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

[toushiro]

I didn't, but I suppose saying that doesn't make much of a difference.

[crouching_sin]

True. Unless you can somehow show proof that you were in your room when the murder happened.

[toushiro]

[ he thinks for a moment, then... ]

It's entirely possible that the culprit may have gotten glitter on them while attacking Vita. You may want to consider checking the five of us for any traces on our person.

[crouching_sin]

[He pauses.]

Clothing, at least. Glitter is very hard to remove. Since I doubt someone killed her while naked.

[backuphero]

She was damn close to naked when she was found. There was just a sheet.

[crouching_sin]

Well, the killer, I mean.

[backuphero]

Yeah, I know that. But... why'd they do that to her, Naoya?

[tiefleaf]

I've got a few ideas.

[backuphero]

...I'm listening.

[tiefleaf]

Okay. So... Vita and whoever killed her decided fuck it, let's break out the glitter and get freaky.

And then... Maybe it was a trap all along. Maybe there was an argument. But it got too freaky.

[backuphero]

[Ladies and gentlemen, behold, Jonathan Morris, the most inefficient traffic light in the worlds. He pales, looks almost green, and then goes bright red.]

That -

You're sick in the head!

[crouching_sin]

How about we don't go the path you're thinking?

[He's seen that shit, but not even he wants to think about it.]

[fashionfever]

Wouldn't there be evidence of that if it went that far?

[tiefleaf]

Not necessarily...

[fashionfever]

Besides that... doesn't the suspect list seem kinda, I don't know, young?

[tiefleaf]

I mean, okay, yeah, Nagisa looks kinda baby-faced, but the others...

[Vague hand gesture? He has no idea how old Vita was.]

[crouching_sin]

The naked part, I have no idea. Still... as for why, it's because they want to leave. It's that simple.

... It's very understandable.

[He pauses for a moment.]

Or simply because they wanted to take Marie up on her offer.

[backuphero]

Gotta admit I don't get that part either. Best case scenario, you're pulling somebody out of an afterlife where nothing hurts anymore and everything's perfected, or you're just... nailing a one-way door shut "just in case" someone figures a way to break the hinges.

[fashionfever]

Uh, that's assuming a lot about the afterlife...

[backuphero]

I've met exactly one ghost that actually has the ability to carry on a conversation. Don't exactly have much reference material outside of what I was raised to believe in, all right?

[crouching_sin]

[He pauses for a moment.]

I mean, depending on your world's afterlife.

That said... you can't think of some people who are better off alive or dead than where they are now?

[backuphero]

Look. I'm not in the place for a theological debate right now. Can we just pick this up later, providing I ain't dead?

[crouching_sin]

Fine. Later. You can learn quite a lot.

Still, the point stands...