FIFTH TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

FIFTH TRIAL

THE CONTAINMENT CENTER

There are two more dead this week, and some unusual locations led to some unusual and interesting evidence. Once the students have had time to scour the affected areas and collect their clues, Kakuya's lilting telepathic voice guides them back to the elevator. Everyone now has plenty of elbow room - and plenty of carrying space to bring down the evidence, living creatures and all.

In addition to the constant strobing of the lights and the scream of metal chafing against metal, those who can tune into the softer noises in the background might hear snippets of a song on their descent. Though the lyrics are garbled and unintelligible as any other song playing in the soda fountain, a muffled crooner keens in the distance. The familiar clown whose presence is a constant despite the shifting cells, however, is 32 22 flavors and then some. He precariously balances a multi-scoop ice cream cone in one patient hand, all of its assorted scoops unpleasant and sickly colors. Multiple punctured balloons hang down from his other arm, wrinkled and dripping what is probably chocolate sauce. A cohort of aliens that look like every mid-century American fantasy of the little green men from outer space hone their weapons in silence. For the most part, every monster looks less restless now, but the hunger hasn't faded from any of them. If anything, it's intensified. If anything, it looks like they're biding their time.

There is, however, no sign of Father in his new prison. If he's suffering from the consequences he faces, you won't get the satisfaction of seeing that just yet.

Without the stark light of Father's telecomm screen, the trial room is a little bit darker but no less brutal. There's no longer a Prefect's desk visible by the podiums. Nanami, with nowhere to go, stands around aimlessly for a few moments, fidgeting, before finally taking a petulant seat on the open floor.

Kakuya, herself, is no where to be seen but the faint sound of flute music announces that she is watching. A voice echoes in the back of your mind as you return to your familiar podiums.

"It... looks like two of you are gone... Find out who killed... Koishi and Carrie, won't you? Kakuya... won't mind if you don't but don't... give up right away, okay? That would be no... good."

She laughs in her familiar, childish way. "Kakuya... wants to see what... you do this time... friends. Let's... start."
Investigation | Podium Layout | Locations | IC Profiles | IC Rules | IC Evidence Presentation | Evidence List | NPC Questions

OOC NOTES

Welcome to the fifth trial! Today's trial image is the famous eldritch cafe illustration by Jeff Paul Johnson. There are two dead this week, and success will entail solving both murders. Despite the shakeup in the management recently, there are still NPC question sections available.

Evidence Reminders:

• If you can carry it you probably can bring it. While the body itself isn't allowed into the trial, most things are, including live animals.
• 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 or the original finder otherwise can't present it (an emergency, etc), 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

[gotnothing]

Sure.

[ She rolls them up! They're clear of wounds. Full sleeve of cool tats tho. ]

[violence_ensues]

And you were angry that people didn't trust you but I trust you and you helped with the memorial wall and your art is good and you weren't mean and I'm sorry if you thought Carrie and Koishi were mean to you and I could have talked to them for you...!

[lets_dewey_it]

_huh.

[gotnothing]

If I did know that, it uh. Didn't intentionally come up or anything.

[violence_ensues]

Don't you just push a button?

[copycut]

Don't they have a lot of them? I wouldn't know which one.

[ and also she definitely wouldn't know to put the lid on before turning it on, etc ]

[violence_ensues]

Um.

...

The biggest one?

[gotnothing]

[ She breathes in. Breathes out. Looks around the place. Combined with everything else...

She laughs. ]

Okay, you know what? I changed my mind, that's the evidence I want to go out on. Yeah, I did it.

[hashtagwoof]

. . . I'd be judging you harder if this didn't just clear you of a double murder.

[lets_dewey_it]

_{[Okay Yasu kinda failed?]}

Uhh... Let Kuro do the talking.

[keyringwitness]

But that's the odd thing, isn't it?

The bird had to take a moment to evaluate Hunter before dismissing him, and a trait he shares with me, Kuro, and Emma is long hair. You're the only one out of all the humans that she reacted to that has short hair.

[canreallymove]

Yyyyyyyeah I'll be making your guys's milkshakes and stuff.

[shinedsobright]

....So it really was a coincidence.

Life's kind of a joke, huh?

[gotnothing]

[ That... draws some genuine emotion out of her. ]

... I appreciate that, kid. I really do. But this is all the stupid doll's fault.

[gotnothing]

And I'm a pretty bad comedian.

[violence_ensues]

[BAT. HUGS.]

What did Kakuya say to you...?

[gotnothing]

Damn, done in by a bird. That's maybe the most embarrassing part of this whole thing.

[copycut]

[ claps! ]

Looks like things are all wrapped up, then! Is there anything else you want to confess before you go?

[gotnothing]

[ Hugs back! ]

If I didn't do it, she was going to stop me from beating someone who would have destroyed the universe. So, uh... not sure I could have lived with myself if I didn't try for it.

[violence_ensues]

[Woah...]

...What drawing and items do you want...?

[shinedsobright]

Yep. Show's over.

[And he's not laughing anymore, though he thought Ava was funny sometimes.]

So. Was Tori talking about you before? About 'she' wanted it to be gone...

[gotnothing]

I fought Carrie in the ice cream place, killed her... the whole idea was to make a scene with as many weird things as I could do. Dying message, locked door, maybe mess with the body a little in terms of what the wound was... really, I just wanted to see if I could get one of these trials to go on long enough that our captor would get bored, and what better way to do that than to frame everyone?

[ She sighs. ]

Then Koishi came in, and... well, it's hard to frame everyone when you have a witness, right? So I chased her down and hit her outside of the pool. But... I figured I at least owed her a cool dramatic corpse, and her bird wasn't exactly happy with me, so I did the best I could and tossed her into the pool itself. Then I went and tried to at least lock the door but the broom fucked up and I left.

[gotnothing]

Uh... I dunno. Something bada-- cool. I'll let you be the judge, I trust your taste.

[whimsicalism]

[There's a small amount of applause from somewhere.]

Kakuya... is happy... for Ava. She... seemed... to have fun with that.

[gotnothing]

Maybe? It's kind of a blur. But I was trying to get rid of the witness since... well, this'd be a pretty short trial if I didn't.