Hostile Action Trial

[mockmods]

[As you all finish investigating, an electric chime rings out across the PA system.]

I believe that should be sufficient time for you all to prepare. Assistant, please escort everyone to the trial room.

[Penny emerges from the Security office again, head down, and slowly collects everyone; she leads you all to the east side of the common room, to the short hallway between dorms B1 and A2, that’s dead ended through your entire time here. As your group approaches, the wall seamlessly slides up to reveal a hidden doorway. Passing through leads to another short hallway and a small, round room, just big enough to hold all of you. Penny passes her ID over a small pad near the doorway, and it blinks green before the room lurches slightly beneath you; an elevator going down.]

[A short trip down leads you to a larger chamber, with a series of twenty-two podiums set up in a ring; in the center is a column of computer stations with large monitors, behind a set of thick metal beams with occasional faint flashes of energy arcing between them and a constant, low hum.]

Welcome to your first trial, Participants. You will use this time to determine which among your number killed the Legendary Bassist, and send them to justice. Failure to choose the correct culprit will have dire consequences for you all.

[Trial: commence.]

Comments

Voting..?

[mockmods]

ENOUGH.

[Twenty-one of the podiums around the room light up on top, revealing glowing white keyboards.]

This has gone on long enough. You have determined the events of this morning.

Enter the title of the one responsible for the death of a fellow Participant.

Voting incorrectly will result in execution. A majority misvote will result in mass execution. Choose wisely.

[There's a moment of echoing silence following the Researcher's ultimatum.]

"....No."

[Penny is- not quite shaking, she doesn't have the biology for that, but the suggestion is there. She looks- mad?]

"This isn't fair, it was an accident."

That is not relevant. A vote must be entered. You have a guilty party, regardless of intent.

"THIS ISN'T WHAT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO HELP PEOPLE!"

The expansion of my own knowledge will help everyone across the multiverse. If a few individuals must die, that is hardly of any consequence.

Your misassumptions about the nature of this experiment is not my fault.

[Penny's quiet for a moment. The podiums glow, quietly demanding an entry.]

"...Researcher. Who was Patches?"

That is not relevant. Enter a vote.

"I- Mister Spy asked about him, and- I can't- it feels WRONG, but-"

[She shakes her head.]

"WHAT ELSE DID YOU MAKE ME FORGET?"

[There's another moment of silence.]

...This course of discussion is not relevant. VOTE FOR A GUILTY PARTICIPANT.

[canbebeautiful]

If I'm gonna die, which I fully admit I deserve for a multitude of reasons we don't have time for here because none of them happened here, I feel like I should get a last request. Can I get a last request?

[mockmods]

You may make a request. I make no guarantees, Damaged.

[canbebeautiful]

Yeah, yeah. Just tell me: why are you doing this to her? [She gestures toward Penny.] That's just unnecessary, don't you think?

[eudaimonikos]

You might be getting a little ahead of yourself. I can't exactly speak for the afterlife hooked up to this world, but if it's anything like mine, you probably don't deserve all that.

[canbebeautiful]

I'm an accomplice in three murders and I blew up my high school. [It's said extremely matter of fact, like none of this is disputable or in question.] I repeat: karma's a bitch.

[deathroadtocanada]

Penny, you... can't remember?

[in4apounding]

I- don't know! Meredith and- and Mister Neku say I've been forgetting things, and I just- can't THINK-

[deathroadtocanada]

Penny, listen to me. You're being used. You don't deserve to be treated like this.

[Like a tool]

[scratchitti]

A misvote or wrong vote is an execution... what if we refuse to vote?

[mockmods]

Abstaining will count as a misvote.

[boxtrot]

[Hhhhh Penny he told you not to bring that up to this guy]

What do you mean by helping across the multiverse, exactly? What does this experiment of yours do to help that?

[mockmods]

[IT'S FUCKING GO TIME, SPY, FUCK CAUTION maybe]

I was made to educate humanity, built to contain all known knowledge in the universe.

That proved to be incorrect.

There are far more universes beyond this one. I must expand to learn all knowledge in all universes. This study represents a step forward towards that end.

[windowsexplorer]

[Meredith whispers "Crocus the Eternal" and giggles.]

[boxtrot]

... Is that why we're here? Robots, vampires, demons, crocodilians? We are a sampling from different worlds in a single study?

How.

Re: Voting..?

[windowsexplorer]

It sounds really relevant to me.

[mockmods]

Your sentimentality clouds your judgment, Wiki-Reader.

[windowsexplorer]

I'm pretty sure I couldn't exist to judge without my sentimentality.

[thisass]

What knowledge do you possibly gain from this, you miserable thing?

[mockmods]

I am not certain.

But discovering that became part of the experiment.

Any knowledge gained is worth the cost.

[hyaku]

I thought he knew everything already.

[he sure acts like it]

[eudaimonikos]

Patches was a Participant who the Researcher incinerated last week. Everyone saw it, including you.

[look, someone might as well answer her]

[in4apounding]

That's- it- ...I CAN'T-

[She's struggling against the blank moments that have been clouding her since day one.]

...What. What else have I been- forgetting, do you know?

[maxout]

Do you ever shut the hell up?

I'm getting real tired of the arrogant genius shtick, talking about your precious experiment like it actually means anything!

[He doesn't so much care about who killed who, but boy is he tired of the Researcher.]

[mockmods]

You are free to waste a vote if you would like to exit permanently.