"Hope I'm not going to have to foot the bill."

"Senior detective Fuzzy. I heard you have some ideas on the mystery of these cursed islands. Feel free to share with the rest of us. I'll be glad to throw in a bit of what I know."

Senior Detective Fuzzy seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, mulling over what she knew, immediately disregarding any weird feelings she has about gaps in her backstory.

"I have a few theories, but they're pretty... fuzzy. Here's the thing- Whatever's going on with this island, it's dangerous enough that most of the locals won't go anywhere near here, but they're perfectly fine letting a bunch of aliens plop down a resort on it. That means, whatever's so bad about here, there's no danger of it getting out, or spreading anywhere else on the planet. Contained."

"There could be mundane explanations - perhaps this place is prone to natural disasters, some dormant volcano or something like that - but I met one of the few locals who's willing to come out this way. Couldn't understand much from her, at the time - something about the waters being cursed, that we have to believe in the curse... I'm hoping an aftik like yourself could get some clearer information from her."

"I brought Maggy here specifically to help with that. Which is... odd. She would've come with either way, probably, but why would I have thought to bring her in particular if you're already an aftik...?"

"Ah, well. Maggy, you got any thoughts on this?"

Maggy had been staring off in the distance, but the second she hears her name she jolts looking over.

"Oh yes! I was also thinking that natural causes could be the results of the curse! I remember reading online that there is a planet where in a specific patch of water, an area they denote by a triangle, things tend to go missing! It was caused by some sort of horrible current that would drift things too far out to return, but the locals just like here believed it was a curse!"

"Though, another thought I had is some sort of anomaly causing odd occurences. Really, there are a number of things that could be happening, but its almost impossible to tell until we get more information..."

She pauses for a second catching herself from rambling further, "Oh uh, but you would likely know more Fuzzy! After all you're the dectective!!!"

"I see! Well we'll get the information we need. Tell me, where did you last see this local?"

"Out on the water - a fisher, I think. I joined her for a little fishing trip with some vampwelfs. She got a pretty big catch last time, if we're lucky we can still catch her down by the docks."

"Then to the docks we'll go." The investigator and her masterfully crafted team headed to the docks.

Fuzzy pointed out the local checking the net of her fishing boat. "HELLO!!! DID YOU FORGET DEVICE ON THE SHIP?????"

Fuzzy searches her pocket quickly, a jolt of surprise going through her. "Oh- My camera! Do you have my camera? Bright red, square- Uh-"

Fuzzy is thrown off her groove for a moment, searching around for the thing.

"A missing camera of all things. A gal like me could tell this was my opening. Who knows what sort of secret evidence another investigator could have. After all, I had a few sensitive photos myself on my own camera." The Investigator stumbles onto the boat, scaring the local.

"You have to pay....." She mumbles quietly before speaking up. "YOU HAVE TO PAY!"

"Cowboy, pay her the only way we know how."

Cowboy points a gun at the local.

"??????????????????!!!???!?!?!?!?"

"Uh- Wait! Sorry we don't want a boat trip- Uh, WE DON'T WANT A BOAT TRIP! WANTED TO ASK QUESTIONS-"

Oh, gun.

"..."

"Uh, no. Pay the woman with money."

"I NEED MONEY, TO FIND MURDERER!"

Fuzzy calms down a moment, letting herself breath a sigh of relief that her ally wasn't planning to shoot someone.

"Sheesh, your partner there is a loose canon, Investigator. A murderer, though?"

She turns to the local, raising her voice again to match the Locals, gesturing to the aftik and the 'aftik'.

"THEY CAN SPEAK YOUR LANGAUGE! WANTED TO ASK ABOUT THE CURSE MORE! WE CAN HELP YOU, TOO!"

"Oh dear, a murderer? I suppose this is something that happens on such a lawless planet...", she pauses for a second as if something was bothering her.

Though when Fuzzy motions to her she speaks up again, "Oh yes! Me and the investigator here can translate from your native language if it would be easier for you to talk that way!"

"Curse....Curse is simple."

"YOU MUST BELIEVE IN CURSE, SO ISLAND IS COOLER. ALIENS LOVE CURSES! VISIT TO SEE!"

"NEVERMIND. ACTUALLY SOMETHING GREATER!"

"THE ISLANDS ARE THE SPINES OF A GREAT MIGHTY DRAGON!!!!!"

The pieces click into place.

"A dragon... I had thought that dragons might've been involved when I asked before, but to think that the islands are part of one massive creature...?

"The dragon? Is the island? But I thought..."

"No, you're right! I can't believe we hadn't seen this before!"

"That... can't be right, though. Are the islands lined up in such a way that it would make sense for it to be one long creature...? Is it dormant...? If it is, then how would it have gotten its dragonkin...? Even if it just lifted its head up, the amount of water such a massive creature could move would make massive waves, earthquakes, utterly destroy the structures built here..."

"Unless it's just been perfectly still this whole time... There's some strange occurances- fires, murders, sure, but no earhquakes or anything of the like...Maybe it's superstition? Or maybe it's true..."

"Yes that's true, and I had thought I saw..."

"Hmmm you know.....while me and the Cowboy were eating out, a strange shadowy man had appeared to us."

"He told us that if some predictions he made didn't come true, the gods would cause a horrible event that would wipe out the islands!"

"Hmmp. I think you're wrong, local, about this myth. It's not the dragon who is the island....."

"Shadowy alien. Long tail, maybe? He told me that those who go to a funeral would die."

"HIS WORDS CAME TRUE! CAME LATE TO FUNERAL AND EVERYONE WAS DEAD!"

Two would die... She could remember this.

Fuzzy seemed shaken, a grim look on what counts as her face.

"I've never been the type to believe in gods... I've always been a skeptical type. But I've kept an open mind, too. Even if there's a mundane explanation behind all of this, there's always the possibility that something might be going on. There's truth in every superstition. And things are starting to come together. This shadowy man... he's the one behind all of this. The arson - the murders - he has to be. All to serve his gods - either out of madness, or to keep this great beast asleep."

"Really!?!? He seemed so innocent. Just trying to warn us of the events coming up. Why would he want us all to be scared....?"

"Maybe he wants everyone out of the resort so he could take it over."

"Thanks for believing in me."

"Thinking about it. His agenda never really did make sense. If anything I would call him mad. I'm not sure what motive we could even garner from such a person. Somethings wrong with him no doubt, but I don't really know what he could be getting out of causing all of this misery."

"Think about it- This shadowy alien is prime suspect material. All of his terrible predictions have come true- And if he truly does believe that something horrible will happen if his predictions don't come true, then he has to make them come true. Maybe I'm wrong- maybe he has some other motivation, or he isn't behind these crimes at all- but from where I'm standing, it makes the most sense for it to be him."

"No no, you are right Fuzzy. He has a hand in these so called "predictions". Logic only tells that he is involved in either the murders or the witnessing of it."

"So, what you're saying is we have to stop his next prediction to see if what he mentioned will come true?"

"Wouldn't that lead to us all dying by this god you believe to be the island?"

"Start OOC. Do we prefer stopping the prediction from happening or the island being a god? I don't think we can do both plotlines."

"...!!!"

Fuzzy is...disorientated.

"Woah. I'm not used to the amount of confidence being a senior investigator has. Uh..."

"Huh. Hmmm... How. No. Mm... I'm a little confused to say the least. I thought there was another aftik and... Oh the marsue."

She takes a moment to breath.

"Okay, I knew what I was getting into... I don't think stopping the predictions right away is a good idea for several reasons. I was thinking more, uh- gathering hard evidence? A stake-out? Taking pictures of the alien in the act so we can tie them to the crimes and arresting slash interrogating them, deciding where to go from there."

"I hate it when they do that..."

She clears her throat, "Ahem, so I was coming with you to get a story on the island and... Is the island even cursed???. Are we tracking down this Tailed now? I will say its a better story now that we know the curse likely isn't real. Besides I do think Fuzzy was right about this Tailed being behind these predictions."

"Wait, really...? Just a marketing ploy...? Why give a bunch of dragonkin some islands to set up a resort, then...? Do they pay rent to the local government or something? That kind of clashes with the no laws thing... why wouldn't the locals set up the resort and take all the tourist money instead, then...?"

"Seems pretty obvious to me."

"If these aliens don't have rights, there's nothing stopping invaders from taking their world anyway. So better to deal with aliens only taking some of the land, than them taking all of the land."

"Aliens can be so cruel to species with no rights. Nothing but trash to them....."

"ALIENS ARE SCARY! WOMAN WHO SCREAMS "ALIENS I LOVE YOU" IS ONLY ONE I TRUST!"

"Oh. That's... kind of sad."

Fuzzy mulls this information. She kind of prefered the make-believe explanation at this point.

"Okay wait hold on was the stuff about the shadowy long-tailed alien making predictions about disasters and stuff true or was that part of the plot too?"

"This story is totally bumming me out. It's not fun anymore. Can we go back into character? If not I'm going to take a break. I only investigate crimes for fun conclusions, not urk, social horror."

"I guess I can take up investigation for now on then."

"Shadowy guy is real. His name is Abyss Horse. We could stake him out, but there's a bit of an issue."

"His next prediction is that tomorrow is a day of rest. He likely wouldn't be up to anything and the only way to break his prediction......"

This...sucks.

"This sucks. An actual for-real mystery and it's tied up in an ethical dilemma. I usually just do ghost stuff, you know? Walk around abandoned places and take pictures and blog about it. But this sounds big. Investigator-me was right. Either this Abyss Horse guy is right, or he's wrong...but he's still tied up in this mess."

"Can- Can we go back in character? I kind of prefered that, too. It felt cool."

"Or- at least- the confidence boost would be nice. It would make doing the hard thing for the sake of the truth easier."

"Sounds good to me! End OOC!"

As Investigator starts back her mind control, she pushes the narrative away from the truth....the social horror! "Egads! So it must be true! The island is a god! Abyss Horse is right. If the predictions don't come true.....we'll all be killed!"

"Ace Investigator Fuzzy, do you think there's a way we can perhaps get the gods to stop their assault on this world, perhaps by speaking to Abyss Horse......"

"....or should we prepare to STOP ALL CRIMES tomorrow to make sure the prediction comes true?"

As Fuzzy gets back into her role, her fingers twitch. She feels like she should be smoking or something.

"Gods are a fickle thing. Putting this beast back to rest would require quite a bit of effort- some sort of massive sacrifice to appease them... If Abyss Horse knew a way to stop it, then he'd have done it by now, already, and I don't know any other priests who would have a better idea. Best to play it safe, and besides...Stopping all crimes?"

"Isn't that what we do everyday, anyway?"

Something about that felt odd, but she let out a laugh anyways.

"Nothing better than busting criminals, that's for certain! I am so up for this!"

"Technically, I solve crimes after they happen."

"But I think it's time for this investigator to become a crimestopigator!"

"Hmm what job title stops crime?"

"Cop."

"CRIMESTOPIGATOR IT IS! Follow me Senior Crimestopigator Fuzzy. We'll prepare for the safest day possible! No crimes will be committed under our watch!"

"Right behind you, Crimestopigator. We'll keep these people safe. But first-"

Fuzzy takes a moment to take a picture of the motley crew, to commemorate a job well-done.

".................................."

"BUT WHO MURDERED MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!"