week 2 | post-trial | magnus

[byjove]

[After a while, Hermann scopes out probably the easiest guy to find- Magnus, because he is lorg. He approaches him near the theater with what he hopes is a neutral expression but, you know, resting bitch face.]

I'd like to talk.

Comments

[ruffboi]

[Yeah. He doesn't know what to make of this guy, but knows he's kind of a dick. So. Lowering his cool guy shades at him.]

Talk!

[byjove]

[Off to a great start!!! He'll try to curb his enthusiasm.]

We seem to keep doing this- coming up against one another during trials. But for the second time in a row-

[Ugh this is physically painful.]

You were right.

[ruffboi]

[Well, he grins at that. It's not much better.]

Hey, you're right! Guess I'm just real good at science. Magnus two, reading above a fifth grade level zero.

[byjove]

What?

[Nope, nope, not gonna follow that particular rabbit trail.]

I didn't come to congratulate you, I came to ask about your methods. Both times there were serious flaws in your arguments, yet I have a hard time believing you were just... lucky.

[ruffboi]

Maybe I'm just a genius!

[Laughing at his own joke. God. But fine, okay.]

No, look. I'll tell you what my secret is. But you gotta promise to keep it quiet okay?

[byjove]

[presses x to doubt]

This conversation is private, as far as I'm concerned.

[That's sort of a promise?]

[ruffboi]

Okay, fine.

[Looking around like he's looking for someone, and then - ]

I've got good instincts. I follow my gut. Seriously, it's not that complicated. This is the Commotion's sick murder game, he wants these to be winnable. Last week, with the clues they gave us, you could narrow it down pretty well to two or three. And from there, I just followed my gut. Well, actually, I first thought it was Noctis for sure. But then everyone was talking about Cure Drink, and it made sense.

This week, same deal! I thought the idea Junko did it was horseshit. But horseshit in the way where, you know, if you read it in a detective story, you'd think it was stupid. But you also wouldn't be surprised it was in the detective story. You know what I mean?

[byjove]

[In a weird way? That... does make sense. Kind of.]

So you're suggesting that the Reapers always kill in a manner consistent with... detective stories?

[He takes a second to mull that over.]

Max did say they tended to be sadistic, and two out of three have had quite a flare for the dramatic. Is it possible that some of us have been taking them too seriously?

[ruffboi]

Absolutely, you have. Listen, in real life, when you kill someone and don't want the police to find out, you just dump the body off a cliff and hope no one finds out. [Hopefully he's not speaking from experience...?] And my methods would be really bad for figuring that out.

But I've solved detective story mysteries before. Where there's clues, and the detective gives a big speech at the end to say who the killer is. Which, we haven't been doing exactly... If Angus was here, he'd be better at it. But at least I know when you narrow it down to two guys, it's gonna be one of those guys.

[byjove]

[He hates how correct this is, but also:]

But we did miss miss something. We were told there were three killers. Putting aside that you have no desire to go after those who killed a probable Reaper, we still didn't figure out who killed Ranpo or Madara. For the latter, I'm not sure we even had any suspects.

[ruffboi]

Caren?

[What are your opinions on that bitch, Caren.]

But, yeah. I get you. And it's not like I don't want to find out who killed Ranpo. I just didn't want to like, kill them.

[byjove]

I don't think she killed anyone, if that's what you're implying. There were reasons for all of the stains on her shroud, and witnesses to attest. She defended herself quite well, unlike Junko or Terra.

[Or Yusuke or Sinbad but THAT'S ANOTHER CONVERSATION...]

And as for Ranpo's killer, it sounded like you wanted to congratulate them.

[And he's sort of maybe judging???]

[ruffboi]

Nah. Look, about Ranpo - I got no idea. Best case scenario is they were trying to defend Clarke. Worst case scenario, they were out there for bad reasons and lucked on someone who I still think was a Reaper. Lot of scenarios in between. If they come to me and tell me it was the first one, maybe I'll congratulate them, but otherwise - Setz convinced me it's better that we do these things at trial, even with Reapers.

[Sighing, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.]

As for why I defended them - you guys keep calling me bloodthirsty. With the Reapers, we know why they're doing it. I'm sure they have their reasons, and I'm not calling them evil, but in the end it's us or them, so if we want to protect the non-Reapers, we have to keep stopping them. But I'm not about sentencing a guy to death for something when his motives could have been to help us, and there's other options. You get me?

[byjove]

[Hermann sighs too.]

I do... "get" you, yes. If whoever killed Ranpo was trying to help Clarke, then... I don't know for sure that I could bring myself to vote for them anyway. She didn't deserve what happened to her. None of them did, but- You understand.

[Suffocation and burning to death are definitely Bad, but so is being gutted.]

It's the need to be sure. We can't vote for more than one, organizing it would be impossible, so I'd rather vote for someone I knew had killed than someone I only suspected. But, well, you've seen how that's turned out.

[He's not bitter you're bitter.]

[ruffboi]

So, which one of the ice guys do you know for sure killed Ranpo? 'cause I'm stumped.

Between you and me, I talked to them. They both said they didn't do it, which, obviously, but also I kind of believed them? Maybe I shoulda put more energy into my bad cop.

[byjove]

Honestly, it's far from a sure thing, but... if we use the logic we used to convict Terra, then Yusuke is the more likely suspect. Sinbad said something a killer probably wouldn't say- that if he knew someone was a Reaper, he'd kill them. He said this even knowing it would make him sound incredibly guilty.

[Unless it's a double-bluff, but he's supposed to be taking things simpler, here.]

[ruffboi]

I'm going to talk to them. Since I spent half the trial defending them, maybe they'll open up? Figure we owe 'em that chance. And if they don't spill, that means they probably don't think I'd be sympathetic to what they did, and that's info, too, since I've been pretty vocal about killing Reapers.

[Laughing a little.]

I mean, between you and me, I just said that stuff to try to push Noctis or Terra into confessing. I'll kill someone who comes for me, but hunting people down and secret murdering them is not my thing.

[byjove]

Well, I wish you luck with it. For what it's worth, I don't plan to continue accusing them of things, not unless they seem suspicious once again. I think it's worth knowing who our potential repeat offenders are, but that doesn't necessarily make them guilty of the next.

[He's not saying he won't do it- just that he doesn't plan on it.]

And that's... reassuring. I suppose.

[Unsure.]