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

[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.]

[semperperatus]

...Where did you get that?

[misinforms]

It's mine. I've been looking all over for it.

[semperperatus]

When did you lose it?

[Investigate pal you realize this makes you look super suspect right]

[misinforms]

[Oh she knows. And she doesn't like it one bit.]

Thursday night. I took the other one off then as well because I didn't want to lose it too.

[semperperatus]

....You realize that was last night, right?

[misinforms]

I'm not an idiot-- of course I realize that. Do you think I'd just lie about something this important?

[Sorry, this is just. Unpleasant for her as well.]

[stitch_in_time]

Any idea why McCree would've had it? You realize how this looks, yeah?

[misinforms]

Unless he wanted it for that hat of his, I have no idea. Unless he thought it had some kind of spiritual power in it-- in which case he was totally out of luck. If he wanted something like that I could have made him a charm myself.

[In short-- Spirit Medium crap.]

[stitch_in_time]

Anyone else gotten close enough that they could've taken it?

[misinforms]

Anyone could have, I suppose. I've always worn them. And unfortunately they're just beads so it's. it like they'd be hard to take. Or it could've fallen out-- it's not like a normal hair clip that has anything holding it to my hair.

[semperperatus]

[He bites his lip, not wanting to respond to that. Because the response would be "I don't know". ]

Just...where were you at 11pm?

[This is seriously not going well.]

[misinforms]

In my room working on a story. I'm a writer. I can stay up late but not that often. I'm used to having a busy schedule. It was nice not having to worry about it-- well. I guess I just have different things to worry about now.

[semperperatus]

And I'm guessing you were alone.

[Yeah, uh. That doesn't help you.]

...What were you writing about?

[misinforms]

[Thank you-- that is a question that makes her smile brightly.]

It's a romance novel. Or at least, the ideas for one. If I survive this place I'd like to leave the paranormal stuff behind me. But I love writing. So I'd like to write about things I love from now on.

[mikooon]

INTERRUPTION!

[literally no one needs to announce their interruption before actually interrupting. Tamamo's is literally so fucking extra.]

If I may throw in my two cents. If she had been the real murderer and found out an identifying accessory of hers went missing, I believe she would've returned to the scene of the crime to try looking for it, in case it was left there. Of course, she might've been caught while doing so... but honestly, who is out at 12am onwards?

Better to risk a check than to have your identity so inexplicably linked to the murder like this. [Pause.] I know I would do that!

[For FUCKS sake]

[damnfourthemerald]

[tamAMO] Then she would've returned to the room in zero g. Nothing in the room indicates that McCree ever touched the ground after being murdered. And given the blood in the room, it would have been a messy endeavor, and it would have risked leaving more evidence.

[mikooon]

True... still, if it was not planted, why would she admit she had a matching pair? Why not swallow the other bead and pretend it never existed?

[everyone knows she would do the same but yeah]

[misplacedxsheath]

Had anyone recalled her wearing them before, denying their existence would have been far more incriminating than claiming to have lost one.

[damnfourthemerald]

Because people have seen her with the beads. It would've jogged someone's memory eventually. At that point, denying they existed at all would only make matters worse.

[stitch_in_time]

Someone else might've seen her wearing them.

[He doesn't want it to be Naho -doesn't want it to be anyone but the Overseers, really- but things are looking pretty bad right now.]

[voltrounds]

Even if she looked, that doesn't mean she would have found it. It was in the victim's hand, right? It would be easy to miss there.

[mikooon]

Hmm, that's true... with all the globules of red in the air, who could spot the right one?

[GROSS]

Mods?

[stitch_in_time]

Gripped tight in his cybernetic hand, yeah.

[Fin's asking the relevant question, so he's just gonna take the bead from Naho and compare it to the one he found. How similar are they?]

[airlockedmods]

[It's a match.]