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crabg1rlEPISODE ONE: Are You My Mommy?
On Friday of Week Zero, thirty people wake up not in their own bedrooms but in one of six wings, each boasting a clearly customized wardrobe of 1920s clothing, within a mansion. They are dazed and confused, all suffering from amnesia about their arrival among other things. Guests such as Michael Altman and Poland try to climb the fence surrounding the property but discover it is electrified; Belarus cannot dig underneath.
Though some go to the same high school (Lydia Martin and "Stiles" to Beacon Hills; Gundam Tanaka and Sonia Nevermind to Hope's Peak Academy) and others share a type of anthropomorphic affiliation (the countries of Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine), none of the guests recognize each other. They also cannot find any staff even though this place clearly has been prepared far in advance for their arrival. Some try to avail themselves of the luxurious setting, singing robot Rin Kagamine for example gravitating towards the music room. Characters who have seen horror movies become afraid of the implications this setting has; nevertheless they go to sleep and hope for answers in the morning.
On Saturday answers do not begin to arrive until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The guests gather in the ballroom, where they are each provided with food as well as a notebook full of information on all thirty guests. Some dispute the veracity of these cards - for example, Phoebe "Rapture" Ashe claims to have greater gypsy gifts, Kaoru Nagumo denies the male gender marking, and Gundam insists that the typical Japanese name "Tarou Tanaka" is not his true one - but most are floored by detail as fine as the placement of their scars.
At 4 o'clock the Hostess arrives on the scene and begins to drop hints about the game the guests have been brought here to play. It is not until half past 4 that she reveals the object of this game is a murder mystery with real deaths, trials, and executions. She announces the game will start at 9 the next morning and has left by 5 o'clock, leaving the guests - now players - shocked.
EPISODE TWO: I don’t remember losing my memories!
On Sunday, as promised, the game begins. First the hostess distributes the Rules, then takes questions. Finally, the first ever incentive is revealed in the Foyer: "Each of you has forgotten something important. A person, a place, an important memory. What's missing may soon be lost to you forever. This week's culprit, if successful, will recover their lost memory." Responses range between insistent ignorance of their own amnesia (many of the adults), indignation followed by determination to not regain what's already been lost (most of the teenagers), and a few concessions that this is "a lucrative incentive for the first week" (such as the witch Bernkastel).
On Monday and Tuesday the resolutions seem to be holding steady. Patterns emerge. Contestants such as Gundam Tanaka, May Chang, and Minatsuki Takami take advantage of the lovely grounds to train – or in Rapture’s case just sunbathe, since she’s got to keep things all in the style. Between breakfast and lunch, many aesthetically inclined maidenly guests gather in the Conservatory such as Kanaya Maryam and Kaoru Nagumo who met and hit it off on the first day. Meals are provided in the ballroom, where emotions range from nervous Latvia to easygoing Clyde Barrow. Other gatherings occur in the study where guests try to gather information, such as Felicia Marlow, who comes from a long line of detectives and has even made a map of the mansion; or in the library which Bernkastel discovers has a particularly ample selection of mystery novels published before 1930. Exploration ranges further than before such as the visit Altman, Sonia, and Lithuania pay to the chapel. Beat gathers more information by discovering it is not even possible to fly over the electrified fence.
Wednesday shatters that assumption. Felicia tries to enter the emerald wing bathroom and discovers it is kept locked by a propped chair - she rushes into the drawing room to fetch for helpers Bernkastel and Alice, a seasoned agent of the Special Office of Internal Security. They break in and discover the body of Lydia Martin drowned in the tub.
EPISODE THREE: Good Luck, Bad Luck
Alice runs through the manor to alert everyone of the murder. Reactions range from despondence to rushing into investigative zeal. Touko Aozaki comes in to help with the examination of the body leaving the early responders to the crime scene itself. Rin in her music-room loving tradition discovers the piano is missing wires. Latvia helps Alice with her experiment in the ruby wing bathroom on the tub. Stiles lurks outside Lydia’s room and does not enter until he has a female, Kanaya, to accompany him – they find the chair is missing, presumably. Susan Sto Helit, the granddaughter of Death with a ramrod spine and even less flexible principles, begins to examine the wall and later invisibly sneaks out at 3am to find that rope and tape used were taken from a box for magic tricks in the billiards room.
TRIAL - the locked room mystery is a challenge at first. Returning to examination of the alibis after realizing the true extent of the time delay and checking the chloroform bottles with the aid of young alchemist May Chang, the contestants correctly settle on Bernkastel and vote for her. In her exit interview, she expresses no regret other than the technical details that foiled her plan, explaining this is the type of game typically played by witches, including herself and her beloved rival, memories of whom she had lost. The guests are infuriated but at least their passions have been fired up in anticipation of her execution, where she is kept powerless prisoner like a real life Salem trial style witch and finally killed by dunking stool… then wakes up in the cell to experience it all over again, repeatedly, recalling the torturous time loops that terrorize her home universe.
EPISODE FOUR: How do you keep a secret from over two dozen people?
The weekend of both Friday and Saturday provides at least some breathing space from talk of mystery but the mood is still somber now that the guests are only twenty-eight in number. Due to the poison’s role in the first case, Belarus, Kaoru, Susan, and May form the Chloroform Disposal Brigade. Meanwhile, Spain, Susan, Felicia, and Lithuania find an odd piece of paper in the library...
On Sunday another incentive is announced – cards indicate a shameful secret for each character, all of which will be revealed to the outside world unless a murder takes place. Furthermore, now that there have been trial performances to evaluate, popularity rankings are posted, dividing the top quartile of players into “Immune” (cannot be killed for any credit) and “Popular” (can only be killed for partial credit), the bottom quartile of players into “Dispensable” (extra prize when killed) or “Deadweight”.
Stiles, Felicia, and Susan, the immune players, begin to talk more seriously about ideas such as the buddy system. Ukraine is the only nation listed as deadweight; Latvia and Belarus become distraught over this development on her behalf. Rin Kagamine perhaps takes being listed as “dispensable” the most personally of all, more so than Minatsuki Takami, a thorny rose who has kept to herself.
Monday and Tuesday are nonlethal, but tense – one murder has already taken place, why not another this week? Rin begins a campaign to make the audience appreciate her cuteness and singing skill. Fellow musician Rapture is a good choice for her helper as well as the recipient of this week’s “sponsorship”, a crystal ball. Annie Leonhardt takes a less dramatic approach to her status as deadweight, which is unsurprising given her history as a hardened child soldier of few words. Susan admits when gathering her chloroform as part of the brigade’s initiative that her serious nature is scary. Annie does reach out to age peer Kanaya, who shares with her the sewing kit she found in the parlor.
EPISODE FIVE: She Blinded Me With Science…
On Wednesday, Kanaya leaves the conservatory to stroll in the garden and ends up finding Minatsuki’s bloody corpse in the flowerbed. She samples the stains, then runs into the foyer to summon Susan and Lithuania, the three viewers setting off the alarm. Anastasia runs around to raise the alarm while Susan uses her ability to monitor specific souls for the purpose of checking contestants’ locations. Beat investigates all over the manor including the pantry, which is missing rat poison. Altman finds dirt marks on a windowsill. Stiles dives into the pond… and finds on the bottom the piano wire from Bernkastel’s case. Alice, Poland, and Kanaya quickly mount expeditions to the outer grounds and Minatsuki’s room, both unfruitful.
The TRIAL gets complicated fast. Not only does Minatsuki’s Branch of Sin give her a sort of hemophilia that muddles her corpse – besides the suspects Kaoru, Kanaya, and Annie are two nations, Poland and Ukraine. Spain proposes they have too much to lose and would never have done the deed; Gundam counters with a claim the nations are self-serving in this allegation and maybe lying about their nature altogether. By the end of the day, the main progress has been tentatively exonerating Kaoru and Poland, which only leads to a greater chance either Ukraine, Kanaya, or Annie will be executed. Annie admits she does not want Kanaya to die.
EPISODE SIX: …By Which I Mean Chemicals On A Needle In My Eye
The trial resumes on Friday and the body continues to boggle everybody. This is the first trial to last two days for a reason: They go in circles, learning more about how the crime took place but not able to identify the murder weapon or the culprit. As the deadline draws nearer, Kanaya finally accuses Ukraine outright, though the wounds on Minatsuki’s body are not consistent with Ukraine’s pitchfork, and Anastasia makes a last-minute realization about how the placement of dirt on the sapphire wing windowsill, which Kanaya or Ukraine who stay there would have cleared away, in fact exonerates them both. Nevertheless with time running out and emotions running high, especially on Latvia’s part, a number of players convinced of Ukraine’s innocence vote for Kanaya, which ironically takes votes away from Annie and leaves the highest tally to Ukraine. The hostess announces her innocence and allows her a final interview.
Ukraine hangs, and the Hostess reveals the true culprit’s in her choice to retire: Annie. She reveals that the murder weapon, a vehicle for the rat poison, was an item in her room that had been ignored as innocuous by Rapture and Anastasia when investigating: The needle in the sewing kit she got from Kanaya. She admits that she is a shape-shifter, and this secret coming out would have meant death to her true (giant) race. The former fact gains her Stilinski’s sympathy, the latter Kanaya’s admiration. Sonia likewise reluctantly understands her motives, and Rin is captivated that someone has won the game. However all the nations are indignant, and Susan argues more strongly than any of them that, game or not, a known murderer cannot possibly be allowed to walk among them. Only Alice’s pleading (that more murder isn’t the answer) stays her hand for now.
Finally, the nations’ arguments are blown out of the water when the Hostess reveals a live video feed from the land of Ukraine – entirely unaffected by the anthropomorphic’s demise.
EPISODE SEVEN: Take Me Back
The weekend is even more somber than the last, with Latvia and Belarus especially affected by Ukraine’s death. Annie keeps to her room altogether - only Rin, in the same wing, seeks her out. Gundam and Sonia go out on an outing more liberal members of the household would describe as a date, marking their transition into spending much of their time together.
The incentive - changing a moment in one’s past – evokes some of the strongest reactions so far, particularly from such teenagers as Kanaya, Stiles, and Beat, who blames himself for the death of his sister. (Stiles and Beat have been finding more and more common ground as teenage boys working together in the game.) The popularity rankings are even more controversial. Lithuania replaces Felicia as the third immune player alongside Susan and Stiles. The deadweight prizes are much more tempting than last week: Two tools of choice or the ability to nullify the target’s special powers, plus a million dollars cash equivalent or a magical artifact.
This is to counterbalance fluctuations in the audience’s whims that result in relatively hardworking May Chang and Anastasia being listed as dispensable – they are distressed by this and resolve to work harder, while Gundam and Susan worry particularly for May’s sake. They can take some comfort in the sponsorship that goes to May Chang on Monday: Five of her kunai. Following another one of Susan’s proactive possessions, Kanaya takes up sketching to curb her desire for blood and keeps an eye on Annie to make sure she’s safe alone. In fact she’s just training with Rin. Aluminum Siren, made philosophical by her status as deadweight this week, doesn’t shun her either. Still unsettled by the trial, some players take refuge in the bar – Spain out of habit, Kaoru to accommodate others, and Altman to cope with the stress of being deadweight. Rapture and Latvia experiment with their self-filling chloroform bottles, prizes for ranking popular. The former is guiltless about not catching Annie since she personally suspected and voted for her; the latter is very apologetic and regretful over his outburst earning him this fame.
EPISODE EIGHT: MERDUR most fowel
At 10:30 on Wednesday Susan becomes aware the soul of Dave Strider (the final deadweight besides Altman and Siren) has left the manor. She raises the alarm and all the guests begin a search. It takes twenty minutes for Anastasia, accompanied by Beat and Gundam, to discover Dave’s stabbed body in the elevator shaft along with a katana.
EPISODE NINE: Elementary
TRIAL (SO FAR)
They convict Siren and execute her.
On Friday of Week Zero, thirty people wake up not in their own bedrooms but in one of six wings, each boasting a clearly customized wardrobe of 1920s clothing, within a mansion. They are dazed and confused, all suffering from amnesia about their arrival among other things. Guests such as Michael Altman and Poland try to climb the fence surrounding the property but discover it is electrified; Belarus cannot dig underneath.
Though some go to the same high school (Lydia Martin and "Stiles" to Beacon Hills; Gundam Tanaka and Sonia Nevermind to Hope's Peak Academy) and others share a type of anthropomorphic affiliation (the countries of Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine), none of the guests recognize each other. They also cannot find any staff even though this place clearly has been prepared far in advance for their arrival. Some try to avail themselves of the luxurious setting, singing robot Rin Kagamine for example gravitating towards the music room. Characters who have seen horror movies become afraid of the implications this setting has; nevertheless they go to sleep and hope for answers in the morning.
On Saturday answers do not begin to arrive until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The guests gather in the ballroom, where they are each provided with food as well as a notebook full of information on all thirty guests. Some dispute the veracity of these cards - for example, Phoebe "Rapture" Ashe claims to have greater gypsy gifts, Kaoru Nagumo denies the male gender marking, and Gundam insists that the typical Japanese name "Tarou Tanaka" is not his true one - but most are floored by detail as fine as the placement of their scars.
At 4 o'clock the Hostess arrives on the scene and begins to drop hints about the game the guests have been brought here to play. It is not until half past 4 that she reveals the object of this game is a murder mystery with real deaths, trials, and executions. She announces the game will start at 9 the next morning and has left by 5 o'clock, leaving the guests - now players - shocked.
EPISODE TWO: I don’t remember losing my memories!
On Sunday, as promised, the game begins. First the hostess distributes the Rules, then takes questions. Finally, the first ever incentive is revealed in the Foyer: "Each of you has forgotten something important. A person, a place, an important memory. What's missing may soon be lost to you forever. This week's culprit, if successful, will recover their lost memory." Responses range between insistent ignorance of their own amnesia (many of the adults), indignation followed by determination to not regain what's already been lost (most of the teenagers), and a few concessions that this is "a lucrative incentive for the first week" (such as the witch Bernkastel).
On Monday and Tuesday the resolutions seem to be holding steady. Patterns emerge. Contestants such as Gundam Tanaka, May Chang, and Minatsuki Takami take advantage of the lovely grounds to train – or in Rapture’s case just sunbathe, since she’s got to keep things all in the style. Between breakfast and lunch, many aesthetically inclined maidenly guests gather in the Conservatory such as Kanaya Maryam and Kaoru Nagumo who met and hit it off on the first day. Meals are provided in the ballroom, where emotions range from nervous Latvia to easygoing Clyde Barrow. Other gatherings occur in the study where guests try to gather information, such as Felicia Marlow, who comes from a long line of detectives and has even made a map of the mansion; or in the library which Bernkastel discovers has a particularly ample selection of mystery novels published before 1930. Exploration ranges further than before such as the visit Altman, Sonia, and Lithuania pay to the chapel. Beat gathers more information by discovering it is not even possible to fly over the electrified fence.
Wednesday shatters that assumption. Felicia tries to enter the emerald wing bathroom and discovers it is kept locked by a propped chair - she rushes into the drawing room to fetch for helpers Bernkastel and Alice, a seasoned agent of the Special Office of Internal Security. They break in and discover the body of Lydia Martin drowned in the tub.
EPISODE THREE: Good Luck, Bad Luck
Alice runs through the manor to alert everyone of the murder. Reactions range from despondence to rushing into investigative zeal. Touko Aozaki comes in to help with the examination of the body leaving the early responders to the crime scene itself. Rin in her music-room loving tradition discovers the piano is missing wires. Latvia helps Alice with her experiment in the ruby wing bathroom on the tub. Stiles lurks outside Lydia’s room and does not enter until he has a female, Kanaya, to accompany him – they find the chair is missing, presumably. Susan Sto Helit, the granddaughter of Death with a ramrod spine and even less flexible principles, begins to examine the wall and later invisibly sneaks out at 3am to find that rope and tape used were taken from a box for magic tricks in the billiards room.
TRIAL - the locked room mystery is a challenge at first. Returning to examination of the alibis after realizing the true extent of the time delay and checking the chloroform bottles with the aid of young alchemist May Chang, the contestants correctly settle on Bernkastel and vote for her. In her exit interview, she expresses no regret other than the technical details that foiled her plan, explaining this is the type of game typically played by witches, including herself and her beloved rival, memories of whom she had lost. The guests are infuriated but at least their passions have been fired up in anticipation of her execution, where she is kept powerless prisoner like a real life Salem trial style witch and finally killed by dunking stool… then wakes up in the cell to experience it all over again, repeatedly, recalling the torturous time loops that terrorize her home universe.
EPISODE FOUR: How do you keep a secret from over two dozen people?
The weekend of both Friday and Saturday provides at least some breathing space from talk of mystery but the mood is still somber now that the guests are only twenty-eight in number. Due to the poison’s role in the first case, Belarus, Kaoru, Susan, and May form the Chloroform Disposal Brigade. Meanwhile, Spain, Susan, Felicia, and Lithuania find an odd piece of paper in the library...
On Sunday another incentive is announced – cards indicate a shameful secret for each character, all of which will be revealed to the outside world unless a murder takes place. Furthermore, now that there have been trial performances to evaluate, popularity rankings are posted, dividing the top quartile of players into “Immune” (cannot be killed for any credit) and “Popular” (can only be killed for partial credit), the bottom quartile of players into “Dispensable” (extra prize when killed) or “Deadweight”.
Stiles, Felicia, and Susan, the immune players, begin to talk more seriously about ideas such as the buddy system. Ukraine is the only nation listed as deadweight; Latvia and Belarus become distraught over this development on her behalf. Rin Kagamine perhaps takes being listed as “dispensable” the most personally of all, more so than Minatsuki Takami, a thorny rose who has kept to herself.
Monday and Tuesday are nonlethal, but tense – one murder has already taken place, why not another this week? Rin begins a campaign to make the audience appreciate her cuteness and singing skill. Fellow musician Rapture is a good choice for her helper as well as the recipient of this week’s “sponsorship”, a crystal ball. Annie Leonhardt takes a less dramatic approach to her status as deadweight, which is unsurprising given her history as a hardened child soldier of few words. Susan admits when gathering her chloroform as part of the brigade’s initiative that her serious nature is scary. Annie does reach out to age peer Kanaya, who shares with her the sewing kit she found in the parlor.
EPISODE FIVE: She Blinded Me With Science…
On Wednesday, Kanaya leaves the conservatory to stroll in the garden and ends up finding Minatsuki’s bloody corpse in the flowerbed. She samples the stains, then runs into the foyer to summon Susan and Lithuania, the three viewers setting off the alarm. Anastasia runs around to raise the alarm while Susan uses her ability to monitor specific souls for the purpose of checking contestants’ locations. Beat investigates all over the manor including the pantry, which is missing rat poison. Altman finds dirt marks on a windowsill. Stiles dives into the pond… and finds on the bottom the piano wire from Bernkastel’s case. Alice, Poland, and Kanaya quickly mount expeditions to the outer grounds and Minatsuki’s room, both unfruitful.
The TRIAL gets complicated fast. Not only does Minatsuki’s Branch of Sin give her a sort of hemophilia that muddles her corpse – besides the suspects Kaoru, Kanaya, and Annie are two nations, Poland and Ukraine. Spain proposes they have too much to lose and would never have done the deed; Gundam counters with a claim the nations are self-serving in this allegation and maybe lying about their nature altogether. By the end of the day, the main progress has been tentatively exonerating Kaoru and Poland, which only leads to a greater chance either Ukraine, Kanaya, or Annie will be executed. Annie admits she does not want Kanaya to die.
EPISODE SIX: …By Which I Mean Chemicals On A Needle In My Eye
The trial resumes on Friday and the body continues to boggle everybody. This is the first trial to last two days for a reason: They go in circles, learning more about how the crime took place but not able to identify the murder weapon or the culprit. As the deadline draws nearer, Kanaya finally accuses Ukraine outright, though the wounds on Minatsuki’s body are not consistent with Ukraine’s pitchfork, and Anastasia makes a last-minute realization about how the placement of dirt on the sapphire wing windowsill, which Kanaya or Ukraine who stay there would have cleared away, in fact exonerates them both. Nevertheless with time running out and emotions running high, especially on Latvia’s part, a number of players convinced of Ukraine’s innocence vote for Kanaya, which ironically takes votes away from Annie and leaves the highest tally to Ukraine. The hostess announces her innocence and allows her a final interview.
Ukraine hangs, and the Hostess reveals the true culprit’s in her choice to retire: Annie. She reveals that the murder weapon, a vehicle for the rat poison, was an item in her room that had been ignored as innocuous by Rapture and Anastasia when investigating: The needle in the sewing kit she got from Kanaya. She admits that she is a shape-shifter, and this secret coming out would have meant death to her true (giant) race. The former fact gains her Stilinski’s sympathy, the latter Kanaya’s admiration. Sonia likewise reluctantly understands her motives, and Rin is captivated that someone has won the game. However all the nations are indignant, and Susan argues more strongly than any of them that, game or not, a known murderer cannot possibly be allowed to walk among them. Only Alice’s pleading (that more murder isn’t the answer) stays her hand for now.
Finally, the nations’ arguments are blown out of the water when the Hostess reveals a live video feed from the land of Ukraine – entirely unaffected by the anthropomorphic’s demise.
EPISODE SEVEN: Take Me Back
The weekend is even more somber than the last, with Latvia and Belarus especially affected by Ukraine’s death. Annie keeps to her room altogether - only Rin, in the same wing, seeks her out. Gundam and Sonia go out on an outing more liberal members of the household would describe as a date, marking their transition into spending much of their time together.
The incentive - changing a moment in one’s past – evokes some of the strongest reactions so far, particularly from such teenagers as Kanaya, Stiles, and Beat, who blames himself for the death of his sister. (Stiles and Beat have been finding more and more common ground as teenage boys working together in the game.) The popularity rankings are even more controversial. Lithuania replaces Felicia as the third immune player alongside Susan and Stiles. The deadweight prizes are much more tempting than last week: Two tools of choice or the ability to nullify the target’s special powers, plus a million dollars cash equivalent or a magical artifact.
This is to counterbalance fluctuations in the audience’s whims that result in relatively hardworking May Chang and Anastasia being listed as dispensable – they are distressed by this and resolve to work harder, while Gundam and Susan worry particularly for May’s sake. They can take some comfort in the sponsorship that goes to May Chang on Monday: Five of her kunai. Following another one of Susan’s proactive possessions, Kanaya takes up sketching to curb her desire for blood and keeps an eye on Annie to make sure she’s safe alone. In fact she’s just training with Rin. Aluminum Siren, made philosophical by her status as deadweight this week, doesn’t shun her either. Still unsettled by the trial, some players take refuge in the bar – Spain out of habit, Kaoru to accommodate others, and Altman to cope with the stress of being deadweight. Rapture and Latvia experiment with their self-filling chloroform bottles, prizes for ranking popular. The former is guiltless about not catching Annie since she personally suspected and voted for her; the latter is very apologetic and regretful over his outburst earning him this fame.
EPISODE EIGHT: MERDUR most fowel
At 10:30 on Wednesday Susan becomes aware the soul of Dave Strider (the final deadweight besides Altman and Siren) has left the manor. She raises the alarm and all the guests begin a search. It takes twenty minutes for Anastasia, accompanied by Beat and Gundam, to discover Dave’s stabbed body in the elevator shaft along with a katana.
EPISODE NINE: Elementary
TRIAL (SO FAR)
They convict Siren and execute her.
