FIRST TRIAL.

[eggmobile]

[Eventually, when you are all gathered, the elevator jerks. Not in some Rod Serling Theme Park ride manner, but much more creaky. The elevator glides upwards, incredibly far up, before coming to a stop at a room you’ve never seen before.]

[The room shares a similar aesthetic to the control center, each portion of the wall covered in television monitors. They all display a bright blue screen at the moment, save for twenty additional monitors hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers. Each of those display the face of the good Doctor Eggman.

The only furnishings in the room are a table and chairs - the table is excessively long enough to seat all of you at the moment. Every chair corresponds to a different room, and each is marked with a nameplate corresponding to the room’s occupant. The unoccupied rooms are unmarked save for numbers, with no nameplates at all. Wilkins’ empty chair bares both his name, and a very ominous coffee scent.

In front of each chair are very small microphones kept in stands, just in case you need to speak up, as well as keyboards built into the table.

Once you are all seated, Doctor Eggman speaks.]

Now that you’ve all gathered, here are the rules! You must discuss the crime, and once you believe you have figured out your culprit, you may input their name in the keyboard in front of you! Take all the time you need, of course.

Failure to vote will result in your execution, and the same will follow should you fail to identify the culprit! How does that sound to you all?

Comments

[umslay]

[The Magician tilts the brim of his hat back. Yup, that's blood.]

How does that even work? Why does he appear now? Why wasn't he counted as his own person? [He hates this. Nothing makes sense.] So whoever did this had to kill Wilkins first, and then this...man? Or the other way around?

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

I'm not certain, and I can't WAIT to find out.

[There is some genuine delight in her face here.]

Either the puppet was actually the one in control, and his abilities included masking his human host- or we've been dealing for two weeks with a metahuman capable of erasing himself from conscious perception who chose to interact with us through a coffee-obsessed puppet.

Once this nonsense is all done, I'll be thoroughly studying the remains to try and figure out which was which.

[umslay]

Then which one is Wilkins? The puppet, or the puppeteer?

[He...kind of wants to know, actually. Even though he's sure the answer will be something stupid.]

Would you mind if I joined you in findingthis out, assuming we live through this?

[neednoaccuser]

I mean, you ever think maybe it was the coffee?

[clawhands]

He did say that he wanted us to all drink Wilkins Coffee, yes? What would've happened if we didn't?

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

...That's an excellent question. You said there was a shattered coffee pot elsewhere in the kitchen, correct?

[She was kind of focused on other things.]

[clawhands]

Yes. There was also some blood intermingled with the coffee and the shards of glass. The blood must've been spilled after the coffee pot was dropped onto the ground.

[A pause.]

What I don't understand is how the killer was able to violently sever the puppet from...the puppetman.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

My point is, someone was MAKING coffee. Has anyone noticed whether the "Wilkins™ Brand" is even available in the kitchen? The puppet always just seemed to have it on-hand somehow.

[umslay]

Anyone taste the coffee to see if it was that Wilkins™ Brand stuff or whatever we have in the kitchen?

mods?

[clawhands]

...!

[...Now that he thinks about it.....was there any Wilkins when he checked the kitchen?]

[legionofmods]

[The muppet or the preferred brand? Either way, there is quite a bit of Wilkins, yes.]

[clawhands]

[The preferred brand. Was it found anywhere in the kitchen?]

[legionofmods]

[Yes. Mysteriously stocked.]

[neednoaccuser]

That's what I'm saying, man! Maybe the coffee was the thing that was controlling the puppet.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

Hm. Possibly.

[....this is not stopping her from taking another sip of coffee, by the by.]

At least a few of us have been drinking it for two weeks without any apparent ill effect, though.

[neednoaccuser]

Could be a hive mind thing. Chitauri are like that - you kill the source, yhr ehole thing dies.

[Wilkins was going to mind control us all, is the implication he's making.]

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

Regardless, we should probably keep an eye on everyone to see if there's any undue obsession with caffeination, after this.

[neednoaccuser]

. . . Does it count as dying if the thing just chooses a new host? Wouldn't that make this whole thing pointless?

[windmage]

Somehow, hearing that about this swill so many of you insist on drinking doesn't surprise me.

[vaati you are only saying this because you still haven't figured out how to operate the coffee maker after two weeks here]

[neednoaccuser]

I don't know, but I wasn't about to find out, you know?

[tedioustrivium]

...I mean, I literally couldn't and he didn't seem to like that.

[umslay]

Ah, so the body is actually the coffee pot, excellent proposition.

[tedioustrivium]

I think this warrants discussion. Let's talk about coffee rights abuses for half an hour.

[umslay]

No.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

Absolutely, I always welcome a fresh set of eyes.

[Especially working with limited resources and test samples, thanks Eggman.]