WEEK 7 - Investigation

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (7)

friday (?) survivors Friday comes, and with it, another alarm. At 7:00 AM, an upbeat, glitzy song plays, the beat thumping loud enough to feel it course through your veins like a bad high. It gets louder and louder, and you feel like your datapad's speakers might explode, but once it ends, there's complete silence. taken list profiles setting rulebook ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[al2955]

[The window's dirty and too small for him to get a view of the whole room, but he'll be able to make out the top half of Fumi Kanno across the room, propped up on the floor against the kitchen countertop. Her eyes are closed; she appears to be unconscious, but she's still enough that it's possible she's dead as well, though she doesn't seem to be visibly wounded. There also seems to be some kind of string in front of the window, loosely running from the bottom to the top out of sight at an angle.

He'll only have a few seconds to look though, because almost immediately afterwards, there's a sudden rattling and scurrying sound echoing from the vents behind him.]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Arumat has reasonable doubt to believe she may be dead as of yet. So at first he's about to ram the door or even call for that gods damned AI (as much as he loathes the idea). }

ALICE, open the damned kitchen door!

{ But immediately after that his attention is shifted, and his free hand's reaching for his scythe (which he had laid propped nearby the kitchen door) that he happens to conveniently bring with him everywhere as he turns around at the sound. Immediately he focuses on the exact location of the vent due to the sound-- he doesn't think he even needs to tell Luke to be ready because. Well.

Arumat's raises his scythe, prepared to swing at the sight of whatever comes forth. }

[chiseler]

[arumat you are too intense sometimes bro. but on the other hand it's not like luke didn't hear that sound immediately, too, and while he can't see what's in the kitchen due to arumat blocking the window his hand's immediately coming up to grab the handle of backbiter which is…well, strapped to his back. funny how that works. he's no longer looking at the door but he's keeping his eyes on the vents. he's also being oddly quiet to try and pinpoint the sound. it'd be too easy for the thing to come crashing down at any moment…but he's thinking.

…what if whatever's in the vents is just a distraction for something in the kitchen? so okay. sure. he'll be ready for a fight even if he's keeping one eye on the vent and one on the kitchen.]

[al2955]

[Looks like you're safe for now, boys. It's impossible to pinpoint where exactly the sound is coming from with how it's echoing through the vents, but it gradually fades and dies down after about half a minute. Seems like whatever might have been in there has moved on.

That said, whenever Luke does decide to glance back to the kitchen, he'll notice Fumi's no longer propped against the counter. Alice also speaks up at this point.]

I am afraid I am prohibited from interfering with a conspiracy kill, Arumat. You will have to find a way through the door on your own.

[thanatosincarnate]

Screw you, you useless...

{ Arumat probably said some very not nice things, as he decided to throw himself at the kitchen door, going for a good, hard pounding against the surface in an attempt to bash it open, and if that doesn't work, he'll be prepared to use his scythe to cut the goddamn door open. Because lasers.

The Eldarian is many things but he's not a strategist, despite having been a Captain at one point. Shoot first and ask questions later. }

[chiseler]

[…

…'kay. look alice has helped luke out a couple of times so he's not going to curse out their nice AI friend. instead he knows better to keep his mouth shut. luckily at least one of them is a strategist and while arumat's busy slamming his body against the door to jimmy it open he's still on guard and ready to draw his sword.

with arumat out of the way at least he can see inside and all he sees is the string. that alone is concerning and he blinks in surprise.]

Conspiracy kill huh? [that sure sounds great.] What're the rules for that one again? [he's not sure he's going to get an answer, but worth a shot.]

[bloodbiter]

[arrives fifteen minutes late without starbucks. she might have missed everything up until this point, but it's still clear that something isn't right here.]

What happened?

[she won't wait for an answer before she moves forward to help arumat break the door open.]

[al2955]

[It takes two or three solid rams, but eventually the door does bust open! And probably sends them all tumbling over each other. It looks like the door had been blocked by several of the cafeteria chairs.

More importantly, Fumi Kanno lies prone and face-down on the floor beneath the countertop, the back of her head bloody. A broken and bloodstained medical monitor lies beside her.]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ ALICE doesn't answer-- but he does, after righting himself to his feet. }

No more than three individuals can plot to commit a murder together. Whoever's most culpable will be deemed the true culprit. If there are two victims, the accomplice can get off with resigning from The Cradle Project if they avoid a majority vote and betray the mastermind.

{ Arumat's stepping into the room further after pushing away the chairs. As he steps closer to Fumi, reaching out to turn her over, is there anything else off about her or the room in general that can be noticed with a quick glance? }

[chiseler]

[there's a hum of acknowledgement and he also turns to give adelina a short grin.]

Looks like we're dealing with a "conspiracy kill", whatever that means. [whatever he'll just cross-check with adam later about the rules.] And our last vulnerable's the victim. [while arumat's immediately moving to check out fumi, he's sparing a glance to the room before approaching that string that's on the door. hello, what's this...] With everything that happened last night, this was probably after everybody else was already occupied.

[it's clever, really.] Adelina, I hate to ask but...wanna check out the vents just in case? [please say no, be safe]

[bloodbiter]

I see. Thank you for the explanation.

[ugh.]

Was there something in the vents? [apart from the obvious.] How would I get in?

[someone stop her??]

[al2955]

[There doesn't appear to be any other wounds on Fumi aside from the head wound. Her body's still pretty warm.

A long length of string is strewn over and all around Fumi's body. Adelina will likely recognize it as twine from her embroidery kit. There's more string that's been tightly wrapped and tied around the medical monitor, leaving a loose end trailing out. There's also a piece of tape stuck to the doorway.

Looks like the only vent visible in the kitchen is one all the way up on the ceiling. There's also more out in the cafeteria outside of the kitchen door that are closer to the ground.]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Wonder how the murderer is going to string them along this time. Ha ha ha (okay that was lame). }

Maybe try the vents right outside of the kitchen. I wouldn't recommend going in all the way if you value your life, however.

{ PAUSE. Once he stops staring at Fumi's body-- wondering what the hell happened and why is there so much string. }

What's with all of this damn string? A trap?

{ Can't people just kill each other normally? Holy shit.

Noooooot that the whole killing each other thing is a thing he'd want to happen/encourage anyway but still. }

[chiseler]

[hes busy looking at the string and since there's actually tape on the door instead that's what he's going to notice. an examination of the string and how it's placed plus the tape...]

I'd guess it was used to hold the monitor to knock her out. Or it's for decoration. [no really. then to adelina since arumat didn't explain...] Heard something in the vents not long ago. Not sure what it is this time. If you're going to check I'll come with. Arumat should be able to assess the rest of the damage done here, I think.

[bloodbiter]

[glancing at the twine, and... oh. awkward. well, better to be up front about it, probably.]

...That's mine. The twine, I mean, or at least it looks very similar. I asked for an embroidery kit several weeks ago, it's kept in the viewport.

[she glances over to luke]

If it would be unwise to fully enter as Arumat says, I doubt both of us would be able to look inside... But I may need some help reaching it. Would you be able to help lift me so I can see if anything was left there?

[al2955]

[One end of the long string is taped to the door; the other end is somewhere nearby Fumi's body and frayed at the end. The loose end from the monitor looks similarly frayed. The taped string is more than long enough to run from the door to her body.]

[thanatosincarnate]

...

{ If Luke is accompanying Adelina, Arumat no longer has any objections, so he doesn't say anything further on that matter. He gives Adelina's comment about the string a cursory thought, if anything, to be put into his head come trial or beforehand.

Well, maybe what Luke says is true regarding the monitor...but he wonders if there was any other additional use for the string.

When Luke mentions to assess more damage here, Arumat decides to doublecheck everything that he can. If Fumi's body didn't have any marks from the string that can be seen or otherwise, he'll move on from there. He'll take a brief look at the chairs and the counters themselves (no one was cooking or anything else weird was going on in here, right?)... okay so what if he's still bad at this investigation thing. But the important thing is he tries. }

[chiseler]

[It's weird is what it is and he can tell there's going to be some kind of experimenting to be had during the trial. Or, there will be if he can help it. Still he nods in response to Adelina's question as he gives her a quick once-over.]

Yeah, you're small enough. Should be fine. Let's head out and see how easy it is to access these things. [And he's already heading for the door.] Arumat, come join us when you clear this area. [Come along Adelina]

[bloodbiter]

[off she goes with luke. this is going to be Fine.]

Hopefully it isn't too difficult.

[al2955]

[Arumat will notice that the sink's wet; it looks like it may have been recently used. Additionally, there's some sort of sticky residue around the window on the door which Luke probably would have noticed but I may have forgotten to mention shh.

The vents outside of the kitchen are much easier to access, as Jack and Clover proved the other day. Luckily, it looks like they've been cleaned, so there's no need to worry about blood or body parts. That said, they're completely empty.]

[thanatosincarnate]

Fine. But if you two finish before I'm done, you can come back in if you want, and inform me of your findings.

{ Arumat will note both things anyway -- he probably at some point also was close-by the door to notice as well (he'll be nearing the door again by the end of his own investigation anyway). In addition, for the sake of being thorough, the Eldarian will look through the cabinets, check out the oven, and finally take a look over the walls of the kitchen as well. }

[chiseler]

[We can assume Luke noticed and didn't mention it because he's kind of a dick. Still he's with Adelina and they've checked out the vents. Luckily he didn't even have to lift her and it's easy enough to peer into the area.

Which...is bad.]

Whatever was in there already disappeared. It's probably heading to another part of the ship. [That's not good.] You didn't see or hear anything weird before you found us, did you? [And he's still trying to get a deeper look to see if maybe there's a turn he can see in the vents, etc.]

[bloodbiter]

We didn't see anything else that could have been important evidence, either.

[she shakes her head at luke's question]

I came after the alarm began, and I happened upon you two. Nothing seemed strange to me on the way here.

[al2955]

[Nothing odd about anything else in the kitchen, though Arumat may note that Fumi's body is directly below the cabinets.

Luke can see several turns in the vents, actually! Looks like they branch off after a bit and go who knows where.]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Poor Fumi-- he'll just note again how close the monitor is to her again andddd well he's pretty much finished here since he believes he's found everything he can find for now.

The Eldarian then heads closer to the duo looking into the ventilation. }

...

The sink was used recently. In addition, as you two likely noticed, Fumi's body was moved or fell to right underneath the cabinets after she had been placed up on the kitchen counter.

{ He certainly heard Adelina's comment, so he just says what he's found anyway. }

Doesn't look like there's anything else.

{ Unless someone wants to crawl through the vents but he thinks that's...unwise. }