week 5 - day 1 trial

[vicedirector]

seven vices case 5 trial, day 1 ♫ saturday 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. Everyone will be escorted back to the hotel by Miata, after which everyone is allowed to head to either the kitchen to get dinner, or to their rooms. Attempting to wander off into the other areas of the hotel will trigger the static alarms in everyone's heads/televisions. >Discuss? victim suspects VOTING cast setting rulebook

Comments

[symbologic]

[Time to be a super snoop. WHAT DO YOU KEEP NOTES ON, INABA? Are they like Bill's cryptic stars and dog ears? Perhaps a confession note? More of your weird moonrune ciphers? Anything useful at all?]

[dereban]

[ MOST OF THEM HAVE MOONRUNE CIPHERS, YES

The last one, #6, reads: 3 left. Which is actually followed by a cipher. An easier one than the last, probably.

"つミのシ" ]

[symbologic]

[DAMMIT. OF COURSE. He can't read this shit, so he'll defer to Hajime "I'm not good at using my brain for puzzles" Hinata. He turns the screen a little so that the other boy can see. He's got all six documents open at once for simplicity's sake.]

This is Japanese, correct? Can you make any sense of this?

[He...he can't read it...]

[hopefragment]

Uh... yeah, it's Japanese.

[He points at the characters on the screen, stopping short before actually touching the screen itself.]

"tsu," "mi," "no," "shi," [he sounds out for Faize, though after a moment, he frowns and points to the first and third character.] Except she wrote "tsu" and "no" in hiragana, one of our alphabets, and "mi" and "shi" in katakana, a different one entirely. If it's supposed to be read together in spite of that, it could be... a bunch of things. "Death of sin," "city of sin," "four sinners"... "Shi" can mean a lot if it's just written like that.

[symbologic]

[Quizzical brow quirk. How many alphabets do you have, Japan... That seems necessarily complicated.]

I see...and when combined with "three left"? I'm assuming this is meant to be some manner of cipher, similar to her password but this is not something I can work around. And if it really does have something to do with sins, I can't help but feel as though this might be relevant to something about our situation.

[Perhaps not to the trial, but maybe something in line with the concerns Astrid brought up earlier...]

[hopefragment]

Maybe it's...

[Three left... where are his usual evidence bullets, this is much more complicated. Taking out a well-worn by now profile book to flip through it, running a finger down each profile and counting to himself.]

Three left could be... if we're thinking about the sins, including Inaba, there's three people who were designated "wrath" left in this town. Do you think that could be what she's referring to? Or "envy"... can you tell when she last edited the file? If it was before what happened to Cheshire...

[symbologic]

[Well, when did she last edit it? Let's have a look. Presumably it was before catsplosion, but who knows.]

That would make sense, so I suppose it's possible but...I'm not certain what that would tell us.

[dereban]

[ It was last edited last Sunday, friends. ]

[hopefragment]

Ah, yeah, it was a couple days ago... looks like Sunday.

[Points helpfully! Though Faize has likely already noticed.]

Maybe not anything. What about the other files, anything more useful? We can always come back to this one.

[symbologic]

[Faize nods because of course he saw it, ya goof.]

Not in this folder, no. This was all that was in here, and I cannot read any of it. [BECAUSE ALL SIX DOCUMENTS ARE IN MOONRUNES.]

[Faize closes them all up and goes back to the main documents folder. Let's work backwards then, shall we? IN THE INTEREST OF SAVING TIME, SINCE WE ALL KNOW THERE'S NOT ACTUALLY ANYTHING RELEVANT ON HERE, let's do them all. He'll go through games, then NSFW, then StuCS to see what's in all of those. Unless Hinata tries to stop him, that is.]

[hopefragment]

[When he goes to click on a certain one, Hinata seems to realize something with a sudden flush.]

Ah, Faize, NSFW is-- not safe for work. I'm just saying, be prepared, it's probably going to be more, you know.

[Porn. Inaba why are you not Pure.]

[dereban]

[ WELP hope you are going to (scar voice) BE PREPARED.mp3 but the games are innocent! Looks like there isn't any porn here. Just games like Pac-Man and Sonic, things like that. The NSFW folder is A Trap because that's exactly where all the eroges are, dear god... although there seems to be another document here, labeled do not read.

As for the StuCS folder, there's more documents, all with dates on them marked in 2010. Except for one, which reads "DN: For the StuCS". ]

[symbologic]

[Spoke up just in time, Hinata. Faize stops before actually clicking on the NSFW folder.]

A-ah... [Inaba, why...] Then, let's...come back to that one.

["DN: For the StuCS" it is then. For now, anyway. We'll come back to the NSFW folder in a second because you know there's little to no chance we're not going to read something labeled "do not read".]

[hopefragment]

StuCS is... the group she's part of at her high school. I think it's like a club? Unless she's hiding something in here, I don't know if there's going to be much that's relevant.

[Still gonna look over his shoulder. What've we got.]

[dereban]

[ It is definitely a club, Hinata! But unfortunately the DN - short for death note - for them isn't relevant. Have fun prying into Inaba's privacy, though! ]

To the StuCS (Taichi, Iori, Yui, Aoki):

If you see this message, it means that I've failed and I'm dead. I'm sorry. I don't know if you remember me, or even if you guys still think of me as a friend for being gone for this long. I'd like you guys not to tell my parents or aniki about the specifics of what happened. Just tell them it was an accident, or something. I hope HS hasn't been messing with you guys after I've been gone, though.

It's funny.

I've made many friends, here. People I can trust. It's a little sentimental, but I really want to trust everyone here. I care about so many people here, and that feeling's something new to me. Let me tell you a story. In middle school, I was all alone. I had no real friends. I would just simply go to school and then come back home, using my laptop.

I was all alone. For the longest time, that was me. I closed myself off and decided not to trust people because I was afraid that I'd be alone again. That they'd betray me.

That's why I wanted to change. Maybe you, Taichi, as the selfless bastard, would be happy that I did. I didn't have to be alone anymore. Trusting others, having faith in them, and caring about them to the point where you want to protect them... it's a nice feeling. I guess I'm a hypocrite for calling you that though, Taichi. Since it's true - all I really want is for everyone to be happy.

I guess that, in the end I didn't deserve to be.

- Inaba Himeko

P.S. Iori, I'm sorry that I borrowed your name for a bit. Hopefully you and Taichi get together, alright?

[symbologic]

Ah...it would seem you are correct. It appears to be a letter to her friends back home.

[Just gonna...close that back up. Whoops. Awkward. At least it wasn't a love letter? But still, somehow Faize feels a little bad about reading this.]

[Alright, so back to NSFW and dear lord why are there so many eroge in here? WHY AREN'T YOU PURE, HIMEKO INABA? He stares warily at the do not read file.]

Um...shall we risk reading this?

[Leaving the choice up to you, Hinata. If you say it's worth it, he'll double click.]

[hopefragment]

...We have to. I mean... look, if I were going to hide some kind of secret document, I'd definitely try to make it so people wouldn't want to read it.

[Except all this porn is just. Why.]

Go ahead and open it, but be prepared to close it again if it's... weird.

[dereban]

[ SURPRISE you found the clickbait that only has a link to Old Memes-- except no, it doesn't. ]

Plans
- Find a way to restore m
- Never mind, it's not possible.
- Save them.
- Make sure HS doesn't fuck with my friends ever again.

[ There's also a link saying nsfw doc attached.doc! ]

[symbologic]

Of course, you would. Anyone would. But...labeling it in such a way seems almost...counter-intuitive to that goal.

[Really? Do not click? OF COURSE PEOPLE ARE GONNA CLICK. Though, points for hiding it in your porn stash, Inaba. That part, at least, was clever. Faize double clicks, halfway expecting more lewd images to assault his poor virgin eyes but then it is not that.]

...however it would seem that you were correct. [He'll turn the screen a little again so that Hinata can read the sooper secret list. Wonder what it means.]

[...then he's gonna click on that link. Because surely it's just as innocuous as this list and just another one of Inaba's poor attempts at hiding her deets.]

[dereban]

[ CONGRATULATIONS


you've found another list, with the title "On a Scale from Dead to 10, Would You Fuck ____" Inaba, why are you so thirsty.....

Along with a list of names. Which is everyone in this town, dead or alive, you're welcome. If they're paying enough attention to the names and numbers (why this) they might at a cursory glance find their own names!! Hinata seems to be labeled as a 10 and Faize as a 7. Amazing, wow. ]

[hopefragment]

Eh?!

[What is he doing so high on that list. Surely there must be some mistake. Where is Roxy on this list, out of curiosity? Also who else are the fellow tens, whose company is he inexplicably keeping.]

Well, this is a joke... she probably put the names in at random. C'mon, there's got to be something that's going to make this worthwhile.

[symbologic]

[Also where does Alisha fall on this list, clearly they're checking out the important things here. For science.]

This is...similar to Roxy's "hot or not", I take it?

[WHY ARE EARTHLINGS SO OBSESSED WITH THIS SHIT, HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND. Ones they're done perusing everyone's rankings though, he's going to close out of it and work on going through everything and anything on this computer for anything else suspicious or noteworthy. Which there probably isn't but he's gotta be thorough and nose through all the computer things because THIS IS JUST HIS LIFE.]

[dereban]

[ THERE IS NOTHING ELSE ON THE LAPTOP TO NOTE although in regards to this list, Hinata is the only 10. Roxy is almost there, at a 9.5, with a note "a person to have threesomes with", and Alisha is at an 8. Make do with that information as you will, boys. ]

[hopefragment]

Similar, except I really think she's just trying to mess with anyone who's dumb enough to go through her stuff.

[Ugh... just resting his head in his hands. This is so awkward, why is he at the top of a girl's "Want to Fuck" list.]

[symbologic]

[Just focusing on going through this laptop while still carrying on a conversation with Hinata because he is a multi-tasking master like that. Just listen to his fingers fly over those keys. So much better than the sounds of eroge.]

Hm? Why do you say that?