cradleproject | WEEK 11

the pygmalion. . .

ONLINE

CAPTAIN'S LOG:
WEEK (11)

saturday TRIAL DAY ONE

(13) survivors

At 9 AM, a klaxon alarm begins blaring in every area of the ship. The alarm will continue to go off until everyone has gathered in the conference room. Should anyone be running late or avoiding the trial for whatever reason, a robot guide will appear wherever they are and gently but firmly escort them into the room. Once all the living players are present, the conference room doors will lock shut; anyone who wishes to leave for whatever reason will need to ask AL-2955 or one of the robots. Anyone leaving for non-investigative purposes, such as bathroom breaks, will be accompanied by a robot escort.

The large round table in the center of the conference room has been set up to help the trial run as smoothly as possible. Three holographic screens hover above the center hollow of the table, visible from every angle. The first screen displays the pictures and profiles of the suspects and victim; the second displays the autopsy report; the third displays a blank word processor. Each of the chairs comes equipped with a virtual keyboard which can be used to type information directly into the third screen, such as theories and updated information; they can also be set into privacy mode, which will transfer whatever notes someone writes directly into their datapad instead of on screen. There's also a tablet function for those who wish to draw charts or pictures on screen. The keyboards will detect the DNA of whoever's using them and record who's typed what - simply press an area of text and the name of whoever wrote it will pop up.

The area to the right of the table has been temporarily sectioned off with a glass partition and sliding door for hygienic issues. Inside, the victim's body has been laid out on a metal autopsy table, covered by a plastic sheet. Above it is a holographic screen that displays a close-up color photograph of the body when it was found. A hand sanitizer dispenser has been considerately attached to the wall nearby for anyone getting up close and personal to the body.

To the left of the conference table is a display case. Any evidence found during the investigation will be carefully collected by the robots at some point the previous day and placed here before the trial starts. Beneath each piece of evidence is a small tablet where players can type up information, such as a short description or where it was found. There are also empty areas left over for any evidence that may be found during the trial. The shelf at the very bottom of the case has been reserved for an extra rulebook in case anyone needs it.

Food will be served throughout the day by the robots, who will take individual orders whenever you're feeling hungry. The trial will end at 9:00 PM, at which point all players will have been expected to cast their vote.

victim

suspects

Character Statuses
Setting
Rulebook
Voting

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He laughs, somewhere between hysteria and just completely drained, and raises his glass.]

I'll drink to living. Even though we're probably all fucked now.

[Cheers to being alive and saying fuck fate tbh]

Probably! [He sounds a little too cheerful.] But at least that's tomorrow. We're alive for tonight and we can figure out the rest later, you know? [A sharp grin.] Congrats on escaping your execution.

[fuck fate is definitely the best toast there is]

You got a point there! [Another laugh, though this one actually seems genuine. Not like anyone can probably blame him for being relieved as hell right now, even with their imminent alien possession death.] Man, can't say I saw that one coming, but I'll take it. And at least we finally have a target other than each other now.

[If anybody's going to blame him it certainly won't be Luke. This whole weekend has been a strange and crazy chain of events and he shakes his head in almost disbelief.]

Between you and me I'm pretty sure none of us did. Let's just hope that we really can focus on this target and not worry about her turning us against each other again. But without Alice...the game's done, isn't it? No more motives, nothing. What's left?

Considering the stakes, even I have to say it'd be pretty damn stupid if we tried to kill anyone for any reason other than them being an alien. [Not...that their track record is great here....]

Thank fuck. [Yeah, some people might be sad or worried Alice is gone. He is not one of them.] No dumb rules, no shitty motives, no boring ass trials. The only thing left is clear - we take out whatever aliens come at us.

The problem with not having Alice around is that if we find an alien what are we supposed to do, just kill the person too? That's the one nice thing about the executions. We can keep someone around and salvage them a bit.

I mean on the other hand at least Alice probably wasn't flying us straight into a trap, but you never know.

Maybe we can actually kill them before they kill anyone else now that we don't have to worry about getting executed for it. The numbers even out that way, don't they? [how much do you regret saving this asshole now]

Probably being the key word there. We never knew exactly what the fuck Ass Lice was up to or why she was using us. This...[He shrugs.] It's straightforward. And if we lose, then I got no problem depriving the old bitch of her prize before she gets her alien hands on us.

You're missing the part where if we kill a host one of the aliens is in we actually wind up killing the person. You wanna do that? Because I don't. [Listen, we're at the point in the narrative where he likes almost everybody, that would be bad?]

Also a good point though. [Alice was never entirely confident in an answer beyond the fact that they were there for the Cradle Project.] What exactly would you do?

I'm saying that if we wait, they're gonna kill someone anyway. That's the only way we can catch them, yeah? Someone's gonna die here no matter what, unless we can find a way to take out their mother first.

If it was down to either us dying or the queen taking us? [He shrugs.] I'd pick the first. Blow a hole in the ship and send everyone into space, or just kill everyone onboard including myself. Better that than what she wants.

And that's about where you and I disagree. I've already done the "die to stop someone else from controlling me" thing. There's a third option, we just need to figure it out. Blowing a hole in the ship is not our third option.

[…but he's unhappy with the idea of letting the queen take over too.] If you have any way of tracking down who the host is, I'd love to hear it. That's the only other option I'm willing to listen to right now.

I didn't say I was looking forward to it. [He spreads his arms.] But that sounds to me like we only have one option. We kill the Queen. That's it.

Can't we just...do that blood thing again? [HE STILL DOESN'T KNOW IT WAS A BLUFF rip...] And if I knew, I'd have hunted them down myself by now. Other than doing what we've always been doing and letting them kill someone, I mean.

[Sometimes Luke takes great comfort in the fact that Judar exists solely for conversations like this.]

Judar. The blood thing won't work again. Trust me. It just...won't. [Sigh.] You saw what happened when we tried to attack the Queen, too. She wasn't actually there kinda like how Alice usually isn't here? The only way to maybe destroy her is to actually lure her out and by then it'd be too late. The good thing is we have a little time to buy. After everybody's slept off the hangover we'll figure something out, maybe. [...fuck it, let's just pour another drink for the both of them.] But you might know this...in general what's the fastest way to take out a queen?

[Taking that drink because ehh, if he's poisoned by alcohol it's not going to be the worst way to go at this point. Luke's question gets an ironic laugh out of him, though.]

Find strong enough allies who wants her gone as much as you do. Take out her own lackeys and armies, whether by eradicating them or turning them against her. Manipulate information so she's completely isolated and cut off from her usual alliances. Then when you're sure no one else is coming to help her, attack her in the heart of her own palace where she thinks she's safest and kill the bitch.

[why does he sound like he might have been planning this for a long while....]

[...well aren't you just an intense ball of sunshine. But on the other hand there are definitely things that Judar's said that are interesting to him.]

...if there's one alien left, why can't we turn them against her? It's the general probably or whatever but what if we can get the host to kind of override them and attack her instead of us? That's the likelihood of that you think?

WEEK 11 - TRIAL

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