trial #5

[judgejudy]

DAY 10 (afternoon) Complex Population: 15 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 11/5. voting

Comments

[injectors]

We should.

[She won't look or comment on it. It's okay.]

... The other day, Rhys said that staff members are capable of revealing details about themselves. Do you believe it's possible Bigby confessed to Elizabeth, and the Overseer ordered Judy to force Bigby's hand?

[selfsufficiency]

[Alice rubs at her eye and looks up briefly before looking back down.]

I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. Bigby wouldn't hurt any of us who slept in that room... that included Elizabeth. Especially not her. He wouldn't do it unless he was forced to.

[And the only people who could force him to do it? The Overseer, perhaps. And Judy.

There aren't a lot of things Alice has faith in, but she has faith that Bigby wouldn't have hurt any of his roommates.]

[injectors]

Yes. Perhaps I didn't know him as well as you four did, but... he seemed like a good man. Not one who would needlessly kill another.

[Rest in pieces, Bigby... May he be a furry in the great virtual reality dead peoples are shoved into.]

Shijima and I also found a trail of blood with treadmarks in the third floor landing. But unless there is a robot hidden from us in the Complex, I cannot begin to imagine what could have made it.

[newlugers]

Treadmarks? How big are we talking here?

[ if it's a tank, they could blast their way out!! this is literally steve's thought process. ]

[injectors]

A foot wide, and spaced apart two feet. Why?

[Steve............. STEVE.................]

[newlugers]

Oh. Tch, nevermind. [ he's apparently disappointed. ] Thought we might have found our ride out of here. That's weird, though. What sort of vehicle is that small, but has treads?

[selfsufficiency]

...a robot?

[A robot? She swears to god, if Rhys had anything to do with this...]

That sounds like the kind of thing that idiot I didn't get to kill would use, doesn't it? [She's seething. It's probably a very good thing that Rhys is nowhere within her reach right now.]

[injectors]

Yes. If anyone in the staff would have the ability to create and operate a machine like that, it would be Rhys.

[More reason why she regrets not shooting Rhys in the face, to be honest. Too bad she didn't want to make everyone look for someone else to vote for with only an hour left.]

[selfsufficiency]

Ooh, when I get my hands on him, he's going to regret it if he had anything to do with those two ending up dead...!

[come out here and fight her like a man you yellow-bellied coward, etc etc]

[turinged]

Are you certain? As a member of the staff, he must have been a skilled liar.

[She's so angry.]

[newlugers]

Yeah, I'm with Ava on this one. I can't believe you guys are still trying to stick for a guy we know was out for us! You got played, all right?

[selfsufficiency]

Shut up!

[Alice balls her hand into a fist and slams it into a wall.]

He might have tried to kill one of you guys, but I know he wouldn't have killed Elizabth, or me, or any of the others who shared a room with him!

[karachan]

That's obvious why, isn't it? You, Shijima, Alfendi, Bigby, and Elizabeth made five as a group. And we heard only five can leave the complex alive.

[ Still. ] Doesn't mean because he wouldn't kill a couple of people that he was good. He killed Kei so his hands aren't clean even if Elizabeth was an accident.

[selfsufficiency]

Kei tried to kill him first, idiot.

[Alice scowls.]

Elizabeth was one of the people who he wouldn't have killed. So start thinking about why they both ended up dead, if you want to figure out what's going on here. He's already dead, so going on and on about how he was a staff member isn't going to accomplish anything!

[liven]

Does it really matter? He's dead. We can't vote for him. You're wasting time by bringing it up...

[ a sigh. ]

I still believe that anyone who enters a room in the dead of night and isn't smart enough to make the first blow count doesn't really deserve to have survived, anyway. But "clean hands"...who's stupid enough to think that's true of any of us? Even those of us who haven't killed a person here directly have been party to these deaths. I'm getting tired of debating our morality when the truth is none of us have any.

[injectors]

Killing someone out of self-defense can hardly be called a crime, unless you wish to do a headcount of how many of us have blood on our hands by now.

[Especially not since, you know. #borderlands.]

Regardless — Bigby is dead. We're only wasting time by arguing about his role, rather than who could have wanted him and Elizabeth dead.

[newlugers]

No, you think you know that, 'cause he tricked you. Don't you get what being an 'employee' means? He was running an experiment on us - he's just the same as that Rhys loser. And Judy.

[ hands on his hips. ]

[estimated]

I agree. Saying that he wouldn't kill a few people doesn't change the fact that he was a staff member.

[selfsufficiency]

But it does make it suspicious that one of the people he wouldn't have killed ended up dead along with him!

[injectors]

Forgive me, Dazai. But does it matter if he was a staff member now? He's dead. It's not as if we can convict him for it, and... Elizabeth asked us not to blame him. I want to respect her last wishes.

[adlucem]

It's possible the staff are being manipulated just as much as we are, though. He was staff, but we have no idea how much of a hand he had in any of this. It doesn't make him guilty.

[Luke was staff and innocent, while Adam wasn't staff and he killed Fran. The title of "staff" doesn't matter to him so much anymore.]

[newlugers]

"Not guilty," my ass. He was still working behind the scenes to -- to torture us, basically, or whatever the hell they're trying to do.

[ whether or not they killed people doesn't matter as much to Steve, it seems. ]

Whatever's going on here, all those staff guys are a part of it. I don't care if they're being manipulated or not.

[selfsufficiency]

I'm certain of it. But if you don't believe me, just ask Angel. She heard Elizabeth say the same thing - Bigby shouldn't be blamed for Elizabeth's death.

[She's angry, too. Possibly for the same reason as Ava, possibly not.]

[liven]

If Elizabeth hadn't said that, maybe it'd be different...but if she believed that, then I'm going to follow her wishes.

[ so. ]

It wasn't Bigby who told us this, it was Elizabeth.

[injectors]

It was. Regardless of whether Bigby was staff or not, I won't disregard Elizabeth's wishes. [Not when they were among the last things she said.] ... It's the only thing I can do for her now.