Court Records

“You do?” asked Ciro, eyeing her suspiciously, and keeping his distance from her. “Ok, tell us everything you know.”

CaptainPancakes wrote:"...We don't need a prisoner to tell us that," Ivan replied, slamming his baton against a nearby wall. "Killing in any way is absolutely unacceptable."

Benjamin's eyes flitted over to Ivan. "I'll also add that if I knew how a killer would think, I'd make sure to target our good officer here first. After all, he's apparently the best qualified to finding a murderer."

The words almost sounded like a threat, but there was no anger in his voice. In fact, something seemed terribly off about Benjamin from the moment of his arrival. Almost everything about him felt fake, or manufactured in some way. Whenever he smiled it did not reach his eyes.

jumpfight5 wrote:While everyone was screaming, Carrie was thinking. A lot of her thoughts were about bugs and rodents, but after enough time she remembered where she was. However she was still hungry and kept thinking about bugs for some time. Then finally she snapped back. "Carrie know way out. But Carrie need help."

Matt having calmed down after his little episode...(and fear though he would never admit being afraid of that nail.)
"Im almost convinced id rather risk my ass in this death game bullshit then have to potentially deal with that brats foul ass stench." What sort of help do you need brat?

Carrie got to her knees and dug her fingers in the dirt. She scraped at the ground and kept going. After 2 minutes she had a hole 6 inches deep. "Dig under wall. Like mole." She continued to dig with her fingers. In her head, she had already reached the sunlight on the other side. The other 15 were holding her above their heads, cheering her name.

“Yes, good idea. But digging down is only making things worse, we need to dig up... is that even possible?”

JesusMonroe wrote:

CaptainPancakes wrote:"...We don't need a prisoner to tell us that," Ivan replied, slamming his baton against a nearby wall. "Killing in any way is absolutely unacceptable."

Benjamin's eyes flitted over to Ivan. "I'll also add that if I knew how a killer would think, I'd make sure to target our good officer here first. After all, he's apparently the best qualified to finding a murderer."

The words almost sounded like a threat, but there was no anger in his voice. In fact, something seemed terribly off about Benjamin from the moment of his arrival. Almost everything about him felt fake, or manufactured in some way. Whenever he smiled it did not reach his eyes.

"Your jokes are ill-timed," Ivan smiled. "I would not claim that, to be frank. But I do know when the time comes...I'll deliver divine retribution to my fullest capacity."

*SLAM!*

"...For any criminal is a stain on Rattlewater and its glorious people! That, of course, includes whoever is masterminding this sick game from behind the scenes. And I don't think I need to worry about most of you falling under the criminal's guise."

Klifford tried to stay calm. He really did. He couldn't, though. The doctor let out a yell as he ran to a corner of the room, and proceeded to throw up.

Daniel furrows his brow after the contents of the tablet are read aloud, wiping some sweat from his forehead. He seems to be taking a few minutes to mull over the content of the tablet by himself. Eventually, he speaks back up, clearing his throat.

"As much as I hate to admit it, the tablet doesn't seem to be lying, soldiers. It's too much of a coincidence that the entrance was artificially sealed. Either way, we must keep calm and continue down the cave. There can still be an exit, and we have to find it at any cost. But once we get out of here and we find who's responsible..." Daniel punches his left open palm with his right fist. It's pretty loud.

"A lot of production value has gone into this," Seb muttered, examining the stone pillars. Perhaps he was trying to find 'his' pillar, but he couldn't make heads or tails out of the symbols on them.

"I am almost certain that there are some among us capable of killing," he continued calmly, though by examining the pillars he didn't have to look anyone in the eyes. "I may not believe what this tablet says, but that does not mean there aren't some here who do, some here who are willing to do what they deem necessary. Benjamin has the right idea, we must take this seriously and work out systems to keep the peace."

He didn't place much stock in Carrie's plan. He seemed to have already resigned himself to his fate.

“How would we even summon the Game Master, anyway?” Brandy wondered. “Not that I’m sayin’ we should, but there’s no real instructions about that.”

"If we don't summon the Game Master, this 'Killing Game' won't begin in the first place. So perhaps, just to be safe, we should leave this strange room well alone," Seb suggested. "There's certainly something symbolic about it all, like some sort of cultish summoning altar."

KamiPanda wrote:"If we don't summon the Game Master, this 'Killing Game' won't begin in the first place. So perhaps, just to be safe, we should leave this strange room well alone," Seb suggested. "There's certainly something symbolic about it all, like some sort of cultish summoning altar."

Shizune didn't need to be told twice to leave; she was already wheeling herself out.

Everyone seems to be in agreement to this. Not wanting to be in this strange room anymore, the group quickly exits the peculiar altar. They were now back outside in the tunnel of stalactites, with the body staring at them from nearby. It was especially unnerving.

"Alright, so what the hell do we do now?" Charlie asks, very on edge now.

"We still haven't managed to break open the other pathway. Let's give it another go." Daniel grunts.

"You really think we can do it? It hardly even budged to our efforts last time." Nail says.

"Well, we won't know until we find out!" Ivan remarks. "Let's go, team!"

Everyone follows Ivan back to the jungle area, with the waterfall still flowing. The rocks still stood in their way.

"Alright, team! Let's gooooo!" Ivan charges at the rocks once more, with Daniel, Benjamin, Matt and Carrie all following him. The others follow and quickly give support. They continuously pick apart at the rocks for several minutes unrelentingly... Yet the boulders stand still, unmoving. It seems the group isn't that much of an unstoppable object. The pushing slows down heavily, and everyone seems exhausted.

"Well, that was a bust." Brandy grimaces.

"S-so it's true? We're really trapped here?" Charlie pales.

"We can't give up already, men!" Ivan shouts. "There's more to this, I tell you! It doesn't look like much has changed, but I can tell we've made some real progress today. We just need to chip at this for a while!"

"Ah, hell... How long will that take?" Matt groans. "I can't stand being here with all this shit going on."

Suddenly, a high pitched screech is heard from above. Everyone looks up in surprise.

“What on earth?!” Ivan exclaims. “What was that strange noise?”

“Is… is somebody up there?” Lavender asks curiously. “Could it perhaps be Ms. Gardner?”

“Hmph, impossible.” Nail snorts. “Did that even sound like a human to you, automaton?”

“Wait… are those eyes I see?” Bennett squints.

Looking up, the others also notice a pair of bright yellow eyes staring down at them rather eerily. Suddenly, the flapping of wings can be heard as the eyes grow closer to them. As it finally approaches them, everyone immediately realises what they're looking at.

“Oh… it’s just a bat.” Seb simply shakes his head dismissively.

“What else were you expecting?” Micah raises an eyebrow. “We are inside a cave system, after all.”

Indeed, it was just a mere bat, about the size of two baseballs. It seems to have a curious expression on its face as it looks at the others for a moment… before suddenly getting out of the way of the rock that was thrown at it.

“Hey, what was that?” Brandy turns around to see who had just thrown the rock. It appears to be Benjamin. “What did you do that for?”

Benjamin simply shrugs. “I just wanted to see how I’d feel about it if it were hurt. Please, excuse my indecency.”

“No, don't hurt!” Carrie suddenly shouts, approaching the bat. “Bat good. Bat hurt nobody! Bat very nice to Carrie.” She patted it slowly as it seemed to relax.

“You… know this creature personally?” Oliver asks, appearing concerned.

“Yes!” Carrie grins eagerly. “Bat Carrie’s best friend. Bat help Carrie when Carrie live here.”

“Help? How the hell does this little maggot help us, soldier?” Daniel scowls.

“Oh, let Carrie show you! Bat, get fruit!” She orders. Immediately, the bat flies up to the vines and comes down with a small fruit, which Carrie takes and chomps into.

“See? Bat reach places where man no reach”, Carrie explains. “It very helpful. Cute too.”

“Oooh!” Brandy lets out an excited squeal. “Brandy like bat already!”

“Hmm… what else can this creature do, if I might ask?” Ivan asks, scratching his chin.

“Bat know many tricks as well!” Carrie proudly replies. She takes a small stick lying down nearby and throws it. Immediately, the bat goes to fetch the stick and returns with it in its mouth, looking at Carrie proudly.

“Oh, so it knows tricks as well?” Klifford chuckles. “It’s pretty cute, yeah. Almost like a dog.”

“Oooh, I like this, I like this!” Charlie responds excitedly. “Let’s keep this little guy! He’s so adorable!”

“You mean we’re keeping this little pest as a pet?” Matt folds his arms stubbornly. “I dunno, it doesn't look that nice.”

“Hmph.” Benjamin shakes his head, unamused. “In prison, they wouldn't even let us keep a pet hamster. We were forced to suffer on our own, with not a single friend to care for us.”

“My my, prison sounds like a dismal experience, doesn't it?” Ciro comments. “In any case, I see no reason why we shouldn't keep the bat. It looks to be quite helpful, and it's not like it's particularly harmful.”

“...True.” Micah nods, somewhat reluctantly. “It doesn't look to be dangerous, in any case. It’s probably a fruit bat of some kind.”

“Awesome!” Charlotte cheers, raising her fist into the air. “Look at that lil’ cutie! He wouldn't even hurt a soul, would he?” She came near the bat to pet it lightly. “Oooh, who’s a good lil’ bat boy, huh?”

Sebastian slightly rolls his eyes. “...I prefer cats.”

“Heh, well, this guy doesn't look too bad to me either.” Bennett smirks. “What’s his name, actually? Guy like him’s gotta have a nice name.”

“Bat name?” Carrie contemplates the question for a moment before arriving at her answer. “Bat have no name! Bat name is Bat!”

“Wait, really?” Brandy asks incredulously. “You can’t just leave him nameless!”

“...Can’t we? I don't see much of a problem here.” Oliver says awkwardly.

“Oh, a name would be perfect!” Lavender responds agreeably. “Something to call him by at all times, something that has some flair to it! It would be absolutely adorable!”

"But what about those rocks?" Nail asks. "Are we not going to examine them further?"

"Oh, we won't be able to make progress on that anyway." Brandy shakes her head dismissively. "So while we wait, we may as well make use of our time wisely!"

“That settles it, then!” Charlotte slams her fist onto her hand. “Let’s figure out a name for this fella, eh?”

Shizune quickly types up something on the paper she has and passes it onto everyone else.
“Hmm, a democracy would be ideal, yes!” Ivan nods. “Very well, then! If you find this so important, then does anyone have any suggestions?”

“Kee kee kee!” The bat cries out happily.

The mood seemed to be considerably lighter now that the group had a cute little distraction with them, making them forget about the grim message they had discovered just a few minutes earlier.

[You may all vote on what you want to name the bat. You don't have to suggest a name if you don't want to, and you don't even need to vote.]

"Does it even understand us? It's a wild animal, not a dog," Seb said dubiously. "I doubt it will recognise any name we give it. This is a waste of time."

“I say we name ‘im Bruce,” Brandy said. “It’s a good name for bats.”

KamiPanda wrote:"Does it even understand us? It's a wild animal, not a dog," Seb said dubiously. "I doubt it will recognise any name we give it. This is a waste of time."

"Kee kee kee!" The bat responded. Or did it even respond? It was hard to tell.

"Well, you know with animals, they choose what they want to be called. You spend hours thinking up a good name for the dog, but then the animal only responds to people who call him 'Fido', so that's what you have to call him."

Ciro stops himself and takes some time to think of some names.

"How about... Pineapple? José IV? Roger? Ruth?"

"It doesn't matter." Benjamin said, dragging his hand across his face as if he were tired. "Leave his name as 'Bat' and let's move on."

He walked over to the pile of rocks, and chucked his iron ball at it as far as he could (which wasn't more than three feet). He picked it up again and continued to throw it at the pile.

"Ah, so we may give this creature a name? How charming.." Lavender stares at the bat for a few seconds, studying it carefully. "I wish to name is Ves, or Vessy, short for Vespertilio. Vespertilio is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae. Did you know that while others can glide, the bat is the only mammal capable of continued flight?"

"As long as the little shit don't bug me I don't give a rats ass what you call it."

Matt reached into his pocket for another candy cigarette only for the pack to be out and he only had one last pack of his candy on him.

"This is a shitty a day and I cant even say it cant get worse cause im stuck in these caves with these morons and all this bull happening. At least im not actually out yet." Matt opened his final pack and opened and took one out along with a new beer to drink. "At least I have you beer, you never let me down."

JesusMonroe wrote:"It doesn't matter." Benjamin said, dragging his hand across his face as if he were tired. "Leave his name as 'Bat' and let's move on."

He walked over to the pile of rocks, and chucked his iron ball at it as far as he could (which wasn't more than three feet). He picked it up again and continued to throw it at the pile.

"Absolutely not."

TheLetterF wrote:"Ah, so we may give this creature a name? How charming.." Lavender stares at the bat for a few seconds, studying it carefully. "I wish to name is Ves, or Vessy, short for Vespertilio. Vespertilio is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae. Did you know that while others can glide, the bat is the only mammal capable of continued flight?"

"Absolutely not! That name sucks!" she said, moving over to pet the bat. "Doesn't it? Doesn't that name suck? Yes it does!"

"We should name it Loxley! Like the Robin. I love that name..."

WinterCoat wrote:“I say we name ‘im Bruce,” Brandy said. “It’s a good name for bats.”

"An excellent decision." Nail nodded. And no, it wasn't because his idea was Batman. Or Batbat. Or Manbat, because Manbat really wouldn't've worked.

Don't question it.

"Kee kee kee! " The bat responds affectionately in response to being patted by Charlie.

"Oh look. Maybe it's telling us that its name is Kee," Seb said, possibly sarcastically; it was hard to tell from his tone. "As good a name as any. Can we hurry this up?"

"Kee kee!" The bat flew up quickly away from Seb. Shortly afterwards he felt something land on him- most likely bat droppings.

"It's settled then. It doesn't get any name, at least from me," Seb said coldly, brushing whatever had fallen off of him with his gloves and then pulling out some basic cleaning stuff to sanitise where it had come into contact with him.

"Don't see why we need to name this animal..." Oliver mumbled, crossing his arms as he looked over to the bat. "But I suppose Bruce or Loxley work well." He shrugged, indifferent to what the final name of the bat would be.

"What a fascinating animal...can it track scents?"

Ivan seemed to study the bat instead of attempting to come up with a name for it.

"..."

Micah had been deep in thought for a while. "A name...hmm..." Clearly, she had decided this was an important matter.


"Something familiar like Bruce could work, but maybe something more memorable...Vlad? Hmm...."

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "That's it! We should call it Draculo." She said enthusiastically, without any typos despite what you're probably thinking now.

She nodded , satisfied with herself. "Yes, that's definitely where my vote goes." She then looked at the others expectantly.

"What about Dr. Acula?" Klifford suggested. He seemed to have calm down a bit from earlier.

Daniel grunts in annoyance. "Why does this little maggot's name matter, soldiers? It can't even move a rock or do push-ups. If you really need to name it, Bruce is fine."

“Alright then, it's been decided!” Brandy announced. “By popular vote, the bat’s new name is… Bruce!”

“Keek keek keee!” Bruce screeched happily, apparently content with its new name.

"Don't think that was exactly a popular vote, but whatever the hell gets us to move on," grumbles Matt.

“Good Bruce!” Carrie told it warmly. “Bruce get fruit!” Bruce quickly flew up and came back down with a fruit in its mouth. “Now eat fruit!” Bruce did as requested and chomped on it, clearly enjoying his literal fruit of reward.

“That’s so cute! We should totally keep it with us!” Brandy exclaimed.

“Well, regardless of all that, we do have quite a lot to look at here.” Benjamin commented. “Perhaps if we examine this place more closely, we might be able to discover more clues as to the poetess’ whereabouts.”

“I quite agree with our local prisoner. Time is of the essence, so it might be wise to dedicate some time to look around. Perhaps our new friend can even help us to look around.” Nail clapped his hands together simply. “Let us begin, shall we?”

The group disbanded to look around, with Bruce following Carrie. After a few minutes, though, a cry of shock was heard followed by a splash into the water. Immediately, everyone turned around.

“Okay, what the hell was that?!” Daniel shouted angrily.

“I think it was from the lake!” Oliver responded, peering in that direction. Everyone rushed there, looking around.

“Wait a fuckin’ second, there’s nobody even here!” Matt exclaimed incredulously. “Didn’t we hear someone fall in here?!”

“Wait, there’s someone missing here.” Klifford suddenly noticed. “Let’s do a quick roll call here.”

“No, wait. Ivan’s not here with us.” Micah pointed out. “He must have fallen into the pond.”

“This little thing? No way, this pool is shallower than the Rattlewater administration!” Charlotte indignantly replied.

“Everyone!” Ivan’s voice suddenly echoed.

“Huh? What? Where are you?!”

“Behind here!”

“Behind… what? Surely, you don’t mean…”

“It’s the waterfall, isn’t it?” Micah suddenly muttered.

“Yes, exactly! I believe I’ve discovered a secret hideout of some sort here! And all by merely tripping into the waterfall...”

“Wait, what? You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Matt snorted. “That’s some real Indiana Jones bullshit!”

“So what exactly is there? Should we come and help you out?” Ciro asked.

“Of course! I could use a few good men by my side! It’s quite cramped in here, though, so maybe just one or two of you would be enough.”

“Hmm, well. I suppose I shall volunteer for that.” Ciro said agreeably. “Anyone else?”

“I would like to help as well. It would be nice to get a glimpse of what’s behind there.” Benjamin said.

“Kee kee kee!” Bruce screeched.

“Yes, I suppose you can come as well, Bruce!” Ivan agreed. “Now come in through the waterfall, it’s quite safe.”

“Alright then.” The two humans and one bat went through the waterfall, leaving the others to ponder what was on the other side.

Some minutes afterwards, they all returned with Ivan. They appeared drenched in water but otherwise alright. Strangely, they all seemed to be carrying several bags of what appeared to be several amenities such as canned food, pure water, and other important things. Bruce had a bowl of cat food in its mouth, clearly satisfied with it.

“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff.” Klifford chuckled. “So what was in there?”

“It appeared to be some stash for various goods.” Benjamin explained. “It was filled to the brim with quite a lot of resources, as you can tell.”

“Yes, so I suppose we won’t have to worry about food for the time being.” Ciro offered with a smile. “They even had a box of sushi there, can you believe it?”

“Yes, there was also a lot of other stuff in there as well, but we felt it wasn’t necessary to carry for now.” Ivan added. “In any case, we know where to get materials if we need it now!”

“Ooh, Carrie like!” Carrie said. “Carrie want more stuff!”

“Well, it may be wise to watch your head in there.” Benjamin advised. “Like Ivan said, it’s quite cramped in there and not much room for anything else. It’s tighter than my old cell. I don’t think you would even be able to fit inside, Nail.”

“I see… what a pity.” Nail shook his head. “Still, I wonder who stashed all these here. I believe we’re quite lucky because of them.”

“Well, then there’s that. Still, the chances of finding a hideout here… This must be fairly recent, right?” Micah asked.

“Yes, checking the expiration date on some of them, they were from a week ago at the latest.” Ciro commented.

“Hmm… so I suppose this couldn’t be Ms. Gardner’s work.” Micah sighed. “That makes sense, though, since I only saw her enter here a day or two back.”

“Well, we’re well stacked either way.” Bennett chuckled. “Let’s just be thankful for what we’ve got, yeah?”

"I'm not sure if we are yet at the point where we need to ration the food but assuming it's all we have... we may need to consider it." Benjamin pursed his lips. "We should always plan for the worst-case scenario, and we may be stuck in here for a good while."

"Rations... This is looking more and more deliberate. I think it's quite undeniable now that someone wanted to trap us with a specific purpose in mind," Seb commented, looking unfazed by the idea. "I agree with Benjamin, he makes a good suggestion," he continued, looking at the waterfall.

"I was thinking this before, but, that bridge in the very beginning of the cave system, that had to have been specifically constructed. Someone, or some people more likely, expected people to traverse these caves, even despite hazards such as the quicksand. We're not exploring unclaimed territory, these are charted grounds. But I'd never even heard anything special said about these caves until we came here today."

"Yeah, yeah, we should ration this out." Charlie said, with her mouth full of canned tuna, remarkably calm now that she had food and a 'pet' to distract her. She managed to open the can through a combo of a rock and a hard floor, but was still forced to eat with her hands.

"Yes, this is certainly looking more and more deliberate indeed..." Oliver stated, nodding in agreement with Sebastian. "I just wonder why someone would want to trap us all down here. For that 'killing game'? I mean, it's absurd!"

He let out a sigh and put a hand to his forehead. "Er, regardless, yes, Benjamin has the right idea. We don't want to run out of food and starve to death." He looked at Charlie with a completely incredulous look on his face. "I think that's the exact opposite of rationing..."

"Carrie find more food." She openly decided. She scrambled around for the ground, eventually managing to snag a rat with her bare hands. Quickly she bit off its head and threw the rest of the body onto the foodpile. She slowly chewed the head, taking quite a long time. She then went scrambling along the floor looking for another rodent.

"Well, I'm hungry, so gimme a break. Besides, it's just one can!" she said, picking a tiny bit of tuna between her fingertips and flinging it at Oliver. "If anyone starves to death because of this, I'll apologize."

Benjamin frowned, not really knowing where to search next. Figuring he had nothing to lose, "Uhhh... Bruce? Find us a way forward."