RECORDING 12: THE FOURTH TRIAL.

[foundationmods]

The worst has happened... and now you're all here, in the living room where all the trials so far have taken place. As all of you enter, the Vessels are there - Flayn in her darkly pious glory, and Haku, ever the perfect shadow at her side.

On one of the tables away from the center is a small enclosed box entitled 'VOTES', with slips of paper nearby and a pen. It's sufficiently away from what will be the 'main' action, but not enough to really give anyone complete privacy as they vote.

Once everyone is inside, the doors automatically shut and lock themselves, leaving you trapped in here with the Vessels...and each other.

One of you is a murderer...however, in this game, the guilty do not need to be voted out. As long as there are enough people voted out that matches the victims...then it will be accepted.

...But, can you really let someone get away with murder...?

The choice is up to you.



VICTIM: Ango Sakaguchi
PEOPLE TO VOTE OUT: 1

WEEK 4 VOTING

Comments

RULES AND QUESTIONS

[dreamshielder]

[As people drift in for the trial, they'll see Haku and Flayn standing together by the grandfather clock, both smiling serenely. When everyone has gathered, Haku speaks up, while turning two senbon in his hands.]

This is the fourth time we've gathered together for these solemn proceedings, mm? While I doubt any of you need any reminders of our expectations, we will repeat them for your benefit.

[He looks to Flayn who starts the recitation.]

All present living get but a single vote. The recipient of the most votes will be executed..
As one person was murdered, you will select one of your number to be executed.
Deaths occurring during trials will not count towards executions, as someone must still be voted out for proper execution.
You cannot vote for someone who has died, even if that person was responsible for the murder.
The executed individual needs not be the true guilty party, however, we insist that you make an attempt to identify them regardless of your vote.
Whatever your feelings may be, those who refuse to vote will be killed.

You have six hours to cast your vote. If you have any other questions, you may ask them. [A beat. Then casually throwing a single senbon by Dazai's head.] Do try to make this trial interesting.

[And then to signal the start of their time, cathedral bells begin to chime.]

EVIDENCE

[foundationmods]

lab misadventures

[sageking]

[ Here he was with the clean work gloves on hand. ]

I went into the lab alongside Hikage, and found a few items of interest. A chair had been knocked over, alongside some items like sheet metal and wiring. That strange device was lying center in the room, though Hikage and Saphir looked closer at it than I did.

[ Because lol ancient king and technology was touch and go. ]

I found a pair of work gloves that were clean, despite them being shoved in with those supplies.

I also took the liberty of checking the lab and smoking lounge for any traces of magic, and there were none. However, I cannot say the same for the other rooms. It appeared I was able to detect the usage of lightning magic in the hallways nearby the bedrooms. It was also mixed with some unknown magic, and this seemed to be strongest right at Room 2's door.

It was well worth noting that I could also trace this magic strictly on Ango's body when I entered the ice room as well. It's entirely possible if I had possession of its source or something where it'd be more concentrated I could better pinpoint what kind of magic or quality this muddled nonsense is.

[ Just. Putting that out there. ]

[cw_suicide]

[... he just... sighs.]

[accessorytomurder]

[She squeezes his hand.]

lounge things

[cw_suicide]

[a damp cloth and an open bottle of whiskey is put down with the rest of the evidence.]

It looked like there was clean-up happening after the party on Thursday evening. There was a disassembled blanket fort with sheets missing. On the table near a couple of clean glasses was this cloth which smells of some kind of mechanical liquid. Similarly, there were three notable bottles of alcohol that had been put back or moved--whiskey, cognac, and wine. The whiskey had been tampered with and smells of the same mechanical liquid as on the cloth.

[white_camellia]

...Just to verify, you made certain that the device was not the source of the lightning magic, correct?

[Look, it's... a possibility, even if it's a long shot.]

[cw_suicide]

[he's tense but returns the hand squeeze because actually, he needs it.]

[sageking]

There was no magic detected in the lab. I'd have sensed it from the device since it was in there.

[boardreversal]

So he was poisoned?

[Heck of a way to kill someone, that's for sure.

....Then again he hasn't heard the Rest of it yet.]

[cw_suicide]

To start with.

[yeah, it's. bad.]

hallways

[soupervillain]

So Captain Ky and I were looking at the huge amount of blood outside the bedrooms and the trail leading toward the ice room. It looked like something big was dragged there, which... I'm gonna assume was Buzzkill's body. And I found this gun outside room 1!

[ He produces from hyperspace a standard issue Foundation gun. ]

It looked like someone shot it pretty recently? And there's 11 bullets still in it. Cap, you wanna give them the rest of the story?

[boardreversal]

To start with?

[Sorry, he's just parroting, but...jesus christ, how bad did Ango die?]

[cw_suicide]

[bad]

Wait for the evidence.

[he's not going to have people claim he's giving biased testimony]

body evidence

[finalring]

[ here's romani...still looking pale. he's fine, really. ]

Ango Sakaguchi was found dead in the ice room. His body was dragged all the way there, and I found him wrapped in a blanket which was covered in his own blood. His body was practically frozen solid, but from what I could tell, it's likely that he died between midnight and two in the morning.

[ he takes a deep breath, keeping his expression neutral despite the gravity of the subject. ]

From examining his body, I found electrical burns on his whole body, but mainly around his ankles, where it also seems that something ran over them from the lacerations that were also at ankle height. There's bruising in his forearm, indicating that he caught himself after falling, and friction marks as if he were crawling out or away from something. I could also tell that on the front of his clothes there was a stain of something that smelled both of whiskey and...some sort of fluid. Not gasoline but something like it...?

Besides that, Ango had three bullet wounds. One on his right shoulder, one where the neck meets the shoulder, and, lastly, one in the crown of the back of his head. I would also like to point that the shot on his right shoulder came from the front, while the other two were done from the back. Though I could not extract the bullets due to the state of the body, I was able to determine from the exit wound that they were made from 9mm caliber bullets, the same as our Foundation issued guns. His left hand also had some blood, while his other hand did not have as much.

hallways and armory

[golden_dream]

[She has a gun set on the table, wrapped in paper so she never directly touched it. She writes out:

"Sissel and I investigated the hallway. The first thing we noticed was the blood. A lot of blood. It had gathered in front of room 2, 3, 4 and 5. There were no footprints, and it had that unmistakable blood smell to it. The bulk of the blood was around the door to room 2.

There was a bloody hand print on the door to room 2. It's consistent with a man's left hand, wrapped all away the door as if opening it to reach the inside, not just pushing it shut. It's consistent with the person grabbing it standing up and using it normally, not reaching for it off the floor. I tried to sketch what it looked like, and to take a hand print, but the blood had already dried, and I'm just not much of an artist.

We moved on to the armory and discovered Ango's cracked glasses near the door.

The inside of the armory was mostly normal except the gunpile had been messed up.

Using Sissel's nose, we were able to detect one gun had been recently fired. It uses 9mm rounds and is the normal gun issues to the Foundation agents. There were 13 bullets inside the magazine. Since you don't really store loaded firearms, and it was the only one that had been fired, I'm guessing this had a role in his death. Perhaps only one shot was fired? We can't say for certain two shots were fired with what Sissel and I found.

At any rate, that's all from us."]

Re: hallways

[zweivoltage]

[He nods]

We found Three bullets: One inside a broken pot, the second near the lab door, and the last was buried in the table in the hallway across the door.

There was no blood on any of them.

[He resents the clip and bullets]

I brought these so anyone more well-versed with firearms can examine them

And I can confirm what Gilgamesh said: There was some really strange lightning magic near Room 2 it feels weird.

[boardreversal]

...Alright. Thank you, Dazai-san.

[God.

Who hated Ango that badly...?]

[white_camellia]

...I have a question. As someone who is better off using swords than guns.

How many bullets does a magazine hold normally, again?

[ghostricked]

[Once everyone looks at Rosa's note]

I checked Ango's body for gunpowder too afterward. His right hand smelled like it- but from how Rosa explained it to me it sounded like gunpowder sprays out when a gun is fired? Is it normal for it to not be on his clothing too?

mods?

[sageking]

[ He won't bother to ask. Could he sense any traces of magic from the gun by any chance? ]

[boardreversal]

The guns we have from the Foundation hold 15 bullets.

[golden_dream]

[Rosa has her gun, and it's in a holster she could easily access, but she's not making a point of loading it in front of everyone this week. A kinder, gentler Rosa, perhaps...?

She writes a note on her notepad and turns it around:

"I'm sure this is going to be a very emotional trial, but let's keep things in perspective:

First, thank you, unidentified killer, for murdering responsibly. That's the beginning and end of our gratitude.

Second of all, let's start a process of elimination about the clues."]

[white_camellia]

So we have a gun that fired four bullets, and a gun that fired two... We also have what appears to have been six bullets fired.

[golden_dream]

...

[She writes on her pad and turns it around:

"I'm honestly not that well-versed in guns to say about that. But if it was on his hand, that's consistent with him firing it... unless the killer put a gun in his hand and squeezed off a round after he died.

Hold on though. Right hand smelled like gunpowder? Left hand opened the door? Was he running away?"]