bellelurette | TRIAL I

Trial

Today is going to be a loooong day. You knew that pretty shortly after waking up, didn't you? On the plus side, it means you've had some time to process the death of one of your own, or leisure time at the very least. But come midnight, the clocks in the castle all strike out in unison again. This time though, you barely have time to clutch your head before you're transported elsewhere.

Yes, you're coming in your pajamas if you were already in bed.

The place where you find yourself is obviously not the castle, that much is obvious from an immediate look alone. The look is very circus fair meets hell, minus any actual fire (for now). The walls, the lighting, the atmosphere is different, reds and purples and exposed rock face all together with furniture that should belong in a courtroom, and a carnival, not a caldera. It's a stylistic choice, for sure.

Seating consists of various stools on the outer ring, the layout suggesting that the preferred way to conduct trial is to free mingle towards the center, unless you're partaking in food and refreshments. A veritable bounty of a spread is available for you to partake as you like. There's even an entire table's worth of chocolate, cut out in various animal shapes for you to enjoy. And yes, alcohol too, because a banquet without the finest wines isn't a feast at all.

Even with all the food there's plenty of space for all of you, but do be careful around the pit in the center of this room. How deep does it go? Where does it lead? There are other unanswered questions to answer, and you've been tasked with finding out who murdered Tia. The Witch of Ruin demands a show and unfortunately you are his captive actors. He presides over all of this from a balcony above, the best seat in the house.

(( OOC: Welcome to your first trial! You'll have 7 hours (until 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT) to vote one (1) person guilty of murder. As this is scapegoat style, a correct vote is not necessary. Please remember to vote unless otherwise discussed with the mods, as that is our AC for this game ))

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was. He told me as such himself.

The doors closing to sequester all of us, and the enchanted sleep: that was Ish's doing.

Of course it was.

[ what the hell, sure. ]

So that's why nobody came back to the suite.

[He missed his roommates...]

Yes. Hwylryn, Lili An, and I were trapped in the library when the doors locked. G'raha Tia and Chara were as well.

From the sounds of things, Dan Heng was in the observatory, and Richard was in the theater. And Clover was ... at the pool?

I believe that accounts for all of us.

Why were...so many of you in the library?

We were doing some late night reading and didn't expect to be locked in...?

[ idk it's not that weird to her, she's stayed up late reading through and following tutorials she found online so? ]

O-Oh, alright.

[Fair enough!]

At least now we know this will likely happen every week, according to Ish's rules.

[Listening in...]

Having retired to bed at my usual time, I had no idea any of this transpired. Clearly this was done to aid in eliciting the actions he wanted from us.

[Murder, basically.]

That certainly seems to be the case. He implied this was not the first time that he has done this.

[ how many times do you gotta do a murder ritual to get your spell working though, damn. ]

[Urianger's going to voice what Homura is thinking.]

Did his previous attempt to carry out this game to its conclusion fail, then...?

[That's actually promising. They can thwart him too.]

[ when you lose things in the trial inbox ]

I couldn't say. I would be speculating as much as you are.

[ But it is promising, yes. Or, alternatively: he's putting them all through this chasing a fool's errand, and that would be even more needless than it is already. ]

Oh, way to be a creep!

No kidding. But if we had been awake then... I don't think this would have ever happened.

[ ... ]

Do you think he and the killer were working together?

...Would've been hard to past all of us scattered around like that, yeah.

[ ... ]

You mean, like, the killer consulted with him? Like he's some sorta Moriarty?

Um...well, kind of the opposite? Like he went to ask them for a favor. It seemed like he was keeping it a secret, so if that's the case, then why would any of us have a reason to hurt each other?

[ i mean, it's a horrible thing to think about, but in ayaka's mind it makes sense. ]

If Ish reached out to someone he thought would be useful to him and told him what he needed then... maybe that's the push that this culprit needed?

That is not the story he was telling me.

[ wording deliberate, considering that at this point they all know just about how much Ish's word can be trusted. ]

According to him, all he did was 'unlock our hearts a little,' and then just let things play out on their own. He didn't put the idea into anyone's head, or whisper to them in secret, or subject them to intrusive thoughts not their own.

[ according to him. ]

Edited 2025-03-15 18:41 (UTC)

Sounds like a bunch of horseshit to me, but guess he's gonna stick to that story... Thanks, Homura.

[ she appreciates you! just not clown shoes over there! ]

[ Ah, the ol' let their minds make their own demons. ]

But isn't that still manipulation? Even if it's not magecraft or magic or whatever, that's still toying with us to make him do what he wants.

[ she does not appreciate this one bit, actually. ]

That means that Tia didn't even die for whatever insane purpose he's talking about. She died for nothing.

(no subject)

the_obedient_servant - 2025-03-15 18:59 (UTC) - Expand

simulacres - 2025-03-15 19:08 (UTC) - Expand

fourtuity - 2025-03-15 19:46 (UTC) - Expand

Was the cardboard his doing as well?

[They figured that the sleep was definitely him but the cardboard seems odd.]

I don't know, it's not like anyone else was covered in it. The rest of the cardboard was up on stage, too.

I could not say definitively, though I imagine that was due to the culprit themselves and not our Witch here. I wasn't aware of that particular circumstance to ask about it earlier.

[ but he is here now if anyone wants to bother. ]

I would imagine that the answer is no, however. His words were that outside of the sleep and separation, he did not assist in any other way. ... Not counting the effects on our emotions thus far, that is.

[ of course, that doesn't necessarily mean he didn't just fuck around with things for the funzies, but. he also seems the type to want to just sit back and enjoy the show. ]

I could see the logic of having done so for a prank, but it would be an unfair advantage to give to our adversary to create false evidence that we would spend time investigating.

I... think he wants this murder to be solved.

[Maybe? It's hard to say for sure, but Hamel pipes up from where she's been staring into the middle distance.]

I asked him why he would seal away our powers if the goal was to have ourselves fight and kill, and he told me that this way everyone was on even playing field, and that... for some of us, that would make a murder much harder to solve. That sounds like he wants as fair a trial as possible...?

[Gotta be sure they're sending the right person of for execution, I guess!!]

I don't think it's about fairness, exactly. He just wants to have fun watching us struggle.

[Struggle in as many ways as possible, physically, emotionally, and mentally. That, Junior didn't believe was a lie.]

That said, he did tell me he believes in reciprocity.

Edited 2025-03-15 18:50 (UTC)

stygiomedusa - 2025-03-15 18:53 (UTC) - Expand

littlegentleman - 2025-03-15 18:56 (UTC) - Expand

stygiomedusa - 2025-03-15 19:02 (UTC) - Expand