Chapter Text
The trio wait in the foyer for two things. For Lukas to come back and for their host to actually acknowledge their arrival. A few minutes pass, and the sound of two men loudly talking slowly gets closer and closer to the front room. A man with a dirty blonde mullet- and in quite casual attire with sunglasses- walks through the door, semi-yelling and semi-talking to a man with short, black hair, and in a semi-formal suit with sunglasses as well. “Listen, Torque, I can assure you that the host is *somewhere* around here.. Who would invite us to an empty manor, hm?” the man in the suit claims, the duo not noticing the detective’s group quite yet. “Sparklez, ’m just saying that I don’t think they’re even ‘ere!” “So.. Neither of you are the host, I take it?” Ivor butts into the conversation, crossing his arms in annoyance. The arguing duo immediately looks perplexed. “Woah. How long have you three been there?” “about five minutes. Answer my question.” “.... No. We aren't the host. I'm CaptainSparklez, and this…” “I'm TorqueDawg.” “... You both have odd names.” “Petra. Mind your manners. I'm Detective Jesse Staton.” Jesse holds his hand out for a handshake, giving them a polite little smile. Sparklez seems surprised by the word detective, while TorqueDawg seems almost amused. None of them shake his hand. “You've *never* heard of us before now?” “No, I haven't. Should I have..?” “Well, I'd sure hope so. Not to brag, but we're *quite* famous. We have quite the following.” Sparklez sounds quite confident as he speaks. He sounds… arrogant, even. “A-hem.. So.. you're a detective, eh? Why would a detective be at a party?” “Better question, why do you have a girl's name? What are you, loser patrol?” “Excuse me, but it's not really a boys or a girl's name. It can be either. Good joke, though.” Jesse’s words fall on deaf ears as TorqueDawg laughs at him. “As if, man! Your name sounds stupid.” “TorqueDawg, don't be rude.” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but do you have actual *names*?” Petra asks as she takes a step forward, already able to tell that there’ll be a fight.
“You’re saying Jesse’s name is stupid, yet you’re going by TorqueDawg. We don’t even know if that’s your real name, which I *doubt* it is!” “Well I’ll have you know that I..!” as soon as TorqueDawg takes a step forward, there’s a click from somewhere in the ceiling. Before they know it, the lights go out, and everything goes to chaos. “Shit!” “Nobody panic, the lights probably just burnt out!” “oh that’s a load of–” Five more clicks. An odd noise, like something being spilled on the ground. What sounds like gasping. And then one final clicking noise. The lights come back on, and at *first* things seem normal. But then they notice TorqueDawg on the ground, with five arrows through his chest. He seemed at least semi-alive. “Oh, that’s.. that’s bad..!” Sparklez covers his mouth, as if he feels the need to puke from the sight. Ivor is petrified, Petra looks borderline angry, and Jesse is just plain shocked. TorqueDawg doesn’t seem nearly as upset as he should be. “Hey, Detective.. C’mere..” Jesse does as asked, kneeling down beside the injured man. “You’ve got… a girl’s name…” TorqueDawg grins, closing his eyes before promptly going limp. The three of them just watched a man die. And they were the suspects. The detective just sort of stares at the body of TorqueDawg. While they’re all just staring, the door Lukas went through opens. Lukas himself, along with a woman with pink hair, enters the room. They’re chatting calmly before the pair notice not only the tense atmosphere, but the body on the floor. The woman gasps, bringing a hand up to her mouth in shock. “TorqueDawg!?” She's very obviously british. “What the hell happened here!?” She takes another step towards the body. Lukas is just as shocked as her. “Oh my... Jesse, what *happened*..?” “It’s… hard to explain. We were talking. And then the lights went out, there was a clicking noise from the ceiling, and after the lights came back, he had five arrows through him! I don’t know how else to explain it, Lukas. It’s truly horrible.” “It really is…”
While they’re both speaking, Sparklez walks up behind Jesse. He taps on the man’s shoulder, looking anxious to all hell. “You’re a detective, right? That means you'll be able to find out who did this, *right*?” The man sounds almost desperate to bring the killer to justice for TorqueDawg. “Well…” Jesse starts, hesitantly glancing at Lukas. “We can. But I don’t necessarily have access to all of the equipment I’d need. I’d need to drive hours into town to go get it… and unfortunately, everyone in this manor is a suspect. I don’t feel comfortable leaving you all here if I do head into town.” Jesse stands from his kneeling position, taking a deep breath. “If I may ask… was TorqueDawg his real name? We should probably try to inform his loved ones, let the police take the body to the morgue…” “Well, of course not-! TorqueDawg would be a *ridiculous* name.” The British woman butts into conversation. “I agree with that…” Sparklez scoffs, seeming almost surprised that Jesse would think that. “He never told any of us his name, I don’t think. You could probably ask the others just in case, though…” “Right. There’s… how many people here?” “well, including me and your group, there’s… ten living humans in total. Including Cassie’s cat and Stampy’s dog, twelve beings.” “Great.” Jesse takes note of this before he turns to the others. “Petra, Ivor. You go with Sparklez to round everyone up in the next room over. Ten people, two animals. Me and Lukas will stay in the foyer with…” Jesse hesitates, not knowing the woman’s name yet. Luckily, Lukas comes to his rescue by piping up. “Her name is Lizzie.” “Right, thank you.” Sparklez leads the King’s out of the room, Petra mumbling something under her breath as they exit the room. Meanwhile, Lukas was trying to calm Lizzie down a bit. “It’s alright. It’ll just be a few questions. We’re detectives, after all.” “Alright. alright, I’m…” Lizzie hesitates slightly. “I’m *kinda* calm.” “Excellent. Let’s go to the next room and get started.” Jesse and Lukas lead Lizzie to the next room over, which turned out to be a kitchen. They sit down at the counter, and Jesse asks his first question while Lukas pulls out his notebook. “What was your relationship with or opinion on TorqueDawg?” “Well.. nobody really *liked* the guy… he was a griefer. A thief. But I don’t think any of us would have KILLED the guy! I mean, we’re not animals, for christ’s sake…” “So nobody liked him, huh..? Would you say the word *hate* fits?” “No, no. Hate is.. A very strong word. Sure, he annoyed us a bit with his thievery and griefing, but we didn’t HATE him. He was our.. Well, our friend… Even if he never really acted like it. Can we move on now..?” “Right, sorry. Would you believe any of the people here to be the killer? Anyone who had anything personal against him?” “Well.. he recently stole a relic from Dan. Some type of treasure. But Dan would never kill someone! He’s too much of a wuss to do that… If there’s anyone I don’t trust here, it’s Cassie. I’d say they were the LEAST close. And she’s always speaking to her cat like- like some crazy cat lady!” “Hm… I’ll keep that in mind, then.”
Lukas writes everything down, and Jesse is about to ask another question before the door opens. In come Petra and Ivor, along with three women and three men. “We got the others.”