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

[allatonce]

Well, that's what I'm saying. It looked a lot more like an animal crashed through the field than the damage I'd expect if something that big and heavy got dragged over it. You'd expect everything to be crushed flat like a crop circle.

[visiblepattern]

...I have no idea what a crop circle is, but I'll take your word for it.

[inaclearing]

So we may very well be looking at Misfire attempting to flee. Explains how the arm happened, too...like that guy with the rock.

[You know what he means, Joy.]

And, uh... [Brett squints at his notes.] ...there were pumpkins with holes in them? What, were they trying to throw the pitchfork at him?

[No offense but he's not sure Misfire was nimble enough to dodge a lot of pitchfork stabs even when he had all his body parts attached.]

[onemillion]

You don't think the pitchfork that impaled him was thrown, do you? Though I suppose it would be... rather difficult to miss stabbing him with a pitchfork at close range...

[inaclearing]

That was my thought. I also do think the throwing thing sounds insane, but...that's a lot of misses for something like that.

[visiblepattern]

I think it's more likely that he was stabbed...

[Than, like, javelined.]

[onemillion]

I agree that it seems more likely he was stabbed, but Brett does have a good point. Perhaps the killer threw the pitchfork at first and then caught up to Misfire and stabbed him?

[allatonce]

[She's about to, like, get distracted talking about something else because it's much more fun to ask Brett about the guy with the rock but. Focus!!]

I think, given Misfire's distinctly nonhuman biology, maybe he was able to get away from the initial pitchforking, stumbled through the field some and stepped in a few of the crops, and then fell and tried to drag himself away.

[inaclearing]

[Brett presses his lips together for a moment, looking pale. But:]

Okay. Okay. I think, um. I think Mafuyu is right, we should maybe look at the stronger people first. I didn't exactly see pink blood on anyone just now, but...is there anything else we could look for? Was there anything about the angle of the pitchfork that could maybe tell us something about height?

[He's spitballing here.]

[allatonce]

So.... Gaius and Thomathan here. [She gestures at Drakkon.] Maybe Nandor?

[asymptotes]

What... would you be checking, exactly?

[allatonce]

[Joy thinks for a moment and then snaps her fingers.]

Sand. Someone threw a bunch of sand and rocks around in the aquarium to make it look like there was a struggle in there.

[asymptotes]

Well, my hands have already been checked, if that's the issue. No sand.

[onemillion]

What about shoes, then?

[inaclearing]

It's helped before.

[onemillion]

Precisely. Like Joy said, it would be easy to miss cleaning them. At this point, it can't hurt.

[asymptotes]

[ Drakkon shrugs. ]

Sure. But I do walk on sand, from time to time.

[ And he will just sort of. Um. Display his fucking shoes. The bottoms are clean! ]

[allatonce]

[under her breath:]

Points for style, I guess.

[asymptotes]

I can keep this up for a while, if you want to inspect them more closely. Sense of balance is important in the martial arts.

[allatonce]

Next you're gonna be doing that crane kick thing from that movie.

[But yeah. She moves to get up close and personal with his shoes, mostly looking in the stitching and stuff for things that are easily missed on a once-over.]

[asymptotes]

[ They're actually very clean, come to look at them. Scuffed, but not a spot on them.

There's also just a hint of a wince when he shows off his left foot? Or maybe that's a trick of the light. ]

[allatonce]

... You twist your ankle or something, Thomathan? [She frowns.] Also your shoes are, like, too clean.

[Speaking of: are the soles as clean as the rest of them? Like, oh.... maybe he cleaned them recently?]

[onemillion]

Thank you for your willingness to cooperate, though I don't believe that's necessary.

[Unless someone's got a reason to suspect you otherwise...?? Or you just want to. That's fine too.]

[inaclearing]

Yeah, you're right. Let's just check everyone, maybe it'll save some time.

[allatonce]

I was thinking more shoes. Easy to miss when you're cleaning up after things get messy.