MOCK TRIAL

[hijackers]

"Alright, mooks, everybody make youse way down to the trial room, pronto!"

[There's certainly no trial room on the map. No trial soundstage, no trial room, where oh where could they be talking about. You might spend a long time looking for it, or only be thinking about it for a single second before it comes over you.

Whenever you close your ears, or even blink, you find yourself there.

The room is a cartoony laboratory, filled to the brims with scientific equipment and beakers beyond wondrous, almost impossible to imagine being utilized in any sort of actual scientific context. A large monitor is mounted on the ceiling, playing a single clip on repeat along with the words "IMAGINEER THINK TANK". There is a large stage underneath that television, which your two hosts take their places at quite readily.

A circle of metal podiums is set up on the ground floor, 26 in total. Each is marked with a name and a photograph of the individual who's supposed to take their place there, as well as a keyboard for inputting...something. The 26th podium is marked with a grayscale photograph of Gwenpool.

Your fellow participants appear in the room one-by-one, seeming to "digitize" out of nowhere. Once everyone has appeared in the room and taken their place, the air around them seems to go deathly still.

Mugsi holds a cigar between her lips, lighting it from a stick of dynamite lit by Kate. With Mugsi taking a deep inhale, Kate speaks, the dynamite somehow fizzling out.]

Each of you has a place you oughta be sitting, and your job is to solve the mystery that's been put before ya. Once you think you know who did it, input their name on the keyboard in front of you. Majority rules, participation is mandatory, and if ya vote wrong you're not gonna see the light of day ever again!

So, get on with it!

Comments

[bayoublues]

I think so? Um, there's also the matter of the cuts on her ankle, but it was probably because there was glass on the ground.

...D'ya think she pulled that bit of cloth from her attacker? 'Cos we could inspect people's clothes, maybe.

[greekrevival]

Are you sure we should dismiss that right away? The cuts on her ankle. Basil, do all the wounds look like they were made with the same weapon?

[not_over_yet]

The injuries all appeared to have been made by a blade, nothing that indicated involvement of glass. As far as it being the same blade for them all, the nature of the various cuts would make determining that difficult.

[losingtoabird]

You think a little guy did this? Wouldn't it be a little awkward to-

[He makes a stabby motion.]

On her legs and stuff if you're all kinds of high up?

[not_over_yet]

A bit difficult, yes. But people are capable of crouching as well.

...The wounds on her ankle are puzzling. Unless one were quite small, I'm uncertain how much even crouching would help with--perhaps she was already down?

[greekrevival]

...That broken glass and water. If she was bending to pick it up, maybe.

[losingtoabird]

You thinking she fell or something? And then they...tried to stab her feet?

[not_over_yet]

She looked utterly terrified. Perhaps she fell when something frightened her, and in her haste to crawl away the attacker missed their mark a few times?

[ He frowns, unsatisfied with that explanation. ]

[worldsaway]

If the attacker lacked finesse, it's likely they wouldn't have killed her straight away. Maybe they wanted her to die quickly, out of mercy.

[not_over_yet]

A desire to kill mercifully strikes me as somewhat at odds with inspiring such terror in the victim.

An inexperienced killer would have difficulties in ensuring a quick death, that much is true.

[greekrevival]

Of course. I was just trying to get an idea of it being the same sort of weapon. We should keep in mind that only one knife was missing, though, so it's likely it was the only weapon involved.

[ She hums in thought. ]

I think...the order of the wounds is important. It'd make sense for the cut on her leg to leave the trail...and it'd be pretty difficult for her to get around with the stabs on her back. So I think someone attacked her low first. Does that make sense?

[not_over_yet]

It does.