Game 2 - DAY 3

[protoshepherd]

[ After ousting finishes, the bodies of Hans, Gina, York, and Bruce slowly turn into glass, starting from their feet and it works its way up until the glass covers the bodies. A few seconds after looking like a diamond statue, the glass shatters, leaving nothing but the broken pieces on the floor.

THERE CERTAINLY WERE HUMAN BODIES THERE EARLIER. WELL? NOT ANYMORE…!

Right after that, everyone will receive a text saying:

Congratulations on making it to the third day! Please get some rest now, as the game will continue tomorrow.
Had there been no wolf ousted the past two days, you all will be in grave danger as one more mistake would mean the wolves win. Oh no! :(
The poll has been updated. Please make sure to cast your votes on time.
Please remember that the game will be over once the number of remaining sheep is the same as the number of total wolves. That is three!

The twelve mirrors backstage will look pretty strange, too. Four of those mirrors have been broken as well, with only eight mirrors hung properly. If this isn't symbolic, then I don't know what is. Perhaps it would be best to clean the glass shards up. We wouldn't want anybody to get injured, right? And it would be best to get a lot of rest.

The loudspeakers seem to have been turned off now, and even the noise you could hear in the locked dressing room is gone… mysterious. But it's also helpful since you'd want to sleep peacefully at night, right?

Of course you do. Come morning, the stage will have Samurai Dogs YET AGAIN, coffee, Cheerios and milk. Have at it. ]

Poll #16634

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 4

Who do you think are wolves?

Nagi Springfield, Gilderoy Lockhart
0 (0.0%)

Asuna Yuuki, Aoi Kurashiki
0 (0.0%)

Inspector Cabanela, Jesse Pinkman
1 (25.0%)

Dick Gumshoe, Bobby Fulbright
2 (50.0%)

Luca Valentino, Lucina
0 (0.0%)

Grace Makutsi, Tony Chu
0 (0.0%)

L'Arachel, Kongwai Tao
0 (0.0%)

Diana, Dandy
1 (25.0%)

---

We'll be going on a break this weekend!

[ 00 EST 24 April: Clue/Activity!!* (change of plans, I'll drop a clue tomorrow so you guys can do something over the weekend.)

00 EST 27 April: Suspicion poll comes to an end and Ousting poll gets put up.

00 EST 28 April: Ousting poll draws to a close. A new day begins, with two teams out of the game. ]

Comments

[notaccurate]

Only the foolish say that. Come, if you are done in here then at least take a nap.

[inspectormacarena]

Not just yet. There's plenty more observing to be done. But don't you worry your pretty little head, baby. I've pulled pleeenty of allnighters back in the day. [Mostly when he was like... fifteen years younger. Um.]

[notaccurate]

Is that why you have bags the size of my mother's purses under your eyes?

You have a teammate. He can observe while you sleep.

[inspectormacarena]

[He does not have bags the size of- ...okay maybe a little.]

I don't doubt that my teammate is giving this little game his all, but I dooo doubt his observation skills. Nothing personal against him, of course. Each has their own profession and I was trained to seek out suspicious activity while my partner... [He trails off for a second, then waves an idle hand.] Well, my partner has no profession at the moment.

[notaccurate]

And my profession is, of many things, to gently nudge overworked men and women to remind them that their bodies need as much upkeep as their dissertations.

So, shoo. [He makes a shooing motion with a hand. ] Off to bed with you. The world will not end in two or three hours, I can assure you of that. A fresh mind may help you with your search, even.

[inspectormacarena]

[Hahaa... Nice try, Luca, but he's still not caving. He will, however, casually move himself from the ground into the nearest seat.]

How about you tell me a bedtime story first, baby? Can your preeecious sfeer theory explain how a living, breathing human being might turn to glass?

[notaccurate]

[Now that is something he sees right through. But it's ok, he can share a little bit.

Luca sits in the chair next to Cabanela before speaking. ]

I won't say it is impossible, as I only know the basics behind sfeer theory. But from what I know about it, changing one thing into another depends on the willpower of the Cyclist performing the magic, and on the willpower of the person or object being changed.

A change can only happen if one willpower completely overtakes another, and even then a change like what we saw is unlike anything I have ever heard of happening. Even the most talented Cyclists at the University I work at cannot manage to change another person on that large of a scale.

It also wouldn't have been an equal change, if sfeer theory was the cause. Those with a stronger will, like Hans, would have been changed far less. Only part of his body would have turned to glass, or he might have been able to force a change like that to turn him into something less fatal, like a different skin color.

[inspectormacarena]

[Stronger will? Hans? Considering that reaction to being accused as a wolf, Cabanela would've pegged him as relatively weak and desperate. Then again, it depends what defines 'willpower'.

He sits back, raising a hand past his chin as he mulls it over.]

Interesting. Veeery interesting. Then, stop me if I'm wrong here. Theoretically, if the willpower of the Cyclist responsible was quite a few times stronger than aaany of the victims, wouldn't the differences become so minimal that the changes would be virtually equal anyway?

[notaccurate]

We are talking quite a difference for that. For comparison, it would take a prifessor's willpower to summon a wind strong enough to knock one person over.

[inspectormacarena]

Theoretically, baby. We've seen quite a few seeemingly impossible things happen. Would it really be so surprising if that were the explanation we're searching for?

[notaccurate]

Theoretically, yes, it could be done. But it is horribly inefficient, and a trained Cyclist would have done something else. Plys, there was no array.

[inspectormacarena]

Hmm? An array? You lost me there, baby.

[notaccurate]

Ah, right, I wasn't able to show you before. Here-

[Luca stands up and moves past Cabanela, going to a nearby aisle where he can crouch down. Then he pulls out the box of chalk, removes a piece of chalk from it, and draws a small circle with some swirls throughout it.]

This is an array. Cyclists typically need help maintaining a sfeer, and this provides stabilization. The design also helps focus a sfeer towards a particular type of magic. This one, for example, is used for wind control.

[inspectormacarena]

[As Luca moves over to a slightly more spacey area, Cabanela pulls his legs up onto the chair so he can turn around in it and watch the drawing closely. What is that, a wicca symbol? Black magic?]

How close to the Cyclist and the victim would this array need to be for the sfeer to work?

[notaccurate]

For weaker Cyclists, their target would have to be within the circle. The Cyclist themselves has to stand at the very center, by the way. Their sfeer extends outward from their person, in a roughly spherical shape, so the closer the better. The stronger the Cyclist, the farther they can extend their sfeer.

[inspectormacarena]

Hmm. We do have a mysterious locked dressing room, baby. Who knows what sort of secrets may be hiiiding in there? [That said, the distance between the dressing room and the people who were targeted would be thirty feet at the least.]

[notaccurate]

I had thought of that, yes. If there is a powerful Cyclist keeping us here, they would most definitely be in there. And if they were using a sfeer to control things-

[Luca swipes a finger across one of the lines he drew. ]

-then breaking the array would be enough to free us of their influence.

[inspectormacarena]

So we gotta find a way to get in there. Eeeasier said than done, of course, but we won't get anywhere if we don't try. [He rubs at his eyes for a moment, then rests his arms on the back of the chair he's sitting on. This next question will be a little painful, but he has to ask.]

Would there be a way to reverse what they did to our fellows?

[notaccurate]

[Yeah, about that.]

Not that I know of, no. Un-doing death is hardly a university student level of work, and everything I know about sfeer theory I took in by overhearing lectures as I cleaned labs.

[inspectormacarena]

[Siiigh. He'd hoped this sort of thing wouldn't exactly count as death, rather some unfortunate spell that could still be reversed. Apparently not.]

... Only yesterday, I sat here in these very same seats with Mr. Bruce. He warned me not to do anything draaastic. Or, at the very least, only endanger myself. Cruel, the way things turned out, don't you agreee?

[notaccurate]

[Yeah that is a little heavy.

Luca sits down again, though this time he is leaning back a bit in the seat, instead of sitting up straight.]

Mmm. Nobody could have seen it coming, though. It is not as if he were up to vote last night.

[Luca does wish Bruce was still around, though. They hadn't gotten around to gathering information about everyone's text messages yet.]

[inspectormacarena]

[Oh, well, in that case Cabanela will twist himself around in the seat again and put his feet on the floor where they belong. It's not like anyone will come in here to punish him for sullying the chairs with his shoes, but he might as well try to set a better example, what with being law enforcement and all.

Let it be noted that the twisting around in the seat is, of course, accompanied with a bit of needlessly overcomplicated leg swinging and arm stretching.]

... I can't claim that Mr. Bruce was a good man, as I didn't know him all that well, buuut I sincerely doubt that anyone here has done anything to warrant a horrifying fate like that. Are we supposed to be executioners? If so, I'm more of a rehabilitation kinda guy. [Oh and that just makes the conversation even more painful. He'll just fall silent for a brief moment and run a hand through his hair.]

Seems to me like they all died for nothing, baby.

[notaccurate]

No, it's not nothing, if the wolves are still into it. There must be something in it for them, if they're still continuing to play. I can't for the life of me figure out what would be worth it, though.

[inspectormacarena]

Revenge, blackmail, money, an escape from whatever lousy life they might have. Sheer desperaaation... [He breathes a sigh and sits back, allowing his head to rest atop the back of the chair.]

I've seen people do aaall sorts of horrible things for aaall sorts of reasons. Those are the kind of criminals we can't have running around on the streets.

[notaccurate]

...mmm. I suppose so.

[It's a lot for him to chew on, and somehow he can't help but feel bad for everyone involved, and especially the wolves. They are all in a bad place, but the wolves have it the worst.]

Before Bruce was...well, before that happened, he and I had been talking about our texts. The ones to the person in charge, you remember those?