THE SECOND TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE SECOND TRIAL

[Soon after the failed attempt to contact the dead, the tell-tale alarm suddenly rings out, rattling everyone's teeth alongside Marie's voice.]

ATTENTION! EMERGENCY ALERT! PLEASE GO TO THE ELEVATORS IMMEDIATELY!! HMHMHMMM! I WILL NEVER GET TIRED OF SAYING THAT...!

[And so, once again, the elevators bring everyone back down to the trial room, where the table has been...altered, slightly, color-wise, to reflect those who are no longer among you. And once more, upon entering the force field, weapons disappear - and powers fail to work.

Bottson hops up onto the center of the table, transmitting the evidence found.]

heRe yOU Are eVerYBOdy! THe sUsPECt lISt!



YoU cAN Do THiS!


[Above everyone once more is Marie, floating around in her hover platform.]

WELL, WELL! FANCY MEETING YOU ALL HERE AGAIN! I GUESS YOU ALL FAILED TO KEEP THAT GUY ALIVE, HUH?? AHAHAHA!!

WELL, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN GET WHO DID IT THIS TIME, HMM??

Comments

[fashionfever]

No.

[crouching_sin]

No. I've seen blood used in summoning rituals and other magic though, if that's what you mean.

[tiefleaf]

...well,yeah. You saw me.

[losergod]

[ He frowns. ]

My question is, how fast do you normally heal?

[fashionfever]

If Molly really did nothing wrong, that just makes it even more important to check everyone else for cuts! Even - even cuts in their mouths or something else they try to hide!

[mementodagger]

Then the question is, who left the onsen? I stayed there to check the room, I didn't leave.

[theserpentsmiles]

I didn't have any powers at all until I got here.

[He has only become more powerful.]

[vividsins]

The same can be said for all of us. And yet, you're the one with the proverbial mountain of circumstantial evidence on your shoulders, Sir Naoya. Eventually, a lot stacking up has to mean something. Though the fact you considered it not worth it to go in just because C was there... We had no way of knowing if someone was dead yet when we first arrived, or even how many.

[mementodagger]

Then we have to look at anyone who left the onsen during the investigation.

[vividsins]

Not everyone was there to start with. Molly and Naoya both were missing at the initial discovery of Rosenkreuz in the onsen, for example.

[tiefleaf]

...it's close enough.

Anyone got a knife?

[theserpentsmiles]

He used the same kind of knife as the bloody one - if he didn't clean it after injuring himself, the saboteur could have just planted it. They might not have a cut.

[crouching_sin]

I assumed the scream meant someone was either dead or dying. Crowding a body isn't going to help anything.

[mementodagger]

Did either of them enter the onsen after the investigation began, then?

[earietale]

I also only got powers after coming here.

[Not like they’re very helpful, though.]

MODS

[losergod]

We're not allowed weapons in here.

[ He looks at Bottson. ]

Could we get one?

[backuphero]

Why not? I mean, it was just for fun, wasn't it? Yours more than ours, but....

[The smile on his face is a guileless one, not the... crazy face. Practiced guileless, "honest, Mom, I don't know why the rose arbor's got a hole in it" guileless.]

[crouching_sin]

No. All of our weapons disappear when we come here.

[vividsins]

You're missing what I'm saying, Sir Naoya. You said you didn't go in because someone with medical knowledge was there, but unless you'd already been present beforehand, you had no way to know if there was need for more than one person with said knowledge.

[ LISTEN NAOYA HE IS JUST DOING THIS TO THE BEST OF HIS ABILITY HE PREFERS YOU OVER MOLLY. ]

[tiefleaf]

About as fast as a human does, more or less. Tieflings aren't that far off, I mean, we're sort of already part human...ish.

[theserpentsmiles]

Tealeaf-san was sleeping in this morning. I left the room when I heard Rosenkreuz-san scream. He only left after me.

[fashionfever]

You think... Molly just injured himself, like in an innocent way, on a regular knife he just had lying around, and the saboteur used that to plant all this blood?

How did this knife get all the way there without dripping on anything? It stayed fresh going all the way from the weapons storage or the kitchen?

[fashionfever]

Are we going to have to just freaking bite someone?

[vividsins]

What I'm suggesting, Sir Yurick, is that the initial drops were left on Rosenkreuz and then, while we were all in the onsen, the other blood evidence was planted. There'd be no need to return.

[losergod]

[ He makes a face immediately and recoils. ]

No! That's completely unsanitary!