Third trial

[letsplayamod]

That... should suffice, I believe. Enter the arena, your time of judgement has come.

[Short, terse. Typhon is wasting little time today, and it seems you shouldn't either.


Dark soldiers from veins in the earth flank your entrance to the area. Overhead, the clouds give a burst of lightning and a clap of thunder. Past the barrier, Typhon's rift is wrenched open by a giant fist, slowing growing... until Typhon's upper half is revealed.]

You have done well... once again, proving that you are beholden to these squalid natures the gods imprinted on you, in their own hubris!

[Typhon raises his fist... but it falls back.]

...Now, begin. Give the performance I'm sure your darling goddess would give. I will be watching.

[You have your evidence. He's waiting.]

[TRIAL START]

Comments

[brokenhabit]

[ Lebkuchen is uh... well she's here! Her solemn face has been cleaned up a little and she still has blood on the front of her veil-less habit but she's here! Gotta tell the people what she saw!

She keeps her head and hands lowered, the latter clasped together in front of the skirt of the habit, still bearing the dark stains of oil from last week (because girl just can't catch a break!!) ]

I was knocking on bedroom doors to check in on people. When Ai answered I thought at first that she must still be sleepy but something was... off. To me she seemed dazed and confused. But more than that there was a rotting smell coming from her bedroom.

[ The way she delivers the account is calm, almost to the point of being monotone. This is a duty that needs to be carried out - she needs to do it right. ]

When she came out I noticed a green ribbon tied around her neck. She started grabbing at it and after she took it off a gash ripped across her throat, as if an invisible knife had just slashed across it. She fell to the ground and that's when I screamed.

[latinumsbetter]

[to whomever he's next to, sotto voce but not really:] You think he'll ever get tired of the sound of his own voice?

[sweetsynergy]

Not a chance. It'd risk someone else getting in the last word.

[catsgothistongue]

Guys like 'em? Nah.

[Unfortunately.]

[latinumsbetter]

[Blessed Exchequer, that's A Lot. He'd heard the screaming, of course, but there'd already been a crowd so he'd hung back]

A rotting smell...like something'd been dead for a while?

[sweetsynergy]

Was there any blood, uh. Before the ribbon came off.

[sorry leb]

I promise this is relevant and not just morbid curiosity.

[latinumsbetter]

[Quark snorts at that instead of snickering]

Can't have that. Imagine the blow that would be.

[latinumsbetter]

Yeah, too much to ask.

[brokenhabit]

No. Not that I saw anyway.

There were no visible wounds at all until that one simply... appeared.

[catsgothistongue]

[Typhon gets nothing more than a vitriolic glare and a mutter of bastard and other obscenities' under his breath, before getting on with the 'performance':]

I checked out the armory, looked like somebody paid it a visit recently. Every weapon was accounted for...

[Let me see what you have Ranma, a-- not a knife, but a sheath for one, small like a dagger, produced from his sleeve.]

...'cept for this one. Did anyone find a knife anywhere?

[tailoredfate]

[This is all so.... bizarre. As she hums in thought, Aglaea moves so she can stay close to Lebkuchen. Still trying to be that steadying rock.]

Others have been speaking to Ai without anything strange going on this week, correct? Was this the first time anything seemed off with her?

[murchada]

Dazed and confused... But, she was up and talking?

[yourheroine]

...

[Aoi takes off her sweater and puts it over Leb's shoulders. Yes, Aoi just got done washing the thing, but Leb being sad takes priority.]

[markofnobility]

I checked around Ai's door and the hallway. It was odd- there was no blood there at all, in fact the area right in front of it was oddly clean. Though I found no signs of soap or the like.

Her door also had nicks and scratches around the lock on the outside. I used my own key to see if perhaps it was an expected fumble while Ai was trying to get in... but the marks do not match a key at all. But I could not determine what kind of tool, if any at all, were used.

Our doors lock from the inside, do they not?

[sweetsynergy]

Yikes.

[She winces a little.]

Then we definitely have some questions, because, uh.

[She puts a folded set of very bloody Ai-sized pajamas down for everyone to see.]

There was definitely a whole lot of blood on these, and it looks consistent with the wound you described. And that kind of thing generally doesn't STOP without surgical aid, definitely not just for a ribbon.

[yourheroine]

Maybe she didn't know she died...

[Aoi what the fuck are you talking about]

[catsgothistongue]

[The hell?]

Was the ribbon keepin' her neck wound close?

[atu709]

I'm so sorry you had to be the one to see it.

[ "snow there are other people who would be upset to see that shit" yea but theyre not leb are they!!!! that's her little guy!!!!! ]

I think that, under the circumstances, it's unlikely to have been your work. I feel that should be said out loud and established.

[murchada]

Yeah, that's right.

So... someone forced open the lock.

[latinumsbetter]

We can all agree on that.

[yourheroine]

Someone was trying to break the lock?

[murchada]

...Normally I'd say that's a pretty big thing to miss, but...

[shit here is so goddamn weird?]

[pariunt]

A green ribbon?

[That... seems important, somehow, but he can't think of why.]

Does anyone remember seeing her wearing something like that before?

[catsgothistongue]

There was a knife missing from the armory, one of the smaller blades. Could that've been used to pick her door open?

[yourheroine]

Ai's dead. It's not fair to talk about her like that...