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

[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.

[cellpreservation]

That's true.

[And we don't want to retraumatize Yasu again, either. Hnn...]

[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.]