third trial

[airlockedmods]

[With the announcement and the evidence, the Champions are free to decide amongst themselves what order the groups leave in. Once that's done the process of teleporting is automatic and happens in the blink of an eye. Once second they're in the center of the cafeteria before a soft blue light surrounds them and then they're standing in the middle of a circle of podiums.

The room itself it the same shiny, chrome-covered atrocity as most of the rest of the ship save for the sections of floor that aren't the teleporter: those are thick clear glass that show nothing but empty space and stars beneath the Champions' feet. As for the podiums they're the same sort of garish chrome with a digital screen facing toward the center of the circle. More portraits and names in blaring red have been added this week. Slaine Troyard, the Champion of War and Zombina, the Champion Rotten Girl.

The Overseers are waiting when they all arrive, standing on a floating platform just high enough to be out of reach and back far enough toward a far wall to have a full view of the courtroom. Both are dressed well, Rox in a pressed grey dress jacket and skirt and Blaze in a black suit with the sleeves rolled up to expose his numerous tattoos. Rox is smiling like that cat who ate the canary while Blaze is standing a little farther away than normal and looking uncomfortable.]

Welcome back, Champions! There are fourteen of you here but, if things go correctly, only thirteen of you will leave. I don't think I have to explain at this point what will happen if you choose wrong.

As usual there's no time limit but be sure to keep things interesting. [She folds her arms across her chest, looking down on the Champions with a grin.] Let the trial begin.

Comments

cw brief fingore.........cw this case in general

[lovecolored]

[ Marisa has absolutely taken Blaze's words to heart an showered before she came to the trial, so at present, her hair is still wet and tied up in one of those twisty towels. ]

Akira and I looked at the crime scene, so if ya got a question about the...details, ask one of us.

[ She starts placing the shards of the mask on her podium, puzzle-piecing them together for everyone to see. ]

I found this near the trash compactor, it's Lucina's mask. Zombina was wearin' it the past week, wasn't she? It was mixed with a bunch'a bone fragments. There was also one of Zombina's fingers on the floor, all by itself, and a trail of what I think's her preservative fluids goin' from the compactor, to the door, and out the hallway.

[in4apounding]

She was hurt before she got in there?

[immaculacies]

Is it possible for someone to activate the trash compactor while standing inside it? I don't know how easy it would have been for her to reach the button herself, but if she did, the motion of the door closing might have caught her finger with it.

[playthedamncard]

[Kaiba is not having a good time, I mena like, less of a good time than usual. He looks over, stressed to see Bolton across the way instead of Zombina. On the other side, a space before it's Yuri.

He looks up then at the overseers.]

Just so we're clear: we wouldn't be having a trial at all if someone else wasn't involved, correct?

[theoverseeing]

A trial happens when a non-punishment-related death happens. It's up to you to figure out if someone else was involved or not.

cw: suicide, gore, possible fingers. just cw All This.

[le_mat]

[Akira goes straight to work: thanks to Max he is clean and smelling kinda like strawberries, his hair slicked out of his face, just starting to dry out and fluff again and his glasses missing.]

I handled the body.

Zombina was crushed by the trash compactor. Due to being a zombie, this might have about the only thing in the station that could kill her. Due to how the blood was on the floor and not up the walls, I would guess she was laying down, not struggling when she was crushed. Since she doesn't feel pain, she probably wouldn't instinctively try and escape. Her unitard was undamaged so it doesn't look like she was attacked in any way before the compactor.

I found shattered black glass-like plastic. It looked like what you'd find in a pair of sunglasses, but it was so crushed there's no way to tell what exactly it used to be.

I also found a note. I'll say before I read it... Zombina references something me and her talked about on Wednesday that no one else except assumedly CECE would be able to hear. ["my best friend and little brother"] So... I can't see how this could have been forged.

[He takes out the note. Blinking owlishly, then pulling it farther away from his face so he can see. It's then that he starts to read aloud. He's been steady through all this before the note. But after it he just... rests his head on the podium.]

Re: cw: suicide, gore, possible fingers. just cw All This.

[in4apounding]

...she wouldn't-

[Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.]

[But still.]

...She said. On Tuesday, that I shouldn't worry about the motive.

[dejabrew]

[Bolton had been ready to punch out the person who did this to her, the person who had taken advantage of her weakened state to kill her.

The note, as Akira reads it, knocks his knees out from under him, and he grips his podium hard with both hands, blinking back tears as he stares down at the top of it.]

[karappo]

Zombina-chan...

[God, that's hard to swallow. Karamatsu would like to add something to his but he finds that he just...can't.

He lowers his head, much like others listening to that note being read aloud.]

more like cw my feelings amirite

[playthedamncard]

[Shit shit shit shit shit shit. Fuck. Keep it together. His fingers curl around the podium, squeezing his eyes shut, barely containing a growling noise in his throat. Fine. Fine. If they want to play some hardball, he'll solve this fucking case himself if he has to.]

Then let's assume someone helped her since she apparently already decided she couldn't wait. If we can't find anyone, then...

Several of us knew what was happening to her. And how to kill a zombie from her world. Was there anyone who didn't? But even then...

later

[le_mat]

We should figure out what the plastic is too. The mask was Lucina's so there's no way plastic would be part of it.

I don't know for sure that they're from a lens, but they sure look like the same kinda glass-tic. It might be something the possible other person left behind.

cw: fingers gomen

[titularly]

Okay, uh... I checked out the cafeteria. There was a ton of booze in there, empty bottles all over the place. One of Wan-chan's gross fingers was on the floor and there was red stuff leadin' out to the teleporter.

Ya think whoever did this wanted to get hammered to forget about what they did?

cw: suicide

[playthedamncard]

...Or wanted to get her inebriated. Killing yourself takes an incredible amount of willpower and desperation to overpower one's innate self-preservation instincts. Maybe she had someone with her to drag her there. So she wouldn't feel anything.

time to herd the cats

[le_mat]

Okay, so I think we can all agree that Zombina intended to kill herself. The question is did someone help her? It doesn't look like she could turn on the compactor by herself, and even if she could make her fingers move they weren't near the button.

Anyone got any ideas?

[in4apounding]

If- um. If her fingers could still move, on their own. She could have had someone hold it near the button for her? If she really wanted to do it herself.

[andjerry]

[he desperately wants what Akira's saying to be true, that it was a suicide, that it wasn't a set-up, but he has to question if it's going to keep him alive for a few more days, so passes the list over to Akira to hold onto.]

...does this, um, look like the note she wrote?

[playthedamncard]

Osomatsu made a point of saying how many empty bottles of alcohol were there. Enough to knock Zombina out, certainly, but the rest of it would have left another in a similar state. But I see no reason to just...empty more out for no reason.

But if there was more than one person helping her, as if she was drinking with friends before this happening, like a miserable little party, that might explain it.

But that still leaves us back at square one with little way to prove anything.

CHECK TIME why does akira keep doing these you gotta kink son

[le_mat]

Okay... so we got a few things to group check.

One: Shoes. Just to check for any mess. Me and Marisa are kinda Es-Oh-El on this one.
Two: Hands, for any strong rot smell. Same thing as before with me and Marisa.
Three: Breath check for booze.

...yeah. I know this is gonna be weird but at least it's not blood again. I'll just go around and check everyone since... fuck if it WAS me I already covered up two of the three anyways.

[dejabrew]

[Bolton is wearing his champion unitard, which is basically spandex feetie pajamas, so he have no shoes. There's also no mess on the bottom of his feet, though.

His hands and his breath both smell like strong, black coffee.]

cw fingore mention; Cat-herding 2: Wrath of Khat

[in4apounding]

Okay- so. We know there had to be another person involved, because even if- if Zombina managed to turn on the compactor herself, one of her fingers had to get inside the compactor with her or down to the cafeteria somehow. She MEANT to do it herself, but it looks like she couldn't... and there might even be two people involved because there was so much alcohol drank beforehand. ...Or after, I guess? Probably before.

But everyone seems to be clean, so we can't be sure that way.

...And there was plastic from Mister Karamatsu's sunglasses with Zombina, because he'd given them to her in case Lucina's mask broke. Is that everything?

[le_mat]

There's the thread and needle too. But that could just be her stitching herself. I gotta wonder why she'd still bother knowing she was going to die.

[newcycle]

Wait... Wait. I was doing patrols that night, and I came across Zombina and Karamatsu while they were drinking.

[she glances at Kara]

... You both told me there was nothing to worry about.

[in4apounding]

Mister Karamatsu-?

[Well, that might be unfortunately significant.]

But he was in his room with Mister Osomatsu the rest of the night. ...One of their rooms.

Hi mods wanna party

[le_mat]

BLAZE, PETUU!

We've figured out what happened, but you know damn well this shouldn't count! It was a suicide- and if Zombina hadn't been killed she would have attacked all of us!

This has to be a mistrial!

[lovecolored]

[ god fuckin dammit do we have to leash crimeboy every single trial

Marisa doesn't say anything but she is watching him carefully. ]

VOTING TIME

[theoverseeing]

[Text text text]

Since the Trickster admitted that you've found the solution, now is the time for you to place your votes.

Remember, if the majority doesn't vote correctly then the culprit will go free and the rest of you will take the punishment in his stead.

[karappo]

...e-everyone, I appreciate you standing up for me. I truly do but... I knew what I was doing. A-and even though neither of us thought it would have counted, it doesn't take away the fact that I still took somebody's life.

[Karamatsu gives a small smile to everyone, his expression warm while hot tears roll down his cheeks.]

Thank you.. all of you.

[ > Champion of Painful Secondhand Embarrassment That's So Cringe Inducing, Narcissistic, And Eye Blindingly Glittery It Makes You Wish He'd Go Away ]

A MYSTERIOUS TOP LEVEL

[newcycle]

[KORRA... HOPS DOWN FROM HER PODIUM. and looks straight at Karamatsu]

Karamatsu! I hate this! And i don't want you to suffer like any of the others did!

If we have to kill someone... I want it to be quick, and painless.

[quadjumps]

[ looking over at her. he's fucking dead anyway-- ]

Let me do it.

Eeeeexecuuuution...?

[theoverseeing]

[At the kerfuffle, Rox actually looks up from her phone, lowering it to waist-level and fixing Korra with a Look.]

Avatar. I'm glad you're so eager to take his place.

[newcycle]

W-- What!

[Korra has had it with her.]

No. Not this time.

[hey guys, guess who's going full avatar mode.]

Stay back!

[to everyone else.]