SECOND TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Time's up, boys and girls. Please gather up your evidence and make your way to the vault door.

[ The process of heading to the elevator and crowding in remains the same as last week - Angel leads you all to the elevator car, then stays behind as you make your slow descent to the dome below. You might not even notice if you aren't paying attention, but... the cart is already less crowded than it was last week. You certainly won't be able to avoid noticing it if your numbers dwindle too much further than this.

When the doors open on the trial room, it's just as bleak a place as last week. ]

Take your places, won't you? And this time, you all know what's at stake. No more... funny business.

[The number of podiums displaying that red light is higher now - Damien, Lif, and Piers are all represented by blank spots now, no tasteful covers or anything normal to mark their passing, just a red glow and a gap in your number.

Cheery!

The screens raise up to the ceiling to give you all room to see, and the Professor's final words before the trial begins ring out: ]

Find the killer, leave alive. And killer? Try a little harder to stop them from doing that than the last one in your shoes. Call out for me if you require anything.

[ Welcome to your second trial. ]

Comments

[snackooed]

[ Does Ema look uncomfortable at her podium? That stern severity of her expression from last trial is gone, and she's rubbing at her temples instead before she takes a deep breath and speaks up. Better to just have all cards on the table. ]

Rhea, Zerinda and I looked over Piers's body in the chapel. Just like before, we're looking at a couple of hours before the morning chime at best, based on his rigor mortis. I'm almost certain that the cause of death is blood loss from the wound to his neck, which appears consistent with bite marks. The extreme pallor of his skin and his livor mortis indicate severe anemia...but there was nowhere, nowhere near enough blood at the scene to support that finding. And there were no signs that his body was moved from another location, either.

Mira has pictures again, for our reference, so make sure you thank her. We should all take a look at them and try to form our own conclusions.

[archboxer]

He also had some kind of cut on his hand.

[She seems disturbed, too.]

The bite marks truly were strange...

Mods?

[bolderfell]

[Any chance Therion can see where Angel keeps that key card? This is an innocent question that will never have any repercussions ever.]

[bathymetric]

[ Inner pocket of her labcoat! Surely this is and will be fine. ]

[precognit]

[Alice is quiet in the elevator, and she seems a little dazed as they all get out and go to their places. Another death...how many more are there going to be? How many more people need to suffer in order for them to finally find a way free of this place?

Her fingers grip the podium tightly enough that if she had her usual strength, the metal would crumple beneath her fingertips. She has some small comfort in the orange-and-red shawl draped around her shoulders, at least. A reminder that not everything is awful.

She wasn't much use in the investigation, too late to the party, so to speak, but she can listen and think.]

[bolderfell]

[Therion's always quiet in the elevator--man, he really hates that thing, huh?--but he recovers a little easier once they reach the trial room and the floor's no longer moving under them. Alice is right next to him; she's the only one right next to him, now. He looks at her a moment.]

...Hey.

[He pulls out the bow tie she made him from under his cloak.]

You made this, right?

[bogwife]

[Despite their awkward angle in courtroom seating, Zerinda leans over her podium enough to offer Alice a worried smile. If nothing else she's glad to see she's still wearing the shawl.]

[philoxenia]

[ Mira isn't feeling great either but... She's worried about Alice. ]

Alice... Thank you for the bowtie. It was sweet of you to make them.

[ladygeryon]

Someone shoved Slade's Pokeball into the vending machine. I bet they were trying to get rid of him as a witness! He didn't even seem to know Piers was dead yet...

[Nira is breathing hard, leaning heavily on her walking stick.]

[precognit]

If he was a witness, wouldn't he...know already?

[nothingcanstop]

[ Della chimes in quickly: ]

There was, uh...it looked like a handprint, or at least a partial one. It was near the...the mouth? Of the vending machine, you know where you get all the things. I couldn't tell much from it, but...it was on the smaller side.

[bolderfell]

...The vending machine wouldn't take something back inside if you put it in, would it?

[dID HE ALMOST LET HIS ARM GET EATEN BY A MACHINE IN WEEK 1...???]

[mouflon]

By the way, I found this in one of the woman's bathrooms.

[ Rin holds up an orange thread, which is in the same condition that she found it: sad and kind of soapy. ]

There was a lot of soap on the sinks, by the way. Some of it wasn't even foamed up like it was used properly. I'm betting we have another case of buyer's remorse.

[emberserker]

Thread? Well, a good number of people have been using the sewing room lately.

[bogwife]

I've been using thread that color the past few nights but I never went into the ladies' room with it. I thought I left the spool in the chapel last night, that's why I went straight up there this morning.

[bogwife]

In the chapel there was an alter knocked over and some blood smeared on it. I feel like that helps solidify the theory that the entire attack happened in the chapel.

[snackooed]

His disheveled clothes also seem to indicate that there was some kind of a struggle. But it seems like it was a pretty one-sided one...

[lovelikeyou]

I found this in, um...the top of the toilet?

[Rose holds up what is, by now, a slightly less soaking wet tuxedo jacket.]

There wasn't any blood in the water or anything like that. But it's small, too...

[Like the handprint.]

[ladygeryon]

[A groan] I guess we need to compare sizes, then... [Why does it have to be wet]

[baitless]

[LET’S STOP TALKING ABOUT AGES OKAY, HE’LL SET THE GUITAR DOWN ON HIS PODIUM]

In any case, we found Piers’ guitar in the library, where it was hidden by some books. You’ll note that it’s cracked and that one of the strings is snapped, and that there is also blood on it. The remaining strings are out of tune, which may suggest it was intended to block some sort of blow.

[fivestagegod]

...Is that where the cut on his hand came from, do you think? Instrument strings are pretty nasty when they snap.

[bolderfell]

He could have hit someone with it, too. Can't tell direction just from that.

SOAP CHECK

[ladygeryon]

[So Aria's going to start circling the podiums, checking everyone for soap scent while Nira watches.]

[bolderfell]

[Therion smells like Therion. No soap here. He gives Aria a weird look, but doesn't comment.]

TIME TO VOTE!

[bathymetric]

[ The touchscreens blink on, just like last week. ]

Well, that was refreshing, don't you think? So forthright. At any rate, please select the killer on your podiums now. Majority rules, so vote as carefully as you are able.

[archboxer]

Alice.

EXECUTION - I FEEL MY HEART IMPLODE (cw: burning alive)

[bathymetric]

I must say, thank you all for sparing me an empty debate about the morality of making her take responsibility for her own actions. I was afraid one or two among you might be that exact brand of troublesome today. Either way, congratulations on voting correctly.

[ Just as it was last week, the lights slam out, leaving you alone in darkness at the bottom of the sea, literally and maybe metaphorically if this is hitting you particularly hard.

But even if you haven’t already been hit particularly hard, this might just do that for you, because the screens flick on and, sure enough, Alice Cullen is no longer among your number. If you want to, now’s the time to turn away.

The scene on the screens rises in… an old operating theater, with Alice strapped to a chair in front of an audience of hooded figures. They’re speaking among themselves in… well, Italian, just to make this whole weird scene even weirder. If you do happen to speak Italian (or… Latin, some of them are absolutely speaking Latin), you can catch a few words like “danger,” “the laws,” and “exposure.” But they all quiet down soon enough, as…

A massive spotlight is turned on from somewhere offscreen - that can’t be standard issue for an operating theater, can it? - and focused on Alice, causing her skin to… well, sparkle sure is the best word for it. It catches the light and glimmers, reflecting a pattern of specks of light all around her. ]

Alice Cullen.

[ The speaker is a very normal-looking man, surrounded by some other similarly very normal-looking people.

Alice finds, regrettably, that she’s been gagged and cannot speak. But from her body language alone, she's much less okay with this than the last killer to be executed here.

The man walks down to the floor of the theater, spotlight causing his skin to do the same as hers, and touches a hand to her face, just briefly. ]

You’ve broken the laws. Pity.

[ He turns away with a dramatic twirl of his cloak. ]

Let us cure her.

[ And just like that, a duo of younger-looking figures turn and, one hand on each side, flip a massive lever against the wall. The crackling of electricity is loud, and it only gets louder as it hits Alice full-force through the bindings of the chair, sending her convulsing violently. It takes longer than one might think - maybe that’s the vampire part of her at work - and then the man seemingly in charge storms over to the lever. ]

More! Come, now!

[ He grips the lever and manages to pull it even further, and the electrical flow seems to grow exponentially. All the cloaked figures remain still and silent as Alice bursts into flames and, like a piece of flash paper, is suddenly reduced to ash.

Alice Cullen is dead. The lights come back on behind you, and The Professor addresses you. ]

You’re all free to go. Good job.

[ladygeryon]

[Nira watches that whole thing quietly, with muted horror-and then when it's all over there's a long pause before she speaks up.]

...they were sparkling, right? You all saw that?