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

LIVING SPACE

[bathymetric]

[ how fucked up would it be if you came in and steven was just here ]

[ladygeryon]

[So. Assuming Jasper doesn't flip out and destroy this entire room, Nira's going to head here because her expertise is actually useful. Time to inspect a broken gem! First, she's going to try and gather all the pieces just to make sure-this is all her gem, right? No big missing shards, no random other pink gem bits thrown in?]

[bathymetric]

[ Nothing else thrown in, but... this is actually definitely not all of her gem. Not even most of it. Nothing else mixed in, though there's something on some of the shards. ]

[ladygeryon]

[And what's that?]

[bathymetric]

[ Blood! :) Just a few drops. ]

[ladygeryon]

[Hm. Does it look like the blood was splashed on the gem, or more like the pointy ends of the shards poked someone and drew blood?]

[bathymetric]

[ The former!

Maybe the regain machine sword nearby can explain that. ]

[ladygeryon]

[Is there any blood on the sword? And does the sword have any damage that might suggest it was used to shatter a gemstone?]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Della's going to...look around the area. The things that aren't the shards. There had to have been a fight here, right? Something with enough force to shatter Rose? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Boy was there! Most of the furniture in here is broken or torn - if you want signs of a struggle, this sure qualifies. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ ALRIGHT COOL THAT'S ENCOURAGING Uhhh... Do any parts look more roughed up than others? Because that's probably where she should start. ]

[bathymetric]

[ A lot of them, especially on the few pieces of furniture with upholstery, seem like cuts, so that's... well, it's something specific, at least. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ How deep are these cuts? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Fairly! They're also weirdly uneven?

It's also easier to see the small droplets and splashes of blood on the furniture like this. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ Oh. Well. That's. Something! Is there anywhere this is centered? Like, compared to...the pile of shattered gem, how close or far away are these splashes? ]

[hardnosed]

[ Okay, so Nira and Della are on the scene, but while Jasper's standing guard over the shards she's absolutely going to be playing the angriest backseat investigator there is. Is there anything about Rose's shards a fellow Gem, who has definitely shattered numerous others in her lifetime, would pick up on how she was broken? ]

[bathymetric]

[ It's hard to tell, exactly, other than it was probably physical trauma?

See, there's a couple things that make it tough! One is that there aren't a whole lot of her shards in here to work with. The other is that uh.

This isn't really how quartz is supposed to shatter. Hm. ]

[hardnosed]

[ oh. oh. okay. that's fine.

She's going to kind of shoulder Nira out of the way and start putting the pieces together on her hands and knees. SORRY, ROCK MOM #2...

Is there any coherent pattern to the shards left over here? Is what she manages to put in place anything like the standard Rose Quartz gem shape? (I'm assuming like the standard Amethysts, but shit who even knows.) ]

[bathymetric]

[ It's tough to tell for sure, but... while the surface of the gem seems right, there's something off about the back? Or what should by all gem logic be the back. It extends weirdly? ]

[ladygeryon]

[Oi?]

There's about half missing, just so you know.

[hardnosed]

You don't get it. Even with that -- this isn't her. The back is wrong. She must have faked it somehow--

[ladygeryon]

So her gem had a pointed pavilion. But it would have been hidden at the angle hers was at, wouldn't it? What kind of Gems would have that kind of cut? [Though...Nira's definitely noticed something unusual about the shatter pattern as well.]

[hardnosed]

I don't know. I don't...

[ Yellow is for sure the one who she's seen most frequently, and her gem is diamond-shaped, so in combination with that and her patented Jasper denial the actual answer slips through her mind without her seizing upon it. ]

It was something brittle. This isn't how quartz breaks.

[nothingcanstop]

Faked it? [ Della looks up from the furniture she's inspecting. ] How do you fake something like this?

AREA CLEAR

[bathymetric]