cradleproject | WEEK 3 - TRIAL DAY TWO

WEEK 3 - TRIAL DAY TWO

the pygmalion. . .

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CAPTAIN'S LOG:
WEEK (3)

saturday TRIAL DAY ONE

(34) 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

Maybe. [A huff.] That's where the whole thing gets sort of messy to figure out. Alice said that punishment wouldn't occur if the killer's attack was potentially lethal and yet their intended victim survived.

Let's follow this for a second. [Luke, no.] Let's pretend that Lavi's the intended victim and he and Allen are in the garden doing whatever with Raleigh's dog tags. If Machias was targeting Lavi, he would have received the cloaking device right? Let's pretend the gun was fired to hit Lavi but Allen stepped in and took the blow. That would explain the gunshot wounds coming from the front at a long range. With the paranoia set in, you can imagine everybody probably freaked out and a struggle occurred. With the evidence we have we know that both Lavi and Machias have shoes that are the same size as the footprints in the garden, but Machias's match best. For all we know, Allen attacked with Crown Clown, Machias attacked with the shovel and that's how the two victims wound up the way they are. If Machias was knocked out enough to have a concussion I don't think he'd be in any position to stop himself from getting poisoned if Lavi wanted to finish the job to protect himself and also with the belief that Allen would just regenerate and Machias would maybe go after Allen. So then Lavi could have taken the device from Machias to shield Allen so nobody would else would find him and trigger the body announcement while he went to work on bandaging him up and trying to kill Machias instead.

...it's a long shot, but still worth thinking about anyway. We didn't think taking Adrien for a walk would reveal the body, did we? We've gotta think this way.

I still don't understand why Lavi wouldn't have told us, in that case. It isn't as though Machias could run back to the scene to finish the job upon finding out what happened. There are enough of us here to stop him.

Dunno. Why didn't Alita tell us right away that she was one of the last people to see Calypso Mew?

That is different. That directly implicated her. This would only implicate Machias.

I don't know, Adelina. I wish I knew but we're still putting everything together. I'm just not sold on ruling Machias out completely yet, that's all. Especially with how Alice specified the rules. Gunfire's pretty lethal if you ask me. Just because Lavi survived doesn't mean the requirements weren't met.

[But he knows there're holes in his theory and that's why he's actually glad people are questioning him. Please help, people.]

Wow excuse you I totally thought taking Adrien for a walk would help with the body finding, that's why I did it. Are you judging my plans, Luke.

I would never judge you, Dave. [Except for the times he would.] Good call, by the way.

I def earned my scooby snacks yesterday, y'all can be proud.

[ he Tries ]

...but then in this situation, why would Machias attack with a shovel if he had a gun with him? If he wanted a blunt weapon, the end of his gun would do.

[she's liking this train of thought, Luke, but she has to question parts of it.]

Depends on how Allen's arm works. Think he could have disarmed Machias when he first attacked? Lavi did mention that Crown Clown basically controls all of Allen's moves for him like he's possessed.

If he's already far away, then disarming would become a problem. If he was close, that'd be a different story, but even Allen's arm only goes out so far...so it depends on where the shot was fired from.

Edited 2016-06-26 20:35 (UTC)

[Looks like this theory's starting to fall through. But he's used to instigating things, not really solving them.]

According to the autopsy two shells were found about fifteen feet away from the scene. But that doesn't mean Allen wouldn't already be on the move by the time that second shot was fired to get in close enough range either. But good point. Even his arm only goes out so far.

Where do we go from here then?

My next question would be where did the shovel come from in all of this? Once we know that, we can revise your theory to address that.

[she folds her hands under her chin.]

It's a more solid set of ideas than we've had so far, so I'd like to see how far we can take this.

There's a shed in the garden full of all kinds of stuff. Somebody also suggested that Allen was digging a grave maybe for Raleigh's tags, I think. In the same way that Allen might have disarmed Machias, maybe Machias took the opportunity to grab the shovel and hit Allen to fend off Crown Clown.

Digging a grave for the tags...

[she nods, but then frowns.]

If he was only doing that, why would Machias fire at all? It's an innocent enough activity done out of respect. He would have had to walk over there to get the shovel...and Mr. Hancock stated that it was a shot fired at long range. Meaning that Machias wasn't that close.

But if someone else could have gotten the shovel-

[her eyes go wide as she's realizing what she's implying, at least in this proposed scenario.]

[He was just about sold on maybe his theory didn't have a lot of bearing at all, but he stops when Grell stops.]

...what is it?

In your theory, there is a third person. Mr. Lavi. Who could have picked up a dropped shovel as a weapon.

[she knows what she's implying here, but...]

Mr. Machias's shotgun didn't kill Allen. Otherwise, Lady Alice would have said. She said it was...head trauma?

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chiseler - 2016-06-26 21:19 (UTC) - Expand

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erythristic - 2016-06-26 21:23 (UTC) - Expand

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chiseler - 2016-06-26 21:43 (UTC) - Expand

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erythristic - 2016-06-26 22:04 (UTC) - Expand

The thing about hiding the body makes sense to me... Why wouldn't they just finish Machias off with the gun, though? If they were keen on killing him, why not just kill him?

[...point.] If Lavi was trying to get rid of Machias but also trying not to out himself, using Machias's own weapon's probably a bad idea. But if it was staged to look like a suicide and someone didn't know Shelley was in the cell, too, when Machias was dropped there...could almost be the perfect set-up. Machias would still technically be ruled as the true killer of Allen and since he'd be dead from drug overdose we couldn't really have a trial if it was suicide.

But that would only work if the drugs really killed him, which...they didn't. So here we are. It's a thought.

They're always watching...you can't commit suicide here.

He could've beaten him with the shovel, or made it look like Allen did it in self-defense. He could've hidden Machias's body somewhere no one would ever go until it was too late, like his room.

Honestly? The more I think about it, I don't think anyone was trying to kill someone for real. I think Allen and Lavi had some kind of plan to get out of this, and Machias was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So what, an accidental death? Then where did the cloaking device come from? You think maybe Allen said he was going to target Lavi to get the device and Machias just happened to show up? [That's the part that doesn't make sense to him here.]

I was thinking Allen and Lavi were working together. What if Allen and Lavi made a deal... Lavi said Allen could regenerate from pretty much anything, right? So he kills Allen, gets the immunity, Allen comes back to life, gets the money, is also out of the game 'cause dead...it's a win-win.

If Machias shows up for whatever reason during their fight and flips out and attacks, then maybe Allen gets hurt worse than expected. Lavi knocks him out, then ODs him to take advantage of the loophole of doing something lethal to a vulnerable person so he can grab the cloak and hide Allen until he can get better.

Except, Allen dies for real since he runs out of MP or something? ...That's the weak part, what happened to Allen. If he had some crazy magic arm that can act on its own, why isn't anyone mauled or anything? --Not that I wanna see that, but still. Why are the only injuries the shotgun and a shovel?

I was following you up until the part of Lavi taking the loophole. I don't think the cloaking device is something they could summon instantly. That sounds like something somebody going after a vulnerable would have had to already have on their person. How would Lavi know that Machias would have it on his person? He couldn't have claimed it for himself and Allen would have had to kill Lavi to get it for himself.

On the other hand you raise a point. Crown Clown acts on its own when Allen's unconscious. So what happened to stop it from going out of control?

I figured it wouldn't take that long to get the special stuff, you just call up Alice and a robot brings you what you want. It's not like it takes all that long for lunch to get here... [shrugs] I hadn't thought about Machias having it.

But for stopping the arm from going out of control... Unless Machias's magic bullets are awfully powerful... [he frowns, eventually coming to the same conclusion the others have] Guess that head wound had to get there somehow...

From the way Alice made it sound you have to have the murder in mind and be using the tool to help carry out the murder. That's the only reason I'm not sure about Lavi having it first.

The head wound's from a shovel, but it's also been said that the arm starts to break up when it reaches its limits. That might be why even when he fell unconscious Crown Clown didn't keep going. It might have already hit its limits. So...a fight went on for a while before that, maybe?