Be Careful What You Trust (Puppet's Games Round #2 IC)

"Oh Tartarus, take me now, your torture couldn't possibly match the tedium that stands before me!" griped Leonidas loudly for his guests to hear, rolling his eyes, which were widely opened, displaying freely his exacerbation. "@valken@kurt_saulenne! You're dismissed!" He waved his hand, and a black mist enveloped the both of them, which would carry them unharmed in their homes. After a mere moment, a larger cloud of the very same mist appeared over the entire arena, preventing any and all from seeing anything. It lingered for about two minutes, put out the diseased flames of the well, and began to alter the surroundings of the contestants. Before the complete dark cleared, a shrill cry sounded out in the deep black. The last noise of a little girl before she breathed her last.

The mist dissipated, and the remaining competitors would find themselves in a modern office building, only a single story tall. The girl of 14 would be found in the facility's hallway, facedown with a pocket knife in her back, near the entrance to the building where the heroes would be found, with a trail of blood coming from the CEO's office.

The Puppet appeared in a tuxedo, his spear nowhere to be found, and addressed the detectives to be, saying "Oh dear. We've quite the conundrum today! This little girl needs justice, doesn't she? Let's go find the suspects, then! Be on your toes! With every mystery, there is a trick, and there is the truth! You must know the difference!" Leonidas was far too excited about the untimely demise of the child as he led the heroes first to the CEO's office, which was the second door on the left of the hall. He was a large man, though not of the obese kind. A very strong and imposing man of 75 years sat behind his desk, seeming to have no idea that anything was wrong, despite the pool of blood right by his door. "What is your deal? Get out of here! I'm not SUPPOSED to be here!" the old man shouted, not properly focusing on any of those entering his office, his eyes hazy and bagged. The necromancer held out a hand, gesturing toward the man while the blood in the carpet rose through his fingers and coalesced above his palm levitating in the shape of a crimson skull. "There's been a murder, sir." Leonidas remarked with a smirk that was hiding something on his face. The skull of blood released an ear-piercing cackle, and the necromancer spoke again "Would you happen to know anything about it? You're not the killer, are you?" "No! She's not dead! This isn't real!" the elderly man was screaming at the proprietor of the games, and throwing various items from his desk at him. Leonidas expanded the blood into a wall of red, which effortlessly deflected the office supplies, and he turned to the heroes and told them "To discover the culprit you may each ask this man one question before we meet the other suspects. I cannot, however, promise his answers will be of any use." The blood barrier dropped to the ground, and a terrified man shook in his desk chair, hoping the heroes would not intend harm to him.

@puppet:

The Custodian considered everything in silence, glancing over at the others, still relieved that Shot hadn't been made to throw himself into the fire. She shifted her position, glancing over again at the frightened man at the desk, her gut instinct telling her he had nothing to do with the killing. "What does the girl in question mean to you?" The Binary asked simply. As she waited for his reply her eyes shifted from him to the rest of the room, where she examined everything carefully, looking for even the slightest out of place item in the room.

It's just too obvious. No one kills someone and lets them just crawl away outside their door and then sits around in their office. No, it wasn't him unless he's a complete psychopath. Could be a frame job, maybe, but who? I guess we'll have possible answers to that once we see the other 'suspects' but this one? No. He's too scared and it's way too obvious.

@puppet: @the_custodian: (OOC: I couldn't resist.)

The Professor didn't walk into the room, but rather held back where the deceased girl was killed. He had a few questions of his own such as: Was this girl real? Could the knife give them any clues?

Might as well see for myself.

Operating as if he were a trained bloodhound, his eyes would remind anyone of that of an owl's, piercing and unwavering. He began sniffing the dead body for any scents that could help him with their investigation. He rubbing his nose in disgust, it meant there were no smells to help him. He began to examine the knife. Pulling out his Sonic-Tool, he began scanning for fingerprints, and the exact design of the knife. After that, he used his Sonic to scan the girl to see if she was real. If she was some kind of summon or whatever, he would know. Magic, especially summoning, left telltale traces of small, almost unnoticeable, of magical energies or auras. After scanning both, his Sonic would take a few minutes to scan all the retrieved data. Walking back into the room, the puppeteer of games had said something to disturb someone, since he could hear a large man's deep, gruff voice yell at him. Quickening his pace, he entered the room, and arrived just in time to hear the rules of their new game. He also heard her ask a question. He was not pleased, to say the least.

"What is it with humans, aliens, and metas to not listen or form a plan before wildly jumping in," his words directed at the Custodian, "I mean we could have examined the body first, like smart people, and then with the information we had; we could devise a plan and then ask him questions. But I already examined it so I saved us time. My Sonic should be done sooner or later with the scans. Still, how disappointing."

He looked at her with a face full of disappointment and superiority, but he couldn't help himself, he was born like that. He then turned himself towards to Shot, whipping his overcoat about him in an eccentric fashion.

"I hope you will try to form a plan with me at least to solve this mystery. I love mysteries, and I always want to solve them correctly and properly," his words layered with obvious disappointment directed at the Custodian as he spoke with Shot. He stood their waiting for Shot's response, and his Sonic to be finished analyzing the data. He also whipped a certain hat out of his pockets, which were bigger on the inside. A deerstalker hat. He also pulled out a replica smoking pipe, for dramatic purposes of course. He couldn't resist being dramatic. He then finally said:

(OOC: @puppet - You can decide if there are any fingerprints, and the design of the knife. Also, I don't know if the girl is real or not, so you decide on that. Just reply to me in OOC about this, and I'll take care of the rest.)

@the_professor__:

"You condescending jack ass." The Custodian replied, almost instantly with all the sarcastic body language she was often known for. The Binary teen may have been a sixteen year old in human equivalent years, but she was more than a thousand years old and had been an intergalactic officer of the law for most of those years, she was by no means inexperienced.

"Anyone with an understanding of the situation we're in would understand that physical clues are at best misleading if not completely contrived. Even the reactions of this man could be intentionally misleading, but it's more likely to be useful. Furthermore, there are any number of suspects to consider and this man is far too obvious. Unless he's a complete psychopath, he isn't the one who killed her. More than likely this was a frame job and we can examine the body at any time, we don't need it to talk to this guy, we do probably need it to talk to the others. Regardless of what we find on the body, asking him about his possible knowledge or relations with the girl is not only standard practice, it's the obvious question."

She rolled her eyes at his hat, not that he could see the response under her visor. "We need to work together, and that means not treating each other like children. So next time, maybe assume you aren't the only one here with experience at this sort of thing, trust in the abilities of those around you and drop the holier than though covering up for your own personal self-esteem issues attitude."

The Queen of Gravity reached out with her senses to feel the gravitons floating around them as she spoke, wondering if anything about the situation would feel real. Gravitons could be faked, sort of, but they always felt different between that which was 'natural' and that which was fabricated, or even simulated.

"She's... she's my daughter! I think..." said the CEO to @the_custodian, his head shaking oddly as he said it. "No! She's that heathen's spawn! She belongs to him! She never should have entered this world! But I didn't do it, I couldn't have!" Leonidas spoke and inquired "Do you mean the John DeLuis, the Janitor?" The old man looked the necromancer dead in the eye, and seethed vehemently as if it infuriated him to hear Leonidas' words, before dropping his head onto his desk and sobbing vigorously.

As @the_professor__ scanned the girl's body with his special tool, he would be all to disappointed and befuddled to find it would simply turn into a common rose before it told the dimensional traveler anything. "What a lovely thing a rose is!" Puppet shouted from the other room, now holding the Professor's screwdriver "I admire your enthusiasm, but I must insist you play the same game as the rest. I can however tell you the results came back for the fingerprints! They belong to a man named 'Billy Jordan' But that will have to count as your question."

The Professor entered with quite the contentious attitude, which was not well received by the Custodian. As the two bickered, Leonidas merely laughed under his breath. As far as he was concerned, they had both received their answers, and they could bicker to their heart's content. "@shot!" prompted the host "Your turn is last, I see? One question for this man, and we'll be moving on to the janitor."

@puppet: @the_custodian: @shot:

"Maybe,” his voice and demeanor completely calm as he faced the Custodian, “But, it is best to arm yourself with as much evidence and knowledge as possible, even if it is possibly false, so we can ask him the questions we need to ask, not just pull them from our minds at random.”

“Maybe you have a different method of solving crimes, but we should have at least developed a plan. Physical evidence can be misleading, but it is just as important as psychological clues from a suspect, and both can be just as misleading as the other.”

The Professor continued staring her down. he wasn’t going about how great he was. No, he was trying to prove his point to her. He continued:

“So, you might think physical evidence is useless, but it is just as important as any other evidence out there. I stand by that.”

“You also said I had low self-esteem. I do not. I act that I’m superior, and arrogant like the young adult I look like. It is my personality, it is who I am. So, I’m sorry for any trouble or insult I gave you.”

There. He said he was sorry for the first time to another being. Usually, he did act superior and arrogant, but that was because he thought he was the cleverest person. Only time would tell but he also had a heart, and knew when to say sorry and when to get serious.

Then, realizing that his Sonic-tool was gone from his pockets, he turned to see that Leonidas had taken it from him.

That is not good.

What further displeased him was that his scans would count as a question, and that he had to play the game like everyone else, which included him not having his tool. The Professor frowned for a moment, not wishing to part from his beloved Sonic-Tool, but soon gave smile.

“Okay, then, I’ll play your game your way.”

When seeing that girl became a rose, The Professor realized all the people and this building must have been a summon or made by magic. He couldn't revert here unless he made her. Then again, he could be wrong since he had no idea of Leonidas's capabilities.

When hearing about what the girl meant to him from the CEO, The Professor's eye became focused, and he seemed to be scrutinizing the man.

He could have killed her, although I might have to agree with the Custodian. He doesn't seem to be stable, and could be sobbing about him killing her yet have rage that she wasn't his daughter. Heathen? Interesting......

Then, facing Shot, he gave a small piece of advice. He didn't want the last question to go to waste.

“If I were you, I would either ask for his alibi, or ask him who would want to hurt her. Your choice.”

"No?" Puppet inquired of @shot, noting his distinct lack of any question to bring forth "All brawn, no brains, then." Leonidas concluded. "A shame. Especially since the brawn wore out." The host turned to the paraplegic, snapped a finger, and dark energies passes over the silent contestant, removing him swiftly from the games, and taking him back to his home.

"So sorry about that." Puppet said to the players who yet remained. "There should be no need for you two to compete twice. I suppose the winner here will earn the prize." He looked once more to the CEO, and said "Have you done something with this room?" He laughed ever so slightly, and amended himself "Aside from the blood, I mean. Oh! That's what it is, you have a new bookshelf! It's so colorful! I wonder how beautifully it burns!" His hand stretched out toward the bookshelf on the CEO's left, and at once, inferno was birthed from himself,and the bookshelf was ablaze with the same green fire from the previous incomplete challenge. Within a second, it had completely consumed the bookshelf and a significant section of the wall behind it, exposing the janitor's closet and a terrified janitor inside, leaning on his cart, which he had fallen back on out of shock.

"Wh-Wh-Who are you? Don't hurt me, please!" said the janitor, to which Leonidas replied "Come now, there's no need to worry. We're investigating the death of a little girl, and we'd like to ask you a few questions. Play nice, and I won't eliminate you." He stepped toward the burnt opening in the wall and into the cleaning closet, prompting the janitor to run around his cart to its back corner. "But first, introductions. Custodian, this is @the_custodian. Custodian, Custodian." He laughed hysterically at himself, until he moment he realized the janitor was not laughing with him, at which moment he composed himself and said, still holding back laughter "My deepest apologies. I could not control myself. Where was I? Oh yes. This here is @the_professor__. These two are most eager to bring justice to this girl. So tread carefully in how you speak to them, is that clear?""Y-Yes sir." Answered the janitor.

Puppet turned in his makeshift, ashen doorway to speak to the contestants "There you are, players. The second suspect should be much more cooperative." He stepped back into the office for a moment to allow the two heroes to make their way into the closet, and interrogate the next suspect.

@puppet:

She glanced at their host and sighed. Worst joke ever...and no one stops making it. "Sorry about that, our uh...host...is a little bit of a show boat. So you slept with the CEO's wife, produced a baby and he was apparently aware of it. You know, you seem really calm for someone who would have just over heard a murder. Tell me something Janitor...How did that girl make you feel? Please don't waste my time lying, I want to know the truth. How did she make you feel every day? How about every time she visited the person I rather suspect she thought was her father?

The Custodian's eyes, hidden by her face plate, scanned over the janitor's closet in pain staking detail, looking for anything even remotely out of place, anything that might support what she had seen and heard so far. She was well aware that any part of this could be completely false and her instinct suggested it wasn't the janitor either, but she wasn't about to voice that.

@the_custodian: @puppet:

“Whoa, whoa, that was a little extreme, don’t you think?” The Professor said to Puppet, as the bookshelf was melted right before his eyes.

The Professor gave a look around of the whole place, and examined the janitor before him. He wanted to know if he carried anything with him, especially a knife sheath. He then started to look in any cabinet he could find. He also heard the Custodian give the man about three questions.

“You do now that is three questions, right?” The Professor said, chuckling, “Oh, I forgot to do something in the midst of all of this. I need to examine the girl’s dead body once more ”.

The Professor accessed his watch, and set the coordinates to teleport. He wasn’t going anywhere far. He then teleported, and was back at the girl’s dead body. He started to rifle through any and all of her pockets as quickly as he can, if she had any. Then, when the examination was over, he teleported back to the group. He didn’t want to miss any of the answers.

The Professor, his deerstalker hat and pipe still with him, sat on the cart, and started meditating on the case, while waiting for the janitor’s reply to the Custodian’s questions.

@the_custodian: @the_professor__:

"She felt..." the janitor began to say, before the reality around them began to appear wavy, and Puppet lurched grasping his head. The world around them disappeared to reveal the broken coliseum they were standing in before. Puppet fell to his knees and vomited blood on the sandy ground. He grasped a geode whose exterior was balck from his side, and forcefully slammed it onto his chest. It broke apart, splitting into roughly thirty stones whose insides were green and bright in contrast with the black, dull outsides of them. They became ominous light and seeped into the necromancer's chest, healing his insides.

"The tournament is over." Puppet declared. "Warsman is coming. This tournament was to see if Earth was ready, but hardly any of you came to be tested, so this is a waste of my the. In any case, come to me after he has been dealt with, and I will reward you both at that time. If you survive. But I must go."

A black door appeared from nowhere and the Necromancer stepped inside and was about to vanish entirely but stopped to say "I suppose it should be quite apparent, but the answer to the riddle was that there was no murder, and the whole thing was an illusion. It would have been fun, but the Last has no desire to allow fun, obviously." After he had said his piece, he departed the island via the magic gate, and left the two heroes to their own devices.

(OOC: I'm dropping this and declaring you both winners. After the Warsman event, Puppet will give you your prize if you pursue it, but he won't bother chasing you down to award it. Also, this is on mobile, so I may edit it later to make it look cool and stuff, but no guarantees.)