"An Esper...?" Nero mumbles. "It's heartbreaking to know that these spiritual gifts have been used for such evil acts. These so-called Scientists should have never tampered with these matters...May their souls be met with retribution."

Albatross was quietly and solemnly looking through all this information with a huge bulge of paper towels stuffed in his pants to try and make it look less like he had wet himself, but obviously it didn't really help his overall presentation much.


"So, that's why we are called 'Prey' we are just a sick twisted meal for this rabbid psychic beast of a human to consume. Nothing more then a preworkout shake that is not approved by the FDA." Albatross mused while foolishly rubbing the coffee stain instead of dabbing it.

"Oh, um..." Nova shifted uncomfortably and sighed. "Well, that's... pretty much the idea, I guess. That they're supposed to look fine, I mean. But... they're replacements. I'm a little surprised nobody's asked until now... heh, maybe I'm better at hiding it than I thought," she chuckled. "...or maybe some of you guys did notice and you were just being polite. Anyway..."

She lifted the wrist of her left arm and let it fall lifelessly to her side again. "This one doesn't work at all... still working on that. It's mostly there so people don't stare. As for my right, well, it works, as you can see," she explained while moving her fingers around to demonstrate, "but the skin looks a little... off. I'd rather not show you, so just take my word for it. Besides, it's really hard to get my glove back on if I take it off... Anyway, that's why I knew there had to be something else to these bracelets than what we were told. Why wouldn't they just put it on my wrist if it was so harmless? Then we found out about the poison; can't really do that to a fake arm, right?"

---

“Hmm...well, I certainly didn’t notice anything amiss. Those replacements must be very high-quality...though I can’t help but wonder how you lost them in the first place.”

...

After everyone finished investigating the off-limits area, Crow joined a group of the others to investigate the public bathroom. She uselessly tugged on the locked bathroom stall and then continued on to the edge of the room, toward the far wall which even in the dim light was clearly covered in grime.

The furthest stall from the entrance immediately caught the group's attention. Its door seemed to have been torn from the hinges. Inside was a tangled mass of broken pipes which likely used to connect to a toilet, but where it should have been was a steel manhole cover embedded in the wall, an oily black 3 scrawled on its surface.

Crow sighed and pushed her way to the front of the group.

"This one's for me," she said, a hint of trepidation in her voice.

The bracelet scanner jutted from the wall. Crow pressed her wrist against it and heard a dull click from the floor. She placed Ash's cage beside the manhole, and the bird watched curiously as she stooped and moved the cover aside.

Beneath was an inky black drain that seemed to punch through the center of the Earth. Stagnant water sat just below the opening, looking solid enough to drag a person into its depths. Crow squinted into the tunnel but couldn't catch any glimpse of its bottom.

She took a packet of birdseed from her coat and handed it to the nearest person.

"In case I don't come back," she said.

Crow held her breath and covered her nose. Ignoring Ash's squawks of distress, she leaned forward and broke through the water's surface.

As she felt the unnaturally warm water surround her skin, Crow's scarf slipped from her neck and launched back to the surface. Crow rapidly kicked her feet, dragging herself deeper. Her hand repeatedly scraped against the side of the tunnel, which was covered in strange algae.

The deeper Crow dove into the drain, the more useless her eyes became. Within a few seconds the faint green glow from above had been drowned by the dark water. She eventually closed them, relying only on touch to tell her where she was going.

Crow realized a little late that she had no idea what her goal was. She had no clue where the end of the tunnel was or what she would find there. And it was impossible to tell if she'd already fallen so deep in the void that she would die before she escaped.

All she could do was continue deeper. Even as the walls of the tunnel seemed to close in like the tip of a funnel. Even as her face smashed through more and more strands of algae. Even as her throat screamed desperately for relief from the carbon dioxide building up in her system.

Crow considered turning back, but the tunnel had become so thin she doubted she could. Its walls scraped over her back, threatening to squeeze the last traces of oxygen out of her. She knew she had only been down here for less than a minute, but it began to feel like she'd spent days submerged in the water.

Then she thrust a hand forward and, to her surprise, she didn't hit a wall.

She opened her eyes and pulled herself deeper. The faintest traces of light cut through the void, revealing a bronze tank several feet across—likely an ancient cistern refilled with clean water. Just below the light, she saw a rusty key suspended from a hook. Without that speck of illumination, she would have had no way of finding it.

She pushed off the wall and methodically swam to the light. She reached out, feeling the rough metal in her fingers. She tightly grasped the wall and pulled on the key.

It came off faster than she expected. The hook tore from the wall with a dull scrape. She held fast to the key but lost her grip on the edge of the cistern. She launched into the void, spinning end over end in a swarm of bubbles.

She slammed against the wall, hand tightly gripped over her face. She looked through the darkness, but she'd lost track of which way was up. She reached for the roof above her but found only hard metal. She wanted to scream but knew it would be the last thing she did. She could only keep swimming away from the light, searching desperately for the tunnel. But the darkness closed in, and she thought she could feel its hand grasping around her throat.

Then she heard it.

Through the darkness floated the dulcet tones of a mockingbird. Ash sang at the top of his lungs, throwing a line into the tunnel for Crow to grab.

She held on tight. She thrust herself from the wall in the direction of the birdsong, letting the water lift her toward it. Her foot slammed on the wall as she escaped the cistern, but she heard the song getting louder. She kicked her feet one at a time, soaring up the tunnel.

The seconds dragged on with no sign of the green light. The song got louder, but so did her compulsion to breathe. She couldn't take it anymore. Her mouth shot open, and water slammed against her throat.

In the stall above, the group watched bubbles float to the surface of the water. Some of them joined Ash in calling out to Crow, while others left, unable to watch for any longer. Just as they began to think Crow had failed, the water churned like the sea and launched from the tunnel.

Crow's hand slammed on the tiled floor, the key clutched in her hands. She pulled her head above the surface. Water poured from her mouth as she took in grateful gasps of air.

Ash's song caught in his throat as Crow climbed from the hole, her clothes dripping wet. She lifted the birdcage and brushed dismissively past the others, unlocking the door of the locked stall. Inside she found a toilet with a small card resting on its cistern. She tapped the card against her bracelet and smiled knowingly at the screen.

Finally, she collapsed onto the toilet and took in labored breaths. She eventually picked up Ash's cage and unlatched its door. The bird jumped onto her finger, and she raised him into the air and lovingly stroked his head.

"Y-You've made mother...very proud," she croaked.

---

There was still one last Trial to find. Going by the pattern from before, it was probably somewhere in the kitchen, so the players focused their efforts there.

[Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYfE_yURWMg]

Everyone was starting to feel uneasy. The longer they took, the more time they gave the Witch to kill one of them. Thankfully they found the Trial indicator before long: a red 8 painted on the fuse box, behind a door concealed by the fridge. Some of the players shifted uncomfortably: this would have been Twist's Trial.

TV-Head had, of course, declared themselves the bearer of the deceased's bracelets. Now they went up to the nearby device and placed Twist's against it. There was a simple beep, and then it was over.

Then TV-Head suddenly staggered forward, holding onto the fuse box for support. In the dim light the players weren't even sure what was happening, but when TV-Head's body twisted to the side as they collapsed, light from a nearby mannequin's TV screen glinted off of something on their back. Some of the players rushed forward to support them, and were horrified to find TV-Head had been stabbed. Someone must have thrown a knife, but it had been too dark to even see it happen, let alone see who might have done it.

There were calls for first aid, but those with medical knowledge could tell it was already too late. TV-Head had barely seconds left. One of them gently moved TV-Head into a more comfortable position and tried to remove the TV from their head, but even in their final moments it was stuck on there. TV-Head's last words were muffled and distorted by the voice changer inside.

There was a sombre silence for a few seconds as one of the players cradled TV-Head's body. The others were all eying each other warily, trying to make sure the unknown murderer didn't try anything else. All around them, TV-headed mannequins watched them mockingly, continuing to play footage of past murders.

Then someone quietly suggested they move on, as the execution timers were still counting down. Someone picked up Twist's bracelet and retrieved TV-Head's too; Twist's now read "Digit #8: 2", while TV-Head's was blank, awaiting their Trial in a future area. With that there was nothing left for them in the Fear area, and they all returned to the entrance. They found this time that there were no further puzzles obstructing them: they could simply leave.

---

---

[Oubliette theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um39Yj0lT4k]

The players filed back into the Oubliette. The robot was there to greet them as usual. "DOOM O'CLOCK SOON APPROACHES!" it helpfully informed them at maximum volume. "I'm sure you'll be wanting to discuss the upcoming vote now, but first let's pay our respects to dearly departed Player 5."


There was a stunned silence for a few moments. “Sorry, she had a WHA-” one of the players began, before being cut off by the roar of an explosion coming from the room they’d just been in.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Okay, full disclosure, I may have detonated that prematurely for dramatic effect,” the robot said. “But yes, she’d had a bomb strapped to the inside of her TV this whole time. Anyhow, THAT'S ALL FROM ME, FOLKS! GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN!!"

It seemed it no longer had any rules or advice to give the players; from this point on, they were largely on their own.

[Discussion theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNlSC5qoZXQ]

[The phase will end in 3 days.]

Last edited by KamiPanda on Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Ohhh, no no no no...." Silver huddles her knees to her chest and mumbles to herself after screaming and diving to the floor after the explosion.

"We're all gonna die.. We're all gonna die... We're all gonna die...."

It seemed like she didn't have anything useful to start the discussion with.

"Ahaha, maybe!" Ennea laughed. "But I think one of us needs to go first. So now, we'll all be voting for Crow, correct?"

Silver stops sobbing into her knees like a gross child and looks up towards Ennea, and scratches behind her ear.

"Well... I was just about to mention that. Totally."

She nods. "Unless someone else happens to have some more information, there's obviously only one reason TV-Head acted the way she did..."

"Not yet. We should hear everyone out first." Uno said shortly. He seemed significantly shaken by TV Head's explosive death followed by the role reveal but he seemed to want to move forward quickly. "Nero, do you have any results for us?"

---

"May Miss Television Head have a peaceful journey to the afterlife." Nero says in prayer, closing his eyes and bowing his head momentarily.

The empath then addresses the rest of the group. "Once again the spirits have informed me of another ally. Nova is another Prey without a role." Nero announces. "We can at least trust two of the people here among us..."

Last edited by TheLetterF on Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"You're really going to take the ramblings of that woman seriously?" Crow said. "After finding out she willingly strapped a bomb to her head? Don't be daft. I have no clue why she was out for my blood, but her accusations were completely unfounded. You can be certain of that."

Crow sighed and wrinkled her nose, clearly having mixed feelings about TV-Head's death.

"I'd like to add that it seems this murder was perpetrated by the Hacker, and we should be able to tell the difference between their kills."

---

"BOLBLLBLBLBLBLBL," Odin panicked, foaming at the mouth. He didn't have much else to contribute, just at a loss for words. Miraculously, he got his body back. Maybe it was the fear of seeing another dead body.

"BLBLLBLBLBLBLLBLBLBLBLB!"

"M-Mrs...Crow? U-Uh...do you happen...to have a role? Maybe we can assert your innocence...or guilt, that way."

He said...guilt?

"O-Oh God! Please don't come for me next!! I'll give you like...twenty bucks..?"

"Well... that doesn't leave much else... Ah well." Uno sighed. "Crow, any last words left before we execute you?" He asked in an almost matter of fact tone. "If you have a role, you may as well stop hiding it now. The killer could only be either you or Nero... perhaps both, but let's leave that for later."

---

" I umm. Don't like it but... TV Head did give us a clue, and it's our duty to respect their final wishes. But I guess communication isn't bad. We might discover a clue so no one has to go! It definitely seems like this whole nonary+ game has gone off the rails, so maybe there is a way out!" Albatross said giving as uplifting a smile as he could to everyone around him.

"The problem is that my role is both clearly not a Killer role, and a role the Killers would be quite pleased to dispense with," Crow explained.

The woman sighed in disappointment. She held an empty cage in one hand, as Ash flitted between her shoulders unaware of any possible danger.

"Still, I'd rather die later than die immediately," Crow said. "Though I suspect you might find my explanation difficult to believe. I'm an esper with a very odd gift, you see. One that allows me to jail other players. I'm surprised none of you guessed by now, considering I've been carrying a cage in my hand this entire time."

Crow held up the birdcage. Ash jumped off of her shoulder and landed on the perch. She closed the door, trapping him inside.

"Using my esper powers, I can trap a person's consciousness within Ash's body. I call this the BIRDBRAIN technique. It prevents a player from using their action, but it also protects them from any Killers."

"So, as you can see, there's no reason why I would be a Killer. An ability that allows me to protect people from murders I was committing myself would be useless. Because TV-Head could only detect Killers, her accusations were clearly baseless. I have no idea what problem she had with me. Perhaps she was just playing a prank. But if you kill me over it, the real joke will be on the rest of you."

Crow released Ash from his cage, and the bird alighted on her finger and began to sing. She turned to Nero with an uncertain grimace on her face.

"Now, I know this may be opening me up to further suspicion, but I can't keep quiet considering the circumstances," Crow continued. "Because...I'm certain I targeted Nero last turn. I hoped to catch him in the act of murder since it seems likely he might be a Killer. The fact that his role went off regardless is incredibly strange."

---

Golf looked frustrated for having been unable to do nothing to stop tv-heads killer.

"we weren't able to stop this from happening...truth be told I or for that matter many of us didn't trust you, but hopefully now at least we might be able to increase everyone elses survival...so thank yo tv-head."

"Tv head was very sure of there vote for crow and almost never trusted them, as the seer I feel I agree they would be a good choice to vote over however I still would like to discuss what new info we have gained perhaps in hopes we can discover another target was well, after all the killers are a bigger priority then scientists and we cant count out the possibility crow is a scientist and not a killer."

"Jesus Christ..." Nova mumbled, hand anxiously running through her hair as she struggled to calm down after the explosion. At least the robot hadn't taken her chair from last time.

"Um, well..." she eventually spoke up after gnawing on her gum for a while, "I can say at least that Nero's right about me..."


"Maybe someone stopped you from using your power?" she suggested.

---

"A jailer..? Really?" Uno narrowed his eyes at Crow with a look of suspicion. "How convenient for you. By any chance, did you use your role last time as well? Unless you can prove this properly, we cannot necessarily begin to believe you at all."

---

Ennea smiled.

"I suspect I'd know if my esper powers were blocked," Crow said. "I don't believe that I was."



"Funnily enough, I targeted you," Crow said with a breezy laugh. "Perhaps you remember spending some time in a more diminutive form?"

Ash let out an offended squawk.

---

Uno stayed silent at Crow's response... then let out a laugh.

"You're right, Crow. I did get targeted on the first night, actually. I'd been waiting to see who'd done it to me, and now I know. It was you... That was a test to see if you truly were who you said you were. And now I'm sure."

"You are the jailer after all, it seems. Good job."

---

"But...this means that one person between Crow and Nero have to be evil," Odin pointed out. "TV-Head kept insisting Crow was evil, but I don't think jailer would be a killer. Crow could be a Scientist..? But then what about Nero..?"

Odin exploded.

"Crow can be a Scientist, but TV-Head wouldn't have known that..." Silver sighs. "Nero on the other hand is looking a lot worse."

"It's also interesting who Crow protected in the first round, if she happened to be a Scientist..."

"Nero was awfully confident about me, though... So then..." Nova chewed her lip and blew a bubble as she thought. "I see two possibilities here: either Nero is lying about being Middleman but probably has a teammate who IS Middleman that told them about me... or Uno and Crow are both lying and working together..."

---

"But Nero would've been notified of being jailed regardless of having a role or not, so I don't think he'd give us a result..." Ennea tried and failed to make sense of the situation.

"If I had stayed silent, it would have been beneficial for us overall." Uno replied, pushing his glasses up. "You all seemed to believe her role already, and there was minimal doubt to it. I was simply a random person she chose in an earlier round, perhaps because she wanted to ascertain if I was a Killer. Lying about this would do us no good, really."

---

"The former seems more reasonable to me," Crow replied. "If I were to lie about being Jailer, Nero would be an awful fake target to pick considering he'd just told us his role supposedly worked. Besides, even as a Scientist I'd have no reason to make this whole thing up."

---

"I was never jailed. Unless this jailer figure somehow managed to jail my 5th sensory avatar, which I have yet to unlock." The young man states.

"There's no reason to cross Crow off as a suspect." Nero replies. "In fact, her alleged powers are far more threatening than mine. Blocking someone from accomplishing their task and obtaining leads is much more dangerous than whatever I do." He says, crossing his arms. "I believe she belongs to this supposed Scientist faction"

Last edited by TheLetterF on Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"But Nero would have no reason to lie about not being jailed! So this must mean you were blocked!"

"Thing is, unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be a reason for Nero, Crow, OR Uno to lie about what they've said..." Nova frowned. "So I'm not sure what to think."

---

"Crow might not have been blocked at all, and instead just targeted someone else." Silver chimes in. "Perhaps her teammate? It would be silly to lie about not being blocked, since the roleblocker themselves would know about it, right?"

“Perhaps he simply forgot to check if he was blocked until it was too late to back down from his lie?” Crow said, referring vaguely to an OOC concept. “Weirder things have happened. But I wasn’t blocked. If I was, the blocker could have confirmed it, but as you can see, they’ve been completely silent.”

---

"Madam, you are a liar and a cheat. If I were blocked I would have said so in the same breath I revealed to the group that Nova was a Prey. Perhaps it is you who is grasping for any ounce of logic to your fictitious statements." Nero retorts.

“That’s assuming you were aware you’d been jailed when you posted,” Crow said. “Between the two of us, someone is lying, and only one of us can be a Killer. If no one is willing to speak up in your defense, then I see no reason why we shouldn’t vote for you. I understand that I look suspicious here, but even if I were a Scientist, it would be far more important to dispense with the possible Killer at the moment. Due to the role distributions, I doubt that you’re innocent.”

---

"Excellent idea, vote off the Middleman and keep the psychopath Scientist who is capable of preventing people from identifying our threats. You need to admit your treason, immediately."

"H-Hey, stop fighting you two! We need to discuss this ourselves!"

Odin stood still for a second.

"...H-How do we even...begin to discuss this, though..?"

“I’m at a huge loss here. Even if the Roleblocker intervened, why would either Crow or Nero lie about not being blocked? Unless their one of their allies, right? But what’s be the plan there? Crow and The Roleblocker are both Scientists and did this to make us all acted and confused?”

Silver crawls into a ball and begins to sob.

Suddenly, Crow started chuckling to herself.

“Okay, fine. I admit it,” she said. “I was lying. I was blocked, so Nero’s results are fine.”

“I suspected the roleblocker was a Killer, so I was trying to draw them out. I think if they haven’t spoken up by now, they aren’t going to, so I can drop the act. We’ve gotten way too distracted with this nonsense anyway.

“Apologies for the confusion. I figured Nero wouldn’t actually be in danger since it was an awful lie, and I could take it back at any time. That’s all though. It was just a gambit that didn’t pay off.”

“I must say, though...” Crow grinned despite herself. “That was quite entertaining. I think I understand TV-Head’s actions better now.”

[I actually forgot to check my QT and missed that I was blocked until after I posted. I thought of the plan to draw out the blocker and decided to roll with it.]

---

Odin screamed.