Scene #7561: Who Shot Me?

Owner	Pose
Strawberry Princess	SAINT-RAPHAËL, HAITI, 6:12 PM The Reignition Project is comprised of hundreds of researchers, workmen, and administrative staff. These, in turn, require hundreds of support staff; their own logistical supply chains; adequate infrastructure. Ordinarily these needs could be diffused throughout and absorbed by a larger city, but a project dealing in thaumonuclear experimentation makes a poor neighbor. Nobody wants that in their backyard. So here, on a forested mountainside a comfortable distance away from any other civilization, they've put down their roots. Everything and everyone is in one place- a single walkable campus, a city in miniature where one can live and work. Strawberry once described the Project's aesthetic as "pastel lego brutalism". She was right: everything is comfortably solid concrete in charming colors, from the apartment buildings to the walking paths to the main complex itself. But that doesn't entirely do it justice. Everything is planned with such exacting meticulousness that the footpaths and streetlamps weave around individual old-growth trees. It lends things an unnaturally natural feeling; the human brain knows that trees this old shouldn't coexist with buildings this new, and also knows that nature should grow through the gaps of architecture, not the other way around. But once that nagging contradiction fades to the background, it has a certain charm. The place feels both secure and warm. It'd probably feel even warmer and more secure if it weren't currently on lockdown. Everyone is sheltering in place; only a couple of lightly-armed security guards are out, and even they hustle uncomfortably between buildings, uneasy with spending too much time outside. A quartet of magical girls- the Holidays- are restlessly circling high above the buildings, keeping a birds'-eye-view lookout in case anyone tries to break and run. People peek out from behind the curtains of their apartment buildings, anxious for anything that might hint at a resolution.
Strawberry Princess	One of the girls swoops down to ground level to accompany you. She's twelve or thirteen years old; her costume incorporates an unseasonably warm white windbreaker and scarf. Three of you would recognize her as Winter Holiday- she gives Go a friendly wave as she descends, and then follows it with a little acknowledging smile towards Lilian and Arthur. "It's- I wasn't sure I'd see you guys again. Um. Thank you. We're all... we're doing okay. I hope you are too," she says, in the tone of a very small kid trying to express very big feelings. It takes her a few moments of walking to remember she's doing an actual job. "Nobody's left the complex since the shooting," she finally says. "Only us and the guards moving between buildings." That seems Important. Whoever did it is still here. The main facility is dug into the side of the mountain itself. Director Velt and Spearmint Page are standing inside the cavernous entrance, behind a very thick pane of glass- the green-clad magical boy looks visibly shaken-up, while the labcoat-clad woman is stressed only in a stern, crisp way. There are still two glowing green marks on her body where Spearmint healed her: one off-center on her head, the other below her heart, shining through her clothes and hair. "It is good to have you all here," the Director says after manually buzzing you through a secure door. (Winter Holiday peels off to fly back up to her squad, but she's still wearing a radio headset.) Her words, at first, are in somewhat-stilted English, but she seems to remember the Translation Effect after a moment and slip into something vaguely Slavic-sounding. "The shooting happened in my office, between seventeen-forty and seventeen-forty-five local time. So..." Checking her watch: "About half an hour ago." She leads you towards a roomy, utilitarian elevator, which descends for several long moments. "An office worker heard one gunshot." That also feels Important. "Sound doesn't travel far down here; we are lucky anyone did. She found me sitting in my chair unconscious and bleeding; nobody else was nearby. She immediately called Spearmint Page, who managed to mend me." Spearmint himself doesn't say anything, but he manages a proud little smile at that. "The crime scene has been minimally disturbed. I didn't want to interfere with any esoteric abilities you all might be able to use. I am not concerned for my own safety: killing me would do less to harm the Project than they would assume. But there are other ways to sabotage the Project, and if not caught promptly, I am afraid they might attempt something rather more dangerous." "Any further questions, before the crime scene itself?"
Gawain	Gawain is here. He's never helped Strawberry before, but he likes her attitude, so he's going to try and help, as a Warden of the Paladins. He greets Winter Holiday with a nod, and then once they're buzzed in, moves over to listen to Velt and Spearmint Page. "Hm. Who is the office worker? Do they have motive? They obviously have the means to reach you, though I assume they're currently being held, so even if it was them, that's not a worry." And then... "One shot but two wounds. That's...hm. I don't have any abilities to use at a crime scene. My skill is talking to people. Who would you recommend I could speak to, to get more information? Suspects, witnesses...?"
Strawberry Princess	"Susanne Hart," Velt answers without any hesitation. "Worked here for four years. No particular reason to suspect. Personally I think it might be the Americans, or the French. Unlikely to be personally-motivated. But that also means it could be anyone who could be bought, which is highly inconvenient." One bullet, but two wounds: "That is unusual, isn't it? But she was quite certain. Hart might be able to tell you about the circumstances; Spearmint Page would know best the condition of my body; the Holidays could be instructive about the movemements of people outside, though they haven't reported anyone violating the lockdown."
Kale Hearthward	Kale has a notepad out. "Okay. Clues." 1. Director Velt was shot twice with an accelerator while <s>fighting</s> working on a memo. 2. She was saved by Spearmint Page. 3. Velt was shot from the front, if the green circles are entry points. 4. Nobody has left the complex since the incident. 5. The shooting happened between 17:40 and 17:45 (1/2 hr ago) 6. An office worker heard only one gunshot. 7. Sound doesn't travel far down here. 8. The worker found Velt slumped over in her chair and immediately called Spearmint. 9. Crime scene has been touched as little as possible. "It's important to take notes," he says, putting the notepad down right now. "That's how you find Clues, and Clues let the Detective solve the Whodunnit." All of his investigative knowledge comes from old mystery detective plays and, as of late, back-archives of radio dramas. "Spearmint - did you touch anything, do anything at all, besides touching Director Velt to heal her? Also - could get a demonstration of your healing power?"
Ishirou	I4 has come with the group to try and figure things out, the investigation has to be quick, and can't wait for the authorities to get there to make the official investigation. Seems fair, because it might have to deal with magical shenanigans. Behind him is floating a strange box with arms, hovering just out of bumping into the android. The android gives Winter a wave, though he doesn't know her he is at least going to be friendly. Despite everything, I4 is a bit excited to get to work. Sure someone was nearly killed, but it's a mystery and finding out knowledge. I4 /lives/ for this stuff! "Good thing that worker was there and managed to call help in time!" By the time they get to the office, I4 is already moving around the office taking careful note of everything. "I don't suppose you have a picture or something about the office before the shooting?" He asks, and guesses he will have to work on what data that he has. The first thought is to look for anything out of the ordinary. Was there something disturbed? Obviously, there is going to be blood. He looks at the bloodstains and how they look. There is already one contradiction, however. One shot heard, but two wounds. Not only blood patterns, but I4 also starts putting the search for potential bullet marks. There is also one other thing, I4 has the office scanned for any residual magic. Obviously, something stronger would be what they need, and perhaps something could be measured. The office worker does not seem like a suspect, why call the one person who could heal a victim? Too many what if's if they were aiming to try and remove suspicion from themselves. "Was the bullet recovered?"
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Give in to the urge to platform on the concrete. No!! Stop!! This is important. >Arthur: Greet WINTER HOLIDAY "What up, W.H. Magicks? Wasn't sure I'd see you either! Been too long. Good hearin' you're pushin' through the tough stuff! Holla at'cha boy if you got more problems, yeah? I'm all about helping." He offers to harass her hand with one of his usual coolkid handshakes. When she splits off, he keeps the radio line open, as a gesture. >Arthur: Chill with Spearmint Ha haaaaa, good one. "Got that PAGE OF LIFE goin' on? NICE." He rambles as he descends in the elevator. "You catch anything FUCKED UP about that HEALING? A DOUBLE TAP like that makes me think someone was trying to SECURE DEATH GUARANTEED, feels like they'd get some WEIRD BULLSHIT involved. Fuckin'... POLONIUM BULLETS or some shit. Man," He shakes his head. "That'd be IRONIC AS FUCK. You catch anything ESOTERIC on that HEAL?"
Hellwarming Trio	Haiti is not a place often mentioned in Utsuho's and Rin's usual haunts. Why would it be? It's not particularly related to work, they've never had a reason to go, and just picking a place on the globe at random wouldn't be a practical way of learning more about humanity. And yet, they're here of all places. Through various means, largely related to recognizing the names from their interactions with one Strawberry Princess, the pair of youkai are here, taking in the sights on the mountain and finding some small relief at the mildly familiar sights prior to actually reaching the project's campus. Already, details about the shooting start coming in. The shooter didn't succeed at killing their target. The shooter is still here. It happened within the same hour of everyone showing up. "What do you do here, anyway?" Utsuho asks as the opportunity for questions is presented, peering around the elevator itself on the off chance that there's any weird dirt or blood marks in there. She shifts around as Rin jostles her wings, and the two pause for a moment before promptly transforming into their raven and cat forms. Less risk of disturbing the crime scene later, at least. "Ya got any enemies? Or people that'd be gunnin' for your position?" Rin asks next, snickering briefly at the pun and then getting flustered the next moment. "Er. Didn't mean it like that! But.. You know what I mean, right?"
Go Shijima	Go smiles. Winter Holiday... it's almost like nothing happened, to look at her. But why do I feel like she might remember that day for the rest of her life? "Hi, Winter," he says, extending a hand for her to shake. He's wearing his usual--the white hoodie with the racing stripes, one of his many shirts (this one stating simply 'ARIZONA'), khakis, and the trusty sneakers. "I'm good! And I'm glad you are, too. I got you something!" It's a bright, yellow disposable camera--the point and shoot, good fun kind. "I wasn't sure what you'd like, but I had a lot of fun with these when I was a kid. Maybe you and the other Holidays could, too." He offers it to her, the lanyard dangling. He gives her an emphatic thumbs up: "Let's do our best!" I can't believe someone would shoot Director Velt... she works so hard to make something good out of everything this world suffers. It's hard to keep his expression from darkening, especially when he's buzzed in, but he tries--for the kids. Spearmint gets a more subtle, not-interrupting-the-conversation thumbs-up when there's a moment. "This would be our first time meeting in person, Director, but we spoke on the radio briefly. I'm Go Shijima, or Mach, when I'm suited up. I think we should start by eliminating possibilities. If there was one shot but two wounds," he says, holding up a blue and white miniature motorbike. The rear wheel displays a hubcap with a TURN signal. "That usually means someone with special training or abilities. Are there any magical boys or girls here that might've been upset with you? Ones that could easily get in and out?"
Strawberry Princess	I4: 'Was the bullet recovered?' "The one that lodged in my skull was not," Lucije replies in her characteristically dry tone. "It's probably somewhere in my occipital bone. Spearmint's power does not remove shrapnel; I expect I'll have to go under for surgery about that at some later date. The other, I don't know. That one at least had an exit wound." Kale: 'Did you touch anything?' "Um. I had to walk through some coffee," Spearmint says. He's staring at the bird-man with an obvious kind of quiet juvenile awe. "Miss Hart dropped a mug of it when she found the Director. Broke all over the floor." He pauses for a moment and rubs the back of his head. "I guess I could've flown over it, but I wasn't really thinking. You know." Also Kale: 'Can you demonstrate your powers?' "Sure!" he says giddily, his tone immediately changing to I Get To Show Off!!. "If, uh, anybody's hurt, anyway? I think you all look fine." ... Then, conspiratorially: "Is one of your powers looking like a bird?" Arthur: 'You catch anything ESOTERIC on that HEAL?' "I don't fix many bullet wounds," Spearmint says sheepishly. "I couldn't tell a normal one from a weird one. But... it didn't come out the back of her head? Does that count as weird? I wouldn't use a gun that weak," he adds with Cool Boy Machismo. Utsuho: 'What do you do here?' "Mostly diplomatic work, really," the Director responds. "I used to be much more hands-on, but my competent subordinates have relegated me to near-figurehead status. Part of why I'm not concerned for my own safety." She doesn't sound gloomy- this is just someone who has been braced for death for a very, very long time. Rin: 'Anyone gunnin' for your position?' "No," Velt says, so seriously that it's hard to tell if the pun translated at all. But then she flashes just the tiniest smile- it did! "Not within the Project. But foreign powers, certainly. Lots of countries aren't happy with the geopolitical implications of our work." Go: 'A magical culprit?' "It's possible," Velt admits. "I try to cultivate good relations, but it's not beyond the Americans to send the Langley girls after me. ... Still, I would expect something less cloak-and-dagger from a magical child. They have the powers for something more direct."
Strawberry Princess	Finally the elevator grinds to a halt and its doors open. Velt leads the party down a hallway, around a couple of corners, past quite a few locked doors, and finally to her office. The sturdy wooden door is halfway open, revealing the small office behind it. A small nameplate on the door confirms it as Velt's. The office is of utilitarian design, furnished with things of strict function and- later, by Velt's own hand- sentimental value. Bookshelves are packed in along the walls; there's a potted cactus, a bowl of hard candies, a fist-sized chunk of glassed dirt from some Endling attack, a framed painting of a spindly twisting-and-bristling white shape. None of that is crucial to the case at hand, though. More relevant features include... THE COFFEE: An unavoidable puddle of it near the entrance, along with broken shards of a white ceramic mug. There are two coffee-stained tracks leading into the room, and three leading out. Per Spearmint Page's testimony, Susanne Hart dropped it in shock when she discovered the body: if she is telling the truth, none of these footprints belong to the killer. THE BLOOD: A second puddle, obviously cascaded down from the office chair where Velt was sitting when she was shot. It's pretty big; people usually don't lose that much blood and survive. THE BULLET-HOLE: Per Lucije, one bullet is still lodged in her skull, having pierced the front but failed to blow through the back. The other one passed through her torso. That one is currently lodged in the back of her chair, where it's made a nice little puncture. A SECURITY CAMERA: In the back corner, with a view of Lucije's workspace and the whole room. Seems like she's one for accountability and safety over privacy, herself. A REVOLVER: Lying on the ground next to Lucije's chair, soaking in the blood. One drawer of her desk is open; it's just big enough for the revolver to have fit inside. SUSANNE HART: Not in the office, but leaning against the wall about ten feet down the hallway, visibly shaken. A security guard is trying to calm her down. She notices your approach, but doesn't speak up on her own.
Gawain	Gawain does not enter the office. Once they have all the information, he heads over to Susanne Hart. His smile is disarming - a soft smile, one that shows compassion to the situation as well as a kindness of a stranger. Both long-used, and entirely natural. "Sir, miss Hart, I'm Sir Gawain, Warden of the Paladins, here to help." He flashes his badge if it seems like that'll help calm Hart. If he can get her to listen and speak to him, he'll start asking questions, otherwise he'll use a routine to help calm her - eye contact, smile, and reassuring words about how everything will be okay, that the Director is fine, and that they'll catch the attempted assassin. Assuming he gets to ask questions, he asks the following. "So, I have a few questions, but one in particular is bothering me after something that was said - you're not under suspicion, of course, it's just..." "How loud was the gunshot? Can you 'describe' the sound, as difficult as that may be?"
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Would YOU use a gun that weak? "HELL YEAH." Arthur nods several times, rambling to Spearmint. "I wouldn'ta used some SUBSONIC SHIT. Must'a been some CONCEALED SPECIAL SILENT THING, that's how the TOM CLANCY shit always is, right? You go SUBSONIC but SILENT." Then he drifts into the room. >Arthur: Track the Scene (1d20+9+4) What? Arthur shakes his head, grunting with a brief headache. >Arthur: Try to reconstruct a little, even though you aren't good at it. He finally shakes his head clear of the headache. "So if it was a slow fuckin' gun, then the GUNSHOT... the sound came from THAT." He gestures at the revolver. "VELT must'a POPPED A CAP IN HER ASSAILANT after the CHEST SHOT." He looks back to Velt, cocking an eyebrow and grinning. "You got some GODDAMN GRIT, girl. Can someone check the OTHER SIDE for a THIRD bullet? We might be lookin' for a WOUNDED MOTHERFUCKER, since they DOUBLE TAPPED her but TOOK A SHOT." His certainty gets more uneasy. "RIGHT?"
Ishirou	One-shot heard, but two wounds. I4 takes a moment after he steps inside to actually look at the chair. There was definitely a bullet there, to which he signals someone to come collect it as evidence. However, he takes a moment to scan the bullet itself. Calibur, ballistic markings, and the whole kit and caboodle. He also scans the revolver that might have been on the desk. He checks to see if any shots were fired, how many were fired, and the barrel to see if the markings on the bullet match the gun. One easy way to try and figure this out is to rule out one obvious weapon, though if it IS the murder weapon, it is also uh...going to be a weird case. This is what he's most interested in right now.
Kale Hearthward	10. The bullet in her head is presumably still in there, the one in her stomach was not. 11. Spilled coffee on the ground. Mug broken by Hart after finding the <s>body</s> director. "Is one of your powers looking like- nevermind," says Kale, who'd about to say 'ill pig', but decides Spearmint's got enough to worry about right now. He goes back to note taking. 12. Spearmint doesn't heal many bullet wounds. Also confirmation on no exit wound in head. 13. Vale's a figurehead - death wouldn't accomplish anything political according to Vale? Mixed readings on that. Does not think motivation was upward mobility in org. 14. Magic kids more direct 15. Multiple locked doors - isolated office. 16. 3 tracks of footprints in through the coffee, two out. 17. Pool of blood around the office chair. Too much blood? 18. Bullet found in her office chair. Kale can fly so he theoretically could get in without tracking through the spilled coffee. It is somewhat noisy flight that stirs up wind, though, so he relies on his SUPERIOR BIRD VISION to survey the office scene from the threshold instead of going in. "That's... interesting," says Kale, glancing at Arthur and then back at his notes, and then using more BIRB VISION to start quickly scanning the hallway and surroundings for other bullet holes
Lilian Rook	Lilian had expressed her initial thoughts about this just beforehand, as best as she was able to in two sentences: "I'm very happy to hear you're alive, Doctor." and "Someone is shortly to be much less happy." She doesn't know Velt all that well --not like Strawberry does by far-- but she'd also made her intentions perfectly clear when they had met, with her making certain that the Doctor received both all of Onyx Witch's information, and her own contact details; the latter to specifically avoid another case like the Holidays from happening again. Arriving at the complex, Lilian has to remind herself away from the idea of a five minute time limit before they lose air coverage; anyone but Strawberry can likely stay in the air as long as they need. When Winter Holiday reveals herself, she becomes the subject of headpats, and a reassurance that she's doing a good job, and that while they're on the side of a mountain, there's not really many ways someone could creep out of sight. Arriving at the lab entrance and seeing Velt, Lilian instead replies with a faintly frustrated "Jesus Christ Doctor, you'd made it sound like someone took a potshot from a crowd and ran off. How are you alive with those? How many fingers am I holding up?" For some reason, just the sight of the green shiners seems to make her . . . irritable? Maybe? She does the walk and talk, like this is an important business trip. "As long as Susanne isn't going anywhere, we can get to her after. The whole two shot thing . . ." She rotates her hand vaguely several times. "It's really just possible that she didn't register the first one as a gunshot; that happens unfortunately often. It's also possible that you were shot a considerable amount of time apart. At a very close range like these sorts of things happen, it'd be difficult to miss the heart like that, so it might've been a complete amateur who took a while to make sure, or a professional who wanted to ask questions first. But then an execution shot up close should probably have rattled around inside your skull and scrambled your brains, if it were a calibre that low. It's possible there was a ricochet I suppose; I can't really rely on your memory here, no offense, with a hole in the head." "What access privileges does it take to get to where you were? Are you sure that you were there beforehand, and mot moved after the fact? Anything 'exciting' happening recently? Moreso than usual." She asks. "Leaving it alone was a good call." Since Susanne is apparently along the way, Lilian takes a moment to scan her in passing, but, without wandering far, she only two seconds at the scene to examine the chair, and say "Well, that rules out the ricochet theory. And this room is far too small to go taking shots from some cowardly long range." She raises an eyebrow at Arthur, then crouches down by the blood. "You know, there'd probably be much more obvious splatter and bleeding involved if she took a shot at someone else at point blank. Even with this--" She does then spare a moment to examine the make of the revolver; Lilian isn't a gun encyclopedia, but she knows guns (and also can examine bullets in the chamber without needing to screw with it). "--thing. You're the geometry expert. You can see the damage to the chair, so you should be able to tell where they were standing. Check the area for where a shot might have missed or bounced to; otherwise we'd have to assume it lodged in body armour, which tells a very different story." Back to the blood. "Or that not all of this is hers." Lilian spends a long minute staring at that shape framed on the wall. She then begins doing two things: one, scanning around the floor for shell casings. Two, scraping some blood from different ends of the puddle for something else.
Hellwarming Trio	That's a lot of information to take in all at once, and it's pretty obvious from the intense stares from the pair (even in animal form) that they're straining to retain any of it. They are trying, though, so it actually controls potential outbursts from them even when the elevator stops and the whole crew is led to Velt's office. Utsuho: "Langley? Think they're in on this?" Rin: "Can't rule it out. But someone woulda caught 'strangers snoopin' around by now if nobody's left yet." Putting on their (figurative) detective hats, the pair get to work (literally)! They start with the coffee puddle, floating around it and sniffing it while eyeing those tracks. Utsuho: "Two coming inside, three going out... Wait. That doesn't make sense." Rin: "Right? If Hart here's one of 'em and our shooter was the other, then who's number three? Why's there a number three?" Utsuho: "Maybe... Uh. Wait." Utsuho makes her way over to Velt, floating near her feet in particular. "Did you step in that when you were coming out to get us? Because if Hart dropped it and stepped in it first, then..." She visibly starts focusing. "Then... Who else stepped in it on the way in?" Rin, taking that cue, starts comparing the tracks through eyesight alone. Notably, she's checking if the tracks going in and the tracks going out match at all before trying to figure out any other details about the third set (primarily size differences, track style, and gait).
Strawberry Princess	EARLIER: Winter Holiday accepts Lilian's headpats with the kind of happy-begrudging patience with which one tolerates affection from an aunt who gives you candy. "I know we're doing a good job, Miss Rook," she says with a little bit of pride- she must've gotten your names from somebody. "Don't worry about us!" She reciprocates Arthur's handshake, although she can't quite manage the level of enthusiasm he can- Go is right; she's still clearly processing what happened to her and her team. Just because they came back doesn't negate the fact that she watched them die. She's smiling anyway. It's hard not to get the sense that She'll Be Okay. "Thanks," she says sincerely. "We can be like pen pals. Right?" She shakes Go's hand with just as much firmness, if not more. Can she recognize him from his voice, or something else? When he gives her the camera, she gives a happy little gasp and takes it in both her tiny little hands with all the weight of a religious artifact. "Wow!! This is so cool. Summer loves cameras. I'm gonna go show her! Thanks, mister!" And then she's off, rising into the sky.
Go Shijima	Go nods. "Okay. So not likely, but possiible. Are there any... magical 'adults' on your world? Besides Strawberry. I'm not talking about people with abilities as blatant as hers," he continues with a frown, placing the TURN bike back into the pocket of his hoodie. "More like... people with one or two tricks. What's the word? Hedge magicians?" He looks around--mainly at Lilian, Kale, Utsuho, Rin and Gawain for confirmation. "Though... I guess Lilian has a point. It could have just been two gunshots." But there's more to be done. He's gonna check out the scene itself, and there will be a minimum of flips and somersaults on the way there. There will be zero, in fact. At the scene itself... that's a different story. He's brought his camera with him, naturally. Using his photographer's eye, and making use of his agility where necessary to find vantage points without disturbing the scene (the classic spread-eagle to stick to a ceiling, for instance), he begins snapping photos. He's looking for enlightening angles for the evidence that already exists, and, hopefully, for his acrobatic antics to uncover as-yet unseen evidence. He toggles between flash and no flash to illuminate dark crannies and corners, and alternates several levels of zoom for each shot. Lilian had mentioned the possibility of a ricochet. She seems to think it's been ruled out, but, just in case, he's got the camera. Any markings on the wall? Then, a few of the coffee. Same shoes? Different? What kind? What size?
Strawberry Princess	GAWAIN: Susanne is sufficiently shaken-up that it'd be hard for anyone else to get much out of her, but the knight's sincere himbo charms manage to soothe her down enough to extract useful information. "Um. Okay- okay. I think I can help," she fianlly says, wiping the tears and snot off of her face with the back of her hand. "It was like... the shot. Like a really loud firework? Kind of muffled- I was a couple of halls down. But I heard it for sure, and I came right away." ARTHUR: "That is my gun. I didn't realize I'd managed to fire a shot," Velt responds, her eyebrows lifting with the revelation. "Thank you, Mr. Lowell. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. It isn't my first time with a bullet in me." The mention of her assailant being wounded draws a wry smile: "I should hope so. But it does seem like the only blood here is mine." I4: Extracting the bullet from the back of Lucije's office chair is trivial. It's a 9mm round; chemical analysis of the bullet itself, and the traces of propellant still on it, show that it's pretty typical of a modern Earth round. The caliber isn't a fit for the revolver. The markings on the bullet don't tell him anything intrinsically useful, but if he finds another gun later, he can check if it's a match! The revolver, on the other hand, has been fired exactly once. KALE: Following Arthur's direction, Kale's eagle eyes find a small chipped segment of concrete wall down the hallway, and then- further down than that- a flattened bullet lying on the ground. This one does match the caliber of Velt's revolver, though pancaked as it is, it's a little hard to tell. Crucially, there is no way to directly see the place it hit the wall from the doorway of Velt's office. It must have ricocheted off of something already to get there. LILIAN: "No offense taken, Ms. Rook," Velt says. "I remember nothing whatsoever between working on my spreadsheets, and Spearmint Page reviving me. As for the access privileges, both a keycard and a passcode is required; in theory only about thirty white-collar workers, plus custodial and security staff on the proper assignment, are supposed to have access here. We're still performing a full roll-call of those personnel, but so far none report a missing keycard. There've been no other unusual circumstances worth noting." The revolver is, Lilian can discern, nearly an antique; it's some model of Nagant, single-action. Again, exactly one bullet has been fired; the hammer was re-cocked for a second shot, but the trigger was never pulled. There are no shell casings; of course the revolver wouldn't eject one, but that does imply something about the assassination weapon. UTSUHO AND RIN: "I walked through the coffee on my way out," Velt responds. "Susanne and Spearmint Page must have walked through it both in and out." The tracks support that: the ones going in match Spearmint's and Susanne's shoes, the ones going out match Velt's. Unfortunate! GO: "No. Aside from magical children and Endlings, our world is perfectly mundane. And I've never heard of an Endling picking up a gun," she adds, with that now-characteristic twist of dry humor. Aside from the mark Kale's already found, Go locates no evidence of ricochets; Utsuho and Rin have already solved the mystery of the coffee. But as a cameraman, his attention might be drawn back to the security camera inside Velt's office: it appears functional.
Kale Hearthward	Kale puts the notebook aside for right now - he'll catch up on the clue-taking later. Something's tugging at the corner of his mind. "So it ricocheted off of something to get to here," he says, staring at the bullet. "You'd think we'd see an impact mark in the wall or the door, if that was the case. It's like if something that would-" He freezes where he's standing, a light bulb going off. All of his feathers stand on end. "No... No that couldn't... be it?" He races back towards the office. "Shit - someone help me get this coffee mug put back together, alright?" he says, trying to gather all the pieces. "I want to rule out if it shattered on impact with the floor - or impact with something else."
Strawberry Princess	Kale's stroke of genius, as brilliant as it is, doesn't come to anything: doing his Bird Forensic Analysis to the coffee mug doesn't show the kind of fracturing you'd expect to see from a bullet hitting it; the pieces are all too large, not splintered and pulverized. Susanne Hart is exculpated, at least for the moment.
Lilian Rook	Outside, with Winter Holiday, Lilian's last part of the engagement is withdrawing her hand and adding, "Ah, apologies miss; that was a little inappropriate. Force of habit, you understand." And then "Well of course I believe you ladies would, but if you neglect to ever praise someone just because they're more competent than most, how fair is that?" She waves her off. In the office, Lilian says upon the revolver bullet's extraction "It's entirely possible, come to think of it, that the one shot Susanne heard was yours, Velt." She shakes her head wryly at the revolver. "Though, ironically, these things are unique for being revolvers you can suppress. I don't suppose you're a Soviet nostalgic?" After scouting around the floor some. "Caseless ammunition isn't really a thing in this time, and extremely niche besides; someone picked up after themselves, or has some incredibly illegal modifications; the former is probably much more likely, but indicates they knew what they were doing and planned it out fairly well." "I believe this does support my theory that you were shot twice far apart, though." Though she keeps aiming her remarks for Velt, they're broadly voiced enough for anyone to hear and chime in. "I'd believe you heard them coming and traded shots if this were fired and uncocked, but by the looks of it, you had time to retrieve it, fire it, confirm a miss, and prime it again, before being shot a second time." She frowns when the chair bullet is extracted. "You know, there's a very high probability that's military. Enforcement and civilians buy into the stopping power myth a lot. The military, and various paramilitary agencies, standardize almost entirely in small and intermediate calibres." She waves camerawards. "Would someone please check the records already? It feels ridiculous that we're just ignoring the security feed right now."
Ishirou	I4 gets the readings down and places the bullet into a safe bag for later. The type of round does not match what was fired from the weapon on the scene, nor what would be on sight. Probably because anything given out could be traced. Kale seems to be trying another path, so while people help reconstruct the pot, I4 instead waves a hand towards Lilian. He'd thought someone else would go for this by now, but instead, he just goes to where the video would be stored. It's easy enough to just watch the video play back, right?
Gawain	Gawain thanks Ms. Hart profusely for her time, tells her that everything will be alright, and then decides to do something else. They traded shots. But it was a miss, or a ricochet. So blood doesn't work. But scenting may still be the path. Even if the ammo is caseless, there must be some sort of chemical, Gawain's gun-dumb brain decides that smells like something. The scent wouldn't disappear from the gun, right? So, he starts sniffing the air as soon as he gets away from Ms. Hart, trying to see if he can't find a trace on the gun that made the shot. This may not work even a little bit. But if there is a scent, his nose is extremely sharp, supernaturally so, and will get a trace. He knows it. He'll also have to smell a lot of blood.
Go Shijima	"Well, as long as they can't vote," Go idly fires back at Velt in between ridiculous stances meant to catch vantage points without disturbing the scene. It isn't until he nearly bumps his head on it that he hears the whine of the security camera. The one Lilian's annoyedly gesturing to. "Of course!" He drops down from the wall-ceiling corner and snaps his finger. "And that might prove Lilian right, too--Director," he says, directing her attention with a sweep of his hand up and back. "Can you get me footage from your camera? Also..." He faces her fully, frowning with evident concern. "Are you okay? Not... physically. It's just... you're awfully calm for someone who was just shot. Is there anything we can get you?"
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho: "Darn. I was hoping for... I dunno." Rin: "Some weird gimmick with someone walking backwards or wearin' her shoes?" Utsuho: "Yeah! Wait. How'd we both figure that?" Rin: "We watched that movie last week." With their movie theory a bust, the bird and the cat shift their attention elsewhere as they eavesdrop on what's being said. Hearing about Velt's shooting of the culprit, they... Actually, they're drawing a blank, and the look is evident on their faces again. Utsuho: "So what now?" Rin: "Someone's on the other employees, I think. And a couple o' someones are already checkin' out the bullet and blood stuff. So..." They perk up as Kale approaches, and Rin starts skittering about the room to assist in looking for pieces that might be harder to find for someone that isn't cat-sized! Even the undersides of desks or slightly raised cabinets aren't safe from her. Utsuho, meanwhile, floats around idly for a moment, listening to Lilian's analysis of the matter and letting most of it just float right through her head. Not all of it, just most. "But if she shot them after they shot her, there'd have to be blood somewhere else, right? Unless... It wasn't someone that bleeds at all?" She glances towards the security cameras, noting that I4 and Go are addressing that, then turns right back to Velt and Lilian while still flapping every now and then (mostly so it doesn't look weird that she's just hovering in place). "Do you have any magical kids or anyone else here that doesn't bleed? Or ones that can hide a-" Utsuho turns her attention right over to Spearmint Page. "Hey. Hey. Did you heal anyone else today besides Velt? Before or after all of this stuff."
Lilian Rook	Making a silent okay gesture to I4 covering the bases, Lilian rolls the testimony around in her head a bit, and continues. "'A really loud firework' is how civilians often describe shootings to police. That's certainly Velt's gun. So the other one wasn't audible at all. Some sort of Welrod nonsense would be very, very tiresome." she says. Lilian actually produces the sidearm she brought herself for this, expecting to put one or fourteen in a runner --it very distinctly doesn't even come close to fitting this world's aesthetic-- and aims it herself down the hall, shifting around the room to see if she can get that chipped bit of wall in her sights. "However I'm not entirely convinced this is as mundane an affair as you'd like to believe, if your own shot is so far down the hall." She glances at the Endling material in the jar, and frowns. No. An Antegent might do it, an Endling wouldn't bother; wouldn't need to; wouldn't care. "Velt, does the lock keep electronic logs of being used? Even if not, I'd like someone to test to see that it hasn't been physically compromised, or hit with a magnet or something. Ideally foureyes when he's finished up." The use of the nickname she secretly thinks is fake and stupid is subtly intentional. The more she goes through this, the more that 'irritable' tone just increases. She gets slightly more vehement about that annoyance-approximate-sounding feeling every time she looks at Velt's injuries. "If you please, I'd like the next three minutes undisturbed. If I don't get anything, I'll begin going through that roster." Lilian bogarts the area around Velt's chair for a little while. Superficially, it's so she can do some stuff with drawing runes into the blood around it, setting down little glass bowl things, lighting up something earthy (after Gawain is done sniffing around), and focusing really hard. However, in this case, half of it is bullshit. Lilian isn't performing a 'real' divination. She's not consulting the weave or anything like that. Her sight is turned entirely inwards. To the bits and pieces of times and places that flow into her head through her blood at times like these. The ability to see forward in time, in potentials, out of sheer selfishness. She doesn't want to solve this crime. She can't pretend that she cares about this on a level of justice and professional conduct. Doctor Velt is a rare and genuinely noble humanist surrounded by psychopaths shoveling children into the engine. Doctor Velt is a genius that this world can't do without. Doctor Velt is clearly like a second mother to Strawberry Princess. Someone tried to kill Strawberry's mother. Someone would have absolutely devastated her. More than anything else, anyone else, Lilian just wants to find this person, and she wants to hurt them. A vision like this can't show her a crystal clear picture of the past or present, or omens as to what might happen; focusing on one, bright, burningly selfish thing is how this works. What she learns is what she Wants: the optional choices of where to go and what to do, and the knowledge what will happen and what she has to know, to get to a place and time where she can hurt this person; a lot.
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Check the area for where a shot might have missed or bounced to Arthur gives directions on that shot. He's not the one to find it, though, Kale is. And the bounce... dammit. She must have missed. But this is Velt, she must have had line of sight if she got a shot off. Come on, there has to be a way to trace what happened here. But... not for Arthur. No, Arthur Lowell is no boy detective, no matter how much he pushes himself. >Arthur: Divine area (-1 SP or 1m of meditation) Arthur holds on to the bridge of his nose, cleching his teeth. "Stop." He mutters anxiously. "Stop." His antigravitational drift wobbles just slightly before he course-corrects. A few deep breaths. The pain passes, slowly. >Arthur: IDIOT >Arthur: Reconstruct the geometry of the approach The shot to the chair and the head... the shot down the hall... Assuming a particular, consistent motion, can Arthur discern progress down the hall, or in the room? Can Arthur determine, using the geometry of sight-lines and cover, where an assailant may have stopped to take cover, or any other details about the approach? Arthur's grasping at straws here, while some of the gears in his brain grind painfully, lacking some mechanism they wish they had. Is there any insight to be found there? >Arthur: Hey, watch the footage Maybe he can get extra info from that. But for some reason he thinks it's unlikely it'll show a clear face or something like that.
Strawberry Princess	LILIAN: "That sounds quite reasonable," Velt says, closing her eyes for a moment to visualize herself going through the motions. "We'd be looking for something even slower-firing than a single-action revolver, then. How strange." There's a short pause before the Director answers her second question with a slight twist of humor: "I am a nostalgic for not being bombed, Ms. Rook. Most people are." I4: Of course, video isn't stored on the camera. That'd be inefficient and insecure. But if he digs back through its connection with his hacking skills, he'll immediately uncover something distinctly alarming: the video database has records back to 6:02 PM, 15 minutes after the crime and 10 minutes before they arrived, but absolutely nothing earlier from any feeds. Someone had the same idea, and only extremely recently covered their tracks. But that'd mean... GO: "Sitewide footage of the last 24 hours, rolling, is stored at the server building topside. I called the security team and told them to freeze discarding it just a few minutes before you got here," she says. Then: 'Are you okay?' Lucije smiles a slightly tired smile in response. "Mr. Shijima," she says. "I am not entirely sure how to convey this in the tone it is meant. But I have been prepared to die since I was twelve years old. All magical children are, no matter how young or old. Do you understand? So I am fine. It is more my worry that this assassin could destroy what I've built, than that they could destroy me." GAWAIN: The knight's keen nose is, in fact, able to pick up the lingering scent of something smoky and chemical- it leads back towards the elevator. The culprit must've fled towards the surface before Susanne could arrive. Unfortunately, the scent is dispersed by powerful ventilation fans before he can track it any further than the elevator; paradoxically, an underground facility like this is exactly the kind of place that needs the best airflow. REIUJI AND RIN: The idea that it wasn't someone who bleeds at all seems promising. The bullet bounced off of something to careen down the hallway like that, and there's no evidence that whatever it struck bled. Lucije shakes her head at first, then pauses for a moment: "Ones who can make something that doesn't bleed, perhaps. But not nearby." Spearmint Page, for his part, shakes his head: "Just Strawberry Princess, this morning. She had a sunburn again. But if I did heal someone from something big, they'd be glowy like the Director is." ARTHUR: Reconstructing the geometry shows something of use. Looking at the trajectory the bullet took through Lucije's torso into the chair, and likewise the angle the bullet intersected her skull based on the glowy mark Spearmint Page's healing left behind... both of the shots were fired from the doorway, or just behind it. But Lucije fired at the assailant, registered that they were still standing, and cocked the revolver again before she was nearly-killed by the assassin's second shot. And in that time... the assassin didn't try to reposition at all. They didn't dive for cover when she pointed the gun at them. They took their time and lined up a headshot instead. The assassin is someone who was not scared to be shot, but whom Velt assumed could be killed with a bullet. Why the disconnect? LILIAN AGAIN: She confirms that it's literally impossible to sight the place where Lucije's bullet ricocheted off the wall from anywhere reasonable inside the office. It must've bounced off something else first. "Of course I'd rather not believe it," the Director says, "but it is an acknowledged possibility, and that is part of why you're here. As for the door locks... it hadn't occurred to me. I'll call the security team and ask them if that's tracked." Getting three minutes to monopolize the puddle of blood is easy. Making sense of the path it shows her is harder.
Hellwarming Trio	"So it can't be the baker, then... But if there's someone that can 'make something that doesn't bleed', but still looks enough like a human that she'd think to shoot them anyway..." Utsuho murmurs to herself, grimacing slightly as she can feel the start of a headache coming on. This isn't what she signed up for, but like hell she's going to let the people around here think she's too stupid to figure anything out! Perhaps sensing her friend's distress (or just hearing that audible grunting), Rin emerges from underneath a table to hop onto Velt's desk. "Hey, do you got any kids or anyone around here that can make those store clothing things? Y'know, the fake human-shaped things that they put clothes on so people know what they'll look like wearing that stuff without a face?" A beat, and then Utsuho speaks up again. "Or with a face is fine, if you know someone that can do that instead. Just.. Making something human-shaped that can shoot people, right?" She sounds confident enough, watching Lucije closely as if expecting her to follow up with some kind of big revelation. "And if it wasn't a person, there wouldn't be anyone to fix afterwards or to... Blood! Bleed all over the place. Hehe... I'm not as dumb as I look, do I?" Close enough.
Go Shijima	'What she's built...' Hmph. "I understand, yeah." Go crosses his arms. "But you can say that you're worried about the kids, you know. We are too." I know that isn't all she's worried about. But come on. Look at the way these kids look at her. Any of them... they're all counting on her to be the 'grown-up.' And for a lot of them, I wonder if she isn't the closest thing they have to a parent. "Mannequins," says Go to Rin, stepping aside. "Strawberry can do those little pink energy clones. So I guess it's not unheard of that one of the kids could do something similar. Based on what I4 said about the cameras, and..." He's actually not sure what Lilian is doing! But... "Well, it's looking like we need to get a headcount of all the kids on base, and sweep it one more time just to be sure it wasn't one of the Langley girls like the Director mentioned earlier."
Ishirou	I4 frowns, that was very unfortunate. The data was deleted, fifteen minutes after the crime onward is all they have to work with. However, that does not mean traces of the person who did this are not there. There has got to be something left, and rather or not the files were deleted versus if they were removed from the system. I4 uses his remote connection to check to see if there are bits of data that could be restored. Failing that, he goes all-in on trying to find out who had access to the building in the time frame of when the deletion would have occurred. Nobody left, obviously, but it doesn't mean that someone didn't go in and out there. If video evidence is not there, then SOMEONE should have seen them there. This is also giving him a frown...the people who should have access to this particular place should be limited.
Strawberry Princess	GO: "Of course I worry about them," Lucije replies, sounding... not quite defensive, but close. "That is the entirety of why our Project exists. To make a world where children are not killed. You will note, however, that I am not a child." It's hard to make out the specifics, but that's got to be some kind of defense mechanism, surely? If your own mortality looms over you for that long, you start finding justifications not to let yourself fret. "Spearmint Page, the Holidays, and Strawberry Princess- done, that is headcount. But the idea that someone might be hiding is... distressing." I4: Digging through the data yields nothing salvageable from the video footage. Whoever did this was thorough. But they weren't quite as clever as he is: the door access records have been wiped for Director Velt's office, but not for the server building itself. In the specific time window he can peg to the video files being wiped, only one person entered the server building where the footage was stored: "MSILVA". They haven't left.