[Fin] Murder U Too - Endgame

[Dookie]

“M-m-e innocent. Me would never kill. Me was framed.”

>Vote Kai

[Kennifer]

Alexis, still afraid of jumping on a bandwagon and doing the wrong thing again even with what she does agree seems to be good evidence— then again, so had the evidence in that other game— will...

>abstain from voting, for now. She'll still feel horrible if the wrong person is executed, but this way she will at least feel a little less personally responsible.

[Caret]

Bow, after thinking it out for a bit, decides to silently /vote Kai.

[Billy5545]

Rosa sighs, before making her decision and saying, "I'm sorry, Kai, but after some considerations, I find you to be too suspicious based on the evidences and how you defended yourself. As such, I will be voting for you before you can drive us all into another war."

After doing the deed, Rosa is forced to remember the nightmare that was the Peterheim High rioting again. She just hopes that she made the right decision as a former student council president.

/Vote Kai

[wingedcatgirl]

Votes (7 to convict or skip)
Cookie Monster - Kellensea, Kai, Haruka
Kai - Ranma, Krabs, Cookie Monster, Bow, Rosa
Skip - Bakugo

My, my, how quickly the tables turn.

[madface7]

"That cookie lad's stupid, fer sure, but no one- and I mean no one- is stupid enough to leave evidence like that behind."

[wahoothis]

Out on the balcony was Ranma, pounding his fists into the wall over and over. He needed to blow off steam badly. It was just one case so far, and here he is already punching a wall in frustration. With every crack and pow his fists collide with the wall, he was deep in thought. Was he doing this because he believed Cookie was truly innocent? Or did he only try to prove Kellensea wrong because of her ego and pretension? At this point, he doesn't even know. From what he's heard, Kai has the most votes, but he's not so sure on whether or not Kai is the killer. Was it really like Kel said? Is Cookie Monster the real killer, and he had been defending a literal and figurative monster while accusing an innocent person because he thought it was too obvious?

A pained hiss, Ranma didn't stop punching the wall, needing to let out most of his frustrations. He just wanted to find Doug's killer. A martial artist and a man's job is to protect innocent people from harm. And he couldn't even do that. He couldn't do the one thing he can do. With a final shout, he slammed his bloody and broken fist into the wall, and slumped against the balcony, head down in shame. His fists were rubbed raw and red, his knuckles were busted and bleeding. But the pain of his fists couldn't compare to the pain he felt in his pride. His ego. His manhood. And here he is, not having a damned clue what he should do. What can he do in this situation? Punch, kick, throw someone? The only things he had under his belt was thirteen to fourteen years of training, and a cursed form that only worsen his mentality of being a man. Ranma just slammed his already ruined fist beside him, and continued to sit there, not a clue what he should do, or even his purpose.

[Florien]

Kellensea, watching the events unfold, tilts her head slightly, but says nothing. if anything, she seems a bit surprised that it's going this way. Then, something in her breaks a little. She's right, she knows it. But people just seem to be voting for the weirdly non-obvious choice. She doesn't particularly care who lives and dies, but the besmirchment of her character, painting her as someone willing to sacrifice so much to help anyone? That's an insult to her profession, and she can't have that. She stands up and speaks again, vaguely sarcastic and bitter in tone, but otherwise, fairly neutral sounding.

Funny that you should think such a good frame job is possible. I mean, if that's the case, maybe we should reward the person who pulled off such a good frame job. Let them go. But... I do have to say, I'm the only person who found a point for the knife other than stabbing. And, I still question how Kai found the body so much later after, you know, being the one to kill it, in your scenario. As much as I really don't care who lives or dies here, as long as I survive... I do want you to prove me right, rather than just prove yourselves wrong. Anyway... you still haven't answered for the shed fuzz fucking everywhere, other than "bluh it don't count because i don't want it to" and the fact that your ideas require me to be a willing coconspirator with no gain, who's staking my entire ability to convince people of my investigatory skills on saving some random person who isn't even in my adventuring party. Hell, I have an answer to "why Doug", I have many answers, but you genuinely don't care. You just want to throw a not-murderer off a cliff, to spite someone else. Perhaps you're more like me than you think.

[wingedcatgirl]

Bakugo, Komaru, Monika, Alexis. Are you planning to vote?

[wahoothis]

Ranma was on his way to the medbay, passing through the cafeteria, so don't be so alarmed when the martial artist walks in with his hands bleeding and swollen. But he hears Kellensea's words, and took a deep breath. At this point, he doesn't even know who it could be. He walks over to his voting spot and just stared there, forgetting about bandaging his bleeding hands, contemplating whether or not to switch the vote from Kai to Cookie, or change to abstain.

[Kennifer]

Alexis shakes her head.

"I'm going to abstain. I just... don't want to repeat a past mistake, I'm sorry."

She looked... concerned, about what might happen if she abstains, but she just couldn't make up her mind this time, as cut and dry as it seemed like it should be. But... it was like that last time too, in that other game.

[Florien]

Kellensea realizes. The others have opened up to her, to some extent. It's time to start engaging in active manipulation using what she knows, as much as she'd like to taunt them when they execute wrongly.

Hey, Alexis, fun fact! If the "wrong" person gets executed, you standing by and letting that happen puts blood on your hands almost as much as actually choosing to execute the "wrong" person! Isn't that weird? So you'd better be sure literally no one at all did it if you're going to abstain! Hell, if the "right" person gets executed and you abstain, you STILL have blood on your hands for not voting them off!

Then she turns to the cookie monster.

If you get away with this incautious bullshit, I will find your friends, and I will kill every last one of them in increasingly painful ways, I will grind up their remains into flour, and bake cookies with it, and feed them to you. If you don't want that to happen, I suggest you maybe confess to your crimes. But rest assured, if Kai, in fact, did it, I will not do that. But if you did it... Well... I'll have fun.

Then to Eugene Krabs.

I know little about you, crab-man. But I do know this. You've dealt with incompetence every day of your life, no doubt, being a business owner. You've seen your customers, no doubt. So, is it really so hard to believe that someone would leave otherwise well hidden evidence behind that was turned up in careful investigation?

Kellensea, satisfied she's picked the people who might sway, falls silent again, and awaits people giving in, or at very least, causing more breaks within the voting blocs.

[SmilyCube112]

"Why the hell should I? And don't give me the usual bullshit as a response - I just want to skip. Don't even try talking me out of this."

[Dookie]

Cookie looks at Kel.

“For someone accused of helping someone with murder, me think it's suspicious that you keep talking about murder.”

[Kennifer]

Alexis says nothing. She's leaned over again, just... thinking to herself, for once not writing any of this in her notes.

[Florien]

Yeah, you blue bag, but I wouldn't help someone commit murder who wasn't part of my adventuring party. So I think it's perfectly safe to talk about it. And I certainly wouldn't stake people taking my investigatory skills seriously on it, again, if they weren't part of my adventuring party, and my previous and current party members? Well, none of them are here. Seeing as how I'm not the one who would be released anyway... what would I have to gain from that? And aside from that, your behavior has been quite suspicious, and Kai's, I simply don't think it is.

Kellensea turns to everyone.

Why? What do you find so suspicious about Kai in particular, that you think that he did it enough to execute him? Please, give specifics. Same for what you find so anti-suspicious about that blue bag?

[wingedcatgirl]

Well, someone committed murder last night, I remind Bakugo. Do you want them to get off scot-free? I admit, if you skip today, they won't be able to escape tonight, but what do you think is going to happen tomorrow that will help you narrow it down?

[Kennifer]

Without raising her head, and in a very quiet tone, Alexis asks the host "There isn't a... penalty for not voting, is there?"

[wahoothis]

He could get the sense of manipulation coming from her tone. After all, he's face many a foe who's used several manipulation tactics. "Don't. . . Don't listen to her. . ." Ranma finally spoke up, the moment of sympathy to Kel fading the moment she opened her mouth. "She's nothing more than a coward. . . Someone who can't actively do anything against anyone. So she needs to talk down to others because she thinks she's better, when she's no more harmless than a bunch of leaves. Main reason why I didn't think she would commit murder: She wouldn't do it herself. So she's just waiting for the sloppy seconds, taking the victim's belongings like a vulture. This entire thing is nothing more than a game for her." Clenching his fists, making his own fist injury worst, he steps away from his voting stand. "This is no longer having anything to do with ego and spite against you. If Kai truly isn't the killer, I'll face my punishment accordingly, as a failure of a man. But we're not going to change the votes with your belittlements." Hearing her question, Ranma decided to give her the answer she wanted. "He was one of the many outside their room the night of the murder. Among the three suspects for the handprints, they were me, Cookie and Kai. And he was the first one to find the body, quickly before any of us. Would any of us have thought to check the room of the guy who we never spoken to's room the moment the announcement was made? But I already know you're going to make the argument for Cookie Monster, so let me do that for you. His fuzz was found at the crime scene, along with at the kitchen and other locations. He too was also out and about at knight. And like Kai, he too matches the handprints. So no need to repeat the argument for Cookie Monster, as I had already done it for you. You say it's straightforward, others think it's not, we don't know. You don't know either. We're having to make a vote on what we do know and believe. Because the only person with experience in this is the dead detective."

[wingedcatgirl]

If you skip twice, a murderer goes free. That's all. I shrug. I would assume you would find that outcome unacceptable...

[Kennifer]

"I'm not asking to skip the trial. I'm asking what happens if I choose, well... not to choose."

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

I... I'm not sure what to do at this point... This is all so confusing... I... Maybe Kai did it... Maybe the Cookie Monster did it... Maybe it was someone else entirely... I... I just can't choose... But... I... We need to do something... Because I think we won't find anything of use if we wait tomorrow... So... This may be our only chance...

Monika almost breaks down from having to comprehend all of this, and the space around her begins to start glitching once more...

[Florien]

Kellensea stares, as always, apparently blankly.

Believe what you want about my personal character, though you are mistaken. You'd think that there would be actual implicating evidence, signs of a coverup, but there just aren't. So either Kai is completely infallible, or you've fucked up. I'm inclined to believe the latter, because you were the one who found the gloves. I merely turned them inside out. And though I am an adventurer, I'm the frontliner, not the rogue. You seriously think I could have planted that shit?

Kellensea just stands there, awkwardly awaiting a response... Then she speaks up again. The saccharine sweetness of her words is somehow worse than the bitterness underlying some of her previous ones.

Look, I'll tell you what, Ranma. I'll change my vote to Kai. Kai will be executed soon thereafter. And then the Cookie Monster will walk free, with Doug's blood on its hands. Is that what you want, Ranma? Tell me, and I'll change my vote. I'll get Kai executed. But if you don't truly believe that Kai did it... if Kai didn't do it, I guess your... "Manly" conviction just isn't enough to change reality to suit your desire to have me be wrong. Tell me, Ranma. Tell me to change my vote to Kai, and I'll do it. Or are you too weak, are you too afraid of what will happen, if Kai gets executed?

[wingedcatgirl]

Choose... not to choose? I repeat, slowly. I have to mull over that for several seconds. ... Why? Why would you ever want to do that?

[Kennifer]

Alexis sighs deeply.

"Because, although the evidence is pointing in one direction... I was in a game before. The evidence... I found some evidence. Hair, much like in this case, that pointed towards the guilt of a specific person. I was rather adamant in my statements of guilt against this person... I chose wrong, I helped execute an innocent man. I do not wish to repeat this mistake."

She raises her head and tosses back her hair; it looks like she's been crying.

"So, I want to know... do I have to vote? Whether I vote to send someone to their doom, or vote to not execute anyone? Is there a penalty against me if I just... can't make up my mind, and don't vote for anything?"