FIFTH TRIAL

[stagemanagers]

[The sound of the courtroom doors opening is louder and deeper than the stairwell doors were, as if they understand their dramatic importance.

It's time for yet another trial.

Natalie's podium has joined the other somberly-decorated ones in pretty short order. Unfortunately, the other ones are left entirely as they were - no pillows, food, or coffee provided by the Opera staff. You'll just have to try and make this quick. The Balladeer sounds like he'd like to get this over with as well when he speaks up.]

I'm sorry, Heather. I really didn't think... [He sighs.] Okay, go ahead.

Comments

[allicareabout]

Unlike the establishment, I'm just going to follow Rule Eight - and play my part to the best of my ability.

[This entire goddamn game, he has been operating under the notion that law doesn't get to have feelings in the courtroom.

Now? Now he's pissed off.]

My first thought is that any stipulations implied within or regarding Rule Six are null and void due to the initial terms provided - given that this wasn't a cast member attempting to bring the show to a close in the first place, we should not be made to hold anyone responsible in a trial designed to verify and establish the guilt of a cast member in the first place, under the basic concept of corpus delicti and just utter common sense.

My second is that there are no hard and fast rules regarding how we vote, simply that the process of 'catching' our culprit, as it were, needs to be carried out by the majority. Technically speaking, write-in ballots would be acceptable, assuming anyone has anything to write with. Forget the podiums - they're designed to imply that we only have the options before us, when that is clearly not the case given that this situation happened to begin with.

Thirdly, regardless of whether this is an oversight on the part of the Management or not, the fact remains that by providing no option to vote for a party outside of that which we've been provided, in conjunction with allowing such an incident to happen in the first place (whether through intent or negligence), the Management stands in violation of Rule Eight themselves - twisting our narrative to suit their agenda is overstepping the boundaries dictating their role as previously established by the show, and furthermore restricting us from playing our parts to the best of our ability. We cannot vote for the culprit we believe is guilty, despite us doing our best to find and 'catch' them as stated by Rule Six, if the culprit is not presented as an option to do so, and as such I'd argue that this manipulation of perception violates our capacity to fulfill our duties here in an informed manner -

[...You know what.]

Do you want me to keep going and listing reasons why this is wrong? Because I'm sure I can come up with several more, and I fully intend to filibuster this vote until either justice is fulfilled or I physically can't stand anymore.

[FIAT JUSTITIA ET PEREAT MUNDUS.]

[dechagny]

[It's nice to know his gut feeling and common sense of "this is just plain WRONG" has legal backing.

Just. Going to applaud you, Billy, hot damn.]

[inforapenny]

[...Yeah that's getting applause from the stage as well.]

[trettende]

[ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ALL OF THIS, BASICALLY. ]

Exactly. If the rules are so important to the Management, they can't possibly allow the vote to go forward.

[dieformymusic]

[He barely understood everything, but that's some goddamn saavy.]

It looks like we don't have a choice.

[tellthestory]

[There's a short period of silence before Billy responds.]

I don't, uh...make the rules? But nothing's happening back here yet, so...

[allicareabout]

...I didn't think there would be.

We have no way to proceed. The rules are ambiguous on what should be done here - but abiding by contra proferentem, that works against the Management and not us.

[That also assumes that Management is sane, which is a hell of an assumption given this entire game, but listen.]

The only option we have right now is to refuse the vote on grounds of being unable to vote for the true guilty party. The only option they have right now - assuming they play by their own rules - is to declare the trial invalid, unless there's another argument someone would like to make.

It's a mistrial, plain and simple.

[trettende]

[ Hell yeah, you tell 'em, lawyer dad. Hans likes this plan. ]

With the rules we have now, we can't vote for a killer. Either the Management changes the rules, or we fail no matter who we vote for. None of them would be right.

[allicareabout]

Oh, it's better than that.

No rules were broken at the time of the incident. They can change the rules now, but things like this can't exactly be retroactively enforced.

[trettende]

Can't they? The Management decides the rules, ultimately... they could probably do whatever they want.

[ He looks back at the stage. Is the Management watching right now? ]

[allicareabout]

Oh, they technically could - if they want to destroy any sense of dramatic integrity that they had going for them, anyway.

Doing that would make their script too obvious. And once something becomes visibly scripted? It's predictable.

And all the tension and drama that they'd built up and have been working so hard to preserve? [He snaps his fingers once, sharply.] Boom. Gone.

What's better for their audience? Watching us get crushed by something that we should have been able to prevent would be great - if it wasn't made obvious that somebody cheated. But granting us a victory that no one saw coming, even if it's just this once? That's drama. That's interesting. It'll keep them coming back to see if we can pull it off again.

[trettende]

[ Billy, you are definitely becoming his favorite cast member, talking all that logic and and lawyer-speak. ]

You have a point there. The whole draw of the show only works if it has an ending we've earned. Killing us all because of a technicality? That's no good for the show.

[dontfeedplants]

... You're right. And if it's a technicality that was never established before now, no one would be satisfied with the ending. The audience might think that this whole thing was for nothing.

[trettende]

[ DING DING DING! ]

Exactly! If this whole show is for an audience, ending it like this would be a mistake.

The Management wouldn't gain anything an ending like this.

[onthebusagain]

How can you be so sure? This entire thing hasn't made sense! We're all going to die!

[dieformymusic]

Our choices are we get picked off one by one, we all die, or we all survive this by a small miracle.

Maybe we have had enough curses for one small miracle...

[dontfeedplants]

We just have to have faith. For all we know, they just won't care and kill us anyway, but...

[He takes a deep breath.]

It's obvious that the Management has stopped playing fair with us. If they're willing to frame me and want us to kill another actor for a murder they committed, we have no proof that they won't kill us regardless of how we answer. We just need to hope that they will realize that it's a horrible ending to kill us like this.

And if they're not willing to play fair with us, I think we shouldn't have to play fair with them anymore.

[trettende]

I wouldn't go that far, but I agree.

[ Don't... tempt the management either, Seymour. Hans still wouldn't mess with them. ]

They can't change the rules on us mid-trial, which means we can't vote for the killer. The Management's rules didn't factor in a case like this, so if we all died it would reflect negatively on the Management, not us.

I really doubt the Management would be okay with that.

[onthebusagain]

How can you talk about hope at a time like this? We've already lost so much! Next week this will all happen again!

You're all just delaying the inevitable!

[allicareabout]

Heather. This won't happen again next week, and this is why - it didn't happen this week. Not really.

No one turned on each other despite the motive. No one died as a result of anyone else in this cast's actions.

This was an accident. A tragic one, sure. But it was an accident, and not one that any of us were at fault for.

We're calling a mistrial because none of us killed anyone else. We're already ahead, and we're going to keep it that way.

[onthebusagain]

Do you really think so? I'm afraid.

[dontfeedplants]

We all are. But even if we are, we have to do what we know is right. We can make it through this if we work together, trust us.

[He actually looks genuinely surprised at himself when he says this. Wow that... is not the kind of thing he ever expected himself saying.]

[sunshineprincess]

[Heather, Anna will come over there if she thinks you need a hug, okay?]

Heather... sometimes hope is all we have to hang onto.

[onthebusagain]

Is it enough? Do you... really think it'll be okay?

[aflatouttahell]

Then the Management should say something themselves.

[It's not going to happen, but. A girl can dream.]