TRIAL

[consolemods]

Well, Niles is dead now, and in a very unpleasant way. The investigation has progressed for some time... but after a certain amount of time, a marker appears on the player's console HUDs directing them to a particular location, much in the same way as it did when directing them to the paddock for Thursday's challenge.

This time, though, it's directing them to the courthouse, which has been locked up until this time... but not now. The doors are wide open, and you might as well go inside. The interior is lacking the audience benches you'd expect, but... there's a large, oppressive emptiness to the space. It almost seems bigger on the inside than the outside... no, it definitely seems much bigger on the inside. And after you walk the long, long walk to the center, you'll find a circle of 23 podiums with your names on them, with... two of them being much, much smaller to account for the, uh, pets.

Those... seem really out of place, by the way. They stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the quaint, old-timey Western town by being more on the technological level of the consoles on your faces, with touch screens and pictures of all of the current players... and the two former players, too, with the icon of Niles' and Makoto's faces having the word DEAD stamped across their faces.

As you stand at your podiums, you do begin to notice some wrongness about the whole thing... like that there might actually be some audience benches behind you, depending on the angle you look at them, but they seem to flicker in and out of your peripheral vision. Ditto with the two holes in the podiums, too-- they're... sometimes there, but not always.

The judge's box looms high over the podiums, towering for the animals but really only a few feet higher. The sheriff stands there as comfortable as he's ever seemed, arms crossed and silent the entire time. There are flickers of something uncanny in him, just like the architecture - the color of an eye, the shape of an arm - but nothing sticks for long enough to confirm.

It isn't until everyone's settled at their podium that he speaks, and any hint of the laconic tone he's taken all week is finally gone to be replaced by one far more formal. He seems in his element as he leans down to address the podiums.

"Welcome to round two! You've all done well to make it this far! The first attack has succeeded, and now Niles lies dead. But for every offense, there must be a defense! Will you find his killer? More of your lives may be at risk of you do not. Share your findings with each other, and come to a conclusion based on the evidence: Who killed Niles?

Now, let's play."

Comments

[helldestiny]

[Does anyone mind Sin trying to drag the body into the courtroom? Because that is what she's trying to do right now. It's wrapped up in saddle blankets, but man is it heavy.]

HRGH--A little help here!??

[carbide]

[Olympia walks over to the body and casually picks it up with both arms. I mean, unless it weighs a literal ton or something.]

[helldestiny]

Oh, yeah, finally, thanks!

[It doesn't but where were you a half hour ago, geez!]

Glad someone doesn't just run off when someone needs help carrying evidence.

[Not naming names, but. She might be giving a glare towards Guzma.]

[carbide]

[supervising]

It's a good thing there was someone strong here. What have you found?

[helldestiny]

UuuuUUUUuuugh...

[She staggers to her podium, holding onto it for balance.]

Basically? The dude was stabbed with pointy stuff almost twenty times. I say pointy stuff and not pointy thing because it looks like two of the hits were made with a different pointy thing than the other dozen and a half.

Also his left eye is gone. Aaaaand his wrist has something like bruising or something like that on it, with some blood.

[carbide]

Pointy stuff.

[...this is what she gets for leaving the investigating to these people, isn't it?]

[helldestiny]

What? Pointy things are not my area of expertise!

[Hating Sailor Moon and her family and magical destiny changing magic are!!]

And anyways, pretty sure it's not a knife or sword that made the stabs. Give me some credit, yeesh.

[fuckthemancers]

...Can someone line up the pitchfork with the wounds?

[He'll pass it along too, just as long as it means he's not going near the corpse.]

[carbide]

Something like a spear, then. Arrows. A rapier. Certain types of bullets.

[i_spy]

Mon Dieu, he is like swiss cheese.

[helldestiny]

Kind of randy Swiss cheese, but yeah...

[i_spy]

...Randy? His name was Niles, no?

[flagrants]

He really is! Look at him, all full of holes just... everywhere! It's hilarious! [ When will Dito learn not to laugh at corpses? Never. Fucking never. ]

[i_spy]

I am not sure if I should feel horrified or amused that you remind me of someone.

[condemnedone]

I imagine that at least one of the weapons used was the pitchfork [ Which Zulf brought up that they had managed to discover, of course. ], seeing as that is one sharp object discovered so far.

[ ... ]

And how were you able to figure out he was struck with two different weapons?

[ Different sized wounds, etc.? ]

[helldestiny]

There were two wounds right...here, if you look at the body...

[The two puncture wounds she refers to being around his liver and intestines. See, she was thinking ahead!]

They're definitely different-sized wounds, but still made by something pointy.

[condemnedone]

[ Interesting... well, at least there's a body for them to examine. ]

It's probable that our killer decided to come at Niles first with the pitchfork, and then after stabbing him a frenzy, decided to go for a more sure lethal strike to make sure he was dead.

Mods?

[thegoddamnmissile]

[ Missile has been quiet, and his tail hasn't been wagging. He's been a sad little doggie. But today, he's going to be useful.

He's going to go up to the corpse and sniff. Anything that sticks out as being odd and not belonging directly with this corpse? ]

Re: Mods?

[consolemods]

[Well, Niles smells faintly of the stables, actually. Horse smell and stuff. It's reasonable to assume he was in the stables/near a horse some time before his death. But otherwise he smells like normal, if a bit bloody.]

[thegoddamnmissile]

[ Noted! ]

Hey! Where was he found? He smells like the horse house does.

[acherontiastyx]

I'm pretty sure literally no one actually drags a body into a courtroom when they're trying to figure out whodunnit.

[helldestiny]

It's called evidence!

[fuckthemancers]

[What the fuck, you guys]

[helldestiny]

[LOOK IT'S EVIDENCE]

[carbide]

[It's called a corpse!]