week 2 - trial

[productions]

week two trial



[At 9 AM precisely, the old grandfather clock chimes once again, and the doors to the drawing room are opened. They will remain open until everyone has come inside, after which they will shut behind them. It is not possible to leave on your own, although perhaps if you have a specific purpose the hostess will allow you to go, as long as you are accompanied by a partner.

The room is set up comfortably, with several tables by the fireplace set out to assist with the trial. The Hostess will also remain in a seat near the fireplace, next to the scales on the mantle. At lunch, the doors will open to bring in a large meal on an automatically rolling buffet, and at 3 PM, tea and finger sandwiches will be served. You'll be able to enjoy the trial in comfort, of course, but the information cards set out on tables will not allow you to forget your true purpose here.

At 7 PM, the trial will adjourn for the day. Players will be escorted by the Hostess to the ballroom, where dinner and wine will be served until 10 PM, at which point players will be required to return to their wings in groups with their wingmates and will be locked in their bedrooms until 8:30 AM the following morning.]

victim



suspects



Character Statuses
Setting
Manor Rules
Cheat Sheet
Voting

Comments

[obsideo]

No one on our suspect list is very heavy, though. I don't think it would be a big issue. The rope breaking would be more of a danger than the toilet or sink going.

That's assuming a rope is what they used.

[vytis]

You could probably use bedsheets, but you'd need several of them.

[obsideo]

Hmm, yeah. Well, whatever they used, we didn't find it, but it's definitely what somebody did. And I'm not sure it matters how they did that so much as it matters how they killed her and covered it up.

[vytis]

Yes--they managed to climb up somehow, or at least that's how it looks, with the dirt on the wall and the Sapphire wing's bathroom. Though, wouldn't that be a bad idea? Getting your shoes clean on the windowsill of a wing you're in, I mean, and then not cleaning it up. They noticed that they should get the dirt off, but not that cleaning it off there would implicate the Sapphire wing?

[obsideo]

Hmm.

They could have been in a hurry. Kanaya had an early alibi, maybe she wanted to be sure she made breakfast.

But you're right. It could have been Annie...or Poland, or Kaoru, they could have climbed in through the bathroom window and slipped out, knowing the dirt would only frame Sapphire wing.

[vytis]

While I don't think we should totally discount Sapphire wing, what if they couldn't get into the window at all? Opal is just above there, and with the dirt gone we wouldn't be able to tell if they kept going. The other option is that they climbed all the way to the roof, which--I suppose might be possible, but seems extremely dangerous.

[obsideo]

You'd need an awfully long rope to even get to Opal wing, let alone the roof.

[vytis]

Mm, unless the rope only went partway, or they're a lot better at climbing than I can imagine and they actually managed it without rope at all... But Miss Takami's keys were on her person, and we're assuming she was actually killed in the gardens, now, I believe, so they couldn't have used her keys...

[obsideo]

That's the point, though. We keep focusing on the keys, but...you don't need keys to open a window, or to leave the bathroom. If the window was already open, or if it could be worked open from the outside, anyone could do it. They'd just have to not get caught leaving the bathroom.

[vytis]

The bathroom windows are usually locked, aren't they? We could ask someone in the sapphire wing if their window is usually unlocked or open. ...Ideally someone from sapphire wing who isn't on the suspect list.

If it wasn't someone from sapphire, though, walking out of their bathroom and through their wing at seven in the morning would be pretty suspicious.

[obsideo]

If they got caught, it would be.

As for the windows, I'm not sure. My wing doesn't have any.

[vytis]

Oh, right, some of them face inward. I'm in Opal, and our window seems like it's at least usually locked, though I'll admit I don't check that often. I was out of the wing before seven, though.

[obsideo]

Before seven...

Oh wow, maybe we're thinking of this the wrong way! What if Minatsuki was killed down in the garden between 6 and 7. So the killer climbs back up. They've got blood on them and dirty shoes, but they're in their bathroom, so they can clean up.

Only what starts to happen right around 7? People are waking up! Someone's in the hurry to get into the bathroom. So they clean off the blood, but they don't want to get caught hanging around and risk someone else getting ticked off enough to make a big deal about what a long time they spent in there. So...they got out of there, but they forgot to clean off the windowsill.

[vytis]

That's definitely possible. Did anyone in Sapphire wing wake up around that time? Maybe they would have noticed someone taking a while around that time, especially if it was closer to seven.

[obsideo]

We need to ask everyone, yeah.

[hollowheart]

Something's been bothering me about this.

If you climb up leaving dirt on the wall, wouldn't you leave bloodstains, as well? Especially if you have yet to wash it off.

How do you go about cleaning blood off walls?

[obsideo]

Oh.

That's...that's a really good point.

[hollowheart]

You can't be inconspicuous with washing an outside walls, and the blood wouldn't come out that way.

[obsideo]

So...either the walls aren't right, or the killer didn't have blood on them.

[terriblesister]

She's right. If they climbed away... they couldn't have touched the body at all. Not whilst it was bleeding at least...

...and if they did clean it off, why leave the dirt? How would you leave the dirt. Cleaning up half the tracks doesn't even make sense...

[vytis]

Unless there's a way for them to have cleaned it all off of them in the garden, maybe they didn't have any blood on them?

[terriblesister]

Then there'd be evidence of that too, wouldn't there?

[pasodoble]

There would have been a lot of blood. ( Thinking aloud and then, ) What if they didn't have to clean up any blood to begin with?

( Twisting his face and trying to think. )

They could have done some cleaning up before climbing? Say, they killed her and then put on a jacket after? Or they were able to change clothes...?

( He has no idea what he's talking about. )

[hollowheart]

And why would they go through all that effort and not clean off the mud tracks, as well?

[pasodoble]

Time? ( Hmm. ) But if they had the time to clean half the scene then...

I don't know!

( He's so frustrated augh just let him pull his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. Spain is a real mature 500+ year old. )