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

[keyringwitness]

If she hit the rim of the stool with her neck, I, um, guess it'd be possible... but there weren't any marks on the stool besides the paint, and an impact like that would've left something, right?

[bellabellabella]

It... would seem unusual for her to have no other marks on her if it were not deliberate murder.

[keyringwitness]

If her head snapped back at a sharp enough angle, then...

I don't think the stool was part of it at all, actually. W- Well, potentially.

If your head pitches backward, like in the way we saw Thomasin's neck broken, then your hat would come off... and Thomasin's coif is in the hallway.

T- That's weird, right? I can't think of any reason why it'd just be dropped there otherwise. I think the hallway is where Thomasin was really murdered.

[copycut]

Huh? So you think our culprit moved her into the art room to make it look like it was an accident?

[violence_ensues]

[Adorabat looks over the students.]

Hiding the body is something a killer would do... I dunno what Mao Mao does with the bodies after, but someone would hafta be strong enough to move the body.

[temmapathy]

[Emma opens up her handbook to read through the profiles before she lifts her hands to sign.]

Thomasin was one of the heavier people here, wasn't she?

[keyringwitness]

If she didn't just trip, you'd have to be strong enough to break her neck, too.

[keyringwitness]

It's possible, at least... there was a pretty big mess in the workshop, so something must have happened in there, but there's no guarantee that it was the murder.

[copycut]

Mm-hm, that's true. Or... Even that could be part of staging the scene. If Thomasin had been trying to defend herself there, you'd expect to see some signs of a struggle like that, but...

Did it look like anything had been thrown or swung around? Or were things just scattered around with no rhyme or reason?

[shinedsobright]

Are you thinkin' someone snapped her neck?

[bellabellabella]

It's a possibility.

[shinedsobright]

Huh. I mean, Thomasin was kind of skinny, but that's still not something most kids could do. A couple, maybe...

[He's thinking hard about the implications here.]

[bellabellabella]

Probably not without some kind of tool, at least. Some kind of external force could still have been applied, however.

[copycut]

Hm~m... But, wouldn't a tool be likely to leave some other mark behind?

[bellabellabella]

[He just shrugs slightly.]

Yes.

[copycut]

So it's still more likely that we're looking for someone big and strong, then.

[ she. squints at him. ]

[bellabellabella]

If we allow that this was murder, than it does seem more likely than it was someone small and weak.

[shinedsobright]

I really don't buy that this would happen to be a coincidence, though... a lot was on the line this week.

[Oops Fret admitting he doesn't trust the group, say it ain't so. But to be fair someone is dead.]

[copycut]

Personally, I think Yasu-chan has the right of it, so I'm not sure what else it would be.

So, who's this Isabella Swan person to you?

[bellabellabella]

She's....

[He hesitates for a long moment, because he's not entirely sure how to phrase it, but the hesitation does seem to be confusion and not an attempt to deceive.]

She's the girl I love.

[copycut]

You seemed pretty against the idea of killing last week, I'll give you that. Bu~t... [ She trails off, sing-song. ] What if, instead of you, it was the girl you love in danger?

[bellabellabella]

[He bows his head silently. He seems very tired.]

I....

To take another's life is a monstrous thing to do. But I am much more capable of taking care of myself than she is, and I think I would die if she was hurt because of me.

[copycut]

Mm~m, gotcha. Well, if it makes you feel better, I'm not judging you. Lives don't have some objective numeric weight to them — and if you'd die for her, I bet her life weighs more than twenty other people's to you, doesn't it?

[bellabellabella]

[He looks at her again, then, something of steel in his eyes.]

It depends on the lives, I suppose. But twenty innocent children? No.

[copycut]

So you think we're all innocent? That's cute of you.