THE THIRD TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE THIRD TRIAL
(~SK. 17-18)


[When the investigation ends, the D O N G rings throughout the ship, followed by Zero's voice.]

It is time. Everyone, come to the theater. Time is...wasting.

[And so it is. The seating has once more changed to reflect the fallen-Moriarty and now Brain's podiums are draped in black. And, of course, there is no food-

The screens come up, and the mask of Zero appears, ever inscrutable. Their instructions are brief.]

Your Brain is gone, I'm afraid. Cut into pieces and cast aside...and someone here knows why. Now, it's time for you to discover the truth as well...if you can.


[The trial for the murder of Brain, the Blue, has begun.]

Comments

MODS (bolded)

[yesorwoof]

How was the noose constructed? Hammer and nails pinned the rope onto the ceiling? Were the scissors used to cut off a smaller length of rope, or was a whole rope taken? Perhaps the scissors were only used to write the ransom style note, in which case probably the culprit made it?

[strangerpeople]

[It looks like a whole rope was taken.]

[yesorwoof]

Perhaps the scissors were used on the book in the lounge and the culprit had to stop suddenly? That doesn't sound quite right. I do find it strange that if Brain-kun was writing the note in the lounge and he was interrupted by the culprit, he was nevertheless struck from the front. Why didn't he just start by writing the culprit's name, if he had already seen the culprit in the hallway? "Watch out for Tsutsugami", for example, wouldn't "Tsutsugami" have been much faster?

[valkavian]

Didn't Hubert and Gai mention there was a bunch of other shit on the walls, too?

[jinglebros]

Yeah. It sounded like a bunch of lines? Does that mean something?

[valkavian]

What kind of lines?

[voidseeing]

Horizontal ones. They looked like they were scribbled on.

[voidseeing]

Lines and holes. I'm wondering if the holes weren't from the hammer.

[valkavian]

What the fuck were the lines about?

[pegasinister]

They seem intentional. I'm worried this is another Dead Man's Hand meant to taunt us.

[valkavian]

I mean, probably, you got a diagram or some shit?

[ And she's gonna toss him a pen and some paper. ]

[pegasinister]

[He nods and draws what he saw]

[valkavian]

[ A blink, she's gonna pass this sketch around. ]

Jesus.

[pegasinister]

What?

[yesorwoof]

Hangman is a game.

It is an American game.

Val-chan can explain it better than I can.

[Makima hadn't properly put her coat back on after the strip check. It is floating behind her in an ominous aura.]

[pegasinister]

[... man he appreciates her using her power for dramatics- if he has his magic he too would be doing cool floating shit. It's not fair]

And game about hanging... how do you play?

[exequte]

[Well, she's not Val, but she does know the game.]

It's a guessing game. Words are marked out, letter by letter, and usually a scaffolding and the beginnings of a noose. After that, letters are guessed one by one, with each incorrect letter adding a body part to the "hanged man". Once the entire man has been drawn, the person playing the game has lost. Alternately, if they guess the word correctly before the entire man has been drawn, then that means they won.

[pegasinister]

Only instead of gaining limbs... Brain lost them.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

Well, I'm never playing this hangman if that's how you play it!

[somuchshipping]

So that would be four guesses, then...?

[godspiousjasper]

What a wretched game. It appears our culprit had a twisted sense of humor to do that to him.

[voidseeing]

I have to hand it to our culprit... they were certainly creative.

Creative... and sadistic.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

[Zack stares at the diagram, frowning.]

Makima, why don't you explain it? Just, you know. For the people who don't know what it is.

[yesorwoof]

Excuse me. I needed a moment to think. Akane-chan has ended up explaining this now.

You see, I will need to reconceive this entire case from the ground up, and not state details about the game prematurely. I would like to trust in Hubert-kun's ignorance of the game.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

No, it's ok. I mean...there's others who don't know what it is, so it makes sense!