rita

[katzepaw]

Comments

[katzepaw]

[He's eating some kind of pastry, and nods enthusiastically.]

It isn't bad, is it? They have a lot that I am actually familiar with.

[overlimit]

Yeah. I actually saw some stuff we usually have on Terca Lumireis, too.

[munching on this taiyaki, and...]

So... Mollymauk's back. That was you guys?

[katzepaw]

. . . Sort of. Someone else actually won the bid, but it was something we wanted.

[overlimit]

I see. Well, I'm glad he's...

[...

yeah this is after SHENANIGANS so]

... I'd almost forgotten how annoying he is.

[katzepaw]

[He snorts in kind of a mixture of fondness and disdain.]

He is the world's worst roommate. He always has been. When we used to travel together, he was always kicking Fjord out into the hallways.

[overlimit]

I'm about ready to kick him out into the moat.

[katzepaw]

I'm sure he can swap at the end of the week, though it will only be worse in Winter Dorm. We have no room as it is.

[overlimit]

Yeah, I bet...

Wait, is he planning on leaving?

[katzepaw]

I'm not sure what he's planning, I haven't spoken to him about it. But. . . I think we would like to be together.

Then again, Winter is very crowded.

[overlimit]

Spring was getting pretty quiet, until he showed up again.

I mean, that just goes to show what an obnoxious asshole he is, but...

[katzepaw]

Ah.

[Well, he feels a little bad about that. . . ]

He is quite noisy and obnoxious. The two of us would move, of course, but I am a little afraid of Iris.

[overlimit]

She is pretty protective of her charges, though at the rate we're going, that's gonna be like, half the campus.

I mean... do whatever you guys want, though. I don't care. [she says, caringly]

[katzepaw]

I know. It's a bit ridiculous.

. . . Ah, Rita. . . you aren't going after Otome this week, are you?

[overlimit]

[she shakes her head.]

No. And if that marquee is what people say it is, then the dead are also saying to leave those two alone.

[katzepaw]

. . . Ja. The lightbulb is meant to be Luxanna, right?

Riku also sounded concerned about it.

[overlimit]

Yeah. I don't know if everyone's caught on to that, or what. Hasn't been any discussion on the matter in Spring.

[katzepaw]

If I didn't know Luxanna well, and if I didn't know what I know about Yamato, I wouldn't easily be able to narrow it down to her.

[overlimit]

We don't have any decisive evidence to pin her for Crow's death. That much is true.

But... I think we've got something now. In the last trial, we got to understand a little more about the rules that force our killers to keep quiet. The fact that you, Taichi, and Yamato can speak freely about unsolved murders, and they can't, is a kind of evidence in itself.

[katzepaw]

Hmm. So if you ask her about Crow, she will just evade the question if she can? Whereas I can say, without prompting, that I did not kill him.

[overlimit]

They can deny it outright. Otome lied to my face about Lan Wangji when I confronted her a while ago.

But before Otome was cornered and definitively outed as the killer, I don't think any of her allies would have risked discussing the "Otome did it" theory, for fear of violating a rule. I remember Byleth clamming up right away when I tried to talk to her about the murders.

[katzepaw]

They can deny it and I think in some circumstances they must deny it. But I don't think they would approach you and deny it unprompted, since they all seem to want to be caught in some way.

[overlimit]

Hmm... Maybe. It makes sense if they don't want to bring up the subject, since saying the wrong thing carries the risk of violating a rule. And I don't know what the exact rules that allow them to confess are. They need to be cornered, but maybe it needs to be public?