second trial

[stagemanagers]

[As the investigation ends, you'll hear Hester's voice inviting you to the auditorium. As this happens, the twin doors on either side of the concession stand, across from the gym, will click open. You can enter on either side; both go to the same place.

When you enter the auditorium, it's dark. There's only the small lights along the walkway behind all the seats, just enough to illuminate where you're going. There's a central path between the seats, down towards where you know the stage must be. That's where you must be going, right? As you pass each row of seats, the lights at their ends flick on, marking your procession and slowly making more and more of the room visible. Shortly, you can see your destination: a circle of podiums stationed in the orchestra pit, below the lip of the darkened, curtained stage. They're all identical, labeled with a cast member's name. Elisabeth and Connor have joined Mumble in having theirs draped in black crepe and with a framed monochrome photo of them on top.

When you reach the podiums, the lights above the stage finally come on. the Wizard is once again waiting for you. Beside it Hester is slowly lowers in on her bubble. Her dress this week is a purple monstrosity, more akin to a voluminous prom dress than the simple outfits she usually wears.

The mechanical head, with glowing green eyes, is installed above the stage and the still-closed curtain. Even if you were standing on the stage, it'd be well out of reach. It peers down at all of you, its motions fluid, and speaks with a booming, artificial-sounding voice:]

Welcome to your second trial, everyone. It's time to determine who was responsible for the murder of Connor. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and work together - you'll have to show teamwork if you want to leave this room alive.

Comments

cw: suicide, suicidal ideation

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa has been oddly silent and withdrawn ever since Connor's body was found. All of this is... it hits close to home in a way the last trial did, but on a much more personal level. The way everything looks, that Connor killed himself...

It reminds her of the bad days of her isolation. When the darkness loomed too heavily over her, and she was so desperate to make the magic in her hands stop...

But still she speaks. She... she has to, to try and help.]

Do you think... [Her voice is quiet, shaky.] Do you think someone did that to him, then took him to the showers to clean him?

[voicerights]

All evidence points towards a suicide, and if someone found him, it was when he had already taken his life. Or was otherwise too weak to be saved.

In either case, if there was another party involved, it does not appear they had a hand in his death.

[comeandfindme]

You're just going to dismiss it like that? You don't have all the data.

[voicerights]

No, but there is ample amount to analyze probabilities. Unless there is information being withheld at this point - which I will not dismiss - I cannot ignore the possibility of it being a suicide.

mods

[comeandfindme]

Would we even be here if it was?! [ She turns to the Wizard. ] Hey, asshole! Would we?!

[stagemanagers]

You would, yes. You would still have to figure out who was responsible.

[sugarlumps]

You. It's you. You're the one. IT'S BEEN YOU ALL ALONG, WE KNOW THAT!

[fourbutts]

Which is why they're chomping at the bit to come forward right now, right? Because they feel super safe in the knowledge that they totally didn't kill him?

[mayavericks]

They... Could be afraid. Last time was very clearly an accident, yet Elisabeth-san still met her end. The Wizard is underhanded. Who knows what stipulations he might enforce. If Connor was even holding on to the barest fragment of life, and someone moved him just enough to make him lose that last bit of blood, the Wizard might have assigned them as the culprit.

[voicerights]

Consider last week's events, where an unintentional action was nonetheless enough to be considered 'guilty'. Who is to say they do not believe the same will happen now?

[fourbutts]

[ "The Squip and Maya said the same thing" yeah but she's not kissing the Squip, so he's the one who gets the response. ]

I mean... tough shit? They're still withholding information, and if we don't use all the information we can, an alarming percentage of the people in this room die too.

[violentenvies]

Then why not come out and say it? And why bother washing away the blood, then simply leaving him?

[voicerights]

Irrationality, of course.

[H u m a n s.]

[violentenvies]

The question is why. Why bother washing it all off? And if the action happened elsewhere before the shower, would we not have found blood somewhere else?

[defyingfrigidity]

Guilt, perhaps?

[Though if this was intentional, if the person who killed Connor - if it wasn't himself - planned this.... why only feel guilt after?]

There are... stories. Fictional and reports of real murders, where the culprits will do things like cover all the mirrors in the house of their victim, out of some sense of guilt, or their way of apology.

[violentenvies]

[he frowns, considering this]

So washing away the blood could have been symbolic for them somehow, in some terrible way? A way to atone for what they'd done?

[defyingfrigidity]

Possibly. Or perhaps it was simply a way to clean away the evidence.

[Elsa just shakes her head. She knows waffling like this is no help at all, but it's just... still hard to comprehend.]

It's terribly hard to get into the mind of someone who would do something like this. I could... I could understand last week. It was easy to see how that could be an accident. But if someone was involved with this, I can't see it being other than intentional.

[violentenvies]

I agree. There are too many pieces here that don't add up to a deliberate choice on Monsieur Connor's part.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[don't think she hasn't noticed the shakiness. For some reason it... it hurts to listen to.]

Maybe they were paying respects to the dead. It's possible.

[Yet... her tone says something isn't adding up.]