FINAL INVESTIGATION

[umbralant]

FINAL INVESTIGATION

Time continues to pass. And before long, it's the end of the week once again. Maybe it feels strange to call it that when there's such little sense of time besides the changing phases of the moon, and maybe the exact day doesn't even matter to you anymore. But regardless of the day, regardless of the month, regardless of the year, one thing is certain:

The time for preparations is over.

Because as the moon in the sky shines blood red, it becomes clear that all of the fog and the tremors were nothing but omens for what was to come.

And so, on Friday morning, Survivors will find themselves waking up to the sensation of energy practically buzzing through the air, prickling and tingling on skin like static electricity. Those who venture outside will also find that the fog that's creeped up in the recent days has been dispelled entirely, which includes the impassable kind that once hid a number of the buildings. Despite this, the tremors themselves do not lessen, and in fact, the earth itself seems to be vibrating with this energy as well.

The feeling will only get worse as the day progresses, and those who have been marked by the manifestations may feel more restless than normal.

The clock is ticking and there are some new areas to explore. No one's coming to save you, so there's nothing to do but to save yourselves, right?

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Comments

[umbralant]

[ Moving on to the rest of the desk is a good idea for now! Rannsacking the Lady's desk with possible abandon, Iago will find a series of schematics that catch his eye. There's three in total, the first one depicting a dark ball being shaped from a person shaped silhouette. ]

[psychophant]

[The Lady gets no privacy!! She left this stuff here, now he's gonna steal it!!!!!

But ooh, schematics!! What's up with this first one? Does this look like this is a design for some sort of machine to accomplish this, or is it more of a design for like. pulling out a person's soul. That's what that description sounds like. Is the Lady just yanking out souls here or what.]

[umbralant]

[ It does look like a design for a machine (bc reading gdocs is hard), from what Iago can make out of it this machine is coffin shaped with an antennae on top. ]

[psychophant]

[Hmm. Cursed. Maybe someone else found a horrible soul-sucking coffin somewhere. Is there anything else to note about the first schematic? If not, it's onto #2!]

[umbralant]

[ Nope! #2 depicts a dark ball moving over to the machine's antennae and then into the machine itself. ]

[psychophant]

[Oh!! Maybe this isn't soul-stealing at all, but rather how the Lady hops into another body...!!! Hmm. Anything else to note about this one? If not, how's #3 looking?]

[umbralant]

[ The final one depicts a person popping out of the machine! ...they vaguely resemble Rembrandt.

Hm. ]

[psychophant]

[????????? Well, that didn't go the way he was expecting it to. Maybe someone else will be able to make more sense of this.

Anything else to note about the schematics? If not, is there anything else in the drawers here at the desk or is it time to move on to the bookshelf?]

[umbralant]

[ Sometimes clues just be like that.

Nothing else to look at in the desk, so let's move on over to the bookshelf! A leatherbound book titled "The War on Europa: Chronicle of a Monster" will catch Iago's eye right away. ]

[psychophant]

[Just. Just give him a moment to stare into the middle distance because ohhhhhhhh gods why is the Lady like this. He figured the bugs were bad but not this bad!!!!

Gods. Okay. At least this is some very important information about her. This book is definitely coming with him. Are there any other books here that look like they might be promising?]

[umbralant]

[ Before Iago looks into anything else, there's a note in the back of the War on Europa book!. ]

Lucrezia, here’s some reading material for when you go to another world. Look at what they wrote about us! It’s not too bad of a work, you’ll love it. Love, Lucrezia

[psychophant]

[Oh!! Is it in the Lady's handwriting or someone else's? And let me guess: black ink again???

But also..... Lucrezia x2??? Hmm. Weird. Anything else in the book or on the note?]

[umbralant]

[ Still the Lady's handwriting! And there's nothing else to note about the book other than a whole lot of yikes.

Looking back over to the rest of the books, there's one large tome filled with pages upon pages of the Lady's handwriting (still in black ink...), however unlike the note in the other book the words here seem to be completely written in code. ]

[psychophant]

[cut my question off already, I see........!!!

Anyway, hmm!! There's no way he's going to be able to figure out her code quickly (or even at all, probably), so is there anything else to note about this? Anything in the pages, anything that isn't in code? He will absolutely look through every page of this book, don't test him!!!!]

[umbralant]

[ The Lady is boring, it is known.

Nothing else to note about the tome, but there is still that weird device over on the desk which surely has some use. ]

[psychophant]

[can't believe he's gotta figure out tech for an investigation.......

Okay! These books are being put on the desk for now, let's take another look at the machine. Are there any buttons to press??? Anything else he can mess with aside from the slot? What does it look like in the front - is it like the optometry machine where it's for examining eyes?]

[umbralant]

[ There is one button to press! The slot actually looks fairly large, like it could fit a very thick book inside, and it has a viewport that displays whatever is inserted into the slot when viewed.

Right now it's still showing the note Iago wrote to himself, assuming he left it in the slot. ]

[psychophant]

[HMMMM......... A VERY THICK BOOK, YOU SAY.......

Well, then!! Time to take the thick book and push it into the slot! After he's removed that piece of paper, of course. Does it do anything? Does he need to press the button??? He'll do that if the machine doesn't do anything first.]

[umbralant]

[ It does indeed do something! In fact it decodes that heavy tome as soon as Iago peeks into the visor area. Technology isn't a lie!

The contents are well, you probably expected this by now. ]

[psychophant]

[HE KIND OF WISHES TECHNOLOGY WAS A LIE ohhhhhh gods, okay, he's going to get to work jotting all of this down so he has it for when he meets back up with the others.

He's not surprised that the Lady was this careful in her plans or that she's acting like the three of them will certainly serve her and is planning around that accordingly, but this is... staggering, really. He's Nohr's greatest tactician and even he's floored by the sheer amount of planning she's got in place here. She really did go all out, huh?

But hey, at least Xander's in here marked as a revenant. Turns out she wasn't lying about that! This would have made him so much happier earlier on...

Is there anything else to note in the translated contents of the book or about the machine? He's pretty damn sure we can't just. Bring this machine with us.]

[umbralant]

[ Nothing else to note about the book, but you actually could take the machine. It's roughly the size of a very large cat because that's the metric we're operating on today. ]

[psychophant]

[...HEY TERU MIKAMI, GUESS WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!

Is there anything else to note about the machine or anything else in this room? If you don't think he's going to snoop through everything here, then I don't know what to tell you.]

[umbralant]

[ This is why he lifts. And there's nothing else to note about the room unless Iago wants to take her make up or something. You're good to go! ]

[psychophant]

[Is he really petty enough to steal the Lady's makeup...???? Yes, of fucking course he is, who do you think he is. Can't really call it the final investigation if Iago isn't looting, now can we??? His now!!!]

[drydrown]

[...Meanwhile...]

Iago, if you could assist me in removing the cats from Teru Mikami - are you stealing her makeup.

[...Well, that was a brand new sentence.]