FIRST TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, that seems like more than enough time to poke around the crime scene. Gather at the vault door, won’t you? It seems that for many of you it will be a short walk.

[ Once you’re all gathered at the vault door, Angel meets you there and quietly taps a keycard to the side of it. There’s an enormous whirring and grinding from inside as various mechanisms within the door move and whir - until with one last shuddering thud, the door starts to swing inwards, revealing a fully-glass tunnel leading off the side of the plateau the base is built on. Small lights built into the floor illuminate as you walk forward, until finally they light up an enormous elevator, perfectly capable of holding the twenty-four of you.

Angel comes too, putting a few numbers into a keypad just outside the door and inserting her card key once everyone is inside. She’ll gestures to get in if anyone seems unsure, but doesn’t really speak or enter the car herself. ]

Going down.

[ And down the elevator goes, leaving the lights of the facility behind - from here everyone can even see some parts of the facility you don’t have access to, it’s bigger than you realized. But it’s a long and uncomfortable ride to the depths, at least a minute or two before the elevator stops.

When the doors open, enough lights flash on to show that you’ve reached the ocean floor, some distance below even the depths you knew before. Lights around the outside of the massive glass dome you've found yourselves in illuminate the barren depths of the sea, with little if any ocean life to currently disrupt it.

At the top of the dome, among the lights, is an outward-facing circle of five or six different screens, each showing the telltale spiral that indicates The Professor is as present as he ever is.

Below them, of course, are the podiums, a circle of simple metal stands with some kind of video screen embedded into each, though they’re turned off for now. Each of your names is carved into one of them, though the podium constructed for Aela seems to have been just set to display a blank red light.

The screens lower down until they’re too close to eye level for anyone’s comfort. ]

Welcome to the trial room. You have as long as you need to discover who among you killed The Huntress. Once you have, I will explain further action. Take your places.

[ The screens rise back up - welcome to your first trial. ]

Comments

[onefuture]

Enough of this.

[Of all the things that this trial has brought with it--theories and conjecture, all of it more insane, more disrespectful to Aela, and almost funny as the next, Lif looks about the calmest he's ever been in this trial as he clears his throat and addresses the room at large.]

Well, it would seem that I am the one you suspect the most, now isn't it? Considering your meandering about, I'm surprised you found anyone at all. Consider that an impressive feat in and of itself.

[There's nothing nice in Lif's tone; there's something cold there, something deeply unfeeling and distant about the way Lif is approaching this whole conversation. It's as if there's nothing wrong at all, really. As if all the trial has been is a friendly chat, with not so friendly faces.

Lif's posture is still closed off, arms crossed--almost protecting the blue area of his chest that's exposed, but he sees no reason to beat around the bush.]

If you're going to pin this all to me, I'd like to see you do it right. Ask of me what you will, but I don't intend to make this easy on you.

[ONLY NEED ONE ANSWER,
COULD THIS BE IT?]

[emberserker]

Oh, I don't expect you to.

[Anna tilts her head with a bit of a smirk.]

You've never been a fan of the washing machine... nor have you been able to work it correctly, am I right? Is that what that was?

[onefuture]

[Aha. If anything, that gets Lif to smirk right back, though it's hard to tell with his face.]

I did have trouble with them when we first got here, yes. Awful presumptuous to think that I wouldn't be able to learn when given enough time, correct?

[emberserker]

Of course. But you've never had an interest, either. So was it a decoy, like they're thinking, or an accident?

[hardnosed]

Right.

[ And hey, she's still got that knife! ]

Hey — Rin. Take this.

[mouflon]

[ you are her favorite person in this room right now, Jasper ]

Thanks, you'll have it back soon.

[hardnosed]

You can keep it, for all I care. Even if I needed a puny thing like this — there's more.

[baitless]

...

Must we drag this out, Lif? We all know the actual stakes now. I know you are no stranger to war, but surely this is different.

[onefuture]

[...]

It's truly not. This is a battle of life and death, is it not?

And I have something to return to, and a task I must complete.

[baitless]

...the difference is that you are fighting the wrong people here, Lif.

[he sighs, his brows furrowed.]

There must be a better way to handle this.

[mouflon]

Stop posturing. We narrowed it down to men right out of the gate, and we would have always worked our way around to you.

[ tbh she doesn't actually have anything to say, she's just cranky ]

[onefuture]

Very well, let's get this much over with.

[Lif's going to need a few second to get rid of his armor, but his arms finally free themselves from his chest...

And if Rin gets a close enough look, she might notice something! See, Lif's chest is a rather obnoxious shade of blue; it's very bright, and it's a pretty stand-out shade when it's focused on.

It also makes some dark spots on his chest stand right the hell out.]

[mouflon]

[ Automatically, Rin sizes him up. She half-expects him to make things difficult for her, to try to wrest the knife away from her when she comes within range, but instead... ]

Nice color. [ She actually reaches up to prod one of those spots with the tip of her finger. ] Is this what passes for bruising for someone like you?

[fivestagegod]

Okay. Fine. I really hate to bring this up so bluntly, but it's been a while since I've been rude to you and your carrying on here has put my life in danger, so screw you too.

Your family is dead because of you.

[Jesus Christ, Birkin.]

Either you killed them, or they died because of you or something. You're the only one left for some reason. How badly did you screw up?

Did she ask you to face her? Was it honorable, like you said? Did you agree to fight her because you don't care about dying and this way her family won't end up like yours did?

1/2

[onefuture]

[...

Lif wasn't expecting Birkin to come at him like that. Nor to get to the heart of the matter so easily. Or...anything, really, and the absurdity of the situation gets him to laugh. It gets him to laugh openly, freely, in a way that's not exactly nice.]

For a man with the constitution of a toothpick, you certainly talk like you're as big of a in the room as Rose or Jasper is.

2/2

[onefuture]

[But you know what.]

I don't believe there was a single bit of honor involved in what traspired.

[Lif's arms are still firmly crossed, but he's still perhaps surprisingly rigid, all considered.]

[fivestagegod]

Great. So you regret it now. Good to know.

[God, he has just decided to go This Fuckin' Guy all over this MTB.]

Aela's dead. You think you deserve to die for it - the culprit deserves whatever they get, wasn't it? But here you are, arguing with us anyway.

What do you want, Lif? You want to find some magical way for your parents and your sister to end up like you, is that it? Something brought you back. Why not them?

[baitless]

[well damn hearing that just kind of makes him whip around...]

...I know he’s being unreasonable, but is that necessary?

[nothingcanstop]

[ BIG SAME FRIEND ]

[hardnosed]

Do you think taking it easy on him's going to change anything? You think it'll make them any less dead?

This is a battlefield, whether or not you act like it.

[obstagoodboy]

His family, huh...

[His expression grows a soft instead of the vague pained look he's had all trial. He can sympathize with that.]

[philoxenia]

[ She says absolutely nothing, mostly because she doesn't trust herself, but-- goddamn does she hate this! ]

[onefuture]

[...Yeah. Lif is very pointedly not looking at Mira while this is going on.]

[bolderfell]

...It was honorable combat, then. Wasn't it.

[onefuture]

[Tch.]

Not in the slightest.