SIXTH INVESTIGATION

[bathymetric]

It's Friday again, never a sign of great things in this place. There's a foreboding sense of... something in the air, though you have no idea what it could realistically be. There's nothing immediately off as you leave your rooms, but... it's of note that you do still have your powers. So maybe nothing bad happened after all! Look how small your number is, have you finally gone a week without killing just through the elimination of sheer volume alone? It's easy to hope so! And easy to think so, given the whole of Area A is clear.

So why won't that sinking feeling go away?

Comments

2/2

[valentinus]

[ Everything had been a mess. It was plain as day to anyone who had come into the area as well.

Fact was, here he was, in the middle of it, and...well, his now-golden eyes came Zerinda, though he did a quick glance at who else may have been around. It didn't matter who they were; his thoughts were a mess in his death throes. One thing only mattered now.

Expression pained, Vincent tried to say something. ]

I...I'm a...mo...

[ The rest of his words faded into nothing as he took his last breath suddenly, and then that was it. ]

[bathymetric]

[ And so it goes.

Vincent Valentine is dead. ]

[bogwife]

No. No, no, not today. [She may not be close to Vincent but he's one of them and she is so tired of all of this. She doesn't pay heed to any of the mess around her and lays her hands on Vincent, squeezing her eyes shut and willing her her one healing spell to work, please just work. Do one good thing this week!

She can feel a flicker of warmth that comes with creation magic and, if anyone walks in, they might see a faint green glow begin to emanate from her palms but only for a brief second before it fades and all she's left with is a dead man and a silent, destroyed museum.]

[bolderfell]

[Oh, no, this is not his happy McDonald's Playplace. Therion picks his way through whatever mess there is between the Keepsakes room and the cartography exhibit to find Zerinda, the glow... and the body.]

...Zerinda?

[bogwife]

[Zerinda is hunched over Vincent's body, her long and slightly faded purple hair hiding curtaining her expression. When she speaks she doesn't sound like she's crying but her voice has a tight edge to it.]

...He was alive when I got here. If I'd just been a little sooner-

[blackmass]

Zerinda? What's-...

[What was going on was readily apparent, and if Kirei had been pale earlier that was nothing compared to what he was now. He took one look at the scene and what Zerinda was doing before kneeling down with her and extending his right hand. There was the faintest flicker of a pale glow, but...]

...It's no use anymore. That would be too easy.

[bogwife]

[She slowly retracts her hands from his body, wiping her hands on her skirt without much thought.]

He said something, before he died. He couldn't finish but he said "I'm a mo-". It sounded like he was trying to say "monster".

[blackmass]

...

[Kirei stood up slowly, as calm as he had ever been. They'd seen enough catastrophes that it didn't even faze him, if it ever had at all.]

If we have learned anything these past weeks, it is that he was far from alone in that.

Come on. We have work to do.

[bogwife]

[She nods firmly, taking a breath and continues to wipe the mess on her hands onto her thankfully dark skirts.]

I can take care of him.

[ladygeryon]

What the-come on- [Nira makes her way in and sees this whole scene as well, joining the healing attempt group. Her hand doesn't glow, but the ground beneath seems to briefly flicker orange before fading.]

[nothingcanstop]

[ That flash. That's what she sees as Della arrives, holding Mira's hand. ]

Oh... Oh, no.