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

[voicerights]

We already had the letter. What need would there be for the unsaved file?

[comeandfindme]

'Cause someone— maybe someone unfamiliar with how the program works— didn't shut it down right. That's not Connor. Especially since Connor didn't write this.

[voicerights]

Your proof?

cw: suicide

[comeandfindme]

Because he didn't know Evan Hansen! If he— if he wrote a suicide letter, it...it wouldn't be to him.

[voicerights]

[...]

Accepted.

[mcfife]

But this note was found in a locker. Someone was trying to hide this message from us. Why type it up and then place it underneath the pile of clothes?

[comeandfindme]

I don't know. I don't know why...why some fucking asshole would forge a suicide note! But Connor didn't write it. So someone else had to.

[violentenvies]

Well, that depends on what it could tell us about whomever was printing out that letter. One would assume that they were literate with such a machine. Surely they would know that such a problem could arise in shutting it down. Why, then, did they fail to catch such an issue?

[voicerights]

[...

A glance towards Discord and Farrah]

Did you think to view the unsaved file versions?

[violentenvies]

We did. I believe the letter was the same as the one Monsieur Angus has.

[voicerights]

No - you saw a final. If the file was unsaved, then the program should have saved several drafts in its temporary files. If nothing else, pressing Control - Z should have undone the previous action, allowing one to see the process of it being written.

[violentenvies]

[It'll get a frown for that]

That was not a feature that I was aware of. It was my first encounter with the machine.

[voicerights]

I have spent much of this week attempting to datamine. This includes exploring the capabilities of the programs available to us. While I was able to confirm that they were all first activated on June 13, 2021, I was not able to find wiped partitions, nor access any sort of network.

[mcfife]

That is rather useful information, SQIUP. [Offering some positive reinforcement for the resident robot.] However, we can discuss the implications outside of this trial. What we do know is that whoever set this up has to have been familiar with computers and printers.

[So, not Salieri thankfully.]

[samefacesyndrome]

They might have been in a hurry... or um...

Sometimes that feature catches people by surprise... most modern computers will still shut down after a while even if you don't respond... but these are really old.

[violentenvies]

So it might've been open for some time. Either way, they certainly didn't come back to close it.

[samefacesyndrome]

[ She nods. ]

It's something you don't really think about. You just click shut down, get up and leave and assume nothing stopped that.

[brokeforgood]

It’s easier to forget about than you think.

[violentenvies]

Is it? One would think if they were printing out such a note for a deliberate purpose, they would want to ensure the machine is shut down.

[disharmonizes]

They may have just tried to shut it down and not spared it another glance. If someone was in a hurry, well, they may not have thought of it.

[violentenvies]

Indeed. That was my thought as well. They certainly didn't take the time to check on it again.