Forum Games

As Gateau was called away by Dioramos, Asusu guessed he wouldn't be back anytime soon and focused on the burial. She proceeded to the trees outside of the clan, Mottle and Steel, the Hive's pair of Banescales and the duo with the most experience with burials, snapped to attention. Asusu didn't notice Rupture following, not paying enough attention.

He liked books in life. You should bury him close to trees. Steel advised. Asusu took the advice and slowed down next to a cluster of trees. Not too far from the clan in case someone wanted to investigate.

Alright. Put him down, remove the object of murder, and close his eyes. Mottle instructed. Asusu glanced at her large claws, wondering how she would close Andiron's eyes without scratching them.

Use the back of them, genius! Steel snapped, but Asusu could tell she wasn't actually angry. Grinning to herself as she heard Steel sigh loudly in the background, Asusu got to work carefully retrieving the stalagmite and holding it in one claw. With the back of the other claw, she cautiously nudged each of Andiron's eyes shut. Chatter in the Hivemind died down as a sense of formality and solemness suspended in the wavelength between the dragons of the Hive.

Asusu felt a little guilt for her lack of grief-but then again, it was hard to grieve for someone she barely knew-as she murmured a few words of grief in the ancient Banescale tongue, the words of mourning Steel and Mottle told her. She couldn't begin to decipher how she managed to pronounce them, or how correct her pronunciation was. However, Steel and Mottle were satisfied.

After that, Asusu set aside the stalagmite and dug. Her instincts as a Ridgeback showed as a large hole appeared, large enough to fit Andiron's body down lengthwise but not enough to shove him in whole. Asusu then began expanding the underground room, making sure to not disturb the soil above ground-she didn't want to damage the trees-until the hole was big enough. Returning above ground, Asusu then cautiously placed Andiron within, the hole letting him enter just right. It was hard to bury large dragons.

Place the stalagmite in after him. For ease of investigation, and because legend has it that the murder weapon tether him to the mortal world. Only by placing it in after him will he be free. Steel added. Asusu pushed aside her confusion on that legend and placed the stalagmite within. She then carefully sealed the entrance, using a quick spray of her building tar-the same liquid that makes her arrows-to fashion a tombstone above the soil where the opening had been. The tombstone was nameless, and Steel and Mottle agreed it was for the best. After all, they reasoned, Andiron was trying to move on. A named tombstone could tether him. So Asusu left it blank.

Dio realized it wasn't his friend when he saw Gateau's pale face, how stupid could he have been? Mistaking someone for his friend when there was clearly no way they could've been there. The demon stayed silent for a moment, with the pouch in his hand.

"Don't worry about it.. It's the name of my friend, you two look a lot like eachother. I thought it might have been him. I don't need the money." The demon gave the pouch back before walking off, not even looking at the body or thinking about who could've done it.

Dioramos hadn't seen his friends for such a long time, he wondered what they were doing now.

Dioramos votes for Asusu

Clay tossed the ball upwards as he ran out of the house, laughing as he then flipped onto his forepaws and beat the ball higher with his tail. The Guardian jumped up to continue playing, then paused as he caught sight of a large crowd of dragons. They all looked sad or angry.

The ball landed next to him with a thump. Clay watched as some of the dragons moved away from the group, with various expressions.

What was going on???

Gateau tilted his head. So it was a misunderstanding... The coatl just nodded to the imperial, and put the pouch away. Usually, he'd have to pay, right? An action like that made him shake his head and snap back to reality. He had to clean..which meant he needed his supplies.

He started to walk to his den, only to spot someone outside of it. At first, he was confused ..again. Then he was scared, then only slightly irritated. He wasn't a dragon worth seeing anyway, who would ever visit him out of the blue-

Upon closer inspection, the dragon seemed to be Ravam. It didn't change his view, but the identity gave him some security.

"E-Excuse me.....ah..." Oh no. Was she crying? Gateau backed up, a normal mannerism for him. He wasn't equipped to handle this. "....I...I need to get to my...um. You're sort of.."

He looked away.

"Why are you crying?"

Yeah that's definitely what he asks someone who's visibly upset, right? The murder came into focus in his mind again. He had to clean, the scene was messy, why would someone cry over a mess? Then it hit him. Ah, someone had passed. Death was such a foriegn thing to him that he had no idea how to react. It was disturbing and sad, sure, but he didn't know the dragon that died all too well. Should he be crying?

Ravam jolted up. "A-ah I'm sorry...I think it's just..well, Andrion died so..." Ravam sniffled a bit, wiping her tears. "I try to stay positive, but I'm pretty emotionally weak so..I-I'll leave now," She said, picking up her sketchbook that she hadn't realized she dropped. She nodded to Gateau, and turned to head to her den.

"Hello, Euploea." Nazani said, the moment that the little fey had spoken. Xe bowed her head down to Euploea's level and continued speaking. "I am here because Andiron was murdered, and I have questions regarding death." Xe had simply spoken the truth but it sounded very strange now that the words were out of xir mouth. Certainly not something any dreamer would say. Xe needed a reason to have said that… Xe weren't keen on lying, though, that never seemed to work for xem, so truth of a sort was better. "My… parents… never really discussed the subject with me. My understanding of what death entails, beyond simply not being here anymore, is… limited. I come to you with this because while I realise Morrison is likely more acquainted with the subject, he is also rather busy."

Xe shuffled a paw on the ground, letting xir awkwardness show and hoping it would be taken for awkwardness in admitting such a lack of knowledge, rather than awkwardness in trying to seem like just another dreamer so as not to scare people. Suddenly xe lifted xir head - "Oh. I almost forgot." - and turned to dig in the satchel xe'd picked up on the way out of xir home. Lor had started giving xir gifts when they had started talking and xe had found it improved the dreamers' opinions of xir if xe did the same, so xe tried to bring things for those xe spoke with when xe could. After a moment, interjected with some quiet mutterings of things that didn't quite make sense such as " ?ti si erehW" and ".gnidih potS", xe pulled out what xe had been looking for and presented it to Euploea.

"I brought a present for you." It was clear that Nazani didn't entirely have a good handle on what constituted a good present yet. What was in xir paw was a small inky black mushroom that almost seemed to subtly shift and distort when one looked at it. "I believe some mushrooms are useful in alchemy and potions, am I correct? This one seemed unique."

---

Nazani votes for Rantaro, since that seems to be the majority of the clan's opinion.

Gateau blinked, then looked to the entrance of his den. Inside his mind, he felt like that could've gone better. But he wasn't the type to comfort, nor was he the type to interact in the first place. He stepped inside of his den, and got his cleaning supplies in order, lifting some with just a bit of magic.

The whole place need a touch up, not just the crime scene. How that the giant body was gone, the coatl had a chance to finally clean it all up. Get it sorted out.

"....hm. where to start...."

Maybe the blood? The dust? The dirt? The...

The coatl looked down, strands of his wig covering his eyes. A small amount of contemplating never hurt anybody. While he was thinking, he idly mopped up the place.

Rupture followed Asusu as she carried Andiron's body. Eventually they made it to a cluster of trees where Asusu laid Andiron's body down. She then proceeded to take the stalagmite out of his chest and close his eyes. What was the point of this? perhaps Asusu has experience is proper burials unlike Rupture, which he knew almost nothing about.

Asusu then dug a hole and placed Andiron as well as the stalagmite in it. She then covered up the hole with building fluid and made a tombstone. So she was a drone, the only question is whether she's a false one. Rupture quickly climbed a tree to get a closer look, only for him to accidentally break a branch, making a small cracking noise. He immediately stepped back into the cover of the leaves of the tree, hoping he wouldn't be spotted as he slowly retreated from the area. Was Asusu alerted by the sudden noise? he didn't know, but he hoped she was too distracted to notice or to care, thinking that it was just a small animal like a squirrel.

The voting has ended, please wait for the exile, and don't post until it's posted!

@HolyShipper

Arzi, still napping, votes for Rantaro.



(I definitely voted before the deadline >.>)