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Heidi didn't think anything of it when someone asked to see her hand, distractedly holding it out for him.

Wait.

"Augh! Dude! Is that one of the pens from the blood pool?!" Heidi whined but didn't move her arm away. What if she got a scratch from the pen or something? Uuuuugh. Dude. Gross!

How? It is only blood.

IT'S JUST GROSS!

Roland took one look at Nevada and Tuck and then went back to staring at the body.

Lawr listened in quietly to what was being said. He wasn't sure why people were even getting involved in what looked to be a fairly brutal murder or suicide, touching evidence tended to result in the eye of blame turning squarely upon the idiots who got their paws involved. He hovered back in the "just an onlooker" zone of easy retreat, at least for a short time.

"So they had a bunch of pens and yet tried to write in blood."

He sidled over to look closer at the gun. He wanted to see if it had blood on both sides of it or if there was any sign of point blank firing. He didn't touch it though, he didn't want shot, or blamed.

The pen must have been an expensive pen because it performed rather well, despite a small hitch at first with the blood. The ink was a solid dark red. One could almost day like a red herring dark red.



The gun itself was standard issue, when it came to law enforcement officers. Why the man was carrying it was another question if he was an engineer. Maybe he stole it from a security officer and killed himself. Maybe a ghost gave it to him. Maybe Caelius came and shot him because the guy was breathing the same air as him, it was a mystery.

"They said he worked in engineerin' an' they also said they installed glass in that art gallery. A note in his pocket said how ta clean the glass an' stuff so maybe we should start on level 5 wit' the gallery?" Ofelia handed over a piece of black fabric to Heidi so she could wipe her hand a bit better. It probably wasn't worth mentioning that the fabric was from Ofelia's dress (which was already ripped and now a bit bloody). "Or else we could always get started checkin' 'round in engineerin'. If we get the blood an' whatever else off this we should be able ta read it more right?"

Too bad there weren't two cards, everyone could have taken one and split up.

"No picture?" Nothing Mimsy said to Lucky should have anything to do with a picture, and he was terribly confused for someone who supposedly was making a cocky reference to one of her most despised 'memories'. She frowned and slowly shook her head, wondering if Song had mistranslated her words, or if she had misunderstood his comments. "Ah. Excuse my prior statements. I appear to have incorrectly processed your explanation. I will continue to 'help', as you said."

She didn't look at him, and made no indication that she was apologetic. She was unnerved that something did not properly connect, but did her best to avoid outwardly showing as much. When that became too difficult, she poured her attention into working through the problem that was not about her.

Quite a few factors simply did not add up to the solution presented in front of them. She knew that this could be amended by adjusting variables or the re-positioning of operands, which was much easier to do on paper than with flesh and blood and a lot of other things she wished that she could avoid. Permanently.

Still, curiosity was beginning to get the better of her, especially in the absence of the guards. Logic dictated that this was a corpse that was in no way capable of responding to external stimuli, but logic was scarce these days.

Releasing Kostya's arm, she stepped forward and leaned down towards the body, examining it for any signs of life or sentience. There were far too many actions that appeared to have been done that could not possibly have been performed by a dead man.

It was just a pen, and Lucky tossed it back down in frustration. He didn't seem to pay Heidi's outburst much attention aside from removing himself from punching range.

Glancing back down to where the pen had fallen, a shine caught his eye. That was a really nice watch. Nicer than he imagined a crew member on the boat would have bought, unless they were really into watches. Not that that was much to go on, but they were running out of options here. Lucky crouched down again and gingerly removed the watch from the dead man's wrist, studying it top and bottom, searching for an engraving or a sign of something he hadn't seen from standing above the body.

(3/5)

((enter)

The first thing Maebe noticed when she got closer was the smell. She instantly regretted coming anywhere near the body.

"Remind me to never die. Nasty affair."