15strangers | THE FIRST TRIAL

THE FIRST TRIAL

[Almost as soon as the investigation is over, a loud DING echoes through the mall.

The elevator doors in the food court, before completely inaccessible, have now opened for the Titled. It will not close until every last Titled has gotten in. Nor will everyone have to wait long for potential stragglers; a thought comes to everyone's mind, a realization that they need to get into the elevator. They need to go.

They need to find out who did this.

The elevator is a small freight elevator inside, and its just big enough to fit everyone in it. After a short ride, the elevator opens...

And they are on the roof. Despite it clearly not being that late in the day, the roof seems to be surrounded by an air of cool, perpetual sunset. Beyond that, good luck making out what's beyond the roof - there seems to be a city, but it's utterly unidentifiable. Not that anyone can jump off the roof to try and get closer - there is a translucent barrier surrounding the roof that is utterly impenetrable.

The main attraction of the roof, however, is not the fuzzy landscape beyond. It's the large, stepped circular platform which is a mere ten paces from the elevator. On this platform are 15 podiums, surrounding a large, empty, circular floor. Instantly every phone pings, giving everyone their platform assignment based on their bedroom number. And - upon arriving at their designated podium - they will find a dock for their phone to slide into. As soon as they do so the XAMINE app will pop up, revealing everyone's findings regarding the murder.

Not Wake, though. His podium is lower, and bare save for a white cloth.

Still, everyone - including Ren, who will find that whoever arranged this whole deal has given him a chair to sit in - will need their strength. Which is why each Stranger also has a bento box lunch, carefully prepared, waiting for them at their podium. Each meal is tailored to every Stranger's specific tastes and allergies, as best as a bent box meal can be. It even comes with a cup of their favorite drink.

So, take a few bites, take a few breaths, and get ready, Titled.

The trial for the murder of Wake Archus, The Feeling, has begun.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The pills may reveal something if we can figure out how he ingested them. Were they given to him by force or was it possible he may have trusted the person who gave them?

Obviously he trusted the person who gave them! There was a glass of water, but no mess on his mouth. That means nobody crammed dry pills right in his mouth or even forced him to swallow the water. He just drank them right down... [wistfully] Wake was really open to everyone.

The glass of water had something in it, though. You can dissolve sleeping pills, right?

It's true that he could have just been drinking from the glass and not using it to swallow pills. Maybe it was swallowing regular pills, maybe it was a glass of dissolved medicine. Either way, though, nobody used force on his mouth. There's no wound on that part of the diagram, right?

Yeah. He either didn't notice someone mess with his drink, or he trusted it was harmless, I guess...

Given the state of the water, it would be hard not to notice...

[ ... except if you totally have your head in the clouds or something. ]

Is it possible he took the pills himself? Does anyone know if he had trouble sleeping?

(no subject)

theirmagic - 2017-12-02 18:46 (UTC) - Expand

katsufemmefatale - 2017-12-02 18:47 (UTC) - Expand

theirmagic - 2017-12-02 18:51 (UTC) - Expand

pinnately - 2017-12-02 19:03 (UTC) - Expand

theirmagic - 2017-12-02 19:05 (UTC) - Expand

So that could mean that the murder began with a seemingly friendly meeting. Another possibility is he had trouble sleeping and someone saw him taking the pills to help sleep and took advantage of the situation.

Wouldn't he take them in his room in that case?

He's a more trusting sort, so he may have thought it fine to take them in the food court since he'd have plenty of time to get back to his room before they took effect.

But why go all the way down to the food court? If Wake got the pills himself in the pharmacy, he'd be going further away from his room. Even if he wanted to take pills with food, there's a grocery section too in Yotsukoshi. He was already out at the food court for some reason and then got the pills from someone else.

Which then implies a level of trust that he would have with the culprit which is exactly why I suggested this. The other possibility that is seeming to be suggested is the pills being dissolved and added to his water and he didn't intend on taking them.

Wake was... very trusting, yeah...

[ Helena seems slightly disconcerted when talking about him in these past terms, even though she had only few conversations with him. ]

If it's about trust, I don't think that rules out many people. If anyone.

Yeah... I mean, there was one person he trusted even more than the rest of us, but besides that, what can we say about the differences between each of the people he knew for less than a week?

[It's so weird that a couple days passed and then suddenly a murder.]

If you mean to insinuate Miss Torri, I really doubt she'd kill him like this. What I can see shows it being too brutal for someone you care about. Why all the electrocution and hanging him up? She wouldn't do that.

Look, I'm with you on that front. It's like you were telling me about the "important detail". Wake trusted very easily. Trust basically doesn't rule out anyone. It does show us how the crime scene went down, though.

Edited 2017-12-02 18:18 (UTC)

We're missing an important detail, though. Wake trusted very easily, from what I can tell.

... Yeah. He didn't hesitate to trust me, when we'd barely even talked at that point.

So really, almost anyone could have done it... the other evidence needs to narrow it down.

[ He's falling quiet, staring down at his untouched food and drink. ]

[FROWN. He's just going to walk over to touch Akira's shoulder. Still carrying his coffee.]

Akira-kun, when was the last time you ate?

beguiledcard - 2017-12-02 19:15 (UTC) - Expand

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beguiledcard - 2017-12-03 02:40 (UTC) - Expand

It was Sanzashi-san who recorded that piece of evidence, correct? We should allow him to speak on details that may not have been recorded.

[How fortuitous, because while Ren doesn't respond to that verbally, he does produce the bottle from his pocket.]

Can I take a closer look?

[Mostly Loewe is trying to get an idea of how long it may take for them to take effect, the dosage, and how many seem to be missing.]

[He can't exactly parse the full message, but he gets the gist of it.

He'll hold it out. ]

Here.