trial #3

[judgejudy]

DAY 6 (afternoon) Complex Population: 27 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 10/22. voting

Comments

[liven]

Sloppy work on his part, still...

[ stop criticizing the apparent assassin??? ]

...but this is the story as he told it to all of us before he had time to even think about anything, and I believe all the evidence lines up. So I'll say I concur with this series of events, because I do.

[estimated]

Oh! You're right.

[ whoops...

there was something else that he wanted to bring up, which actually ended up refuted by bigby's story, so he'll leave this for now. ]

[modissty]

Someone told him to...? I couldn't think of anyone that he would listen to if they simply told him to do that.

[liven]

That means nothing. Man of the sword or no, he could have been coerced or persuaded in a million different ways. No person is above being brought down to a lower level, and I will not accept that sort of defense.

Humans like to think themselves or others beyond reproach, but ideals like "honor" and "good" are simply better stories they tell than the less palatable ones. All of them are simply stories, however.

[grimdeity]

On a meteor with several aliens from a planet where such violence is not only par for the course, but encouraged.

[ just... says that, casually. ]

But also, people are known for killing than less than a squabble, aren't they? Love, money, pleasure, the list goes on.

[liven]

Of course I am.

[ PREENS...

she's taking that as praise ig... ]

[selfsufficiency]

[Alice stands nearby with Leo draped over her shoulders, watching people's reactions to Bigby's explanation and tightly gripping one of the water bottles provided for refreshment during the trial.]

This all lines up with what I saw when I woke up, too. It was completely self-defense, so nobody better get any dumb ideas here.

[selfsufficiency]

Well, it happened, so think harder!

[liven]

Unless Judy says otherwise to those questions, I will agree with this way of thinking. As to Franziska...I believe it could have gone either way, actually.

[ she shifts, crossing her arms, as she explains. at least she still seems to be keeping her "fine i guess i'll help in trials" promise to bigby, though at least half of what she's said that hasn't been defending him has been playing devil's advocate. ]

That woman absolutely was the sort of person who had absolute confidence in her ability to do things. I do not think that means she absolutely had that ability. Either she was overconfident as was her apparent nature, and the staff assumed as you did she was one of the six...or she really did have the ability to protect others and was an idiot who played her hand too soon.

Those are the only two options. Without confirmation on the count of people on either side, we can't say for sure just yet.

[grimdeity]

I don't think any reasonable person could fault you for your actions, at least.

[ all evidence points to self-defense, so. ]

A favor, hm? That's certainly curious. Have you made any enemies, perhaps?

[modissty]

It's not a defense I'm looking to provide. I'm only attempting to determine what could have caused Kei to act like this...

But if it's about coercion or persuasion, I can't tell you any more than I already have. If Kei was speaking to anyone privately, then he was doing it very, very carefully. I didn't notice anything strange about him in the time leading up to this morning, nor did I see him speaking with anyone.

[tearable]

[ Elizabeth is trying her best here and no one can fault her for it. Despite her lingering suspicions about everyone... things don't add up. He was mangled and even Shijima can confirm that there was nothing immediately offputting. Bloody mouth or otherwise.

She listens to his full testimonial, wincing a bit near the end. ]

This lines up to what he's told me as well, even in a drunken and pained stupor. The only thing we have to be concerned with is more than one killer since I doubt that Kei boy - who was not working alone, it seems - was unable to kill Franziska.

[ But, focused to Bigby: ]

He gave no other implication on what this "favor" may be?

[liven]

[ ... ]

I've decided I still like you.

[ congrats? ]

Also, I believe a great number of us are skilled liars, unfortunately...what a pain.

[modissty]

[HE'S DOIN HIS BEST HERE ALICE.]

Mm... If it's something like this, I imagine what he was told was more important than who told it to him. Based on personality alone, I couldn't hazard a guess as to who he might have trusted. He's a prickly individual, so it's difficult enough to imagine him striking up friendships.

[becauseimacoward]

With your teeth?!

[The hell? You know what, nevermind. Let's focus on something else]

I can't shake the feeling the fact you were targeted inside the apartment is odd. The staff members had been careful not to spill blood anywhere else other than the room we see the bodies, for you to be attacked in the room...

...either something strange is going on with the staff, or the person Kei was doing this for wanted you to die and didn't care where.

[At least he's taking the testimony at face value]

Any idea why you'd be attacked?

[puffing]

[ OOPS he kind of provided his testimony here, but Bigby will go ahead and respond to Dojima directly for a follow-up. ]

Like I said, I was woken from the sword belonging to Kei piercing through me. There's nothing normal about any of this shit, but you're right. It deviated from how things have been handled until today. We can't even consider that the prosecutor's death is the same at this rate.

[becauseimacoward]

Would one of those six make themselves such an obvious target?

[Because if there was something Dojima was sure about was that Franziska would be attacked]

[estimated]

[ poor liz... but he nods, and then lets out a frustrated sigh — at how little they really know about what's going on around them. ]

We don't even know what those six can do. For all I know, they could be worse than the staff members themselves.

[ you know, playing russian roulette with the remaining residents' lives, which is actually a pretty good way of putting it. ]

Maybe they had some kind of grudge against Bigby and wanted to put Kei's life on the line, instead of theirs. Or maybe they were a staff member themselves, and wanted to use Kei to wipe their hands free of guilt. Either way, there's cowardice involved in Kei being sent off on his own.

[modissty]

[DAMN he's moving up in the ranks now. He looks briefly surprised, but politely nods, at least...]

Thank you...? [Still a hint of a question in his tone though because Shijima, why.]

To me, he seemed like a straightforward person, so it's difficult to imagine him being good at lying... But if the evidence lines up with what Bigby is saying, then certainly, some level of deceit was involved. I just can't determine where it may have begun or what it might have led to.

[puffing]

[ apartment #7 da best

love you guys ]

[liven]

Perhaps he believed his reasons were straightforward. I do believe the evidence points to Bigby's account being true, however.

[ and she was. there when they woke up in the crime scene so???? ]

I do not know that speculating about people's motives is exactly helpful. We still have no idea why Luke was doing any of this, or if he was doing it of his own free will, for example. I think the idea that we ought to assume the Staff are out to get us simply for their own pleasure is perhaps a little naive...there are undoubtedly deeper levels to this game than any of us know, even them. It makes the question of "why" a rather stupid one.

[selfsufficiency]

[NOT GOOD ENOUGH... god i'm so sorry she's really buttmad that someone she likes got attacked]

But from what you said it's also difficult to imagine him killing someone for no reason, so he had to have one.

[puffing]

[ that gets him laughing. and then wincing. hard. remember, everything hurts right now. it sucks not being a superpowered wolf in disguise. ]

Diva, maybe? But I don't think I need to worry about her sending people from beyond the grave for payback. Otherwise, maybe people just wanted me to shut the fuck up during trials more often. Or if the guy that told Kei to do this isn't staff, he had something that he wanted done about me that he couldn't say in the trial.

―Real eager to hear that opinion if he's listening, by the way.

[modissty]

Mm... That does sound possible, with what I knew of him. [Kei believing his reasons to be straightforward, that is.] I wasn't able to take a look at much besides Kei's body, myself, and I haven't had the chance to speak to Bigby either, but it seems like most agree that his account is truthful.

Still, I'm uncertain how we could narrow down people he may have spoken to without trying to examine the "why". [ALSO WHY CALL IT A GAME SHIJIMA PLEASE] Unless someone else saw him speaking with someone, what other leads do we have?

[puffing]

I didn't really... give him the chance to talk much more. [ he points with his good hand towards his own throat. can't talk when it's been chewed open, after all. ] It was all heat in the moment. Even I didn't want it to go down as fast as it did, pissed or otherwise. We needed answers and he was one of our only chances at something.