thefoundation | RECORDING 2: THE FIRST MURDER

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round 5

RECORDING 2: THE FIRST MURDER

An entire week has passed, and nothing has happened. For a brief glimmer of time, it seemed like they wouldn't succumb. That they would be able to face down the Vessel, the Curse, and come out stronger on the other side.

....But when they wake up today, it's easy to feel the wrongness in the air. The sense of satisfaction from something lurking deep inside, pleased that it was fed...and pleased that finally, the killing had started.

As you all rise and look towards a new day, the faint traces of Miasma lap at your heels...

...And around whatever corpse now lingers in the hallways...

((OOC: 2 people max under a heading, please! Just to keep things easy on the mods.))

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Tell me about it. [ Ugh. ] I'd wanted to find out more about about her construction and programming, too, but I'm hardly going to be able to get all of those answers like this now.

[ To be fair, this will answer a few of them, but. You know. ]

Do you want to see if you can find her head around here anywhere?

[ IN THE MEANTIME, he will look at... all... of this. Where the fuck are we starting with this.

What's going on with this scorpion situation, I guess?? How much of this is Olympia Parts vs. Other Parts? ]

[good question re: wtf are these other parts.

but also, wow your priorities on the mad scientist level. not that Dazai really cares that much about that because uh. used to that type, tbqh.

time to dig around for a head]

First webs, meaning spiders... now scorpion attributes... is there just an arachnid infestation in the miasma?

[Definitely not a head here! There is, however, a lot of broken bits and pieces around - Definitely leftovers from Sho's artmaking earlier in the week. Pieces of wood, metal, cloth...if it can be art made from it, it's in here.

There's also The Rug from the Staff Room in here, though it's clearly ruined by all the oil now.

Another odd thing that Dazai will notice is that There's no oily fingerprints anywhere.]

[... huh.

so more careful than previously expected. gloves? or something else? could be an ability of some kind--but the dragging across the hall implies that someone didn't even bother carrying the weight.

or maybe. couldn't. carry it.]

Edited 2020-04-17 18:04 (UTC)

[Get ready to cry your little nerd heart out Saphir, because the closer he looks at this the more it's going to look like someone just fucking destroyed a work of mechanical art for no reason and then glued wood to it.

Parts of her arms - which clearly were able to extend out into thin weapons - were attached to her shoulders to form large pincers. More than that, her back is curved into the scorpion-like arch, but it's hard to tell if the mess of parts attached to it and ending in a claw holding a hand drill was meant to explicitly be the scorpion stinger or not. It could have just been meant to be an odd, extra arm.

Her Legs are stuck on backwards under her, and there are a pair of crudely made wooden legs a bit farther away. Finally, it seems like her chest has been torn open, the red orb in her chest dangling down attacked by cords and covered in random radio innards.

Finally, in her neck socket is the lightbulb.

She is, plainly speaking, an absolute mess.]

Edited 2020-04-17 17:46 (UTC)

[ WOW, HE WOULD LIKE TO FILE A COMPLAINT. Those arm weapons look like they would have been so cool too..... At least they get to vote whoever did this off the living plane. ]

What the hell were they trying to accomplish with this?? It's all so haphazard.

[ Various sounds of displeasure...

He's going to look at that red orb first before coming back to some of those oddities, because that looks like a power source and he's Intrigued. What can we tell about this? ]

No head here.

Whoever removed it either put it somewhere else or still has it.

Someone really had a go at that Sho's trash-art though.

And we should probably have someone with the ability to see magic to check for ability use. I haven't touched the body, so it should still be in tact.

That's not a bad idea.

[ Also damn, he hadn't really considered that Dazai could use his power to cover something up like that. Noted. ]

You think someone was trying to imitate his... projects with this?

[... there are many things people have not considered about his ability use, uh. this is why he's been in perpetual state of I HAVE TARGETS ALL OVER ME since Day 1]

Either because they think his work was shitty or because they don't like him and wanted to spite and frame him.

It's odd that there's no prints anywhere else in this room. Considering how much effort went into this, and how much oil there is, there should be some evidence of that. So either the person covered their tracks by cleaning up after--very unlikely--or they have an ability to maneuver things around without touching them.

... though the other option is that Vessel Todd or an entity in the house set up the body after the murder was conducted, so that piece of evidence is just to throw us off.

For now, operating off of the idea that someone here set this up is for the best. We can always confirm if the body was tampered with later. We can't reinvestigate missing evidence once the trial's on.

Edited 2020-04-17 18:30 (UTC)

[ Well, the "thinking he or his art sucks" part could be almost anyone, though that part about covering things up... hm. ]

Right.

Honestly, I think it might be prudent to take some of these parts with us. Who knows what will happen with the remains after that.

[just 'cause he's an unlikable asshole doesn't mean he deserves to die?]

... that seems fair, but you do know that this body you view as a machine did have a living consciousness, right? Because if it really was a person here who did it, it's someone who likely didn't see her as a person.

[at least pretend to have respect, you'll look hella suspicious, my dude. and i'm vaguely sure it's not you because why would you want to pocket the evidence when it'd just make you look more suspicious?]

[ TO BE FAIR, HE TREATS FULLY HUMAN REPLICAS THE SAME WAY if that... helps....... and at least he's been referring to Olympia as "her" here, which is better than his replicas get. ]

Of course I know that! I just let her borrow my lab coat last night!

[ She made him tell Romani he was a potato..... ]

Anyway, if I collect some of the important pieces, I might be able to rebuild her, or at least retain her memory data. I don't see how that's more callous than leaving her to be disposed of.

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying to keep in mind the optics. You're better off sticking to the trying to recover information.

Talking about rebuilding her makes it sound like you think she's a replaceable object.

[i'm just saying]

Anyway, want me to go fetch someone with the magic-seeing?

Edited 2020-04-17 19:26 (UTC)

[ That... throws him for a loop, honestly. ]

That-- No it doesn't, it means she's worth bringing back!

[ Is he still talking about the same "she" here? Hm. ]

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cw_suicide - 2020-04-17 19:37 (UTC) - Expand

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reanimania - 2020-04-17 20:17 (UTC) - Expand

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cw_suicide - 2020-04-17 20:19 (UTC) - Expand

[The orb is dull and clearly depowered, and Saphir will most likely be able to tell that This would have most likely been her core and central processing unit.

Though there's a tangle of cords and assorted radio junk and other random wires in the way, if he pushes past them, he might be able to get a good look at her internals...]

Edited 2020-04-17 18:18 (UTC)

[ Oh, he absolutely will!! He has no sense of delicacy where research is concerned. He'll be careful not to further damage anything potentially useful, and thankfully he's damn good at untangling cords, so -- reaching in!!! What exciting sights will greet us in here???

He's also, uh. Probably going to pocket this core when he's done here unless anyone stops him. ]

[buddy, that's evidence]

[ AND HE'S INVESTIGATING IT!!!!!!!!!!! ]

[imma call you out about it later. not gonna risk touching you and wrecking magic evidence.]

[Well, Olympia certainly can't stop him.

There's so much futuristic wiring in here - but, more importantly, there are clearly important-looking circuit boards that seem to be broken, and an empty space that was holding something in it before her chest was so rudely broken into. It also seems as if whoever did this was much more careful with it than the rest of her internals.]

[ Hm, so whoever did this might have had some idea of what they were looking for. That... makes it sound kind of like him, which he doesn't like!!!

Roughly speaking, what's the size/shape of that empty space? ]

[It's about the size and shape of a soda can.]

[ (Franky???)

Okay, we'll look in here a bit more, and then if we've covered our internal bases, we'll just... carefully withdraw our hand from there and move on. Did that "radio junk" look like it came from her, by the way, or from an outside source? ]

[From an outside source - there's a gutted, old-timey radio on the table.]

[ Uhhh WELL THEN, we will definitely take a look at that in a few minutes here, unless Dazai checks it out first.

Back to external stuff... what's going on with that scorpion stinger thing with the hand drill? That seemed oddly placed. And. Odd in general. ]