We're All Mad Here Solving a Mystery in Paris, France (because we're just that cool)

Lish

Lish

Well-Known Member
Cheshire Cat was sitting on the rooftop of a cafe in Paris. She was looking over at the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It was a flat rooftop, and she was sitting at a small metal table in a cushioned metal chair, with an identical chair across from her. The woman was munching on some French bakery goods from the cafe below her. She had invited her friend, Quartz, to come join her for a day in France, and had told her to come to this particular cafe, giving her the address and some simple directions. Quartz would be able to find it no problem. It was a perfect day- warm (but not too warm) with a breeze. Up here, she could see a lot of Paris. Not all of it, of course. But definitely a lot of it. Once Quartz entered the cafe, one of the friendly French waitresses would direct her up the stairs and to the roof. Chesh was treated like a queen here. She was given access to the roof, and was the only person who was given access to the roof. Maybe it was because she donated a million dollars to their cafe when they were about to go bankrupt. No, literally- she gave them one million dollars. It was a fancy cafe because of this- big and luxurious. And their food was amazing as well. If Quartz followed the instructions of the waitress, she would find Cheshire eating up on the top of the roof of the cafe, waving at the sight of Quartz.
 
Quartz followed the directions she was given and stopped in front of a gorgeous cafe. The note said Chesh is on the roof, so Quartz simply jumps to the second floor and climbs the rest of the way up effortlessly. She then sits across from the pink-haired girl and removes her mask with a smile. "Hey! Thanks for inviting me to come here, it's amazing!" She exclaims, reaching across the table and hugging Chesh. "Now how do I get food around here?"

@Lish
 
Cheshire smiled as Quartz came over, giving her a hug. "No problem!" At her friend's question, Chesh gestured to the tray in front of her piled with food. "This is pretty much all of it, help yourself. Every once in a while people come up and check on me, and you can ask them for something then if you wanna." She thouroughly answered Quartz's question and then said. "Ah, it's so good to see you! Have you ever been to Paris before? It's a long way from your home."

@JexMix
 
Quartz immediately starts digging into the food, stopping for a brief second to answer. "I haven't. I've never really been outside of Japan. Oh, I have a surprise for you!" She stands back up, puts her index and middle finger in her mouth, and blows a really loud whistle. Not even a minute later, Henry scurries over the edge of the roof and immediately beelines it to Chesh, bumping her legs for attention and affection. "I brought Henry! He doesn't get out much, either. So, what are we gonna do here?"

@Lish
 
Trigger Warning- death

"Henry!" Chesh squeals, spreading her arms out wide as if to give Henry a hug as he scuttled towards her. "Hey, buddy!" She reached her hands down to pet Henry, a happy smile on her face. "That was a wonderful surprise," she said with a light laugh. Still petting Henry, Chesh answered, "Oh, I was thinking maybe we could go sightseeing. Look-" She pointed over to the Eiffel Tower in the distance. You could see it over the square that the four blocks around it made, the cafe being part of it. "The Eiffel Tower is over there. Paris is a lot cooler now that the Eiffel Tower has been built. Or I could take you to some of the places that I like here in Paris. Just us catching up, though, mostly. So how have you-"

Fear. So much fear. Radiating from the square. Quartz would hear a horrified scream from the square followed by murmurs from the others in the square. But Chesh would only feel fear from the people in the square, shooting up her backbone and causing a sharp alarm in her head. In surprise, she stood up and stumbled backwards, knocking the metal chair over with a loud clang. She looked up and ran over to the edge of the roof, crouching there and looking over the edge. She looked down into the tiled square. Everyone was looking up at the roof across from the cafe, where they were. On the other roof were two men. One was dressed in all black- he looked like an assassin. He even had a black mask that might have resembled Quartz's. The other man was wearing a business suit, and was being held over the edge of the building with the black-dressed man's hand. Yes, only one hand. Cheshire felt her stomach twist. She took off, jumping right over the edge of the building. A fall to the ground would have killed anybody- or at least broke Cheshire's ankles- but she teleported in two puffs of purple smoke onto the other side of the square. She was too late. Right while she was in midair, the man in black released his victim. As she appeared on the other roof, the man in black was gone and the man on the ground of the square was already dead. More screams from the square shot another ache of their fear into her brain, and she flinched.

She was too late.

A very violent turn of events.

@JexMix wow very long post all about death :oops:
 
Quartz hears the gasps, the shrieks, and hears all the hair on Chesh stand up. She looks over to the other roof, where a man in black is holding another man. She immediately leaps from her chair and vaults over the roof, soaring across the street and onto the other roof. But it was too late. She flinched as she heard the sickening crack of skull against pavement, the screams. Oh god, the screams. Quartz took off her mask and immediately began to heave, everything she had just eaten coming back with a vengeance.
After she was done, she stood and wiped her mouth before going and standing next to Chesh. "Oh my god..."

@Lish
 
Cheshire Cat did not get squeamish. The worst part was the fear- the terror in all the people down in the square below. Her head ached so much it was hard to think, to move, to speak. Her head throbbed with pain, and she forced herself to stand up from where she had been crouching, and then peered over the edge, looking at the body down below. She saw the silvery mist of his soul rising up away from the flesh it had driven before. She wasn't sure what happened to souls when they parted with their bodies, but she always, whenever she saw somebody die, saw their soul drain out of their body, like a small fog that disappeared just as fast as it came. She had to stop the fear. She had to get the fear away from her. Deciding not to teleport in front of all these people, she swung her legs over the side and climbed down a pole that ran down the side of the building, sliding most of the way down. She landed on her feet, and then started to shoo everyone away, saying, "Nothing to see here," she said over and over. Slowly, the fearful people backed away, going back to their own business. She let out a sigh of relief. One person stepped forward to check the pulse of the dead man, but Chesh muttered darkly, "Don't bother. He's dead."

@JexMix
 
Quartz scrambled down beside her friend and reached to comfort a crying child. "Shh, it's alright, sweetheart." She rocked the child and told her everything was okay, even though it really wasn't. Nothing was okay now. A man was murdered, the killer disappeared. Once the child had calmed she turned to the crowd of people and started shooing everyone away. "Go on, back to your business. We'll deal with this." She felt the dead man's life essence leave him. She catches it in midair and eats it, much to the horror of Chesh.

@Lish
 
Chesh squinted at Quartz for just a split second, curiosity bubbling up inside of her- why did Quartz just eat the departing soul of the man who had just died in front of their eyes? That was simply disrespectful. But she would ask her friend about it later- there were more important matters to deal with now. Chesh looked down at the man. It was a little to herself, but she was also asking Q a little bit. "Who? How?" She knew the when, the where, and the what of what happened, but she didn't know all the other questions. Most importantly, though- "Why?" she asked. That's when the police caught wind. Five french police people marched into the square, and their eyes darted to Chesh and Quartz, who were right next to the body. Chesh exhaled in relief- the police might be able to help. Clear this all up. Right?

"Put your hands up! Step away from the body!" the main police man ordered loudly, but in French. Cheshire obeyed, raising her hands and taking several paces away from the dead man. Dang it- they were two very strange people standing right next to a dead body. Eh, they would be fine. If she had to run from the French police for something she didn't do, that might even be fun. But it would be an inconvenience to all her connections and friends in France.

The policeman who had just shouted at them approached them, crouching down next to the man. Chesh squinted at his name tag. "Mister... uhhh... Zachary- it wasn't us," Chesh cut in, even though she wasn't asked. "He was thrown off the side of this building. You can look at any security cameras or ask anybody here."

The policeman straightened up again, looking from Chesh to Quartz. "What did he look like?"
 
Quartz immediately obeyed the policeman, backing up next to Chesh with her hands in the air. Quartz tried to recall what the man looked like. "He was dressed in all black, with a black mask that resembled mine," She explains, holding up her mask. "We just saw it happen from the other rooftop-" She pointed with a slender, metallic finger towards the roof of the cafe for where they had come, "-over there. We tried to save him but it was too late."

She shivered as the sound his skull made when it came in contact with the pavement. "What else is needed? I can give you all the details of what happened, Mr..." She trails off as she reads his nametag. "Mr. Zachary." She spoke every word in fluent French, having studied (and maybe stolen the knowledge of a French guy) on her way here. "C'était horrible. L'homme a disparu avant que nous puissions le rattraper." (It was horrible. The man was gone before we could catch up with him.)

@Lish Felt like putting a little french in there :p
 
The policeman nodded at Quartz's words. "D'accord. Dans quelle direction l'homme est-il allé? Etes-vous sûr que c'était un homme?" (Okay. Which way did the man go? Are you sure it was a man?)

Cheshire shrugged. "Je ne sais pas où il est allé. Je supposerais la direction opposée du carré. Mais je sais qu'il avait la structure corporelle d'un homme. Ils auraient pu être une femme, mais j'en doute." (I don't know which way he went. I would assume the opposite direction of the square. But I do know he had the body structure of a man. They could have been female, but I doubt it.)

The policeman asked them if there was anything else they knew about him. Chesh told him about him being strong enough to lift the man up into the air with one hand, and then let Quartz say something if she had something to add. The policeman let them go, telling them to leave the square, and Chesh thanked him and then walked away, skirting around the building. "I have an idea," she murmured to Quartz, walking around to the front of the building, where the police couldn't see her. She reached over to touch Quartz's arm and then teleported the both of them back to the top of the building. She went over to where the man had suspended his victim. There. Yes. There was the sense of his soul. She could feel it, like it was a smell in the air. "He was here. He went..." she breathed in the air, and then turned the opposite way from where the square was, taking a couple paces that way. "He went this way. I can feel his soul trail."

@JexMix
 
Quartz follows Chesh to where the man was. "Yeah. And I know you're wondering why I ate the victims' soul. I have this weird thing where if I consume the soul of someone who just passed, it sorta fuses their consciousness with mine and I obtain their memories of the last week. Don't worry, he's passed on. I just borrowed his memories. Also, I was hungry." She shrugs, getting down on her hands and knees to look for clues.

When she finds nothing, she stands back up. "Nothing here. Wait, you found his soul trail?" She asked, turning to the cat. "Yes! That's great! Now we can try and track him!" She quietly cheered. "We're gonna solve this."

@Lish
 
Cheshire nodded. "Oh. That makes sense. So do you know, like, what happened to him? Why the guy wanted him dead?" Chesh put her hands on the roof, feeling which way he went. She stood up, walking the way that he went. It led to the other side of the building, and Chesh looked down. There was a ladder- a black metal ladder going down. Cheshire kept following his trail, sliding down the ladder. "Why did the guy want him dead?" she asked, turning to Quartz.

@JexMix
 
Quartz slid down with her. "Let me think for a sec." She sits down against the wall and closes her eyes, slowing her breathing and clearing her mind.

A few moments later she shoots up, grabbing Chesh by the arms and looking into her eyes. "Hitmen. They were hitmen. He had no knowledge of this until one of them said something along the lines of "sorry buddy, but it's gotta happen," She says, finally stepping back and letting go. "Unfortunately the name is too fuzzy to hear, but at least we have a motive." She follows Chesh after the soul trail.

@Lish
 
"Thank you. Hit men means that whoever wanted him dead wasn't willing to do it themselves and that they have enough resources to hire a hit man." The information could have made it easy for them, but apparently it just gave them a little clue instead of a big pointer in the right direction. Chesh's feet hit the floor silently, and she put her hand down on the ground of the alley again. Her head turned to her right, looking right at a door in the back of the alley. She stood up and walked toward it. A sign on the door told her it was "Butch's Bookstore." Chesh pulled open the door, it creaking ominously as she did. It was dusty and musky inside, the only light coming from scarcely placed candles. It was a bookstore, but it looked abandoned. Except for the candles- somebody must have lit them. The lack of light wasn't a problem for Cheshire, but she kept a close eye on Quartz in case it raised a problem for her. She kept following the soul trail, winding through the bookstore. And then it stopped. On one of the brick walls, it just disappeared. Cheshire paced back and forth, trying to sense the trail, but even now it was fading.

@JexMix so sorry for the delay, I was extremely busy and went up to the mountains where there was no service. :emoji_sob:
 
Quartz follows, the low light giving her no trouble. When they approach the brick wall she stops, confused. "Why are we standing at a brick wall?" She focuses again, closing her eyes.
When she opened them, she gently tapped Chesh on the shoulder. "The victim loved this place. He was a bookworm, like me. For the past week he felt like he was being watched. But what's with this brick wall?" She runs her hands over the bricks, looking for some sort of switch or secret lever, or something.

@Lish No worries! I was on spring break anyway haha
 
"The soul trail just ends here," Cheshire said, pacing. They hadn't tried this much to just come to a dead end, had they? When she was tapped on the shoulder, she nodded at Quartz, then placed her own hand on the brick wall. She looked up. A camera. A tiny camera, only maybe half an inch in diameter. Cheshire narrowed her eyes at it. "I think he was watched," she said to Quartz, her eyes trained on the camera. Quartz would want to look up, right where the camera was. Cheshire crouched down again, and pressed one hand to the floor of the bookstore. This wall right here was cleverly out of place of the entrance and the desk of the shopkeeper, which they had passed. There were only encyclopedias that looked half-dead back here. Nobody would come back here unless they wanted to leave sneezing from all the dust. And, if she closed her eyes- the soul trial. It continued through the wall. Of course, the guy could be able to phase through walls, but there were other, fainter trails that she could barely pick out. There weren't that many phasers, were there? "It's a secret door," Cheshire said with certainty, then stood up, looking toward the bookcases behind her. "The books. Which one..." she paced along the bookcase, scanning the book titles. One stood out to her. It was thin and black, and was in better shape than every book around it. It seemed much more recent, but much more dead. She could feel the faint feelings of people who had read the other books in the library. Who had been interested in them, or maybe even forced to read them. She could feel curiosity coming off of the other books. This one housed only fear. Cheshire reached her hand out and pulled the book out. It tilted instead of sliding right out, and she heard a mechanism activate quietly behind her, on the brick wall.

@JexMix
 
Quartz jumped back as the wall clicked and opened. "What the..." She mutters, confused. Quartz glanced at the camera and raised an eyebrow. "He was definitely watched. He didn't know about this secret door, but this corner was where he spent most of his time," She informs Chesh. She peers into the passage that had been revealed. It was dark, but that was no problem for her. It was dank, and kind of cold. Made of stone. It looked old.

@Lish
 
Cheshire Cat pushed her hair off of her shoulders, as if she was proud of herself. "Just something totally awesome I can do," she said lightheartedly. "I found a book and pulled it. Super cliche." Cheshire looked inside the door, and walked through it. Once Quartz followed behind Chesh, the door closed behind them. It was pitch black, and Chesh froze on instinct. They were trapped.

@JexMix
 
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