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

[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.

[joinhands]

Good.

[She grabs that gesturing hand of his.]

If he thought he didn't have a right to live, he was wrong! Understood?

[yonosoymaria]

[He freezes, for a moment, but then squeezes Krone's hand. This is real. She's real. He can't trust anything else, but she's real.]

Yes.

[joinhands]

[Good!

She lets go of his hand with her fingertips dancing.]

[whiterosefoes]

[Fortunately or unfortunately, there's only one person the "he" pronoun seems like it could be referring to.]

Ah. Yes, you're quite right. That's the last outcome I'd want to vote for true.

[yonosoymaria]

I don't want to think about it. Not this, not... damn this place. I'm sorry.

[hexposition]

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

[necroyalty]

...I can think of a few reasons.

[whiterosefoes]

Do tell, then.

[necroyalty]

Do you think it possible that someone wanted Emma to reap the benefit of the Stewards' offer, but knew she didn't have the heart to dirty her hands? I'm sure this may have been quite the considerate move, in that case.

[ Said with no shortage of venom, as if she knows of just the sort of person who'd try to do this. They were a figure of importance. In her past. ]

I don't think any of us wants to see her die. After all, such a maiden deserves the utmost sacrifice.

[ ...can you STOP IT with the sarcasm, Ambro ]

[joinhands]

Yes, well, Emma Millstein isn't a maiden to Eric Lecarde ever since she waterboarded me, so we can just not imply whatever you might have been implying there.

[whiterosefoes]

Right. First off, YIKES.

Second, that would require stalking Emma enough to be sure she'd be the one to open the door at this time.

[She turns to Emma.]

Is it your usual schedule to come here, even though you said you'd just been looking for Excalibur?

[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.

[relieable]

He was injured before the bookshelves fell on him. I'm sure the bookshelves falling on him didn't help him, but they weren't the cause of death.

[necroyalty]

Unless the bookshelf somehow grew arms, there's no chance of what you're saying being the case, Emma.


And if you have a death wish, I absolutely refuse to fulfill it right now.

[joinhands]

We never found that broken arrow shaft... was it still inside the bookshelf? Maybe it really did grow arms in a way.

[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.