Mingle and an Intro: Welcome to the Box!

[gravemanagement]

[ On today, a long-time business has been bought for the day and paid well. Whoever paid it wants people to eat and make merry for some reason. Must be a holiday? Huh, all devices showing the date day it's the new year. It doesn't matter what day it was for you before now, it's not the new year. And you? You are at the Chloe Café at 1:30PM.

Waiters and waitresses will take your order. Really, it's a chill time. Even if you're supposed to be dead? You're alive now, somewhere in Los Angeles, Japanifornia. Welcome and have a good day, because eventually there's gonna be a murder to solve in this big ol' city. ]

Comments

[guiltyguitar]

[ ... He really, really doesn't want to admit to it. ]

... That seems ridiculous, though, doesn't it? Why would someone go through all that trouble? I can't claim to understand why he decided to murder a random man, but...

[marlonmajesty]

We have spirit mediums who channel the dead including taking on their appearance. Do you really question things that are strange, still?

[ It's a Thing all right. ]

[guiltyguitar]

[ ... Well. He plays with his hair a little. ]

... I see you've read up on Herr Wright's cases. Well... who knows what I believe. But I've never encountered it firsthand. I'm a prosecutor. My job is to live and die by the evidence, ja? Anyone can write anything they want... but that doesn't make it factual.

[marlonmajesty]

...He's why I got into law, actually. I was passionate about it when I was young. Me and my ex used to sit together watch breakdowns of what happened in court. It was silly, but... We enjoyed it.

[ There's nostalgia there. ]

He pulled off what seemed like miracles in the courtroom at times. Matt Engarde, Manfred von Karma, so many cases that just seemed impossible. ...He's the reason for the Jurist System, you know. He felt the law was lacking--that because it require hard, decisive evidence and you couldn't get someone off on anything circumstantial short of a confession on the stand, that it was too easy for innocents to get hurt. ...That's why I became a defense attorney. To help give voice to those who might indeed be a victim themselves.

[guiltyguitar]

...

[ ... Oh. That's... sweet. It reminds him of himself, a little. ]

I just wanted to help people, personally. The law is imperfect. "Guilty"... "innocent"... what matters is the truth, even if that truth is painful. If there are people out there covering it up, trying to get innocents hurt... I want to be the kind of person making sure all the evidence is examined. Making sure I work with the defense, not against it.

That's how it should be, ja?

[ But there's a darkness in his life. Maybe there always had been, now that he thinks about it. His brother... what had lurked inside him, all this time...? ]

I... I went into law at my brother's suggestion. To be honest, music was also a passion of mine.

[marlonmajesty]

...People like your brother... I looked into him a little. On my off time. ...People like him? They become like that because they feel they can't trust anyone. There's a darkness in them, where something happened to them at a young age and it destroyed their innocence. Robbed them of it. ...It's a complicated feeling, seeing you and knowing you're related to him. You're so different.

[ ...She won't tell him. She can't. But he must know--the fate waiting for his brother. ]

[guiltyguitar]

....

[ He looks down. ]

... Funny you should say that. Because he always said I could trust him. You know, I went to Germany just so I could become a Prosecutor sooner. His idea. Their laws are a bit laxer. I started at seventeen.

[marlonmajesty]

...I'm an only child. I don't know what that level of betrayal feels like.

[ A sigh. She'll reach in her purse and produce a carton of pocky, offering him one. ]

Here. It's not much, but...

[guiltyguitar]

[ ... Small smile. The fact he doesn't make a joke about it says a lot about his mood on the subject. He'll take one. ]

... Thanks, Fräulein. You're unusually generous, to be flirting with the enemy like this.

[ ... Well, a small joke. But she can tell he doesn't mean it quite literally. Figure of speech.

He'll take it and toy with his hair with his free hand. ]

There's a part of me that wonders if I should go back to trying to divorce myself from him, like I did in my younger days... I kept my hair short then, ja? Now that I'm older, people don't say, "oh, you're Kristoph's younger brother!" to me quite so much... but... people know we're related.

There's no escaping that for me. You should've heard some of the phonecalls I got when news got out to the press about his initial arrest. "How does it feel to be related to a murderer?" "Were you his accomplice?" "Were all those songs you wrote literal?" "Do you have a bodycount, too?" ... Honestly.

[marlonmajesty]

That's going to happen regardless. You could look as different as night and day, and you'd still get those phone calls. People can be, quite frankly, arseholes. Don't let them tear you down.

[ Honestly she's still unsure about him, but he seems genuine. If he is, he's the unluckiest man alive to be surrounded by so many people who apparently are awful and murderers. ]

[guiltyguitar]

[ Chessa you've studied psychology, you can probably tell he's not a bad person. Nervous? Yes. But not a bad person. ]

Achtung! As if I'd want to hurt someone! I couldn't even bring myself to hurt my ex when she tossed my television out the window that one time a few years back. The only killing I'm interested in would be of a set, on stage.

... Anything less than a killer performance for our fans is doing them injustice. You know what I mean?

[ And if he throws himself into his work and his music maybe he can stop thinking about this.

Although he does pause to sort of look at the crowd that's gathered outside this place and sigh. ]

... Being famous will always have its drawbacks. I'm used to bad publicity by now. If I let that stop me from doing my job... well, I'd hardly be taking any cases.