week 0, friday

[vigilantics]

[ a little bit after the body announcement, steph will track belph down. it probably wouldn't look that weird, considering they were together during investigation. ]

Hey. Wanna take a walk with me?

[ it's really not a question. ]

Comments

[axilium]

I think I might be too scared of you to say no.

[it doesn't really have the usual energy behind belph's jokes.]

[vigilantics]

I won't bite.

[ but a walk it is then. as for a destination... there really isn't any at the moment. maybe if they pass by somewhere secluded enough they can duck there. ]

So. It happened.

[axilium]

... Yeah, it did.

[and with that, this "war" is real.]

[vigilantics]

God, I was really hoping that it wouldn't.

[ not that she didn't think it would happen. she can be fairly optimistic, but she's not an idiot. ]

I don't even know where to start with this.

[axilium]

Neither do I. Dealing with a normal murder is already difficult enough, but everything about this—it just doesn't make sense.

I mean, what the hell happened last night?

[vigilantics]

Why were so many people out of their rooms? And what was with all of the ink?

[ she has... so many questions. ]

[axilium]

... You don't think we all bleed ink now, do you?

[vigilantics]

They did tell us we're stories, didn't they?

[ she is... not itching to check though... ]

Her tapestry was all inky too, wasn't it?

[axilium]

[he shudders.]

Ugh...

[bad enough that they've been abducted, but the idea of their insides being replaced like that? ergh.]

It was. ... Guess that wasn't a coincidence.

[could they have stopped it, he wonders—if they'd been more vigilant?]

[vigilantics]

It's hard to tell for now, I think. If they just tell us who's going to day days beforehand each time, that's a little...

[ cruel? it worked this time because they had no idea what it meant.

although this whole thing is cruel. ]

Maybe it's a title thing.

[axilium]

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin when it comes to guessing what the other titles can do.

[vigilantics]

Even just knowing two of them doesn't really help much there, does it?

[ although... ]

Do you, um. Know when it happened?

[axilium]

[...]

Around 7:30 PM.

[vigilantics]

Uh. There is... something wrong with that time...

[ UHHH ]

[axilium]

Like, an hour and a half plus wrong? Yeah.

[vigilantics]

So, someone risked killing her when... anyone could just walk in at any time?

[ ?????? ]

[axilium]

I... guess? [??????] Maybe it was in the heat of the moment? I've got no clue, man.

[vigilantics]

Yeah, I guess that could mean a lot of things...

[ they won't know how that information will be useful until tomorrow anyway. ]

What do you think tomorrow is going to be like? Besides terrible.

[axilium]

Awful? Horrible? [...] Everyone who was found outside their room—they're going to be the focus, probably. We don't have any other leads.

Not to mention the two of us, specifically, are going to have to keep an especially careful eye on people. We need to get an idea of who we're going to check once our job starts for real, after all.

[vigilantics]

[ that's right. she doesn't want to think that any of them did it. sharpay seems too... normal? nico is just a kid. so is ion. reyna seemed alright, too. ]

What should we look out for in particular?

[axilium]

I guess it depends on what our strategy's going to be, especially when we don't know what the other roles are yet.

Do we want to check people we think are suspicious and we need to keep an eye on, or do we want to check people we think could be an ally?

[vigilantics]

Ugghhhhh.

[ why is this... hard... ]

Normally I would go towards suspicious, but I think it might be too early to decide on who might fit that?

[axilium]

[think hard, steph!!]

Yeah. Even Eichi's seeming pretty normal now, so I'm tentatively crossing him off my list of possibly sketchy people.

... If we get lucky, someone'll be obviously fishy in a non-murder way at the trial—like knowing a little too much, or something. Otherwise, we might have to go for the ally route.

[vigilantics]

And who are our potential allies? I guess the obvious answer would be our partners.

[ it would be a little unfortunate if it turns out the people they're tied to are #problematic ]

[axilium]

Shirasu's made it pretty clear that he has an investment in keeping me alive, at least.

[they all saw how he reacted when sharpay grabbed belph, too.]

Natsuo's still as sincere as ever—though the flip side of that is I'm not sure if the guy can keep a secret, so he might not be that useful to us.