Murder Mystery RP

Penn
Penn took the lemon juice and started to drop it on the invitation, but as soon as he realized what he was doing he capped it. "Oh, uh, I forgot," he said, chuckling to himself. "We need a fire." Nice move, dumbo. Ruin the important clue because Mei's watching, why don't you. Yeah, that's definitely attractive.

Outlaw
She wordlessly handed him her lighter. 

Penn
"I was thinking fire on a bigger scale," he said. "Easier to even out the temperature."

Mei
"Here." She took the lighter from Outlaw and stooped on the ground, brushing the dry leaf litter into a pile and making sure to clear the area around it of both dry and damp leaves and other debris so the flames wouldn't spread. After adding a couple small twigs to the pile, she lit it with the lighter and looked up at Penn. "Does this work?"

Penn
"Yeah, it might," he said.  he held up the lower third of the paper against the flame. "Some paper is resistant to invisible ink," he lied. "Have to test it to make sure."

Mei
She watched the paper with interest, not quite understanding what the science was behind it but intrigued all the same. "Is it doing what it's supposed to?"

Penn
"Yeah - definitely. It's, ah, working." Penn moved to heat  up the rest of the paper.

Mei
"So the lemon juice acts like ink?" The paper turned brown where Penn had poured it. "That's kind of cool."

Penn
"Yeah. Can you grab some more sticks? This is going to take a moment."

Mei
She hesitated, looking at the flames for a moment before nodding. "Um, yeah, sure." Mei stood, grateful for once that they were already in the woods so she didn't have to wander far to find a handful of sticks. When she came back she set them on the ground, ready to be fed slowly to the fire. "Is that enough?"

Penn
Penn nodded, concentrating very hard to try to decipher the ink that was beginning to show itself.

Outlaw
She stood curiously watching Penn. Wasn’t quite as she remembered it being done but she wasn’t about to say anything. “Might I have my lighter back?” She questioned as she slid another cigarette in her lips. 

Mei
She mumbled an apology, holding the lighter up so Outlaw could take it. 

Outlaw
“Thanks” she mumbled, taking the lighter from Mei’s outstretched hand. She brought it to the cigarette in her lips and lit it, breathing in the smoke deeply. 

Shane
Staring at a slowly decaying body wasn't in the list of coping strategies Shane had developed, but nonetheless they found themselves doing just that to distract their mind from other stresses. His thoughts were sharply cut off, however, by a spew of words coming from Avery as she carved a stick with an oddly familiar dagger.
"My family has the weirdest names; I'm convinced my dad named me otherwise I would've been some weird 'Shawlerous' with the name meaning of 'charged by a running cow'." She stopped what she was doing, looking at Shane with a glare that made him feel more uneasy around the twelve year old than they should've. "I mean really, my grandmother's name is Kahlen. Her parents must've hated her."
"They did," Shane mumbled, not realizing what the conversation was about until he had contributed to it. They shook their head and blinked to relieve the brain fog, muttering, "Ah Kahlen ? C'est le nom de ma mère. Surpris que quelqu'un d'autre connaisse aussi une personne de ce nom."
"Yeah, and her husband's name was Auberon, like who thought that was a good name?"
The name stung Shane's chest, attempting and almost managing to open old wounds he had worked so hard to heal. But as the words sank into his brain they created new wounds, leaving him feeling empty and betrayed. They glanced uncertainly at Avery and studied her. "You're Harper's kid?"
"Unfortunately," she sighed, leaning back on her hands and staring out over the water. Her next words were lost in the air as Shane disconnected from his surroundings, letting the speed of his thoughts blur him into a numbed state.