fourth trial

[airlockedmods]

[When the announcement sounds and the evidence gathered it’s time for a trial. When the remaining champions are all gathered by the docking bay doors they slide slowly slide open.

The two lines of sentry robots are there again, creating a border path from the docking bay doors to the circle of metal podiums. The podiums themselves were made of strange metals in red and gold and orange and black, each one etched with the name of one of the Champions. There are flood lights - like spot lights - in front of each podium. The lights on Oda, Akande and Leon's podiums have been turned off and their floating grey scale portraits have joined the six from last week.

Blaze Dudely stands on a repair deck on top of his ship, which looms over the proceedings ominously. His expression is still hard to read but his arms are folded across his chest and if you squint close enough there's a somberness about him that hasn't been at other trials.]

Ya'll know how this goes by now. [He's in no mood for pageantry this time.] Take the time ya need but don’t bore me.

Comments

[andneversaydie]

...um. Did anybody clip any leaves off the potberry plant?

[look, people keep dying and she's Tired, and she has no idea how this fits into anything but she might as well.]

[tokencanadian]

[So many people, dead. It's startling every time they step into this stupid trial room now. Down to just about a quarter of the original group, they still had to do what Blaze demanded.

Pyrrha summons up whatever strength she has, because she's going to need it.]

I found something in the incinerator room. It looks like pieces of a letter that someone tried to burn. Probably last night.

[tokencanadian]

Pot...berry?

[Uhh??]

[nightcure]

Could you make out anything it says?

[ Noctis has... a book on his podium, and he brings it out with ungloved hands. ]

[andneversaydie]

Yeah... I never tried it myself, but I think the berries make you feel a little like you're drunk, I guess. Kinda.

[she's never blazed it ok she doesn't know exactly]

[tokencanadian]

No, it's too illegible. I can't make it out.

[But hey, if anyone wants to try, she's got the pieces right here...]

[tokencanadian]

I think you're... not wrong, Mozu. [But she's not going to get into the differences between blazing and drinking. She's a Good teen.]

Someone might have taken some of it for different reasons though.

[nightcure]

Mind if I give it a look?

[power_of_dominance]

Let me try. I think my eyes are sharper than a... a human's.

[That was hard to spit out please let this be worth it.]

[empathiser]

[Time for the Will Graham run down. Get the information out there and then they can start picking it apart.]

We all know what happened up there, so let's just get this going.

I examined Akande's body. According to the case files, his cause of death was asphyxiation, and. Well, we know when he died.

[Hard to imagine anyone missing out on that particular fact.]

Despite his cause of death there were wounds on his body; he had a blunt force trauma wound on the back of his neck and something had burned away part of his arm, revealing metal underneath. Underneath his body, there was a baseball with flecks of blood on it. That's all I found directly on or by his body.

As for the room, there was some kind damp crumpled cloth with smeared black marks closest to his body, and when I picked it up a medical mask fell out. Not far from that, there was an overturned plastic bottle of bleach, and a gold coin. Nothing on the coin I recognised, though.

Overall, I found nine bottles on the floor of that cell. Three were overturned, and the remaining six were upright. Three of these were half-filled with something that smelled like bleach, and the other three were empty. But they had this weird mechanism - a plug had been inserted halfway down, making two compartments, and it could be removed while the container remained closed.

[He stops, and exhales.]

I think that's everything I saw in there.

[andneversaydie]

Yeah, I don't know if it was enough to be dangerous, but maybe they tried to drug Akande and Leon to get all this stuff going?

[empathiser]

[Unlike Pyrrha, Will has no issues explaining this:]

Pot's a slang term for drugs, Mozu. Specifically marijuana.

[nightcure]

Hey, Soma.

[ we're doing this. ]

Even if you're not a human, you're still Soma, our friend. Nothing's gonna change that, nothing ever will.

[tokencanadian]

Sure, but be careful with them. [they're fragile.]

mods!

[nightcure]

[ He'll go ahead and cross over to her and take a peek. ]

Sure.

[ Can he make out anything at all? ]

[tokencanadian]

[Oh dear, everyone wants these things today.]

...Alright, but I think you might have to wait your turn after Noctis. I know you will be, but please be careful with them, alright Soma?

[She trusts ya, dude.]

[empathiser]

Hypothetically speaking, if you were trying to take out Akande, wouldn't you try to gain the advantage? He was built like a brick wall, and I don't think there was anyone here who could realistically hold their own against him. Not alone, at least.

Maybe drugging him was to make it easy to get him where they wanted him?

[tokencanadian]

[thanks will]

I guess that exists in other worlds too.

[empathiser]

[He's here to educate.]

Apparently. The name's not exactly subtle.

[Space Pot.

Sppot.]

[power_of_dominance]

[They trust him. Somehow, against all reason, they believe in him. His throat feels tight.]

... thanks, Noctis. Really, I mean it.

[power_of_dominance]

I will. Hopefully between the two of us we can pick out some details.

[The more eyes they use, the more likely they'll find something.]

[power_of_dominance]

Black marks? Were they oily or more like powder?

[empathiser]

The cloth itself was damp, so powdery marks wouldn't have stayed powdery. It was smeared on the fabric though...

[power_of_dominance]

Did it look like damp charcoal?

mods!

[empathiser]

[So, as Will double checks the cloth: do the marks look like damp charcoal?]