"Hey! Uh..."

Devin bites her lip and sits a couple feet away from Adel.

"No way... You're going to stay here? For what? What's here?"

"How in the world could this possibly be the place you were looking for?! Sorry I'm just flabberasted obviously I respect your thought process on the matter. I just can't conceive of why after these last few weeks that you would want to stay here."

"...I'm staying," Adel repeated, a little louder this time. "You won't change my mind..."

"Okay. Yeah that seems reasonable. Well, maybe it doesn't really seem reasonable, but I understand that, at least in theory, you could have such an opinion, and that said opinion could be based in reality, but I'm just--"

Devin wrings her hands, her face still twisted in stress and disbelief.

"Y-you're not giving up on hope, are you?"

"...I-I don't know. But..."

Adel placed his hand on the floor, as if he were pointing at something. He took the key he received out and held it gently in his hands.

"...I can't leave right now..."

Ramon had remained mostly silent throughout the whole thing. It was difficult to tell if he was enthralled or utterly terrified. Maybe both.

"This... This right here... This is what I want defining my life in the future, encounters like this! Gosh, that was amazing!" he breathed. He looked, then, at Adel. "I guess fate's given you a clear way forward, then? I can appreciate that. Stay if you must, if that's what you need to do! I'm sure you'll meet Cain again!"

Woody takes out the picture of his loved one from his wallet and holds it close to his heart before giving it a kiss.

"This is dark-sided stuff..." He mutters. "How does this...spirit, even know about our pasts? Could this just be part of Ace's sick game?"

"Well, uh... that was something, alright", Max commented, not really sure what to say now that it has all passed. "So are we goin' with "A ghost caused all this" then? Kinda spooky if ya ask me... How'd they know ol' Ace, anyway? Whole thing just keeps raising more and more mysteries..."

---

Great Dragon peered into the girls' bathroom after some time have passed.

"Is it over? Is the fantasma gone?" The wrestler asked, looking around to make sure everything were back to normal. "Can you fill Great Dragon in on what happened?"

"...I'm so tired of 'fate,' or whatever you're talking about," Adel said, his voice tired and desperate. "I've been looking for as long as I can remember...I just want it to be over..."

Deirdre, who had just been staring dumbfounded at everything going on until now since Adel started talking to the spirit, finally snapped out of it and walked over to the stall.

"Adel...? What happened in there?" she asked, offering him a hand to get up. "... Um, whatever you heard in there, it might not be true. Why do you want to stay now?"

"...What I'm looking for is here," Adel replied ominously. "...S-Sorry. But you guys are gonna have to escape without me. I...I can feel that I'm close..."

"We don't have to leave you behind." Deirdre insisted, kneeling down to look at him eye to eye. "... Well, I guess I can't speak for everyone, but if what you're looking for is here, then... I wouldn't mind helping you find it. You don't have to stay here forever."

Ramon flinched, looking snubbed. "H-hey, I'm the one supporting you here!" he shot back childishly. "If you say you need to stay, then you need to stay..."

"...Thanks, guys," Adel said, still exasperated. He took Deirdre's hand and stood up, and began to pace around the room anxiously.

Luke looks around, hesitating a bit, then groans. "Sure, I'm kinda scared of this place now, but I'll help you out too before we go. And I'm sure when we get out others will too, yeah?"

Deirdre smiled a bit, watching Adel pace around. "That's right. We shouldn't be talking about leaving people behind at all. That'd just be playing Ace's game normally..."

"...B-But...I don't know...They just said that I would know when the time comes."

Adel leaned against a wall in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Y-You guys should still try and escape, I think. This is something only I can do..."

"I'm not leaving without you." Deirdre answered, her smile vanishing as quickly as it came. "Even if I can't help, I can wait. So I'm not leaving until you're ready lo leave."

"...That's really nice of you, Deirdre," Adel said with a weak smile.

Shaking his head, Adel began to head for the exit.

"All I can do right now is what I'm supposed to be good at..! If what I'm looking for is really here, then I should be able to find it. I don't want to wait anymore. I'm going exploring..!"

"...N-Not that there's much to explore right now...also, I'm not that good at it...b-but, maybe I'll find something else in the meantime! I'm usually able to find something cool by accident."

Great Dragon listens to the others as they discuss Adel's situation. He steps into the girls' restroom once again.

"Alright, if that's what Adel wants to do... then Great Dragon won't get in the way. He'll do anything to help Adel out." The wrestler said, nodding his head. "Once Adel have accomplished whatever it is that he was set out to do in this place... Great Dragon think that it's up to Adel to decide what he should do afterward."

"Still, Great Dragon think that once we leave the girls' restroom, we should not speak a word of what happened in here." The masked man said.

"Well, I'm glad for Adel. I know this all must be a huge opportunity for him," Devin stumbles to her feet.

"Great Dragon's right. None of this shit leaves this room, okay? No ghost talk, no Adel talk, no nothing."

"Thanks Laura" she adds, as she cleans the room of the candles and ouija board.

"Wait, none of it? But-" Ramon began, before freezing in horror. "Oh, right, there's no cameras in the bathroom... No-one in the outside world saw the ghost! We're going to become those crazy people who keep insisting they've seen a ghost while everyone else thinks they're just deranged! This is just terrible..."

“I wonder how Laura died... maybe Ace had something to do with it...” Ruby finally mused, having been shocked speechless throughout most of the seance. She then looked over to Adel and nodded.

“I wanna help you out however I can, too! Must be really important to you if you don’t wanna leave this place, so... I’ll do my best for you! As a proud maid, I’m here to serve, after all!”

After an eventful night, all the contestants gathered in the cafeteria for lunch the next afternoon, chatting among themselves.

“Well, I was thinking that today I’d just sit back and watch some movies…” Adel said while munching on a cereal bar.

“Ooh, I’ll join you!” Ruby, who was also chomping down on a cereal bar, said with her mouth full.

“Please chew before you speak…” Devin sighed.

“Movies huh?” Great Dragon smiled, sitting at a nearby table. “Great Dragon would be very interested!”

“Great, it’s settled then!” Adel said with a wide smile.

Everyone else either had little interest or not much to add.

And so the day went on…

The goober gang crowded into the elevator after wrapping up their investigations, ready to take on the third High-Stakes game and solve the murder of Ruby Colyer, the Ultimate Maid.

They returned to the familiar room, where Ace sat on his throne, as usual, only now King and Queen’s seats were very clearly absent (though, nobody cared enough about them in the first place to bother bringing it up).

“Welcome, welcome, everyone,” Ace said from his seat. Lucy appeared next to him, looking quite forlorn.

“Yes, hello again, everyone,” she said. “It is time once again for you all to solve a murder. Ruby Colyer has been slain, with the confirmed cause of death being electrocution.”

“Yes, someone fried poor Ruby up like a frozen TV dinner! C’mon Lucy, you gotta put effort into the theatrics. No need to be so clinical.”

“Ah, right. In any case, um… well, you all know what to do, don’t you?”

“Right. You’ve all been down this road twice now, so it’s time to get started. Just because I feel like being nice, however, I won’t be taking a cut of the prize money this time. The audience wants to see your numbers rise, and I want to see my numbers rise, get it? Good.”



Nobody really had any reaction to anything for a bit.

“What the hell’s wrong with you people? Did you guys see a ghost, or something? Jeez…” he grumbled. “Alright, come on, let’s get going. No fake-outs like last time -- just routine. Begin!”

"Jeez, it's like you're not even trying this time!" Ramon sighed, putting a finger to his forehead. "Even without hearing from anyone else I can see exactly how this happened.

"First, we look at the state of the body. Ruby, she... died via electrocution," he began, faltering slightly and breaking the smug facade for a moment. "A-and who here is capable of electrocuting people? Robots, that's who!

"But wait, I hear you interject, Myrion couldn't kill her! And I agree! This is where we look to the second piece of evidence. It's right before our eyes!" He pointed dramatically... right at Ace's throne. "Let us not see what is there, but what isn't! King and Queen are, conspicuously, missing!

"Here's how it went down. King and Queen must have snuck down here to watch a movie. They're probably not normally allowed on this floor, which is why we haven't seen them about the place since coming here. Without Ace noticing, they took the elevator down and then made their way stealthily towards their destination. But then, something unexpected happened. They couldn't agree on which movie to watch! This started a fight, in which Queen furiously demolished King for his poor taste. However, King's broken body was an electrical hazard. I'm sure you can tell how it went from there...

"So yes! The one who murdered Ruby was you, Queen! You accidentally killed her with King's body, and that's why you're hiding somewhere instead of attending the trial like you're meant to!"

Great Dragon stood there, still trying to process what have happened.

"Why did it have to be Ruby?" The wrestler asked no one in particular. "She didn't deserves to die like that..."

".... Perdón, Great Dragon need some time to collect himself... It's just that..." Great Dragon trails off as he looks down as his feet. It was clear to the others how he felt that way.

Devin sighs, "I don't think it's allowed to be King or Queen. That's not fair. Nobody would notice or care if they were the murderers and so the case would be unsolvable. I say we only vote for them I we have no evidence at all in four hours."

Devin flips through her notebook, biting her lip. It's coated in movie notes for some reason. Seems like she brought it and a pen down here with her from her room upstairs.

"Okay here are my notes. Basically, I sat around in the shared sleeping area for a while until 5:20. I was working on my jewelry projects, filing down a couple of rings. Other people were in there too but I'm not sure when they entered or left really."

She flips a couple more pages.

"Uh then I went to the bathroom. And then at 5:25 I went into the hall and hung out there for a while, stretching my legs since I wasn't feeling comfortable in the sleeping area. I didn't see anyone as I worked on the ring some more."

She prods her forehead with her pen.

"I went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat at 5:40. There I found Luke and Max. Seemed like Luke was drinking very hard and yeah I'm not sure why. Max and I then went to check out the movie theater and then we watched the movie with Roxie and Woody and Deidre. I enjoyed it, but it was a little bit dumb. Max left for some reason at 5:50, which was strange. And then uh... That's everything."

"Well wishes to Ruby's family, I suppose. This must suck."

Last edited by Doctor Nanjo on Tue Apr 07, 2020 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Adel shook in fear by his podium, leaning on it for support. He was still dressed in a fancy tuxedo, sweat dripping from his face.

"...S-She died in front of us...G-Great Dragon and me..."

He covered his face with his hands, unable to collect himself.

"W-Why..? It happened so fast..."

"Well, uh... shucks." Max tipped his hat while looking down, appearing a bit dismal at all this. "I've gotta admit, I didn't know poor Rubes too well, but she seemed like a nice person. Seein' this happen to her is... pretty depressin', right? I..." He shook his head. "I dunno what to say, really."

"...Uh, well I guess I can say what I was doin' at least, I suppose", he concluded a bit uncomfortably, scratching his neck. He seemed to just ignore what Ramon was saying, not wanting to get into any arguments for the time being.

"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly have much of an eventful day today, come to think of it... I was in my bed at 5 PM, just thinkin' to myself. Didn't pay any attention to anyone else there and I just started to drift off... Then, 25 minutes later, ol' Luke woke me up! Asked if I could accompany him while he ate. Kinda surprised me, honestly. Didn't expect him of all people to want me by his side... Anyway, we both left the quarters. I saw Myrion chargin' at the time too." He added quickly.

"Anyway, we reached the ol' cafeteria 5 minutes later- that's 5:30, for anybody keepin' track- and we started eating and chattin'. We talked about... stuff. Iunno if it's my place to share it, but it wasn't much of importance, probably. Y'can ask Luke himself if you're curious. In any case, our only lasted for 5 minutes or so, leavin' us both in silence for a bit." He shrugged. "Anyway, at about 5:40 ol' Devin entered. I asked if she could keep us company, but she didn't have much interest, so she started to leave. Luke then told me he wanted to be alone, and asked me to go with her... wherever."

"I was actually about to refuse, but we got interrupted by this loud "thud!" and a horrible scream from somewhere! It was freaky as heck, I tell ya! I looked around the room, but didn't see anything. So I decided to take Luke on his offer after all and went after Devin, who'd started to look 'round the floor. I was obviously kinda shaken up about the whole thing, but she seemed think it was just some sorta prank. We walked some more, lookin' around, and ended up at the theatre. This was at about... 5:45, I think? We found Wood-man, Deedee and Roxie all there havin' a ball of a time, and decided to seat ourselves there. I, uh... decided that the movie wasn't for me though, unfortunately, and left 5 minutes later. So then I just decided to make my way to the first aid centre to cool myself down."

"Turns out that all that followed was anything but", he added a little irritably. "Wands was there, and good Lord is that woman is desperate! She kept talkin' and talkin' with me, and it was so clear she was tryin' to... er, pull my big trousers down, let's say. Either way, I felt like I was gonna explode from chattin' with her! She wasn't pushin' any of my buttons, I'm afraid to say, so I decided to leave the darned place. It was at about that time that I heard that terrible announcement, though..." He paled a bit, recalling the moment. "It musta been 6 PM at the time, then. Anyway, uh, I decided to hurry up and made my way over to the soundstage. The rest is, well..."

He shook his head. "Anyway, that's all for my whereabouts. As for my investigation with Ryleigh, we both uncovered some stuff. I'll start with myself. I scanned the hallway, and didn't find too much other than some crushed machinery by the costume depot door! Couldn't tell what it was though, I'm afraid to say. Ryleigh went over to the gift shop and noticed some stuff was missin'. Some floss, ropes, clips n' hooks... Doesn't seem like Coins was willin' to say anythin' about it though even when she asked him, it was kinda strange."

He took a deep breath. Writing this stuff is hard. "Anyway, that's all I've gotta say on my part. Didn't even see ol' Rubes the entire day till I went over to the soundstage. Pretty tragic, but yeah. This is all we've gotta do now though, right? Get another gotdang murderer among us here and watch 'em die... Honestly tirin' stuff", he sighed.

---

"Oh right that weird noise. Yeah, I remember that. I just forgot to mention it, but yeah Max, Luke, and I heard a weird noise when we were in the cafeteria. Whatever made the noise though must have been in some other room."

"Oh and Deidre and I searched the changing rooms and all we found is that the vent was open in one of the stalls I think. The rest was pretty spotless."

Devin listens to Adel with a horrified expression, "Uh, what the fuck? She died in front of you guys? Well then what happened? What was she doing I mean, uh..."

Luke definitely looks like he's seen better days. A common occurrance, at this point. He groans and rubs his eyes, mumbling something to himself.

"What Max said's right, " He says in an exhausted voice, "When he left, I just kinda drank another glass and passed out for fifteen minutes or something. Woke up from my head bangin' on the table and then I heard that terrible sound and... yeah. Man, I've had it with this goddamn fuckin' game."

"Y-Yeah... It happened so suddenly that even Great Dragon don't know what the heck happened..." The wrestler said as he looks towards Adel. "Anyway... We have to do this... For Ruby's sake. She'd want us to figure out what happened and find the bastard who did this."

Then Great Dragon turn to face the others. "Guess that Great Dragon should start from the beginning." He cleared his throat before he started talking.

"At 5:00, Great Dragon was in the theater with Adel and Ruby. We were watching a movie called The Tale of the Henn. We were watching the movie up until 5:25 when Woody, Deirdre and Roxie entered the theater. They were talking so loud that we tried to get them to quiet down with no efforts..." The wrestler glared at Woody, Deirdre and Roxie before he continues to talk. "Around 5:30, we have enough of the chatterboxes as we couldn't even enjoy the movie. So, we left to go to the soundstage as Adel wanted to check it out.

It was around 5:35 when we entered the soundstage. There, Ruby decided that we should do a photoshoot. So we went about setting up lights around the green screen. At 5:40, we were in the props room where Ruby picks out some things that she'd think would look good on her. And she picks some things out that she'd want Great Dragon and Adel to wear. Although, Great Dragon wished that he have his wrestling costume, which was unfortunately left up in his room... After that Ruby started putting clothes on top of Adel's clothes, which we can all see here..." The wrestler gestured to the tuxedo that Adel is wearing. "Moving on... What happened next... Dios... It's horrible..." He shakes his head, getting his thoughts straighten out.

"Right... At 5:55 we're back in the soundstage. So we were getting ready for the photoshoot when Ruby skips over to the greenscreen, like she was ready to take a picture and then.... She tripped." The wrestler grimaced as he recalls the events that leads up to Rudy's death. "When she fell to the screen, there was a thud. Quickly after that, there was another thud. And then there was a whirring noise...

The green screen wraps around Ruby and lifts up to the ceiling and.... there was a loud CRACK. The lights went out. And the air smells a little funny. It took a minute, but Adel and Great Dragon tried to not panic. Then a backup generator started up and the lights turns on and..."

The wrestler was shaken up by the fact that someone just died in front of them. "Dios mío... Why... Great Dragon don't understand how it could have happened..."

"Right, the investigation." Great Dragon said as he cross his arms. "Ramon and Great Dragon investigated the cafeteria. In there, Great Dragon found a open bottle of wine on a table, with a small plate of desserts and two glasses. We don't think this is relevant to the murder... Maybe someone can explain what's up with that."

"... Try not to think about that." Deirdre muttered, just not knowing what else to say. "Great Dragon already gave most of your alibi, so you don't have to speak up if you don't want to, okay? Just, just try not to think about that..."

"R-Ruby..." Tsubasa whimpered softly, eyes down and a pained expression on her face. "I-I'm sorry... I n-never did go t-talk to you again after that one t-time... o-or explain why I r-ran off..."

---

"...O-Okay..."

"Ruby..." Woody wipes a tear from his face. "Why did this happen? Why did another person have to die?"

The florist shakes his head and attempts to regain his composure, before proceeding to tell his side of the story.

"At 5PM, I was drawing in the room with all our beds. Roxie was there too." He explains. "At 5:10, Deirdre walks in, we talk, and long story short we decide to watch a movie together, the three of us."

"At 5:20PM, we went to the gift shop kiosk to rent a movie, but Coins told us there was already a screening. We could also hear some static-y chatter in the area, but that's probably irrelevant. In the theater we saw that Great Dragon, Adel, and Ruby were already there and sat next to them in the back row. Adel seemed to be in control, 'cause he was holding the remote. The three of us stayed there until 6PM". Woody sighs. "Other than Adel leaving the movie theater at around 5:30 with Great Dragon and Ruby, Devin joining us at 5:45, and then Max leaving at around 5:50, I don't have anything else of note to report."

"During the investigation, I managed to find a vent grate in the south-eastern corner of the room, and I noticed that the grate to the vent in the ceiling was missing. Nearby, I also spotted what looked like live wires, cut open, though no longer functioning. It looked like their power was automatically shut off."

"Poor Maid Girl..." Ryleigh mutters, rubbing the back of her head. She shoots a concerned glance at Tsubasa for a moment before looking around the room.

"Well...alibi time, right? At 5 o' clock I was hanging out with Tsubasa and Robobuddy in the cafeteria, and the three, er, two of us were eating. Then I did a handstand and got all hurk-y and fell on my butt, so we decided to go take a walk! That was at...5:25, I think? Yeah, 5:25. So we walk for a little, and then, uh-" She stops, suddenly, a light dusting of red starting to appear on freckled cheeks, "Tsubasa and I went to go look at costumes, and stuff! In the costume room!"

"So we just like, talk and start trying on cute costumes for a while...but, then, I when I was changing, I swear I heard one of you in the cafeteria," She looks between Devin, Luke, and Max, placing her hands on her hips and giving the three of them the angriest little pout they ever dang saw, "say something about Tsubasa!" The girl punctuates her statement with a little hmph, only to continue, "So I had Tsubasa gimme a boost so I could crawl into the air vents and spy on you!"

...

"And then when I crawled over to the cafeteria, I saw a cockroach wearing slippers, and it, uh, scared me, and I hit my head and...screamed..." She looks around, bashfully, rubbing her head again, trying to smile the embarrassment away, "So I crawl back out, and tell Tsubasa what happened, and then she rubbed my head, and uh, we went to go get me first aid! While we were walking, we heard Lucy's announcement, and...that's it."

"Oh, and Hat Guy already said it, but when I checked out the gift shop, I saw that a bunch of floss, ropes, and hooks were gone."

"If Ruby tripped... do you think someone set up a trap?" Myrion asked.

"Anyway, like Ryleigh said, I was with her and Tsubasa in the cafeteria and then we went for a walk. However, I looked away for a couple seconds because there was a piece of paint chipping off a wall... and when I turned back, Tsubasa and Ryleigh were gone.

I decided to go charge in the living quarters since my battery was running a bit low. So, yeah, I lied down on my bed and went into low power mode. This was at 5:30, I believe. Um..." He looked at Lucy with a concerned expression for a second. "I can still hear things when I'm on low power mode, and at some point I heard a shriek and movement in the vents, but that must have been Ryleigh."

"I think that's it for my alibi, I finished charging at 6:00 PM and I heard the announcement right after."

"During investigation, I found a couple sandbags tied to some rope that lead through some bars in the ceiling and right to Ruby... Those sandbags are commonly found around the sound stage, I think."

Still giving Adel a few concerned glances, Deirdre faced forward and muttered to herself, after lighting a cigarette. "If her sister saw any of that, I'm going to kill Ace..."

"... My alibi is Woody's alibi. I was having a little smoke break in the hall outside the living quarters before joining him and Roxie, but we didn't leave each other's sights after that. Devin also said we found that open vent in the costume depot, which I guess has just been explained."

"Ruby probably got caught in some trap, like Myrion says. Which... Makes this a real headache, since it could have been set up days in advance for all we know." she sighed. "It's a weird place for a trap though..."