TRIAL

[consolemods]

Well, Niles is dead now, and in a very unpleasant way. The investigation has progressed for some time... but after a certain amount of time, a marker appears on the player's console HUDs directing them to a particular location, much in the same way as it did when directing them to the paddock for Thursday's challenge.

This time, though, it's directing them to the courthouse, which has been locked up until this time... but not now. The doors are wide open, and you might as well go inside. The interior is lacking the audience benches you'd expect, but... there's a large, oppressive emptiness to the space. It almost seems bigger on the inside than the outside... no, it definitely seems much bigger on the inside. And after you walk the long, long walk to the center, you'll find a circle of 23 podiums with your names on them, with... two of them being much, much smaller to account for the, uh, pets.

Those... seem really out of place, by the way. They stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the quaint, old-timey Western town by being more on the technological level of the consoles on your faces, with touch screens and pictures of all of the current players... and the two former players, too, with the icon of Niles' and Makoto's faces having the word DEAD stamped across their faces.

As you stand at your podiums, you do begin to notice some wrongness about the whole thing... like that there might actually be some audience benches behind you, depending on the angle you look at them, but they seem to flicker in and out of your peripheral vision. Ditto with the two holes in the podiums, too-- they're... sometimes there, but not always.

The judge's box looms high over the podiums, towering for the animals but really only a few feet higher. The sheriff stands there as comfortable as he's ever seemed, arms crossed and silent the entire time. There are flickers of something uncanny in him, just like the architecture - the color of an eye, the shape of an arm - but nothing sticks for long enough to confirm.

It isn't until everyone's settled at their podium that he speaks, and any hint of the laconic tone he's taken all week is finally gone to be replaced by one far more formal. He seems in his element as he leans down to address the podiums.

"Welcome to round two! You've all done well to make it this far! The first attack has succeeded, and now Niles lies dead. But for every offense, there must be a defense! Will you find his killer? More of your lives may be at risk of you do not. Share your findings with each other, and come to a conclusion based on the evidence: Who killed Niles?

Now, let's play."

Comments

[fuckthemancers]

Good. It's been... a trial.

[Ah ha. ha. God he is so tired and stressed.]

Let's focus on what we know we don't know... Does anyone have any idea of how the rope is a part of this, and why it's bloody?

[flagrants]

Maybe someone tied it to the knife and made a trap. Didn't somebody say the handle was bloody?

Mods

[fuckthemancers]

I believe Kokoro said that it was dirty because of the haystack she found it in.... but let's see something.

[He's going to take the rope and see how long it is. Long enough to make some sort of trap?]

[consolemods]

[It's reasonably long! You could probably make a trap with it if you wanted to, but you could also use it for a lot of other things. Ropes are very useful.]

[fuckthemancers]

...Yes, someone could use it for that, I suppose... Or...

[Oh. He looks up.]

Who can stomach going near the body again?

[flagrants]

Why?

[fuckthemancers]

Niles has bruising on his wrist, doesn't he? I want to see if the rope would match up to it in any way.

[flagrants]

Not a bad idea! And since I haven't gotten a chance to touch him yet, I'll do it.

[fuckthemancers]

[....Great enthusiasm there, Dito. But he'll pass the rope along.]

[flagrants]

[ How can you not be enthusiastic about corpse touching!! In an ideal world (for him) he would have been the investigator. In everyone else's ideal world exactly what happened here happened. No one needs to hear Dito get creepy.

Anyway, he takes the rope and runs up to Niles. Because he's him, he spends an extra few seconds hovering over Niles and grinning. ] Oh man, look at you. So disgusting... so revolting! I can barely stand the sight of you! [ He laughs as happily as a kid in a candy store before holding up the rope to Niles' wrist. ]

[consolemods]

[Hey, look! It's a match!

Also, we're kinkshaming.]

[flagrants]

[ Wow, just because he likes corpses doesn't mean anything!! He drops throws the rope back at Zulf and sticks near Niles. 'cause he's a weirdo and deserves the shaming, probably. ]

Looks like a match!

[fuckthemancers]

[Holy- Zulf grabs it, thankfully.]

So now we know that happened. The murderer had to have tied Niles up at some point.

MODS

[flagrants]

But isn't it only one mark? [ He probably just wants to touch the body again but, ok. Let's confirm! Is it only the one wrist? How about the ankles? ]

he's literally his icon rn

[beguiledcard]

[ THERE IS SO MUCH WRONG WITH YOU AND AKIRA HAS BEEN HIGH-KEY JUDGING HIM SINCE MAKOTO WAS FOUND

But this is the first time he's pointedly stared hard for longer than two seconds before going back to talking to the Sheriff. ]

[helldestiny]

...If no one else wants to, I'll do it.

Why?

[fuckthemancers]

[an idea hit him]

[helldestiny]

!

Oh yeah!! Yeah, we should check that!

[fuckthemancers]

I hope it turn out to be something... If it matches, I'd like to see the knife Kokoro found.

[helldestiny]

[Well she was but then this happened.

and Kokoro and Fluffy thought she was horrible with corpses, ok]

He's enjoying this...

[fuckthemancers]

Quite....

[Zulf has a lot of thoughts on that, but he's trying to keep them to himself as he turns back to her with the rope in hand.]

Knife, please. I want to test out another idea.

[helldestiny]

Yeah, hang on. I don't have it, but...

[Let's assume that knife is in a position where it can be compared visually since it's near Kokoro?]

Mods

[fuckthemancers]

[Assumptions made! Once he has it, Zulf straightens out the rope as best he can before starting to cut through it with the knife. Will the cut the knife makes match the separate bloody ends of the rope?]

[condemnedone]

I imagine the handle of the bucket and the rope are bloody because when the culprit made their trip to the well, they may have decided to clean up a little.

After what was done to Niles, their hands were bound to be bloody and it'd be too risky for them to their room without taking care of the mess a little.

If they placed their hands on the handle of the bucket, after they pulled it up using the rope, it likely caused the blood to easily transfer from their hands to the handle and the rope.

[fuckthemancers]

It's a little reckless to have left the blood there... And that means they had to have been close enough for blood to get on them.

So the mystery murder weapon that isn't the pitchfork had to be more close range, wouldn't you think?