theairlock | The Mock Trial

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.]

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.]

Impaled through the abdomen. He was quite thoroughly exhanguinated.

Edited 2017-01-14 20:02 (UTC)

That sounds... excessive. He was there all night, right?

Since at least 11pm, probably before that.

[That might've not been a quick death, which is something he's absolutely not about to mention just yet.]

Fairly soon after lights out. ...Dying slowly. Right? But why that way, if it were planned?

It would have been the easiest target, given the weapon. A more swiftly lethal wound would have required breaking through the ribs.

So it is someone not only smart, but cruel. ...I am sorry. Even for everyone at home, that should not have happened.

Or else inexperienced enough to not realize a blow to the skull would have been a far more merciful execution with a metal staff.

So you think that he may have been attacked just after lights out and languished for an hour before dying?

That is the typical fate of one with an untreated gut wound. It's a notoriously agonizing death.

[He may know a thing or two about ancient warfare.]

I see. I hope that we can solve this quickly.

And it wasn't an accident?

[Still hoping.]

it's can't think how such a situation would have occurred unintentionally.

It's hard too move in that room... I got stuck to the ceiling myself the other day.

The murder weapon was blunt. Lacking leverage, it would have required significant momentum to achieve that result. McCree may well have been stuck, but the one who left that bar there was well capable of moving. And I doubt they would have impacted him staff first by accident.

There's also the fact that the murder weapon was there in the first place. People don't accidentally remove railings and move them to other rooms.

And it's sounding unlikely to have been a target of opportunity.

So, they were waiting from someone to go into the room or they knew he'd be there?

It seems that way, yes. Furthermore, the lack of indications of a drawn out combat indicate that they caught him by surprise. He must not have been aware of their intentions until he was already stranded.

Right. The murderer had to set this up ahead of time. Everything would have been too obviously suspicious otherwise.

I'd wager they concealed the weapon within the zero gravity room and then lured the victim into place. Carrying it with them would have been immediately suspicious.

That might be why the screwdriver was in the utensil drawer, too. They needed to stash it somewhere quickly so the victim wouldn't see it.

(no subject)

misplacedxsheath - 2017-01-14 21:20 (UTC) - Expand

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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?]

I was just making sure! Someone went through with it then...

[hmph]