seventh trial

[airlockedmods]

[You get a little time after your investigation is over, but not too long. PAL gets bored easily and doesn't like to be kept waiting, after all.

When everyone has gathered at the elevators with their evidence, the one going down turns on automatically. It...it looks like you're taking a leap of faith into an elevator shaft, not gonna lie. But the first person to step in finds that it's a carefully-balanced anti-gravity field made to just shoot you down and deposit you gently at the end of a long hallway. Like a walk-through aquarium, the walls and ceiling are all made of thick glass, giving you an even better view of the stars outside.

You're led to a wide-open area, empty except for a circle of podiums in its center. Heart and Noctis have joined the ranks of their grey-faced photo friends. The walls here are equally transparent, and they seem to have lines of large hatches going along them, as if this is where one might park one's small short-journey craft when getting ready to go on vacation to a galaxy far far away. Shame you don't know anything about those.

You already know what you're here to do. You'd best be getting along with it.]

Comments

[cyan_maid]

[She wishes she'd had a moment to see Noctis - to at least attempt to bring him back, even though Jane knows it wouldn't work. Still...all they can do now is figure out how things happened, and why. And to keep living for his sake, and the sake of all who'd fallen before him.

It just keeps happening. How much longer can it go on?]

There was...a lot of weird stuff in the laundry room. One of the sinks was drenched in blood, and there was...I think a knitting needle all broken and stuck in one of the dryers? And that dryer is definitely broken now. Oh, and - [Jane lays out the black jeans and shirt on her podium.] These clothes were stuffed behind that dryer. They're still wet. So...I-I really don't know how any of it connects, but it was all really weird, so...

[motherfucking_ghost]

There was a trail of blood from the body to the laundry room...so...sounds like someone was washing up after the murder?

[kingshaming]

Stuck in the dryer? How so?

[kingshaming]

[Xander wasn't really around for the investigation, but his few surviving r1's might recognize the coat he's wearing- a large thick purple coat. Oddly grim, considering his own trial back then. There's also an unfamiliar belt? Either way, he stands at his podium with a grim expression]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church, dressed in Ardyn's coat of many wonders, shuffles over to his podium.] Man, listen, I know that some of you guys are pretty important to the existence of your worlds, but if you really trusted these guys over the rest of us, then...just...fuck you, okay?

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna arrives alongside Fukawa, wearing her wedding dress and carrying a bag. She starts removing pieces from it, setting them on her podium.]

I found the remains of a hardlight projector near the body. It had been smashed, and the chain broken.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...So someone was gussied up as someone else to get close enough to fucking stab him? God damn it, I knew those things were trouble!

[induality]

[The entire time, she fidgets with her necklace-- nipping at the edge of the moon pendant with her teeth when she gets anxious, or rubbing her fingers over the small bottle.]

...I looked over the b-body. It was... s-stabbed an excessive number of times. But there was something weird about the w-wounds. The skin around the puncture wounds was w-white and scaley. But i-it felt oddly silky... not... n-normal.

There was b-blood on his fingers but no wounds there a-and it wasn't under his fingernails or anything. But it didn't look like he'd disturbed any of the blood in the area either... He also had part of a thin chain in his hand. It was r-ripped off of something...

[cyan_maid]

...

[God, she. She doesn't want to do this to Touko, or Pyrrha, or Max. Ask them questions, make them think over Noctis's death. But it had to be done.]

His skin was...do you think it could have been some sort of residue? Or was it his actual skin?

[Holy shit Noctis were you okay]

[daughterofthemark]

Could it have been this?

[Arianna hands her a piece of the hardlight projector, the one with the chain attached.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Maybe the blood was just from him trying to staunch his own bleeding?

mods

[kingshaming]

[Wielding a magic burning sword himself, and also being from a world where people get killed with magic lightning and fire and shit all the time do the wounds she described sound like anything he'd be familiar with?]

body check!

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay, we're...still a little lost, but it's possible the murderer might've gotten hurt in the process. Maybe Noctis fought with 'em. We've got a sink full of blood, a needle and his fingers covered in blood, we've got washed clothes--

Let's look for wounds that someone might've had to bandage up, or burns of something like whatever the fuck's on his skin. I suggest we show as much skin as we can, back like we used to do in the mansion.

[And he'll start. Shrugging out of the coat and hanging it on the edge of the podium, and, without any kind of bow chickas, strips out of his shirt. And then out of his pants. By the time he's done, he's down to nothing but some cozy red and black starred boxers.

He's clean. Only thing on him besides his tats is the still a little bit bruised cheek everyone could see since last week.

If Xander wants to pat people down to boot go ahead. Go on. Pat Church's booty down. Who's gonna tell Light?]

[kingshaming]

...

[le sigh]

Well, I can't argue with your results.

[He takes off his coat, though when he tries to drape it on the podium it takes a few tries like it's oddly heavy. That done he strips down to his trousers but no further.

He does have a odd bit of bruising around his neck but it's well on it's way to healing. But otherwise he's clean.]

[cyan_maid]

[Oh boy. They gotta strip for this one. Fine...not like the universe hasn't seen her anyway, after all.

Jane, at the very least, pulls off her shirt. Those from her group will recognize the small scar on her torso, and the larger one through her stomach that has a twin on her back. Besides those, though, she's clean, and she even empties her pockets. Just like all the times before, she only has the toy knife on her, which is also clean and not the right size to make Noctis's wounds.]

If you'd like to check further, I'd prefer a girl look. Or Dad.

[induality]

[...well it was only a matter of time in these types of trials before this became necessary. If she expects anyone else to do it honestly then-- she has to do it too.

She's still wearing her Hope's Peak Uniform, so it requires taking off the blazer, her shirt, socks, shoes and ultimately her skirt-- until it's just her bra and panties. This is fine.

The only marks on her are a set of scars only a very few have seen before. But she's talked about them. They're very clean-- set up like they were counting something. They've been there for a long time. Promise.

Other than that she's clean.]

[daughterofthemark]

[At long last, Arianna gives us the anime girl fanservice we have all cone to expect from Atlus, carefully pulling off her dress and stripping down to underwear.

She's as clean and inexplicably scarless as ever.]

[everylittlesecret]

[Nari is more than ready to strip down to her underwear and jewlery. All the scars she has are old, and there's tattoos all over, but hey. R2's have seen most of them already. There's faint marks here and there but hey she's got a girlfriend, imagine what you must about them.]

[tokencanadian]

[...Somehow, knowing her group already did this once before at a trial doesn't really make it better. But, oh well. If it helps.

Pyrrha's got her Beacon uniform on today, so it takes a bit longer working through the layers. Undo the blazer, unbutton the shirt, untie various things. Then the shirt goes, and the skirt, and Pyrrha's quickly stripped down to her bra and panties.

She remembers belatedly that they're on a television show. It's fine.]

...I-I sure hope that no young people are watching this.

[She has some small marks on her, but they're not bruises or scars. But besides that, she's clean.]

[helladoptera]

Oh boy...

[ Down to her underwear she goes! A little slowly, since Prompto's clothes are new to her, but she's clear of any marks. nothing non-standard in her bag, either, just two cameras and some film and a couple photos - oh, and a flower. ]

I found this in the garden too, when I was looking. It seemed important.

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika's wearing her hardlight and her key on a string, as well as those boots from yesterday, but nothing else of note with her uniform. She's clean.]

Natsuhi-san is probably cursing us from beyond the grave because of this.

catherd

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay, okay, wait, just, everyone put your fucking clothes back on, we aren't finding anything here.

We know there are stab wounds that are small, with weird burns that might not be burns around each one. There's the bloody needle and the one that fucked the dryer. There's the smashed projector, and there's his bloody fingers. There's the blood bag that was buried that might have been used to stage the scene because he didn't die from bloodloss. There's the fact that the blood bag was buried by roses with a gladiolus there. There's the wet clothes and the blood trail to the laundry room, and there's the sink drenched in blood. Have I got everything? Is that everything we know?

So we've got a bunch of theories floating around, but I've got a question. Do we know whose clothes those are?

[kingshaming]

[Xander still has the clothes, and passes them around to Church]

They could be from the clothing store, but perhaps we can compare sizes? They also smell smokey so they might have been in the dryer when it broke down.

[everylittlesecret]

[Time to clear her throat. Nari stands up straight and raises a hand. Anyone anywhere close to her will feel a considerable temperature drop as a thin blade of ice forms in her hand. It's about the length of a rapier. What else would leave marks like that on Noctis other than frostbite?]

See, Pyrrha? This is why we can't go together.

[Wanna know the truth?]

[tokencanadian]

[..................]

No. No. It's not you.

Voting Time

[airlockedmods]

[PAL seems to have recovered from his earlier episode, and you know what time it is...]

Vote for who mercilessly killed the Champion Mercy-Killer.

Pal

[tokencanadian]

[Pyrrha's been quietly sobbing ever since she sank down behind her podium, just barely able to hear everyone else talking, going over the terrible truths of Noctis's murder.

But now... now the votes are up, and she already knows what she has to do. Slowly, she begins to work herself back up to standing height.

But she's not putting in any names.]

Excuse me... PAL? Can I ask something?

Execution: Nari Season

[airlockedmods]

[Ten minutes can seem like hours, or it can seem like a matter of seconds. PAL is silent, once the votes are in for an abstention majority, and through any other votes that come in after that. The chaos that settles in is an excellent cover for Xander to pull something from his coat and toy with it.

The lights go dark, the circle illuminated by only the red lights coming from each empty podium... including Nari's.]

The votes have been tallied. The Champion Dragon has been voted guilty.

[All the lights in the room go out. But before Nari disappears, Xander yells out her name with regal intensity, and throws that glows faintly orange in the dark across the room. There's a flash of orange light at Nari's podium, and then just as quickly it- and she- disappears.

The lights stay out for a long moment, with no response from PAL.

When they come back up, Nari isn't among the Champions, and the execution wall is set up. On the other side is Nari, surrounded by cardboard trees and potted greenery. A robot carrying a rifle sneaks through the "brush," and when Nari hears it she whirls around, letting out a burst of flame from her hands. The "hunter" reels back and fires. Nari's body jerks, and she has a moment where she looks down at her chest as a red stain spreads across her shirt.

Blood spurts from the wound as her body falls to her knees, her expression already slack from the lucky bullet finding her heart just as surely as she found Noctis'. She crumples all the way to the ground and lays there. The robot blows smoke off of the end of his rifle, walks over to her, and poses on its knees next to her body before the lights go off in the execution chamber.]

...Return to the spaceport.

[PAL's voice sounds... like you should probably listen to him. No pride or gloating.]

[tokencanadian]

[True to what she said, Pyrrha didn't watch the execution happen. She didn't even look up at the flash of orange light. But there's no hiding the sound of a gunshot, especially when her arms are being held down.

She cradles the heart necklace in one hand, the last gift she'd been given.]

I'm sorry...