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

[kninja]

...I won't lie to you, Your Honor. I don't like where this is going, but I said I was gonna see it through.

[hotpaprika]

It's not fair! If this trial wasn't a farce before, it certainly is now! How could we even consider subjecting a child to something like this?!

[inaclearing]

...I get it. I do. But Adaman was only 17, too. And we all knew the stakes.

[Do not make him reprise the last bit of his song!]

[onemillion]

Fairness was never a concern here. We owe it to Adaman to find out what happened.

[hotpaprika]

To find out what happened, yes, but Hagakure already revealed what would happen to the culprit! And if it was nothing more than an accident...

[onemillion]

Are you saying we should do nothing, then? If you've already spoken with Hagakure about this, then you know what awaits us should we refuse to play this game.

[hotpaprika]

I do not know what we should do! But asking us to essentially murder a child is just... I can't...

[He hates feeling so useless]

[onemillion]

Then please allow the rest of us to handle it.

[sixthnonsense]

[He didn't wanna repeat it, but...yeah...]

[sixthnonsense]

Yeah, well... That doesn't really matter to the people runnin' these things. The Hope's Peak game was all high-school kids.

[kninja]

[Obi does look increasingly conflicted about this, the more their discussion moves towards a young, unintentional killer.]

...I dunno.

[howveryglib]

…

Has anyone confirmed precisely what will happen if we do not find the correct culprit?

[he doesn’t actually like this much more than Johnny boy but…]

I know we are generally operating on principle, but I believe it prudent to clarify the stakes.

[sixthnonsense]

Y'know...it's probably good to check to see if it's the same as it was in my last game. Everything else has been so eerily similar, I just kinda went into the same mindset that it would be.

[howveryglib]

What was it in your last game? Given everything else about this situation, I am not exactly suspecting anything good from it.

[sixthnonsense]

Oh, it's not good alright. If we didn't get it right, everyone but the culprit would die.

[hotpaprika]

Dear God...

[He knows that Nandor doesn't like him saying that but

He's kind of distracted by the despair of it all.]

[sixthnonsense]

...yeah. That's why it real important to make sure we figure this out, even if it's us against them. Even if it was an accident.

[howveryglib]

…

I cannot imagine that being too far removed from consideration here, given everything else.

[sixthnonsense]

Yeah, Fontaine's enough of an asshole for it.

mods!

[onemillion]

[Alright, he's just going to go ahead and do it. Rossiu raises his voice.]

Mayor Fontaine, we would like to request a clarification of the rules. What happens to us should we fail to find the culprit? Alternatively, what happens to them should we succeed?

[bathymetric]

[ There's a heavy sigh. ]

Just had to spoil my favorite part, didn't you? He's right. I'm no Junko Enoshima, but I guess great minds think alike.

[ Mayor Fontaine just loves to see a girlboss winning. ]

[onemillion]

[Not exactly a surprise, since he spoke to Hagakure about all this beforehand and was assuming it would be the same, but boy it still does suck!!!]

I'm guessing you don't want to answer my other question until we've actually determined the culprit?

[So you know. We don't spoil that, I guess!!!!]

[bathymetric]

Like I said. He's right.

[sixthnonsense]

[Really? Right in front of his...well he doesn't have a salad. His hair, sure.

Flipping off the silhouette,]

Suck it! No surprises for you.

[This is obviously not a great outcome but let him have this okay.]

[fuckingguy]

Fucking guy.