week 5 - wednesday & thursday

[productions]

murder manor week five



wednesday & thursday

18 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

[teenspirit]

He does drink quite a lot; he may be hungover. We should rouse him.

[inthebones]

[Susan will nod before rapping once the door.]

Sonia and I are coming in, Mr. Altman. Do try to keep her suitable for marriage if you can.

[A hand held to the doorknob - click.

Susan pushes open the door.]

[productions]

[Altman's room is dark; the lights are turned off and there's a stillness in the room. It's overall a fairly neat room, aside from the desk, which is covered in loose paper as well as Altman's notebook. There are also crumpled up pieces of paper on the floor near the desk. Otherwise, the room is clean, the wardrobe organized, besides some dark stains worn into the carpet near the door.

The bed is unmade, which may stand in contrast to the neatness of the room, but empty. The smell of vomit and urine hangs in the air. The bed itself is empty, but Altman is lying on the ground, near the bed but between the bed and the doorway, on his side.]

[teenspirit]

[ Well. This is the worst day ever. Sonia covers her mouth and nose and lets out a sob. She wants to think that he's drunk, but the likely reality is that he's probably dead, and she's not even surprised, ]

[inthebones]

Sonia - stay back. [What is it with today and vomit? Susan takes a half-step back as the pungent stench assaults her nostrils before she pushes forward to kneel at Altman's side. ...It was certainly possible he was simply unconscious from overindulgence.

She'll give him a good shake before taking his pulse.]

Mr. Altman. Mr. Altman, can you hear me?

[productions]

[He definitely can't hear you. He's cold, has no pulse, and the body is motionless. He smells terrible, his face is paralyzed in an agonized expression, and there's some kind of pinkish fluid around his mouth, looking somewhat like drool.]

[teenspirit]

He's already dead, isn't he...

[ She hovers back, then steels herself to join Susan beside the body despite being told to stay back. ]

[inthebones]

...Yes.

[And because Sonia has never fainted at the sight of a body as far as she knows, Susan will shake her head, sigh, and move to allow room for Sonia as well.]

Two murders in one night.

But why? One of them must have been worth the extra money. There wasn't any need for this...

[Unless... this was a natural death. Urine, she knows, often relieves itself upon the relaxation of the bladder on death. And if he had drunk quite a lot...]

There's something about his mouth.

[Susan will reach forward to open it to see if there is any blood inside - it seemed to be some sort of combination of blood and drool.]

[productions]

[His jaw is fairly rigid, but she can pry it open. Besides the lingering residue of vomit, there is blood in his mouth. He seems to have bitten down hard on his tongue.]

[teenspirit]

Wh...what happened? There is no other blood anywhere else, is there...?

[ Are his eyes open? She examines them. ]

[inthebones]

...We'll have to examine him thoroughly for any other injury.

[Susan forcibly closes his mouth again when she is done. Cold and rigid - he had been dead for some time. But it wasn't much good saying that now when it was so late in the afternoon.]

Drunkards choke on their own vomit. I don't think they generally bite through their tongues.

...A seizure comes to mind. Perhaps... poison.

[Susan will glance around to see what Michael was drinking in his final moments.]

[productions]

[Nothing really stands out.]

[teenspirit]

He wasn't like that! He drank, but he did not have such a problem... I never saw him going overboard...

[ She looks down. ] Why... why two...

[inthebones]

...I was hoping, perhaps, that it might not be murder.

[Susan looks back towards the body.]

But you're right. There's no sign of alcohol in this room...

[Even the smell was different than Belarus's.]

Where is the vomit?

[Was it all over his bed as if something had happened to him in his sleep? Or elsewhere? For that matter, was he dressed for bed?]

[productions]

[He was not dressed for bed, but he is in a state of partial undress, having taken off his shoes, belt, and coat. There is vomit in the bed.]

[teenspirit]

It's in the bed... I swear it, he was not an alcoholic... He had problems but they weren't things he was trying to drink away... It must be something like poison.

[inthebones]

...He isn't dressed for bed. If it's poison, it must have been something he had late last night. He took ill and came back, preparing to go to sleep, but never quite made it.

[A frown.]

What could possibly have happened that led to two murders? ...Could Belarus have seen someone poisoning Michael, necessitating her death as well?

[The other way around was unlikely. One didn't accidentally oversee someone being casually hacked into pieces and end up poisoned.]

...Could there have been two plots altogether?

[teenspirit]

...what were the conditions of that double murder prize? Does this even fit the requirements?

[inthebones]

It can't be. Michael Altman and Belarus were both on the bottom two lists. The double murder would have necessitated the death of someone who wasn't on any list at all.

[Susan shakes her head.]

That's why... I suppose that's why I wasn't concerned about him until now. There was nothing to gain from killing him as well.

[teenspirit]

...Then... some sort of explanation... Anything but needless cruelty... Nothing could be worse than a death for no reason nor reward at all...

[inthebones]

...

We'll uncover it at the trial tomorrow. If the same person was responsible for this as the rest... They have quite a lot to answer for.

[With a stiff expression, she turns back down.]

I doubt there's much more to find, but... We should check to make sure there aren't any other injuries.

[This is a cue to Sonia that Susan intends to strip down some of the body. She'll lean forward and sniff around his mouth, first, though, to see if she can detect a scent of anything besides blood and vomit. Afterwards, she'll examine his head for any obvious signs of head trauma.]

[productions]

[No signs of head trauma, and nothing to smell.]