FIRST TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ Eventually, time seems to run out. Davy Jones takes a lap around the boat, rather tersely instructing everyone to gather in the theatre.

Once everyone is inside, he herds all of you onto the stage, which has been cleared save for the controls to the elaborate pipe organ built into the room. ]

Step lively, passengers! There's a long ride ahead of ye!

[ And once everyone is on that stage, Davy Jones sits at his organ and begins to play. It's not a familiar song to any of you, and it doesn't sound kind, but it does sound wildly complicated. Or it would be, for someone who can't play with his many tentacles.

As the piece begins, the stage begins to descend. Well, at least the part you're all on, as well as where Jones sits at the organ. And it keeps descending, at least through a few floors before long. The elevator shaft is dark, the music echoing until it fades, the controls apparently too far from the pipe organ above before long. Jones sits in silence as the cramped ride continues. Dull bulbs set into the wall provide just enough illumination to tell where you all are, but the walls are thick steel.

You have to have descended several floors, you imagine, when light starts to creep in at the edges of the platform, along with voices. They sound distant and distorted, but the first thing you hear when the platform breaks into the trial room is men singing, rough and distant.

You can also see the... surprisingly somber room, considering where you are. The walls and floor are all made of glass, allowing you a view of the sea as the ship you now stand on the very lowest deck of pushes through the water. Lights illuminate enough to tell that it is indeed water out there, but the water is perhaps not the most interesting thing out there in the dark.

Below the ship, illuminated by a ghostly aura, sails (for lack of a more fitting word) The Flying Dutchman. If you look closely, sailors more monster than anything else man the deck, and seem to be the source of the song. Davy Jones casts the ship a sad look, then stops a foot on the floor and the song quiets. ]

Take your places, passengers. Ye have this chance alone to find the killer among yer number.

[ In the center of the room stands a circle of sturdy metal podiums. Carmen's seems to be almost... decades older than the rest, coated in rust and barnacles. In the center hangs a circle of screens, currently switched off. ]

If there are questions, I am going anywhere no sooner than the lot of you.

[ Jones moves to look out the window, leaving you all to talk amongst yourselves.

Welcome to your first trial. ]

Comments

S-Shoe Check...?

[cethflayn]

Glass, yes, and perhaps remnants of liquid? It was sticky in there.

[But she'll pop off her boot to present it. There's little slivers of glass stuck to the edge, in line with shuffling through the mess instead of stepping in it.]

I understand my own shoes are not clean.

[Meaning: she knows this would not clear her of suspicion, if it came down to that.]

[oceangirlfriend]

That's perfectly understandable, under these circumstances.

[Adeline bends down for a moment to slide off one of the sandals she's wearing and hold it up. No glass here.]

[calx]

As you were investigating the scene, this is logical.

[ Albedo's boots are clean without a trace of glass or juice. ]

[scouserer]

Thanks for being honest, in the very least.

[John will take off his own shoes--yes, right here, right now--and turn them over to expose the sole. They're both clean.]

Did you happen to see which bottles were smashed? Like, what fruit juice and whatever.

[deathmagnetic]

[ He'll hold up his shoes briefly before slipping them back on. They're clean. ]

[ahelpingpaw]

...I think I'm not taking part of this one.

[Bare paws, yeah]

[leaveittomother]

Alright.

[Her boots are clean, no glass or juice.]

[hypnowhip]

[Sylvando's boots are clean!]

[paucipan]

[Plumeria's shoes are knee-high boots with some small heels at the end, but she'll at least lift up her legs a bit so they can be examined--they're clean, for the record.]

[hellahighwater]

[ The bottom of Chloe's shoes are clean! ...Or like, clean as shoes can be— there's no glass, okay. ]

[jibunwo]

[Zero's shoes are clean.]

[ltcommandroid]

[Data's shoes are clean!]

[sharddrive]

[He kind of doubts the value of this, given how broad it probably is, but sure, he'll present the soles of his non-feet for inspection.]

[The metallic treads are about as clean as you'd expect after two weeks on a cruise boat, honestly.]

[sivard]

[Zaveid's boots are clean!]

[queceracera]

[It is unclear how Scott even walks around in these ratty Converse, given that they are basically falling apart, but they're ..... Well, clean is the wrong word for that, but. They don't have glass in them.]

[magycks]

Thanks, but no.

[ but also, she has been walking around all day without any signs of injury, and also she is a very small duck who hasn't worn shoes since she showed up here in them, because magica wearing tights and heels in her pullpoint is a fucking nightmare and i rebuke it in the name of the lord ]

[scythegun]

[Yeager's shoes are glass-free! They're as clean as they can be given two weeks on a cruise ship.]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ She waits until most of the others go, but given how white (off-white? cream?) her shoes are, it's relatively unsurprising that her shoes are clean. ]

[thisaroma]

[ His boots are clean! Successfully avoided the glass while retrieving his bagel. ]

[ignobel]

I mean, if I was the murderer, I'd probably just go back and check my own crime scene and get more glass on. But you don't seem like the type to do that!

[I'm sorry she just comes out and says these things, but at least she doesn't seem especially serious about it...?

There's no glass on her shoes, for the record.]

[silentscout]

[Present: boots!

No shards of glass here!]

[onlyyoucan]

[Sara's clean, she hasn't been anywhere near it.

...I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but Emily's clean too, just in case someone gets a theory about dolls getting up and walking around.]

[dokkalfheimr]

[Freyja is another one with white shoes; they're simple, with a low heel. And they're clean of both mess and glass.]

[guffawsungraciously]

[Jasper’s boots are clean! Quite so, actually, though more “well maintained” and not “literally cleaned this morning.”]

[bonesorter]

[Lorna's shoes are clean!]