The Mock Trial

[airlockedmods]

[Jesse McCree is dead, the first victim of, what the Overseers seem to hope, is a long game of motives and murder for whatever their reasons. With the investigation completed, C.E.C.E.'s voice comes over the system and directs the Champions to proceed to the locked elevator door at the end of the hallway. Once all Champions are on board, the elevator begins a slow descent down beyond any area that they've been able to explore so far. At least the elevator music is charming.

When the elevator door opens, the Champions enter a courtroom with 21 podiums arranged in a circle and each one marked with a name. McCree's face grins casually at the 20 surviving members from one of the podiums, a greyscale portrait in honor of the dead.]

Congratulations. We have now entered the trial portion of the test. I trust that you will do your best to determine who disturbed the peace by committing murder. Once the culprit has been found, they will face an appropriate punishment for their crime. If you fail to determine the culprit, however, they will be allowed to leave the space station and the rest of you will face punishment instead.

Comments

[semperperatus]

...Right.

[s i g h. Shepard barely knew him, but...this murder was so pointless, anyhow. All of this. Pointless.

His hands grip the sides of his podium as he stands in front of it.]

I found a few things, namely about how our guy might have gotten up there and especially how the killer left the room. I'm gonna just go ahead and put out the theory that the murder happened with the zero gravity on and go from there.

[mikooon]

[TAMAMO: REVS UP TRUTH BULLETS]

I don't believe so myself. With zero gravity on, it would make embedding the pole in the wall like that terrifically difficult with all that floating nonsense. But, if the culprit is reasonably strong and could get close to the victim, that could be possibly. Perhaps we can narrow things down that way.

[aka NOT ME GUYS IM A DEFENSELESS FOX GIRL]

[thetimebomb]

[Don't mind her, she's just going in pointing fingers.]

If you ask me, that Nero guy already seems really suspicious to me. The first day he told me about how the zero gravity room would be a great place to put a body.

[refusedtoleave]

Wsit, you can turn the gravity on in there? I thought it was off all the time... Is it like the machine outside the holodeck?

[How easy would it be to change the settings.]

[thetimebomb]

[Sylvia hated all of this. She was hoping that she could escape before all of this started but here they are.

She folds her arms while hearing what CECE had to say, feeling skeptical about this.]

So what kinda punishment are we talking about here? You can't be vague about this if we might get punished for someone else's crimes.

[mikooon]

Seeing that death is an appropriate punishment for murder, they'll likely kill us instead.

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

Well, I mean, always assume the worst. You'll be less disappointed, then.

[stitch_in_time]

[The Doctor takes the red bead he found on McCree and puts in on his podium.]

McCree was holdin' this, in his prosthetic hand. Anyone recognize it?

[semperperatus]

Nothing I've seen before, Doctor.

[mikooon]

Oh! An article from the murderer, perhaps! Let's try to think of everyone with red beads in their clothes.

[SCANNING...]

[overears]

I don't remember him having anything like that.

[Someone was looking at McCree a lot.]

[misinforms]

[Naho tilts her head and narrows her eyes.]

He had it?

[It takes her a moment but she pulls something out.]

Compare it to this one.

[It's another bead-- same size and color.]

[waitforit]

[ Ugh. Murders. Ugh. So not awesome. At least Barney was lucky enough to find evidence that didn't involve any blood. He'll just get on with it, walking up to his podium. ]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the murder weapon might be one of the hand rails from the hallway. I checked it out this morning and one of them was missing. Looked like it had been unscrewed from the wall.

...So whoever did this thing didn't just pick up the first thing they found lying around. They had this thing planned.

[ He is actually surprisingly serious about this. Death isn't funny, go figure. ]

[semperperatus]

Wait a second, they unscrewed it? How did they do that!?

[DON'T TELL HIM THERE WAS A GODDAMN SCREWDRIVER AND HE NEVER FOUND IT BECAUSE THE KILLER DID!!!]

[stitch_in_time]

[Uh, SAME QUESTION AS FIN, THANKS. Do you know what he might've been able to do with a screwdriver.]

[Answer: NOT THIS.]

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi stands stony-faced at her own podium. Placing the small metal box on top of it. She still needs to find out who owns it so she can throw it at them.

She's going to look at the others.]

...Is he really dead? The man in the photo?

[Still thinking this could be a sick joke.]

[misinforms]

I don't think there is any other explanation.

[It's unfortunate, but she sees no reason to tiptoe around the truth of the matter.]

[misplacedxsheath]

Impaled through the abdomen. He was quite thoroughly exhanguinated.

[overears]

No, sexy cowboy is just taking a nap with his hot bod completely torn apart.

[Chanel's not letting go this crime against humanity. If someone had to die, why did it have to be such a hot slice?]

[voltrounds]

C.E.C.E., I have a map I've been making on my PIP. Could you display that for us so we can keep track of everything?

[curdle]

[ She keeps quiet through much of the discussion of the kill mechanics, because y'all are nasty, before clearing her throat. ]

If I may ask all assembled...

[ get it together girl, nobody is going to get excommunicated this time! just killed maybe ]

When did you break fast last evening? And did any see Goodman McCree at table? We found wrappings for two meals left behind, like as not eaten before anyone came this morn.

[ She produces said wrappers, because of course she brought garbage to the trial. It's more sanitary than touching the corpse! ]

It may be this was his last meal.

[semperperatus]

...No.

[Crap.]

Thomasin, right?

Voting Time

[airlockedmods]

Congratulations, Champions. It appears that you are prepared to vote. Please use the provided cable to connect your PIP to the podium in front of you, and select the title of the Champion who has violated the peace. As I told you earlier, if you vote correctly, they will be executed for their misdeed. If you vote incorrectly, then the true culprit will leave and the rest of you will be executed in their place.

Best of luck, Champions.

[curdle]

[ she connects it, and that's all well and good, but uh
help ]

[semperperatus]

[Goddamnit. His hand is shaking as he plugs his in. First, though.]

Anyone here need help voting?

[Its mostly for Thomasin, but, really, anything to delay the inevitable. Doesn't seem to be an alternative to voting for Naho.]

Execution: 404 Not Found (cw: gore, evisceration)

[airlockedmods]

[The votes are placed, and CECE tallies them with a digital trill.]

Well done, Champions. You have all voted correctly. The culprit was Saenoki Naho, the Champion Blogger. For the crime of disturbing the peace, she has been discharged from the Deep Space Champion Excellence Program.

Formulating execution.

[Everyone's PIP disconnects with the podium, but when Naho's does there's a crackle and ropes of shining light wrap around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides. Just like that, she vanishes, but the screen on every person's podium lights up with a video transmission.

Naho stands by herself in a room. There's a table with a laptop, and the light from the screen is the only light in the room. A popular blogging platform is on the screen, and she moves over to the computer, trying to make a post. The words "Someone help" have barely been typed out onto the screen when there's a notification alert. They pop up until they cover the screen completely.

What have you done?
You are a monster
You have killed before
He's Coming.

The last one has an attached picture that pops up with it, of a blue-haired man. He's running from something. Naho closes the image quickly and tries to fight through the notifications, but they keep coming.

Killer
Monster
Murderer
Heartless
He's Here.

Another photo of the same boy, this time backed up against a dark wall, frozen in a scream. Naho backs away from the computer, but she can't tear her eyes away from the screen when the next photo pops up, taking up the whole screen.

He's Gone.

The man's sightless blue eyes stare up at the camera, filmy with death. As Naho stares, a horrified scream bubbling up in her throat, red text fills the screen like dripping blood.

YOU DID THIS.

The dead man's hand snaps up, grips the camera. The other hand reaches out and breaks through the screen, taking hold of the edge of the laptop and pulling himself closer to the screen. Naho falls to the ground and scrambles back against the wall, eyes wide in terror as the broken corpse of the blue-haired man slowly drags himself out of the laptop and looms over her. She trembles in his shadow, and his head lolls unnaturally on his neck, mouth splitting into a rictus grin as he reaches out to her.

His fingers sink into her flesh and she screams, fighting him off until with a spray of blood his fingers pierce her by sheer pressure. She grabs his wrist desperately, but he just sinks his other hand in and pulls her stomach open while she screams and writhes in pain. Blood sprays all over their faces, and her struggle becomes weaker, twitching feebly. The camera cuts to the laptop's webcam view, showing the growing pool of blood on the floor and the back of the man in the yukata, Naho's feet kicking weakly as his shoulder moves and her scream becomes higher and more agonized, breaking off into sobs. He jerks his hand back with a spray of blood, and her scream tapers off into a gurgle. The camera then switches to her PIP, showing her face from beneath, blood dripping from her lips as her mouth works soundlessly, as the dead man's bloodied hand holds a throbbing chunk of flesh in front of her face. He clenches his fist, squishing her heart, and the feed cuts off with a low, thin monotone.]

[have_a_heart]

[Kanade watches impassively, though she's shaking regardless. At the end, she turns.]

That was unnecessary. Why are they doing any of this?