#chtwo

[celestialexpress]

Stand Behind the Yellow Line | Stardrop Selection

Gio interrupts your discussion with a clap. 

“Congratulations on another unanimous vote. Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo, and Pisces, I suggest you hold on to any loose belongings.”

As before, the doors on the middle carriage slide open and wispy tendrils shoot out. They wrap around each member of the chosen team before hauling them inside the dark carriage. The doors slide shut with a rattle that shakes the room, preventing anyone from getting in or out. 

...Even seeing this for the second time, you can’t help the shiver that runs down your spine.

[em-trois]

NO IFS OR EXCEPTIONS | Iris | ATTN: Everyone

As the paper floats off from everyone's podiums the web developer finally let her smile fall. Her name was called, eleven times it had been read out and she just had to accept the fact that, well, this may very well be her time! She'd always thought about what she was going to do when she was older, if she'd stick with coding or try something else. Life was fair like that, right? To give someone second chances?

Apparently not, as it was confirmed that she had in fact killed Ryuuji Nemoto.

"...Geez." The web developer lets out a defeated sigh. "Y'know, life never prepared for me for something like this...! Didn't think I'd have to explain how I ended up killing someone." Even with her heavy heart she tries to keep the mood light. Her smile is back for all of two seconds before she simply shakes her head again.

"So, it's true, I was in the school on my own-some. That's when I found that mirror. What it showed me though was, um..." Her hands begin to ball into tiny fists. "My family. They were on the floor, like they were in pain. Like something had happened to them. To say I panicked would be an- an understatement...! I smashed the mirror and, realizing I had to do something, grabbed one of the shards and ran off. That's when I saw... Nemo-kun."

She feels her body begin to shake. Her heart beating fast enough that it was like she had two that were working overtime in her chest.

"I- I panicked. I st- started slashing wildly. Before I knew it he was- he was bleeding out on the floor and I had to- I had hide him. That's when I dragged him under the lecturer's desk in the classroom and stole his jacket and hat to blend into the darkness and escape."

"I wasn't lying about- about being disoriented though. It was sh- sheer luck that I found a way out. That's when I threw his hat and jacket off and then I heard all the commotion. I took that opportunity to- ah- tried to disguise all the blood on me by throwing myself into that shelf with the vase on it. That was- That was on... purpose."

Even as she spoke now it still didn't feel real. The girl felt light-headed, thought after thought blended together as it felt like the whole world had gone silent. She grabs onto her shirt, tugging onto it ever so slightly like she was trying to still her ravaged heart.

"...I just- I just wanted to see m- my family again. They mean- they mean the world to me y'know but I- I really couldn't keep this a secret, heheh. I never really- ah- planned it out or anything, yeah? I mean who plans something like this out...?"

"To think that someone like me, a girl who just- who just wanted to bring people together... Who made a p- pretty dang popular dating app would do... do something like..."

Finally words fail her, like her mind had run completely dry. Can she even bring herself to cry? She feels like she lost that right as soon as she saw blood and broken glass in her hands. All she can do is stand silently with her gaze towards the floor. This... this was never supposed to happen. She was never supposed to be a murderer, right?

In life and in code, there's always an exception though right?

[uneprincesserose-blog]

Horreur || Princesse || Motive Reaction

She couldn’t stop her poor shaking hands.

A hand placed over her mouth, she made any attempt possible to bite back the scream building in her throat, or at least hoping it would be muffled. This...couldn’t be true, could it?

It hit her like a ton of bricks-- she was right to not make friends yet. It was for the best. She remained quiet throughout the entirety of the first murder and trial, not wanting to speak up in fear that she would be targeted, either by accusations of murder or by the next murderer themself. 

Yet, she couldn’t stop the screams and the tears, fear coursing throughout her entire body. 

“...This...h-has to be...fake...right...?”

Even after those words left her mouth, she couldn’t bring herself to believe them.

“...None of you...d-don’t...come near me.”

Despite her soft tone, there was a sort of venom behind her words. Though she seemed frightened by nearly everyone in the room, she made no attempt to walk away, tears welling in her eyes.

[hashiiba-blog]

chtwo | a scenery that doesn't fade | open

Time was a strange one.

Left to his own devices now after the motive, Yuudai felt like he was much more welcome to exploring the area than he was before. He thought it a shame he was being restricted, but he supposes he has to learn a way around this.

In the midst of the bright neon lights of the arcade, the stunt performer had been moving from game to game, trying out every single one he could get his hands on. A myriad of previously unexperienced activities had now been tried out before him-- heck, anything that didn't require a second player and he had blazed through it in the hours.

He wasn't quite sure how long he had spent in here, but he must have wasted a considerable amount of time as he felt his feet slip beneath him on the metal mat of DDR. A yelp escapes him and he barely catches himself on the back rung. He looks back over his shoulder to see someone else there in the dark room and suddenly he feels a lot more sheepish about his slip up, completely forgetting about the game even as the arrows fly past and his meter sharply drops.

"Uh... Sorry, did you want to play this one?"

[onlyongracexm]

I go to finally paint my nails for the first time in months... 😭😂😭 I’m sorry, OPI #nailpolish #opi https://www.instagram.com/p/CHTWo-kLQnS/?igshid=1ampjg1oo9hea

[ephemeralxiv]

CHAPTER 2 | Silence is Key

( tw: Fire )

When you look down at your bracelet you notice that the live video feed appears to have already started playing. You see Yuna with her face pressed up against some sort of circular window. The camera suddenly pulls back and you can see that she appears to be trapped inside of a small rocket ship floating in the void of space. Dotted around her are countless stars and galaxies, lighting the inky blackness around her. She pounds her hands against the window and it looks like she's even shouting something, but you can't hear a word from your perspective.

The camera cuts to an inside shot of the rocket. It's fairly cramped, really only leaving a bit of room to sit down in the green cockpit chair or stand up a little bit to look out the port style window. All around the cockpit are various dials, switches, and computer screens, the latter of which appear to be displaying static and "WARNING" screens. Giving up on trying to call for help, Yuna sits back down in the cockpit chair and swivels around. She tries turning all of the dials and pulling all the levers that she can, but none seem to help. In fact, after a few moments of pure guessing a red flashing light fills the cockpit.

Next the rocket begins to shake violently as the red flashing persists. The screens around the cockpit all begin displaying "MAYDAY MAYDAY" and start to flash red themselves. By this point Yuna has given up with even trying to mess with anything. Instead she slumps into the green cockpit chair and covers her eyes, as if to hide her tears. But she's suddenly startled as the rocket gives another violent shake, forcing her to tumble out of the chair onto the floor. It's at this point that she looks up and realizes the extent of the damage that had just occurred. The force of the last tremor had completely shattered several of the monitors, but worse yet smoke has started to billow into the rocket.

Yuna tries to wipe her eyes, to clear her tears and get the smoke out of her eyes. She begins to cough violently at the inhalation of the smoke. At this point her only option is to return to her initial plan. She begins to bang on the walls of the rocket with her fists. Surprisingly the metal reinforced walls of the rocket start to give. Perhaps the last tremor had already weakened the structure of the rocket. With just a few more whacks with her fists, the entire splits apart at the seams. Hunks of metal and technology fly everywhere as Yuna is sent flying out of the cockpit into the vacuum of space.

But instead of floating weightlessly, she tumbles to the... ground? Looking at the area around her, she watches as the void of space disappears. The inky blackness that once surrounded her is instead replaced with a pure, solid white glow, almost as if someone had just turned the lights on in a dark room. Upon further inspection, the white walls appear to be screens that can display any background image one might need. In fact, the screen even covers the floor and ceiling. Over in one of the corners appears to be a variety of props and toys as well as several different types of microphones. It's all perfect for recording all different types of ASMR videos.

As cool as this room is, eventually she is snapped back to reality as she looks back over at the remains of the rocket. Although it had been fake, just another prop, the fire and smoke had all been real. In fact, smoke appears to still be billowing out of the center of the cockpit as the green chair has since caught on fire. But even more concerning is the dark oil that seems to have spilled out all over the floor. Maybe it had been the rocket's fuel? Not that it actually needed any. Regardless, if the flames make their way to that oil it can only lead to bad things.

Yuna rushes over to the chair and tries fanning the flames to the best of her ability, but they only seem to grow stronger. When she tries to stamp them out, they just burn her instead. It seems like there's nothing that she can really do to put the flames out on her own. But suddenly, she hatches a plan. She rushes over to the corner of the room with ll of the various props set up. She grabs a blanket, a bucket, and a spray bottle filled with water. Having collected her tools needed to try to extinguish the fire. However, when she turns around she realizes that it's already too late. The fire has spread to the oil and quickly the whole room becomes engulfed in flames.

She drops all of the props and rushes over to the wall. Banging her fists against the screen as hard as she can she appears to cry out for help. But you can't exactly hear what she's trying to say. After all... The room is soundproof.

Yuna Saito, the Super High School Level ASMRtist, has been executed.

[undyingxiv]

Chapter 2 | Correct or Incorrect

( tw: mouth trauma, body horror, creepypasta, dolls, blood )

Looking at your bracelet's screen just like you were prompted to, you notice that the live video feed appears to be of a stage with two armchairs sitting on it. It's almost reminiscent of that of a talk show or a game show of some sort. Suddenly Kiaria walks in from off screen and sits down on the armchair to the right. As she sits, the off screen crowd goes wild cheering, hooting, and hollering.

From the left a woman appearing to be in her late 20's or early 30's enters the stage and sits down on the armchair to the left. She has long, flowing, black hair and what appears to be a beautiful face although the lower portion of it is covered by a white face mask. The woman reaches down to the side of her armchair where she grabs a small whiteboard that had been leaning up against the chair. With the whiteboard in hand she begins scribbling away furiously before turning the board around.

Written on it it says, [Do you think I'm pretty?]

Kiaria nervously reaches down to grab her own whiteboard. She hesitantly looks back over at the mysterious woman before writing her answer down on her board. She spins the board to reveal her answer as, [Yes.]

Suddenly, the woman reaches up to her face and removes the face mask. Underneath the mask it is revealed that her mouth is cut into a huge, horrifically wide smile. She then reaches down to her pockets and reveals a pair of shiny, metal scissors. She opens the scissors and quickly forces them back shut. The metal quickly grinding against metal gives off a loud, dramatic hiss. The woman reaches back for her whiteboard where she writes, [Do you still think I'm pretty?]

Looking more nervous than ever, Kiaria looks back down at her whiteboard and wipes away her previous answers. As she hesitates to write an answer the scissor wielding woman gets up out of her seat and prepares to start walking towards her. But before she can get get any closer Kiaria quickly scribbles down a new answer and turns around her board at breakneck speeds.

[You're so-so.]

The scissor wielding woman gives her a perplexed look before wandering off stage. Suddenly the off screen crowd goes wild celebrating Kiaria's apparent 'victory'. However, her win is short lived as a new wacky character enters from the same direction the scissor wielding woman had left. This time it's a mysterious looking man wearing a pale mask with a sinister face painted on it and giant, red cloak that covers the rest of his body. In his hands he carries what looks like two rolls of toilet paper, though instead of the standard white one is a bright red while the other is a deep blue.

The man sets his toilet paper off to the side and grabs the whiteboard that the scissor wielding woman had left. He wipes away her question using his red cloak and scribbles down a new question of his own. [Do you want the red paper or the blue paper?]

Looking over at the man, Kiaria carefully studies the two rolls of toilet paper which he holds in his hands. However, after thinking about it for a moment she writes down an alternative answer. [Neither.]

The cloaked man gives her a confused look before grabbing his whiteboard once again and asking another question. [Would you like any other color of paper?]

This time she doesn't hesitate, it's clear that she knows exactly how to get around this question. She quickly writes two letters on her whiteboard and spins it around. [No.]

The cloaked figure gets up out of his seat and gives Kiaria a bow before quickly prancing off screen. But of course shortly afterwards a new eccentric character strolls onto the stage. This time it appears to be a small, ningyo doll that walks on it's own as if it's actually alive. It crawls up onto the armchair and grabs the whiteboard that the cloaked figure had left behind. It grabs the marker and slowly writes out a simple question. [Would you like to play?]

Kiaria hesitates much longer than usual this time before writing down an answer... And then erasing it and writing a new answer in its place... Only to do the same again. Eventually the doll impatiently swivels its next over in the direction of her, at which point Kiaria flips her board around to reveal her answer. [Yes?]

The doll nods approvingly and grabs the maker once again. This time it writes, [Will you be my friend?]

With a little more confidence Kiaria scribbles down a new answer and flips her board around to reveal to the audience. It says, [No.]

The dolls appears to pout for a moment before childishly throwing the whiteboard on the ground. It hops off the chair and walks off the stage as the off screen audience once again goes wild with applause and cheers. Suddenly the wall behind her lights up and displays the words "FINAL ROUND".

The cloaked man and masked woman from previous rounds return onto the stage, wheeling in a moving computer stand with what appears to be a very old computer monitor on top of it. Once they move the monitor in front of the armchair on the left the two give a bow and run off screen. Once the two are gone the screen flickers to life and displays a simple message. [Do you like the red room?]

Kiaria panics and scribbles away on her white board. [No.]

The screen on the monitor flickers, as if processing her request, before displaying the same simple message. [Do you like the red room?]

Once again she spins her whiteboard around to reveal her next answer. [No!]

And yet again the monitor flickers and repeats the same message. [Do you like the red room?]

Finally at her limit, she spins the whiteboard around one time. [NO NO NO NO NO NO]

Suddenly the lights go out and all you can hear is Kiaria scream and then deafening. A few moments later the lights flicker back on and she is missing. However, you notice two odd details. One, the monitor still appears to be there but it no longer displays anything on it. And secondly, and most concerning, the wall behind the stage that had once been white has been painted a dark shade of red.

Kiaria Aoike, the Super High School Level Misfortune Urban Legend Writer, has been executed.

[undyingxiv]

Hm, curious! Rosalia goes to the laundry room next... Did anyone do their laundry recently? Or just threw carelessly something into the machines? Or maybe the baskets... Anything?

Nope! But there may still be something to be found on this level two of this building actually!

[undyingxiv]

Actually, if Rosalia would compare mentally how the powder letters looked like to Jun's writing, woulds he get a match or not?

Nope, not a match! 

[undyingxiv]

Oh, nasty stuff! She turns around and follows the black powder right back - see where it originated from. Furthermore, she would check if she saw it anywhere within the facility before, as well as check for any other oddities - like peculiar trails, left messages, if there was too little in one spot or too much of it... stuff like that!

Aaaand that brings her back to the kitchen where Jun’s body is. 

Looking all across the kitchen floor shows a chaos of lines of fine black powder. It’s difficult to tell exactly what it was, but it’s covering a great amount of the kitchen floor, swept up in all directions by footwork. There is one area on the ground where it’s more of a pile that splatters and then creates a line leading somewhere. The only clear thing you can make out of the mess are some letters. 

Everything else is incomprehensible.

Next to the ‘X’ is a kitchen counter.

[undyingxiv]

Rosalia will put Jun's notebook back to where it belonged, pray for the fallen minstrel and then get up to do more work. Is there anything in the hallways where all their rooms are that seems different than before? Anything on any doors or walls? Something slipped underneath a door? Or maybe even something on the ground or ceiling...

Leave no place untouched!

There doesn’t seem to be anything out of place within this hall, but you do happen to notice that it looks like you’ve been leaving behind some kind of black powder along the way here. You probably got some on your footwear on your way out of the crime scene.

[undyingxiv]

Internally apologizing for invading Jun's privacy, she opens up the book. Is there anything of interest written in it? Something that could be potentially tied to the murder at hand?

It looks like there are indeed some notes inside of it! Curiously enough, all of them seem to pertain to the case of Hanako Kamikawa instead.

[undyingxiv]

How unfortunate that another murder occured. Rosalia decides to give Jun's corpse a pat-down - what items does he have on him?

Within Jun’s pants pocket, you find that he had a small notebook on his person. There is a pencil in its rings as well.

[undyingxiv]

VIERZEHN FILE:

VICTIM: Jun Nishimura LOCATION OF BODY: Lunch Room CAUSE OF DEATH: Hypothermia TIME OF DEATH: 3:17AM

The victim is Jun Nishimura. The time of death was 3:17AM. The body is located in one of the kitchens in the Lunch Room, curled into himself on the floor halfway into the kitchen’s walk-in freezer. His body seems to be propping the door open.

[undyingxiv]

Chapter 2 | Cold Reception

Rewind to the past — just some minutes ago. Your morning had been filled with cries and calls taking up the hotel hallway. Everyone had gathered outside their rooms, some dressed, others still in the clothes they went to sleep in, but the topic of the discussion had all been trained on the same thing.

Another one of you might have died.

But now you know it to be true. You see it, and you hear Daichi announce it shortly after you all get there. What Fumi Kokonose had revealed to you all up there was the reality that you were facing right now, everyone gathered around the most recently to be departed.

Jun Nishimura's corpse rests on the ground, cocooned in on himself as his body exists on the border between the kitchen and its walk-in freezer.

How long had he been there? What had led him to that place? What had led up to him lying in such a vulnerable state?

The first question could be answered if you merely checked your watch. You notice the numbers tick down:

67:23:42.

67:23:41.

67:23:40...

Four hours ago.

Over four hours ago, Jun Nishimura died. For over four hours, Jun Nishimura has been here, waiting for people to discover his grim fate. But more than that, the most important fact remains.

One of you has killed Jun Nishimura.