SECOND TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Time's up, boys and girls. Please gather up your evidence and make your way to the vault door.

[ The process of heading to the elevator and crowding in remains the same as last week - Angel leads you all to the elevator car, then stays behind as you make your slow descent to the dome below. You might not even notice if you aren't paying attention, but... the cart is already less crowded than it was last week. You certainly won't be able to avoid noticing it if your numbers dwindle too much further than this.

When the doors open on the trial room, it's just as bleak a place as last week. ]

Take your places, won't you? And this time, you all know what's at stake. No more... funny business.

[The number of podiums displaying that red light is higher now - Damien, Lif, and Piers are all represented by blank spots now, no tasteful covers or anything normal to mark their passing, just a red glow and a gap in your number.

Cheery!

The screens raise up to the ceiling to give you all room to see, and the Professor's final words before the trial begins ring out: ]

Find the killer, leave alive. And killer? Try a little harder to stop them from doing that than the last one in your shoes. Call out for me if you require anything.

[ Welcome to your second trial. ]

Comments

[philoxenia]

.... If it's been three weeks and they haven't fed, I'm shocked nothing happened sooner... Even with countless legends of different types of vampires, three weeks is a terribly long time to go without blood.

... Unless... the now-unavailable requests took care of that.

[blackmass]

...

[And that clicked very nicely into place in his head.]

I propose a theory. This week's charming motive from our Professor was never about the money offered.

[nothingcanstop]

...You're saying the Professor was trying to starve someone who was...otherwise living with us, harmlessly, until now?

[ Hey that sucks! ]

[lovelikeyou]

That's terrible...

[blackmass]

I am, indeed. Obviously he would know if one of us were a vampire, Dead Apostle, or whatever else. And he chose to force their hand.

I dismissed the idea some days ago as an unnecessary variable in his experiment, but it seems he's as poor a scientist as he is a host.

[nothingcanstop]

Fuck him. [ this is just to be a one-a-trial occurrence, then ] Piers would still be alive, if he hadn't...

[blackmass]

Save the 'what if' for later and focus upon the matter at hand. I am not interested in dying because we couldn't find a vampire, as that would be far too ironic for my taste.

[reallyhatesharks]

[Cool, great. Love it.]

Okay, so then who's requested shit from Angel?

[blackmass]

I presume that an easy thing to lie about, unless the Professor himself should dare to weigh in.

Though I will tell you I have not.

[philoxenia]

I did. A sketchbook and pencils, and then a few of movies from last Thursday.

[lovelikeyou]

She gave me Aladdin the first week. I was going to ask her for some dirt, too, but then that happened.

[no worries, she's starting some kind of weird composting endeavor instead]

[nothingcanstop]

[ A pause, and-- ]

Premixed appletini. Just once.

[precognit]

I haven't.

[snackooed]

Clear scotch tape! After I got my fingerprint powder, I needed the tape to lift prints.

[bogwife]

I haven't, no. I was considering it but then Tuesday happened.

[mouflon]

I haven't even talked to her, and I have no desire to. Other people can vouch for that.

[ladygeryon]

I asked her for curtains for my room, but she couldn't provide that.

[ladygeryon]

That fucking bastard. So it really was the stick instead of the carrot.

[philoxenia]

... He said we'd gotten complacent.

Do you think-- Was it the requests, then, as the actual motive?

[blackmass]

Precisely so. If anything, the offered motive was more likely a cover for his true intent.

[philoxenia]

[ god she hates this. ]

Taking out a single variable.... It was certainly effective.

[bogwife]

You think the money was a distraction? And here I thought he was just being a petty bastard.

[blackmass]

I had wondered myself if he'd merely lost the ability to grant requests and chose to portray it as intentional, but now I suspect the truth a fair bit more sinister than that.

[bogwife]

So he's still a petty bastard, just with an extra layer of underhanded added on.

[archboxer]

That... yes. If they had been getting a supply that way then it was only a few days since their last feeding instead of three weeks. That would fit.