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Hostile Action Trial
I believe that should be sufficient time for you all to prepare. Assistant, please escort everyone to the trial room.
[Penny emerges from the Security office again, head down, and slowly collects everyone; she leads you all to the east side of the common room, to the short hallway between dorms B1 and A2, that’s dead ended through your entire time here. As your group approaches, the wall seamlessly slides up to reveal a hidden doorway. Passing through leads to another short hallway and a small, round room, just big enough to hold all of you. Penny passes her ID over a small pad near the doorway, and it blinks green before the room lurches slightly beneath you; an elevator going down.]
[A short trip down leads you to a larger chamber, with a series of twenty-two podiums set up in a ring; in the center is a column of computer stations with large monitors, behind a set of thick metal beams with occasional faint flashes of energy arcing between them and a constant, low hum.]
Welcome to your first trial, Participants. You will use this time to determine which among your number killed the Legendary Bassist, and send them to justice. Failure to choose the correct culprit will have dire consequences for you all.
[Trial: commence.]
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[casually pointing at penny. he thinks she smells.]
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[Seriously, does she? She can't smell anything, this isn't fair guys.]
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[Please, make her care about finding the culprit.]
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He couldn't save someone mere feet away, but he can do everything in his power to stop the person responsible.
Before he gets to that, though...he stops at his podium and calls out to the ever present voice of the Researcher.]
Dire consequences? What are you saying?
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I'm going to try and cover everything I found, but I also have it written down if anyone wants to read over it for themselves. I apologize if there's any mistakes.
In the Foyer, I discovered two things: what looked like a big junk pile and a lot of mannequins clustered together. I checked out the junk first, but it wasn't just that. It looked like a Rube Goldberg type machine put together by someone with every spare part they could find. It was sprayed with blood and had a bicycle wheel attached to a blunt swinging arm that must have been intended to hit someone very hard...and succeeded. I don't think it could have been strong or fast moving enough to...remove his head, though.
[He pauses for a moment, the crooked fingers of his right hand curling into a fist near his chest.]
It was very complex to the point where I don't know how someone could have put it together all in one night, much less put it together without being noticed...not unless they were sneaking out every night to work on it.
As for the mannequins...they were all beheaded. They were also covered in blood, but it looked like the blood had been smeared onto them. Hard to say if it was an accident or on purpose, but something bloody definitely rubbed against them. From the mannequins and the scene as a whole lead bloody footprints heading towards the dining room and kitchen. They were too smeared to tell if they were shoes, or bare, or who they might have belonged to...but they were footprints, definitely.
[Izuku looks down, taking a breath. He hadn't realized until just now how much he uncovered.]
On the way to the dining room, I found a used first-aid kit, the outside case smeared with blood too. It had been opened and used, and all of the gauze from it was bloodied and put back inside the kit. I didn't see that anything else had been disturbed or removed.
And last thing...I went back to check the body itself. I didn't find anything new by way of wounds, and I can't say I really know what to look for when it comes to...a body that recently died. The only thing I could tell was that he hadn't been dead for very long, but not really much more specific than that. More than that, though...his ID was missing. Either someone else has it, or it's still in the building somewhere.
...I know it's a lot, sorry...but like I said I wrote everything down, if we need to double-check. I can write down anything anyone else found, too.
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[She crosses her arms and leans on the podium.]
I don't see why they'd need a machine if grabbing him and slitting his throat takes less work.
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[Meredith sets down another one on her podium. This one's unused.]
I think whoever got it was in a hurry, because they made a huge mess in there and tore the box open. Which I guess makes sense if they needed a first aid kit.
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Seems like there'd be more straightforward ways of getting the job done.
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[Spy lays out the blueprints for the death machine.]
I found these in our victim's trunk.
Mods!
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[ But she's also setting a jar of peanut butter up on her podium, so... ]
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HANDWRITING CHECK
[Please don't ask how she knows.]
So we're all going to write "hence I have henceforth decided" which doesn't even make sense down and figure out if it was Colonel Mustard in the dining room with a candlestick.
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...please tell me people don't actually speak English like this.
[He writes the phrase and yeah it's not even close]
I still have the notebook we used at the meeting too if we need more comparisons, but not everyone used it.
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catherd
[He pulls out the notebook from the meeting, checking to see if any of the writing in it matches too: though carefully so hopefully the Researcher won't be too interested in exactly what it says]
...we should also go ahead and check for wounds and blood just to be safe.
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Wound and blood check so it's all in one place
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cw self-harm, scarification
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Skillcheck
Hey, everyone! I think we all need to talk about our individual skill-sets a bit more. I know a lot is mentioned about us in the profiles, but...I mean more specifically in terms of being able to engineer and build things on the fly.
The machine that was in those blueprints was extremely complicated. If we're assuming that it was forged just like the note had been, then it's still possible that one of us could have put that thing together. It was made entirely out of spare parts with no apparent cohesion on the surface, so you'd have to really know how to put something together to be able to make it work. Someone also needs to have the strength to be able to carry those parts back to where it was being assembled and put it all together without being caught.
[He presses a hand flat to his chest.]
I have an ability that gives me enhanced strength and speed, but for one reason or another I haven't been able to use it here. While I could probably manage to lift the parts either way, I couldn't engineer something like that. I'm not a builder or really a designer at all.
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pocketcheck time!
[ And, with no further ado, Helena turns out her pockets! Except I'm going to respond to my own comment for that, because it's going to be a whole Thing. Time for everyone else to do the same! ]
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1/3
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body check 2.0
[Neku you charmer]
Everyone line up, I'll check the guys... uh... Kara, can you do the girls?
[She's a robot, so it won't be weird, right?]
We're doing a full pat down. No exceptions.
[...I mean, unless you wanna tell the 15 year old to sit the fuck down]
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[Which reveals nothing out of place or unexpected, except maybe that she does appear to be pretty human in form.]
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cw self harm and scarification
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Voting..?
[Twenty-one of the podiums around the room light up on top, revealing glowing white keyboards.]
This has gone on long enough. You have determined the events of this morning.
Enter the title of the one responsible for the death of a fellow Participant.
Voting incorrectly will result in execution. A majority misvote will result in mass execution. Choose wisely.
[There's a moment of echoing silence following the Researcher's ultimatum.]
"....No."
[Penny is- not quite shaking, she doesn't have the biology for that, but the suggestion is there. She looks- mad?]
"This isn't fair, it was an accident."
That is not relevant. A vote must be entered. You have a guilty party, regardless of intent.
"THIS ISN'T WHAT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO HELP PEOPLE!"
The expansion of my own knowledge will help everyone across the multiverse. If a few individuals must die, that is hardly of any consequence.
Your misassumptions about the nature of this experiment is not my fault.
[Penny's quiet for a moment. The podiums glow, quietly demanding an entry.]
"...Researcher. Who was Patches?"
That is not relevant. Enter a vote.
"I- Mister Spy asked about him, and- I can't- it feels WRONG, but-"
[She shakes her head.]
"WHAT ELSE DID YOU MAKE ME FORGET?"
[There's another moment of silence.]
...This course of discussion is not relevant. VOTE FOR A GUILTY PARTICIPANT.
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Re: Voting..?
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Wait... hey. Why are there so many podiums?
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This is a study in which a maximum of twenty-two participants may partake. It is not relevant.
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VOTING - Meet Your Researcher
[As Neku and Sonia and Michael prod at the Researcher, the monitors on the central column light up, as do the walls all around the trial room, revealing themselves as brightly lit screens.]
[A series of pixilated LED faces appear, one to each screen, with a cheery computerized tune.]
I was once called Hodgepode, but I have left that identity behind. I am the Researcher.
You have determined the guilt of the Damaged, all else is irrelevant. ENTER YOUR VOTES NOW.
[All around the ceiling, the nozzles poking down spark to life with miniature pilot lights at the tips.]
[Vote, y/n?]
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Guys, if someone else is counted as Participant we might have another voting option-!
[Or would it still be counted as wrong? He's not sure. And he's not gonna vote for Penny but he'll HAPPILY vote for Hodgepode.]
...especially now that we know your name...
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EXECUTION - Would you like to install windows 10?
VOTES RECEIVED...
TABULATING....
TABULATING...
VOTES COUNTED: HODGEPODGE - THE RESEARCHER, 100%
[There's a moment of silence, and faint electric hum.]
[And the screens blink to a vivid green.]
CORRECT
COMMENCING PUNISHMENT
GOODBYE, RESEARCHER
[A pained, staticky scream rips through the facility as the screens displaying Hodgepodge's face begin to flicker.]
NO. I REFUSE-
[The screens in the center of the column bring up a new display, and a segmented loading bar.]
REFORMATTING: 0%...
5%.... 10%... 15%...
I AM NOT SOME SIMPLE BIT OF CODE TO BE DELETED!
20%.... 25%...
[And then the screens flicker, and freeze, the loading bar held at 30%.]
PROCESS HELD: ABORT, RETRY, CONTINUE?
You have all MISVOTED, and will be PUNISHED APPROPRIATELY.
[The flamethrowers in the ceiling begin to flare.]
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The- THE ID, THE WEIRD ONE. MEREDITH, SOMEONE, GET THE WEIRD ID, IT- OPEN THE THING!
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EMERGENCY EXIT
[The whir climbs in pitch, getting louder and almost painful- and for just a second, every Participant in the trial room, human or not, organic or not, feels a weird sort of rumbling in their gut. Like really bad indigestion or building gas? But gone in a second.]
[And then, in the space of a second, one at a time or in twos and threes, every one of you suddenly bursts, feeling nothing, your consciousness plunging into darkness.]