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Nkemdilim “Dylan” Uzoma (wishgranted) wrote in nosuchplace,
@ 2008-10-03 23:37:00

Entry tags:

dylan uzoma, events: mystery plot 1, lucretia rousseau

Thursday: October 4, 2007
Who: Dylan and Lucretia
When: Mid-morning after this.
Where: Medical Pavilion
What: After the coroner's examination, Dylan comes to discuss the matter of Simon's murder.

Everything was beginning to change. As much as Dylan wanted to believe in the good of people, he was obviously mistaken as of late. Dissent existed amongst the citizens. Maybe not in the form of whispers heard, but clearly in the form of actions. Apparently, someone did not believe in the inalienable right to life for all people. All life was supposed to be sacred and precious while taken care of and protected against harm. Within their own haven, people were beginning to turn on others. A mauled faun was one thing; there was no proof it was done by anything other than an animal, but this — this wasn’t done by an animal. It was done by a monster.

His footsteps echoed down the hallway as he walked towards the coroner’s examination room. The medical examiner was in there with Simon’s deceased body, and Dylan was the one meant to speak with her afterward. Dr. Rousseau had in so far during her stay in Elysium been granted a reprieve from her previous life’s work, but the last two weeks had proved themselves to be graciously turning in her favor.

He walked up to the door, turning the handle and opening it to reveal a chilled room illuminated with soft blue-hued lights. There on one of the tables was Simon’s corpse covered only with a white sheet draped over the lower half of his body. The workers of the wine bar were charged with keeping their silence, and the same had been relayed to the medical examiner. Dylan need not explain it again for her as entered the room and closed the door behind himself.

Dylan circled around the table and surveyed the lifeless young man. Only days ago had he had been alive and in their custody. Now, he was no longer breathing. No longer moving. No longer living. Someone was playing a dangerous game with the Head Council. Certainly, not in a direct manner, but a dangerous game with them all the same. They were forces to be reckoned with as the circumstances diverged from their greatest hopes and surpassed their greatest fears.

He halted in place, folding his hands in front of himself as he continued to gaze at the body. It was so hard to accept another death. Not because death was meant to be avoided, but because Dylan hoped it never would have come to this — to murder. Even as Dylan heard new footsteps, his eyes remained at the young man on the table. His silence in and of itself held a profound weight.

“Dr. Rousseau,” Dylan said, eyes fixed on Simon’s pale corpse. Finally, he lifted them in Rousseau’s direction. “I trust you have the answers we need.”

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blackmagicwoman
2008-10-04 12:13 am UTC (link)

After Lucretia had made her discovery, she had put in a request to speak with a member of the council. The witch was restless and she didn’t know why she did her pacing near the body that caused her restlessness. She needn’t worry; she had great confidence she would be speaking to a council member soon.

Lucretia was only slightly alarmed when the door made a soft noise. She turned towards Dylan but moved away so he could have his moment with the deceased. It was difficult to deal with the matter at hand. It didn’t matter if Simon was close or not to Lucretia, the situation was not a pleasant one. To her, it only got worse. She let her thoughts invade her mind while Dylan continued to stay silent. She actually was afraid to speak first. She didn’t want to bombard him with information.

When the council member spoke to her, she looked up at him with dreadful eyes. “Dylan.” She cleared her throat. “..I’m afraid I’ve made a new discovery.” She looked down at Simon’s body with a gloomy expression. “It makes this situation worse I believe. Makes the guilty look guiltier and broadens suspects.” She glanced towards the door. “Would you like a walk?” She grasped the notes she had made for the council. “It might be good to walk in a quiet place. It might be the most comforting thing in this entire situation.”

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wishgranted
2008-10-05 08:51 pm UTC (link)

Dylan nodded his head in understanding and gestured towards the door. "A walk would be nice," he agreed, trying not to let her words get to him. Though he was given the great deed of joining the Head Council of Elysium, it did not make him perfect by any stretch of the imagination. He, like any other person, struggled with what trials were thrown before his feet and tried to exercise his best judgment possible. It was not always successful, though, not for him or for anyone else.

He led the way outside of the room and began to walk down the empty hallway. The medical pavilion was free of people this early in the morning, save for some of its staff. Dylan slipped his hands inside of his pockets as they walked, their feet echoing down the corridor. "Please," Dylan began, "explain to me what you meant by the situation is worse. What have you discovered upon examination?" He was curious to know the events that led up to Simon's death. Perhaps they would not have a full picture, but her expertise would give them one much clearer than guessing the circumstances. Upon first look, it seemed as if a vampire simply attacked and killed Simon through draining too much blood.

Females were more common victims for vampires. A woman could lose a much more significant amount of blood content and still survive compared to the meager amount of blood a man could lose without dying. Maybe that was why females were often common targets of vampires; it was much easier for a woman to survive blood loss. Simon was not so lucky, being a male. So far, Dylan believed it was the blood loss that killed the young man. Whether or not that was true, he was about to find out.

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blackmagicwoman
2008-10-07 02:59 pm UTC (link)

Lucretia's cheeks turned a dull shade of light pink before she spoke. The witch felt a bit of embarrassment with how she had approached the situation. She could be overreacting for all she knew. Her voice sounded so eager and heightened while Dylan had such a soothing and reserved voice in comparison. She let out a breath and drew some stray hairs away from her face.

"Upon my first findings I came to the quick conclusion that he probably died due to massive blood loss. He had some bruising, superficial cuts on his body and broken ribs which was only minor compared to the loss of blood." By nature, Lucretia stopped and stood in front of Dylan. "But then when I wanted to make sure my findings were correct I noticed his neck was broken." Rubbing her own neck she let out a sigh. "At first I thought it was postmortem. Poor handling from either the culprit or an innocent inspector unaware of how fragile his body was in that specific area."

She tucked more pesky strands of her hair behind her ears. "That's not the case I am afraid. His neck was broken before he died leaving me to believe that it would be ignorant to just believe a vampire killed him. People overestimate how easy a neck can break. Even a regular human could do such trauma to another person."

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wishgranted
2008-10-09 11:34 am UTC (link)

Dylan absorbed the new information as best as he could, but it was not exactly what he hoped to hear from the coroner's report. He remained deep in thought for a few moments as they walked, his hands still buried in his pockets, when Dylan slowly came to stop and turned to face Lucretia. His face was grave but uncertain of what was going on around them. "He was beaten before anyone drank from him," Dylan said, repeating Dr. Lucretia's words as he met her gaze. "Bruising, broken ribs, and a broken neck . . . " He seemed to be saying it out loud in order to fuel his thoughts in the correct direction.

One of Dylan's hands came out of his pocket to touch his chin in a thoughtful manner. "This could have gone a number of ways," he continued, saying next his ideas out loud. "On one hand, a vampire could have both attacked him, broken his neck, and drank from him afterwards. On another, someone else could have attacked Simon, and then an accomplice or an unrelated person found his body and drank from him. Perhaps not even knowing he was dead and assuming he was passed out." Dylan looked at Lucretia. "Is that possible?" Dylan found it hard to believe assuming someone was passed out without a heartbeat, pulse, and breathing. Not to mention, the young man had a broken neck.

Dylan shook his head. "This does complicate things much more than we hoped for," he said, gazing down the hallway towards the room they had just left moments ago. "Tell me, Dr. Rousseau," he began to ask her, "what do you think are the most likely fits for the circumstances of his death?"

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blackmagicwoman
2008-10-17 12:46 pm UTC (link)

When Dylan handed Lucretia his theory she agreed it was very much possible. "The period in between the breaking of his neck and the bite was very clever if there was an accomplice. Simon was very much alive when his neck was broken. The massive swelling around the area says so. However, the extent of his injury was so severe he didn't have much time to live. So whatever creature came to finish him off by nature or by acting as an aid to the killer didn't get much of a meal. The bite marks barely had any signs of bleeding, meaning Simon was in his final stages of life or dead with little blood to offer. If Simon was remotely alive, the marks on his neck would have showed signs of bruising or would have been red around the surface." She wouldn't have wanted Dylan to have seen the body again, so she explained it to him bluntly. "All I saw were two puncture wounds with little response from the skin. It was a nice try to blame a vampire completely, but I don't believe it."

She leaned in to whisper quietly. "Maybe it was just poor thinking. Some people are just in the heat of the moment and never think that what they do can be figured out by others. Maybe it was done in reverse by accident. Someone would have wanted to drink from him then break his neck for all we know. But whomever attacked him perhaps was just rougher than they meant to be." She bit her lip before she simply answered. "It was the broken neck, I'm certain. If not killed immediately from the blow, he suffered for quite the few minutes."

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wishgranted
2008-10-22 06:34 pm UTC (link)

The news she delivered seemed more heartening, for it would at least diminish the pool of possible suspects. If hardly any blood was drained from the body, Dylan doubted a vampire was responsible for the deed. Vampires would not waste precious blood, if they were after it so badly as to hurt another human being for it. To bite and not drink, or hardly drink at all, wasn't very characteristic of their species. Also, if they were not after blood, the puncture wounds would implicate them, so why bite if not solely for food? "We might be able to rule out a vampire, though I would not overlook the possibility," Dylan commented. It remained an unlikely choice, but Dylan was not going to pass by options just because they were less likely. That was the quickest way to let the real murderer escape from their grasp, and they intended to catch whoever it was and try the person for the crime.

"It could have been an accident, but even then we still have a dead body on our hands." Dylan's feet came to a stop in the hallway. He turned around to face Lucretia. He bowed his head softly. "Thank you for your examination of Mr. Myles." Lifting his head once more, Dylan looked at Lucretia as he continued to speak. "I fear with the amount of information we have, I am not sure what direction we should pursue in looking for his murderer. Is there any evidence of his attacker on his body?" It was the last of questions he had for her for now. While the crime scene was checked, the victim's body had not yet been checked for evidence.

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blackmagicwoman
2008-10-24 01:21 pm UTC (link)

Dylan was such a respectable man; it was easy to talk to him about the situation at hand. When the topic of evidence came up she gave it a moment of thought. “Well. It would all come down to things we did back home. You know like complex things we unfortunately don’t have here. “ She informed him with a defeated tone in her voice. “If I found fingerprints on his neck once his body was in a far enough state of postmortem, we don’t have an AFIS system or anything to identify who killed him without interviewing people of interest.” She sighed, thinking back to old fashioned ways.

“The same would apply to if there was any blood left behind. There would be nothing to compare it to. So I guess the answer is no. I have nothing besides the medical knowledge that he fought back because of the broken ribs and the bruises he got fighting off his attacker. So on basic knowledge his attacker was just as strong, or stronger than him.”

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Fin!

wishgranted
2008-10-27 02:41 pm UTC (link)

Dylan felt a sense of defeat as well. They did not have any way of testing for fingerprints, nor a system which held the fingerprints of their citizens. Without a sea of possible suspects to chose from, any blood or skin on Simon's body that wasn't his would be useless. Dylan believed they had a way of proving DNA with a special potion, but it seemed as if Simon was too drunk to really defend against his attacker and get anything of the other person onto himself. Any hair on his clothing could be from anyone he met that day, nto necessarily from his attacker. Dylan released a quiet sigh. "We really are in the dark, are we not, Dr. Rousseau?"

It seemed the only way to discover the murderer was to go public with the knowledge of Simon's death. Dylan nodded to himself. "For now, we will remain quiet on his death and be vigilant of our surroundings. Revealing a death that cannot be proved is perhaps too much for the people of Elysium right now. I will talk to the Keeper of the Dead about preserving the young man's body in perfect condition. It is too soon to bury it. We are going to need him as evidence should this come full circle. I will not let his death go unanswered for, but for now, we have nothing on our side." Dylan bowed his head once more. "Thank you again, Dr. Rousseau. The Keeper will be by shortly."

Dylan made his way down the hall, his head heavy and clouded with thoughts of Simon's murder. He knew not what was going to happen yet, but it was a storm they would have to wait out and see for.

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