FINAL TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

FINAL TRIAL


[Once everyone has managed to gather every piece of evidence they can get their hands on, there is, at last, a sense that they can go up to the top on the elevator that works. Granted, with access now granted, they probably could have gone up at any time, but it they would have been ill-prepared for what might be up there.

In any case, they might not have needed to worry.]



[Barbara will no doubt recognize this place as where Marie brought her just the previous week. It is a master control room, filled with buttons and levers that line the walls. However, the dome also allows for a view of what's outside - of the skies, the stars, the planets. The alpine valley the Base is situated, with its bubbling waterfall, and the crystal-clear blue lake it empties into, surrounded by flowers below the Base's base. The lake itself empties into a crystal clear river that looks to be narrow, but deep and rapid.

In the center of the room, near where the elevator rises out of the floor, is a chair, with a giant plush of that cheeky raccoon snuggled into it. Once everyone has come into the room, the elevator melts into the floor with a slurping sound. Now, everyone is here - and there's only one seat, meaning almost everyone will be standing for the duration of this discussion. There's no food or drink here, either - the Titled will have to make do with whatever they brought with them.

There's is a rumble below, as the Titled, together with Bottson and their menagerie of animals - gather together for one last trial. Everyone and everything in this universe may be at stake, and ultimately, either they all go home - or no one will.]


[It's time! The objectives are simple in this trial. It's time to finally answer the questions the Titled have about why they are here - and face the Mastermind of the Base.

Most importantly, though - who's got dibs on that chair? It's the only one in the room!

In any case, good luck, Titled!]

Comments

[vividsins]

My point is, from our perspective, she left over four weeks ago. If she was really intent on killing the person we're in, that person should be dead. I think she can't bring herself to do it.

[ Not commenting either way on how he views that tbh ]

[backuphero]

But time moves weird here. That's got to be important somehow. And Marie said we had a couple of weeks, which should be up right about now, but... if time moves faster in here than it does outside, which it looks like it does, then... I don't know, I'm not the one who does the thinking, I just hit stuff!

[theserpentsmiles]

Based on the dates, roughly a thousand years passed here during the child's first year. Even the deadliest poisons take some time to kill once the sumptomskick in.

If it's been only a few hours on the outside...that would fit, right? And on the inside it sounds more like a war than an assassination - those take time, too.

[vividsins]

Okay but Marie said a lot of things. And honestly, if we're sitting at the deadline and nothing at all has changed? I don't see why it would now. The only thing that's really changed since the first week is the return of our memories and the fact we have access here.

[ A shrug. ]

We'd have seen some effects by now, is what I mean. Not immediate death, but... Something?

[theserpentsmiles]

Remember, we've been isolated in "enemy" territory. Halley-san intended to leave.

It'd be foolish to let your escape route be affected by your own sabotage.

[vividsins]

Intentions mean nothing when it comes to actual action. Resolve means more than intentions, and resolve is easily broken. If the body is poisoned, it won't matter where we are. Something would be changing. There'd be something. I know far too well how fast poisons work on a body.

[ A girl on the floor as he opens the door to her room, pale as a corpse and pained flashes through his mind. He'd only been gone a few hours. Just a single errand. ]

[theserpentsmiles]

Changing, yeah, but we had no way of knowing what was even outside this base until very recently. We haven't been able to see the changes because they'd be outside this base.

["Which of them are worthy?" Nagisa's blood boils at the memory. Sick in the head, watching the victims suffer fevers, coughing up blood...]

[vividsins]

I mean I'd imagine we'd feel tremors or something. It's not going to be all visual. A body shutdown isn't going to spare anywhere.

[theserpentsmiles]

That's true....though maybe the base's support systems were designed to manage that. I've been on a spaceship before; this isn't exactly the same, but it's not like this would've been designed without the process of her death in mind...

[vividsins]

Maybe. It's hard to say. Though that's assuming she intended to do anything besides pick up Bottson.

[theserpentsmiles]

The base has rocket legs. I assume that means it's mobile enough to serve as an 'escape pod' of sorts - that she'd be escaping on it....though, Commander-san did make it sound like she'd be leaving the base behind...

[Hmm.]

I don't think we can say either way if Halley-san is going through with it. You can care deeply about someone and still put a knife in their heart. I have.

[backuphero]

But she's gone now, so it wouldn't matter to her what happens here. And... I think we're supposed to be dead, only Marie messed it up....

[losergod]

He's right. Marie definitely had orders to kill us, if we look at the evidence from the logs.

[vividsins]

Is anyone remotely surprised by Marie messing up?

[losergod]

Nope. She's a failure.

[vividsins]

Honestly I'm surprised she survived to adulthood.

[losergod]

I'm surprised she could breathe. But I guess she had to for all the screaming, so maybe she learned at least ONE thing.

[backuphero]

She did get... turned into a puddle of gore at one point, going off the journal entries. So she wasn't even successful at that all the time.

[He looks mildly horrified at himself for making a joke out of that.]

[fashionfever]

Isn't it like Bottson said about the time it happened before?

[backuphero]

I think that must have been it.

Wait.

Bottson's been awful quiet...

[strangerpeople]

. . .

[backuphero]

[Yup. Doing this. Addressing the robot like he's (...or is it "he"?) a people.

Well, a kid.]

Hey, don't tell me your voice broke all of a sudden, or something, I don't know if anybody here could fix it!

[strangerpeople]

mY voICe aiN't bRokE, fOo!

[theserpentsmiles]

...one of the rules was to not blow her up, right? Maybe that's how.

[backuphero]

It'd explain ending up as a... sort of puddle, yeah... and I mean it'd be traumatic enough that anybody would make a rule to make sure it didn't happen again, right?