castle_whims | FIFTH TRIAL

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, I gotta agree. And with the smudge…

It could be that the real writer is the killer.

Why'd the killer stop writing the message then?

….honestly? I think it was to frame someone.

Then, what? They just weren't confident in their choice of who to frame?

[ or— ]

Hey, do we have any idea which of them died first?

No…I think they believed that it would be obvious who they were framin’.

Like, think about it. Who are we not supposed to trust now because of Kakuya?

That's the obvious reading, but you could make it obvious-er. "Don't trust Yasu," "don't trust Y," or even just "Yasu"... Any one of those would take away any room for doubt, and if you picked the last one, we might not even be having this conversation right now. It's a lot shorter.

But I trust Yasu.

I know that. Which…actually…that makes me wonder.

What if they were planning that but couldn’t finish?

Edited 2022-09-24 16:56 (UTC)

That's why I asked! [ Kuro snaps her fingers. ] If Koishi died second, she might have interrupted our culprit before they could finish the job.

Edited 2022-09-24 17:00 (UTC)

Yeah, definitely. And she died from gettin’ hit in the head with something. Then she got dragged into the pool and pushed in.

That makes sense, right?

(no subject)

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So that means the person they were trying to frame saw it and tried washing away the name!

Uh, no. I think Carrie didn't have enough time to keep writing.

Huh...? Don't we think Carrie died instantly?

... Oh, wait. That's right. Nevermind me, then.

Me, if I had to guess. [Yasu shrugs, saying that entirely matter-of-factly.] I haven't exactly been inspiring trust in all of you lately, and I'm a good enough scapegoat.

[Moving on...] Let's remember the lesson we learned from the very first trial, though. If the stab wound was head-on, then that likely means that the killer was around the same height as Carrie.

That, of course, makes Hunter suspicious...

But Koishi is also another valid suspect for the murder, I think.

Yeah, no offense obviously. But that’s what I think-someone might’ve been trying to pin it on you.

Okay, ignoring the height thing making me look sus at the moment, wouldn't that mean Koishi would have been caught in the act and killed in revenge? Sounds like a valid theory from what I gather.

…yeah, same. I think she might’ve died because she caught the killer in the act.

It makes a certain amount of sense... the weapon used to kill Koishi was a lot less deliberate, by the sounds of it. A knife implies premeditation, but bludgeoning someone's head in with an ice cream scoop would suggest spontaneity.

Is there anything to suggest Carrie died standing? If our culprit already had her on the ground, the angle might not say anything except that they were on top of her.

The defensive wounds were primarily on her arms, right? If she was forced to the ground, I would imagine there would be some sign of that on her legs or ankles.

Do you think so? But if Carrie was tackled onto the ground instead, wouldn't she lift her arms in front of her face and body to block an attack from above?

There'd likely be something on her back in that case... but we can't rule it out, I'll concede that point.

'n Carrie was laying down on her stomach, face-down. How could you stab someone in the chest like that?

She might have been turned over after her death. If she wrote the words herself, she would have needed to roll over to do it. If someone else wrote those words for her, they still would have needed to turn her over to make the illusion complete.