FIFTH TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ It's not terribly long, once everything has been found, before Davy Jones heads out to round you all up once more and take you into the theatre. At least plenty of you are around the same area, so it probably doesn't take terribly long.

The ride down to the trial room is the same as ever - a blast of the organ, a slow descent. It's really starting to become clear, though, just how your numbers are decreasing. You're already down three, counting the absence of Chloe, potentially more when you come back up.

The crew of the Dutchman is singing as Jones lets you out into the trial room. ]

To business, passengers. I am about if you need guidance.

[ The circle of podiums is less populated than ever. So many of you are islands now, so to speak.

The song dies down, the waters quiet.

Welcome to your fifth trial.. ]

Comments

[dokkalfheimr]

...If she acted on the motive and got away with it, I would die in the trial? Not - I did not volunteer to have Plumeria kill me.

[magycks]

Ohhhh, I thought it was a "kill to avoid having to see you here and now while avoiding detection" thing. Because what you said doesn't really prove anything, does it?

[dokkalfheimr]

...What do you mean, it doesn't prove anything?

[magycks]

Well, in her ideal future, there you were. We've all gotten so hung up on alternate timelines that everyone's been taking it for granted that those images couldn't possibly include anyone from here, hence Decus not being willing to kill Alice this time two weeks ago, but this incentive wasn't to change something that happened in the past. Who says it wouldn't involve resurrecting the you who's here right now?

Just spitballing, you know.

[dokkalfheimr]

[That's...]

...Perhaps so. But that just means she may have acted on her own, doesn't it? This doesn't necessarily involve me.

[magycks]

Oh, that's all Constantine. I don't necessarily think it does!

But I also don't care if any of you get angry at me for wild and offensive speculation, so, might as well.

[dokkalfheimr]

If Constantine has an accusation to level against me, then I would certainly like to hear it so we can get it out of the way. Those sorts of meandering half-questions don't suit him.

[magycks]

Neither does khaki, but here we are. Anyway, you knew her best. If Plumeria were to act on this motive, what kind of modus operandi do you think she would use?

[dokkalfheimr]

[Ah, that's... Well...]

I don't... I don't know, it's hard to say. All we have to go off of is what happened to Decus, and...

[magycks]

Honestly, I kind of just want to know if she was trying to frame me. Or poison me? That yogurt's such a dumb specific that so few people patronized, it feels like it'd have to be on purpose.

[dokkalfheimr]

...I don't know if she was after you or not. I truly don't.

She didn't really speak to me about what she was going to do, but she...did make it clear that she intended to do something.

[ltcommandroid]

Despite the threat to yourself?

[dokkalfheimr]

It...seemed so. Again, she seemed terribly ashamed when she came to me about it; I assume she intended for me to tell her not to.

[magycks]

But you didn't.

[ THIS IS A QUESTION she's just phrasing it as a statement as much as possible because if she is right, maybe it'll look like she knew all along!! ]

[deathmagnetic]

And if you didn't, why wouldn't you have? Are you implying the two of you came to an agreement on her carrying out those actions, or is the implication here was that you simply didn't dissuade her?

[jibunwo]

Freyja, did you-...

[He trailed off, like the thought in his head was not one he wanted to think about on any level whatsoever.]

Did you try to stop her?

[magycks]

In light of that... okay, so she finds the essential oils and she puts them in the yogurt, showing characteristically poor judgment with her dosing once again. Decus eats some, but it's obvious that it's been tampered with, so he doesn't consume enough to become truly sick. She trails him to the first aid room, where she tries to finish him off, only he manages to shake her and heads toward the first floor, but before that happens...

... Why is he wearing the tie-dye, though? Like, with the jacket there to sop up potential blood, what's the point?

[scouserer]

[Ignoring Magica's comment about khaki because otherwise he get heated about trench coats and the fact I went to go eat dinner--]

Fine. You want me to make an accusation? I think that you were involved with this, some way or another. If Plumeria wanted to make a move for herself, she knew that she would be risking your life.

I don't know all the details. I certainly don't know how things happened, even now. But I think it'd be hard for Plumeria to do anything without thinking about you, first and foremost.

[ahelpingpaw]

Jack wouldn't allow that. He wants us dead, it's...it's really unlikely he'd just undo it for a motive, even if it's one person.

[That guy is as untrustworthy as it gets, really]

[magycks]

The motive itself is a promise he never intended to keep, Filbo. Do catch up.

[ahelpingpaw]

Exactly! We all know that. Plumeria probably would have known that. I...I really doubt she'd have trusted anything her motive showed, that's--that's what I'm trying to say.

[If Plumeria for some reason believed Jack would do it, she probably wouldn't hope it was the Freyja standing here, he thinks. Possibly]

[deathmagnetic]

Do we know that she wouldn't?

[ahelpingpaw]

W-We don't, but...

[...well, in the end they don't know for sure. Oh well]

[dokkalfheimr]

And yet Plumeria and Decus were out last night, and now they're dead. Either they believed it or they didn't - which is it?

[magycks]

I might have agreed with you two weeks ago. But apparently a bunch of photoshopped pictures were enough to send both of those idiots on the prowl, regardless of the results, so who knows?

Anyway, she didn't doubt his power, just his sincerity. Maybe she decided it didn't matter.