destinystrings | Turnabout a la Mode! Day 1 Investigation

The journey is far less painful than might be expected. After arriving in the Champ de Mars in Paris, the arriving strangers go unnoticed by the crowds all around, the people too busy whispering to each other in horror. Several are crying and others are carrying their children away from the Eiffel Tower which stands high above in the dark Paris night.

The area is hauntingly beautiful, with lights covering the trees of Paris's park and banners talking about the great Tic and Tac's final Parisian tour before going worldwide. So why is the entire place so somber?

The fact that the police are scrambling about is the first clue that something is very wrong. As the Visitors were warned, their powers are completely gone, leaving only their mundane skills. With no Persona to call on, it will make this entire journey far harder... but thankfully Minerva can be spotted close by.

But before anyone can do anything, she's being carried away by the policemen, put into a car, and carted off. The police bar the perimeter, looking at you in annoyance.

"Mesdames et Messieurs, the show is over, and this area is a crime scene. Please move back so as not to cause issues with the investigation."

It seems something terrible has happened...

But just as you're pondering your next move, another car screeches up beside the yellow tape, and a man with a fervent expression and a rather alarming mustache leaps out of the car. Gesticulating wildly, he descends upon the scene like a storm of extravagantly expensive cologne.

"Get back, get back! A terrible crime has occurred here! And I, Chief Inspector Otto Gaffe, swear that I shall not rest until justice is served!"

A flailing arm barely avoids breaking a nose as he impatiently pushes you out of the way.

"Who are you? ...Is that an attorney's badge?"

Perhaps this would be a good place to start.

((There will be no tag order so as to speed things along! But each group should only respond to the portions marked for them (A, B, or Defense). When all the necessary clues have been discovered, we will initiate Day 1 Court. You may respond!))

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It was more than enough to get her in a bad mood that there was some really annoying music being piped in via the Tower's speakers, but they were on official business. And she missed it, really, because working with Interpol assured her of a glamorous travel lifestyle. Though France.... was never on that list of countries she ever went to.

"You!" shouted Franziska as she recognised the man by the virtue of the crooked badge that poked out of his pocket and by the fact he is the most frazzled here. "Allow us through."

"Pah! And who are you to make such demands?"

The man snorts and waves his hand dismissively.

"Non, we do not allow gadabouts to frolic about the scene of the crime, lawyers or no. Go away and leave us to our work."

"Gadabouts?!" Franziska's whip is clenched in her hands, her time in Hinoto-Ri trained her a little bit NOT to whip the living shit out of people at first sight. "I am Franziska von Karma, a prosecutor assisting at Interpol. If you will impede me I will report this to your superiors as obstruction of the highest order!"

The inspector archs an eyebrow at this claim but seems relatively unfazed.

"Interpol has no authority over local investigations, mademoiselle. It is your duty to assist. You should know if you are not a mere teller of tall tales - where is your identification?"

She pauses long enough for her to reach into her waistcoat's pocket. Inside the inner pocket was her prosecutor's badge, and a similar one from Interpol, engraved with the year 2019 on it. She puffs her chest out and stands tall, as if to say some frazzled French investigator is not going to get the better of her.

"Hah!"

He recognizes the badge for what it is and immediately descends upon his men.

"My phone, my phone! Where is my phone?"

The flailing arms knock one of the officers' caps off as he finds it in his pocket even before he finishes speaking.

"Who put it there?! I want Lyon; give me Lyon!"

...

"Not Lyon, my barber, you imbecile thing; Lyon! Interpol headquarters!"

And just when the jig seems up, the inspector throws his arms up in exasperation and the phone goes flying from his hands.

"Pah! Never mind the worthless thing. Obviously, it is the Interpol badge; how could they have sent an agent so quickly?! Madness! But it is pointless - the answer is as clear as the day before us!"

It is nighttime.

"A woman with no residency in France sneaking about the stage at the exact moment when our star is untimely plucked from the sky? There is no one else who could have committed the act."

Edited 2014-05-17 02:55 (UTC)

That sounded like the person they were looking for. But all considered, it was prudent that all considered, her badge was still valid. Even though she wasn't entirely sure what would happen if they actually did check into Interpol. There is no doubt she probably would have been listed as Missing or something ridiculous like that, but that's another thought for another time.

"It is this woman we are interested in. Allow my subordinates access to the scene and we shall tend to matters." (Franzy, your fellow investigators from Hinoto-Ri are not your subordinates...)

"...You know of the suspect?"

Chief Inspector Otto Gaffe's eyes widen slightly before he raises a finger.

"Ah, ah - Perhaps you are qualified, but I have no assurances that your... many subordinates will not disturb the scene." The doubt in his voice seems to indicate that he is well aware that it was perfectly absurd for Interpol to send a dozen people to the scene of an investigation.

"Perhaps a trade, yes? Tell me of this Minerva and I shall see what I can do."

"She was reported to us as missing under mysterious circumstances. We heard nothing until we were given a tip that she may be in Paris." Franziska pauses. She casts a brief eye on the murder scene. It's bright and garish, yet still manages to be be completely chic and alluring. Not the sort of place for Minerva, as far as she could tell and less so for her to kill someone.

"As skilled as she is, her profile does not indicate she is a killer." she continued in her formal tone. "That is all."

"Ah, but so often it is the ones you do not expect! That is precisely why she is all the more suspect! If one is sent to do such a job, does one choose the young man with the black longcoat and the cigarette habit? No - it is the elderly grandmother with the backbone of steel that should never fall under suspicion."

Otto Gaffe nods wisely to himself.

"Very well, then. I shall check the Interpol records for missing persons tonight. Enter, enter! Your subordinates as well, though I shall keep a close eye. Several of them seem, eh."

Obviously not from the modern era.

"Eccentric."

"Tell me the sequence of events as it happened." said Franziska as she put a hand on her hip. "The eccentricities of life can wait."

"The sequence, eh? Men - my papers!"

The inspector waves his hands about, and a few of the officers scurry off for one reason or another.

"I did not witness the tragedy myself, naturellement, but the witness reports are all the same."

One returns with a clipboard that Otto snatches with zeal.

"8:30 - the Rings of Death! 8:40 - the Lion of the Bastille! 8:50 - the Eternal Wand! 9:00 - it was to be the finale! The wonderment of the magicking world, the overwhelming winner of this year's Magician's Grand Prix: the infamous Curtain Trick!"

It doesn't sound quite so impressive in comparison to the others, but Otto certainly pronounces it with enough conviction.

"The time is uncertain from here. The props for the trick were rolled out. The assistant entered and was hidden behind the cloth. The trick itself is too amazing to even begin to describe! None can adequately explain how it is that the fire does not consume the stage, nor how it is that the tower does not collapse in upon itself! And yet, there it is! And the grand finale - the unveiling!"

A sad shake of his head.

"But non. All that was unveiled was the greatest tragedy of the century."

She takes a mental note of this sequence of events, then takes out a small notebook and puts everything that the detective said straight from memory. This police officer, is French, and is getting slightly on her nerves. ~~we'll have alsace back swear to god~~ He couldn't stop going on and on about how wonderful this trick was.

"Were you at the event or are you simply relaying that you were too startruck to be called to investigate explain what actually happened during the time of murder?"

"I was not in attendance. An unexpected stack of paperwork lay in ambush and destroyed the leisure time I had set aside."

He looks very unhappy about it.

"I see."

She really doesn't care.

"I shall move on to investigating the body. I have no doubt that we will find who did this."

Or her name isn't Franziska von Karma.

"And I no doubt that it is already quite plain!"

But Otto waves a hand and the men, though looking slightly dubious, will allow Franziska to pass.

Turnabout a la Mode! Day 1 Investigation

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