trusthell | Take Responsibility.

And after all has been said and done and all clues have been found, those large steel doors at the end of the hallway open up.

The elevator both is and isn't a particularly nice one; it rides smoothly and quickly and it's obviously been kept-up, but there's nothing on the interior walls, lending a claustrophobic feeling to what's already a relatively small space, particularly with all of you in there. (Well. Almost all of you.) No distractions from what just happened, nothing to take your mind off of considering what might, just you and your fellow Survivors in an unadorned steel box. There's no visible panel for buttons, either; looks like it's pre-programmed; at least the ride is a relatively short one, though it's difficult to tell the distance traveled before the door opens again.

You would be forgiven for your initial thought being that it opens into a void.

It isn't complete darkness, but it's enough of a visual shift from the elevator that it probably takes your eyes some time to adjust; instead of the usual concrete and steel, the walls are a dark, heavy black, making the room look far smaller than it is. There aren't any corners to it, either; the room is tightly circular, complimenting the setup in the center of it.

In the center of the room is a circle of podiums, twenty-seven in total, arranged so that everyone standing at them can see each other. So everyone can look each other in the eyes, if they so choose. The podiums are interlocked - there's no cutting across the center of the circle, and for good reason, it looks like there's a lot of nothing down there where the floor should be, just a massive black pit in the center - and each is bearing the title of the person who's assigned to stand at it. No names, just adjectives, emblazoned across two brass panels on the very top and the front of each podium.

Affixed to the podium itself is a glass touchscreen panel; it's dark for now, but it'll probably be relevant later. At least the glass is shatterproof, in case things get heated.

In general, though, all of the podiums are identical, except for the one intended for Zagi. The podium that should bear Adaptable's title has had a black cloth draped over it, and a copy of Zagi's profile photo is sitting on top of it, framed and colorless, an image in greyscale.

It's hard to tell where the Kingmaker's voice comes from, when it does; it seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, like it's being piped in from someplace you can't see. But he's very definitely audible when he does speak.

"Adaptable has been taken from you. Looks like the guilty among you is attempting to end the exercise by carrying out Rule Seven. It's up to you whether they're held responsible for their actions or not."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If we're talking creatures with claws - suppose it was licked away.

But why only the neck? Nothing else was touched aside from that.

How much blood do you really need to drink? Or perhaps they realized that they were running low on time before they were discovered.

Then that would imply that the murder would have happened very near before the time of the wake up call.

That would make sense, given that the blood trail was fresh.

So that means whoever did it didn't have time to clean up either.

[Bruce knows he's stating the obvious but its good to lay them all out.]

No, they wouldn't. Perhaps they meant to clean up the whole body but realized they couldn't manage to do it in time.

Or it was wiped clean with something the murderer could have taken with em.

Nothing of that sort was found, however - or at least, to my knowledge.

In addition, I also checked to wound to find if there were any traces of what could be used, but I also found nothing.

[He nods.]

Worth a suggestion, I thought. The alternative's not something I wanted to consider.

Likewise.

[This is all.... yeah.....]

Like a Blood Breed? [ ...um. ] Vampire. Ordinary people refer to them as "vampires."

Like those. Do those have claws, where you're from?

I'm not completely familiar with them, since Casters don't usually handle them, and so my parents didn't usually talk about them aside from talking about their Blood Breed hunter friends preventing some quarantines from going too badly, but... I've heard they can shape and harden their blood into very long, very sharp claws.

I'm not sure if that's true of Blood Breeds from every world, though. It might just be mine, so it might be better to take it with a grain of salt.

I see, thank you.

Is there any way to identify them?

[ It's definitely not his area of expertise, but let him try and think of something... ]

Not really? They can't be seen by the naked eye, usually... unless they're possessing a corpse.

[ What else? ...oh, duh. ]

They also have a distinctive crimson aura, but you'd have to be a pretty high-level Caster or something equivalent to that to see it. I can't say I qualify, especially since I'm not even supposed to be a Caster...

Sorry if I wasn't much help, Mr. Cherryblod.

Let me think about that first one. If they were possessing a corpse, would it still be cold to the touch?

[ a disappointed shake of the head. ]

I'm sorry, I don't know. Like I said, Casters don't deal with them that often, if at all. Everything I've told you is pretty much all I can recall learning about them.

[ doesn't mean they have to rule them out though! after all, like black said, it might be different in other worlds. ]

Alright. Well, in that case, please excuse me, everyone.

[Cherryblod hops down from his podium and starts to go around, counterclockwise (so towards Black) and feel everyone's skin.

Any of you guys cold?]