62 | trial #3

trial #3

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.

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[Shaking his head!]

No, he wasn't acting any differently than he usually does. I wasn't with him every moment of the day, but doing something like this at all... I'm not certain how well he could have hidden it. I did share the couch with him, though. He was there when I went to sleep last night.

Then why was he in our room when we woke up today? Why did he attack Bigby?! Ugh, this doesn't make any sense!

I knew people here couldn't be trusted.

"Why"...Bigby has been one of those persons trying to figure things out in each of our two trials. Doesn't that make him something of a threat to the people running about killing everyone?

I'm just glad that man got a surprise when he tried to hurt him.

[#keideservedit]

...at least we know for sure this means Bigby isn't staff.

Most likely.

I don't know the answer to either of those things... To be honest, I didn't know Kei very well, but... he seemed a man of honor to me, so I can't make sense of this.

[He doesn't make a remark on the people not being trusted part though since boy howdy any argument he'd cast out against that would be dead in the water with their current circumstances.]

Some people thought Luke was a trustworthy fellow, as well.

[ tbh everyone here is a lying liar who lies ]

[Shijima and Alice for the dang dirty realists squad.]

...True enough. Even so, he was a man of the sword. [Y'know those #samurai types.] To think that he'd throw away his honor over this...

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.

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.

[ ... ]

I've decided I still like you.

[ congrats? ]

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

[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.

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.

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?

The "why" involves things we cannot ever know, does it not? The leads come down to what we can infer. Who did Luke and Kei spend time with? Who did they trust? What did they say in trials, and who agreed or disagreed with them? I do not think Franziska was wrong in her path of logic - she did point to Luke with it, though also to innocents - but I can't say I have always paid close enough attention to be certain of the answers.

All we can truly do is say who we find suspicious and for what reasons. The motives those people would have to do the suspicious things are rather hard to say.

[He seems to be considering that, but hey, it's a way better starting point than he had... He nods after a few seconds.]

Then it really is just a matter of behavioral and conversational patterns... For Kei, at least, I can't think of any strong opinion he voiced outside of his disdain for the execution system.

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liven - 2016-10-22 17:46 (UTC) - Expand

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modissty - 2016-10-22 17:50 (UTC) - Expand

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liven - 2016-10-22 17:51 (UTC) - Expand

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modissty - 2016-10-22 17:57 (UTC) - Expand

Apparently someone told him to go after Bigby. Who would he even respect enough to carry out that order even knowing that if he succeeded he might get caught in one of these trials?

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

Well, it happened, so think harder!

[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.

[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.

[it's okay they can all take a nice long nap after this if they survive]

I believe that I can say "yes" to that with more certainty. Kei wouldn't attack someone with no reason at all, though I can't imagine what his reason might have been.

[naptime......

Alice clearly doesn't think whatever his reason is will be good enough to explain why he attacked Bigby, but... for once in her life, she holds her tongue.]

It's going to be hard to get anyone to admit to being the one who had him do it, too.

[Alice... She used all of her self-restraint in this one move, didn't she.]

For good reason. [Sakyou is personally inclined to kick their ass and then die so he can go to the graveyard and kick Kei's ass too.] If we weren't able to find anyone who might be staff today, but we knew who that person was, they would certainly be a contender for the execution.

I hope we find that person.

[Alice's eyes light up with malice.]

We could try and get them to talk first. We could break their fingers one... by one... by one... ♡