Bittersweet Candy Bowl

(Tee hee. It’s fun watching people’s reactions when I know who did it. ^_^)

*Stuart swigs down as much of the whisky he was holding as he can and slams his hand against the wall*
Okay I don’t care who the hells killing everyone but I honestly don’t care anymore.
Why are we all still here anyway?We should be getting the hell out of here while we still can.
Seriously I want to get outta here as fast as I can no movies worth this.

Oh damnit it!…
*he says swirling a martine in one hand and with a more puzzeled look on his face

are there any guest here mho can survive more than five minutes? thats the boxer aint it? Raph bet on him many times, some bugger would have to sneak up on this tough sot to do that

*Slowly lays Lucian back down and sighs while turning to Stu.* I’m afraid we can’t leave. If we try those goons out there will kill us. Our only hope is to find the killer and advenge the death of Paula, hoping that they let us go.

*Autumn tabs her finger to her lips, thinking.* This is getting serious though, who could be doing all of this?

(CRAP! Going to go make and eat dinner with my hall sisters. ILB give me some good clues to be confused about when I get back! You guys are doing great BTW!!)

Hey, Paula said that those thugs would shoot anyone who tried to run. We have no choice but to stay here.

But you’re right, we need to find a way out soon… we can’t spend the rest of our lives here.

(Yes, basically what Autumn said. I’m a slow writer. ^_^)

*Takes another large swig of the drink*
Well hey at least they were nice enough to give us some guns eh?
Yeah we’ll be fine of course we will.
and even if those don’t work I’ll just punch the moron in the face.
*takes another swig*
Oh wait yeah thats right we have no idea who’s doing this even though we’re always together my bad.

But aren’t we forgetting something?

See, either there must be someone helping our killer or whoever it is must have some dangerously stretchy arms.

Besides, there is something strange about those footprints being so dry.

You people really need to locate your heads.

Okay, well even the best reporters need help sometimes. We need to all get together and try and figure this out, as they say, two minds are better than one, so 12 minds together are even better, even in this group.

(Lol dinner is at 5, I have a little more time yet.)

Oh crud! Another death! this may be more Underworld than i was hoping for…and justine,she definitley isnt safe here.

*He looks at justine for a second before hearing autumn*

I guess we have no choice but to stay here then.

(ninja’d)

my head is firly on its shoulder with a drink to its lips
*tips back drink*
and it will damn well stay there

(Mhm. I do hope there is room for one more murder, though - otherwise this game will have taken too little time. Besides, I’m off to bed soon.

If that is all right with you? ^_^)

*Autumn looks at Jesse a moment before sighing.* No Barnum, we are not removing your head from your shoulders, I’m saying we must put our differences aside and try to figure case out before someone else ends up dead.

*She sighed and rubbed her head.* And we might have to admit somethings we would rather like to forget…*Autumn mumbled quietly to herself.

(By all means you could kill several more people for all I care. I need more clues…but I have my theories.)

(I will leave you for the night, then. Tomorrow, that is tomorrow for me, I’ll yield the rest of the clues and one more killing (feel free to search a bit for yourselves, too). And then, we’ll probably have the game ended before I have to go to sleep yet again. Is that fine with you folks? I don’t want to be a dictator. ^_^)

(Yea it’s fine)

(hitting the hay have me follow along with the main group or whatever)

*takes another sip and follows along*

(Last post for me for today guys and gals)
Right. Gotta be strong
*gets up and rejoins the group*
So, the killer is crafty and fast, and leaves behind many clues. So they must not be an expert at this, a first time killer?

Unless all the clues we found are fakes. *Autumn suggested.* The dirt under the window was oddly dry.

Adam was quiet. “Well,” he thought, “if the killer is a first time killer and thus not an expert at this, then The Duke is possibly cleared from suspicion. However, those clues may be, as Autumn suggested, red herrings to throw us off our trail.”

Adam looked at Autumn and pointed at her notebook, as if to ask for exact details.

(I’ll be back on later, probably in an hour or two.)

(EXACT DETAILS ON WHAT?!?)

*Autumn looked to Adam who pointed at her note pad and tilted her head to the side. She understood what he wanted her to do, but was not sure about what he need specifically.* Do need conformation or simply a read back?

(read back. Now leaving for realz to return later)

*Autumn flipped her notebook open and read the clues she had written down so far. *

The bar took up the entire basement of the building, upstairs on the ground floor was offices and the the fake dental office used to cover up the speakeasy. The first floor was various lounges and extra rooms and second floor were bedrooms so the patrons could sleep of their liquor or find a nice lady to lay with. And finally the top floor was an attic like space filled with all sorts of nasty, illegal things.

Victim is most certainly Raphael Greco. Vic has suffered several gun shot wounds to the chest, this is the apparent cause of death. There was a trail of blood leading from the body into a small room to the side. While investigating the scene of the first murder, Paula Dual was shot and killed on the first floor.

The murder happened on the first floor. A rope is hanging from the window, down to the ground floor - the one who fired the shots could have joined the people who were running upstairs from there. All the others were in the basement, and had to run up two flights of stairs. There was dry mud under the window sill of the second murder.

A Browning M2 machine gun was found under the tiles in the bathroom by Autumn, Miller, and Justine. Justine thought she saw someone with short hair hide the gun but she was not positive. While investigating this murder, three shot were fired and the group rushed to see what had happened. When they got there they discovered three bullet holes in the floor.

As everyone returned to the basement, the body of Lucian was discovered at the bar, two knives sticking out of his back.

*She closed the note pad again and looked at Adam with a raised eyebrow.* There, are you happy?

(Had to change the set up of the building to make sense, I forgot that first floor and ground floor are different to some people and ILB made it seem like they were.)

Lessee, where was Michelle last? I believe she was on the first floor, ready to faint. Turns out she did. She wakes up to find that everyone went downstairs. She makes her way down to the ground floor, nobody there, but hearing voices from the basement, continues there too. Here she finds Lucian, dripping and dead, lying slumped over the bar.
She began hyperventilating at the sight of her friend, sitting there, motionless.
“Wh- wh- wh- what happened here? LUKE!!”
Still in a state of disbelief, Michelle wanted to rush to his side, even though it was pointless.

*Autumn jumps at Michelle’s sudden yelling and slowly walks over to her.*

Sorry doll, but he’s bought his ticket.

“No.. no please NO! Not him.. What did HE do?!”

She predictably falls to her knees and bursts into tears.

*Autumn bites her lip and leans down to Michelle.*

Look I’m not sure why he was killed, and I don’t know who’s doing this, but you breaking out into hysteria is not helping. So get a hold of yourself and we might be about to solve this murder before anyone else dies.

Michelle struggles to her feet, still shaking from residual sobs, making extra effort not to look at the corpse of her friend. She starts to subconsciously lean on Autumn a bit.

“What… what could he have done? I can’t think of anything. What do you guys think?”

There’s obviously two killers,or traps.. *he gulped at that thought,even though he didnt want to think negatively*

Adam shook his head at the thought of two killers. It was possible, but there was still the rope. Did someone take it down? He was curious, so he went to check.

(EDIT: Adam Jones, obvs)

(ILB isn’t here so we’ll assume that the rope is still there.)

Adam why are you shaking your head? There is a very high possibility that there are two killers, someone had to shoot the gun while someone else killed Lucian.

(idk why, but i suspect Stu and Jesse so far <_< >_>
*Thinks hard about all the events to narrow down who did it…*

(I actually suspected Jesse and Adam..)

(that was my other thought)

Love this comic, you should think about making an RSS feed for this comic :3

(… wrong thread dude. And Players! Come on! Make your characters interact! Keep theories of who done it till ILB comes back but let’s have some interaction.)

*Stands next to her littler brother*

That makes sense miss journalist, but what if Lucien and the killer were wrestling with the gun and it went off a couple times before the killer finally murdered him. It’s still very unclear about the number of killers. Unless you have some clues you aren’t telling us about…

*Autumn stopped before muttering to herself.* I did not think of that…

*Louder and to Abigail.* But if your theory is correct, which I’m not saying it is, but if it was, then the other killer must have been a strong being that could have over powered Lucian and quiet literally stabbed him in the back. And if they wrestled, where is the gun now?

*Abigail ponders for a moment before responding*

Well I agree that the killer would have to be strong to overpower Lucian and there are only a few people here capable of such a feat. As for the gun, I do not have an answer for that, maybe it is still in the killers possession. I guess we will have to find more clues to figure this whole thing out. I just pray that we do before another person is killed.

*She said with a look of fear in her eyes as she stared at her little brother*

Adam pondered for a bit. If it was one person behind everything, the rope could have been used to get down to Lucian while everyone rushed to the sound of the gunshots. However, it was two people, where was the one who killed Lucian go afterwards?

(EDIT: DAMMIT, Y’know it’s Adam Jones)

*Autumn tapped her finger against her lip.* It would not be hard to obtain a gun in this place, or to hide one. Even if we found one on someone’s person, how could we be sure that that gun fired the shot? They could have had the gun coming into this place and then never used it.

To be completely honest this hole thing seems fisher than the docks to me. And what is the motive behind these murders? I realize that Raphael could have angered a someone with his gambling, and Paula was a major crime lord, but Lucian? His murder is a mystery to me.

Michelle manages to stop crying, and turns to the group.

“Why don’t we check the bullet holes? Maybe… maybe we can determine what angle they hit at and determine the general direction the shots cmae from.”

No point. The shots were fired downwards, and that’s all we really need to know. And that gun was found too far away from the attack for the killer to wield it.

It’s just common sense. I’m surprised you don’t use yours more.

(I’m almost starting to dislike Alexis as well. But she is a lot more fun than Paula was. ^_^)

(You and your logic. >( )

(Well, I sleep now. Night.)

(I might be a bit on and off for a while now. Rest assured that I will be back in full before too long, though. ^_^)

(Apparently, Agatha Christie’s 120th birthday is today. Or would be, if she was still alive. So this is a strangely fitting day to conclude this MMG. ^_^

I must clear something up: I was confused about the type of weapon (go figure ^_^) and I therefore gave the machine gun the wrong name. It was a Thompson submachine gun, not a Browning M2. A Browning M2 is, apparently, mounted on boats and taller than any of us. A Thompson (Tommy) gun, however, is the stereotypical ’20s ganster weapon.

With that out of the way, here comes some more information.)

Alexis pulled Autumn off to the side. She said she wanted to speak with her about something important. The journalist, intrigued, followed the suit-clad woman into the bathroom.

“See, I have to talk to you because you’re the only other sensible person here. I noticed something strange about Paula’s murder - where is that machine gun?” asked McCain.

“The machine gun?” said Autumn, confused. “What about it?”

“Just let me have it,” replied the other. “I need to show you something.”

Hesitantly, Autumn found the spot where she and the kids had found the weapon. She bowed down, reached out for the Thompson and held it out to Alexis, who grabbed it and examined it. Then she put it in automatic fire…

Before the reporter had time to be afraid, Alexis aimed the weapon at the wall and fired a few rounds.

She coughed, and asked the other: “See?”

As the smoke cleared, Autumn could see that there were scattered bullet holes in the wall. There was a focal point surrounded by a few more wounds in the wall plaster.

“I don’t…” she said, now utterly bewildered.

“Don’t you find that just a little bit… peculiar?”

“No? I don’t understand what you mean!”

The other clutched the bridge of her nose, evidently disappointed in her companion. “This gun isn’t all that accurate. Now, see, if…”

Her last words were drowned in gunfire. Two bullets hit their target, striking Alexis in the chest. She fell to the floor, silent, still. Alexis McCain could speak no more.

Autumn, terrified at what had happened, took a few seconds to pull herself together. When she did, though, she ran to where the shots had come from - the doorway to the corridor…

No armed murderer awaited her. The killer must have ran off, she thought, but jogged to see whether she could find who was missing from the lounge.

She stopped when she saw the others; they were sitting still as though nothing had happened. Most of them were intoxicated, inebriated; especially Jesse seemed to have taken the opportunity to get hammered. Stu, Duke, Tex and Adam were gathered in couches; Michelle, Abigail and Dani were sitting on stools by the bar counter. Yet someone was missing…

“Where are Miller and Justine?” she asked in a loud voice. The others barely seemed to notice her.

“Here we are, miss,” said Miller, rising up from behind a sofa. “We heard someone shooting, and Justine got scared, so we hid.” A slight whimper confirmed Justine’s presence.

Autumn collected her thoughts, before speaking out loud again. “Alexis is dead. Shot twice in the chest. And whoever has been killing her and the others is, or are, in this room right now.”

There was no reaction, apart from the teenagers’ horrified whispers.

“I SAID ALEXIS, BLESS HER SOUL, HAS BEEN SHOT!”

Now the women heard her, and they went into a panic frenzy. The five men were still not indicating, through word or action, that they had noticed even the gunshots.

Autumn, not fuming, went and found a bucket of water. She threw it over them, and repeated her message. This time, she got the point across, and they all looked terrified. Who could be doing this? And why…

(It’s a clue leading to a murder, rather than the other way around. Isn’t that fun? ^_^)

In this room? Great…

(Fast reaction because bleh,i didnt know really how to react. Also i was actually suspicious of myself for a few seconds)

(Who knows. You might just be justified in that suspicion… ^_^

But yes. This is the penultimate gathering, so to speak. I don’t think much more will happen, although one or two additional clues might be revealed. We’ll see.)

(How would i call myself out anyway if i was the killer)

(I have no idea, honey. ^_^)

Jehosaphat! What was that for? What? Another murder? What is going on in here?

Hey, how can any of us have done it? I didn’t see anyone leave the room! What do you mean we are dead drunk? I’m as clean ‘n’ attentive as ever!

*attempts to stand up, but fails*

And how d’we know you didn’t do it? You were alone with her, weren’t you?

(This was a fun dia… monologue to write. ^_^)

(I will be away for about two hours from now on. But then I’ll return and see whether anything has happened. ^_^

Tee hee. This feels like I’m talking to myself.)