ᴛʜᴇ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴ's ᴄᴏᴜʀᴛ ♕ closed; started

[White Eagle]

🕊𝕄𝕚𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕝𝕠 ℙ𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕞𝕒🕊

𝕔𝕦𝕡 𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕣 ~ 𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕖 ~ 𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕝 ~ 𝕝𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟:𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕝𝕖 ~ 𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕤: 𝕆𝕡𝕖𝕟

Michelangelo was tired but he had to complete his task before he could rest. While he was connecting the dots on his board to who would be dead next he felt a bit perched. Circling the king and Darcy he then decided to walk down the steps to get something to drink. Upon reaching the bottom of the steps he grabbed the wine bottle that was left on the table and a glass. He of course blessed the wine before pouring himself a glass. Upon doing so, a scream/shriek was heard which caused him to look into the garden through the back door.

Seeing people gathering around he soon saw the dead body of none other than his friend, his mission and....his brother. He could see the faces of sadness yet all he could do was do a cross motion and gulp down his glass of wine. "Long live the king..." Michelangelo couldn't shed a tear nor get angry he didn't know what to do so he just drank..and drank....and drank. He wouldn't get drunk he but would feel the dizzy-wobbly feeling all over. Walking up stairs he just knocked down books as he made his way to his chambers. "I've failed...Yet again." Within seconds his wings appeared along with his halo as he dragged himself across the floor and swinging the bottle of wine. The holy halo caused light to be cast upon the walls and through the windows. Grabbing the door he slammed it shut and locking it quickly. Like a dead body with no soul he slid down the door and continue to drink the red alcohol.

If he can't feel the emotion he could at least feel shame and depression. That's something he learned quickly.

[feather_light_flight]

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L I L I T H
12/ 123- female
D A R L I N G
garden
V A M P I R E
THIS WORLD
WILL BURRRNNN

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Lilith's stuttering wails had died into hiccuping coughs as she huddled over her dead king, clutching at him, stroking his hair, whispering laments of a broken heart. Her hands were shaking, heck, her entire delicate form quivered with all the pain of loss and the physical toll of crying too much.

She stayed like that for what felt like centuries, until, still quivering like an injured animal, she slowly sat up, back straightening to ram rod stiff. Empty, glass eyes stared out at the castle wall. Her head, framed by limp, silken hair, swiveled. Empty gaze seemed to glide over the people that were around her, barely registering anything. Finally. She spoke.

"Who did this..." The delicate girls voice crinkled out of her throat, like dry ice scraping on sand paper. The words were barely more than a dehydrated and broken whisper. "I'll kill them. I'll rip them apart I swear..." The cracked voice echoed blood lust. "Whoever took him from me...."

[Panna Cotta]

ᴅᴀʀᴄʏ ᴠᴏɴ ᴇᴄᴋʜᴀʀᴅᴛ
〖Mad Scientist〗〖Human〗〖25〗〖Form〗〖Location: The Garden〗〖Tags: Cordelia, Avis, Lilith, Vixen, Yeong-Suk but don't give a frown 'cause it's really okay〗

"𝓼𝓸 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓼𝓴 𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓰𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓽 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴. 𝓲 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝓽 𝓭𝓸𝓮𝓼𝓷'𝓽 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓶𝓾𝓬𝓱 𝓽𝓸 𝓶𝓮."

"What?" asked Darcy into the middle space, blinking at the bookkeeper's sudden appearance. Out of the blue, the scientist was being hoisted to his feet, and he tried to dust himself off, but before he was able, he was being dragged off down the hallway by the wrist, much in the same manner that he had dragged Avis the other night. "Wait," he said sharply, reaching out with his free hand. "I left my notes... the evidence... the implications of the preliminary results are groundbreaking in narrowing down our list of suspects! I need my notes. damnit, Avis Savant, let me go—" He hardly noticed as he spoke that his boots were already over the threshold and rooted in the grass of the gardens, but when he did his mouth sealed itself shut. Here was the scene of the crime.

And in spite of his (mostly) unfeeling heart, his blood turned to ice when he saw it.

For the first time, Avis's words really started to sink in.

"There’s been another murder..."

His eyes roved over the scarlet-stained leaves.

"b-but this time, it's- it's-"

A woman, shaken, sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest, a glassy look in her eyes that suggested she had receded into herself.

"It's the King!"

And beside him, a girl, curled up at his head, caressing him softly... dressed in black finery, as if somehow she had known the funeral was coming all along.

Actually, now that Darcy thought about it...

The scientist searched her expression, the tear-stained misery, a face contorted into pure agony. For once, he was seeing her as more than a child, but not in the way one would've hoped.

It was a general rule, at least in Darcy's mind, that the ones who were first to arrive at the scene of the crime were the most suspicious, no matter how distraught they may have seemed. And in both instances of murder, Lilith had been one of the first to arrive.

But then, by that logic, was Darcy himself not a prime suspect?

And what motivation could the—

He frowned when he felt a pair of eyes on him, and thoroughly perturbed, turned his head until he found the culprit. It was that bird of Avis's.

Now, Darcy knew full well that birds did not glare, but that bird was glaring at him. He tilted his chin up with near imperceptible indignation. Well. I don't think I like you too much, either, you stuck up little harpy.

He shook his head. Lack of sleep was getting to him. That bird wasn't glaring. At worst it was just eying him curiously, and at any rate it had long-since looked away. That's all that was. What was important was to get back to the matter at hand.

Speaking of hands... he hadn't even noticed Avis was holding his until the other man pulled away, and, shifting on his feet, Darcy clasped his fingers behind his back as if suddenly ashamed of them. In a way, he was. He was ashamed that they weren't holding his notes and his pouch. He hoped Cordelia had enough sense to bring them with her when she inevitably followed them into the gardens.

He turned back to the others, the distraught mourners. Avis looked like he was trying to offer some meager form of comfort to Lilith, though he said no words, and neither did Darcy. At this point, there was nothing he could say that wouldn't betray his cold detachment. No inflection of his could in this moment convey anything but apathy, or insincere sympathy. This was the only lens through which he could view the situation. He was numb to death.

He had not allowed himself to feel the pain of loss for... well, for a very long time.

To be fair, he had never been that close with the King. To Darcy, Yeong-Suk had been no more than his employer. Someone who offered a job and shelter and a fresh start, and his own lab, and access to all the resources he could have asked for, and refuge from a world that otherwise would have seen to it he was put in a straightjacket...

Damnit. Maybe he did care, a little. He shut his eyes, as if in deep concentration.

No, he didn't care. He only felt like he ought to. He regretted that he could not ignite even a single spark of compassion in the damp of his heart. And maybe later he would feel angry, because whether the King had known it or not, Darcy was forever indebted to Yeong-Suk, and now there was no way the mad scientist would ever be able to pay His Majesty back.

But the one thing Darcy could not feel was grief. The murky depths of misery were the one place he could not sink.

And so he looked on in respectful silence, until he was certain that it was safe to speak.

He did his best to deflect Lilith's rage, her dry demands to know who had done this. Mostly because he did not have an answer for her, at least not a clear-cut one. He had evidence, but not enough to convict. Not enough to say he knew for sure. Not yet.

"We..." he began softly, "...should move the body to my lab. There's room for at least one more. But, if this keeps up, we may need to seriously take into consideration turning one of the storage rooms into an official morgue. My laboratory was not designed for this. After we move the body, I can tell you..." He cleared his throat. "...what I discovered during the first autopsy."

[meadow.]

C O R D E L I A

tagged: everyone ???

Avis' behavior was especially frantic, even for him. His urgency and the way he dragged Darcy off by the wrist frightened Cordelia. Maybe it took her too long, but she was certain now that something horrible had happened.

As soon as Darcy was out of sight, Cordelia snapped to attention and began gathering the papers that had gone flying in her collision with the scientist.

She took deep breaths, struggling to stay calm as she followed the way Darcy and Avis had gone. The earth was stained with spots of blood beneath her feet. She stepped carefully around them, softly saying Darcy's name. He was silent. Cordelia had never seen him so still before.

Her eyes strayed then to Lilith and Vixen, who had fallen to their knees beside the dead King...

Cordelia's eyes went wide. The King!

She was not a very smart girl, nor was she particularly observant, but she found it easy to deduce that whoever the murderer was was confident that they wouldn't be found. Regicide was punishable by death at the very least. The very least. Cordelia knew well that there were many punishments far worse than death. Whoever they were, they must have an exceptional hiding place, or else they wouldn't be so confident. And what better hiding place than in plain sight. With a startling jolt of adrenaline, Dee dee realized that the killer had to be one of their own. Everyone must have come to the same conclusion upon seeing the scene of the latest crime.

Cordelia was still so young. She'd never seen anything like this before. She had no idea how things like this were meant to be reacted to, so she looked largely to Darcy for cues on what was acceptable. She quietly passed him his notes, copying his solemn stance exactly and adopting his solemn attitude, though she too was hardly distraught. She didn't know she was supposed to be. She was scared, sure, but more than that she was curious. She wanted to know what had happened here, and what would happen next. Of course she could see that now wasn't the time for questions. Dee stayed very quiet as her eyes took in the whole scene.

She felt very sad all of a sudden as her eyes fell on Lilith. Yeong-Suk was to Lilith what Darcy is to Cordelia. Cordelia couldn't imagine losing her Darcy. She couldn't even imagine it.

"Maybe we shouldn't discuss moving the body just yet," the corpse tried, eyes on Lilith. "Until everyone has... properly said goodbye." Yes, that seemed right. She looked at Darcy to see if she'd done a good job and said the right thing, but she quickly recalled that now would not be the time or place for praise.

"But I'm sure we'd all very much like to know what you've found... right?"

[feather_light_flight]

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L I L I T H
12/ 123- female
D A R L I N G
garden
V A M P I R E
this is ACT2
Hamilton

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It took some time, but eventually, Lilith uncurled herself from her King's body, her form still quivering with emotion and loss. "Take care of him Darcy...we'll...we'll all meet in an hour to hear your results...I....I need some time." Everything about this delicate girl was soft, broken. She was trying to hold together, to make order out of the chaos like the King had taught her and yet....all she could see was his corpse and it hurt her....it wrecked her insides.

Stumbling on weak knees, Lilith managed to rip her eyes from the corpse and haltingly make her way to a garden bench, where she collapsed in a slump, still quivering like a wounded animal. And maybe she was wounded. No physical harm had come to her- yet.
But still the small vampiress felt injured, like her entire world had been displaced.

[Ghostarriver]

Poor Alexander Hamilton he is missing in action so now- no precious birb oops.
Avis Savant
Presidential candidateBook Keeper♢Male♢Age: 27♢Wereraven♢Location: The Garden♢Tags: Lilith The world will never be the saaaame, And when, our children tell our story King, They’ll tell the story of... tonightVixen, Darcy They brought him in a half hour ago, he lost a lot of blood, Cordelia Hear ye, hear ye, Camille Thrown head first into a treacherous abyss!


This was the end of everything as they knew it. That’s all Avis could tell himself, despite it being so obvious. Then again, that was all Avis was good at. Sometimes.
He returned to his self-criticism, knowing his defaults well enough he could have rapped about them. But now was hardly the appropriate time and he’d never do so with anyone around. Maybe the odd occasion with Lilith, but he preferred to when he was on his own.

Shaking his head, blinking a couple of times, Avis tried to sort out what he knew. A guard had been stabbed to death and the King had likely been stabbed as well, but to kill a Vampire you needed a wooden stake and there were no signs of that there. Just a row of piercings. Which meant that the next best thing was pure silver, but that was better for werewolves. For Vampires it simply paralysed them. Unless you had enough of it in your possession to be used as a weapon. So... either the murderer had a large array of weapons at their disposal or there was something else going on.
But one thing was for sure, they knew the weaknesses of the various people there inside out, they had to, to be able to kill so fearlessly. Whoever it was had to be hiding in plain sight as well, as what better hiding spot was there? It had to be one of them. But, Avis could not see why any of them would commit such a heinous crime. It was unbelievable.
Then again, they could be deceiving everyone, no one was unable to act. And yet, how could he blame anyone? What if they blamed him? What would he say? What if there was an outside party sowing seeds of discord among them, tricking them into being distrustful of each other. A house divided cannot stand. Once they destroyed each other, the killer would have won.

As Lilith stood up, trembling, Avis wondered whether her frail frame would stay together, it seemed ready to snap at any second, with another violent sob. When she vowed to destroy the murderer, Avis knew, full well, she meant business. He was sorry for the poor soul that had decided to come to this castle, looking for trouble. They would find it, in the most painful way possible.
Watching Lilith take a seat at a bench, he decided to leave her alone, give her some breathing space. He wouldn’t be able to cheer her up, or comfort her in any way. It was best to let her recover alone, in her own time, but he would be there if she needed him.

Instead he got to his feet and stood a few steps away from Darcy.
“I-uh, I-I’m s-sorry for grabbing you like that... um, I- the situation was urgent so...” He trailed off, unsure what else to say.
“J-just l-let me kn-know, i-if you require assistance...” He looked down at his shoes, finding another hair tie and finally reigning his mass of curls, pulling it back into a ponytail, to make himself look a bit more formal.

[Panna Cotta]

ᴅᴀʀᴄʏ ᴠᴏɴ ᴇᴄᴋʜᴀʀᴅᴛ
〖Mad Scientist〗〖Human〗〖25〗〖Form〗〖Location: The Garden〗〖Tags: Cordelia not really feeling the aster, Avis, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed Lilith, Yeong-Suk, Vixen well get traught or get dead〗

"𝓲'𝓶 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓲𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓷𝓸 𝓷𝓸, 𝓲𝓽'𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮..."

"Maybe we shouldn't discuss moving the body just yet. Until everyone has... properly said goodbye."

Darcy received his notes with an ever-level countenance, riffling through them to make sure they were in order before glancing up at Cordelia with what, even to the untrained eye, would appear to be a look of surprise. Maybe she wasn't entirely socially inept after all. Although how she had managed to pick up any measure of sensitivity at all under his care was beyond him. Then Cordelia tacked on rather hastily that the group would also like to hear what Darcy had found, and Lilith announced that she needed time to recover.

"...Of course," he said with a delicateness to match the fragile state the young vampiress was in. "We'll hold council in an hour. It will give me more time to get everything in order." He glanced first at the body, then towards Vixen, indicating with his eyes that if she wished to say goodbye, now was the time. Soon enough, his gaze dropped to his notes again and remained glued there. "Cordelia," he intoned, "there was a drawstring bag as well." He left the implicit question of Did you bring it with you? unvoiced, as was increasingly his habit these days. Over the months he had grown to coddle her less and less, and this became evident in his choice of words.

As he sifted through the papers, he heard Avis's voice on the periphery of his mind. Something about apologizing... After finishing the sentence he was reading, he tuned in around the word "situation," but still did not glance up from the ink on the pages. "Hm? Yes, yes, I understand." His expression shifted a little when the bookkeeper offered up his services yet again. This time the scientist was not keen on accepting it. "Thank you for the most generous offer, but Cordelia and I have it under control."

Honestly, as long as they actually used the gurney this time, rather than lugging the corpse through the halls like some barbarian, Dr. Eckhardt would be content.

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C O R D E L I A

tagged: everyone ???

Cordelia's eyes went wide at the mention of the bad. She had seen him holding it, but she hadn't picked it up in her haste to follow after him. She shook her head, ashamed of her apparent inadequacy. "No," She admitted apologetically. "I must've left it behind. But I should go get a gurney anyways, I promise I'll find it and I'll bring it with me." She looked over at Lilith, Vixen, and Avis (with which she was now slightly annoyed because if he hadn't dragged Darcy off in such a hurry she might not've missed the bag). She excused herself meekly from the scene and hurried back inside the confines of the castle, which had never felt so small before. Cordelia was feeling about two inches tall herself. Darcy was only just beginning to warm up to her again, and she'd made such a silly mistake. Maybe this would be enough to remind him that she'd outlived her usefulness. Surely he wouldn't just... dispose of her, would he? The way he was sure to dispose of the guard's body, and even the King's? Why shouldn't she expect to meet the same fate as so many other corpses? Cordelia shivered and wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

She froze in her tracks when at last she spotted the bag Darcy had described, and she picked it up on her way to the lab. The hallways were eerily empty. Cordelia's heart began to race, but she tried to stay calm. She had to behave if she wanted to make up for her foolishness earlier, and panicking would put her at risk for more split seams. She couldn't really afford that right now, and she was certain that not one of the courtiers would be able to spare the time to tend to her wounds. She wasn't even truly one of them, was she? She served no political purpose. Would she even be allowed at their meeting? Who would decide that matter now that the King lie cold and dead... er... colder and deader in the garden outside?

Lilith?

Actually, now that Cordelia got to thinking about it, Queen Lilith sounded like a very good idea! Cordelia had always thought of Lilith as her closest friend, and it would be really exciting to see her in charge at last.

Deedee wheeled the gurney down from the lab and outside, as quickly as she could. By the time she arrived at her destination she was nearly breathless. Her eyes stayed fixed on Darcy as she handed him the drawstring bag. She could never be sure how he would react. She was never sure what to expect, but still she always hoped for the best from him... [/color]

[Panna Cotta]

ᴅᴀʀᴄʏ ᴠᴏɴ ᴇᴄᴋʜᴀʀᴅᴛ
〖Mad Scientist〗〖Human〗〖25〗〖Form〗〖Location: The Garden〗〖Tags: Cordelia not really feeling the aster, Avis, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed Lilith, Yeong-Suk, Vixen well get traught or get dead〗

"𝓸𝓸𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓵𝓵 𝔀𝓪𝓲𝓽 𝓪 𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝓮."

Contrary to Cordelia's fears, Darcy had not given a single thought to outright discarding her. True, she did annoy him at times, but then, so did everyone else; that was more Darcy's fault than anyone else's. He saw everyone but himself as incompetent, to varying degrees. But with Cordelia, he expected more, whether he realized it or not, because he had created her with his own hands, and for better or worse, he felt on a deep subconscious level that every flaw in her reflected some flaw in himself. Every mistake she made, every misstep, was a stain on his good name—good being a relative term, of course.

And it was for that same reason that he could never discard her, never bury her the way he'd buried dozens of others. He could no more destroy her than he could destroy himself. To take her was to take a part of him.

Still, he would never openly acknowledge anything of the sort. He did not hold these truths to be self-evident as they should have been. And presently, his mind was elsewhere; trained on the king's corpse and the imminent autopsy, to be specific. When he was in this mode his motor skills went to autopilot, and this was why he automatically reached out to receive the drawstring bag when it was handed to him. "Thank you," he said without really thinking about it, which might've been fine and dandy had he left it at that; unfortunately, over the span of a split-second, some inflamatory thought forked across his brain like lightning, and his temper flared without warning. Which wasn't really fair to Cordelia, but alas, it could not be helped.

"Just try to pay more attention to detail next time, will you?" he snapped, tucking his notes under his arm while he checked inside the bag to see if it had retained its contents. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he drew the bag shut again, stowing both it and the notes in the convenient tray underneath the gurney.

With that he turned back to the king's body. This was his least favorite part. He could appreciate the delicate procedures of surgery, the finnesse required to stitch together a wound, the steady hand it took to carry out an operation. But unrefined manual labor... Pass.

And yet it had to be done. Let's get this part over with. Shooting a glance that conveyed as much to Cordelia, the scientist strode across the grass to kneel beside the king amidst the shrubbery. Thankfully still wearing his gloves, Darcy slid his hands under the arms and started to lift his end, maintaining an air of solemnity in spite of his annoyance.

[feather_light_flight]

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L I L I T H
12/ 123- female
D A R L I N G
angel's bed room
V A M P I R E
found mikey

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Unable to watch her King being carted away as a corpse,
Lilith shifted into her bat form, a small figure of webbed wings and a delicate body, and took off, flying up to one of the upper castle floors. Finding an open window and slipping inside, Lilith went ahead and changed back. Her twelve year old form perched on the window sill, taking a deep, semi calming breath before looking around. Ah. So she had ended up in the angel's chambers. What irony.

Speaking of angels, where was the despicably pure man? Peering through the darkening room, Lilith found a figure slumped by the door. The scent of alcohol permeated the air and Lilith sneezed. Ugh. Alcohol was such a strong scent to Lilith, it always bothered her. Still. If the angel was deep enough in despair to drink.... Taking a few steps into the room, Lilith glided over, halting about a yard from the slumped over man. "You know drinking yourself dead is nearly impossible right...?" Her quiet voice was still husky from crying, but she tried to appear nonchalant. Leaning against one of the posts that held his bed frame, the delicate blonde looked down at the grieving angel. In such dark light, Lilith's eyes almost seemed to glow. "We're gathering in an hour to hear Darcy's results...we'll need you there..." A hollow statement. Lilith didn't really care about the castle business right now. But...she had her short period to mourn...it would have to do. With a killer on the loose, responsibility fell to Lilith to help organize the chaos. She resented it.