onceuponacomm | FOURTH INVESTIGATION

FOURTH INVESTIGATION

INVESTIGATION IV

Unlike last week, the seventh hour of the night passes without any incident. Maybe it's enough to prevent as many terrible sleeping positions as last week, but an hour later your good luck is upended.

You rise with the sun again, although this time it's a good measure ahead of you. Today is another Friday, and you know what those bring by now.

The time is 6:00 AM.

((OOC NOTE: Investigation is open until 10PM EST.))

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[ Thought so.

Do any of these strewn items have any evidence of blood? He'll be eyeing the ground as he steps around things carefully to reach the table.

Near the table, he'll be looking closer for evidence of a fight (things like clothing, blood, hair, weapons, etc?). ]

[No blood on any object around here! While he's eyeing the ground, though, he'll see it:

Blood. There definitely is some blood here on the wooden floorboards. It's curious, all the blood he can see is inside the grain of the wood -- on the marks and lines each floorboard has.

No clothing, blood, or hair near the table. However the table is broken in a way that perhaps will get Makoto's cogs running: a table leg is missing. Hm!

[ Makoto's seen blood, and seen what it looks like when attempted to be cleaned (I have not) --is that what this looks like? Is there any signs of spots they might've missed because of the debri in the way?

Is the missing leg... gone, gone? Or if he does a cursory look for it around the store will he find it or anything else of interest? ]

[Great job, Makoto! Thanks to your knowledge, you'll be able to see that indeed, it was cleaned. Thank goodness the wood grain made it impossible to clean too well.

First Norton's legs are missing, now this table leg is missing. When will the madness end--oh, wait, there it is.

Looks like the table leg is some distance away from the broken table]

[ Makoto can hear all about the adventure of Norton's leggy bottom later.

Alright, anything weird about this leg? Other than it also being dismembered. ]

[Right away he should be able to tell this was broken by force. The way there are so many splinters and jagged-looking edges definitely proves it.

No blood or anything worth talking about other than that, though. Still...when he takes the leg, perhaps he'll be able to see something else on the floor, near the counter of the store]

[ He will be heading right over to whatever is on the floor near the counter. What's going on over here? ]

[It's...it's a compass. A cracked compass, in fact, there's quite the noticeable crack all over it.

Worth noting this store doesn't have any compasses on display.]

[ Time to take that and look around the rest of the counter area. Signs of the fight happening around here too? ]

[There indeed are more items strewn around here -- items that obviously come from the store. There's one single item that stands out among the rest:

A kerosene lamp. It's empty, thankfully, no risk of flammable stuff here, but it's quite dented!]

[ It might be empty, but does it look like it's ever been used? How bad are these dents if he takes a closer look? ]

[Looks like it has never been used. The inside doesn't even smell like kerosene -- and that's a distinctive smell, so there's no room for mistake there.

The dent is pretty bad, indeed! And all in one single spot]

[ Makoto's going to take one last look over the store from this new vantage point, glance to the ceiling because of last time, making sure there's no blood he's missed.

Is there any way his imagination and observation skills could lead him to have any idea the path that this fight took? He's already guessing that it started with the counter area. Or is it suspiciously too much destruction to tell? ]

[Doesn't seem like there's any blood other than the blood he already found. There still are a lot of glass shards, though. One of the shards is whole enough for him to identify it as part of a water bottle from this store. Indeed, there also is some water, but there seems to be nothing abnormal about it.

Hmmmmm...that would be an accurate assessment, all things considered. The table is there, halfway from the counter with the lamp and compass to the blood]

[ Are the glass shards all the same type of glass? Like from the aforementioned water bottles from the store? ]

[Curious you say that, Makoto.

Some do look like they're thicker than other shards. Interesting, eh?]

[ Very interesting. Do they match any other items in the store that he'd be able to tell?

Makoto's gonna get a closer look at some of those thicker shards. ]

[From a look it doesn't seem like these come from any item in display!

Ah, these thick shards...they definitely belong to the water bottle. Looks like they're meant to be somewhat sturdy but in the end they're just glass and therefore can be broken if you try hard enough]

[ Ah, wait so... the thicker shards come from the general store water bottles, but not the other ones?

If the less thick ones are the ones without a clear source, then I guess he'll look at those! (Is it just these two types?)

He'll be taking careful samples with parchment as well. ]

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faentasy - 2021-06-25 23:55 (UTC) - Expand

[Rika inches into the general store, not really wanting to be around the corpses this time. (Especially Norton. Hopefully they find all the pieces unlike a certain case she knows...)

Anyway, no time to focus on that! That's a compass!]

Did...Norton have something like this? I can't see Adora owning a compass.

I'm pretty sure it was his... ? That's my guess, anyway.

Then he was definitely here. Now the question is: why clean up the blood? And...why the dismemberment? People usually do that if they need an easier way to hide and carry a body.

I don't know. Maybe they thought it'd be easier to hide?

[ It makes sense, but should he be concerned that Rika knows this? ]

As for cleaning up, maybe they were hiding footprints? It's not like they can hide that a fight took place, so it's got to be something else.

[It's fiiiiine, Makoto. Don't worry about it.]

Hm...that'd make sense. Given how often we've used footprint size and the like to narrow down the size of the killer, I know I'd want to disguise any physical traits people could use to track me down.

[ Makoto nods slowly. He doesn't disagree, but... ]

It still had to be someone strong enough to do this, at least. And then overpower him.

[ see: dented lantern. ]

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