( TRIAL - WEEK 4 )

[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, but due to a certain someone who I shall not name [he's still pissed] — today's trial will take place by the pool. 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 Outdoor Dining Area 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. Due the Kitchen and Dining Hall getting wrecked, lunch and dinner will mostly consist of grilled and barbecued menu items. Hamburgers, hotdogs, salads, and items that require little preparation — all the residents have to do is ask in order to receive. Similarly, all beverages will be retrieved from a hundred quart cooler that has been placed by the side of the pool. Not as fancy as usual, but at least the pool is clean now. Some inflatable pool toys lazily swim in the water, along with pool noodles. Every now and then, the waters will vibrate to the sound of buzz saws and assorted power tools. Looks like the Disposal Room, Dining Hall and Kitchen are under reparations. A tent has been placed over the area to shield the residents from the sun, and to make up from the lack of transparencies everyone will receive a small booklet containing each resident's profile. They look a little bit like shitty PowerPoint presentation handouts, but maybe it's part of the charm. The profiles of the deceased are included, as always. A second tent has been set up in the parking lot, complete with an air conditioning on the inside. Its use will become rapidly apparent once the victims corpses have been wheeled in. Anyone who wishes to step into this area will be asked to wash their hands, and will be given a pair of latex-free gloves and a hairnet by a staff members who is stationed nearby. Residents are required to dispose of both items before returning to their table; a trash bin is available outside of the tent for this purpose. Evidence found during the investigation, on the other hand, will be displayed in a table by the pool shed. Any items found by the residents on Friday will be displayed here for further examination. Finally — one of the grandfather clocks has been kidnapped from its respective floor to show the current hour. Please do remember you have until 9:00 PM to figure out whodunit and cast your vote. And if anyone tries to leave the area before the trial is over? They'll discover an invisible wall blocking their path. ( victims ) 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 Pool/Outdoor Dining Area (the pool shed will also be locked), 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

[ungodly]

Ryou trusted you. You seem to be close with Suzaku, or at least close enough to spar or whatever with him. Supposedly. Now that we know Suzaku's involved, we can't trust that that ever even happened. You were with him the morning of the murder. You're frail, so you couldn't kill someone with a weapon or anything like that — no, you'd have to use something subtle like tea. I know you like tea, too. Hell, you acted like you were gonna pass out or something when Percival was asking you shit earlier.

It's stacked up against you but no one wants to admit it. Give me one reason why the hell I shouldn't think you're involved? Just one. And I don't care if you cry about it, either. Crocodile tears don't work when you're a black widow.

[ungodly]

Shut up Andersen! For real this time! I know you gotta be thinking it too.

[lohengrins]

As a Knight, I'll have to say:

You've no obligation to be anybody's white knight. We have 4 murderers and 2 hours. If she's innocent, she'll prove it herself.

[blacktailed]

Heather...

[if you're not onto something, Quer will dump you in the pool and leave you there herself. have fun swimming with broken legs.]

[g101]

You've really been thinking about this...

[ not that she doesn't appreciate that thought. heather's probably seen hajime upset the most out of everyone in this room, at the moment. ] Are you sure?

[gamerscore]

[ LEANS INTO THIS CONVERSATION WITH A HOT DOG. ]

...Dang.

[willremember]

That all sounds pretty likely. I mean, none of us can really take anyone 'seeming nice' at face value.

[ungodly]

Glad someone around here's got a suspicious mind still. I think everyone forgot people are being murdered here.

[willremember]

It's not like I want it to be her, but we can't just write off explanations that make sense. Like yours does.

[godly]

Is heaping suspicion upon her simply because she's familiar with Suzaku really fair, however?

[blacktailed]

They're all too willing to believe a spy. Don't blame them. He's good at what he does, then.

[ungodly]

Who else would Ryou willingly share tea with? She's our only lead and it all seems to lead back to her.

[godly]

Wasn't Ryou generally considered to have a friendly personality? [He didn't really talk to him, but that was the general sense that Light had gotten.] If asked politely enough, he might've sat down to have tea with anyone -- even despite his physical state.

Why is she a lead? Because of her connection to Suzaku, and because she's too "weak" to have killed someone with a traditional weapon?

[pinesfortruth]

Wait, so because Suzaku is our number one suspect for L'Arachel and Apollo and he and Yukina are-- friends? that means she killed Ryou? That's what you're getting at, right?

[he's not objecting (for once) just. trying to see the link]

[ungodly]

She was friends with Ryou, too. And Akira — apparently she was staying with him, and he already missed one person involved in a murder leaving his room.

[ she was just the victim in this case. ]

She's got a lot of people that have a lot of faith in her. A lot of people she could manipulate.

[willremember]

Not automatically, but it sure puts her on the suspect list.

Having someone's trust makes it easy to lure them out. And if you're buddy-buddy with a killer, you can get dragged in.

[thawedheart]

[Yukina narrows her eyes, her hands clenching tightly into fists.]

Ryou-san trusted me because we were friends. I don't have any explanation for you other than that.

[That, at least, she's able to say firmly.]

As for Suzaku-san... I would not say that he and I are close. But we do come from the same world, so if there was anyone I was going to go to for self-defense lessons, it would be him. He has the knowledge he needs to come up with a routine that would work for me.

I don't know for sure that he didn't kill Justice-san and the princess. It's possible he may have accepted my request specifically to have an explanation for his bruises, should he decide to commit murder.

But I do know that I am in no way involved with what happened to the people at City Hall, and that I did not betray Ryou-san. You can make up your own mind from here. I can already see that trying to influence you will be a waste of time.

[g101]

Yukinachi... You need to rebuff more readily. Prove it's not you.

[ hajime can't clench her fists, but her expression is tumultuous. it's early. you can diffuse this. diffuse it, come on. you're too cute, hajime wants to think the best of her. ]

You weren't more than friends with him? ...No, probably not. He wouldn't have had time to tell you.

[ungodly]

What a diplomatic answer. You should be in pageants.

It'd be so easy for you to kill Ryou, wouldn't it? All you'd have to do is sprinkle some dust in a cup. Really, someone else could prepare it for you if you didn't want to. You would just need to get him there. To make him feel safe.

[ she crosses her arms. ]

I can tell why this murder happened, and what the point of it was. You know stuff you shouldn't. So it just makes sense.

[18x0]

It's entirely possible that Yukina could have done it, but we shouldn't jump to accusing her this easily. There's very little actual evidence to implicate her.