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

[inaclearing]

[Brett's obviously still very upset, but he lets out a sigh. Yeah. They need to move on.]

Jonathan was poisoned by someone who had a drink in the nightclub with him. It must have been late last night, after - [Well. He can't.]

The method's really different from what happened to Hild. It makes me think his murder was planned, but hers wasn't. Maybe she happened across them when they were...trying to frame Nandor?

[visiblepattern]

...There are a lot of strange things involved with that incident, now that I think about it. The different murder methods, to be sure, but the whole thing is strangely theatrical. Trying to frame Nandor, or perhaps just invoking vampire imagery to be cruel to Jonathan; posing Hild's body after killing her... It's odd.

[inaclearing]

It is, yeah. Even posing her like a vampire. It's all very...specific.

[Which...hm.]

...Jonathan left a note in his room saying he was going out to meet someone, didn't he? Do you think he'd have met up with just anyone on a Thursday night? When I ran into him last night - [in the nightclub, but don't think about that right now] - he was very jumpy. He knew it was a dangerous time.

[capreelcious]

He must've really trusted 'em, for him to meet up with someone. Or at least wanted to believe they weren't up to no good.

[inaclearing]

He even wrote them a personal letter, before it all happened...

[That's. Very sad, really.]

[fuckingguy]

He was betrayed most severely. It is the exact kind of thing he would be having an outburst about right now.

[inaclearing]

Hm. Yeah.

[.....]

Well, no offense, but I think we can actually rule out Mielle, despite the circumstances. We did all just find out about her trying to poison Tommy two days ago. [Surely Jonathan wouldn't have gone and accepted a drink from her on a Thursday night immediately following, like come on.] Besides, the attacker had to win a knife fight against Hild too.

[allatonce]

He never really wanted to believe any of us were capable of murder.

[visiblepattern]

...Joy, did you ever talk to Jonathan about Dandy? I know Dandy was rather fond of you, and Jonathan was rather fond of him.

[allatonce]

I don't really make it my business to meddle in other people's relationships.

[visiblepattern]

I don't know that it would be considered meddling to discuss someone with another person after they've died.

[allatonce]

That's a different question than what you asked me. Answer's still no. We talked about how he could improve himself after last week.

[visiblepattern]

...I'm going to be blunt, I'm not trying to directly accuse you of anything, but I do think that you should at least be considered for what happened last night. I believe you're someone that Jonathan presumably would have liked and trusted enough to meet up last night, you're familiar with cyanide, and you've corrected us enough times on various combat-related things that I think you know enough about fighting to possibly win against Hild.

I don't want anyone to yell, or to go after anyone immediately, and if I'm wrong I'm truly, truly sorry for bringing it up, but I do think that Joy should be considered.

[onemillion]

Someone he trusted... who presumably could fight, correct? It seemed as though Hild fought them and injured them, though we turned up nothing in our check. She was stabbed three times, and suffered smaller cuts as well...

[capreelcious]

Hmmm... do you think Lane Snapper coulda scratched up someone's leg? I dunno why she had the ice pick, but if we got nothin from the arm check, maybe a leg check could work.

[howveryglib]

It is worth considering. I... imagine we can start with simply rolling up our pant legs before doing anything more drastic.

[capreelcious]

Ha, yeah, makes sense.

[inaclearing]

It sure seems more likely that she'd get their arms, or...maybe their face. But we may as well look at everything, at this point. I'm maybe thirty minutes away from asking Nandor to deeply sniff everyone, and I don't really want to get there.

[capreelcious]

Yeaaaah. Unless someone's real good at coverin' up stuff with make up, but I don't think anyone's got that kinda stuff here.

SCRATCHQUEST

[inaclearing]

Could probably find it in the department store, but I get your point.

[Brett lets out a sharp breath, like winding himself up. But he's done a few of these now; he's sort of, weirdly, getting used to it.]

Okay, let's do it. Pant legs, and...I think I want to check out faces and necks pretty closely, too.

[howveryglib]

[Gaius rolls up his pant legs, and... well, he's got some old scars there, too, but nothing fresh! There's also nothing on his face or neck.]

[visiblepattern]

[The skirt rolls up fairly easily to a decent length, and there's no injuries there. Nor are there any on his neck and face.]

[onemillion]

[Once again, Rossiu's not going to complain about it and complies. No scratches or injuries here, on either his legs or his neck or face.]

I can double check you as well, if you'd like.

[fuckingguy]

[ Nandor takes off his ridiculous vampire boots and rolls up his ridiculous vampire trousers, revealing... nothing! ]

[onemillion]

I imagine the ice pick was to try to make it look as though she had killed Jonathan. But that's a good idea and it may get us somewhere.