FOURTH TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ Well! That's sure something, isn't it? There may or may not be a lot of you excited to get down to business, but Jones does eventually move to collect you all and bring you to the theatre. It's a familiar routine by now, perhaps even comfortingly so given the irregularities of this particular killing.

Two of you gone this week. The elevator is started to feel downright spacious, don't you think?

A shanty, as usual, echoes from the crew of the Dutchman as you enter. The room is the same as it has ever been before you as the elevator settles into position. ]

To yer positions, passengers. Chins up.

[ Three more podiums claimed by the rust and wear.

You have your evidence, and you're going to need it before long. The music outside dies down.

Welcome to your fourth trial. ]

Comments

cw hand

[scythegun]

[Yeager comes to the trial today with a sword and something wrapped in a towel, and given how done he looks already, this isn't going to be fun. He sets the towel gingerly on his podium and lifts the sword to start.]

I investigated the bowling alley with Magica and Risotto. There were marks on the walls that seem to have been sword strikes - and given this blade, that makes sense.

[The blade in question is Albedo's! You likely saw him wielding it when Allenby went off a few trials back.]

As you can see, the blade is damaged - which I'm fairly sure would line up perfectly with those strikes, but I believe Magica has more information on those.

[And so, moving on to the other matter at hand...]

I also found this next to the sword.

[He unwraps the towel to reveal— oh god that's a human hand. It's Albedo's right hand!]

It looks as though it was torn off, likely with a claw. There wasn't anything else of note about it, though.

[So he probably could have just left it behind, but you know. Sometimes these things happen and you just have to bring a human hand to a trial to inflict in on everyone else, it's fine!!]

[deathmagnetic]

[ Sometimes you gotta be thorough and help ensure everyone has a firm grip on the situation. ]

We can conclude that clearly he didn't go down without a fight. Though, it didn't seem to do much against...whatever type of beast this was.

[scythegun]

[bless you lum]

Ja, that's my thought as well. It sounds as though what happened to Sara lines up rather well with this... but I'm not sure how the... [waves a hand] bowling alley itself comes into this?

[The pin setter that crushed Albedo, he means.]

[jibunwo]

Do you think it possible that whoever attacked Albedo simply knocked him out and left him under it while they dealt with Sara?

[scythegun]

I think that's possible, ja. But I don't think we can say that for certain... Would they have even known that would kill him? Frankly, I didn't know that such a thing would be powerful enough to... crush someone like that.

[jibunwo]

In simply establishing a timeline of events, it's irrelevant if they knew or not. But I'm theorizing they knocked him out and he was beneath it by chance.

[deathmagnetic]

[ Welcome to lovely technology, Yeager ]

Though accidents with pin setters occur, it's obvious this wasn't one of those, and the amount of blood around in that room make it highly unlikely he was alive for long. I imagine that the critical moment was after he had lost his hand and left defenseless against his opponent's attack.

He could've been dragged towards the pin setter and then lightly tossed so he was lying underneath it. It wouldn't really make sense for him to willingly head towards it in a fight, at any rate.

[scythegun]

Goodness... I hope he was unconscious before that happened.

[Some small mercy, at least...]

Though I do imagine losing a hand would be hard to recover from in a fight. You did say you were unable to determine if he had any other injuries, ja? He could have been knocked unconscious by a blow as well so he could be moved over there...

[deathmagnetic]

That would be ideal for him.

[ In the face of everything, you know, not being so. ]

That's a possibility as well. It'd have been easy, what with the blood loss and all.

cw: more vore...

[ltcommandroid]

I am not certain. If the attacker was not in their right mind, are we sure that they would be fully aware of the function of the pin setters? Perhaps it was an accident, and that is the reason they did not...proceed as they did with Sara.

[He's saying he thinks the pin setter got in the way of MORE VORE]

It does appear to have been the same assailant, given the evidence of claws or teeth causing his wound.

cw: more vore discussion, vaguely

[deathmagnetic]

If they weren't, I doubt it.

I suppose you can say that it could be a coincidental "accident" that Albedo ended up where he was, though an accident in the loosest sense of the term.

[ A small relief that more of...THAT did not happen. ]

Seeing as there seems to be no indication of a secondary assailant, I am also inclined to believe that it's the same for both kills.

cw hand

[paucipan]

[...That's fucking lovely, joy of joys. And she's right next to Yeager too and this is just what she needed to see today! Great!!]

He must have been trying to fend off an attack. [Gods, this is awful.] Tearing off someone's hand, though...talk about excessive.

cw hand

[scythegun]

[you get to see the hand up close!! you probably don't deserve this.]

Ja, that sounds right. It would seem that his attacker had far more strength than he was expecting; I don't believe he was an inexperienced fighter at all. So we're looking for someone with claws and strength capable of this.

[paucipan]

[eh, better for plum to see it than to palm it off on someone else!!]

That seems prudent. I doubt there's many who could hide such a thing.

[...Though the more Plumeria thinks about it, the more uneased she feels, not exactly helped by the goddamn gore/vore conversation going on downthread good gods.]

[scythegun]

Ja, precisely. We still do have quite a bit to discuss before pointing fingers at anyone.

[Especially with that conversation going on...]

[paucipan]

[...]

...Maybe pick a different wording for this circumstance, but yes, agreed.

[considering. y'know.]

[jibunwo]

Unless we have some kind of shapeshifter with us and they've done an astounding job of hiding it for weeks and weeks.

[either that's sarcasm or he's perfectly willing to believe that's exactly the case]

[paucipan]

Wouldn't something like that fall under our powers being taken away, though? I can't imagine that the lot of them would let someone keep something like that...

[Like that seems obvious? But uh.]

[dokkalfheimr]

I can't access my other form, personally, and even if I could it wouldn't be capable of doing anything quite like this.

If someone else can access theirs, I would rather like to know why.

[sivard]

[What the absolute fuck, why would you bring that to the trial.]

There were blade marks all over the walls of the Piano Lounge too. I imagine it must have been from that same sword.

[scythegun]

[because he's worm off the string and a being of chaos who likes inflicting suffering on you all.]

Were there? That certainly would explain it, ja. So it seems a fight must have started there before leading into the bowling alley.

[scouserer]

[Wait, this probably seems relevant--]

Albedo mentioned that the blade was cursed, and that he was the only one able to resists its magic. He wouldn't have easily given it up.

[A pause.]

I wonder--maybe after Sara had been attacked, Albedo wanted to jump in and protect her?

[scythegun]

Oh, it's cursed?

[...Okay, so this is a sword for decorating, not using, got it.]

I do think that's possible, ja. It seems like it made sense that Sara heard something happening outside the arcade and went to investigate... but that doesn't mean that what she heard was a fight in progress. So it is possible that she heard the killer doing something out there and was then attacked, only for Albedo to come by afterwards and try to stop the killer.

[scouserer]

Well, it might not be cursed anymore. But if someone's inspected it and they still haven't become...you know, evil and fucked up, I'm sure it's fine.

[Constantine nods.]

But I suppose neither of them were expecting that much resistance.

[scythegun]

No, likely not. I doubt any of us would have suspected anyone would be hiding something like that - and still capable of it, at that.