castle_whims | THIRD TRIAL

To the court room. Make it quick, alright? I don't really know about any of you but I don't want to waste more time on a couple of bratty teenagers.

[The Queen still is silent as you descend to the court room. There are ten less of you than when you began. The podiums look empty as you go to them. Even if the podiums are getting empty, though, there is a new jury box near the Alices that is rather full... of ghosts of all the participants of the previous round you've discovered and of your dead compatriots. They don't talk but they're there. Judging. Always judging.

There is someone who doesn't notice this addition, though. Queen Alice.

The Queen is quiet but she's next to the Cat. Her head is bowed to her chest as she seems to sleep quietly. Then as movement she jolts up, smiling vaguely as she nods.]

Yes, a tea party--that's what we...need...

[Her head drops back to her chest as she falls asleep again. The Cat glances at her then back at the crowd with agitation.]

Someone is responsible for Lena and Neku's deaths. Do something about it, will you? Why did you even bring one of those ghosts in with you, anyway?

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[Once her hair is down, Niko doesn't waste a moment -- she whirls around and heads back to her own podium, takes a clam(??) out of her pocket and slams it down on the thing like a gavel.

CLACK. CLACK.]

You know what? Fine. We'll end this farce where we started it. Me tryin' to figure out how the hell we got here.

First of all: the fucking dogs? Really??

Second of all: what the hell is the deal with you, Alice. Who the hell agrees to some shitty pact with a guy as shady as Spikes?

Anyway, let me just tell you, you're real lucky I took the damn duck out. And Spikes was probably lucky I took him out. Any questions?

[Ah. There it is.]

...What really happened?

Real simple, Alice-kun.

[Yeah, that's his nickname. RIP.]

Found some cackling duck in the cove, she found Spikes, they had at it and I just took advantage of that. If you're going to laugh that loud about baby's first knife pit plan, you deserve to get it shot full of holes.

[Frowning!]

I'm not Alice. We already have two of those.

[Struck a nerve there.]

So he killed her and you killed him?

You seem to be close enough. In all senses of the word. That's going to come back to bite you, you know.

[Hits the nerve again with unsolicited advice!!!!! Or something.]

I killed both of them.

[...Okay that's just confusing actually.]

Why would it?

[Though his expression does fall again at the confirmation that she was behind both deaths.]

(no subject)

soverainty - 2020-11-01 03:57 (UTC) - Expand

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xxxx_me - 2020-11-01 04:12 (UTC) - Expand

Is that why the motive was stupid? You were just watching all this shhhit go on and interfering as fast as you could??

[PLEASE PROVE SEVEN WRONG IT WOULD JUST BE SO FUNNY REALLY]

Bzzzt. Calling it interference is a little too much beating around the bush for you. The motive was stupid in and of itself, and I also took them both out. That's how these things go.

[A raised eyebrow at Mizuki.]

I'm not going to say what you want to hear.

......I am trying to understand. Why it took this long when the motive was still crap. Were they easier prey??????

[Her shoulders are shaking. Even beating this much is an effort.]

[There's a slow shake of her head, either disbelieving or disappointed.]

What, did you think I was just waiting around to be a serial killer? Despite everything else: no, I was not waiting around to be a damn serial killer.

They did make themselves real easy prey, though.

No. You didn't have a cool down period.

[Serial killers are very, very serious business to Mizuki.]

So this was actually your first time?

I was going to thank you for killing him and that old witch out. Guess you never realized this game was impossible for you to win.

I don't want your thanks, stupid cat. If there's anybody here that wants your thanks? They deserve what they get.

[Niko stop cursing the survivor pool. She flips the cat off!!!!!!!]

If a game is impossible to win, that's on the game master for making a shitty-ass game. I'm... not going to stop and stare at the damn wall just because a game looks impossible.

[There was a pause!! There WAS a pause!!]

Too bad. You're just as disappointing as Mao Ninagawa was in the end. How can I put it in a way you understand? You were only ever a non-player character. Your story was always to end with failure.

You can't blame a character's fate on the story. It's simply how things are.

I'll take disappointing you as a compliment.

I've got no real interest in understanding you, or your piddly little idea of characters or story. If you can't figure out how to use perfectly fine characters in a story that has any meaning, that just means you've got no creativity and you're not worthy of those characters in the first place.

A good game means that any character can be used to its fullest potential.

whimsicalism - 2020-11-01 04:16 (UTC) - Expand

soverainty - 2020-11-01 04:20 (UTC) - Expand

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...That's all we needed to hear.

What's that? Sorry, my ears are still ringing from that time a loud dumb hippo yelled into them. Can't hear a thing.

[...anyway.]

It seems that the only reason we ever compared you to dogs is that you behaved in a way that implicated them.

[She will also still offer Yuniko her hair tie. Doesn't she mean everything she says?]

You hid it very well. The bullet casings?

Or you guys really have no idea how dogs work.

[It is very sardonic but also to be fair she does not know how dogs work either. What is space dog. Who knows.

Just staring at the hair tie and then making a little hmph of rejection. Though at least she doesn't slap it away.]

Bullet casings give away the location of the shooter. The only one I didn't have time to dig up was the playground one. But whatever.

[She withdraws the offered hair tie once it's rejected.]

Someone else might not have been able to spot them. Maybe it's too bad that it was me... As you know, I'm fairly ignorant about firearms...

... Except that it's unlikely a dog, or even eight, would be able to easily operate one.

Hmph. I thought I hid them properly, but as long as they weren't in their original locations, it was fine. It makes sense we've not got a lot of people who know guns here, anyway.

I was counting on it.

[There's a brief snicker.]

... I overestimated that part, I'll admit.

Edited 2020-11-01 04:05 (UTC)

So... you're not strong enough to pick up Lena either? And, why were the drag marks so windy?

I could pick up Lena just fine, thanks.

The drag marks were for footprints. No sense in leaving those out in the open.