trial #2

[judgejudy]

DAY 4 (afternoon) Complex Population: 32 At noon, the same tone from the morning rings out, and Judy's voice filters out over the intercom. "Good afternoon, residents. As per Safety Protocol 6227-A, it is time to conduct a trial to bring justice for the victim. Please proceed to the courtroom on the first level." Just as at night, if you don't go to the courtroom, you'll be treated to an electric shock of increasing strength until you go to the courtroom or are unconscious. Though considering the ominous penalty for not participating in a trial, you should likely just go rather than risk not voting because you've been knocked out by your own stubbornness... Once you're in the courtroom, you'll find that bottled water and light snacks are provided, but otherwise you'll have to bring anything else you may need. As you come to your conclusions about who to vote for, you can step into the judgement theater to cast your vote at the terminal. You may change your vote as many times as you'd like, but at 7PM, your vote (or lack thereof) is locked in. You have until 7PM to discuss and vote for who you think the murderer is. — ic rulebook character statuses character profiles Voting will close at 9PM EST on 10/15. voting

Comments

[selfsufficiency]

[Alice isn't in a very good mood and hasn't been since the glass broke. Her bleeding has stopped, but now some of her hair where she got hit is choppy and uneven, and that bothers her. The fact that it could have been worse than it is doesn't pacify her at all.

Once they're inside the courtroom, she stalks right on over to where the water and drinks are set up, grabs a bottle, and puts her hand over her mouth for a moment before taking a quick swig. Then she tuns to address the others.]

So both of the people who have been killed so far have some things in common - they're kids, they're small, and whoever did it chopped a foot off from both of them. Is there any way we can use that to narrow down who might have done it?

[selfdenying]

Possibly someone who feels they can't overpower someone through sheer strength? If they're choosing younger people who can't defend themselves adequately...

[Alfendi is here, back to his mild-mannered self - the gash across his nose is noticeable, but it's stopped bleeding.]

This time the foot wasn't removed from the premises, though. I wonder why?

[selfsufficiency]

Someone else who's small, then. Or someone without a lot of experience with fighting.

[They could look at the profiles and try and narrow it down that way, maybe, but that would take time and - quick, Alfendi, dodge! She's about to sneeze again!

...this cold sure sucks. Alice grumbles and rubs at her nose with the back of her hand, sniffling.]

Maybe they didn't feel like lugging it around until they could drop it into the fountain this time.

[selfdenying]

It could also be someone strong who just doesn't want to exert a lot of effort.

[He does sidestep with a grimace - please don't give him your germs, Alice!]

Maybe...still, it also brings up the question of where they were even hiding the first foot in the first place. I did see blood in the technology lab on one of the terminals...

[selfsufficiency]

If you're going to go to all the trouble of killing someone, why stop there?

[Go big or go home, basically... Look, Alice would stop sneezing if she could, okay!!]

The foot was already in the fountain when all of us came out of our rooms the morning the lab opened up, right? So someone must have been out walking around at night again. They could have hidden it in the lab overnight, I guess.

[liven]

It would help if we knew what everyone was getting from the damn machine...unfortunately, I somehow doubt that information will be made available to us. As to asking everyone, people could easily lie.

[ also. STOP TARGETING SMALL PEOPLE, SHIJIMA IS NOT A FAN OF THIS TREND for entirely biased personal reasons. ]

It's pretty clear they're interested in the ankle things. Maybe they're going for the people they think would be easy kills?

[selfsufficiency]

Yeah, they could.

[Alice frowns, thinking about it.]

...but I didn't see anything like what was used to kill them available in the machine, did you? There was a bat, but no nails... and I didn't see any knives.

Was there anyone who showed more interest in the ankle monitors than the rest of us when we got here?

[liven]

There was a scalpel, but it would produce different cuts than these.

[ she shrugs. ]

As to the monitors, a lot of people seemed interested in them. I don't see how they'd be of use to anyone who didn't know a thing about computers, though. Can that help narrow it down?

[selfsufficiency]

It was cleaner than the kind of cut a sword would make, too.

[Which... possibly clears Kei...??]

If whoever is taking them is trying to use them for something, I think that does. There's no point gathering them if they don't know enough about that kind of thing to make use of them.

[injectors]

Unless someone in this room is willing to admit having a fixation with children and feet — I'm not certain it would help us narrow this down so easily.

[Though, please go ahead and confess, resident foot fetishist.]

[selfsufficiency]

Well, we have to think about - [don't mind her as she turns away for a moment to sneeze] ...ugh. Think about why they're going after kids instead of adults.

It might just be that they don't have the skill needed to take down someone stronger than them, right?

[injectors]

Assuming both murders were perpetuated by the same person and that both victims were awake at the time, it might be just that. That, or perhaps regardless of the killer's strength, children are easier to... [ugh] drag out of their room and maim. But constructing a list of who would fit the former criteria might be a good start.

[The staff needs to start picking acceptable targets instead of this shit. That said—]

... By the way, are you alright?

[With the sneezing and glass shattering, man.]

[selfsufficiency]

...let's do that, then. We can start questioning people on the list and maybe we'll get something out of them-

[And she's cut off by another sneeze.]

Ugh. I had a sore throat last night, and then I woke up like this this morning. It's really annoying.

[modissty]

[rip in pieces alice's hair.]

Mm... I don't know about any commonalities with the feet, but it could be plausible that the person killing these children either isn't very strong, or is feigning that they aren't to get people guessing improperly.

[selfsufficiency]

[Someone better help her fix it up later or she's gonna throw a fit.]

Which do you think is more likely?

[modissty]

[He'll offer to do that later okay fOCUS ON MURDER FOR NOW ALICE--]

Without understanding the temperament of everyone here, it's difficult to say... Perhaps the latter? If only because they seem to have no troubles sawing off feet.

[selfsufficiency]

If they could get into that room with all the saws, though... those machines seemed really powerful. I mean, even someone my size would be able to use them no problem.

[Ugh, this is hard.]

But if we're looking for someone who's disguising how strong they are... should we question the people who are obviously strong?

[where's bigby]

[tearable]

Could they be building something?

[ HEAR HER OUT. ]

That workshop opened up around the same time... it got me thinking. We have limited resources to do much of anything - those starting kits included. If they could tinker with the bracelets, since they seem electrical, perhaps they're just part of some bigger plan?

[injectors]

[Well...]

There was blood found on one of the terminals in the workshop, wasn't there? It's not implausible.

[selfsufficiency]

...so then, who here has the know-how to try and take apart the monitors and build something from them?

[FROWNS... her first thought it "Rhys" because robots, but...]

[jackhole]

[ okay this actually gets him to question because he's touchy about people being cooler at building stuff than him ]

But building what? All the stuff here is -- it's ancient. [ FOR HIM ] And why would they need to build anything in the first place? Since they have, like, everything apparently.

[tearable]

Maybe there's clauses we don't know.

[ Elizabeth says with a shrug. ]

Whatever they may be building, there has to be some electrical component to it. The bracelets have to offer something that nothing else here does - which is why the poor sap chosen loses a foot every time.

[ She's not bob the builder, but there's something valuable at them. She lifts her own ankle, looking at it. ]

What do you do when you're missing something for a recipe? [ She smiles sweetly. ] You have your eggs, your yeast, whatever else , but one thing is expired or missing...? You go shopping or improvise.

[ There's a sigh as she explains, pushing her hair carefully out of her face. ]

If they're here with us, what if they can't leave the complex, only have reign over it? That would put them into a spot where they have to improvise.

[karmas]

The choice of target is odd, to say the least. [Franziska actually looks a little unsettled; much more than she might have seemed in the week past.] Last week, did we not fixate on the wrong individual because we assumed a grudge may have been the motive? And that led us to the wrong target.

Yet, the target this week is someone against whom there would not have been any grudge.

[selfsufficiency]

Right. So... why her?

[Alice wrinkles her nose.]

Either whoever did it just likes killing kids, or they don't care who they kill and she was a convenient choice somehow.

[karmas]

My assumption would be that Miss Rayfa Padma Khura'in kept to herself. Given that last week, accusations turned on encounters with the victim, the victim was someone none of the staff would have encountered.