vatheon | Life's no fun without a good scare

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Life's no fun without a good scare

It starts some time around 3am, Tuesday morning. Thin whispers of fog start appearing all throughout Vatheon, creeping through the narrow, winding streets, up the steps, and over the park. It starts in the lower district, but as the night progresses and daylight approaches, it spreads to the other districts as well, growing thicker and thicker as it does. By the morning rolls around, the mist is thick enough that visibility has been compromised greatly, and the temperature seems to have dropped a few degrees, an odd chill filling the air.

And on the walls, there are stains.

They are infrequent at first, just a odd ruddy brown smear and a oddly bright red drop here and there, but the closer to the Plaza, the more numerous they become. There is a large smear across the steps leading up to the Plaza, as if something big was dragged up them. In one place the blood -- for it is blood, there is no deny it at this point -- pools thickly as if whoever was responsible took a casual break there, leaving the poor victim to bleed out on the steps.

On the plaza, the mist is thinner, but that is no relief. Rather, it just functions to make the gruesome scene all the more clearer.

A woman is draped upside down on the coral. Or, well, woman. It was once a woman, certainly, but now it is nothing more than something straight out of a nightmare. The flesh seems to have been torn carelessly from her limbs here and there, showing the white gleam of her bones, her nurse outfit torn as if raked apart by giant claws and her head...

well, it isn't there anymore.

The ground in front of her is smeared with blood as well. But where the previous smears had been accidental, these are deliberate, long lines curving and meeting to spell out

hel pm e

But no help had been forthcoming, clearly. No, it seems that this murder, this brutal murder, was nothing more than a game to whoever did it. The walls of the buildings surrounding the plaza are coated in bloody, spelling out a long string of mocking 'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA's and directly in the center, behind the coral.

Who is next?

The notice board seems to have been hit too. The killer did not tear down any of the notices on the board already, but they did cover the entire board with blood-stained sheets of paper, each adorned with the same text over and over and over again.

Chop chop, sweet Charlotte Chop chop till she's dead Chop chop, sweet Charlotte Chop off her hand and head.

For those brave enough to check, no, the poor girl still has both her hands. Was the killer just sloppy, or does this mean this is not Charlotte? So many unanswered questions, more born every passing moment.

Who had done this? Why? Where they going to strike again? And why had nobody heard anything?

[ooc note: Consider this your mingle log. Have fun, go forth, threadjack.

And as a further note, the fog does not seem to be clearing up as the week goes on.

]

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[Shizuo's getting a little irritated. It's kind of difficult to remember that he was relieved to see Izaya when Izaya prances through blood and handles this situation so lightly. What had he been expecting, though? He isn't sure.]

I'm glad you have it all figured out. That's great, Izaya.

[Looking at him standing by the body like that - acting so flippantly - Shizuo kind of wants to hit something.]

I guess there's nothing to worry about, then. We can just take it easy.

[He knows he and Izaya have their differences, but that knowledge doesn't automatically make this easy. Shizuo doesn't want there to be more victims - and he finds this whole gruesome display to be pretty damn terrible.]

[Okay. Okay, for Shizuo, he's going to hang his shoulders and make himself modest. He frowns at the other man and steps over the blood this time to stand in front of Shizuo.

This is Izaya trying to be sympathetic.]

I'm sorry, Shizu-chan.

[He places his hand flat on Shizuo's chest and offers a slightly optimistic grin.]

There are a lot of good people here. Lots of those good people are pretty impressive detectives. Not to mention we have the Defense Force. I'm sure that between the two of them, this whole thing won't last very long.

[Shizuo looks down at Izaya's hand, then back up at Izaya. Finally he sighs.]

Okay.

[That's all you're getting, though. He isn't about to run around and play detective or try to be something he isn't - that'd be stupid - but he's also not about to sign on for a false sense of security, either. Obviously there's something dangerous out there. Maybe Izaya doesn't care, but there are people out there that Shizuo knows and cares about that could wind up in danger as a result of this - Zelda being one of them. And even if he doesn't know the potential victims, that doesn't mean they deserve to die.

He pulls out his cigarettes.]

[Ha. Like hell Izaya would even ask him to do that. He's not very confident on Shizuo's observatory skills when it comes to this sort of thing- not that he would say that out loud. He drops his hand and instead puts both into his pockets.]

Thank you.

[It's out of the blue but. He steps around Shizuo to stand beside him again and look at the body.]

For not asking me if I did it.

[Not that it's a big deal but apart of Izaya had expected an accusation of some sort from someone. Especially with the poor coincidence of his video the other day. But he would never really do something like this.

Even if he has murdered people, he tried to keep his hands off their body really. He let them kill themselves. While he could easily stomach doing something like this, it wasn't really on his status quota for the week.]

[Shizuo nods, but doesn't say anything.

The video was bad timing. It had been one of the first things he thought of upon seeing the body. But Shizuo hadn't thought of blaming Izaya - his concern had been that someone else might.

He, too, glances at the body again, holding his unlit cigarette in his hand. Then, after a moment, he moves to pull Izaya to him and just hugs him. It's as much of a gesture of affection as it is a silent request that Izaya stay grounded and keep careful.

Then he lets him go, and finally lights his cigarette.]

[Oh. Okay. That was unexpected but still nice regardless. Izaya stares at Shizuo for a moment, his face mostly blank. Izaya was always careful. And he certainly wasn't about to leave Shizuo. That was a laugh.]

You shouldn't smoke so much.

[Smooth rebuttal there, Izaya. But he understands well enough that Shizuo is sort of peeked out with worry here.]

I'm sure Zelda will be fine. Link is here and he seems to be perfectly competent in protecting her.

Yeah, I know.

[He's certainly heard that enough. But he's not putting it out - instead taking a nice, deep inhale from it. Maybe they could address his addiction later, when they weren't standing a few feet away from a dead body.]

I met him.

[Another drag.]

She didn't even tell me about him.

[Shizuo has this growing sense that he and Zelda have drifted as a result of everything that had taken place between and around them. It's probably a necessary shift, but Shizuo doesn't like it.

But yeah, he gets that his protection isn't really needed anymore - not that he was good at protecting, considering everything that happened - and that's kind of a difficult thing to face, too.]

[Yeah, later. Izaya will whine at Shizuo about it later.]

I sort of met him too. Through video. He does look a lot like Sola. I wonder how he's taking Link being here.

[His mouth twitches a little when Shizuo states that second part and he tries not to feel a selfish feeling of satisfaction but it can't be helped. Not that he's about to tell Shizuo that or let him in on it.

A part of him feels a little bad. But not really. He had tried to let them know that it was dandy and fine to be together again.

Or. Friends. Not together.]

You know, you would make a totally good actor for an mystery film, I just realized.

[His voice is cheerful and he lifts his hands for form a box with his index and thumbs aligned, putting them over Shizuo to see him through the square he's made.]

You've got that cold, stoic handsome demeanor thing going on. All you need now is a babe on your arm with one of those fancy long cigarettes and cue the dramatic jazz music and bam! Cinema gold.

[Yeah. This is Izaya trying to cheer Shizuo up.]

I didn't even think about that.

[That's a good point, though. It's probably rough on him. Maybe Shizuo would send him a text to make sure he's okay.

Then again - should he really get involved? Zelda probably had everything handled.

He'd think about it later.

For now, he'll focus on this weird subject change and give Izaya a look of disbelief.]

I'd be a bad actor. That's Kasuka's thing.

[Shizuo in the limelight? No thanks. He caused enough scenes when not pretending to be someone else.]

Kasuka's a bad actor. Maybe it's a family trait kind of thing. At least you'd be way better to look at.

[Yes they are discussing this in front of a dead body. Casual dinner conversation topic right here. No big deal whatsoever. At least it seems to be pulling Shizuo's attention away.]

Hey. You should really get out of here, Shizu-chan. This is disturbing you a bit. And there's really no point in sticking around, is there?

[He shifts around in front of Shizuo and pats his chest again.]

It's just going to upset you.

Stop telling me he's a bad actor.

[That's kind of firm. Izaya knows he hates hearing that, because Shizuo kind of idolizes his brother, and he has watched every movie, thank you very much. And likes them...sort of.]

I don't know, is there? What if something comes up?

[Again, not trying to play hero, but also feeling like leaving would somehow be wrong. He isn't sure what he should do, but he doesn't want to be useless, either.

He finishes his cigarette, dropping it and stepping on it, though in a much more casual way than when demonstrating his usual tic. Maybe if he's not going to kick the habit he should at least learn to smoke slower.]

But he is!

[Other than that, Izaya doesn't press the matter. For now.]

Then you'll hear about it. I'm pretty sure that you're not some conclusive, crime scene detective. Besides, what can you do here anyway but stare around in horror~ at what's happened.

[Izaya follows the action before he tsk's at Shizuo.]

That's an even worse habit. But I guess it doesn't matter since Vatheon cleans everything up.

[He slides backward, smearing the blood again before he turns to the body.]

Charlotte's such an odd name. Totally old. The only Charlotte I know is a spider. But whatever. I don't care. This will put a lot of people thinking about what I said the other day though. About law and the societal structure of Vatheon.

[Right. He's rambling. And to Shizuo of all people.]

Did I already say that? I don't remember. I don't know about you but I'm going to get out of here. It's depressing to look at.

[Annnnd he'll be walking past Shizuo now, giving him a quick peck just on his cheek as he does so and saunters right on away towards the side walk.]

Why are you so concerned about my habits all of a sudden?

[So he throws his cigarettes on the ground. That's nothing compared to some of the shit Izaya gets into - why does mothering him seem like a good idea? Excuse him for doing something Izaya does not like. Izaya does plenty of things that Shizuo would rather he didn't. Or at least Shizuo assumes that's the case.

...He's still kind of irritated, but he supposes standing around a horror scene of blood and flesh can do that to a person. Maybe Izaya's right. Maybe he should leave.

But unlike Izaya, he does care, and he thinks that video was pretty bad timing. This could lead to a bunch of people deciding to commit crimes -

Then again, like he said, he's no detective. What good can come from him wondering and worrying about it? None.]

I don't know any Charlottes.

[That's all he says in response to the ramble. Then Izaya is taking off and Shizuo figures he'll follow, because what else is he going to do? He doesn't say anything, just starts walking in that direction. If Izaya decides to take off and do his own thing, then that's fine - Shizuo will just muse about the morning's events to himself.]

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Life's no fun without a good scare

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