Open Roleplay: [Red Vine Village] Zach the Ripper

[Zachariah]

Zachariah awoke on the floor of a dark room. Or he thought it was a room, anyway, it was difficult to tell. He couldn't discern any shapes or differences in the dark, so he may have just been in some void for all he knew. He was sitting the only light he could see, a field of light that was almost like a large spotlight. Though the area around him was lit, he couldn't see what it was lit by or any details of the floor as looked solid black as well. He stood up and began to look around, waiting for something, anything to happen.

Suddenly, he heard a strange hissing noise from behind him. It wasn't anything like that of a snake, it sounded different. Almost evil. A long, thin, spindly leg stepped into the light, a small two-toed foot at the end of it. Then another stepped in, and another, and another. Then the entire creature stepped out, Zachariah backing up towards the edge of the light at the sight of it. It had the body of a scorpion, though the legs were thinner and longer than that of any scorpion, and the claws were larger than they should be on a scorpion, were one ever that size.

The torso was a twisted mockery of the human form, solid white as was the scorpion half. It had large, bony spikes jutting out of its back, a thick carapace covering both shoulders and part of the chest. The face, to Zachariah's horror, was just like his own, tattoos and all, though they went no further than his chin.

"What's wrong, boy?" The creature asked, the voice also just like Zachariah's. "Frightened?" It let out a throaty chuckle, ambling towards Zachariah and snapping its claws threateningly. Zachariah backed up, but found the darkness to be a solid wall behind him. "I thought you might be. You're a volatile little man, and I hear you've been quite busy..." It smirked, lowering its torso so it was at eye level. "I don't know what you're talking about..." Zachariah replied, trying (and failing) to sound brave.

"You'll find out soon enough." The creature said. "And it will be most delightful. Yessssss, most delightful..." Zachariah reached for his sword, and found it gone. "Looking for this?" The creature lowered its tail, the scabbard and the blade hanging from the dangerous-looking barb by the scabbard's leather strap. "I'm afraid I can't return it to you after all the evil you've committed with it."

Its pale arm reached out and drew the sword, which was covered in fresh blood that dripped on the floor. Zachariah gasped. "I did nothing of the sort. I haven't killed anyone!" He said, fiercely denying what he knew was true. "You can't lie to me, boy." The creature whispered, its voice getting fainter as Zachariah's vision blurred. "I know everything..." Soon he could see nothing, and everything faded into blackness.

Shouts echoing through the village roused him from his sleep, and Zachariah sat up to find himself absolutely drenched in sweat. He got out of bed, unsure where he even was, but strangely uncaring. He was still in his robe, which was damp and rather unpleasant to wear due to all the sweat, and fortunately he still had both his sword and his satchel. Before stepping out of the simple one-story home he checked it, and there didn't appear to be anything remarkable in the home, let alone anything at all, and on an investigation of his satchel he found that nothing had been stolen.

He walked blearily outside to see what the commotion was about, and found an incredibly grisly sight right near his door. In the road in front of the house next to him was the mangled body of a villager, presumably the one that lived in that house, especially since the door was barely able to stay in the frame. The man had been sliced open, his eyes gouged out, his fingers and toes sliced off, and various other horrible things. The trail of blood nearby showed he had been dragged around, probably while still alive, before being left there to die.

A shaken-looking woman approached him, pointing at the body. "D-did you see who did that?" She asked. "D-did you h-hear any screams? Anything?" Zachariah shook his head. "No, nothing." He said. The woman gave a shuddering sob and walked off. Was this what the scorpion-man meant? He didn't kill this man, he was sure of that, but who did? He was asleep the whole night, it couldn't have been him. Could it? He approached the corpse to look at it, as clearly nobody else had, and found something written in dried blood on his tunic, 'YOU WILL BE NEXT'.

Disturbing indeed.

[Valalerin]

It was a rather fair day in Red Vine Village, the sky was cloudy but clear, the sun unblocked and shining merrily down upon the town. Such an odd day for a murder… Or at least, an odd day to find a murder. Walking through the vibrant streets was a pair of Anja, one male and one female, both of Smoulderfist. They walked side by side, though the male walked slightly ahead (as is only natural) and was eying everything surrounding them.

Protective indeed, it would seem.

The woman was dressed very well, a small silver necklace around her neck, though it was somewhat difficult to see as it was covered by her blue dress. The dress’ colour was heavily faded, looking more like a bright sky than a deep ocean. There were a few decorative embroidery works on it, nothing eye-catching though… Merely a slight amount of fanciful red stitching down the sides.
By her side was the most noticeable part of her, a vibrant red leather scabbard with a decorative hilt poking out. It was clearly some kind of scimitar, though the exact style of the sword was difficult to discern. The male was dressed far less vibrantly, brown tunic with a brown leather belt and green leggings, topped off with brown shoes. He looked almost out of place in this otherwise rich village, he looked equally out of place compared with the woman he was walking with. Across his back was a complicated weapon, a Monk’s Spade, made of scorched black wood, a faint pattern had been made by the flames that scorched it; however shapeless it may be.

They were walking along the trail of blood, following it until they reached the mutilated corpse, a poorly dressed man stood over it. The male stopped in his tracks, the woman only stopping after walking into him, far too distracted by the sight of the body to notice him.
“Miageta jo hataro ikzaro” he snapped, swiftly turning to face her with an outstretched hand,
“Doo?” the woman asked him, clearly somewhat against the idea, though she still drew the weapon and handed it to him. The sword looked exceedingly expensive… A steel blade with a butterfly engraved a third of the way down the blade, it was a Talwar, a fine sword indeed.
The male turned to face the man stood over the corpse; he was obviously the first person to suspect as a killer… Being stood so close to what appeared to be a fresh kill.
“Yozora kay no kay kureday sai iri” he said calmly, not moving his gaze from what could be a murderer. He held the sword with both hands, it was fairly large compared to the size a Talwar should be, at least compared to an Anja. It looked more like it was made for a human…

“Hey! You!” the female shouted, keeping behind the male and with her hands fixed by her side, she displayed little or no emotion at all…
“Are you the one who killed him?” she called out, not even with an accusing tone… It was more like a calm question that one would ask if it were nothing more than if he had walked on that stone. This woman looked fairly hardy; her forearms were more muscular than most women’s should be. Her lack of emotional display, or even worry toward the corpse, only served to amplify the nature of her apathy. The only notable feature about her that wasn’t truly neutral was that her left ear looked damaged… Half of it was missing, as though somebody had swung for her head but she had managed to duck, or parry at the last minute…

[Zachariah]

Zachariah knelt down to observe the body, frowning slightly as he did. There were various little cuts and scars as well as large gashes across the chest, and he would have hazarded a guess that this was done by a dagger, not a sword. It didn't look as if it went too deep, and they seemed very precise in nature. And, of course, it helped that he had seen plenty of dead bodies in his time.

He was so lost in thought that he barely heard the female asked if he had killed this man, so it took him a moment to respond. "No." He muttered. "I didn't kill this man." He began to examine the face, which looked as though it would've been frozen in a final scream if it still had a lower jaw. His eyes widened and he nearly stood up and backed away when he noticed one minuscule little detail that shook him to the very core;

The man was missing his left ear.

[Valalerin]

The male Anja frowned, narrowing his gaze on the suspicious human.
“Jo koroy hoshitachi kay” he muttered quietly, almost to himself, but audibly enough for the female to nod in agreement. She took a short step forward and placed a hand on the male’s shoulder, though he didn’t appear to acknowledge her.
“Hikari inishi negai sarh daijo kay” she replied, her face not showing any form of emotion, nor did her gaze falter from the stranger. Their fixed gaze was an intimidating one; an Anja’s naturally large eyes are ones that can be used to great effect.
“No hataro ga” he murmured, his voice was deep and monotonous, barely any emotion could be gathered from either of them. It certainly was peculiar, Anja are usually very expressive with their faces, their large eyes and sensitive ears provide an immense amount of information, but these two showed nothing.

“Yozora kay no kay jidai wo da” the male ordered, he didn’t even turn to face the female, he kept his gaze fixed and his sword raised as though the human was a serial killer bent on killing them both.
“Do you know who did?” the woman called, her voice seemed unnatural for an Anja, as though she was uncertain of which words to use. Most Anja have known the human language for long enough to be confident in its use, but this one seemed nervous of using it. However nervous she may be, it still was not reflected in her posture or appearance.

[Zachariah]

Zachariah replied promptly when the Anja spoke in human , still looking the man over as they spoke in some language he either didn't understand or lacked the time to translate. "No, leave me alone." He growled, placing a hand on the bloody hole in which there was once a left ear. "I'm trying to find out who did this, and you're not helping." Did he kill this man? When? In his sleep? While drunk? Did he drink last night? All these questions flew about his head as he stared at this man's battered face, expression hardening.
He mustn't betray his fear of being caught, and he surely could not let on that he had the slightest knowledge of any of this.
He put his hand in the satchel at his side, and almost pulled out a bloodstained knife that had a strange smell about it. Merely seeing the blood covering the handle and the very beginning of the blade, he plunged the knife back into the satchel as quickly as possible. He have the body, the weapon, a suspect, and a motive. Now the only question is how.