speaking of against the law - who wants to talk about murders?

[samuraiwomen]

Who: :3
What: Discussing the murders of 9/12 and 9/17
When: 9/18, Evening after all classes and clubs.
Where: The common room of the dorms.
Warnings: Will update...but we're discussing a murder!




[ Some times the next day, Sara starts finding as many people as she can and asking them to please try to be in the dorms this evening. Everything has been chaotic since Clamor's death, and she'd like some clarity.

By sometime after clubs, she's moved Narumi's body out in the common room (perhaps with Akira's help if he was willing), and has started a fire in the fireplace. It's getting chillier at night, and any discussion of a murder mystery plot deserves some ambiance.

She forgot to go get some snacks, but please, feel free to bring some. ]

Comments

[silentabyss]

Yeah, I... thought the same thing. But like I said... doppelgangers will do what they can to get in your head. Even if little details are wrong, people don't notice until it's too late. And even if they do, they think maybe the person isn't feeling well, like how I thought Clamor just... forgot for a moment about how I never learnt high school math.

...Harque — no, Dantalion — was that way. It was like Harque had changed just slightly overnight, but in the subtlest ways, and I was too little to connect the dots at the time, what with the memory altering...

[For all he knows, Nene's not real. Maybe Sara's not real. Maybe no one here is who Noah knew a month or two or three ago. The thought makes him ill.]

We have... [he squeezes his eyes shut. Breathes in, breathes out...] We have mages at the school with us, so if something magical happened, it's not out of the question, clearly... I can't believe this is happening to me again, though...

[mermaidcursed]

( oblivious to the thoughts noah's having, nene squeezes noah's arm slightly- she's here. just like she'd want of him if they were to switch places. )

... I don't think most of us are skilled enough, though...

[silentabyss]

...he had to have taught someone the incubator spell. [He'll explain that if asked, but he's grief-processing right now, flipping through the pages to point out the spell in question like anyone will know what that is.] But why would he do something so stupid? No one should know about that spell...

[closewithnewintown]

[looking over his shoulder]

"Incubator?" Like the boxes that hatch eggs? [beat] Did the cultist turn Clamor into an egg?

[silentabyss]

No.

[Normally, Noah might think that's funny, but...]

I don't know why Clamor called it that. The spell was something he worked on when he was back in Seven Tower — his... college, basically. [The one Noah went snooping around through in sort of this weird little past time loop, and uh Clamor doesn't know about that really, so uh! Shhhhhhhhhut up!] It... had the ability to tear the souls from people. And I'm... I'm not sure if it was used or not, but all the notes build up to it...

[closewithnewintown]

... Okay, so the faker took Clamor's eg-- soul, out of his body and put themselves in Clamor's body...

[thinks...]

So, we have to find the egg! Um, soul. They must have left him somewhere! Maybe he rolled behind a table...

[silentabyss]

Right... [Since the other party is discussing that someone doesn't have a soul, and all the spellbook notes point to this...] I just... don't know how to go about doing that, I guess...?

[closewithnewintown]

[...]

Well, has anybody seen his ghost?

[mermaidcursed]

Ghosts don't linger here. They're...

( ... )

They're kept within the wisteria tree in the courtyard. Everyone who's died here- they're all there. But killing removing branches or flowers from the tree itself... leads to the souls connected to those flowers vanishing.

[closewithnewintown]

[. . .]

I was picking dead people out of my hair??

[crystallomancy]

( ... )

It's not unusual for people's souls to become trapped in objects here after they've been pulled OUT.

( the monocle, he means the monocle. god don't break it. )

[silentabyss]

...no, and it wasn't weird back on Elrios either, since Clamor used to be trapped in my weapon back then.

[It doesn't make sense to him how Clamor was freed of that sickle when they arrived here, but... Noah had gotten used to seeing the half-elf walking around, and either way he'd have been sad about the death.]

[notsosou]

[The only object there (unless the candles count) was... the monocle. He's going to be handling that even more carefully now.]

...is there some way to tell if an object's got a soul in it?

[crystallomancy]

( they'd have to ask sena about that, since he knew the toy horse had one, but, well.

...well. )

Not that I'm aware OF, though if anyone does know of a WAY... Feel free to interJECT.

[samuraiwomen]

I thought he wasn't feeling well...I used to catch him staying so much, I didn't think anything of it.

[ Replaced and the imposter playing with their heads. Sara doesn't know if memory altering is at play, she feels her normal self. No gaps in what she can recall. But how can they know. It's scary. ]

No...you're right. I don't want to...think about it. But I have to. Something like this happened to me once. A women I knew, Reko. She got replaced...but we didn't figure that out until it was too late.

But that imposter killed her! So what happened to Clamor? I..

[ She'll reach out to take his hand, even with Nene still offering her support. Maybe for how strong she tries to act, Sara needs a little reassurance too. ]

[silentabyss]

...he's probably dead, just like what happened with my brother.

[Quietly, Noah holds onto images of revenge in his head, a faceless person dying by his hand. But the tides of murderous rage he normally feels when he thinks about Harque and Dantalion, or Clamor and this unknown person... they're not as strong as they used to be. A cold numbness blossoms in his chest from where the fires of fury once burned strong.]

But then... who killed the person impersonating him? It doesn't make sense... someone must have been targeting Clamor long before this happened, or... someone had the impostor figured out before we did...?

[He lets Sara take his hand, but beyond that, he doesn't move.]

[starrypoint]

[subaru is on one of the couches, tucking himself against natsume's right side in his ever-familiar manner as he picks at his chips with his free hand. he knows the other hates it, but he thinks his friend can let it slide for today.

... yesterday was a lot, and he hadn't even gone to class in the end; he hadn't gone to class today either, actually. only yukio would know that though, if he'd gone himself, that both he and amami were out the past two days. they were friends with the shopkeep, it's no surprise they'd be more concerned with that than a few days of missed work.]

I mean, how would anyone figure that out if even you didn't know it at the time? You guys were close an' all, so... Yeah. He could've been targeted though, I guess, but I dunno who'd even have it out for him. Clamor-san was a good guy.

[...]

When he was really him, I mean, on your thoughts of him not being him when he died.

[samuraiwomen]

[ Thanks Noah, she does appreciate it. She slowly nods at Subaru as he adds his peice. ]

Anyone...perhaps we're thinking about this wrong? Maybe its less about why Clamor died currently...and more about why the imposter wanted Clamor's body in the first place.

[ After what Shin and Saihara reported it doesn't seem like Clamor was murdered by any external force. So Subaru is right, a targeting theory doesn't hold as much water... ]

Narumi-senpai was a member of the cult who trusted Clamor...but why Clamor at first and not anyone else?

[starrypoint]

It's not just 'cause Clamor-san can do magic, right? 'Cause there're other people who can do it too...

[that's sort of the thing he's stuck on, kicking his feet lightly as he thinks.

something strikes him, thinking of narumi, and he glances first at nene, then at shuichi. they'll get it, maybe. of anyone here, they'll get what he means.]

I wonder... if the person who took his body was a third year, like Rumi-chan.

[mermaidcursed]

They were... Running out of time to graduate...

( but then, why another third year? they'd be with just as little time as before, right? wait, sara had said- please don't let noah make this connection. )

Sara-chan, you said Ito-san had good grades, right? You can't... normally graduate without them... But he- Clamor-san was a first year. What happened...?

[samuraiwomen]

Right. Clamor isn't even the best at magic here...I heard Lucifer-san blew up half the void students. [ I heard Lucifer is shredded. ]

Mhm. Yes thats right. Narumi-senpai's grades were extremely high. [ A horrible realization is dawning on her. ] And the fake Clamor...He was...asking a lot about Noah's grades. If it wasn't Clamor, why would he care about how Noah was doing?

But that doesn't make sense! To steal someone's body just for grades? We just had exams!

[mermaidcursed]

... Because we just had exams. They... they probably didn't do so good. And given what this place is like... can you really say having bad grades by year three would be considered acceptable?

( in a place where the track kills you if you stand on it for too long? where there's a monster in the pool? where- where the student council elections was a massacre to ensure only one could walk away standing? )

[samuraiwomen]

Still...to jump bodies for a reason like that?

[ She's a first year, so maybe the danger doesn't feel so fresh, but still. It's school, if you're doing poorly, there's extra credit and friends and teachers to help? You could even try changing your grades in the office! ]

...It's hard to wrap my head around. Because Clamor...he didn't have the best grades either. And he couldn't graduate.

[Let her think for a moment. ]

So maybe the imposter only wanted to buy themselves time to find someone else? Like Narumi...

[starrypoint]

[subaru puffs his cheeks, then shakes his head.]

I mean, what if someone wanted another chance? What if it was a third year who wasn't going to graduate?

[maybe that's a better hint for his line of thinking to her...]

[mermaidcursed]

They were... 'beyond help'. They weren't going to get another shot, were they?

( which meant they'd cease to exist. not even disappear to anywhere they could, like the souls in the tree- just... gone.

... )

So then... a first year who could use magic- could keep going back... would sound pretty ideal, wouldn't it?