some sunny day

[sticksandbomesmods]

Its the early morning, the sun has been up for about an hour or two with the quiet stirring of the Grove. The town slowly wakes up, and goes about their morning...

There is a smell in the halls of the Inn. Subtle in the early hours, but as the sun rises higher in the sky, it becomes difficult to ignore. Pungent and sharp. It's the smell of warm milk on the cusp of growing sour.

Under one of the doors a bright, almost pearlescent substance, that has started to leak out.


Uncovered Clues:

1. Unlocked door.
2. Signs of light scuffling
3. Upended box of pastries
4. Stabbed in the heart, likely died instantly
5. Wound is small with no exit wound.
6. Window is Adjacent to Body
7. Dipper's blood is two different colors, red and pearlescent white. The pearl blood seems older. The red blood comes straight from the wound.
8. body is cold and has been dead some time.
9. Noise at 10-11 pm
10. Dipper left a note for his uncles he was meeting a friend.
11. KNIFE

Comments

[charlastan]

[Stan's heart is a little too big for him to shut down completely, but he's used to having to move through grief when something needs to be done. It's easier to focus on what will help right now - figuring out what the fuck happened.

He believes Odile and Ain, even if he has nothing to say to their apologies immediately. It doesn't matter. It can't matter right now. He takes a deeeep breath when Ford touches his shoulder, pushes it down, and presses on.]

So. Sometime between sunrise and...whenever he left us this.

[He reaches in his pocket and pulls out the note Dipper left behind. Ford's seen it, so he's mostly just sharing with the rest of the class.]

If we can figure out who he was meeting, we might have a lead.

[alphacraft]

[ Thank you, Expressions of Family and Grief, they're taking this in stride. She's terrible at dealing with the kind of emotions young adults experience daily. The death of a loved one? She'd be lucky if they didn't run her out of town.

She turns back to open the window. ]

I heard some noises, but nothing too unusual for the inn. No... shouting or screaming or anything of that sort.

[eidxiety]

Ahh... I'm sorry, but I don't live at the inn. I live with Ezell at the bakery north of here...

[He glances at the note briefly, raising a brow.]

We can probably start with who lives at the inn, right? To be honest, I know who lives away from it more than I know who lives in it. That's, um...

Ezell, Mr. Demon, Mr. Crane, Mr. Jellyfish, Mr. Pigeon, Mr. Dragon, Mr. Snow Leopard... I'm not sure about the Cookies, but I think they all live with Mr. Sheep, including Ms. Time Mage, but you'd have to ask. I know Mx. Star lives outside in a tree, Ser Kitty lives in the barn, Mr. Bartender lives at the bar, and Mr. Giant, Mr. Plant, and Nikolaus all live at that house to the far south of here, across the river.

[guys i am so sorry about this]

I think the people I didn't mention live here.

[cryptograms]

[ Ford pays close attention as Ain starts listing off people, but it doesn't take long for his expression to slip into one of baffled curiosity. What a fantastically useless list. ]

... And who is everyone you didn't list?

[ Wait— he shouldn't be getting distracted by that. Whether or not Ain starts to respond, he shakes his head and turns his gaze back to Dipper's body. Time to just... peel this sheet back and see what's waiting for him. Maybe he'll notice something no one else has!

Like, for example, his weapon? Dipper is a decent shot, so for there to just be a thud in the night is a little unusual. ]

[sticksandbomesmods]

[The sheet is pulled back, and yep. Sure is your dead nephew.]

[Somethings that Ford specifically will note: His pallor has gotten worse since he was covered up, which means Sleeper Decomposition is about to set in. they won't have a whole lot of time before the body starts its rapid rotting. The stab wound has some light crystal formations now. Just a few.]

[Dipper's weapon is holstered at his side, but the strap that secures it is loose. Like maybe he reached for it and wasn't fast enough.]

[charlastan]

[Stan tries to pay attention at first, but as the list gets more and more nonsensical he can't hold back his frustration.]

Who are any of those people supposed to be?! Lemme guess, Mr. Ugly Duckling and Miss Snow White don't live here either? Does Mr. Big Bad Wolf have a room, or does he sleep outside too?!

[Ugh, this isn't helpful. He's going to just. Look to Odile. Help him; he can't deal with this.]

You said you live around here, right? Do you know anyone else who lives in earshot?

[theuniverseleads]

[calling from outside and gently waving a knife]

What are you all yelling about in there? So many names! Is someone throwing a party?

[alphacraft]

[ She closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. Ain, what. What. ]

Have you considered knocking on doors?

[ She does know some of the people who live here. But come on guys. ]

[eidxiety]

[Despite what you would think, Ain takes those comments on the nose and processes them as "friendly banter" i am so sorry Stan, he doesn't know what actual interpersonal relationships look like. It takes quite a lot to get on his bad side, just getting mad at him Will Not do it.

He just offers a serene, peaceful smile.]

Well, Mr. Loudmouth, if you look outside, it seems like Mx. Star is out there. [What are they doing...] The others are—

[You are all spared the other nicknames because Ain glances down at the body finally and yo what the fuck is it doing.]

—not important. There are crystals on him, but they weren't there when I came in. What's going on?

[cryptograms]

[ More people! Very cool. Ford rubs his temples, then reaches down to start extracting the Azure Pine from its holster. If Dipper didn't get to use it to defend himself, Ford will just have to use it for any attempts he makes at revenge murder. In response to Ain's question: ]

Bodies rapidly decaying and then crystalizing after death are both quirks of the physiology of our... [ ... There's no way to say this without it sounding weird. ] ... species. It's why his blood turned white after it was exposed to moonlight.

[alphacraft]

[ She sighs. As interesting as the blood thing is, Loop has a very strange look in their eyes and she doesn't exactly trust them not to go skipping off with possibly the murder weapon. ]

Please excuse me a moment.

[ She ducks out of the room and heads outside to retrieve the star and their prize. ]

[theuniverseleads]

[honestly compared to some of the stuff they've seen in the timeloop this is maybe not the worst trip they've been on, but also they're having a bad time of it. at least they rolled high enough to not have some kind of meltdown over the sky turning red

ANYWAY. Mx. Star is here now, gripping that murder weapon with a firm hand. How much of this shitshow is the drugs they have NO fucking clue]

... Anyone want to explain what's going on here? [not giving up the knife until someone tells them why dipdop is dipdead]

[alphacraft]

[ She has to stop for a moment to catch her breath before straightening and pushing her glasses back into place. ]

Loop. A young man has died. I suspect the assailant escaped through the window. That
[ she points to the knife ] is most likely the murder weapon.

[sticksandbomesmods]

[There's a very interesting symbol on the knife. Almost like you've seen it somewhere before in this room.]

[As for the Pines, they will certainly recognize the knife as one of Dipper's blood magic tools. his blood letting knife to be specific. The table of blood magic tools it should have been sitting on in the room are in a non!dipper disarray. Like someone snatched it in a hurry.]

[Loop, the walls are still kind of breathing.]

[theuniverseleads]

[They are still hallucinating a little but "Dipper got murdered" being stated plainly does help sober them up. Ah.

... gives the knife a twirl, checking it themselves before holding it out for Odile to also see. Okay! Seems bad, but okay!]

Isn't it kind of silly to kill someone when we come back in a week or two anyway? Maybe it was an accident~ [gently kicking the box of pastries, any chance these aren't covered in blood and gross and maybe salvageable]

[alphacraft]

[ She glances at the blade, but for the most part maintains eye contact with Loop. She raises an eyebrow. ]

Do we? Do we always? How sure are you of that? How sure are you that it will always be that way?

[charlastan]

[Stan's reeling up, in the middle of shouting "I'LL SHOW YOU MR. LOUDMO--" at Ain when Loop yells from outside and then that whole ordeal makes him lose his momentum for a minute. Whatever, whatever, moving on--!]

He's a little too stabbed in the chest for it to be an accident. Plus I've been in places like this before and lemme tell ya - coming back from the dead doesn't stop anyone! If someone wants to kill you, they're gonna do it anyway! Then suddenly everyone's screaming, you're getting eaten by a giant sand worm...point is, if someone wanted to do this, reviving isn't going to stop them from doing it.

[He looks to Ford and gives a slight nod. They don't actually have twin ESP, but they're both on the exact same page about revenge murder. Revenge murder sounds really, really good actually.]

But yeah, uh. The whole blood thing is normal for us. We all wound up with different types when the whole Sleeper thing happens and his just looks like that.

[What, did you want a good explanation? Ford's the one who gives those!]

[eidxiety]

I see. [Ain gets it, he's also Not A Human Person.] Should we get away from him? Is it dangerous for non..."Sleepers" to be here?

[Will Dipper explode—]

And I don't think people always come back. I think we should operate under the assumption that people won't, rather than hoping falsely that they will.

[With a look to the grunkles:]

Sorry.

[theuniverseleads]

... Maybe not! [sighs, so much for trying to keep things positive] But would anyone here want to kill Dipper? It's a small group, and he doesn't seem the type to make enemies. He has people who care about him, and if there's a chance he'd come back anyway, why cause so much drama? Unless there's something missing, or something they'd stand to gain from killing him for awhile...

It came in through the window, right? Whatever happened here, it's probably just something that the forest sent. Maybe the inn isn't safe anymore.

[alphacraft]

Does the forest often send creatures with opposable thumbs? I wasn't especially under the impression that the inn was safe from anything that can turn a knob.

[ Now that the window mystery has been solved, she's sort of shuffling towards the door. 4 people are already too many for this room, and the Pines are in a much better position to investigate whatever strangeness is here than she is. ]

[sticksandbomesmods]

[No blood! Looks like they fell to the ground far enough away from the body. The pastries are an assorted number of fruit pastries. Danishes and little pies. One or two might have been eaten, one has a bite taken out of it for sure.]

[theuniverseleads]

[important pastry investigation: which one has a bite in it?]

[sticksandbomesmods]

[a tasty blackberry hand pie by the looks of it. It’s shaped like a ghost. Or. Was.]

[theuniverseleads]

[Crouched down looking at this ghost pie very very seriously. Hmmmm...

...

They pick up one of the least fucked up ones before standing again. Peeking at a few other things in the room. Hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmm.]

... Well! That's something new to worry about. [do they still have the knife, they're going to give it to a grunkle. cool knife but feels rude to call finder's keeper's in this situation.] Sorry, about your nephew. We've only spoken a few times, but... a-anyway, you probably want to handle this yourselves! I'll get out of your way!

[heading out after Odile yes they are stealing a pastry from the crime scene it's not like HE'S gonna finish it]

[charlastan]

[Stan takes the knife (Dipper's knife, he notes) and, well. Great! The most competent person in the room other than him and Ford bailed, everyone's touched the crime scene, the murder weapon probably doesn't have finger prints anymore--

This is an actual nightmare and it's so much easier to be angry about it than to let any other feelings in.]

There's gotta be something else around here, or someone who knows who he was meeting...or the names of literally anyone in this goddamn inn.

[S I G H. Well. How about those photos and the photo equipment? Anything interesting over there? In the meantime, he calls out to Ford.]

How's the whole decomposing thing going? You need a hand over there?