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

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]

[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]

[Any bleach?]

Exhibit A: Amended

[notyetlost]

[Poland adds a small crappy dusty cardboard box from the basement along with a stoppered beaker filled with something that smells alcoholic. He also notes that there's cleaning supplies in the basement including bleach.

So basically anyone could have put together a box like this, there's most likely nothing all that mysterious or special about it.]

[productions]

[A few bottles, yes. All look sort of different from each other and all have labels.]

[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.]

[speakveryclearly]

[It's a good thing there's another girl in this ballroom who didn't need her plate of food, then. Kanaya drifts over as the earliest retiring guests are beginning to filter out.]

It would be pretty tragic if, after all the effort it's taken to keep you alive, you starved to death.

[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.

[godwhisperer]

Yes. You are wise to know of my ability to move through walls. Though no ordinary mortal could accomplish such a feat in such a span of time, I posses such power.

[Is this sarcasm??? No...probably not...]

[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.

[teenspirit]

[ Just... just putting a hand on his arm no don't do this now we already look guilty enough. ]

[hollowheart]

I'm used to small portions. [which is true, having lived through the worst of the attacks, although she can't remember anything at all of her military training.] There's beer up in my room.

[inthebones]

((nope because Susan saw them at 3:00 i am good at this investigation business))

To be perfectly frank, I think it possible you parted ways with Sonia on the stairs at say, 3:07 or so perhaps and the two of you are being just a tad bit inaccurate about your place and time.

[godwhisperer]

[Whoa there, immediately starts at the sudden contact. He calms down though, this whole having people in his personal space thing is new to him.]

Ah...yes?

[teenspirit]

No! We had a wonderful, lingering goodbye at his door...

[ Sonia's voice is nauseating.

Also it probably wasn't all that wonderful or lingering he probably just handed her some dried bread for the hamster and said something gothic and shut the door. ]

[vytis]

Miss Nevermind did arrive in the library at the time she says she did, yes.

[souredsweet]

Now that the accomplice theory has been ruled out, I do not see how either one of them could be the culprit. They were together until 3:10 which would give them an extremely short frame of time in which to commit the crime... Miss Kanaya stepped into the dining room around the time that Miss Sto Helit left the kitchen, though it was not long. [Kaoru's lips purse briefly.]

I do not think that Miss Sto Helit's poker is particularly incriminating, either... And it would certainly be easier for us all if you had someone to corroborate your alibi. [a quiet sigh.] I suppose we will have to wait until the search team returns before making any further deductions.

[teenspirit]

[ She squeezes his arm gently. ]

That's something, um, you should... you know, keep it sealed for now, right? After all, should you ever need to surprise someone with such an ability, you gotta be super sneaky and formidable about it! Sleek and sneaky, like in Ore ni Sawaru to Abunaize!

[souredsweet]

[poor sleepy Poland... after catching him nearly nod off a few times, Kaoru finally addresses him.]

Are you all right?

[souredsweet]

[while Kaoru is eating, it isn't very heartily. as with all trial meals, the fare is even lighter than usual and picked at in an unenthusiastic way.

that remark is certainly enough to draw attention from the largely empty plate over to Kanaya, though.]

Miss Maryam... Please do not talk in such a way. With the progress we are making, it will not be like our trial; it will not be a one-in-three guess.

[godwhisperer]

Hmm...perhaps. You would not know that Maga-G grows irritable at the same precise moment in the afternoon, and that is when I return to my quarters every day, so I do know the time. But there is no cause for you to trust me.

Still...as you surely know and yet feign ignorance of, I cannot cast spells upon iron, so to heat a poker would be impossible for me. Unless you suggest, ludicrously, that I set a fire to heat it?

[inthebones]

...

While that's actually very convincing - and I'm perfectly serious, by the way - the other possibility seems to be Kanaya murdering Rin in the time it takes to retrieve a dish.

[a frown]

...Although I suppose I've been mentally discounting Touko because the murderer would have ensured they had a strong alibi for the time. That's sloppy.

[notyetlost]

[As an aside to Susan.] I think that's code for making out.

[Relentless.]

[teenspirit]

...Is there something wrong with that theory? Mr. Cullen could do it in that amount of time. Why, he would zip up, down, and be back in time to crown Bella as his Queen of the Enrapturing Night.

[teenspirit]

You stop that!

[ Wailing again. ]