week 4 - trial

[productions]

week four 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

Investigating the Music Room

[obsideo]

All right! We're on a secret passageway hunt! Anyone interested, come with Sonia and me to look around the music room!

[With that, she'll head out the door and down the hall to the music room. This is definitely important.]

[teenspirit]

[ Waiting for anyone else to volunteer before they go. ]

[teenspirit]

[ Sonia dashes back into drawing room, followed by Clyde and Felicia. ]

Everyone! There is a secret passageway in the music room! It's activated by piano music, and one of the statues- and it leads down to the parlor.

More than that, inside, there was...

[ The three present their finding: It is the missing poker. ]

[productions]

[And with that, the clock tolls, signaling the end of the first day of trial.]

END TRIAL DAY 1

[productions]

[At 7 PM, the grandfather clock tolls once again, the doors to the smoking room shut, and the doors to the drawing room open. However, you are not free to wander the mansion - The Hostess will shepherd everyone to the ballroom for dinner and wine.

Everyone will be locked in the ballroom until the clock tolls again at 10 PM (anyone who wishes to retire earlier may do so, but they will be stopped by the Hostess if they try to go anywhere but directly to their wing). At 10 PM, the wings will be sent to bed in groups, and the bedrooms will be locked from the outside as well as the inside all evening.

Feel free to thread out any evening interactions beneath this comment.]

[speakveryclearly]

[Well, look at what the vampire suspect's not doing: Eating. Even though she never touches the food at these meals, her hopeless demeanor nevertheless gives off the impression of "girl refusing to touch a single morsel of her food".

---

Likewise similarly to most meals, she sits next to Kaoru, and at one point remarks somewhat out of the blue while examining the way a knife changes its reflection when held up in front of the wine glass:]

Kaoru, if I wrote letters to be read in the event of my execution, would you distribute them for me?

[hollowheart]

[After dinner, Annie can be found at the end of the room, sitting on an armchair and hugging her knees to her chest. She hadn't eaten anything at the dinner table, but had to stay in the vicinity nevertheless. ]

[notyetlost]

[Poland's kind of tired after spending the whole day running around the house. He looks like he's about ready to fall asleep at the table as he pushes some peas around his plate, but keeps jolting awake every time he starts to nod off.

If he were watching someone else do it he'd probably start giggling.]

BEGIN TRIAL DAY 2

[productions]

[At 8:30 AM, the grandfather clock tolls again, and the drawing room doors open. Breakfast is served in the drawing room, and the doors will shut once everyone has filtered in.

The Hostess steps out of the smoking room once again.]

Good morning, everyone! I hope you're feeling refreshed and ready to continue.

[Any questions on the second day can be asked here.]

[inthebones]

As we've satisfactorily solved the crime far in advance of the deadline, I think the majority of us would like to make a request.

[Susan says after consulting with absolutely no one.]

There's no need for a spectacle as with Bernkastel or Siren. A simple hanging would suffice - it would be more emotionally satisfactory for your audiences as well, with the way this trial went.

Day 1 Roundup + Computer Cracked

[allice]

Ok, so: lets review what we currently have working for the murder:

At 3:00PM, Annie Leonhardt and Rin Kagamine were inside the music room together. Up to this point, Rin and Annie were constantly together throughout the day. Annie then left Rin in the Music Room for twenty minutes and, in that time frame, Rin was murdered. Her body was first discovered by Annie at 3:20PM, who had returned to the music room and left afterward, later by Yuzu and Poland at 3:30PM.

Between 3:00PM and 3:15PM, in accordance with the alibis, all five suspects were on the ground level of the manor, excluding Sonia and Gundam. Sonia Nevermind and Gundam Tanaka had returned to the manor from outside and were going upstairs, Kanaya Maryam was in the Kitchen with Kaoru Nagumo, finally Touko Aozaki and Susan Sto Helit were at different parts in the courtyard. We now know after the end of last night that the murderer used a secret passageway in the Parlor to access the music room, kill Rin Kagamine with a heated poker and escaped the scene in the same way. There was a fire still burning at 4:05PM in the parlor, meaning the culprit did not have enough time to put out the fire before having to retreat. They also left the poker in the passageway.

This naturally changes everything we know about this trial. Rin Kagamine was deadweight, meaning the culprit would receive access to two items of their choosing before killing her. I propose they took a map of the secret passages and the rapier, the former to find a route to kill Rin and the latter to frame up how she died. With this passageway it wouldn't take more than a few minutes for the murderer to go to the parlor, start a fire, go up the passageway with the poker, kill Rin and quickly make their escape the same way. After which they had plenty of time to cover their tracks and establish an alibi for the time of discovery at 3:30PM.

Now then: we must re-evaluate the alibis. Someone entered the parlor to start the fire ahead of time, so that it would burn enough to heat up the poker. Everyone was on the first floor at this time, excluding Sonia and Gundam who were going toward the third floor. Only Kanaya Maryam and Susan Sto Helit accounted for by people who are not suspects in the timeframe the murder could have occurred in. The murderer also had to be aware than Rin Kagamine and Annie were together up until 3PM, when Annie left Rin alone for twenty minutes.

...

On a final note: I finished the work on Rin Kagamine's laptop. Her last save was on Tuesday Morning, meaning there are no recorded memories of who killed her. However, perhaps it can shed some insight into her thoughts, but otherwise there isn't any indication from it of who the murderer is for certain. I'll place it in the exhibit box.

[And she goes to do so]

[inthebones]

...I was in the courtyard with Yuzu, actually, up until past the time I noticed Rin missing - around 3:15. Touko claims to have been across the grounds somewhere poking about near the stables or something along those lines.

[Susan sounds vaguely disgruntled at this lack of clarification.]

Let's examine alibis, then.

Gundam could conceivably have parted ways with Sonia at 3:10 - or possibly a bit earlier - sprinted back down to the parlor, and carried out the crime before I noticed Rin's disappearance at 3:15. He would then return to his room where Sonia and I discovered him at around 3:40. Kanaya also says she left Kaoru for a few minutes to grab some china - while it would be impossible for any normal person to carry out this murder in that time, she is noted for vampiric speed. Kaoru, could you please tell us how long that was as best as you can remember?

Sonia would find it immensely difficult to leave Gundam and be back in the library in 5 minutes. I didn't leave the courtyard, and Touko was... floating about on the grounds.

[teenspirit]

Myself and Mr. Tanaka were already on the third floor and had already parted ways at 3:10; I entered the library at 3:15. Lithuania was already there, and he can confirm this for me...

[ Hmm. ]

...

In any case, let us reconsider the evidence. To summarize yesterday's discovery of the passage: from the music room, it was activated by a clue speaking of 'two gentlemen who had been poisoned'. I believed it to be Mozart and Beethoven, but when we emerged into the parlor, we knocked down the dialogues of Plato; there was a blank sheet of paper there, so I think the clue perhaps referred to Mozart and Socrates... They both died of poisoning. You could have solved either clue in either room to gain access to the passage... Ah, but that's neither here nor there.

So we can assume that this passageway was most certainly the second deadweight prize; the poker was in there, after all. And since it would have been useless to enter from the music room to attack someone in the music room... It is safe to assume that our murderer started out on the ground floor indeed.

[obsideo]

So what we're saying is, the possibilities now are that Kanaya slipped away from the kitchen, Touko came in through the window or something, Gundam or Sonia ran back downstairs, or Yuzu is lying for Susan somehow.

[notyetlost]

Oh yeah. I found a bunch of stuff you can make a fake lame mystery box with around the house, so I think the secret passage way map idea is solid.

[Because not everyone is talented enough at finding house secrets to just stumble on to these things apparently.]

[inthebones]

She was plotting to dispose of me?! And another person in this house simultaneously?

[Susan returns from Exhibit G with the sourest expression known to mankind.]

Well.

The rest of you can solve this murder then.

Obviously her creators accidentally churned out a defective product.

[vytis]

W-well, it's not as if she had the time to finish anything...

[You know, now that she's dead and all.]

[notyetlost]

You are kind of annoying to have around at trials from the murderer's perspective.

And you're always hogging the immunity.

And you're kind of a sour puss.

[Case and point for the last one with that face.]

[balzams]

Um... So I've been thinking, it's been confirmed that the dust on the box was due to the fact it was in the basement and if no one's cleaned there for a while it would probably be quite thick.

It would have easily gotten onto the culprits fingers if they carried the box up, wouldn't it? And Beat mentioned Kanaya's gloves being dirty after inspecting her room...

I-I'm not making any accusations! I'm just asking him to clarify. I'm sure it was probably just dirt from gardening or something like that, right?

[respecting]

Nah, it wasn't dust.. I guess it was more like ash or somethin'? [pause. Was that the word he wanted?]

Soot! That's it, yo. She had a bunch on one glove and a little on the other.

Investigating the Poker

[obsideo]

[Marlow takes out a white handkerchief from her pocket and wraps it around her hand - her gloves are black, so this will be more useful. Then she touches the handle of the poker to see if any soot comes off.]

[productions]

[It does; there's not a lot of loose soot collected on the poker, but it has been sitting in dust for long enough that there's dark residue regardless.]

Kanaya's Room Round II

[speakveryclearly]

[This place looks a lot like it did last time. The most prominent difference is, perhaps, that she is wearing the black dress and gloves mentioned before, and does not seem to have picked out an outfit for tomorrow at all. The sketchpad has slightly fewer pages than it used to - blank ones have been torn out - but there are pencils nearby as she told Felicia.

She pulls out the gloves in question and puts them on over her black ones, showing her hands to Latvia like a daughter to her mother.]

See? Doesn't this look like graphite to you?

[Not only does "this" look much more like soot than graphite, the pattern of darkening would only match what could reasonably be expected to occur from grasping a large rod made of graphite.]

[balzams]

[Whether it is or it isn't, from the patterns Latvia can only come to one conclusion and his stomach turns a little at the thought. Even so, just to make sure...]

Umm... Miss Maryam, which is your dominant hand?

[obsideo]

So. Kanaya has soot on her gloves, and it doesn't match pencil graphite like she said. It definitely matches the soot on the poker.

[She sets down the drawing Kanaya did.]

I think that about sums it up, so let me give it a try. Kanaya, like Reiko, and like Annie, knew she was deadweight and had to act now. Or maybe she just really wanted that spiky ball. She decided to kill Rin, because hey, deadweight. She asked for the sword and secret passageway map. Well...somehow she knew Rin would be in the music room. Maybe Rin told her? Or maybe Rin spent a lot of time there, I know she found the missing piano wires in the first trial. Either way, Kanaya got lucky. There was a passage going from the parlor into the music room, and Kanaya had vampire speed. All she had to do was kill Rin really quickly, and it would seem like she had a great alibi.

So, she decided to get cooking with Kaoru. Then, waiting until she knew Rin would be in the music room and also until after Susan left her in the kitchen, she stepped out to get some dishes. Instead, she went to the parlor, set a fire, and heated up a poker. She opened the secret passageway, ran upstairs, and stabbed Rin with the poker. Then, she ditched the poker in the secret passageway and replaced it with the sword and put the mystery box in the piano bench. She must have been keeping both in the passageway. She ran back downstairs and went back to the kitchen, but forgot to hide her gloves, so she had to put them in her room later.

Annie walked into the music room after Kanaya left and saw what happened to Rin, but for whatever reason, she decided not to tell us. Then, Poland and Yuzu found her.

Gundam, Sonia, and Susan were all accounted for, and Touko was on the wrong side of the house. In the end, it has to be Kanaya.

Any problems with that?

[notyetlost]

I'm not buying luck being a factor. It's too convenient that Annie ditched Rin to pee at the exact time Kanaya was going to murder Rin in the music room with a freaking hot poker.

[He doesn't doubt Kanaya did it, but he's glaring at Annie pretty intensely.]

POST-TRIAL

[productions]

[Once everyone has finished voting, the doors to the smoking room shut, not to open again. While everyone was filing in and out of the smoking room, the look of the drawing room has changed slightly. There is now a projector, playing on a larged, gilded-edge screen that has rolled down from the ceiling atop the far wall. Right now, the projector is only playing dancing light.

The chairs have all been turned towards the projector, with one exception - a solitary chair has been placed in front of the screen. If anyone was paying attention while this was going on, the Hostess did not once move to accomplish this. The chairs, rather, positioned themselves.

However, once the doors slam shut, the Hostess applauds to herself. An envelope is slid out to her from under the smoking room door, and she picks it up and reads it before displaying its contents to the room.]

Once again, wonderfully done. You've got the culprit exactly right.

Now, Kanaya, I think you've already had time for goodbyes. So if you could go sit over there and let us know if there's any last, brief comments you want to make?

[speakveryclearly]

[Looks up from her sketchpad, then sets her pencil down and puts the items aside.]

Thank you, ma'am.

[She stands up.] Kaoru has the letters I've written to all of the suspects and a few others, you can ask for them now or wait until later for maximum confidentiality.

[She walks to the chair, and sits down, gloved hands folded in her lap.] And for the camera--I just want this to be the last thing on record--Mother, I am so sorry.

EXECUTION

[productions]

Well, it's time to send Kanaya off! It's been lovely, and I don't think there are any hard feelings, are there? So we'd like to wish you a pleasant journey.

[The hostess takes a compact out of her purse, and presses a button at the back.

The bottom falls out of Kanaya's chair, and she's falling through a trap door in the floor, falling until, abruptly, the door snaps shut and she has vanished. The room is silent for a full minute, leading to the obvious conclusion that this was her ignominious end.

And then the projector flickers on. A short film is playing. The picture quality is shaky, and the film skips, and there is no sound but an accompanying music. However, the film is in color, and its star is none other than Kanaya.

Kanaya is shown in darkness, on a deserted, desolate rock - an empty planet, perhaps, or a barren desert. There is no moon or stars in the sky, nothing to light the picture but the glow of Kanaya's white skin. Kanaya is dressed in silken robes, black and dark green but shining brightly with rainbow swatches of color; the robes modestly drape over her hair and horns and cover her body. At closer look, the rainbow color seems to be liquid staining the robes. Her face is expressionless, but in her arms she cradles the matriorb.

Kanaya is alone and uninterrupted as she cradles the orb, tends to it, and watches it, before her and our eyes, grow. The liquid blood dripping from her robes falls on it, and the skin of the orb drinks it in eagerly, becoming alive with every drop. It's growing now, far faster than it would in real life, until it is quivering in her arms. She places it on the ground and the orb shakes and trembles, its shell crumbling beneath her touch, and something emerges.

Inside the orb is an insect of sorts, a juvenile grub, brilliantly glowing as white as Kanaya's own skin, with a skull-like face. Kanaya's blank expression is for a moment tender and hopeful, and then fearful again, for there is a problem with this creature. It is growing, as well, as rapidly as the orb it was once held in, but it is sickly and shuddering and vomiting a rainbow of colors. Kanaya kneels and holds the creature across her lap, still in her arms, watching as it writhes and shudders and struggles to breathe.

From inside the abdomen of the creature, a hole bursts, bubbling with rich green blood. From the hole, smaller grubs begin to crawl out, immature trolls, but they are misshapen. The first hoard are ten small grubs wobbling and drooling brown blood, dragging useless limbs behind themselves. They're followed by a hoard of mutilated purple grubs with their insides hanging out, ripping into the corpse of the stillborn infant queen and shedding bleeding body parts, limbs and torsos behind them. Then there are others - dead eyed, grotesquely mutated yellows, blues with undeveloped lungs gasping for breath, blues with a body crawling with maggots, greens with half their faces caved in, and even yellows with familiar faces with gory wounds in their midsection, smoking from somewhere inside. The tiny grubs begin to rip at each other, devouring the weaker ones, leaving spare body parts lying on the ground. A purple grub torn in half shrieks horribly; a yellow grub still smoking inside sobs and wails as though begging for mercy; the white mothergrub's low, tortured death cries hang in the air.

Kanaya backs away, until something catches her eye inside the glowing white corpse - a single, brilliant red grub that is not trying to devour the others, but trying to flee. Kanaya rushes through the writhing mass, the bottoms of her robes growing heavier and heavier with the pools of blood and the vicious creatures that attach themselves to her. She reaches into the now festering corpse and pulls the red grub to safety in her arms, but the angry masses at her feet tug at her, and more mutilated infants crawl out of the wound of the mother, ripping flesh out of the grub in her arms and leaving him shuddering and dying even as she struggles to hold him to safety.

There are too many, and her efforts are futile. She closes her eyes as the creatures, shrieking and sobbing the entire time, begin to rip at her body and tear her to pieces, devouring her until there is nothing left but the bloodied robes. The grubs continue eating, and when there is none of Kanaya left, they devour one another, instead, until everything is still again.

[Light from the projector dances against the wall before, with another push of a button from the hostess, it turns off, and the screen rolls back up into the wall. She then, without another word, stands and walks away and disappears into the smoking room.

The doors to the drawing room are now unlocked.]

[throe]

[ As per usual, Rapture is watching... completely fascinated and enthralled with the terror that is playing out on screen, but when it ends... she only has one, single question: ]

Was that the thing from Eraserhead?

Secret Room!

[obsideo]

Okay, since it sounds like everyone's in favor of sharing it. The secret room is off the library. You open it by pulling the copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. It's literally just a room, with some drawers inside that we couldn't open.

[She has a wry smile. She knows it wasn't a popular decision to keep it hidden, but it prevented anyone from being killed there so far.]

Go nuts, guys.

[inthebones]

...While we're on the topic of secret passageways.

You've informed us of the method to open the passage between the music room and the parlor, but how did Kanaya access it from the other side?

And is there time to find her map before they rescind the prize?