[Week 1, Thurs/Fri: Terra, Ranpo]

[purrtagonist]

[yo guys, that was probably the messiest, shittiest murder of them all]

[Akira stays purposefully silent for the entirety of it, seated right on his ass a few feet away, hands pressed tightly against his throbbing nose (which he is pretty sure is bleeding). his invisibility psych is activated the entire time (STEALTH MODE, GET) and he has to bite his tongue to keep from making any pained noises]

[but most importantly, he doesn't watch. he can't bring himself to. not yet. pathetic]

[and it isn't until it sounds like the commotion is over that he glances up to see Terra, bent over Lion's limp form. he swallows thickly, and tries not to think about it]

Guuuuys. . .

[his words are muffled by his hands and also, blood?? definitely blood]

Li'l help.

Comments

[deductionary]

[ it's ok Akira, everyone takes baby steps when it comes to murder.

ranpo watches, though, although he doesn't really help terra much, if only because the lesser chance of one of them being implicated, the better. but anyway, once the deed is done and lion is well and truly dead, he straightens.

pops over to where he thinks Akira is, just based on the direction of the voice and how muffled it is. ]

Did Lion hit you? Ne, Glasses-kun, turn off your stealth mode, we gotta see you to help you.

[darkearth]

[Going turbo leaves Terra a little out of it momentarily. Fear gripped him when Lion was more ready than they thought she'd be, when she turned on Akira.

The Darkness enveloped him, and, even without the extra power behind it, he did the first thing that came to mind: strangle her.

When he stands, he spends some middle-distance moments staring at his hands. Akira's voice breaks him out of it, and he jerks his head up, startled.]

...Are you hurt badly?

[purrtagonist]

[ah, right. he's still shielding himself with his psych, isn't he? he focuses with a deep exhale, and the blanket of invisibility falls away, revealing Akira holding his nose with a small bit of red leaking between his fingers. his glasses are askew on his features, but in tact!]

M'okay. Jus' bleedin' a li'l bit.

[he's less worried about the damage to his nose and far more worried about getting blood all over the crime scene, honestly. and even more worried about the way Terra's head snaps up from what looked like a distressed trance]

Terra-san. . .

[deductionary]

[ a whistle. he's got to admit, he's impressed, a little, that lion managed to somehow clock akira right in the nose. at least his glasses escaped unscathed even if his nose didn't. it doesn't seem to be bleeding too badly, but...... ]

[ turns to terra ]

Ne, Terter-san.

[ frowns. ]

Not sure how it works, but you have your Cure Drink on you, yeah? I'll see if I can find something to wipe the blood up.

[ and off he teleports to sheep heavenly to retrieve the AC leaf shirt because we're definitely tormenting zia with it. ]

[darkearth]

[WELP. It's done. There's not much he can do about Lion currently, so he looks up once more and nods at the other two.] I have it.

[Turning, he starts making his way for Akira when Ranpo shoots off for something to take care of the blood. (Please find something to take care of his guilt??????)] I didn't know she would attack you.

I'm sorry. [Kneeling, he extends his hand and opens his palm. A wicked-cool, tiny can appears, except the 7 looks a lot like a the number 1 for some reason.] Drink this.

[purrtagonist]

[PLEASE FIND SOMETHING TO TAKE CARE OF BOTH OF THEIR GUILT???]

Don't-- [the word chokes in the back of his throat, and he takes in a deep breath to force himself to stay calm. he doesn't feel like he deserves apologies right now] S'okay. Not your fault. I should've been faster.

[why wasn't he faster? his reaction times are usually top notch. perhaps he had just been so taken off guard. . . carefully, slowly, so as not to drip blood everywhere or get it on his outfit or Terra's hand (there isn't a whole lot, but there's also enough that he needs to be cautious), he takes the can and kicks it back in a single gulp, head tilted]

[I don't know how cure drink works but I assume it does wonders for healing his poor nose and stopping the bleeding??]

[deductionary]

[ anyway sheep heavenly isn't that far off especially when you have a teleportation psych, s ranpo's going to return and then crouch next to Akira to hand him the t-shirt. ]

Wipe the blood off using this. We can burn it or dispose of it later, it's easier than having to explain why there's blood on your clothes.

[ flashbacks to dahlia "viper" hawthorne tbh ]

[ anyway, once akira's patched up he's going to straighten and sigh. ]

Right. The body. [ it's. easier, not having to refer to lion by name ] We were going to hang it in the tunnel, right?

[darkearth]

Be careful. [Don't drink and bleed. (sora voice) HEAL!!] I'm the one who should've been faster. [justself-esteemthings] Are your glasses alright?

[Ranpo appears again, and Terra makes room. When mentioned, his eyes move to the body.] There's... marks on her neck. From me.

They'll know how she died.

[purrtagonist]

[it doesn't take him long to finish the cure drink, and once he does, he immediately snatches at the stupid leaf shirt we are using to torture Jan and Zia. carefully, he cleans off his nose and hands, making a mental note to have his fellow Reapers check his outfit for blood later on. he can't make the same mistake as Dahlia]

[he breathes in deep when Terra and Ranpo mention the body. he tries to disconnect, like Junko told him to do yesterday, but his heart is sinking into the pit of his stomach. focus. he has a purpose, now. he isn't just doing this because it's his job]

[he's perfectly level, calm and composed, when he speaks again]

I don't know how well hanging the body will hide Terra's handprints. [no honorific this time. they shouldn't need it anymore] But I recall that it's the plan.

[his gaze trails towards the skateboard, flung to the side haphazardly]

We need to hide that, too.

[deductionary]

[ he nods. ]

If we leave the body hanging for long enough, gravity acting on the body means that the rope marks should be able sufficiently obscured. The rope we're using is thick enough, anyway, but better loop it twice just so it covers most of the prints.

[ terra's hands are a little too wide to be obscured fully by the rope, but they'll make do. hopefully the medic doesn't pay attention to the wounds.

anyway he'll wander over to the skateboard and pick it up.

and frown. ]

There's blood on it. [ points to the coin-sized shape on the skateboard, bright red against the plastic. ] We're going to have to cover this up before hiding it.

[darkearth]

[Slowly, Terra stands back up. They've got quite a mess, honestly. How worse could this have gotten if he had been alone?

He extends his hand down to Akira to help the boy up when ready.] Let's get started. We need all the time we can before morning. I can carry her if you want.

[When Akira finally stands, Terra looks back to him.] How are you feeling? [Since he hadn't used Cure Drink yet.]

[purrtagonist]

[Akira takes Terra's hand in his own and stands up, the now bloodied shirt still in his hand. he glances down at it, and nods]

I'm okay. [for a definition of "okay," however "okay" someone can be when willingly acting as an accomplice in a murder] I should be asking you that, Terra.

[since. Terra did the actual killing. Akira just knocked their victim off guard]

[and then, to Ranpo]

There's blood on this shirt, too. We can-- ah. Spray paint.

[red, just like the blood]

[deductionary]

[ nods. ]

Ne, Glasses-kun, can you handle the paint? Use the shirt to like, hold the spray can so it doesn't get on your fingers.

Terter-san, help me with this-- [ he's going to grab the rope now and loop it a couple of times around lion's neck - it's not thick enough to completely cover the strangulation marks but it's definitely enough to obscure them. ] Hold one end of the body, would you? I'm just going to--

[ and he pops off for a bit on top of one of the rafters, getting ready to loop one end of the rope on the top of the tunnel ]

[darkearth]

[Now that Akira seems relatively okay, he thinks it's alright to turn back to help Ranpo with the body. It feels strangely disjointed to touch her after having strangled her previously. Feels... wrong. Lining his hands up with her neck is like sliding a piece of a puzzle into place.

But he has to gather her up regardless, as gently as he can be under the knees and around the shoulders even if it'd be easy to carry her over his shoulders. She's not a sack.

She's a person.

She's not a nothing.]

[purrtagonist]

[I've got it, he wants to say in response to Ranpo. but then he sees Terra gently and reverently lift Lion's body from the ground, and the words die in his throat. god. what the hell was he just a part of, here? dead they may already be, but Lion didn't deserve and ounce of what happened to them]

[there's a pause. a brief moment where he closes his eyes and ducks his head, muttering a quick prayer, not because he is particularly spiritual but because that is just what one does in his culture. he doesn't much believe in gods, doesn't much desire to ask them for help. but paying respects? that's something Lion deserved, after the Reapers so cruelly stole away their second chance]

[after that, he rocks back on the sole of his foot and walks swiftly towards the skateboard, heels clicking against the concrete. it's bent slightly from the impact against the ground (Akira had thrown it, and thrown it hard when Lion had punched him), and he can see the small bit of blood Ranpo pointed out just minutes before]

[he covers his hands with the bloody shirt, holds it as far away from himself as he can, and masks the evidence of his part in this crime with paint]