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bellelurette2025-04-04 07:39 pm
lesmodsalouette) wrote in bellelurette2025-04-04 07:39 pm
Investigation IV
INVESTIGATION
Being forced asleep the second the clock struck midnight has been an ill-omen for weeks now. Yet this morning sees you waking not to explosions and smoke, but to the comfortable feeling of eight hours of uninterrupted rest. It's 8 in the morning and the sun is already out, and all is quiet around Chateau Ambregris.
Do you dare hope that you can face the day without further bloodshed? That Ish's announcement of needing no more bodies has stilled the restless violence in everybody's hearts? They say time heals all wounds, but has this ever-repeating week truly had the same effect?
(( OOC: Comment to this entry with where your character is going in the morning. A mod response will let you know if thereβs anything to be found there! The Investigation is a free-for-all until all bodies have been found.
Once the victim(s) have been identified, there will be an IC announcement, and mods will provide Investigation sub-headers for the relevant locations. Up to 3 characters are welcome to investigate under each header unless indicated otherwise. ))
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Whereabouts in the room is Homura's chosen igloo?]
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She'll notice that part of her view is blocked by some of the larger ice blocks that are usually around to create the base of igloos. There's definitely some blood on the blocks. And if she's looking around a bit more, to the right, along the southern wall of the room, there's a considerable amount of blood splashed and soaked into the snow in a large zone. It's also partly on that wall. Not only that, there's a large amount of overlapping tracks in the bloody snow.
So! A decent view from her little igloo. What would she like to do next?]
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she uh. can we carefully check out the tracks. size, spacing (far enough apart for sprinting? enough overlapping and going back over themselves to be a prolonged scuffle? etc), that sort of thing. and ... does the blood in the snow look like droplets like the trail someone would make if they were running while bleeding, or is it bigger splashes of red all over? ]
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The snow is extremely messed up all around here -- there are many deeper foot tracks suggesting quick and violent movement, though they're all overlapping to such an extent that it's hard to find anything as distinct as a footprint or coherent movement trail. All you can tell is that many people violently moved all over this area. Some of the tracks show partial shoe treads, but others have curiously smooth partial prints that look dragged out.
Then there's the non-foot tracks, which at least map more easily to the ice blocks themselves, confirming that they were moved sometime during the night.
I assume she is out of her igloo to look at the prints and the blood -- so as Homura is checking out the blood in the snow, she'll see something, or several somethings, glinting half-buried in all the white and red.]
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she'll approach to take a closer look at those buried somethings before she loops back around to get a better look at those dragged blocks. mysterious somethings, are you going to blow up on us? (actually, there aren't suspicious craters or pockets of half melted snow, are there.) ]
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Where the snow is most packed and the red is deepest... many rows of metallic spikes peek out, most of them reddened as well.]
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those weren't always there, right? damn can't believe someone decided to reenact rake and hoe murder by hiding it under the snow. who decided to place caltrops here.
more seriously though... if she gets a closer look at them, are they recognizable from anywhere else in the manor? and blood wise, does it look like the general blood trails and everything lead up to this spot? obviously the body wasn't left here so there are probably maybe lesser trails leading out to wherever the bodies actually ended up, but ... to clarify, this is all at the southern wall, right, with more blood the closer one gets to it?
and is there blood over/in the non-foot tracks (attempting to confirm whether the blocks were moved before or after everything went down?) apparently we're just getting a real good look, very carefully, at this southern wall before moving on to the rest of the room today. ]
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A closer inspection shows that they're actually small triangular blades made of a silvered metal, which would blend in great with snow if they weren't visibly bloodied. She would not recognize them from anywhere else in the castle, but since she spends a fair amount of time in the Mars Room she might be able to tell that they're crudely similar to spear tips, just much less elaborate in shape or decorated than the ones in there.
It does look like the general blood trails and splatter lead to this spot, with the snow becoming more blood-soaked the closer you get to the southern wall. Speaking of the wall that we're paying close attention to, there's something else glinting in the wall across from her.
As for the non-foot tracks, most of the blood there is blended into the tracks. And while she's looking over the snow again, something shiny is half-hidden behind one of the ice blocks.]
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(it was vayne committing this murder all the way from mdv, scape me.)
we are approaching the wall, apparently. we are doing our best not to disturb the crime scene but that might kind of be a lost cause at this point. what's the shiny thing. both of them, even, the one on the wall and on the snow blocks.
and because I'm bad at words, when you say blended into the tracks, you mean like ... the blood was probably already fallen on the snow first, then the block was pushed over the bloodsnow, and the blood in the tracks therefore look like what happens when you pack together snow (and blood) together more tightly right? ]
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The blood is blended into the tracks as in it looks like the tracks went over the blood, yes. In addition, there aren't many foot-tracks where these block tracks are, so she can see the intersection of blood vs. snow pretty clearly.
The shiny thing behind the ice block is... a bloodied knife! It has been lying there long enough the blood is frozen onto the blade. While she's by that ice block, she'll see something of interest by an igloo near her igloo, but that can keep for a bit.
The shiny thing in the south wall turns out to be a lead ball embedded in the wall, slightly above her head.]
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otherwise, let's come back to that knife and the blocks. other than that it blocked her view of the entrance, is there anything else notable about how they're arranged?
(we'll get to you in a bit, other igloo.) ]
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Sweeping the area nearest to the wall yields two things: there's some short black strands on top of the snow. Looking more closely, there are white strands, too, but they would be almost impossible to find without the black ones showing up.
There's also a sheathed sword (sheath bloody) not far from where the metal spikes end nearby.
Going back to the knife and blocks -- there isn't anything else notable about the arrangement here, other than that the blocks are clustered around the area with the spikes instead of spread out in there.]
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black and white strands. wonder what what means. and hm, bullet, no gun found here yet ... let's... collect the sheath, sure. before that, though, let's unsheathe the sword and check it: what's the inside of sheath look like, and how's the sword itself looking?
unless something jumps out of the sword to stop her though, after that inspection she'll resheathe it to go check out the other igloo. ]
cw: gore
Black and white and some black-white strands as well, while you're digging there. The blood is frozen onto the sheath, much like the knife she picked up before, but the inside of the sheath and the sword itself are clean. Nothing slithers out and tries to facehug her. ☆
'Tis time for igloo... 2! Electric Igaloo-- While she's heading over there, strolling by the spikes again, I should note that in addition to the blood there's bits of organic matter and cloth also stuck on the spikes because she has eyes. There's just a lot of things clamoring for her eyettention at once.
Speaking of which, closer to the other igloo, she'll come across some damaged brown feathers in the snow as well. There's also a hint of gunpowder in the air around here.]
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damaged brown feathers. also neat. damaged like broken and bent, sliced through, or somewhat singed, now that we've got guns and gunpowder in the mix? and I presume they don't make a clear trail and are more of a general mess the way a lot of the other evidence has been so far?
looking in all directions ... surely the killer did not just dump their gun in the other igloo here, right. sure, let's check that out too, unless the intent is for Homura to become a bloodhound and sniff out the source of the gunpowder smell. ]
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Some of the feathers look broken and others bent. There aren't many, but they're scattered around the area.
She won't find anything out of place in the igloo -- on the other hand, outside of it she may find a use for her gunhound nose, since the scent becomes stronger a couple of paces behind the igloo. This is also where the snow is visibly disturbed, with more of those weirdly-smooth tracks; if she looks closely enough or puts her nose to the snow, she'll notice something dark mixed into it.]
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noting the weirdly smooth tracks. getting a look at around the disturbed snow first, but ... okay, fine, the way forward is to try to find out what that something dark is, whether that means brushing the snow away from it or not, isn't it. ]
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Speaking of acquiring things, Homura has gained black powder! There's not much, and it's pretty clumped together with the snow, but the smell is distinct.]
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do the spikes come out easy, or is there resistance. also she is going to have to collect so much stuff and bring it in as evidence, help. anything she can't currently carry in her hands is being noted and she'll definitely go back for it with multiple trips if needed, but if she's combed this side of the room enough... is it time to check out the rest of it because there is so much room to cover even if she follows the Obvious Mess. ]
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She can also see that the majority of the mess in the room is the south end she just came from.
--Homura have you considered that there are pack mules in the castle with you. Anyway, once she gets some nice mittens to wrangle the spikes, she'll find that trying to pull them up disturbs the entire snow cover around them for a considerable stretch. Also, where is she trying to grab spikes from, relative to the south wall?]
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but also hmm. ]
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Is Homura going to continue trying to uproot the spikes like weirdly stubborn carrots?]
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she will come back with a hockey stick and attempt to see if she can use it to get better leverage to lift the spikes with. from a slightly safer distance than right on top of them, while we're at it. ]
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Slowly, quite slowly since it's a pretty decent surface area she's working with -- the snow starts shaking off the series of spikes. A latticed wood frame comes into partial view beneath the snow, along with the thing making the noise: a small cloth bag underneath the corner of the contraption, filled and heavy.
That said, past a certain point, no matter how much Homura yanks she won't be able to completely unbury more than a corner of the frame from this side.]
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ALL CORE EVIDENCE FOUND