commediadellarte: (Blank)
butterflies dancing. ([personal profile] commediadellarte) wrote in [community profile] oddsandends 2021-11-26 09:17 pm (UTC)

LET'S GO, cw: gore, umineko spoilers

Name: Shannon | Champion Servant | Eternal Maid
Age: 16 | Species: Furniture | Occupation: Maid
Likes: Serving the Ushiromiya Family, George, mystery novels
Dislikes: N/A
Traits: Cheerful, determined, insightful
Trivia: "Shannon" is just a pseudonym she uses at work.


[Spamton G. Spamton, Champion Salesman, is dead. Granted, on its own that isn't a particularly great loss. As amusing as the little puppet could be, he wasn't exactly near and dear to many peoples' hearts. But he isn't the only victim. Nui Harime, Champion Couturier, and Cú Chulainn, Champion Lancer, are also dead... probably. It's a rather messy situation.

The night before, Battler Ushiromiya, Champion Detective, had gotten locked out of his room as a punishment from the mastermind, apparently as a consequence of a particularly feisty argument with them. When he returned in the morning, he found it mysteriously locked—and what's more, that he was bereft of his ID. After a brief panic, everyone helped him batter down the door to find a gruesome scene.

Spamton was lying against the door, his strings—and what little neck he had—cut and his eyes dim, which was a far cleaner death than the other two victims received. The entire room was covered in gore. Cú Chulainn's corpse was cut into ribbons, the only intact part of his body being the head. Nui fared even worse. There was great debate in the trial whether the rest of the splattered flesh and blood was hers or if she was just hiding somewhere, but she was the only survivor left with that striking violet eye color, and the mangled but still recognizable eyeball that was the only complete organ of hers that was found testified to her death. Plus, nobody was missing, and they had no clue where the corpses of the deceased were to potentially pull a trick like that.

And, the piece de resistance: Battler's ID, the only key to the room, placed neatly on his desk, almost taunting the survivors with the apparent impossibility of the crime.

(She had to admit, as bitter as it was, that this was excellent craftsmanship. If she was still in the habit of spilling her blood as ink on a page, a part of her would be morbidly tempted to borrow this trick, perhaps tweak it a bit so that it wouldn't lean on fantastical elements.

She's disgusted with herself for even considering it.)

The debate has been going in circles for almost five minutes now, and currently the main argument is whether Spamton was a viable culprit. He was the only one in position to set up the locked room, but it was highly doubtful that he caused such carnage with his tiny, pathetic body, and even if he did his corpse wouldn't be as clean as it was.

So. Who done it?

...Shannon has been Ryoko's podium buddy ever since the second week, where the victim and the culprit left them an isolated island in the trial circle. There's a certain grim bond that comes with that kind of coincidence, and so Ryoko is familiar with Shannon's tells during a trial. Normally, Shannon has enough iron in her heart to give everyone emotional support, or occasionally an inspiring speech testifying to the character of a suspect or victim, but contributes little to the mystery-solving directly. However, parts of her diatribes occasionally stumbled on major clues, and Ryoko can remember at least one case when some random fact she said offhandedly led directly to the apprehension of the culprit.

But right now, Shannon is trembling, having barely said a word throughout the entire trial. It would be easy to assume that the trauma of witnessing such an awful crime scene is what's rendered her mute... yet Ryoko can see her hands white-knuckling as she grips the display in front of her, eyes in shadow.]


...at all, [Shannon mumbles, voice cracking like a dam finally giving up the ghost at holding back the flood.]

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