Fourth Investigation

[bathymetric]

It's hard to tell that - of if - the motive has passed. The radios are the same, there are no missing powers, the day begins like any other. But there's something heavy hanging over you, the knowledge that, well... it's Friday. And unpleasant things happen in New Rapture on Fridays.

While we would love to say it's remotely quiet and peaceful, we can't. Helios Suites and the grounds around them are body-free, at least, but... there's a series of booming noises coming from somewhere else in New Rapture, echoing through the empty halls.

Looks like the game is afoot, citizens.

Comments

[bathymetric]

[ Wouldn't you know it? We've got a helpful diagram! With various things removed to prevent spoilers. The prayer beads are the tiny blue dot, and the body's well....the body.

The blood smear continues past all of this. ]

[fuckingguy]

[ He's going to pause and turn around to scoop up a couple of prayer beads with even less enthusiasm than he had tasting the blood splatter (also, was that the green dot?), put them in his pocket, and keep following that smear! Is there anything to indicate what was doing the smearing? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Nothing you can tell. It looks vaguely hand-shaped? But you can't get a senses of how big, because it keeps varying in size.

Anyway, the green dot's where Rossiu found himself a knife, actually! That's fitting, because when you get to that reddish dot in the middle of the track? There's another knife. ]

[fuckingguy]

Okay, and I am just gonna take that...

[ And he bends down to pick it up! Is it bloody or otherwise damaged? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Nope, not damaged, nor bloody. There's not much to note about the knife except it looks to be one from the vending machine.

Though, like, if you want more blood I can hook you up. At the center of the ride (or at the yellow X for the diagram) it smells like there's more of that metal blood. ]

[fuckingguy]

More of this shit?!

[ How much blood did he have??? Okay, he's putting the knife in his pocket too and closing in on the scent.

Belatedly, was there any blood on Hagakure's beads? I am guessing not, but one must ask! ]

cw: references to achilles tendon injuries

[bathymetric]

[ No blood on the beads, nope!

He can follow the scent—and the smear which is still going—to find two things, first of which is the blood! Nandor will be able to find a pool of it, as well as an arterial spatter, with all the force that implies. ]

[fuckingguy]

[ Is the second thing he'll find... a five-letter word that begins with an H... ]

[bathymetric]

[ No, thank goodness! That'd be vulgar!

It's a cardboard cutout of a church! Part of the scenery of the ride, modeled after the very church on Goddess Row. This is noteworthy because it's been knocked over, unlike the rest of the scenery. It has a distinct angular dent that resembles- oh what the hell, it's got a Dandy's-chin-shaped-dent in the middle of it. ]

[fuckingguy]

[ Interesting! How far away is it from the pool of blood? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Very close. Like, right next to it. ]

[fuckingguy]

[ Alright, time to physically hurl Jonathan over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes despite feeling like garbage and blow this popsicle stand! Apace.

OR, UH... IS THERE MORE HERE... ]

[bathymetric]

[ NOPE BECAUSE!! As you go to finish following the trail, it leads right to where you found the body! It's all circular...

Go pick up a crying/laughing Victorian man. ]

[fuckingguy]

[ REALLY MAKES U THINK...

Just for future reference, how close is the trail's start to the body? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Pretty close! At the wall, of course, but still pretty close. ]