melodiesoflife | Event || Cluedo

Saori winced from Johnny's accusation and clenched her fists. The last thing they needed was an escalation from inner hero fighting. Keep it cool, she had to remind herself but easier said than done.

"Of course not! I would never depreciate anyone's lives because of that! I died back home and it's not something I would ever wish on any of us!"

She shook her head and looked at the crystallized heroes. "Look, yelling at each other won't bring them back faster nor catch whoever's responsible for this. They wouldn't want that from us now either. Please believe me, not as a cop but as a friend, that we're doing our best."

Jack holds Sparks' gaze to see his reaction to that idea, and he is impossibly grateful that Sparks has a brief moment of sympathy, but breezes past it instead of asking for more details.

"I could ask Jade, if it didn't happen to him, then it's not something to be concerned about. He seems the least likely to get upset at a question like that. And if it is some side effect of regaining some of my powers from home? He was working in the lab at the same time, he'd understand what it means."

But then Sparks brings up the question of who is getting killed. "I'm thinking they're taking victims of opportunity. Sure, they're trying to kill as many of us as possible, draw in some civilians to make us look as bad as possible. But, if you were gonna try to make the civilians afraid, specifically? Some of the targets might be different. Why me? Not too many people know who I am, outside of the Heroes."

"Why not go for the public figures? The shopkeepers, like Erika or Ed? Or the Blitzball team's new star striker, Pyrrha? Or, frankly," Jack raises a hand at Sparks, himself. "The guy that just about everybody in the city knows, whether they know your name or not? You're too hard to get to."

"...and it wasn't an isolated incident." Sephiroth hoped that he didn't need to go on at length, but it did seem that time and time again Heroes had some manner of control taken or exerted over them. Whether it be by direct mind control, or transporting them to other instances of time and/or space.

He was glad that K'pandolu interjected, taking it as perhaps a reason to stand up straighter himself. So long as the idea was tabled, that was surely enough of a contribution?

"Whereabouts is the crime scene for the second murder?" He hadn't gotten that far, himself yet. "The 11th District is also a residential area; which only further indicates that the culprit, or indeed culprits, are suggested to be involved with the Heroes of Light. Whether the mastermind behind all of this is, however, remains to be seen."

Duster wasn't the one most affected by the reveal that Claus was the Masked Man. He had his misgivings, despite not being close to the boys while they lived in Tazmily, but Lucas was devastated. He was lucky he had something to dispel his lightning attacks.

"Force? You mean Porky? I don't know how he did it, but I'm sure machines were involved. His army really liked creating part-animal, part-mechanical chimeras." He didn't understand the science behind that. The Nowhere Islands were abysmal in teaching their residents modern science.

"But if you're saying that the Heroes were mind-controlled, then it's not our fault."

Machines. It always comes back to machines. For an instant, Jack considers explaining the Cybermen, but something Duster says stops every other thought in his brain cold.

"Not their fault, no." He corrects, casually. "Whoever it is that's being used by this mind control or entity, no, no blame would lie with them."

Just a slip, or something more? Careful, Jack. Your next words are critical.

Jack leans back again, trying to make his posture look more relaxed into the couch. "I know law enforcement thinks it's one of us, so Sparks mentioned that we might as well take the widest-net approach. Account for all of us. Since you said you missed the group meeting, mind if I ask where you were on the 15th and 17th?" Jack lightly shrugs. "I was visiting a hotel downtown on the 15th, and, well, we all know where I was on the 17th."

"A hotel? What for?" That sounded suspicious in of itself. Heroes had their own housing, and there was no point in living anywhere else in Aqures Ixen. Was it important business.

There are many features of modern society that remain mysterious to Duster.

"Anyway, I was resting on the 15th and setting up the martial arts corner of the Hero Training facility. I was there all day on the 16th, which was the last time I saw Santa." The next morning, his friend was gone. If only he did better in teaching him self-defense.

"On the 17th, I woke up around noon and checked the bars I perform in. The regulars were pretty shaken, so I had to play there to calm everyone down."

After hearing the news from Santa, and with Jack's theory of mind control, Duster was fearful for his friends. Either someone was really good at framing him, or someone was using him as a puppet. Either way, he couldn't let his friends get hurt, whether it was his fault or not.

No. Not his fault, but if he weren't here, this wouldn't have happened.

Around evening, Duster entered the police station, limping as usual, and stopped in front of the front desk.

"I'd like to turn myself in, please."

Jack's questioning look turns into a playful smile at Duster's first question. "Well, he didn't want to go back to his place, and when your housemate is a 13 year-old girl, there are some things you want to keep out of the house..."

Jack's eyes soften at Duster's account. "That's why you're taking this so hard, you were one of the last people to see Kurashiki. Kidd was the last, I kind of want to talk to him, myself, but I get the feeling Sparks is going to do that, too." He doesn't want Kidd to feel backed into a corner.

"If there is something else going on, then, Sparks' plan of keeping us all around each other should help there, too. You'll be safe. We shouldn't take this as an opportunity to turn on each other, like we cant trust each other." Jack shakes his head. "Right now is when we need each other's help the most."

Right. The Night of the Giant Marshmallow. "And the year before that, we had Heroes grow powerful and turn against us, but that was because Mograma was the mastermind." He turned to Sephiroth, who was the main point of contact with that Moogle. "He's in prison at the moment, so it can't be the same sort of dark magic used before. I doubt the Moogles are behind this as well."

Shining was in the middle of casting the spell, and cataloging as much as possible with his limited return of natural powers. It wasn't completely accurate, but he was getting a good idea of what had happened. "The victim was killed pretty much instantly, barely a struggle." said Shining, giving his report.

His magic winked out for the moment as he started to case the body with the tweezers to delicately check it over. "What do we have here..." he said in a low voice, looking over the two bodies one by one. "Killed in the same manner...?"

Once news of the bodies showed up, Kaji was out the door of the Observatory. Nice of the rain of the last few days to stop for them. The skies are clear, the streets are dry...and the evidence at the murder site might be better preserved this time.

Kaji is not very used to working with other people, but he finds a patrol of the Aqures Ixen officers. See? Totally not alone, Marshall. Following orders.

Minutes tick by, but Kaji is trying to keep his focus, keep his cool, find the murder site. Don't overlook anything...

"There!"

Blood, fresh, reflecting red and wet on the street. One of the officers gets sent off to find the Marshall, let him know what's going on, while Kaji takes the opportunity to see what he can find before anyone else.

"Hel-lo, beautiful." When anyone else arrives on the scene, Kaji is crouched low to the ground, careful not to touch whatever he's looking at. But whatever it is, it's making the man smile.

He was also one of those who had grown all-powerful and been turned against them. Anyone could have read such recently but Sephiroth is glad that Ales didn't feel the need to underline that fact.

It may or may not have been one of the reasons he'd applied for military service, also.

"Hm." No comment about Mograma, or whether Moogles may or may not be involved. It certainly didn't have their usual 'flavor' about it but they'd all been wrong before.

Another murder, another set of clues. Not wanting to contaminate the scene, when Twilight arrived, she was busy flying over, looking over everything. The first thing she noticed was that this happened at the Crystal of Fire.

"...augh, I was right about one thing, wrong about another!" Twilight muttered. "Jack wasn't killed by wind, but he was kicked into the air. And this death was near the Crystal of Fire. So, it's still an element theme!"

At that point, she takes notice of Kaji. "Kaji? What are you looking at?"

Kaji slowly stands up and folds his arms, the smile melts into a more cautious look as the pony approaches. "That didn't take you long. I'm glad you're here. Save the Marshall some time to track you down."

Kaji steps back away from what he was looking at, and he points with a pen from his pocket. "Look but don't touch. But I think you already know what's there."

He'll give Twilight a moment to look for herself, before he speaks up again. "Hoof-prints. And more, but too bad we can't tell the color of the fur there under the blood."

Twilight got a good look at the hoof-prints in the ground, then turns to glare at Kaji, crossing her front legs in front of her as she flies right side up.

"Are you insisting that I would do something like take another's life?! That's insane!" Twilight said. "And the same goes for my brother Shining, too! The only reason I got here so fast is because I can fly and I wanted to see if my little theory is right. I was partially right, but still...!"

"Save it for the Marshall. Unless you can come up with a better explanation as to why you or he were here, but didn't happen to commit the murder, itself?"

Despite the darkness of his words, Kaji's tone stays light, philosophical. "As for taking another's life, isn't that exactly what we've been doing as long as we've been here? Isn't that the purpose of the Heroes of Light? We can sugarcoat it in terms of 'monsters' or 'enemy soldiers' but every one of us has taken a life here. Of course you're capable."

"Y'know, you're really jumping to conclusions here." Twilight said. "For all we know, the hooves could be from something else entirely!" She knows that she isn't the killer here - she spends almost all of her time in the lab. But, how to convince him...

"In a world that doesn't have horses, naturally," Kaji points out. "Pretty sure that leaves you, your brother, and Mercury," Kaji ticks off the options on his fingers. "I'll be sure to tell the Marshall he needs to investigate his own cyber-horse, too."

"One of you was here. As they say, if the shoe fits..."

Kaji frowns. "You should just go in. They'll check your story. If you've got nothing to worry about, Sparks Nevada isn't someone to throw his weight around unjustly."

K'pandolu nodded, with a hum. "So it's reasonable to assume we can rule any moogles out," she said. "And this doesn't seem to be at the same level of those incidents…"

She shook her head, ears flicking back. "It's hard to say whether that's actually what happened without more details," she allowed, and swallowed. "But… if we were to keep it as a theory, maybe there's another way of controlling people."

[ Dylas is a little hard to track down, but at least he makes it clear that he isn't running. He just never stays in one place, fishing through the night and selling his fish in the morning to help cover a room at the inn at night. If anyone asks around, they'll know his deliveries have all been consistent, meaning he's been fishing and selling every night since before the string of murders started happening.

Koporo is with him, dressed in the same ninja gear as always, as Dylas waits to be interrogated. He doesn't seem surprised by this point. He's a little annoyed, but he's always annoyed. He's calmly reading a small book while he waits for someone to come question him. Koporo had sent a short letter to Akane Kurashiki's Moogle as well, because somehow he doubted Midna or Ed would be interested in speaking on Dylas' behalf. Maybe his plan will backfire, but she seems like a sweet girl.

He's going to be quiet until his interviewer arrives, and if he'd been in a holding cell before he spent the entire time quiet as well. ]

[ooc; Anyone who questions Dylas might need to be aware of and comfortable with his permissions post. My preferred tag order is PERSON > DYLAS > WHOEVER TAGS NEXT > DYLAS so that he has an opportunity to reply to everything. Go nuts.]

Edited 2016-06-25 16:25 (UTC)

It was clear that he only wanted to let Ellie know that he was also interested in that particular line of inquiry, and thus had no reason other than that to make eye contact with her at all, so that he wouldn't be seen to be muscling in. Jade was the focus here, and if nothing else Sephiroth still felt a certain duty towards the man even if they didn't work together anymore.

Jade had gone that much further than just as far as honor might once have bound them together as comrades.

Silently, Sephiroth nodded along as Jade answered and then Ellie proceeded down her line of questioning. It all made very much more sense than her -he thought- patchy theories on Downapolis at that time. Intriguing, if more than a little concerning, to think that the murderer would go to the trouble of slaughtering two innocent passers-by in the wake of Jade's murder; to remove witnesses? To add a personal thorn in the side of the general populace and so make the crime impossible to be ignored?

Of course, it could easily have been an escalation the culprit felt was needed.

"Hm," Was the only noise made, in support of Ellie and waiting for Jade's response.

It wasn't so much a snap of the fingers, a lightbulb suddenly turning on in his mind, but as K'pandolu in essence reflects his thought processes without knowing it Sephiroth's keen intellect is quick to take the next step. While deep in thought, turning those possible Jobs around in his mind-

A brief, but sharp intake of breath followed Sephiroth seeming to perk up, immediately banishing whatever other thoughts he had going on, back a few notches.

"But there is." He blinked and looked between Ales and K'pandolu a few times, while at the same time keeping his attention open for anyone else who might want to chime in. While he sat on a particular hot-potato of a thought, it still required composure to be retained.

"A Maxed Illusionist Job does seem to have some of the skills that could be applied thus far in a myriad of ways. But what of Overlord-" Sephiroth paused, should anyone wish to interject-

"-I've no experience of it myself, but a Maxed Dark Knight alongside that does open up the possibility of controlling others. Corruption, I believe the skill is called."

[The more sharp eyed individuals investigating the murder scene might have noticed Alice's pen lying on the ground nearby. Or perhaps a strange mark on her hand...]

[Ales had kept his cool when he was alerted to the crystallized statues and the murder scene. Rikku and Alice. He spoke with the latter briefly, but that was not enough for him to form an attachment to her. Despite the urgency to find the one forcing them to kill each other - if Sephiroth's mind control theory was correct - he didn't find it in himself to feel back for the victims. They'll come back in a week; it'll be fine.

Due to his short stature, his head is always close to the ground, so he does spot a pen nearby. Very strange. It could lead him to the culprit, so he picks it up and inspect it for any unusual marks.]

[There is nothing unusual about the pen. Except perhaps that she took the time to get the pen out of her pocket when she was running for her life. What could be so important to write?

The notebook is nowhere to be seen and likely still in her pocket, inaccessible because of the crystal. But if she never took the notebook out, she must have been writing on something else.]

Event || Cluedo

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Re: June 24th | Written

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June 24th, evening at the Police Station

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June 25th, Night

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June 26th (late night, after midnight)

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After her murder- for investigators

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