godwhisperer | (no subject)

[Susan the Mastermind had sprung to her feet the moment the clue had appeared with the intent of snagging the prize first herself due to having planted it there, of course, but alas, Gundam is too quick for her. He only has to knock once before the door opens and she emerges.]

I was just about to find you. ...Have you begun to feel ill yet?

Haha, no. I doubt they can affect me with their pitiful attempts.

[Well, he looks healthy, at least. On the other hand, if he was delirious, could you really tell?]

We must solve their riddle. A cipher, how pitiful.

...I suppose it isn't as if you aren't always pale as a corpse, anyway.

[Not that Susan's complexion was any healthier. She will allow him to step into the room as she reads from the piece of paper.]

How many players are left? Will you be able to save any of them, or will you all be subtracted by the end of this game?

Tq jzf nly cplo estd, nzyrclefwlep jzfcdpwq lyo elvp l mzh. Esp actkp jzf dppv wtpd htesty ted alceypc.

...It's a letter substitution, isn't it? 'L' is probably 'A', right off the bat.

Ah...is it? Hrrm.

[This is actually a little difficult, seeing as he doesn't actually speak English. But he does know ciphers.]

Surely they cannot be so dense as to use the code of Caesar? But perhaps it is a worthy consideration.

...Er.

[Susan's contribution will be to refrain from asking if 'cae-sar' has anything to do with what you say when a female convict has escaped.]

'Tq' - there aren't many two-letter words that can start a sentence, and if 'l' is 'a', then 't' is probably 'i' or 'o'.

[She'll retrieve some pens from her desk and pass one to Gundam.]

Ah.

[That's right, you're from a different world.]

Caesar, that Demon King, scourge of Rome. His enemies numbered in the thousands, so to protect the sanctity of his true words, he developed a code. The letters of the western alphabet are shifted a certain value, to disguise the contents of the writing.

...Hahaha, you may be right, for does not the clue indicate we are to subtract eleven?

[He begins to write out the alphabet, starting with "A = L"]

[Susan didn't see that in the clue. What clue were you reading Gundam. She tears herself away from trying different combinations of 'i' and 'o' to reread the cl -- ]

Oh. ...Yes. I merely thought they had a very strange sense of syntax.

[Susan, too, will, although she lists hers backwards according to the way she spoke it - 'L = A'. When she's done, she does a cursory test.]

...'Lyo' is 'and'. Good work, Gundam - I think this must be correct.

Their use of ciphers is rudimentary. Feh. There are far more difficult methods...I would not dare use such a pathetic code even for my blog.

[Starting to transcribe it.]

Hrrm, it does seem to be correct. Though this language I do not possess full knowledge of.

It's the same alphabet as standard Morporkian, although I believe it's referred to here as English. There are minor cultural nuances...

[Susan lapses into silence now as she slowly works at the remainder of the clue...]

'If you can read this... congratulations -- no, congratulate yourself... and... take a bow.'

How absurd, I have no pride in such utter lack of challenge.

[Just waiting for her to finish - he's transcribing the letters, though.]

[And Susan will dutifully finish up.]

'The prize you seek lies within its partner.'

...That's all.

[A beat]

I was hoping for 'The person you seek rhymes with boland' but we can't always get what we want. Another riddle, then.

Lies within its partner...hrrgh...

[He's pretty good with riddles, but this one isn't bringing anything to mind.]

Its partner, it must refer to the prize, yes? It lies within the partner of the prize. And yet...the description of what the prize was is entirely too vague.

...For the poison kit, it was a riddle about something that was in a group of nine. Things that come in pairs, perhaps. ...Shoes?

[Susan frowns and lapses into thought as she rolls it over in her mind.]

There's only one sentence, really. The partner of a prize? ...Prize backwards?

...I wonder if the preceding sentence is truly so empty as to offer mere accolades. Or is there not a hidden meaning...

'If you can read this congratulate yourself and take a bow. The prize you seek lies within its partner.'

[She had written it on two separate lines, having allowed for the natural pause between sentences. ...A beat.]

'Its partner.' The prize lying within its own partner doesn't make much sense, but... 'The prize you seek lies within the bow's partner.'

The bow's partner... A curtsey? The masquerade ball from last week? The ballroom?

[That didn't make much sense. Another few moments...]

The bow's partner! - The violin!

Hah?

[Well, he doesn't know anything about instruments at all, but he can tell from the different inflection she's solved it.]

So it is inside the violin. Well done!

...Unless it's inside Kaoru's set of hair ribbons, I think that should be correct.

[Susan will stand and make for the door.]

I suppose we'll have to smash it open to access the insides. There isn't much by ways of access.

[He will follow after.]

We must not destroy the item in the process.

I believe it's liable to be another strip of paper, but certainly, we should take care.

[Off to the music room they go! And given that Rapture is a singer and they've lost the rest of their musicians, it's probably not in use at the moment. Susan will head straight for the violin.]

[Going as well, and taking out his pocket knife.]

[Carving a panel into the violin will reveal a small tape recorder with a tape already within it.]

[Susan will stare as Gundam carves open the clue. ...Susan will continue to stare as it is revealed.]

What is that?

[The downfalls of being nearabouts the 18th century or so.]

It is an outmoded recording device, but not one that belongs in the so-called period of this manor. How ridiculous.

[However, he'll press play.]

[The recording is muffled and most of the conversation is warped past coherency, but there are a few pieces here and there that can be made out.]

[The first bit of understandable dialogue comes from a female voice.]

--kind of incentive could you possibly be talking [...] will take a great deal more than that to buy my cooperation! [The next few minutes of conversation are muffled before the same speaker is heard again, this time sounding considerably more shaken.] How long is this game [...] for us to not get caught -- and get someone else executed [...] have to... ration out... the other contestants very carefully.

[The next few minutes of conversation are warped before a male speaker can be heard, though there's too much static to identify who exactly it is.]

--isn't a game! These are human lives. I refuse. [A minute of static passes before his voice is heard again, even more furious than before.] How dare you-- [...] them out of this; they have nothing to do with this…! [...] --happens if you die?

[The recording degenerates into muffled static for another few minutes before a new speaker is heard, this one's gender being a little more ambiguous.]

--you responsible for our arrival as well [...] incentives of yours are enough to get everyone in this room to agree to your ridiculous terms? [Again, the tape becomes muffled at this point before the same speaker is heard again, this time sounding more frantic.] Chizuru... Chizuru, Chizuru, Chizuru-- [A minute of distorted conversation passes, during which the speaker clearly gets a hold of himself, as his next words come out much flatter.] --each one of us has to commit and get away with a murder in order to [...] there be enough time for all [the word here is distorted beyond comprehension] of us to do so?

[Once again, the recording degenerates into muffled static for a while before a new woman makes herself be heard.]

--unbecoming [...] to play coy, Producer-tan. [Once more, only muffled static can be heard for the next minute until the woman speaks again, sounding unimpressed.] --understand well your terms, but can't you provide anything in the interim? It's not very fair to a smoker [...] terribly unreasonable. You want us to execute sensational murder mysteries, but get stingy with those clauses?

[At this point, the tape turns into static long enough for it to seem to be over, until the first speaker cuts in again.]

I do intend to play this game. The incentive I've been offered - it's not just larger than myself [...] Refusal in this case... would be the morally wrong thing to do, to me.

[The tape degenerates into warped static one last time. There is nothing else afterwards that can be made out.]

Edited 2013-11-11 00:45 (UTC)

Kanaya --

[After this initial outburst, Susan quiets down and listens to the rest in silence, her expression growing grim as the voices of the killers speak, one after another. When it has concluded...]

Play it again, please.

[Her tone is dull.]

Ah!

[He is also shocked by this, but his expression quickly shifts into something furious. Wordlessly, he presses play again.]

[It's the same message.]

[She has half a mind to ask him to do it over and over, all day and all night until her thoughts have sorted themselves. But after the second playing, she speaks.]

...They knew there was more to this. Kanaya, Kaoru, Touko - the fourth one must be Spain. From the very beginning, they must have known.

[A memory flashes in her mind - Touko warning Stiles about something before unceremoniously being dropped through the trap door.]

I don't doubt they were amoral people. But Kaoru warned us, too -- stronger venom is yet to come.

Yes, they were all amoral indeed. As am I. If morality requires abandoning what you would have had Kanaya Maryam abandon, then what worth is it?

[He sounds very serious this time, very little posturing.]

I have never hated a one of them for killing, though I despise some of their methods. But that one that controls the strings...it is time for that one to fall.

...Kanaya notwithstanding.

[She would not judge a child for placing her faith in pixie dust and empty promises, even if the results had been unconscionable.]

Each one of them was convinced in the end - was it simply for personal gain or was there a greater reason still? After all... we're already promised certain things each week. These four were spoken to separately - perhaps they were tasked to achieve a different goal.

[She shakes her head and stands now.]

The others should hear of this. ...Our Mastermind must already know of the existence of this evidence, regardless.

Edited 2013-11-11 01:19 (UTC)

Kanaya only? Ahaha. I cannot say I mourn Touko Aozaki or Kaoru Nagumo, nor can I say I have any sympathetic thoughts towards Spain, but it is an exceptional arrogance to claim you understand their own motives. It always was, and now even more so. I tell you that you have never grasped mine, and your confidence is unwarranted.

[He'll take the tape himself very carefully.]

...I believe we must consider this. Surely, if we were given this, this is knowledge they want us to have.

Kaoru attempted to have a ten year old girl die in his place. Touko chopped Belarus into pieces and hid her about the house while she casually smoked. Regardless of their true motivations, 'amoral' will do nicely. Even if their goal was to set us free from this game with each of us leaving with infinite riches and eternal life, their actions within its context remain grotesque.

[Susan sounds supremely unconcerned that Gundam finds her arrogant.]

I don't see that the two of us are any more special beyond that we were desperate to save May this week. We have this knowledge - the question is what we do with it.

Practically, it doesn't tell us much besides that the gears have been spinning since the very first day - perhaps, too, that there are more within our midst like these four.

As I said, I find their methods repugnant. But I do not expect all to share my values.

[I don't know, man, when it's this guy, it's sort of hard to take.]

I believe it would be best to share our knowledge...but I would first prefer to attempt to understand what their goal is in making us aware of it. So as to avoid playing into their hand.

...Alright.

[She can accept that.]

We have very little time to think before we all begin to die, if this week's incentive is to be believed.

I suppose the first possibility that comes to mind is...

The point of the game is to come together and find the Mastermind, and this Producer is encouraging us to do so. In that vein, these clues are being given to focus our efforts as there are precious few of us remaining.

This would all be quite fluffy and nice, but this week's incentive rings strange. All the previous ones have been inherently selfish in nature - this week, someone who kills could potentially be committing a selfless act. Their own life would be saved, but so, too, would everyone else's. I suppose we might be intended to work past even this to ignore the murders...

Hmm...I disagree that it is more or less selfish than other incentives. Simply because the lives saved are lives here rather than lives elsewhere...

But this message casts the killers in a light intended to be sympathetic.

No, you're right; I suppose I mean... selflessness specifically in regards to this group and in regards to the game. Rather than preying on your concern for things that matter only to you, it's in the interests of everyone this week that somebody be murdered.

[At his next comment, Susan falls silent.]

...One of those four is still with us. There's only been one male killer. The voice wasn't clear, but I don't think they would risk revealing a future killer to us this way.

Spain has always hinted that there's been more.

I despise Spain for my own reasons [BULLFIGHTING] and yet I have never borne him ill will specifically for his actions. There was nothing dishonorable in the manner he chose to make his kill.

Did it not truly seem as though he had no say in whether he continued? The Hostess did not appear to ask his opinion, and truly, he would have been a fool not to take the opportunity.

There is something greater he fights for.

We have no recourse but to choose to execute murderers during a trial. If we fail and the identity of the true murderer is clear, they deserve the harshest punishment we can levy - even death - to deter future murderers. If we don't do this, we've shown that we will stand by and simply accept it when people murder at their whims.

...That is, that would be the line of thought if the idea were simply to go a week without a murder. It would be a way to step outside the rules of the game and prevent the deaths from continuing.

[...Susan sighs.]

To allow an innocent to be executed in your place is more than dishonorable. It's what I can't accept most of all...

We need to talk to Spain. No doubt part of his condition is secrecy, but he's already proven willing to hint. This doesn't mean I'm willing to allow him to play as he pleases, though - he's still a danger to the rest of us.

If it were I, I would not allow an innocent executed in my place...I would ensure this by framing one who has proven willing to participate. But absent that...merely causing confusion with no specific target and allowing the assumptions of others to direct that course? We killed Latvia, not he.

...I wonder, if he is discovered, what consequences there will be. Still, I would speak to him.

...I don't know if I'd be terribly displeased if he fell through a trapdoor.

[She suddenly pauses to give a small shake of her head.]

I asked Kaoru whether or not he had tried to influence us to execute Latvia instead of Spain - he denied it, but... it seems quite likely now, doesn't it? There were a certain number of them in the room that day, and they knew who each one was.

Knowing that there could be others working on behalf of the murderer... we must be careful of those who attempt to sway the trial one direction or another. ...Perhaps that's as good a reason to tell everyone as any. [She glances to Gundam.] You, of course, must be wary of my own theories as well.

...I'll speak to Spain. Do you want to be present as well?

Edited 2013-11-11 03:28 (UTC)

I would hear what he says.

[He sounds fairly determined about it.]

It is important we come to understand what we've been told.