#grimmzb

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:3

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Broken Ass Marriage || GrimmZB || Trial 5-1 || RE: Toshiko, Miyu || ATTN: Hibiki

GrimmZB was really not a fan of the vibes in this place. There were more plants than people here, by now, and there was an uncomfortable feeling of being watched. She glanced at the outside of the dome, before shrugging. At the topiary hydra. “Well, at least he’s not bugging us today.” 

She put her hands up with casualness that belied how totally fucked this situation was, but despite her attempts to seem at ease, there was some clear distress radiating off of her. “So, this is all a sham, right? Just fucking nonsense. A koala court.” Wrong marsupial, but she was close, at least; some of the letters in the right places. But was this really the time for jokes?

“The tunnels connected each of our respective zones, it seems. I didn’t notice it when I was investigating the pit, but there was a ladder originally. Gone when the Toshikos and I went, though hell if I know why.” 

There wasn’t a lot  to work with here, so she held a hand to her chin. “So the mushrooms were from Himiku… and the sword was Hibiki’s?” Not a chance in hell he was the one responsible for this. “So did someone snatch the sword from you, Hibiki?” She tilted her head. “Pretty fucking bold of them.” She didn’t mean that in a sus way; whoever was attacking them so brazenly had to have a lot of guts to do it.

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Origami Killer from Heavy Rain by David Cage || GrimmZB 4-1 || RE: Vermilion, Meisa

GrimmZB’d been quiet the whole time, mostly, just sorta. Paying attention. She quirked an eyebrow every now and then, but it was fine. She reclined back in her own brain, and decided to let her ghost do the talking. 

“Okay, does anyone remember what Chiketsu did during the big fashion show? Don’t give me any of that ‘oh, how could we know it was Chiketsu’ bs, because. C’mon, lobster suit? Really? Point is, she made a bunch of flying origami cranes. Point is, and I can confirm this, Chiketsu totes had some kinda origami magic. She coulda brought that frog to life, made it hop a bit to get some help. So maybe Verm has a point when she says maybe Chiketsu didn’t die right away. Just a thought though, huuuuuh?”

She drew out her huh in a long way, kinda obnoxiously, leaning forward. 

“Meisa has a point, don’tcha know. I don’t believe for a sec Verm is wholly innocent, heck, she totally admitted to basically offing the Shimizu chick, but after hittin’ the ground hard, and bleedin’ for who knows how long, your memory’d be a bit faulty too. I can demonstrate after this, if you really doubt it.” 

She frowned. “The one bloodspot is incompatible with Verm’s story, as told, though. Maybe someone swung by after the fact and did it all, and Verm only thought she saw it?” She put up her hands. “I dunno, brother.” 

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damn bro you got the whole squad laughing || GrimmZB || Trial 3-1 || RE: general ig

Shit there was a lot being discussed right now. GrimmZB’s been thinking a lot about it, and she’s finally ready to use her words (read: real life has finally decided that I am permitted to post). She crossed her arms, listening. 

“As for an alibi, I was heading over to the rec wing at the time of death to hang out, but I wasn’t there myself yet. I got there just as the announcement was being made. Toshiko was already there when I arrived, and I can confirm both Chiketsu and Vermilion were where they said they were too.” She shook her head. “I don’t follow your logic at all about Chiketsu, Himiku.” Prolly cuz there wasn’t any. “Whoever Chiketsu heard could’ve easily been running to avoid being seen. And it checks out with Vermilion’s testimony too, unless we’re calling that into doubt too? Someone else was around at the time of the crime, and clearly didn’t want anyone to know they were there. ‘Specially if they had to think on the fly, all of a sudden.” Chiketsu said their testimony first too, so it wasn’t like they were trying to just piggyback off of Vermilion’s. 

GrimmZB tilted her head. “The room had to have been legit sealed, though, unless any of you found something else that could’ve caused that cracking sound we heard when we opened it. The door was still intact, it wasn’t like it got completely shattered. The chair seems like the best bet for what made that noise…” They believed Toshiko in that regard. “But this was a very hands off deal. Even if it wasn’t the rats, judging from the position of the rope and the fire, this trap would’ve gone off even without anyone there, though it seems like it got out of control. I doubt we were meant to find Aiko so quickly, but the commotion drew too much attention. I mean, what’s the point of the fire? It didn’t destroy the trap much at all, it doesn’t look like it concealed any evidence, and even if it did, there’d be simpler ways of doing it. The trap backstage was simple. Drop something straight down, boom. Dead, if it hits ya hard enough. But that mess in the parlor?” She tilted her head. “My point is, what if we’re looking at the trap after it went wrong?” 

“Honestly, you hear that excuse a lot. ‘If they’re innocent, it’s in their best interest to speak up.’ You can’t rely on people acting in their best interest, though, and that’s got big ‘If you’re innocent, you should have nothing to hide’ vibes. Very cringy. In short, it’s naive, and that’s assuming everyone’s gonna believe them if they come clean. Some might think they’re just trying to take the heat off themself.” She shrugged. That being said, the most suspicious person here certainly wasn’t doing themself any favors. “If there is an accomplice, they probably still don’t want anyone knowing they were involved. That’s their ideal, that no one even realizes they were around.” She shrugged. “Granted, that’s. Totes not happening at this point.  That trap backstage sounds like it’d have taken at least two people to set up. And if what Miyu says about the diary is true, taken in combination with Aiko’s all too convenient timing earlier.” Shrug. 

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Shit Sucks Forever || GrimmZB || Results Reaction

That was that, then. In the end, even without a confession, there wasn't any doubt; despite CJ's attempts, it had been a matter of if people were ready to be willingly wrong. GrimmZB was a pretty daring gal, but when it came to the question of peoples' lives, she didn't think it fair to roll the dice. That one vote for Shu Lan put everyone's lives on the line. She couldn't just let that happen.

Matthew hadn't wanted any of this, that had been obvious from even before anyone thought they were the killer. But she kept her mouth shut through everything. There was no point trying to convince the hydra to make an exception considering the circumstances; they'd made it clear what was happening now. She just sighed, crossing her arms and looking off to the side. Her expression remained unchanged, but only because so many others were upset. She was never good at emoting at times like this, so she swallowed it, keeping her cool for now. Somehow, this was harder than the first time, knowing that it was an innocent person, rather than whatever the fuck Kouri had.

How were they supposed to fight back against this?

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Happily Never After || GrimmZB || Trial 2-3 || RE: CJ, Hibiki, Verm, MHMHAM

GrimmZB was taken aback by the recent turn of events. Not because they were shocking, no, this was. Super predictable. But MHMHAM’s clarification regarding the stakes here sort of teetered it from the realm of “okay, this is selfish” to… incredibly dangerous. Not on Matthew’s part, necessarily, but CJ’s.

“Okay, but. Like the Verm and Hibiki have been saying. Love, that don’t make no sense. If you wanted to protect him… why make it look like he did it?” She sounded incredulous. “Because let’s stop deluding ourselves. If he did it, no doubt it was an accident, yes, but where else does the evidence point? This comes across as grasping at straws, as your desperation attack. Heavy emphasis on the desperate.”

After trying to argue the case of there being a third person, and then that Shu Lan did himself in, this was what they settled on? 

“You say you didn’t want to be violent, so you… uh. Threw them into a wall? Yeah, real non-violent.” She crossed her arms. “And that mess? There were books that fell from bookshelves besides the one Shu Lan was under. What was that about, if you did it? Sorry, but we all know why you’re making up this confession.”

She sighed. It wasn’t easy, but they couldn’t just… give up on trying to find the answers here. Vermilion put it better than her. But she still felt the need to reiterate it.

“It’s a noble thing, what you’re trying to do. But you’re putting a lot of peoples’ lives at risk. This whole thing sucks shit. And no one wants to vote for Matthew, because this all reeks of some tragic accident. But leaving it up to the whims of fate is not the answer either.” She shook her head. “Just. Give it a rest. Please.”

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One of my Japanese Animes || GrimmZB || Trial 2-2 || RE: Hibiki, Verm, Chiketsu, Haruna

GrimmZB frowned, crossing her arms and tapping her feet. There was a lot of hostility being thrown around here, and it was leading them in circles.

“Climbing it… nah, that doesn’t check out. Shu Lan’s body was face down. So unless he was going full The Exorcist, climbing it backwards? I don’t think that’d do it either. And again, if he ran into it… I dunno, I guess he’d have time to turn around, but wouldn’t it make more sense for him to be facing up?” Shrug. She just didn’t buy it. 

Magic was also becoming a topic of discussion, which GrimmZB… knew just about as little as everyone else, despite her attempts to look cool with her fireballs and stuff, which fell flat half the time. She had taken a liking to it, yeah, and did it to look cool, but she remained just as clueless as the rest of them…

Except for those instances where her magic did work, and it was super hype, and she had to act like everything she did was intentional. Results may vary. And while she was ready to write Matthew off as a poor mage, that occurred to her.

“I don’t think we can categorize any of us as ‘specially bad at magic. I’ve had moments where I can do cool shit one minute, and then the next I can’t even create a strong light. We’ve all had times we pulled off something lit (especially Miyu, hehheh), and like. Times we ate shit and died trying to cast spells. Some people had a longer streak of bad luck, but…” She crossed her arms.

“You guys watch anime?” Jesus Christ, here we go. “You know how, when the protag’s on their last legs, they’ll throw their all into a big desperation attack? Right now… it’s their only option! This or nothing! They take that chance, and the adrenaline gives them a boost.” Her speech is getting more heroic. If you hadn’t watched anime this kind of obscure reference might be lost on you. “Maybe we’re looking at something like that.”

“The way those books were scattered around the room. I can’t think of anything to spread them out like that ‘sides. Y’know. Fwoosh. Gale force warning.” She mimicked the movement of wind with her hands by… waving her arms around wildly. “It doesn’t look like someone just ripped them all off the shelves. Two minutes isn’t enough time to make that kind of mess artificially.” 

There was much to be considered here, but a recurring theory made GrimmZB dubious. Was it really possible that there was a third person in the library? Yeah, she guessed there would be, or at least it was unverified that there couldn’t be. Regardless.

“I get where you’re coming from, but do we have any evidence that there was some other party in the library? Anything left behind, any odd behavior when people showed up? Even if it’s not impossible… without anything to back up that theory, bringing it up only introduces new elements that we can’t really speak concretely about.”

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Uprooting Seaweeds || GrimmZB || Trial 2-1 || RE: Aiko, CJ

GrimmZB side-eyed Aiko as they spoke. This was… a pretty intense situation. And here they were, just openly admitting that they were gonna vote for someone no matter who did it. That was petty to the max, and not even in a particularly fun way.

“Hey, don’t be fucking stupid, Aiko. Be petty outside if you want to, fine. But making the right call here is legit life or death. Voting wrong because you think someone’s being rude or something is just basically saying you don’t care what happens to anyone in this room.”

She hasn’t slept in days, has had zero caffeine. Feeling a bit frazzled. She isn’t playing today.

“Anyway… seaweed monsters?” She patted on her bun. “For you to insist that they’re involved, there sure was a distinct lack of seaweed literally anywhere. So if you mean it, and you’re not just goofing off, do you have anything that points to it actually? If you’re try’na extrapolate that from some water on the docks, that’s a helluva reach for something you just admitted you aren’t sure is even real. Maybe they were, and maybe they weren’t, but water on the docks could mean any number of things. You say you don’t see anyone soaked, but did anyone get close enough to Shu Lan to check? I think we should try to focus on hypotheses that actually have evidence to back them off before bouncing to the idea of monsters. That just sends us off on tangents, and keeps us from discussing actual evidence.” She tilted her head, staring. “Unless that’s what you want?”

“Meisa’s the only one talking sense, here. I was in the hotel last night, Toshiko. I think what you saw wasn’t real. Can’t say I blame you though.”