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

[damnfourthemerald]

[Well if Fin's not gonna ask...]

Naho. Is this your notebook, or were you writing on the notetaking function on your wristbound computer?

[semperperatus]

[HE WAS GETTING THERE SHE'S JUST A KID]

[misinforms]

I was writing on my PIP. I'm a blogger, so this kind of thing is a lot more natural to me.

[damnfourthemerald]

For the sake of the evidence, may I see your PIP and confirm that?

[misinforms]

Yes of course.

[She displays a section of writing-- it is indeed as she said. It's not actual novel stuff but there is a very clear outline for a story of some sort. Bullet'd note style. That said... it is very much written in short hand. But that may just be a writer thing.]

[damnfourthemerald]

[Spacehog knows nothing of professional writing or Champion Blogging, but this seems legit enough to him. (A Champion Blogger would have some kind of shorthand, maybe?) He nods.] Thank you.

That makes two items now that nobody knows where they came from: the notebook and the toolbox.

[misplacedxsheath]

Each of us was provided a notebook in our quarters. I've been using mine for my notes out of personal preference.

[voltrounds]

[ARGH why didn't she think to check whether anyone was missing a notebook stupid stupid stupid]

[stitch_in_time]

Any chance there's some kind of time or datestamp on those? Might make things clearer.

[One way or another, unfortunately.]

[misinforms]

[If there are time and date stamps then it would show that she had started writing at 10:25 pm that night. If there are other more periodic ones it would show that the times are spread out-- natural, probably, for someone who was thinking and writing as things came to them. But they aren't one right after another. There are minute gaps between bullets, some larger and some smaller.]

[semperperatus]

[Shep is going to take a look at this. Now the question is, when's the last date stamp?]

[misinforms]

[The last is timed at 11:45pm. At the very least, she was still making some additions after the murder.

So it looks something like-- 10:25 > 10: 31 > 10:40 > 10:50 > 11:15 > 11:18 > 11:22 > 11:24 > 11:36 > 11:45]

[semperperatus]

[...well, he knows its short hand. But that doesn't mean he can read it. SO MUCH FOR BEING PREPAAAAAAAAAAARED]

Do you mind if I ask why you wrote in short hand?