week 9 - wednesday

[productions]

murder manor week nine



wednesday

10 players remaining.

This is a general mingle post. Please put your character's name, the time, and location in the subject heading of their comment. Players may also thread in logs, either posted to murdermanor or in a private locked journal post filtered to include productions.

Setting & Rules
Private Conversations

Comments

6:30 AM

[productions]

[As specified in the new rules, all players are required to attend breakfast promptly at 7. But on the way down, you may notice something strange - all the doors to the drawing room are closed, making it difficult to reach the staircase down to the foyer.]

[hollowheart]

[Coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee it's all Touko's fault coffee-- wait.]

Is that door supposed to be locked?

[throe]

[ Rapture, still not accustomed to getting up so early, groans loudly beside Annie. ]

It's too early for this!

[hollowheart]

It's downright barbaric. [She's been taken waking up at 11 am for granted all this time.


And so she gives the door an experimental, half-hearted kick.]

[obsideo]

That's not usually closed, right?

[She watches, somehow nervous.]

[inthebones]

...Perhaps they're trying to force us all to lose by default by having us miss breakfast.

I suggest rappelling down a window.

[Says Susan, who comes from a world where rappelling isn't even a thing.]

[productions]

[It's not even locked, guys. It's just closed.]

[throe]

I could have slept in for at least another fifteen minutes.

[ Which is Rapture's excuse for not trying to open the door: too much effort for six in the morning. ]

[hollowheart]

[Annie shoves at the handle and unceremoniously stumbles inside.]

[productions]

[It opens just fine. However, there is a figure dressed in dark clothes slumped over near the doors to the smoking room. The lights are off in the room, so it's not clear who it is.]

[throe]

Uh. [ Would you look at that, Rapture's suddenly wide awake. She points to the slumped figure. ] I know we have a rule about not sleeping outside of our rooms and I know it's Wednesday and all, but... maybe someone decided to perform another seance.

[obsideo]

[She follows the girls inside, but notices the figure, and starts to walk over there cautiously.]

Oh no. Is that...?

[inthebones]

...Oh.

[False alarm never mind probably no one was dead. Probably.]

Are Stiles and Lithuania up yet, by th --

[And then she enters behind the others. As Rapture speaks, Susan hurries to the lights and turns them on.]

[productions]

[With the lights on, the body is more visible. She is propped against a bookcase near the smoking room doors. She is sitting upright, but slumped over, and the front of her long, dark gown is blooded. On the ground near her is a rather ornate pistol.

It is difficult to see her face because of the dark black cap and veil obscuring her face, but it is still easy to tell even from afar that the body belongs to the Hostess.]

[hollowheart]

...Why leave the gun behind?

[throe]

[ Rapture's practically shell-shocked upon the revelation of who it is. For a moment, all she can do is stare and is unable to peel her eyes away from the scene, though she can't bring herself to get any closer to it.

Then, she takes in a deep breath and nearly breaks the sound barrier with the way she yells: ]

What do we do without a Hostess?!

[inthebones]

[A slight stiffening of her expression is all that betrays Susan's surprise as she spots the body. Without another word, she quickly steps to the woman's side and removes the cap and veil to see whether or not the Hostess was still conscious.]

Doris? Doris, are you --

[It's pretty clear that there's no point going further. She'll glance to the others.]

...The clock hasn't gone off. I suppose this doesn't actually count, but...

I feel we should still investigate.

[obsideo]

How can this even have happened? We saw what happened when Gundam tried.

[inthebones]

...Precisely.

There's only one person who could have killed her, isn't there?

[throe]

You mean the Mastermind?

[ She has a hard time lowering her voice right now, it is apparent she is not fond of big changes like this. ]

[obsideo]

[She leans down and tries to take a look at the gun.]

I think Susan's right. This doesn't look like the one Gundam had, does it?

[inthebones]

I mean the Muffin Man. Yes, I mean the Mastermind.

[She will gently try to maneuver the body to the floor..]

...It's not. Lithuania and I dismantled that one after Gundam pulled his stunt last Friday. And I don't think it can be one of the prizes, either.

[productions]

[It indeed does not. The gun is cool, but the barrel has gunpowder residue, as if it has been fired recently.

Doris is not conscious. She is clearly dead, and her body is cool as well; she has been dead for several hours. Beneath her veil you can finally see the face she's kept hidden. It is a lovely face, beautiful, even, though showing signs of age. Her expression is frightened, with tears dried on her cheeks.

At her side is a small purse.]

[inthebones]

[Susan gazes down at the dead woman's face, and for a moment, her own expression grows somber.]

...She knew it was coming.

She was complacent in all this, but I don't think she deserved this, either. It's almost like this was an execution - a punishment for having failed. Perhaps they held something over her as well.

[There is a pause before she glances down towards the body and begins to undo only the outermost layer of clothing so it's not quite as obscured. Where is the wound?]

[throe]

But why would the game runners let something like this happen in the first place? It's not like they can't prevent it somehow!

[ She can hardly look at the damage as it is and it's fairly clear she's panicking, she continues to remain a good fifteen feet away from the others. ]