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Post by Luna on Jul 5, 2011 20:17:22 GMT -5
Luna awoke in her bed, still sleepy, but she had to get dressed and open her shop.
Luna changed from her pajamas and got into her welding outfit and brushed her hair into a long ponytail. She then went downstairs to her work room, and petted Spots on the head, who was sleeping at the bottom of the steps. "Hey Spots. How'd you sleep?" She asked him then walked to the counter and put on her gloves that had been lying there from when she closed.
"Another day of work." She sighed. She put the bell at the front of the counter so that if someone wanted to order they could ring the bell, since she would be in the back making things. She walked to the back room and started to think of what she could make.
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Post by Avery on Jul 5, 2011 20:25:12 GMT -5
The Narrator breaks down the Fourth Wall. Pesky wall, she thinks. Sure, it grants omniscience, but there's no use in that if she can't capitalize on it. Turn lemons into lemonade-- er, bodyade.
"Everyone, everyone, out of the way!" she barks at the townspeople huddled near Robyn's body. Someone's thought to cover it with a sheet, but no one has the guts to haul it away. Had it not been for the Floozy's husband making arrangements, she would still be rotting, too.
Oh, these townspeople! So ill-prepared. And so darn uncreative, letting the body fester here without thinking up any great idea for its use. Unlike her. She has a use, she thinks with a smile, kneeling over the covered corpse.
Ignoring the baffled looks she's getting, the Narrator stands turns towards a girl lingering at the periphery of the town. Candy. She thinks that's the girl's name.
"You!" she barks. "Help me with this body. It has someplace to be."
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Post by Draco on Jul 5, 2011 20:35:00 GMT -5
Drake walks groggily to the deli for breakfast. He had a horrible dream about pies, man eating pies, and he wanted a breakfast sandwich of some sort now. He wasn't much of a morning person, preferring to read most of the night away, but that dream, no nightmare, wouldn't allow him to sleep.
He walks past a crowd, someone barking orders, and continues on. He steps into the deli and slurs his words as he talks.
"Sandvich an' coffe'...."
He falls into a chair and tries not to fall asleep.
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Post by Lizzie on Jul 5, 2011 20:35:32 GMT -5
Candy looked up with a jump. Who was speaking to her?
"Ah! Hi! I'll help!" she squeaked, running over to the Narrator. She had no idea what to call her besides 'the Narrator'. Also, she didn't even know who had died.
Candy glanced at The Narrator. "Um, as long as I'm helping you move bodies, what can I call you?"
She kneeled down at Robyn's head, seeing who it was for the first time, even though it was under a sheet. "R-robyn? No!" she murmured, and then felt a tear fall.
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Post by Jayeee on Jul 5, 2011 20:45:11 GMT -5
A new day meant another opportunity for the lowly residents of Netwaffle to bask in the gloriousness that was Joseph Maximillian III. He felt a little tired this morning, so seven servants were needed to lift him from bed and into his chair. He was given his usual cup of tea, and was left to sit quietly to relax for the morning.
“If yesterday taught me anything, it’s that those ruffians outside cannot be trusted in the least,” he mused to himself. “They’re mere creatures compared to my standards. I shan’t allow myself to associate with such common folk.”
After getting dressed; the usual suit and another top hat, this time in a navy blue, he picked a few trusted servants to accompany him on a journey. “We’re in dire need of scones,” he told them. “As you may know, my god-forsaken cooks have been unable to perfect a certain recipe that is crucial to my daily routine. You are to accompany me to a local baker, who I am forced to attain these scones from.”
Once a week, Joseph Maximillian III got up earlier than usual to journey across town and retrieve a batch of scones from Mr. Amati, the town’s baker. He was especially resentful of eating food the common civilians made, but even he had to (secretly) admit that Mr. Amati cooked the most exquisite scones.
He walked with no more than three servants, avoiding the main streets and particularly the town square, and had one of his workers knock on the door of Mr. Amati’s house.
“Open up, chap,” he called and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. He wanted to spend as little time in the company of these folk as possible. “I have need of your services immediately.”
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Post by icon on Jul 5, 2011 20:46:16 GMT -5
Icon walked over to the square. He'd had a surprisingly decent sleep, considering what state of unrest the town had been in the day before, but he was still pretty tired. Typewriter in tow, he decided to head over to the square to see what was going on. Surely some new event must have happened in the night, and he wanted to get the news on what had happened.
Was that a crowd beginning to gather over there? Icon meandered over. "Hey, what's going on? Did another person get attacked by the Mafia?" Boy, would Robyn love this. Her whole spiel about her new film yesterday had him hooked, and he couldn't wait to see what ideas she had next. He already had his pen and notebook out, ready to jot down news on the latest story.
He reached the crowd. "Boy, won't Robyn be happy about this, I can't wait to see the look on her-"
Icon stopped.
A pen and notebook clattered to the street.
"face..."
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Post by Robyn on Jul 5, 2011 20:53:02 GMT -5
LAST NIGHT
Robyn walked down the familiar alleys of Netwaffle's downtown district, taking her usual-- if not a bit shady-- shortcut back home. Walls of brick stood tall and imposing around her. The backroad labyrinth was a path that dared citizens to brave its dirty twists and turns, a maze lined with dumpsters, broken glass, and the cats and rats that had made it their home. Lifelong residents were known to warn tourists against taking the route, but Robyn had been here more than long enough to know her way around, and year after year of walking the shadowed streets had nullified her sense of apprehension. The glow of the digital camera screen was the only light in the passage.
She reviewed the footage she'd managed to capture from all over town. It wasn't an easy job, taking on the investigation undercover like this-- she'd even had to give Icon the slip around dusk to go retrieve the SD cards out of the hidden cameras she'd planted all over the city's various locales. However, looking over all the media now, she knew her exhausting efforts hadn't been completely fruitless. Quite the opposite, in fact.
She'd programmed her equipment to switch between taking photos and taking video, depending on the time of day. Some places were more active and required recording, and to be honest, snapping pictures during the less busy times just saved on battery power. But one of the videos she'd managed to get had confirmed her suspicions on one person she'd been investigating long before today, a person that had never sat quite right with her.
They'd all gathered together behind the deli at one point in the evening, dressed in black and keeping to the shadows, but her face and her face alone was unmistakable and unhidden from the camera's view. They'd discussed how successfully the kill went, their voices distorted and rough, but that face was all that mattered. And now Robyn knew the truth. Part of it, at least, and the progress was precious. She'd show Icon what she found in the morning, and after that, they'd be able to unveil more identities from the heinous gang. No one else would have to suffer, and what's more, their careers would soar!
Her camcorder beeped at her, signaling its low battery. She rolled her eyes and switched it to still-frame mode, figuring a video of overflowing trash cans wouldn't do her much good in her investigation anyways. She lifted a foot to take another step and was instantly jerked back-- too fast for her to comprehend, a strong pair of arms crossed over her from behind, and a hand clamped over her mouth as her chest suddenly exploded into a kaleidoscope of warmth, wetness, sharpness, and agony. She was dropped to the ground, and she felt her thumb curl into the picture button in reflexive pressure as she blacked out.
--
"AAH!"
Robyn's back arched as she awakened mid-scream, staring up at an uncharacteristically beautiful blue sky. She tried gasping for breath, still flailing to try and fend off her attackers, but no one was there. Had she been dreaming? The pain had been unimaginable, like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life...where was the air? She couldn't make her chest rise and fall, and yet she felt no panic, no thrill of deprivation tickling the bottom of her lungs. She couldn't feel much of anything, actually.
She was suddenly upright. Able to look down now, she was horrified to find that her skin and clothes had taken on a ghostly white hue, the space around her waistline tapering off into an ethereal white trail...and it took little more than the mental use of the previous adverb to make her realize what had happened. The petite body everyone was crowding around sealed the deal.
"No," she whispered, finding herself beside the edge of the sheet. "They killed...me?"
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Post by Terra on Jul 5, 2011 20:55:13 GMT -5
Terra heard someone shouting outside. She left the deli and turned the street corner to see a crowd huddled around something.
She approached and heard them talking. Isn't it horrible, another murder, she was such a sweet girl...
No.
It couldn't be. Not another one.
She broke through the crowd and saw Candy, of all people, kneeling down by the body.
"R-robyn? No!"
Terra gasped. Robyn was dead? Why would anyone kill her? She'd always been such a sweet person...what could she possibly have done to make anyone kill her?
She glanced around as she heard a clatter behind her. It was Icon, frozen in shock.
She slowly turned and walked up to him. "You okay?" she said tentatively.
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Post by Luna on Jul 5, 2011 21:16:05 GMT -5
((OMG your post Icon. ;n;))
Luna was thinking then remember she needed some breakfast. She walked to the front of her shop and placed her gloves down. She started to walk out the shop when she heard people yelling about something. She walked over to the crowd.
"R-robyn? No!" She heard Candy scream from the center of the crowd.
She pushed through the crowd to see Candy looking over a body, Icon frozen in shock and Terra asking him if he was alright.
Oh please....No! Luna thought.
She walked up to the body to confirm her thoughts. It was Robyn's sweet face.
She bent down and touched her face. Cold. She thought as she stood up.
"How? How COULD they?" She said icily. She felt her eyes become watery and she covered her mouth. Luna hadn't known Robyn that well, but when they did talk, she was a very nice girl. She knew she was determined to find who had killed the Floozy.
Luna walked out of the crowd and ran to the fountain in the middle of the town square.
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Post by Avery on Jul 5, 2011 21:27:39 GMT -5
"You can may call me Nelly," says the Narrator to the jumpy, crying girl, Candy. "And please, no bawling over this poor little miscreant. After all, what a nice plump frame uh-- what's her name-- has... had... has..."
The Narrator smiles and instructs Candy to help her move Robyn's body away from the increasingly hysterical crowd. She feels bad for the detective's friends, but so is life-- man devouring man. And oh how delicious man is, indeed!
Trying not to giggle, the Narrator tells Candy that they will be taking Robyn's body to the original detective's house. Cowardly bloke won't need it, on account of him skipping town. And the old cottage right next door to Netwaffle Deli always did seem like it would make such a lovely little store. Or bake shop.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2011 21:42:39 GMT -5
Ari, too, heard the shouting. What was going on? Had there been another murder?
She quickly walked nearer to the crime scene. Of course...it was the girl with the camera. Just as it had been foretold.
But still, the thought bubbled up inside her. Why?! She didn't know the girl very well, but she'd seemed very nice, and always had a good word to say when their paths crossed.
Ari wished she had known her better. Poor thing.
But then who would be next? Should she tell Meowington to leave town? Should she herself leave town? Maybe they could leave together, and take Mimi and that cute kitty digging in the garbage -
No, Ari, stop daydreaming, darnit! A girl's just been killed. She could not help but let her tears flow. This was too horrible. What was her town turning into?
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Post by Lizzie on Jul 5, 2011 21:46:34 GMT -5
Candy trembled and wiped her tears on her sleeves.
"But she was so nice, Nelly," she murmured, picking up Robyn's body the way she picked up girls in cheerleading.
"We're going where?" Candy asked, before stepping away from the crowd. She had no idea what she was doing and why, but Nelly seemed nice, and she was always eager to make a new friend...
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Post by Robyn on Jul 5, 2011 21:47:31 GMT -5
((FFFFF CARRIE. SWEENEY TODD REFERENCES. I get all into my emotional ghostly response to Icon and then you make me giggle with your LYRICAL ALLUSIONS. Curse you, Carrie. CUUUURRRSEEE YOUUUUU. And don't be baking me into any meat pies, now, you hear?))
Denial wasn't going to get her anywhere here; Robyn realized as much. She drifted up from beside the sheet, finding herself standing (well, not so much standing as floating) beside a few of the people who had begun to crowd around. A girl she'd had never seen around town before had taken the liberty of tossing a sheet over her corpse, and a entrancing aura that appealed to Robyn's new ghostly nature surrounded the stranger. Before she could investigate too closely, she heard a familiar voice.
"R-robyn? No!"
The aforementioned found herself by Candy's side. The long, blonde hair fringing out from under the sheet must have tipped her off, because a tear leaked out from her now wide eyes. Instinctively, Robyn moved to put a hand on her shoulder, and she recoiled when her fingers trailed right through Candy's side.
"Don't-- Candy, I'm right here, please don't cry," Robyn said, not even feeling her voice leave her throat.
"Hey, what's going on? Did another person get attacked by the Mafia?"
If Robyn had still been using her heart, it would've sank. No, at the sound of Icon's voice, she felt something that could only be described as a horrible twisting of her soul, a pain that wasn't quite pain, but a sensation filled with despair for both herself and her oblivious partner. He was grinning like a schoolkid, lugging around that ridiculous typewriter like nothing was wrong. And as far as he knew, nothing WAS wrong. Robyn, unable to cry, felt a burning around her head as she glided in front of him, putting her arms out in a futile effort to catch his shoulders and stop him in his tracks.
"Icon, turn around," Robyn said, voice cracking, "Icon, please, please, don't see me like this, please, just go back the way you--"
She let out a wail of despair as he passed straight through her, writing equipment at the ready and eyes bright behind his glasses.
"Boy, won't Robyn be happy about this, I can't wait to see the look on her-"
In front of him again, Robyn stared with hollowness as she saw the joy in his expression die just as horribly as she had. His face went slack, and his notebook dropped to the dirty ground, pen rolling along forgotten beside it.
"face..."
Robyn's voice, distantly constricted, broke through her otherworldly atmosphere. "Icon? Buddy? Can you-- oh, God--" She sobbed dryly. "Please say something. Don't just stand there like that, please."
She tried to wrap her arms around him, to elicit some kind of response, to regain SOME kind of tangibility. They went right through him. Cursing her new plane of existence, she heard someone ask Icon if he was alright. And though Robyn desperately wanted to hear the answer, she felt herself being tugged towards the activity surrounding her useless body.
"...please, no bawling over this poor little miscreant. After all, what a nice plump frame uh-- what's her name-- has... had... has..."
The ethereal stranger from before was having Candy move her corpse from the scene.
"I wasn't plump!" Robyn called out in a tearful rage. Way to add insult to injury, she mentally fumed. She watched them take her body away, too concerned with Icon's current state to leave him be, and then realized something crucial. The camera. She glanced over at her dead right arm hanging over the stretcher they'd managed to produce for her and saw the hand was empty. A quick scan of the streets revealed that it hadn't been damaged-- it was merely gone. Stolen? Lost? It didn't matter. If that camera was still intact somewhere, it was this city's key to figuring out who'd done this to her and that silly floozy.
Robyn floated over to her distraught friend and hovered her ghostly hand over his shoulder. If anyone could find that camera, or anything that was left of it, he could. If only she could find a way to communicate with him...
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Post by icon on Jul 5, 2011 21:52:29 GMT -5
Icon kept his eyes down. No doubts about it, Robyn was dead. They killed her. They killed her. He couldn't believe someone had killed Robyn. What could she have done to do something like that? It was all completely-
"They killed...me?"
Was that? Yes, that was definitely Robyn's voice. He looked up, risking a glance.
She was there. It was undeniably his friend, but something was definitely different. Robyn was a... a ghost of some sort? She appeared to be a ghost. The signature white hue, the tail, it was all too straightforward, almost unbelievable. "Oh, Robyn..."
A voice called over. "You okay?" Icon blinked a couple times, looked. It was Terra. "Yeah, I'm okay. I think... well, no, not really." He looked over and saw Luna running off. "I mean... why would they do something like this? Robyn... oh, Robyn..." He bent over, picked up his pen and notebook. "I guess all I really need is some time to think."
He decided to sit down on one of the nearby benches and pull out his typewriter. Those who passed by heard him mutter between sighs- "New mafia victim claimed; young girl dies in the night"...
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Post by Avery on Jul 5, 2011 21:56:37 GMT -5
((>__> Oh don't worry, my pies aren't made with PEOPLE, hehehe, that would be so silly. Ehehe.))
As they walk, the Narrator appraises Candy, stares into her eager face. Tries to gauge her trustworthiness. Of everyone in town, Candy had stuck out the most to her, but still, what the Narrator was planning to propose once they arrived to the detective's abandoned house would be enough to rattle most.
Most, she repeats to herself. Not all. And perhaps Candy will be the exception to this rule.
Entering the detective's house, the Narrator drops Robyn's body down in the corner, then begins to rummage through the kitchen cabinets. In his haste to leave, the detective took nothing, not even pots and pans. The Narrator smiles, pulls out a circular tin.
"Say Candy," she says, "this town is such a sad place, don't you think? And there's no competition--the only restaurant at all is that blasted deli next door, with their pastrami sandwiches and chicken soup. In this time of tragedy, don't you think your poor fellow townspeople could use somewhere else? Somewhere better? Somewhere with sweet things like cakes and cookies and--" she glances at the corpse across the room "-- pies?"
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