THIRD TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ Once all the needed information has been pulled from the PARTY ZONE and nearby echelons, Davy Jones once again does his rounds to collect everyone and bring them to the theatre. ]

You are all familiar with this procedure by now, step quickly!

[ And with the blast of the organ, down the elevator starts to go, into the bowels of the ship below. Things darken and then, as before, you hear a song from the crew of the Dutchman drifting predatory below. ]

Take yer places, all of ye.

[ The circle of podiums remains, two more podiums rusted over and aged. Jones takes his place, meanwhile, looking out the window at the sea.

The shanty dies down, and the atmosphere darkens.

Welcome to your third trial. ]

Comments

[onlyyoucan]

What kinds of knives were they?

[Sara pulls out a vending machine combat knife from her suit pocket; are these the same?]

[paucipan]

[Plumeria brings the knives out; vending machine knives.]

Just some ones from the vending machine.

[scouserer]

I'm fairly certain everyone got one of those at least once.

[A pause.]

How many knives were there, anyways?

[paucipan]

Only a few, from what I found.

[She's already showing them but she'll at least try to flare 'em out just so we've got a count.]

[onlyyoucan]

So that doesn't narrow it down, unless we know anyone who's been trading for them.

[guffawsungraciously]

I found one more in the wreckage itself, for the sake of clarity.

[paucipan]

Good eye. Did it have anything on it?

[The ones she's got, just for the record, are clean.]

[guffawsungraciously]

No, nothing.

[He holds it up and turns it around in his hands.]

So I rather doubt it was the murder weapon. I do wonder if it was from an attempt to take the chandelier down by throwing a knife, though...

[paucipan]

[That's...]

That makes sense, at least. Especially if they wanted to stage this in a particular manner, as some have brought up...

[scouserer]

How many goddamn knives did this person bring to the scene?!

[sivard]

[.....]

Maybe some were Sylvando's? He could have been planning some sort of juggling act.

[jibunwo]

Sylvando utilized them in his performance, didn't he? The knives were likely already there.

[conceivesfrenzy]

Most of them were probably Sylvando's, right? Didn't Plumeria say that he used them during that performance the first week?

[thisaroma]

Yeah, he did. [ it was AWESOME! ] That makes the most sense to me.

[guffawsungraciously]

Are we certain the knives were not there because Sylvando brought them...? Juggling knives is not uncommon as a performance, after all.

[magycks]

Classic overachiever.

[jibunwo]

I found one knife from the vending machine as well, concealed in the men's bathroom.

[onlyyoucan]

Why hide just one? It must be the one they used if that's the case.

[jibunwo]

Exactly my own line of thought.

[onlyyoucan]

It probably also means we're looking for a man, too; if it were picked just on closeness, the men's and women's washrooms are the same distance from the Party Zone door, so they probably went with habit.

[jibunwo]

Probably, but I wouldn't fully commit to that idea. If our current theory is correct, they went out of their way to stage things. It's not impossible a woman deliberately hid it in the men's room to throw suspicion off herself.

That said, if we find it was likely they were in a rush, you're probably correct.

[paucipan]

[Oh--]

Concealed...I wonder if that may have been what was used to bring his end. Did you find anything on it?

[jibunwo]

I'm afraid not; it was hidden in the tank of one of the toilets, so water would have eliminated any significant evidence.

[paucipan]

I see. It is an incredible boon, however, so you have our thanks for finding it.

[jibunwo]

Of course. I want to be thorough this time, so there can be no further mistakes.