Trial 3 - A Matronly Murder

[verylukely]

"Oh, I suppose if the hoarder isn't here, I can come clean about my actions. You know the half of it already."

---

Action 0



"I started the night in the Arcade... No particular reason. Why did you do it, Gary?"



6:00 - Arcade

---

Action 1



"I may have gotten a little drunk at the bar. ... Okay, apparently the drinks aren't alcoholic, but I can't explain my next actions without stating that I must have been under some kind of placebo effect, because I decided that dressing up as a superhero would be the best way to do a good deed. The Hoarder seemed to be following Sayori around, apparently on MC's request, but Sayori didn't really trust The Hoarder, so I decided to restrain them while Sayori got away as my good deed."



6:10 - Arcade

6:20 - Arcade

6:30 - Unity Bridge

---

Action 2



"I may have gotten a bit... carried away in my mission. In my haste to restrain The Hoarder, I tried to carry out a typical arrest by holding his arms behind him and pressing him against the bridge, and our combined weight, well... I think you get the picture. Me and The Hoarder, grappling each other, went off the Unity Bridge into the river below eventually ending up at the docks. Fu Xuan was there and should be able to verify this. I came to quickly, but it seemed like The Hoarder had been rendered unconscious. I quickly got out of that sketchy situation- not before making sure that The Hoarder was still breathing, of course! I am truly regretful of the events that transpired, and if The Hoarder somehow didn't recognize my clear and obvious figure past the flimsy mask, I would appreciate if this was just one more secret that we keep to ourselves!"


He wipes some sweat from his brow.



"I'm... kind of glad the Tuxxy thing happened, to be quite honest. I feel terrible for Sayori of course, but I'm in the clear now! But uh, still don't tell The Hoarder. Please."



6:40 - Unity Bridge

6:50 - River

7:00 - Docks

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Action 3



"I have already explained this one."


7:10 - Moonlight Theatre

7:20 - Moonlight Theatre

7:30 - Moonlight Theatre

---

Action 4



In our search for Sayori, I went the Town Hall. Zoro, I believe went to the hospital. And... A... Well... There was a rat in the play who was also VERY enthusiastic about solving the crime to avenge his fallen comrade. I believe his name was Gabriel the Rat Detective. This... "Rat Detective" went to the Southern Tram Station. Hmm. Yes. Indeed!


(He winks at everybody. He is really bad at this. You get the impression that he is talking about The Survivor)



At the Town Hall there was "The First Trial" book which seemed to be coated in some kind of substance that ate away at it. I believe it was completely destroyed by the time I left. Nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary, and that's when the fog rolled in.



7:40 - Moonlight Theatre

7:50 - Bar

8:00 - Town Hall

[Ktoasty]

MC is very cross with whoever manipulated Sayori. She doesn't want to be forgiven, but he believes in her innocence.

"Sayori, we're going to figure this out. You're not going to be punished by the Hoarder for this."

"Natsuki's right about the play, it's the same thing I saw. There were no literature club rats, no mask of you, and definitely no bullying. It was apparently a ceremony the rats do to keep them safe before the 'Ritual.'"

"It was some kind of hallucination going on, that's for sure. Someone either used their power word on you, or they invoked your own power word. Either way, you're not at fault."

He follows up on Natsuki's point to Tetsuo.

"I don't think anyone had a hand in removing your rule, Tetsuo. The Caretaker probably found it and removed it at the end of last night." (host forgor) "The Hotel Registry was sitting on the main desk too. Are you sure you had it this whole time?"

Then he gives more details to the Inn investigation.

"The Caretaker's room had a large quilt, the same one covering her body in front of us right now. A few of our faces are on that quilt too, but it's unfinished currently. Her sewing kit was missing her knitting needles, but Yuri already found them in the Caretaker's right hand. The kit was also filled with plenty of needles and thread, but it was hard for me to tell if any of that was missing."

"There was also a cold sugar cookie on top of her sewing kit. The cookie was uneaten, and there was no frosting on it, so I'm wondering why Yuri found cookie crumbs and frosting in the Caretaker's pocket. I'm guessing the cookies came from the Kitchen because it showed signs of use and smelled sugary sweet, but it was also neatly cleaned afterward."

"I should mention, Sanji was with us at the Inn during A3 and offered us a plate of cookies. They looked similar to the sugar cookie I found during investigations, but the plate Sanji had offered us was only chocolate chip cookies."

"The last thing I have to add is about that Master key drawer. The drawer was hidden underneath the main desk, and it was locked when I found it, but I was able to force it open."

Even though it's his responsibility to contribute to the trial, MC can't put aside the trauma his club members experienced tonight.

"Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki, I'm sorry. I did a rubbish job at being your protector. Each time I left one of you behind thinking you were safe, you ended up witnessing another gruesome scene. I wish I could've taken your place, but I can't change what you experienced no matter how hard I try."

"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure each of you can escape this place though, Sur- Gabriel included. I'm really going to do my best, so, please don't give up on me."

[Vulpix]

"I guess being there and watching the Caretaker die might make Yuri and me seem a little suspicious."

"But neither of us killed her!"

"My friends and I all planned to meet up at the Theatre. We didn't really decide on when, so I got there right away. I was the only one who started the night there, actually. I wanted to get my tasks done before the play started, but didn't want to leave the Theatre in case any of my friends showed up. So I stood at the doorway of the Theatre, and I emptied one of the old blood bags from my first aid kit into my water gun. I was gonna spray anyone who walked by with a bunch of gross, congealed blood! I spent the whole first half hour waiting there for someone to show up."

"But... no one walked by, except the Hoarder. I sprayed them with blood, but they didn't really seem to care, so I figured that wouldn't really count as a bad deed. None of my friends had come yet. Since the Courthouse is right across the street, I decided I could just go there quickly. Maybe someone was there, and I could spray them with blood—and maybe do a good deed while I was at it. So I went to the Courthouse, and there was Sayori, Yuri, and Fu Xuan. I decorated the Judge's chair with some cute stickers. Then, I tried to shoot Fu Xuan, but my stupid Super Soaker jammed! Sayori and Yuri were already leaving, so I unscrewed the lid, and just lobbed a handful of blood at her instead. Then I went right back to the Theatre and met up with all my friends. We were there for about twenty minutes before the play started."

"The play began at 7:00. I already told everyone what happened. Then when Sayori started aiming the gun and Tetsuo and Zoro were about to bust in, I left with Yuri and MC. That was like twenty minutes into the play."

"So then we warped back to MC's room, and Sanji bursts in like some kind of pervert. Oh, and Perv was there, too, in the hallway. Sanji gave us some cookies to eat. Maybe that's where the crumbs that the Caretaker had in her pocket came from? Anyway, after Sanji and MC left, I cleaned my water gun and refilled it, then Yuri and I looked in the staff's rooms with the key that MC had just given me. Then, when we were done, we went downstairs and started chatting with the Caretaker. And... well, you guys know the rest."

"The point is, I never had time to prepare to kill someone or anything. And I didn't have a weapon other than my Super Soaker. Perv came in right away after the Caretaker died, so he would've seen if Yuri or I had any weapons."

"But I don't actually think that there was a weapon in the Inn when the Caretaker died. What if someone had the power to cut her from somewhere else? That way, there's technically no violence in the Inn, so it's not breaking any rules."

"Or maybe... remember Qingque? She had the power to, like, delay the Alderman staff or whatever. Maybe it was something like that, where she actually got cut before Yuri and I showed up, but the effects only happened later."

"Ugh... this is all so crazy."

[Peregrine]

Skullmaster4 said:

“Tuxxy then turned into a human girl with a ponytail and a white ribbon.”

For the briefest moment, Yuri's composure wanes.




"...You saw her t—"


She stops herself mid-word. Irrelevant. Deep breath. Move on.

Vulpix said:

"And Tetsuo, I know there was supposed to be no violence in the Inn or whatever, but there must be a loophole or something."

Vulpix said:

"But I don't actually think that there was a weapon in the Inn when the Caretaker died. What if someone had the power to cut her from somewhere else? That way, there's technically no violence in the Inn, so it's not breaking any rules."

"Or maybe... remember Qingque? She had the power to, like, delay the Alderman staff or whatever. Maybe it was something like that, where she actually got cut before Yuri and I showed up, but the effects only happened later."

"...I was just considering something along those lines. I think there are two obvious loopholes to contend with."

"First, if we suppose that “violence” refers to an action which directly, physically damages a person or object, The Caretaker's rules failed to restrict nonviolent, yet lethal, actions. In most circumstances, this would be something like poisoning, but our Power Words can present us with otherwise impossible options to accomplish the same goal."

"Second is the simple fact that The Caretaker's rules only applied within the immediate vicinity of the Inn. She wasn't bound to it, she stayed there by choice—because it was the safest place to be. If someone were to convince her to leave, even briefly, it would be an opportunity to attack her. Obviously, she couldn't have sat down for a casual conversation if she was already wounded, but it remains a possibility as long as Power Words are available to us."

"If there turned out to be a Power Word ability that allowed its user to... delay the effects of an attack somehow, such an ability could be used to exploit either loophole. In the first case, an attack with a sharp implement could be performed in the empty air above The Caretaker's chair, harming nothing and nobody in the moment, thus being considered nonviolent, only to physically cut through the space later on, when it was occupied by The Caretaker. In the second case, The Caretaker could be attacked while outside the Inn, sustaining no immediate injuries, only to suffer the effects of it later on, ensuring an alibi for the culprit at the time of death."

[༺☆Venelop3☆༻]

"Yuri may have said so already but just wanted to reiterate the body finds (I scammed through and couldn't see it but perhaps I am blind),

The Caretaker's body is a grisly sight. Her face is twisted in a mixture of pain, shock, and horror. Her hands are covered in blood and her entrails are besides her stomach. Her body is positioned sideways, in front of the armchair she always sits and sews in. Specifically she's laying on her left side. Aside from the obvious wide gash in her stomach, there are no other visible wounds on her body. She grips a pair of knitting needles in her right hand.

Taking a closer look at that gash, I find it to be a rather even, steady cut. It goes from one side of her abdomen to the other, and the cut is around 1-2 millimetres thick the entire way across, and it has punctured several organs, including the stomach, kidneys, liver, and pancreas. One of her lungs has collapsed as well. Strangely, there is no entry point on her body for the collapsed lung, nor are there any obvious weapons on her. There's nothing in her pockets aside from a few crumbs of frosting. The Caretaker doesn't have a key to her own room on her person.

However, I can tell that almost all of her body's injuries happened during A4. Precisely A4-2, or 7:50 pm. There is also the smallest of abrasions/cuts on the inside of her mouth, and her trachea too. These types of cuts can come from a wide variety of sources, usually from bones left in food or meat that are particularly sharp. Nothing fatal. There is also no signs of bleeding in those areas.

Oh I realise that some might find this too gruesome, but I can promise you that sometimes the more details are for the best! As for my alibi... I don't have one, I saw Perv action 1 in the hospital; but then I saw no one else all night. I was in the Hospital for two actions, then went to the library, the tram had been hatsune miku hacked but I suddenly found my surroundings very quiet and I find a shortcut to the Library (A3). I got a book and took it to Serendipity Cove (A4)."

[crazynuto]

Feb 15, 2024 0:50:42 GMT -6 Vulpix said:

so it's not breaking any rules."

LOCKED QUESTION 8 UNLOCKED:

How did the Blackened defy the Caretaker's rules? (10 points)

Feb 15, 2024 1:03:42 GMT -6 Peregrine said:

ensuring an alibi for the culprit at the time of death."

LOCKED QUESTION 7 UNLOCKED:

Where was the Blackened during the murder? (15 points)

[For this one, you can give a general area, doesn't have to be 100% precise, but full points will be given if you are precise.]

[verylukely]

"Apologies for talking so much... Just one more thing..."

"I don't know why I was given special treatment. Perhaps everybody did and we're just avoiding talking about it. But... I gained a new power at the end of the last trial that I could use in place of my typical ability. Regardless of if everybody did or not, I believe it opens up the possibility that the culprit did as well."


"My new ability is quite powerful, but it is also a double-edged sword. In fact, it will be quite embarrassing if we fail to find the culprit now... I also realize this may put a target on my back... But I have already survived this long, and I can't just stand by when more people could be in danger."

He clears his throat before making a grand proclamation:

"The culprit has been blocked from receiving any investigation results."

[Peregrine]

verylukely said:

"The culprit has been blocked from receiving any investigation results."

"I... see. Would you mind telling us when you invoked this ability? And, do you know if the culprit would be aware of this restriction? If you did so earlier in the night as a preemptive measure, the culprit could still visit certain locations prior to the murder and rely on their memory to falsify an investigation."

[SmolBagel]

“Another night, another murder, it’s really starting to get old. Well anyway, I suppose I should share my alibi. I first woke up inside the Hospital, Saya was there, she looked disappointed? I don’t really know. Then made my way to the Inn, picking up a book on the way. At the Central Tram Station I bumped into Zoro and someone I don’t recognize wearing a dress. Once at the Hotel Tram Station, Sanji offered me a cookie there. I gave then gave the cookie to the Caretaker. She said she was full, however I just left it there with her. I spent the rest of the night in my room reading the book I picked up, until I heard a scream coming from downstairs. It was Yuri and Natsuki standing over the corpse of the Caretaker. That’s about it.”

After a brief pause Perv continues.

”For my investigation, I investigated the Lighthouse, there was nothing of note to be found there.

Next was the Bar, it seems that a lot of drinks have been drunk, mostly alcoholic. Someone spilt a drink and didn’t clean it up. Lastly there were three sets of footprints that conjoined, then split into different directions, West, South and Southwest.

After that the Theatre, seems like something major went down in there. First the door seems to be broken, next theres an unloaded rifle, which seems like it was fired due to the smell of burnt gunpowder it was giving off. On the stage a rat wearing a tuxedo has been killed, seems the bullet that pierced his body embedded itself into the wall behind him. Lastly there was a ritual circle with an effigy of a cat and a bearded man, really weird if you ask me.”

[verylukely]

Feb 15, 2024 9:56:43 GMT -6 Peregrine said:

verylukely said:

"The culprit has been blocked from receiving any investigation results."

"I... see. Would you mind telling us when you invoked this ability? And, do you know if the culprit would be aware of this restriction? If you did so earlier in the night as a preemptive measure, the culprit could still visit certain locations prior to the murder and rely on their memory to falsify an investigation."

"The ability was invoked during investigations. I assume they would know they've been blocked only after investigations were sent out. Meaning they wouldn't have been able to switch their intentions to a place they could realistically fabricate results for. Although... Hmm... perhaps culprits get special treatment?"

(I'll double check with the powers that be)

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Zoro looks around.

“Oi, I know at least one of you has used someone else’s power word before. How much power do you get over that person? Could you make ‘em hurt themselves?”

[Peregrine]

SmolBagel said:

“Then made my way to the Inn, picking up a book on the way.”

"I'm not sure I understand. If you began from the Hospital, where was it you took a book from between there and the Inn?"

[crazynuto]

Feb 15, 2024 11:16:05 GMT -6 ⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆ said:

Zoro looks around.

“Oi, I know at least one of you has used someone else’s power word before. How much power do you get over that person? Could you make ‘em hurt themselves?”

The Survivor pipes up on a handy dandy walkie talkie, which I guess someone is just like...constantly holding down.

"For a normal person, invoking a Power Word gives the Invoker knowledge of their Passive Ability.

For those of us who have...lost parts of ourselves...

Invoking a Power Word gives you control over their Power as if you had it, nothing more, nothing less.

I hope that helps, mysterious sword man! We had an excellent chat on swordplay on the tram ride over if I recall."

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

“How much reality-bending is there?” Zoro asks. “Say someone got ahold of the ledger and wrote, “no caretakers can be alive by the end of the night”. Would she die? And would she die automatically or would she have to kill herself to uphold the rules?”

[crazynuto]

Feb 15, 2024 11:40:29 GMT -6 ⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆ said:

“How much reality-bending is there?” Zoro asks. “Say someone got ahold of the ledger and wrote, “no caretakers can be alive by the end of the night”. Would she die? And would she die automatically or would she have to kill herself to uphold the rules?”

The Judge pipes up, seemingly undisturbed by a random unknown voice on a walkie talkie.

I would like to say that no rules can contradict other rules in the Ledger. The offending rule would simply be automatically erased.

No Violence, in my friend's eyes, meant a more "No Harm" mantra. No harm was allowed to anyone or anything on the Inn's grounds. Consequentially, one could not take an action that would harm another. Even if, say, they put poison in her drink, it would turn into water when poured at the Inn, and lose all dangerous effects.

Only He can break these rules, if He pleases. But He did not have a hand in this crime tonight. Of that, I am certain.

They pause, writing up a list of the Caretaker's Rules.

Current Eternal Requiem Rules

No Violence (aka. No Harm unto others)
No Smoking
No Slashing Shrubbery
No Cliff-Diving
No Wall Poking with Swords

Could someone have erased a rule...or simply had the power to...perhaps convince her to change a rule?

Yet...all rules should have been set in stone the moment she died. It would be impossible to change a rule after her death, or erase any.