Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

This particular investigation was likely a difficult one, for various reasons; whether through frustration or sheer disgust at the level of depravity involved, it's been a long day already. It doesn't seem like it will get any easier by the time the door to the courtroom unlocks, gently swinging open to allow everyone downstairs. As always, the stairwell is dark, but the courtroom is already lit up down below, a thin amount of light bouncing up the corridor to guide everyone downstairs; the podium circle stands stark and silent in the center, marking spots for both the living and the dead; by now, the latter far outnumber the former. Kirei, Milla, Angel, and Susan have all had their spots altered, their podiums draped in black cloth and their portraits set atop them; they'll be joining those watching all of you in greyscale as you work today. Do you think you'll do them justice? Either way and as always, the thirty-sixth podium remains empty and unadorned. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, Jericho can be heard over the public-address system; he doesn't seem to have settled any from the investigation. "Peerless, Edifying, and Adroit have all been taken from you - and hey, it looks like you found all of them, we appreciate that. But even if you hadn't, you'd still be down here, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you what you have to do as a result of everything that's happened. This is another one of those things that's either gonna be great or it's going to be terrible, though maybe I'll add in a third option of 'interesting' this time, just due to the setup. As always, you know what's going on here - the innocent versus the guilty. Seventh time lucky, maybe. As always, do your best!" Thirteen Participants remain. We'll see how many leave here at the end of the day.

Comments

[bloodisthicker]

...

[okay. boy does he ever just want to get this over with. because holy shit. holy... shit.]

So. I found Millia's legs in the last stall in the fourth four men's room. I think I also may have found the murder weapon?

[he puts the handle of the Attack on Titan sword thing on his podium.]

...there was also a smiley face painted on the stall. Also this... stupid ransom note thing.

[He puts that on his podium.]

Why. Why any of this.

[perpend]

[What the fuck is any of this.]

How horrific...

[bloodisthicker]

Yes. It was...

[deep breath]

Unpleasant.

...I forgot to mention in the face of the everything else, but the culprit also seems to have turned literally all the sinks on in said bathroom, as well.

[chessturner]

Was the water pooling onto the floor?

[perpend]

[....Cabanela is definitely, uh, pissed. To put things likely, but he does raise his brows.]

What on Earth could be the point of that?

[destage]

...Did that smiley happen to be painted with black paint? I found an open can of it in the art room's sink, along with a thick paintbrush. They weren't cleaned off or anything like that, so...

[Sayaka shifts a bit in her spot. This is...fucking mortifying? Like, christ.]

There was also, um, blood on the bottom rim.

[bloodisthicker]

...oh. so there may have been blood mixed in the smiley face, too. Yes. It was black paint.

Well. I guess Jericho and Hilda have some cleaning to do. Definitely.

[chessturner]

My...we are dealing with quite the smug culprit.

[So unnecessary]

[bloodisthicker]

Indeed we are.

[TRIES TO KEEP AN EYE ON HIS PODIUM SO HE DOESN'T LOOK AT WHO HE THINKS IS RESPONSIBLE]

[hesperos]

[ ... What even. ]

Guess our culprit thinks they're funny or something.

[bloodisthicker]

Yes. They do.

[IT'S TOO EARLY... TO THROW WILD ACCUSATIONS...]

[matchbreaker]

That note's probably has a lot of your writing all hacked up, right?

[ Given that her collection of notes that was clearly cannibalized from was afterparty, party, and meeting invitations but didn't include Elda and Aligula's at all. ]

MODS?

[bloodisthicker]

[...he kind of blinks.]

I... wasn't really paying attention to that. Let me take a look.

[yeah, how much of it is Tarrlok's, anyhow.]

[notaccurate]

[Yeah, let's look at that note instead of the other shit because hooooly crap this trial is ten kinds of wrong.]

The random capital letters... 'nonsense'?

[bloodisthicker]

It's a bit like a ransom note, I suppose. Sometimes people will cut up bits of newspaper to make a note so that they don't have traceable handwriting, especially if they don't own a typewriter or anything like that.

[innocentloveholic]

[ yeah this all really is a bunch of n

oh, wait, he was reading off the note. this is the one (1) time she wishes she was closer to Luca, damn. ]

So, what, we're supposed to do a word scramble or something on top of all of this junk?

[heritrix]

[Rin's going to look at the note she found as well.]

I think you're on to something, Luca. I also found a note.

[She's going to come over and show that to him right now, and how it reads "At Least she didn’t have to give her Leg up too! FOllow the arRows".]

When you separate the capital letters, there's "all for".

[evilfrenzy]

Ah, so that's where they went.

[...attempts are being made to appear calm over here in the sea of death podiums.]

In the hallway that Milla's remains were in, there were black arrows painted on the walls, pointing down toward that bathroom. Seems like we've got a trend of cute notes as well, because they left one near Milla as well.

[Said note goes on his own podium. It can be passed around for those who want to compare.]

[heritrix]

"Fridges aren't the only thing running"... That's referencing the bathroom sinks, right?

[bloodbiter]

[A sigh.]

Why move her limbs...?

[hesperos]

Maybe it's some part of their twisted show going on here, given that there's where the note was found too.

[ It's a guess, at any rate. ]

[sleepytimegal]

You found a note too?

[ Hi, Alex hates this. She places one on her podium. ]

I think I found the ending. Just so you know, killer? Not funny! I- ...I investigated the music room, and there was, um...a severed hand on the piano. Wire was used to point the fingers- [ ugh. give her a moment. ] ...in the direction of the note. It was hidden in the string instruments.

[ Hoooo boy. ]

Besides all that BS. I found Susan's medical toolbox. It was open a little? There were...surgical gloves, gauze, and tape missing, and it had...blood splattered on its corner.

[heritrix]

...Did we find gauze on any of the bodies? I didn't see it on Angel.

[evilfrenzy]

[With his own findings out of the way...]

Yeah, that could be it. The stab wounds looked like something you would see from a sword more than a knife or something like that. [...] Is that the entire blade, though? It seems...off. But I did not find anything in or around Milla.

[matchbreaker]

Yeah, I'm no swordswoman, but doesn't that look mostly like just a handle of a sword or something?