Fifth Trial

[bathymetric]

[ There's a long while of examination before the Mayor speaks up. There's plenty of evidence to pick up yet again this week, after all. ]

Annnd that's going to do it. Wrap it up and head to the bathyspheres, kids, you've got some business to attend to.

[ The bathyspheres take you all down, down, into the now-familiar dome below the city. The similarly familiar red glow persists until the lights properly turn on - the projection of Fontaine's silhouette is gone, of course, replaced by that same flickering "please stand by" message. But your mayor's voice is still the one that speaks over the increasingly empty circle of podiums. ]

If you somehow need a reminder of why you're here, three of you are dead. Get away with it, killer or killers, and the execution room gets to really work overtime today. But I guess if you wanna live, you should find who murdered three people. Could be important for you guys.

[ Welcome to your fifth trial. ]

Comments

2/2

[everythingeverywhere]

First of all: it's Jobu, actually. Second of all, you guys will really believe anything if someone says it with enough conviction, huh?

[inaclearing]

[ha ha what the fuck does this MEAN

Anyway, while this is all very frightening to me, Brett doesn't move away from her or anything sensible like that. His face just sort of crumbles.]

...yeah. Yeah, I guess so.

[everythingeverywhere]

[What a lovely, not at all ominous song you have there, Joy. Oh, I'm sorry: Jobu Tupaki.]

Yeah, I'm not really feeling copying Thomathan or that loser Vholran. Oopsie, I murdered your friends! Get out all your little emotions out and I'll pretend like I care.

[MTB... start?]

[everythingeverywhere]

It's okay, buddy. [She pats him on the shoulder, a little condescending. Has she always sounded like that?] Get your emotions out.

[onemillion]

[WELL, THAT'S FINE, PROBABLY.]

Jobu, is that correct? Who... are you, exactly?

[Are you still Joy, are you someone who was pretending to be Joy this whole time... what are we looking at here?]

[howveryglib]

...

Ah. I... see. Certainly.

[why does this keep happening : (]

[fuckingguy]

[ he is so
so
so fucking lost right now so he's just instinctively going to say: ]

... Hi.

[everythingeverywhere]

Joy Wang. Or I was, at one point. The profiles are, shockingly, technically correct but very misleading. I haven't been "Joy Wang" in a long time.

[You know. Like since her mind fractured into a thousand little pieces.]

[asymptotes]

What a corner of this wheel we turned out to be.

[inaclearing]

....no. I'm okay.

[Fuck that, he's just going back to his podium. Nothing better for packing all that pesky sadness back down deep where it belongs than spite!]

[visiblepattern]

So is the lack of reason why you did it? Because I can see that going multiple ways, but they generally come down to the notion that if everything is pointless there's no reason to continue doing it.

[everythingeverywhere]

Hi.

[She gives him a little wave.]

[everythingeverywhere]

Oh, I'm sure that must be on purpose. Why else would she put Dandy, me, and you in a little row?

[onemillion]

What happened, then?

[He can take a guess given the things she's spoken of in meetings before, but taking blind guesses isn't really something he wants to be doing right now.]

[everythingeverywhere]

Suit yourself!

[asymptotes]

I imagined so, but seeing it all come together at once like this is something else.

[everythingeverywhere]

Exactly. It was fun playing poor little Joy for a while, but now it's boring. So I'm leaving. Bye! I sort of liked some of you, as much as I like anything.

[everythingeverywhere]

Look on the bright side, Gaius! I didn't kill you.

[capreelcious]

...

So is that why your government assigned nickname is Jojo Chewbacca?

[ FLOYD IS THIS THE TIME- ]

[everythingeverywhere]

Once upon a time my mother pushed me too far and my mind fractured into an infinite number of tiny little pieces, all of them just... screaming at me for attention.

[everythingeverywhere]

By the way: can't believe you called me messy. I'm artistic, Thomathan.

[onemillion]

I see.

[Not... exactly, but he can at least follow that train of logic.]

Will you tell us what happened to Jonathan and Hild?

[everythingeverywhere]

Well, no. That's because my mother—one of them, anyway—can't fucking pronounce my name for the life of her. I'm sure Little Miss Mastermind thought that one was funny.

[asymptotes]

I believe the expression is "girl, please."

[fuckingguy]

[ absolutely raising his arm a fraction, remembering what's happening, and then stopping— ]

So, did Hild see you in the nightclub? Or was it all just...