thefoundation | MOCK ROUND

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mock round

MOCK ROUND - WEEK 2 TRIAL

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.

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[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.

Edited 2019-02-23 17:03 (UTC)

[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:

Let's have fun, okaaaaay?

Edited 2019-02-23 17:22 (UTC)

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?

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.

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.]

Edited 2019-02-23 17:35 (UTC)

Because I woke up covered in the blood.

[He may as well clarify since it was his room the culprit broke into.]

I didn't find any more blood in the bathroom, thankfully.

[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?

[ 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. ]

Edited 2019-02-23 17:49 (UTC)

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.

Do you think the headlock is what kept her from screaming?

[ He nods. ]

Yeah. It was difficult to talk when I was in one. And, if they finished her off quickly enough...

[ Gesture! ]

Heh, sorry you all don't get to see me strung up again.

[Don't sound so disappointed, Takashi]

It's fine, really.

It was fun watching you.

Oh her neck...

[Wow, she sucked at this.]

Could you tell what kind of teeth the animal had?

Are you sure you're not the one disappointed?

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.