oddsandends | 97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

[This was far from the first corpse he’d come across. Death was a matter of course in the Association; mages fought and killed each other all the time. But the smell of blood never failed to make him feel violently ill, no matter how calm he forced himself to look.]

That’s Second Magic for you.

[It all came down to compartmentalizing. Ground oneself with the living, break the situation down into what could be done and what steps to take. The emotional response would be later, when it wouldn’t interfere.]

You don’t have to force yourself, Fujimaru. [He lifted the sunglasses he wore to rest on his head, looking over the corpse in what was probably a forced demeanor of clinical calm.] I can find one of the others to help so you don’t need to get your hands quite this dirty.

Honestly, you're really similar to the professor I know. You don't constantly yearn about sailing off the end of the world and presumably drifting through space forever [to ride Iskandr's dick], at least as far as I can tell, but that's the only big difference.

[Ritsuka recognizes the look on El-Melloi's face, not only because she's already quite familiar with approximately his face, but because it's the exact same kind of expression that she's making with a few more years of practice (and cynicism) put into it.]

Nah, it's fine. [She waves her hand.] Trust me when I say I've seen worse; I can handle it. Been through worse, too. Did I ever tell you about that cave in Shimousa?

Just... sucks losing people, that's all. Don't think I'll ever get used to it.

Edited 2021-11-29 19:05 (UTC)

The only thing you’ll catch me yearning for is a vacation from a life of constant and unending bullshit.

[Kneeling down next to the corpse with most of his weight on his left leg, the professor uneasily started examining the corpse’s hands for defensive wounds. Christ, where was a necromancer when you needed one?]

…You don’t. Get used to it, I mean.

[That first comment provokes a snicker from Ritsuka, despite the gruesome scene.]

I'd drink to that if I could. Sadly, I don't think I'm legal yet.

[One of the first skills she picked up in the Grand Order was quipping in highly stressful situations. It's a way to cope. Ish.]

...figures. If I haven't gotten numb to it by now, I probably never will.

[She says that like a scarred veteran taking a sip of awful bourbon with a lit cigar in the other hand, despite looking around the same age as Svin.]

I’m hardly your parent, I’m not about to complain if something sneaks into your tea.

[As someone who had Seen Some Shit by the age of nineteen, he understood that disposition a little better than he wanted to.]

…It gets a little easier. Eventually. But it never really stops being difficult, same as anything else in life.

I mostly stay sober out of self-preservation. Trust me, somebody needs to have their head screwed on straight when the Celts start going four sheets to the wind, and it's not going to be any of them.

Well, except Diarmuid, maybe. Unless Fionn pressures him into it.

He's more of a weepy drunk in the worst case anyways.

[While El-Melloi checks for wounds, Ritsuka leaves him to his area of expertise (as good as she's gotten at first aid, her knowledge of the inner workings of the human body is scattershot at best), Ritsuka starts rifling through pockets. After the Phantom Incident and the Kogetsukan, she's a bona fide great detective herself, if only by recommendation and not qualification. She might be able to find something others will know what to do with.]

...it was easier early on, at least. I mean, it was always hard, and it hurt, but it was kinda weird since we could get all of the Servants back. Or at least a version of them. So even when regular people died, it felt a bit less real. [She laughs again, this time darkly.] That sounds awful, doesn't it?

But after... [Ritsuka trails off, her words suddenly failing her.]

[For just a second the dismissive calm vanished and Lord El-Melloi II was a deer in headlights.]

[…But the moment passed, sunglasses quickly pulled back over his eyes.]

…It…it’s difficult. Harder still to have to deal with things no one should have to especially as young as you are. Believe me, I get it.

It’s a shit reality we’re stuck in, kid. But sometimes there’s still reasons to keep living in it.

[Ritsuka takes note of that split-second vulnerability, but doesn't say anything. Trauma's like a wild animal, in her experience; you've got to take it slow and get the person to trust you first before you can get close.]

...you know what the funniest thing is? To me, at least.

I signed up for all of this nonsense as a summer internship. Didn't even know I had any Magic Circuits or that magic was a thing until they took my blood and it came back positive for some idiot way up on the family tree messing around with throwing sparks from their hands or something. I figured that, hey, some extra cash for university in a few years would be nice, even if there was a good chance that I'd just gotten suckered into getting my organs stolen.

[She sighs, spreading out her findings on the floor in front of her. Keys, ID, some coins for the vending machine, bloody tissue, lint...]

Yeah. Their memories, too. Nobody who got me as far as I've gone would want me to give up. And I can't not pay them back for what they did for me.

Edited 2021-11-29 20:06 (UTC)

[Of all the things to happen, the last one he expected was 'a dead body is the less upsetting conversation today'.]

...I did something real fucking stupid when I was about your age. Thought I knew damn near everything and wanted to make people listen to me, like any idiot teenager. So I committed a moderate amount of theft and went to Fuyuki City. I thought that if I won the Holy Grail, that would prove I had all the talent I assumed I did.

[Broken fingernails, some blood on the hands. Two separate and terrible lines of thought running in his head at once, precariously balanced so he wouldn't lose himself in either.]

Obviously it turned out to be a whole mess I'm still trying to clean up even now. But...mistakes and all, I don't regret it. I can't regret it, because if I did...what was the point, right?

[ Whitlock's... a little spooky. She'd be a liar if she tried to pretend otherwise, but working under Camellia has gotten her pretty good at being able to act... well, mostly unfazed. She's a bit fidgety though, which he'll have noticed by now always happens when she's about to voice something she's uncertain of. ]

You've been handling the investigations and the... bodies... all by yourself, haven't you?

[ Well, the trial has persisted for about three to four hours now; a general hand and clothing check has revealed nothing. The same for the lack of results for a pocket check. Regardless, Dimitri has been becoming more and more impatient about the proceedings during their first trial. He even bangs his hand down on the long table they've been seated at—he's not sitting, though, he's been standing—hard enough to make it tremble and leave a mark. It silences discussion for a moment. ]

Enough of this nonsense!

We've been prattling amongst ourselves for hours and have gotten nowhere. I believe it's time we put an end to this farce.

[ He jabs a finger in a certain someone's direction. ]

It has to be her! That woman can feasibly lay a complex trap if she put her mind to it! Who else could've arranged the death of that man in such a manner?! Debating this further is useless.

[ Naturally, she begins to protest, and some of the people try to calm him down, but he looks more like he's going to run someone through mid-trial. ]

That's exactly it. I can't let it all have been for nothing. I can feel guilty, but if I ever want to go back on anything I've done, that's like spitting in the face of everyone I left behind to keep moving forward.

[Thinking about Roman and Da Vinci is still painful. Patxi, Gerda, Asha and Ajai... To distract herself, Ritsuka grabs onto El-Melloi's conversational thread like a lifeline and pulls herself out of this topic.]

The Fourth Grail War, right? 1994. That was a huge mess. I can count on one hand the number of Singularities I've had to deal with a Greater Grail, and it was nasty every single time.

[A small snort.]

I still can't believe Kayneth somehow believed that his niece sponsored us as hired help. She was, what. Six that year?

...though now that I've met Reines, it makes slightly more sense. She must've been a holy terror back then too. Whatever. I still got to sleep in a cushy suite for the first time in aaaaages, and seeing Kayneth's face twitch about some filthy no-lineage commoner crashing on his couch was super worth it.

[MAYBE ELABORATE RITSUKA???]

Edited 2021-11-29 20:38 (UTC)

Yeah, well, he was a narrow-minded imbecile in any matter not magecraft related so that doesn't shock me. I'm not exactly crying over him not living through our last conflict, even if I wasn't exactly out to kill anyone. At least Reines isn't all that horrid once you get used to her. Might take a few years to get there, though.

[...hol up]

...Sorry, what?

Dimitri.

[His voice was sharp, unflinching in the face of imminent violence. Considering it looked like Dimitri could snap him in half like a twig, it was quite the attitude to take.]

Sit down. First of all, if we get this wrong it'll be more than just one head rolling today. Secondly, the mental aptitude to lay a complicated trap is hardly unique to Edelgard or anyone else.

[ For all the time she spends with her Master, Protea knows about Fou but mostly through word of mouth and a vague white blob that she sometimes sees bobbing around Master and Mash's shoulders. She's never gotten a good close up look at him before, so while Hubert eyes him with suspicion, KP eyes him with confusion.

At least until all of Fou's unhappy wriggling finally bears fruit and with a furious "Fou fou foooouuuu!", he unleashes a flurry of kicks and punches and generally just does some WWE on Hubert's body.

KP does not intervene– instead, her face brightens with recognition quickly followed by a smile. ]

Oh, I see now! It's Fou-san!

[ SHE'S JUST LETTHING THIS HAPPEN TO HIM??? ]

[ Something about this case bothers Ryoko. They all do, of course – whatever face she might put on and however calm she might pretend to be, none of them sit right with her. But something about this one in particular... it's like a pebble in her shoe, the proverbial pea under the mattress that prods and pokes at her head. Like most things, it's enough to give her a headache.

She's been digging her knuckles into her forehead for most of the trial so far, quiet and a little distant as she turns the facts over and over in her head. This whole spectacle is just that – spectacle. It feels so performatively cruel that someone has to be putting on a show here. But who? Those she'd think would be cruel enough to set something like this up wouldn't have the patience – and of those who did, she couldn't imagine them being quite this cruel.

So who could be?

She's letting the troublesome thoughts circle around in her head when she hears Shannon speak up and it breaks through the noise sharply and cleanly, surprisingly so for how quiet Shannon's voice is. Ryoko lets it linger before she speaks up in turn, quiet enough for the others not to hear just yet. ]

Have you thought of something, Shannon-san?

...whoops.

[Sometimes, Ritsuka forgets that casual time travel isn't everyone's normal.]

I already told you about how Chaldea's job was to pop Singularities, right? The thing is, when Goetia created the main seven, there were weird ripple effects that made the timeline glitch. Places where something like a Lesser Grail could manifest if the timeline went wonky were where and when these happened most of the time.

One of the ones we took care of early on was in Fuyuki, 1994. It's a really long story, but, uh, long story short is that Irisviel von Einzbern and Kiritsugu Emiya never had their starcrossed lovers connection, and so a bunch of things went off the rails from there. Since the you I know was... obviously an expert about that specific place at that specific time, he rayshifted with us to help take care of things.

...he needed it, honestly. Even though he knew the changes wouldn't stick, he kept on changing things to try and get a better ending. It was to clear his conscience, I think. Definitely a weight off his back.

Irisviel didn't-? [okay the corpse isn't getting any deader, hang on.] Fuck. Have I mentioned lately that I hate Second Magic and time travel and all that other shit?

[What a headache.]

Well, let it never be said that I'm anything but selfishly stubborn at times.

[Ryoko's voice echoes in the dark cave Shannon's mind has been curled up in for this entire, watery and distorted but nonetheless providing a lifeline that is desperately needed. She grabs hold of it, pulling herself inch by painful inch out of the blackness, giving her reprieve from the endless repetition of every permutation that this horrid crime could've taken.

She looks over at Ryoko, feeling unsteady at this last step. There will be no going back after this.

She'd been prepared since the morning, even before they discovered the corpses... but stepping out from in front of the fire to reveal herself to everyone else in this cavern rather than acting the part of a shadow puppet still felt apocalyptic. A metaphorical cataclysm that she detonated a literal one to avoid confronting.

But she can't let this go on for any longer. Especially when the lives of so many others, not just Ryoko, rest on her shoulders—and she knows now that trying to give the burden to a roulette would never produce the miracle that she hoped for.]

...I'm sorry for lying to you, Ryoko-chan.

[There's a small, exhausted smile on her face for a few seconds as she says that. Somehow, it's more genuine than anything that Ryoko has seen on her face before.

Then:]

Ahhh, it's no good. [Her voice rings out, less speaking and more orating. Her voice is nothing like anybody's heard out of Shannon before—a few heads turn, almost expecting to see Battler on her podium instead of where he is arguing right now. It's an octave or two lower from her usual chirp, rougher and volatile.] Ahahahaha... I said it's no goddamn good at allllllllll-

[She gulps.

Then, the steel is back again, and her finger whips out, pointing at one of the podiums.]

HARIME!

[The index finger is leveled squarely

at

Battler.

The room is shocked into silence, and Sayo uses that spare moment to begin fashioning a new mask. A shoddy one, Frankensteined together from a dozen different fragments of a story, one that will fall apart the instant this trial is over... but it'll do for now. The hidden detective, the spy who was waiting for the opportune moment to strike, confident and full of righteous fury now that she's been forced to abandon her cover. That will work; half-truths form the best lies.

Sayo slams her hands onto the podium, cutting off an eruption of babbling and exclamations before it can start with the sound.]

For the duration of this trial, we've been assuming that just because we found Nui Harime's eyeball that she was really, truly dead. After the state Cú was found in, it only makes sense that the other corpse was similarly mauled, riiiiight?

[No, no. Reign it in. Bringing the witch out now will only damage her credibility, nevermind that she seems completely insane for her personality turning on a dime.]

And that's where you've all been wrong this entire time. The first clue should've been in how Harime's corpse was completely splattered as opposed to Cú's, which while cut into pieces was still recognizable as the Hound of Chulainn! The kind of damage inflicted on "Harime" could only be done postmortem. If we spin the chessboard around—ahahahaha [she can't restrain the desperate, manic laughter that escapes at that turn of phrase, even as she imitates Kyrie's signature finger snap]—we need to ask:

Why was Harime given special treatment as opposed to Cú, or even Spamton?

The first motive is some special distaste. While we can't rule it out entirely, it seems unlikely; Harime is annoying at the very worst, but hadn't done anything to make us hate her enough to desecrate her corpse that badly. There might be some secret grudge involved, but if that was the case, why not solely target her instead of getting two more people involved, even in the case of some ridiculously elaborate double-bluff? Strike it out.

The second motive is some dissociative fugue that would cause the killer to lash out violently. This one is even more absurd. Putting aside how Cú's corpse would've been in just a bad a state, somebody under that sort of effect wouldn't be able to reliably plan a closed room this complicated. Strike it out.

The third motive is to hide the true cause of death. Once again, a reasonable question, but if the killer had access to a method that would be so identifiable so as to instantly levy suspicion at them, we should have been able to find at least some indication of its existence somewhere, either as a physical feature one of us possesses or as an item gifted to us by our illustrious host. [Sayo has never been particularly fond of Knox, but his rules do apply in this circumstance.] It can't have just popped up out of nowhere. Strike it out.

From there, the "what-ifs" only grow more absurd. I won't list them all at this point. The only reasonable motive for desecrating the corpse like that that remains is to hide its true identity.

Which, of course, is a point that we've been over several times, and have since dismissed as who would be insane enough to pull out their own eye for the sake of setting up the perfect crime, much less still be functional and able to nigh-perfectly imitate one of us hours afterward? The answer is simple.

Somebody whose eye was already so damaged that its nerves were deadened and it was useless anyways. Might as well cover it with an eyepatch, isn't that right, Harime-san?

[She spits that name out with such venom that nobody but Ryoko will notice the trembling in her voice.]

But of course, nothing is absolute. You can contend the Devil's Proof all you want in this case. This is just a theory.

...however.

Ryoko. We never found Harime's ID card, and "Battler" didn't approach her discarded pile of clothes even to fetch it under our noses.

You were with me while I was... recovering in the hallways. So you saw.

If that is all the case, how did Battler enter Harime's room to investigate?

[shes nervous, he can tell. And the question is... not unexpected. But for a completely different reason. His concerned look vanishes and he stares her down icily- not uncommon in trials but less so between them]

Is there a problem? I am currently the most qualified.

[ Briar immediately splutters, somewhere between surprise, embarrassment and just plain not expecting that sort of response. ]

N–no, of course it's not a problem! F–for something like this, when all our lives are at risk, you're the most qualified– a–and you know what you're doing, but– um–

[ She drops her gaze the floor, not quite able to manage meeting that icy stare. ]

It's just... a terrible thing to have to do all by yourself, so I...

Name: Alfyn Greengrass | Succor Every Minute | Champion of Clearbrook | Green
Age: 21| Species: Human | Occupation: Apothecary
Likes: Ale, good company, helping others
Dislikes: Charging money, standing by when people are in pain
Traits: Friendly, generous, inquisitive
Trivia: If you praise Alfyn too much, his butt gets uncontrollably itchy. Awkward!

[This scruffy lad built like a young lumberjack is actually ye olde fantasy JRPG equivalent of a pharmacist, and he really knows his stuff. That's easy to forget when he comes off as such a simple, fun-loving guy with his friendly brown eyes and country drawl. He's open, friendly, and eager to do whatever he can, whenever he can, be it as easy as chattering over drinks to keep folks' spirits up, or offering his medical (albeit medieval) expertise when--well, when the worst happens.

The murders never fail to upset him, he always gets too worked up at trials, and he attends after-trial gatherings red-eyed and sniffling, but Alfyn's the first to pitch in with organizing and setting them up and the absolute last to leave. Healing hearts is just as important as soothing scratches, after all, and as long as someone's hurtin', an apothecary's job is never done.]

[ While he's no stranger to scolding anyone who catches him off guard, Nandor's kind of gone off of reacting angrily to people just showing up -- especially Entrapta, because she does it all the goddamn time. She's almost worse than the Guide, which is actually quite impressive, because the Guide can turn into smoke and Entrapta cannot. ]

Fucking--!

[ Regardless, he absolutely jerks forward like a startled cat before settling back down. The brochure he was holding flutters to the floor. ]

I was reading that, [ he grumbles, because it is impossible for Nandor to go five minutes without whining about something inconsequential. ] Otherwise I would have noticed your presence immediately, with my heightened senses...

[ wait, shit, ]

Which are normal. [ Ah... nailed it...... ] Just very good. Ask your question, please.

Edited 2021-11-30 17:02 (UTC)

Shh, Remilia! [ he hisses... after definitely shouting about the cape on that last line... ] We are not alone in this place, and some of us are not comfortable telling the whole world that we are vampires. [ He adds, like he's heading off an argument before it can start: ] Ah, don't give me that about the wings again, you could have just said you were a harpy or some shit.

[ In this torrent of words, the subject of cleaning up his cape puddle up has completely gotten away from him. ]

97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

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1/2

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Wildcard Location-Castle, Mid-Trial

i have wanted ritsuka and waver cr for ages thank you so much,,,

i love rubbing self-indulgent roleswaps on fate characters thank YOU

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continued cw above for the whole thread honestly

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Alfyn Greengrass | Octopath Traveler

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