THE FIRST TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE FIRST TRIAL

[Minutes after Detective Beauford Bottson rumbled off, an alarm suddenly starts to go off, complete with flashing red lights. This is followed by the very unwelcome sound of you-know-who.

Oh, what fresh hell is this.]

ATTENTION PRISO--GUESTS! GO TO THE ELEVATORS IMMEDIATELY! IT'S TOTALLY AN EMERGENCY! AHAHAHA!!

[And indeed, the elevators are open and ready for fast travel. Only this time, the elevator immediately takes the Strangers downwards, and into a large room of controls with a force field in the center of it. Beneath everyone is a semi-translucent floor, revealing a massive, futuristic engine beneath them. Despite how giant it is, it's unnervingly quietly, only letting out a hum that can just be heard.

The controls are beyond the force field in the center, so there's no way to get to them without naturally passing through it first. And as everyone enters into the force field - complete with a slurping sound as they pass through it, they will realize two things.

The first is that any weapons on them are somehow gone.

The second is that they can't get out of the force field once they've entered it. Instead, they will have to stand in a circle, with Bottson in the middle, transmitting the evidence found to the wristwatches.]

bASed on tHe inFormATion I have hEre IS...the suspects who stole my HnduyFDUFB mu-uu-U-rdered!



tHeRE yoU Go!


[Finally, above everyone and beyond the force field is Marie, flying around on a floating platform. She looks smug as ever as she leans over, chuckling.]

WELL, SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HIGH AND MIGHTY RESOLVE, RIGHT?? SO GO ON, JUST TRY AND SEE IF YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHO KILLED THAT WOMAN! AND REMEMBER...IF YOU VOTE WRONG, YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF KILLING SOMEONE INNOCENT, WON'T YOU?

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Comments

[backuphero]

[So not only has it happened after all, he's considered one who might have done it... him and other people he's started to like. Plainly his family's luck followed him into space.]

Why the hell is... you really think somebody who went through this before would play along with it?

[fashionfever]

[she doesn't like this idea at all, but]

He said again and again that the threat to loved ones got someone to act every single time...

[backuphero]

Yeah, and me and Vita seemed to be the only people who didn't want to bring someone back from the dead.

[He missed out on the stompy execration dance you did with your picture, Angela, sorry.]

[strangerpeople]

iaM sOrRY, buT I aM proGraMMed to detERmiNE most lIKelY suSpEcts bAseD On tHe EVideNce prEseNTEd!

[backuphero]

You're nicer than the other ones, at least....

[After that... incident with the camerabot... HOO BOY, does he ever hope it isn't robot gossip that got him thrown on the list here.]

[mementodagger]

And you're not going to protest your own inclusion in the suspect list?

[backuphero]

Yurick... I think everybody here has seen me angry, now.

And somebody went out of their way to make it look like I could have been involved somehow. I told Baku I didn't think the weapon log made sense, and it's missing.

[There's something else he's very obviously holding back.]

[mementodagger]

Is there something else you want to say, perhaps? At this point, guilty or innocent, you're fighting for your life. You might as well struggle with all that you have.

[backuphero]

Aside from that crack I made while we were all stuck cooking for Red's amusement, I think I told somebody what kind of weapon my family's always used, but I can't remember who, and... that's the other things that went missing from Weapons Storage. But I didn't even know they were there!

[mementodagger]

You mean the whips, then. And if you did? Would you have taken one? Not exactly a practical weapon for self-defense.

[backuphero]

They aren't practical for much, except fighting monsters, and... well, up until yesterday I'd've said nobody here qualified as that. It's family tradition, that's all. I took a combat knife, didn't feel like a sword would really work if I had to fight somebody in hallways like the ones here.

[mementodagger]

Is the knife you took the same kind they found with Vita?

MODS, A QUESTION

[backuphero]

Not that it matters, but I had mine til we got in here. Couldn't get the image to display, hold on...

[So, while he's busy fighting with that crazy future wristwatch - what kind of knife WAS it that was found with the body?]

[strangerpeople]

[By the cut, it looks to be a small knife with a thin blade.]

[backuphero]

Okay, yeah, that's... definitely not what I've been carrying.

[His was a saw-backed trench knife, after all.]

Can't think as I've seen anyone else with one like it, either.

[crouching_sin]

Possibly.

Jonathan. Where were you when the murder occurred?

[backuphero]

Assuming the time there is right? Asleep. She said she'd yell if something happened. I thought I'd wake up if that happened, we're all living on the same floor....

[crouching_sin]

Yes, but this happened on a different floor. Even if she did yell, you probably wouldn't have been able to hear.

Can anyone confirm that you were in the room at that time? Was anyone in the room with you when you went to bed?

[backuphero]

Christ...

[And because this is Naoya, he levels a very weary glance his way, not quite a glare.]

That's not my answer. C should have been?

[losergod]

I was there. He went to bed before I did.

[ He was up writing. ]