SIXTH INVESTIGATION

[grimgrinningghosts]

[It's another week, and we're fast approaching two months in the mansion. Maybe you're used to people dying on Friday, but maybe you hope the deaths will stop before there are none of you guys left. However, any hope that this will be a normal Friday for once will be completely dashed when you realize that there is a smokey smell hanging in the air when you first wake up.

Investigate...?]

Comments

[toogoodforhim]

[...Alright then time to play where in the hell is Mini-Maui, starting with the caricature's usual spot on Maui's left breast.]

...Little guy? You're not-

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Luckily (or unluckily), Maui is in his usual spot and it's just clear enough that Lefou can get a good look at him. But, much like his larger counterpart, he is completely still.

Mini Maui is dead.

[toogoodforhim]

[...great. Thanks. Couldn't have figured THAT one out myself.

LeFou cringes at the sight, brushes his thumb gently over Mini's body.

What else is there? Any signs of struggle, maybe a token clutched in Maui's hand to make things worse?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Look you guys were talking all game about skinning Maui for his tattoo and I don't want another skinning to happen.

There does not seem to be any real signs of struggle, nor is there anything in his hand, however, it should be noted that Mini Maui does seem to be in a strange position as he's dead.]

[toogoodforhim]

[Hey I was a proponent of Mini voluntarily hopping onto LeFou I said nothing about skinning.

...What position did Mini die in, dare I ask]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Mini Maui is engulfed in tattoo flames to his shoulders, with an arm stretched out. His face is locked in an expression of distress, almost in a stark contrast to Maui's calm expression.

... Well what little you can see of Maui's expression.]

[toogoodforhim]

[...Well alright first:

Does that match how Maui burned? From the feet up?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Not exactly. Maui seems to have been burned all over with some small patches of skin.

Honestly it's hard to tell where Maui is the most burnt, since he has a lot of heavily burnt areas.]

[toogoodforhim]

[...Jesus Christ. Continuing on this train but also I have another question about Mini Maui and how he's posed remind me to come back to it.

Is there any pattern to where the burns are the most or least severe? His head, face, hands, soles of his feet, even any pattern about which and which parts of his tattoos are blackened? And do the burns seem like they might wrap around all over his back as well, or is it just his front?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[There is no real pattern to the burn marks or even which parts of the tattoos were burnt and which are clean.

I suppose his crotch area is really burned thanks to his leaves.]

[toogoodforhim]

[r i p

Is there anything else about the body? Any blood or visible wounds or smells other than the smell that's literally going to make him a vegetarian? Also it's a good goddamn thing he covered Maui's crotch with his shirt jesus christ.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Thank you for giving Maui some decency, Lefou.

Besides all the burns, there is a small cut on his foot.]

[toogoodforhim]

[There are children present

Where on his foot? Top? Bottom? Like he stepped on something that cut him?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[It looks very much like he stepped on something that cut him.]

[toogoodforhim]

[Somehow, it's that small, awful thing that breaks him all over again. He sits down heavily, staring at the foot propped in his lap, at that small cut, so insignificant in the scope of how big Maui was, the way he dominated every room he walked into, the way even now his body took up almost the entire width of the hallway. His shoulders hitch and a soft, hiccuping sob escapes him, tracing the side of the cut with his thumb, ignoring Maui's blood smudging on his thumb.

Just... landed on something sharp, that's all.

His chin drops to his chest, a pained sound wrenching out of him as his entire body tenses with the effort it takes to restrain the sob.

Once I stepped on a rockfish. Can really hurt people, those things?

He lets out a miserable, sobbing breath, and then cries out on the inhale and wails like his grief is a living thing and he's just the cage it's trying to escape from.

Oh, no, I'm sorry, did you get pinched by my buckle? Here, let me see.

His fingers tighten around Maui's foot and for a good long moment he just sits there and sobs.]

[amadeusrockette]

. . . are you ok? [She doesn't wanna straight up tell him he should maybe Not Do This but.] If it's too much, I can go get Mr. Ford to look over the body.

[toogoodforhim]

[He shakes his head, draws a long, shaky breath to fill his lungs with air, but at least he's not screaming with how hard he's sobbing. How can he ever be okay again?

How do you think I would feel if I found out something happened to you while I was asleep?

He tilts his head back to look at the ceiling while he tries to come back.

If they really wanted to hurt me--]

You idiot... You great big fool, Maui... How could you leave me like this...

[The problem with two beds together is that it feels even emptier without the man- demi-god- I love to share it with me.

Finally, he looks at Julia, and his voice is rough and raw.]

Can you...find a sheet, or something?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Before we get going, anything else you want to check?]

[toogoodforhim]

[Yes you see here we take down the pin that we put in that question earlier; while Julia is gone, Lefou lets Maui's foot fall back to the floor and moves back up to his chest and head, takes another look at Mini.

Then at the handprint on the wall.

Then at the way that Mini's hand is stretched out.

If Maui had been in the same pose as Mini, could he have made the handprint that way?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[The handprint doesn't look like Maui's hand was that outstretched in distress. If anything, it looks like Maui was trying to prop himself up on the wall.]

[toogoodforhim]

[...So he really was just trying to get back to their room.

Somehow he holds on but barely. He'll have time later to succumb to his grief. Once he's sure that they're not going to lose anyone else today.]

[amadeusrockette]

Of course.

[She's just gonna disappear into several dead people's rooms and return with an armful of sheets because. She doesn't have any now good job me.]

Here, um. I thought we might need more than one.

[toogoodforhim]

[That's okay Julia Lefou has too many now :D

He looks at her gratefully when she returns, taking one and carefully draping it from Maui's waist down before he reclaims his shirt and sets it to the side. Before he takes another sheet to cover his face, though, he spares one last moment to cradle Maui's cheek in his hand, as if he's trying to memorize his face, to visualize it how it was.

His voice is soft enough for just the two of them, even though Maui is beyond hearing him now.]

I'm sorry I wasn't there. I don't... have anything to send with you, amour...

[He leans in and kisses Maui's lips, prays that wherever he is he can feel it. He clenches his eyes shut, but it doesn't stop the tears from falling onto his lover's lifeless cheeks. Those lips will never respond to his kisses again, he'll never feel them warm and soft on top of his head or on the back of his shoulders or on his forehead.]

...One day I'll see you again. I promise. And I'll have some words for you for stealing my heart away and leaving me behind like this.

[amadeusrockette]

[This seems like too intimate a thing to be watching, so she looks away, just kinda. Awkwardly holding some sheets.

This is fine! This is absolutely fine and it's only because she doesn't know banjo uncle is dead. Honestly, Julia's now under the impression that you should never date given that she royally fucked up her first relationship back home, and now all this.

Good thing she never confessed to Mike.]

[toogoodforhim]

[He takes a second sheet from her, but bundles it in his lap for the moment, takes Maui's big hand in his own and holds it in his own smaller ones like he's just waiting for Maui to wake up..]

Thank you. I'm...going to stay here until it's time to go.

[It's about as polite a dismissal as you get.]