catchall harrowhark

[alteracion]

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[alteracion]

During trial, I thought the cra or bread thing might have been some sort of code for someone, but... No one got it, so obviously not.

[bonetiddies]

If he wrote "Grace" and you erased it into a confusing bread message instead of erasing it entirely, would you tell me? It would come as a relief.

[She's joking, but. God.]

[alteracion]

Ha. [ but even though she rolls her eyes she just looks tired ] I wish I could tell you yes, but no. Even that stupid explanation probably isn't stupid enough for what actually happened.

[bonetiddies]

I hate having so little clarity. I'm rather convinced, in retrospect, that Vlad did kill Steven, and by mistake came upon Luca's murder while doing the deed.

But the events leading to Luca's death are incomprehensible to me.

[alteracion]

Vlad killing Steven makes the most sense. He had easy access to the shovel and Ming Yi's boots. Not to mention the blood on those only matches with Steven. But how those got back where we found them... did Luca's killer do it? It doesn't make any sense.

[bonetiddies]

I believe he put them back, but for whatever reason, put the shovel away after he had returned the boots - perhaps because the boots were bloodied.

If he was returning from the Sleep Bay, he would have been in the vicinity of Luca's death.

[alteracion]

[ grace makes a face because that's stupid, but also she believes vlad would be that stupid in his murder, so she doesn't think being stupid means anything. ]

So whoever killed Luca killed Vlad too, and they were wearing the clown shoes and took a bath in the hot tub to wash off the blood. And probably went into the med bay to heal, since someone walked into the med bay?

[bonetiddies]

Yes. The med bay makes things so convenient, doesn't it? And yet we are all still asked to remove our clothing.

[alteracion]

And no one ever knows what they're looking for, so they just ask about anything and everything.

[bonetiddies]

Mm.

[She's - embarrassed, about having a little meltdown, but - ]

We have never learned anything from it because there are too many possible excuses for an injury, too many ways to hide, and too many indications - hurt or not hurt enough.

It is such a pointless exercise.

[alteracion]

[ grace herself didn't throw a tantrum, but she did get snappy with eleanor, so. she gets it. ]

Despair seemed to be implying otherwise, which means we're never going to stop doing it even though there's no actual plan on what to do with any of that info except talk about each other's sex lives.

[bonetiddies]

Despair says many things, and not all of them need be paid any mind.

[alteracion]

Ha. You don't like them much?

[bonetiddies]

Ah.

[She glances at little friend carrying the sword.]

No, that isn't it. I find their company quite acceptable. But they do not know everything.

[alteracion]

[ she looks at it but doesn't. ask. ]

They do know more than us on the murder part, unfortunately.

[bonetiddies]

[She sighs.]

I've spent a lot of time talking to your Avatar about it. Trying to understand what we're missing. What keeps coming up in our conversations is the question of motive. I don't know what is meant by this, precisely, I'm sorry to say.

[alteracion]

We've already picked off all the most obviously murder-y people, so that's probably not the kind of motive Greed meant. So... is there an actual reason to do it that's not just "indulging"?

[bonetiddies]

That's what I wonder, but that's where I stopped getting precise answers. They said something along the lines of. . . even HK-47's simple-minded desire to kill puts the murders in context. It wasn't one of those moments were they abruptly decline to answer something, but it does give me pause.

[alteracion]

That stupid robot did imply it only murdered when asked, but I thought it was lying. So... is it that they're killing because they want to, or do they think they'll get something out of it? Or is it asked of them?

[bonetiddies]

I'm not sure that's. . . precisely it.

[About the asking.]

I asked after that, to some degree. I believe he meant he could not murder unless granted permission, and when he asked, he was granted it. I believe he asked an Avatar, who was, for reasons that are still unclear to me, not permitted to refuse to grant it.

[alteracion]

[

ah. ]

I hate this place.

[bonetiddies]

It isn't great!

[Agreed, Grace. Agreed.]

But I do think the Avatar in question was. . . sincere, in what they told me. If I learn I have been misled, I shall be incredibly cross.

[alteracion]

I'd believe it. They've complained a lot, but they've never actively stopped us from doing anything. If murder was that robot's form of indulging...

[bonetiddies]

Yes. I do not think they can stop us from indulging, even if they want to. Rather, they put a limitation on it - only one per week.

[So. It's actually. Extremely good they killed the robot.]

. . . Which brings us here. It was understood, before we began, some would kill as an indulgence, and others might kill to reduce the competition. Immediately, that robot acted. Greed, as promised in the welcome message, insisted we would have a trial. Beauregard is chosen.

The part I have continued to wonder after is why we found her quarterstaff. If it wasn't the robot's doing - and I do not think it was the robot's doing - who else was playing little games on that night?

[alteracion]

You don't think the robot did it? Why?

[ grace had simply assumed the robot framed beau because. well. she didn't think about it much more than "robot bad", and maybe sometimes your biases are real and unhelpful to solving murder. ]