Fifth Trial

[airlockedmods]

[You get a little time after your investigation is over, but not too long. PAL gets bored easily and doesn't like to be kept waiting, after all.

When everyone has gathered at the elevators, the one going down turns on automatically. It...it looks like you're taking a leap of faith into an elevator shaft, not gonna lie. But the first person to step in finds that it's a carefully-balanced anti-gravity field made to just shoot you down and deposit you gently at the end of 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.

You're led to a wide-open area, empty except for a circle of podiums in its center. They've changed from last week, with the three previously empty podiums replaces with greyscale portraits of everyone you've lost this time around, including Ardyn and the Doctor. If anyone remembers where Jamie's portrait was in the simulation, however, that spot is now where Xander is meant to stand. 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 small short-journey craft when getting ready to go on vacation to a galaxy far far away. 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

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika sets two bags on her podium. One contains a bunch of plate shards, the other, crushed cookies.]

We all have to be prepared. The motive was bad enough -- it would affect anyone in this room, and for good reason -- but we also have to think of the victim. I think Ardyn-san was chosen on purpose. He was someone we all trusted; last week proved that without a doubt. Not to mention that, even if we are united, we're all still following our own leaders, and the mansion group is the largest now -- losing Ardyn-san means leaving the biggest subsection of our group without one. Whoever's behind this one was desperate to win.

The announcement called it an overdose, but I think the drug might've been slipped to him in food. Specifically, these cookies. I found a plate of cookies tossed into the trash in the VIP lounge with red and blue icing, breaking the plate and wrecking the cookies.

[cyan_maid]

Red and blue icing? Like...

[Jane holds up the two icing bags she's brought with her.]

Would the color match these, Yurika?

[misanthropicprinciple]

There was red icing on the floor in the restaurant. And crumbs. Little pieces of ceramic. Could be from a broken plate.

[shikosuki]

[ Well that seems to really aggravate him ]

You really think so? Was there even really anything to "win" this time?

That'd be low. Everyone liked Ardyn... who would even think to stoop that low that they'd target him specifically?

[ he's so tired of this week after week ]

[everylittlesecret]

[She might be tired, but damn, Yurika, you ruffled her feathers a bit.]

I wouldn't call him my leader...

[tokencanadian]

[That ride is not what Pyrrha was expecting, but then again, nothing here was. So, she jumps, and she thankfully doesn't die. And soon enough, they're at the trial place, with the starts outside looking even prettier than they were in the simulation.

Pyrrha walks up to her podium, already feeling the strain of today, and fully aware that it will likely only get worse as the day goes on. She breaths in, readying herself. They have to do this, even in real life. And they have to do it for Ardyn, he deserves that much.

He deserved way more than this.]

Let's... go over evidence. Back in the restaurant... at Ardyn's table, I found two teacups, the one in front of Ardyn was empty, but the one opposite him was almost full. Also opposite him at the table, the other chair was knocked over.

[She breaths, again.]

It seems like he was meeting someone last night.

[daughterofthemark]

Jane and I found a tea kettle in the kitchen. Unlike the other dishes, it hadn't been cleaned, and it still smells like tea.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Two...?

[That gets him to at least lift his head, looking dazed.]

Someone was with him?

[You know that bit in Kingsglaive, y'know, that bit with Ardyn, and you can visually see Regis' blood pressure spike? That's Church's face right now.]

You mean some motherfucker here might actually have done this TO him?

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church has to be rounded up to go, but he goes ever reluctantly. On his necklace, along with the crown charm and two matched rings, another ring is joined--the Ring of the Lucii (or one of them, anyway).

He's in his Kingsglaive jacket and has a black chocobo plush set on his podium. And says nothing.]

[cyan_maid]

[It's okay. They got this. Jane gives him a gentle pat on the arm as she passes to go to her podium, face set grimly, evidence in her arms.]

cw: drugs

[cyan_maid]

[There's a brief moment where Jane notices who's replaced the occupant of the podium across from her...and her heart tugs, and cracks a little, but it does not break, because there's someone beside her whose heart is in pieces, and may never recover.

Time to get to work.

Since Arianna would have the tea kettle, honey, and the mortar and pestle, Jane sets down the two bags of icing and the empty bottle of oxycodone.]

There were a lot of things left out in the kitchen that I believe...could be part of what's happened. Arianna has some of it, too, she was with me - I think someone baked cookies and iced them as part of their plan to...to. Well. Do what happened.

[And she holds up the empty oxy bottle.] And they used a whole container of oxycodone to do it. So...please, if there's other food evidence, I beg you not to put it in your mouth.

[ratherdoweddings]

Don't worry! I didn't test any. They were in the garbage, that's just gross!

cw: overdose

[everylittlesecret]

T-That... [Okay Nari can't help but look a little green at that.] It's like a case we had before... we just remembered it. Two of ours overdosed in a similar way.

cw: drugs

[helladoptera]

[ haha wow max is going very pale over here,you guys have fun, she doesnt like this adventure at all ]

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna interestingly has very little trouble with the elevator. It's just one more flavor of weird shit. After setting her half of Jane's evidence on her podium, she she pulls the ribbon out of her (well, Chitanda's) uniform and sets about... tying Syo's hands behind her back?]

[cyan_maid]

[...Uuh.]

[kingshaming]

[Xander is quiet, being at a podium for the first time in a long while.

...it wouldn't be so bad, if not for the fact that Jamie's portrait is still right there. He stares at it, then carefully moves it to the side enough to fit his boxy self in the space.]

Was this really... necessary, PAL?

[ratherdoweddings]

PAL doesn't seem the type to be too nice.

[airlockedmods]

[PAL doesn't answer but there is a familiar-looking Overseer platform overhead that rattles lightly with heavy footsteps as a hulking figure steps uo to the edge and peers down at them through a glowing blue visor.]

We ran out of space so...yes.

catherd

[kingshaming]

[Xander coughs loudly, and while he knows at least Junpei will glare at him, and maybe even call him out, after their conversation the first day int eh real world, he has to try.]

Well then, if a few of us truly wish to test the food there seems to be no stopping them. I suggest the rest of us work on the rest of the evidence. Does anyone have anything else they would like to discuss- who all have received the drugs since we woke here? for example?

[motherfucking_ghost]

I did, but it's not like I fucking brought it with me, so you're all just gonna have to trust my stupid word that the bottle I've got is still sitting in my room.

...Unless he used mine, I haven't...been keeping track.

[cyan_maid]

[She really does NOT want anyone to eat this fucking evidence she will shit a brick if one of you fucking does it.]

No. Not since waking up here.

[ratherdoweddings]

I've only gotten heartburn meds since we woke up, but lots of people are getting medication. I know Choromatsu-san got some oxy the other day, and he can't have been the only one.

catherd #2

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church slams his hands down on his podium (on either side of Philomela).]

Forget the fucking icing, who even cares right now--SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM IS A MOTHERFUCKING LIAR, AND WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHO!

THE FUCK DO WE KNOW RIGHT NOW, OR ARE WE JUST GONNA PLAY WITH FOOD ALL DAY, HUH? We got evidence, we put it the fuck together, that's what we do every god damn week, do we gotta check something, or someone, do we have to lay everything out and stare at it until a god damn lightbulb goes off, what are we missing?

Someone who can bake and ice and overdoes it on the fucking ODing! It could be Jane, it could be Arianna, fuck, the only people we know it's not is me and Yurika cuz we can't cook!

[ratherdoweddings]

My cooking's not that bad, I just boiled a perfectly nice frozen pizza the other day!

[Wait. Not the time. Breathe.]

We know it's someone who received a bottle of Oxycodone in the past week, which could be Choromatsu-san, who also knows how to ice cookies, but it could be a few others and we don't have a for-sure way to tell. Also someone who doesn't know how much it takes to kill someone, which eliminates Nari-san, and someone who would draw hearts in red and blue for some symbolic meaning. They made an entire batch but then just threw the rest out; at some point, the plate was dropped around where Ardyn-san was found, then the culprit moved as much as they could to the garbage can in the VIP lounge to cover their tracks.

[shikosuki]

No more... I've had enough of this. Enough of pretending...

[ He's shaking like a leaf but... ]

I did it. I'm the one who did it, okay...!

[cyan_maid]

...

[It's just like with Rukia. It feels...just like staring her down.]

What happened, Choromatsu?