Final Trial

[bathymetric]

[ After a long while of investigation in areas that she definitely did not authorize you being in, the Mayor speaks up over the loudspeakers throughout the entire city. She's not using distortion at all, for what it's worth. ]

If you're all done rifling through my past and looting my things, there's a show that we really ought to get on the road, don't you think? Don't worry, I'm not going to come to you. You'll come to me.

[ And, one by one (along with your evidence), every single one of you is teleported into, rather than the underwater dome, a sectioned-off area of the Hall of the Founders. The walls around you are thick glass, and you can see beyond them that the Sparrows have begun restoring the statues. Massive stone renditions of the original Founders of New Rapture surround you, though some are still covered in cloth. A series of podiums have been set for you.

And within your final trial box is another box of frosted glass, ominous before you, just transparent enough to see a figure inside, sitting at a desk, her feet up as she lounges in a rolling office chair. ]

I love the dome, but there's nowhere for me to sit, you know? I was going to reveal this to all of you, it was going to be a whole big thing, but then you woke up early and ran off to do God-knows-what in a bunch of places I didn't need you in! Almost as if someone tipped you off to my plan.

[ Inside the glass case, the figure leans back in the chair further. ]

So you know what? Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves. Air my dirty laundry. Maybe I'll even join in in person. See if you can figure out what happened here, for starters.

[ Welcome to the final trial. ]

Comments

[inaclearing]

...this isn't really relevant, but I'm honestly surprised Fontaine seems to have cared about patent law. We're in a city-state beneath the ocean. Where he was planning multiple mass murders.

[sastruga]

Capitalists...

[onemillion]

I'm surprised as well, and I doubt such a thought would have occurred to most people. Especially if they were planning to build a city underwater and then kill off the residents. I suppose no one would have thought much about it, because who could have ever predicted something like this would happen?

[inaclearing]

...I feel like "this billionaire wants me to go live in his isolated city that I can't leave without his say-so" is creepy on its face. He must've just made such good offers that people would look past it. Or they were in bad situations - like that man from the front desk, who would've been in prison otherwise. That much money, he can hold a lot over people.

[onemillion]

Agreed. It was an idea that shouldn't have worked - but I imagine he only approached people he was sure he had a way to convince. This entire setup was very thorough, after all.

[inaclearing]

You'd be stupid not to do your research before you went into something like that. Even when I'm just interviewing someone - you have to know about them first.

[capreelcious]

Yeah- you think so, but you'd be surprised how many people out there don't read the fine print. A buncha shmucks from my school wound up in a bind because they didn't stop to think about what could happen- they were just sure they could either hold up their end of the bargain, or were seemingly content with what deal they were striking.

It was definitely framed in a more appealing way.

[inaclearing]

Fontaine researched them, I mean. In their position, there's not as much they could do. Not like he had "also I like running murdergames" on his website.