theairlock | fourth trial

[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. Karamatsu Matsuno, the Champion of Painful Secondhand Embarrassment That's So Cringe Inducing, Narcissistic, And Eye Blindingly Glittery It Makes You Wish He'd Go Away, Korra, the Champion Avatar, Yuri Plisetsky, the Champion Figure Skater and Max Olguin, the Champion Portrait Artist.

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. He's also sporting a black eye patch with a flaming snowflake embroidered on it over his left eye. 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 ten of you here but, if things go correctly, only nine 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mm, I see. Well, I suppose it was only intellectual curiosity in the end. Even if the handles were bloody, it isn't as though we're allowed the tools we'd need to take fingerprints.

No, we are not...if anything, we would need to search hands for blood, but...I figure the culprit would have at least thought to wash them.

[Probably??]

If they thought to clean up even that much, I would assume so.

Did anyone find any signs of blood being tracked elsewhere, by the way? Nothing in the hallways or on walls beyond...the Infirmary?

Mm... I didn't see any, but I stayed on the first floor. The only things I found were a painted canvas and used paintbrush in the art room, though the brush didn't look like it had been used for that painting.

...what did it look like it was for? [please don't say something extra]

Ah! I just meant that the color of the paint on the canvas and the brush were different. The brush in the sink hadn't been washed and had blue paint on it, and the canvas had only black.

[She smiles at Thomas. Are you reassured yet??]

...do you have the painting with you?

Ah, sorry! I didn't think to bring it. Like I said, there weren't any images painted. It was like paint had just been randomly splashed onto it.

It's possible something was on it originally and got covered up. Max was painting pictures of everyone after all. Or could just be he was expressing something with a different kind of art then his usual.

[well, that isn't extra, but.]

...where would that paint be. That's strange. It might not mean anything, but...

[still in the art room apparently]

...Blue paint?

Mh-hm, that's right. Did you find something relevant to that, White-san?

The portrait.

He must have been painting in his room last night, there were portraits of- ...of me and J, and the one of me was wearing a blue shirt.

[Remember how he barged into Max's room first thing in the morning?]

Ah, do you think... He had been working on those, and was interrupted? But... You said the portraits were in his room?

They are. If he was working on them in there, where... [His voice doesn't break, but it wavers.] He could surprise us.

He might have had the supplies in there while he was working, but if he finished them he would've put the supplies back in the art room.

Hm... And whatever happened didn't even give him time to wash the brush.

He must've thought he could come back and do it later.

...Or he didn't leave the art room under his own power.

He was jumped there then.

Max wasn't especially strong, but he was tall and a full grown man. It wouldn't be easy to move him without a struggle. I didn't see any damage that looked like he was, like, cracked over the head or knocked out...

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dejabrew - 2017-11-18 18:45 (UTC) - Expand

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karappo - 2017-11-18 19:37 (UTC) - Expand

Could that mean that...Max-san was up painting, and was caught...?

[Hm...wait.]

That is...strange. What makes you think it was a different brush?

I suppose, but the canvas didn't look like anything Max would paint. It was just splattered in black, without any real shape or anything. The other brush still had a different color of paint on it.

[...Yikes.]

That is concerning.

[Karamatsu shifts, folding his arms across his chest.]

So this differently colored paint brush...there was no signs of it having been used on anything else?

No, there weren't. It also wasn't washed. So, either the person painting had been intending to use it and was interrupted, or there were two people in the art room, working on different things.

Hm...that leaves the question of what the unwashed brush was used for, if anything at all. It seems almost more likely it was not used if we could not find blue paint on anything, unlike the black painted canvas.