I've had a pretty spotless track record of suspecting the right people up to now, but I blew it on this one. Good thing he cracked before the voting deadline.
Honestly, I had no idea! I actually did start to think Rynlan could have been involved in one way or another, based simply on the blood color... until I tasted it.
[ shakes his head. ]
His blood does taste a little acidic and weird normally, so it was hard to gauge from Itto's reaction if that was what he was tasting or not. Plus his group just spent two months in some kind of post-apocalyptic world, so there was a possibility that his blood had gone through some kind of chemical change during that time and might have tasted different today than it did a week ago.
We did hear about a lot of purple, and then— purple.
[ christ. the detail in this. ]
… I can think of so many ways the investigation teams back home would freak out at “but I tasted his blood and it was fine” being viable evidence to get someone off the hook.
[ he's just going to push a bottle of something at him. he's not blue or malibu, he's not a cocktail whiz, sadly. ]
If you come with acquired poison immunity that's genuinely unfair. [ but mood on itto already diving in and trying it. one way to avoid death via weird substances. ]
[ he didn't even ask for a drink but he'll take it. and bust out his pack of emergency trial donuts so he's not drinking whatever this is on an empty stomach. ]
I doubt it, as nice as that would be! Just less of an aversion to blood than most.
I don't think so. They didn't find any significant bleeding wounds on him that I recall, so Chandra must have been the one stabbed by the lava river. Whatever happened after that, I doubt he would have been able to drag Childe to that house and drown him in a giant sink.
[ he was tiny... he struggled so much in those giant houses. ]
...I don't have much of an idea who did do it either, though.
Probably both. In retrospect it was obviously a mistake to assume that not having a body meant he'd ended up in the lava. We didn't look seriously enough for it, and we spent most of the trial assuming the bridge had been his murder scene when he may never have been there at all.
[ he takes another slow sip, thinking. ]
...Of course, only finding one of them means only one person will be executed. Some might find that easier than the alternative. If we'd found the second person, what would you have wanted to do? We only had to vote for one.
[ he stares at the top of his own bottle very intently for a moment, turning it around slowly and almost thoughtlessly. ]
Good question.
It sounded like the only way to catch both killers would be to split the vote equally, which I doubt would be possible. [ look at all of them. some (present company included) would throw votes around for the vine. ]
So, you'd have to judge the "worst" of the two killers, and then hope someone doesn't pull the obvious and commit a revenge killing on them the week afterwards.
That's right. I'm sure some would have no problem passing that judgment, but that it wouldn't be so easy for others to decide who dies and who gets to live. So one could argue that it's better this way, if they valued stability over truth.
Though it would be quite a precarious stability.
[ with all the distrust that would inevitably end up festering in the silence. ]
Unless there’s a confidence boost they get from getting away with it which means they push the boundaries again.
[ he shrugs. ]
It’s not good either way — discussion of who voted what way would become more and more likely, and if someone you were fond of was killed because someone wanted to protect someone they were fond of, you’re gonna be mad about it. Even if it’s just human nature to want to protect your own.
[ … maybe ignorance is bliss, in a situation like this. even if the loss of someone and the lack of closure finding their killer could fester unpleasantly. ]
Ironic that in Hell we might be given the questionable ability to play God with two people’s lives like that.
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Man, that felt like it was never going to end.
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That's one way of putting it. That was somewhere close to a grade-A fuck up.
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Oh? Who were you suspecting?
[ he's quiet for a moment, as he turns a bottle over in his hands. ] I'm surprised he kept it together for that long.
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[ shakes his head. ]
His blood does taste a little acidic and weird normally, so it was hard to gauge from Itto's reaction if that was what he was tasting or not. Plus his group just spent two months in some kind of post-apocalyptic world, so there was a possibility that his blood had gone through some kind of chemical change during that time and might have tasted different today than it did a week ago.
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[ christ. the detail in this. ]
… I can think of so many ways the investigation teams back home would freak out at “but I tasted his blood and it was fine” being viable evidence to get someone off the hook.
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[ says the guy who strolls through people’s mind palaces. ]
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[ dismissive hand wave ]
Anyway, Itto had already tried it so it obviously wasn't immediately deadly. Also, demon.
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If you come with acquired poison immunity that's genuinely unfair. [ but mood on itto already diving in and trying it. one way to avoid death via weird substances. ]
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I doubt it, as nice as that would be! Just less of an aversion to blood than most.
[ you straight up licked it, dude. ]
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Didn't you lick battery acid too?
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...Anyway, it still had sort of a blood-like smell to it, I don't think it was straight battery acid.
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Don't trust and justify licking battery acid, dude.
[ christ. ]
It's kinda bad got to a point where we had to resort to that though. Licking random substances.
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Very little about that was ideal.
[ shoves a mini donut in his mouth. ]
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We can catch one killer, but two ... apparently not. [ hmmm. ]
I wonder who killed Childe, then. Unless we're going with the theory Chandra killed him.
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[ he was tiny... he struggled so much in those giant houses. ]
...I don't have much of an idea who did do it either, though.
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... Whoever it was they either hid it really well, or benefitted hugely from how long it took us to find his corpse.
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[ he takes another slow sip, thinking. ]
...Of course, only finding one of them means only one person will be executed. Some might find that easier than the alternative. If we'd found the second person, what would you have wanted to do? We only had to vote for one.
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Good question.
It sounded like the only way to catch both killers would be to split the vote equally, which I doubt would be possible. [ look at all of them. some (present company included) would throw votes around for the vine. ]
So, you'd have to judge the "worst" of the two killers, and then hope someone doesn't pull the obvious and commit a revenge killing on them the week afterwards.
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Though it would be quite a precarious stability.
[ with all the distrust that would inevitably end up festering in the silence. ]
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[ he shrugs. ]
It’s not good either way — discussion of who voted what way would become more and more likely, and if someone you were fond of was killed because someone wanted to protect someone they were fond of, you’re gonna be mad about it. Even if it’s just human nature to want to protect your own.
[ … maybe ignorance is bliss, in a situation like this. even if the loss of someone and the lack of closure finding their killer could fester unpleasantly. ]
Ironic that in Hell we might be given the questionable ability to play God with two people’s lives like that.