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

[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?

[damnfourthemerald]

A good question. Another good question is how. [Despite her shaking, she manages passivity better than he does. His expression is dark, furrowed, hard to tell what he's thinking--is it revulsion, despair, resignation, deep thought?] Some kind of transporting technology...though what appeared to transpire--it doesn't seem very plausible. [Come on, who can just crawl out of a screen?] It could be a sick holographic show for us while she's killed in some other way.

Perhaps death is some perverted fascination to these 'people'. [The Doctor had suggested reality tv, even though...Shadow doesn't...really know what that is...]

[stitch_in_time]

Could be. Let's hope it is.

[He watched the execution, the whole thing, as stoically as possible. However much he might blame the Overseers, this is still something they had a hand in, and he can't shy away from that.]

[His hopes that Naho's true death were cleaner aren't terribly high, though. The holodeck already makes things solid somehow, this could easily be the same tech taken to a deadly level. The others can take comfort in whatever beliefs they want. And he's not giving anyone ideas, if this whole display isn't enough to deter any future attempts at playing by the Overseers' rules.]

Fascination with death is a polite way of puttin' it. More likely they think they're proving some grand point or philosophy they've built up in their own heads.

[damnfourthemerald]

It'd be nice if they would share that philosophy with the rest of the class. We shouldn't have to be lab rats.

[stitch_in_time]

Something something emotional attachments are a weakness, the cold an' unfeeling are superior, probably. It's usually some nonsense like that.

[damnfourthemerald]

Manipulating people into murder and destruction is...a weakness. [Of course it's wrong, it's just that technically he's also calling Professor Gerald weak. Which is no easy task.]

Do you think this will continue until there's a small enough group that there can't reasonably be a trial? Until there's only one...Champion left?

[humanitarianherbalist]

It does seem more likely to be a performance. After all, we have already seen what their "holodeck" can do. [The Griffin frowns.] Still, that was unnecessarily brutal. She should simply have been pierced as she did to her victim.

[refusedtoleave]

Even if it's fake, it's still sick. Why else would someone do this? Make this?

[humanitarianherbalist]

Some people do seem to derive pleasure from the suffering of others. It seems clear that they intended that with their motive for us, after all.

[refusedtoleave]

That's true... [CoughEvacough] This just seems, so well thought out.

[humanitarianherbalist]

It does. But none of us are sure how long we were unconscious. They could easily have set this up and researched us while we were still unaware.

[refusedtoleave]

[She hadn't thought of that.] We couldn't have been unconscious that long...

[humanitarianherbalist]

How can you be sure of that? If they were able to take away everyone's personal items and change us into those...clothes...while we were out, they could probably have done something to make us feel we were not out for that long...

[refusedtoleave]

[Her shoulders slump.] That would have taken a while, but we don't know how many people are involved. [But more people was just as worrying.]

[humanitarianherbalist]

No matter how many, they shall all be brought to justice.

[refusedtoleave]

That's right. We can't let them get away with this.

[humanitarianherbalist]

[A simple nod.] Let us leave this place for now. [Naho didn't die here, but it still feels odd to be speaking here.]

[refusedtoleave]

We better not leave anyone down here. [She looks the room over before heading to the door.]

[humanitarianherbalist]

Of course not. [Looking around, it seems like most of the people shocked by the execution are being helped along.]