CHAPTER 3 ; TRIAL

[themodsgrimm]

The Story Continues... CHAPTER 3 - WEEK 329 Narrators Remain ; Wakey wakey, naughty murder children. It's a lovely Saturday, after all. Breakfast is served piping hot at its usual time and all of the evidence has been removed from the scenes of yesterday. No matter how you choose to spent your morning though, the clock will begin to chime the moment both hands reach the large, ornate twelve. Before your eyes materializes a door...but not just any door. Unlike the door leading to the festival, this door sits primly and properly right in front of the foyer. Whether you exit the castle on your own or you feel a friendly, invisible push, you begin to walk under an arc of wisterias. Behind you, the clock continues to chime with every step you take. By the time the time the clock strikes twelve, you've entered a beautiful garden. In front of you is a long table, 19 seats on each side. Around the garden are several glass cases containing evidence collected yesterday. As noon intensifies on the sun-shaped clock, you'll find Tiger at the head of the table, a glass-covered rose near her right hand. Tick tock, Narrators. You have nine hours to deliberate. Throughout today's trial, the delightful, delectable scent of freshly brewed coffee will linger in the air though there will be no coffee present. Instead, today's trial snacks include...finger foods. Welcome to your trial post! Please see here for the OOC summary of events from yesterday's investigation. In addition, please be sure to vote! Please see the voting page on how to vote, as we will have two special things to vote for. Voting will close at 9pm EST/6pm PST! If you have any questions, please ask on our Discord server or ping us on plurk. Please direct pings for the NPC to Danielle (entrappings), as she will be taking point for today's NPC, and the moderator team will be on deck for all other questions. full navigation. locations taken (statuses) stories (profiles) info & faq wishing well private conversations

Comments

[vigilantics]

So, like... same killer? I don't get that. Blotters only need to kill one person.

[discardia]

... What if it was an objective?

[vigilantics]

That's a possibility. I know there are some objectives that... well. They sure ain't kissing.

[discardia]

I can... at least say that my objective, like Monika's, also came in a set of three.

So then, maybe, the objective was "kill three people".

[vigilantics]

I still don't get why one of them was on a completely different day though...

[thesettingsun]

There's only so much time on Thursday night. Maybe it was easier to fit into their schedule.

[vigilantics]

It's a lot riskier to do it when there's no curfew though.

[selfinserting]

If the fact that the, the crime scenes were so similar means that the same person killed Hijikata and Monika... Maybe they could only do one, one a day.

[vigilantics]

I'm not sure... depending on how it's done, it could be doable.

[asswipe]

Tiger said she didn't know when Hijikata would be killed... so maybe the killer saw him alone on Thursday and figured that they might as well get it over with then?

[selfinserting]

...I've heard a few that involved a set of three, too. So - that could have been it.

[concasse]

It might have something to do with the objectives?

We've got everything from stealing to kissing; I'm not gonna rule out murdering more than one person as something someone's gotta do.

[vigilantics]

... yeah. There are some that aren't too great.

[concasse]

[Looking at her in mild concern. He will not ask the obvious question right now.]

Well. There we have it. If the killers wanted to get their objectives out of the way, there's a chance that's what happened.

[vigilantics]

The hard part is that usually if you have an objective like that, you probably wouldn't be going around and telling people. So there's a chance we can't actually confirm this.

[thesettingsun]

Usually. And even if you told your partner, there's incentive for your partner not to get you executed and themself potentially killed.

...Mine's bad, but it isn't this kind of bad. Evan can confirm that for you.

[vigilantics]

[ she trusts evan, so she nods. ]

Yeah, that's true. It might depend on how the partner feels.

[selfinserting]

[He nods.]

Yeah, his is different.

[selfinserting]

Y-Yeah. That's what I was thinking, too. It's... awful, but it might explain why so many people got, got killed this week.

It might explain why he, um, he was found on Thursday morning. If it was the same person, they couldn't have killed him on Thursday night, since they had to, um, go after Monika then.

[concasse]

Ah... good point.

[rubbing his jaw]

Especially if the Historians are going around, encouraging people to complete the objectives. I'm starting to think we better expect to see more bodies from here on out.

[a pause] Does anyone know if the wounds on Hijikata and Monika-chan match?

[fonlines]

Perhaps the amount of reward acquired is proportional to the effort put in.

[ his own partner said this last week. maybe someone really wanted to get in good with the crafters + well by going turbo.

he's not as inclined to trust the objective thing; it can't be that convenient to brush it off with 'someone just needed to do their objective.' ]

And if they had no cares for the victims to stay their hand, then why not take out as many as they can?

[vigilantics]

Would that mean that both of them agreed to it? Or was it just one who went over board, and the other can't say anything because it would out them?

... assuming there's two like the last few times.

[fonlines]

It could be either, don't you think? Every time, even if one of them felt guilt, or wanted to get caught, [ sandalphon... ] it seems that they cannot simply confess early for some reason.

[ ion really isn't. mincing words today, sorry. despite this he's smiling as much as he always is, even while feeding the pegasus some baby carrots under the table. ]

I would like to believe the best of everyone here, but I also believe-- nearly everyone has their price, if threatened or bribed. Given that our captors seem capable of so much...

[ well. ]

[vigilantics]

[ hm, ion, you may need some help. ]

Well, they could out each other, at least. Ann did it to Akechi.

[fonlines]

[ what are you talking about? he's fine. finer than fine.

it's what happens when you remember that your death might be looming right in front of you, and it's time for you to get shit done before not going quietly into that good night. ]

They had reason to be opponents in their own world. Akechi may have been a liar, but that much, I believe. She perhaps didn't seem the type to take him down out of spite, but out of a misguided sense of shared responsibility.

Even then, she didn't confess until nearly the end.