video; un: hopscotch

[clavesregni]

[Caitlyn has found a small corner somewhere in the Wards that she's turned into a personal headquarters. Several sheets of paper, covered in incomprehensibly messy scribbles, are stuck to the walls, and there's plenty of room for more to come. She's even found some colored string somewhere and has started to make connections between the papers with the strings.

She speaks very enthusiastically. Nothing makes Caitlyn's whole being light up like detective work.]

I've begun working on solving the series of murders that have occurred here over the last eleven weeks.

The victims were all male, between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-five. There are no other obvious connections between the victims, no common physical characteristics, profession, or origin. We'll need to dig if we want to find any commonalities apart from sex and a rough age range. And, with only five victims, we can't entirely rule out the idea that the commonalities we do know of may be coincidental.

There are rumors circulating of someone referred to as the 'Reaper,' who is punishing the people here for abandoning their duty. I don't know if that's the killer's true motivation; why kill only young men? There's something more going on here.

There are two clear points of interest:

First, none of the victims have an obvious cause of death. Some have wounds, but nothing that would be fatal under normal circumstances, and none appear to have been ill. How is the Reaper killing the victims?

Second, all have a white string tied around their wrists. This must be some sort of calling card, though what it means is not yet clear. If we can determine the meaning of the string, it could give us an insight into the killer's motivations and perhaps their identity.

I suggest we collaborate in our work to find the killer.

Comments

[clavesregni]

Serial killers are different to everyday murderers. A violent thug might join the battlefield to satiate their bloodlust, but for someone with a pathological need to kill, particularly specific victims in specific ways, that wouldn't do.

[downswing]

Is there not murder sufficient to satisfy?

[clavesregni]

Not for someone like that.

Of course, it could also be someone with a reason to kill these five men specifically. Simply joining the battle wouldn't do for that sort of killer, either, since it might not afford them the opportunity to kill the exact victims they'd like.

[downswing]

Then, we search commonality.

[clavesregni]

Yes, we ought to.

Even if these killings do turn out to have supernatural origins, there may be a reason why these victims, and a way of stopping it.

Whatever the cause, or the motivations of the killer, I don't believe the victims were random. Not entirely, at least.

[downswing]

There is no bloodshed. No open violence.

No crimes of passion.

[clavesregni]

Yes, these killings were certainly cold-blooded. They weren't committed in the heat of the moment.

[downswing]

We do not what stokes the killer's appetites.

Perhaps if we deny him option that pleases his past taste but a bait.

[clavesregni]

Bait? You're suggesting finding a young man willing to offer himself up as a victim in order to lure the killer out?

It's not a bad idea. I'd volunteer myself, but I'd not be to the killer's taste.

[downswing]

You lack a certain disposition.

[clavesregni]

I'm the wrong gender, you mean.

Yes, we would need to find someone who fits the correct profile.

[downswing]

Young men. Perhaps fair=haired.

[clavesregni]

Do you suppose their hair color matters?

[downswing]

A victim was foreign. Hair irrelevant, at first glance.

[clavesregni]

I do know a man I might ask. Unless you'd be willing to volunteer yourself?

[downswing]

With... whitened hair?

Who is your man?

[clavesregni]

Hair can be coloured.

I was going to suggest the Doctor, as he's told me on multiple occasions that he is more difficult to harm or kill than a human.

Another possibility is the fair-haired man who responded to this, but I don't know him and I'm not sure whether he'd be willing to risk his life for this.

[downswing]

We all chance lives.

[clavesregni]

Yes but we have to give people a choice. They deserve to know the risks and decide whether they're willing to take those risks.

[downswing]

As the others deserve life without fear of slaughter.

[clavesregni]

Yes. It's a balancing act. We need to catch the killer as fast as possible while doing as little harm as possible.

[downswing]

You have experience?

[clavesregni]

Yes, of course.

[By 'experience' she means 'that one time I impulsively broke a hot girl out of prison and we both almost died several times.']

[downswing]

Then, we concede to you.

[clavesregni]

I won't let you down, I promise.