FIRST TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, that seems like more than enough time to poke around the crime scene. Gather at the vault door, won’t you? It seems that for many of you it will be a short walk.

[ Once you’re all gathered at the vault door, Angel meets you there and quietly taps a keycard to the side of it. There’s an enormous whirring and grinding from inside as various mechanisms within the door move and whir - until with one last shuddering thud, the door starts to swing inwards, revealing a fully-glass tunnel leading off the side of the plateau the base is built on. Small lights built into the floor illuminate as you walk forward, until finally they light up an enormous elevator, perfectly capable of holding the twenty-four of you.

Angel comes too, putting a few numbers into a keypad just outside the door and inserting her card key once everyone is inside. She’ll gestures to get in if anyone seems unsure, but doesn’t really speak or enter the car herself. ]

Going down.

[ And down the elevator goes, leaving the lights of the facility behind - from here everyone can even see some parts of the facility you don’t have access to, it’s bigger than you realized. But it’s a long and uncomfortable ride to the depths, at least a minute or two before the elevator stops.

When the doors open, enough lights flash on to show that you’ve reached the ocean floor, some distance below even the depths you knew before. Lights around the outside of the massive glass dome you've found yourselves in illuminate the barren depths of the sea, with little if any ocean life to currently disrupt it.

At the top of the dome, among the lights, is an outward-facing circle of five or six different screens, each showing the telltale spiral that indicates The Professor is as present as he ever is.

Below them, of course, are the podiums, a circle of simple metal stands with some kind of video screen embedded into each, though they’re turned off for now. Each of your names is carved into one of them, though the podium constructed for Aela seems to have been just set to display a blank red light.

The screens lower down until they’re too close to eye level for anyone’s comfort. ]

Welcome to the trial room. You have as long as you need to discover who among you killed The Huntress. Once you have, I will explain further action. Take your places.

[ The screens rise back up - welcome to your first trial. ]

Comments

[nothingcanstop]

...No, that’s got other uses.

[lovelikeyou]

Oh! That's where humans put the food they don't use up!

[human facts! human facts! all human facts are fun facts!]

[nothingcanstop]

[ oh sweetie ]

Yeah, that’s a way to put it.

[hardnosed]

All this time, they've just been throwing resources away?

[ THIS IS WHAT YOU REBELLED AGAINST THE DIAMONDS TO PROTECT, ROSE
FOOD FLUSHERS ]

[lovelikeyou]

[ugh, can't you just let her have one fun human fact]

Just the parts that they can't extract nutrients from. Even Homeworld can't kill a planet twice.

[hardnosed]

Tch. Inefficient.

[lovelikeyou]

Maintaining a sustainable resource instead of destroying their planet and having to find a new one?

[it's WAY more efficient than the Gem strategy of "let's just suck everything we see dry"]

[hardnosed]

[ at full volume again, god, shut up jasper: ] Yes.

[lovelikeyou]

You think it's more wasteful to care for what you have, instead of going out and killing everything else in the universe? Maybe if Gems had taken better care of Homeworld, they could have kept using the Kindergartens there.

[hardnosed]

And maybe if you hadn't shattered someone, your precious Earth wouldn't be incubating the Cluster!

[archboxer]

[Jasper, you're yelling in her ear!]

Ahem. Now is not the time for such distractions!

[philoxenia]

[ goddess bless you rhea ]

[hardnosed]

I'm not distracting—

[ But then she remembers. Rose doesn't know about the Cluster. Despite the one inch difference in height, she can hold this over her head for as long as she wants. ]

... Fine.

[archboxer]

You can discuss this after the trial.

[She's not trying to talk down to Jasper but she sure doesn't like the discussion of shattering.]

[emberserker]

Will the two of you get on task!?

[hardnosed]

I'm not the one spouting facts about human detritus.

[ But Rhea and her own petty, spiteful ass have convinced her to shut up, so it's at least in a nice indoor voice! ]

[lovelikeyou]

[nope sorry guys that sounded important]

What is the Cluster?

[fivestagegod]

[don't even start.]

So have you just conveniently forgotten that someone is dead and this is an argument you guys can have at literally any time that isn't now?

[lovelikeyou]

...I'm sorry.

[It's not like she started this argument, but that's a fair point.]

[hardnosed]

I keep forgetting. You've got no idea what I'm talking about, do you?

[ nyehehe ]

Rhea's right. Let's talk about the facts of the case.

[lovelikeyou]

She is right. Humans usually are, about important things.

[getting emotional and causing problems again, starlight?]

If they really wanted to hide the knife in the toilet, they should have cleaned the sink better. I think most of us here would know bloodstains if we saw them. Maybe they really thought they could flush it away.

[hardnosed]

So why didn't they? The water still had blood in it — you can see some in the bag. What was the possible point in putting it in, leaving their footprints on the floor, and then not trying to get rid of it?

[archboxer]

[Goddess what did she do to deserve having to mediate this.]

[hardnosed]

[ WELCOME TO HELL!!! ]

[bolderfell]

[?]