Luke makes his way over to the dining room after making himself some breakfast/lunch/dinner/midnight snack/3 AM snack, presumably where everyone is eating, putting a plate of quite normal bacon and eggs. He sits down at a chair and solemnly takes a deep breath.

"Hi, everyone. I'm about to test if my cooking in this world kills me or not. Wish me luck."

Luke, indeed, takes a bite out of some bacon.

Woody walks into the dining area with a plate of food and a smile. "The buns have officially been buttered, pals." He says, taking a seat and picking up a piece of bread. "Everyone doing well? I for one am definitely eager to go home and start deciding on a venue for the big day!"

"...My arms really hurt, but aside from that, I'm doing okay," Adel sighed, picking at one of his stitches. "I don't think I saw any of you since last night, though. You guys must be in pain, too..."

Tsubasa hesitantly peeked through the doorway to the whatever room. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Adel; she shuffled over to him with a little wave. "H-hi..." she smiled faintly. "Y-you're up... g-good... that's good... yeah... uh, r-right...?"

---

"...Oh!" Adel said, perking up. "Yeah...I guess I made it. S-Sorry you had to see that...but I'm glad you didn't get hurt..! Otherwise, I think Ryleigh would kill me, and then I'd be...uh, well, dead."

"O-oh... uh, y-yeah, um, t-thanks for... y-yeah..." Tsubasa muttered awkwardly. "Um, s-sorry... I-I didn't think it would be t-that bad... f-for you, I mean..."

She scuffed at the floor with her heel. "Oh...! Um, w-wait here for a sec, o-okay...?"

---

"N-No, I mean, I'm the one who volunteered," Adel nodded. "It's okay, really. It all worked out in the end."

He nodded, proceeding to wait.

Tsubasa scurried off to the kitchen and returned a couple minutes later with a bowl of cereal. It even had milk in it. Fancy.

"H-here..." she mumbled, setting it down in front of Adel.

---

"T-Thanks, Tsubasa!" Adel beamed. He picked up a spoon with his free arm and began to go to town on his breakfast.

His aim was a bit shaky, though, and half of his meal ended up on the floor.

"...T-This is really good cereal!" Adel nodded, not really noticing the mess he was making.

"G-good..." Tsubasa sighed in relief, not paying any mind to the mess. With the way she dressed, she was hardly in any position to judge.

---

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Adel mumbled, his mouth full of cereal. "...Luke said he made bacon and eggs, but we're still waiting to hear back on whether or not it's deadly."

Finished giving the Bigfoot statue a makeover, Roxie makes her way to the kitchen and grabs herself a bowl of cereal as well. She sits down in the dining room and begins eating with the others.

“Wow, y’all are real cute,” Jenny mumbled, sniffing her smoothie skeptically. “Maybe this abyss nonsense was the perfect thing to bring y’all together. Surely no one’s gonna commit murder after bonding in the face of certain murder, right?”

“Yeah, I bet I’ll be around for a long while...” she added ominously.

---

"O-oh, really...?" Tsubasa blinked, then got a stupid smirk on her face. "M-makin' bacon... hee...

"U-umm, I'll probably... get a b-bowl for myself in a minute... o-of cereal, I mean..." she clarified, glancing around the room. "Uh, d-did everyone else get... h-hurt yesterday...? I... k-kinda forgot to ask..."

---

"Pretty sure most of us did." Roxie said, in between bites of her cereal.

"I had to cut my palm open, but that's nothing compared to what Deirdre had to do..."

"W-What did she have to do?" Adel asked, who didn't have the chance to see her after the major game. "And are you okay..? Does your hand still hurt..?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Roxie answered.

"...Do you really want to know what happened to her? It's not pretty."

"It's okay...I can take it. I feel like everyone suffered cause of these stupid puzzles...I wanna know..!"

[Please do not post.]

Once their investigations wrapped up, everyone was called into the dining room, which was lit only with a handful of candles on the wall. Ace was shrouded in darkness at the head of the table until he spoke up and welcomed everyone. At the other end of the table sat Loki, who seemed to be enjoying the new aesthetic. The faint sound of heavy rain and thunder could be heard outside...

“Everyone, please take a seat. Where you sit does not really matter, to tell the truth, but I suggest putting at least one seat between yourself and the person next to you. Two people have died tonight… yes, Deirdre has passed on for real this time,” there was a particular nastiness with how he said that. “Furthermore, none of you are allowed to leave this table until the murders are solved or until a suspect holds a majority of the votes. You will vote by directly shouting out who you are voting for. And…”

He exhaled a bit and adjusted his mask. “I regret to inform you that once your vote has been cast, you may not change it. Do not vote until you are absolutely sure. Oh, and, Jenny will be joining us this evening. I’m sure she’s happy to be part of this.”









Throughout the house, all the lights and candles went out, leaving only the dimly lit dining room.

“Nobody is leaving this room until everything’s settled,” Ace reminded them. “Now, I suggest you get started the usual way. Oh, and, for the sake of convenience, I’m just going to make sure you all understand that Loki played no role in the murders, and neither did Jenny. Begin.”

They could all hear the storm raging outside… each of their faces was barely illuminated by the candlelight and their shadows danced on the ivory walls behind them. There was an oppressive air in the room that made it difficult to dispel any tension…

[Please do not post until you have read/received your alibi and investigation in your QT. Trial ends Sunday, May 3 EST. Good luck.]

"Well thanks for fuckin' it up, guys," Jenny suddenly proclaims. "All you had to do was not kill anyone. It really isn't that hard. But apparently someone here just couldn't quite handle it...Twice, even!"

She sighs and leans back in her chair, pressing her fists against her forehead. Then she rights herself again and grabs a juicebox from the table, sipping from it loudly. It has a picture of a cartoon bear on it.

"Whatever. Guess now that I'm on death row I might as well make sure a few more of you assholes make it out alive. And before you go pointin' fingers at me again, I was with Luke the whole time." She gestured vaguely at him. "But I mean, what's-his-face already said I didn't do it anyway."

"Anyway," she continued, "Luke and I were hangin' out in the Master's Study at 8:30 PM, talkin' about all sorts of existential nonsense. We left at 8:58 and spotted Great Dragon walking down the stairs at the end of the hall. Then we headed to the dining room at 9 to see if we could find any of the others. We went there the long way, through the foyer and living room.

"As it turns out, Tsubasa and Adel were in the living room havin' some argument, and Ryleigh was settin' the table in the dining room. Then Ryleigh went back to the kitchen, and we could finally tell that Tsubasa and Adel's big row was about aliens and shit. It was gettin' a little out of hand, so we called them into the dining room. Apparently Adel asked if she believed aliens and then started to lose his mind. We decided to go to the library and maybe cool off a bit.

"At about 9:18 we walked into the living room and saw Myrion sittin' around on his ass. Then a couple minutes later we reached the foyer and saw Roxie..."

She crushed her juicebox in her hand and tossed it behind her. Then she placed her tray on the table, decked with all sorts of non-alcoholic beverages, and began spinning it aimlessly.

"After that I just sorta stayed by the body. I wasn't really payin' attention, so you'll have to ask Max what he found. I do know he never left the room though."

---

"Dios…. Es una matanza!" Great Dragon cried out in horror. "Why did both Deirdre and Roxie have to die like this? And especially after Deirdre have been through so much... Great Dragon barely know anything about Roxie.... The same could be said for Deridre..."

The wrestler took a moment to get himself composed. "Perdón about that... Anyway..." He cleared his throat as he looks at the others.

"At 8:30, Great Dragon was upstair, looking at the Statue of the Dead. He was looking at the statues of his fallen comrades, half of them were murderers... Although, 'comrades' isn't really the best way to describes them. At the very least, he said a prayer for them, out of respect for the dead. Also, Great Dragon can hear both Luke and Jenny talking in the study around this time.

15 minutes later, Great Dragon was going down the stairs when... he felt the need to go back to his room for some reason. It wasn't until 8:55 that Great Dragon left his room and went down the stairs. It was around 8:58pm when he came down the stairs and saw Myrion enters the game room.

So, Great Dragon entered the game room in the hope of chatting with Myrion, but he was in no real mood to talk. Great Dragon thinks that it was because of Lucy as Myrion kept clutching the blue heart on his choker..." He trails off as he looks towards Myrion, sympathizing with the Robot Companion. "We all heard shouting which came from somewhere. This was around 9:00PM. We went our ways to investigates the shouting.

2 minutes later, Great Dragon entered the kitchen. At first, he thought that the shouting was coming from the kitchen, but when he entered the kitchen, no one was there... Although, there was a heavenly smell coming from the pot on one of the stoves...

At 9:07, Great Dragon went out the kitchen's southern door, and this time, he went to the bar. He suspects that perhaps the shouting came from there! When Great Dragon entered the bar... Cups was in a low-powered state, seemingly unresponsive... Great Dragon found Max's hat which he think was left behind, as it was on one of the bar stools... Great Dragon left the bar at 9:10, and you know what?

Oddly enough, there was a lack of noise compared to before... So, Great Dragon went back up to his room to think for a bit. It was 9:13... Of course, Great Dragon may have fooled around and wore Max's hat for a quick laugh." The wrestler chuckled at the thought of that.

"Anyway... It was 9:20 when Great Dragon left his room and steps out into the bedroom block. That's when he heard someone else leaving their room. After that, Great Dragon met up with Woody. We exchanged greetings just before we heard Loki's announcement about the body discovery." The wrestler finished explaining.

"As for the investigation... Great Dragon and Myrion met up once again to investigates the bar and game room. Right off the bat, Jack refused to tell us anything, which was expected. On note, there was nothing useful in the game room...

As for the bar... Cups was in standby mode and was unresponsive... Myrion noted that the vending machine was clearly been assaulted by someone. There's also Max's hat that Great Dragon found which he told Myrion about. Other than that, there was nothing worthwhile to find..."

"Oh, good lord..." Max seemed quite struck by what had happened. "Not again! Why'd this hafta happen to ya, Deedee? For real too... what a terrible place this is." He reached for his hat... only to realise it wasn't there. All that was there was his own beautiful golden hair for everybody to see. He sighed, shaking his head. From the dim candlelight, one could tell he was clearly upset. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts for a bit, eyeing the others and whatnot... till Great Dragon spoke.

"Oh, so that's where it went!" He exclaimed. "Did ya hafta play with my hat though, G.D?!" He asked, a bit frustrated. "Well, whatever. Could ya pass me my hat back at least? I kinda need it right now... I ain't ol' Max without it, y'know?" He pleaded a little desperately.

---

"Ah, yes! Great Dragon was hoping to give it back once he comes across you at some point, but well.... We know what happened..." Great Dragon said as he hands the hat over the table for the salesman to take. "Perdón!"

"Why was your hat in the bar, anyway?" The wrestler asks as he cross his arms.

Luke seems pretty dejected. More so than usual. In fact, his head is buried in his palms and his elbows are resting on the table for most of the current talk.

Eventually, he looks up at the others and straightens himself. It's pretty clear that he's very upset as well. "I don't know who's the motherfucker that did this, but Deirdre came up to me some time ago askin' if we should throw the trial. I almost entertained that thought for a while. I was even gonna bring it up. But now? There's no fuckin' point! I'm gonna enjoy watching whoever this asshole is go down in flames!" He exclaims.

Finally, he sighs and continues talking, a bit more calmly, "Jenny covered my alibi, basically. What I found in the kitchen was a pot of tomato sauce and a splash pattern on the floor. Basically, it means that the sauce fell. Either some dumbshit is a really terrible cook or someone used it for a murder somehow. Yeah, that's all. Go figure."

"Oh... two people died again..." Myrion sighed.

"Well, today wasn't very eventful for me. I was in my room at 8:30, I was just thinking about some stuff... after twenty minutes I went downstairs. I saw Woody and noticed some red spots on his shirt, I didn't ask about it though. I walked through the hallway looking at the paintings and went into the game room at 8:58, I think."

"At 9:00 PM Great Dragon came into the room as well, I'm sorry for not being a good conversational partner..." He looked at Great Dragon and smiled apologetically.

"Anyway, two minutes later we both heard shouting from somewhere so Great Dragon went to investigate. I left to the foyer and heard Adel and Tsubasa have their discussion in the living room, but at some point they went into the dining room. There was also a fuss in the library, which I found a bit odd, but it must've been Jenny and the others going there after the discussion.

At 9:09 PM, I went into the living room and stayed there until 9:18 when I saw Luke, Jenny, Adel and Tsubasa come out of the dining room. The body discovery announcement was heard not long after. I think that's it."

"Great Dragon already covered everything from our investigation."

Max snatched his hat from the table, putting it back on his head. He appeared to be quite satisfied as he did, tipping it a bit in thanks. "Ahh, there we are! Right where it belongs... sorry, anyway." He cleared his throat. "It was a total accident my poor baby got left in the bar, actually! Lemme start from the beginnin' here."

"Right, so it all started at 8:30. Ol' Max was there in the bar. I wasn't drinkin' or anythin' this time- last time I did it ended pretty badly for me, so I just decided to have a pleasant chat with ol' Cups! Well, more thinkin' out loud than anythin', but yeah. Cups was pretty nice, he just let me say my bit without sayin' anythin'. He was oddly quiet though..." He shook his head. "Anyway, I'd taken my hat off since I figured it could use its own seat, 'cuz nobody else was there! I forgot it when I left the bar though... Shameful, I know! It just didn't occur to me at the time, I s'pose... Oh, this was 'round 9:05 too, for the record. I bid Cupsy farewell and went out into the hallway. Actually, at that time I heard some sorta commotion comin' from somewhere... Though I dunno where exactly, but thinkin' about it now, it was probably just the kid and Sue havin' their little tiff. I just shrugged at the time and went over to the game room, where ol' Jack was, but nobody else was actually present! And I wanted to hang out with someone too... I tried persuadin' Jackster to let me play blackjack some more, but the guy wouldn't budge! Kinda rude if y'ask me..."

"Now, it was 9:13 when ol' Max returned to the bar to check out the vendin' machine thingamajig. I tried openin' it manually t'see if I could get what was inside, but then I remembered this is sorta like one'a them vidja games, so there was probably nothin' inside 'em in the first place. I was sorta frustrated that I was doin' nothin' at all, so I just left the place, forgettin' my poor hat yet again. I went to the southern kitchen door- this was at 'bout 9:17- and opened it. And what do I see there? Nobody! Not a soul! I tell ya, it was aggravatin' not seein' any of you fellas out there. Was like everybody in this place was avoidin' ol' Max!" He said, sounding pretty fed up about the matter. "Only thing I could hear was some movement from the staircase at the time... But I just went over to one of the stoves, which had a large pot of some tomato sauce boilin' in it! Since nobody else was around, I decided to go and have a taste from the pot with this ladle nearby. It was the same one as ol' Luke found, I'm pretty sure. Just as I was thinkin' to myself how it tasted- which wasn't particularly yummy- that infernal Loki fella suddenly made his announcement. At this point, I was just losin' it, fellas! I just want a break from all this, but... well, y'know how it went." He sighed. "Worst part is I wasn't even spotted by anybody anywhere, so it doesn't look particularly good for me, huh?"

"Oh, an' the investigation!" He suddenly remembered. "Right, I looked at poor Roxie's cold virtual body. The living room itself was pretty much useless, zero evidence there, so the body was all there was to look at. Like I said, it was cold, so it'd probably been a bit since she'd been choked. Y'could tell she was strangled by the bruise marks on her neck too, so... it seems fairly clear-cut that way. The only thing of interest was that there were a few specks of blood near her. It was kinda unusual, I've gotta say, but that's about it."

He finished, taking a deep breath. "I know I look pretty fishy here, but I'm tellin' ya that I didn't do it, alright? I know how it looks, 'specially in Deedee's case, but I wouldn't harm someone on purpose! Swear on my momma's grave!" He finished, looking quite tense. "Let's hear everyone else out first, alright?"

---

"...D-Deirdre...and Rocky, too..." Adel whimpered.

"...S-Sorry. I wasn't really doing much. I was having a nice, friendly talk with Tsubasa about UFOs and stuff...until about 9:07, and that's when Jenny called us into the dining room...t-then the two of us were just with Jenny and Luke, so...sorry..."

"For our investigation, we were at the library...D-Deirdre was stabbed...in the heart, but we couldn't find a weapon. And then, uh..."

He gave a semi-nervous glance to Tsubasa as if he wasn't sure how to proceed.

"I...I don't know if I can do this..." Woody mumbles, a nauseated look on his face. "I can't take any more of this...why can't they just let us go home already?!" The florist cries out in agony. "I should have never left that stupid flower shop..."

He then takes a deep breath and proceeds to share his side of the story once again.

"At 8:30, I was helping to cook in the kitchen with Ryleigh. At 8:40, she got sauce on my shirt, and so I had to go back to my room to change. That was probably what you saw on the floor, Luke." He says to the mechanist. "Anyways, at 8:48 I spotted Roxie while on my way to the room, who was holding a letter in her hand. I...I tried to say hi, but she seemed really upset about something..."

"At 8:50 I ran into Myrion, and finally at 8:53 I was in my room. I cleaned off my shirt in the sink for about five minutes, and then went to try on another shirt. I found a nice and fancy shirt, real classic looking, and looked at myself in the mirror, daydreaming about my big day, wearing that shirt, and about the life I was going to live...I ended up daydreaming in front of that mirror until 9:20, which is when I stepped out of my bedroom block and ran into Great Dragon.." Woody mutters awkwardly. "That's...pretty much it."

"During the investigation, me and Ryleigh were by the Statue of the Dead, and we found a bloody knife near its base. Ryleigh recognized it as a knife from the kitchen, and told me that earlier during the day she noticed a knife was already missing from there. In the Master’s Study, we noticed a few things near Ace’s desk. There was a pack of cigarettes on the floor next to the chair. I thought there was something familiar about them...I think they were Roxie's. There were also several pieces of parchment strewn about, and a dried quill pen. The ink bottle for the pen was empty."

"First Roxie, and now Dee too? For real this time...?" Ryleigh thinks out loud, wringing her hands together atop the table.

"But, uh...yeah, at 8:30 I was still in the kitchen with Woody, and we were just, y'know, cooking. It was 8:40, then, when I added too many spices to the pot, so it boiled over and splashed all over Woody's shirt..." She looks up at the flower boy and mumbles out a quick apology before continuing, "and I guess that ruined the sauce since everyone thought it tasted so bad..."

"So after Woody left to change his shirt I was alone in the kitchen until around 9 when I went to go set the table, and that's when Luke and Jenny came in the dining room. Then I went back into the kitchen to finish making dinner once I finished setting the table, at...9:07. So in ten more minutes I wrap up everything and go back into the dining room so I could hang out with everyone before dinner, but no one was there. And it was right then I heard someone shouting in the kitchen, and I was scared it was another ghost, but...right after that Loki gave the announcement."

Ryleigh takes a deep breath. "Oh, and, Woody already covered everything we found, the missing knife and the cigarettes, and stuff."

"I see, I see," Adel nodded.

"You never noticed Deirdre smoke like every trial? I mean, I guess it makes sense coming from you."

"That's strange. We never actually made it to the library before runnin' into Roxie, so it couldn't have been us. Maybe it had somethin' to do with Deirdre being found there."

"Also do any of y'all have a clue where Deirdre was during the investigation?" Jenny asked, referring to the suspicious nature of the investigation post. "I swear she was there, but I can't place her as bein' assigned to any of the groups."

---

Great Dragon listens to the others as they gave their testimonies and he nods.

"Great Dragon think it's safe to say that the bloody knife was used to kill Deirdre. And the dried quill, parchment papers strewn about, and a empty ink bottle... It should be assumed that was Roxie's doing as Woody mentioned that he saw Roxie with a letter in her hand." The wrestler said as he thinks about what was being said so far.

"Um..." Tsubasa finally raised her head and spoke up. She looked like she was trying not to cry. "I-I was with Adel... t-the whole time... s-sorry..."


"E-er... t-the pack of cigarettes was there too... r-right...?" Tsubasa reasoned. "S-so, um... m-maybe Deirdre wrote the letter... and g-gave it to Roxie..."

She blinked at that and dabbed a tear out of the corner of her eye. "O-oh... w-writing... d-damn it... damn it all... t-this sucks..."

---

"I don't mean to start accusin' right off the bar, but if Deirdre wrote that letter and gave it to Roxie, it might mean she was trying to get her somewhere specific. That might mean she had somethin' to do with her death. I guess she coulda just wanted her to deliver it to someone else though, but judging by how emotional Roxie looked whatever she had was probably meant for her."

She glanced between Adel and Tsubasa.

"So Deirdre had been stabbed in the heart, huh. Is that all you found? It seems like you have more to say."

---

"Let's not forget about the letter that Roxie have in her hand when she was seen by Woody. However... Where is the letter? Was it ever found?" Great Dragon asked, reminding everyone about something that Woody testified having seen.

"...E-Er...w-well, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it...it was like uh, wham! Bam! And then she was gone..."

Great Dragon seems to be thinking very carefully about what he heard so far.

"Great Dragon may have a guess on the shouting that some of you heard at different times... First, let's focus on Ryleigh's account. Ryleigh said that she heard someone shouting in the kitchen just before Loki's announcement, right? Think about it, folks. Who was in the kitchen before the body discovery announcement? Max. Max's the only one who was in the kitchen at the time. The shouting was probably Max's reaction to tasting the sauce." The wrestler deduced as he cross his arms. "And the fuss that Myrion heard coming from the library? It was most likely caused by.... Deirdre and her killer. Deirdre's body was found in the library. We didn't know where she was until we start investigating when we heard the scream from the library."

“So you saw it happen, then?” Jenny replied, looking absolutely flabbergasted. “You’d better wrap your head around it quick then. That sounds like vital information.”

---