week 4 - trial; day 2

[vicedirector]

seven vices case 4 trial, day 2 ♫ sunday At 9AM, every television will go off, loud enough to wake anyone sleeping. The calm, apathetic voice will advise everyone to gather in the chapel for the trial. Static will continue to blare in the head of anyone dillydallying. Once all of the guests have gathered in the chapel, the doors will lock. Most of the pews have been moved aside to allow for more space, and a few tables have been set up on the altar. On the first, there is an additional copy of the rulebook, and the information cards of the victim and suspects laid out, with space for the suspects to provide their whereabouts, as well as an autopsy report. There is also a large wheeled chalkboard upon which you may write theories. On the second table is a pitcher of water and some glasses, as well as very simple sandwiches and pastries. The door behind the altar has finally been unlocked. It's a rather plain room with an area set off by a folding screen. Inside, you will find a table on which the victim's body has been laid out. Next to the table, two black and white photographs have been hung on the screen. they are close ups of the victim's body, as it was found when the body discovery announcement chimed. A few sticks of incense burn in the corner to avoid any smells. At 6PM, the trial will adjourn, after which everyone is expected to have cast their votes. >Discuss? victim   suspects      VOTING cast setting VOTING TENTATIVELY CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT CST.

Comments

Autopsy Report

[vicedirector]

On the table, the following has been laid out carefully next to the rulebook:

Autopsy Report - Selena

Cause of Death - Appears to be exsanguination from incised wound

Body Discovery - Approximately 9:00AM

Time of Death - Between 1:00AM and 4:00AM

Condition of Body - Stomach and throat slit open. Glitter coating hands. Bruising on right hand, left shoulder, and left forearm; small bruise on side of neck. First degree burns on various parts of body.

Condition of Scene - Victim found laying in locked jail cell of the police station. Room on fire, slowly burning.

Suspects

[vicedirector]

On the table next to the autopsy report, the information cards of all suspects have been laid out. Below the cards is a blank sheet of paper, labeled:

Whereabouts - Thursday Evening to Friday Morning, Week 4

previous alibis here

Findings

[vicedirector]

The rest of the table is empty. There are boxes labeled Exhibit A through Exhibit J, and pens and paper for writing.

All evidence and other information found during the course of investigation should be listed here.

previous findings here

Undyne's Room

[hopefragment]

[In fairly average handwriting:]

Roxy and I checked over Undyne's room. Found a polished suit of armor in the closet, ribbon-wrapped bones in the dresser, a trombone in a pile of blankets, and a copy of "mr. fluffy skeleton's peekaboo adventures" on the bed closest to the door. Both beds and the trombone's blankets were coated in glitter: the bed near the door with gold and silver, the trombone's blankets with blue, and the other bed with every single color. The sink and bathtub were both dry.

There was also a dog locked in the safe and uncooked spaghetti stored in the toilet. - Hinata

[Could he look any more Done while writing this up? Probably not.]

Faize's Room

[sobowtor]

[In Poland's loopy bubble-y handwriting.]

Sadie and I checked Faize's room.

Couldn't find any ash other than what we already saw on the door.

There was really nothing that stood out to either of us. Like at all.

- Poland

Urashima's Room

[stupidly]

[In Gilbert's tidy scrawl:]

Cheshire and I searched Urashima's room. Nothing seemed out of place. He kept his glitter-covered outfit in the safe but there was nothing else unusual about it. One of his beds had the sheets stripped and they were placed in the closet, but there was nothing strange about them, either. The stripped bed had fur on it that's a likely match for Cheshire.

Break's Room + Note

[dhaosu]

Nothing of note, besides a very unsightly-looking doll and what was written here.

- Dhaos

Tome Test Results

[stupidly]

[In Gilbert's handwriting:]

Dhaos and I took the suspects out to see if they could use the tome. Here are the results:

Break: The tome smoked a little, but there was no fire. The number didn't change.

Vegeta: The tome didn't smoke or produce fire. The number didn't change.

Undyne: The tome produced a very small fireball, and the number ticked down by one.

Faize: Produced a fireball smaller than Dhaos'. The number ticked down by one.

Urashima: The tome didn't smoke or produce fire. The number didn't change.

Vegeta's Room

[mothercat]

[ Clean print, occasional sloppiness! ]

Not much to see. There was some glitter on the bed, floor, and bathroom. The sheets didn't smell too fresh though so I think the glitter might have been from the other week.

Oh, and he had dirty laundry in his bathroom. I wonder if he knows how to use the laundry room?

Urashima was definitely in his room last night.

-Ranulf

Body

[vicedirector]

Behind a discrete folding screen, in the room behind the altar, Selena's body has been laid out on a simple white table. Her body is covered with a white sheet, but the sheet can be removed. Other than the position and the sheet, the body has not been changed from how it was found.

Near the body is two black and white photographs of the scene as it was when the body discovery chimes rang yesterday morning. The photographs are close ups - they portray Selena's body, but no more of the scene than is necessary to do so. Still, if you want to check her position, it makes it fairly easy.

(You may thread in this subheading to investigate the bodies)

previous findings here

[hopefragment]

[Well this body isn't eviscerated, so Hinata's going to take a deep breath and step behind the curtain to take a look. And while he does look a little pale, he is going to check over her body, mainly focusing on her throat injury. Is it possible to tell with what hand someone was holding the blade in the way the wound was cut?]

[detanimetion]

[Undyne's gonna check Selena's glitter hands! First she's going to check how heavily coated they are. Is the glitter on there thickly to the point where she can barely see the skin underneath, or is it just residue like what would happen if you brushed glitter off your hands? And does it come off easily onto her own hands when she touches it?

[brawlhalla]

[ HELLO FRIEND Astrid is here to check the throat injury again. As a person with experience in bladed weaponry (and...weaponry in general), she's more likely than Hinata to be able to gauge what sort of blade caused this. Could it have been a rapier like Faize's? Faize's sword is VERY ODD so she should be able to at least figure that one out. How does it compare to the blade she borrowed from our resident goddess? ]

Talk to Miata

[vicedirector]

the story so far

[crazily]

[ sebastian briefly possesses break to give a summary: the tag ]

[ Though more seriously, Break shows up to the trial looking worse than he usually does. It doesn't look like he slept at all the previous night, so the usually dark circles under his eyes are even darker, and he just kind of looks generally unwell. Don't stand to close to him if you don't want blood coughed on you, probably. But he of course pays this no mind, and he immediately gets down to business. ]

Well, good morning, everyone~. Considering we made almost no progress yesterday, let's just get right to it, hm~?

Our victim was Selena, who seems to have died from a blade. Faize, Urashima, and I all use swords, and Undyne uses a spear as her weapon, but upon inspecting everyone's blades. Our weapons showed normal usage, but were clean, though I'd note that Undyne's spear does not retain any damage since it's magic, amd Urashima's sword is tied to his condition or something like that. As for the bruises on Selena's body, the long, thin bruises on her shoulder are a feasible match for my cane, the stick in the jail cell, and the pole of Undyne's spear.

Other than the damage on her body, there's also an issue of red herrings regardless of who actually did it. A paper crane was found near the police station, which would point to Urashima, a smudge of ash on Faize's door, and and Selena's book in her room opened to my profile. However I would like to note that Undyne noticed that Selena's keys had blood on them, which seems to imply that they were taken after she died, so it's possible that this was done by the killer instead of by Selena herself. I believe I also overheard that the glitter could point to Vegeta, but I'm still not completely certain what this is, so I'll leave that explanation to another.

[ all he knows is that it totally got in his eye socket, so thanks for that... ]

As for the fire, we did seem to determine that it was likely from Selena defending herself. The fire had been burning for a few hours before we discovered it, and since Miata informed us that it had fifteen uses when she arrived, and was at thirteen when we discovered the book. It requires magic ability to use it, which Selena certainly had, but for the sake of noting it, Undyne and Faize were both able to use the tome, whereas, Vegeta, Urashima and I were not. Though since we did seem to think that Selena was the one that used it, I would suggest that we... [ He pauses, since his shame ] Ergh... We should likely check the suspects for injuries, since it would be difficult for someone to escape completely unscathed. However, even so, it's worth noting that Urashima and Faize were both immune this week, so they wouldn't have been injured.

As for the suspects themselves, Vegeta and Urashima both claimed to have spent the entire night with each other, which I say "claimed" because they are both suspects. Rhys... vaguely pointed out that this may be worth noting. Faize spent the night with Hinata, and Undyne with Sans and Papyrus. I spent the night alone, which there is a reason for, but I wouldn't expect anyone to simply take my word for it, so you may take that as you will.

So I believe that it's worth thinking about why Selena may have been out, since her footprints didn't imply distress like Kurisu's. If the killer accompanied her, then they would have had to have a very good reason to lure her out on a dangerous night.

[keepshispride]

I don't mind being searched.

[Just for the record. No modesty, no problem.]

As for why the idiot was out of her room at that hour... No matter the reason, she must have been absurdly trusting.

[jackhole]

[ finger guns at break!! ]

Wait -- [ lmao oh right he can't see that ] Good job, Break!

[dhaosu]

The culprit could have tricked Selena, making her believe that she needed to accompany them for their sake. For example, if they were suffering due to what was shown upon the clips. She does not seem the type to ignore another's plights.

[detanimetion]

We can come up with a whole bunch of reasons how Selena might have been lured out, but without any actual evidence, I don't know how to go about proving it. Maybe she really did go out to do arts and crafts at one in the morning, or maybe the suspect pretended they left something in the police station and asked for her to accompany them.

Out of all the possible red herrings, I think the glitter stands out the most. It's not just over her hands, it's on those gloves too. Why go through the extra effort if it's just to frame someone?

[lastgirl]

This is just a matter of opinion, but I think Selena must have been the one to use the tome. I think because of the way it works, Selena would have to tell them explicitly how to use it if it wasn't her.

In that situation Selena may have been using it to either attack or defend. And if no one has wounds on them...then it could only really point to two people then.

[The ones with protection that is to say.]

[dhaosu]

I think so as well. It was likely she was using it to defend herself against her attacker.

Hopefully a search will be able to give us an answer regarding if one has wounds or no.

[hopefragment]

Um...

[Hinata emerges from behind the curtain to present a finding!]

I'm... not that good with differentiating injuries, but I think from the shape of the wound... it looks like someone right-handed slit Selena's throat. Someone better at weapons should double-check, but... at the very least, I know Faize is left-handed.

It's not a bad idea to ask him to test using his right hand to cut something to be sure, but the cut looked really steady. I don't think someone who's left-handed could have made it that clean.

[brawlhalla]

[ SHE'LL JUST BUSYBODY OVER TO CHECK IT. ]

Yeah, that's right. I'm good with differentiating injuries, by the way.

[ viking ]

STRIP SEARCHES

[aumygoddess]

[ the murdergame tradition lives ]

[minogame]

( okay so who's doing turtle boy even tho he's immune )

[dhaosu]

[ On the chalk-board, Dhaos has written something. ]

Possible Timeline of Events (To be Updated)

-The killer fetches glitter at some point from the schoolhouse.
-Selena is called out by the killer.
-The killer invites Selena out with a good reason
-Reason being--killer lied to her and acted in distress so she would accompany them.
-They head to the police station.
-They partake in some activity there.
-At some point, the broom may have been used to try to clean up something.
-The killer attacks her likely when she is distracted, and she is able to fling two spells back. However the killer planned for this to occur and so used her tome's flames to have the police station catch fire.
-The killer disarmed her, then killed her shortly afterwards, and locked her in her cell.
-The killer stole Selena's keys and put back the key to the jail cell underneath the office desk. The killer left behind the broom, which was likely used to assist in accelerating the fire.
-The killer discards of the plastic gloves, and then drops the paper crane nearby the police station to "frame" Urashima.
-The killer heads back, making sure to drop the keys nearby the clinic to use as a red herring.
-As the killer heads into the hotel, they make sure to smudge Faize's door to "frame" him as if he had been out.
-The killer returns to their room. ]

Any thoughts?

[brawlhalla]

There's no point in this list where the killer goes to frame Break with the book in Selena's room...is there even time for them to have done that? Selena's room is on the third floor, after all.

[ obviously mistrusting break, the saga ]

[detanimetion]

So...I have a theory about what happened. And it might be super wrong! It probably is! If anyone can prove me wrong, I...I challenge you to do so! [Looking kind of desperate here???]

But...[Taking a deep breath.] Vegeta! I can't believe I'm saying this, but all the signs lead to you being the killer! First of all, it's kind of weird that you of all people would suddenly accept Urashima's offer to room with you - but I think you had a plan for that! According to him, it was your idea to train him! You made sure he would be exhausted by the end of the night so he wouldn't wake up once he fell asleep!

Then you lured Selena out by...honestly, I have no idea, maybe she just figured you wouldn't kill her out of the blue like a coward. You'd already prepared the knife and glitter and gloves beforehand. Once you led her to the police station, you attacked her - she fought back, of course, but you're fast enough to dodge her fireballs easily. You used the broomstick we found to disarm her and then slit her throat - both weapons that wouldn't lead back to you, since you usually fight with only your own body. You covered her hands with pink glitter just in case any of it fell off of you while you were fighting to make it look like it was a red herring. Then you either flew or sped back to the schoolhouse to replace the jar and grab the crane along the way.

You then dropped off all the other fake clues and sped back up to her room, using her keys to unlock her door and open up her profile book to Break's picture. Then you went back to your own room, opened the window, and threw the keys out so it'd land where the clinic is.

If I'm wrong, then prove it! But you're the only person here who's fast enough to have done all this and have a window facing towards the clinic!

[crazily]

I'm inclined to agree with your theory. As one other note, Urashima also mentioned that this evening was the first time they trained together. It's quite unusual, and given everything else here, I think this theory fits our circumstances here the best. Exhausting Urashima seems to give Vegeta an alibi, but it also made it more certain that he wouldn't notice Vegeta leaving.

[sobowtor]

Did Selena and Vegeta even like each other?

[Granted. Poland is having a hard time seeing anyone hang out with Vegeta in general, let alone on murder day.]

[muties]

Vegeta doesn't like anyone.

[ pause ]

Except Ranulf, he thinks Ranulf is hot.