WEEK TWO - Investigation

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (2)

friday (?) survivors Friday comes again, but this time it's much more gentle. There are no songs ousting you from your rooms, no — instead, you are allowed to sleep however long you would like as long as it does not breach any rules. If you attempt to open your datapad, however, you will be greeted with a video and accompanying music, of a different sort of persuasion from the music played previously — this one is not a jangly easy listening style tune, but rather a haunting and dreamlike elegy. Turning off your datapad will make the video disappear, but restarting the datapad will only bring the video back up again. Despite this, nothing out of the ordinary seems to occur. You have lunch, wander the garden, and have a drink with the companions you have made in the past two weeks. Soon, mid-afternoon comes. ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

cafeteria.

[erythristic]

[okay, because some people are wrapped up in fake screaming, Grell's decided that instead, she's going to head towards the cafeteria in order to get her hands on afternoon tea and let the others deal with the noise. (seriously, it's the exact same scream? it's false. people scream differently all the time.)

anything on that general route?]

[al2955]

[It's light enough that it won't be immediately visible unless she's looking carefully at the ground, but there appears to be a smudged bloodstain on the floor directly outside of the entrance to the cafeteria.]

[erythristic]

[fortunately for this would be heroine, she's pulling out her usual paper and pen so that she can write a little more after she gets her tea, and the pen slips through her fingers to land on the floor. bending down to get it, she notices something strange...and then it registers.

...nothing for it but to soldier on, is there. so she takes a breath and moves to go into the cafeteria itself.]

[jackhole]

[ HAVE A RHYS because that's what everyone needs in their lives, right? guess who's just coming over and probably walking all over the bloodstain as he follows grell. ]

Ugh, geez. Thank god that's over with, right? Can actually go back to doing normal stuff like eating shitty space food before getting shitty space drunk.

[ he obviously assumes he has a kindred spirit here, right grell? ]

[al2955]

[As they enter the cafeteria, they (or Grell if Rhys is an oblivious moron) will notice that the smudged blood suddenly gets a lot clearer once they're a few feet in. It's distinct enough that they can see it's actually drops of blood now, and it looks like it may be leading somewhere.]

[erythristic]

[as much as Rhys' lack of manners makes her unwilling to respond to him favorably, she has to reach out and grab his arm before he goes too far. before he steps all over what she sees and knows to be blood. she's seen too much death to mistake that color.]

Hush for a moment, and open your eyes.

[and then she'll let him go, but she's following that bloodtrail through the cafeteria, carefully holding up the edge of her skirt to not step in it or disturb it.]

[jackhole]

[ welp, that's a stumble. he's sure getting tugged along there and he's about to ask her if she means that metaphorically or literally when he notices the puddle of blood at their feet.

aw, no. ]

Ohhhh, oh my god? Did I step in that?

[ lifting a leg to inspect the bottom of his shoe and he lets out a groan. ]

Blood! Freggin' blood, on my shoe! That's great. Where the hell is this blood coming from? I need answers.

[ so now he's going to stomp forward with a bloody footprint following him every step as his echoeye lights up and he tries to follow the trial of blood. is he really going to ask a corpse to pay for his shoes? maybe. ]

[al2955]

[Don't be a wuss Rhys, it's only like a few drops of blood.

The trail goes up the stairs towards the second level of the cafeteria. Continue?]

[erythristic]

[ >continue]

If it bothers you so much, there is a sink over there.

[however much passive aggressive proper lady eyerolling can be conveyed in a sentence, it's there. she's going to ascend the stairs and see what can be seen on that level.]

[jackhole]

[ please, rhys is from a telltale game. it's either bad choice a or bad choice b, none of this "do you want to continue" shit.

but rhys just sneers at grell's reply -- is it at grell herself or the situation, who knows. either way, he's got a sneer on as he follows grell. ]

What? No. I'm going to -- Oh!

[ he suddenly gets an idea. it's full of spite because of course, which means rhys is now going to deliberately step in every single blood stain and smeaaaaar it everywhereeeeeeee as they walk. he's definitely 28 years old. ]

... Heh, this is really hilarious. You should totally try it.

[ he's definitely a-gigglin' ]

[al2955]

[Rhys...

Well, he won't smear it too much because the drops of blood are about halfway dry. The trail leads all the way to the very back of the cafeteria on the second floor, ending at...what appears to be a giant pile of garbage?

Just push Rhys into it where he belongs, Grell.]

[erythristic]

[she has more self control than that. but she is also staring at the garbage pile and thinking that Rhys will either see something akin to his home or he'll run away screaming. meanwhile, she's the one with leather gloves on and long sleeves.

there is no gain without some sort of sacrifice. also someone is going to owe her because she is taking a deep breath, straightening her shoulders, pushing up her glasses...

and she's going to dig through the garbage to see if anything can be found. mentally she's telling herself she can take a long shower after this and cleanse it from herself, and that will pull her through. curiosity outweighing disgust right now.

if something flies back from where she's digging and hits Rhys, well, whoops. she definitely did not throw that. a lady would never.]

[jackhole]

[ nah, grell. he sees the garbage pile and thinks of fiona's home, grinning to himself and muttering -- ]

Where's a Pandoran when you need one? Haha, hehe.

[ stop giggling to yourself, man. he's actually too busy giggling that he doesn't notice the thing flying at his head and it totally hits its mark. rhys' head is a magnet for all things involving head injuries so he just swears loudly and stumbles backwards a little, catching whatever it is she threw in the process. ]

Okay, like, was that necessary? You're already going through the garbage, you didn't have to throw it at me. That's so rude.

[ he should probably look around in places that aren't the garbage pile, huh? he's going to do a quick scan with his echo to see if anything pops out. ]

[al2955]

[There's nothing in the garbage except more garbage and Rhys' shame. Next to it is an empty trash bag.

Nothing seems to pop out with the Echo-Eye...oh, except the robot lying in a pool of blood on the first floor directly underneath where they're standing now.]

[erythristic]

I didn't throw anything at you. If an accident has occurred, my apologies.

[still, if the garbage search is fruitless, she'll briefly look at the trash bag before dropping it aside. anything? Bueller?]

[jackhole]

[ he would reply to that with some more whining but of course, that's when the echo eye catches the fucking DEAD ROBOT BODY and rhys lets out a very high pitched scream. he jerks backwards, stumbling before falling right to the floor on his butt. good job, rhys. ]

We have to go back downstairs!

[ and he sounds RATHER URGENT about this as he scrambles up from the floor and takes off back towards the stairs, pretty much making a beeline for the dead robot. ]

[al2955]

[The robot is tragically super dead. There's a knife sticking out of it and it's leaking motor oil from the wound.

Also there's a human body underneath it bleeding everywhere, but who cares about that next to the robot death tbh.]

[missmaladroite]

[Alerted to the high-pitched scream, Marinette comes running in!!]

I heard a scream! Was that Adelina, are you alrigh---

[wait a second, Rhys is there]

That was you?!

[she hasn't noticed the tragic robot death or that poser human that also died]

[erythristic]

[ordinary people take the stairs. Grell Sutcliffe grabs hold of the railing and vaults over it to land perfectly on the ground fifteen feet down with a style that would make other people jealous. even her hair falls elegantly around her shoulders, and so she's there before Rhys can make it to the scene. natural twenty, get.

...that's a body. with a robot on top of it, with a knife in it, but that is a corpse. and without even thinking, she crouches down, pushing the broken machine off the body and to the side to see who exactly was the next member of their group to fall.]

[al2955]

[The robot's about as heavy as you'd expect a hunk of metal to be, but it won't pose much of a problem to her strength. However, its weight would explain why the body underneath the robot looks pretty...squashed. One hand is extended with its index finger pointing out, as if in the middle of writing a message.

Raleigh Beckett is dead.]

[jackhole]

[ this is actually a pretty difficult moment for rhys. he's caught between four different directions here, having to make a solid choice. he's going to... telltale it.

(Y) To Marinette: "Screams come in different vocal pitches depending on your voice! They're not gender based! Fuck you!"
(B) To Grell: "Who jumps like that? WHO? That's VAULT HUNTER bullshit and I'm not having it!"
(X) Run towards the robot.
(A) Do Nothing

rhys presses X on his controller and dashes towards the robot at full speed, skidding across the floor a little and dropping to his knees towards the stabbed corpse. he'll take the knife and tug it out, throwing it to the side before scanning over the robot with his arm to check for damages. ]

Oh my god, oh my god? Who would do such a thing? Oh my goddd.

[ sorry, raleigh ]

[missmaladroite]

[Never you fear, Rhys, Marinette is judging you regardless!!!! What a weenie!!!]

[See, she doesn't even scream when she catches sight of the poor robot and also whoever that guy is. She does, however, gasp in horror, and immediately ignore the real victim here to rush to Raleigh with a stunned look on her face.]

Raleigh! Raleigh!!

[is he still alive? hell no, but that's not going to stop her from scrambling over to him and checking]

[man, her priorities are fucked up]

[erythristic]

[Raleigh. she remembers reading that name, and straightens up. the sight of a dead man isn't too much for her to take, but this means something. this means there's going to be another one of those trials.

in a clear voice, she speaks loud enough to be heard across this room.]

Lady Alice.

[her eyes are fixed on the dead man, but she thinks that their overseer might be watching.]

Please let everyone know that there's been another death, if you could.

[while Rhys is looking at the robot and Marinette is checking Raleigh, her priority is that message. can she make any of it out?]

[al2955]

[Alice's disembodied voice rings out in the cafeteria.]

Do not worry, Grell Sutcliffe. The announcement will always be automatically sent whenever three or more players discover a body.

[It looks like the robot was stabbed in a vulnerable area, where there's a small gap between the plates of metal that a knife could slip into. The wiring there has been cut and destroyed in the attack.

Raleigh is super dead. He is Wile E. Coyote squashed by an anvil dead. Marinette will notice that the body is still fairly warm.

The message looks something like this, but...bloody instead of MS painty.]

[jackhole]

[ rhys is going to keep working with this robot here. actually, after her shouting he looks back towards marinette and hisses at her -- ]

Could you stop yelling? Seriously, corpse, we get it. Whoop-de-doo.

[ then back to the robot, he's going to keep scanning the damage, running diagnostics on the robot from what he can, and muttering to himself as he goes. he's trying to figure out if he can salvage this, if he's able to repair the wires at all. he's also going to look for a usb port to plug himself into the robot to see if he can download the robot's harddrive to his arm. ]

Freggin'... people with the screaming. Like we didn't know this was going to happen. At least he's still whole, I guess.

[ fuss fuss fuss. ]