Take Responsibility.

[wordsmithery]

The time allotted for investigation this week is a bit longer than normal - not due to anything done wrong on the part of the Apprentices, but perhaps due to a basic understanding that two corpses are going to be decidedly more difficult to handle than one. However, at the end of the time period you've been given, the elevator is waiting for you, as cold and sterile as always in its journey up to the courtroom; you're down to almost half of your original number, and if anything is going to indicate that this shows no signs of stopping, it's probably this week. The deceased have had three more join their numbers since you were here last - Gold, Varric, and Viktor's portraits have been greyed-out and set atop their spots in the podium circle, the podiums themselves draped in black fabric. As always, the lectern above stands empty. Whether he's with you or not, however, once everyone has found their place in the circle, the Wordsmith's voice can be heard throughout the room. "Welcome back. Two more Apprentices are missing from your number today, and I have little doubt that weighs heavily on your minds. Balanced and Capricious have been lost to you, so that the guilty may have a chance to leave the academy and possibly even gain something otherwise impossible to attain. If you wish for your fallen Apprentices to receive justice in death, then you know what to do: yet again, hold the guilty accountable." Sixteen Apprentices remain. However many leave here at the end of the day has yet to be seen.

Comments

[matchbreaker]

[ Perhaps in utter mockery of the current state of events Elda's forehead still reads "loved and is loving" on her forehead underneath her bangs when she takes her spot at her podium. On that same podium she sets down her bag of evidence and her little sheet of paper that has a sample of everyone's signatures. Well, everyone living who volunteered it, so everyone other than Bruce, Jasper, and Gangrel.

Who knows if that'll be useful.

... Also she's glancing over at the islands of death near Hanyuu and Lusamine. Like she wants to scoot over there but is hesitating a bit.

But for her first evidence, she holds up Viktor's cell phone ]

Anyone know how to turn this thingie on?

[ Because she sure doesn't so uh. Missing evidence. ]

[introspects]

Ah, I can turn that on, Marker-san.

[ so. she's from 2003...when these sorts of phones weren't really a thing...but she knows what power buttons are?! so she's going to press that to turn it on. ]

[matchbreaker]

Oh, thanks. I still don't get how that's even a phone.

[ BUT OH WELL. MAYBE THERE IS MORE TO BE FOUND ON THERE. ... You know other than selfies and nudes ]

[trustwellness]

[Between the two of you, you'll probably be able to figure out how to navigate the phone pretty easily! What you're looking for is in the photos. Some of them were taken here inside the school, but the important ones were taken back in Viktor's home world. There's photos of the streets of St. Petersburg and other places, like Hasetsu in Japan. If you keep poking around for long enough maybe you'll find the nude photos in a separate folder, but the important part here are the photos of foreign places!]

[introspects]

...Marker-san, did you bring those handwriting samples with you?

[matchbreaker]

[ She nods! Right here! ]

Of course! We don't wanna have that trip us up later.

mods!

[introspects]

Thank you.

[ she brings forth the note she found in varric's room. ]

I'd like to see if this note matches Viktor-san's handwriting.

[ is it a match? ]

[trustwellness]

[It is!]

[introspects]

Ah...it's a match. So...this is what Viktor-san wanted to show Varric-san. Pictures of his hometown.

[matchbreaker]

So that means some of the things on the digital phone are his hometown, right?

[introspects]

Maybe. Though...Viktor-san was a celebrity, so some of those photos may have been from earth itself but not his hometown.

[matchbreaker]

Oh, so he travelled!

[ Hmmmm ]

... Wait, this is a computer, right? He said computers are like file cabinets. Maybe there's a home town cabinet?

here we go

[introspects]

Ah, he probably did. It doesn't look like all of these photos are from the same place.

...I think a folder would be a better word for that. Should we look?

[oyashiromama]

[Ah... There are so many of them now that aren't standing near anyone. If Elda comes and joins them, she leaves behind Mikazuki and Guzma, but...

Well, Hanyuu would prefer having someone there, rather than the reminder of Gold's absence.]

[matchbreaker]

[ BUT WELL...

... No after that body explanation Elda pushes off her podium, takes what's left of her evidence and her little guide to signatures with her and goes right up to Hanyuu's podium brushing past Guzma to be with Hanyuu and Lusamine. She sets her stuff hap-hazardly on Gold's podium ]

[oyashiromama]

[She doesn't say thank you, but she does look grateful, and- ...hey, what's that Elda's got?]

Are those... where did you find those?

[She's looking at the creampuff wrappers with slight confusion.]

[matchbreaker]

There was a lot of them in the art room. Some of them were still gooie.

Why, you know what they are?

[ She kinda put them all in a bag. ]

[oyashiromama]

They're wrappers from creampuffs. From some of the reheatable ones, in the freezer.

[Puzzled.]

Why...would they be in the art room?

[matchbreaker]

I don't know, you tell me. Someone also had wet pink paint out. The watercolor sort! All of it was right next to Viktor's digital phone thing. [ That's "Cell phone..." ]

[oyashiromama]

It...Viktor's? But he wouldn't have left it there. Who would've... What...would they be painting...? And the creampuffs...au...

[She looks clueless.]

[matchbreaker]

Right?! And there's no paint on any of the wrappers, look yourself. So whoever was working with it didn't really mess with it... or did something else.

[ Wait, no, she's remembering something- ]

Wait, no, the phone was on a different table. It was close by though.

[tsugomori]

I believe Viktor was with someone else in the art room. The other person may have been eating those creampuffs... ah, but what was going on besides 'painting' does elude me.

[matchbreaker]

Do you have any evidence of that?

[ I mean, it's not illogical, but. ]

[tsugomori]

He had his phone in there, right? So he must have brought it in there with him.

[introspects]

I believe Viktor-san went to the art room after he met up with Varric-san, because he definitely would have brought his phone with him to their meeting to show the photos of his homeworld.