second investigation

[arsholes]

[Friday again? Oh dear...

It’s entirely possible that the ruthless murder last week was a fluke. A one-off incident that, with the perpetrator dead and dissolved into purple smoke, leaves the surviving apprentices free to try and live out the next 28 days without further bloodshed.

But it’s been a few days since the Alchemist’s motive and just like last week the tower feels deathly still and eerily quiet as people roll out of bed to start their day.]

Comments

[philomachy]

[...not normally an alarming scent, but in these specific circumstances?

Not great.

He'll make his way over to the book fort and take a look.]

[strongestfeelings]

It smells disgusting [lmao whatup zenos, she's following him]

[philomachy]

Sugar, I believe, Princess.

[doesn't even blink, just keeps going.]

[draconite]

[ From the doorway, as she's coming in for yet another day of sulking; ]

What is that horrible smell?

[ bitchy royals squad REPRESENT ]

[encelevenemus]

[you rang?]

I don’t know. Did someone try to burn the facility down?

[arsholes]

[Inside the book fort, laid out amidst stacked books and parchment paper plans, is the blackened at the edges body of Red Velvet Cookie. He’s carefully placed, serrated blade sword at his side, and his once rich red dough complexion has somehow taken on an ashen hue.

Red Velvet Cookie is crumbled.]

[strongestfeelings]

...


Does this count?

[encelevenemus]

[…good question]

It must, doesn’t it? He had a profile just as the rest of us.

[draconite]

[ . . .

Bryn's quiet. Very quiet. ]

... he was burned?

[strongestfeelings]

A burned cookie. [She sounds amused, at first, but-- ah. She dours her expression.

Sets a hand on Bryn's shoulder.]

[draconite]

[ She jumps a bit – and then sort of deflates, even as she sets her mouth into a firm line. ]

I'm fine.

[ she says, sounding anything but fine. ]

[strongestfeelings]

Of course you are. It’s a burned cookie.

Still. He was a funny little thing, wasn't he? Such… personality. For a child sized cookie.

[cakerights]

[there's the sound of little scrabbling footsteps on the stairs. The little cake-slice dog tears into the library, skidding on the turn. He rushes to his crumbled master's side and nudges him, whining]

[strongestfeelings]

... Okay. Now I'm upset.

cw: emeto ref

[predecir]

[Bruno walks in on this scene, and...well, the juxtaposition between the smell of caramelization and what's actually going on here has him clapping a hand over his mouth and running out again. Bye!!!]

[twibeast]

[ Even without being in dog form, he can smell the burnt smell and came to see what was going on… and then he figures it out fast enough to see Chiffon also dash in.

…

He silently shifts into his true form and then just… goes and sits next to where Chiffon is nudging his master’s remains. ]

[philomachy]

Any sapient individual counts as much as the next, I imagine. Debates of personhood matter little when we are all from so many different realms.

[So he says, like he's defending Red Velvet here but also he's stepping right past the body and grabbing a book.

...

Not like evidence, he's just getting something to read.]

[sunshade]

[ hey whats up surely you philistines haven't managed to wreck the library two weeks in a row, right-- ]

Seriously?!

[ DOES THIS SACRED ROOM MEAN NOTHING TO YOU PEOPLE ]

[encelevenemus]

It’s careless, I agree. Particularly twice in a row.

[not really the point]

[philomachy]

If a little thing such as this disturbs your reading so much, I doubt your commitment to the tomes.

[ain't like the books got murdered GOSH y'all]

[strongestfeelings]

[She removes her hand from Bryn, and drifts to place a hand on Zenos instead.]

It's a memorial library. It's the principle of the thing.

[sunshade]

[ zenos she's going to fight your punk ass in the parking lot ]

[strongestfeelings]

Perhaps after we deliver the punishment, it'll be taken seriously.