SECOND TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Time's up, boys and girls. Please gather up your evidence and make your way to the vault door.

[ The process of heading to the elevator and crowding in remains the same as last week - Angel leads you all to the elevator car, then stays behind as you make your slow descent to the dome below. You might not even notice if you aren't paying attention, but... the cart is already less crowded than it was last week. You certainly won't be able to avoid noticing it if your numbers dwindle too much further than this.

When the doors open on the trial room, it's just as bleak a place as last week. ]

Take your places, won't you? And this time, you all know what's at stake. No more... funny business.

[The number of podiums displaying that red light is higher now - Damien, Lif, and Piers are all represented by blank spots now, no tasteful covers or anything normal to mark their passing, just a red glow and a gap in your number.

Cheery!

The screens raise up to the ceiling to give you all room to see, and the Professor's final words before the trial begins ring out: ]

Find the killer, leave alive. And killer? Try a little harder to stop them from doing that than the last one in your shoes. Call out for me if you require anything.

[ Welcome to your second trial. ]

Comments

[emberserker]

It's a health concern!

[precognit]

Don't you think you'd have noticed by now if someone was acting rabid and foaming at the mouth?

[emberserker]

Well, apparently we didn't notice that someone was draining blood and running off with it, either. Didn't Ema say that there was severe blood loss, but no blood at the scene?

[archboxer]

Kirei brought up the possibility that it was drank by the culprit.

[emberserker]

It was what.

[snackooed]

They certainly would need to have quite the thirst. After all, a human doesn't have an insignificant amount of blood, and death from blood loss usually results from losing slightly more than half of it...

[emberserker]

It does make more sense than just flushing it or what have you...

[archboxer]

Biting happens more often in fights, Anna. Though, admittedly this is a bit strange.

[emberserker]

A bit.

[bogwife]

I'm certain none of has rabies. Regular human mouths apparently carry a lot more terrible things than rabies anyway. [that's not helpful, Zerinda,,,]

[emberserker]

Oh, that's just vile.

[bogwife]

It's true! I read it in one of the more medically-inclined library books. Terribly interesting stuff but I know for a fact any of that pales in comparison what you could get by chomped on by a devouring skeleton.

[emberserker]

Can we focus on what did happen, then?

[bogwife]

Right, right, I'm getting off topic. Sorry.

[nothingcanstop]

[ della understands the sentiment here but this is just proving y'all humans are A Little Freaky ]

[fivestagegod]

I'd argue that they don't, actually, or at least they're not supposed to, but seeing as Piers didn't die of rabies I'll let that go for now.

[like this is kind of literally his job- ]

[fivestagegod]

...If they were that rabid, then I'd think they would have torn away and not just...bitten and let go, Anna.

[emberserker]

Ugh, fine. Then what do you suppose happened?

[fivestagegod]

I can think of a few options, but apparently some of those among us are personally offended by any implications they don't like.

[...For once he's not referring to you! Seteth and Rhea, on the other hand...]

[emberserker]

Apparently so. Do your zombies truly live that long?

[fivestagegod]

Theoretically, sure. There are ways to keep them alive for as long as we need them to stay that way. I don't know how well that works in practice, though, for obvious reasons. I actually am only 36 and all.

[emberserker]

...I see. We'll have to keep that in mind, won't we.

[fivestagegod]

You're welcome to ask me about it later, if you're that curious. My world's zombies don't really have too much to do with this, as far as I can tell.

[emberserker]

Well, we'll see how relevant it ends up, regardless.