first trial

[stagemanagers]

[Within a few minutes of the performers is finishing their investigations, the lights in every room flicker on and off several times. For those in or close to the lobby, they hear a faint rumbling. The gilded doors across from the heavy wooden front doors (which have always been there, the showrunners may have gotten to indicate them on the map) have opened.

Your intermission is ending. The show is about to begin.

The space behind them is lit; you're free to enter. It's a very short hallway, decorated in the same way as the lobby with the light walls and red carpet. There is one more set of doors to pass through and then you're all, finally, in the House. There's one grand chandelier above, glittering crystal, and the seats around you are made of fine, if dust-caked, red velvet. Those don't seem to be for you though - all the way down in front of the stage, where the orchestra might sit, there's a circle of wooden podiums. They're arranged so that everyone can face each other and are fixed into place. Each one bears a metal plaque with a cast member's name engraved on it. There's also a metal panel on top, with twenty ivory buttons paired to everyone's name.

Among these, only Jonny's podium is different - that one is draped in black crepe, with a larger grey-scale version of his headshot from the playbill framed and sitting at on top like a funerary portrait. Standing where he might have stood, a bare light bulb glows faintly atop a metal pole.

Right here, you're very close to the stage. But the curtain is closed, and it's a little too high to easily clamber up. You may not want to try. You've got more important business right now, after all.

As everyone is finding their places, the Phantom's voice suddenly sounds loud and clear throughout the space. If anyone is to look up, however, they'll see the dark suited figure of him and the whiteness of his mask peering over the edge of box 5.]

You must now determine who was responsible for the death of Jonny D'Ville. Submit your vote on the podiums when you are certain of your choice.

Comments

[mcfife]

No!

[Jabs a finger at him.]

We are not playing into your hands!

[reassuranceandrevolution]

Angus, please. Don't get yourself kills trying to protect me.

[mcfife]

I want to protect everyone now and for all eternity from the Phantom! We can't kneel before The Phantom as if we were powerless!

[reassuranceandrevolution]

Now is not the time. You need to learn a weakness, then strike. We don't have enough information yet.

Please, if not for me, then for them. [She gestures to the teens] They're just children.

[mcfife]

[His knuckles turn white as they grip the podium. He has to do something. He can't let people die again. If another friend has to die to stop the worst possible outcome--]

You did this in the hopes of saving everyone in your galaxy. You thought you would be doing this for the greater good. This isn't how it is meant to be.

[37773972]

No. It's not.

[His voice is rough, like he's choking back Emotions]

It's fucked up and wrong and we're all going to die if we don't play the game. [To use Jeremy(?)'s comparison]

[reassuranceandrevolution]

We don't always get to choose our endings.

And...I really didn't. It was because Jonny is a dick.

[mcfife]

[That...gets him to grow silent, actually. He loosens his grip, now simply depressed due to the events of today.]

Then we can't fight the Phantom together, then.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

I'm sorry, but I know you're strong enough to do it.

[inside_yourmind]

If a majority of you do not vote correctly -

[The Phantom sweeps his cloak aside and plants both hands on the railing, leaning slightly over it. He does not shout, but his voice seems to grow deeper.]

- a disaster beyond your imagination shall occur.

[37773972]

[...]

>>THE ASCENDED EXTRA

[He breaks the hug only long enough to vote, then goes back to holding Sigyn]

[mcfife]

Do not threaten us! Who are you to hide in your box like a coward and act as if you are lord of the castle?

[inside_yourmind]

I am the lord of this particular castle.

[He's the Phantom of the Opera and this is the opera, my dude, come on]

[mcfife]

By overthrowing the original owners!

[He knows how conquest and evil overlords work!]

[inside_yourmind]

[The Phantom chuckles quietly.]

Oh, I had nothing to do with that.

[revelfree]

[Catch him quietly muttering some things about self-made gods.]

[superbeliever]

This isn't a castle, get over yourself. I want to speak to your king!

[King Karen]

[inside_yourmind]

I serve no one.

[superbeliever]

Sounds fake.

[inside_yourmind]

What a withering retort.

[holyspit]

That's not an actual answer!

[herwiggles]

[mmmmmMMMMMM SHE DOESNT LIKE THAT]

I think something bad's gonna happen if we don't do it, Steven...!

[holyspit]

Something bad's going to happen if we DO!

[herwiggles]

I know!

I don't wanna do any of this... but maybe we have to. [it's starting to sound like they have no choice.]

[holyspit]

No! We don't- we can't just-

[Sigyn is telling him to vote. Tall Stephen is talking about what refusing really means. And now this, Spinel, who his mom's already hurt so badly, who he hurt-?]

[He hates this, this is awful, he wants to kill the Phantom and it's not a good feeling.]

...Do you want me to put in your vote for you.

[hate hate hate hate hate]