FIRST TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

FIRST TRIAL

THE CONTAINMENT CENTER

After all the evidence is collected, the students themselves are as well. The Little Brother units gather them up in orderly fashion, encouraging the line to proceed two-by-two up the hallway beyond the music room and into the newly opened area. When grouped up together, the class just barely fits into the glass-paneled section of the decontamination chamber. It's hard not to wonder if the entire student body was never meant to make it this far in the first place. A short burst of pressurized air later and the panels lift - and, for the first time, the door to the containment facility opens before you. Behind it, an elevator beckons the class in. A Little Brother unit reaches inside, pushes a button, and the lift's real, see-through door closes before the lift begins to lower.

As the elevator descends, the car passes floor after floor of cellblocks. Start florescent lighting casts stark highlights onto each of them, and in those closest to the elevator car, shape after shape is visible. A wolf the size of an elephant with blood-tinged saliva dripping from it's massive fangs. A clown holding 20 multicolored balloons in one hand, a popped and shredded 21st hanging from the other out to you with a gap-toothed grin. A pit of writhing snakes with no beginning and no end. The feeling is comparable to the hungry, lingering gaze from outside the academy's fence. Looking out at the many cells, it's as if there's no barrier between them and the assembled students at all.

The car's moving too fast to see all of them clearly, but careful attention reveals one final detail: Some of them are completely empty. The other noticeable thing is the noise. Snarls, roars, sly chuckles, hissing, and even someone humming a haunting lullaby... they all mix together into a cacophony as you near the final destination.

When the elevator comes to a complete stop, the group is let out into a black-floored room illuminated by the same stark florescent lighting. Luckily, as soon as you go through the doorway the noise suddenly stops. The steep walls extend some two or three stories above without interruption, throwing stern, exaggerating angles reminiscent of brutalism. 21 stone podiums stand in a densely illuminated circle in the center of the room. Each one bears a name of one of the students in the class.

The Prefect is already waiting for everyone, sitting at a long desk backed by a projector screen bearing the same ram insignia from the post-spelling bee dance. Her hands are folded in front of her, and she barely moves.

"Looks like somebody attempted the alternative capstone. A week ago, I never would have believed it... but I know better now. Those who fall behind... just weaken the herd.

Luz, The Owlette, is dead. What a stupid title... I really hated it." The Prefect's expression staggers for a moment, then settles again. "Her murderer's still here, and the only way to prove that you deserve another chance in this school is to find them. Get the exam started."

There's a flicker on the screen behind her as the Principal speaks. "You heard Miss Kiryuu. We're beginning the exam, don't just stand around staring at each other!"

Investigation | Podium Layout | Locations | IC Profiles | IC Rules | Evidence | NPC Questions

OOC NOTES

While played out OOCly on Saturdays, trials ICLY take place the afternoon after investigations are concluded. This means that characters will have only a brief period of rest to gather their thoughts before being brought down. While the podium layout graphic shows room numbers, the real stone does bear characters' names.

The victim's body will not be available for reexamination during the trial but other pieces of evidence small enough to carry/move with you can be brought down into the trial. If you need mod input or NPC input in the middle of a thread please put 'MODS' in the header so we can see. Trials play out until the killer is caught or until around 8pm Eastern, at which point we'll try to wrap up. Good luck!

Comments

EVIDENCE

[whimsicalism]

[ Students, come present the evidence you've uncovered here. ]

THE MURDER WEAPON

[keyringwitness]

I, um... think we should talk about the murder weapon first. [Although Yasu prefers to fade into the background and let everyone do the talking, that's not really an option in this instance, is it? Swallowing down her fear, she forces herself to keep talking.]

When Sonic and I investigated the kitchen, there was a chef's knife missing from the knife block, and Sonic found a bloody chef's knife buried in a pot of dirt, along with a, er, dirty washcloth.

It's easy to make the guess that this is the m- murder weapon, but somebody w- who saw her up close should probably match the knife to the wound anyways. [Yasu gulps.] We need to know for sure. If we move forward with a faulty assumption, t- t- then we might, uh, get... [Killed. If nothing else, the consequences for failure were good encouragement to check her work.]

Aside from that, there are two things that are bothering me. The first is where the knife was found. It'd be understandable if it was in, um, the kitchen sink, or hidden somewhere else, but... why bury it somewhere we can find it if the culprit was just trying to conceal the weapon? The washcloth wasn't used to clean the knife either, o- or the blade would've been covered in less, um. Blood. It doesn't m- make sense as a step to the murder, it has to be an act particular to the culprit.

And... [Yasu hesitates before this next part. It feels almost like a betrayal to bring up.] Even if she had other wounds... Luz getting killed with, um, a stab to the heart, or at least that's what it looked like from the distance I saw her... corpse... Murdering her with a single thrust to the ribs would take precision. I think the culprit has experience with fighting.

That's all. [Shrinking back, she bows her head.]

[spychic]

[Anya raises her hand.]

Maybe the culprit wanted you to pick it up? Then there's a mix of fingerprints. Or maybe they were panicked....

They coulda just freaked out and buried it, right?

[romancing]

A knife in the dirt? Maybe they just wanted to be rid of it quickly?

[copycut]

Hm, I don't know about that. We can't exactly fingerprint it, and it's a weapon that any of us could access. Maybe our culprit just thought it would be safer to leave it there than to bring it back to their own room.

[canreallymove]

I also brought the pot just in case.

[He puts that down.]

Playground Evidence stuffs

[lets_dewey_it]

There was a some potted plants out in the playground. Most of the dirt was emptied and the plants were put back in hastily with only the thinnest layer of dirt to cover the roots. The dirt was used to draw a giant glyph, and there were a lot of other papers with glyphs drawn on them to go with it.

These runes have to have been Lux's doing. Some sort of ritual, maybe?

[spychic]

Anya sees a theme already.

There are plants on the playground. There are plants in the kitchen.

Does anyone really like gardening???

[keyringwitness]

[That immediately gets Yasu's attention.]

Plants... hold on.

Mister Dewey, can you, um, show me the glyph? Luz taught me what each of them meant. I might be able to identify what she was trying to do...

[romancing]

What sort of glyphs? Magic stuff?

[curdle]

[ Hm! Don't like that!! ]

She was conjuring?

[copycut]

I copied the glyph. Here.

[ Kuro will pass around a sheet of notebook paper with the middle circle drawn on it. The two circles on the side have been started, but they're not complete. ]

It was pretty wide — maybe a little less than two meters across. And... Hm, to me, it looks like whoever drew this ran out of room to finish whatever they were doing. See those half-circles on the side? Those were at the very edge of the dirt.

[shinedsobright]

[Fret thought about replicating the papers, but turns out they were freaking everywhere, so he figured - you know what - the staff probably don't mind him helping them clean up a little. So he has just brought a few to the trial. You all dodged a bullet considering Fret's art style.]

Soooo... these sure were a thing?

[spychic]

Are these the glyphs?

[Anya tilts her head.]

Why are they just all written on papers for no reason...? Or is there a reason?

[keyringwitness]

These are the four basic glyph types that Luz taught me about... hm.

Remember the first day, when Miss Luz got into an, uh, argument with the L- Lady Prefect? She reached inside her pockets to pull something out and use it when she got heated, but never got that far...

Maybe these glyphs are how she fights?

[cellpreservation]

Oh, is that what they were?

I got one from the vending machine the other day.

[noblesnow]

[Reika studies them...]

A coat hanger, a house on a hill, a person diving, and Santa Claus?

[violence_ensues]

Wait...! I saw a buncha those in the gym! They were scattered everywhere.

HALLWAY TRAILS

[holyironmade]

[Jeanne has gathered up the pieces of paper from the investigation. Kuro is assigned to her side, which will make it easy to compare the glyphs to the other glyphs.]

We found a small but significant amount of blood in this area, the hallway that we should probably consider "between the playground and the gym". Naturally that was impractical to bring with us. Which is almost more curious, because there was a secondary trail of paper. Some pieces were sliced apart, while most were stepped upon with dirt. Someone... besides the intrepid investigators who were so kind as to help me... stepped in the blood - probably one of the more typical children in this group. Yet the paper purely dirt. It was as if someone hated and fought the paper itself.

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu closes her eyes for a moment, the evidence rapidly tumbling through her mind. If she can just look at it the right way, turn the game around from the right angle, then...

She taps her palm with her fist.]

Luz was laying against the wall of the gym, right? And it doesn't sound like there were any signs of her body having been moved... so she must've died there, which implies she was cornered.

If we assume that the glyphs were her way of defending herself, then she must've pulled them out by instinct when she was attacked, even if they didn't work. That combined with the trail of blood...

Here's my theory.

Luz came out of the playground after trying her ritual, and was attacked by the culprit. She took out her glyphs while trying to protect herself as she retreated, and the culprit, w- who we can assume was good at fighting, took advantage of those openings. They may have hit Luz once or twice, getting blood on the knife... and also getting blood on the glyphs as they cut through those. After all, if the culprit was attacking these glyphs after the fact, they'd be more torn up, and it wouldn't be just a few of them that were cut apart. As Luz retreated, she stepped on the glyphs, leaving dirt stamped on them from how much dirt she was working with in the playground, until she... got to the gym... got her back against the wall, and was...

[Yasu started her theory excited at having finally made a breakthrough, but now she shrinks back once she realizes what that means.] killed...

THE BODY

[bellabellabella]

[Well the ride down was unsettling, but he's already been feeling a little bleak. They do have a job to do, however.]

I examined the body. Yuta and Dylan were in the room with me, and can confirm some of the observations, though neither of them got so... close as I did. I couldn't confirm time of death, but for what it's worth, it had not entirely cooled when I touched it.

Luz was killed by a single stab wound to the chest. There was no significant angle to the wound that I could see, which makes it likely that the culprit was of a similar height instead of significantly shorter or taller or is able to fly, or that Luz was lying down when originally stabbed. If it was someone who was significantly shorter or taller then there would probably be some kind of upward or downward angle to the wound.

It was not very large, and was likely made by a knife or scissors, or something with similar dimensions. Not a sword, or an axe.

She might have known what was happening. There was a gash on her arm which might be a defensive wound. Her fingertips and fingernails, however, had dirt on them, but no blood, so it is unlikely that she managed to scratch the culprit, unless she used some kind of tool, however the fact that her hands were dirty might mean she was using them to dig or bury something before she was killed.

The puddle of blood she was lying in seemed like the right size for someone of her size bleeding to death, so if she was moved from somewhere else it is probable that the knife was only removed after she was placed where she was found. There were no signs of significant movement or struggle. Despite this, she had blood on the soles of her shoes, which were... not being worn as might be expected. They seemed to be too loose, and disheveled.

[canreallymove]

Not entirely cooled?…

[romancing]

Her magic glyphs were drawn in the dirt, weren't they? The dirt on her nails is probably from that.

HALLWAY

[panglici]

Something happened in the hallway outside the gym. It didn't look like Luz died there and was carried in, the blood was more of a trail leading in there. It didn't seem to be enough to have been from a fatal injury.

Reika and Valmont and Jeanne and I weren't the first ones to walk over it. Whoever did had sort of average feet, I guess. They weren't too small or too large, but there weren't any complete footprints.

SHOES

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[It takes a little bit since, at first Dylan was just in shock, and after that he was distracted by, uh...

Yeah.

But at some point, he does finally remember-]

Oh-right!

[He's been standing on the podium before, just to be seen, but he jumps down for a moment.

He jumps back up, with something familiar carefully perched on his head: Luz's shoes. Blood side up so that he's not getting any on his head.]

I, uh...I grabbed these. Before leaving the gym. I thought...it might be important.