FIRST TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, that seems like more than enough time to poke around the crime scene. Gather at the vault door, won’t you? It seems that for many of you it will be a short walk.

[ Once you’re all gathered at the vault door, Angel meets you there and quietly taps a keycard to the side of it. There’s an enormous whirring and grinding from inside as various mechanisms within the door move and whir - until with one last shuddering thud, the door starts to swing inwards, revealing a fully-glass tunnel leading off the side of the plateau the base is built on. Small lights built into the floor illuminate as you walk forward, until finally they light up an enormous elevator, perfectly capable of holding the twenty-four of you.

Angel comes too, putting a few numbers into a keypad just outside the door and inserting her card key once everyone is inside. She’ll gestures to get in if anyone seems unsure, but doesn’t really speak or enter the car herself. ]

Going down.

[ And down the elevator goes, leaving the lights of the facility behind - from here everyone can even see some parts of the facility you don’t have access to, it’s bigger than you realized. But it’s a long and uncomfortable ride to the depths, at least a minute or two before the elevator stops.

When the doors open, enough lights flash on to show that you’ve reached the ocean floor, some distance below even the depths you knew before. Lights around the outside of the massive glass dome you've found yourselves in illuminate the barren depths of the sea, with little if any ocean life to currently disrupt it.

At the top of the dome, among the lights, is an outward-facing circle of five or six different screens, each showing the telltale spiral that indicates The Professor is as present as he ever is.

Below them, of course, are the podiums, a circle of simple metal stands with some kind of video screen embedded into each, though they’re turned off for now. Each of your names is carved into one of them, though the podium constructed for Aela seems to have been just set to display a blank red light.

The screens lower down until they’re too close to eye level for anyone’s comfort. ]

Welcome to the trial room. You have as long as you need to discover who among you killed The Huntress. Once you have, I will explain further action. Take your places.

[ The screens rise back up - welcome to your first trial. ]

Comments

[obstagoodboy]

Did they run out of time to wash something?

[drladysounds]

Maybe. Cutting a neck surely is messy business, they may have gone to wash their clothes and ran out of time before it was done. I bet the clothes are now stashed in one of the bedrooms.

[obstagoodboy]

Gross.

[nothingcanstop]

Maybe...but wouldn’t there be like, drips on the floor? Drops?

[obstagoodboy]

...huh. Good point.

[mouflon]

Not necessarily. The footprints were pretty light, and that was the only blood trail they left leaving the library. They could have washed off the bottom of their feet in the bathroom, or even just... had all the blood come off in the process of walking there.

[nothingcanstop]

I wasn't even thinking about blood, just water. If you take something out of the wash midway through, it's gonna be soaked.

[mouflon]

Maybe they turned on the wash but ran out of time before they got to put anything in? Honestly, I have no idea if they weren't trying to wash something.

[bolderfell]

Ema said this all happened a few hours before morning, right? Most of what we've talked about wouldn't take that much time. How long do the... do those machines take?

[ladygeryon]

Usually an hour or so, though they let you adjust the time based on what you're washing. And there is a setting that's meant to be used for cleaning the machine itself, though usually you don't use detergent for that.

[bolderfell]

So then they must've been washing something. Clothes would've been wet enough to leave a trail...

[Shrug.]

Just means it has to've been something that wasn't clothes.

[nothingcanstop]

[ That gets her to start thinking. ]

Started it up, but didn't... Ran out of time... Even though Ema said time of death would've had to be...a few hours ago.

[ She's mostly talking out loud, here. ]

Something doesn't add up. I'm just not sure what.

[emberserker]

The easiest thing to assume is that the one who did it is one of those who still isn't used to modern technology. Narrowing down the 11 men of the group, thanks to the footprints and the fact that they thought to use the men's water closet immediately, leaves only a few. Therion comes to mind, but he's rarely forthcoming with things that don't incriminate him, much less things that do. Seteth is a prominent option, and would have the strength to do it, and Lif might, but he's had a disastrous moment or two in the gymnasium...

[onefuture]

[Grumbled into his hands.]

Did you really have to tell everyone about that...

[hardnosed]

[ oh come on what the fuck is a water closet ]

[hardnosed]

[ hmmmmmmmmm ]

What's the difference between this machine and the things in the bathroom? [ ... ] Not the ones for humans' garbage, the other ones.

[emberserker]

What, the sinks? You could wash clothing in there by hand, but it would take far too long. Those sinks are for washing your hands. That's why it's called a washroom.

[hardnosed]

She just said bathroom. Can't you humans make up your minds?

[nothingcanstop]

Everyone's got cultural differences, Jasper. Come on, you two, stop arguing. We're trying to work together here.

[emberserker]

She started it.

[hardnosed]

[ but MOOOOOOOOM ]

My point is someone used the sink to wash something. It was full of — dried blood, I think. Does it always go brown?

[thieviusraccoonus]

Nope.

[philoxenia]

That's what I was thinking... and then they stashed the clothes elsewhere? In their room, maybe...?

[obstagoodboy]

Did anyone check rooms?

[bolderfell]

Someone would've had to ask every single person for their key cards if they did. Don't think there was time for that.