Third Trial

[airlockedmods]

[You get a little time after your investigation is over, but not too long. Your Overseer is right there, after all, and he can tell when you're finished.

Xander will lead you all out the door near Fourt's, opening what had been impenetrable sheet metal with a few taps and swipes on his tablet. This won't take you outside either; instead, it leads to a long hallway. Like a walk-through aquarium, the walls and ceiling are all made of thick glass, giving you an even better view of the stars outside. There's no sign that the mall is attached to some kind of large-scale station. There's really not going to be an easy way to escape here, unless you get transportation.

You're led to a wide-open area, empty except for a circle of podiums in its center. They're labeled so you can easily find yours. Soma and Togami's grey-scale portraits have joined the three ladies' portraits this time in the places they previously stood. Three of the podiums remain empty and nameless. The walls here are equally transparent, and they seem to have lines of large hatches going along them, as if this is where one might park one's spaceship when going on a fun space mall adventure. Shame you don't know anything about those.

You already know what you're here to do. You'd best be getting along with it.]

Comments

[induality]

[Fukawa sits on the edge of her podium. There's an anxious sort of energy about her; reminiscient of Syo's more manic tendencies. Where one personality ends and the other begins isn't clear anymore. Meaning what they can expect out of her is a little less clear than usual.]

Whoever killed Byakuya-- I'm going to utterly destroy you so I hope you're ready to fight for your life.

[JUST A NOT SO FRIENDLY GREETING TO START HERSELF OFF.]

Alright listen up all of you! I'm only going to say this once.

Last night Byakuya called me and told me to meet him right away at Starbucks. He told me he had some information he wanted to share with everyone.

...I knew something wasn't right. Something... something was bothering him, but he was trying to hide it.

...anyway. If you have questions about how certain things happened, I might be able to help you.

[burninglight]

..Was that your phone in Starbucks, then? It was the only number in the one I found Togami carrying.

[neverheardofhim]

[Fukawa, honey, you're doing him a big concern.]

Scribbles. Don't throw your life away like that. Whoever did it is going to get what's coming to them. I promise you that.

[cyan_maid]

[...Is she sure she's up for it? She has to be devastated - but no, there's conviction in Touko's voice. Jane can hear it. She's going to find the killer amongst them.

And Jane wants to help.]

When I was looking around...it seemed like he was taking apart one of the televisions in the video game store. Was he...was it like that when you got there?

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna is watching Fukawa closely. Just in case.]

[tokencanadian]

[good sister, doing good things!!!]

Do you know when you found Togami this morning, Fukawa?

[desperateprayer]

[ Clarith is mostly just watching you so you don't do anything stupid in the heat of the moment, Touko. She's nervous and fidgety because of it--you remind her too much of herself. ]

[a10tionplz]

There was some blood, in the fountain. Not in the water, just kind of smudged on the interior rim. And something had splashed some of the water outside a bit, that's how I noticed. Do you know if Togami went near it at all while you were with him?

[myocordial]

That does explain what I found in Starbucks.

...Tell me, by any chance did he also write a note for you?

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna plops her Beauty and the Beast bag on top of her podium.]

I found the mechanical baby at the scene. It had been cut open, and parts of it removed.

[cyan_maid]

...There was a television that was dismantled, too. It could be that...he was trying to use parts from both to rig something together.

[induality]

...what?!?!

[tokencanadian]

T-the baby? [fuckin flinches]

What was it doing out there?

[burninglight]

Togami was carrying a few things on him, the least of which would be these.

[Ardyn produced a notepad with an elegant design on the pages from his vest, placing it on his podium.] He showed this much to me himself not long ago; he kept detailed notes on the trials so far as well as general observations.

Secondly would be his phone- [which followed, placed on top of the notepad] -and a bit more alarmingly, this. [Ardyn took a knife out of the holster he wore, placing it next to the other two items.] It neither appears to have been used, nor was it unnecessarily sharpened.

[cyan_maid]

...I mean, keeping yourself armed isn't exactly alarming in this situation. He could have had it on him, but not had time to react.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I dunno, having a knife on him isn't alarming. I think from the pocket search last time, a lot of us have knives on us.

[everylittlesecret]

[Straight coffee does wonders to fix a queasy stomach. Except Nari is gonna look a little green still because fuck head wounds.]

Uhm... so Togami's head was bashed in. Pretty sure he was left to bleed out on the floor. And he was covered in a flag like he was royalty or something.

[neverheardofhim]

That was probably Fukawa's doing, right? The flag, I mean.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[All right, fine, there really isn't much of a point in hiding what he found. Junpei spreads the notes he has on his podium.]

I found these under Togami's bed, hidden inside one of those robot dolls. They're the logs of what he heard spying on Xander.

The most immediately important thing is that the last entry was dated this morning, at 12:38 A.M. That's twenty-two minutes before he was killed. And he definitely heard something he wanted to tell us, but the message was in shorthand. He didn't finish writing it, and he didn't leave a translation.

There are also water spots on it, which hint to me that these notes were near the fountain before they were hidden away.

MODS

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Also, is there any way Junpei can at least partially decode the last message? He's got every letter of the alphabet as an example in the first sample except B, C, J, K, M, Q, X, and Z.]

Pocket Check

[desperateprayer]

Um. I know it's a long shot, but maybe we should all empty our pockets. If it's possible there's an actual weapon involved or something we missed, we need to be sure. M-Maybe someone has evidence on them... So, um. Please?

[desperateprayer]

[ For the record, Clarith, once again, has no pockets. She couldn't carry anything hidden very easily. ]

Closed to Xander

[neverheardofhim]

[Varric stumbles back from Ardyn silently. He closes his eyes, brows drawn tightly together. His breathing is short and shallow, knuckles white as he clenches his fists.]

Is this enough, Xander? Can I be done with this now?

[kingshaming]

[Xander has been silent during all this, but his expression is pained, and when Ardyn had been stabbed he had jerked forward, as if he was going to do something-

-then stopped]

Are you ready to call the vote then, Varric?

[neverheardofhim]

Thank you.

[He lets out a breath, one that he’s been holding for hours, perhaps even years. Where he had once stood tall and combative, he now looked small]

I’m sorry. [He looks up, and there’s no hiding the sorrow there, nor denying the sheer amount of relief.]

You did good. All of you did good.

[He grips his podium and leans forward, making sure to look at each of the remaining Champions as he does. It’s only once he reaches Fukawa that he hesitates. He’d carried a number of regrets in his life, but surely this one weighed the most heavily on him.

Still, he may have made a number of mistakes, in his life, but he was no coward. His gaze finally settled on her, hoping that by the grace of Andraste, she might understand just how deeply sorry he was.]

I have one last story, then I promise I’ll shut up for good. Maker knows there’s people who have been waiting for years for that to happen. [A chuckle.] Ask me whatever you need, I won’t lie to you. Not anymore.

[tokencanadian]

[Well Pyrrha's got fucking tears in her eyes already, so let's go.]

What do you mean lie to us?

Voting Time

[kingshaming]

[Xander sighs, he seems... not really able to muster up even enough fake professionalism to give the whole mini speech]

It's time. On the podiums, input the name of the Champion you think committed the crime. Let's... not drag this on further.

[neverheardofhim]

[Varric steps back from his podium. He... doesn't want to have to subject Fukawa to voting for him but... he promised.

She has the opportunity, if she wants.]

EXECUTION: BLIGHT'S OUT

[airlockedmods]

[As the votes go in, in spite of Touko's effots, the lights go out once more. There's so much red light from that one side of your circle...at least next time this happens, the other side will have one.

When the overheads return, Varric is separated from all of you. Xander isn't over there this time, nor is there the small group of executioner robots that you've become familiar with. There's only one, feminine in shape, dressed in leather and a white hooded cloak. She's carrying no weapons, only a large pointy chunk of some kind of red crystal.

Despite his acceptance of his fate, Varric still tenses when he sees her. Of course, who wouldn't try to fight for their life even so? There's no great spectacle to it this time; the robot simply charges. Though Varric is sturdy and strong, he's no match for the strength and weight of an actual robot, and she bears him easily to the ground, stabbing the crystal into his chest as soon as she has him pinned. And then stabbing him again. And again.

...it doesn't take long before Varric is dead. At least it wasn't quite the horrific spectacle of the last two times? Either way, you are now free to go.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna flinches with every strike.]