cradleproject | WEEK 9 - Trial Day Two

WEEK 9 - Trial Day Two

the pygmalion. . .

ONLINE

CAPTAIN'S LOG:
WEEK (9)

saturday TRIAL DAY ONE

(19) survivors

At 9 AM, a klaxon alarm begins blaring in every area of the ship. The alarm will continue to go off until everyone has gathered in the conference room. Should anyone be running late or avoiding the trial for whatever reason, a robot guide will appear wherever they are and gently but firmly escort them into the room. Once all the living players are present, the conference room doors will lock shut; anyone who wishes to leave for whatever reason will need to ask AL-2955 or one of the robots. Anyone leaving for non-investigative purposes, such as bathroom breaks, will be accompanied by a robot escort.

The large round table in the center of the conference room has been set up to help the trial run as smoothly as possible. Three holographic screens hover above the center hollow of the table, visible from every angle. The first screen displays the pictures and profiles of the suspects and victim; the second displays the autopsy report; the third displays a blank word processor. Each of the chairs comes equipped with a virtual keyboard which can be used to type information directly into the third screen, such as theories and updated information; they can also be set into privacy mode, which will transfer whatever notes someone writes directly into their datapad instead of on screen. There's also a tablet function for those who wish to draw charts or pictures on screen. The keyboards will detect the DNA of whoever's using them and record who's typed what - simply press an area of text and the name of whoever wrote it will pop up.

The area to the right of the table has been temporarily sectioned off with a glass partition and sliding door for hygienic issues. Inside, the victim's body has been laid out on a metal autopsy table, covered by a plastic sheet. Above it is a holographic screen that displays a close-up color photograph of the body when it was found. A hand sanitizer dispenser has been considerately attached to the wall nearby for anyone getting up close and personal to the body.

To the left of the conference table is a display case. Any evidence found during the investigation will be carefully collected by the robots at some point the previous day and placed here before the trial starts. Beneath each piece of evidence is a small tablet where players can type up information, such as a short description or where it was found. There are also empty areas left over for any evidence that may be found during the trial. The shelf at the very bottom of the case has been reserved for an extra rulebook in case anyone needs it.

Food will be served throughout the day by the robots, who will take individual orders whenever you're feeling hungry. The trial will end at 9:00 PM, at which point all players will have been expected to cast their vote.

victim

suspects

Character Statuses
Setting
Rulebook
Voting

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Goooooood morning, douchebags!

[ Oh. Is Jack doing the summary today? It looks like Jack is doing the summary today. ]

Anyways, let's get right to it. Because, I dunno, personally? Super hate wasting my time in here. So. First off, we've got a pair of corpses this week: Machias and Minako. Two bodies and two different causes of death. So first, we've got a trail of blood in the hallway going between the doors of the zero gravity room and the airlock, and as you'd actually expect for once, we've got a body in each. Minako in the airlock, Machias in the zero-g room.

For Minako, saw her myself. She was collapsed right in front of the door to the airlock with a big friggin' hole in her chest from getting up close and personal with a shotgun. Can confirm it was definitely a shotgun, since I'm awesome, and also that it was shot at point blank range. Her hands were also in interesting shape. One of them almost didn't make it, since it was just hangin' on by a few tendons, and looked like it was also probably from the shotgun. In her other hand, she was holding a bloody knife, but that's kinda weird considering she was the one with random slicing and stab wounds on her body. But, hey, figured that one out pretty well, since unless she was stabbing herself, those stab wounds on her looked like they came from that knife.

In terms of the scene, obviously she was laying in a big pool of blood, but we had another puddle that was disconnected from that one. We've got a trail leading out, and shotgun spray about five feet above the ground on the wall in the airlock. Found some shells from the shotgun too, so two rounds were fired. Also found out later that Minako had her gun still in its in her holster, but it looked like someone got some blood on it and tried to wipe it off.

For Machias, dude was just straight up exploded. Like, people salsa in the zero-g room. Super gross, but also super hilarious to see Jason pouring beer on the guy's face and then pushing the resident princess in to go save the floating damsel. 10/10, would watch and laugh again. But that all aside, trail of blood leads to the machine at the console, and it had some blood on it too. Gravity was pretty much off, so you've got some stuff floating around in there other than Machias, like his scarf, some tape on the cieling, the dude's shotgun. Up where that tape was, cieling was dented pretty well by an explosion, including shrapnel around it. Also, checking out Machias turned up that there was a large bruise in the center of his back. Prrrrobably not from the explosions, since explosions don't really do bruising so much as. Y'know. Chunky salsa.

Right, and almost forgot here, but we've got some mystery fabric in the incinerator.

So, that's all cool, and we get to investigating, and the most important thing we learned? Definitely that immunity kicks ass and Alice is holding out on some, like, orange-rarity shit. [ don't ask ] But. Yeah. Weirdass experiments we tried and maybe learned something from—

One, Machias got real good. As in G-U-D, 'cause it looks looks like he took a shotgun to the chest too, but, man way worse than Minako. And this is where the jackasses come in handy! Since by blowing themselves up, also found out that this was probably from Machias's shotgun ammo. That first big boom was from the proximity mine, no surprises there, but the second was from the ammo going kaboom.

Two, scarf and fabric. We know the scarf was Machias's and Clover saw him wearing it. Because it was stretched and it's what Jessie used to hang tight while Jason went for a ride in the zero-g room, seems like the scarf was probably used as an anchor to keep someone down close enough to, y'know, get away. As for the fabric in the incinerator, didn't really match anything the dead people were wearing. Soooo, might be from our killer.

Aaaaaand finally, we have a hero. Al wasn't a total unhelpful bitch for once and actually told us Minako's motive, which was actually a pretty good one, gotta say. Kiddo sacrified herself to stop the apocalypse, so, yeah, undoing that would totally suck. Also had some kind of huge explosive bullshit magic thing called, like, Mega Dolan, but whatever. I'm going with the mine over magic here personally. Also worth noting that we tossed around the idea of accomplices, so, yeah, dickbag could be unoriginal to boot. And a traitor. For shame, asshole.

For the record, I didn't pour beer on his face.

[Shut up, Jack!!!!]

Anyway— the shotgun still smelled of smoke when I found it. Not enough that I'd say it was fired within the last ten minutes, but enough to know it was fired recently. We found the gun after 2:19 AM, so it sounds like there was some kind of delay between putting a new hole in Minako and shoving Machias at the proximity mine.

Record noted.

[ Jack crosses his arms and nods to what Jason actually says, that said. ]

Yeah, and about that delay-- We got any ideas on the order of operations here? I mean, I got a guess personally about who bit the dust first, but curious what other people think.

I'd say the logical order is Minako and then Machias, considering the big ol' trail of blood leading up to the console. But, of course... That's assuming Machias was alive when he got blown to smithereens. With his corpse the way it is right now, we can't really tell what he looked like before the mine did its work.

[So there could be something obvious they're missing. Sucks.]

But what's your guess? Let's hear it.

I don't suppose we could put Machias back together like a fucked up jigsaw puzzle, could we.

We could. A couple of spots are gonna be scorched like hell, but a Machias themed jigsaw puzzle sounds like fun for the whole murder family.

[Is he... Is he joking...]

Would that actually help?

[oh my god adrien dont pipe in to jigsaw hell you've already molested a corpse yesterday]

There's absolutely no way!

[ GUYS??? Frankenstein died like 6 weeks ago, chill. ]

Inspecting the additional wounds is one thing but don't you day play with his body in such a way.

We're not playing with it. We're just putting it back together — like a jigsaw puzzle. It's for science.

You say it like this isn't your first time.

(no subject)

antagonize - 2016-08-07 18:13 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

baptizer - 2016-08-07 18:18 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

antagonize - 2016-08-07 18:24 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

muties - 2016-08-07 18:13 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

baptizer - 2016-08-07 18:15 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

antagonize - 2016-08-07 18:15 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

baptizer - 2016-08-07 18:17 (UTC) - Expand

What Jason said, science. It could crack this case wide open. I'm sure Machias would appreciate it, even.

Ugh... fine. But if there's a joke involved somewhere - [ jason ] - we may have another victim.

(no subject)

muties - 2016-08-07 18:19 (UTC) - Expand

Grell quoted Hamlet at him, talk to her about plays.

[LISTEN LIZ WHAT IF IT HELPS?]

And that was just as tactless!

[ SOURPUSS HERE. LOOK. DO YOU EXPECT JASON TO DO THIS WITH A STRAIGHT HONORABLE FACE? ]

No idea. But you know what they say. Leave no stone unturned, or whatever.

[Time to show Adrien how to put a corpse back together.]

[@ god please let Adrien Roxy and Jason jigsaw a corpse back together this is amazing. reluctantly:]

If there's any chance it could help... we should do it.

Alright. Kiddies first. Time for you to learn how to put a body back together.

[HE SAYS THIS LIKE IT'S SUCH AN ESENCIAL SKILL.]

[Adrien, why]

Be careful.

Nah, that's pretty much it for me too. Only thing I have to add here is a guess that our "accomplice" or an opportunist or whatever knocked the guy out, since dunno how they'd do this otherwise, and also explains that bruise maybe. Get him in the zero-g room, use the scarf as an anchor, then boom.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sold on the idea of an accomplice. Remember the change to the rules for getting a special tool? It sounds to me like they needed to ask for the mine before trying to whack Machias out. Not after stumbling upon a prime opportunity for murder.

[ He waves a hand dismissively. ]

Oh, nah, I agree with you there. I think what we have here is someone who probably told one of them that they were an accomplice and they betrayed the poor bastard. They were planning on doing it the whole time, I'm gonna bet, but I mean, otherwise?

[ He shrugs as he looks around the room. ]

We got a suspect here that could convince Minako and Machias to go for a friendly stroll together on Murder Eve?

That theory isn't too far-fetched. Plenty of nice, seemingly friendly teens on the suspect list. And if one of them turns out to be a secret psychopath or possessed — well. It wouldn't be the first time.

[As much as it bothers him to think that way. Getting attached to people is awful. Don't let anyone say otherwise. However, now that they're on this topic...]

A bunch of us have been assuming Machias walked in on Minako getting killed, but what if it was the other way around? Minako walked in on the killer taking care of Machias. Her dominant hand's the one that got nearly blasted off, right? She could have gotten shot while she was raising it to summon "Messiah". Would explain the blood on her evoker.

[ Jack brings a hand to his chin thoughtfully, and there's a pause before he answers. ]

...Yeah, or some combination of that. Because now that I think about it, the fact that the blood on her blood got wiped off, that's weird, right? If she was just the one using it, then who cares? But someone else had to've done that. Either Machias, and he had enough time to start cleaning up after himself, or our killer. That kinda makes sense either way. Assume they got a hold of her gun, forgetting or not knowing that apparently she's the only one that can use it? 'Cause that's the only reason I could see either one of them getting their hands on it and going through the effort of putting it back and wiping off blood.

[ He hums thoughtfully ]

Minako walks in on the two of 'em, someone blasts her hand off, someone tries to take the gun and is shit out of luck.

How easy is it to aim one of those guns? I'm guessing hitting her in the chest wouldn't have been hard for anyone, but the wrist's a way smaller target even up close.

A shotgun? You hardly need to aim, especially if something is close. Being close enough is what you need - I'm no firearm expert, but I recall something similar being said in Allen's trial.

[that the spray would take care of things.]