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

catherd, herding a bunch of cats, etc.

[scouserer]

[After enough discussion, Constantine whistles loudly, trying to get everyone's attention. He places a hand on his podium, leaning forward.]

Right. I feel like we'd benefit from reviewin' all the evidence again, so let's see what we've got.

[He begins ticking fingers off as he speaks, one by one.]

Let's paint a picture of the top deck. First--the body. Adeline found Carmen floating in the pool, neck broken. The only other injury that she could see was some bruising on her chest, probably from some sort of blunt weapon. Also around the pool was her coat, slightly damp with seawater, folded up and slightly torn around the chest area. May or may not line up with the bruising.

Her hat was lying a bit away, though it seemed to be soaked. There was also a large puddle of seawater, somewhat close to the railing--with footprints leading towards the party zone. Speaking of the railing--it was slightly loose, with light scratches on it. I don't know whether they looked like fingernail scratches or something a little deeper--Zaveid, if you got any insight, I welcome it.

...Also, there was the banana peel, but I feel like that's hardly relevant. The fruit and juice bar was trashed, and someone seemed to have stepped in broken glass.

[He frowns, shaking his head.]

We know that someone was looking in the library about pirates and nautical maps, but given Carmen's interests, but I think it's safe to say that she was probably the one doing that research. The rest of the banana was there.

[A pause.]

I'd like to see if we can establish a potential timeline for the events leading up to her death--between the library, the top deck, and the buffet. We've checked people's shoes and hair, but as far as I know, we've got nothing so far.

...did the coat happen to have anything in its pockets?

[leaveittomother]

I'm just realizing something... Could Carmen have made that footprint?

[scouserer]

[...Huh!]

It's possible. Evidence seems to point in the direction of a fight, and I wonder if they started in the buffet before moving towards the top deck. Though, that doesn't explain the footsteps leading from the puddle to the party area.

[sharddrive]

Uh-

[He takes a second to think.]

It didn't, no. I kind of figured she just- you know, fell into the pool with whatever she had on her.

[scouserer]

Then where's her phone?

[A pause.]

Seems like someone might've taken it off her body--or perhaps chucked it over the side?

[ahelpingpaw]

I know we were all talking about she maybe falling into the ocean, so maybe it's at the bottom of the sea right now -- if she had it when she fell. Things falling off pockets happen.

[jibunwo]

Why take it off of her? I have doubts it could hold anything incriminating her killer, which is the only reason I can think of to conceal it. It may have been lost when she fell overboard, if that is indeed what we're assuming transpired.

[sharddrive]

Maybe it went overboard when she did?

[calx]

The coat smelled of saltwater not chlorine.

[ Just for anyone who may have missed it. ]

[paucipan]

[Bless you, Constantine. Plumeria looks over as all of the evidence is being reviewed over, placing the hat on her podium just to keep it in eyeshot.]

Hm...just from everything we've witnessed so far, there are a few possibilities. The red-clad woman could have been in the library and went to the buffet to get herself a midnight snack, and ran into conflict on her way back through, which resulted in her untimely demise in the ocean and planting the body in the pool...

[...But hm, the more she thinks about it--]

You know, I've been giving it some thought, and there is something about the victim that's been making me wonder...did anyone see how she reacted to the motive, perhaps?

[jibunwo]

That is a good angle to examine, if we should be stalled at the course of events. I don't recall having seen her reaction, but perhaps we can consider who may have enemies dangerous enough to kill over.

[paucipan]

I'm mostly curious because of something she said to me. She was in the middle of a rescue mission, when I first talked to her. Someone like that has at least a few enemies.

[But that's a fair point, actually.]

I suppose I'm just wondering if our innocent victim may not have been so innocent. That's all. But there are plenty of other angles to examine, for now.

[scouserer]

[Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!]

I don't think so. But there were certainly a few other people who reacted quite visibly towards the motive.

[He casts a small glance towards Freyja, but averts his eyes quickly.]

[dokkalfheimr]

[...]

A fair point, John Constantine. I imagine it a valid angle to examine as well.

[paucipan]

[...Oh, something in Plumeria's expression goes very sour when he looks at Lady Freyja.]

Be that as it may, we shouldn't start accusing people blindly because of that. There's plenty of other angles we need to examine.

[She's not quite going into attack mode yet, but uh. Plumeria's not taking to that well, sorry.]

[queceracera]

- wait, scratches?

[Scott missed this entire conversation while he was, I don't know. Hagakureing about banana peels.]

[scouserer]

Yes. Scratches.

[yes, the banana peel was incredibly fascinating.]

[queceracera]

So the Lala is going around sniffing everyone's hair like a pervert and nobody went around checking to see which of us has claws?

[Occasionally, Scott Pilgrim can be helpful.]

[ltcommandroid]

[Constantine has a good point! We're off on a lot of different angles, but maybe we should try being methodical about this. Also Data is canonically hyper smart and excellent at murder mysteries and plays Sherlock Holmes all the time but I'm DUMB okay leave me alone.]

I agree - a timeline of events would be useful. We seem to be currently working with the theory that Carmen was in the library studying maps, initially. If we believe that the damage to the fruit bar was caused by a fight between her and her attacker, we must account for whether she went there on her own or was lured out.

[...this piece of evidence is ridiculous, but]

The presence of the banana could indicate that another party joined her briefly in the library. I do not see a reason for the killer to return there and leave a banana after her death, and if Carmen brought it for her own consumption, the peel would likely have been in the same area. [Also did Carmen Sandiego seem like she ate bananas like that]

[scouserer]

So, current standing theory--library, to the buffet, to the pool, where someone got flung over the side and then sent back up. If we run the idea that Carmen was the one pushed, I think it's safe to say that the attacker had the strength to push her over the side. Though that doesn't explain the different states of dryness between the coat and the hat.

[Constantine nods slowly, scratches the stubble on his chin and frowning.]

If we think about how she might've broken her neck, two things come to mind--the kraken threw her up onto the deck and she broke it that way, or the person used their own strength to kill her. The former seems more likely to me. I also wonder if the person who brought in the banana...didn't quite know how to eat it. At least, in the way a typical human would.

[silentscout]

[After he's done being an awesome helper, and after double-checking names in the PDA, he will report his findings:]

Adeline, Flayn, and Sara have wet hair.

Constantine, Data, and Chloe have short enough hair that it could have dried within an hour.

Shard and Zero don't have hair. They could have washed and dried within an hour.

I couldn't see Alice's hair.

Everyone else is dry. Chloe smells like cannabis. And Decus smells bad.

...that's of everyone I checked. [Of everyone who responded to the hair check.]

[hellahighwater]

Narc.

[cethflayn]

[What's a cannabis]

[scouserer]

--wait, there's weed on the ship?

[NOBODY TOLD HIM!!!]

[sharddrive]

Isn't a cannabis a person that eats other people?