fourth 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. 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.

Comments

[immaculacies]

Eh, really? Why would it be all the way over there if Penny-chan and Maclaine-san found the other parts in the sewing room?

[in4apounding]

Why move any of them? Why- why do all that in the first place?

[immaculacies]

That's the real question, isn't it? The way Max died is strange, but I think it's more important that we figure out why. No one here disliked him, and they wouldn't have any reason to mutilate him like that.

[karappo]

We should consider the motive. We already have seen how those have caused people to act.

[in4apounding]

The secrets? That- could affect a lot of us.

[Penny already kind of screamed hers to the entire station, but beyond that-]

[karappo]

[Karamatsu nods, though...there's something he feels people have forgotten about this motive.]

This motive did not involve secrets to do with people here knowing. Did they not specify that everyone from our homes would know our secret?

[It seems like a very specific distinction to make, since obviously people could have just shared secrets on the ship to render the motive pointless right away.]

[in4apounding]

...yes. Those- those were the exact terms.

[Which she's been trying really hard not to think about.]

Or- no, it was- "everyone you know back home".

[karappo]

...so even more specific.

[Karamatsu worries his lip for a moment.]

There is yet a possibility that the motive was not the sole reason they did this, but...it is something to consider.

[immaculacies]

The motive won't explain the killer's methods, though. That's what I've been getting at.

[karappo]

No, you are right. The methods are...highly obscene as far as covering the requirements of someone being killed. They could have done anything else to Max-san...but they tortured him, made his death the worst it could have been.

[unhappylittletrees]

It was wrapped in some kind of cloth. Maybe they- [He cringes at the possibility that comes to mind.] -they dropped it while putting back the garden tools?

[immaculacies]

Still, that doesn't answer the question of why they would be carrying it.

[le_mat]

I can only think of two reasons: a trophy is the most obvious. Serial killers are know to do that.

Or they needed the tongue and probably the other missing pieces for a purpose. If they were just mutilating Max for it's own sake, why take the pieces with them otherwise? Maybe to make something? Or some kind of twisted sacrifice?

[playthedamncard]

Like a ritual of some kind.

[le_mat]

Possibly. If it was just the motive then everything they did after is pointless. It's not like they were hiding the evidence, just moving it.

[in4apounding]

Like a magic thing? That's- ...not very many of us, by now. ...Maybe they were. Trying to frame someone?

[le_mat]

... we also have to consider that one of us has snappped. People with no magic do things like this too. A mental breakdown and an irrational thought might be all it takes.

[karappo]

We have evidence that other pieces of the body were in other rooms and areas as well. Why would they see fit to carry any of these parts around? To throw us? To make some sort of statement about what they had done?

[immaculacies]

That's exactly my point. Why would they have done any of this in the first place?

[le_mat]

The tongue might have been an accident, but everything else is too deliberate. It can't be just to cover their tracks...

[le_mat]

Cloth? Like a shirt? Or something from the sewing room?

[karappo]

It could have been, though it is hard to say for sure. The cloth was crumpled, not neatly folded, as if they were taking it someplace in haste.

[andjerry]

...can I see it? There was. some missing, before.

[karappo]

[The tongue is definitely AWOL, but I'm going to assume here that Karamatsu did keep the cloth for evidence sake...which he very carefully passes to Thomas.]

mods

[andjerry]

[he's so glad he still has gloves let me tell you

is it a match to the missing cloth?]