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

[violence_ensues]

WAIT!

The killer knew we would bring the shoe in as evidence! Maybe that's why the shoe was made to be burnt, to stop Dylan from smelling things!

[cellpreservation]

It was a trap this whole time!

[Stupid stupid stupid...]

[canreallymove]

Yeah, but also no! I still think there was somethin' there that warranted burnin' those shoes.

Messing with Dylan's schnoz so he couldn't find it was just an added bonus!

[cellpreservation]

But even if there was evidence, you probably wouldn't be able to tell because they were burned... Ugh.

[He just sounds frustrated about this whole thing, and his still mostly empty stomach is not helping with the mood.]

[canreallymove]

Exactly.

...

The more I'm hearin' about the evidence, all of it...the more I'm beginning to really suspect one of you.

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[...he hates it, but...]

Who?

1/2

[canreallymove]

Let's think about what we know, right?

[Think about what we know. Well, Yasu, here it goes.]

Valmont wrote in his letter that he made a promise to a classmate last week. That he would tell his parents the results of that promise, maybe. So, what can we say about that classmate? It's gotta be one person: the killer. It's gotta be someone he knew and trusted.

Maybe he was surprised and got hit twice by two different weapons, or maybe it was just one hit. Either way, the person who did it knew what they were doing and managed to get up close. Still, some of that blood, even though it was a little bit, got onto Dylan's door. He ended up dead regardless and...well, the killer eventually put him at the doorway. Used the paint to try and cover the blood they couldn't clean.

But our killer is smart. They were payin' attention in the past two trials. They knew that we'd check the shoes, which likely still had some evidence on it. They knew we'd use Dylan, and maybe they couldn't clean the shoes off like they could other stuff, like clothes and towels. So, what do they do? They burn the shoes. Bingo, it makes it impossible for us to see any blood or paint, and they confuzzle Dylan's muzzle!

So we're lookin' at someone who knew Valmont, who he trusted, and who knew I was gonna be patrolling that night. I did say I was doin' it at the meeting, and I'd mentioned I'd be using Dylan's Puppy Bubble machine. It was when Yasu mentioned that it was way past likely someone was gonna get killed.

...


............

......................

Someone here really wanted to put the kibosh on the theory Dylan was targeted by Valmont. Why? Because I think they knew he wasn't going out to kill anyone. He was going out to fulfill a promise. They even said as much. He was sacrificin' himself, wasn't he? And the person who said that...that was the same person who also talked about sacrifice and pain and...and doing what's necessary during the meeting. Someone who told me I was being silly...that she's talk to people who would listen to sense.

Someone in a red room, like Dewey pointed out.

SUSPECT: JEANNE

[canreallymove]

...

Maybe I'm nuts. But.

That person was you.

[And he points to Jeanne.]

You said it yourself. He died for the greater good. And you're the Iron Maiden Jeanne. You know how to use weapons and you could easily overcome hunger if...if you lived in that thing...and you were fighting to become whatever a "shaman king" was...

[holyironmade]

No.

I will treat this theory with the same dignity that you gave to my accusation of Adorabat at the first trial.

No.

[canreallymove]

And why not? Why couldn't it have been you?

[copycut]

Jeanne would sooner die herself than kill anyone else here. If that was what happened, Valmont would be the one still standing here.

[ There is very little hesitation in the way Kuro backs Jeanne up. ]

[canreallymove]

But wouldn't us finding her as the culprit also fulfills her sacrificing herself for us?

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu stops for a moment, stunned.

One, she's really proud of you, Sonic. Nice job. Two...]

That's some fantastic reasoning Sonic, but, um...

There is a hole in it. Namely, Jeanne doesn't have the physical ability to kill Valmont.

No matter how you look at it, she's not trained in hand-to-hand combat. That smaller cut indicates that Valmont wasn't entirely taken by surprise last night. If she wasn't working with the full advantage of surprise, then she wouldn't have been able to manage such a clean cut.

I... as much as Valmont cared for Jeanne, I don't think he would've sacrificed himself to her and let her kill him, either.

Do you have any evidence that points toward your conclusion?

[canreallymove]

Maybe if Valmont was fighting back, no. But we're assuming he did fight back because of the knife. He could have just as easily been shocked by her and been too stunned to fight back! And if she had the right kind of weapon, she could have killed him while he was stunned.

Plus, if she and Valmont did make a promise to meet...she's the one who said no to the buddy system, but if Valmont trusted her, then he wouldn't have worried about it until she actually struck him...

[keyringwitness]

But he wasn't too stunned, is the thing. He got attacked once, ran into the center of the dorm, then... Then...

...hold on a moment, Sonic. [THEORY PROCESSING THIS ACCUSATION CAN WAIT]

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat sadly looks at Jeanne. To be honest... she sort of had a tiny inkling it was her. Hears are beginning to form in her eyes.]

J- Jeanne... If... if it was you...

[...Adorabat halts in the middle of her sentence.]

[cellpreservation]

...I do have a hard time thinking Valmont had no intention of using a knife he had on him, but... I can't really imagine him giving himself up as a sacrifice even if Jeanne asked him to, either.

He was a coward. Ask anyone who was there when we had to find the washing machines in the middle of the night.

[canreallymove]

It's possible he wasn't expecting it, then. I mean, Jeanne did say she'd expected him to be with her in the future, right? So...what if that is what he thought he was meetin' her for? Maybe he was gonna ask her for help with what he was going through?

[cellpreservation]

I think that makes more sense. If he knew what was going on and she did too, why would there be two cuts?

They should have been prepared to end it instantly.

[Or at least he'd kind of hope as much all things considered???]

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[...dog, he should've said this sooner-]

A-actually? I...think the promise was...was to me.

He really wanted that talisman back. 'Mark my words' was what he said.

[canreallymove]

Really?

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

Unless anyone else wants to admit to something, yeah.

[violence_ensues]

Does this mean the killer didn't know about the letter at all? Or maybe even didn't care?

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

That...sounds about right.

It...I think it might've just been someone seeing an opportunity and taking it.

[holyironmade]

As sad as it is... I think this is the most plausible scenario so far. There is little other explanation for the enormous coincidence of Valmont as well as the killer emerging almost immediately after you had finished your patrol.