RECORDING 12: THE FOURTH TRIAL.

[foundationmods]

The worst has happened... and now you're all here, in the living room where all the trials so far have taken place. As all of you enter, the Vessels are there - Flayn in her darkly pious glory, and Haku, ever the perfect shadow at her side.

On one of the tables away from the center is a small enclosed box entitled 'VOTES', with slips of paper nearby and a pen. It's sufficiently away from what will be the 'main' action, but not enough to really give anyone complete privacy as they vote.

Once everyone is inside, the doors automatically shut and lock themselves, leaving you trapped in here with the Vessels...and each other.

One of you is a murderer...however, in this game, the guilty do not need to be voted out. As long as there are enough people voted out that matches the victims...then it will be accepted.

...But, can you really let someone get away with murder...?

The choice is up to you.



VICTIM: Ango Sakaguchi
PEOPLE TO VOTE OUT: 1

WEEK 4 VOTING

Comments

[dreamshielder]

[And as the kanji hurtles towards Haku, he raises his hands to form a familiar seal. A barrier of ice begins to form in the air as a shield.

However, this barrier doesn't hold. He has a split second to give Flayn a troubled look of his own before the ice is severed and the attack hits him square in the chest. The noise that comes out of Haku's mouth is distorted, like hundreds of people screaming all at once as tendrils of blackened miasma start to burn off his face and skin.

And then every single light in the house goes out. The floor beneath everyone's feet starts to rumble and shake.]

[noneforall]

[He's going to narrow his eyes -- for him, it doesn't so much matter when there's no light, because all the kanji he's been stacking are creating their own radiance, extending from him outwards and keeping the vessels in sight. The 清 above his head brightens still further, casting its rays out into the miasma, searching for its enemy.

Subete, in the meantime, readies some more ammunition: 混 for Flayn, 分 for Haku. The ability to confuse, misdirect, throw into chaos. The ability to divide, and maybe conquer.

Even as he does that, he's reaching out to the air once more, pulling a second creature from the newly-fallen darkness.]

Rejoice. I shall now set you free.

[His voice has resounded through the entire room all this time, as though artificially resonant, but as 蜘 scuttles into the air with its spindly bulk and too many legs, a little too like a spider for comfort... the sonorous quality dims just slightly.

Nevertheless: 蜘 to reach out and grasp at all of the spidery qualities of this place, the house spiders, the spider queen, the webs, everything. His aim is to disrupt the integrity of the web and thus, the house.]

[finalring]

[ he feels a mix of lightheadedness and panic from the gunshot wound. though the lights are off, he still has an idea of what is going on.

and that terrifies him.

he doesn't want to lose anyone else. ]

Subete, DON'T! Please!

[sageking]

It's too late, Doctor. And if he's gone as far as I believe he has...then we've a choice to make ourselves.

[finalring]

...Whether we want to or not, right?

[ oh, how he hates this. ]

[lightreaching]

[ There's clear panic on Flayn's face. She's distracted by the blow that gets past and hits Haku, and its enough for the cracks on her barrier to spiderweb further and further.

She holds her hand out and a ring of light opens up over Subete's head--gold, and then flickering to purple, enough to counteract the darkness of the room. A pillar of light begins to descend from it, smashing downward like a portal from the heavens.

But it doesn't hit him, because the kanji hits her barrier first. So it cracks. It bursts into a million tiny shards that dissolve into the air, and when it hits Flayn square in the chest--not far from the blow that killed her last week--she seems to do the same. There's a chorus of unholy screaming that echoes from her mouth, and her body fractures into pieces that break and break and break, and disappear.

The house rumbles again, the walls shaking, objects clatter in the distance as they fall off of hooks and shelves, and Flayn's spell fizzles out, leaving the room in total darkness again.

The house stills. ]

[noneforall]

[It's an instinct to duck when something that large comes smashing down at you, and so Subete does -- arms over his head, diving down to the floor as though he's in some sort of absurd fire drill, all reflex even as Flayn's spell comes swooping down. It splinters the topmost of his shields and plows into the invisible one in-between,　離 shimmering back into existence as it tries to remove the threat.

Then everything stops.

And then there's silence, just Subete on his knees in the midst of all the light, and all the shadow. He's breathing hard and there's a tension all through him that isn't all down to the fight, but in the respite: he laughs. Quiet, shaky, a little raspy. His kanji stay in formation around him; the word monsters he's summoned continue to orbit, patrolling.

His barriers themselves flicker a little more, attempting to keep up their defense when his attention is divided.]

[finalring]

Flayn...Haku...?

[ oh, he doesn't like this. he has a bad, bad feeling about this ]

[noneforall]

Maybe... in hiding...

[His voice is a bit wheezy, and he hasn't emerged from his crouch, actually.]

[zweivoltage]

[Is it over? Is it really over? He pants, still concentrating on his little ball of lightning, trying to shine a light to better see what just happened - expanding the diameter of the ball lightning, sending a dark blue glow in his surroundings.

Without realizing it, he was holding his breath]

[sageking]

[ ...

This time Gilgamesh will be careful to watch the other man's surroundings. There's some lightning in here thanks to Ky (???) and his sight was good enough to do so anyway.

If Subete actually posed a credible threat against this creature he sorely wished he knew sooner. Much, much sooner.

If the man died and was added to them, he felt like that would be...yeah. ]

[oxidegreen]

[Her sword remains drawn as she tries to seek out any remaining threats. She's guarding Dazai and Yachi now, possibly WWX too?]

[cw_suicide]

[yep. gang's all here.

Dazai's tense as fuck, waiting for the other boot to drop.]

[onemolife]

[ He's just going to lower his flute and put a hand on Dazai to keep him scruffed, while watching t see what happens ]

[white_camellia]

[Nanaka continues glaring int he direction of where Subete was, both swords out. An opportunity to strike... Hasn't shown itself yet. There was no point to continuing to fight for the time being.

She needs to focus... And she sets her swords back into their sheath. Eliminate that which is unnecessary, and watch for the opportunity to come... Something is definitely about to happen, and she isn't sure what.]

[eyeforai]

[He doesn't like Subete by any means, but he did just sort of nuke the Vessels.

Just going around a little to check on Subete from a distance. Yo dude, you still alive?]

[noneforall]

[He's still sort of wheeze-laughing, a tremble going through his frame.

His head is hanging over his arm, but if you check closely enough there's blood dripping down from his mouth. Oops.]

[golden_dream]

[Rosa will just cower in the corner, thanks everyone]

[foxetious]

[.....Gin knows this feeling.

The pressure along his shoulders, the taste of blood on his tongue(, a flower under the moon)...

Unlike the muttered shield incantation in his demonstration before, the chant is clear and ringing now. Stretching across the room, his barrier glows.

Gin crouches down, Shinsou held in one hand and braced across the other forearm, ready in case the barrier falls.

Something is going to happen.

He’s not going to fall with this God too. Not again.]

[kaliedoscopes]

[ ffs this is a lot. Well he can't see in the dark and he's not about to step into kanji versus vessel city, but he does try to take gauge of how Subete is doing. Nostalagia flashbacks really are the theme of this week and he may have laughed once himself at just this entire clusterfuck, but it's probably understandable. ]

[impyroverished]

[The commotion and the floor tremors...oh, this isn't good. This is not good. As if Subete's everything wasn't bad enough already!

Emil had been looking around for the kanji, but then everything else started to happen. He sees Haku's screaming, before the lights go out.

It's just instinct, an unseen threat. A memory flashes right when the lights go out -- a horse-like shape, coming towards him.

It all bursts at once: the memory flashes, his training, the darkness, the floor trembling, Haku's tormenting throughout the week, Subete having increased everyone's hostility, and more than anything else, the fear the miasma had stoked since the start, the fear that now spurred him to try to do something for his survival.

Emil aims his rifle at Haku. His finger is on the trigger, he seems to be getting ready to fire]

[ghostricked]

Battler, hold onto me!

[Better to warn him that he was going limp- thankfully he's already seen it before- and in a rush Sissel's ghost darts from all the debris in the room. All the books and furniture and evidence. And leaps into the rifle, jamming the trigger

He gets it, he does. And a rush of anger hits him 'I should let him shoot and just end this!!!' which makes his hold weaker than usual- but for now, he manages to keep steady]

[impyroverished]

[Emil pulls the trigger. He doesn't even know if he's aiming at Haku, and right now, he doesn't care. He just feels the intense ringing of 'I'm in danger', and that he just has to do something! His life is at stake there!

But even when he tries, the trigger isn't working. Frustrated, Emil pulls again, again, again. Nothing! Emil steps back, a hand going to check the ammo -- it's there, it should be working! The thought someone, even the cat he knew could do such a thing, could be hindering him doesn't even cross his mind.

Why isn't it working?!

Later when he had a clearer mind and wasn't in immediate deadly danger, he'd be horrified he almost got himself stupidly killed. If he ever found out Sissel had pretty much stopped him he'd be grateful, too.

Right now, though, since the rifle isn't working, all he does is step back all he could, towards the bookcase wall, lowering the rifle. Once he gets there, he stops moving, trying to see anything in the darkness, but there's nothing. He stands still and as silent as he can, the very last measure when it's about danger.

Thanks, Sissel. You saved Emil from his own mistakes]

[ghostricked]

[If he could talk to Emil like this he'd try to comfort him. But he can't. All he can do is slip away back to Battler and his body, hoping he made the right choice]

[zweivoltage]

[Ky drops, stopping his attempts to zap the 'seal' Kanji. He stays on his knees, dropping the sword next to him as he cups his hand, quickly summoning up an orb of lightning to light up the darkness]