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]

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.

[ladygeryon]

If you get a specific spot in the neck, right? Not as much as some movies have, but it'd still spray.

[nothingcanstop]

We know. You killed her.

[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.

[blackmass]

[literally what the fuck other kind of shark-]

Is that not what I said? Obviously Shelley Winters was dead when Ema Skye happened upon the scene, else there would be no point in eliminating a witness.

Why the shark tank, then? You could have just left her as she was.

[emberserker]

And that explains why she was so insistent on looking in the tank when I found her.

Even so, Nova, you wanted to be rid of the sharks here as much as you wanted to be rid of the evidence. Killing Ema, the one person who's consistently helped investigate bodies, and making her own cause of death unrecognizable by feeding her to those things... It wasn't just covering things up, and it wasn't just your sense of irony. Your grudge wasn't against Ema.

[reallyhatesharks]

No, I liked Ema. How was I supposed to know he'd move the sharks?