THIRD TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

THIRD TRIAL

THE CONTAINMENT CENTER

Still hungry, and perhaps with some new fashionable shoe colors, the students are herded into the elevator, which is lined with a plastic tarp this week. With the elevator becoming a perpetually emptier space, there's plenty of room for the Prefect herself to squeeze in next to everyone else, standing at the front of the group and ineffectively covering the side of her head with her free hand as soon as the tearing screen of metal and high-buzzing florescent lights kicks in.

The descent this time takes the group of students past several new chambers. The first is occupied by a grotesque caricature of a lunch lady, who ladles unidentifiable pitch black goop onto a constantly rotating line of trays as she smiles at the group with a single tooth. The clown, ever present for the show with his dwindling collection of balloons, rides a tiny tricycle through pools of spilled acrylic paint, the wheels squeaking as they paint out blood red patterns on the cell floor. The last chamber the students will see before arriving in the trial room is completely empty, save for a cloudy grey fog that blinks inside it like a thundercloud.

Instead of the usual black ram emblem on the telecom screen, the Principal's flame-wreathed silhouette is visible this week, though his chair is turned away from the camera and only the outline of his back seems to be visible. There's an empty container of Rocky Road ice cream sitting next to him on a side table, the spoon still balanced in the carton. The entire trial room itself smells like the lunch time rush at a cafeteria or fast food restaurant, the smells of grilling meat, roasting vegetables, and sweet dessert occasionally passing through a chamber that is completely devoid of any actual food.

With some hesitation, Nanami goes to the desk next to the podiums and takes her old seat. She glances back at the projector screen, then her shoulders slump forward and she leans down against the desk.

"It's happened again. Valmont, the... Boss...Baby. Has been killed. Maybe this really will go on forever, until no one is left... Anyway, you need to find out what happened if you want to live and not starve. ...Don't forget the rules. Get started."

As she finishes speaking a sheep walks around the trial room, handing everyone an apple and some graham crackers. Of course, even Nanami gets a small treat. The Little Brother glances at the shape of Father in his chair before quietly placing a finger to it's robotic face only for the angry voice of your Principal rings out. "Hey! Don't--ah, forget it. That'll get you through the trial. Maybe you'll bust a gut or something. What are you waiting for?! You heard Miss Kiryuu, start already!"

Investigation | Podium Layout | Locations | IC Profiles | IC Rules | IC Evidence Presentation | Evidence List | NPC Questions | Dorm Map | Paint Map

OOC NOTES

Welcome to the third trial! Consider this your reminder to make sure to get in your Week 2 AC by tomorrow's weekly post and to start getting your Week 3 AC ready to submit. Make sure to get your regains in by tomorrow night!

Remember, if you can carry it you probably can bring it. We mainly want to discourage corpse desecration, if we can, so while the body itself isn't allowed into the trial most things are. If your character has access to a piece of evidence and you don't know if you can bring it in, you can either ask the mods privately if that's possible or by pinging them in the post itself. If a piece of evidence is forgotten, you can either assume retroactively that someone did or that the sheep brought it in to make sure that everything is tidy.

As always, just put MODS in the header of your comment to get our attention for any clarification.

Good luck!

Comments

THE BODY

[canreallymove]

[Yeah, ok. He'll take the food. His hands were shaking after the body search.

He had to focus. Deep breaths, and...he brings Nicole out and turns on his notes.]

Ok...here's what we got.

Dylan and I checked the body out. The dude died probably five to seven hours from when we found him. He had a slit throat, but he had two injuries on his neck. The way it looked, though, Dylan and I were pretty sure that both injuries were made by the same weapon, and...probably at the same time. This is because, um, the way the cuts looks were...curved?

Also his shoes were gone, and there were drag marks leadin' from the dorms to where his body was, at the entrance to the playground. He also didn't have a lot of blood around him. I think you guys can figure out what that probably all means-he wasn't killed where his body was found and his shoes were taken away because it had somethin' important on them.

[He rubs his nose nervously. He hopes he's doing this right. Also, here's a picture he scribbled super quick.]

Also, the paint. We all saw it, right?

Also, did I miss anything, Dylan?

[hashtagwoof]

If I had a penny for every time paint was involved in a murder, I'd have two pennies.

Not a lot, yeah, but also why?

[canreallymove]

Uh, well...the red I get because of the whole blood thing, I guess, but...

Heck if I know about the other colors.

[copycut]

Obviously, our culprit was trying to literally cover something up, this time. It's not red because they wanted it to look like blood... They must have just grabbed whatever they could to pour over footprints they left behind, or something like that.

[keyringwitness]

I doubt it was footprints, though. If it was, then the paint would've been across the entire floor of the dorm to hide them, right? And we probably would've found something in other parts of the school, since it sounds like they went to the sensory deprivation chamber after the murder. I mean, I assume that red stuff in the pool is blood...

[copycut]

Mm, I don't disagree. I picked footprints because they're the first thing that comes to mind for a cover-up, but there are plenty of other things that could have been hidden underneath it.

That, or... Maybe they were trying to make sure everyone's shoes would be dirty, once they walked out of their room? I guess that's one way to stop us from finding blood on their shoes.

[violence_ensues]

[After consuming her snacks rather ravenously, Adorabat is, in fact, feeling a little better, if only because she has a little bit more in her stomach than the last few days. The first thing she honed in on were the fact the weapons were curved. She pictures in her head curved weapons being sheathed and it only makes sense for it to be one way and not the other.]

Um... does that mean the murderer used something like a katana? Or maybe a scimitar?

[canreallymove]

...

Kat...ahna and...








Oh, well, I totally know what those are, but how about you explain them for the record.

[He clearly doesn't know what those are.]

[cellpreservation]

A katana is a type of Japanese sword. I don't think I've seen one of those around here so far?

[violence_ensues]

What types HAVE you seen?

[cellpreservation]

A bunch of broken ones from the vending machine.

[...Reluctantly:]

And... Kuro had some too, when we found the Prefect in the washing machine.

[violence_ensues]

Could the killer be someone who owns a curved blade?

[copycut]

Mine~ [ She's. Kind of turned her uniform pockets into makeshift sheathes for carrying them, and has in fact been carrying them with her everywhere for the last week, so she pulls free one half of her paired blades and lifts it up to show as much. ] I'd like to think the rest of you know I'd be smart enough not to use my own swords as a murder weapon, but I don't mind if you want to examine them to be safe. Just make sure I get them back, okay?

Other than that... Has anyone else gotten chakram to come out of the vending machine?

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat glances at the knife, then to Dylan.]

Big bro, do you think you can try smelling blood on it?

[cellpreservation]

Gotten a what?

[violence_ensues]

Katanas are a type of curved sword, as are scimitars. They're not like straight swords like broadswords or rapiers.

[ADORABAT SHOULD NOT HAVE THIS KNOWLEDGE-]

Mao Mao's taught me a lot about the types of weapons, but not about how to use them.

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[It takes a second for Dylan to respond. Why? Well...that apple isn't lasting very long in his presence. It's pretty much half eaten by the time Sonic says the Dalmatian's name.]

Uh-[Gulping down the food.]-just two things, I think? No signs of him trying to fight back, and...you found a hunting knife with Valmont, didn't you?

[canreallymove]

Oh, yeah.

[Produces it!]

No blood or anything, though.

[cellpreservation]

If it was in his pocket and it wasn't bloody, we can probably guess he didn't get to use it, right? Unless the killer seriously took the time to wash it off and stick it back into his pocket.

[canreallymove]

Nope, not in his pocket. It was sittin' on top of him.

[cellpreservation]

Then it really could be...

Do we need to do an injury check?

[canreallymove]

I mean, maybe, but like I said, no blood or anything. So on the one hand maybe the knife got cleaned and stuff, but on the other maybe not, and then that means the killer might not even be injured, and if that's the case I dunno if we'd find anything.

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

So probably not the murder weapon. It not being curved supports that too...

I'm still trying to think why there would be two cuts, and why they're so different. This...everything about this makes it seem like Valmont was surprise attacked, but then...if he didn't go down immediately, why aren't there signs of him fighting back? And if he did go down immediately...why bother making a second cut?

[Just doesn't makes sense...]

[keyringwitness]

...maybe the culprit missed the first time, Valmont tried to run, and they got him the second time?

It'd support the pattern of how there's a smaller bloodstain by, um, your door, and then a much bigger bloodstain and an accompanying trail to the playground in the center of the dorm complex.

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

A-ah. Alright.

[That is. A lot less traumatizing than someone dying right outside your room.]