Adventures in Saint-Trotez - On Set (Episodes 3 - 6)

"As I said, somepony saw you guys walk into a restaurant, and come out with a bag of bits without seeing you buy anything." Snipe repeats, staring at the two of them.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:

Persuasion:

Perception:

The brown pony looks angrily. "Oi, we've told you what we know," he scolds you, "There's a bunch of criminals out there, including the pony who killed Turnabout, but you'd rather keep a pair of upstanding citizens stuck down here. That's bucked up." You can tell he's frustrated with still held here for what he thinks is no real reason and doesn't seem to be keeping anything from you...

The second avoids making eye contact, still hiding something he doesn't want to share. You get the feeling that whatever he is hiding, he is hiding it because he fears what would happen when the information comes out...

Snipe looks at the two of them, frowning. "Realize that if there was any sort of 'under the table' dealings, that might be motive enough for Turnabout to be killed. I'm sorry that we're taking so much time here, but honestly there's suspicion abound in this place. We just want to know everything..."

Spoiler:

Snipe glances at the pony, glancing away himself and sending him a telepathic message

Spoiler:

"Sir, I just want to know who killed your friend slash coworker Snipe glances at the second pony. "This is a private telepathic link. Only you and I will know if you tell me the full truth... Please? For the sake of Turnabout."

Spoiler:

"Uh, Storm? You're coming off as the bad cop you realize that?" Snipe flies over, wriggling his way between Storm and the earth pony as best as he can. Which isn't really too well.

Spoiler:

"We shouldn't try to force them, or, say something that can be taken as a threat. Unless they want to tell us, we can't force them to."

"Ok, you're not the bad cop." Snipe paused for a second, before smirking. "You're the sugar frosted neutral cop. You been sneaking donuts?" Snipe played up his coltness and poked Storm blade in the side, sending him a private telepathic message.

"Sorry, trying to get them to lower their guard a little. Not the glancing-away-er but the one who was angry."

Fury of the Tempest wrote:

Persuasion Check:

The pony remains silent...

LoganAura wrote:"Sir, I just want to know who killed your friend slash coworker Snipe glances at the second pony. "This is a private telepathic link. Only you and I will know if you tell me the full truth... Please? For the sake of Turnabout."

Spoiler:

There is no reply, at first, but then the pony messages back with a cautious "I would like to 'elp, I really would, but it's gonna cost me my job, if not more. I know it. Sorry kid, I got a family to feed. I jus' can't 'elp you."

You all hear somepony calling from up the stairs. "Snipe, are you down there?"

"Is the coast clear?"

---

Meanwhile, in the graveyard...

(Necrar, give me a perception check...)

---

Meanwhile (and by meanwhile I mean a couple of hours in the future), Sparks is currently riding back to Saint-Trotez. Varesh hasn't spoken since the incident at the train station, but now whispers to you in a weak voice. "I... don't understand... why?"

(I still want to wrap this up pronto, but I'm giving Necrar and Sparks something small to do in the meanwhile...)

"Been clear for a while." Snipe calls out.

Aces re-enters the room, but not before opening up one of the hatches in his metal arm, removing a flare and placing it in his saddlebag before replacing it with some rolled-up encoded messages. Best not to announce to the room he'd taken them, at least not with those two ponies nearby and some nearby guardsponies potentially filing in. See what was written on these things, then decide what to do next.

Spoiler:

Sparks leans back for a moment and lightly sighs in relief. I really needed to buy sometime its not like I would stab you in the back by doing stuff like that. Worst comes to worst and they actually follow up well we'll have to do something only real idea I've got would be to like give you your own body... And I got your question wrong entirely didn't I? Well if you're asking why that happened I'm guessing either they somehow detected you or they noticed you doing something and did something to interfere.

LoganAura wrote:"Been clear for a while." Snipe calls out.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:"In that its safe to come here? Yeah, currently questioning the two other ponies at the scene, the ones found knocked out." Storm Blade said back, hoping that Signal Lock would come down now, through also wondering if there was a way to convince the earth pony that wasn't saying anything.

The soaked earth pony heads down the stairs, giving a little shake to dry himself as he does. "Well, the chevaudarme are here now, so we can leave them to do their job here."

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:

Spoiler:

You do a good job of hiding the papers in your leg...

tygerburningbright wrote:Sparks leans back for a moment and lightly sighs in relief. I really needed to buy sometime its not like I would stab you in the back by doing stuff like that. Worst comes to worst and they actually follow up well we'll have to do something only real idea I've got would be to like give you your own body... And I got your question wrong entirely didn't I? Well if you're asking why that happened I'm guessing either they somehow detected you or they noticed you doing something and did something to interfere.

"No... you got the question right," is the reply. "You could have... gotten your body back... and been free of me..."

Snipe flies over to Signal, shaking himself off and shrugging. "Not really much need. We were first on the scene, looked around, and we interrogated those guys over there." Snipe gestures at the two ponies. "We've got as much as we could from the two ponies here, all the others need to do really is take the body for an autopsy I think to try and find the cause of death, and even then I sort of looked the body over myself. No visible causes of death. No signs of blunt or sharp force trauma, no electrical or fire burns. But unless I'm mistaken, before I looked the body over he was pupil-less. Might've been some magical cause of death, but I think he was also drained after he had died. Not sure if by the culprit, or by somepony taking the opportunity of 'unconscious ponies, no one around'."

Ok why do you sound disappointed or even sad that I didn't betray you? Sparks pauses for a moment before continuing. The thing is that I think that you think that you wouldn't have done the same thing if you were in my place but I know that you wouldn't have betrayed me. Am I making any sense at all or am I just spouting gibberish?

LoganAura wrote:Snipe flies over to Signal, shaking himself off and shrugging. "Not really much need. We were first on the scene, looked around, and we interrogated those guys over there." Snipe gestures at the two ponies. "We've got as much as we could from the two ponies here, all the others need to do really is take the body for an autopsy I think to try and find the cause of death, and even then I sort of looked the body over myself. No visible causes of death. No signs of blunt or sharp force trauma, no electrical or fire burns. But unless I'm mistaken, before I looked the body over he was pupil-less. Might've been some magical cause of death, but I think he was also drained after he had died. Not sure if by the culprit, or by somepony taking the opportunity of 'unconscious ponies, no one around'."

Fury of the Tempest wrote:Storm Blade came up as well, saying. "I suggest we leave them to secure the crime scene and hopefully get basic info on the two ponies here. There's something we need to look into ASAP."

"Well, you do that, I'll pass the info to the officers."

tygerburningbright wrote:Ok why do you sound disappointed or even sad that I didn't betray you? Sparks pauses for a moment before continuing. The thing is that I think that you think that you wouldn't have done the same thing if you were in my place but I know that you wouldn't have betrayed me. Am I making any sense at all or am I just spouting gibberish?

Varesh is initially silent, but then tells you "You know... if those monks find Necrar..."

"Actually, I need to get Struck, do some matinence, and do some practice in the rain for sniping. Interrogation's not really my job." Snipe shrugs, messaging the three other guards in the room, or rather two since Storm automatically declines his telepathy. "I found some info after checking the dead pony, so I want to look that stuff over as well.

Spoiler:

Before anypony can say anything, Snipe flaps his wings and goes out to fly off.

Spoiler:

Aces watched the two take off, knowing he would not be able to catch either of them. "Ah, well," he shrugged. "Sure a town guard can take care of himself..."

"Besides, I've go' something more importan' to do..." he thought, opening up his metallic arm. There was so much to do, after all - a murder had taken place. A murder. Somepony had to pay for it, and these papers might just be the start of something big. Maybe something leading to the top of these Feathers, or the conspiracy of strange things that seemed to have gripped the town. But the gambler would bet his last bit that somehow or other, he was onto something. And then, he could show exactly what happened to ponies who would dare to hurt other ponies while he was...

There was a few moment's pause.

The arm snapped shut once again, and Aces High began walking back the direction he'd come from. Enough steeping himself in secrecy and parnaoia. He had a hoofball game to watch, and a good friend to accompany him to it.

Life wasn't going to last forever, as he'd just been reminded. But there was a lot more to it than just making sure you didn't die.

Spoiler:

"Then bad things happen and I just more or less told them about him..."