[I-A-S] BRB Dying | Part 1 of 2

Case file: BRB Dying

Location: Philadelphia, USA and Nantong, China

In the last week of June, three deaths occurred with strikingly similar circumstances that forced the police forces of two different countries to work together. A female citizen from USA and two male Chinese citizens, all teenagers, have been found dead in front of their laptops or computers with the same MMORPG game still running and their characters still standing where they last directed them to. The oddities simply lined up from then on as the time of deaths and causes turned out to be identical; between five and six A.M. with dehydration as main death factor.

Distraught families have already been questioned and neither of the deceased teenagers have been particularly problematic or secluded. No leads have been found and no further connections have been made because it has been determined the three have never met or interacted in the game nor in person. In a desperate attempt for clarification and closure, one of the Chinese detectives had spoken to all families about involving supernatural investigators.

Quintus has scoured all the deceased teenagers’ social medias as well as game information and will be providing them to you before you depart, even though nothing really stands out as unusual for now. Due to the odd chances of the exact same game being involved, agents should also prepare to immerse themselves into the game, of course purely for investigation purposes but we have witnessed curses before being transferred into modern media and the danger level is high. if you are to play the game, be extremely cautious because this might only be the beginning. 

As agents undertaking this case, you should be prepared to travel extra or split up for a good duration as you will have to visit both locations on this case. Upon arrival to each of three cities where the deaths occurred, we have already secured rooms in a hotel and you will be greeted and briefed in by family members.

Experience Points:
5:2 --> 2.5 --> 2
12 + 2 = 14 EXP Gained

Deadliness Rating: 2
All slots filled, the deadliness rating is reduced by 1.

Agents on the case:
[Kres Wingfield / Somnia]
[Roi Torres Rivera / Lyre]
[August Steinwald / Ifrit]
[Feng / Nyx]

Rolls Result: 1 Fatality Sustained
[Kres Wingfield / Somnia] - Deceased
[Roi Torres Rivera / Lyre] - Uninjured
[August Steinwald / Ifrit] - Uninjured
[Feng / Nyx] - Uninjured

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Case Summary (Part 1 of 2)
Feng and Roi volunteer to play the game and download it onto their flash drives, because they are skeptical about the involvement of a supernatural entity and believe it might be real humans behind this... However, August and Kres heavily object against it for fear of the danger of the game. Feng and Roi relent and hold off playing the game. 

Amidst otherwise fruitless investigations, the team retires to their respective rooms, exhausted, to continue the investigation the next morning. August and Feng are in one room, Kres and Roi in the other.

Kres is troubled by the case and, unable to sleep, decides to wake up to further investigate. She remembers that the only thing that stood out to the team so far was a few lines of instructions written in a notepad by one of the victims (some normal MMO Side-Quest related instructions).

The last instruction seemed oddly specific, and eerily like a summoning ritual to Kres, though Roi and Feng did not think so, as other MMOs have quests with similar game mechanics. Googling it brought no results, so Kres wakes Roi up to ask about it, who assures her that it's nothing to worry about. 

Kres’ curiosity has her decide she wants to try this particular instruction to see what happens, especially because all three victims had at least one memo that expressed the player’s desire to unlock a super-secret boss within the game.

She tries to get Roi to play the game but sleepy puppy is too groggy to play, so Kres decides that she’ll play with his help. She possibly isn’t very good at games anyway, and if this last lead is a bust, she promises that they’ll both go to sleep. _{If Roi plays, he might get too competitive and refuse to sleep before slaying the boss anyway.}

With Roi’s help, Kres manages to navigate through the game and although she completed everything on the list, nothing happened. So she decides to try the last step. She follows the instructions for her avatar to "say aloud" the lines in the memo, and with every line, there was this odd chill in the room. The air got heavy, and Kres can’t get this weird ringing sound out of her ear, as she continues to type type type...

And then she hears it.

“The contract is sealed.”

She looks around to see where that deep growl of a voice came from, looking frightened. Roi can't hear the demon whispering in Kres' ears, and it even blocks Roi’s voice out of Kres' ears, so she’s left doubling over in the seat, clutching her head and feeling like some strange force is filling her mind and weighing down on her body, like it’s trying to take over her very being.

The demon she unintentionally summoned through the game was trying to put Kres on like a coat made of flesh, but...it wasn't fitting too nicely. Because of Kres' innate ability and power, she didn't suffer instant death like the other victims, but the summoned demon was pushing her body and mind to its limits to claim Kres' body as its own.

Kres begins to hallucinate and lose control, so as a last resort, she pulls out her sleep medication and swallows as many pills as she can to lucidly dream and use her ability to fight the demon off.

And so...Kres descends to her dream world to fight this nefarious entity...

[to be continued in Part 2 here:]

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Brainstorming with the team was Kokoro Brokoro inducing with a megaton of feels but really amazing, thank you guys <333
Will write more when brain is working properly~

Kres Poor Precious Doll belongs to JulinMint
Roi Poor Puppy Boi belongs to samedoll 
Lines and effects done by TabooTengu 
Colours done by nikkaroo