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

[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?]

[dullshooter]

Maybe they weren't so confident in their aim?

[He knows a thing or two about it.]

[onemillion]

Perhaps the sword was supposed to try to point us in the direction of someone who wields weapons normally?

Speaking of, we didn't find any swords anywhere, did we?

[allatonce]

We didn't unless someone's got a sword they haven't presented yet.

[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 ]

[visiblepattern]

That's... I believe that's what it said? There were a list of side effects, and...

[He's not usually unsure of things like this, but he'd prefer to not mess this up in front of god and everyone.]

Unless "grenades" means something different to what I looked up?

[fuckingguy]

... Honestly, not sure myself. Zinda?

[inaclearing]

Does it?

[NEWS TO HIM....]

[visiblepattern]

I believe so...? There was a list of side effects and I looked it up...

[He sincerely hopes he didn't fuck this up?]

[bootyhunter]

Go ahead, Frou Frou.

If anybody gives ya a hard time, they'll be my problem, not yours.

[visiblepattern]

...I had to look it up, because I didn't know what grenades are. That's why I remember that part at all.

[inaclearing]

No, no - that's good! No one else mentioned that, but if they did, that probably explains it right there. Grenades are like mini explosives. Usually you pull out a pin and throw them.

[Magic grenades may be a little different, but like, he assumes it's roughly similar or else why describe it like that]

[visiblepattern]

I see. We don't have things like that where I'm from, so I looked it up because I didn't know what it meant. Would that possibly explain the, ah... The wounds on Hagakure as well?

[The shrapnel that we couldn't find a source for.]

[bootyhunter]

Yeah, it would.

His hair was burnt up, too.

[pairtner]

If these grenades formed with any kind of solid material that later disappears, then it might explain those.

[Hmmm...those shrapnel wounds with missing shrapnel does seem to hint there's shenanigans afoot. It would be time-consuming to take out every single piece of shrapnel, and it would leave obvious marks of tampering on him. There must be a magic source of power involved, she figures]

[allatonce]

It said "fire grenade" though. Grenades don't necessarily contain shrapnel, so I assumed it was more like a timed release of the fire with maybe a small explosive aspect.

[inaclearing]

It could be. They could have used one to blow up the barricade...maybe the fragments just happened to graze him?

[He'll look around at this; he's not actually that experienced with explosions, certainly not enough to know if that's plausible.]

[bootyhunter]

...Wait.

[pls note that neither dandy nor icki like where this is going]

Frou Frou mentioned that there were side effects, right? What if one of their powers got outta hand?

Could it...

Can they do that?

[visiblepattern]

They mostly mentioned effects of the injections themselves, as well as descriptions of what might happen to your...ah, you, if you used them. I had some odd things happen to my hands.

[pairtner]

It's not impossible. With the right positioning, Yasuhiro getting blasted with pieces of the barricade and the fragments just grazing him without getting embedded is a plausible scenario. It would require a certain distance from the exploding barricade. If you're too close, you're likely to get burns, and the shrapnel would certainly get embedded into you. Yasuhiro would have to be some distance away from the barricade.

[Aiba thinks for a moment]

That said, if the shrapnel came from the barricade, pieces of it should be present on his clothing and hair as well. No explosion shrapnel would target only his face.

[And if it would, well, the damage would have been really serious]

[bootyhunter]

Well, there were burns for sure.

On his hands 'n stuff, too. And the hair.

[howveryglib]

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