Chapter 12: Disappointments

Theresa had decided that it would be a good idea to get to know everyone before the game actually started. She had guessed that people would feel uncomfortable interacting with people they weren't very familiar with, especially when you were also trying to pretend you were someone with a totally different personality from your own.

Calvin had pointed out that a hazard of this sort of game was that you would base your accusations and theories on discontinuities between the character and the person, which isn't really true to the spirit of the game. In that sense, it was almost a benefit that people didn't know each other very well.

The game would be played before dinner. There would be snacks and drinks available, and then they would laugh about it and enjoy each other's company later.

Calvin addressed the group. “Hello, all. You should have all gotten a mail a couple days ago with your character and a script. This script would have had your lines, your blocking, your secrets, your motivations. You will follow the script exactly. It includes what rooms you go in, where you stand, who you talk to. You should have all studied it before this night. Feel free to refer to your script if you need to. After some brief introductions, we will perform the script to the letter. This is phase one.

“After phase one, there will be a murder. During phase two, we will all sit in this room, and we will discuss who the murderer was. Once we come to a consensus, I will announce whether you are right or wrong.

“Obviously, the goal of the murderer is to pin the blame onto someone else. The goal of the innocent members is to detect who the killer is. Are there any questions?”

Alexandria raised her hand.

“Yes, Lex.”

“This seems like a pretty big advantage for the murderer. We have to pick one person correctly out of six; he or she just has to divert blame.”

Adrian raised his eyebrows at this comment, with a small smile on his face.

Calvin responded, nodding. “I understand that it's going to be challenging. But first off, the probability is not as bad as you claim. Because there is a murder, it's really only one in five. Secondly, there should be a steady train of logic that will lead you correctly to the murderer. It's not a shot in the dark. This assumes, of course, you all follow your scripts correctly.”

Alexandria nodded, satisfied.

Calvin looked around. “Are there any other questions?”

Miranda raised her hand.

“Yes, Miranda.”

“You said that there will be a murdered person. Won't this person feel left out during, um, phase two? I'm guessing they can't talk or interact in any way.”

“Don't worry about that,” Calvin said.

Miranda settled back in her chair.

“Ok,” said Theresa brightly. “Let's do a couple quick introductions-- real names and then character names.”

“Actually,” said Calvin, “It's probably not a good idea to do character introductions. It's possible in your script to conceal your identity to certain people and reveal it to others, and that person would not have a good way to introduce their character.”

Adrian's smile grew at this.

Theresa reluctantly agreed. “Ok, just regular introductions, then. I'll start. I'm Theresa, I'm a sophomore, and I'm pre-med.”

Alexander stood up. “I'm Alexander,” he said. “I'm also a sophomore, I'm studying literature.”

Adrian waved from his seating position. “I'm Adrian,” he said. “I'm a junior and I'm studying applied sociology and personnel management.”

Alexandria did not rise either. “I'm Alexandria,” she said. “Alexander and I are fraternal twins. Thought I'd save you the trouble of figuring that out by yourself.” She held up a hand to forestall Miranda, who had started to ask questions. “Our parents had a strange sense of humor when it came to naming us. Anyway, I'm also a sophomore and I'm studying biology and fashion.”

Miranda stood up last. “I'm Miranda,” she said, waving. “I'm a junior too, and I'm studying psychology.”

Calvin nodded at the group from where he was standing. “I'm Calvin, I'm a junior, and I'm studying creative mathematics and economics. We'll get to know each other later in the evening. Let's get started.”

The group all got to their feet, and consulted their surfaces. Calvin strode to his own bedroom, and the others spread themselves throughout the apartment.

Calvin took a seat in his chair. The others would have conversations among themselves. They would reveal certain facts to some, other facts to others. Clues were carefully scattered throughout conversations, but he had spread them out carefully. He and Alexander had come up with a vague story, but Calvin had assembled the pieces together. And then he assigned the characters at random. Each person would come in to his bedroom to talk to him once, exactly once. He would give a bit of a clue to them as well. And then he would die.

Theresa first.

The door opened, and Theresa walked in. “Calvin,” she said, winking at him. Calvin fixed her with a stern look, and held up his surface.

“Oh, fine,” Theresa muttered under her breath. “Bartholomew,” she said, louder. “What is this extraordinary collection of fools you've discovered. Where can you have found them all?”

Theresa was playing the part of his sister, then. He remembered those opening lines.

“You're all here to hear an announcement, Penny,” he said. “One does get pangs of conscience, even at my age. You'll understand, in time.”

“I hope so,” Theresa said, and walked out.

She had once piece: there was an announcement to be given, one that Bartholomew would rather not give.

Alexandria came in next. And she was not happy.

“Calvin, I can't believe you gave me this part.”

Calvin knew who she was before she even said anything. Bartholomew's former lover. Perhaps he shouldn't have distributed the parts truly randomly. He had judged that that would be the fairest thing to do for all... but in this case it had unintended consequences.

They exchanged what information they needed to. Calvin tried to be as open and warm as possible, but Alexandria's scripted responses were terse and short. She left stiffly.

Adrian came in next. His smile was all teeth.

He was acting as Bradley, Bartholomew's former business partner. They had been embezzling funds from their business together, and Bartholomew was going to announce the crime this evening, before the group of people he assembled. Bartholomew had not consulted his partner about this, and this would be a substantial betrayal. Motive. And with everyone having individual conversations with Calvin, that was the opportunity. And the method? A delayed poison.

Which would take effect right during the last meeting with his creditor, who also, presumably, had a motive.

Adrian, perfectly in character, accused Calvin of trying to rat him out. Calvin tried to placate him with a small bribe. More pleasantries were exchanged, and Adrian mimed sticking a needle into Calvin's arm.

The conversations thereafter were about as pleasant.

Once Alexander, his creditor, had left, the rest of the group had a bit of conversation to themselves. Calvin made a loud noise by dropping a book onto his desk, and laid on the ground. The group rushed in.

“He's dead!” exclaimed Theresa.

Ruining the illusion somewhat, Calvin bounced up and explained that they could all move back to the living room for phase two, where they tried to figure out who the murderer was. Calvin would moderate, and finish the cooking in the meantime.

Things went badly right away.

“Look, we can tell that Alexandria wasn't the murderer because early on she was concerned about the chances of the 'innocents', and we can tell that Theresa is exactly who she claims to be because she wasn't aware people could have multiple identities, and we can guess that Miranda also wasn't the murderer because she was concerned about the dead person being lonely-- probably because she was worried it would be her. We didn't know Calvin was going to die. And if she had killed him, she would have realized he had enough cooking stuff to keep him busy. Furthermore, we can guess that since Calvin died directly after Alexander walked into the room it's probably him.” Adrian said all this barely after people sat down. The assembled group looked astonished.

“I'm not following that last part at all,” said Alexandria.

“Having the last person in be the murderer is a common incorrect first assumption trope in mystery programs,” Adrian explained patiently. “We're meant to pick up on the trope, and establish a suspect list of four people. But Calvin knows we know the trope, and is probably trying to further subvert it by having the initial incorrect assumption be correct. We could say that the assumption is level one, the incorrect assumption is level two, and Calvin is trying to play at level three.”

Calvin did not expect it to go so meta, so fast.

“That... doesn't seem right to me,” said Miranda. “What if that's what Calvin wanted you to think?”

“There's a limit to how far we can really play that game,” said Adrian.

“Well if we can play it with Calvin, why can't we play it with the other girls?” said Miranda. “Perhaps Theresa was the one with a secret identity and she said that about the introductions to get us off the scent.”

“No!” said Theresa. “I was just trying to be nice!”

Alexandria looked over at her friend. “You really have no idea what plausible deniability is, do you?”

“Well, maybe she does and that's just what she wants you to think,” said Miranda.

“No, I know her pretty well, she doesn't have the concept,” said Alexandria, frowning.

The conversation continued like that for a while. All the carefully placed train of assumptions, logic, and inference that Calvin had laid was discarded, forgotten. The entire scenario had turned into meta-gaming, and it was clear that some were better at it than others.

“Calvin doesn't know about story structure,” said Alexander. “You can't try to narrow this down based on tropes. Besides, in murder mystery like this, you can't break out of established structure. They've done programs on the false initial assumption, as you say, but they've also done ones where the first guess is the right one. But Calvin doesn't know enough about story structure to pick one over the other at all.”

Calvin continued stirring the sauce for the pasta. It wasn't really how he wanted the night to go, but it seemed people were having a good time of it regardless. And if they were having a good time, he was having a good time.

In the end, Adrian managed to convince Miranda and Theresa that Alexander was the murderer, while the twins steadfastly insisted that Adrian was.

They had not once referenced any of their roles.

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