MOCK TRIAL

[hijackers]

"Alright, mooks, everybody make youse way down to the trial room, pronto!"

[There's certainly no trial room on the map. No trial soundstage, no trial room, where oh where could they be talking about. You might spend a long time looking for it, or only be thinking about it for a single second before it comes over you.

Whenever you close your ears, or even blink, you find yourself there.

The room is a cartoony laboratory, filled to the brims with scientific equipment and beakers beyond wondrous, almost impossible to imagine being utilized in any sort of actual scientific context. A large monitor is mounted on the ceiling, playing a single clip on repeat along with the words "IMAGINEER THINK TANK". There is a large stage underneath that television, which your two hosts take their places at quite readily.

A circle of metal podiums is set up on the ground floor, 26 in total. Each is marked with a name and a photograph of the individual who's supposed to take their place there, as well as a keyboard for inputting...something. The 26th podium is marked with a grayscale photograph of Gwenpool.

Your fellow participants appear in the room one-by-one, seeming to "digitize" out of nowhere. Once everyone has appeared in the room and taken their place, the air around them seems to go deathly still.

Mugsi holds a cigar between her lips, lighting it from a stick of dynamite lit by Kate. With Mugsi taking a deep inhale, Kate speaks, the dynamite somehow fizzling out.]

Each of you has a place you oughta be sitting, and your job is to solve the mystery that's been put before ya. Once you think you know who did it, input their name on the keyboard in front of you. Majority rules, participation is mandatory, and if ya vote wrong you're not gonna see the light of day ever again!

So, get on with it!

Comments

[billbillbill]

Not in writing. No contracts were signed. But you all agreed to test this ride.

[onthestrokeoftwelve]

Pardon?

[dothelokimotion]

Verbatim is not proof.

I assume you have something else to show we agreed.

[billbillbill]

The tickets to EPCOT you carry in the real world should be more than enough proof.

You've only been here an hour, after all, it's not like much of your time has been wasted. You've just horribly wasted mine.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Tickets. Hmm. ]

Then we're in good company. I don't suppose I can get an answer to this query?

[not_over_yet]

An hour. Can you prove that--ah, without resorting to "the proof is in another world"?

[billbillbill]

You're in a virtual reality program. Naturally, I'm assuming you wouldn't know that means, so we'll just refer to it as something similar to...suspended animation? You're familiar with the term despite your dismal IQ, I imagine.

[yayashton]

. . . Are you telling me they can't see it?

[not_over_yet]

[ Basil's fairly sure that counts as "the proof's in another world", particularly given the effort to disguise it with insults. ]

Does this ride have an objective? I do so hope that it's not "for the participants to enjoy themselves", because if it is, I'm afraid we've tested your ride and found it to be a dismal failure.

[livinginthesun]

B-but that doesn't make any sense. I would remember agreeing to... we would all remember agreeing to something like that, wouldn't we?

[billbillbill]

Oh, yes, genius. Question for the genius in the back. Please recall what you were doing just before you got here.

[livinginthesun]

I was just about to leave to a festival, not... this! I cant even imagine why I would agree to come on this... insane game.

[billbillbill]

Well, that's not what I remember.

[stepfordsynthezoid]

...Memory is one of the more faulty aspects of humankind, now that you mention it.

[livinginthesun]

[Uuuugh this is just making things MORE confusing.]

I must be out of my mind. This has to all just be some crazy dream.

[stepfordsynthezoid]

[How to help and explain to the oldies...]

It seems we are all trapped in a dream, thanks to this man. Or worse, a nightmare. Illusions that we need to break.

[livinginthesun]

[You're a credit to robots everywhere, Virginia.]

[A soft sigh.] I really don't understand, but we should be allowed to wake up from this dream.

[bayoublues]

But...I ain't human.

[: ^ )]

[stepfordsynthezoid]

The fault memory aspect will likely apply nonetheless to the both of us.

[greekrevival]

Did you take our memories?

[billbillbill]

The Great Murder Ride would hardly be as effective if you remembered that you were here to virtually murder one another.

[greekrevival]

Why would anyone sign up to put themselves in something like this? We have tickets for the park, you say, but for this ride? This specific ride?

[billbillbill]

...Part of this test is that the participants haven't exactly been informed of the ride's true nature.

Typically, I just erase their memories at the end of it.

[lovelylilmouse]

...Huh? I wouldn't ever agree to test something like this.

[billbillbill]

You certainly paid for park admission.