The town is quiet, eerily so. All animals, all chatter, all gusts of wind have come to a complete stop this morning. A tumbleweed passes by through the center of town and the rocking chair on the Sheriff's porch sways but remains silent. Everything is muted and as the door of the hotel opens, the only sensation that rings utterly true today is this:
One of your own is gone.
And now, as the rules state, it is your job to discover their fate.
Welcome to the investigation post! If your character decides to search an area, please post the name of the location in your header and wait for the mod replies. Anything to discover or not to will be indicated during the course of the thread.
After the body is discovered, an announcement will be made and characters are free to spend the rest of the afternoons how they like. If there are any questions, please shoot a message either to this journal or at robowest.
[The coyote's probably long dead but he's still cutting and stabbing the shit out of it because there's nothing else he can do. In fact, he's busy trying to wriggle out of Chane's grip.]
Let go of me! [You might need some help, Chane, this happens when you're dealing with a six-foot-tall swordsman.]
[ You're underestimating how much strength this tiny body is packing, dude. The more he wriggles against her, the more force Chane exerts. In fact, she gives up trying to bind him altogether and goes for his wrist. If she can get hold of it, she'll twist it to just short of the breaking point.
God, she's going to have the worst reputation after this week... ]
As Shinnosuke approaches, he'll be stopping a safe distance away from Percy and Chane, as he doesn't want to end up as the next corpse today, thank you. Given Percy's demeanour, he can take a guess as to whose corpse he might've found.]
Percy!
[He yells—possibly for the first time since arriving here, at that level—and hopefully loudly enough to register in Percy's head. After glancing at Chane (please do something about Percy, he won't judge), he continues::]
... We need to examine the corpse. Including this, shit hit the fan last night—I'll explain if you calm down.
[Chane's almost successful in breaking his wrist, but Shinnosuke's voice gets to him and he stops. He doesn't drop the dagger and he turns to face him with a look of pure anguish and rage while he tries to register what's going on.]
Obviously. [His voice is shaking, his whole body's shaking but he also knows Shinnosuke's right.] ....we're doing it together. I can't...
[ ... Comfortable now that Percy has lost some of his urgency, she drops his wrist and stands back to let him talk to Shinnosuke. She'll still be here, just... quietly (and creepily) not contributing. ]
[He'll take that as a relatively positive sign and step closer, fishing his cellphone out of his pocket as he does so. He hopes that Percy, at least, remembers the conversation they had.]
Aside from Annabeth, Nui and Riku have also been confirmed dead by the Sheriff. It sounds like Riku was decapitated, but otherwise... it seems like everything else might've been burned or dissolved in chemicals.
The body you found is probably the only one left intact [for a given degree] and the Sheriff has already told us that we won't have rights to the corpse during the trial.
Fuck him. [The words are spat out, angry and irrational but he follows after Shinnosuke as they head closer to the body. Almost carelessly, he kicks the coyote's corpse to the side. Part of him is glad Nui's dead. But Riku...he didn't know him well, but it seems like a shame.]
Found a can of gasoline under the Sheriff's chair on his porch. [He's crouching next to Annabeth, doing his best not to throw up while examining the state of his hollowed-out girlfriend.] Not hard to guess what happened.
[His hands are still moving, though they hover. There's nothing left for him to touch and his breath hitches for a moment before he focuses. Almost calmly, he removes her necklace.]
Do what you need to do, Shinnosuke. If photos are all we have, so be it.
[He nods, watching as Percy removes the necklace, before turning his phone on.
There's... not much to take a photo of (or rather, there's too much, he supposes), but he does what he can, taking a few of the entire corpse and then some close-ups of whatever could seem relevant. Throughout the process, he keeps his expression carefully neutral.
Someone else might take this time to comfort Percy, but really, Shinnosuke wouldn't know where to begin.]
[It's fine, he wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.]
There may not be much we can get from this, but at least we'll have it on hand. What's the state of the other bodies? And what happened last night that you were talking about?
[He can't break down yet. He needs to focus on the bigger picture first. She'd be so pissed at him if he didn't, really.]
[He pauses, going over the information in his head to organize it, before he speaks.]
Did you see the Sheriff digging a hole by the tree yesterday? Either he or someone else filled the thing with chemicals and threw four bodies in there. Jason, Rin, and I weren't able to identify them—we just saw the skulls, a couple of bones, bits of flesh, and some hair. Blonde, grey, and blue.
The blue hair probably belongs to Ao, though, since her grave's been dug up. I wouldn't be surprised if two of the other bodies were people who died earlier this week, but... one of the skulls had a hole in it like it'd been shot through the head, and a rifle was found buried in a grave.
[...]
Seems like Xion found Riku's head and Nui's parasol—she's not in a good mood, so watch out if you approach her about that. Some frills were found in the bonfire too. Probably Nui's stuff.
All in all, there's a reason why the Sheriff told us that the "corpses are, ehh". I don't know whether to say that we've got too much to focus on tomorrow or too little.
[Shit. He doesn't move away from Annabeth's body despite the fact that it's burned and hollowed and disgusting, but he also doesn't look away from Shinnosuke.] So what, Sheriff burning the bodies wasn't good enough for them? Where did they even get the chemicals?
[A pause.] There's also no guarantee the rifle is what was used to shoot someone in the head. You and I both know nothing is as clear-cut as that. [There's a deep breath.] Someone needs to keep an eye on Xion. She's been through enough this week.
Having all of the pieces kind of helps. We're going to spend hours arguing tomorrow and be stuck voting at the last minute, again, but at least we're starting to get used to this.
Ah, though I should've mentioned: Milla and Yuna heard a gunshot last night. So the gun, or at least a gun, was used, even if not for shooting someone.
[But he agrees: decisively concluding that it was a murder weapon may be misleading.]
I'm not going to pretend dealing with people are my strong suit, so I'm not volunteering. [Re: Xion, he means.] You think you can keep it together tomorrow?
[There's a very, very long pause like he's suddenly remembering something really important. There's one missing thing here.]
You don't get it. [He shakes his head.] You really think I would have left her here alone without some reinforcement? [Where the hell did it go. Wait. That wasn't with the body, so where the hell did it go? He shakes his head again and glares for a moment.]
I'll be fine. [It's too sharp, too quick, snapping more or less.] Something's wrong.
[He could make a dry comment right now, like how would I understand the feelings of a lover, but while Percy doesn't intimidate him, for the sake of keeping things productive, Shinnosuke has reason not to provoke him.]
[A nod, and he moves to pull up the bronze dagger that's currently covered in coyote blood.]
We traded. [A dry tone.] Being locked in the stocks meant she couldn't fight the way she's used to, but with a gun she would have been able to shoot unless some asshole disarmed her immediately. The gun's gone.
Yeah. Probably. [...he doesn't quite get what he means but he also doesn't care too much.] Just keep that in mind tomorrow. It's going to be enough of a mess without us forgetting anything.
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robowest2017-02-03 06:00 pm
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While he darts off like a knight in surgical armor, Chane is going to busy herself trying to pull Percy off the coyote. Hey. ]
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Let go of me! [You might need some help, Chane, this happens when you're dealing with a six-foot-tall swordsman.]
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God, she's going to have the worst reputation after this week... ]
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As Shinnosuke approaches, he'll be stopping a safe distance away from Percy and Chane, as he doesn't want to end up as the next corpse today, thank you. Given Percy's demeanour, he can take a guess as to whose corpse he might've found.]
Percy!
[He yells—possibly for the first time since arriving here, at that level—and hopefully loudly enough to register in Percy's head. After glancing at Chane (please do something about Percy, he won't judge), he continues::]
... We need to examine the corpse. Including this, shit hit the fan last night—I'll explain if you calm down.
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Obviously. [His voice is shaking, his whole body's shaking but he also knows Shinnosuke's right.] ....we're doing it together. I can't...
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notifs why did you fail me
[He'll take that as a relatively positive sign and step closer, fishing his cellphone out of his pocket as he does so. He hopes that Percy, at least, remembers the conversation they had.]
Aside from Annabeth, Nui and Riku have also been confirmed dead by the Sheriff. It sounds like Riku was decapitated, but otherwise... it seems like everything else might've been burned or dissolved in chemicals.
The body you found is probably the only one left intact [for a given degree] and the Sheriff has already told us that we won't have rights to the corpse during the trial.
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Found a can of gasoline under the Sheriff's chair on his porch. [He's crouching next to Annabeth, doing his best not to throw up while examining the state of his hollowed-out girlfriend.] Not hard to guess what happened.
[His hands are still moving, though they hover. There's nothing left for him to touch and his breath hitches for a moment before he focuses. Almost calmly, he removes her necklace.]
Do what you need to do, Shinnosuke. If photos are all we have, so be it.
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There's... not much to take a photo of (or rather, there's too much, he supposes), but he does what he can, taking a few of the entire corpse and then some close-ups of whatever could seem relevant. Throughout the process, he keeps his expression carefully neutral.
Someone else might take this time to comfort Percy, but really, Shinnosuke wouldn't know where to begin.]
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There may not be much we can get from this, but at least we'll have it on hand. What's the state of the other bodies? And what happened last night that you were talking about?
[He can't break down yet. He needs to focus on the bigger picture first. She'd be so pissed at him if he didn't, really.]
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Did you see the Sheriff digging a hole by the tree yesterday? Either he or someone else filled the thing with chemicals and threw four bodies in there. Jason, Rin, and I weren't able to identify them—we just saw the skulls, a couple of bones, bits of flesh, and some hair. Blonde, grey, and blue.
The blue hair probably belongs to Ao, though, since her grave's been dug up. I wouldn't be surprised if two of the other bodies were people who died earlier this week, but... one of the skulls had a hole in it like it'd been shot through the head, and a rifle was found buried in a grave.
[...]
Seems like Xion found Riku's head and Nui's parasol—she's not in a good mood, so watch out if you approach her about that. Some frills were found in the bonfire too. Probably Nui's stuff.
All in all, there's a reason why the Sheriff told us that the "corpses are, ehh". I don't know whether to say that we've got too much to focus on tomorrow or too little.
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[A pause.] There's also no guarantee the rifle is what was used to shoot someone in the head. You and I both know nothing is as clear-cut as that. [There's a deep breath.] Someone needs to keep an eye on Xion. She's been through enough this week.
Having all of the pieces kind of helps. We're going to spend hours arguing tomorrow and be stuck voting at the last minute, again, but at least we're starting to get used to this.
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Ah, though I should've mentioned: Milla and Yuna heard a gunshot last night. So the gun, or at least a gun, was used, even if not for shooting someone.
[But he agrees: decisively concluding that it was a murder weapon may be misleading.]
I'm not going to pretend dealing with people are my strong suit, so I'm not volunteering. [Re: Xion, he means.] You think you can keep it together tomorrow?
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You don't get it. [He shakes his head.] You really think I would have left her here alone without some reinforcement? [Where the hell did it go. Wait. That wasn't with the body, so where the hell did it go? He shakes his head again and glares for a moment.]
I'll be fine. [It's too sharp, too quick, snapping more or less.] Something's wrong.
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What's wrong?
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I left her with a gun last night. It's gone.
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... You mean like the pistol that we all got?
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We traded. [A dry tone.] Being locked in the stocks meant she couldn't fight the way she's used to, but with a gun she would have been able to shoot unless some asshole disarmed her immediately. The gun's gone.
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... Well, that gives rise to a few scenarios as to what happened with the gun, doesn't it?
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Yeah, got it.
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