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

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.

mods?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Like someone threw 'em in and forgot there was another needle in their pants?

[They're wet but what's shame, we got a MURDERER to find, so he holds the pants up to his legs. Menswear or womenswear or stop being sexist it's the 6900's wear? What kind of size are they?]

[airlockedmods]

[The pants are a pair of black men's jeans. They look like they might fit you, but they'd be loose-fitting on basically everyone else here as a result.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Hey...Xander?

Are these yours?

[kingshaming]

Eh? No. Though you and I are about the only one's that could fit in them.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Well I sure didn't stab anyone with corrosive-covered knitting needles! There's nobody else here who would fit in these unless they wanted to be tripping on themselves and rolled the sleeves up. Which, if someone was wearing a holoprojector, they wouldn't need to wear other clothes.

mods

[kingshaming]

Let me see them.

[ Would they fit him? Also he takes a look at the shirt]

[airlockedmods]

[Length-wise they work, but they sure seem like they'd be too tight on you, Extra Beef. Same for the shirt.

It's really all a much better fit for Church.]

[kingshaming]

No, no Church, the only one here these could fit with comfort is you.

[He checks them more closely for blood or anything similar]

[ratherdoweddings]

That doesn't make sense, though. Church-san had no reason to go for the motive, at least for himself, and he's always been suspicious of hardlight projectors -- and he wasn't wearing anything that actually fit him all week! It was only really tight stripper pants because of his cabin fever problem!

[kingshaming]

Agreed. Church has no motive. If anything Noctis has a much better motive than him due to his purpose in his world. We must also consider how much of this scene seems faked- it would not be hard to put clothing that would only fit the few of us left of larger size.

[He's not saying it's NOT Church, but he's not ready to jump on him either]

[ratherdoweddings]

That's true. We already know the needles in the dryer weren't real and the blood wasn't, either, and it was the blood trail that led people into the laundry room in the first place. Anything there is likely to have been another plant. But then, that takes us back to square one.

[daughterofthemark]

It was also Sir Church who suggested identifying the owner of the clothing in the first place.

[tokencanadian]

[...Not going to bring up Varric. Not going to bring up Varric...]

That's true...

[motherfucking_ghost]

Well--well then...then maybe you wanted to wear something tight to push this off on me! You've worn tight shit before. Or...someone else wore something long to trip us up!

[kingshaming]

Church, calm. If you are innocent, then it will come to light. Same with the reverse.

Remember what I said when we were alone last week- I have chosen to trust you. So... I will do so until I have express reason not to.

[airlockedmods]

[There might be a small bit of blood residue left, despite the fact that they seem to have gone through an attempt at washing. It's hard to see since everything's black, but since you're searching.]

[kingshaming]

...seems there is blood on here. So odds are they were worn during the attack.

[daughterofthemark]

...could they perhaps belong to Lord Noctis?

[motherfucking_ghost]

He's shorter than me by a couple inches. They would've been long on him.

...I never got to benchpress him...

[daughterofthemark]

That would have been quite a sight!

[everylittlesecret]

Doubt it. Noctis was my height and about my size...

[daughterofthemark]

...I see.

[tokencanadian]

[Thank god. She's putting her clothes back on, the R2 life isn't for her.]

It sounds like you have everything. [Hmm.] I've been thinking... if the needles belong to Noctis, maybe he was down in the concourse already, and then someone using a holo projector snuck up on him.

It might help if we try to put together a timeline for this.