closed mingle: welcome to amity island.

[highflights]

[ Kara has cleared out a landing site just outside the area of the ship Mimi was camped in. Each member of the party has been given a rough map marking the more thickly forested areas, contours marked for hills, and an arrow in the water indicating the general direction back to the underwater base. There are Xs for where the old shipwreck emerges through the green, but only those visible from the air, if you're on foot you're on your own. In Kon's handwriting, the maps are all labelled Amity Island in block letters. The wildlife is friendly unless provoked; we can't vouch for the plants. ]

[ The body itself is in a sturdy wood coffin resting on a bed of freshly dug earth, the lid can be easily pushed off. Time to get cracking. ]

[ ooc info about the island can be found here and here. any questions should be directed to the mods at the second link. ]

Comments

[despairing_hope]

[It was a bit harder to find clues when someone had been dead for longer than a few hours. Considering the environment and the state of the body it could be anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks. Maybe they could narrow it down through an autopsy? It was also hard to say how many things could have possibly been disturbed already. But, that just made it more interesting, right?]

I wonder where I should start?

[Probably looking at where the person came and went would be best. It was the sort of thing people might not think to do at first as well. He should find as many details as he could first, and then go check up on everyone else. He wasn't sure how observant the rest of the group was, but if anything he knew there would be something over looked or casually brushed off when it was more important than it seemed.

Noticing foot prints he decided to take a closer look at those, and ultimately follow them to wherever they went.]

[lightbulbvampire]

[Once Kanaya notices him going to follow the footprints, she promptly tags along... with her chainsaw. Gotta protect the friend from any wildlife. She's honestly a bit worried about whatever made the inhuman tracks being dangerous.]

I do hope that you would not mind my company Nagito.

[And so she continues being oblivious to the whole first name basis thing.]

[despairing_hope]

Not at all! I'm used to doing these sorts of things with someone else. Though, it's always important to find what you can first. And then, when he doesn't notice something I can tell him to look harder.

[Because what was sharing information in a simple manner?]

[lightbulbvampire]

Glad to hear that I am welcome.

[Also glad that hopefriend didn't flip out about the chainsaw. Kanaya settles into a comfortable pace as she follows.]

That seems like a rather roundabout way to share information. Who is this he you speak of?

[despairing_hope]

[He had a tendency to just accept things he probably shouldn't. Also, she had mentioned it before so it wasn't unexpected.]

Is it? I mean, I'll always share things only I could find straight away. But it's not fun to just tell people things when they could look themselves as well. Anyway, I want to see Hinata kun trying his best first. He usually finds a lot of different things. I'm just lucky to notice things myself so I shouldn't step on any toes.

[As he walks he's very careful not to step on any of the prints. He also ends up stopping at one that's particularly clear to trace it out on paper.]

[lightbulbvampire]

[Kanaya thinks it over.]

I suppose there is some logic in that. By letting people figure it out themselves, they improve their deductive skills.

[Kanaya pulls out her communicator from a pocket in her sundress and crouches by the print. The best part of making your own clothes was the ability to customize them.

This might be simpler.

[She scrolls to a camera app, takes a few pictures of the print, and posts them on her Instaclam.]

These prints are quite strange. Do you think that we may find what they belong to if we continue?

[despairing_hope]

It's really fun to see how well he can do!

[ He sort of lit up talking about it. But then most the time he actually spent with Hinata was investigating murders. So thinking about it made him happy. ]

The rest of our class with a few exceptions lacks in any common sense. It's a bit frustrating.

[ He paused to look at the photo, that was a good idea too, but he still finished tracing. ]

I want an accurate size that's easy to look at. It would be nice to make a cast... but I didn't think to bring those kinds of materials.

And I hope we find something fun, if not the creature then something at the end of the path worthy of interest.

[lightbulbvampire]

[Kanaya smiles at how happy he looks. That is pretty adorable.]

I understand the feeling.

[Common sense was in high demand in the Troll session.]

While I don't think we have the materials for a cast, it never hurts to ask around. At the very least, I'm sure we can figure something out.

[Kanaya runs down several options in her head. There is risk of damaging the prints with most of her options though, so she decides that asking around is probably the best idea.]

It would be rather anticlimactic if we did not find either of those things at the end of this path. I would say that I am feeling lucky today, but I believe you've got that covered.

[despairing_hope]

[ Despite what everyone thought Komaeda wasn't particularly good at hiding his feelings. What he was good at was convincing himself he was wrong or mistaken and passing off statements as lies and misdirecting the truth. So to anyone who cared right now who didn't know more convoluted truths he was a rather easy to read book in regards to who he liked to spend time with. ]

At the very least we can wall it off so nothing steps on it and come back later.

[ He smiled a little. ]

Hopefully not too lucky.

[bonomial]

[Hopefully those aren't Donatello's footprints that Komaeda decided to follow... though he could be forgiven for the mistake, considering that the Turtle's unfortunately sporting feet that look a heck of a lot like the killer's. Though he's tried his best to mark his path with occasional hole-punching of the sand or dirt, maybe that's just not as obvious as it should be.

Komaeda might catch a bit of Don's frustrated grumbling to himself:]

Did this guy really have to have the same footprints as me? This is making Turtles everywhere look bad.

[despairing_hope]

[Thankfully he had kept in mind what seemed fresh and what didn't. Though it definitely made things more difficult in trying to keep track of all worth while clues. Though it was frustrating that it was more difficult, he was sure it would be more rewarding in the end.

As for Donatello's mutterings it caused Komaeda to look up and over at him. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about him. A giant talking turtle that was somehow a ninja (Had Sonia san met this person yet? Surly she would love him) should be surprising. But, after everything else on this planet, and well everything else before, he just took it in stride.]

Wouldn't it only make you look bad? Most turtles will have a small print and have five toes. Though, even then I'm sure if we looked closer we'll find differences. If you like I can trace your feet and see if the size is similar.

[A completely pointless activity, but maybe the giant turtle would like evidence to prove them innocent anyway?]

[bonomial]

Ah, but you didn't hear the verbal capital I just put on the front of the word. That's a regular turtle. I'm a Turtle. Completely different.

[Don doesn't elaborate on why that is - instead, he glosses over this information by immediately deflecting to the most important part of that statement.]

Anyway, you're right in that the similarity may only be superficial. Iniidae might be totally nuts, but there is no way that it's another Turtle - just an unfortunate coincidence. You're welcome to help me measure the difference for the sake of scientific accuracy.

[despairing_hope]

[But why would Turtles have feet like this if they're related to turtles....

No. Don't dwell on it. It wasn't important. Just accept things as they are. Like chickens becoming cows! And digital avatars being flesh and blood human beings.]

Well since we have access to your feet we shouldn't have to do that right now. More importantly, we need leads.

Someone decided to move the body so a lot of leads involving that are harder to come by.

[Logical progression was harder to do with that little knot.]

So, have you observed anything of interest so far?

[bonomial]

[There are reasons! He's just. Really reluctant to talk about those reasons. Sorry, Komaeda, it's totally not your fault.]

Yeah, I figured when I saw the coffin. I know funeral rituals are important, but that's a lot of evidence we lost. [Which just makes their job harder.] Anyway, we have to work with what we've got.

The thing that sticks out to me the most is the island itself. This island - [- he accompanies the statement with a one-armed gesture -] - is a terraformed spaceship, right? Why go to all the trouble to terraform it and then only have a few people actually living here? I can't help but feel that something's wrong with that picture.

[despairing_hope]

[It wasn't really that important, it was more a thing that just stuck in the back of the mind. Why? Why?]

Is it? I haven't really been here for very long and don't really understand things like terraforming beyond science fiction stories. Could it be that the ship this used to be is related to our victim and the other person that was here?

[bonomial]

It isn't really a thing where I'm from either, but I get the general gist. It's like... changing the properties of a place to make it easier to live in. In the case of this island, they filled it with dirt and grew a bunch of plants on it - more complicated than that, but that's more or less what happened.

Something like that would take months even with this level of technology. It's no easy feat, so why was it even done? I think it makes sense that Mimi was on board - most of the technology we've seen so far was human-related - but I'm not sure about our other guy. I still don't know what to make of him - or if he really is the killer. It's too soon to be sure.

[despairing_hope]

I understand the theory of it, more, I don't know how much effort it takes to do it and whether that's an actual clue for anything.

[Didn't it just mean that it was something she was related to? She had some kind of research camp going. There were a number of explanations on why this was here and why she was on it. The thing that was difficult was why she had died.]

At this point we can't assume anyone is the killer. To have an opinion will cloud judgement on who the real culprit is.

[goafk]

Hey.

[ It's him again...the one from that dream. She knows him and sees him pondering; might as well get her feet wet first with someone she's familiar with! ]

This is really cool, isn't it? An actual murder mystery--but I feel terrible for whatever happened to her.

[ Not...knowing that Nagito was part of a murder game himself, oops. ]

Mind if I tag along?

[despairing_hope]

Isn't it? And I don't mind at all.

[He was cheerful, though it wasn't the murder itself, it was simply the act of solving it. The hope they would all be gathering together so they can learn the answer.]

There's a lot of things to consider and take in, it's exciting. Though, there are a lot more things to consider before being able to peice things together.

[goafk]

Yeah, you're right. Like the footprints. Those probably belonged to something native to this planet, I think.

[ She taps her finger on her chin pensively. ] Huh...weird how she barely has any injuries, though...

[despairing_hope]

You think they might be?

[ He holds his smile for a little bit like he wants to say something but refrains. ]

I suppose you could think they are if you want to. As for her injuries, not exactly, if she suffocated there doesn't have to be any real visible injury.

[goafk]

Maybe. I mean, if the culprit really was an alien or a different life form--I dunno, I guess I'm kind of confused by how she died?

[ Her thoughts are kind of jumbled in her head. ] Hm...do you have any theories?

[despairing_hope]

She definitely suffocated. But, it might be the cause of whoever was here with her.

[goafk]

Yeah, see! That's what I'm thinking, too! If the culprit was the being that left those footprints, then they might be something really intelligent. Most beasts would probably just thrash around their victims, right?

[despairing_hope]

Pretty much. Also, there's evidence another person was here. She wasn't alone.