final investigation

[arsholes]

[It's been almost a week since Orthrus' lucky escape. Almost a week, of all calls to Heisenberg going (metaphorically) to voicemail. Almost a week, to rest and recover from the harrowing losses of the previous Friday.

It's been almost a week. And the storms are getting worse.

You know the locked door on the first floor? The one that goes into the center of the tower, right across from the great entry hall doors?

Today, there's a heavy iron key sticking out of the lock. With a familiar crest on the head.

The key is sticky with wet yellow paint, and wetter blood.]

Comments

[twibeast]

[ ???? ]

Mei? You hear something?

[thealchemist]

...Uh...

[Heisenberg glances around and sees something that makes him suddenly go quiet.]

[reresurrected]

... Heisenberg-san?

[Say something, buddy.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

I heard the same thing the night of Wu-san's party! Though it didn't smell like blood then...

[She looks where Heisenberg's looking, as if plot nerfing will suddenly let her see whatever ghost is there.]

Heisenberg-san, you can see them?

1/2

[thealchemist]

...That's not a ghost, kid.

[He points, to the far side of the room.]

2/2 [cw: impalement]

[arsholes]

[As their eyes adjust to the darkness, the other three see what Heisenberg already has: a woman's body, dangling off her feet and impaled on three metal spikes: one through her stomach, a thinner one through her thigh and one through her chest. The dimness of the room and a curtain of short dark hair obscure her face but she is decidedly not moving. A wide circle of white chalk is just barely visible on the floor surrounding her.

Silence hangs in the air except for the drip, drip, drip they can all hear now- fresh blood dripping from the metal to be drunk up by the stone floor.]

cw impalement

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei goes pale. She claps her hands over her mouth, the fire going out. But she breathes in and, somewhere, gathers the will to light up the room again.]

Wait... Who's she?

cw impalement

[reresurrected]

Is she alive?

[He's already trying to slide down off Orthrus to go check...]

[thealchemist]

...I was wondering why those dreams.

[If Orthrus allows it Heisenberg doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get down, but he will reluctantly disembark if forced.]

[twibeast]

[ Oh fucking hell. ]

Mother of…

[ He takes a step closer, cautious of the circle, and lowers himself so Baldr can get off, though doesn’t force anyone else off yet ]

What dreams? Do you mean the nightmares we had before or…?

[thealchemist]

Yeah. The ones I'd bet we all had, right?

You asked who this was? This was the original culprit. Susan. What you saw in those dreams was her execution.

Get ready to catch her. Don't worry about a healing spell yet, I've got a theory.

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

The ones about the execution! With the poison and the spikes and... Nuadha-san said they might be a message, but we couldn't figure out who from or what it was supposed to mean.

[Mei's just babbling now, shaking as Baldr climbs down, trying to concentrate on lighting the room. That's it, concentrate on the task, just like with Somnus before.]

Original culprit...?

[thealchemist]

...There was a trial run before this all started. I made some rookie mistakes. Scrapped it before it got out of hand. They only had one trial.

[He seems. Kind of reluctant to be admitting this.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei shudders as this hits her. The theory Felix had brought up. The one she'd tried to bring up to Heisenberg before, but he'd always shut down the conversation.]

Mistakes... and she's been down here ever since?

[thealchemist]

I had no idea. I've never even seen this room before.

[There's a faint tone of disgust to his words that would be hard to fake. After all, for all he knows, he was about to become just like her.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

Heisenberg-san...

[She shakes her head sadly. Looks at him, and then down at Susan in Baldr's arms before quickly turning away.]

So it really did happen. No wonder you never wanted to tell us. What happened to everyone else? Did you just send them home...?

[twibeast]

[ Orthrus' other head is uh. Listening very intently to this. ]

[reresurrected]

[Baldr nods and moves to position himself to catch her when she falls.]

I'm ready whenever you are.

[thealchemist]

[Heisenberg nods.

Then focuses his attention on the metal spikes, and waves his hand.

The iron spikes pull themselves from her body, first the thigh, then the stomach, then the heart. The woman's body drops the short distance into Baldr's arms, seemingly lifeless.]

[reresurrected]

[And catch her he does (albeit with visible effort on his part), quickly lowering her down to the ground to check for a pulse or any other sign of life...]

[ninehundredlives]

[At least she's not terribly heavy? She's short, roughly Bruno's height, and fairly wiry herself. She's also definitely dead. The amount of blood staining her clothes is more than she could afford to lose, and when Baldr checks her neck, she's cold to the touch. No pulse.




Nonetheless, a moment or two after he moves his hand away, she breathes in sharply and opens her eyes.

Susan Ashworth is alive.

Seeing someone leaning over her, she moves sharply as if to scramble away - and then stops.]

Baldr?

[twibeast]

Huh?

[ He's relieved to see this woman is alive after all but ]

Baldr do you know her...?

[reresurrected]

[That brings him up short-- he freezes, staring at her, his mouth half-open in a question that stops halfway through, almost as if his train of thought - or rather, all logical thought - has come to a screeching halt.]

How...?

[How does she know his name? Somehow that is almost even more disconcerting than her liminal state of alive-yet-also-dead...]

[twibeast]

[ As Baldr catches her, one of Orthrus' heads leans down to get a closer look at her, worried. Does she smell familiar...? ]

[arsholes]

[She smells familiar but not in a way he can pinpoint. It's like a memory of a memory or something told to him by someone else so long ago it's hard to tell if it's his or theirs.

He doesn't know her but that ghost of familiarity is still there.]