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]

How about if someone was using it to pin her down?

[emberserker]

As much as I hate to agree with you on anything, it's a distinct possibility.

[hardnosed]

[ she just... snorts ]

Someone heavy, then. It fits with the prints Rin found.

[bolderfell]

...Or that's how they got her knife.

[hardnosed]

... Huh. Barehanded? Or did they get her with one of those books?

[bolderfell]

Don't know. It'd have to be one damn lucky shot if they broke her wrist with a thrown book.

[onefuture]

Exceedingly so. Aela was fast; it's highly likely that she would have been able to dodge anything that was thrown her way.

[source: he got his ass kicked by her with training swords once. it was awesome]

[bolderfell]

So someone was faster and stronger than her... but still a total amateur, somehow? Throwing books, leaving a trail to follow...

[archboxer]

They did not plan to kill her and panicked, perhaps?

[bolderfell]

Or they meant to, but killing's not something they're used to. That much blood, for someone who isn't used to it? I mean, look at this guy.

[He jerks his head towards poor Piers.]

He can barely stand up.

[archboxer]

They did intend to slash her throat--such an injury usually does not happen accidentally--but whether they meant to do so ahead of time is unknown.

[She is looking.]

Do not judge. Becoming used to such things is not a good thing.

[bolderfell]

I didn't say I was judging.

[blackmass]

...I would hope those unused to bloodshed weren't investigating the scene in question.

[bolderfell]

Don't know. I wasn't there.

[onefuture]

It's possible, at any rate. Some people aren't exactly smart, under stressful circumstances, so there's that as well.

[philoxenia]

.... people act much, much differently when they're panicking, it's true. More prone to making mistakes.

[onefuture]

Exactly, yes.

[...it concerns him that you know a thing or two about this tbh...]

[philoxenia]

[ i mean look sometimes that's just how it be

it's probably fine. ]

[hardnosed]

Power doesn't mean experience.

[bolderfell]

Yeah.

[Except for cases where knowledge is power, says Information Guy.]

[hardnosed]

Seems like they got lucky no matter what happened.

[archboxer]

Aside from the one book most of them were quite heavy. Still, if we can assume the attacker was larger than Aela or perhaps just strong then breaking her wrist in a struggle for the knife would not be out of the realm of possibility.