RECORDING 5: THE SECOND MURDER

[foundationmods]

A second week, with it's own answers and questions, has almost passed. The loss of a fellow agent is a hard blow to take - but as everyone went to bed, there might have been the faint hope that maybe that would be the only loss...

Yet, upon awakening, there is that same feeling of dread coiling in your gut, just as it did last friday. That same self-satisfied feeling lingers in the air, and you must pull yourself from your bed...and count your losses.

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.))

Comments

[eyeforai]

[Heh. Take that, you stupid tree.

He thinks, while having accomplished very little to actually neutralize the bush, but so it goes. Anyway, he'll carefully move and prod those bush bits away from the body as much as he can using the proper PPE so we can finish examining the body and the area around it. While he continues excavating, he'll keep an eye on anything strange or whatnot in the dirt as he digs.

So, with the bush gone and the rest of the body unearthed, is there anything else that becomes immediately apparent about Jack or are we going to have to get specific here?]

[foundationmods]

[The bush is a bush, it cannot understand nor comprehend your spite???

Anyway, Date will immediately see what looks like a green apple that's had a large bite taken out of it to the side of Jack's head, with what looks like faint traces of blood around the bite mark. It's also clear that there's blood around his mouth, though for specifics Date will have to open his mouth. Under the blood, there are clear signs of blistering, and the fingers on his hand also show the same kind of blisters.]

[eyeforai]

[He still feels a sense of satisfaction at its demise and no one can take that away from him!!

But mmm. Not a Delicious apple but a dangerous one, huh. Anyways, we'll just say he'll take a picture of all of these and set the apple aside with the frozen hellbush. That aside, how are we looking on the rigor mortis front? Is Jack stiff (not like that, wolf you aren't allowed to shitpost this one) or is his body flaccid? What about body temperature, just in case?

Basically, he's more or less trying to estimate time of death here.]

[foundationmods]

[Oh, he is absolutely in rigor mortis. His body temperature is also at the normal point of a corpse who's been dead for several hours.

Time of death would be around late night/early morning, so around 1-3 am.]

[eyeforai]

[Huh. Okay, that's good to know for alibis. Thank goodness we didn't need to use the meat thermometer for that.

Regarding the rest of his body and clothing, are there any signs of any other wounds or blood beyond the blistering and the stuff sprouting from his stomach? He's not going to completely flip the body over because of the stomach situation but is there anything on his back?]

[foundationmods]

[There's No other signs of wounds or blood on his front or back - there's not even signs of a struggle.

Date will find A picture of what looks like Jack and another man sharing a hug in front of the camera folded and in a pocket over his heart, and what looks like Jack and his coworkers in a group photo in another jacket pocket.

There might be other evidence, but it seems like that might be related to areas in his mouth...]

[eyeforai]

[...Oh. That's... okay, he'll probably have to wash this off along with everything else. He'll decide what to do with these later.

Anyway, there's also nothing under his body and buried in the dirt either, right? Otherwise, he'll try his best to examine the stuff sprouting out of his stomach because yikes. Are we gonna have to call in Romani to do a DIY autopsy here.]

[foundationmods]

[Nothing under, no! And it looks...Well, like normal plant roots.

...I wouldn't get too close - The sap is starting to thaw a little and drip down the roots onto the uh...gut hole.]

[eyeforai]

[...Welp! He's not gonna deal with this so DIY autopsy(?) courtesy of Dr. Romani will probably have to happen. Anyways, he'll just go fetch him so he can deal with this mess.]

[finalring]

[ well that is definitely....a scene.

he has to take a quick moment to swallow the bile just from seeing the corpse of jack in that state. he's a doctor. he can do this. god he's never seen a body in such a bad state.

he's dressed in full surgeon-esque gear, with mask and surgeon gloves. and he will begin the autopsy by making an incision to open the abdominal cavity from the chest and all the way down. ]

[foundationmods]

[We're going to shorthand the needed steps to do a proper autopsy - but whoo boy, is the cracking of a sternum ever loud in an enclosed space like this.

The first thing Romani will notice is the damage done by whatever he ate to his esophagus. The inside of it is covered in blisters similar to the blisters on his fingers and around his mouth, and following it down will lead to the stomach, which is shriveled and wrapped up entirely in roots.

Another horrifying discovery is that the presence of clots in the lungs and heart around the roots shows that he was still alive when the roots entered his heart.

However, beyond that, he's almost entirely bloodless. The Bush clearly drank all of his blood in order to grow so large.]

[finalring]

[ oh great. he thought that it would be easier to stomach once that he managed to get the body opened up, but somehow this just makes it even worse.

that said, he will be trying reaching to grab the stomach, opening it up with the scalpel. can he sift through the roots to find the source? ]

[foundationmods]

[He can, though he might need to cut a few roots. Thankfully, he has gloves, but he's gonna need to wash them, and wearing them for long might cause a bad rash to start forming.

Anyway, once it's open, he'll find some chewed bits of fruit, along with the 'center' seed of the roots, but...

That doesn't look like a raspberry seed.]

[finalring]

[ well, that will be fine. future romani will deal with that, maybe. hopefully.

but he’ll try to pick up the center seed if possible. what is it? ]

[foundationmods]

[....

It looks a little like a strange hazelnut seed?]

[finalring]

[ hmmmm

he will try to cut off the roots off of it and put it in a ziplock if that’s possible.

it’s unlikely, but is there any chance that he could determine time of death? or has that been too distorted by the bush? ]

[foundationmods]

[He can! Have fun with your weird seed, romani.

Date already got time of death, though - around 1-3am.

Since an internal autopsy was done, you've gathered what you can from his corpse. You get the feeling there's not much else to glean from him...]