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

[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.

[bellabellabella]

[He laughs briefly, though there's not much humor in it.]

Admittedly, it would be difficult to tell if anyone here was a serial killer, but I doubt everyone here would be.

[copycut]

So, what, you only want to kill guilty people? I'll keep that in mind for next time.

[ She still thinks Edward is very suspicious here, but she'll bide her time for now. ]

[bellabellabella]

I would prefer not to kill anyone.

[And he just seems tired again.]

To take that power upon yourself... can change you, and not in ways that I want to be changed.

[copycut]

[ ...Hm. Well, given a certain breakthrough— ]

Sometimes, what you want doesn't matter. Is that what you meant, when you said if we assume this was murder?

[bellabellabella]

[He looks back at her, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.]

What I meant is that if we assume this is murder as opposed to an accident. The scene did suggest that she had tripped and fallen after all.

[copycut]

Maybe, but most people wouldn't call self-defense murder, either. It's looking less and less like it might have been an accident, wouldn't you say?

[bellabellabella]

I'm not claiming that it was, but you did ask for clarification on what I'd previously said.

[copycut]

True. Still, after the way Reika talked about herself, you can't blame me for being curious. [ She pushes her hair over her shoulder, mimicking the cadence of Reika's speech as she says, ] "Oh, maybe the culprit never told anyone about the magic they know..."

You get it, right? Maybe you didn't intend to kill — but you also told me you're skilled in self-defense.

[violence_ensues]

If I memeber from the last trial, aren't you skilled in self-defense, too?

[copycut]

Do I look tall and strong enough to snap someone's neck and then carry them into the art room?

[ Also she's not really a hand-to-hand fighter primarily, but that's a whole other discussion. ]

[bellabellabella]

Yes. I have. I am. It's more than fair to suspect me of being the guilty party, given everything you have said so far.

[copycut]

So? Do you have something to say in your defense? [ She raises her voice, but the emotion behind it doesn't sound accusatory in the way he might expect. If anything, she sounds frustrated—as if his passivity in the face of her accusation has gotten under her skin. ] All I've gotten out of you is that you don't want to kill innocent children—but that doesn't mean you couldn't have killed Thomasin to keep her from trying it on anyone else, or that you're not offering yourself up as a sacrificial lamb for this sick show the Principal wants us to put on. That keeps your hands clean, and you get to protect your girlfriend, too.

[keyringwitness]

Kuro.

Stop it. We can't make any accusations until we know for sure! We don't have any evidence for Edward beyond circumstantial.