( TRIAL - WEEK 1 )

[abhoth]

At exactly 11:30 am, all residents who are still asleep will be jolted awake by a sharp, burning pain that spreads across their whole body. A simple look will reveal no visible injuries, oddly enough, and the pain will fade away as soon as they're properly awake. Those early birds who are already up and about will feel nothing — except maybe a strange, mysterious sense of relief as they go on about their business. Lucky them. Moments later, an announcement will come through the static-filled PA system: "This is Craftly speaking. My apologies for the rude awakening [not really], but your presence is required in the Dining Hall. Our first trial is about to begin. Please do try to be there before noon. My staff members have simply too many duties to tend to, to be escorting each and every one of you out of your quarters. Good day." And true to his words, anyone who doesn't make their way to the Dining Hall before noon will be dragged kicking and screaming regardless of where they've sequestered themselves. Sucks to be you, huh? Upon arriving there, however, residents will be given the menu, one copy of the rulebook, one pencil, one notepad, and a cheque folder. Lunch and dinner will be served at the appropriate times, and appetizers, desserts and beverages (of the non-alcoholic variety) will be available throughout the trial. All you have to do is ask one of the faceless men, and your food will be delivered to you in ten minutes or less depending on what it is. The Dining Room itself looks about the same as it does any other day — save for the fact that the lights have been dimmed. Why this, you ask? Because the projector is now in use. Transparencies containing each resident's profile will be displayed on the pull-down screen, with one of the staff members rotating through the images every minute. The profiles of the deceased are included, and if current discussion deems it necessary to focus on one particular resident, anyone is free to ask the faceless man to pause on the appropriate profile for a while. A small area has been sectioned off with a transparent, plastic curtain right next to the pull-down screen. Its use will become rapidly apparent once the victim's corpse has been wheeled in. Anyone who wishes to step into this area will be asked to wash their hands in the kitchen, and they will be given a pair of latex-free gloves and a hairnet by a staff member who is stationed nearby. Residents are required to dispose of both items before returning to the dinner table; a trash bin is available outside of the curtains for this purpose. Evidence found during the investigation, on the other hand, will be displayed in the back of the room. Two, long tables have been taken out of storage for this occasion, and any items found by the residents on Friday will be displayed here for further examination. Finally — a clock above the pull-down screen displays the current hour. Please do remember you have until 9:00 PM to figure out whodunit and cast your vote. ( victim ) Welcome to our first trial! Characters will be given nine (9) hours to discuss everything related to the investigation to hopefully solve the mystery behind this week's murder. No one will be allowed to leave the Dining Hall without explicit permission from the Innkeeper (and only then to take a tinkle), and all characters must cast their vote before 9PM EST. You may do so on this week's voting page. If you have any questions or doubts, shoot us a PM or a PP over at yuggoth. ( quick navigation ) voting | profiles | menu | locations | ic rulebook

Comments

[bownthisway]

Um...I've got a question. Everything you said makes sense, but if she killed Jason out in the hallway...why would she bring him back into her room and not just leave him there? Even if she couldn't get into room 112, leaving him in the hall is still way less suspicious than dragging his corpse back into her own room, especially since she'd be risking waking up her roommates too.

[perceptions]

Yeah that's the one thing that bugs me too. Unless someone else brought the body into the room, it makes no sense to implicate herself by bringing the corpse inside.

[bownthisway]

Plus it seems really stupid to me to have your plan hinge on being able to unlock a door with a coat hanger if you're not...you know, actually able to do it.

[She sighs.] But then again, killing people in this dumb game already sounds stupid to me, so maybe our killer's just an idiot.

[perceptions]

Maybe they were given a motive to kill? I mean, Hana doesn't seem like a killer to me honestly, at least not personality wise. But I think the people in charge here might realize everyone isn't going to be wild about the prospect of murder.

[nowyouseeit]

Do we know for certain he was killed in the hallway?

[thawedheart]

I think it's likely he was killed in room 111, but that also... makes you wonder. If she set out to kill him specifically, why bring him back to her room to do that?

...I wish we had some way of knowing why he was there at all, since he fell asleep with the two of you. It doesn't seem likely that he would sleepwalk into someone else's room.

[nowyouseeit]

. . . I think Dipper has a pretty good theory about how the body got into their room, actually.

[ninjay]

She would have had to dragged the body, unless she can carry more weight than she looks. Was there any evidence of his body being handled like that?

[nowyouseeit]

No, I don't think so. But--

I think Dipper might be onto something, y'know?

[bownthisway]

From the scratches on his neck, it looks like he was awake when he was strangled and did put up at least a minor struggle. She'd have to be incredibly confident to try to kill him in her own room without causing enough ruckus to wake up her roommates or leave no sign of a fight.

[lohengrins]

Hana asked me how the body got into the room some time ago. I don't think that was disingenuous — someone other than her may have moved it. For what reason, I couldn't tell you.

[pinesfortruth]

Did she bring it back? [he's looking between the menu and his notepad, because bitch took Notes] There's no sign of dragging on Jason's body, right? And, no offense to our number one murder culprit, but she doesn't look like she's tall or strong enough to just pick up a body of his size and haul it around.

But something's been bothering me about Jason's role description. A swan song is the final performance of an artist, right? In this case, a final performance for any of us should be right before we die. What if that's what his role did? A final act-- that moves his corpse right by his killer to tell us who did it!

[a beat]

Which is a terrible role to have, by the way. Like. If I'm right.

[ninjay]

My, now that's a theory. Do you think Craftly might confirm or deny that if we went and asked?

[disinterested]

I believe that our host mentioned that Jason had nothing but a useless wooden soldier as per his role.

[nowyouseeit]

[. . . OH, WOW]

That'd. . . explain why Craftly wouldn't answer my questions about Jason's rules.

[g101]

Maybe it wasn't his corpse.... but someone else's!

[ she's going along with this because its funny ]

[wristbands]

So what you're saying is you think all of the menu listings are hints in some way? I just thought it was someone with a sick sense of humor, like everything else that's happened around here so far.

[forlease]

Wouldn't his corpse being moved be more of a skill, though? He can't have both.

[bownthisway]

What's...a swan? [this doesn't sound like any robot she's ever heard of???]

Huh, that would explain a lot. Do we know around when at night Percival and Marty saw someone run into their closet? If it was close to when everyone started waking up, then trying to unlock room 112 with a coat hanger could have just been a desperate move.

[intolerable]

The body was warm on discovery.

She might have literally had to drop it in order to hop back in bed and keep her alibi. No time to hide it if you run out of time.

[bownthisway]

But time enough to try to unlock the door to room 112? Even just shoving the body out into the hallway would have been better than just leaving him in her room.

[inventurous]

Maybe he was killed in room 111 and she ran out of time to try and hide the body? She could have been trying to put Jason back in his own room, which could be why it looks like someone tried to break in there.

[bownthisway]

If she was trying to put him back into his room, wouldn't she have at least taken his body out of hers first? And if she could lure him into her room outside of curfew, why do it so close to the time limit? It doesn't sound like she went into this with any kind of plan at all.

[g101]

I was wondering about this, too!! Soooo weird, right? So I looked, and I didn't see any signs of him being dragged on his body, Allie, so... um... was he in the room already, you think?

[bownthisway]

Um, it's Aloy. But nice try. [she knows it's a weird name...]

Maybe, but killing him in her own room without moving the body after sounds really stupid to me. Dipper might be right about Jason's role having something to do with how the body got there, but there's still parts that don't really add up for me.