fandomhigh | As seen on tv: Forensic Science, 1/9 5th Period

When the students came into the danger shop they entered into a lab that seemed straight from the heart of a police department or right off the set of a TV show. There were computers, microscopes, containers and tubes and just about every forensic doodad that you could imagine. Abby stood at the door and handed labcoats to everyone and pointed them to a row of stools around the edges of the room.

"Hey guys, I'm Professor Abby and I'll be teaching you the basics of forensics science this semester. Since I would be bored out of my brain teaching you things on paper, we're going to take a more hands on approach. I'm assuming that at least most of you have seen a TV show were they solved the case by using forensic science. They matched the fingerprints on the gun. They traced the carpet fibers. They figured out whodunit by using forensics."

"In this class you're going to be learning forensics by doing the same thing as the scientists on those shows. You're going to solve a crime." Abby pulled her lab coat tighter and motioned to a door on one side of the lab. "Follow me."

As the students stepped from the lab they walked into a dark deserted parking lot. A single flickering street lamp illuminated one corner of the lot where a blonde girl lay half against a wall amidst broken bottles, trash and puddles of water.

"This is Isabel. She's dead." Abby said, stopping about halfway across the lot. From this distance they could see that Isabel was unmarked, but it was hard to tell in the light if she was breathing or not. All in all, a pretty convincing display. "You're going to try and figure out how she died and who killed her using what you know and my nifty handout. You can work alone or in pairs or teams. Whatever you want. This week we're going to be focusing on prints that aren't fingerprints."

Passing out the handouts, Abby continued talking. "You're in high school. I'm not expecting you to know everything yet. So don't worry about knowing how to do everything on the handout. When in doubt...ask a question. I'll be around and there's always Isabel. You'd be surprised at how talkative a dead person can be."

[ooc: ~~ocd coming soon!~~ OCD up! Play!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When the students return the lab with the handout from Isabel they'll find rows and rows of left shoes, size 11. Figure out a way to make a print and see if they match.

[Mod the supplies of the lab like crazy!]

Parker picked up one man's loafer, and looked around for an inkpad. It had to be like fingerprints, right?

AMi looked at a row of shoes. the loafer looked like it matched the print the best. she took the she and used some goo and plaster to make a negative and then a positive of the shoe. She then mad ea print of the positive, using some ink and a roller.

Billy watched and handed materials as they were needed. It looked like a good idea to him.

Zero studied the footprint she'd gotten from Isabel. It looked like a bootprint to her--and she knew bootprints. So she headed for the boots to start figuring out how to do this print thing.

"Hey, do you see any ink?" Parker was holding up the loafer like she was going to throw it, possibly into a garbage can.

"I don' think we're supposed to ink the shoes directly," Zero said. "'Cause then they're all inky. D'you remember how they do it on TV?"

Parker frowned. "Something about... casts. Molds?" She looked around for anything like plaster-of-paris or PlayDough. "Or am I thinking of the wrong shows?"

"No, that sounds right," Zero agreed. "'Cause then you can ink the cast. Or make a cast of the cast and ink it? Or something. Or maybe there's no ink involved here..." Zero flailed a little.

Parker frowned at her shoe, and wrinkled her nose. "Cast. Then ink. I think?" She looked determined. "Okay, there's stuff here. And it has to be clear from what we're given, doesn't it? Yeah."

"Yeah," Zero said, frowning at the supplies. "I'm supposed to be smart," she grumbled.

"I know. You are. So am I. Allegedly." Parker grimaced at the materials, then sing-songed, "'If you already knew how to do it, you wouldn't need a class.' Thank you, Sydney."

"Squall it," Zero said. "Hand me the plaster. Let's get this show on the road."

Parker handed over the plaster, then grabbed a pan to hold it. "Ooo. Gloves. No contaminating the evidence, et cetera."

"Squall, yes," Zero said. "Good idea."

"We can do this. We're brilliant and intimidating." Parker looked around for a bucket to mix the plaster in, and grabbed one from under the bench. Plus a stirrer... thing.

"Not to mention incredibly good-looking," Zero said with an impish grin.

Parker snickered. "Exactly." She filled the bucket with water, then handed it over so Zero could put the plaster in it to be mixed. "Not to mention our devastating fashion sense."

Re: Lab

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Zack carefully made positive and negative casts of the shoes, and then prints of the casts, before checking to see which was the closest match to the print.

Lana carefully went through all the steps to create the casts and match the prints from the crime scene to one of the shoes here.

Cassie tried making prints from the shoes by stamping them on ink pads and then onto paper.

Mac looked along the line of shoes for a moment, before selecting a boot and using a roller to ink up the treads so she could make a print.

To make extra sure he would be getting the correct results, Alphonse went through a few different ways to make prints out of several different shoes.

Or maybe he just liked playing with lab supplies.

John made a plaster cast of several footwear pieces, looking for ones with similar wear first. He inked it, trying not to spill cast-y stuff or ink on himself.

...that inkprint on the floor that looked like a walking cast? Totally there when he got there.

Rikku examined the print she'd gotten from the not-actually-dead girl, who she hoped she hadn't scared or anything. OK, so, comparing them by eye didn't seem very science-y, so she needed to make a print something like the one she had. Think, Rikku, think.

After a minute or two, she picked up a piece of blank paper and held a shoe up against it, sketching lightly over the surface with the side of her pencil tip. Sure enough, the ridges popped out, clear as day.

She was pretty sure she had it after four, but she tried a few more just to be sure. Never hurt to be certain.