Hostile Action Trial

[mockmods]

[As you all finish investigating, an electric chime rings out across the PA system.]

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.]

Comments

[mockmods]

[It did, actually. But there's one major difference, if Izuku is looking closely.]

[mightdoriya]

[ZOOM AND ENHANCE you know that he's going to be pouring over this thing to make sure there's nothing off- What's the difference?]

[mockmods]

[Remember the big arm construct and the definitely blunt bicycle wheel at the end?]

[In the blueprints, that wheel sure is a whole lot stabbier.]

[mightdoriya]

[...well. Fuck.] This...looks exactly like the machine I saw. Except the wheel didn't have- [He reaches out, tracing the image of the rim with his finger.] -all of these knives on it at all. It was just the wheel mounted onto a swinging arm. And you found this in the victim's dorm, too?

cw: suicide

[boxtrot]

Yes, along with, ah. The victim's suicide note.

... The handwriting matches, for the most part. But there are some areas of discrepancy- I can't rule out forgery. But either he planned to kill himself with this, or someone wants us to believe that's the case.

cw: suicide mentions probably for the rest of this

[mightdoriya]

[You know when you're trying to figure something out, and new information completely throws your previous viewpoint out the window? Izuku is experiencing that now with a vengence, and it's enough to make him dizzy.] It...would make more sense if you looked at it as him planning to kill himself, especially with how needlessly complicated this machine was. I'm not going to say that I know what he was thinking, I didn't know him terribly well...but he seemed like the type of guy who might think something like this wasn't that unusual. Did the note mention anything about the machine?

[hyaku]

It didn't.

[Shigeo speaks up, a little quietly but he seems a lot better today than he was yesterday at least.]

[mightdoriya]

[Wait, Shigeo found it too? that...makes Izuku pale a little as he shoots the other boy a sympathetic glance.] Did you keep the note?

[hyaku]

[Shigeo shakes his head.]

I was the first one who found it, but I didn't know if I should have brought it or not.

[But it looks like Spy brought it himself, so there's that.]

[mightdoriya]

[Izuku nods, swallowing around the thick lump in his throat.] N-no, it's alright. I'm sorry, Kageyama-kun.

[scratchitti]

But if he meant to kill himself, who left to bandage and clean themselves up? There has to be a second person involved.

Maybe someone found him and took advantage?

[mightdoriya]

Yeah...there's no doubt that someone else happened upon this plan, or maybe they ran into him while he was getting all of this set up, or something...that is, assuming that the machine was his idea to begin with.

[scratchitti]

Yeah, it could be a frame job. We know we have to get away with a kill to fulfill that rule, so the smart thing to do would be to plant fake clues.

[mightdoriya]

They were...really messy about it, though. That all could have been intentional of course, but with things left laying around, like the first-aid kit, the mannequins, and all of the blood and wine bottle in the kitchen...either they were in a rush, or they're pretty confident they're not going to get found out anyway.

[clandestineideals]

Either someone took advantage, or he decided to work with someone to make it happen.

...I only doubt that he had a chance to do all of that to himself.

[ It's never that easy. ]

mod ping, more suicide talk

[scratchitti]

... would someone helping with a suicide count as fulfilling that rule?

Re: mod ping, more suicide talk

[mockmods]

It would. Though I will not say whether or not that is applicable here.

[boxtrot]

[Spy pulls out the suicide note itself, skimming over it again.]

No mention of the machine, itself. It says that he wanted to kill himself to fulfill the game's rule that a death must occur.

[Spy hands the note over to Izuku so he can read it if he wants.]

Like I said before- I cannot guarantee that he wrote this himself. It is also possible he was planning to kill someone with this, but something went unexpectedly wrong, and his true murderer forged the suicide note.

[mightdoriya]

[Izuku will take the note as offered, looking it over to see what exactly was said in it.] Mm...so it's best to keep both possibilities on the table, then. One, that the victim made the machine to kill himself, or two, he made it to kill someone else. There's also the fact that someone else might have made it and is trying to frame it as something he came up with... [Izuku presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose.] The most I can say is that even if this was initially a planned suicide, that isn't what happened in the end. Not when his head was nearly cut off.

[canbebeautiful]

Maybe we should check it against everyone's handwriting then. [She hesitates for a moment.] Maybe someone forced him to write it as part of the cover up and that's why it doesn't match?

[mightdoriya]

It wouldn't hurt to check if there's suspicion of forgery. I have plenty of paper and a pen if we need it.

[canbebeautiful]

Can I see the letter? I'm pretty good with handwriting, [That's the understatement of the year.] and I figure it'll be easier to pick out a couple of distinctive words otherwise we're all going to have to copy it and we don't really have time for that.

[mightdoriya]

Of course. [Izuku hands the letter over.] That's a smart idea. Even if it turns up nothing, it'll be better to have a clearer idea of whether or not this was actually the victim's plan from the beginning.

HEY MODS

[canbebeautiful]

[What sections in this letter don't match the rest of it? How clear is the forgery to someone who's pretty, uh. Experienced, shall we say, in forging things?

. . . Does it sound like Air Supply?]

[clandestineideals]

If that doesn't turn up anything, we should start looking at the idea of examining people more closely. The murder had just happened today, we could find something that they weren't accounting for.