Fourth Trial

[bathymetric]

[ After the evidence (and what a large batch of evidence it is, this time) has been gathered up, after actually patiently waiting a longer time than usual to make sure everything's been grabbed, the speakers over New Rapture crackle to life. ]

Time's up, everyone. You know where to go.

[ The lower number of bathyspheres, as you descend, is starting to become really notable, isn't it? The descent is the same as ever, lower and lower into the sea. The bioluminescence of those slugs on the ocean floor is almost brighter today, somehow, and some of them have even crawled up the cliff face around you as you pass them.

The dome approaches, slowly as ever, gleaming red in the darkness. The bathyspheres land in a row, doors opening one by one to reveal the familiar sight of the trial room, three more podiums now darkened. ]

Take your places, ladies and gentlemen. You've got a doozy of a situation to discuss. Ass Man and Silver Fox are dead. You know what happens if you can't figure out whodunnit.

[ Welcome to your fourth trial. ]

Comments

cw: torture

[dullshooter]

[Look Aiba someone’s got to cover the stupid option here.]

Consider it like this: you’re going to kill a guy, right? But you don’t get what you expected, and so what do you do? Start panicking. Doing whatever you can to incapacitate and do something to the guy ‘til you’ve got him in a place where you can do something that pretty much guarantees he’s done for. Not saying it’s not messed up, but everyone else has got the ‘sadist’ angle covered.

[howveryglib]

That is, I think, worthy of consideration. Not all of us are trained killers to begin with, after all, so I can imagine a certain amount of panic involved in attempting to kill someone and learning they simply will not die.

[dullshooter]

[See look Dad thinks his idea is good]

[pairtner]

Wouldn't that require making deadly attacks in the first place? Even the most dense among us would understand targeting the palm of the hand won't cause anyone's death -- unless they're extraordinarily ignorant of how human bodies work.

[Well, there were other wounds in the chest and stuff, but none of them were even close to deadly]

[fuckingguy]

Could it not have been to stop him struggling? Like, before the rope.

tendon slicing cw

[daimakaicho]

Perhaps. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the legs being cut where they were was to keep him from being able to run altogether.

[howveryglib]

My thoughts exactly.

I will not say it is impossible that they were intentionally attempting to inflict as much suffering as they could. I am merely offering an alternate possibility.

tendon slicing and torture cw

[fuckingguy]

Yes. I think the intent was to hobble him... which obviously worked, since he fell right into the cardboard cutout. But then perhaps he kept on crawling, which is how the beads ended up [ gesturing vaguely ] over there. Oh, and maybe that is why his other hand was fucked up -- the killer stepped on it.

Content Warning: achilles tendon content, torture

[pairtner]

The slashes onto his tendons would make far more difficult for him to run away, and afterwards he was taken to where he was found, with those wounds still dripping. I found no indications he dragged himself to that position.

From what I can tell, the culprit had him under control since before he was tied up.

[Or at least that's the conclusion she gets to. Walking with those tendons slashed isn't impossible, but it's painful and very awkward with one slashed, and even more with both. As Aiba sees it, Dandy was at the mercy of the killer as soon as that happened]

[hotpaprika]

[Jonathan looks like he's about to faint hearing this.]

[fuckingguy]

[ thinking as hard as he can... recalling carrying Jonathan's disassociating ass out of the dark ride... ]

That is what the smear was!

[specialyellthing]

I just keep thinkin' about the way he was tied.

It doesn't feel like somethin' you can pull off well in a panic. Unless you're well practiced.

[howveryglib]

I suppose that is true, yes, as you must wonder why they would bother if they were not getting something out of it…