THIRD TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ Two bodies this week. As a result, it's a little longer before Mayor Fontaine's voice calls out over the loudspeakers. ]

All right, that'll do, all of you. Get to the bathyspheres. Trial time.

[ There's fewer bathyspheres this week, aren't there? It's starting to get really noticeable. One by one, alone or in pairs, you descend into the depths. The bottom of the seafloor, a place no human life was meant to travel to unassisted. It's dark, until it isn't, the same bio-luminescent slugs as before lighting up the area and revealing the great glass dome in which the trial takes place.

Within, three more podiums have gone dark. They remain empty as you all gather around into the circle.

The projector clicks on, and you see the silhouette of Mayor Fontaine above you. ]

We all know why we're here. Florida Man and Cryptobro got themselves got. Up to you to figure out who did it, or... well, you know by now.

[ Welcome to your third trial. ]

Comments

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[daimakaicho]

Right, well. Let’s go over what we know, shall we?

[ Hild taps her nails against her podium, sweeping some hair back behind her shoulder. ]

Since the same weapon was used in both cases, it’s easy to assume that we’re only dealing with one culprit here.

Looking at injuries has proved to be mostly useless, so I think it might be prudent to try and establish a timeline in which things took place, to help further clarify what it is we're looking for here.

There’s also the matter of the black fabric that was found, and what the source of that might be.

[ ………… is there anything else? No? Okay she’s just done, I guess. ]

[honeyedtea]

This black fabric – was it scorched black or did it come that way naturally?

[bootyhunter]

Good question, Blondie.

Did it look burnt?

[pairtner]

It's too damaged to figure out the color, but it's...blackish.

[Aiba scowls, not liking to use such vague terminology.

But yeah, seems it's scorched]

[inaclearing]

Was it...cut off of something? [But the killer had the only blade, presumably.] Or...I don't know, burned off?

[pairtner]

Unknown. It was too small and damaged to know.

[Aiba makes another face, not liking to not be able to give an answer on this regard. It's a vexing piece of scrap!]

[dullshooter]

I think we're currently operating on the idea that Jason and Hagakure were hanging out in the arcade, then split off when the killer arrived, with Jason going to the church and Hagakure running back to the lobby to build his barricade. Something like that.

[allatonce]

Yeah. Jason possibly use his hologram plasmid to confuse their attacker, resulting in a confrontation in the church, and the attacker might have used both the fire and ice Plasmids.

[inaclearing]

If Jason's fire attack and the killer's met in the middle, would that make an explosion? I know we brought up the sonic plasmid earlier...

[yep, he's reviewing his notes]

...but from what I understand, they only could have had two.

[allatonce]

Possibly? The church was, like, really on fire at some point.

[inaclearing]

I guess we don't have any way of telling now.

[Unless two other people were being idiots with the fire plasmid earlier in the week and want to speak up?]

The scorch marks between the arcade and the church make it look like someone was...shooting at Jason. Chased him in there. Once they cornered him, they had a real firefight. [.....] You know, I'm a little surprised they brought a sword at all if they also had two plasmids going.

[Like he guesses he's glad they didn't decide to just burn everyone alive, but it does seem a little like overkill?]

[visiblepattern]

[Uh.]

Why would anything but the fire injection be necessary? It allows you to make grenades, does it not?

[fuckingguy]

It does?

[ THAT'S... REALLY COOL ACTUALLY ]

[inaclearing]

Does it?

[NEWS TO HIM....]

[howveryglib]

…Does it? Would that account for the disappearing shrapnel…?

[bootyhunter]

And the weapon was like... A sword, right? Somethin' big, hard to handle.

[be grateful it's his man who's on the chopping block so he doesn't make another dingledandy joke]

[allatonce]

Yeah, which... interesting, because it's not really a stab weapon? You tend to slice with swords.

[bootyhunter]

Was it a spear, maybe?

I picked one of those up from the vending machine and looked it over.

[Oh, how he wishes he could retrieve it and check.]

[fuckingguy]

What if someone was throwing it? Like, [ and he's miming what he imagines someone using telekinetic powers to throw a sword would look like ] with the plasmids.

[ to his dubious credit, even he seems to realize this is dumb as shit ]

[bootyhunter]

[Dandy looks noticeably disgruntled after that Seo conversation-]

Mmm.

I'm wonderin' if the two of 'em were planning something together. Like... About usin' their brand spankin' new abilities to...

[OH HE HATES THIS SHIT-]

Try and catch the killer or somethin' stupid like that.

These things tend to happen around the same time each week. Don't take a genius to figure that out, baby.

Then whoever it was found two easy targets, providin' that they knew what they were plannin' to do.

[dullshooter]

Camping out in the arcade with nachos and soda to catch a murderer...?

[Wait. Remember who we're talking about.]

...Yeah, I'll buy it.

[bootyhunter]

Oh yeah.

That shitty plan just screams the two of them.

[sastruga]

...It does seem... extremely plausible, actually.

"We have these powers and there's two of us, so we'd totally stop the killer!" or something like that.

[...At least they were sticking to the buddy system???]

[bootyhunter]

Yeah, and they were amateurs!

[Can you be pissed as hell at your idiot boyfriend and miss him in the same breath... Yes, if you are Dandy, you can. You know how much he hates being the singular braincell in the relationship???]

So even if they were trying to stop the perp, chances are that they fumbled the ball. Hard!

[buriedstar]

I wouldn't say useless, but that a preliminary check didn't reveal any injuries. There's several people who abstained from a more detailed check: Forrest, Rossiu and Jonathan from the men. For now it's better to explore other leads unless we suspect there's a reason to check them further. We could also check the lower body if there's reason enough to do so.