idolpro | PRINCESS MAKER 1.5: ☆ZRAEL

[ When you insert the key and open the door, you'll find the room inside looks like the living room of a mansion. There are several doors, but one in particular stands out to you: it is ornately decorated, the very door's wood itself carved beautifully with gold etched in to make luxurious patterns depicting what looks like the sky and the wind blowing through the grasslands. Though the door is closed, you can see through it—as if it's somewhat transparent.

The room is painted baby blue and a gold-plated cradle sits in the room. Inside, a baby cries—high pitched and noisy. That child, your charge—you're her nursemaid, so you go to her and rock her to sleep. ]

-

[ Slowly, the scene changes, fading in and out with various silent scenes—the baby sits up, trying to climb out of her cradle; a little toddler dressed prettily with expensive clothes beams pleasantly; a tantrum, thrown by the little girl who's distressed; the little girl holding a puppy, pleased as punch; then the wall becomes opaque. ]

[ In the middle of the open doorway, a young girl at the age of 11 sits on a chair, smiling at you. A long-haired, pure white cat is curled up beside her.

This is your little girl. you couldn't help spoiling her, honestly—after all, she's a noble too, and she should like to become a princess as well. She deserves it! But you also know, with how her family history has gone, she's going to have to work to get to the top. Still, you have faith in her—she's your girl, after all. Fortunately, when she goes to the Lost Continent, she won't be alone: you, as her longtime caretaker (her third parent, really, or her first, if you consider how her family's left her care entirely to you), may accompany her to her new school. You'll be her ally, her support, her greatest weapon; you'll be the one who determines her success . . . or her failure. ]

[ Of course, you're not the only one that thinks your charge deserves the world: in the dark of the night, you received an ill omen. A vision of nightmare, if you will. You saw the flames dancing high, blood spreading through the rivers and streams - if the wrong person were to rebuild the Lost Continent, one not properly blessed by the shadows, then the calamity of dragonfire and hatred that had consumed this land centuries ago would once again visit it.

And you know this, because you saw it. Because you were told. Because you know. In this vision, you saw her - the girl impaled, the monster sent to her death for the crime of simply being too monstrous to be allowed to live free: ☆☆☆oth.

And as if that were not proof enough, the next day, you received a letter in the mail.

Your daughter would be sent to the Lost Continent, and you knew that she must be the one to rebuild it - even if she had to become a monster to do so. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't think anything yet. I've seen a lot of murders that didn't happen the way you would expect. But other people will definitely think it's you, so I wanted to talk to you about it.

She shakes her head.

". . . I dunno where it came from."

Mm. Someone could have put it there to try to frame you... it's a pretty obvious thing to set up. There are a lot of other things you could do with the murder weapon other than put it in your locker.

...You know, there was one case where even I thought I was the killer, and I was wrong, so... People can be mistaken.

She looks up to you now, a little curious.

". . . Why'd you think that? Don't you 'member if you killed them or not?"

...I was trying to kill someone else, and he got in the way. I was using poisoned crossbow bolts, so... they were both fatally poisoned. Since he was... a friend of mine... I tried to get him the antidote. There was only one, though, and the other person stole it. I thought he drank it, but... he only pretended to.

Besides that, when we found the body, it was crushed in a hydraulic press, so we couldn't tell who it was. I assumed it was my friend, but... it turns out it was the other person, who was crushed in it alive before the poison could kill him.

She like . . .

Doesn't have enough intelligence . . .

To grasp . . .

"Oh. . . wait, but wouldn't he have died from the poison anyway. . . . ???"

...

[perhaps she should simplify a little]

He would have died, yeah. But... I thought I killed my friend, and he was actually safe. And when it came down to the trial, I technically didn't count as the killer for the other guy, either, since he died of something else first.

"Ohh."

...Anyway... Is there anyone who would have had access to your locker?

She just kind of tilts her head.

"Uhm. . .

I'unno. I forgot where I put the key so I stopped locking it but I keep it shut real tight so no one should be able to get in!"

Edited (wait.) 2020-09-28 00:03 (UTC)

...

[okay perhaps everyone is right that she needs to be a LITTLE smarter]

I see. Unfortunately, I don't think that would stop anyone... But that does mean that anyone could have planted the pipe there. That's an important piece of evidence.

!?!?!

"But it's closed! How do they know they can open it???"

...They could try it... Though they couldn't have counted on that, so it would have just had to be lucky, in that case. Or it could be someone who saw you opening it at some point.

Or maybe someone else has the key. They'd know for sure they could open it then.

Ah, that's true too. They could have stolen it...

Right. And maybe they stole dog girl's clothes too.

...Yeah. It really seems like someone's trying to throw suspicion on the whole class, since they're supposed to be terrible and shady or whatever.

[nod]

Somebody just really doesn't want these girls becoming princesses.

Yeah...

What do you think we should do? Even if we get everyone to work together...

Dia's gonna write to all the other units, see what we can do with that.

Regardless, we've got some pretty reasonable evidence against Annie being the killer. There's the fact that anyone could've accessed her locker, and her teachers should be able to attest that at the time of the murder she didn't have the physical strength to do it or the skill to read a complicated magic book.

So, even if we don't catch the real killer, we should be able to get suspicions off of her.

Mm, that's true. But if there's someone deliberately targeting them, even if we manage to deflect suspicion they'll just try something else.

Yeah. So I think our best option is to get all the units working together to find the truth.

That's probably true...

[ughhhhhhhh getting people to work together is so hard though. why isn't this a problem that can be solved by murdering someone]

Re: DISCUSSION

avestan - 2020-09-28 00:47 (UTC) - Expand

!!!!

"Would someone just do that!?!?!"

[...]

If they thought it would help them accomplish what they were trying to do, they would. It seems like there's someone who doesn't like any of you very much, and some people take that out... a little more indirectly than just beating people up. They're trying to get you in trouble, instead.