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

[honeyedtea]

[ Mielle is... well, she's physically present at her podium at least but whether or not she's actually here is a little more dicey. She's white as a ghost with a visible tremble running through her at regular intervals and whatever peace had settled in her over these past two weeks has long since flown the coop.

Two weeks. That's all it took for them to start drawing blood.

When she speaks up, it's with a voice halfway to shaking itself to pieces. ]

Is there no chance at all that this could be... an accident of some sort? Surely it... it wouldn't have been anyone's intention to do this...

[pairtner]

There's a zero percent chance this was an accident.

[Or at least that's Aiba's own conclusion, given the evidence she found and listened to here]

[honeyedtea]

Y–you can't say that with such certainty until we've determined the exact course of events, can you?!

[dullshooter]

He was bitten.

[specialyellthing]

[Slowly… looking… at Nandor…]

[honeyedtea]

Th–that doesn't prove anything by itself!

[dullshooter]

Who accidentally bites someone?

[bootyhunter]

If the hit to the face was an accident, I'm pretty sure the bruise woulda been smaller.

Looks like whoever did it used their whole-ass fist, not an elbow.

[honeyedtea]

Could there not have been some sort of scuffle unrelated to the death?

[bootyhunter]

That ended in murder?!

[asymptotes]

[ Drakkon, who happens to be next to Mielle, looks towards her. ]

Mielle. I want you to take a few deep breaths, okay? No matter what happened, it's what we're here to figure out.

[honeyedtea]

[ Hearing her name makes Mielle jump visibly - she gets that deer-in-headlights look again, as if he'd voiced it as an accusation and it takes her a few moments to fully wind down from her initial panic response. Eventually, though, she lets out a shaky breath and nods. ]

Y... yes. I'm so sorry, this just... I truly didn't think anyone really would...

[sastruga]

Mielle-san.

[Mafuyu, for her part, seems to be keeping it together very well. There's no shaking, no panic. Not that she looks happy, or anything, but if nothing she's calm.

So that might help, a little, as she smiles over to Mielle.]

...We'll get to the bottom of this. We just have to take it one step at a time. Alright?

[SURELY EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE IN THIS MURDER TRIAL]

[honeyedtea]

[ Something about Mafuyu's calm composure feels like a shard of ice dropped into Mielle's stomach. It reminds her that, ah. Yes. That should be precisely how she conducts herself in a situation like this.

She draws a shaky breath and clasps one hand in the other. Tight. ]

... Yes. Just one step at a time.

[sastruga]

...There. You're doing great already.

Keep it up.