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.

[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]

[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]

[have_a_heart]

So you think it was turned on later?

[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.

[semperperatus]

...Actually, that's not entirely true. While I agree that someone reasonably strong enough to thoroughly impale a man and stick him to the wall is our culprit, with enough force and momentum its possible that anyone could have killed him.

Especially if the person who committed the murder knew of a way to reasonably tether themselves while and after committing the murder, like with the ladder.

[He nods. Yeah, yeah, this makes sense to him, his dad taught him well, Newton's first, semper peratus]

There were scuff marks by the door, near the bottom, like something metal was brought into the room before gravity turned off.

[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.

[mikooon]

I would believe so, yes.

[dont listen she has NO IDEA how physics works]

[semperperatus]

[ooookay that is a red flag]

Why the hell did he say that?

[stitch_in_time]

The pole might've been placed earlier, with the gravity on. Once it was off, it was just a matter of pushin' McCree in the right direction with enough force. He was a big guy, he would've gotten a lot of momentum easily.

[Lots of mass plus no resistance might've equaled enough force to impale him, with a decent bit of aim.]

[damnfourthemerald]

There were bloody marks along one of the walls and ladder that indicated that someone dragged themselves back to the door in zero g. The gravity was still off when I arrived this morning.

[thetimebomb]

[She sighs heavily.]

I suppose assuming the worst would give us encouragement to catch the killer. But if they're willing to kill us all for not solving a murder case in one day they're somehow even worse than I expected.

[semperperatus]

Yeah, that's also a possibility too. Could explain the scuff marks, too...

[mikooon]

[Tamamo is trying to visualize how this is gonna work. Give her a moment of blank staring, and then she'll nod.]

So... if they used the ladder to-- push it against the wall, or something, to give them an extra "omph", anyone could do it?

[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?

[thetimebomb]

I don't know! I just asked what the point of the zero gravity room was and he quickly told me that "torture" was a good use of the room.

[Okay so torture is not quite murder but it's still a lot of red flags.]

RIP NERO

[mikooon]

[OH IS THIS HOW IT IS... HMM...

Tamamo's gonna take this in and not say anything yet.]

[stitch_in_time]

The ones by the door you mentioned? You think whoever it was had to drag in the pole?

[That might limit the suspects a bit, depending on how big the pole actually is.]

[semperperatus]

Yeah, its possible - can't discount it. Though Doctor also makes a good point that the pole might have been placed before the gravity was turned off, meaning someone very strong is would be more likely than someone who isn't.

[thetimebomb]

Wait, does that mean that the killer could have been injured?

[That's good news, she supposes.]

[semperperatus]

Yeah, I'm thinking that's a likelihood. I mean, there's a lot of things possible, but it would seem weird that those scuff marks would only just appear after a murder. They weren't there yesterday afternoon, far as I can remember.

[mikooon]

Hmm... in that case, I think we can clearly count out Thomasin and I. This level of thinking is far too complicated for simple ladies like us.

[YEAH THAT WAS HER MOTIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE, JUST TO CLEAR HER NAME even though neither of them are stupid, like tamamo tries to insinuate. She only added in Thomasin to sound more reliable.]

[have_a_heart]

It is possible. Many of us were already practising how to maneuver in zero gravity throughout the week, and I was injured three days ago doing so. It could easily happen to somebody else.

[misplacedxsheath]

The zero gravity room is made of a relatively soft material, as well. It wouldn't be as hard as one might expect to leave the pole stuck in the ceiling.

[semperperatus]

[WELL THAT'S A REALLY FRICKIN GOOD WAY TO MAKE YOURSELF MORE SUSPECT BRUH]

I'm...going to keep that in mind, we all should, but I don't think I'm ready to accuse him just yet. There's still other stuff that needs to add up before we even start shortlisting.

[Just going to pinch the bridge of his nose anyways]