[Open] A poisonous feast

[foggydetective]

Characters: Tohru Adachi [The Evil Queen (Snow White)] & everyone / anyone
Campaign: Break
Format: Either
Open
Summary: Poison plot time.

Prompts are on the comments. Feel free to contact me via the original plotting post or the Discord Server if you have any questions.

The food is being distributed during the festival mentioned on the intro log.

Comments

[allegedprisoner]

[ That earns Sherlock a look of confusion. ]

What? No, I'm pretty sure Snow White was the princess whose mother poisoned her with a comb... Or an apple, more likely. Maybe both?

[greatestdefective]

[And Sherlock immediately shakes his head, wagging a finger.]

No no, that's all wrong. The princess who was poisoned by her mother, that was by means of a dusty old spinning wheel! She pricked her finger on the spindle, you see. The king learned of this very special poison curse from his wife when the princess was still a young lass and decreed to have all the spinning wheels in the kingdom destroyed, but forgot about the one stored away in the attic of his own castle. The poison caused the princess to fall into a deep, coma-like slumber, so she was placed in the highest room of the tallest tower. With all the doors locked, of course, so no assassins could get to her. As she slept, her hair continued to grow and over time, her luscious mane went straight out the open window, allowing the love of her life to climb it and come to her rescue.

[ABSOLUTELY how that fairytale went. No doubt about it.]

As there are no spinning wheels involved in this case that we know of, that particular fairytale is not relevant to our investigation.

[allegedprisoner]

. . . No, that's Sleeping Beauty merged with Rapunzel!

[ Are we sure this is The Sherlock Holmes? Because boy is this hound way off the scent. ]

[greatestdefective]

Merged with rapunzel? That would be rather odd, wouldn't it? [Which is a sound enough statement all on its own, but he's thinking of the herb-like vegetable also known as rapunzel, sooo.]

Regardless, back to the investigation at hand. We know there is a crotchety old man involved as our main suspect. Some have described him as 'gnarled'. This brings to mind another devious old fairytale imp whose name is unknown to everyone, only for he himself to reveal that it is Rumpandbillskin! [...] Or something like that. Who can keep up, right? Gnarled old Mr. Rumpskin's defining trait was that he could spin straw into gold using- you guessed it- a spinning wheel! [He strikes a pose at that, because he's on a roll now!] Coincidence? Of course not! But is that entirely too convenient? Absolutely. Someone must have used magic to disguise themselves as Mr. Rumpskin and shift the blame onto whoever has his Essence. And this, in turn, bears a striking similarity to the story of a beautiful woman who used magic to disguise herself as a dirty old hag, and who would bake innocent children into her apple pies. The disguise aspect in particular is most relevant to our case. I believe that was... Snow White's evil stepmother!

[There we have it. Case solved. You're welcome. (What, someone already brought up Snow White before? NAAAW.)]

1/2

[allegedprisoner]

. . .

[ Is this man really Sherlock Holmes? Or is this some lunatic under the delusion of being Sherlock Holmes? ]

2/2

[allegedprisoner]

[ ... No matter, he got to the correct conclusion anyway. ]

Yes. We're looking for whoever has the essence of Snow White's evil stepmother.

[ He clears his throat. ] So. Ah. The gender of the aspect doesn't have to match the essence, right?

[greatestdefective]

Hmm... Well, I do believe it is quite rare for the genders not to match, though it occurs all the same. That makes our search quite troublesome indeed. There is no official archive of the aspects and their essences, now is there?

[allegedprisoner]

No, but we've had some new arrivals and essence changes. Perhaps we may need to ask our peers and check the journal entries for anyone with an evil queen essence...

[greatestdefective]

That does beg the question of whether the journals would identify this essence as "evil queen" or as something else. Perhaps this woman had a name or title in some versions of the story we may not be aware of.

[Even so, he's already pulling his own journal out of his bag to flip through it.]

[allegedprisoner]

I'm sure they'd go with the most well known version...

[ He'll look over Sherlock's shoulder as the man flips through his journal... ]

[greatestdefective]

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," or so I have said. [He flips through the pages of the journal some more as he speaks.] That is to say... If there is no Evil Queen to be found here, the improbable notion that there is a version with her name being applied in these journals is the truth.

[Or. You know. The Evil Queen hasn't used the journals because it would expose their Essence. But who could resist these fun little things?]

[allegedprisoner]

[ The chances of this man being a loony with some kind of Holmes delusion get higher every second- ]

Hang on, what's that entry, there?

[ Dojima's warning about Adachi seems to have caught his eye. ]

[greatestdefective]

Hmmm?

[Holmes was a little distracted by the entry on the page right beside it, but shifts his focus once Luca points Dojima's out. He takes a few seconds to skim it. "Known murderer", "ex-detective" and former "junior partner"... So a murderer with knowledge of the law. Those are the worst kind.]

Well well weeell... "Currently has the power of a Queen of some kind", hmm? And "do not accept whatever he gives you"... That's quite interesting, don't you agree?

[allegedprisoner]

[ He nods. ] And suspicious. We may have to confer with Dojima on this, but we could have our man.

[greatestdefective]

Hmm, not quite. Evidence is everything, you see. We cannot simply accuse someone who may or may not be Snow White's Evil Queen of poisoning dozens of people. Certainly not based on hearsay. [He snaps his journal shut.] This whole matter requires some rigorous investigation! Our suspect would live in a castle, I suppose. Perfect for keeping nefarious concoctions. It would be a marvelous place to start our search.

[And if it wasn't clear, he sure is ready to do some breaking and entering if Adachi doesn't let them in.]

[allegedprisoner]

... Right. Which is why I was wanting to collaborate with Dojima. So the three of us can gather evidence. I think Dojima works with law enforcement around here...

[ He wouldn't be opposed to breaking and entering if his inexplicable thirst for vengeance wasn't conflicting with the desire to avoid going back to prison. ]

[greatestdefective]

[He shakes his head and wags a finger.]

Simply because a person works with law enforcement, it does not mean they're the right person for the job. It's nothing personal, of course! One must simply keep in mind that in this particular investigation, our law enforcer is the one who put the accusation out there. Allowing him access to the evidence could be a grave mistake. For all we know, Mr. Idicha [Yes he absolutely just said that name wrong.] is perfectly innocent and set up to take the fall. We must view this matter through neutral eyes.

[And if this sounds unfair to Dojima, that's too bad. Sherlock has a bit too much firsthand experience with supposed law enforcers who break said laws and plant evidence just to catch a criminal.]

[allegedprisoner]

[ He's getting a sense of deja vu, so... ]

Good point... And who is this Idicha person?

[greatestdefective]

Ohhh? Are you so overwhelmed by my impeccable logic that you've already forgotten the name of our suspect?

[Here we have a classic case of the pot not realizing it is a pot and thinking someone else is a kettle.]

[allegedprisoner]

What are you talking about? The journal entry clearly states the suspect's name is Toru Adachi! I have no idea where this Idicha person comes in.

[ Good job, Holmes. You've simultaneously confused Luca and convinced him you're definitely not the actual Sherlock Holmes. ]

[greatestdefective]

Idicha, Adachi... [A wave of the hand.] The pronunciation of the name is hardly as important as the actual identity! So long as we get our man in the end, everything's worked out. So are you coming along to search for his home? I can send some scouts ahead.

[He's already taking out his musical instrument with the intent of summoning a few rodents. The more ground that's covered, the better. People are being poisoned, after all!]

[allegedprisoner]

. . . Go on ahead. I'll catch up with you.

[ Once his brain catches up with what "Sherlock" just said, that is. ]