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

[karmas]

A theory. [She's standing in the courtroom, near the bench, as though she expects to be running the show, tapping one gloved finger against the wall.]

The great advantage of the staff is that we have no way to narrow them down. Therefore, they would necessarily avoid, at this point, any target that might lead to a theory that would accidentally implicate them. The ideal victim would be a victim who would not, in any way, lead back to one of them individually.

I would imagine that Charles Fei-ong was chosen as a victim because none, or very few, of the staff ever spoke to him. The same is likely true of Rayfa Padma Khura'in. I would propose, then, that at least for Charles, it is very unlikely one of his roommates is a member of the staff.

[antietam]

[ At least she's consistent about being kinda crazy... ]

That's hard to narrow down as well, though. Not at lot of people spoke to Charles and not a lot of people spoke to Rayfa. She was our roommate and even I didn't talk to her much, so...

I guess it'd make sense they'd want to target people like that, but it's still hard to gain anything from it.

[karmas]

It's certainly only a small narrowing. But as we don't know how many staff there are, is it not a relevant one?

Here's something else interesting to consider, Adam Parrish. Only two individuals voted last time. If votes are anonymous, I wonder why more of the staff wouldn't have voted, to ensure the right person was selected?

[antietam]

[ He nods, apparently he's thought about that question. ]

I think probably the other staff members didn't know. In my opinion, it implies there's some sort of boss. Someone who knows more—maybe the person who designed this system—than the other staff members who are just working under them.

... It also could be that they have a way of communicating with each other during trials, but that seems difficult to do.

[injectors]

Perhaps... the only reason they voted was to avoid Alvin's deal with Judy being fulfilled? And they didn't care about who was selected.

[It's only a theory, but the staff are purposely triggering the trials. They have to know what the risks are.]

Assuming she wasn't deceiving him, if all of us abstained then their numbers would have been revealed. The same would've happen if more of them decided to vote for someone.

[unnames]

Wait, so... I mean obviously they don't wanna get caught but--what's their actual goal here? Like--why are they even killing kids at all?

Why are they killing anyone at all?

Are they just going to try to kill all of us?

[Calm down, Jeff.]

[jackhole]

We're probably all going to die at this rate, yeah.

[ rhys is the world's best/worst pessimist. ]

[unnames]

[What the fuck rhys--]

What?! No! We're not going to all die!

[selfdenying]

[rhys what the heck]

I understand if you're feeling hopeless about the situation, but that's no reason to drag down everything with you.

[injectors]

Please don't say that.

[stop doing you, rhys.]

[subsisted]

[ lara's just. going stomp hard as possible as she can next to rhys' foot here and glare. jeffery is a teenager leave him alone???? ]

[daturah]

Maybe they're starting small, picking off people they think no one will miss. It doesn't take a lot of work or energy to prey on smaller targets.

Sooner or later, they're going to have to take risks. Right now, they might not feel like they have to.

[unnames]

But then--shouldn't we try to protect those people, or something?

We can't just keep letting this happen.

[karmas]

If their goal was to kill all of us, there are easier ways to do it. They do appear to have access to weapons we don't, after all. But yes - I imagine they wish us all to die. They're constrained, somehow.

[unnames]

See... that means something too then, right? Why are they only killing one person at a time?

[liven]

Isn't that the obvious goal, Jeff? As to why it's a goal, who knows, but it's already apparent.

[ she ticks things off on her fingers as she goes. ]

There's a program in place for a murder trial...and they're already aware of bugs, implying it has already seen use before. Death occurred very soon after we all awoke, and a second one has come, too. It's not one of us doing it for fun, because that would be a silly thing to do without any impetus, of which none has been given. So, the people murdering are connected to this place, right? This "Staff". And given no statement has been given, we can assume they will continue as they are.

However, if they are a limited number, our best option is probably to simply kill all of them before they kill all of us...or something.

[unnames]

... This is... this is crazy! It doesn't make any sense at all!

[He's helping.]

[unnames]

And my name isn't Jeff!

[tearable]

Calm down.

[ See? :D ]

We don't have the answers but we're working towards them. They won't be able to kill us all if we can find the staff members quickly. Their numbers will dwindle.

[unnames]

But...how many people are gonna die from now until then? There's gotta be something we can do to stop this from happening!

[estimated]

That's why we have to find out who they are, before they go through all of us.

[ jeff's tender heart is not hanging in there ]

[unnames]

[Jeff's tender heart is taking a beating]

... R-right. But...how are we gonna do that? I have no idea who it could be.

[tearable]

[ EVERYONE GET A LOAD OF THIS LADY.

For the most part, Elizabeth pays careful attention. Sure, she commands it, but there's something about the eloquence of how she presents the information that's almost calming? As if someone isn't panicked. ]

I would be inclined to agree, but as the numbers tick down, if this continues.... would that theory extend?

[ She doesn't want to argue with the woman!!! :( ]

[karmas]

No. [And yes, she's still calm, almost condescending in her calmness. She wags a finger at Liz with a smile.] You note I did not include Rayfa Padma Khurain's roommates as likely exempt. As we cannot know how many of them there are, we cannot assume there is even more than one room uninfected. But if any room was uninfected, it was the room belonging to Charles Fei-Ong.

[tearable]

[ you win this one! ]

I hope your assumption is correct. [ Seriously, because knowing our luck like five of them could be in Charles' room. ] If we go by that logic, then we still have a brunt of people to consider. I wish we knew what kind of staff this was. Slaughterers and secretaries are distinctively different.