MOCK ROUND - WEEK 2 TRIAL

[foundationmods]

It was noon on Friday.

No matter where they were, no matter what they were doing...the moment the chimes rang out through the hall, they felt a change.

The world began to expand, as they felt themselves leaving the world they were on, and towards the world they'd experienced once before. 🗈

Perhaps on another plane, in another place, someone else heard music as they gazed upon the proceedings.

Their forms, just like before, were different now. This was less shocking than it was last time, and yet...

...There was a deep silence in the room, one that no one wanted to break. It was the faint tension in the air, like the moments before a race or a competition begins.

Only this time....this was the last time they would be competing. This was the final week...and the final chance they had at securing their wishes - while denying someone theirs.

...Just a little more to go.

Comments

FANTASY RETELLING

[strawberryshortcackle]

[This time, Lambda appears with little fanfare, waving her hand and immediately showing them what had happened...according to her, that is.]

It was night - and despite it being thursday night, Lunafreya wasn’t worried. After all, her door and window were locked, and despite knowing that the windows could be jimmied to open, there was little fear in her heart.

As long as she kept a clear head, she knew she could make it through the night and live to see friday morning…

Yet, a sudden thump on the window knocked her out of that confidence, as easily as one blows out a candle and watches the smoke rise.

Heart thumping, Lunafreya turned to the window….where she saw it.

Those red eyes of their host, Lambdadelta, hovering just outside the window. Despite her cute attire, the way the Witch kept her in her sight….it felt like Lunafreya had become a frog, paralyzed, as the snake slowly drew upwards…and began to take aim to swallow her whole.

“He~yyy, Lunafreyaaaaaa~ Guess who’s been chosen for tonight! Ah, no, you don’t have to say anything. It’s a great honor, right? Riiiight? You always talked so sweetly to me, so won’t you please just be the victim tonight without speaking a word~?”

The Witch...moved her finger in the air. To anyone who was watching, it looked like a meaningless gesture. But for Lunafreya...she felt the magic rise up, and flare on her body, and as she instinctively raised her arms, she realized what had happened to her.

“...! -! -!!”

Her...voice.

It was like she had a sudden bout of laryngitis - she couldn’t scream or make the tiniest noise, with only small exhales coming out. The effect, as she tried to yell, to scream, to do something, looked a lot like a fish, opening it’s mouth as it gasped and tried to breathe when taken out of it’s natural environment...

The Witch giggled, shrugging her arms in a ‘it can’t be helped’ motion.

“Actually, I really don’t want you screaming a bunch this time. I mean, what I have planned for you is pretty ruthless, you know? You’re free to run around as much as you want, though. I think the demon I summoned would be pretty happy with that….*giggle*”

Lunafreya watched, unable to utter a sound, as Lambdadelta raised her hand...and snapped.

…

What….was this?

A moist, hot wind….brushed by Lunafreya’s skin. The fragrance of the flowers around her rose into the air, and as she shakily looked around her, she could clearly see their bright red petals in the moonlight…

This was….the rose garden. Somehow...by just snapping her fingers, she’d been teleported over to it…!

Standing on bare feet, Lunafreya tried to look all around her for any signs of danger. Though there was nothing nearby - even the Witch had vanished - her senses screamed that there was still something around….something that could easily attack her.

The faintest rustle made her turn around - though she didn’t see anyone, and could have mistaken it for the wind, she knew to think like that would be to casually invite her death to her - and stared at the rosebush.

She didn’t move - didn’t blink, not even once.

She knew….to look away, even for a second….would mean death.

...And yet, despite staring at it directly, death came for her anyway. With a loud cry, someone jumped out from the rose bushes, landing in front of her -

….And Lunafreya couldn’t believe her eyes.

The girl in front of her had ears and a tail, both of which flicked in the night. Her outfit bordered on scandalous, plenty of skin showing to the point a bikini would cover more than what she so boldly wore.

The girl who appeared out of the rosebush grinned, in a way that looked cute….yet terrifying at the same time.

“Hi there, preeeey~ I’m Rank number 64 of the 72 Noble Demons, Flauros the Blazing!! Lady Lambdadelta told me I could do whatever I wanted with you, as long as I didn’t destroy this place. I got reaaaally lucky when I chose to respond to her summons for fun, you know? “

Unable to reply, Lunafreya just took a step back - which seemed to excite the catgirl in front of her.

“Oooh...hey, hey, do you want to run? I always looooove chasing down prey when they try to run, heeheehee!! I’m going to enjoy eating you aaaaall up soooo much, so go ahead and run!”

After saying that, the girl...began to change. Stretching her two front feet to the floor, she changed into a ferocious leopard, it’s eyes locked on solely on its prey…!

In front of something her instincts screamed would kill her….Lunafreya ran, sprinting with bare feet towards the garden. The leopard - Flauros - merely made a sound of delight, floating above the ground as she began to stalk her prey, flame lighting across her body and lighting up the night.

If anyone had gazed out into the rose field, they surely would have been amazed at such a beautiful, terrible sight….but despite the flames, not a single spark landed on either the roses or the ground.

Seeing the light from the fire of the beast behind her, Luna immediately ran into the garden shed and slammed the door shut behind her. Breathing heavily - and knowing that the door wouldn’t keep Flauros back forever - she wildly looked around the area to find something to help her.

What she focused on the most...was a simple trowel on the shelves, and a bucket full of water that some careless goat butler hadn’t properly disposed of that night.

Maybe...with this, she could potentially distract the beast long enough to go inside the mansion, and wake someone up for them to help her…!

Not wasting a minute, Lunafreya grabbed the two items, and opened the door after only a moment of hesitation. As expected...the flaming leopard was there, opening its mouth wide in joy as the prey it was waiting for came out of its own volition.

In that moment, Lunafreya splashed the water in the bucket on Flauros.

“Kyaaaa-?! Coooold?!”

Flauros’s cute voice echoed in the air as she recoiled back, her flames dulling down to nothing -

THUNK.

The trowel’s metal dented against Flauros’ hard head, as Lunafreya hit the demon with the back of it - and Flauros howled, crying out pitifully as she pawed at her head.

“Aaah, that huuuurts!! No fair, no faaaair!”

...Lunafreya didn’t have any time to listen to the leopard’s whining, though.

It wouldn’t take long before the demon snapped out of it, so she had to make this count.

Rushing back to the center of the rose garden, Lunafreya let herself feel a glimmer of hope amidst the terror and adrenaline. The Mansion was so close, and the demon was still crying behind her. Just a few more yards, and -

“...Juuuuust kidding~!!”

An arm….wrapped around her throat.

“Hehehe, I’m pretty good at acting, right? You didn’t hurt me at all!! You did make me pretty hungry though….So bye bye, unlucky lady☆”

CRACK.

It took only a second….and sounded like someone had just cracked a single twig in two.

In a way...you could say that Flauros truly had snapped away the life of a beautiful flower, in that one instant, and all that was left...was a corpse in her arms.

Flauros let it drop to the floor, like the discarded flower it was...and suddenly yelled up to the heavens in absolute joy.

“Aaaah, that was soooo good! I’m sad I didn’t get to play more, but I looooooove killin’ so much!! I wish I could burn everything down, but I’ll just have to make do with the meal in front of me for now!!”

Quickly turning back into her leopard form, she raised a single paw - and extended a jet black claw after flipping the body back over.

“Mmmm….Itadakimaaaaasu~!”

And she brought her claw down.

…

Munch. Chomp. Slorp. Chew.

Aaah, she was delicious. So very, very delicious….

…

“...Mm, I think that’s enough….though I really, really want to eat her all….she tastes so good!!”

Stopping, Flauros yawned - and then made a slight gagging noise as she pawed at her mouth.

“Ugh, what’s in my mouth…??? A piece of clothing? Guh...Oh well. There’s a place inside the mansion that’s perfect for me, right?”

Heedless of the blood that dripped from her jaws, the leopard walked its way into the foyer, and down the hall where all the other guests slept, unaware of the murder that had just happened.

After a moment, however, Flauros seemed to notice her state - and transformed back into her human form, going inside the nearest door and looking at the occupant.

“A dog, huh….Mmm, well, a mutt like that should enjoy the present I’m going to give it!”

Muttering those words, Flauros floated over her victim...and ferociously shook herself off, like any animal that got soaked through with fluid.

Only...it wasn’t water that fell down, but a crimson rain...that was intermixed with tiny, tiny pieces of skin and flesh…

With that accomplished, Flauros left the room, leaving the snoring, soaked dog behind - and headed down into the basement, gazing at the large boiler before breaking out into a grin.

“....Yeah!! This is perfect! I’ll just take a nap here and then go home! This was kind of boring….but also kind of fun!!”

Saying those mismatched words, Flauros lit the boiler with her magical flame - and jumped inside without a second thought. Curling up in the fire, she looked all the world like a large, content cat dozing in a sunbeam...and then slowly, slowly began to fade and dissolve into the flame itself.

As she faded, the scrap of fabric that had been in her mouth came into contact with the flames...and burned, releasing a scent unlike anything else on earth.

And everything was still once more….except for the faint, cackling laughter of the Witch on the breeze.

THE WITCH

[strawberryshortcackle]

[As soon as it's over, Lambdadelta waves away the image, like clearing away smoke. With that done, she faces everyone - and puts her hands on her hips, grinning.]

Soooo. Let's get down to it, huh? ...Oh, but before I forget.

[She snaps her fingers - almost in mockery of what she did in the story - and a chalkboard appears. As a piece of chalk floats in the air and writes down her words, she continues-]

Okay, so, this isn't going to be as easy as it was last time. I was treating all of you with the most delicate touch, you know? And seeing what you all did last time made me realize I've got to be more...firm this time. *giggle*

So here's the new rules!

1. Blue Truth must only be used when you have a theory, incomplete or otherwise.

Now, what I mean by that is that you guys were trying to be pretty clever and give me things one by one last time - which ended up not going in my favor! So, to make it more fair, I've decided to make it a little harder for you to fling out those attacks willy nilly.

You can still ask me things, or have me repeat or state things in red. But the Blue truth is you making a counter attack, not just asking anything or trying to get information. This way, it'll limit us both, because if you don't attack me, I can't attack you.

Basically, only use the Blue when you think you have a decent enough picture of what happened, and don't mind getting into a fight about it.

...Which leads me to my next rule!

2. If you ignore rule one, there will be consequences.

Like you saw with Overlord-kun last time, taking the Red Truth when it's aimed at you reeeeeally hurts! So if you try to tank through the pain...hm, well, this time I'm not pulling my punches, and you'll really feel it.

For those who are on a higher plane, that means that you'll have to take time outs from tagging the Witch for a certain duration depending on the amount of wounds you received. Ah, but don't worry. It's more of a temporary thing than having to sit out the entire trial, trust me.

And...hm, I guess that's it! I don't really have any other rules to go over, just minor clarifications to the ruleset to make it more fair for both sides.

As always, Six hours from now, if there's no Blue Truth that I accept, then the trial will end in a win for the Witch Side.

Oh, and here's the magical formula the Blue Truth uses for those playing:

<font color=#000099><b>TEXT GOES HERE</b></font>

Let's have fun, okaaaaay?

[beastlybruno]

[Bruno listened carefully to the story, and made note of the rules. In a sense, he was kind of glad you weren't allowed to just throw fragments of blue truth around like crazy... Still...]

Flauros? That... Girl from your story. Is this another personification of the murder weapon?

[curryparty]

When playing out the murder, we only have access to our own powers - no one else's, right?

S'up. Lets try a theory

[helmdivide]

[ From the information, he'll try a thing. ]

Lunafreya was out in the garden when she was ambushed by the killer. They got her in a headlock and broke her neck, which was the cause of death. Then they proceeded to cut into her, to make it look like an animal attacked the body. They were aiming to frame Bruno.

[ It'll take on the form of a katana. Nyoom. How does this go. ]

[dawnwardspiral]

[ Let's...give this a try?? ]

Lunafreya was ambushed by the killer after she'd been purposely lured to the garden at night.

[beastlybruno]

Well, here goes...

[As he's forming his theory, a large, blunt weapon materializes in Bruno's hands... Hey, is that a lamp post?!]

The killer dragged Lunafreya's body to my room and used it to attempt to frame me. Then they retraced their steps by following the blood trail- Walking in the blood, that is- until they returned to the garden and washed themselves off with the water in the bucket. They couldn't clean the blood off their pants, so they had to burn it in the incinerator.

[With that, he grits his teeth and boldly swings the heavy lamp post at her like it was a regular sized baseball bat...]

[artificialhighness]

Lambadelta. There is something we must clarify, before we begin giving you suspects. Is Riku still a player in the game?

[dawnwardspiral]

[ Okay, well. Time's ticking, so here he is again.

He'll bring up that scimitar. ]

The killer had a small animal to assist them in the murder—instead of there being a dog, there was a small goat with them instead.

[ Going in for a swing! ]

[overlordad]

Alright, let's see if this pans out: The killer grabbed Lunafreya in the garden and snapped her neck! Once she was dead they tore up her body to frame Bruno- the bites meant to make it look like he went feral! They used small furniture to
make the bites! They then used the bucket to carry gore to Bruno's room to frame him and make a trail! They then burned the clothing and returned the furniture to where they took it from!

[overlordad]

Alright then, wanna do this like last time then? We already went through the evidence last night, but better to keep it all organized here. What did everyone find?

[helmdivide]

I found blood leading to Bruno's room. That's where I ran into you, and we went in together. The door knob was covered in blood on both sides, and there was blood completely soaking his mattress. There were bits of flesh in there, and the big guy himself was showering.

[ladyscarred]

I saw the body... There was so much blood I couldn't tell exactly what caused it. Some of the others looked more closely.

[Not the most helpful of things.]

cw: some gore

[enter_the_darkness]

[ BACK TO BEING VENTUS DOESN'T MAKE FOR A HAPPY VANITAS, but... sigh. What can ya do?

Anyway, he already said everything here, but: ]

She was covered in a lot of little cuts that looked really deep - kind of like she was sawed into, rather than cut with anything actually sharp - like claws.

And, there were bite marks on her feet and hands that look like they were made by a small animal... not a large cat.

[ Annnnnd... ]

She did have a broken and bruised neck, and the bruise patterns didn't match up with my hand, at all. My best guess was that someone had her in a headlock that ended in a snapped neck, so that part does line up. I was even guessing that it killed her first, but...

[ Well, now he's shrugging. ]

[beastlybruno]

Try to be more careful this time, Takashi.

[Seriously.]

I went by the garden shed after you, Jack, and I searched my room. The ground right outside was wet and muddied, and there was... I think it was a human's footprint? No shoes. Weird... Indent in the ground... I checked the inside but found nothing except a bucket full of water and a dented trowel... Not sure if that last thing was actually used, but still.

[curryparty]

As you know, we did a check for injuries. We found these people to be unharmed:

Myself, Takashi, Jack, Scarred, Riku, Bruno, and Raenef.

Vanitas had a bruise from fighting Riku, and Luna has a cut on her hand that she says was used to test her healing power. It seems healing magic might not be as powerful even though we have our powers back... probably to stop anyone from surviving an attack just because they have strong healing magic, is my guess.

We had multiple people in the room to check, so we don't have to worry about me covering for anyone or anything.

cw: gore

[artificialhighness]

Vanitas covered some of this, but I will go over some of it again, in more detail. Examining bodies isn't something that's particularly to my taste. But it would be unfortunate to let the witch run wild, wouldn't it?

[Her distaste for corpse touching is pretty evident in her tone for a moment, before she tucks it neatly away. She's in her older form again, coat wrapped around her and swirling dramatically to the music I guess.]

The stomach wound was made by something blunt. Some of the guts were missing, and the rest had bite marks matching those on the rest of her body -- feet, missing fingers, and other areas around the smaller cuts.

The cause of death was the broken neck. The other injuries were made after she died.

The claw marks don't appear to be in the correct position for someone swiping with a hand. There's a uniformity to them and a depth that suggests they were probably made artificially, and with something not terribly sharp. The killer knew what Bruno's claws looked like, and how to mimic them to a certain degree. What happened in Bruno's room was likely no coincidence.

One more thing: the rosebushes were a little flattened, like someone had come out from them.

[She seems vaguely affronted by this, rather than any of the rest of it.]

[iblistriggered]

I found something weird in the boiler in the basement. It looked like a weird ball at first, but on further examination, it seems like it was actually a pair of pants with an elastic waist band! I don't know why someone would want to burn a pair of pants though.

[beastlybruno]

[OKAY, so Jack's blue truth was countered. Bruno's on the sidelines musing as that happens.]

Hm... So that means either Lunafreya was cut before the murder or her body was damaged some other way than cutting.

Suspect Herding

[helmdivide]

[ Giving a wave ]

I guess we should figure out the best suspect, huh? What do we have to go by? I know we have band that Silver found. And the marks around her neck. Sooooo what does all of that mean?

[overlordad]

That we're probably looking at one of the older people. Adults and teens? And not Silver or Bruno.

PUNISHMENT OF THE WITCH: TIME PASSES SWEETLY

[strawberryshortcackle]

[Much like last time, the goats come in carting...a gigantic hourglass? With a grin, Lambda suddenly floats Takashi away from the group, leading him towards the large, glass contraption...]

Well, I think you know how this goes, Overlord-kun. See you tomorrow, alright~? Thanks for playing along.

[Lifting him up, up, up.... into the glass hourglass, the lid being carefully held by one goat at the other readies himself to pour in the sand.

With nothing else to say...she drops him in, and he easily falls in, past the gap meant to block the sand to a trickle, and down onto the bottom with an oof. The Glass is clear, so everyone around can see perfectly as the goats begin pour in...

...Wait.

Isn't that....sugar?

Takashi gets to his feet, immediately trying to keep ahead of the rushing sugar. He gives the glass around him a few punches and kicks, but....even that is pointless, as the glass seems quite thick and shatterproof.

...Minutes go by, but Takashi is able to force himself to the top by the rising sand, looking...well, a little bored. If this was meant to be a punishment, then he'd assumed it would be one full of agony, not just this slow waiting game.

...

Eventually, he has to crouch down, and soon after that, has to lie on his belly to avoid getting crushed by the glass above him. Maybe that was her aim - to smash him against the glass? No, that didn't seem possible...Sugar couldn't put enough pressure, and it would take a long time for the pressure he was currently experiencing to crush his bones.

Lambdadelta never seemed like the type for such long, drawn out punishments.

As he was thinking that - the pressure on his back suddenly disappears.

Looking up, he sees that the glass itself is straightening out, as if by magic - quietly and quickly turning into a cylinder instead of a pinched state. The Goats put the wooden lid back on, and he stays lying down, waiting for what would happen.

....In the end, it's a good thing he didn't stand up.

His death would have been much more painful, if he had.

Suddenly, the cylinder floats - as Lambda watches...and then flips her hand down.

WOOPH-CRUNCH.

That hideous sound...sounds like eggshells cracking under sand. And it's obvious why they heard such a noise, which was such a far cry from the yelling and screaming of last time, because -

The cylinder...had been flipped upside down, causing Takashi to be buried under all the pounds of sugar that had filled the entire bottom of an hourglass big enough to hold him comfortably while he stood!

As the world around them faded away, returning them to the dining room...if they look at that cylinder, the sugar at the very bottom....began to turn a horrible red....before it finally faded out of view.

And on the table in the dining room, lay...a single small hourglass, full of red sand.]

[curryparty]

[Asuma doesn't bother with watching the show. Why would he?

It's all but an illusion.

Instead, he simply begins to walk away, seeking out one of the goat servants. His work here isn't done yet.]

[enter_the_darkness]

[ He's grabbing the hourglass and staring at it for now... ]

[ladyscarred]

Was that really necessary?