[text] @five [open]

[fogey]

[ well, there's no way to say it, except to say it, so: ]

One of us died today. Big guy, blond hair. I don't know his name. I found his body.

[ that's his schtick, isn't it? finding bodies. ]

What I do know is that he fell on some rocks near the beach. Looks like an accident, no foul play. The fall shouldn't have killed him.

[ could've, if the bastard really were that unlucky, but it's unlikely. besides: ]

But it did break his lantern. Seems like Winters was telling the truth about that after all. Before anyone asks:

1) No, I didn't see it happen.
2) Yes, I checked for a pulse.
3) No, I didn't do it.

[ juST COVERING HIS BASES THERE ]

One more thing. I had to step away to get my tablet. When I came back, both he and his lantern were gone. No one else was here, I'm positive. They just vanished into thin air.

[ ooc | so as of today, rosinante (callada) is dead :C feel free to threadjack in this post and use it for discussion or whatever! ]

Comments

[kungfuey]

I figure we wait and see if he comes back before we worry about that.

[primordialerebus]

You think he'll actually come back? Or that any of us will?

[ Count one person's hopes raised. ]

[kungfuey]

I've seen it before. Why not here?

[primordialerebus]

Are there like, vampires here? Zombies? Is that what you mean? That's not really coming back right?

[kungfuey]

Better not be. That was supposed to be the one perk about being dead.

More like resurrection.

[primordialerebus]

Oh... I guess that's possible. And they just show up in the church. Maybe that's what the hatch is for?

[ She really hopes it is. He seems... seemed? nice enough. And dying through an accident like that is just horrible. ]

[kungfuey]

What hatch?

[ She is the least sensitive person in the world to how other people might be feeling about all this. ]

[primordialerebus]

The one in the church? It's locked from the inside and I think there's a keypad on the other side. I couldn't guess the combination though.

[ In her maelstrom of emotions, she really isn't thinking that this isn't information a regular person would just be able to find out on their own. ]

[kungfuey]

What makes you think there's a combination lock?

[ Oh she picked up on that other part too but she's not pressing that one yet. ]

[primordialerebus]

[ Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!! Cue internal screaming. How was she going to get out of this mess. ]

[ It takes maybe 5 minutes before she finally replies, vs. the near instant ones she had been giving before. ]

I got lucky.

[kungfuey]

No you didn't.

[ Does she know that for sure, is she just guessing or is this pure suspicion talking? ]

[fogey]

You're free to do that.

[ or, less abrasively: he's not so much of a "wait and see" person, doesn't like not knowing how long it might take. couple hours, couple days, couple weeks, couple months? a lot can happen in the meantime. ]

[kungfuey]

[ Immediately doing... just that. ]

Any trace of the lantern after he disappeared? Broken glass and the like?

[fogey]

No. That disappeared, same as he did. Not a single shard of glass left behind.

[kungfuey]

See now that's interesting.

[ She is completely oblivious to how wrong everything she writes sounds. ]

What about the body? Any blood or obvious signs of injury?

[fogey]

He fell on the rocks. Yes, there was blood and injuries. But nothing that should've been life-threatening

[kungfuey]

Any traces of blood? Drag marks? Pooling?

[fogey]

[ he's just gonna make a list. ]

• One set of footprints indicating he was walking towards the rocks.
  
• A clear slide where he tripped.
  
• Broken glass from the lantern.
  
• Typical injuries from falling.
  
• No pulse.

[kungfuey]

I don't care how he died I'm talking what was left after he disappeared.

[ Scarlett. No. ]

[fogey]

I said already. Nothing was left. Nothing whatsoever.

@carnie

[ordinaryannie]

Rastus said we'll usually return after death if our lanterns are repaired.

If that's legit and if someone or something is planning a resurrection, presumably they need both the lantern and the body.

[That those are both pretty damn big ifs goes without saying.]

[kungfuey]

Rastus? That the bipedal birdman?

[ See Will. She has blunt despcriptions for everyone. ]

Or somebody is making it so a resurrection can't happen.

[ordinaryannie]

Yeah, though I don't think he'd appreciate that description.

[He'd been very specific about not being a bird, after all.]

And that's also a possibility. Though this early, whoever's running this horrorshow is more likely to make a display of what they can do than keep it under wraps. The first person to apparently die comes back, that's a big deal, and people are going to sit up and pay attention. The first person to apparently die doesn't come back, that's business as usual.

[kungfuey]

I'll keep that in mind.

[ She won't. ]

That's assuming whoever disappeared the body and the lantern are the same ones who did all this. He comes back it's a power display. He doesn't and that begs a few more questions as to what's going on around here.

[ordinaryannie]

No more questions than we already have. People not coming back to life is reality until proven otherwise.

It's possible it was an unrelated third party, but unless the guy has some personal enemy who both believes in resurrection and wants to make sure he stays deader than dead, the simplest explanation is that whoever set this up is also the person who made the body and the fragments of the lantern disappear. Doesn't mean it'll turn out to be the right one, but it requires the fewest leaps of logic with the information we have.

[Doesn't mean she believes in routine resurrection, either. Hell, her own gut-reaction conspiracy theory is the ostensibly-dead guy is a plant to sell the game to the rubes.

It's the play she'd make, if it was her narrative. If she was vastly powerful and absolutely lacking in morals and probably in sanity.]