SECOND TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

SECOND TRIAL

THE CONTAINMENT CENTER

((CW implied cannibalism from monsters, clowns.))

Once all of the relevant rooms have been searched, it's time to dry tears and gather up evidence. The sheep, whirring dully and many of them hanging their heads, gradually round the remaining children up and begin herding them to the elevator doors. Even with only two extra people missing, it's much roomier inside once the doors are closed. Once everyone is loaded, the car begins its shrieking descent, lights and sounds grating equally as the students are once more shuttled down to the containment area.

Some of the cells on the way down contain familiar charges, but other denizens seem to have been moved. Or perhaps the layout of the containment area changed recently? Today, a large cell is home not only to an elderly woman but her large rickety home. She sits on her porch with a certain grace, even if there's a glint in her eye that feels more malicious than kindly as she beckons at you with a gnarled finger. The sudden scrambling of her home's talons might startle the unprepared. Another cell contains nothing more than a constantly roaring fire, the blaze stretched wall to wall and pulsing rhythmically at its core every so often, as it if it had its own beating heart.

For anyone worried the clown wouldn't be returning: Have no fear! The gang's friend is here again, though there are two fewer intact balloons now gripped in his hand. He's even taken efforts to look beautiful for everyone observing through the cell doors, and the red makeup around his lips is bright and freshly applied. Beautiful! Until he draws the flat of his knife across his mouth, and the source becomes obvious, just as bright as it was a week ago.

In the courtroom--the depressing, angular nightmare that passes for one--the stone podiums stand waiting for their respective students once more. With a couple more empty than the last time the group was down here, they're looking more and more like gravestones.

The desk is still down here, albeit empty this time. But the projector screen is exactly the same, the ram's head looking out at the sick entertainment on offer. For someone who's turned all of this into his own person theater, one would think he'd sound delighted by the death and destruction. Instead, his strong voice is just as clipped and angry as it always is. He barks out a command.

"Time to actually use those minds of yours! I guess this witch hunt is about to begin. Find out what happened to Thomasin or it'll be your necks on the line!"


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

OOC NOTES

Welcome to your second trial for Round 2! As we know that trials and any afterparties can get busy, we'd like to quickly remind everyone to make sure their Week 1 AC is squared away by tomorrow's weekly post and to start collecting their Week 2 threads to submit. Make sure to get your regains in by tomorrow night as well!

As a clarification for what evidence can be brought in, a rule of thumb is that if you can carry it you probably can bring it. We mainly want to discourage corpse desecration, if we can, so 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

EVIDENCE PRESENTATION

[whimsicalism]

[At the end of the day, who will be caught red-handed?]

THE ART ROOM

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu was a shivering wreck on her first plunge into the containment chamber. The monsters, the specter of death, the dread of knowing one among their number had killed another and was willing to sacrifice the rest... it'd nearly crushed her.

Now, she just feels numb. Yasu can't tell if that's better or worse.

As soon as she takes the stand and everyone is in their positions, Yasu shares her own findings, most of her usual stutter gone. (Most.)]

I'll make this, um, quick. The art room wasn't as messy as it should be. Several spots of paint and other stuff that was on the floor weren't there when we walked in and saw... t- the corpse.

Many of the weirdly clean parts were on the path to Thomasin's, um, body. It's nothing conclusive, but my hunch is the culprit was splashed with paint and tried to cover their tracks.

...apparently we've, er. All learned from last week.

THE ART ROOM

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat actually paid attention to the room. Her heart lept in excitement at the fire room and when reaching the clown room, she pointed at the clown and the punched a wing into her other wing, staring square into the clown's eyes. She hopes she were able to deliver on that promise in the future.]

[She reaches the podiums and gets settled in, fluttering onto her own podium. No longer is she flitting her eyes from person to person, she knows this time she has to try hard.]

I looked in the upper area of the art room, and I didn't see anything sapicious. But what I did find was a empty paint can with a dent in it. The red paint from the can was likely spilled everywhere.

[She takes the paint can out in question and sets it down in front of her podium.]

Another thing I saw was Thomasin was laying in a way as if she fell down from the workshop area. I really don't think she tripped or anything, but I do believe the paint can was the murder weapon.

[keyringwitness]

Hmm... m- maybe? But I wouldn't be too sure.

Even I could tell from a distance that Thomasin's neck was broken, although Edward will have to c- confirm that. And even if she tripped over the paint can and fell hard enough to break her neck, wouldn't she have a bruise on the back of her head from falling? And if she just hit the stool at a really bad angle, there must've been substantial force behind the blow to break her neck...

[temmapathy]

[Emma bangs her hands on her podium, making sure most of the people in the room are looking at her, before she starts signing.]

There was this weird paint scattered on the hallway wall. It was sort of in the shape of a person, but also kind of distorted? I couldn't really see if it looked like anyone in particular, but I traced what I could.

[She unrolls the tracing paper she brought, laying it all out on her podium before taking out a plastic bag as well.]

I also brought a bit of the paint, just to compare.

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu screws up her face as she looks at the shape of the silhouette, trying to concentrate.]

This doesn't make any sense.

If someone was splashed with paint, the paint on the wall would be around the shape of a person, not in the shape of one. However, um, vaguely.

The only way that this makes sense to me is if something already doused in paint touched the wall.

[temmapathy]

Yeah, but I didn't find any paint on the floor around it. Maybe that was cleaned up too, but then why leave the wall?

[cellpreservation]

...Is there a reason something couldn't already be doused in paint?

Like... if it was someone's clothes, and they just changed and showered afterwards? It's not like we can check everyone's outfits.

THOMASIN'S ROOM

[holyironmade]

I discovered the door of Thomasin's room unlocked and her bed unmade. There was a bundle of gym clothing in her closet that contained a folder of motive photographs of a black goat and these two wax figurines. One is a human wrapped in red string, while the other is a goat embellished with black goat hair and pins.

Her room also contained a book of matches and many mostly used wax candles. It seems they had been melted down to create the wax figurines.

...one strongly suspects the lock of hair represented the black goat and was used to make this figurine. However, the parcel wrapping itself is missing, and if we assume the figurines were newly made here, then there is no object from the parcel either. One also suspects that Thomasin departed from this room without a true struggle or a visit from the culprit.

[Bundle is available for observation and maybe the sheep brought the candles if necessary.]

[hashtagwoof]

Uh...

[ He is leaning in to look at the pictures and... Is seriously weirded out. ]

Is that... A fursuiter in this one? Or is this an actual furry she might have been planning to murder for? Because if she was using stuff from the book she might have fallen for this motive here.

[holyironmade]

Thomasin had told me of a woman who could take the form of a hare. This goat form also seems to be a typical size that a human could not ordinarily fit inside. And it is hard to imagine a fur suit of such quality made from materials in Thomasin's environment.

I think that the goat is most likely an intelligent or at least portentous being.

WORKSHOP

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

[The monsters are just as terrifying to witness the second time as they were the first, at least to Dylan. It makes things feel even more wrong than they already are, and if there weren't a murder to focus on he might just cower in the corner.

But, Thomasin is indeed dead, and with Reika's empty podium right beside him, he can't forget what happens at this point. So when he get's to his stand, jumping up onto it so he can be seen, he doesn't hesitate to pull out the baggie with burnt cloth scraps and an empty bottle of paint thinner.]

W-Went to the workshop. Someone-someone burned a uniform in the kiln. Only some scraps were left. A-also, pretty much all the paint thinner was used, and...the most noticeable place was-on Thomasin herself, with it used on mostly the back side of her. The back of her arms, the back of her knees, her back, and a little bit on her face. O-only a little bit of paint, was left. Almost couldn't see it.

[britbrat]

You're not meant to use paint thinner on skin.

[ Valmont actually knowing something about household objects? Will wonders never cease. ]

[hashtagwoof]

No, duh. The culprit was trying to murder her, remember?

[keyringwitness]

That's odd... [Yasu murmurs. She taps her chin, rearranging all the pieces that Dylan, Adorabat, and Emma have presented in her mind... and snaps her fingers.]

Maybe...

If you were splashed with a bucket of paint at an angle where it would make a silhouette against the wall, almost none of it would get on your back. Right?

Thinking about it this way, I wonder... was the culprit trying to make it seem like Thomasin somehow made the silhouette? There aren't many other reasons I can think of to clean the paint specifically off her back, but that just raises more questions.

[canismajorcontrolfreak]

I...think that makes sense? But-it depends on the kind of silhouette. If it's the absence of paint in the shape of a person, yeah, that sounds right. If it's the presence of paint in the shape of a person, it would only work if someone pressed their body against a wall or floor to create the silhouette.

[Da Vinci continues to help in art based evidence.]

THE BODY

[bellabellabella]

[He wishes this were over with already. But they are here, and this charade must continue until justice is met out, and it had been his duty to examine the body. His heart isn't really in it, but he does still need to share what he found.]

Thomasin's neck was broken. She died about five hours before she was found, around 3 AM. There were no other marks or wounds on her body. The scene seemed to suggest that she had tripped over the paint can, knocking it open, and hit her head against the stool as she fell and broke her neck. Of course, given where we are, an accident does not seem wholly likely.

She was dressed in her nightclothes, and her front side was covered completely in paint, but there wasn't much else.

[keyringwitness]

There's something else that's bothering me about this. If Thomasin really did trip hard enough to break her neck, wouldn't she have a bruise on the back of her head?

[bellabellabella]

If she tripped forward then perhaps her forehead, but it seems likely.

The Meditation Room

[spychic]

[Anya raises her hand, and then she holds up a cushion and candle.]

Anya found things! There was a candle and cushion in the meditation room.

But it smelled WEIRD. Anya thinks the candle was lit...?

Anya doesn't know...

[violence_ensues]

But- Anya! Why didn't you put them in bags? I even gave you some earlier in the week!

[hashtagwoof]

Hey, isn't that one of the candles from Thomasin's parcel?

THE WORKSHOP

[romancing]

I looked around the workshop. There was a bunch of supplies that had been pushed off the shelves, like wood blocks and stuff! The saw and drill were also on the floor and a little scratched up from falling, but the biggest thing is that they were covered in red paint!

[canreallymove]

…Oh right, I found Thomason’s hat…thing in the hall.

[violence_ensues]

Her jingly hat?

[Adorabat, no.]