i_s_l_a_n_d_rp | (no subject)

... Protection? You call such a brutal-looking circle an act of protection?

The protection of their identity, yes. The more signs they put of 'magic,' the more likely it will be for people to come to the conclusion magic did it because they don't see another obvious alternative.

I guess, if you really wanted to view it that way. Battler would take your side on that standpoint as well, hoh.

It's that or because they're clearly lost their mind, it's a compulsion.

It was too elegantly drawn for that circle to be a compulsion. But that's just my opinion.

Compulsion as part of insanity would demand some perfectionism, but it's less likely with the other evidence.

So it is more likely just to make people think it's a witch.

... Plus, if the circle didn't exist, the bodies wouldn't be found immediately, would they? Nothing would draw attention to the shed if there weren't a circle. The typhoon was happening at that time as well, so it wasn't as though the servants would stumble on the bodies accidentally in order to retrieve something from that shed to do yard work since it's illogical during such a furious storm.

So you can think of a circle as a beacon. A call for the bodies to be found.

There is that too. Though any signal could do, but it does work at doing both, doesn't it?

...when did it start raining, anyway? It was for the proposal...did it break at all during the night?

You're right, it does.

It began when Maria was searching for her rose, remember? And no, there wasn't a single break in the typhoon's storm. So your dear hypothetical murderer also had the task of hauling all those corpses through a typhoon to the shed. Not easy.

...that's right. It was then.

It's not impossible to transfer the bodies. Maybe it even helps, since it provides cover. The footprints might have even been washed away during the heavy rain, but it's not the body transfer I was asking about.

The question is...when did they make the symbol on the shutter?

Hmhmhmhm...! That I won't answer. I'll leave it to you to theorize about it-- you never did find out if it was blood or paint, did you? Kihihi. It's as much of a riddle as the corpses it hid, isn't it?

Blood, paint, it doesn't matter if I determined either way. I couldn't say if the paint was human blood or animal blood without a test.

But either way, it takes time for that to dry. It couldn't have been painted after the rain had started.

... Unless they took hyper precautions, like using a quick-drying paint, dried the shutters and hung a tarp from the gutter to block out the rain while they painted, indeed, it's hard to fathom such a circle not being washed away during the night. Once you put it that way, it's really unlikely that it's blood. It'd be washed away quickly.

Blood takes 15 to 30 minutes to dry under normal temperatures. With the cold of the rain, it'd take longer. This also applies to other painting materials. Either way, it'd take time. If they did it after the rain had started, it'd either have been before the bodies would have to be brought here, giving it time to dry after it be was put up to drag the bodies here or afterwards, while it had time to dry while it was up. But that'd also take time...

Of course, they could have done it another time. Like before they were going to meet Maria in the rose garden and put a tarp on it so no one would notice it.

...

That would mean you're most likely accusing one of the servants of painting the circle, am I right?

Does anyone have an alibi for that time?

If i wanted to really stretch, I could even said the culprit told Maria to make it since she apparently knows what it looks like.

...which, considering how obedient she is, might not be that far of a stretch...

Anyone who Battler didn't witness doesn't have a alibi. That's obvious, right?

Hm...hmhmhmhm... you're right, that is quite a stretch. Even considering how much the child adores me, it'd be difficult for her to paint it, even if she had the time.

So it'd be Jessica and George who do. At least if it was then.

She might have time and she recognizes the symbol, but it seems unnecessary for something that complicated. Especially without knowing when the symbol was made. [Just a possibility to keep in mind should things go into the needlessly complicated. There was insanity involved, after all.]

So your time frame for the symbol's creation is... most likely on that day, since it wouldn't go unnoticed if it had been painted a day before-- probably after the arrival of the relatives, but before the storm. Correct?

It couldn't have been before because Kanon had a wheelbarrow and fertilizer. Unless those didn't come from the shed.

Unless it was him. He did find it.

... Ah. Yes, I suppose that does make Kanon incredibly suspicious. It makes him the only one at the scene of the crime before it happened.

The first to discover the body is usually one of the prime suspects.

But... [He'd been close. He SAW Kanon's expression.] If it was him, he wasn't acting on his own terms.

... You saw the love he held for his dear sister, didn't you?

[Nods.] I've seen people fake pain and mourning, but when they do, it's always the biggest reaction.

No one acts for mourning like that. No one can fake a broken look like that.

Which means either, A, he believes himself less than human and was acting on orders that he felt he couldn't ignore, B, he didn't mean to kill Shannon and she was an accident, or C, there's something very, very messed up in his head and he only just then got hit by those emotions.

But it's almost too sad to think of it that way.

You can't discount that he's a red herring, either, you know. [ low chuckle ] Like I said, no one Battler wasn't with had an alibi. So that gives you a rather wide spectrum of people to pick and choose from to swing the axe down on, rather than just Kanon.

... but that's for you anti-Mystery types.