FIRST TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ After a while, once all the appropriate clues have been found, Mayor Fontaine calls out again over the speakers. ]

Alright, citizens, pack it in quick and head to the back of the Hall of the Founders. You have business to take care of.

[ When they do reach the Bathysphere station, Eleanor is manning the controls, gaze quiet and even over the crowd. The hatch at the front of the strange elevator is open, and everyone is gestured inside. A series of small submerisbles are lined up, waiting to be ridden. ]

Just hop into the bathyspheres one or two at a time, and the system will get you where you need to go.

[ It's a long, cramped ride from here, but Fontaine's word is true. At least you can tune into the radio in the pod?

The bathyspheres take you down until even the few lights of Rapture are out of sight, down until lights of a different kind are visible - the reds and blues of bioluminescent sea creatures, a little too out of your way to make out what they are, blending to a strange sort of not-quite-purple as the bathysphere reaches its final destination: a glass dome built into the sea floor, about the size of an average house.

As one by one the bathyspheres arrive carrying the new citizenry of New Rapture, less natural lights than those of the creatures around you begin to click on in the dome. In the center, most of the space is taken up by a circle of podiums, each with an image of one of you engraved into it.

A projector of some kind kicks on, which combined with the lighting allows for the familiar silhouette of Mayor Fontaine at his chair to appear on the side of the dome, watching over you. ]

Time to do your best to figure out who killed the Diamond in the Rough. And do yourselves a favor: keep it interesting. I'm here if you have any burning inquiries.

[ And here it is.

Welcome to your first trial. ]

Comments

[hotpaprika]

[Jonathan is more or less carried to the submersible by Dandy. He didn't want to play the game, as horrible as the murder was, none of it was as horrible as the fact that hit was being facilitated by this monster.

But as he stands behind his podium he speaks aloud, with purpose.]

I abstain from participating in this trial, for I already know who is responsible for this crime.

[He's shaking, but his voice is firm.]

The only criminal here is Fontaine. While it is likely that someone else pulled the trigger, they were coerced by this monster by threatening our loved ones. Any real judge would tell you that the only man truly at fault is the one who forced the murderer to kill.

[dullshooter]

[Well that was…a journey. Misfire raises his voice at his podium.]

I’d just like to open this trial with an ”I told you so”, and that whoever said we wouldn’t start killing each other owes me whatever we have instead of money.

[dullshooter]

Look, Jonathan, mate, I want to skip out on this as much as anyone, but it’s not like Fontaine grabbed them and made them bash Adaman’s head into a rock. Or whatever happened.

[sixthnonsense]

[Gods, the deja vu is so strong Hagakure can barely stand it.

But he will respond to this real fast.]

Jonny, that's not gonna fly and you know it. These trials don't work like that.

[sastruga]

Um, Misfire-san?

[Mafuyu's just going to speak up, smiling gently.]

I'm not sure how helpful something like this is right now. Perhaps you could table it?

[...This is a very nice way of telling someone to shut up, huh--]

[hotpaprika]

He threatened our loved ones, Misfire. Surely you must know that he is as much at fault as the culprit, possibly even more so.

[bathymetric]

See, I thought one of you would trot that out. Funny thing about running your own sovereign city-state? "Criminal" means whatever you want it to mean. So no, as far as you're all concerned here? I'm not at fault.

[pairtner]

You'll hardly find anyone who disagrees with you on how the Mayor's threat pushed the culprit into murder -- however relieving the culprit of all fault won't do, given our situation. We'll have to do this.

[Aiba for one sure would like to help solve a murder, yup]

[visiblepattern]

No.

[Forrest's voice is surprisingly harsh at that, a far cry from the usual delicate, gentle tone.]

Do whatever you want, but I'm interested in knowing who murdered one of our own. Adaman was nothing but gracious to all of us, he was a friend to all of us, and while you can stand there upon your highest of horses, I want to seek whatever justice we can in this place.

Mayor Fontaine laid the foundation, but one of us chose to act on it. You can behave as though Adaman didn't matter all you like, but I won't think well of it, nor will I think well of you for the duration of our stay here.

[hotpaprika]

[His voice quiets, and he is unable to look at Hagakure.]

I have to try. I don't want to give this madman what he wants.

[withagun]

[ Hodaka looks a mess.

It's no secret he hasn't been sleeping well, what with the hostages... And loss doesn't seem to be something he's exactly familiar with. He may need a little guiding to his podium as boy the kid looks out of it. He does, however, quietly: ]

Misfire-san... Not now.

[sastruga]

I suppose when you're the one making the law, you can choose to make yourself exempt. Right, Fontaine-san?

[fuckingguy]

[ While people were investigating, Nandor was getting dressed in his default outfit! Adaman may have been a serial disrespecter of the Dewey Decimal system and an out-loud prayer, but someone is still dead, and now that's all of their problem. If they meet their end today, he's not going to be in jeans.

And, predictably: ]

Before the presenting of evidence and so on, could you just tell us if you are going to clean up the elevator and the scene of the crime, please?

[dullshooter]

Well duh. He kidnapped us and put us in this sadistic psychological experiment. No one’s doubting this is all his fault. And I’m not saying whoever did it is necessarily wrong for it - but let’s not kid ourselves. They made a choice here.

body investigation report

[visiblepattern]

[It takes him a moment to find his podium, but Forrest is...here, eventually. He hadn't wanted to leave the body, but...well, this has to be done, doesn't it? The lower portion of his dress is faintly bloody from where he was in the water with Adaman, and further still from where he was checking out the head wound after turning him over. For once, he's not fussing about being dirty.

Once he's gotten his position in the circle worked out (and he's yelled at Jonathan), there's only one thing left to do. Right? He seems surprisingly settled, all things considered, if emotionally vacant; he's saying the words with no feelings behind them, as though he hasn't really processed anything that's going on.

He's used to this. He's seen more than enough bodies on the battlefield to be used to this. He doesn't have time to feel anything about it; he has due diligence to perform. That due diligence doesn't involve healing anyone this time, but it does involve doing them some kind of justice all the same.]

I found Adaman in the garden, facedown in the shallow pool of water that can be found in there. I turned him over, but he seemed to have been deceased for some time, seeing as the body was cold. Aiba assisted me in investigating him. Brett, Misfire, and Jason were also in the room.

He sustained a wound to the back of his head - it had bled out quite a bit. It was difficult to tell if it was a piercing or blunt injury; it looked somewhere between one or the other. Not sharp enough to be explicitly piercing, but not as though it was solely a blunt force injury. It appeared that whatever hit him only did so once; there was no reason for me to think that he was struck multiple times. The wound was also clean, in that there was nothing foreign left in it.

[His words remain clinical the whole time; his expression seems to waver a little bit, but he manages to deeply breathe a bit and get that under control before he continues.]

His face was also massively bruised. Centered on the left cheek. It was dark in color, though nothing pierced the skin. It...looked as though someone punched him. Hard.

There was also, for some dreadful reason, a bite mark on the inside of his left forearm. [He raises his own arm and gestures toward it, making the location clear.] It appeared relatively clean in that nothing was...torn out, but it was clearly a mark made by a human.

[Okay. Okay, almost done...]

I'm a little...concerned, about his cause of death? I don't have much experience with this specific thing, but when I've seen it, it hasn't been a good sign - there was frothy discharge around his mouth, and some in the water. In my experience when that happens, it means there's fluid in the lungs, whether blood or water.

So despite the head wound, I...believe he may have drowned? Please correct me if this is unreasonable.

[onemillion]

Surely you understand that we can do nothing about that at the moment. Should you choose to abstain from participating in this trial then so be it, but this is not helpful right now.

Someone made the decision to act, and I believe we owe it to Adaman to determine what exactly happened here.

[bathymetric]

It will be like nothing happened.

[dullshooter]

[…as she’s being so nice about it.]

Alright. Scheduled for later.

[dullshooter]

[He pinches the bridge of his nose.]

Fine. Dropped. Whatevs. Let’s just get on with this, then.

[hotpaprika]

[Jonathan is shocked by this response, but it quickly turns to anger.]

Don't you dare act as though I didn't care about Adaman, or that I don't know a damned thing about justice. He was a dear member of our group and his death is more than a tragedy. But this man threatened to torture 25 innocent people. People who are dear to us.

Fontaine didn't pull the trigger but I am not on my high horse for saying that none of this wouldn't be happening if this madman wasn't torturing us.

[sastruga]

I appreciate it.

[sixthnonsense]

Yeah... I really wanna know who did this.

[They don't have a choice BUT to figure this out, but Adaman...he was such a cool dude. This sucks so hard.]

[fuckingguy]

Great, okay, good to know.

[bathymetric]

Perks of being in power.

[visiblepattern]

If you're abstaining, shut your mouth.