Sixth Trial

[bathymetric]

[ After a time, as always, your investigation is interrupted by the Mayor's now-familiar voice, calling out to you over the loudspeakers. ]

And that's gonna be time. Pack it in, everyone, bring what you're gonna bring because it's trial time.

[ There are so many bathyspheres missing, you cannot help but notice, as you all pile into the station for your standard trip down to the trial room. Your number has dipped to about a third of its original size - a fact that becomes even more evident when you reach the circle of podiums at the bottom of New Rapture's ocean trench. ]

You all know why you're here. Someone killed Pillage Idiot, and it's your job to figure out who. This is your sixth one, I sure hope you have the procedure down by now.

[ Welcome to your sixth trial. ]

Comments

[honeyedtea]

[ Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mielle looks pale and queasy as they arrive once again in the trial room. She's aware that she's probably the last person who should've been trusted with investigating a body for any number of reasons but the deed's been done and if she wants to walk out of this place alive then she needs to make sure they resolve all these confused pieces of the puzzle into a clear image.

As usual, she and Mafuyu are stood together, hands clapsed and fingers entwined. Mielle's holding on so tightly that her knuckles are white. ]

... Mafuyu and I investigated the body and the area around it.

The first thing I noticed was that his clothes had been damaged and there was a small burn on his skin. Mafuyu told me it was consistent with a taser burn and we found one tossed to the side close to his body. There were also other disturbances in the scene - some mirrors had been tipped over and smashed and some wooden signs had also been toppled over, as well as a throwing knife embedded in the wall. Based on the second throwing knife I found stored in Nandor's shoes, I think we can assume it was his and that he threw it at his attacker.

... It seems quite clear to me that he was attacked and taken by surprise but what he was doing so late out at night remains a mystery.

[capreelcious]

Whoever did this made a real mess, huh? Makes sense, since Vampire Squid probably wouldn't go down without a fight.

[specialyellthing]

… It’s what he preferred. Sleepin during the day, and bein awake at night.

cw head gore

[sastruga]

[Mafuyu is... keeping it together pretty well, considering the scene she had to examine. Which, really, is probably a red flag, but we do not have time for that right now. She just stands there by Mielle, as always. Taking a deep breath, right before she presents her findings.]

First we need to address the elephant in the room, I guess. Nandor's head was crushed, pretty much completely. It looks like he was struck with a large blunt weapon. I found some markings that seem to match up with one of those maces from the vending machine, so there's that...

Secondly, um... Nandor's right hand was covered in blood-- and the floor next to him wasn't as covered in it, so that seemed odd to me when I first noticed it.

But what I did see next to him was...

[ . . . ]

Um, perhaps I should just show it.

[And she'll lift the copy she made of what she saw at the scene.]

...I can pass it around, if anyone wants a closer look.

[sastruga]

...I suppose that is what he would be used to. It would feel strange to switch, even if the sun isn't an issue here.

gore mention

[specialyellthing]

[Zinda stands alone. The podiums around her are all empty, reminders of just how much she’s lost, just how alone she is right now.

She keeps a careful watch over the girls, over their hands twined together. She only has two tethers right now: and one of them is making sure she gets those girls home safely.

The other, she’s reminded of by the blood and other unmentionables on her gloves and clothes. By the mace she picked up, still coated in gore. She’d chewed others out for it in weeks past—- but she feels it now. A desire for revenge.

She has to be relentless.]

[inaclearing]

Uh...we found the mace, yeah. It was in the bathroom in the department store - like someone just set it down by the door.

[He sort of tilts his head in Zinda's direction since she's, uh. Got that now. Brett still looks kinda pale and shaky, but he'll be damned if he freaks out any more today. At least not now.]

There was blood in one of the sinks too. It was like someone had washed off there, but...more than once? Like there were multiple layers of bloodstain left on the surface, and some were more faded. I don't...know what that means, exactly. They didn't get any anywhere else in there, so...they must've been careful.

[inaclearing]

Is this...writing...?

[sastruga]

Maybe?

[specialyellthing]

He was re-dyin, give the man a break—-

[inaclearing]

...unless he had some other cuts, too, it...probably wasn't his blood. I mean...

[Brett looks queasy and makes a few vague hand gestures, generally meant to encompass "he probably wasn't getting any writing done after that happened to his head."]

Did, uh...the knife in the wall have blood on it?

[specialyellthing]

Of course. Couldn’t keep blood on their hands. Fuckin coward.

[inaclearing]

If that was all it was, though, wouldn't they just wash until it was all off? It's like they...I don't know. Went and got more on them afterwards.

[capreelcious]

Huh... that's weird. But also there was a lotta blood... guess it took multiple rinses to get the blood out?

[capreelcious]

Jeeze... that uh. Sure is a murder weapon.

[inaclearing]

...weird way to wash off.

[Like, when Brett was in there doing his thing, he went until he felt clean! Not in multiple weird little sessions!]

[specialyellthing]

… Like maybe they got some on their hands to write somethin?

[sastruga]

...It's weird enough that I can't really assume it just took multiple sessions. You'd just keep cleaning.

Something must have happened. We only found one body, so it wasn't two separate incidents...

[specialyellthing]

[please please please let it have blood on it

she really wants him to have gotten that hit in at least.]

[capreelcious]

Yeah... like. Maybe they took a couple back and forth trips? There sure was a bunch of evidence just layin' around, but if there was stuff covered in blood they didn't want out there, or if they were hurt in the scuffle, it's possible.

[ He shrugs. ]

[inaclearing]

...I...yeah, I guess so.

[Let him squint at that mass of squiggles again!]

They could've screwed up whatever Nandor wrote. Or he never wrote anything, and this was meant to...send us down a rabbit hole.

[Not that he's remembering you-know-who from last week or anything.]

[inaclearing]

I'm not sure we have any evidence they were hurt, but I'd...be surprised if they got out of that with nothing. Nandor was tough, and it sounds like there was a pretty big struggle.

[inaclearing]

...how were his clothes damaged? Was that also a burn?

[specialyellthing]

He’da fought. As long as he had the chance to.

[sastruga]

Well, that's possible, but... Maybe we should just assume he wrote it for now. We can always disregard it later.