week 1, sunday

[ninjay]

[ when 11:00 hits after the execution, jay's eyes open slowly. there's a second where he just squints blearily at the ceiling before it suddenly hits, and then he's sitting up so quickly that the blanket he was so kindly tucked into falls off him.

once he confirms that he is indeed back in room 117, he turns towards jake's bed to see if his roommate is also awake or even, like, there in the first place. his mind is still racing with all the images that he witnessed at the lake, but he has other people he need to check on right now as well. ]

Jake. [ while his voice isn't loud, it's firm, like his intent is waking the other teen in case he is asleep. ]

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[potentite]

[When Jake wakes up, he actually just shuts his eyes again, because while he remembers what happened, he thinks maybe he just dreamt it. A nightmare, not a dream, but he's back in bed so maybe it didn't happen. He really wants to believe it didn't happen. But he hears Jay and something about his voice makes his stomach sink.]

That wasn't a nightmare, huh?

[Jake pushes himself to sit up, groggy but awake and staring straight ahead of him, unsure of what to say.]

Jesus fuck.

[ninjay]

That was, unfortunately, very real.

[ he shifts so that his legs are now over the bedside, touching the ground. jay doesn't move to get up. ]

I'm going to be honest. I expected her execution to be... [ not completely horrific on every level? ]

[potentite]

That was no execution. That was some ghastly performance. Even if she hadn't been innocent, it was far too wicked.

[He pushes the covers off himself at least.]

Fuck and I thought the game back home was too cruel. At least my deaths were relatively quick and painless. Do you think it's always going to be that or...?

[ninjay]

I don't know.

[ he hates not knowing. it's an annoyance at best, but in a situation like this? not knowing is the difference between life and death. ]

I want to say no, but we really have no way of knowing for sure, do we? Maybe Craftly might tell us how the execution method gets picked if we asked nicely enough.

[ his tone is bitter though. ]

[potentite]

[He frowns, rubbing the back of his neck.]

I don't really know if I want to know the answer in a sense. Feels like if he says no, it might just be worse next week, not that I can fathom what sort of horror they could drum up next.

[ninjay]

If it's worse than it better at least be someone who is actually guilty.

[ he's so mad. when jay was speaking with hana during the trial, a part of him honestly believed she was telling the truth. but without evidence to support it, he knew he had to vote for her. ]

Oh. That was cruel of me to say, given what we just witnessed, wasn't it?

[potentite]

[He shakes his head.]

No... You're right. After seeing that, anyone who murders of their own volition...

[Really, he can't imagine it. Why would you take a life in the first place? But why would you knowing the fate of the person they pick for execution? To risk it for yourself would be stupid but to risk it hoping an innocent is chosen instead is too cruel.]

Did you vote for her? Um, I did. She seemed honest and I truly did believe her but...

[The evidence was just too damning.]

[ninjay]

I did. [ there's no point in lying about it. ]

I promised her we'll find the real culprit and that we'll make their death very... epic, was her word. I suppose that will be more possible than I initially thought.

[potentite]

[He can't help a short, snorted out laugh. 'Epic'? Seriously?]

Well, I guess if it's her dying wish, we've no right to refuse. It's... the ghost person, isn't it? I admit I'm no Sherlock Holmes but it seemed as much.

[ninjay]

It's the most likely option, yes.

[ he pauses, like he's not sure whether to proceed, but it's only for a moment. ]

I spoke to Dipper last night after the trial. We both agreed that it had to be the ghost, but they might have had help because they had to have known what Hana'a role was before possessing her. After all, why pick someone at random? What if they chose someone like the mayor, whose role is very useless in terms of murder.

[ he actually stands up now, shoving his hands in his pockets as he starts to pace the room slowly. ]

Sure, they could have probably found a way to murder Jason even if Hana didn't have a weapon as a role. But then they would have had to waste time searching for a weapon. And with only fifteen minutes to work with, spending some of it trying to figure out how to kill someone is risky. But... that's absurd, right? Since it would mean two people teamed up this early on. Unless two separate people went to Craftly about a murder proposal, and he suggested that they worked together on it. Still, that's also risky.

[potentite]

[Now that Jay says it, his eyes widen.]

You're right. Fifteen minutes... [He frowns, chewing on his lip.] Right, okay. Craftly setting them up is possible but... [He shakes his head.] Like you said, too much risk. What if they turn on each other? And revealing that information seems unfair to the game. There has to be something else holding them together, right? Are there any roles that look like they have to work together?

[He's trying to remember now.] Some of them I didn't really understand at all. And I'm not sure if the ones with weapons have additional, uh, conditions? That we don't know.

[ninjay]

[ he stops pacing to walk over to one of the drawers. jay opens it, pulling out the menu from last night. he has no idea if they were even allowed to take these but no one said they weren't so like. whatever. after flipping it open, he quickly scans through the role list. ]

Some of them seem straightforward? Like the explorer and the bomber. But most of them are so vague that I have no clue what they could mean. Maybe someone has a role that helps others with murders, but it protects their identity?

[ he isn't too sure about that theory, since it only works if there's a way for them to communicate and for that person to be aware a murder is about to take place. but this place is bullshit so maybe there is a way for that to work. ]

It's hard to say unless we learn of more roles and start seeing more of a theme with them. Until then, all we can really do is guess.

[potentite]

[It is a tough theory but Jake comes over to peek over the menu, too, since he didn't bother to take his. He should have, he realises, but, well. A lot was happening.]

I... [Jake hesitates. Bite his lip. Breathes.] I don't mind telling you my role, um, if you want to know. You don't have to return the favour, but, um. Well, I realise if it's not a role thing, then probably it'd be fair to suspect me or Dirk since we're awful close, so...

[He wants to make a gesture to protect Dirk from suspicion, basically, at least from Jay.]

[ninjay]

[ it takes a lot to startled jay into speechlessness, but jake sure did manage that.

he can't even deny jake's claim. jay definitely has considered the fact that the people most likely to do this sort of alliance would be people who know each other from before they arrived here, and there aren't many groups like that.

there's a moment of silence as he tries to weigh the options here. even if the role that jake gives him is a false one, if the fact that jake lied comes to light later then he'd just be condemning himself as a guilty party. hm. ]

If you really don't mind, I'd like to know.

[potentite]

[Jake nods and takes a breath. It's fine. He does trust Jay, even if they don't know each other well. It would just be suspicious for roommates to kill each other. And it might help protect Dirk, so...]

Um, well, honestly my role is quite useless. I'm the Carpenter. I can prove it, too. Um, it's here— [He puts his hand on his waist and suddenly there's a nailgun visible, hanging off his belt.] But... I don't intend to hurt anyone with it. And unfortunately that's all my role does. But it might, um, confirm? That it's possible weapon roles are only that. Though actually I suppose it just might be mine that's like that, so...

[He runs a hand through his hair.] You'll be able to see it now but no one else will. So please don't tell anyone else. And um, hopefully this helps a little? Dirk wouldn't want to risk something happening to me, especially knowing my role can't do anything to protect me.

[ninjay]

[ his gaze immediately fall upon the nailgun. a skill role would have been more difficult to prove, so jake lucked out that this one is something that's actually tangible. jay's glance at the weapon is short though, and he goes back to looking at jake. ]

Hana had a weapon role as well, and hers seemed to be just that as well. So we can probably cross those off the list of roles that might have helped the ghost.

[ something jake says makes jay's lips twitch upwards though. ] Technically, your role could protect you, if you lifted your nailgun and used it. I'm starting to believe you really aren't the type though. [ ... ] Thank you for telling me. I'll keep it a secret.

[potentite]

[He smiles a little back.] Thank you. And heavens, no, I could never do that with, well, a nailgun of all things especially, gosh.

[Look he can't get over how terrible of a death that would be? He is pretty sure it would not be quick and relatively painless.]

But yes, you're right. With Hana's role known and mine to you now, we can probably assume anything with the 'weapon' title has no additional purpose. Skill and item ones, though... But the problem is still that, somehow, the person who possessed Hana knew she had a weapon. The only people who should be able to see it is the owner and anyone who is informed.

[ninjay]

Right. And she said she hadn't told anyone, so...

[ he glances back down at the list. ]

What if there's a role that doesn't tell you exactly what it is, but the type? In that case, they'd know someone has a weapon, but not what kind of weapon it is. [ he sighs. ] Maybe. For all we know, the ghost acted on their own and got lucky when they picked Hana. But I personally wouldn't have risked that, if it were me. So I still think some sort of team-up is the most likely choice, even if we don't know how it happened.

[potentite]

No, I agree completely. Why risk fifteen minutes on chance?

[Jake looks for the menu again.]

Let's see... some that stand out... The Convict has a key. There are an awful lot of locked doors here. We don't know what that person might find. The Copycat could copy the Ghost, that's a frightful idea. The Reporter... Monday passed, they would have received a token and gained a clue. Many of these items I'm not sure what purpose they would serve? For example, a statue would be a fine enough weapon but that isn't listed as a weapon role. Items must do something, then. Perhaps they receive instructions on how to use them? Like... puzzle solutions. So the item itself might not matter but what they gained from it could?

[ninjay]

There's also the fact that someone gets a vial of poison, but it's listed as an item instead of a weapon. Which is... an interesting choice, I think.

[ you can poison someone and not actually kill them, of course, but that depends on the kind of poison it is. ]

So there are definitely a couple of possibilities here for how they might have found out what her role is.

[potentite]

Oh, you're right it is. I overlooked that.

[It's definitely an interesting choice. He frowns to himself, trying to think what that could mean. But even if they figure it out, will it help?]

Poison isn't always poisonous to everything. Might be a plant poison, for example. [Since he hasn't seen any animals but there are definitely a lot of plants.] But you're right. Though... now that we all know what roles exist....

[He puts his finger on the Bomber.] This would be a nasty surprise lying in wait and certainly one any cohorts in crime will try to avoid.

[ninjay]

I actually spoke to Craftly about that. He said that in a case like that, we still need to execute someone.

[ he doesn't add more, hoping that jake will catch onto the pretty shitty implication that they'd most likely have to kill someone innocent again. ]

[potentite]

But... [He frowns. He sees the implication but he can't understand why.] For cripes sake why go through all this trouble! I guess maybe it's a ritual? So we must follow procedure?

[ninjay]

There's always the chance there's some sort of loophole there that Craftly didn't mention, but we can't rely on that possibility. Unfortunately, our best bet there is if more than one murder occurs if and when the Bomber dies, so in that case we can still pick someone who is actually guilty.

... However, that's still multiple people dead, so it's not much better.

[potentite]

Multiple bodies can hardly be called a victory. [He really doesn't want that but he has to admit Jay has a point. At least they wouldn't be voting for an innocent. It's just lose/lose no matter what.] Next time, I want to do a better job fingering the culprit. I don't want to see anyone endure such a retribution but... not an innocent again.

[ninjay]

I honestly have no idea how we could have found the actual guilty party in this case, unless we somehow missed some piece of evidence while investigating.

[ he's sure there are probably some avenues of investigating that they missed during the trial, but thinking back on it... jay is pretty confident that they went through all of the possibilities that they could have. unless they just flat out lacked some sort of evidence then he isn't certain how they could have solved that. ]

The theory that she was possessed was a popular one, so it's not like we were completely off the mark. We just... had absolutely no way of even slightly proving it. Did we overlook something?