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

[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! ]

[bolderfell]

[TY!]

Just one in the middle.

[ladygeryon]

Hmm. I guess if they had time to try and wash something in the sink they wouldn't have been in that much of a hurry.

[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.

[blackmass]

Is that all? Interesting.

[Whyever he might have found that interesting, Kirei didn't elaborate.]

[mouflon]

Are you suggesting that whoever did this wouldn't have been able to face the corpse? I guess that's not the worst way to narrow down our options, but it doesn't help much when we're probably looking for a guy and everyone mentioned there is a girl.

[blackmass]

Oh, I think the answer lies not in who was there, but who wasn't.

[emberserker]

Even that doesn't narrow it down much, does it?

[philoxenia]

Do you care to share what's so interesting?

[blackmass]

Not particularly. After all, I am far from a professional in such a field and am thinking of little but conjecture.

[philoxenia]

Very few of us are, though. At this point, I imagine any sort of theory helps.

[onefuture]

Even conjecture, at this point, could prove to be useful to the populace at large.

[blackmass]

Tell me, then. Who among us appears the most shaken by the day's events? Yet more notable if such a name or names are not among those who were with the body.

[bolderfell]

[...

He glances sidelong at Piers.]

[hardnosed]

Why.

[ give us the deets, priest ]

[blackmass]

No specific reason. Merely a passing thought.

[snackooed]

Girls get stuff done, you know.

[blackmass]

I'm far from implying otherwise.

[ladygeryon]

Ah, right. Thank you for that, by the way. These are...definitely useful.

[philoxenia]

It's no problem. I'm glad I was able to do something to help.