fiora and Homura before entering the graveyard after them. Let's get an overall look at the location from a distance.]

[retellers]

[ Well, there are definitely things amiss. Mainly, it looks like chaos erupted in the graveyard. The dirt has been disturbed in various places, and from where they are, at the entrance, they can see blood splatters on the ground, on gravestones, etc. ]

[bisouled]

[ there's always the hope that nothing will actually be wrong! it is swiftly dashed.

Fiora sighs, then just gets to work. Where has the dirt been disturbed? She'll go investigate whichever spot is nearest. ]

[horologia]

[ well uh, if fiora's got the nearest then she's going to be examining the blood splatters to see if there's any like, particular pattern/concentration of them. did someone bleed excessively on any particular graves, does it look like it trails, or is it just mess all over.

also she'll investigate the next-furthest away dirt disturbance, wherever that is. there.... are there shovels in the graveyard, actually. or are we shirasu-ing this. ]

[soulus]

[The girls have this section of the graveyard covered. Walking just past them, Rufus goes a little deeper still. Is it still much the same? And if so, where is the blood concentrated the most?]

[retellers]

[ There are no shovels in the graveyard.

The question is more like where isn't the dirt disturbed, really. There's no particular pattern to it, as so much as it's a combination of drag marks, skid marks, what were probably footprints but are no longer discernible and never will be, etc.

The blood starts further in (aka farther away from the entrance than the dirt disturbance does). Like the dirt, there's no particular pattern to it, and there's not a lot. More like a bunch of random drops here and there.

Both--the dirt and the blood--essentially form a trail, leading deeper into the graveyard. As in, there isn't a literal trail of blood or dirt, but the aforementioned things continue deeper in, in what's vaguely a non-straight line.

Where exactly is Rufus looking as he heads further in? At the ground, higher up, etc.? ]

[bisouled]

... Something crazy happened here. I don't like this.

[ this already smacks of a mystery that's going to be very difficult to untangle. How are the gravestones, themselves? Does the blood seem to be splattered on them at random, and are they defiled in any other noticeable way? ]

[horologia]

The question is whether just a single set of killer and victim did this, or if multiple people decided it'd be a good idea to defile a graveyard last night...

[ drag marks, how big are they? roughly body-sized, or something smaller? bigger? and what the hell does anyone have around here that would skid?

anyway she's going to more or less follow the trail while looking for any excessively disturbed or oddly-packed dirt that might indicate us having to shirasu this, or anything odd with the headstones whether big or small or on the ground. ]

[soulus]

[Rufus ignores the girls.

He does look at the ground, though he'll look higher up as well. As he heads farther in behind Homura, he passes her to gun for the end of the vague trail while she and Fiora investigate the smaller details.]

[retellers]

[ Sib didn't specify that Fiora moved deeper in, so assuming she's still near the entrance of the graveyard: from where she's standing, she'll just see the bunch of random blood drops Homura looked at. No grave that she can see has been disturbed, and there's no particular pattern to the blood location other than it stays near the pseudo-trail.

The drag marks aren't really of any particular size. But as Homura follows the trail, it won't take long for her to spot a disturbed grave, with patches of dampness in the dirt.

Presumably she stops walking at that point, while Rufus leaves her to it and nyooms ahead, apparently ignoring everything he might pass by. Towards the end, the disturbed dirt gets even more chaotic--it's even harder to say what exactly made the mess, other than that there's a lot! The blood splatters also increase in amount and size at the end of the trail as well. ]

[bisouled]

[ gotta be thorough!! She goes to catch up to Homura, keeping an eye out for any conspicuous dirt piles in case anyone decided to make use of the facilities, so to speak, before arriving at that disturbed grave. ]

What's this...?

[horologia]

[ i should have saved my presses hand to face icon from last tag for this one. so now imagine, culprits, that oocly the icon here is her looking straight into your souls as i, personally, stare into the distance. repent.

meanwhile she's just very resignedly going to look around for another moment to see if there's anything she might miss or ruin by digging into the grave first because she is not ruining evidence by being too hasty. what are those damp patches. it's not specified as blood so is it not blood or is it simply harder to identify as blood. hm.

otherwise, if things are clear, she's settling down to get to it. it's fine, her outfit is from the clothing store anyway. it can get ruined. ]

Someone making use of what was available to them, it seems.

[soulus]

[Not to worry. He can backtrack and meet the girls halfway (or all the way, if they end up digging).

He goes where the blood splatters are the most concentrated. Is there anything else of note lying around in the area? As for the dirt, how does it correspond with the blood—are they generally together or arranged as chaotically as the dirt's appearance itself?]

[retellers]

[ Following the dirt/blood trail, from the entrance of the graveyard to where Homura stopped, Fiora will see nothing that wasn't seen previously!

It doesn't look like Homura will destroy anything, as long as she digs carefully. The wetness doesn't have any odd discolouration, so it's probably water. You'd have to lick it to be sure.

Anyway, Homura starts digging, and miraculously manages to get about 2 feet in in this short of amount time. Unfortunately, she finds nothing! Does she want to keep digging there, or will she move on?

Rufus finds nothing else of note lying around at the end of the trail. The dirt disturbances and blood are generally together, aside from the fact that blood is splattered around so it may extend a little outside the dirt chaos. ]

[bisouled]

[ What about the grave is disturbed? Just the dirt in front of it, or the headstone itself? Also, what does the headstone read... ]

Do you have any sort of... jar on you, maybe? We can bring this weird dirt back.

[horologia]

... Not on me. The best I can manage is trying to tear off some of the excess fabric from these skirts and more or less carry it back in that, but...

[ because she's dressed in this. that said the skirts there look a little chiffony, a little sheer, so it's doubtful they can really uh, hold dirt very well, especially if there's a liquid of some sort involved too.

was... the earth where she managed to dig two feet into loosely packed? is does it still seem somewhat loose even lower? because if so, she's, hm, continuing to dig i guess, since that'd suggest it was all recently disturbed and that there might be more to find below...

if the disturbed earth was mostly just surface level though, she'll leave it. maybe someone just scuffed over the top and the real important thing was the weird drops. hey rufus what have you found... ]

[soulus]

[He's found the end.

Now that that's been established, he heads back, taking it slower this time as he follows the trail again. Is anything out of place on this return trip? Of course, he'll glance at the graves and stones as well to take note of oddities.]

[retellers]

[ Only the dirt has been disturbed. The gravestone says nothing relevant.

The dirt does still seem loose below, so presumably Homura continues to dig. She gets about another 2 feet in. I don't know how, because she'd now either have to be leaning with almost her entire body in this grave or find a way to get back out if she's standing in it, but that's just how it is. With that said, she still finds nothing! I'll be nice and say right now that the ground doesn't seem loose underneath at this point.

As Rufus heads back, he'll notice that one of the gravestones by the trail has a bloody handprint on it. Also, he will find a disturbed grave near the trail, not unlike the one Homura found. Actually, he'll find... two disturbed graves! Not necessarily side by side--just that he can see both from his current standing point on the trail. One of them has wet patches, the other doesn't. ]

[bisouled]

[ sigh... ]

All right, this will have to do.

[ she'll have to just hold onto her PHS for the rest of the time! she scoops up some of the Wet Dirt and puts it into her fashionable fannypack that she's been wearing ever since she got her second dagger back. bag of dirt. After that, she stands back up, calling out to Rufus. ]

Rufus! Find anything?

[horologia]

[ glad that yuuri tried real hard and got nothing for her efforts. truly, a metaphor for her life. if we're checking hands this trial everyone knows what to expect from her now.

but cool! nothing but loose dirt. thank you for red herrings, gravedigger- presumably. she's just going to mutter ]

If this is like those gloves again ... So what have we found, drag marks, skid marks, drops of blood ... disturbed earth, and strange liquid?

[ if it takes her a moment to join the other two it's probably because she's busy getting out of the hole she dug somehow. but yeah, let's regroup? ]

[soulus]

[Once again, Rufus ignores Fiora.

Presumably the girls will approach him, seeing as he's farther down. There was a damp grave earlier, wasn't there? Fiora and Homura probably have seen to that one by now. In that case, he'll crouch down to compare the size of the handprint to his before approaching the dry grave. He will dig with his bandaged hand.

Please assist.]

[retellers]

[ No. No one is helping Rufus.

The handprint is smaller than Rufus's. He goes for the dry grave and digs single-handedly I'm crying. He also somehow miraculously digs 2 feet in this short amount of time and finds nothing. The dirt below doesn't seem disturbed at this point. ]