CHAPTER SEVEN ; TRIAL

[themodsgrimm]

The Story Continues... CHAPTER 7 - WEEK 711 Narrators Remain ; Wakey wakey, naughty murder children. It's a lovely Saturday, after all. Breakfast is served piping hot at its usual time and all of the evidence has been removed from the scenes of yesterday. No matter how you choose to spent your morning though, the clock will begin to chime the moment both hands reach the large, ornate twelve. Before your eyes materializes a door...but not just any door. Unlike the door leading to the festival, this door sits primly and properly right in front of the foyer. Whether you exit the castle on your own or you feel a friendly, invisible push, you begin to walk under an arc of wisterias. Behind you, the clock continues to chime with every step you take. By the time the time the clock strikes twelve, you've entered a beautiful garden. In front of you is a long table, 19 seats on each side. Around the garden are several glass cases containing evidence collected yesterday. As noon intensifies on the sun-shaped clock, you'll find Dragon at the head of the table, a glass-covered rose near her right hand. Tick tock, Narrators. You have nine hours to deliberate. The garden is strangely silent and there are no snacks today...it seems as though you'll be left to your own devices. Welcome to your trial post! Please see here for the OOC summary of events from yesterday's investigation. In addition, please be sure to vote! Please see the voting page on how to vote, as we will have two special things to vote for. Voting will close at 9pm EST/6pm PST or sooner if the game ICly elects so. If you have any questions, please ask on our Discord server or ping us on plurk. Please direct pings for the NPC to Dana (decals), as she will be taking point for today's NPC, and the moderator team will be on deck for all other questions. full navigation. locations taken (statuses) stories (profiles) info & faq wishing well private conversations

Comments

[psychedelica]

Stop being stubborn...

[ he didn't come this far to fail, dammit!! for the moment, he lets her go, but he does give her a sharp glare that says he's going to hoist her up the moment she starts looking extra wheezy or yeety.

The footsteps continue through the mushroom forest! There doesn't seem to be anything particularly dangerous here, at least. Where do they go... ]

[axilium]

[they keep going until steph collapses.

or until they find the key. whichever comes first, ig.]

[vigilantics]

[ yea



hold on she has to rest against a mushroom. ]

[psychedelica]

... Stephanie.

[ he slows to a stop when he notices her falling behind, turning towards her.

they may notice something sparkly hanging from the gills of the mushroom against her head... ]

[axilium]

...

[belph will just wait to see how long it takes for them to notice.]

[vigilantics]

[ yeah she is not going to look up. ]

Give me a second.

[psychedelica]

Just let me carry you. You're not that heavy... We're almost done, anyway.

[ walking over to her... also not noticing the key... he's too concerned about his partner!! ex-partner. ]

[axilium]

... Guys...

[vigilantics]

It's fine. I don't ne-- what?

[ oh wait.

key.

she grabs it. ]

...

[psychedelica]

...

[ ... WHATEVER!! ]

Why the hell didn't you grab it?

[ BELPH!! He shoots him a Look, then starts stomping off after the footprints again, apparently ashamed...

either way, they don't go on much longer before forking, and the ends of each fork are visible a cute little cottage and an imposing castle. Hikage looks at each one, then back over to the wheezy Steph. ]

... We're not making you walk around a castle.

[axilium]

Oh my god. You took forever.

[LISTEN..........]

Cottage it is, then! Hikage's protectiveness wins out.

[vigilantics]

Belph, shut up.

[ ... although she's. frowning at the cottage. for some reason she doesn't trust small houses in magic land hm. ]

Let's be careful?

[psychedelica]

Seriously.

[ you're the worst, Belph. Hikage's protectiveness continues to win out, though... he looks over at Steph, then shakes his head. ]

Leave this to us. You should rest for a while longer.

[ as he finishes, he starts walking up to the cottage, putting a hand on the doorknob... ]

[axilium]

[he'll happily take his title of the worst, thanks.

anyhow, he walks up with hikage.]

Maybe you should just, like, kick the door down.

[vigilantics]

[ no he can take his time she's still trying to catch her breath while

not standing as close to the cottage as they are. she doesn't trust it ]

[psychedelica]

Why would I do that?

[ he just turns the knob like a normal person?? And he's immediately greeted with a cute, rustic interior, and --

inhuman screeching as a crazed little girl with blonde hair runs straight at him, clutching a knife in both hands. Immediately, he fumbles for his gun, but he's so taken off-guard by the sight of her (the unfortunately familiar sight) that she drives the weapon straight into his thigh. ]

--Gggh...!!

[axilium]

Hikage—!

[well, belph is definitely reacting according to instinct now, and the thing is? after being stuck with shirasu for weeks, and the general... everything behind murder castle, he's been getting desensitized to violence, so.

his first instinct is to stab the girl with his knife.]

[vigilantics]

Shit!

[ well, steph is immediately rushing towards them too. it is more than a little unfortunate that she was so in the back now considering she... would have the best reaction time out of all of them...

but she's going to run to hikage to like, help him with the fucking knife in his thigh. ]

[psychedelica]

[ i mean. in the end, it's just a little girl. And since her weapon is currently in use (in Hikage's thigh), she doesn't really have time to get away or try to fight Belph off. He'll have an easy time stabbing her. She falls to the ground, kicking and screaming - if he stabbed her in a fatal spot, she'll stop soon. If not, she'll need to be finished off...

Hikage was intending to shoot her and make sure she was done, but his gun clatters to the ground uselessly, instead, while he stumbles backwards and grits his teeth. ]

[axilium]

[well, he tried to stab her in a fatal spot because his extremely shady ex-partner taught him how to kill people in return for piano lessons, but he might've been panicking a tad because of hikage.

but you know what, just to make sure, he's picking up hikage's gun and shooting her! got to be thorough. he'll have nightmares about this later, but for now, their survival is top priority.]

[vigilantics]

-- Belph!

[ look she... did not want either of them to be doing any killing... this is bad.

but they do not have too much time to deal with that, since for now steph is. going to deal with the knife that's renting hikage.

she's pulling it out, sorry. ]

[psychedelica]

[ too late, murders were done. If it makes Belph feel better, she doesn't bleed from her wounds. Rather, when she stops moving, her body suddenly begins to disintegrate, turning into a flurry of rainbow-colored grubs and butterflies that quickly flee the scene. It wasn't a real little girl... Probably.

To his credit, he doesn't scream too loudly when Steph pulls that out. There's plenty of blood, but not enough for it to be a critical wound. She must have missed any major arteries. ]

-- I'm fine, [ he says distractedly, putting pressure on his wound. ] ... Good shot.

[ there's nothing of interest in the tiny one-room cottage... but as the bugs dissipate from where the little girl was, only one thing remains: a treasure chest with three keyholes. ]

[axilium]

[...]

Is he okay, Steph?

[he takes a look at the chest, because hopefully once he does, they'll be able to leave this stupid place!!]

[vigilantics]

It could be worse.

[ like, he still got stabbed, and it's bad, but it doesn't seem like he'll be dying from this at the very least.

she is definitely tearing off a piece of her shirt to use a bandage though. ]

You're both idiots. Don't do something like that again.

[psychedelica]

... Like what? Open a door?

[ he can't help but retort, even as he scrunches his face up while she bandages his wound. ]

It's fine. I'll live. [ ... ] ... You know what I mean.