Fourth investigation

[letsplayamod]

[You get the feeling that something is immediately wrong as soon as you awaken. Your room, like each room, is quiet in the morning light. Even before you've pulled yourself from your sheets, there's a sense that dread is waiting for you.

It's a new day. You'll have to step out your door to face it eventually.

Who goes first?]

Comments

[letsplayamod]

[Please consider wearing shoes, Rieful.

There's a distressing amount of blood out here.]

[brokenhabit]

[ Opens her own door and sees the blood.

..

Closes the door. NOT TODAY SATAN. ]

[letsplayamod]

[Fair and valid.]

[fillets]

That's for the best, I suppose...

[ Jesus Christ okay FINE she'll put some sandals on and then investigate further. Does it lead anywhere, or...? ]

[letsplayamod]

[It does! Around your living quarters, all the way to the foot of room 16.

There, laying on the ground, is a shape, covered by a bedsheet.]

[catsgothistongue]

[Fuuuuuuuuck. That's...

Steeling himself, Ranma's just gonna. Poke at the shape. Maybe they're napping and spilt tomato juice all over the hallway]

[letsplayamod]

[The shape is unresponsive.]

[sweetsynergy]

Uh. Whose room was that, again?

[catsgothistongue]

[It catches on his tongue, before he finally spits it out.]

Ferdie's...

[Oh no no no-]

[latinumsbetter]

[well, the door to room 15 swings open, and there's Quark in the doorway, about to step out--but obviously freezes first when he notices everyone]

What're you all...?

[but then he's noticing the bedsheet and all the blood and takes a step back, eyes widening]

[stringup]

[ Hey don't mind the lady just. Running over as soon as she sees where the blood trail leads to. And don't mind her kneeling down to take off the bedsheet. ]

Please, please, please—

[letsplayamod]

[Grabbing the thin blanket from atop the body is simple enough. Depending on your fortitude, actually removing it will be much harder. The fabric might feel heavy in your hands. Not too surprising, really: the moment you do, something horrible will be revealed. The blood on the bedsheet proved that quite well.

But it must be removed, and so it was. Do you know what’s one of the fiction genres where a sheet is removed to do a dramatic reveal of a dead body?

Detective procedurals.

The person revealed is small, face-down, a little curled like she had been trying to comfort herself while trying to crawl. There’s blood on her back from a most grievous wound, there’s blood underneath her, and, mercifully, her face isn’t visible.

She didn’t get too far, though. There’s no trail nor signs she had gotten forward more than a few inches at best before she stopped moving. Were she with you, she’d already be looking around in the immediate area, trying to find clues for the trial to come.

This time, though, it’s up to you.

Misane Mikoto is dead.]

[markofnobility]

[The door rattles and starts to open, bumping the tiny corpse. It bumps a few more times before an amber eye peeks out, looks down. And starts screaming in shock and horror.

Sadly, Ferdinand von Aegir is still alive, somehow]

[taintedfayth]

[... ah. No amount of healing will help with this, unfortunately.]

[yourheroine]

…b-but…how? Misane…

[Aoi looks confused, and also distressed. It’s not supposed to be like this. Everybody says that Typhon can’t do what he promised, and yet…they can’t quite know for sure, right? If you love someone enough and there’s even a chance to bring them back…

Someone was bound to consider it, right?]

[stringup]

[ Somehow her worst assumption didn't happen but this is just as bad anyway.

Velvet doesn't say anything as she looks down at Misane's body, eyes sort of...staring, in the way of a thousand-yard stare.

Then, all the torches in the pavilion hallway instantly go out, and for some reason, you can feel the temperature drop rapidly, until you can see your own breath. ]

Who...

[catsgothistongue]

[Time goes stock-still around Ranma.

His mind is racing, unable to process the small frame he's staring at, unable to conceive that that's Misane. Lying in her own blood, motionless, no breathing--]

M- [Voice hitches, he crouches down, trying to check her vital, a pulse, anything to tell him this isn't real!!!] Misane, c'mon, wake up...

[The rational, cynical half of his brain's screaming at him to cut it off, but. This was a girl, one year younger than him, never did anything wrong to nobody, and somebody went after her, killed her--]

[murchada]

[she spots the hair color, first, before even seeing the rest of the body and a horrible chill goes through her.]

No--!

[pariunt]

[That it so much blood, Astarion has to cover his nose and mouth before he gets drunk off of the scent.]

[letsplayamod]

[Turn into the wind, Astarion. Coming from the temple, it's sure to blow away the scent of blood from here.

At least, it would. Were it not for the bitter smell of blood coming from that direction as well.]

[catsgothistongue]

[Like. Literal pints of blood levels of distressing or...]

[sweetsynergy]

[yeah there's probably a few different thresholds of distress in play here]

[catsgothistongue]

[hey you never know if somebody just got a really bad paper cut!!!]

[sweetsynergy]

[Paper cuts are distressing for reasons almost entirely unrelated to blood.]

[Especially when hand sanitizer is involved.]

[letsplayamod]

[It's a mess of droplets. Which might not seem bad, except for the fact that it's... all over.]