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

[betraitor]

At least throwing some ideas out there might give us a push in the right direction.

[instead of just kind of skirting all the options.]

One or two sounds best to me. Not that the lovely Franziska doesn't have good points, I'm sure—but taking one person's word for it didn't really help us a couple of days ago. We could be sinking ourselves just as bad as option four.

[he wouldn't wish that on anyone either, honestly. he fucked it up last time around.]

[karmas]

Prosecutor von Karma.

Have I asked anyone to take my word for it? Have I not laid out my points in a logical fashion? But options one and two are acceptable to me.

[betraitor]

Prosecutor von Karma.

[except it's accompanied by a wink, so clearly he is taking her name request very seriously.]

Anyway, never said you did. I was just pointing out why I'm not too crazy about it, good reasons or not. Just trying to work out the best options for us, that's all, that's all.

[selfsufficiency]

So... hmmm, what should we do? Ask all the people who would be implicated under those options to defend themselves?

We could see if they make any obvious slip-ups... and hearing them talk could help us decide how to vote.

[betraitor]

If we do that, all we can do is see if someone slips up or really contradicts themselves or someone else. Not sure it'll get us anywhere, but it may be the best choice we've got if we're gonna get anything resembling a vote in time.

[antietam]

I agree. Just because someone is confident doesn't make what they say more true. Assuming she isn't staff, she knows the same as any of us.

[betraitor]

Pretty much. I'm not looking to point fingers, but it's the same thing as anything else. If she's staff, she could be throwing us off the the trail.

It goes for just about anyone right now, so agreeing to this as a group's probably our best bet. Least, I think so, but I usually work alone. These group projects aren't my forte, you know?

[chiseler]

And yet somehow you've been doing pretty okay getting everybody together as a group. Aren't you the one who suggested we all abstain? [He's looking up from his place on Adam's shoulder, but he seems pretty pleased with Alvin being Alvin. Dear god help them.]

Anyway I agree...we pick an avenue and focus on that to start knocking things out. If we have too many people focusing on too many "what ifs" we're gonna run out of time and nothing will change.

[betraitor]

What can I say? I guess my charming nature just does a good job of captivating an audience.

[if luke is going to encourage him, you're damn right that alvin's going to ham it up.

which is to say that he agrees with trying to focus on something because... nothing's getting done.]

[chiseler]

It can't be any worse than Rhys...being Rhys. Or Shijima going around asking for votes to change Jefferey's name. [Sorry guys. He likes them both, but his ass is also apparently on the line here.]

This...might be a bad thing to suggest, but I think we shouldn't focus too heavily on the first part that our killer is too frail to take on someone other than kids. Where I'm from, even children can take down people ten times their size. But there's a pattern in the way that the ankle bracelets keep disappearing.

Also I don't exactly like Ms. Von Karma's method since it's still just someone's opinion lightly wrapped up in some facts. We'd need more to go off of before seriously considering her list, don't you think?

[betraitor]

Not gonna argue that. I've seen some pretty strong kids too—ones that could pull off the crap we've seen if they weren't. You know. Really good kids.

[being a kid doesn't mean much of anything, and from the way this time in the complex is going, alvin sure as hell wouldn't rule it out.]

I think so too, kid. If we start just trying one person's word, we could either be taking the bait or something. We know there's probably more than one staff member—and they're probably trying to divert the killer, or killers from being caught. Loyalty and trust for a same goal, you know?

[chiseler]

Exactly my point. We're trained to be able to take down things like that so it's not a question of if it's possible. Of course it's possible.

[He's wary of some of the people in this complex, too. Are they hiding strengths they don't know about? It's possible. Normally he'd be fussed about someone calling him "kid" but all he can do is sort of frown and nod along. Alvin makes sense.]

That probably makes the most sense. It's like Adam said earlier, the staff members are probably about self-preservation. If they wanted to help themselves, they'd help each other from getting caught. I do kinda wish we knew how many there were. That would give us an idea on how they're divided.

[betraitor]

[it's a term of endearment, really.]

Yeah, knowing that would help us a hell of a lot right now. But a couple of people really screwed the pooch on getting us that, assuming Judy would have kept her world on it. If I had to guess, it's probably about five to ten people at most, but I've got nothing to back it up.

[chiseler]

I'm not fully convinced she would have, but I also don't trust people like her. [There are reasons, he won't go into it right now.] Ten seems like a really big number, but on the other hand that'd be good for them to kind of pad their group in case we start picking them off early. One of the other things I wish we could get Judy to tell us is how the staff members are chosen. There's a big difference in leads if it's based on a certain skill or if it's randomized. It's better to think bigger though just to be safe, I think. Less chances of a surprise later.

[betraitor]

I'd say it's around eight. Enough to monitor each room at night and enough voices of dissent to sway people's opinions if they start to stray into their dangerous territory.

[he wants to know all the same things luke does, honestly.] If Judy won't spill on how many they are, I doubt we're gonna get anything else about the staff without an even heavier bargain, though.

[chiseler]

[Hm...]

Eight also gives an even number so they can watch each other's backs. But go back a sec. What kind of heavier bargain do you think could work for something like this?

[betraitor]

The hell if I know. Becoming staff, putting our lives on the line, betraying the people we're trying to protect? You know how dirty they're willing to play.

[chiseler]

Makes you wonder if any of us would go that far just to get some leverage. The people here...everybody wants answers and everybody's a little scared. Are you?

[betraitor]

Terrified. Not too proud to admit, but even as a mercenary, I'm not all that into putting my life on the line for a job. Having leverage is good, but if the cost is something that's gonna kill me in the end, it sure as hell wouldn't be worth it to me. At least with the way things are now, we could have a fighting chance without selling our souls to the devil or something.

[he's a coward.]