Chunky Start. Your time is now!

"What? I didn't see any blood. You're not bleeding, are you Chelsea?" Gersha turns Chelsea's body over. "I didn't think so. She's quite alright Mr. Jones, if there is blood on the staircase it isn't hers. In fact, she probably fell because she didn't see it either, and slipped on it. I suggest you have one of the cleaning staff take care of it to prevent further unfortunate accidents like that." Gersha resumes her rummaging.

"You must at least let me have a look Ms. Folsom."

Gersha continues to aimlessly rummage without an objective, finding many valuables as typical for a person fleeing the country.

Gersha finds a chain of unmarked keys, many cosmetics, a small jewelry box, money, passports, and even Chelsea's checkbook.

"A-ha!" Gersha has a brilliant flash of insight that Chelsea was trying to flee the country. She must have had some quarrel with the government, and therefore done something wrong. Pocketing the keys, lipstick, passport and some choice jewelry, she then upends both luggage cases, spilling their contents all over the floor. Yes, it's time to start collecting e- no, wait, isn't there someone at the door? She almost forgot in all this excitement.
Gersha lets Mr. Jones in. "Sorry for keeping you waiting Mr. Jones. Now, as you can see Chelsea is all dandy, so you can go and get whatever mess you saw cleaned up."

"What?! No! What is this, shes bleeding all over the floor??"
The guard stammers in confusion.
"Ms. Folsom, this isn't fine. I'll get her to the hospital immediately."

"The hospital? Don't be silly, it's not that bad." Gersha chuckles. "Oh Mr. Jones, you always did ogrereact to everything. But that's part of what makes you such a good security guard. No, the hospital won't be necessary. But if it makes you feel better I"ll be using my trusty natural medicines."

Gersha retrieves some plastic straws, a small paring knife, and several vials containing essence of eucalyptus, virgin olive oil, skin moisturizer, and of course calcium.

"Alright, look Ms. Folsom, I'll go call the constabulary and have them judge alright? Just natural protocol, alright?"

Mr. Jones shrugs, and heads out the door.

"No, wait, they work so much better with two people!"

Mr. Jones is already gone, perhaps Gersha should eat the calcium herself instead.

Gersha runs after Mr. Jones, who clearly didn't hear her invitation. "Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones! Won't you help me practice my natural medicine? It works best with two people, and you know how effective my medicines can be."

"Can't do, sorry. Gotta follow protocol, alright?" Mr. Jones shrugs and keeps walking.

Gersha is crestfallen. "Oh, all right. I wouldn't want you to lose your job because of me. Make sure you get someone up here to clean the stairs after you're done!"

Practicing natural medicine isn't nearly as fun by herself, but since all the supplies are out already she might as well.
Gersha pops a calcium pill in her mouth, puts on some gloves and gets to work.

Using the paring knife, she files the tip of each straw to a sharp point. These will come in handy later if things go wrong.
As Gersha has years of practical experience under her belt they probably won't, but it never hurts to be too careful.

She begins by taking out several small sticks of incense in fashionable holders, placing them in strategic positions around the room and igniting them with her mind.
Having achieved a suitable ambiance for healing, she wets her gloves in the red paint that seems to have been conveniently accumulated in the vicinity, and draws a perfect circle around the body. Controlling her breathing, she starts the chant that has helped her so often in the past.

"Fuh-Ahn-Gloo-Wee Mug-Low Na-Fuh..."

Gersha then dips her fingers into the essence of eucalyptus, a gooey light green paste said to have a variety of restorative effects. With three fingers, she smears it onto Chelsea's forehead, neck and shoulders in a cross-hatched pattern, then traces spirals on her upper cheeks and draws a single line down the ridge of the nose.

"...Kat-Thoo-Luh-Hoo Rill-Lee-Yay..."

The skin moisturizer, of course, is for Gersha's own face, to maintain her exfoliation ratio during the ritual.

"...Wuh-Gah Na-Gull..."

Removing Chelsea's shoes and stockings, she dusts off all the dirt with a brush, then applies gratuitous amount of eucalyptus paste, the odor of which now mixes with that of the incense.

"...Fuh-Ta-GUN!"
As she pronounces the last syllable, the incense sticks seem to flare up, becoming almost imperceptibly brighter. A smile crosses her face as she catches her breath. It must be working. Finally, here comes the fun part:
Yes sir, it's time to oil up. Gersha loosens the rest of Chelsea's clothing and sits her in an upright posture.
Since this is a standard procedure, she will start from the head and work her way down.
Setting a frying pan nearby in case of spills, Gersha takes two bottles of olive oil in hand and carefully dispenses the fluid onto Chelsea.
The oil flows in rivulets down the channels in her back and sides, reacting with the already present eucalyptus and skin moisturizer for a potent mixture. After the skin is completely coated in a thin, shimmering film, Gersha lets it sit for about half a minute.

If everything went according to plan, Chelsea should now be in perfect health.
"How are you feeling, Chelsea?" She places her ear to Chelsea's chest, listening to her heartbeat.

It takes a while of waiting, but approximately ten minutes after the impact that knocked Chelsea out, she slowly comes too. Her eyes still unfocused and hazy.

With an utter disregard for her lack of clothing, Chelsea attempts to get up, but trips over her own feet and lands on the ground again. She struggles like a baby on the ground, but seems to unable coherently move her limbs to any rhyme or reason.

Clearly Chelsea is suffering from a mild case of early onset osteoporosis. "Goodness Chelsea, what have I told you about skipping your calcium supplements?" Gersha chides. She feeds her friend a couple of calcium pills. Perhaps it will strengthen her bones enough to stand.

Chelsea subconsciously tries to spit them out, but instead starts choking on them.

"No, Chelsea, chew and swallow, they're good for you."
Seeing that Chelsea's poor lifestyle choices have led to her developing breathing problems, Gersha attempts to decongest her windpipe by poking one of the straws through the front of her throat and blowing through it.

This act triggers Chelsea's gag reflex, and she throws up all over the floor. Thankfully it seems that she did not have much for lunch.

It is at this time that there is a strong knock at Gersha's door.

"Lauden Constabulary here on reports of malicious denial of medical aid, open up."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but you have the wrong house. There was no denial of medical aid here."

"That's not for you to say, open up or we will open up for you."

"Oh, very well then." Gersha opens the door and invites the constabulary in. "As you can see, I have provided plenty of medical aid to young Chelsea here, to the best of my ability. I used my trusty natural medicines, and they've been quite effective. By the by, would you like some tea? I bought an exotic brand imported straight from Vosulil, you simply must try it!"

"Hmmmm, what is this?" The constables are two young women, one sports an atypical short haircut while the other is noticeably overweight. The one with the short bob furrowed her brow while remarking on the sight of the apartment unit. Stuffs from the opened suitcases litter the floor while multicolored liquids of mysterious origin seeped into the floorboards.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be, I thought she would try to hide the body or something," quipped the fatter one, "well its a good thing. Medic, you can come in now."

Two young male paramedics rush in to examine Chelsea.

"Seems to be a broken nose, and a moderate concussion." Reports one paramedic.

The larger of the constables merely shrugged at the news, before turning to Gersha.

"I hope you don't mind coming with us to the station."

"To the station? Whatever for?"

"Well, its on suspicions of malicious denial of medical aid. Of course we can't charge you with anything before we gather evidence, but we can't just let you run away now can we?" The short bob twirls her baton while speaking.

"Why, your suspicions are completely unfounded! As I've already told you, I've given Chelsea the best medical aid natural medicine can provide. I have no intention of running away, unless you count a short trip down to the patent office. Now, would you like tea or coffee?"

"As much as we would like to, that would be against the rules madame. If you have a lawyer, we will allow you to contact them before you come to the station with us."

The duo of constables slowly circle around to both sides of Gersha.

"But in the end you're coming no matter what you say now."

"My goodness, how forceful! Your gumption is something all women should strive to achieve."
Gersha gathers her everyday carry items and accompanies them to their motor vehicle.
"I'm glad to have such strong female officers upholding this country's laws. Oh, but you forgot to introduce yourselves. My name is Ms. Gersha Folsom, what are your names?" She offers to shake their hands.

The officers look at one another, "I'm Mallory," said the short bob.
"And I'm Hillary," said the other, they didn't shake Gersha's hand however.
"Well come along."

They lead Gersha outside to a small, dingy black automobile, barely able to fit four people. There is not much of a roof, except what looks to be a retractable canvas cover mounted on the back, and the front mounted engine is exposed at the sides. Hillary piles into the back seat right next to Gersha while Mallory takes the wheel.

In around 5 minutes the trio arrives at the local law enforcement detachment.

"Hmm, this could have been very uncomfortable if we had to take one extra person with us," Gersha remarks. "Hey now, I'm surprised you know how to drive one of these boisterous machines Mallory. I've been thinking of learning myself, but to tell you the truth I'm a touch afraid of automobiles. You've got lots of clunking, moving parts inside, and making a mistake can be quite disastrous. Where did you learn how to drive? Is it particularly difficult?"

"Hmmm, I wouldn't say that it is very difficult, just uncomfortable. It was just out of the blue one day that the captain had us all learn to drive. I wouldn't recommend it over horses though."

The local station did not have that many people inside, there was a shady looking man speaking to the officer behind the front desk, and another officer was busy writing down paperwork. The last two were sitting in the back drinking something and just relaxing in general.

"Now we just need a statement from you about what you think had transpired today," said Hillary, who had produced a clip board and pen out of a drawer nearby.

----
@kelvin

It was quite the arduous task of finding the right people, as Borack gradually found out, much more difficult than identifying a person's political affiliation by glance. Obama still manages to fill up one truck with people who wish to go to the train station before calling it quits and heading there to drop the people off.

It turns out the train station is packed all the way out of the confines of the station itself with people, many which have resigned to sitting on the streets.

Most of the tracks have been commandeered by the army, and troops periodically poured out of the trains, along with supply trucks, auxiliary support weapons, and even armored Cavaliers(tanks). Borack notices, however, that the troops don't seem to be heading towards the docks, but more towards the east side of the city.

--
@Nina

Eryn manages to convince Linda to follow her, as it would help cover more area. The pair does not manage to find more train goers, but their detour does yield them some interesting observations.

After milling around the edge of several military checkpoints, however, it becomes interesting to note that the units stationed at the coastline seemed to actually be pulling away and relocating towards the east.

"Oh, I'd love to, but first if you don't mind, could you tell me who that man is over there?" Gersha points at the shady looking man. "I don't like the looks of him."

"He's not an officer of the law, I can tell you that, but you're safe with us."

"That's good to know." Gersha takes a moment to clear her throat, and begins her statement.
"I woke up in the morning at around six o'clock, and got off the right side of my bed. It was a bit chilly, but I suppose that was because things are still recovering from that particularly nasty winter we had last year as I'm sure you've experienced as well. Goodness, I can't wait until Prosperous. Wearing a shawl does provide more opportunities for outfit matching, it does, but they make a lady look so unseemly when she tries to stretch. Well, I decided to hold off on putting that on until I actually went outside. For the rest of my garments I selected a pink sweater over an old cyan dress that had gotten rather splotchy with age." Gersha blushes.
"Yes, I know it wasn't very dignified, but I thought with all the other layers it wouldn't be a problem. Certainly did not seem so when I checked in the mirror. After dressing up, I cooked myself a hearty Rimerian breakfast of toast, eggs, and a hint of sausage along with my usual calcium intake. I know you fine ladies and gentlemen here in Panalis have your own breakfast recipes, but you should really give it a try if you haven't already, it gives you just the right amount of pep to get you through a busy morning. And a busy morning I knew it was going to be, as a big project had just been completed and I heard an important official from the homeland was coming to see our presentation of the results. I left my house at around a quarter to seven, but as it so happens the RHI manufactory compound, where I happen to work, is quite a long distance away, and up hill no less. When I arrived at the compound there was already a veritable horde of unruly workers waiting at the gate. So many unclean menial laborers! I could hardly stand it, all their bodies pressing against me with their unsavory stench. Pee-yew!"
She shudders at the memory, flapping her hand around her nose.
"They ought to use soap, or actually bathe once in a while. Perhaps the government should mandate a minimum of one bath per week. I should consider moving closer to the workplace, so I can arrive early before the crowd forms. Oh, and if that was not bad enough, many of them seem to have no sense of manners or propriety at all. I was growled at, ignored, and insulted about my weight, which I'll have you know is perfectly healthy for a woman of my age, thank you very much! I was even violently shoved by the rudest man! I almost lost it right there and then, I did. Folks these days don't seem to care that you're in the middle of a conversation. They think they can interrupt you whenever they want and push you this way and that. The police department ought to send some fine officers like you up there with your batons and cordons to keep everything orderly and polite like it should be. I endured all that only to check in at ten PAST seven. Ugh. To be late on such an important day is dreadful."
Gersha coughs. "Oh dear, my throat is a bit parched. Might I have a glass of water?"

"Wait, wait, stop, we don't need to hear about your entire day," Mallory hands Gersha a glass of tap water.
"You can start from how you met the victim, and what transpired from there."

She looks through pocket telescope to see if she can see whats happening to the east.

Eryn sees some pretty dank looking architecture due east, but those buildings are blocking Eryn's line of sight to whats happening far away. Perhaps if she went higher in elevation, or closer to the action then she can see more clearly.

She heads to a higher elevation to get a better view.

Eryn heads towards the center of the city and runs up the tallest building she could find, the corporate headquarters of Dillette Home Insurance Company. The ground floor guard was neglectful enough to let Eryn pass unchecked, while reading his newspaper. People on the elevator gave her strange looks, but after seeing the rifle strapped to her back they were reluctant to pry.

After reaching the rooftop she found the door locked, but a liberal application of firepower quickly opened it up, the surroundings were completely deserted so there was nobody to stop her. Forty meters above ground level, Eryn could see clear into the distance with the aid of her telescope.

Around 10km out from the east side of the city, Eryn could see giant rolling dust clouds along with what seems to be several large groups of people scrambling about. Black smoke slowly spiraled up from puffs of flame which seemed to spontaneously erupt from the ground.

Seeing what she wanted she returns to the station.

Borack and co wait in line for the train

"Thank you very much." Gersha pops a calcium pill into her mouth and takes a swig.
"If by the victim you mean Chelsea, why I had just gotten to that part. She was the Human Resources secretary who checked me into work this morning. It's not often you see a wonderful coincidence like that, right? I said hello, she said hi back, but that nasty man behind me said "keep on steppin'"!" Gersha seems to almost undergo physical stress when she quotes the word.
"You can't just skip over a 'g' like that, you simply can't. Chelsea signed my time card, and told me she'd see me at lunch. Now, I knew we were having special accomodations for lunch today because of the Senator's visit, and I was about to let her know when he shoved me aside and ran off before I could confront him, the no good ruffian. Chelsea was already occupied with the next employee so I decided to handle it later.
Despite that ordeal costing me a whole ten minutes, I was able to make it to the office on time with a bit of running. I may not look like it, but I exercise my legs on the regular. Go jogging every morning on my weekends I do, as well as my other days off. It's very brisk, helps me get used to the uphill trudge, and sometimes I meet the most curious of characters on the way. One day I saw there was a man walking his dog, and whenever a car came by the dog would go over to sniff the back of it, where the smoke comes out. Well, you know dogs will be dogs, but I couldn't believe my eyes when the man went over, bent down and sniffed the back of a car too!"
Gersha shakes her head while tsking. "Goodness, I can't imagine that would be very good for your health. In any case I arrived at my office at fifteen past seven. Since I work as a secretary for Operations Director Dylan Walter, my office is situated to be right next to his, so some of the scent from his air freshener seeps in. Chocolate and hazelnut it was, not the best of choices in my opinion, but certainly not bad compared to what I had faced outside. Director Walter bid me good morning, and told me it was Senator Obama who was visiting. You heard that right; A real, honest to god Senator! I could almost feel how excited everyone in the department was. With one of my feathered fountain pens I carefully checked the formatting and punctuation on a few Testing Procedure Specifications before forwarding them up to management. There were relatively few errors, poor word choice or other cause for complaint for the most part, so I had a little time left over which I used to send a memo to Chelsea inviting her to lunch at the RHI stateroom, as well as a note to the kitchen to let them know she was coming. At around a quarter to noon I accompanied Director Walter and the other department heads over to greet the Senatorial party. Senator Obama and his wife Michell are very polite, considerate individuals. They listened to all my ideas, concerns and even offered to help with my situation! I can see why he's in office. Oh, his good friend Senator Bidden is quite charming as well. The presentation-" Gersha stops halfway.
"Oh dear. I'm very sorry, but my work concerns matters of a sensitive nature, so I hope you'll excuse me for having to skip over some of the thrilling details of my work day. I had some steamed red lobster and pumpkin spiced coffee for lunch, and had a nice chat with Chelsea and the Senators. Director Walter- mind you, there's no 's' in his name, everyone seems to get it wrong and say "Walters" instead of just "Walter" for some reason. There's only one of him, for goodness sake. He let me sign off from work, and gave me quite a large bonus! I knew just what I was going to get, I did. I went straight to the bank to get my money, leaving a few pennies to grow in the rainy day fund. If you don't have one of those you should make one posthaste. I went a few blocks down to Perpetual 32 to purchase some nice new additions to my wardrobe, which has gotten rather droll in the past few weeks. Would you know it, they were having a big clearance, everything half off! There were so many fashionable articles on sale, it was rather difficult to choose. I couldn't very well get them all, as I had other more important items on my shopping list."
She shows the officers her shopping list, written on a piece of stationary with a curly border design.
"I'm sure you ladies know what it's like, having to pick between such fabulous pieces on a budget? I have this method, see, where I go through them one sense at a time. I checked every dress with sight, sound, touch, and sniffing. Thankfully I'd narrowed down the selection enough by then, who knows what would have happened if I had gone any further. I picked out a terrific outfit and a half, one of which I happen to be wearing at this very moment." Gersha holds her hands out and spins around. "What do you think?"

"Uh. Quite fabulous, please continue."
Up until this point Hillary has only put her pen to the paper once for the entire length of Gersha's charade.

"Why thank you! Oh, excuse me, how much of this are you getting?" Gersha takes a peek at Hillary's clipboard.

"100% of what I need, please continue."
Hillary taps her pen to get some more ink out.

"What? But that's barely anything! Were you even listening?" Gersha sighs. "I thought you police were supposed to pay attention to detail. I should think it's a very important skill for catching criminals. Very well, I shall start over from the beginning. Make sure you remember it this time."

"That won't do, unless you wish to stay here forever."

"Forever? Surely your memory is not that bad."

"Well, that's an exaggeration. You'll just be here until trial comes around. Maybe if you make this quick for the both of us you'll get a few more days of freedom." Hillary shrugged like it didn't matter.

"Freedom? Bah!" Gersha snorts. "If you think this is freedom...well think again! We'll never be free as long as the awful patriarchal structure of male primogeniture grips this country's ruling class."

"Well uh, it depends on the domain in Panalis that you are speaking of, but yes the king is male and succession is technically primogeniture. Er, that's beside the point, are you willing to keep giving your statement?"

"Why, it has much to do with everything in fact. But here, I shall repeat myself for your sake."
Gersha repeats the entire previous section of her statement almost word for word, emphasizing the most important parts like the rude man violently assaulting her, the dog walker sniffing cars, and her conflict at Perpetual 32. She takes another sip of water.
"All right, just to make sure you are listening, what was the name of the government official who was visiting today?"

"Only we have the right to ask the questions here," at some point in the middle Hillary left for a coffee break and switched out with Mallory, "and I'll be more direct with that. How did the victim, Chelsea, suffer her concussion?"