trial #4

[judgejudy]

DAY 8 (afternoon) Complex Population: 19 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 10/29. voting

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judy

[judgejudy]

[ If you have a question you need to ask Judy during the trial, simply approach the bench. Apparently, that's all it takes, since she'll answer any questions you have through the intercom for everyone to hear. ]

[injectors]

Judy, do you have control over the collars Rhys and I have gained overnight?

[selfsufficiency]

You said one of the people who died was a Security Officer. What does that entail, exactly? Was he one of the people who could hand out weapons?

[Because if so she's going to feel a small measure of happiness knowing he's dead because she's still butthurt about Bigby getting attacked I guess.]

Or was his job something else?

[selfdenying]

Judy...that announcement from before. You said "four killers"...was each murder done by a separate person?

[grimdeity]

Judy, I don't suppose you can tell us whether the murders, the arson, and the stabbings are connected? If one of the murderers committed one or both of the other crimes, or some such?

[jackhole]

[ because shijima asked him to, basically. ]

Judy, can we end the trial early? The votes are uh, mostly for me right now, right?

[selfsufficiency]

Judy. If Rhys is executed, will Angel die as well?

[Well, if the "you just have to ask her" wasn't meant to be a clue, she's sure going to take it as one anyway.]

[selfsufficiency]

[Once they're all gathered inside, Alice attempts to get everyone's attention with a crack of the whip. Luckily, their numbers have thinned out enough that she's not hitting anyone with it - just the floor.]

Okay, listen up. Anyone who found a body? Tell us what you found and where, just we're all on the same page.

[For the ease of organizing information maybe we can just reply to this toplevel with corpse info and start discussions from the replies? idk]

[injectors]

Dazai, Steve and I found Dickson dead inside our apartment. He has injuries that matched his sabre and his neck had been snapped, but... We also found a trail of blood leading outside of our apartment. He could have been brought back from elsewhere.

[Stating the facts, though she seems deeply uncomfortable while doing so. It might have to do with the collar currently attached to her neck, however.]

[selfsufficiency]

[She crosses her arms, keeping her grip firm on the whip's handle.]

I found Paladin Danse in the technology lab. He'd had his throat slit messily - [She brings up one of her hands to mime a cut across the jugular, then crosses her arms again.] - and there was a saw nearby that was still plugged in but not running.

It looked like someone had shot a nearby terminal and there were footprints in the blood, but it also looked like whoever left them smudged them to make their feet look bigger than they are.

As you might expect, there was blood everywhere.

[and she's personally offended she didn't get to take part, honestly]

[tearable]

[ She's been patched up fairly well with the wound on her hip, but she opts to stay seated.

Alice with the whip is entirely amusing. ]

Veronica... I found Veronica chopped - chopped into disgusting pieces in the operating theatre. The entire area was bloody - nothing else really to note.

[selfdenying]

[He's just swaying a little in place - his head is pounding and it's hard to think, but he'll do his best right now to stay focused.]

Hitsugi is dead. She was...beaten up pretty badly. I don't know with what. But I can't exactly show you the damn body because a bomb - [He shoots a glare at Steve.] - was under her body when I looked at it. Almost killed me, the stupid thing.

She's pretty much just in pieces, now.

[mansplains]

What the hell went on last night? How many people are we down?

[karachan]

Dazai and I found...Mitsutada in the atrium fountain. [ He is Not Happy to having to say that but here we are. ONTO THE DETAILS... ] He was face down, floating in the water that was a deep bled red at the time and there was a bottle of "antifreeze" there.

When I went to retrieve the body it...exploded. [ If it wasn't evident by the amount of shrapnel injuries Ookurikara is sporting today over much of his torso though they've been carefully and neatly bandaged by actual bandages thanks to Dazai. ] Dazai pieced together that Mitsutada was killed with a bat. ...His sword wasn't immediately on his body either, it was left off to the side as if someone took it from him. [ He is also now sporting Mitsutada's sword along with his own on his hip today. ] Other than that there's nothing else.

call out post for traitor bitches

[injectors]

If I may have everyone's attention—

[Even with the collar currently strapped to her neck, she still retains the ability to demand attention when the need arises. She's squared her shoulders, attempting to look more confident than she's feeling right now. This is all so messy.]

As we know now, there were two feats of technological ingenuity this morning. One, the bomb that destroyed Hitsugi's corpse. Two, the collars currently attached to Rhys and I. [She's briefly touching her neck, her anxiety flaring, but pushes on.] And while you do not need to be particularly skilled to construct a homemade bomb, the same could not be said for these collars. I have reason to believe they are constructed from the monitors taken by the staff, after all.

[The electrical shocks, the appearance... Everything. Ugh. That said, she casts a glance around the room, expression grim.]

Coincidentally, two individuals in this room have "engineering" listed as one of their skills. Jack, who I relinquished control of Lara and Luke's monitors to the other day. And Rhys, who as many others have indicated, is under suspicion.

[A beat, and then...]

... I truly do not wish to implicate either of them, but if they are responsible for this— [The bombs. The collars. She clenches her hands, nails digging into her skin and voice turning venomous.] Then they deserve all that may be coming to them.

[Yeah. Pro-tip: Don't slap a collar around the girl who has lived imprisoned for years and has been used as a tool (as a shield) by her abuser, you sick fucks.]

[mansplains]

What exactly happened? You just woke up with that attached to your neck?

[Guy wants to take a closer look but alas, vaginas]

[newlugers]

I was wondering about that...

[ ... but since she also has weird ports on the side of her head, he figured they might be related?? #stevelogic. ]

Where'd that come from? You just woke up with it on?

[selfsufficiency]

[Alice presses her lips together into a thin line as she listens to Angel. It solidifies her already-existing suspicions, of course - Rhys hadn't been her primary target in the last trial, but he sure is now, because he's been suspicious from the start and the people who were acting more suspiciously than him aren't around anymore.]

A couple of other things to keep in mind...

Last time, Jacky seemed pret-ty intent on making sure we didn't jump straight into torturing people for information, didn't he? If he is a staff member, then he could have just been looking out for himself by doing that.

On the other hand... Rhys. He's acted sort of suspiciously from the start, he's got all the right skills, and last time, he said something about not wanting to consider people with technological skills because people don't like him so he might get voted for. If that's the case, it would make sense that he would tie himself to Angel with that collar, since people who might vote for him might reconsider doing it if it would mean taking her down too.

[tearable]

If they have the technical know-how to build it, surely it can be dismantled the same way. Why haven't they been removed yet?

[ That's an interesting question. If someone wants to condemn Jack and Rhys... she wants to focus on getting the collars off Rhys and Angel. ]

We need to get them off of you and Rhys - that underlining threat should be our concern.

[heroizes]

[ Jack definitely perks up when the accusation comes, since he half expects it, all things considered. It's fair, but all the same, his expression hardens when Angel's tone turns venomous. ]

Wh- You think, you really think that I'd use that ankle monitor that you friggin' gave me, make that, and slap it on your neck?

[ He scoffs and shakes his head ]

You're crazy, kiddo. I wouldn't- I wouldn't do that to an innocent girl. [ :) ]

[betraitor]

[not that he's terribly interested in being the one to speak up right now, but someone has to about this, alvin guesses.]

Maybe before we go pointing fingers— [lookin' at u, alfendi] We should see if there's any common threads or things really out of the ordinary here.

Five people are dead. A bunch of us woke up hurt and with apartments on fire. Something's gotta tie at least some of this together, so maybe we can narrow it down without blindly accusing people first.

[tearable]

Two of the bodies were secured with some bomb and both of them beaten - correct? Most of us have been stabbed with small wounds?

[ There's a bit of hesitance in her voice, but. ]

Pretty interesting that Rhys visited the commissary for a baseball bat, battery and scalpel fairly early into our arrival here.

[ She looks to Alvin with a narrowed expression. ]

...Is that accusation enough?

[becauseimacoward]

About Rhys...

[Dojima takes out a cigarrete but doesn't light it up. This is no place for smoking, after all]

It does sound like he's responsible for Kirigaya and Mitsutada's deaths, or at the very least was an accomplice to them, making the bodies explode.

I don't think he's a staff member, though.

[He pauses for a moment, thinking it twice before talking. The logic isn't completely sound, but it seems worth talking about]

Let's suppose Rhys isn't staff and killed them, later fixing up the bombs on the bodies. We have all this evidence that points at him. What would the staff do? In my opinion I think they'd take advantage of Rhys' guilty status by making sure his death would bring down an innocent person as well.

That's why I think the collars were strapped on him and Angel. I think the staff are the ones to blame for that.

[In that case, wouldn't Jack be a likely staff suspect? There's nothing pointing at him directly, though]

I'm not saying to let Rhys go, if he's guilty - which looks increasingly likely - but I think we may be playing right into the staff's hands by voting for him. It'd mean this hypothetical plan worked.

I'm hoping I'm wrong, though. If we don't have other suspects or leads then voting for Rhys seems safe enough, in terms of catching a murderer.

[liven]

I think the collars are actually more likely proof of his guilt as a staff member. It's more likely that it's an attempt to get us not to kill him than it is an attempt to take down an innocent as well.

[jackhole]

[ OKAY he's awake!! with probably a bit of a yell as he jerks upright and blinks at the rest of you fuckers throwing shade here. he didn't mean to fall asleep but you know, sometimes you just gotta. he rubs his eye and yawns, arms crossing over his chest as he settles back into his seat and leans to his side to ask jack, who he's probably sitting next to like a moron -- ]

So, what's... going on? Who's getting lynched?

[ because rhys is an innocent business boy who did nothing wrong and you guys are overreacting and oh my god why was i away from the internet so long ]

[liven]

You, basically.

[ well at least she's to the point ]

[tearable]

[ Elizabeth isn't going to stand up from her chair the entire trial. Her side hurts too much for her to do so. Even though Rhys is having his moment, there's other things they need to concern themselves with: ]

We need to discuss how the vote will go. Angel... Angel is a hostage at this rate.

[ And, of course, the other murders. ]

If Rhys had an accomplice, it's in our best interest to consider that. If not... who killed the others and for what reasons? I doubt lightning will strike in our luck again, but it's best to converse. Alvin, I feel, had the right idea trying to discuss this issue with transparency.

[liven]

Angel told me she does not mind dying for him. We cannot stop his actions at night without killing him anyway, so leaving him alive only ensures more of us will die. He likely was the one to kill two people last night...

[ like. she likes angel? so this is fucking stupid? but. ]

If we're meant to kill all four remaining staff members, we need to kill him eventually and while it is unfortunate Angel would die as well, it appears we're not getting a choice in the matter, since no one was able to disable those collars and the coward won't do it himself, presumably.

At least one of those murders last night was probably thanks to our security staff handing out weapons willy nilly, given Kei's entire thing, though...

one hour warning-ish

[injectors]

If any of you are hesitating to execute Rhys on my account — you mustn't. He's already confessed. We don't have nearly enough time to decide on another individual to vote for without risking an innocent life, either. We only have a little over an hour left.

[Cast your votes, everyone, because she is ready for death. That said—]

If it makes it easier, then... know it doesn't matter if I live or die here. I was already dead before I arrived to this Complex.

[So... yeah. Surprise zombie. Just let her rest.]

[grimdeity]

Honestly, the fact that he's asking to be voted for makes me want to vote for anyone else.

[ ROSE IS PETTY... news at 12 check your local listings ]

... Death is not always the end. I don't mean that in whatever nonsense Rhys is spilling, I mean in other ways. I myself have died twice. It happens to all of us at some point or another. But I am sorry that you will die for a man like him just because of a collar around your neck.