WEEK 5 - INVESTIGATION

[petoskeymods]

INVESTIGATION

As you wake up, nothing seems different - beyond that you don't seem quite as worried about your secrets being exposed anymore. And that, just like all the times before, means only one thing -

- that one of your fellow campers have committed murder.

Someone is dead. It's up to you to find out who...and to gather evidence for it.

BASE EVIDENCE: 10 PIECES
CAMPERS REMAINING: ???


((We ask that you remain in groups of 2-3! As per usual.))

Comments

[le_mat]

[After everything's been found that's going to be found, and everyone is starting to gather up... Ren is sitting, with his hands dangling between his knees. He doesn't stand, or even raise his voice, but:]

If one of you did this to Usagi because of what happened in the Metaverse... instead going after-

[He snarls, eyes twisting shut and hands clenching- even his injured one, which can't feel good]

If that's why, I swear to god... I'm coming for you.

[linearcrash]

[ S'up bf's bf. He's going to sit down next to him. ]

Hey... [ Tentatively putting a hand on his back. ]

[le_mat]

[Ren jumps a little, but calms down when he hears who it is]

Nine, they took her head.

[linearcrash]

I know. [ He played puzzle quest. Sliding his arm around him to pull him close. ]

It's messed up, yo.

[le_mat]

[And for once, Ren not only let's himself be pulled close, he actually tucks himself up against Nine]

I... know it's probably nothing to do with what happened on Sunday, but it keeps rolling around in my head...

[linearcrash]

Hey, she was probably at the wrong place at the wrong time. We were all messed up from whatever the hell hallucinations this place threw at us.

[ Giving him a squeeze. ]

[le_mat]

[He nods]

Have you... seen anything?

[linearcrash]

Nothing last night. Seen way too much this morning.

[ He wants to go back to being able to be brave and seemingly like nothing can touch him. ]

[fallbymyhands]

[holy shit. something cuts through the grief, the kneejerk reaction of shock and heartbreak, and it's sudden concern for him and that kind of reaction. both for his evident anger, and for the implication that he should have been targeted]

Ren!

[le_mat]

[he looks up, eyes red rimmed and cat slits dilated wide.]

She couldn't even hurt a fucking octopus... It was just one mission but she was my teammate- I'm not letting that stand. What if it had been Cielo?

What if... what if it had been you? Shit, any of us. No one deserved... that.

[fallbymyhands]

[she feels she knows where this comes from. the creeping paranoia still digging into the crannies of their brains, causing them to constantly look over their shoulders, to do a double take when something foreign flickers in their vision, to bristle defensively when they feel they're under attack. part of her understands. part of her agrees with him]

[but part of her is still logical. and with a deep breath, she taps into that, attempting to shove aside her own sudden defensiveness]

. . . no. But I would hardly say that anyone here deserves what has happened to them.

[her voice is shaky, but she's trying]

Please refrain from jumping to conclusions. And. . . please refrain from suggesting that if Tsukino was targeted for what we did, that you should have been the one to take her place.

[it was a subtle inference, but she picked up on it]

[le_mat]

...

[And more than anyone, Mitsuru can slice through the angry buzzing in his head. He sighs]

You're right. I just... as soon as I heard who it was... it was like something dug into my brain.

[No word either way about his suggestion of taking her place, though]

[fallbymyhands]

There is something digging into all of us.

[something sinister, something painful]

It's a struggle, but we can't let it get the better of us.

[soylentprotag]

... Ren. Four of you went to the Metaverse. That can't be right.

[Lenka is shaking his head in denial, but he isn't denying the basic logic -- that somebody could have been angry enough that Sol was angry to do this, to take it out on the people who'd been the focus of all-around ire since Sunday. It's not completely baseless logic, and it's not logic he hasn't used himself.

But... he comes to sit by Ren, staring at those clenched hands.]

You went to the Metaverse to help, didn't you? Don't let it... [he hesitates, but finishes] Don't let it become this.

[le_mat]

I... maybe it's not. But I have to consider it. Fuck... if they wanted revenge then- hell, I'm already half dead anyway.

[soylentprotag]

[He doesn’t say anything for a long moment, because yeah, he’s been there. Obviously. Sometimes he’s still there, even with alternatives staring him in the face. But... he’s always going to be a little bit of a hypocrite here.]

We can consider it. But the trial... It’s going to be bad.

[Just from what they already know. From the way people have been acting and all of the things that happened last night. He has a really bad feeling about tomorrow. He tries not to show it in his voice.]

Don’t let Sunday blind you to other things. We have to consider everything. And... we’re trying to survive this. [he does say that with conviction, somehow] Revenge won’t get us out of this. Dying won’t get us answers.

[le_mat]

I... I'm not planning to die. I promised too many people I would survive.

[He just looks down at his hands, some of his anger draining away into tired frustration]

[soylentprotag]

Then plan not to die.

[His response is pretty immediate there. There's a difference. He knows what it is, even if he doesn't always know it before he crashes into it. There's something a little wry in his voice as he goes on, but he does go on.]

It's probably funny coming from me... but there are things you can only do if you're alive. If you make people believe you'll be alive. I think that's what everyone here needs right now. We're all... moving closer to death. [it's a little softer as he goes on, because he knows what death looks like, the approach of it] It will be harder to know what survival looks like.

[killtheanimals]

It's too early to jump to conclusions.

[Ugh. He's so, so tired, and he pauses in refining his notes to rub at one of his eyes. Sleep? Not happening when you wake up to the dead watching you.

One day left...]

[le_mat]

[He clenches his hands tighter]

I... I know. But I can't help but think about it.

... you should try and get some rest before tomorrow.

[killtheanimals]

Easier said than done.

[They're visiting him at night, now. It's decidedly unpleasant to see a face peeking over the railing of a bunk too high to be peered over normally.]

Don't die on us yet, Amamiya.

[le_mat]

[He looks surprised by that]

I'm too stubborn to die.

[killtheanimals]

Good.

[Some people do that, lose the will to live in the face of death. He'd wondered if Floe did, wondered just now if Ren was falling to it, too. It isn't as though it's completely foreign to him.]

[le_mat]

[He certainly has a different view on his own mortality then he did when this all started. He's not scared to die. Expects it any day, honestly. But he doesn't want to go rushing to meet it either.

It has to be worth it]

Not like we can afford to lose any more people either way.

[killtheanimals]

Yes, I would appreciate it if we didn't lose too many extra.

[Because that is, ultimately, what it comes down to for him, even if it's cold.]