FIFTH INVESTIGATION

[bathymetric]

Morning dawns on Friday with the same sense of horribly mundane not-quite-dread it must by now, everything normal as you wake to leave your rooms and yet... well, the weeks haven't been kind to this usual favorite of days, have they? It's been over a month now since your last normal Friday.

But maybe this one will be different. Maybe you'll all find that despite everything, you've all finally made it to the end of one of The Professor's motives. You've outlasted him, and can see what happens when you all do so.

Or maybe not. Only one way to find out.

Comments

[bolderfell]

[You know what, he's close enough now to hear Rin yell about Sly so Therion hurries on over. What's this pile about?]

[bathymetric]

[ Well it does make sense that Therion would notice this, given his love of sparkly things. And what's more sparkly than some shards of a gemstone? Though this isn't enough to be the whole gem, there aren't a lot of pink rocks in here, are there? And that rock would be in pretty tough shape to say the least with this much missing.

Rose Quartz has been shattered. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ You know who's running over here? Ah, it's Della. ]

Rin?! Mir-- [ But, while she's heading for the kitchen, Therion and the shiny things catch her eye. ] ...What? That's...

[bolderfell]

...Hey... hey, is this--?

[He's seen a fair number of jewels around here to know he hasn't seen a pink one besides the one in Rose's tummy.]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Something feels like it's blocking her throat. ]

...Rose?

[philoxenia]

[ Della's voice catches her ear--thank goodness--and... ]

That's not... i-is it?

[nothingcanstop]

[ Oh dear. Oh, no. ]

Mira...

[hardnosed]

[ HEY SO SHE'S HEADED TOWARD THE SOUND OF THE NEAREST COMMOTION AND I'M SO SORRY ]

Who is it? What are you looking at?

[philoxenia]

[ oh no

she is small and organic but boy if she doesn't try to move in front of jasper ]

Um... Sly is dead.

[hardnosed]

Huh.

Then why are you getting in my way.

[philoxenia]

[ .... you know she doesn't want to like, die, and jasper's going to find out anyway so like

yeah she'll move out of the way, reluctantly ]

[bolderfell]

[Therion is also small and organic and steps the hell back so Jasper can see the shards of pink. He's not getting in the way of this, no sirree.]

[hardnosed]

[ THANKS, THERION, YOU'RE A TRUE PAL and Jasper's registering what her eyes are taking in in three, two-- ]

[hardnosed]

Who.

[bolderfell]

[That's the question, isn't it?]

We'll find out.

[hardnosed]

That's...

[ It's not good enough. It's not fast enough. It's over, and there's nothing else left to do. ]

Yeah. We're going to find out.

[ This sounds like a threat! Cannot imagine why! ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Della still stands in front of the shards, and...

She turns to look at Jasper. Oh, hell. Why not-- ]

I think it's Rose.