second trial

[airlockedmods]

[Like last week the announcement sounds, the Champions with their gathered evidence file once again to the teleporter where the courtroom waits for them.

The a circle of podiums has changed since last week. The Griffin, Toby, and Angelica's floating portraits have joined Chintanda's above their respective podiums as well as the bright green having been changed to a glaring red.

The Overseers are waiting on their floating platform when the first group of Champions arrive. They're back in their black suits, side by side. Jamie's expression is grim but he looks more mentally present than the last trial. Bolton, on the other hand, looks stern but not grim, arms crossed over his chest. Once again, he's the one who makes the announcement.]

Welcome, Champions, to the courtroom. Sixteen of you have entered, but - in the best case scenario - only fifteen of you will leave. Compile your evidence and figure out who the killer is. If you vote correctly, the culprit will be executed and the rest of you will be allowed to go back upstairs. If you vote wrong, however, the killer goes free and the rest of you take the punishment in their place.

Remember, there is no time limit but keeping things interesting is in your best interests.

Comments

[voltrounds]

There was a glass in the library that smelled like bleach, too, and some on the ground.

[cyan_maid]

In the library as well??

[How much fucking bleach has been used in this goddamn murder, a whole jug?]

[stitch_in_time]

In the diner, the library, and her room?

[That's at least one or two locations too many.]

If she was poisoned in the diner, I could see her getting back to her room before she died... the killer might've cleaned up the mess with more bleach there, but where's the library fit in?

[cyan_maid]

Well...Frederica did say she found a glass with it in the library...could she have been given the bleach to drink more than once?

[fatherofsin]

...More likely, the drink was poisoned in one location so she wouldn't know and she was given it in another.

[cyan_maid]

But then why have two glasses in two different locations? To throw us off?

[fatherofsin]

Easy. If she drank with someone, they probably returned the other to the diner. Wouldn't you be suspicious if someone gave you a glass of something but didn't have anything themselves?

[cyan_maid]

So it's likely they just didn't drink the contents of their glass, or found a way to pretend they were if she got at all suspicious.

[fatherofsin]

Or their own glass wasn't poisoned. Only her glass would need to be.

[cyan_maid]

[Ooh, that's clever. Poison the glass beforehand, remember which one it was, and pour the drink...Jane frowns, brow furrowed.]

As much as I hate to think it so, that's a very strong possibility. They must've laced her glass in the diner and left a trace of bleach to account for the smell.

[fatherofsin]

You'd just have to remember which hand you held the glass in. Which is frustrating, because it means hey covered their tracks well enough.

[damnfourthemerald]

...Does the diner keep serving in the night cycle? Given the unusual and sometimes edible items people have been getting in their dumbwaiters, if someone got some kind of lemonade mix...

[stitch_in_time]

Could they have poisoned one glass but not the other? There's not many places to dump out a glass up there, if you needed to fake taking a drink, an' bleach isn't exactly iocaine powder. That's not something you can build up a resistance to.

[misplacedxsheath]

Or the killer brought her to the diner under the pretence of sharing drinks, and then attempted to hide the tainted glass.

[voltrounds]

Diner, room, library...

[Hm.]

Maybe she got a poisoned drink in the diner, and took it to the library to drink.

[ratherdoweddings]

That makes the most sense to me! Nobody here actually listens to the no-food-and-drink sign in there.

[stitch_in_time]

Maybe, bleach poisoning can set in pretty quick, especially if it's high-concentrate stuff.

[damnfourthemerald]

Were there any books left out on the library table?

[voltrounds]

Yes. It looks like she was reading about space stations.

Or someone was. I guess we don't know who.

[damnfourthemerald]

That matches up with the notes I found in her room... They were numbered, but out of order, and looked like they were put where they were quickly and without care. That hardly sounds like her.

[voltrounds]

...that's weird. Why would someone leave the books out, but put the notes away?

[misplacedxsheath]

Perhaps to disguise the fact that they had access to a sample of her handwriting.

[voltrounds]

So we'd believe that fake note.

[misplacedxsheath]

Precisely. If we were to believe that nobody had seen her handwriting before, we would dismiss the idea of a forgery as impossible.

[stitch_in_time]

An' books left out in the library wouldn't be hugely unusual t'begin with. Forgettin' the glass seems more out of place here, you ask me, but that could just be a time-crunch.