first investigation

[stagemanagers]

Your second Friday in the gilded cage that is the Opera House feels very much like the one before. The only real exception is that today is the deadline for the Phantom’s offer, to erase a single person from existence in exchange for one of their lives. The morning is quiet as you all filter out of your rooms with no immediate signs that anyone’s taken your house manager up on his offer.

That is, except for the very small, dark stains on the carpet of the dressing room hallway but that’s probably unrelated.

Comments

[isawallflower]

[ Whether it's past or like, down the hall, Riley, just stepping out of her room and rubbing her eyes, catches sight of Christine bolting. ]

Christi... Hey, wait!

[ Aaaand follows! ]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine offers a slight glance behind her, but otherwise just keeps moving. There's no time for optimism and hoping that's just... juice or something other than blood. It has to be. Someone is hurt and Christine has to do something. Follow her lead, Riley!]

[stagemanagers]

[Looks like Red is investigating as well! Pick a direction, room 20 or the lobby.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[She thought Room 20 was a storage room? She'll end up moving to Room 20 first, just in case.]

[isawallflower]

[ Riley trails behind. ]

What’s going on? What’s the rush?

[ Guess who missed the stains!! ]

[stagemanagers]

[The door to Room 20 is closed, as it usually is but it looks like a little bit of that same dark, wet-looking stain has seeped from under the door.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

No no no no no no...

[Christine immediately throws open the door, trying not to step in the blood or... whatever it is?]

Hello? Is anyone there?

[revelfree]

[There's been a lot of noise out in the hall, so despite Ariel's best attempts at sleeping off both Santana and Stephen's breakdowns, he's trudging out and.... ah boy.

Time to go... stand guard behind teen squad #1?]

[etincelledefierte]

[And that's when teen squad #2 comes running up.]

There are bloodstains leading to the costume shop, but we didn't find anything else...

[bloodycape]

We made sure there was no one else-- it was just the stains...

[stagemanagers]

[Oh, Christine.

Dear Christine.

What happens next is very reminiscent of her first time opening the closet: she pulls open the door and something heavy comes falling out, possibly on top of her...but it's not a fresh new Arm Thing. It is, in fact, a body.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Oh f-

Poor Christine wasn't anticipating anything like that, and she's not a very strong girl. She screams as the body falls on her, and ends up pinned underneath it as they both fall. She's shaking hard as she struggles to try to see who it is. Does she want to see who it is? She has to.]

[revelfree]

[Don't worry, Christine, he will save you.]

[isawallflower]

[ ...Okay, that. That's a little impossible to miss, isn't it? Riley's previous questions die on her lips. ]

[herwiggles]

[Just then a pair of hands close around Riley's shoulders-!

Oh, it's Spinel.]

Hey, what're we all doing over here?

[holyspit]

[And Steven is- opening the door to Room 12, in his pajamas and a checkered bathrobe.]

Morning guys. What's going on?

[isawallflower]

[ As the goddamn body falls out of the door, right at poor Christine, before she can process who, what it is, there comes Spinel (and Steven, she'll belatedly realize) and Riley, on instinct, screams.

We're off to a great start. ]

[holyspit]

AAH-!

[The shield farts in and out of existence for just a second as Steven's fight-or-flight immediately spikes to 110%.]

[herwiggles]

[Riley screams. Steven screams. Spinel screams!]

AAAA! Heheheha! What- why are we yelling?

[garbageface]

[ santana, who was blissfully doing her hair in the nearby room 17 emerges, hair only half-done, to yell down the hall: ]

Oh my god, will you shut up?

[holyspit]

AH-!

[NOT HELPING]

OKAY! Okay. Okay.

[isawallflower]

[ Riley, in the same hysterical tone as the night before: ]

THERE'S A BODY OUT HERE SPINEL OH MY GOD WOULD YOU STOP FREAKING DOING THAT?!

[etincelledefierte]

There's a - [insert French curse word here] - dead body out here, so no, we will not shut up!

[stagemanagers]

[Well, Spinel, the yelling might just be about the dead man slumped over Christine. How fun!

But even hanging listlessly over the shoulders of Christine, it's hard not to notice the deep red staining his once white shirt and the slightly smeared lines of black around his open but unseeing eyes.

Jonny D'Ville is dead.]

[justmeheere]

Hey, why're we all -

[A pause. Like a really long pause.]

- oh. I guess there was treble.

[JEREMY NOW IS NOT THE TIME.]