unknownseas | FIRST TRIAL

[ 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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Are you sure it wasn't just luck that the two of you weren't injured?

I suppose it is too small a sample size. But even if the throw did kill her I'd expect more broken bones and other bruising, or an injury to her head as well, instead of simply a broken neck.

Ja, true enough! I'm hardly an expert in things like this, but it's a possibility we should keep in mind.

I got slammed back onto the deck, and I was lucky to have not been injured.

[A shrug.]

If someone pushed her intentionally, she might not have been prepared to land back on the ship and landed wrong. And that would technically be murder, still.

[thank you, constantine!!]

Ja, that's what I was thinking. If someone pushed her, that's enough for the Captain to claim it was murder, right? I don't think we've determined enough to entirely rule it out as a possibility, anyway.

Didn't we also establish there was a big puddle of seawater? And her hat was soaked, as well....

[He rubs his forehead.]

Might be a good idea to get a handle on the timeframe of each of these things. Her coat--what state was it in when Shard found it? Was it thrown aside, folded up....?

From the sound of it, the most noticeable thing was that it was torn. What did it look like when you found it, Shard?

Her coat smells of seawater as well.

[ He will leave the state to Shard! ]

Edited 2021-02-06 18:45 (UTC)

So someone--either Carmen or someone wearing her coat--definitely jumped or was pushed over the side of the ship.

Ooh, that's an interesting idea. Someone else wearing her coat to make us think she went overboard... I don't think we have any way to determine that right now, but that's something to keep in mind!

Seems a bit convoluted, if I'm being honest, but I figured it was worth bringing up just in case.

We can't afford to leave any stone unturned here, so it's worth considering!

Convoluted and risky, too. They'd have to dry off after!

Or perhaps take a shower. Thirty minutes is more than enough.

(no subject)

hypnowhip - 2021-02-06 18:58 (UTC) - Expand

scouserer - 2021-02-06 18:58 (UTC) - Expand

hypnowhip - 2021-02-06 19:03 (UTC) - Expand

scouserer - 2021-02-06 19:05 (UTC) - Expand

hypnowhip - 2021-02-06 19:09 (UTC) - Expand

Couldn't they just throw the whole coat over...?

[She's only mostly following this train of logic but??]

scouserer - 2021-02-06 18:59 (UTC) - Expand

scythegun - 2021-02-06 19:00 (UTC) - Expand

scouserer - 2021-02-06 19:01 (UTC) - Expand

scythegun - 2021-02-06 19:04 (UTC) - Expand

scouserer - 2021-02-06 19:08 (UTC) - Expand

scythegun - 2021-02-06 19:10 (UTC) - Expand

calx - 2021-02-06 19:17 (UTC) - Expand

scouserer - 2021-02-06 19:18 (UTC) - Expand

conceivesfrenzy - 2021-02-06 19:02 (UTC) - Expand

If that was the case would they really plant her coat next to the pool? The assumption there seems to lie that it would smell of chlorine and not seawater, and was only revealed upon closer inspection.

Honestly, at this point I'm not sure how that coat ties in.

[Oh yeah and also because I'm dumb, is the coat wet or dry?]

calx - 2021-02-06 19:01 (UTC) - Expand

scythegun - 2021-02-06 19:02 (UTC) - Expand

It was pretty neatly folded, by the poolside.

[!

Now why would it look like that...?]

Someone had the time to clean up, maybe?

[...Hm.]

Maybe they had a guilty conscience, too.

It could be that we're looking into an accident. It's far too easy for someone to get pushed over the side, or--

[A pause.]

Do you think Carmen might've known the person? Perhaps was chattin' with them to plan their escape?

[Plumeria shrugs.]

Hard to say. I only talked to her once when we arrived, and she seemed to have something rather important that she was in the middle of. It's a possibility, at least.

Seems reasonable. Killing outside of actual battle isn't as easy as some people- like Magica, who will remain nameless- think.

Depends on the person.

There are people out there who will kill without remorse.

[Not that he has Strong Opinions about that or anything.]

sharddrive - 2021-02-06 19:32 (UTC) - Expand

magycks - 2021-02-06 19:34 (UTC) - Expand

sivard - 2021-02-06 19:35 (UTC) - Expand

sharddrive - 2021-02-06 19:41 (UTC) - Expand

That certainly is odd. It should have been on her if she'd worn it overboard. I doubt the killer would have taken it off her and folded it...

[Hmm. Weird!]