Part 75: Ep. 51: Well, It WAS A Nice Suit
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: Last time on MySims Agents: Everyone here is really suspicious-looking! And wearing fancy clothes! Which ones are Violet's 'bad people'? All of them?---
Maybe we shouldn't pick the lock when Madame Zoe is standing right there watching us. I mean, she probably wouldn't stop us, but we'd lose style points. We'll wait for a better moment. In the meantime, let's go back to the crystal chamber and look around.
And by 'look around' I mean 'scan for footprints'. Hey, two sets! Sam follows the pink ones first.
But first--WHO'S A GOOD DOGGIE
... man, I was so hoping for a picture from this one. Oh, well.
The ladyprints go all the way around the crystal stand in a big circle. The green footprints go straight from the door to the stand. Hmm.
Sam follows the green footprints out of the crystal room and down the dusty hall to the staircase, where they fade out, presumably for reasons.
The green footprints pick up again at the base of the stairs, and...
... oh, hell no, we ain't going out there. It's dark! It's a swamp! There are alligators out there! Really! Let's go talk about shoes with Ms. Nicole instead.
: I have a question about some women's shoes.
: I found some footprints in the crystal room that came from a woman's shoe. Square heel, big arch, and pointed toe. Sound familiar?
: Ugh! How garish! These belong to Madame Zoe, no doubt. She has the foulest sense of fashion!Ms. Nicole flounces off and Sam adds his newfound knowledge to his notes.
: Does Zoe have a reason for her footprints being in the crystal room?Let's ask her!
: I found your footprints at the crime scene.
: I was in there preparing for my reading when I found the shattered crystal! That's why my footprints are there.: Hmm... OK. Thanks, Zoe.Sam rather ostentatiously makes a note of that.
: Zoe's footprints are all over the crystal room, and her alibi seems a little weak... seems like she may be a suspect.
He's got a point there. Sure, we saw Zoe go into the crystal room earlier, but she took one step in and immediately screamed; she didn't have the time to go on a big circuit of the whole room first. Eh, well, note it down, file it away. As long as we're here, let's ask Madame Zoe to tell us more about the crystal.
: Please tell me about the crystal.: Oh, it was so wonderful. Just gazing into it allowed one to see glimpses of the future.: And you said it was made of pure fortunite?
For once, not a real science thing!
: And can you think of why anyone would want to destroy it? Or how it would be destroyed?: Steal it, yes. Destroy it? No. And I'm unsure what could damage such a strong crystal. Gordon might know more about fortunite.: Interesting. Thank you, Zoe.Carl's come back upstairs while we were talking to Madame Zoe, so let's ask him to shed some light on the subject, too.
: Tell me about the crystal.
: Oh, Cyrus took such good care of it. It was always locked safely in that room.: Did he ever let anyone in?: I, as butler, was tasked with taking care of it. I would clean it and make sure it was safe.: Do you know much about fortunite? What could shatter the crystal like that?: No, I don't know. If you want to know about fortunite itself, you should probably go talk to Gordon.: Thank you, Carl.All signs point to Gordon! Sam catches up with him downstairs.
: What do you know about fortunite?
: I know a good deal about its properties. Was there specific information you wanted to know?: I was looking for information on what could break a fortunite crystal.
Sounds like it could come in handy!
: Do you have a copy on you?
... you... okay there, Trevor?
Also, what does Gordon mean, the 'top' of the library?
: Thanks, Gordon!That's important! We should write that down.
: The fortunite book is at the top of the library, in a cardboard box. I need to climb up there to read it.And since we haven't found a library yet, it must be the room behind the locked door. QED. Sam is a brilliant detective.
However, Sam also apparently has a weird vendetta against books. Instead of breaking into the library, he nuts up and goes out into the dark and fog.
Let's follow the green man's backtrail!
Over the bridge and out through the... well, I guess those aren't front gates per se, but they mark the entrance to the mansion.
A little further on...
Huh. Wild swamp toolbox. There's something you don't see every day. Sam trails the footprints away from the toolbox, and...
Great. Sam backs up and takes a big jump towards the outcropping of dry land. Sam misses.
SPLOOSH.
Anyway, after a couple of unpleasant dousings, Sam manages to follow the footprints over the island, along this fallen tree, and, eventually, back to the front door of the mansion. He's about to go back inside when his phone goes off.
: ... point my battery will need to be replaced.Hooray! We are awesome. Well, okay, we put some Sims in the hospital with rabid-badger bites and some high-schoolers will probably need therapy after seeing Makoto's arms fall off, but we're still awesome. We'll check up on that in a bit.
Looks like whoever left these footprints started in the kitchen!
In fact, at the dumbwaiter!
To sum up: someone came out of the seriously-locked-or-wedged-shut dumbwaiter, left the kitchen, left the house, slunk through the swamp, stopped off at a random toolbox, then went back to the house along the main path. Once back inside the house, they went upstairs to the pedestal in the center of the crystal room, and that's where the path ends.
Anyway, we should make a note of our discoveries.
: Since the dumbwaiter doesn't work, I'll need to determine the identity of whoever left these footprints some other way.If we hadn't shaken the dumbwaiter earlier, we'd have had to do that now. But we did, so we don't. Now: how to find the owner of the footprints?
: Carl, may I check your shoes?Oh. Like that.
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: Next time on MySims Agents: Hope you like shoes, pal!---
EA Render: Violet
Another of those huge renders from the now-defunct website! I wish I had more of these.