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

[hardnosed]

I keep forgetting. You've got no idea what I'm talking about, do you?

[ nyehehe ]

Rhea's right. Let's talk about the facts of the case.

[lovelikeyou]

She is right. Humans usually are, about important things.

[getting emotional and causing problems again, starlight?]

If they really wanted to hide the knife in the toilet, they should have cleaned the sink better. I think most of us here would know bloodstains if we saw them. Maybe they really thought they could flush it away.

[hardnosed]

So why didn't they? The water still had blood in it — you can see some in the bag. What was the possible point in putting it in, leaving their footprints on the floor, and then not trying to get rid of it?

[philoxenia]

... Maybe they weren't trying to cover it up.

[lovelikeyou]

You'd think they would have focused on the footprints, instead of doing whatever it was with the washer. They could have hidden the knife and clothes in their room.

[...]

But why wouldn't they try to cover it up?

[philoxenia]

... Guilt, maybe.

[lovelikeyou]

Then why not just confess? Doing it like this...if they did it because of their secret, isn't that over now?

[philoxenia]

... Maybe there's a reason they couldn't confess right off the bat. This-- this is an experiment, after all.

mods?

[lovelikeyou]

Is there a reason?

[She just...picks a screen to look at, she guesses?]

[pimpplan]

To try and frame someone else, maybe?

[lovelikeyou]

Oh.

[She hadn't considered that.]

Do you think that's happening?

[pimpplan]

I think it's something to keep in mind, at the very least. Hard to say what people would do to keep their secrets hidden, y'know?

[lovelikeyou]

If they are, they must have thought it was more obvious than it is.

[It's not like we've come to any particular conclusions about anyone, after all.]

[bogwife]

Guilt after the fact? But if they were wanting to get caught they could have just...confessed before we even got here.

[lovelikeyou]

The Professor said the secrets were safe, so that can't have been the only reason. They must really, really want to get home.

[bogwife]

That's... [Obviously very bad but also-] Unfortunately understandable.

[bolderfell]

...Kind of points to them not really wanting to have killed her. Everything we found so far... it's like all they could think of was getting the evidence off themselves. Like they couldn't handle it.

[ladygeryon]

Which of the toilets was the knife found in? If it was the first one by the door, that would also point to them just wanting to get rid of it as fast as possible...

Hey mods!

[bolderfell]

[I have no earthly idea, Therion just kicked 'em all open, help meeee]

[bathymetric]

[ it was just sort of a random one in the middle! ]

[blackmass]

...An interesting hypothesis, to which I have a question.

Who was there investigating the scene itself? That is to say, who can we confirm saw the corpse in question?

[ladygeryon]

Rhea and I were the first ones there, and I think Rose arrived after us. Ema and Zerinda were the ones investigating the actual body, though.

[philoxenia]

... And I took the pictures.

[archboxer]

[Goddess what did she do to deserve having to mediate this.]

[hardnosed]

[ WELCOME TO HELL!!! ]