MIDNIGHT/DAY 3 - suspicion

[protoshepherd]

[ Ousting has ended, and you're all prodded to go back to your rooms.

You hear the sound of glass, and maybe a scream. And a thud, as if something like a statue just fell and broke. Basically, there is a lot of noise in the middle of the night again.

The door to the Redd White room is swinging open, and you'll find Mia Fey's body on the floor. She's seated with her back against the mirror, blood flowing from the back of her head, into her clothes, and onto the floor. She seems to have died from a blow by a blunt object, and may have lived for a few minutes after being hit. Near her body is the word "blu", written in blood, with the same handwriting as the one you've seen when you received the letter.

Maya Fey's death seems to be… quite unique. It's not like any other crime scene Phoenix Wright has scene, for sure. Her body has ropes all around, and she's seated on a chair, posed like The Thinker. But just like her elder sister, she's got a huge wound on her head. Blood flowing, seeping, and dripping on the carpets.

Why did they die? Wasn't it Team The Phantom who was ousted?

… It seems one has overturned the ousting, and it was definitely one of you. And when you enter the Redd White room, you will hear the badger say it. Overturn oust. One of you. Team Phantom is not oust.

And just like the night before, another team has passed.

The door to the Kristoph Gavin room is also open, and you'll find Kristoph seated on a table with a deck of cards sprawled all over, as well as on the floor. There's blood spatter on the cards, and you can see a huge mark on his forehead. It seems he was hit from behind, since the direction of the blood was not going to his face, but rather, flowing through his blond locks that he meticulously curls every morning.

On the other side of the table is Colias Palaeno, his head resting on the table, with a yellow coffee mug in his hand. You may notice some blue residue from where he seems to have taken a sip of his coffee. Poison? Most definitely.

But if you decide to investigate further, it isn't just a deck of cards on the table. There is this, too. It seems the Kristoph Gavin team has found out more than they should have. Or, you know. The allies of the Bad Badger just to them.

The mirrors in the library now display an image of Redd White, where Maya and Mia's mirrors were supposed to be. And Kristoph Gavin's portrait where Kristoph and Palaeno's were supposed to be.

Good morning, allies of the bad and blue badgers. There are only eight teams now.

Upon checking the mirrors, you will hear Proto Badger talk again. Only one bad badger ally found. You are all guilty.]

Poll #16512

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 7

Hehe... oust overturn. what now?

Horace Knightley Team
0 (0.0%)

Daryan Crescend Team
0 (0.0%)

Luke Atmey Team
0 (0.0%)

Dahlia Hawthorne Team
1 (14.3%)

Furio Tigre Team
0 (0.0%)

The Phantom Team
3 (42.9%)

Morgan Fey Team
0 (0.0%)

Jacques Portsman Team
3 (42.9%)

---


[ 00:01 MARCH 6 EST: Day 3 begins, and a new suspicion poll pops up. ONLY EIGHT TEAMS REMAIN.

00 MARCH 7 EST: A clue will be given. Suspicion poll closes at MIDNIGHT.

00 MARCH 8 EST: Ousting poll gets put up! ]


---

CLUE!!

Comments

[bewrightback]

[Once the scream breaks out, you may see a blue blur running right towards the Redd White room. And then, there's a man's shout echoing soon afterwards, full of agony.

For the first minute or so, he's standing by Maya Fey, prodding her and trying to work at the ropes, as if trying to wake her up, ignorant of all the blood that's getting on him.

Afterwards, he gives up. He stands there in the room vacantly, with tears in his eyes, and it's a wonder if he'll ever will himself to move again.]

[stagewright]

[ Given how things had one the other night, Trucy had looked towards the Phantom team's door first when she'd followed Phoenix into the hall. Expecting to see it open, because - another noise in the middle of the night, after they'd all voted (except one person, again) - it was waiting for the axe to come down.

She'd frozen confused in the hall; the Phantom room was directly across from her own, and it wasn't open. Further down the hall, though...

Trucy isn't certain she wants to go into the room of team Redd White - Pearls, they have to keep Pearls from seeing it, she thinks, distracted - but Phoenix is in there, so she follows him in, uncertain what to say or do. She hears that voice again.

Someone overturned the oust. ]

But we all - it was unanimous. Everyone who voted.

[ How the hell did it get overturned? ]

[talldarkbitter]

[ Armando isn't too far behind. Hearing a scream - a woman's scream - snapped him out of the Phantom room where they were waiting for the end to come. He enters the room when Wright is looking at Maya, but it's like no one is there.

Except for her.

His steps are swift across the room, and he falls to his knees in front of: ]

Mia! Mia...

[ Most people would call Armando an objective man. He already knows it's too late, but that doesn't stop him from reaching out, taking her face into his hands. He doesn't care about the blood seeping into his trembling palms, intermingling with the cuts he gave himself the day before.

His voice is hoarse. ]

Mia... Mia, please...

[ His hands fall away, and he bows over her, his head on her shoulder. He doesn't cry out like Phoenix did, but the rough sound he gives is no less a broken one. ]

[wetnoodle]

[While Phoenix stands there vacantly, Yanni wanders in, though he stays quiet when he surveys the scene. It's bloody, it's horrible, just like the last one. And it's the Fey sisters... Mia and Maya Fey. Daughters of the woman who pointed the finger at him, who led police to convict an innocent man.

But he couldn't hold a grudge against them. They weren't related to the case, despite being so to one who was. In fact, during this whole time, they'd been the optimists. A ray of light in all this.

It's a grim fate they shared, and he knew just how close Phoenix was to them, even though he pretended not to see it.

He steps enough into the room to put a hand on Phoenix's shoulder, knowing full well that the other man probably won't acknowledge him or realize he's even there.]

I'm sorry.

[His voice sounds a bit deeper, not as airy as usual. Though Yanni hasn't straightened up to his full height or lifted his shoulders much more, he looks more sane than he has during his whole stay here.]

I'll leave you to mourn.

[And with that, he leaves the room.]

[butzhurt]

[Larry's gonna put his hands on his shoulder and start to shake him.] Nick. Nick. Don't do this to me, Nick. NICK.

[venomize]

[ . . . Well, that sure happened. But she has a feeling that someone's going to blame her for overturning the votes considering that she didn't vote, but hey, she didn't care for either team which is why she didn't vote. Because, you know, she wanted people on both teams dead so it was a win-win situation for her.

She'll be laughing at Mia and Maya's dead bodies though, have fun with that. ]

Good riddance, Mia and Maya Fey. [ At least she's not desecrating the bodies?? ]

[butzhurt]

FUDGE YOU!

[talldarkbitter]

[ Well, if anything's going to snap him out of his anguish, it's that.

This time, Godot isn't even going to try to hold it down. He is pure fury as he surges towards Dahlia Hawthorne. He might not be able to kill her, but he can hurt her.

Assuming she doesn't try to dart away, he's going to try hauling her bodily out of the room. ]

[spiritpearls]

[ Pearl is too busy sobbing in a corner to punch her, but she does stick out one leg to trip Dahlia on her way out.

Go crawl back into the hellhole you came out of. ]

[spiritpearls]

A - MIA & MAYA'S ROOM

[ Pearl finds herself at the door to the Redd White room soon after the commotion, and... her heart stops. Plummets, shatters. No. No no no no this can't be happening. This... this can't be real. This is a nightmare.

Maya... Mia... her cousins, her family. The people she loved the most. They were dead.

You may hear a shriek that sounds like a dying animal, and it comes from Pearl's mouth before she falls in a crumpled heap in the doorway. Excuse her while she has a complete breakdown. Feel free to step over her to investigate. ]

B - SOMETIME LATER

[ After she's done laying in her cousins' doorway crying like a wreck, Pearl will end up sitting in the dining room. Not doing anything, just staring off into space like a zombie. Her eyes are red and wet, and her pretzel hair is falling out of place.

But if anyone approaches, she'll straighten up to talk. ]

a

[stagewright]

[ No, we're definitely not doing that. Trucy will leave the investigating to someone else, for now; she'd wanted to keep Pearl from seeing this, after following Phoenix, but now that she has... ]

Pearls, Pearl, [ She's probably babbling, a little, but Trucy crouches beside Pearl, tries to pull her over to the side and into the hall. Away from that door. ] No, no, come on, you don't - you don't have to look -

B

[bewrightback]

[Phoenix stops by only after he's done with his work in the room. He's changed out of his blue suit, so now he's wearing the Feenie sweater and the hobo pants.

It's hard to face Pearls, with what happened. But he knows he needs to be strong for her. She must need them now more than ever. He steps up towards her and once he's beside her seat, he quietly rests a hand on her shoulder.]

Pearls...

[huglife]

[ Ray is keeping away from the Redd White room for now; he has seen more than enough and wants to give Phoenix and his friends some space. He is saddened by this loss, but takes it upon himself to continue the investigation while the others mourn. He can cry about this later. ...He probably will.

So, he's standing by the door of Kristoph Gavin's room for now, trying to keep busy and piecing all the clues together. "Overturned", eh? ]

[shacklebreaker]

[Blackquill is likewise giving Phoenix and the others some space. Partly to let them mourn, and partly because he's not sure he can look them in the eye without shame, knowing it should have the Phantom's bodies they discovered.

So he heads over to Gavin's room, casting a cursory look over the scene. Two separate causes of death... Once again, another very deliberate staging.]

... Have you discovered anything of interest, Mr. Shields?

[wetnoodle]

[Yanni returns from the mirror after his conversation with the badger, and he wants to find the card again. Possibly keep it with him, just in case. But "Tony" is here, and he's investigating the room pretty well.

Hrmm. Yanni will have to settle for being his usual self for this.]

Er... anything stick out at ya, Tony?

[shacklebreaker]

[And somehow, against all odds, Blackquill has been spared the reaper again.

He had given Taka to Aura to keep the bird safe, had stayed wide awake armed with a broken table leg to use as a weapon for when the Badger inevitably came for them. To die fighting, after all, was more honourable than to die helpless. Perhaps he might even be able to wound it in the struggle...

But the badger never came, and the moment he hears the sounds of a scuffle and screams elsewhere, he rushes to the Redd White room. Too late.]

No...! No! It should have been us...!

[butzhurt]

[This is wrong, this is freaking wrong. Maya and Mia... they were supposed to live. They'd all voted for them to live. And now this stupid badger--

Ugh and the coupon ambassador and the glasses dude too--

Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Larry stands by the door of the Redd White room, uselessly trying to wipe away the tears rolling down his cheeks.]

[dekillerqueen]

[Shelly enters the Redd White room, and he needs a few moments to process what he's seeing. The vote was unanimous, the other team was supposed to die, those are the established rules, this isn't right--

As he processes the scene, rage bubbles up within him, and there's barely a sign of it on his face but even he is human and he can't keep it ALL in or mysteriously channel it into inanimate objects forever. His mouth draws into a thin line behind his moustache, his eyebrows tense.

He heads back to the mirrors with rigid wide steps and raises his voice.]

Badger.

[protoshepherd]

[ Jaws theme jaws theme. ]

Morning.

Post-Getting Shit Together

[bewrightback]

[At some point, after talking things out with any number of people, Phoenix manages to get his mind back on some kind of track.

His last order of business is to remove the ropes binding Maya. Then he works at resting both of the Feys in the bed.

Then it's time to move on.

A lot of blood got on his suit in the process; he trashes it. He winds up wearing what he can find in his closet. This includes the pants from his hobo get-up and the pink sweater of Feenie (but minus the scarf). His hair stays the same - he only wears the hobo hat until he examines Kristoph's room.]

[Kristoph room]

[And then he finally finds the other crime scene. It comes with more sickening familiarity. He spares a sympathetic glance towards Mr. Palaeno; there's no doubt that he was just an innocent man who was caught up in this. And then, he looks at Kristoph's ironic end with a frown.

Here, at least in this context, he was really starting to trust him as an ally.]

Kristoph... Even you didn't deserve this.

[He says that softly; then he removes his hat and places it over Kristoph's head. That will hide some of his shame, at least. And the he sees that note...

/Clinical and bottles of grape juice added to the court record]

[Library]

[Only one bad badger ally found. You are all guilty.

He grits his teeth and shakes his head at those words; he leaves for a few minutes and comes back with some blankets or other such things to drape over the images of Redd White.]

[Dining Room]

[Phoenix will be quietly hitting the grape juice as he thinks over their next move.]

gavin room

[talldarkbitter]

[ It wouldn't be appropriate to say that he's recovered, but he's gotten to a point where the hatches are battened down. Or maybe he's just emotionally drained. Because the scene in the Gavin room doesn't seem to affect him at all, and for a while after seeing Nick there he doesn't speak.

He does stop at Palaeno's shoulder, his 'eyes' directed towards the coffee. Glow intensifying...

He's only snapped out of it by the clink of a bottle moving. ]

What was that paper?

[sinistersciencelesbian]

[Aura doesn't even bother going to look at the bodies. She's just going to sit at one of the tables in the dining room, trying to figure out how to feel about this.]

[huglife]

I hope the next meal comes with less cuffs. Mind if Uncle Ray joins?

[ His joke feels forced this time around, there's really not much he or anyone can do to make the situation less heavy now. Still, he joins her across the table, wanting to make sure that she's okay. ]

[wetnoodle]

[He'd heard the screams, though Yanni didn't bother coming out of his room until well after the murders. He's tired of all this. If the badger came for him, he'd be fine with it... he just doesn't want to take anyone down with him - not anyone from here, at least.

When he does survey the scene, he leaves the murder of the Feys to the mourning party and heads to Gavin's room. It's grisly too, though not as bloody. Yanni's no investigator, and he mostly just surveys the room with a slight sway of his body.

But there's one thing that catches his attention. The note on the table... it makes him curious enough to actually go to it and see what's written on it.

Just the date itself makes his blood turn to ice.

28 Dec 2001

Don't forget D-6.

He barely reads the rest of it; it's incriminating enough when he had nothing to do with this. Instead, Yanni just throws the note down and heads out of the room, balance returned, eyes no longer vacant. Don't forget DL-6.]

[Later, he stands in front of the Furio Tigre mirror, observing the names and back to his crazy self, though he seems more subdued than usual. Phoenix had voted all the other times, but who knows what his state is like now... He might as well take the vote, even though he doesn't like the idea of doing so.

Still, there's one thing to do first. He's not sure if this'll work, but...]

Erm... I wanna talk to the badger feller in the mirror. [At least, if he's wrong, it'll be just because of his usual antics.]

[protoshepherd]

[ You might have just been seeing your reflection, but now, the badger is standing behind you. If you look back, he's not there. But he sure is in the mirror. ]

Morning.

CLUE

[protoshepherd]

[ Anyone who passes by the dining hall will find a stepladder.

Yes, a stepladder.

There seems to be a picture hanging on the ceiling, and you can only grab it if you climb the ladder.

If you do, you'll grab a picture of Shelly de Killer. At the back of the photo says "horace knightley blue badger safe" ]

---

[ This is your safe sheep clue. Usually, in cry wolf games, the clue on the third day is not like the clues given in the first two days. You are just give a name of a confirmed sheep. Have fun! ]

[stagewright]

[ She'd been taking a walk with Pearls, because getting the other girl to do something other than lay in bed had seemed crucial, come daytime. Seeing a stepladder, though... ]

A stepladder? [ Never a ladder. Unhooking her arm from Pearl's, Trucy goes to climb up the stepladder since...

well what's this picture then

oh...that awkward moment when the apparent assassin is the most trustworthy person in the game ]

[spiritpearls]

OKAY! [ Shouted to get everyone's attention after the ladder/stepladder debacle. ]

So, we now know that the team Horace Knightley is a confirmed non-bad badger. That's nice. [ She... guesses? ]

But more important than that is the vote. Yesterday, we voted for team Phantom unanimously, but instead team Redd White was-- [ Her voice cracks and she mumbles for a moment. ] A-and we know that team Redd White was innocent, since the mirror badger says we've only caught one out of three bad badger teams... team Matt Engarde, of course, since Myriam and today Mr Gavin and Mr Palaeno were found killed by the bad badgers.

This means either team Phantom or team Jaques Portsman are the bad badger team from yesterday's set of clues. The logical thing to do would be to split the suspicion vote between them... That's um. All I wanted to say.

Does anyone have any thoughts to add?

[stagewright]

Nope, I agree we should do that. I also still think voting for Miss Hawthorne is both suspicious and kind of dumb. She's horrendous, but we don't have any real reason to suspect her as of yet.

[ Mr. Gavin wasn't a shining star of awesome, either, even if he was more helpful. ]

I'm not against voting for her if the next set of clues indicts her - even though I still kind of doubt she's a "bad badger" so much as a "bad person" - but voting for her right now when we have a fifty-fifty chance rather than the worse odds on Miss Hawthorne is stupid. Dangerously so.