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

[selfdenying]

Alright, everyone. Let us summarize the current situation, if you please.

[Says, Alfendi, smiling ever so pleasantly - looks like his nice side is in full control today.]

There are five staff members in total. Currently, we have discovered that Rhys, Luke, and Bigby are part of their number. Two more remain. One of them is the Overseer, as Judy stated, which is a "secondary role".

We know that there were six "other roles" present. Those six roles were divided into the security officers, the think tank, and the medical officers. We know one security officer was Dickson. Elizabeth was part of the think tank. And, last but not least, Guy and Fransizka were our medical officers. So, currently, we have one member of the think tank left, and a security officer left.

Two and two. Very convenient, really.

[He lets that all sink in, before continuing, his tone level.]

Elizabeth's role was to discover whether certain individuals were innocent or not. As dictated to me in her will, she has stated that Alice, Alvin, and Angel were confirmed to be innocent. We can take those people off the suspect table, as Elizabeth was working with Judy, who gave her accurate information.

[He pauses. Elizabeth...he can't believe she's dead.]

Now, then. We have a possible female suspect for Elizabeth and Bigby's murders. It sounds as if some sort of machine was used for Bigby's murder, at least, one with tread tracks. For Guy's murder...well, we're still piecing that together. If anyone has anything they'd like to ask or suggest, please do so at this time.

[adlucem]

Adam recommended checking for wounds. Fransizka left a mark on him when he killed her, so it's possible Guy or Elizabeth may have done the same.

[Especially Elizabeth... he looks sad for a minute, then shakes his head minutely, trying to focus. They can mourn in private.]

I want to catch whoever did this to them, but I think our focus should be on finding the Overseer. We can deal with murderers on our own time. [Basically he's saying Alice can torture information out of them if they need it, but at least he's tactful enough (???) not to say it out loud.] The Overseer has far too much power. Even if we caught every staff member within the next hour, who's to say the Overseer wouldn't just kill us all anyway?

[injectors]

Judy stated that casting a vote for a missing resident is valid, as long as they're alive. We could vote for Ciel if we believe him to be the Overseer and hope that luck is on our side. Or, perhaps, cast another vote for Rhys. Though — both cases would mean embarking on a manhunt.

[And with all these locked doors, they're... probably not going to have much luck.]

[adlucem]

We know Rhys is staff, and that he's murdered some of us. So a vote for him would probably be valid, if nothing else. But I find it hard to believe he's the Overseer, and not just because he's an idiot.

[Will Leo ever say a nice thing about Rhys, stay tuned to-- okay, no, no he won't.]

That still leaves two staff members we're unaware of... and Judy.

[injectors]

No. It's fairly safe to assume Rhys isn't the Overseer. Not with how he was whisked away last execution.

[Yeah. Rhys is an idiot. More news at five.]

Worst case scenario, we vote for someone who is dead and accidentally sacrifice one of our own. But I don't believe we should consider voting for Judy unless we're pressed for time.

[adlucem]

I'm not willing to risk another abstain situation. [He'll say that right now. Not again. (Guess who still feels a little guilty about Diva's death...)]

But if we're only considering people in this room, then I agree that Elizabeth would've reacted differently, had you or Shijima been her killer. [Obviously he wasn't there to witness Elizabeth's passing, but he's still willing to accept their story.]

Did we find out when the murders took place?

[selfsufficiency]

I think we should vote for Cici.

[She's down with a manhunt, honestly.]

If it turns out we're wrong about him, then we know to try for someone else who's missing next time and it helps us narrow down who might or might not be staff. If we vote for Rhys, even if we find him, we won't learn anything. We already know he's a staff member. Also, if we vote for Cici and we're wrong, there's still a chance we might get lucky and a staff member would be randomly selected.

We could also vote for either Jade or Minatsuki, but neither of them was really as suspicious as Cici was, so I think we're more likely to be wrong if we vote for them. But we only have something to gain by voting for someone who's not here, you know?

[injectors]

I agree.

[And though she doesn't want a repeat of the abstain fiasco...]

In the worst case scenario, someone who isn't a member of the staff will be chosen. But is that really so different than standing by and allowing them to slaughter us one by one? I'm willing to take that risk.

[selfsufficiency]

...we don't need to get everyone to agree, either. Just the majority of us.

[Alice crosses her arms, thinking.]

A guaranteed majority would be... nine, I think. [She glances around the room for a headcount, then nods slowly.] There are fourteen of us here, plus Rhys, for fifteen. That's how many people we know for sure are alive. But there was an extra person who voted last week, so assuming they do that again, we'll have sixteen votes this time. To get more than half of it, nine of us need to vote for Cici.

[The threshold could be lower if others end up splitting the vote, but...]

[becauseimacoward]

I agree with Alice here. It feels like a long shot, but it's worth a try.

If Phantomhive is a staff member it's likely he's the Overseer, by virtue of being in a place far away from the rest of us. Staff members aren't the only ones who kill in the Complex, after all. That'd give him more odds of staying alive and in control.

[Besides, Elizabeth has marked Alice as innocent. That by itself is another reason to listen to her suggestion]

[adlucem]

If we agree to do that, then should we use the remaining time to try and find Elizabeth's killer?

[Since Ciel is not a girl, as far as he knows.]

[betraitor]

He's been pretty suspicious for a few trials now anyway, hasn't he? At this point it may be worth the risk to just get it over with.

[among other reasons, he agrees with alice on this one.]

Kind of hard to worry about whether it's in good conscious anyway this point, with how thing've gone. [they've already sentenced innocent people to death, and good people are getting killed.

so fuck it? fuck it.]

[injectors]

If you don't mind me asking, do you know if there was anyone who Elizabeth considered suspicious? If there is a female, we may begin there.

[selfdenying]

[He has the physical copy of the will in case anyone asks for it, but he'll be helpful and just summarize it:]

The only female on her list that she considered suspicious was Lara, and she crossed out her name, with good reason.

[Lara ain't staff.]

The only person on her "suspicious" list that hasn't been confirmed staff and is still alive is Leo, but she seemed unsure of that...there was a question mark by her name. It also stated that she was unsure of Shijima, but she thought she might be a medic. We also know that's not true, what with both medical officers gone.

[injectors]

I don't believe Shijima is staff, but...

[Sorry, Leo. She's giving him a glance wherever he is.]

It's always struck me as strange that Leo was able to remove his monitor without suffering any repercussions. Not to imply amputation isn't negative enough, but without our monitors — both Judy and the staff are unable to control us.

[So, you know. Unless the staff is able to get Judy to shock him in any other way? It seems weird to her.]

[adlucem]

I agree. I thought they would've killed me for it by now. [Unless they just figured he'd out-stupid himself and wind up bleeding out on the stairs to the library, which, y'know, is not at all impossible. Nerds will be nerds.] But then, the monitors don't seem to be a priority anymore. I'm still forced to sleep and wake up like everyone else, and that's the only thing I've really tested.

[Since he hasn't been voted for or forced to be executioner, and Alice dragged him around during the trial immediately after his amputation... which he's still salty about.]

[liven]

I'm not. I told Elizabeth I wasn't the doctor, either. She thought I might be because I kept patching our room members up, but those skills don't have anything to do with roles, really...

[ she sighs. ]

Bigby accused me of being the doctor, too. Obviously they were wrong, but really, what was I doing to make them think this?

[selfsufficiency]

I'd like to hear from Ava and Rose.

[Mostly from Ava, if she's being honest, but it's only fair to ask them both.]

Angel and I were confirmed innocent, and Elizabeth's reaction probably would have been different when Angel and Shijima found her if Shijima had been the killer. So, I want to hear the other two girls left here explain why we should believe they didn't have something to do with this.

And if they're convincing, then...

[She glances in the direction of the bench and the terminal. If they're convincing, maybe they can try to interrogate Judy.]

[grimdeity]

All right. It wasn't me.

If it was, I would have left far less subtle clues thinking so highly of myself and my ability at subterfuge, which is actually not at all impressive, unfortunately. Light is not an aspect known for obscuring things.

[ what kind of defense is that, rose. what. ]

[selfsufficiency]

[Yeah, that's... a pretty shoddy defense. But can Alice really say it's all that different from her own earlier defenses? "No way was that me, I would have killed that person a lot differently"? Yeah... no.]

...I can't tell if you're being honest or if you're being sarcastic.

[Or both. Is it possible to be both? If anyone could manage that, Rose could.]

[liven]

I like her. I don't think she had anything to do with it.

[grimdeity]

Perhaps both. Except the part about not doing it, that was purely honest. I didn't do this.

[turinged]

...We cannot ask her now, but while she was alive Elizabeth and I spoke several times about ways to leave this place, and how to make the trials go more successfully.

[A frown.]

[adlucem]

And did anything come of those discussions?

[turinged]

No.

[Honest as can be.]

The most notable time was after the trial in which most of voted to abstain. We nearly gained knowledge of how many staff members there were then, and I wondered if we would be able to negotiate with Judy the way Alvin did during that trial, to earn other knowledge.

Elizabeth's opinion was that it would be a risk, and we would not learn anything of value - I respected her, so I agreed.