(mingle) cat herding, round two

[sisters]

( on february 2, transfer students will find that there are notes hung up around the dormitory with doctor's scrawl handwriting that a few people might recognize scribbled across it. it reads: )

TRANSFER MEETING
february 2, 5:00 p.m.
dorm common room

( the early-arrivers will find that amami is already set up in the common room, making himself comfortable on the far side of one of the couches with a sketchbook, but beyond a wave and a smile he won't offer much to speak of. it's only once it looks like there's a good handful of people that he'll glance around, grimace a bit, and speak up. )

So... I'm sure you guys already know why we're here, right?

( rest in piss, hiro. legend almost took two transfer students with him on his way. )

I know I might not be the person anyone wants to hear this from, but I figure everyone's had some time to gather evidence and any witnesses we might've had by now. I don't like the idea of this continuing more than anyone else, and if we want to keep it from happening again, it's probably best if we compile what we know.

( and unfortunately what he knows is nothing, because he was busy getting stabbed, so the floor is officially open. )

---

(ICly, this meeting begins on February 1. However, to keep us from trapping ourselves in another time cube, when things start to slow down, Amami will pitch that they regroup in a couple days. The details don't matter so much, but you can assume they'll come back for more discussion intermittently if anything new comes to light before Disney. This doesn't all have to be in one day! Feel free to PM/ping me anywhere if you'd like me to add any other helpful links. )

• IC Recap - Maya & VP's deaths
• IC Recap - Hiro Arisu's death
• OOC Recaps - Miro board & Google doc
• Meeting Recap - What's been covered
• Per mod guidance, the murder methods abide by Knox's commandments

Comments

[dereban]

I didn't see the body, so I suppose I'll start by asking -- how big of a bullet wound are we talking about here...?

[Just in case we have to ask who the hell is carrying a gun so that things can be compared.]

Also gunshot wounds aren't easy to treat exactly, right?

[notsosou]

[Shin the hell is carrying the gun, but he's not in a hurry to reveal that fact. It feels like a leaden weight in his pocket... it's a good thing his clothes are baggy.]

...Depends. If the nurse got to him in time, he'd have a chance. She's really good at her job, ahaha. [He knows, because he was there and assisting, another load of bloodied clothes sent through the laundry, Nene's scarf painstakingly, carefully and a little desperately hand-washed.] The wound was dressed when I found his body... If he'd stayed home and rested... he probably would have been fine in the end.

[It hurts, helping save someone's life, only for them to show up dead a day later. Especially since he'd been starting to get attached on the basis of both having lost sisters. Shin can sympathize a little too much with Hiro's urge to stab.]

[dereban]

That means that he would have had to gotten shot during a time when the staff was around on a school day...

[She taps her chin, a little thoughtful.]

And maybe. But it looks like he was a bit too stubborn.

[Not that she necessarily blames him.]

[notsosou]

Yeah... What's strange to me is why he was at school so early the next day.

[He hasn't realised his slip.]

It's not unusual for murders to happen during the silence. Since it's so convenient, ahaha... But even if he was going to turn up despite his wound, it makes more sense for him to arrive at the same time as usual, right?

[He was taken home by the nurse. Did he come back that exact same day?]

Sure there's the note on his desk, but when did he find it?

[dereban]

Oh, the next day, hm? So you're saying you knew that he was shot the day before~?

[There's a playful lilt in Inaba's own voice, a grin that only seems to widen more and more as the seconds pass. It's not a natural, happy smile. Instead, it's one full of aggression.]

Now I wonder how you could have known that... Hmm.

[:) :) :)]

Well, if he saw the note and it was unsigned, it's possible he wanted to see who it was. Perhaps he even wanted to stab them, too, if he thought that they were the real killer, or something.

[notsosou]

[Help, this wasn't in the plan at all. Inaba looks like a shark that's scented blood. He's in danger.]

...! W-well, it would have to have happened not too long before, right? Or we wouldn't be finding out after he was already dead... Besides, the original question still stands.

[The conversational equivalent of 'walking fast, walking faster'. Maybe if he moves things along quick enough it'll just get lost in the noise...]

R-right, that's a real possibility. The note said there was something he "deserved to know" and to meet to talk about Maya's death... Easy to see him thinking the person who'd know most would be the killer.

[Which... might explain that urgency to return to school despite being injured even aside from the potential of finding things out about his sister's death. But no, that would mean he saw the note before he left... come on, close those sharp teeth on the different dangling string. There really is something off, here.]

[dereban]

But to specifically say an exact day, that's pretty odd.

[Her grin widens even further, looking completely sharp with amusement like she's latched onto a new plaything.]

Although I suppose it's not relevant to the murder for now, so let's move on.

[Don't think she'll forget so easily, however. Even if others might.]

The note was to meet at the lockers, right? Given his character, if I had to guess, he'd probably assume that they'd be the killer. Well, that's not saying that they are, of course. I'd like to treat these cases as separate until we have profound evidence that they're all done by the same culprit.

[Let's stop making assumptions about anything and take everything simply. One case at a time. Don't make things convoluted.]

In that case, I'd try to be even more careful than I was already. If I had to guess, the note was found while he was leaving, so he had to hurriedly plan to meet up with him... honestly, if I were to think about it logically, it almost feels like the one who was meant to be thrown in the principal's office was whoever he was supposed to meet up with. After all, it's pretty weird, isn't it? That they were meeting by the lockers and yet his body was found in the principal's office?

[And let's circle back around to the note specifically--]

The note was confirmed to have a particular person's handwriting. But someone mentioned that he has been missing for a while, which is odd in of itself... so I'm wondering if the culprit is someone who knew that beforehand. That they could be used as a scapegoat.

[notsosou]

[...he's dead later. Which is not dead now at least, so he can do his best with the time he's got. There's a problem with the idea of the note being found as he was leaving, which was the nurse was taking him, but Shin's already stuck his foot in it so he's leaving that in his back pocket for now. He can bring it back out if he really has to.]

You've got it. The meeting place doesn't match up at all... and notice how it doesn't have a time, either. Kind of a pretty terrible meeting note, wouldn't you say? What if Hiro showed up too early, or too late?

[Got bored and left? Or... didn't show up during the silence, which is apparently the best time for murder?]

Ahaha, it's possible the note writer was meant to be the true victim... but there's a much simpler explanation. A scapegoat's exactly right.

[He can't see Hiro taking someone from the lockers to the Principal's Office unless something went wildly wrong with a knife plan for some reason... and if it was the idea of whoever he hypothetically attacked... would that be something it'd occur to do in the moment, without prompting or planning, all the way by the lockers?]

This wouldn't be the first time the handwriting of someone who's missing has shown up, has it...? We all remember what happened with Clamor, after all.

[Pages and pages of steadily more accurate handwriting... Creepy, honestly.]

Let's think about it. If you want to copy someone's handwriting, you'd need a sample, right? Hey, Nanami. [Wait.] Err... that Nanami. Would you say the size of the missing object was the same was the rest of the folders?

[waitingforplayer2]

Huh? [ She's been poring over notes, a bit at a loss, and hasn't been following the conversation completely for some time now. ] Oh... ahh...

[ Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she frowns and replays the question in her head. What was-- right. ] Mm... yeah, I thought it might be a folder or something... but there hasn't been any as evidence, so... that didn't occur to me... Do you think somebody took one?

[starrypoint]

[hm...... ........ ........

subaru's thinking about where he and komaeda slipped off to, the purpose of it (at least one, the one he's thinking of now that it's been brought around to meeting) and wriggles in his seat.]

Would it make a difference if it wasn't Yuki-chan's locker that was the meeting spot? Like... if it was one... say, 51 off of that?

[you know, just happened to be that number?]

[dereban]

Of course it would make a difference! It's a completely different locker, it'd have different implications. What, did you find something in a different locker?

[Inaba sounds frustrated but it's not directed at him entirely, just--the general overarching situation, she's so tired.]

[starrypoint]

Yeah. I'm a crime dog, so I sniffed out a clue and it led me to 253. It was a little ajar, actually, [it was not but he has nothing against lying,] and so I peeked into it 'cause I'm nosy, but there was a lotta dust and a notebook in there.

[that's all really. still--]

It had some pretty girly handwriting in it~.

[this man would look in someone's diary if they left it open i'm sorry]

[taketori]

[ ??? That's such a random locker-- and what was that about it being 51 off? Akehoshi......!

Sigh. He's getting tired. ]

Was there anything of use written in the notebook?

[ Girly handwriting aside. Maybe. ]

[starrypoint]

Not unless you're into CompSci.

[like shin]

[notsosou]

[Like him.]

It didn't belong to Kouji, did it?

[Maybe Kouji has girly handwriting, who knows. Shin doesn't think the hypothetical handwriting sample ended up in the 253-or-151 locker, but it pays to check.]

[starrypoint]

Probably not~. Anyway, tell me I did a good job before I cry. ☆

[please he wants to be complimented]

[notsosou]

[He really is like a dog...]

...

......Good job.

[starrypoint]

[yessss!!!]

Thank you~! I'll let you know if I think of anything else, Yori-chan! ☆

[dereban]

If there was a lot of dust, that means the locker hasn't been used in a while... does that mean that the note didn't matter at all, actually...?

No, rather, if it was ajar...

[mumble mumble mumble]

[notsosou]

Guys... we're all getting sidetracked. The exact locker doesn't actually matter. Komaeda proved that by changing the number, ahaha. [For those unaware that sudden blocky handwriting is his.] It could have been any of them... it's not like a meeting involves rifling inside, does it?

[Not unless that was the particular point, or it was to be used as demonstration... but given Hiro's ultimate destination was the Principal's office, Shin's fairly certain it wasn't.]

Speaking of... Komaeda, where exactly did you find the note?

[Komaeda only helps if it amuses him, but there's something of the Floormaster in him as well. That's what Shin's leaning on for his answer.]

[dereban]

. . . A meeting could totally involve rifling through a locker though? Although I have a feeling that the note and the fact that the locker was ajar in the first place might be 'traps' anyway.

[Although she'll wait to hear the answer to that next question to see if she needs to amend her thoughts.]

[commences]

Oh, were you the one that found it?

( calling him out about the note and such, and even going as far to point out that it's his handwriting. he's not upset about it, but he is staring at shin which is a little disappointing because he went by handwriting and not by finger prints... sighs, he really doesn't want to use his new skills.

he's not being difficult, but it's a genuine question. )

[notsosou]

[Oh he's getting to the fingerprints. He's leading up to it... but he needs to do some groundwork first. Just pointing the finger and turning everything into a yelling match has gotten things nowhere as far as he's concerned... Shin really does do better when he can attempt to set a trap.]

Pay attention, Komaeda. Nanami was the one who found it from where you left it, if you didn't hear.

[One of the Nanamis... the one he isn't rooming with currently. He knows about the 202 scrap on Hiro's body, but as far as he knows nobody else does yet because he currently has it with him. Komaeda can work it out if he wants.]

Do you really want to get into a whole tangent about how it's definitely your handwriting, or are you going to just say?

[He's already got it, so give up already. He solved your evidence tampering puzzle.]

[commences]

( how lint had to explain to me what was going on and now it all makes sense. okay, komaeda recalls everything, but stares at shin as if the answer is written on his face. )

Oh, good for Ultimate Gamer! Figuring out mission quests like this is truly unique to her talent. Now... you already had one Ultimate help you, so you can figure out the rest yourself, right?

( even if his puzzle had been found out, what else is there? cooperation for what? )

Though, who is to say it wasn't there all along?

( maybe shin will give him this thorough explanation so komaeda can just watch him feel confident in himself for once. that sounds nice. )

[notsosou]

...Urgh. Forget it...

[If he's playing tug of war like this... then they're not going to get anywhere and Komaeda isn't going to say anything at all. Shin's not in the mood at the best of times... it's always like this with him.]

It doesn't really matter where Hiro found it, or even when, anyway. The note itself is a red herring... even without having been tampered with. Because it still doesn't answer the question of why Hiro was at the Principal's Office that early at all.

[He's really wishing Sara or some other curious protagonist type would jump in here. It's not going to look good if he's doing all the heavy lifting himself.]