Second.

[trustharder]

Friday dawns fairly quietly this week; unlike last week, there's no blood splashed around the hallway, and there's very little that seems amiss at first glance. It's almost enough to make one think that nothing happened last night – that maybe the incentive was ignored, that maybe rational-minded camaraderie may have won out over the desire to escape the Vault. That impression will last you until somebody decides to head upstairs. They won't get past the stairwell without noticing that something is definitely amiss - while there notably does not appear to be a body, that doesn't mean that something isn't there regardless. You might want to check that out. Just saying. >Explore?

Comments

[trustharder]

[There's no huge trail of blood, no. But it does look like there's something on those stairs.

Or, well.

More like fragments of something, maybe.]

[cherryblooded]

[...Huh.

What kind of material are we talking about here?]

[amygdalae]

[...sorry, Cherryblod, going to take a moment to crouch down to study this closer himself too.]

[notjustawriter]

[Apparently we're all crowding Cherryblod.

Sorry, friend.]

[trustharder]

[It's white, shining and iridescent - not like porcelain, more like a certain...gem...stone...

...Oh.]

[cherryblooded]

...That's not a pearl, is it?

[Well shit.

Do these fragments lead anywhere, or are they just all on the stairway?]

[trustharder]

[There are more of them clustered a short distance away. A lot of large ones, actually. Enough to make it obvious that even if there's no blood or a body, that gem is very definitely not attached to her face anymore, and it's been rather thoroughly smashed to ensure that it stays that way.

Pearl is dead.]

[captainobnoxious]

[Oh.

...

...

Well.]

That's a lot of rocks.

[brilliant, siggy]

[prismbloom]

[ Oh my god. Oh, no. Aqua's been quiet this whole time, but that sharp intake of breath... ]

Pearl...

[bloodisthicker]

[okay, hang on, he kind of recognizes this, uh]

You know, that looks like the... ornamentation, I suppose, Pearl had on her forehead.

[...oh, shit, wait.]

...she told me she wasn't human, so does anyone know if that was... ah... vital?

[notjustawriter]

I.... don't have a clue.

I thought it was some kind of decoration.

[....]

We should look for a body, the killin' doesn't look like it could have happened here.

[bloodisthicker]

[...WELP, there's the announcement...]

...I guess that confirms it, then. The rest of her has got to be somewhere, even if it isn't here.

[amygdalae]

I... I don't know.

[He really didn't get to speak to her much, but...

She called herself a 'Crystal Gem', didn't she?]

[ratingspoint]

[What is everybody- ...oh.

Ohhh, that's. Okay. Right. Um.]

It's possible her soul was in there, if she was at all like the monsters I know.

[And that's...kind of blank, really.]

[pokexplorer]

Is...that what this is?

[Colress had come up the stairs after noticing a small commotion going on. He didn't realize right away why everyone was so mortified by the broken stones. He hadn't gotten to speak to Pearl much.]

How worrisome...we can only hope that it wasn't vital.

[captainobnoxious]

You'd know better than me, Cherry. There's not too many clams where I lived.

[They're pretty at least. Sigrun almost wants to collect them to give to someone.]

[isafraid]

[Frowns and crouches a bit.]

I'd say it is. Someone must've stepped on it.

[cherryblooded]

Really don't think that's it.

There's the option it came from the vending machine, but if it's not, it's hard to step on something attached to someone's face.

[isafraid]

What are you--[oh.

Oh.]

Damn....

[notjustawriter]

That....

Jesus, that's awful.

[amygdalae]

[The moment when ICly nobody is going to get it yet.]

This doesn't look like something from around here. [Or at least, within the building.]

[notjustawriter]

....Maybe someone dropped it? It could've come from the vending machine.

conga party to the body tag

[amygdalae]

I suppose, but--

[Bruce decides to look up then, seeing further ahead and--

w e l p.]

[sleepingkogoro]

[ouri approaches, yawning. Well there's something in there, but that is not a dead body.

For that reason he merely shrugs and tries to continue upstairs]

It must have come from the vending machine. A lot of weird stuff comes from there.

[bloodisthicker]

[...time to join the stair party and...]

...what is this we're looking at, exactly?