trusthell | Take Responsibility.

The time allotted for investigation this week is a bit longer than normal - not due to anything done wrong on the part of the Apprentices, but perhaps due to a basic understanding that two corpses are going to be decidedly more difficult to handle than one. However, at the end of the time period you've been given, the elevator is waiting for you, as cold and sterile as always in its journey up to the courtroom; you're down to almost half of your original number, and if anything is going to indicate that this shows no signs of stopping, it's probably this week.

The deceased have had three more join their numbers since you were here last - Gold, Varric, and Viktor's portraits have been greyed-out and set atop their spots in the podium circle, the podiums themselves draped in black fabric.

As always, the lectern above stands empty.

Whether he's with you or not, however, once everyone has found their place in the circle, the Wordsmith's voice can be heard throughout the room.

"Welcome back. Two more Apprentices are missing from your number today, and I have little doubt that weighs heavily on your minds. Balanced and Capricious have been lost to you, so that the guilty may have a chance to leave the academy and possibly even gain something otherwise impossible to attain.

If you wish for your fallen Apprentices to receive justice in death, then you know what to do: yet again, hold the guilty accountable."

Sixteen Apprentices remain. However many leave here at the end of the day has yet to be seen.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey.

[Silver stands at his podium bearing a good amount of fruit and eggs on several plates. Weavile is with him and helping him carry some of it; usually his Pokémon aren't present at the trials, but the Pokémon absolutely refused to leave him alone this week.]

Come eat before we start this stuff. There's no point in going hungry.

[...This is an offer made in complete ignorance of the god damn brain matter, but he tried.]

Um, I found Varric in the stairwell between the second and third floors. He was laying face down, however, his hands and wrists showed no signs of injury, therefore I believe it is safe to say he didn’t trip and attempt to catch himself. His pockets were turned inside out and had nothing inside of them.

On his front side, he appeared to take a lot of trauma and many of his ribs were broken. There were also many other injuries he had on him that may have been from falling down the stairs.

Also… he had blood and what appears to be matter from a rather violent head injury on his clothes. However, Varric himself had no open wounds nor a head wound of any sort so it was not his blood… or matter from his own head injury.

Lastly-- [She holds out a tuft of black fur] -- Varric was holding on to this. I’m unsure what it’s from or who it may be from.

Edited 2017-02-25 17:05 (UTC)

[ Perhaps in utter mockery of the current state of events Elda's forehead still reads "loved and is loving" on her forehead underneath her bangs when she takes her spot at her podium. On that same podium she sets down her bag of evidence and her little sheet of paper that has a sample of everyone's signatures. Well, everyone living who volunteered it, so everyone other than Bruce, Jasper, and Gangrel.

Who knows if that'll be useful.

... Also she's glancing over at the islands of death near Hanyuu and Lusamine. Like she wants to scoot over there but is hesitating a bit.

But for her first evidence, she holds up Viktor's cell phone ]

Anyone know how to turn this thingie on?

[ Because she sure doesn't so uh. Missing evidence. ]

Edited 2017-02-25 17:13 (UTC)

[ Killia's here with own large pile of assorted food, but he gives Silver a nod nonetheless. Who cares about brain matter, food's still important.]

I should have made curry for them.

[ Curry's the one food he looks like he doesn't have here tbh.]

[ someone is clearly very, very upset about what's happened. the first thing orihime does when the trial begins is lug a bloody war hammer covered with brain matter and leave it at the front of her podium.

next, she puts varric's room key and a note found in his room out for others to look at as well, if they so choose. ]

I found these in Varric-san's room. The door to his room was unlocked. The bathroom was also open, and the shower was covered in blood and--and whatever that is on the hammer.

[ she already feels sick. ]

I found a note written to Varric-san from Viktor-san on Varric-san's desk. It says:

"Varric, let's go to the bar for a couple of drinks at 10pm tonight. I want to hear more about your world and show you some pictures of my hometown.
Viktor."

Oh, yeah, thanks.

[he will go over, also in ignorance of the fucking brain matter]

[ . . . Elda actually takes some fruit. She can't eat it, but depending, she might have a use for this ]

[Lusamine waits for Estelle to finish before she brings out the trigger, kind of...unsure. Whether it's from the discussion, the fact that the stands next to her are very empty, or something else is yet to be seen.]

This was right in the area where Varric was found. I'm not sure what it is, but it looked awfully out of place in that area.

Oh yes, thank you.

[ Mikazuki is always up for eating, why not. ]

[When Jasper takes her place at the podium, she's carrying two things. One is what looks to be a book, which she opens to a specific page, and the other is a bottle of sweet potato shōchū. It doesn't look like she's going to be drinking it a the trial, but she sets it on the podium anyway.]

It's brains. [he provides, helpfully]

...The culprit might have turned his pockets inside out to get his room key, then. I think it was to try to frame Varric-san for Viktor-san's murder.

[ Well then, it certainly looks like they've got one hell of a trial on their hands, but as usual he's calm in the face of all of this. ]

Well, I did notice a few things in the music room. The trombone was lying on the floor and was dented rather badly, but it had no blood on it -- oh and the piano was in quite a very bad shape, including the keys.