First Investigation

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Nearly two weeks in the Haunted Mansion have passed. Parties were had, friends were made. In fact, maybe you've completely forgotten about the motive looming over all of you. However, as what might be dawn approaches the Mansion, you feel a strange feeling of dread as you wake up. Is it all in your head? There's only one way to find out.

Investigate?]

Comments

Bedroom Hallway

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Quick, draw some more stuff in front of Fiddleford's door.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[After hearing the news, Ford decides to start investigating at the source. He goes to the hallway and pauses outside Karolina's door. Is there anything out of place out here?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Nothing seems to be off on Karolina's door, at least.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Satisfied that there's nothing there, Ford begins to inspect the surrounding doors, and the floor, looking for blood trails, foot prints...anything out of the ordinary.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[As Ford looks around, he should quickly notices that there are some bloody marks on some of the doors.]

[sixfingeredstan]

Aha.

[Ford zeroes in on those bloody marks and leans in to inspect them.]

Whose doors are these, exactly...

[grimgrinningghosts]

[They are Mike's, Star's, Julia's, and Wall-E's doors specifically.]

[terribibble]

[Ink is just going to merge these threads because they are bound to bump into each other eventually]

Do you think... do you think she was tryin' to get help, last night, and we didn't...

[His voice has gone kind of high and scratchy like it usually does when he's barely holding himself together.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford writes down the names of each person with blood on their door in his notebeook, and gives Fiddleford a sorrowful look over the top of it.]

It's possible. I...hope that isn't the case.

Do you think any of these four had it out for her? A grudge, for some reason?

[terribibble]

I --

[He thinks about the four of them. Mike, who's been nothing but kind to him, who's talked him down more than once. Star, who's been... Star, but never malicious. Julia and Wall-E, who he doesn't know that well but who both have never given him cause to think ill of them.]

I can't imagine so? But -- but I don't know. I didn't think anyone would... and now...

I don't know.

[folkscallmewander]

[Wander finally wanders into the hallway, where the trail of blood leads. Caught up in his own worries, he doesn't realize there are two other people here until he's right next to them.

They don't look too good.]

Is there anythin' I can do? [He holds out a hand towards Ford and Fiddleford.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford's voice is firm but as gentle as he can manage.]

We'll find out. Do you think we can look inside these rooms? Perhaps there's more to be found...

[folkscallmewander]

...I guess if we ask Ghostave, he'll let us in. We can't leave Karolina's room locked up forever.

[terribibble]

[Waaaait wait wait. Are talking about going into the dead girl's room.]

Doesn't that seem... I don't know, a mite bit disrespectful?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[While I suppose you could check the rooms, it appears like the bloody marks are from someone knocking, rather than trying to open the door.]

[terribibble]

[HHHH THAT JUST KIND OF CONFIRMS HIS THEORY THAT SHE WAS MAYBE TRYING TO GET HELP AFTER WHATEVER MADE HER BLEED THAT MUCH HAPPENED

This is so distressing]

[sixfingeredstan]

[After another long, close look at the bloody marks, Ford pulls away with a grim look on his face.]

Fiddleford, you may have been right. She might have been knocking on doors...

[capulion]

[Kiara sniffs her way into the hallway, following the footprints, and seeing them start to fade.]

Oh, it's you guys. I was... these footprints lead from the big central room. I don't think they're Karolina's.

[Karolina's lead to the kitchen, right?]

[terribibble]

You don't?

So you think maybe... maybe it was whoever... ?

[Well, hey, at least those are definitely human footprints, which rules out the lion being the murderer if that's who left them. That's bizarrely comforting.]

[capulion]

[She shakes her head.] There are two sets of footprints. One lead to her body, and the other set led here.

[And as far as she can tell there aren't any retracing steps back to the foyer(?).]

[terribibble]

[Hey, so, speaking of Fiddleford's door, the man himself was just leaving it to get coffee and now he's kind of flopped sitting up against the wall and feeling very sick. He's spent almost the past two weeks telling himself over and over again nobody here would and now... well, clearly someone did.

He's not really actively investigating. Mostly he's actively freaking out, but he is very close to the ground, if there's anything there he'd notice besides his condiment rainbow.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Oh no it's clear, Fiddleford should be fine.

... Well except with the bloody, sparkly footprints on the floor.]

[terribibble]

[OH GREAT THAT'S FINE AND GREAT]

O-oh.

[Maybe he doesn't want to stay sitting here next to bloody footprints. Maybe he wants to push himself back up into a standing position, sway violently, narrowly regain his composure, and... and see which direction they go? Maybe that's what he ought to be doing. This is a problem. He's supposed to fix problems. We'll see how far he gets before he loses it. Give it a little bit to sink in.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[They center mostly around the entrance to the hallway, although as they fade they do seem to stop in front of some doors.]

Room Cleared

[grimgrinningghosts]