week 7 - trial; day 2

[vicedirector]

seven vices case 7 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? victims suspects VOTING cast setting rulebook

Comments

summary time

[crazily]

[ So here we are at day two! Break still looks like shit, but this is probably what you'd expect, all things considered. But once everyone is gathered, he'll just sum up the previous day's events for everyone's benefit. There's really not even a preamble this time around, since he's just calm and definitely tired. ]

So, our murders this week were Alisha and Gilbert. We have two quite different murders for each, since Alisha's cause of death was stated to be drowning, and she was shocked quite severely. As for Gilbert, he was found decapitated and beaten, but only in his face*. Their estimated times of death were between 4AM and 6AM, but we can narrow this down further. I know that Gilbert didn't leave Rhys and I until about 5:30AM, and Alisha seems to have left her room at a similar time*. Since the bodies weren't discovered until about 6:30AM, this gives our killer a very short time frame to work in. It is an hour at the most, but I would assume even less than this.

As such, we effectively seem to have two separate murders based on the disparity between the two deaths. Whether it's a single killer or one is something we'll need to discuss, but I do think it's only one, which I'll explain later. However, for more factual portions, Rhys explained how the electricity may have factored into the kill. One of the pool lights was shattered, which would seem to be where the electricity came from. Considering the mannequin in the pool, I think it's reasonable to guess that the mannequin was placed in the pool effectively as "bait" for someone. It's our natural instinct at this point to investigate on a Friday morning, and seeing something that looked like a body floating in the pool, I think Alisha was the one to try and fish the mannequin out and was shocked in the process, hence why she has her wounds, but Gilbert does not bear the same ones. This would have been enough to knock out the lights according to Rhys, and I assume that's true? I don't actually know much about electricity, so I'm only repeating what he's said in that case.

Our order of events is still up for discussion, but I personally believe that Alisha was likely shocked first, and whether a commotion or simply losing the electricity, Gilbert left the kitchen quickly to investigate, since there were eggs left on the stove. He encountered our killer at this point and potentially surprised them, which is why his scene was so widespread. Based on the trails of blood, Gilbert definitely seems to have tried to run away from the killer, which is why we found blood, teeth, and his hand in such a wide variety of places. After losing his hand, he would have been bleeding heavily, hence the trail we have. It seems that the murder actually took place in the record store based on the amount of blood there as compared to everywhere else.

After this, I believe the murderer took Gilbert's body back to the pool. I believe that they made a stop at this point to grab the chains, since having the trail of blood there would be a bit odd otherwise. Because of her cause of death, we do know that Alisha drowned rather than being shocked to death. So at this point, Alisha was either already dead, or our killer found that she was still alive and knew they had to finish their work, essentially. I believe the two bodies were chained together as a weight, and with that, we have what we found, I believe.

We also have the coat, which from my understanding would have fit Gilbert, Undyne, and Rhys with few problems, but the rest of our suspects were too short for it to be a proper fit. Similarly, there are also the letters that we found in the pool house: "RI", which is either an attempt to point to the killer by our victims or it is a frame by the killer themselves.

[ Which, also to clarify OOC, the letters are sans serif. They look more like "R|" than "RI" ]

So I believe our major topic for discussion today should center around just what was used to cut off Gilbert's head as well as examining alibis, so long as the room searches did not turn up anything particularly incriminating. Because we did not find a weapon in our searches, I believe examining and considering just what could be used to cut off his head will be the most helpful, since this is not something that could be done easily, even if they seemed to have had some difficulty doing so, as it was not as clean a cut as the hand.

[hopefragment]

This might be obvious, but... if no one broke the rules on Friday, that means neither the killer nor Alisha could have entered the pool room until 6AM, right? Meaning they've really only got the span of half an hour to work with, instead of a full hour like we'd thought.

[Hinata with his rulebook in hand, ready to rules-lawyer!]

[crazily]

[ He nods ]

Correct. So either this was all set up the previous night, which is possible, but I don't think it's probable, or it was done quite quickly. I think that's the case because of the state of things with Gilbert. To me, that level of violence implies that we're either quite wrong about the character of one of the suspects or it implies that they were frantic. If Gilbert surprised them and witnessed what they were doing, to the killer this would be unexpected. Gilbert would have to die for them to live, because otherwise Gilbert would simply identify them right away.

[hopefragment]

Um...

[Hm. He really hates to even propose this, but all he can do is throw ideas out and hope they're refuted by someone else's truth bullets.]

What are the capabilities of Rhys' robot...? If we're really looking at one killer like you thought, having... a second thing to assist with might not be something we can really dismiss.

[crazily]

[ He grimaces, but his reply is pretty sarcastic: ]

Screaming, mostly. I don't think he can get that thing to be quiet even if he tried.

[ But, more seriously, he'll add: ] I don't know, though, so you'll have to ask Rhys. I only barely know what a robot is at this point.

[jackhole]

[ he's here and dumpy is here so let's get to it. ]

Nothing harmful, actually. Dumpy's defective so he wouldn't be anything other than a hindrance if I used him for a murder. Plus, he fell in the snow on Thursday so he was a little more on the fritz than usual.

[dhaosu]

If anything it seems like the area around the neck was struck at furiously before the head was ripped off. Maybe with more than one bladed weapon, if they were trying to disguise what type of blade was used.

[crazily]

[ He nods in agreement, but here's where Break gets rather serious. ]

It's a possibility. Though it's also possible that they may have struck once, not been able to make the full cut, then decided to finish the task with something else for that purpose.

[ He pauses, then sighs heavily. ]

...To that end, I would have to point out that one of our suspects does possess a bladed weapon that would not bear evidence of any kill.

[herbgrace]

Papyrus doesn't sleep, though, correct? [At least, Lithuania is assuming Break is referring to Undyne's magical disappearing spears.]

[detanimetion]

Even if he did, both of us were already up by 5:30 AM. I dunno if Clover and Sans were awake enough at that point to confirm I didn't leave the room, but Papyrus definitely was. I wouldn't let him leave alone on a Friday morning, not after what happened last week.

[crazily]

That's what they claim, but I admittedly don't understand anything about how they work.

[ they're skeletons... ]

Since they didn't say so in particular, I would like to know if they can confirm Undyne was with them from 6AM on.

[dhaosu]

[ He crosses his arms. He knew it was coming, he had a bad feeling when that winter coat fit. ]

... Undyne. She could also summon a multitude of such weapons, if I'm correct, and easily cause a good amount of damage without cutting through on the first time with those.

[crazily]

Correct. A spear would have a harder time cutting off someone's head than a different blade anyways. It's not impossible, but if you were running both in the dark and in a frantic state of mind, it's reasonable to assume that an "error" would be more likely.

[detanimetion]

That's exactly what people said the last time I was a suspect, and it turned out that we just never found the actual murder weapon because it'd been cleaned off!

Look, if I was the type of person who'd commit a murder this cowardly and complicated, would I really use my own weapon?! Or make it obvious that a blade was used at all? If we never found one, that'd be as good as implicating myself!

[earie]

You looked at the kitchen, right? Were the eggs still burning on the stove when you found them?

[dhaosu]

They were burnt and on the stove. They were not still burning or anything, since the stove was off.

[earie]

Okay, so that was bothering me. Like, if Gilbert was cooking the eggs and ran off and let them burn, who turned the stove off? Wasn't the killer leaving bloody tracks everywhere?

[billarious]

About the order of events...she definitely went back to her room to change in the morning. Maybe to shower too, since we found her nightgown in the bathroom on the toilet seat, and a wash cloth on the faucet? But I'm wondering why she didn't go back to their room afterward, or why she even went downstairs. Hinata and Alisha's rooms are both on the second floor, after all. Even though it's Friday, if the lights were all still on I can't imagine she'd have gone down there alone. She probably would have gotten Faize or one of the other two to go with her.

[Like...gurl why did you go downstairs?]

I'm wondering if maybe when Gilbert headed downstairs, if Alisha didn't join him. She had a checklist in her room that mentioned wanting to ask him for tips on how to cook. She could have joined him for making breakfast. And if that's the case, why did she even bother with the pool?

[herbgrace]

If it was something like that, they both would have gone together to investigate a strange sound at outside, I imagine. Assuming that was what drew them out, of course.

[billarious]

True, but wouldn't they both have also tried to rescue the "body" in the water too? Gilbert doesn't have any burns on him though, right?

[aumygoddess]

If Diphda-san jumped into the water and got shocked, and the power was out by the time we all woke up...it is not out of the question to assume that this blew the power out. This hotel is old, and its wiring may not be the best.

And if Gilbert-san saw her get shocked, and fall into the pool....

[brawlhalla]

Well, was she in different clothes when we found her than when she left the slumber party? She told them she was going to change, right? If she stopped by her room to do that after meeting Gilbert in the halls, we can assume the asking happened the day of the murder rather than earlier...but even if it was earlier, it isn't like she couldn't have asked him for more tips.

[brawlhalla]

As one of the people the coat didn't fit perfectly, I still want to point out that covering more of the body would probably be better for a murder coat?

[ Because, well. ]

[muties]

After you, Sadie's the smallest and would be dwarfed in it like a kitten, right?

[brawlhalla]

Yeah. Although she's also...the least athletic?

[ THIS CASE IS A HEADACHE. ]