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

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???

[lets_dewey_it]

I'm... not sure if gardening has anything to do with it.

[normalnotroyal]

Gardening might not but... Dewey, is the plant from the kitchen the same as the ones from the playground?

[lets_dewey_it]

I'm pretty sure it is, yeah. _{[Nod nod!]}

[normalnotroyal]

So it's likely they moved it to the kitchen, since I don't... recall there being plants in there before? Perhaps we should be looking for people who are stronger in that case.

[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...

[lets_dewey_it]

Take it away, Kuro.

[copycut]

I'm the one who examined it. Here — I copied down what was there.

[romancing]

What sort of glyphs? Magic stuff?

[lets_dewey_it]

Yeah, Kuro has them.

[curdle]

[ Hm! Don't like that!! ]

She was conjuring?

[copycut]

Maybe. Or... Given the threat made against us, she might have been trying to set up protections against it. It's hard to say, when she's the only one who knew the system she was using.

[noblesnow]

...I suppose "she summoned something, and it killed her and then left" is too much to hope for.

[panglici]

"She summoned something, and it's still upstairs" is worse, though.

[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.

[keyringwitness]

...t- this is way more complicated than anything she taught me...

[Yeah Yasu does not know how to make heads or tails of this]

Um, there are four basic glyph types: ice, fire, light, and plants. M- Maybe all the plants that were brought out were related to that? Although...

[She pauses, tapping her chin.]

It seems more likely that she needed the dirt to draw more than she needed the plants.

...which makes the pot in the kitchen even stranger. If Luz was using it to, um, cast this spell, then it wouldn't have had any dirt in it. She needed more dirt to complete this spell, after all...

[copycut]

[ Kuro hums in affirmation. ]

I gave the plants a quick check, too. None of them looked like they were used for this — not even as an implement to draw with.

[ ... ]

Actually, I'd kind of wondered if someone was trying to create a protective ward. Luz mentioned that she'd been in the demon realm to me, but I'm not sure what kind of magic she had training in. Does that sound right to anyone?

[keyringwitness]

I'm sorry... I don't know enough about h- how these work to figure that out. If I had enough time, then maybe I could guess, but...

[They're on a crunch right now.]

[copycut]

It's fine. No one's expecting that out of you. [ she sighs ] I know a whole lot more about magecraft than most people, but that only helps so much when we're talking about completely different systems of magic. Anything either of us come up with will just be guesswork, so there's no need to push yourself if you don't know.

[cellpreservation]

That sounds right to me. It's not like you can trace shapes into the blacktop or anything, and if she wanted to make something big, dirt's one way of achieving that.

[Although...]

I wonder if there's some reason she didn't use chalk instead? ...But I guess it doesn't really matter anymore.

[keyringwitness]

I'm not sure if this is exactly right, but... there's a chance chalk could've, um, left a permanent burn in the in pavement if it was used, since the glyphs burn up after they're cast.

[cellpreservation]

So the dirt definitely wouldn't have burned too? It's supposed to be magic, right?

[keyringwitness]

A- Again, I'm not sure... all I learned about were the basics of how it worked, and, um, I never got to see it in action.

[hashtagwoof]

So... You're telling me she was trying to use some magic ritual before someone stabbed her?