Re: The Murder and the Psychic

[Koneko on lyoko]

(FINALLY! Well, my apologies if there are mistakes/it's really bad/makes no sense/etc etc.... Gahhh and I also keep thinking that I've made it really obvious as well -.- but whatever hopefully this alright for a first time host XD oh and I have no idea why it's set where it is...maybe it was because I was writing something set in an asylum for my last english assessment before the end of term and enjoyed writing it )

The XL asylum, home to some of the craziest minds the internet has to offer. Artists, authors and just fans of the show Code Lyoko all reside here, in this peaceful; though occasionally hectic; place. The residents of this place all have their own little twists and turns and it's often said that even the ones in charge are about as crazy as the residents...

A particularly large room sits happily in the middle of the building, and is often the place where everyone meets and chats and just generally cause chaos and strange happenings.
Sat at an oddly placed table right in the corner, were Atlas and Legend who seemed engrossed in some card game that no doubt they made up so only they could win.
“I think that's my game,” Atlas declared.
Legend shook his head with a smug smirk before placing a joker card on top of the pile of cards between the two, “mine.”
“What...but he just put down...” Cya said looking utterly confused at whatever it was the boys were playing.
“No one gets it,” Eil sighed shaking her head, “many of us have tried, but no one really understands or ever wins either.”
Kelly quickly jumped into the conversation, deciding to add some helpful information as well, “if they ever ask you to play, don't bother there's no way to win, they'll just end up magically winning.”
“I'll have you know that we play just as fairly as everyone else,” Legend said.
“It's not our fault that no one else here is one the same intellectual level,” Atlas added as if it were obvious.
“I know they begin with the same two letters, but there is a difference between intellect and iniquity,” Eil shot back.
Atlas ignored her and shuffled the deck of cards to start another game with Legend.
Cats, who had just walked over upon hearing the commotion gave a questioning look to the group of people, “what's so bad a bout playing a card game?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Legend said, “see, Cats understands us.”
“I never said there was anything wrong with playing card games, I just have a problem when you two are the ones playing the games,” Eil said crossing her arms over her chest as Kelly nodded in agreement.
“If you have that much if a problem with it then why not do something about it,” Atlas sighed.
“That reminds me of something I read once,” Cats mused, “something like, nothing starts until you take action, meaning if you want something to happen, then it won't start until action is taken.”
“Exactly,” Atlas and Legend said and continued with their game.

Looking away from the small drama in the corner, Shade sighed and turned his attention to the two people sat opposite him. Both were sat mirroring the others position; one leg crossed over the other; wearing top hats and drinking tea.
“You know you've been sat like for about an hour now,” he said, “shouldn't your legs be hurting?”
The one on the left shook their head, “tea time is the most important time of the day, it's a time to relax and sit back.”
The one on the right nodded, “very true Soul,” Kay said, “the fancier the tea the better the tea time is as well.”
“And the hats?” Shade continued.
“Style,” they answered in unison and both took a sip of tea.
“You shouldn't question the style of top hats shade,” Shadows said in a matter-of-factly tone, “though I have no idea about how they got them...”
“Aww I want a hat,” Kitty pouted, “why isn't there anywhere here to get things like that.”
“A hat would be nice,” Enzo sighed in boredom, leaning back on the two legs of his chair, the back of it resting against the wall, “there's not much of anything around here.”
“Last I checked, they didn't have clothes shops in places like this,” Snickie said walking through a door, hands in her pockets.
“Where have you been?” Enzo asked.
“Like I said, last I checked,” Snickie answered.
“...you were looking for clothes shops,” Enzo inquired, “...in here?
“Not just that, but anything interesting,” she said, “like whatever's happening over there,” and she walked off to card games corner.
“What's her problem?” Stella asked, only now looking up from the book she'd been reading.
“This place is boring that's what,” Enzo answered continuing to rock back an froth on his chair.
“It's not that bad, we've been getting a lot more inmates recently,” Shadows pointed out, “so it's been busier.”
“Yeah and a lot of the older people have actually been coming out of their rooms for once,” Kitty added with a smile.
There was a universal agreement around the table to what the two had pointed out.
“I think all this extra activity is great,” Y2k smiled, “it's a lot more fun and we can all...”
He was cut short by a loud scream echoing from card games corner and everyones attention turned to group of people around the oddly placed table.
“W-what...how...” Kelly stuttered, hands clinging to the back of Cyas jacket.
“We just turned our heads for a second...” Eil muttered eyes never leaving the sight in front of her.
“...t-to say hi to Snickie,” Cya finished, her expression of curiosity changed to one of horror.
“How is this even possible,” Cats said, “there's no way any of us could've...”
“Hey guys what's the problem,” Soul shouted setting the tea cup down.
Kay tried to look over the shoulders of the people around the table, but from the distance she was at, it was impossible, “what happened?”
Finally gaining some composure, the small group of people separated and revealed the sight before them.
The other group of inmates were at a loss, Enzo almost fell off his chair, the two tea drinkers would've done a spit take had they been drinking at the time and everyone else just stared, not knowing how to react to what was there. There face down on the table was Legend, a small knife protruding obscurely from the back of his head and a small, but expanding, pool of blood surrounding him, drenching the cards he'd been playing with in blood.
A though ran through everyones minds, 'I can't believe that Legend is de...wait, when did we have access to knives?!'
All the while Atlas' eyes were fixed firmly on the cards in his hand.

Again, hopefully that was ok and it wasn't too obvious ^^; Voting ends on Sunday 5th August 1pm(BST) about 8am(EST)...I think.

[Soul Jelly]

I approve of this so hard. Awesome start.

[Soul Jelly]

I approve of this so hard. Awesome start.

[Coto524]

I approve. I am also randomly inspired to make a work where people are killed one by one...

Eh. Let's discuss.

Atlas is implied to have done it. This may be a bluff, or a double bluff, or I CBA TO BE SERIOUS ATM. PONIES, AND KITTENS, AND CUTE FLUFFY THINGS.

[aelitaxwilliam]

Ooh, I like it, Kay. The clues definitely aren't obvious, so I think I'll have to start off voting for someone random as usual.

Nice use of the asylum, btw.

[Soul Jelly]

Too obvious to be Atlas IMO.

Will need to think about this further. Hmm...

[Guest]

The dialogue and pretty much everything was amazing. Would have been great if I was still alive, but you can't have it all.

It's obviously not Atlas because he doesn't hate me at all.

Another M&P where Legend's presence will be missed, RIGHT?

[Coto524]

I think the card game is implied to be Mao, which I know a few versions of. Rules vary wildly, however. Is there anybody else who's ever mentioned Mao?

[Koneko on lyoko]

Glad it wasn't too obvious, I guess if you know who it is, you always think it's really obvious XD

[Snickie]

I LOVE THE GAME MAO!!! <3 <3 <3

Alright, here's to grasping at straws!

So, it's too early to tell, but the obvious pick here would be Atlas, 'cause he's the one playing with Legend and he's kind of creepy anyway. (But then again, we all are; we ARE in an asylum here, after all.) And it's plausible that he could be jealous that Legend won the card game (or did he?).

Maybe it's too obvious. Like, I don't think anybody who wants a good long game of M&P would make so many of the clues point to the real murderer right away. Thus we can conclude 90% that it's not Atlas. Why only 90%? Because maybe Kay thought that we'd avoid picking him if she made it so obvious to look like him because it WAS him. I don't think she'd pull something like that, though.

But Cats understands them! Or so Legend says before he dies. Maybe whatever it is Cats understands about Legend would be a good reason in his crazed mind to kill him. Plus, he quotes that proverb thing. So maybe he decided to act upon it. And don't forget his immediate incredulity at the scene. The sentence ended in an ellipsis. What was he going to say? "There's no way any of us could've...." what?

Then again, we also have Eil complaining about them playing said card game. She could have gotten sick of watching them and flicked the knife at Legend herself. And since Eil is a dragon (or, at least, she might believe she is), she probably has lots of sharp dragon scales that she could have pre-shaped into something that would look like a knife. Maybe she took inspiration from Cats' proverb. Maybe she wanted Atlas' and Legend's card-playing iniquitelligence to end, so she took out one of the players in hopes that it would stop the game. Well, it did.

Or it could be Soul or Kay. Hats are convenient devices that can hide knives. Plus, nobody knows how they got those top hats just like nobody knows how they would've gotten the knife. But reading through so far, I can't see anything else that would tie them to it. Maybe that's the catch.

But wait! Where HAS Snickie been? And why is she walking towards the game table? D: And what was she doing just before the murder took place? She was looking for something interesting, right? What if a knife was just haphazardly laying around, and she happened to pick it up and, being the insane asylum inmate she is, randomly stab Legend in the back with it? Or maybe she found it outside when she was still looking for a clothing shop. Or maybe she wasn't actually looking for a clothes shop, but a knife.

Pff, Kay puts herself off the hook immediately by mentioning how far away she was from the table, which also puts Soul off the hook because Soul is sitting next to Kay.

Whoever it is, it appears they have some kind of grudge against card games.

And that's it for my straw-grasping for the moment.

I'm probably going to die next round for all of this. Either because everybody thinks my straw-grasping is to turn your attention away from me as the murderer and votes me off, or because the real murderer thinks I'm on to them. If I'm lucky enough to survive, the next person to die will probably NOT be someone on this list in order to keep people suspecting people on the list and not them.

[aelitaxwilliam]

I don't know what Mao is but I do know of Chairman Mao? Like the Chinese dictator communist something guy?

All I can pick out are cards, hats, and tea. I would've voted Legend out, because of the Joker, but I guess that's out of the question.

And Snickie, WHAT IS THAT POST. It's like an amazing, very monster-ish post. I don't know about letting Jell or Kay off the hook though. In past rounds, it's always been anyone and everyone under suspicion, because the murderer can do a lot of things (well, the host can write it that way) to get themselves off the hook. And hmm, good point about Atlas. It's almost too obvious to be him.

...I'm still pretty confused.

[Snickie]

Now that you mention it, I do remember reading in the last round of M&P that Shadow mentioned that there have been rounds where people were murdered in different rooms from the murderer him/herself. You have a point. But I still don't see how Kay and Soul could have fished a knife through the mentioned crowd of people without somebody else noticing (Enzo, for example).

[aelitaxwilliam]

I don't think Kay or Jell are the murderers (or at least at this point! you never know what will happen...), but at the same time, I don't think we can rule them out. While ideally M&P should make sense, the host can really write it any way they want.

We get to suspend the rules of reality a little bit here! It's lots of fun, since it makes it all the more confusing, haha.

[shadow74488]

What, so I'm too nice to be acused -3-

[Snickie]

Just because I didn't explicitly mention some people in my straw-grasping doesn't mean you're definitely not guilty. I just didn't see anything particularly noteworthy that would point at you for the crime. There are quite a few people I didn't mention.

[Coto524]

The basis of the card game Mao is that it's a simulation of life under Chairman Mao, i.e. you don't know the rules until you break them. You aren't allowed to discuss the rules, but if you break them you get penalised. You learn by trial and error...

And personally, I have to point out that a knife can be thrown. Being far away from the table doesn't make you innocent.

....

I suspect Soul. Everyone's looking horrified and she goes "Hey, guys, what's the problem?"

[VGCats_Rocks]

This kill is just like that one with the pen. Except, you know, with a knife instead.

[Stella Luce 333]

The fact that cards & card games were mentioned several times make it seem like that is important…I’m not sure how it helps, but that's what jumps out to me as the major clue…

[aelitaxwilliam]

The basis of the card game Mao is that it's a simulation of life under Chairman Mao, i.e. you don't know the rules until you break them. You aren't allowed to discuss the rules, but if you break them you get penalised. You learn by trial and error...

And personally, I have to point out that a knife can be thrown. Being far away from the table doesn't make you innocent.

....

I suspect Soul. Everyone's looking horrified and she goes "Hey, guys, what's the problem?"

That sounds like a scarrry card game. I'll kick your butt in Gold Fish though.

[Soul Jelly]

Excellent analysis, Snickie, by the way. Some good thoughts there which I'll comment on more later.

[Coto524]

The mention of card games reminded me of a Vocaloid Song comparing life to poker (Poker Face by Gumi), and that reminded me of another Vocaloid song. Its English name is 'The Riddle Solver Who Can't Solve Riddles', but in Japanese it's the more succinct 'Nazotoki'.

Nazotoki is an appropriate song for M&P - each chorus begins with the line 'Saa hannin wa dare?', which means 'So who is the culprit?'

Saa hannin wa dare? Kimi wa kotae wo shitteru ne | Datte kimi no me no mae de subete okotta no dakara

Just a little aside.

...

Anyway. Card games. So, the whole thing about cards implies someone who likes card games, which implies me, or Legend, or Railen, all of whom like a certain card game (Yu-Gi-Oh). Rai's not playing and Legend's dead....

Crap.

[Snickie]

Poor Enzo.

(I didn't even know that. Thanks for the new lead. XD)

[Koneko on lyoko]

Ok, no more voting. I'm editing this post late but whatever

[Koneko on lyoko]

(double post for update finally XD Again, hope it's ok and not too obvious.)
The votes:
Snickie
Kitty
Soul
Kelly 1
Legend X
Shade
Cats
Cya
Enzo
Eil 3
Stella
Kay
Atas 1

The room had remained silent for what felt like hours after the incident had occurred, no one dared move or make a sound. All of the inmates eyes were fixed on the corner of the room, some were on Legends lifeless body and the surrounding cards, others were on Atlas who remained still.
“W-well then,” Soul muttered, “that was...unexpected.”
“Yes,” Enzo, who seemed to be closely examining the knife that was still in Legends head, agreed, “very.”
By now the two groups had come together in a bigger group, but everyone was still keeping their distance from each other; no one knew who, but one of them had definitely killed him and was probably out for the rest of them.
“I still don't understand it,” Cya said, “it happened so fast.”
“Well, there's one thing we know for sure,” Atlas declared, finally taking his eyes away from the cards, “one of us here did it and no doubt, they're going to try again.”
“So all we have to do is keep a look out for everyone and then we'll be fine?” Shade asked and Atlas nodded.
“That's all well and good,” Snickie said, “but what about when it comes to sleeping, who's to say that whoever did this won't use that opportunity to kill another one of us?”
“We can decide that later,” Kay sighed, “for now I just wanna get out of this room.”
“Yea this place is starting to get really creepy,” Kelly added and she was right. The walls and tables were all an off white colour and the only other noise in the room was the lone monotonous buzz of a small vending machine that never had anything in it anyway.
Cats and Kitty both nodded to each other before Kitty said, “why don't we all go to the rec room? It's a lot better than this dreary place.”
Everyone agreed and filed out as quickly as possible from the strange room. The corridor leading down to the rec room was just as white and unnerving as the room they'd been trying to escape, a prefect row of lights were strung down the ceiling, giving it an eerie glow.
The doors to the rec room were a dark purple; a large contrast to the corridor. The group of inmates filed into the room and almost instantly began to feel better.
“Ahhh this is much better,” Stella sighed sitting on a dark green beanbag and continuing with her reading.
“Definitely,” Soul said walking over to a small table with pieces of paper strewn across it, “maybe I could do some writing here...”
Y2k walked over to a small TV connected to a games systems with two controllers coming off of it, “anyone want a...”
“Hey guys,” Shade quickly interrupted Y2k as he noticed something strange, “where's eil? I haven't seen her since we left the other room.”
Kelly began glancing around everyone, “you're right, hey Atlas she was yelling at you last, have you seen her?”
He shrugged and shook his head, “no and something quite important did happen between now and Eil yelling at me,” he stated and walked over to pick the other controller next to Y2k up.
“Maybe she's just calming down?” Cya suggested.
“She did seem quite angry,” Enzo said whilst attempting to read some of the papers on the table.
Kay nodded and started inspecting the art supplies that were messily thrown on a shelf near the table, “geeze these are messy, I mean seriously,” she picks up a paint brush with loads of dried paint around it, “who doesn't wash their brush after using it? This is a crime against art!”
“You're right, this is very messy,” Cats agreed walking up beside her and looking over the shelf.
“Eh does it really matter?” Snickie sighed picking up one of the many pencils and taking some paper, “as long as it's usable it's fine.”
“I'm still worried about Eil...” Shade trailed off, staring blankly at the shelf.
“She'll be fine,” Kitty said, “it's like cya said, I bet she's just...” she looked up, “gahh stupid light, why does it keep flickering? It'll stop working if it keeps going like this and then we'll be in...”
As if on cue, the annoying flickering stopped and the entire room was plunged into darkness.
“Way to go Kitty,” Soul said, “I bet it would've been fine if you hadn't noticed.”
The was a shout and a loud bang.
“Damn it!” Atlas yelled at the now blank TV screen and threw his controller down, “I was winning!”
“Seriously? Atlas you almost gave me a heart attack!” Kelly shouted.
“The electricity in this place is terrible,” Enzo sighed rummaging through his pockets, “I might have a torch in here.”
“Who carries a torch around with them?” Cya asked.
“It always pays to be prepared,” he stated, “ha! Got it!”
There was a pause as Enzo twisted the torch in his hands trying to find the on switch, and after a few seconds there was a small flickering and a light shone on the corner of the room where Y2k and Atlas were sat.
“Good to see you two are ok,” Enzo said and moved the torch round to the small table, “you guys too,” he moved the torch a third time, “and you Stella.”
Stella just pouted at the fact that she couldn't read in this light.
“Hey Enzo, wait a second,” Cats said, “I think I saw something when you moved between Y2k and us.”
“Really,” he asked moving the torch back to that spot, “I don't see any...thing...”
The torch suddenly stopped on a body, the hood of its jacket hung from one of the coat pegs, it's head slumped down into its chest...its limbs completely still.
“Is that...” Y2k said, “...Shade?”
Everyone looked closer and soon realised that it was him.
Enzo noticed something dripping down from the wall onto Shades hood and moved the torch up slightly. On the wall in the brightest shade of red paint were the words:
'If you have time to worry, then run.'
Advice from the killer themselves.

Votes by umm...Friday 31st August 1pm BST(8am EST) and vote this time people!

[cya6]

I'm sorry I haven't posted on the first scene, but I just have to tell you how happy I am about the setting of this An asylum, it's just perfect.

Thank you, kay.

that being said, I have no clue who the murderer is. maybe it's not a writer, because I'm fairly certain the note at the end is improperly punctuated.

I could just be grasping at straws, though.

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