FOURTH TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

FOURTH TRIAL

THE CONTAINMENT CENTER

((CW spiders))

The Principal's hateful dismissal of the latest murder still ringing in the halls, the students are ushered with much more force and hurry into the elevator this time. There's a certain amount of urgency to this descent that hasn't existed before, as if some great force is beginning to run out of patience with Ira Academy's slowly dwindling student body. The cold, pre-autumn gloom grasping at the upper levels has permeated these basement areas as well, and an uneasy chill wind rips through with no discernable source.

In their holding cell, the monsters all pace with more restlessness than usual. A bipedal crocodile monster tall enough to barely fit inside his cell without hunching rams his snout repeatedly against the front wall, blood stains gathering on the glass--and perhaps, if one looks close enough, some hairline cracks. A horde of black spiders with poisonous red markings spin nervously in the corners of their cells, wrapping up anonymous but distinctly humanoid figures in their webs. The clown makes everyone a balloon dog! How nice of him. He slits it open with his knife and leaves the shredded ribbons of rubber dangling from his fingertips.

Though the audio is clearly on and the Principal's view into the trial room seems undisturbed, the video feed on the projector screen is cut off today. Instead of the ram emblem or a visual on his firelit office, nothing but a wall of black stares back.

Nanami opens her mouth to introduce the case as soon as everyone is at their podium, but she's cut off by Father's angry, disembodied voice before a single world can leave her mouth.

"Sure, let's keep it up with the bread and circuses. If you don't get that then you should have paid attention in history class! I won't be surprised if you spend the whole afternoon trying to figure this one out, just to waste my time. Find out who killed The Dependable Dog, or you'll really find out where they all go."

Investigation | Podium Layout | Locations | IC Profiles | IC Rules | IC Evidence Presentation | Evidence List | NPC Questions | Labyrinth Map | Playground Map

OOC NOTES

Welcome to the fourth trial! Consider this your reminder to make sure to get in your Week 3 AC by tomorrow's weekly post and to start getting your Week 4 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. 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

[keyringwitness]

[Hm, alright. One more check before Yasu gives up on this line of questioning entirely, then: do they match in texture?

...and, following her gut, Yasu also checks the frilly headband-hat-thing that Jeanne wears all the time. Just in case.]

[holyironmade]

Ufufu. It is bittersweetly nostalgic.

[Jeanne will turn her back to allow the headband to be removed from her hair if desired (she is in fact naturally wearing it as part of her church outfit). Insofar as it is not yet removed, it looks intact.]

[keyringwitness]

Hm... they're similar, but I'm not going to condemn anyone based on "similar." [Yasu sighs.] Many different things could be made out of this kind of cloth, saying that you're for sure guilty because of it is the kind of amateurish mistake that man would make...

Could you tell me what you bumped your arm against? Anything would help! I just want to get this over with, really, having to be suspicious of you is tiring.

[canreallymove]

[About that...]

1/2

[holyironmade]

Try to remember, try to remember...

[She's saying it to herself a lot like the way Yasu did on Sunday... but it turns into a little... melody...]

2/2

[holyironmade]

🎵 Try to remember, child
🎵 The form you had, sweet and mild—

The... the music box!

The music box in that pile of vending machine items I worked so hard to gather for all of you...!

[keyringwitness]

...eh? How would a music box injure you?

[Sorry, Jeanne, she's LEGITIMATELY PUZZLED on this count.]

[holyironmade]

Like this!

[She has her little red backpack on her podium now along with her notebook and whatever. She mimes shuffling around a bunch of items like the notebook on the flat surface and her wrist brushing back against the corner of the backpack.]

The backpack is soft. But the music box is hard. Do you see?

[whimsicalism]

[The texture between the two is comparable.

The fabric on Jeanne's headband is intact.]

[copycut]

Hey, Jeanne— [ Kuro's just going to slide over, since she's right here anyway. ] Would you mind if I check the bottom part of your dress, too?

[holyironmade]

This is... the absolute height of impropriety...!

[But she didn't say no? Far from it. She'll lean back against the podium, blushing furiously, and let Kuro examine even the underside of her dress freely.]

[copycut]

That's right~ [ fufu ] Would you expect anything less from me?

[ But despite the joke, her examination is pretty businesslike and efficient. Any tears on the bottom half of Jeanne's dress? ]

[holyironmade]

[The bottom half of Jeanne's dress is pure and white and unblemished like a cake in the store.

Jeanne is left hugging herself by the tightly laced black vest, her only remaining bastion of virtue.]

[copycut]

Jeanne is as pure and untouched as ever!

[ Kuro announces this to the rest of the trial room. She isn't concerned with checking under the vest, honestly; it's much less likely that a piece of cloth tore from the middle of her body and got stuck in a window pane than it is that her dress ripped at the extremities. ]