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

[eudaimonikos]

I found another page with a little robot doodle recently. It's got notes on it about learning AI, obviously the start of this whole mess...

[Flipping that over. He knows people aren't gonna care for this, but as long as we're just sharing everything we've found without caring if the Researcher knows:]

Also, there's a lot of calculations here about human soul transference. And a note about integrating the tech from Project Equinox and Project P.E.N.N.Y. - [Slight apologetic nod towards Penny] - with Flesh. So, you know. Normal, not creepy stuff.

[scratchitti]

...like, cyborgs?!

[aragona]

Or storing souls in a crystal matrix. Your creator was into necromancy, wasn't he?

[scratchitti]

[All this talk of Soul is making Neku Uncomfortable]

[eudaimonikos]

Hey, speaking of -

[Michael just. Fucking pops open that mystery hatch again, takes out the weird glowing battery like someone with no concern at all, and holds it up.]

- check out what this thing ran on.

[aragona]

[Stares.] I have no clue as to what that is.

[mockmods]

That is a standard arcane battery.

It has quite a long half-life.

[aragona]

What does it run on?

[mockmods]

Magic.

[aragona]

Meaning what, laylines? Souls? Blood rituals?

[mockmods]

He was exploring the use of Necromancy to empower robotic bodies with living souls at the time of my first attempted decommissioning, yes.

[eudaimonikos]

"Flesh" is capitalized. Might've been another project name - but possibly along those lines.

[You can just look at it if you want, it's right here]

[deathroadtocanada]

Experimenting with Humans and Androids...

[This sure does bring up some. uncomfortable memories.]

Does that mean that we've been experimented on?

[scratchitti]

[Neku reads over it, and while he's good at math it's way outside his sphere. His own Soul has been reconfigured before and he's seen it done with Rhyme. But it was something done TO him, not something he really had any context to understand]

What the hell...

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael leans over as if to read as well, though obviously he's already been over this.]

I've never worked in the department responsible for creating these human bodies we use. Sounds like it might be kinda similar concepts, though? But by the time human souls get to us, this kinda stuff isn't really a concern.

[scratchitti]

Ugh... I wish I knew more about how Souls work back home. I know they can be reformed into other things like Noise or put into Pins... but I have no idea how it's done.

[eudaimonikos]

...no idea what you're talking about. We can screw with their perceived physical form or their memories, but none of that really alters the basic soul structure.

[scratchitti]

Hell, I barely know what I'm talking about. All I know is that at least in my... world...? In my world Soul can be changed around.

[He certainly keeps saying it like it's a proper noun and a substance rather than a single thing]