The Murder Challenge

[Kennifer]

Michelle nods.

"I stayed in my room too. Didn't even talk with Nintendo and SEGA or anything."

[Florien]

Hi. I see something got resolved. Now, can we get to the part where we start copying over people's minds properly? Temporarily doing it is a pain enough.

Lucintsea is very clearly alive, what with the dead one being Coldsteel. Despite her lack of any expression or inflection, it is clear she's pleased at this development.

[PopcornPie]

"I'll let you try mine if I get to try copying yours!"

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

I actually went out and distracted someone for once!

[Kennifer]

"Who'd you distract? I mean, apparently not the killer or driver, but knowing could help us narrow it down, right?"

[Florien]

I'm already familiarized. I familiarized myself with a little trickery, and am at my limit for permanents, and I'd rather not test double familiarization on myself... if it's all the same to you of course.

You'll have to familiarize others. Basically you either need to catch them unaware or get them compliant through violence, then you kill their mind and replace it with yours. I can't really describe the process in much detail, it's pretty advanced stuff and I'm not great at explaining stuff anyway... I guess that's why I like doing it. You don't need to explain things to familiarized people. They understand because they're just more you.

[PointMaid]

Selen(ium) still looks very confused.

Maybe it's like getting people to feel what you feel through your music? I... I can relate to that.

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

... Gundham. I figured that his relative inactivity made him a... I dunno, I felt insecure, so I decided to distract him just in case... Speaking of which, where is he...

[Caret]

"ASSUMING THAT EVERYONE'S ROLECLAIMS ARE TRUE, THE PEOPLE WE NEED TO WATCH OUT FOR ARE CTHARLAK, LUCINTSEA, AND GUNDHAM. ONE OF THEM IS THE BUS DRIVER, WHILE THE OTHERS ARE EITHER NORMIES... OR BAKAS. BUT WAIT! IT'S POSSIBLE THAT THERE'S A PERSON OR TWO WHO'S LYING ABOUT THEIR ROLE, EITHER TO AVOID BEING CRUSHED BY THE BAKAS, OR BECAUSE THEY BAKAS THEMSELVES!"

"STRAP IN, BEAUTIES! WE GONNA HAVE TO RELY ON ONE CERTAIN THING! THAT'S RIGHT! I'M TALKING ABOUT... SOCIAL DEDUCTION! HOORAY TO MAKING WILD ACCUSATIONS THAT TURN OUT TO BE FALSE MORE OFTEN THAN NOT!"

[Florien]

I suppose you could describe it as music and... feeling what you feel? If you want to think of that way, sure. I don't have any of my chained around to familiarize others with though. It is a shame that they lose most distinct skills. I need to keep my siege engineer unfamiliarized, for example, until I've mastered siegecraft, because otherwise I'll have to go back to the old strategy of "ramp of familiars", which was always gruesome and took a while to recover the dead chained who were directs of a living one.

Lucintsea pauses.

Anyway, no, I was the one behind Coldsteel's death. I made sure our distraction didn't end up out of it. Nearly slipped a direct swapping you two, but I dropped you before it happened without giving either of you a brain aneurysm or killing you... directly. I'm the "driver", as you call it. Don't know why you call it that, I have no wagon. So I'm not the other would-be killer.

[Oggy123]

Nintendo and SEGA then come out.

"*yawn* Morning, everyone... Did anyone die?"

"Crud, Ninty! That purple hedgehog has died!"

[Kennifer]

"I may be an influencer but overriding someone's brain with mine is... not something I think I'm capable of doing."

Michelle pauses.

"Okay, so... good job with that swap thing, at least. Sure helped with the 'taking out the Bakas' thing, and I hope we can figure out one of the others today. Did we finish checking the room for evidence? We should be doing that if there's anything, right? Since Coldsteel didn't off himself, it was one of the other bakas."

[Florien]

You're capable of it. You don't have to if you don't want to though. You can always submit to be overwritten yourself, and become part of the world of one when I get my chained in here to overwrite your overwriter. also thanks, I intend to keep that momentum going. In fact... no that idea's probably dumb and bad. You don't want to hear it. It won't work.

[Kennifer]

"...I'd rather not do either, if that's okay."

Michelle didn't imagine it'd make much of a difference in the game, anyway.

[Florien]

It's going to be one or the other, and in the end, both. But it won't be now, just later, unless one of you knows how to familiarize people. I can't... explain it. It's tricky. I learned it from a book and I didn't bring it with me. You might not be literate anyway, most of my village wasn't. They thought it a waste of time that I learned to read. No shame for that though. 

But really, it'll be better and happier when all bodies are the same mind. More mental storage. All knowledge shared because there's only one place for it to go. Everyone immortal because they're chained together, no individual death mattering even if a chain is broken, because all are one. Billions of eyes to see the world... it'll be wonderful. You should get used to the idea now, because it is inevitable. Anyway, that aside, we do need to eliminate the last troublemaker before the future can come. So we should do that first.

[Kennifer]

"..Yeah, let's focus on finding the killer right now."

Michelle didn't say so, but she'd prefer to keep her autonomy.

[PopcornPie]

"Well, I know I wasn't lying about my role this time. If a Baka couldn't kill, that means my block worked. It's pinpointing who turned on him that'll be tricky."

> Any spit? Hair? Any DNA that could have belonged to the killer?

[Oggy123]

"Well then..."

> Also look for clues

[Florien]

A killer killed. Who did you block, Entrapta?

Because we can eliminate that individual from suspicion and they can be welcomed as another in the Captaincy. Unless you blocked Coldsteel, in which case, the whole being murdered thing does somewhat overwrite anything we learned, sadly.

Meanwhile, Lucintsea tries to

>check the bedsheet strangulation, how physically strong would the attacker be?

[PopcornPie]

"I blocked Coldsteel, but he was a killer anyway, so it's okay." Well, kind of. He was going to kill someone anyway, most likely. No harm, no foul?

[Dookie]

> Any spit? Hair? Any DNA that could have belonged to the killer?

Nah. Don't want to give too much away.

>check the bedsheet strangulation, how physically strong would the attacker be?

Somewhat strong, at least.

[PopcornPie]

"Aw. Nothing. Here, try not to mess with the body too much."

> How harsh was Coldsteel's struggle against his killer? What position is his body in?

[Florien]

Oh. We've learned nothing particularly new then. Though a threat has been eliminated, so that is... nice. I recommend we keep a close eye on those who have claimed no role. The one out to get us and the one who directly killed Coldsteel are in that group. Either a slightly foolhardy one, or perhaps an overthinking one, based on how I helped lure them into going for Kanade by speaking of the... power of her role.

Then she notices the strength required for the killing.

...huh.

/vote Mettaton

[Oggy123]

"I guess that means the culprit must be really strong!"

[Florien]

yeah, I think the culprit's mettaton but I mean if you have another idea please go ahead I'm probably wrong.