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

[reallyhatesharks]

Come on now, I fight sharks. Not humans.

[blackmass]

So you would be physically strong enough to stab someone, then. It does not take a wealth of knowledge to understand fatal points on a human body.

[reallyhatesharks]

But in one shot? I think we established that's a little tricky.

[blackmass]

There is still the blood trail to consider. I never said a word about a single strike.

[philoxenia]

It's impossible to tell Ema's cause of death, after all.

[reallyhatesharks]

Oh, but they did. Lots of them, in fact.

[fivestagegod]

I think you were the one asserting that what happened to Shelley could be luck just as easily as skill, or are you changing your mind on that now?

[nothingcanstop]

It was a stupid assumption. You know what would leave a lot of blood? Many stabs. That'd be something you'd want to cover up.

[reallyhatesharks]

Would a stab wound spray? I'm not a forensic investigator.

[blackmass]

Then allow me to propose something else. You struck Ema Skye once after dealing with Shelley--a severe wound, but perhaps not immediately fatal. As you say, you seem to have little experience in killing humans.

She fled, naturally, and you followed. Either she lost consciousness from blood loss, or you struck again and finished her yourself.

...I bet you assumed the sharks would fall upon her like starving carnivores and leave no trace. You failed to consider that most such creatures are far more docile than some bloodthirsty beast, especially if raised in captivity.

[reallyhatesharks]

Those are water sharks, they don't attack people. Why else would the water need to be chummed?

Ema died second, though.

[archboxer]

In terrible conditions, people fight each other. It is just their way. Even if you fight mainly sharks you did not say that you have not committed murder.

[reallyhatesharks]

Is it murder when everyone you've ever known is dead because you couldn't stop a natural disaster?

[emberserker]

What, are we getting into the weight of some lives over others again?

[ladygeryon]

Closer to "the needs of the many" versus "the needs of the few," is how I'd put it.

[emberserker]

It comes out to the same thing in here.

[reallyhatesharks]

Ghostworth said he'd try to bring everyone back.

[emberserker]

And you took that to mean "go kill whoever you want." This is why I can't stand you people.

[nothingcanstop]

You don't have to just fight others, to know how they get hurt. Any adventurer...or researcher in dangerous environments knows how to access wounds. Or what's bad to get wounded.

[reallyhatesharks]

I know more than one of my friends has been dismembered by a shark. You can't do anything about that.

[ladygeryon]

Can't do anything except change that it ever happened, right?

...and we still have no concrete evidence that device killed Ema. If you'd just killed Shelley, you'd still have the dagger with you, after all.

[reallyhatesharks]

I don't have anywhere to hide a weapon, so that would've been a stupid choice.

[nothingcanstop]

You're dodging the question, Nova. Is that why you put Ema in the tank? Because you know how difficult it is to figure anything out from that?

[reallyhatesharks]

No, Rhea almost had that one right. I hate sharks, and I want them all to die.

[archboxer]

You want to make them extinct.

[Wow, no. Not the sharks!]