Ratrick's Revenge: Day 6

Ratrick rushed the remainder of the group into the next room, within the adjacent spire of the mansion: the Clock Tower.

"Now, you find yourself situated in the mansion's clock tower, a room consisting of a simple, undecorated tower base, and a long spiral staircase that leads to the clock chamber, the space containing all the clock's complex machinery. Legend has it, that if you find yourself in the clock's chamber at the right minute, you will be granted your greatest desire. However, the overwhelming heat in the space means one cannot stay in the room for more than a minute at a time, and repeated exposure more than 3 times in a day can lead to permanent damage. If you want that prize, you'll have to find yourself in the clock chamber at the right minute, or as close to it as possible. But what is the right minute? Well, we all know St. Ratrick loves randomness, so the sacred minute is randomly selected every 12 hours... Good Luck!" Hawk rattled off the top of his head.

"Ummm...I'm Ratrick myself, so we can ignore all those rules. O magical clock chamber, clock the tea of these suspects!"

Mystical rate particles swirled around the chamber. This was the same energy that powered the machine Ratrick had used to locate the suspects in the first place, but now, augmented by the power of the Clock Tower, they could be clocked in full clarity. The particles hovered towards Hag first, displaying the words BRENDA LEE.

"Ah! I see..." Ratrick exclaimed, receiving a vision of why he may have killed TK. "You see, Hag is a Brenda Lee stan...and TK hates Christmas songs charting on the Hot 100!"

Everyone gasped. "That doesn't mean it was me! Just because that twink disrespects the true queen of Christmas and clearly doesn't care about what people are ACTUALLY listening to being reflected on the charts doesn't mean I wanted him to die!" Hag pleaded.

"I hate to defend Hag, but he barely does rates. If he was going to target a Discord user in an act of pro-Brenda political terrorism, Talk of the Charts is right there. Plus, TK put "I'm Sorry" in the Sorry flash rate!"

Everyone snapped in agreement, to Guy's confusion. "I agree. Let's see why Rocky was suspected," Ratrick continued.

The particles displayed one word: ANARCHIST. "That checks out...TK was the face of authoritarianism in the rate world." Guy mused.

"But honestly, the idea of Rocky being physically capable of a murder sounds Sweeter Than Fiction, based on our interactions with her." Kellan quipped.

Finally, the particles continued to Kellan, and displayed the words TAYLOR SWIFT.

"Wow...that's anticlimactic." Ratrick sighed. "TK just doesn't like Swifties."

Kellan made his case. "Now, may he never know Peace for his words against TayTay. But, if you check where I was during TK's murder, I was Fresh Out The Slammer for harassing Joe Alwyn. There's no way I would have time to plan something like that!"

"Well, I guess we have no leads on TK's murder after all. Maybe let's move onto solving Rocky's, considering our own survival might be hanging in the balance?" Guy said, moving things along.

"Sounds like a plan. I know just the place..." Ratrick said, parting the walls down into the depths of the mansion.