FIFTH TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

Is everyone finished? Good. It's time for a trial.

[The ride to the court room is uneventful this time. There's no breaking of bones or porcelain when you land. The podiums are rather empty, especially now that there's only twenty portraits even if there's twenty one podiums still. Huh. Fancy that! It's almost as if the Storyteller was still bitter.

Though, there definitely feels something off about the court room. It sort of feels like you're being watched but you're not sure.]

Seven is Dead. Time to find out who's responsible. Time for a trial!

Comments

EVIDENCE

[whimsicalism]

[Red hot!]

NPC QUESTIONS

[whimsicalism]

[The Storyteller doesn't particularly want to talk but she's here.]

[octopups]

[For the first time, Amdi comes into the courtroom carting some serious evidence: a bloody forester's axe. He seems to be taking this role quite seriously too, carrying the axe carefully balanced across two of his backs rather than clenched in his jaws. He gently sets it on the floor in the circle where everyone can see, before taking his podium.]

So... I think I was the first person to find Seven... 's body, and... I noticed a few things.

It looks like a tree fell on him, but the way it fell was weird. It wasn't chopped down, it looks like it was pulled out of the ground with the roots still on. Which should have been impossible without machinery, I think, except that the soil around the roots was really loose.

Also, I'm not sure the tree is what killed him. There was a lot of blood, but I think it was mostly from the axe wounds on his arm, and from his leg that was stuck in a really big paw trap. The trap also had a bloody rope tied to it that I think would have been long enough to wrap around the tree too.

[Amdi gestures a head over at Nigel, who was dextrous enough nice enough to untie the rope for him and bring it down as well.]

cw: eye trauma and also generally gross

[imozon]

Seven's head was in the zoo, being chewed on by the animals. But separately from that, it looked like someone had pierced his eyes.

[No, she did not bring it. It was gross.]

This guy was around there, too.[She holds up Mr. Stripey Pants.]

[strictura]

[ Glances anxiously at Allen... did we really need to bring an axe in here again... ]

They might have had to resort to the axe because the tree alone didn't kill him like they'd planned.

[strictura]

Allen and I looked around the hunting lodge. I noticed a bit of dirt on the floor that looked like it had been tracked in, and it appeared that something had been burned in the fireplace. There was a small scrap of fabric left behind -- it was black and fairly nondescript, though presumably made of synthetic fiber judging by the way it burned.

[ And since that was the only part he'd looked at personally, he will live the rest of the lodge to Allen. ]

[strictura]

Pierced? Do any of the animals in there have claws that could account for that?

[octopups]

M-maybe the killer took his head off to disorient him?

[imozon]

I don't think so?

[She'll have to stop and think, though. She's mostly been focused on their teeth.]

[octopups]

[Now that he's said his piece, Andi is kind of nervous and unsure again.]

Y-yeah, I guess that makes sense. With the tree on him, maybe there weren't a lot of parts of him they could hit well.

[strictura]

That seems logical. ...I wonder if his head was still there at that point.

[strictura]

Or he took it off himself for some reason, and the killer took advantage of that. [ ... ] If that was the case, though, I'd think it would have to be someone he had a good relationship with. You wouldn't risk leaving yourself vulnerable on a Thursday night here if it wasn't with someone you trusted, right?

[ballooncaged]

[Man. Mizuki has been thinking all this time about what Seven would want, which would probably be very dramatic. But this revelation is just bone-deep depressing.]

Maybe he put it down because he wanted to see the little animals better. And... and maybe the killer pierced his eyes because his head and body were already separate. I think his body couldn't see on its own.

[imozon]

That's a lot of people, isn't it?

[imozon]

What do you think it was? Someone's clothes?

[xxxx_me]

I looked around Seven's room. It looked like someone was in there... the papers around his desk were all messed up, and his door was still open a little.

After that I went to check the Hunting Lodge with Nagisa. I found these.

[Present: scratched up water gun and three bent darts, two of which have dirt in the grooves.]

I think someone used the sink and shower in there, too, so I brought a little bit of the soap just in case. [You know. For sniff tests, maybe.]

[strictura]

Hm... maybe he brought his own stuffed animal to play with the others or something, and was trying to watch that, then? That's his, isn't it?

[ Gestures toward the plush DD is holding. ]

...I mean, that seems sort of ridiculous, but...

[xxxx_me]

[Why's it always got to be axes.]

[strictura]

Is it? I know he was close to some of the people who died before, but out of the ones remaining...

[ ...Well, he doesn't necessarily want to steer things in that direction unless he has to. ]

I guess he wasn't especially cautious in general though, was he?

[strictura]

Probably so, or possibly a blanket or something. It wasn't stretchy like one of the swimsuits, anyway, so we can at least rule those out.

[strictura]

Was anything missing from his room, as far as you could tell?

[xxxx_me]

No, that's the weird part. Maybe they were looking for something they thought he had, but it turns out he didn't?

[xxxx_me]

[Tilting his head.]

Did someone steal it from him to lure him out?

[nothingposh]

Why go to the trouble of murdering him just to look through his room? He probably would've given over whatever someone wanted.

[strictura]

What could that have been, I wonder...? Did he get anything that belonged to someone else from the vending machine?