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

[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. ]

[missmaladroite]

This coming from the man who screamed like a baby! [she shoots him a glare, but her attention is quickly focused back on Raleigh. She might be a furry superhero, but she's also like fifteen. She holds Raleigh by the shoulders, on the verge of tears, futilely trying to revive him.....]

[sad trombone, weh weh weh]

What happened-- did the robot attack him?!

[stop talking shit, Marinette, the robot did nothing wrong!!!]

[erythristic]

We don't know yet, Miss Marinette.

[that's definitely letters...the name of his killer, possibly? already her mind is working quickly, and while she'd try and see if Rhys was all right from the shock, he's doing...something mechanical she doesn't understand. so instead she quickly wipes her gloves on her skirt before setting a hand on Marinette's shoulder.]

But let him rest.

[she's young, it tugs at her cold black heart a little.

instead of drawing notice to the letters, she looks over the body. crushed to death is pretty devastating, but the surviving hand...is there time to check it to see if he's holding anything in it?]

[al2955]

[Though the fingers of his other hand are curled in, they're empty. Grell may notice that there seems to be a trail of bloody shoeprints leading from the pool of blood away from the body, however.

Neither reviving the robot or Raleigh will work. Maybe it's time to start looking elsewhere?]

[jackhole]

[ after a bit, rhys realizes the robot's nothing more than a scrap heap and he isn't going to be able to find anything else without any of his tools. so, he's going to be very nice now and instead of just dropping the robot to the floor, he lugs it over to a chair nearby so he can sit it up in the chair. there you go, buddy.

then he turns back to the other two, hands on his hips. ]

Okay, we need to find out who killed this robot. And, uh, that guy. Whatshisname.

[ finally taking a look at raleigh now and -- ]

... Huh, he's still really attractive even as a corpse. [ wait, shit. ] Don't tell Jack I said that.

[ okay now he's going to go pick up the knife. ]

[missmaladroite]

[She's starting to mcfreaking lose it, but Grell's hand on her shoulder breaks her out of it. She swallows, gets up, and nods.]

....Right, we have to find out who did this. Thank you, madame Grell.

[..... and then shoots Rhys a disgusted look]

His name is Raleigh! And that's disgusting! Show some respect, you-- sicko!

[OBVIOUSLY THE ROBOT IS THE REAL ATTRACTIVE ONE HERE??]

[erythristic]

[...Rhys you're even weirding out Grell, which is hard to do in manners of acknowledging people's beauty. are you serious.]

I don't need to know what - or who - keeps you warm at night, sir.

[she'll shield Marinette from this with her own body if she has to.]

But do keep your eyes open.

[moving away from Marinette, she goes in the direction of those footprints, keeping her skirt hem high enough to not disturb what's on the floor - unlike some people. where do they seem to be leading...]

[al2955]

[The knife looks like one of the standard kitchen knives.

The shoeprints lead towards the direction of the cafeteria entrance, but only a few feet away from the body before they abruptly stop.]

[jackhole]

[ rhys opens his mouth to argue but then rewinds through the last few things he says and huh, maybe she has a point. doesn't stop him from very pettily mimicking stabbing grell and marinette with the kitchen knife when their backs are turned.

then he just drops it back to the floor before shoving his hands in his pockets and following after them, echoeye still lit up. fine, if you want to look, he'll look. he'll also call out passive aggressively while he scans the floor. ]

Stop telling me to keep my eyes open. They're open! Hell, one of them is even turned on. It's like, like no one pays attention to me or something. I'm worthy of attention, you know! Wait, that sounds stupid. Shut up, nevermind.

[ speaking of paying attention to rhys, he pauses and to marinette -- ]

Hey, kid, did you see Fiona out there? She's like, not dead, right?

[missmaladroite]

[She reaches out as if to make sure Raleigh's eyes are closed, then draws her hands back and opts to follow Grell instead, to investigate, and away from Rhys the corpse fucker. Except he's following. She misses the stabbing motions but continues glaring at him regardless.]

No one pays attention to you because you're always doing or saying something stupid. Why should anyone pay attention to you if you can't behave like an adult?

[her face softens a little at the mention of Fiona, because she's actually a nice person. And Marinette isn't quite so petty she's brush him off if he's actually worried about another human being.]

... I didn't see her. But I'm sure she's fine. The robot would have announced it if something else happened.

[erythristic]

[stopping? now that's curious...either someone took their shoes off or they disappeared. hm.

but as for Rhys....she'll wait until Marinette's done notifying him of Miss Fiona's condition before she chooses to respond.]

I'll stop telling you to look when you start looking around at your circumstances, Mr. Rhys! You wouldn't have stepped in blood if you did. Attention will come when you can take a second to be quiet and realize how the words coming out of your mouth sound to others.

[at this point, she turns to look at both of the two with her.]

I'm going to look around. If you'd like to join me, please do.

[and with that said, she heads off in the direction of the kitchen. there might be a clue back there, you never know.]

[al2955]

[Rhys may detect two objects lying around ten feet away to the side of where the bloody footprints end, though they're half-obscured under a table.

Doesn't seem like there's anything in the kitchen.]

[jackhole]

[ he seems to ease up when he's assured fiona's okay, shoulders loosening a bit and arms moving from his pockets to cross over his chest. alright then, what do we have here? ]

Okay, first of all, don't need to be lectured by a fifteen year old. Second, I'm kind of offended? I haven't even said anything that insulting today.

[ geez, chill? ]

Anyway, Red. [ that's you, grell. ] There's something over here.

[ he'll gesture her over with a hand before making quick steps towards whatever it is under the table. he'll crouch down to reach underneath and grab them if he's able to. look at him, doing work! ]

[missmaladroite]

Try acting a little older than five and I wouldn't have to lecture you. [Marinette continues to be unimpressed. Also, whatever, corpse fucker mc "tells fifteen year old girls to get over dead bodies after screaming like a little girl"]

And her name is Madame Sutcliffe.

[The teacher's pet also bends down, glancing around to take a better look at the objects and anything else around]

[erythristic]

[okay, but she'll respond to "Red" so everyone's a winner here. but Marinette gets points because that name makes her sound so elegant.

instead of wasting more time in the kitchen, she comes at the call to see what it is Rhys has found. some sort of clue?]

[al2955]

[They're a pair of shoes! They look like a pair of men's black hightop sneakers. There's blood on the soles.

Also in the interest of speeding this thread up, Marinette just happens to notice another smaller object lying under another table while she's crouched down there!! This one's closer to Raleigh's body.]

[jackhole]

[ have the most obnoxious snort from this guy as he moves to pull the shoes out from under the table. ]

Haha... yeah, because I'm going to like, learn your names. Pfft.

[ and then immediately bangs his head underneath the table and lets out a swear. that's what you get, rhys. when he pulls back out of under the table despite that, he glares down at the shoes, then over at raleigh and to grell this time -- ]

Hey, do you think these are his? Want to check? [ wait ] ... Is he even wearing shoes? I didn't really look.

[ he'll hold out the shoes to grell if she wants to go check herself though! ]

[missmaladroite]

I'll check. [She snickers at Rhys's pain, but notices the other object and goes to see what it is. At the same time, she'll check if he's missing his shoes.]

--There's something else here.

[erythristic]

[she'll at least take the shoes and turn them over to see if there's any blood on them. if the killer wore these...]

What is it, Marinette?

[more clues? thanks robots for taking your time getting here so we can crime scene hunt.]