FOURTH TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, that's quite enough time. Move along towards the trial, if you would all be so kind. You know what's coming.

[ It's routine by now - go to the vault door, get let into the elevator by Angel, head down to the trial room... it's hard not to notice the losses on the ride down by now, though. Your numbers are starting to really dwindle, even if you're often spread out enough not to notice as much normally. The trial room and its podiums, too, seem more than ready and willing to remind you of the same. The red glow of the empty spaces is constant, potentially unnerving. ]

Remember that as there are two victims to consider, up to two votes may be counted at the end of proceedings. As always, I am but a direct address away, however rude you choose to make it.

Find the party or parties responsible for the deaths of your comrades. And to those parties: Good luck.

[ The screens rise!

Welcome to your fourth trial. ]

Comments

[nothingcanstop]

...We all really relied on Ema.

[philoxenia]

... That's all the more reason to make sure we figure this out.

[ It's why she'd gone on to take the photos, after all. ]

[archboxer]

We will.

[Reassuring shoulder squeeze!]

However... I think we can make an educated guess on who died first.

[hardnosed]

Maybe someone was counting on that.

[bolderfell]

Let's look at it this way. If it was Ema first, wouldn't Shelley at least have heard the sharks and come looking?

[archboxer]

Yes. Not to mention it would have taken quite a long time to clean up where Ema had died.

[bolderfell]

Yeah. ...Maybe it's better to ask why the killer hid more about Ema than why they didn't tidy around Shelley.

[archboxer]

Why?

Maybe there was evidence on the body... or, rather: Can we take a look at what Anna found in the fish tank again?

[emberserker]

Go right ahead.

[Anna carefully brings over the dagger, axe, and drafting tool.]

Not sure what the brass thing's got to do with the rest of it.

mods?

[archboxer]

I have a theory...

[She pokes her thumb with that drafting tool. Very softly. How sharp is it?]

[bathymetric]

[ oh very ]

[archboxer]

[She thought so. She pulls it away with a shake of her hand. See? Blood.]

I believe we might have a murder weapon.

[blackmass]

Some manner of damning evidence would be my guess. To leave one body alone and destroy the other...it's that or they despised Ema Skye considerably.

[bolderfell]

It's... hard to imagine someone would like Shelley and not Ema. They were both... cheerful people.

[nothingcanstop]

Ema tried to say otherwise, but... No one really disliked her. Not everyone gets along, sure. But a grudge against her? I can't see it.

[blackmass]

I'd not call it likely, no. But the possibility remains, unless one can think of evidence that would point decisively to a specific person among us.

[emberserker]

So it was likely the other way around. Someone knocks over the statue, Shelley's probably still there working on those abominations she calls memorials, they kill her, Ema shows up, and everything goes downhill from there.

[bogwife]

She taught me a few things about investigating the bodies but... [When the time came she couldn't do it.]

[nothingcanstop]

...It's okay, Zerinda. That's not the kind of thing you can learn easily. This isn't your fault.

[lovelikeyou]

It's all of our responsibilities, now, not just yours.

[bogwife]

I know, I know. I just...I wish I could have been more help in the moment. [However-] Mira, can I see the photographs of Ema and Shelley? I'd like to get, ah, caught up on more of the specifics.

[philoxenia]

Of course.

[ She'll come right over, time for horrible photosharing!! ]

modly mods?

[bogwife]

Thank you. [She'll take the photos and, after a moment of grimacing at the state of Ema in particular, start slowly flipping through them.

Is there anything she, with the anatomical knowledge she already has and after 4 weeks of body touching with Ema, might notice about either Shelley or Ema's bodies? Wounds that look more slice-y and less shark-y, odd marks, things like that?]

[bathymetric]

[ Ema's body was in way too bad shape to make out much of anything, but there are definitely no slash wounds on it! ]

[bogwife]

[Good to know, good to know.]

...Do we know what the axe might have been used for? We know how Shelley was killed and Ema is a possibility but I'm not seeing any wounds on her that would reflect the axe came into play.