Captured Beauty

**Captured Beauty** is a case featured in *Criminal Case*. It takes place in the *The Hunt For Orion* region of Graecita.

## Plot

**You are now experiencing the story in third-person view**

In Graecita, it is now 9 o’clock at nighttime. Marionette and Norah are at the dining room, having dinner with Susan, Kaleb Jr and the queen, when suddenly Kaleb Sr entered the scene, both his son and Leonora trying to avoid eye contact with him. Kaleb Sr ordered everyone out of the room, except for Leonora, Susan protested that they aren’t done eating yet but repeated his order in a more stern voice, which made her feel intimidated. The rest left obediently, but before leaving the room, Kaleb Jr who felt guilty for deceiving his father tried to talk with him, but Kaleb Sr shut him out. Kaleb Sr and Leonora were now left alone together, the room was silent for a whole minute until Kaleb spoke and apologized to Leonora for the fight they had this morning. But Leonora wasn’t willing accept the apology and instead of forgiving him, she asked Kaleb if he’s apologizing for the truth bomb he dropped on her or taking advantage of Yvette’s dead body. This pissed of Kaleb and he threatened Leonora not to touch that topic again, but Leonora refused to back away and yelled at Kaleb, accusing him of selfishness and that she wishes Yvette never fell in love with him and went as far as suggesting she would have still been alive if it wasn’t for him. Kaleb have had enough and broke down on the floor in tears, crying like a child and Leonora realized that she crossed the line with what she said and she started comforting him. Kaleb calmed down and then looked at Leonora, begging her not to bury Yvette and promised that from now on he will stop making love with her corpse. Leonora still wasn’t comfortable with the idea but as long as Kaleb was committing necrophilia, she allowed him to take care of Yvette’s corpse. This made Kaleb happy and he thanked her for being understanding but the brother-sister moment was then interrupted with a loud knock on the door. Annoyed, Kaleb opened the door ready to yell at someone for not respecting their privacy but instead of the person behind the door being Susan, Norah, Marionette or KJ, it was Shirley Kennedy who was in a panic. When Shirley saw the queen, she rushed to her and the queen, feeling concerned, asked Shirley what’s the problem. Once Shirley calmed down, she told the queen the ship carrying Gisele Najm was attacked by pirates, that Gisele escaped and the soldiers in the ship were captured and are being taken to Clew Island to be sold like slaves.

Meanwhile at Southeast France, The *Hamilton Lauren’s Revenge* crew, Artemis and her huntresses had just finished celebrating Lykaon’s demise and are now following Scholastic who is guiding to Xerda’s entrance. By 8:30pm, they arrived to the waterfall near the hobbit Artemis and the huntresses were staying at and Scholastica suddenly stopped with a wide smile on her face, announcing that she found a shortcut. The group was confused, as they couldn’t find the entrance, but Scholastica then went through the waterfall, surprising them but they following her and they saw a mini cave behind. In the cave there was a drop were water from the waterfall was being poured but there was no ladder leading to Xerda. Mia asked Scholastica how will they get to Xerda when there’s nothing to climb down on, making Scholastica laugh before pushing Mia into the hole. This took the group by surprise and foolishly, they all jumped into the hole to “save” Mia. Mia screamed as she was falling down the hole, thinking she will die and as she as praying, she fell into something wet: a lake. Soon one by one, her whole crew fell into the lake while the huntresses opened their parachutes, to land with class but were pulled down by the weight of Scholastica’s body falling over them and they fell into the lake too. All the Xerdans gathered around the lake, staring and among the crowd was a face familiar to the crew: Rozetta Pierre. Rozetta went to greet her friends, expressing how glad she is to see them and asked if they brought the huntresses with them. The crew pointed at Artemis and Rozetta went to shake her hand, but Artemis turned her down and asked her to take them to her queen but when she noticed there are men among the crowd and realized that the Xerdans started allowing male citizens in their city, she fainted from shock and disgust. While the huntresses were gathering around Artemis to wake her up, Rozetta decided to take Mia to Queen Johanna who is really excited to see her again and the two girls started marching toward a place which Mia soon realized was the military camp the **New Olympians** had built in Xerda. Mia was surprised and impressed by the renovations done to the place, glad to see the marble statues belonging to the **New Olympian** members were replaced by ivory statues of her, Rozetta, Otto and most of all, her dear friend Hamilton Laurent. Rozetta noticed that her friend liked the statues and told her that they were made by a talented sculptor called Pygmalion who some of their warriors found in Cyprus with his family and realizing that they came from an Ancient time period and didn’t fit in, they took them in the city. Mia asked if he had done any statues of Johanna, as she was surprised not to find any, Rozetta revealed that he did and made one of Xenia to to recreate their battle and decided to show Mia but they found that something had pushed the statue of Johanna over. When the duo got close they found that a man was crushed by the statue and killed.

**You are now playing as Mia Loukas**

Soon after they found the body, an excited Johanna approached them to greet Mia, but was shocked when she saw the body, identifying the man as none other than Pygmalion, the sculptor Rozetta talked about. Rozetta and Mia spoke to Johanna, told her about the huntresses and unlike the other Xerdans, she saw no problem with it as she thought its about time they put their differences aside and make peace with the huntresses. She then allowed them access to the parliament in case someone there is responsible for the murder, suspecting Hasuro’s boyfriend and politician, Joe Warren as well as Scholastica, their guide. The duo then started recapping the case but suddenly a quail threw a bottle and it hit Rozetta’s head.

Rozetta looked at the bottle the quail threw at her and noticed a letter inside. She was about to read the letter, but Ginny came up to check on her and asked if she was okay. Rozetta asked Ginny if the letter is directed for her, in which Ginny awkwardly asked if she read it. Rozetta shook her head and gave the letter to Ginny, who read it with a smile on her face. Rozetta asked her what’s written in the letter, making Ginny blush and she replied by saying it’s personal and she asked the girls what they are doing. When learning of Pygmalion’s murder, Ginny revealed that she spotted a store just across the street with the title “Εργαστήρι Πυγμαλίων” (Pygmalion’s Workshop) and assuming that the store belongs to the victim, they decided to investigate it and suspected both his wife, Galatea and his daughter, Paphos. They also learned that the victim made misogynistic comments directed toward Johanna and that he made fun of Joe for being circumcised. Rozetta and Mia decided to stop and discuss their progress but were distracted by a fight between Hasuro and Joe, which was taking place near the victim’s workshop.

Rozetta and Mia decided to see what’s the fight about and they learned that they were arguing about their relationship and Hasuro have had it with Joe choosing his career over him and decided to end the argument by giving Joe an ultimatum: Either he comes with him back to Graecita or their relationship will be over. Since they were at the victim’s workshop, the duo decided to give it another look and discovered that Pygmalion was using Scholastica as a model to create a statue of his wife when she was young, which angered Galatea who was very insecure with her age and wished that her husband used her as a model instead. They also found out Paphos wanted to be a sculptor like her father and was studying under his training but he criticized her for wanting create her own creative sculptures instead of sculpting humans like him. Rozetta and Mia then collected enough evidence to arrest Galatea for the murder.

Galatea acted horrified when accused of killing her husband, asking them why would she murder the love of her life, but after facing evidence, Galatea broke down to tears and admitted that she killed her husband to remain human. Rozetta was confused on what Galatea was talking about and so Galatea told her that she isn’t a real person but merely what her husband considers the ideal woman, at least until she aged. Galatea revealed Pygmalion viewed women as “flawed” creatures and so he invested most of his time and effort to create a statue of what he imagines to be his dream women and he paid offerings to Aphrodite to bring the statue to life with a kiss and that statue is none other than Galatea herself. Galatea explained that Pygmalion quickly fill in love with her for her beauty, but the older she got, Pygmalion started losing interest in her and by the time she turned 50, any love he had for her was gone and he could no longer look at her. The only thing that got them close was their daughter, Paphos but when she died out natural causes, he distanced herself from Galatea and didn’t even come by her side when she died herself. When the whole family was resurrected, Galatea was happy, seeing it as a second chance to rekindle her and her husband’s relationship but when they came to Xerda, all hopes were lost. Galatea noticed how Pygmalion was checking out Scholastica and when she saw her, she understood why: She looked exactly like her when she was young. Galatea was mad, but she didn’t confront her husband, until he saw her sculpting Scholastica. Pygmalion claimed that he was making a statue of her young self as a gift, but Galatea knew better, she figured out that the statue isn’t a gift but her replacement and that once he is not dome with it, he’ll have Aphrodite bring her to life and Galatea will turn back to ivory. Galatea loved her husband, but she valued life more and wasn’t going to let her husband take it away from her, so when he was busy finishing the details of the statue he was making of Johanna, she pushed it right at him as he turned his back and crushed him. Rozetta and Mia understood Galatea’s frustrations but regardless, they took her to Johanna. Johanna pitied Galatea but she knew that pardoning her would set a bad image on the city, but instead of having her locked up for the murder, Johanna decided to instead banish her from the city.

**You are now experiencing the story in third-person view**

After they finished the murder investigation, Rozetta, Mia and her crew went to the huntresses to check on Artemis, who had recovered from the shock of seeing the male race in Xerda. Something strong fell on the Xerdan lake, splashing water over the huntresses and when the city gathered to see what it is, it turned out to be Natalie who showed up with Rubarae, Ekho and almost every nymph settling in Southeast France. The crew immediately went to greet Natalie, thanking her for bringing so many nymphs with her, but the huntresses and Xerdans weren’t as pleased at seeing the nymphs as they couldn’t see how they would help in battle as most of them do nothing but have fun and mischiefing them whenever they scavenge the forest. This caused an argument in the spot until Johanna appeared and demanded that all stop fighting, reminding that they have gathered here for a purpose and it is to fight Orion and not themselves. The huntresses, nymphs and Xerdans remained silent but there was clear tension between them, making Natalie and the crew doubt that this alliance would work out, but Madelina had an idea and she told Natalie to follow her to “Εργαστήρι Πυγμαλίων”. Mia was curious on what silly schemes Madelina in her minds and wanted to follow her and see for herself, but before she could go, Yoyo approached her and told her Ophelia would like to speak with them.

Already knowing the subject of what Ophelia was going to talk about, Yoyo and Mia went to speak with her and as they expected, she wanted to talk about Ginny. Ophelia explained that they stayed at the city for 1 and a half hour, however she hasn’t seen any signs of Ginny and she suspects that either something was up with her or happened to her and she wants to figure what it is. Yoyo had enough with Ophelia’s obsession for Ginny and told her that she understands that as a sexual assault victim herself, Ophelia wants nothing but good for Ginny, however she isn’t doing her any help and if anything she’s contributing into worsening her trauma by pressuring her into doing things she doesn’t want and Yoyo wants no involvement in whatever she’s planning to do. Mia on the other hand, recalled a letter Ginny had received and had kept away from her and Rozetta, told Ophelia about it who became interested on who Ginny could be receiving messages from. Ophelia and Mia decided to go to search for the letter and they were heading to the camp, Yoyo sighed and walked away. At the camp, instead of finding the letter sent to Ginny, they found the quill that sent her the message and it was holding the same bottle it threw on Rozetta’s head and inside it was a letter. The duo took the bottle and got the letter out but when read it, the content was faded and so they had to dust it out, revealing a another letter addressed to Ginny from someone who goes by “Le Chasseur” and it was written in French. Neither girls knew how to speak French, but they remembered Rozetta and how her alias is “Rozetta **Pierre**” which is a French name and so they sent it to her, hoping she would be able to translate. When Rozetta read the letter, she was horrified and explained that “La Chasseur” means “The Hunter” an alias for Orion and that this is a love letter from him to Ginny. Ophelia couldn’t what she heard and immediately went with Mia to confront Ginny. Ginny tried to start a friendly conversation with the duo, but Ophelia wasn’t having it and showed Ginny the letter they just read, asking her how long she and Orion knew each other. Ginny was pissed off that they had read her personal letters, but answered them anyway, revealing that she didn’t tell the whole truth about her past and that the man who killed Geoffrey was Orion and that it was he who saved her from human trafficking and she owes her life to him. Ophelia was shocked at what she’s hearing and she told Ginny that Orion is no hero and what he’s doing to her is the same thing as what Weinstein did except that he’s leading to a death trap rather than a road to prostitution. But Ginny refused to listen to Ophelia, telling her that she doesn’t know Orion as much as she does and that he is her “hero” and the only person to ever believe in her. Ophelia tried to talk some sense into her, but Ginny grew sick of her and walked away from the conversation, Ophelia tried to follow and call for her but Ginny would not listen to a word from her.

Wondering what idea Madelina has on her head, Mia followed her and Natalie all the way to “Εργαστήρι Πυγμαλίων” in order to ask them what their up to. Natalie smiled and told Mia that Madelina was just telling her about her plan to bring the nymphs, huntresses and Xerdans together and make peace, asking Madelina to share it with Mia. Madelina smirked and explained that back when she was in elementary school, whenever the class was having a fight, the teacher would give them pieces of paper and force them to write good things about one another before putting it in a bowl, shuffling it and reading them out to the class so that they would make up. Even though it was childish, Madelina used this method through middle school and high school whenever her girlfriends fight to monitor the tension of the friend group and she thought that maybe they could gather the city at the camp and hold a public event similar to this to help ease the tension between their allies. Mia did not think this is a good idea as it could go wrong in many ways, but Natalie felt excited about this and agreed to help with it. Madelina smiled and told her that all what they need is a bowl to put the notes in and she asked her to meet up at “Εργαστήρι Πυγμαλίων”, hoping they could find something suitable for that. Natalie and Mia inspected the place and found broken ivory pieces on the floor and after restoring it, instead of being a bowl, it turned out to be one large goblet but not too big to be held by the hand. The girls took the goblet to Madelina, asking her if it’s suitable for the plan, where she smiled and told them this exactly what she needed and that what’s left to do is to gather the women of the city in one place before starting the event.

After Ginny was confronted for contacting Orion and helping Madelina with her plan, Mia and her crew went to the arena where the huntresses, nymphs and Xerdans were gathering and Natalie passed pieces of paper for the girls to write nice things to each other. Sniggering, Maverick decided to troll Madelina by asking Mia to give her a paper so that he could put something in the goblet. After everyone was done writing, Madelina went around the arena to receive the papers and then went into the center to read them out. Madelina read a couple of nice comments and for a second it seemed like the tension between the women was calming down, but Chase realized that Madelina was not picking the paper pieces randomly and was looking for the few nice comments to read, so he went on the stage, grabbed the goblet from Madelina and decided to share what the women actually thought of each other. Coincidently, he found comments written about three leaders: One mocking Artemis for her looks, another mocking Johanna for her voice and a comment calling Rubarae “complicit”. The caused more tension between the women and Johanna, who was the only leader that actually supported the alliance was starting to reconsider it, but Madelina stepped in and told them that these are only a few comments and they don’t who wrote them, whether the opinions are popular or not and some may have been by people who shared the same tribe. But then Chase pulled out one more comment, this time it was on Madelina, accusing of only being a virgin as an excuse for being “unattractive” and when she heard that comment, Madelina’s mood shifted, demanding to know who wrote this and when she learned it was Bruno, she pulled out her wand and started chasing him. Madelina’s reaction inspired the rest of the girls to fight each other and hell started breaking loose. Natalie and the crew had no idea what to do, but Ekho approached Natalie and using sign language, she asked for her help to make a speech. Natalie took Ekho to the middle of the arena and yelled for everyone’s attention, revealing that Ekho has something to say. Some of the nymphs started to giggle but Ekho ignored and using hand gestures and Natalie as a translated, she started telling her speech. In the speech, Ekho says that she understands that none of them like each other and they don’t have to, but they have bigger problems to face, which is Orion. She said that fighting each other won’t help them get anywhere and if anything, Orion is probably happy seeing them this way. Each one of them may have their differences, but it doesn’t matter as they all have one thing in common: They are women and whether they are feminine, masculine, pure or promiscuous, this shouldn’t stop them from respecting one another. Ekho then went on with her feminist speech and by the time she finished, all tension in the arena was now gone and all the women together started cheering for Ekho and yelled things like “YAS QUEEN!” and “SLAY!!!”. The crew was relieved to see that the women made up, but all relief was gone when one of the huntresses asked if anyone had seen Renée and this is when they realized that Ginny was nowhere to be seen and must have left Xerda to run away with Orion...

## Suspects

JohannaJoe WarrenScholasticaGalateaPaphos
## Quasi-suspects

Ophelia LincolnRozetta of XerdaRenée DioufMadelina AlonzoChase ThundermanNatalie & Ekho
## Killer’s Profile

* The killer weighs more than 150 lbs.

* The killer eats gooseberries.

* The killer plays the harp.

* The killer is female.

* The killer sports a bruise.