asgardmeridiem | [ OPEN ] OH. What's Occuring?

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[ OPEN ] OH. What's Occuring?

Who: Your local forensics department, hospital staff, curious bystanders, others.
What: Scenario A: A regular day in the office (during a musical curse) | B: Out on the job.
When: A: Day 84 morning | B: Day 84 afternoon
Where: A: The forensics department office, third floor of the hospital attached to the laboratory. | An alleyway around a manhole in Odin district, close to the wall and the border with Thor.
Rating: PG13 for possible grisly details.

[two scenarios! I will post a scene-setting comment for both of them, please reply below the comment of the scenario you're taking part in, even if you're not replying directly to Conan. Thank you!

By the way, I encourage Forensics people to reply to both parts of the post, thread jack and jump around -- this is to get an idea of how our characters interact in their daily working lives! /o/]

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A nod. Photos first, since the ones from before were from the outside in-- these ones might reveal something else. He unzips the camera from its water-proof bag again. It's going to be tough finding a proper footing in all of this sludge, but he's patient, and he'll probably shift for as long as it'll take.

However, the lighting here really is kind of... terrible. He also takes a flash out from the bag, and hands it to the only other person on the scene-- the little boss.

"Hold this."

Thorough -- but Conan really wanted to be exploring already. Perhaps this was why he wasn't allowed near crime scenes? Not that that stopped him, of course ... Learning experience for them both, Conan decided, obediently hefting the flash.

"Thea-san! Pass the message on to look high as well as low -- looks like our culprit took more precautions than merely dumping things!" He calls as one of the other staff members pass by, heading back down the tunnel.

The flash illuminates the tunnels so brightly that Conan winces. Still the light puts the greyness of the tunnels into welcome relief. The brightness of the city above has yet to extend to the tunnels and the constant greyness can become unnerving with time.

((ooc: ack! seems like a notificaiton went astray.))

He takes several photos from several angles. He's mindful of the fact that this isn't journalistic or pleasure photography. Unlike what he sometimes aided Shuurei with, crime-scene photography is crisp and without frills. Dynamic angles shouldn't be explored. Old habits are hard to break, however, and he has to noticeably stop himself from looking for the most tasteful angle to photograph this very distasteful-looking thing.

He barely blinks when the little boss calls out orders. It's only when he finishes that he asks for the flash back, putting away everything neatly and carefully. "... looks like this place is gonna stay gray, huh."

Said without much attachment. He then adjusts his gloves, and gives the area a careful look over. "I'll start from this side?"

"It'll take more than one scene exam for that." Not that he wants there to be more of these -- but that's at the back of everyone's mind, isn't it? The dismemberment of the body is too well-done, the murder covered up too well ...

"Ah. I'll provide light."

But with the murder here, there's also the possibility that the murderer is still down there somewhere. It's kind of beyond Velige to think that there'd be someone willing to trawl around in a sewer, but in his experience, there are people who can do anything to survive, even if it means taking the road not taken. It's why he nods, and checks the taser he has strapped to his belt, before advancing carefully.

... from this angle, it kind of looks like some kind of a torn cloth. On the other hand, it also looks like there's something under it. They might have to handle this delicately.

"Murder weapon was a sharp object, right? No explosives?"

"No traces of explosives detected in the scene exam or signs of burning or trauma on the pieces recovered so far," Conan reports immediately. "And we won't know if it's the murder weapon until the lab tests are done, but our victim was definitely dismembered with something approximating a large knife."

"It seems a small distinction -- but the chances that the victim was dismembered after death is high. A struggling victim would make it harder to produce the clean cuts we saw -- that cloth?"

Velige's usually impassive face clouds over slightly in the dark. Taking in the information but without answering, he moves forward until he's approaching the gated waterway. Then, leaning down into the sludge, he pulls out the cloth, finding purchase on the wet surface with his gloves.

The dirty water would have washed away all but the most resilient of the bloodstains, so there's no way of telling whether this is a part of the mystery, or if it was simply just another piece of debris down the sewage canal. But upon pulling the cloth from the sewage canal, something else catch his eye. He kind of nearly sticks himself head-first at the grate to catch what the water almost floats away.

-- it looks like underwear. Dirty, grimy underwear, but... underwear nonetheless. "This look familiar?"

"Ah." As the stirring of the water threatens to wash away their find, Conan moves forward to help Loewe, holding open a zip lock bag as he balances the torch with the other.

"Thea-san -- you, over there. We need a hand with this grate."

Yep.

He drops the piece of grimy clothing in, and helps bag it. And with the larger piece of cloth, he gives it a glance, before looking further down the gated waterway.

"Think the murderer's still around?"

"Long gone," Conan states with confidence. "They wouldn't go to this much trouble of hiding the body to take chances coming back. Especially as this isn't a recent death."

He pauses. It's hard to judge expression in the tunnel, the lack of light and colour not helping their missing any. "You -- all right?"

The question honestly surprises him. He gives the little boss a contemplative look. Truthfully speaking, he's fine. He's seen enough dead bodies in his lifetime that something like this doesn't even register on the radar anymore. It doesn't mean that he has to like it, but fact of the matter is, there will always be people killing, and that there will always be people dying.

However, the fact that this particular case hits a little close to home makes him hesitate. And because it isn't his policy to lie-- "... I'll tell you 'bout it later."

Because they have something that's a bit more important to do, right? He lifts the cloth. "We're gonna need a bigger bag."

The pause before the reply should be a bad sign, but there's something in the measured way that Loewe turns to consider Conan and his reply that sounds convincing. Almost as though -- there's something else?

Conan nods. "Ah. I'll be right back." And he is, some minutes later, with both the bag and a member of the water department in tow to help lift the grate if necessary.

The slight reprieve lets Velige have a moment to himself as he thinks about the way the body was disassembled. It wasn't quite the same, but he's a little surprised at how angry he feels over the thought of it. He supposes, philosophically, that even after death, there are some things that you can't just let go so easily.

When the little boss returns, he nods, and helps back the larger piece of cloth as well. Then, turning to the grate, he gives it a look-over. Under normal circumstances, he could probably move this all by himself. But there's honestly no need to do it himself if there's someone else around to help. Having done this sort of thing before, he motions to the extra pair of helping hands, and gets the member of the water department to help him loosen the grate gradually, unclasping so that it dislodges itself, creaking with rust.

Putting it aside, he gives the tunnel another look. Dryly-- "You wanna do the honours?" Up to leading the expedition, little boss?

Conan doesn't waste a moment. He takes up the invitation, scrambling down the ladder with barely a backward glance. Waiting has never been his style.

Shining the torch around the previously unexplored tunnel, he starts as the torch catches on eyes. Loewe's previous question jumps immediately to mind but it's only a moment before common sense reassures him, and he steps forward. The rats scatter, scrambling down the tunnel and disappearing into a rain water tunnel.

Water is slowly leaking down the walls of these tunnels, dampening the narrow path along the side of the tunnel. The smell is definitely worse here, and Conan edges along the wall to where the rats were before they scattered. There's something big caught against the grate to the next section of tunnel, an indistinct lumpy grey shape but when Conan shines his torch directly on it, the sharp edge of bone is visible.

"Camera ready?"

... he's sure a fast little thing, ain't he. He watches the little boss's descent for a moment before following after him himself, angling the light thoughtfully so that even as he descends, the little boss can still see probably. He's a bit hasty. As far as bosses go, he's not a bad one, but Velige's a believer that haste makes waste. He figures that since he'll be working with this guy for the next little while, he might as well make measures to compensate for it.

The smell makes his nose wrinkle-- and the rats more so. He gives the scattering creatures a curious look as they scurry past, but turns his attention to the little boss again when he speaks. The words register immediately, and he doesn't even answer as he strips off his dirty, grimy gloves, pockets them and puts on new ones, before handling the camera carefully.

He moves in to take the required pictures.

Bone.

He frowns. "Looks like the rats were havin' a good time."

Conan's not been wasting all his time. Although he has much to learn in the way of patience from Loewe, he's used the time waiting for the other to take his photos to more thoroughly examine the scene and the clues available. Now that the photos have been taken and the scene is clear, he begins a more thorough investigation, going back to look for the subtle signs that could help their case.

"Ah. Identification's going to be even more difficult. We'll be relying on the lab and any more clothing we can find. Ne -- take some photos of the grate from this angle, looking for signs of displacement and take some after we remove the body -- if he's been here long enough for the water build up to leave a mark, it's significant."

Pause.

"Though good luck finding one in all this grey."

Out of the corner of his eyes, he watches the little boss do his thing. It occurs to him, a bit abruptly and a bit amusingly that he's never quite seen a kid so at home in the sewers before. Kind of makes him wonder what kind of a life the little boss had before he got here. He doesn't think it could've been an easy one.

Lowering the camera again as the little boss talks, he mentally notes what has to be done.

"Miracles happen here." Said with nonchalance, like fact. He begins to work.

"Think we should go in further?"

"Not yet," Conan says from his current position. "If you look at that grate, you'll see that the moss growing on it hasn't been disturbed." Standing slowly, he considered the scene as a whole. No traces of their killer's presence within the portion of tunnel, but that didn't mean they hadn't entered the tunnel. Either way, they'd dumped the torso and returned the grate, not noticing that some cloth had become caught in it ... and then what?

He gives the moss a look, picking it out visually from amongst the uniform gray, and takes a few snapshots of it.

"If they're in the healer house, they could've grown it back."

"That's a possibility," Conan agrees reluctantly. Allowing for magic in a criminal investigation? No one from home would ever let me hear the end of this. "But unless we can't recover a signficant portion of the body in the tunnels above, I think we can leave it for now. Someone who'd go to the effort of taking that sort of precaution would surely make sure that such a big part of the body was not left behind before the grate here -- and we've no evidence our killer took more than cursory precautions."

He senses that reluctance to a certain degree- though it manifests less in Conan's tone than the fact that the little boss hadn't brought it up earlier. Having come from a peculiar background, he's still more or less adjusting to the fact that life didn't revolve around things that apparently defied any and all logic. Thinking about this for a moment, he finishes up with the photos, before putting the piece of technology away with the same care he's shown all afternoon.

"You call the shots." His way of agreeing. "We'll take care of the rest, then. You wanna head up and figure things out from there?"

"You'll be okay on your own?" The question's accidental and Conan immediately regrets it. "Not that I think you can't manage," he explains. "But the scene. It can get to you." And that's even without the complete lack of colour and varying degree of light.

Thankfully, Velige is perhaps the most difficult person to offend. Taking the question for what it was, he shrugs. "I've seen worse."

He's actually a bit more worried about Conan. He's got a smaller body mass, and the air down here isn't good. He may be the little boss, but it might be better for his health if he didn't pass out down here. "Careful while you climb those ladder."

"Hai, hai! I'll send a few more of the water department down to help you remove your find." In full on investigation mode, Conan's not stopped to consider the effects on himself or consider how he's feeling. It's only belatedly once he's out in the fresh air that the reason for Loewe's adminition occurs to him and he's thoughtful as he sends him the water department staff, telling them to send him up if he looks like he needs air.

The first team down there is taking a break and Conan's got a lot to do debriefing them, and seeing their finds are catalogued then sent to the hospital lab. This thread might be wrapping up, but the investigation is only beginning.

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[ OPEN ] OH. What's Occuring?

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