TRIAL I

[lesmodsalouette]

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 ))

Locations Profiles Investigation Voting Main Nav

Comments

[the_obedient_servant]

Was the cardboard his doing as well?

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

[simulacres]

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

[antemeridian]

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. ]

[the_obedient_servant]

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.

[stygiomedusa]

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!!]

[littlegentleman]

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.

[stygiomedusa]

[Her head tilts to the side.]

...I believe he also had concerns about what may be done to him in turn.

[time for a very normal statement to follow,]

Since he seemed concerned about the effects of Mania corruption, he's very aware of what each of us is capable of. Though this is just... speculation, and not very helpful to solving this...

[littlegentleman]

True. He didn't seem at all concerned that we could do anything to him right now.

[But if they hadn't been depowered, that might be a different story.]

It sounds as if he took every precaution to ensure that we would have no choice but to play along.

[stygiomedusa]

He seems to have put a lot of thought into all of this... This spell must be very important if he's putting in all this effort.