sixth trial

[airlockedmods]

[Six weeks, thirteen Champion dead out of their original twenty as well one half of the former Overseer pair. With Jamie now counted as a fellow Champion in the Benefactors' eyes, their numbers have dwindled down to eight.

C.E.C.E.'s announcement sounds and for what may be the last time the Champions must file to the teleporter with their evidence and the Champion Landscape Artist now officially among them. The courtroom is empty this time around, the floating platform as empty as the updated circle of surviving Champion's podiums. Jamie makes a small, humorless sound when he sees the lack of a portrait at Lightning's podium and his own name in glaring green where she once stood.

There's no Bolton to speak to them this time around so it's C.E.C.E. whose voice rings from on high.]

Welcome, Champions, to the courtroom. Eight of you have entered, but if you vote correctly only seven of you will leave. Compile your evidence and select the correct culprit is. If you vote correctly, the culprit will be executed and the rest of you will be allowed to go back upstairs.

Thank you!

Comments

Mods?

[stitch_in_time]

[Okay. They're all VERY sleep deprived, and looking at some very difficult evidence here. No pressure.]

CECE. One thing, before we start. We'd only be here if this was definitely another Champion who killed Bolton, yeah? That's part of the rules. Otherwise it'd just be a punishment, like what happened to Chanel.

[airlockedmods]

That is correct. I can confirm it was a fellow Champion is the culprit, Doctor. [A pause before she adds with the same upbeat perkiness she's had this whole time.]

Bolton was enjoyable company. I'd like to ask that you find the culprit quickly so justice can be served as soon as possible.

[kingshaming]

We all found a lot of information about the experiment itself- but unless we have reason to suspect what we found out has something directly to do with Bolton's death I suggest we focus only on the murder for now.

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika used the time to wash briefly and change in a rush, which means she comes into the room in... a large, cutesy white bunny costume. Her face, though, is dead serious.]

Since we were separated, most of us have alibis, but we still need to look at this closely. Can everyone tell where they were last night? I was down in the gym, and Ushiromiya-san and the Doctor were with me on the same floor.

[imnotfat]

[Togami suppresses a yawn. He slept like an hour or two, but he feels much better than before. It wasn't enough to compensate for three days of staying awake, but at least it doesn't seem like he's going to crash against his podium]

Let's get done with this. Listen to my testimony.

[Togami takes out the blade Jane found and entrusted to him]

It seems I was the first person to arrive to the scene of the crime. Bolton was found in the Dance Studio. The place was covered in blood, and I confirmed myself he suffocated with his own blood. The cause is a wound to the back of the neck, done with this. This is a piece of an ice skate.

[Anyone who wants to take a closer look to it may go ahead]

Both the location of the murder and the place the weapon can be obtained from are in the fourth floor. That'd make Jane Crocker the main suspect -- and I'm a suspect to a lesser extent, I guess -- since it's impossible for Bolton to have killed himself. Let's start:

Is there anything that could show any other floor is related to this murder?

[Go ahead. Help prove both Jane and Togami are innocent, if you believe they are]

[stitch_in_time]

[About that...]

[cyan_maid]

[Not even going to acknowledge that accusation with a glower or anything. She's not guilty. Neither is Togami. There's no need to pettily squabble over it.]

[refusedtoleave]

[She's not glaring or even frowning, but she does tilt her head at him.


You're 'a suspect to a lesser extent' how so? The was blood on the wall at White's neck height. Why would Jane be the main suspect, when she can hardly reach?

[stitch_in_time]

That trail of blood I mentioned also lead to the incinerator. It was hot, like it'd been in-use until almost right before Thomasin and I got there.

There was a big pile of ash inside, something that'd been made of leather. And I found this-

[He holds up the button he found in the corner of the room outside the incinerator proper.]

[kingshaming]

Hmm, well with the sewing room any number of our clothing could have buttons on them. Is it one anyone recognizes?

[kingshaming]

So what we have discovered so far is this:

The culprit snapped off a ice skate blade, likely using the floor as leverage and used it to attack Bolton, cutting deep enough into the back of his neck for him to drown in his own blood. In pulling the weapon out they sprayed blood on the mirror, indicating they and Bolton were both standing when the attack occured. After Bolton was done they also closed his eyes and placed his glasses back on him.

After the attack they when to the incinerator and burned something large that included leather, leaving a button behind. Then trailed blood to the teleporter- likely to return to their appropriate floor.

My main question is- if they burned the evidence why was blood dripped on their escape?

[ratherdoweddings]

If they burned their clothes and left the weapon, the only thing left would be that they injured themselves too, right? Likely holding the blade.

[kingshaming]

[Xander takes a deep breath after the Doctor's question, and squares his shoulders. His eyes are set, and he puts his hands behind his back, chin up. All the picture of a prince.]

It seems you've come to suspect me in this. So be it- but I will not allow you all to kill yourselves over false assumptions and contrived evidence! You are the ones that put me in the position as leader, and as such I will continue to do my best- we are at the end of this, one way or another. Bolton is dead, CECE is turned against us and there is someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. If we are to survive and escape then there can be no more jumping to conclusions based on emotion! We must be bold- The price of doing what's right is always sacrifice!

If you think I am the one that executed Bolton, then prove it with more then some cuts and flimsy logic jumps! There will be no broken weeping confessions here- I am Prince Xander of Nohr and I will not be so easily cowed!

Prove your ability to me! ... or we shall all finally go to Hell together.

[MTB Start!]

[cyan_maid]

...No.

[This is fine. It's fine. It's all going to be fine.]

No. It wasn't you. It...it wasn't you!!

[refusedtoleave]

Wha? [Her head snaps from Jamie back to Xander. She just looks blank for a moment...Then she glares. Her shoulders tense.]

What are you saying!?

[stitch_in_time]

Dammit.

[He is. So tired.]

Okay. Fine. From the beginning then.

This lockdown wasn't an ordinary incentive. It was presented to us, to all of us, as a shutdown of the program. Including removing Bolton and Jamie as Overseers, and returning them to their status as Champions.

If CECE really can't lie, then it's also true that we were meant to stay here indefinitely, separated between the floors.

[curdle]

... thy gloves.

Thy leathern gloves. Where are they, Xander?

[imnotfat]

Of course it was you. Jamie was the only other option, but given the condition he was given there's no way he'd agree to kill.

[Togami gestures at everyone]

Everyone else has been cleared up. Most of them for having the wrong height for a good kill, or for not being trusted enough by Bolton. I'd say that you and me are the only viable suspects right now...if anyone thinks Bolton would trust me to kill him and sacrifice myself.

[And given that Byakuya Togami isn't the sacrificial type...]

You're the only viable option. The questions I see fit to talk about are two: how you got to the fourth floor and what reason you'd have to agree to kill Bolton.

[theoverseers]

[Haaaahaahahahaha HERE WE GO, TIME TO JUST COMPLETELY EMOTIONALLY SHUT DOWN.]

[theoverseers]

...We have to put in a vote. [They're the first words Jamie has uttered since Xander's confession and they're so soft it's possible only a few of them heard him.] We have to either put in a vote for Xander and we all live to try and leave or we vote wrong and we die. If we don't vote we're just stuck in here until we starve.

Those are our choices right now.

[cyan_maid]

[Jane looks up at that, expression unreadable.]

...I can't accept that to be our only choice.

[kingshaming]

How do you know that for sure Jamie?

[he's so damn tired]

[stitch_in_time]

Is that how your game ended?

[Because you guys were here for like a year and apparently weren't any closer to leaving.]

Following their rules hasn't gotten us anywhere but down to less than half our starting number.

Voting Time

[airlockedmods]

The trial has reached a standstill. Please cast your vote for the person responsible for Mr. White's death.

[kingshaming]

Everyone stay together! We all vote from my podium, understood?

Mass Execution: 'Ohana Means Family

[airlockedmods]

That vote is...

Incorrect.

Congratulations, Ultimate Paladin. Please wait, while I commence the appropriate punishment.

[Jamie's a line of tension, a live wire waiting to snap.]

Hold onto each other and stay close!

[The hard bubble closes over Xander's podium, covering Xander and by virtue of proximity Jamie as well. Jamie presses a button on his advanced PIP before the floor begins to open, and the remaining six Champions are suddenly suspended around the podium in a force field, the same function that Bolton demonstrated a couple of times before.

There are a tense few moments where they float above the void, feeling the heat on their skin like the lead up to a mild sunburn, where - if CECE had that kind of control - she could shut off Jamie's PIP again and leave him trapped, again, but this time with his boyfriend's murderer instead of his boyfriend.

But the field holds, and after the same amount of time that normally passes the floor closes back up and the hard bubble recedes again. Jamie turns off the force field when the bubble releases him and Xander, and then slumps against the podium like a puppet with its strings cut.

Congratulations. Just this once, everyone lives.]

[stitch_in_time]

[That.]

[Was definitely not something the Doctor wants to do again. Ever. He falls to the floor as the forcefield releases, stunned for a second.]

[And then, maybe it's sleep deprivation, or sudden relief at not being dead, again- he's laughing, almost hysterically.]

That- was fantastic. Let's get the hell out of here.