TRIAL 1 [DAY 4]

[calloperators]

[The sound of rapidly approaching police sirens indicates that it's time to leave the crime scene.

When you reach the previously-defunct laundry room at the motel, you find that the door swings open easily. A wave of air carrying stench of rotting flesh immediately hits you in the face, accompanied the sound of flies buzzing incessantly, having finally being released from their disgusting prison. Two rotting corpses lay on the ground, both with gunshot wounds through their bodies. Curiously enough, these corpses are both wearing masks--one with a wolf mask, and another with a clown mask. From the general state of these corpses, their bodies appear to have been here for weeks. Some of you might feel a twinge of recognition at the sight of them, though you don't remember why.

Once you manage to look past the corpses, you'll find that there's an open door on the back wall with stairs leading down. Whatever washing machines that used to be here have been removed, leaving rusty impressions on the walls and floor. As you carefully make your way down the concrete steps, the air grows colder and mustier, and the sound of the radios fade. You eventually step into a dimly-lit chamber that only vaguely resembles a boiler room, as a series of pulpits have been arranged in rows, labeled by room number. Pyro's stand, of course, is conspicuously empty.

You realize that this has been the only time during your time here that you haven't heard any music at all.

Standing before all the pulpits at the front of the room, there's a CRT TV buzzing with static. As soon as everyone files in, the metal door swings shut with an abrupt CLANG and locks behind you. The static fills the silence for several minutes.

The screen flickers, and a face appears. His blonde hair is slicked back in an unnatural fashion, his plastic smile is almost permanently affixed to his face, and the suit he's wearing looks...far too shiny to be remotely real. His movements are jerky, occasionally changing completely in pose in view to the camera.

He opens his mouth and speaks in a stuttering, artificial tone, rising and falling with no sense of rhyme or reason.]

This IS M-M-Max HEADroom, and YOU are all ^{all all} HERE to catch a murderer! Your JOB is to find out who's g-g-g-g u i l t y, and I'm here to help move things along, in a sense. ense. ense. [A pause.] Then again, you're--all guilty of something, aren't you?

[And he throws back his head and laughs.]



< TRIAL START! >

Comments

drugs mention

[neverstudied]

Tobacco? No.

[Weed? Oh, yes.]

I know Pyro had some cigs on them- they tried to offer me some, but I didn't take 'em. Not sure if they smoked, or if they just liked having more stuff to burn.

[iote]

They just liked burning them. I saw them doing so once, so I'm not disregarding the possibility that what I found was theirs. But there was an unlit cigarette in the lot outside the inn.

[...he tried calling that place the motel parking lot once, but calling the building a motel is weird and he doesn't quite understand why we call it a parking lot, so he figures he'll just. go back to familiar terminology now that he's done you all the courtesy of making sure you know what the fuck he means.]

[conceivesfrenzy]

I mean, they're easy to pick up, right? Anyone could've nabbed them, regardless of whether they actually use them or not.

[boosterrific]

Not even used? That is weird.

[ Cigarette butts in a motel parking lot are a dime a dozen, but someone dropped this one without even lighting it up first? ]

[knifegf]

It is. If it was out of the carton then surely it was about to be smoked. However the smoker didn't even have a chance to light it up.

Something perhaps surprised them. Made them drop it. Something they saw.

[iote]

Either that or a fight broke out before they could start. It seems Pyro dropped their things as well - there was one of their chemical bombs near their pillowcase outside, dropped but not detonated.

[knifegf]

A chemical bomb. Jesus. Either they're insane or just... no, insane sounds about right.

[iote]

I'm not sure what else to call them. Those bombs in the bottles that you light and throw at things. They showed one to me.

[He shrugs.]

I don't think they were insane. Different, surely.

[knifegf]

Ugh.

[ solving crimes is hard. she lolls her head back, breathes out annoyed, and then tilts it back down. ]

Ok. So the cigarette is unlit. And it's probably Pyro's since they were carrying it around. I'm starting to think Pyro got offed by someone who they were familiar with. Someone they wouldn't suspect, or would let their guard down around.

[iote]

[Thanks, he hates it.]

it's possible, I suppose. Do we know if they trusted anyone that much?

[rangerslayer]

Besides your encounter with them... They seemed to be pretty trusting with most people, unfortunately.

[iote]

The encounter with me was uncharacteristic, and they settled eventually. So I suppose it would be difficult to narrow it down.

[knifegf]

Not sure. I only talked to them a little -- or what passed for talking anyway. But you said they were acting strangely, like they thought something of theirs would be stolen.

If there's no big signs of a struggle then whoever did this took them by surprise.

[iote]

...I have to wonder about something.

They didn't want their fire stolen. If someone they didn't know well saw them with that pillowcase at night and wanted to see what was in it, and perhaps tried to grab it, that would likely have been more than enough to start a fight.

[knifegf]

Aha. That'd explain how all that stuff got thrown around. Maybe they thought Pyro was going to start a fire and tried to do a good deed. Pyro flipped out and then [ she punches a fisted hand into her open palm, a sharp sound punctuating ] - wham! - the killer gets hold of the frying pan and strikes.

[iote]

That's what I'm thinking.

What I don't understand is how the murder weapon ended up near Pyro's body. I don't see the purpose in bringing it out there, unless the murderer went after them, found them deceased and abandoned it.

[worldchampofmartialarts]

I only ran into them once a-and, it... [He runs a finger through his hair, scratching his head a bit.] I dunno if we really got off on the right foot, either of us. ...real shame they're gone- didn't even get to find out if they were God or not.

...must've been a real slime to earn their trust just to doublecross them like that.

[knifegf]

[ an eyebrow raise, blink, then a dramatic gasp- ]

It was you wasn't it!

[worldchampofmartialarts]

[Satan just about falls over.] Hey, what's this! D-didn't I JUST say we didn't get off on the right foot!? Why's the finger getting pointed at me again?! Shouldn't it be somebody who- I-I dunno, a-actually would'a been a trusted associate that could've BETRAYED them at least and n-not- a handsome and famous stranger in an arcade they saw once?!

[conceivesfrenzy]

Come again?

[ Cue a long blink. ]

You thought they were God?

[worldchampofmartialarts]

Well, first, I heard someone clearing their throat- and I didn't see anybody at my flank or under my feet- so I assumed it came from above, like, upstairs, y'know! ...then I got a look at them, saw they've got a corporeal form, figure- "'kay, maybe this isn't God, just a person"- but then they... [Satan starts staring out into space.] ...th-they... I dunno, I couldn't get a read on them at all, it's like being a spider in a toilet bowl, couldn't- grab onto anything with them... kinda thought, "well, maybe they're God, maybe they're just some other divine force silently judging me for my hubris"- and now? Now, I'm still not sure. I've had no clue what's going on ever since I got here.

[neverstudied]

To be fair, I'm still not entirely convinced they weren't a demon.

[boosterrific]

...I think, uh. You can rule out them being God at this point.

[ ...thanks, booster ]

[gether]

I'm pretty sure they didn't trust me. Or like me all that much from my one encounter with them.

[A beat.]

They were actually pretty unsettling to me.

[seventhsign]

...I see. So there is a chance it could belong to someone else as well.