SEVENTH TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ After a while, Davy Jones comes and collects you all again. It's a much quicker trip than he's ever had to take for you all before. You all fit so easily into the elevator in the theatre now, don't you?

As he plays the song that takes you down, even Jones seems tired. But the elevator certainly isn't, moving just as dramatically into the depths of the ship as it ever has. You now know all the floors it passes on its trip down to the trial room, don't you?

And none of you even know that this is your last ride down. The end is coming. But that's for later, and not quite yet for all of you.

The crew of the Dutchman is... different, somehow, this week. There are more figures aboard, and they're all singing, well. Maybe Scott was right, that first week. ]

Ye know what to do, passengers.

[ Jones moves to the wall to look out at his ship, scowling.

The podiums are waiting.

Welcome to your seventh trial.

Comments

[jibunwo]

I wonder if we've any way of filling in the missing letters. This first part here...it might be denoting a plan number, but past that and the abbreviation likely for the Bermuda Triangle, I'm not sure what the rest might be.

[ltcommandroid]

[okay now this seems like something he could do]

The second word, beginning with A, looks as though the writer believed it could be related to the Triangle. A theory, perhaps, on its nature? [hm] May I see the note for closer inspection?

[ahelpingpaw]

Sure, go ahead.

[Here you go, Data! Have a note]

mods?

[ltcommandroid]

[ALRIGHT! So, could we say that the larger gaps indicate spaces where two letters could have fit, while the smaller ones are probably single letters?]

[bathymetric]

[ The length of the spaces does correspond directly to the number of letters that could have fit, yes! ]

[ltcommandroid]

[Okay! Well, Data will look at this for a minute, doing his computer thing.]

Bermuda Triangle afterlife, perhaps? That has certainly been relevant. The next word strongly resembles "connect".

[scouserer]

[A pause. Constantine inches over to go look at the note, if that's okay....]

The last word could be anything--loads of things start with the letter d and have a few letters. Dead, dick, dash, data......

[ltcommandroid]

[go for it, bud]

Connect dead? It is a plan we have attempted before, although seemingly in vain.

[scouserer]

[Constantine grunts.]

Sounds about right. Or perhaps, 'contact dead'.

[ltcommandroid]

[YEAH THAT ONE MAKES MORE SENSE]

An old plan, unless someone believed they had a new method of doing so.

[sivard]

Yeah, we've already tried that and all we ended up talking to was the creep wearing Jack as a suit.

[ltcommandroid]

Perhaps the morgue invited new opportunities? I am not familiar with this sort of practice, but those dolls were present.

[scythegun]

The morgue also had some magic circles and the like in the coffins, so perhaps someone thought they could do something more with those?

[scouserer]

Perhaps.

[A pause.]

Actually, Yeager--when you examined the body, was Jasper's pendant on him, by any chance?

[scythegun]

Pendant? No, I didn't find anything of the sort on him. Or near him... I assume it wasn't found at all, then?

[scouserer]

I suppose not.

[A pause.]

You think we ought to check pockets, then?

[scythegun]

Ja, that could prove useful!

[magycks]

... You think it was Jasper? Because it wasn't me, and apparently we've got a moratorium on accusing Constantine of murder, but he clearly had some experience with dark magic.

[scouserer]

If you want to accuse me, then, by all means, see where you get with it. I have nothing to hide.

[He's even got his sleeves still rolled up!]

[magycks]

Oh, give it a rest, sometimes a side barb is just a side barb.

[scythegun]

I don't think we can rule him out entirely, but he didn't exactly strike me as the mage sort...

[laughing in dqxi spoilers]

[ltcommandroid]

He has seemed well-versed in occultism, even if his world's practices differ from Magica's.

[sivard]

...Maybe.

What's the significance of those dolls, anyway? I remember what happened to Chloe with one but I don't know how it happened.

[scouserer]

They're voodoo dolls--whatever happens to the doll happens to the real person. If they wanna stick needles in the doll to cause pain, the person also feels that pain. S'how Chloe....

[He trails off, an unfocused expression on his face.]

[sivard]

Dear Empyreans, that's awful.