THE THIRD TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE THIRD TRIAL

[After the finale clues are found, the ticking which we totally didn't forget to add to the investigation post in everyone's head stops, and the Elder Steward's voice echoes through the webs.]

Excellent. Now, please, proceed to the ossuary! Do not tarry.

[Just like before, the Ossuary rumbles upwards to accept the remaining Strangers, with bats hassling those who take too long. Just like before, chains drag everyone to their respective coffins, and in the center are souls for sustenance. You might expect the only true difference to be that piles of skulls now replace the coffins where Zelda, Bangladesh, and Jun might have otherwise stood when they were alive. However, one more change has been made - Eric's coffin is now quite a bit fancier and even a little less coffin-looking. For example, it has a nice chair! Apparently there's some favoritism afoot.

Once everyone is in place, the Elder Steward strolls forward to the edge of the circle, hands crossed beneath his robes. The scrolls glow to reveal the evidence and the suspect list as this happens.]

THE OVERBOARD	THE CIRCUIT	THE RUBBER	THE NEON
				THE ENEMY

Now. Let us get started, shall we?

[And with that, the ticking begins anew. Someone killed. It's time to decide who's responsible.

The trial for the murder of Jun Ushiro, The Launcher, has begun.]

Comments

[hexposition]

...Ask me whatever you will. I think we already know how this ends.

[It looks like Emma's already marking on her scroll.]

[whiterosefoes]

[Harriet glances up from the scroll, where she was glowering down at her own picture.]

What, you're just going to give up? If you actually did it, great, but let's have a proper confession if that's how it will be.

Frankly, I doubt it. I know a trap card when I see one.

[yonosoymaria]

You're right. We're meant to.

[Eric is uncomfortable with this "chair" development, and seems ill at ease, clutching the armrests. That's probably not the only reason he's so out of it, given the obvious smears of blood all over the front of his clothing.]

We're... meant to figure it out. So nothing like me happens again... not another sacrificial maiden, either.

[hexposition]

He died because I opened that door, right? I didn't mean for anything like this, not ever, but if that's what happened then I'm guilty, right?

[joinhands]

So that's what those ridiculous wires were for!

[Krone slaps the side of her coffin in her enthusiasm.]

[necroyalty]

I had found one rigged to the door, and it led up to an empty pillowcase.

What was in the bucket, I can't say.

[whiterosefoes]

Someone still had to set the door up that way. It seems rather ridiculous for a killer to set up a situation where a person dies but someone else claims the right to culpability and their motive. None of us have a death wish, right?

[if Lecarde raises his hand she will glare at him until he puts it back down]

[joinhands]

[KRONE IS CLOSE ENOUGH ON EVERY SINGLE LEVEL TO LOWER HIS HAND FOR HIM IF NECESSARY. SHE'S GOT YOU, HARRIET]

I thought what we were interested in was justice. Are we seriously going to believe that blood on our hands stains our souls regardless of anything else?

[yonosoymaria]

It was... he didn't want it to, but I think that might have been...

[He's dazed and visibly struggling for words, gesturing almost like he's spinning something with one hand, or physically trying to grab what he wants to convey.]

I don't want it to. I don't want anyone to think that.

[hexposition]

[Emma just looks down at her feet. She's certainly not giving any arguments aloud.]

[necroyalty]

...I can think of a few reasons.

[yonosoymaria]

[After too much fluttering, after being comforted, it strikes Eric that there is an answer to that.]

It's not the same as what I did. You opened a door. Doors don't kill... someone did, but if all you did was that....

[hexposition]

The door knocked over the bookshelves. The bookshelves hit him, and now he's dead.

[whiterosefoes]

I rather doubt she'd approve of you calling her that, but okay. Let's just solve it.

[yonosoymaria]

[He stares at Harriet for longer than is really necessary, or tactful, and finally seems to realize he didn't say it out loud - ]

Yes. Yes, for... yes.

[relieable]

[Osomatsu would say something to her about her defeatist attitude but he was the same way, wasn't he? still he gives her a withering look]

Why don't you just tell us what happened? What brought you up to the library in the first place?

[hexposition]

[A sigh, but there's no point in keeping it hidden.]

I've been looking around in the mornings to see if I can find Excalibur. The little creature that told me we could transform into weapons in the first place.

He got bored and wandered off shortly after we met, and I've been worried about him... I keep hoping eventually he'll pop back out again.

[relieable]

[oh!]

I guess you haven't been able to find him yet?

[hexposition]

No.

To be fair, I have no idea where he was hiding before he popped out the first time, too. I only happened to catch him because he was making noise in the game room.

[incendiarize]

[Ask whatever, huh? Alright.]

Can you use a bow and arrow?

[hexposition]

No.

[incendiarize]

Then it's not as simple as you think, 'cause I dunno how it links up, but the first vision I had was someone shooting a bow.

[notadinosnack]

Arthur's correct. That's about the only part of the first vision that even made sense.

[hexposition]

Then how do we know it's even related?

Arthur... you and I both know what we saw with those golems. I find it hard to believe that had much, if anything, to do with what we were facing down at the time.

What if this is the same? What if you were just recalling the past from something else entirely?

[whiterosefoes]

A bow, you say...

[Harriet looks annoyed, but. Nope. She's not saying anything.]