WEEK 2; TRIAL

[killerwaves]

TRIAL

Whether you investigated or decided to take it easy, before you know it the speakers crackle to life instructing you to head to the beach. This is a demand not a request, and anyone who doesn't comply will find themselves forcibly moved there by the kitty bots—even if it takes a whole swarm of them.

Once you get there, you'll see that this isn't quite a beach party, instead a gigantic sandbar dotted with some type of constructs has risen out of the sea and tides. The path to the sandbar is solid enough even if it is relatively narrow, and once you arrive you'll find that you're far out in the ocean, way farther than it's comfortable to swim.

And once everyone is gathered, the pathway recedes back into the sea leaving you trapped here, all twenty-eight of you. At least there's ample seating, a kind of amphitheater made of sand with space in the middle for grandstanding or dramatic revelations. Though the area is mostly open, there are lone pieces of sand wall around the edges, maybe to dissuade you from tossing someone into the ocean without stopping you entirely. Thankfully, a lone outhouse rests again one of the walls just in case you need to use the bathroom, though it's not much in the way of actual privacy.

Settle in, get comfortable or just complain about all the sand you'll be tracking back, if you make it back that is. There's still another sacrifice to be chosen after all according to your administrators and—

Maybe you've noticed there's no palm trees or speakers here? It's just you, and the sand. For now.

(( OOC: Welcome to your first trial! You'll have 7 hours (8PM EST/5PM PST) to find the killer and send them off their death, if you believe in justice at least. Since this is scapegoat style, finding the correct killer is not mandatory!

Please remember to vote before then unless you've spoken to a mod, as votes are our stand-in for AC. ))

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EVIDENCE TOP LEVEL

[killerwaves]

[ Comment here with your evidence from investigation! This is to keep things more easily digestible for those who come in late.

Discussing the evidence available is OK -- however, please try to show evidence on the first post of a comment thread instead of posting it as a reply on someone else's thread, to make it easier to find.

Take a look at a full evidence toplevel! ]

CHAI'S BODY

[conchy]

And then there’s the matter of Monsieur Chai’s cadavre. Billy found him lying in a pool of his own blood! Mm, someone had fun and it wasn’t Monsieur Chai. In fact, according to Monsieur Wuxian’s examen, he was in a state of panic when he died, but of course he was!

Anyway, there’s the matter of all that blood. Thanks to petit Xiao’s efforts, his body was discovered beneath the wreckage of the missing go-kart. In addition to the pool of blood Chai was lying in, blood was running down the left side of his chest and onto the ground. There were also blood splatters on his chest. If you want my expert opinion, this splatter is consistent with being struck by a blunt object.

What’s more, there is a gaping wound in his chest that was stuffed full of gummy worms! Heh-ahaha! How fascinating! After digging the worms out and giving Chai a thorough inspection, it became clear that whatever stabbed through Monsieur Chai cut clean through him, piercing his heart! The wound was quite jagged as well. My genius tells me that this was a straight stab, unrefined as it was.

Ah, and his ribs! The ones on his left! They made the most delightful crunch when Monsieur Wuxian touched them! Hrnnng! Très bien! They were quite clearly broken. He was covered in bruises as well, many of them uniform, which suggests a pattern! Those particular bruises are large and circular, but that’s not all.

He also has a wedge-shaped bruise consistent with the head of the golf club we found lying near his body. Ah, and do note that all of this bruising is on the left side of Chai’s body. There are bruises on the left side of his back as well, naturellement! Incidentally, Chai’s mechanical arm also happens to be on the left side of his body...

[hearnoplague]

Gummy... Worms? What sort of critters are those?

[ He's trying to picture a worm that fits the gummy description and all he's getting is a squishy thing with no teeth- ]

[dupiety]

Ah, so you aided in handling the body.

[Just purposefully ignoring the overall delivery of said evidence...]

At least I know I can count on you to be thorough.

[dancing_flames]

You have any pictures of the stab wound I could take a look at?

[idologue]

[ Lobelia......................... ]

Such cruelty... But I wonder about the order of events here. The stab would have instantly killed him, so it has to have been inflicted last.

Then the question is if the bruising was inflicted before or after the hit with the golf club.

[finalmix]

So the stab through the heart was what killed him probably buuuuuuut.

[ squints at the pics ]

Did everything else [ gestures at all the other wounds and stuff ] happen when he was still alive or nah?

[ medical/doctor people pls help ]

[plunges]

Everything seems to be on the left. The dent in the Go-Kart was, as are his injuries. Perhaps the crash have been the cause of some of his wounds, given how much the kart was smoking.

[gravitys]

[ This would be the first thing I see on flatview... ]

The gummy worm thing is weird as shit. [ WHAT A WASTE ]

[solutionary]

Would you be able to say if the stab wound to his heart came from straight on, or at an angle?

CORRECTION

[conchy]

[Quick amendment because positioning is confusing, but Chai's mechanical arm is on his right side, not his left, as are the bruises on his body. Assume Lobelia told you this, please and thank you.]

RAILWAY

[conchy]

Some sort of dreadful incident occurred on the railways...! Rather, I wish it were that exciting. We found a scattering of étrange glass along the tracks, but that isn’t all! Would you believe me if I told you that glass was not glass at all, but sugar? Oh là là! Quite odd indeed...

Ah, but savoir: the source of the glasslike sugar is unclear. Did the culprit bring it with them? A midnight snack, perhaps? As for what may have broken the sugar, that’s also a mystère!

[finalmix]

Sugar from... candyland, probably?

How big was it, like? [ mimes making a sheet using his hands?? ] Big or small shards?

[chosenwang]

How much glass would you say there was? Enough to make a blade?

Re: RAILWAY

[chosenwang]

[ Hey Sus daddy! A new theory just dropped about the railway sugar ]

GOLF COURSE GO-KART

[plunges]

[ Link to the entire Go-Kart invest.

Xiao arrives carrying three…large, metal things in his arms. Yeah. Also I forgot to mention that he's part of the matching green shirt squad, unfortunately, shout out to y'all. ]

I investigated a Go-Kart that was found near Chai’s body at the golf course. It was purple and found crashed into the side of one of the courses, slightly on top of the incline. It was also smoking.

I looked inside of the kart and found 3 of these [ And he’ll just. Plop those metal things down for people to look at. These are the gumdrops! ]. They were wedged inside of the kart, on top of the right pedal. I believe that is the pedal that propels the machine forward.

The outside of the kart has some scuffs at the front, but what was most noticeable was down here. [ He’ll show his phone. It might be hard to see for most, but there’s an image of the fender being very messed up. ] This part of the kart had a dent that did not line up with the kart’s position on the course; it was too high to look like it occurred there. It was on the left side of the kart, when you are facing it.

Finally, this component of the kart was damaged. [ Another photo! Look at that. It’s a picture of the engine. ]

That’s all I could gather.

[passetemps]

And there was no blood in the kart?

[microtransactions]

I think we've all figured out that the cart was sabotaged, but let me take a look at that picture of the engine?

MINI-GOLF

[diabolizes]

[ Wei Wuxian is here, and he's part of Matching Green Aloa Shirt squad. He has a mechanical cat with him however, specifically 808, who he's holding in one arm. She seems to be unharmed, although she's likely still scared. ]

I'm sure it's obvious, but when I was investigating, the first thing I found was this cat underneath a big candy bowl. Once I managed to scoop her up, I noticed that the giant gingerbread man looked off. In fact, he was missing the present box that belongs in his hands. That box was right below him on the ground, and it had a dent on one of its sides and some hot pink paint scuffed away in one spot. I've got photos if anyone would like to see them. Ah, and I found no evidence suggesting that the gingerbread man himself was hit—he was in good shape.

There were also some skidmarks leading from that area to where the Go Kart crashed. I didn't follow them as Xiao was taking care of that particular spot, but the most notable thing about those marks were their path.

[conceivesfrenzy]

Oh, I think I found what might have scuffed it.

[ She pulls out the white star-shaped golf ball with the distinct distinct hot pink on it. ]

I found this in the hole on the course. Someone actually managed to get it in one shot.

[necrotiem]

Psyche said that the tracks from the go-kart course were completely straight. [Even those of us without cars know that a wagon doesn't often go entirely in a straight line all the time.] Were those marks the same, or did these look a little more...imperfect?

Goop and Near Goop Incorporated

[chosenwang]

I found a shiny glob substance on a tree in the golf course. I have a bit of it with me in a napkin. [ Is it actually sugar goop I'd cry ] The edges of it is flaking out.

There was a downward slash on the tree itself that could be from something similar in size from a sword or harpoon.

The bubbling fountain was tampered with something not quite a liquid but not quite a goo either. It was very hot in temperature and smelled sweet. Didn't risk to take a sample of that because it started to melt one of the props from the golf course.

[ Oh yeah! He has pictures of ALL THE THINGS ]

GO-KART TRACKS

[chrysaline]

[ Psyche's here, not having thought to change out of the matching green shirt squad, but carrying her sword for a change. ]

I went to the "kart" race course with Temenos. I didn't find much, but... the tracks from the vehicle went in a straight path from there to the golf course.

ARCADE

[microtransactions]

Chai was with us in the arcade before we all got put to sleep somehow. He apparently thought that round one with pouring candy into an energy drink last week wasn't enough to put him off of it entirely, because that's what he was doing before we all got put to sleep? That and downing a bunch of other candies and chips and trying to set as many high scores in the arcade as possible, apparently, because he sure was going through a bunch of them last night. And when I checked in the morning, there were a bunch of top scores made by a CHA.

But he definitely was gone when that sound woke us all up in the morning and cracked some of the windows! The only things that looked really out of place though were some of his abandoned Monster™ drinks? One was still half-full, with the candy he mixed in stuffed inside, and the other looks like it was spilled accidentally during the night. I think Waltaquin was trying to clean up some of it earlier when she came by to check out what was going on, but I don't know if it all came off? You can ask her.

What I can say is that someone left a decent set of footprints heading towards the go-kart area after stepping in it, and I've got pictures of them next to my own boots so people can get an idea of the size, but they're a little bigger than mine would be. That said ... from the spacing of them it looks like the relatively leisurely gait suggests they were pretty relaxed as they headed on out? It doesn't look like they were in a rush to leave or running in a panic or anything like that.

Otherwise, it doesn't look like whatever happened tore up the arcade or anything.

BODY EXAMINATION

[killerwaves]

[The body is here for all your follow-up examinations! Judiciously presided over by your admins and two industrious funerary(?) kittybots.]