Pome's Homepage

NetPolice Investigations Officer Pome was one of those navis who enjoys treating their homepage as a home. The area, a windswept, grassy hill surrounded by statues of pagan goddesses, holds a small stone house. Her house was decorated in a way that might have been fashionable quite a number of centuries ago, but would now be rightly considered ancient. Tapestries of red and purple silk coated the walls of her abode, making the stone seem a little less foreboding.

The most notable feature, perhaps even more so than the statues, was the neatly kept garden of pomegranate trees behind the house. Succulent red fruits hung from the branches in great quantity.
[PomeHPKey.DAT activated]

[Please wait as we validate the cipher key]

[.....]

[Confirmed. Welcome Back.]

A red beacon of light crashed down on the grassy hill, reforming into Red... in a schoolgirl uniform? Oh right this was that whole disguise kind of thing she was trying.

"Hehe~! Lookin' for clues~ Lookin' for clues~ I wonder where Uncle PartnerMan is?" Red hummed to herself, searching around.

"Hopefully he isn't sniffing through her undergarments or something. Well, at least one side of him," Shin commented offhandedly. The details of the homepage gave him a feeling of deja vu, but what about he wasn't certain.

"Alright, I'll just wait I guess~" Red replied, still actually looking around.

((Wait for PartnerMan while also searching for clues?))
Almost as though he had some telepathic connection with Red rivaling that of himself to himself, PartnerMan bumbled outside of the house, although not ostensibly looking at Red. When he saw her, however, he changed his focus and ran clumsily up to greet her, hoisting #1's legs up to move faster.

"Oh hey, it's the kid again! I haven't forgotten what you did for us last time, and let me tell ya, it's good to see you back. Look, this guy's all I have to work with when you're not around," he joked, pointing a thumb at the other self dangling off of his back.

"Try working with yourself some time!"

"I work with myself all the time, nimrod!"

"Don't be vulgar in front of a little girl!"

"I'm not, assface! Damn!"

It seemed as though he must have already started the investigation, since he came from the house. The entrance to the house lay ahead, but it might also be worth checking out the garden out if that turned into a dead end.

Red is currently at the statue path.

Areas Available:
>Proceed inside house
>Proceed to garden

Investigation targets:
>PartnerMan
>Pome's house
>Front walk statues
>East side statues
>West side statues

((Investigations are important in this mission! Investigate anything in the scenery more closely by using 1 to 3 actions (each action devoted offers greater perception).))
"Hi Mr. PartnerMan! It's nice to see you again~!" Red giggled, taking one of PartnerMan's hands and shaking it up and down furiously in greeting, smiling all the while.

"So what's the situation? Did you find anything inside the house? Do you want me to take a look just in case? Did your other guy sniff through her panties drawer? Where else have you searched?" Red bombarded PartnerMan with all these questions, keeping a happy-go-lucky smiling face on.

In one respect, this is how she would figure out how much they already knew.

-TURN SPLICE-
1-3. Investigate PartnerMan with Questions.
"O-Oh, what... no, er... we haven't really started looking yet!" the back, #1 PartnerMan spoke up defensively.

"Well, we were in the bedroom for a bit, but we didn't find crap," #2 continued, shaking his head slowly.

Upon investigation, Red discovers an item protruding from one of the hinged shoulder joints embedded in PartnerMan's box. The item looks pink and lacey...

PartnerMan's shaded visor tilted up slighly as he realized where Red was looking. Hastily, he stuffed the item back into his box. "Okay, so maybe that wasn't 100% accurate... we've done a little sniffing around..." he admitted.

"L-Looking around! A little looking around!" the second exclaimed.

"Anyways, those were sitting on her bed, nice and neat. I dunno why, but maybe she got them out and then decided not to wear them? They didn't smell used-"

"Look used! They didn't look used!"
We figured as much, Shin and Red collectively thought as they spotted the pink object, an expression of pity on their faces.

"Wow! Even a detective like you must have a hard time even with four sets of eyes, right Mr. PartnerMan? Let's see what I can turn up for now!" Red grinned, rolling back her sleeves as she skipped around Pome's house.

The crimson crusader pulled out a magnifying glass from her schoolbag and quickly perused through the exterior of the building, checking the doors, windows, foundation, mailbox, and even the roof, for any clues there might be.

-TURN SPLICE OVER-
4-6. Investigate the Outside of Pome's House
"Sounds like a good idea, Red! We'll go check out the cellar and meet back up in a little while. Of course... oh, that's right. There's an element we should have briefed you on earlier," PartnerMan #1 remarked, sounding apologetic.

"Pome's counted as a missing person right now, but she really hasn't been missing but for a day. The reason we're worried is cause her operator doesn't have any idea where she could be. She must either be unoperated right now or under the influence of another PET slash operator," #2 continued.

"So, er, yes, let's try to be as quick as we can," #1 finished with a nod, even though they'd just apparently wasted some time sniffing some underpants. "See you soon!"

The composite man entered into the house and disappeared, while Red took some time to investigate the house itself.

Pome's house is unassuming, gray, and pretty much uninteresting. There's a trapdoor leading into the cellar, where PartnerMan said he would be, located at the back of the house. A lot of effort has gone in to making it look like a real house, probably just for Pome's tastes. There do not seem to be any further points of interest.

Areas Available:
>Proceed inside house
>Proceed to garden
>Proceed to cellar

Investigation targets:
X Pome's house
>Front walk statues
>East side statues
>West side statues
"Oh! Wellllll that is kind of worrisome! We'll just have to do our best and find out where she went though! I'll check if you missed anything inside the house and join you in the cellar afterwards, mkay?" Red suggested, grinning from ear-to-ear, not to say she was taking this mission lightly.

Red decided to open the door to Pome's house and go inside.

Turn splice
1. Go inside Pome's House
PartnerMan #2 knit his eyebrow/shade rim as he left, indicating that he was a little worried about Red's attitude. "No pressure," he finished, then disappeared.

Once Red was finished inspecting the outside of the house, she went back around to the front door and headed inside. The door was shuttered only by red, silky curtains, which one might figure came as another benefit of living in a world where one doesn't necessarily worry about pests running into their household. Inside, Red found a red long red carpet leading down a surprisingly narrow hallway. Pome seemed to have a penchant for velvet cloth and potted plants, as they composed most of the decor.

A path immediately to her right held a descending staircase, which Red could only assume led to the cellar. As the hallway continued, two doors stood gaping, one halfway on either side. At the end sat a final door, which Red understood held a spiraling upward staircase leading to the second (and judging by the small size of the house, final) floor.

Areas Available:
>Go back outside
>Proceed to cellar
>Proceed to leftward room
>Proceed to rightward room
>Proceed upstairs

Investigation targets:
> Decorative hall plant
> Hanging tapestries
"Hmmmm," Red mused, brandishing her magnifying glass as a fine weapon... No, that... you're doing it wrong, Red.

"Maybe there'll be a hidden switch behind the tapestry, don't know about the plant though," Shin advised, Red nodding at his suggestion.

"No one hides things in pots anyway!" Red exclaimed, clearly having not played enough RPG games. She went to work on inspecting each tapestry and whatever was behind it or around it for that matter.

Turn splice
2-4. Investigate Hanging Tapestries
Red took a moment to investigate the regal wall-hangings...

Inspecting the hangings carefully, Red notices the expert quality of the weave, but also a few tell-tale differences in the fibers that proves that some navi must have taken the time to weave the hangings themself, rather than placing them from a template. This observation offers little beyond an insight to Pome's character.

Areas Available:
>Go back outside
>Proceed to cellar
>Proceed to leftward room
>Proceed to rightward room
>Proceed upstairs

Investigation targets:
> Decorative hall plant
X Hanging tapestries
"Well that was fun! She must've made these herself! She's pretty good!" Red nodded, commenting to herself.

"No clues here, let's go into one of the rooms then," Shin suggested.

"Okay!" Red grinned, doing a quick eenie-minie-moe selection before proceeding to the leftward room.

That's probably not detective's intuition, Shin sighed.

Turn Splice:
5. Proceed to Leftward Room
6. Look around Leftward Room
The leftward room was clearly intended as a kitchen, although there were no modern appliances of any sort. A large fire pit with several racks, designed as an oven, sat embedded into the back wall. Several stone cabinets lined the walls, but inspecting all of them could take forever. The table at the room's center, a round, stone table stood, surrounded by four chairs. It was hard to understand Pome's obsession with stone, as it didn't seem to fit any theme of age.

Red spotted a door to the left of the room, presumably for some pantry or something.

Areas Available:
> Go back into hall
> Room to left

Investigation targets:
> Round table and chairs
> Pit oven
> Cupboard #1 (left-most)
> Cupboard #2
> Cupboard #3
> Cupboard #4
> Cupboard #5 (right-most)
"Hmmmm.... this would be a good place to leave a note or something..." Red mused, looking over the table and chairs for anything Pome might've left behind as a notice.

Her cyber-stomach growled, but she bore with it for the sake of investigation! But her energy left her as she proceeded toward the other room in a trance.

"What," Shin gawked, not sure what his navi was doing.

Turn Splice
1-2. Inspect Table and Chairs
3. Proceed to Room to the Left
Attached to the table was a note, written upon paper in red ink. The note stated the purpose of each cupboard, which might save Red some time searching if she ever had need to:

Quote ()

First cupboard is bread spreads and seasonings
Second cupboard is for bread and bakery
Third cupboard is for vegetables
Fourth cupboard is for all form of drinks
Fifth cupboard is for her things


No indication on who she was, but it was interesting to note the way it was written.

After making this discovery, Red hurried on into the room on the left. It appeared to be a room intended for laundry, judging by the tub in the center; it certainly didn't seem big enough for a person to wash in, but just right for a bunch of clothes. A few changes of clothes sat in a bin to the right, but Pome clearly either washed clothes often or didn't own many pairs, as the pile itself was very small.

Areas available:
>Back into kitchen

Investigation targets:
> Pome's clothes pile
> Wash tub
"Hmhmhm~ I wonder what's in here~" Red sang merrily, skipping back to the kitchen and opening the Fifth Cupboard.

"Are you sure you need to do that?" Shin sighed, not really wanting to bother.

"As a private eye you gotta look through everything important~!" Red giggled, searching through the opened cupboard.

"Don't blame me for this," the self-proclaimed ace grumbled. Maybe they should transfer to another section.

Turn Summary:
4. Back to kitchen.
5-6. Investigate 5th Cupboard.

Inside the cupboard, Red found cherries. Cherries, cherry juice, cherry preserves... so many cherries. Further inspection allowed her to discover that one jar was opened and missing some of its contents.

... Pomegranates, sure, that was thematic... but why all the cherries?

Areas Available:
> Go back into hall
> Room to left

Investigation targets:
> Round table and chairs
> Pit oven
> Cupboard #1 (left-most)
> Cupboard #2
> Cupboard #3
> Cupboard #4
X Cupboard #5 (right-most)
"Wow! That sure is a lot of cherries!" Red gasped, eyeing them hungrily, before closing the cupboard and skipping out into the hallway and back into the room across the hall she spotted earlier.

"You think she's rooming with someone? Actually is that normally possible?" Shin inquired, musing about something.

"I don't know of many navis that share homepages! But there are some!" Red giggled cheerfully, stopping after she opened the door to the next location while looking around.

Turn Summary:
1. Go back to hallway
2. Proceed to rightward room mentioned like 8 posts ago.
The rightward room appeared to be a guest room; perhaps she was rooming with someone! If she was, though, it didn't seem like they'd been there recently. The bed was still freshly made, not perfect, but far too undisturbed for anyone to have been there recently. A miniature computer console sat open on a small desk. Besides that, there was also a drawer over to the right that Red could search.

A door at the far end of the room opened up into a tiled bathroom.

Red heard some voices arguing down below the floor... they seemed to both belong to PartnerMan. It reminded her that he'd said they needed to be quick with the investigation... A surprising amount of time had already passed. No doubt they'd be back up soon.

Areas available:
>Bathroom
>Go back into hall

Investigation targets:
>Bed
>Drawers
>Console
Red approached the most obvious items she needed to check first. Whatever PartnerMan found they could both confirm later anyway.

"Hmhmhm~ What's in here~?" Red wondered, shifting through the drawers quickly before closing them.

"Hm, maybe this console knows where Pome went. Take your time with it," Shin advised, Red giving a serious salute as she sat in front of the computer console, turned it on, and started going through its contents for any clue of what happened to Pome.

Turn summary:
3. Investigate Drawers
4-6. Investigate Console.