WEEK 4; TRIAL

[killerwaves]

TRIAL

You all know the drill by now even if things are a little different today, with the two deceased and the shuffling of the announcements. Things are much the same at the sandbar though, kittybots setting out seafood as the theme for this week, along with every flavor of mountain dew under the sun, including the energy drink kind. (food mod note: this is actually on brand MTN dew for once!).

Off to the side in a booth of their own are the bodies as well as attendant kittybots; simply request which body you'd like to look at and the kitty bots will direct you appropriately, as if it's difficult to tell the difference between a squid and a giant robot. Maybe they're just there trying to be helpful, they're doing their best. .

(( OOC: Welcome to your third trial! You'll have 7 hours (8PM EST/5PM PST) to vote one (1) person guilty of murder. 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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CATHERD

[idologue]

[ Sometime after the strip check has concluded, Lacus is going to move more to the center of the trial area and clear her throat. ]

Our checks have sadly proven inconclusive, so we'll have to return to speculation for now. We have a wealth of evidence on our hands this time, so I believe it may be for the best to try and summarize what we have concluded so far.

Skywarp fought someone at the waterfall. The battle begun at the top of the waterfall, where massive damage was dealt to the rock formations. Over the course of the battle, Skywarp's foot was cut off - both he and it fell down into the area below, where Skywarp also lost his makeshift-prosthetic. He came out of the pond and was alive for long enough to hop around for a bit but soon either passed away or at least passed out.

We know he wasn't conscious, because there are drag marks from the waterfall to the rails where there's tracks from a go-kart. The go kart tracks lead from the go-kart area to Kingfisher's Retreat, where Skywarp was loaded on and then further to Dodo's Outlook. Here, they took a stop at the Planetarium to gather the supplies for setting up Skywarp's body. They did not set off Crea's flour trap, so they were acting carefully. Their final stop, then, was the theater where they set his body up on the stage.
The killer could not move Skywarp's body as far as they wanted on their own, so they went and got a go-kart for these purposes. Interestingly, the go-kart only went in straight lines, and did not curve properly. Was it pushed, rather than driven...?

We are thus looking for a killer who has a weapon or ability capable of both removing Skywarp's foot and causing the puncture injuries to his upper body. As they were able to drag the body from the waterfall to the rails, they would also be physically strong.

Meanwhile Kallamar got into a fight at the beach, which seems to be the only noteworthy location for this specific murder. Though someone had made makeshift molotov cocktails previously. They were set off during the beach confrontation - the glass pieces line up to prove it.

Kallamar was stabbed over and over, even going so far as to remove his arm. A harpoon remained lodges in his chest. There was a number of metal shards found at the scene, all seemingly distinct from one another, but I admit I can't make heads or tails of them yet...

[plunges]

I will add that the shards and scraps that were found on the beach were not a match with Skywarp's body.

[conceivesfrenzy]

So we're dealing with two different killers, then? Guess someone's getting away with it, then. At least for now.~

[ giggles ]

[chosenwang]

I know I already had someone say I'm focusing on it too much, but I don't think it's fair to exclude the possibility that Skywarp may have been the one to move himself with the go-kart.

[idologue]

Wouldn't he have hopped or warped to the cart rather than leaving drag-marks?

Further, the cart moved irregularly right from the start. Are you suggesting Skywarp is the one who brought it to the waterfall in the first place?

[chosenwang]

He was just in a fight. He may have not had his bearings immediately and needed to hop around to find it before dragging himself over to it.

I'm not suggesting one thing is more true than the other, just that we can't rule it out now. We only can guess there is either an ability involved with moving it or it was him. [ Since it was moved weirdly from the start ]

[microtransactions]

There's a lot of abilities involved with moving. Beelzebub and Temenos said they found footprints at the waterfall, but nowhere else.

I agree with Lacus: if he were awake I don't think the trail of bloil and uh, other pieces would be present the entire way from the waterfall to the theater as an unbroken trail. We don't know how his stuff works, but I think he would have tried to at least do a couple of warp hops just to save himself time getting there.

Plus, there's drag marks behind the kart starting only on Kingfisher. Those weren't there on Seagull. Unless Skywarp started letting himself hang out the back of the kart after he got on it at Kingfisher, and didn't do that on Seagull ...

[chosenwang]

I think we should look at his body again to check if there's any drag damage to it.

[dancing_flames]

There's still the matter of what that stick I found was used for.

Could Skywarp have been using it as a cane after the battle that cost him his foot?

[chosenwang]

Wasn't it located by the Squid kid? We can kept it in mind as well. It would explain the go-kart's abrupt turns if it's connected to Skywarp.

[dancing_flames]

[He nods.]

It was floating in the water near his body.

[chosenwang]

So there may be an overlap in cases if it was used for that. [ He doesn't want to run with the assumption ] Do you have the stick?

[dancing_flames]

[Handing it over! It's about 5-6 feet long and scorched at one end.]

The length is what's making me think either cane or a crude attempt at a weapon.

[microtransactions]

... Did someone try to make a torch, or something?

[chosenwang]

No one found a lighter for those bottles.

[divector]

Not even a match nearby?

[chosenwang]

No one mentioned finding any. I wonder if we need to check pockets for the missing matchbook?

[divector]

I don't think I have either. It's probably worth checking out at this rate.

[gravitys]

Wouldn't need a light if the explosions came from a power and not the cocktail.

[idologue]

I have been thinking the same.

The cocktails would be a convenient cover-up to make it appear as though the two murders were committed by people with different powersets.

[gravitys]

[ Just what he was thinking, yep. ]

Some kinda powers were used somewhere in this, goin' off of the chaos.

[butcherspice]

...ain't a bad theory. Opens up the idea of the glass bein' planted to make it seem like any old bloke could've done it. You'd just have to put a bottle in Kallamar's robes and give it a good smash post-mortem.

[chosenwang]

Kallamar may have brought it with the intention of lighting the bottles from a safe distance, if he's the one responsible for them.

[finalmix]

The scorch marks don't look consistent with like... fire that came from a match? I'm no expert but it doesn't seem quite right.

[ frowns! ]

[chosenwang]

Maybe we should rule out which case the stick is involved in. Does it look like someone was using it as a torch or maybe the marks are from dragging on the ground to do the sharp turns from the go-kart.

That makes it a little messy if it's the second one. We could be looking at one person being involved in both cases or someone heading in that direction to return to their original spot.

[ Would a curfew check be useful ]