WEEK 5

[bathymetric]

That's three murders now - and this last trial got more than slightly out of hand. It looks like you might be in for another tough week... or at least, maybe that's just the refusal of this place to change too much. You lose Saturday again, but maybe six-day weeks are starting to feel normal by now. Who knows? The cycle of day and night continues apace, changing so little.

Speaking of change, though, there's a new area to look through, the biggest and most complex yet. And the end of one wing of the facility, from the looks of it - though you can probably guess where more areas might start to open up.

And speaking of opening up (segues!), this week if you're out particularly late, you might sometimes see Angel out and about! So hey, maybe change is on the horizon.

Just gotta hope it's a change for the better, don't you?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 5! Remember to turn in AC here, threads for regain coins here, and if you feel so inclined you can visit Angel's office hours over here! Or, if you want Angel to come to you, that's now an option! Simply put a prompt after lights-out into your toplevel and indicate you want Angel in the subject line, same as investigations! ]

Comments

vending machine

[mouflon]

[ wh

what's going on, Ema ]

Having a good time in there?

[snackooed]

[ She was so caught up in the euphoria of having luminol that for a moment she lived in a world where they aren't being coerced into killing one another-- ]

You bet! Take a look at this!

[ She practically shoves the bottle at her. Watch out--

LUMINOL: Chemi-luminescence Forensic Test for Detection of Trace Amounts of Blood. This is only a presumptive test for blood. It will not discriminate between human and non-human species. Analytical testing should follow to characterize sample origin. ]

I know I've said before that fingerprinting is the best part of the job, but luminol testing is just as good! Oh, how could I have picked a favorite?!

[mouflon]

[ Rin steps back from the bottle like she's dodging a punch. ]

...I guess this is the kind of personality it takes for someone to become a forensic investigator...

[ Like, she appreciates having Ema around in this situation, but. Isn't it a little weird to get this into investigating murder?? ]

[snackooed]

Oh, come now, you really don't think it's even a little bit fascinating, Rin? You can scrub and scrub and scrub away at a bloodstain, but this thing picks up even the tiniest hint of the iron ions found in hemoglobin, and that color blue! Scientifically speaking, it's just radiant!

[ ...Uh huh. ]

Of course, I do hope that I won't have to use it, but! With this, I can be so, so much more thorough!

[mouflon]

I'm not saying it isn't useful. [ Just that it's weird to be excited about crime scenes!! ] But I do wonder if the Professor will actually give us enough time to use it... Do you have to let luminol sit for a while before it starts picking up traces of blood?

[snackooed]

Au contraire! As a matter of fact, it picks it up extremely quickly, right when it touches those traces!

[ But, that being said... ]

Once it actually starts to glow, you only have it for about thirty seconds before the blue fades. But you can always just spray it again after it fades, and in fact, you're often encouraged to.

[mouflon]

Huh. That actually would be a big help on investigations, then... So long as we actually get a criminal who thinks to clean up after themselves, anyway.

[snackooed]

See? Now you get why I was so excited! It's the sort of thing that'll be a huge help, should we need it!

[ And if we don't, well, that's all the better! ]

[mouflon]

I don't know if I'd go that far. [ But she's... smiling? Maybe? ] It still seems pretty weird to have a favorite part of investigating murder, to me.

[snackooed]

Well, it's not as though the murder the exciting part. Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, in its own way...

[ She absolutely wants to make sure that she isn't downplaying that. Even still... ]

But I've always felt like...I don't know, it's like I'm getting a glimpse into the truth this way. Like there's a whole world that I wouldn't normally be able to see, but with a dash of powder or a spray of chemicals, it's there, and it's waiting for me to discover it. And when I do, that's one step closer to knowing the whole story.

[mouflon]

To be honest, I don't really get it. [ Rin has some admiration for the idea of the truth, but if she's being perfectly honest, that's more about the Harways hiding the truth from people than any particular connection to the ideal for its own sake. ] But it's been a real help having you around, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

[ That's like... almost a compliment? ]

[snackooed]

I think it's just because...well, in my line of work, you see every day what happens when people don't have all of the facts. And since all adversarial litigation got cut down to three days, the number of incarcerations has been higher than ever. Not only that, there are so many people in this system who will go so far as to skew evidence to fit their narrative, or to push their own agenda...

I don't have any patience for people like that. The more things that hide on a crime scene that I can drag out of the dark, the better the odds will be that the truth will come out. Of course, it's a personal pleasure as well, to show people just how amazing science can be, but...if there's a reason I didn't give up on it, even when the going got tough, it's because I think the world needs it.

[mouflon]

[ Okay, so all of that is very cool, and Rin can get into the spirit of most of it, but before all of that— ]

Three days?

[snackooed]

They changed the law about...close to fifteen years ago, at this point? My sister had only just graduated law school a year or so before. The "powers that be" decided that the judges had too big of a caseload nationwide, and had to devote too much time to each case. The three day system seriously expedited things, because now they can process detainees far more quickly...but it also makes litigation a lot more down to the wire. Especially in homicide cases.

It makes my job a fair bit more important.

[mouflon]

How bad are the crime rates where you come from?! I know some countries are strict, but three days to decide a big case is ridiculous...!

[snackooed]

It depends on where you go, honestly. In the heart of Los Angeles, though, as you can imagine, we keep busy. Personally, I'm not so sure it was the right solution myself, given the toll that it takes on the attorneys and the police...not to mention the accused.

Thankfully, though, they seem open to change. It wasn't long ago that we had our first test run of a jury system, after all.

[mouflon]

What do you mean, first test run of a jury system...?!

[ Even in the dystopian wasteland of cyberpunk 2033, America's legal system isn't this bad?! ]

Let me get this straight! You just have— No matter how high profile or complicated the crime is, you just have one guy give a verdict, after only giving a window of three days to present evidence?!

[ HELP HER??? ]

[snackooed]

See why it's such a big deal? Three days of trial, three days of testimony, all heard by one judge. Guilty until proven innocent.

[ Welcome to Japanifornia, 2028. ]

Of course, in rare circumstances, it's possible to file an appeal to try and get the verdict overturned, but those are rarely granted. And even if they are, it's even more rare to actually hear of a case where a "guilty" turns into a "not guilty".

[mouflon]

I feel like I'm going to regret asking this, but... How does the appeals process work if one is granted?

[ She's expecting an answer to be a one day hearing, for the record! ]

[snackooed]

They usually only happen if there's some kind of problem with the initial hearing. Like, if the attorney was deemed ineffective, or if there was some kind of error major enough to potentially change the verdict...they're still three days, but heard in the same court.

[mouflon]

Wow. With the standards you set me up to expect, that's actually more generous than I would have expected.

What if new evidence comes to light?

[snackooed]

Actually, there's a statute of limitations of fifteen years, in cases like that. But it's not always easy to get a judge to hear the case with the new evidence in mind. I've...

[ Hm. ]

The one time I've actually seen it happen for myself, it was substantially related to another matter that was at trial.

[mouflon]

What is that supposed to mean?

[snackooed]

To put it simply, over the course of a newer case, certain facts about an older one came to light. Getting to the truth of the new case necessitated revisiting the facts of the old one, so what essentially happened was that both cases were heard simultaneously... It's a bit of a long story, and it's not quite the norm, but it does happen.

[mouflon]

[ Rin is, but this point, actually pressing her fingers to her temples. ]

That shouldn't happen either... Doesn't that bias the results?!