Justice

[thebeastwithout]

Beta#12013275

Ladies and gentlemen of the public court. The following is submitted into evidence for your viewing.

Zee Carlisle, also Zachariah Carlisle, was murdered in late August by persons unknown. The cause of death appears to be stabbing by a long sharp object on the roof of the Wiffle Waffle Waffle House. No other persons appear in the video. However, the series of events is recorded as follows:

1) Zee Carlisle is observed approaching the Wiffle Waffle House and checking the mailbox repeatedly for some time.
2) Zee begins to fall as if he has been struck, disappearing as he does so. Outside sources have confirmed that Zee was able to teleport short distances.
3) He next appears on the security tape on the roof of the building, impaled on an unknown object.
4) He teleports again, where his body is found obscuring the entrance of the Wiffle Waffle waffle house some time later. Witnesses confirm that it was as if he appeared out of nowhere.
5) The words "Jim, did you know" appear on the side of the waffle house written in blood.

Video of the death has been loaded onto a working laptop in the public library for your examination. Do not try to destroy the video or the laptop. There are many copies.

In Zee's office, the following evidence was discovered:
1) A list of former Retrospec users who appear to no longer be on the app. It is not certain when they left.
2) A list of non-Retrospec users who have died within the last few months. These people are all criminals. They have all died in strange and unexplained or self-inflicted ways.
3) The last six individuals Zee checked on before he left his office and died. These individuals are: James Barnes. Akira Turner. Eren Jaeger. Leo Valdez. Minato Arisato. Hitori Togusa.
4) Conversations between Zee and the following individuals concerning a task he needed to focus on or on the increasingly dangerous situation in Recolle: Eren Jaeger. Leo Valdez. Minato Arisato. Hitori Togusa.
5) Multiple photos of the mailbox.

We propose the following:
Zee Carlisle was investigating the mysterious deaths and believed them to be murders. Those who had left the app were no longer suspects as they did not retain their regained items or abilities. Zee believed that the murders were conducted by the use of an item returned to a Retrospec user. Zee was concerned that other items would be returned, either to the same Retrospec user, or to others, that would be misused.

When he went to the mailbox in person, the Retrospec user realized that Zee had grown too close to their identity. Zee was thus murdered using this item. We know that this person is able to use this item to commit murders while making it appear to be something else, even after medical examination. The deaths were ruled as heart attack, suicide, and choking. It is possibly something extremely powerful, such as a kind of illusion ability or mind control or even a magical spell that causes death. At least one of the victims called the police in advance to report that they were dying. However, we know the ability must be used as a physical item as it was returned through the mailbox.

The words in blood are a red herring or an unfinished message to the Retrospec app manager called Jim. We do not know what was being written at this time.

The identity of the murderer is likely to be one of those Zee had personally identified. James Barnes, Akira Turner, Eren Jaeger, Leo Valdez, Minato Arisato, and Hitori Togusa. Currently, James Barnes has been arrested and convicted of this murder. However, we are uncertain if he is the true culprit as his arrest was due to a misunderstanding.

All evidence and information has been passed to the legal authorities. If you have doubts, you may await their investigation.

Enemy of justice, your days are numbered. We will continue to work.

Signed,
The Watchers in the Dark

Comments

Private: Togusa

[thebeastwithout]

[in person, after Gar has requested a meeting]
[Gar hands over the manila envelope with a copy of the tapes and a copy of everything they found in Zee's office and especially on his phone, which he suspects that the police don't actually have the password to.]

...
...
...

You're a suspect, too, but you're the only policeman who's handling this. You need to like... do this right. Or James is gonna be in jail forever.

I'm gonna let everyone else know in a few days. After I figure out what to say.

...He didn't do it.

Re: Private: Togusa

[standalonehuman]

Togusa is, in a word, exhausted. The stress of the last week has visibly gotten to him, but he jumped at the chance to talk to Gar. James had mentioned they had been looking into Zee's death together.

"I know James didn't do it," quiet. He draws the envelope closer and opens it, brow furrowing tight. "I've lost my ability to look into this officially, the police think they have their killer. But I promised him I'd find the real person."

Togusa remains silent for a few moments as he reads, before he gets obviously surprised by something. "Why was he looking at my file?" His eyes raise to look at Gar again, as if he has an explanation.

Private: Lina

[thebeastwithout]

[in person, after Gar gives the run-down]
Soooooooooo... is that... all OK? I know it's all a lot.

[...]

Also, um, can you do me a huge favor and like, spell-check something. And grammar-check. And maybe just like... rewrite the whole thing 'cause I'm not great at English.

[maidofmistakes]

'Course it's okay! I can try, anyway. What is it? A letter or something?

Private: John

[thebeastwithout]

hey bro
remember when you said
you would be on call for important stuff

i've got an important stuff

[windeity]

yeah, i remember.
what'd you find out?

Private

[fiddlestick]

[Under the name Beta#09015505]

Thanks for the information. It's nice to see it all compiled.

That said, I know for a fact it wasn't Eren.

[thebeastwithout]

[God it's so hard to type normal. He's sitting here with thesaurus.com open.]

Do you have evidence in regards to Eren Jaeger

[liberal_arts]

I sincerely doubt that Eren Jaeger committed the murder. It just doesn't suit his aesthetic, to put it a simple way.

As for James Barnes, while he carries a lot of guilt for what he *did* do, I can swear as a witness to his character that he would not have killed this man. He made his feelings on killing abundantly clear when I killed some of Clarence's minions during a mission Zee had sent us on.

Beta#1101171543

[floret]

You're confessing to murders now too?!

Beta#1101171543

[floret]

[ well this is
upsetting ]

It can't be Minato.
He went off the app at the beginning of this month.

[thebeastwithout]

[oops
consulting the list of lost users...

yeah he's on there]

Correct.

That was a

Test.

Probably.

Thank you for your contribution.

[notyourutopian]

What makes you believe it was not Barnes?
Beyond the misunderstanding of his arrest, I mean.

[thebeastwithout]

Largely because James Barnes contributed to the discovery of much of this evidence.

private

[thisloveisjustice]

[Holy shit. Tatsuo has to just sit and read this over a few times. Especially when it comes to the 'suspect list.' He knows more than a few of those names, either in person or from the network. But he can't say he knows them very well, other than Togusa.]

How'd you get into his office? I tried and there was some sort of force field or barrier preventing me from getting into the room.

And any chance you copied anything down the conversations he was having with Jaeger, Valdez, Arisato, and Togusa? And when you say people he checked on, do you mean he looked at Retrospec's file on them? Because we know they keep files on us. Were you able to look at those files?

Though, it's not Togusa. He's way too straight arrow.

[from acct: alpha#05011856]

[thebeastwithout]

We have our ways.

[...Yeah he's not really sure what Tatsuo's talking about, but he supposes that not everyone can turn into a microscopic creature and sneak in.]

We have those conversations. To protect their privacy, we did not release them.

You are correct about the files.

alpha#03015671

[commandertoolbelt]

you think i what?

[ excuse leo while he stARTS TO PANIC A LITTLE?!?? it's not like his past self was already a murderer or anything!!! ]

beta#0901185204 (private)

[usurpers]

Leo, It’s Eren.

[ togusa is a different number, james is in prison and minato’s off the app. he’s also pretty sure akira turner is a beta. ]

First off: Calm down and don’t expose yourself like that.

#alpha0201170854

[parodeity]

man come on minato and eren arent really the murdery type
i mean sure theyre ridiculous
but not in the mcstabby kinda way

anyway minato didnt even have the app when zee died

[thebeastwithout]

Minato Arisato has been cleared as he is no longer on the app.

We cannot say anyone is innocent based off their mcstabby characteristics.

[typing like this is a real trial]

Beta#0501426

[megatechbody]

First James Barnes and now this.

Barnes hamstrung the law enforcement on the app by giving the NPCs an easy answer. We now have to waste time and resources springing him.

And now The Watchers pull this. Now whoever killed Zee knows that people are looking for them. We are either going to lose them and any hope of actually getting something to help Barnes or the number of murders is going to go up and people are going to die because the killer is going to try and dissuade investigation.

It's so magnificently short-sighted that I'm surprised you thought to use a pseudonym.

You do not know me. But there is someone in that list of suspects that I am deeply concerned with. If anything happens to them, Watchers, because of your lack of foresight - then I will find you.

And you will learn who I am.

[thebeastwithout]

Of course people are looking for them. That should be obvious.

The murderer has already killed at least ten. Law enforcement has done nothing so far. They would and likely have continued to kill this month. If they are aware they are in danger, the clearest response is to lie low, not to draw more attention.

There is no reason to kill any of the other suspects as that would clear their names.

Beta#0501426 (PRIVATE)

[megatechbody]

Until this is over, I'm loathe to identify myself by name because anonymity is going to be the only protection some of us have. But I'm a friend of Hitori Togusa.

Did you notice that there is only one person out of the five still left on the app that Zee didn't contact about the situation with the murders?

private from now

[thebeastwithout]

The conversations were not all about the murders. Many were about the general state of Recolle. One of these conversations was about the things that were posted on September 18th to the network.

Others spoke about a task Zee needed to do. This task was probably the investigation of the murders.

Hitori Togusa received all of the information posted here several days ago. We hope he will be able to convince others to continue investigating. Or to do so himself.

beta#0901185204

[usurpers]

If you’re going to call us out by name, you might as well post the conversations. If you don’t, I’ll post mine.

But how do we know for a fact that you’re not directly involved with the murder and just making scapegoats for yourself? “Watchers in the Dark”.

[thebeastwithout]

The conversations were about personal issues and Recolle in general. They did not seem to be related to the murders. You can post yours if you want to.

Zee mentioned once or twice that he had a meeting to arrange or a task to attend to, which we assume was related to the murders since he was killed right after.

You do not know that.

But Hitori Togusa received a copy of all our evidence and has had time to examine it.

Alpha#07011565

[maskreant]

Thank you for this information, though it’s really risky leaving any kind of list with full names. While I find it hard to believe some of these people are possibly involved, it’s good to start somewhere.

It feels like the evidence we really need is the item itself unless we can catch them in the act.

[thebeastwithout]

Yes.

We hope that friends and acquaintances can say if they know of the existence of any such objects. We also hope that they will be frightened into hiding for a while.

Otherwise they will continue to kill.

alpha#07011227

[invocate]

are you sure it wasnt james?

its just that last month i got in a fight with him

and he went right for my neck. with knives.

[knives. plural. why is it ALWAYS KNIVES?]

[thebeastwithout]

[james you useless sack of crap]

That is troubling.

[USELESs]

We know he is violent. But his recent behavior would be odd for a murderer.

Beta#12011334

[dulynoted]

[ When he first read the announcement, Akira was pissed. Of course he would be. His name put so clearly there was an indication he's made a careless mistake.

But he takes the time he needs to step back and reconsider. Really...it's a boon, isn't it?

Yes, now he has an idea of what might be had on him. It shouldn't be that surprising that Zee would have been looking into Akira before his death. Of course he had been, that's why he called Akira to his office in the first place. That this was discovered should have been assumed from the start. That it is already out of the hands of the police is what's curious.

But very well. "Watchers in the Dark". He accepts your challenge. ]

I'm not sure I can offer anything that hasn't already been stated by other users, but I am surprised that I haven't heard of your group before.

[thebeastwithout]

We are everywhere.

We also formed in response to the fact that the police have already closed the case, so we did not exist before last week.

Alpha#05010662

[manufactured]

I only have one question for you lot, for the time being - that being the specific question of why you're so concerned with this in the first place.

I personally see no reason to mourn Zee Carlisle. My conversations with him were affable enough, but not all of us choose to ally ourselves with Retrospec. If one of them is down, then I can't say I have much complaint with whomever is responsible.

[maidofmistakes]

Murder's still bad no matter who they got, and it wasn't just him. It was some of us, too. And what if they start turning on civilians after that?

Beta#010118776

[argone]

Watchers in the Dark, huh?

This is incredibly thorough. I'm impressed, and I'm bad at detective work.

That said, if you need my help (this is Kara since there's those damn numbers) please let me know.

[thebeastwithout]

Thank you for your offer.

If you have evidence concerning this death or these people, you can tell us.

#BETA09012912 [private]

[blessmefather]

I have a number of questions but I believe this conversation would be better to have in person. Would you be willing to meet?

[ So he can scold you. ]

[thebeastwithout]

Obviously not.

[like
duh]

Beta#09010636

[blondferret]

The blood message was a bit dramatic...

That being said, how can you be sure that the killer came from that group of people you listed? It can't be THAT easy.