[Kingnoname1]

The police officers gladly took everyone but Revya's hand. 'It might be best to discuss specifics with some degree of privacy. Even if these killings aren't... officially considered murders it is still bad form for the police to talk about ongoing investigations in public. You four are being given rooms in a local inn for the duration of your stay so we might as well kill two birds with one stone  and get you four set up there.' Lieutenant Daily responded the glances between her and her subordinates showed that the three weren't all in agreement if the killings should be considered murders or not. With that, the police officers quickly lead the four hunters-in-training away to the Bluebird Inn, a medium sized inn with it's name and namesake was carved over the door and was served by an array of colourful and not-so-colourful characters. As they came to the inn itself they saw an old man emptying a bag of rubbish into the larger bins to the side of the building. Three of his limbs had been replaced with mechanical implants, not the sleek atlas tech the students might be familiar with these arms looked more at home on an industrial lifter than a person. Regardless the old man seemed friendly enough waving his one human hand at the officers and they are responded in kind.

Inside the inn, there was a big man behind the counter, assumably the bartender, and four girls, assumably servers, were going around from table to table collecting or providing food as well as cleaning up vacant tables. Most of the girls were rather attractive young girls, probably teenagers earning a little extra money between school. The last was a little older and although she hid it rather well by positioning her face and taking the long way around the tables had some serious scars on her face. The scarred serving girl ducked out of the main room as the police and Hunters-in-training entered the room and another serving girl gestured for them to take up a large table in the corner of the room. It wasn't the most private setting in the world but as long as no one spoke too loudly and no one was listening too closely there shouldn't be any problems with being overheard.

'Well as I'm sure you all have gathered this is the Bluebird Inn and it's where you will be staying for the three days Cauze has given you the 'investigate' these killings.' Lieutenant Daily began, the verbal quotation marks made it clear that regardless of the parties intentions she did not trust that they would be able to carry out an acceptable investigation in the time frame given. 
'As for the specifics of the victims there names are Xanadu and Gamboge Symbol and Celestine Black. All three died in various mining facilities, the siblings died together in a processing plant on the other side of town and Black died in a storage facility. Times of death is hard to establish due to the state of the bodies and our enclosed environment but rough estimations but Black as three weeks ago and the siblings a week although it took a while to find them so as I said that might be inaccurate. As for my personal opinion... Lieutenant Daily explained looking at Toast before quickly flicking her eyes to Camelia and opened her mouth to respond only to be interrupted by Sargeant Mathews. ' There are too many suspicious factors to completely dismiss these deaths as accidents regardless of how helpful that would be for the higher-ups.' Sargeant Mathews interrupts, Lieutenant Daily glares and her subordinate and he holds her gaze but she says nothing to contradict his statements.

[ReaperJoe]

"Oh, good, I don't have to pay for a room!  You think we'll get free food, too, while we're at it?" Toast jokes at the mention of the inn before putting his hands on his head and casually following behind the officers.  For someone who's been brought on to investigate potential murders, the cat faunus seems largely unperturbed about the whole situation.  Even as the group is brought into the Bluebird Inn, Toast seems more interested in the girls working there than the situation at hand, as he tosses flirtatious winks their way.

As the group sits down, the first thing Toast does is plop his feet on the table and stretch out, apparently having no issue making himself at home in the establishment.  It's only when Daily mentions a time limit that he pipes up.  "Hold up, 'three days'?  This is the first I've heard anything about that!  That's barely enough time for a guided tour!" he says, looking to the officers for an explanation.  As Daily goes on, Toast's face grows more and more annoyed, until he finally puts his feet down when she gives her estimate of the time of death.

"THREE WEEKS?!" he shouts at the lieutenant incredulously, slamming his hands on the table, almost certainly disturbing the rest of the inn.  He then quickly recovers, dragging his hand slowly over his face as he takes a deep breath.  "Okay, remind me again of when you found the bodies?  Also, any chance anyone filed a 'missing persons' report before they were found?  Might help to know where they were last seen," he asks in a much calmer tone, though there's a hint of dejection in there.  Under his breath, he mutters to himself inaudibly.  When Daily's subordinate speaks up, Toast looks at him expectantly.  "Well?  Don't let us stop you," he says, urging the sergeant to continue.

[arcus_gray]

As with most things thus far Revya followed along quietly, listening intently but saying almost nothing, instead letting his teammates do the talking.

[DEXES]

Dawn had her hands folded in front of her and let her head rest on them as she listened to the lieutenant's words and repeated the information for herself in her head. So they had three days to figure out the meaning behind the murders and try to stop them. No time to mess around then, not that she had planned it.
"Can you give us a bit more information about how the victims were killed? Is there may be a pattern?" She asked after Mathew ended. There were many ways to kill another person, and every piece of information was crucial, "And you mentioned the state of the bodies. How bad is it exactly?"

[nathan67003]

Camelia quickly agreed and followed suit the police officers. Saying that the street was an inappropriate place for discussing matters of life and death, be they past or future, was an understatement. As they crossed the town, though, she deemed it better to keep herself reserved; it would probably lessen the negative impact she'd have on the citizens (seeing heir anguished faces) if she demonstrated that she was with the police and under them, even if it may not be true. As such, she merely looked and smiled at the old, mechanically-augmented man who joyfully waved at the trio instead of waving back.

Upon arriving at the inn, she quickly took in the interior environment. The attractive servers caught her eye, like they apparently did to Toast too, but it seemed pretty normal to her for an inn. Apart from the eldest one dodging out of the reception as the students arrived. Why did she do that?

Regardless, she followed her now-mentors and sat down at the table assigned to them by one of the servers, mouthing a smiling 'thank you' at the young lady - who, come to think of it, was probably around her age. She then proceeded to keenly listen to her seniors as they exposed the current situation, frowning at the news regarding the time limit. She never had the time to comment on it, though, as Toast yelled loud enough for the whole street to know the what's what of everything, prompting Camelia to lean her elbows on the table and rub her eyes with her hands. Good. So, so good.

Letting her teammates ask more questions while she recuperated, she appended "Would you perhaps also have documents regarding the crime scenes? Pictures, reports, things like that?"

[Kingnoname1]

The lieutenant glared daggers at Toast after the latter's outburst, luckily most of the people inside the inn had either left or were too busy with their work to notice. Although those with a refined aural sense might be able to detect a distinct shift as if something that they had gotten used to was missing. 'Meals are provided by the inn yes.' Lieutenant Daily began, starting with the easiest question first and speaking slowly in an effort to minimise the chance of Toast having another outburst. Shuffling through his pack Corporal Davidson drew out a folder full of pages which he handed to his lieutenant. Daily gave a quick look through the documents before passing the folder over. 'I would warn you the pictures are rather graphic. All three weren't exactly the type to hold down long term employment, they would take off jobs here and there and often leave Falconhaven for months at a time so no there was no missing person report for any of the cases. The official story is that all three have had unrelated accidents with heavy machinery, it's the only reasonable explanation for the damage to the bodies outside of a large Grimm and if there was a large Grimm around we would know about it.' Lieutenant Daily continued.

She wasn't kidding when she said that the folder contained graphic images. The victim's bodies looked like they had gone through a wood chipper, with barely a bone unbroken or an organ unruptured. Along with the pictures, there was an autopsy report which consisted mostly of excuses of why the time of death couldn't be accurate: The cave systems don't have the same amount of insects as wider Remnant hadn't found the bodies yet, with no remaining core of the body it was impossible to get an accurate temperature to measure cooling, and because most of the blood was outside the body than inside measuring blood pooling was also meaningless. The only thing they really had was how dried the blood was around the body and particular stress was put on how inaccurate a system that was. There was also pictures of blood splattered heavy machinery equipment, devices designed to hold, heat and twist metal into a more useable shape. Officially they had been classed as the cause of death. There was a small mention of a white power found in all three scenes which were later determined to be flour. On top of that, there was a short summary of the victim's lives, all three had been part of The Prestigious Hippodrome at one point but after the circus fell apart so did their lives, unable to hold down stable work they survived mostly on their strong backs which were failing by now and the charity and goodwill of their fellow ex-carnies. There were also a few short statements made by those around 'accidents' but most where something similar to: 'lots of people come through here,' 'they don't teach them like they used to,' 'I mean sure its sad and all but when can I get my equipment back?' and so on.

Noticing that Lieutenant Daily wasn't going to continue and answer the rest of Toast's questions Sargeant Mathews again spoke up. 'I'm sure you have noticed by now that there isn't any real interest in solving these crimes, it is making a big mess just before an electoral cycle so Curze is doing everything he can to sweep this whole thing under the rug. He wants you to rubber stamp his statements so his campaign isn't so distracted by the unfortunate inconvenience of a series of murders being committed within their mitts. While it's very true that the victims often took odd jobs and the like but working with heavy machinery isn't an 'odd job' and even if it was ... I mean you've seen the photos there is no way a person could do that to themselves.' The Sargeant continued regardless of the increasingly infuriated expressing his fellow police officers were wearing. 'Now he hasn't been stopped I'm sure you have been given a fair deal to chew on and we have our own duties to attend to, so unless you have any more questions we really must be getting off. Night patrols are our busiest times of the day.' Lieutenant Daily finished with an exaggerated sign. She wasn't lying but she clearly wanted the whole situation just to blow over or at least it to stop until their local elections finished.

[ReaperJoe]

Toast held the lieutenant's gaze with a miffed expression.  She could glare at him all she wants, he's not the one who let people go missing for weeks at a time only for them to wind up dead.  The lack of any missing persons reports further exasperated him, and the (in his opinion) shoddy excuse does little to alleviate his concerns.  His mood only continues to sour as more and more information is revealed.

The pictures themselves, gruesome as they are, don't really bother him too much.  Growing up wondering the desert, he's seen some shit, up to and including stumbling upon the aftermath of a poor soul falling into a baby Deathstalker nest.  He's become somewhat desensitized to death, and has even made light of others' misfortune in the past ("Looks like he had a good...'trip'.").  This time, though, it's different.  Not only Celestine, but all three victims were former circus performers like him.  Not only that, but Toast has the distinct impression that they were targeted because they were circus performers.  And that made this personal.

Unfortunately, despite Toast's newfound motivation, it seems literally everything was working against the group in this case: any leads the current investigation had are currently dead due to the time since the deaths took place, the political system has ulterior motives to hamper the investigation, and they only have a limited amount of time to turn up any meaningful evidence.  On top of that, Toast has no experience in investigating murders--or investigating period, for that matter.  But there is one thing he can do in this situation, and that's act.

"'Official story', huh?" he begins, a small smile wiping his previous expression away and replacing it with the mask of a seasoned performer.  Looking about the rest of the table, he continues, "I think everyone here knows what's really going on in these photos, otherwise you wouldn't be choosing your words so carefully.  Problem is, you don't have the proof, right?  What if I told you we can prove these aren't accidents just with the evidence here on the table?  Even better, it can be done in less than 5 minutes."

Toast pauses here to let his challenge sink in.  In all actuality, he's bluffing.  He doesn't have any new proof to offer.  But, well, that's not actually what he's trying to do.  "First, let's put aside the overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence here.  We can discuss their faunus heritage, connection to the Hippodrome, the similar manner of death, and their extended absences from the city in a bit; for right now, let's just look at the hard evidence."  Toast chose his words carefully here, utilizing the age-old tactic of misdirection.  By highlighting the connections of the victims, he's hoping to draw the officers into a particular mindset.  Back when his mother was teaching him magic tricks, she told him that people will always look for a patterns and connections, even in things that are completely unrelated.  It's why people have "lucky shirts" and develop superstitions.  People see something and assume it just can't be a coincidence.  And there's no way these officers can possibly think these deaths are a coincidence.  All Toast has to do is make one more association, and they'll start drawing conclusions of their own. 

"Now, before we begin, can anyone tell me the properties of flour?"

[DEXES]

Dawn waited until everyone had a good look at the folder and its content and then took the entire folder for herself and leaned back with it in her chair. Slowly she leafed through the pictures, glanced briefly at the mutilated body of the victim, then studied the background and the smaller details. Blood or disturbing images didn't really bother her much. Though not necessarily to that extent, it wasn't the first time she saw a dead body in a rather distorted form. Nevertheless, they left an impression. Either someone had really hated those people, or the culprit had a lot of fun leaving a mess. When she arrived at the end of the folder, she flipped through it again, this time quicker, and put the order back on the table in case anyone else wanted to take another look in it or to return it to the Lieutenant.

At some point between when she took the folder and put it away again, Dawn had taken out a small notepad, including pen, from her bag and began to write or draw something on it. Judging by the movement it could be both, and that's exactly what it was when she copied parts of the afterimage from her memory onto the paper and wrote her throughs as small notes beside it. Maybe it proves to be helpful later. Especially the flour hat a lot of notes next to it. It had been a while, but she'd heard something about flour and yeast sharing certain enzymes with saliva. Amylase. They could be used to cover the tracks at a crime scene. That would explain at least the presence of the white powder. However, she decided to keep her questions about the flour for the time being.

[nathan67003]

Camelia slowly and carefully looked over the photos as they were flipped through. Grisly was an understatement. Whatever had killed them or shredded the bodies afterwards, had done so violently enough to reduce all three victims to piles of messy, broken bones and shredded soft tissues. A bit more and all that'd be on the pictures was snarge.

The blood on the machinery seemed at odds with the cause - it didn't seem to come from within the machinery, or from a point where moving parts could crush things, but rather from the outside. She wasn't buying the explanation mentioned beforehand - somebody could've done something like this, too. Besides, considering the machines involved, the fact that there were no signs or reports of cremated or burnt tissues, along with how minutely the bodies had been torn apart, pointed to another, unknown cause.

Camelia came back to the discussion when Toast started speaking. His expression seemed to have just changed when she looked at him, but from what, she couldn't tell. Regardless, she listened to him as he pointed out what all three victims had in common. She was, however, utterly dumbfounded when he posed a single question which seemingly defied all common sense.

After a short silence, Camelia tentatively answered with "Uuuh, apart from getting sticky when water's involved, it's extremely flammable when suspended in mid-air?" Truth be told, she was having an extraordinarily hard time keeping up with Toast at the moment.

[arcus_gray]

Revya snapped to reality, realising he had been spaced out for an extended period of time, likely thinking about something with gears in it. He opted to remain silent and try to absorb information through context. whoops.