Ay, cool cats n' alligators. Name's Mia Thompson, the Queen 'a Swing, but you may have the priv of calling me Mia. Now listen, dollface, don't let my fancy street cred intimidate ya, just shoot me up a message 'nd maybe I'll give ya a holler. Abyssinia! Closed for Once Upon A Trial Status: dEAD
Imagine Persephone asking Mia out and they just spend that night walking Persephone’s dog. Mia expected some candlelight dinner and swing dancing, but NO. Thanks persephone. THANKS.
You know what bro. Yeah, I'm ok with this. I'm ok with the idea that Mia and Persephone can walk dogs and dance together, because dogs make Persephone happy and dancing means the world and all the stars to Mia. I don't care if they never hook up or anything, they're happy being in each other's presence and no amount of kissing can make up for that. They could never even hold hands and I could say I ship their happiness alone.
Some friends have asked if I ship Persephone and Mia. I’m going to be honest and tell you rn: Persephone is perceptive when it comes to watching people to see their next move or scoping out danger. But relationships???
I’m not gonna lie: She wouldn’t know where to start, ok? If you tell her to tell you who she loves, she’ll show you a picture of her dog, Giet.
PS: That picture of a family that Renee received? Totally her. Persephone used to be a redhead. As to why she dyed her hair white? BECAUSE FUCK YOU THAT’S WHY! Because….she likes white hair and we don’t know.
I could see Mia and Persephone being a thing though. IF ONE OF THEM WOULD MAKE THE FIRST MOVE. Incredible….
BTW: You guys were hella. Sorry I wasn’t active though. Not too sure about the ending, ngl, but…I mean the mods worked hard on it, so ty for doing what you all did?
PEACE!!!
Guys I'd just like to give a big thank you for all the fun times we've had. I know things were tough some times and things didn't improve when I stuck my tongue in the metaphorical outlet that was letting my dweeb take the credit for the murder, but you guys have no idea how glad I am to have participated in this group. Besides the fact that I've made some great bonds and expanded my writing style, playing as Mia has been one of the most gratifying things I've done in a long time. Playing as her felt really powerful and as odd as it is, the fact that Mia was so universally hated by the gay baby squad made me feel joy because I was the mind behind a character that had that big an influence. You have no idea how freeing that felt.
I'm really glad that I got to meet each and everyone of you. If we didn't roleplay or talk much, then I honestly regret that we didn't make a longer lasting connection but I still consider you extremely valuable and wouldn't trade you guys for the world. Even with our ups and downs, I love you all so much, which is ironic coming from the player who's muse probably wanted your dangling parts at one time or another. c:
Ok so I made a video for endgame but I couldn't convert it from a windows movie maker file to a video because movie maker sucks. I really want to show off what I got though. Does anyone know a fix to this or can I email it to you to upload?
Mia hardly had any words for all that happened. Yeah, she was super on board to have Arisa die, but not so much for everything that happened afterwards. Well, with the exception of one detail.
She felt herself phase into the physical world immediately, and instead of questioning it, she ran forward, throwing her arms around Yuki, pulling them into her chest, and holding them there. No tears, no anything. She was just so happy, the game had ended. Yuki survived, if this was any indication of what was happening, if the fact that she had just phased back into this realm meant anything, it meant she had somehow survived.
It meant she and Yuki were going home together.
However, as time went on and things became more and more complicated, an odd sensation bubbled within Mia.
Daichi…an angel? She was dead before all this? Yuki was…Chiyo was…
The emotions she felt in her were so…raw. It meant that…that she couldn’t leave? That’d she’d have to do this again? That…that she…
And then the next moment, she was flying at Daichi, fists flying towards him only to ricochet off of some sort of barrier. Good, if it wasn’t there, Mia would’ve torn him to literal shreds.
“S***! S*** AND A HALF! MOTHER F***IN TAPDANCIN’ C*** ON A W****!YOU BIRD S*** STAIN F***IN’ A** F***! YA LOUSY NO GOOD C*** OF A B****! YA CALL YERSELF AN’ ANGEL BUT I CAN VERIFY THAT F***IN’ SATAN’S BETTER THAN YA!”
Another fist to the barrier, a fresh spurt of blood came from Mia’s knuckles. She could hear the bones popping out of place, but she cared little for that.
So many chances she gave Daichi, when in all truth it ended up being him. Arisa wasn’t the mastermind.
Daichi Fujimoto was.
”Y’ don’t—ya don’t even know what yer doin’ f*** fart! YER th’ one puttin’ us through death an’ death ‘gain an’ fer what?! FER US TO SUFFER THIS PAIN ‘GAIN AN’ ‘GAIN!”
“AN’ DON’T YA GET IT?! Yer sayin’ two murderas are better off livin’ in th’ world than us?! I AIN’T DONE NOTHIN’ WRONG! I SAVED THEM TWO MOTHERF***IN C***S! An’ what ‘bout th’ victims?! What ‘bout Seph, Koe, ‘naki ‘n Mimi?! They didn’t do nothin’ wrong an’ they gotta do this again?!”
"This ain’t Purgatory, this is HELL!”
"I-I—"
And then, it happened, finally. Mia’s tear ducts gave in, tears burst from her eyes as if she were bleeding the salty pain.
"I-I WANNA GO HOME! I WANNA SEE M’ GRAMPS AGAIN!"
And she collapsed to the ground, laying one final smash to Daichi’s forcefield.
Oh, look at that. The hands Daichi had given Anaki, Renee, and Kazuma up for were now disjointed and bleeding, bending in unnatural ways. Oh well, what did she need hands for in hell?
She glanced up to that light previously mentioned. It was a lot closer than she remembered it being, and Daichi a lot further away than she remembered as well. Not that their perspectives really mattered at all.
But wow she was tired…
Tired…
Why not give in to this sensation and allow her legs to carry her? To continue her circle in the never-ending cycle?
Hadn’t the rabbis always described the enveloping light at the end of the tunnel to be a pleasant thing?
But hadn’t the rabbis also told her that hell didn’t exist?
Renee is Madotsuki. The AU takes place in an altered but similar universe of the main plot. It's assumed it's events correspond to the Most Despair Inducing Event and that Renee is either on the edge of the Marchen Purgatory and interacting with the dead and dying classmates or she's still in the real world fighting off her inner demons.
The sewer drawings were made by Kasie.
Shouko is KyuuKyuu-Kun. While I don't know the details on how Shouko died, given her nature in the game it seems she either lives in denial or has a very strong sense of hope. When confronted by the Most Despairing Event, this could lead to her to become unresponsive to the world around her.
Of course, Poniko and Uboa are Renee's mother who looks like a normal being under a normal eye but is of course the monster Renee knows her to be.
Waka is Masada. The piano before Masada is actually Waka's radio tower controls that he uses to relay information to the outside world. The crash of the space ship refers to his overdose of drugs that lead to his death.
The Eyeball World is collectively Momoko. I don't have the details of her death but it can be assumed that she was still suffering from having killed her siblings and the scattered body parts are their remains.
The Nopperabou Ghost is Ricardo, and by that I mean actually Ricardo and not his personalities. The effect of the Nopperabou implies how Ricardo is beginning to loose his mind.
Mia is the train passenger, obviously.
Pascal is a Toriningen. Although very docile normally, if provoked he will turn into a lunatic and attempt to chase down the offender.
Daichi is Mars. In a state of being between the worlds, he is often left crying from having to watch his friends die repeatedly and knowing he has to forget them. He is also capable of being stabbed though it doesn't lead to his death.
Min-Yun is Mafurako. Due to her insecurities, Min-Yun appears invisible save for her accessories. However, when the stoplight is equipped, simulating the concert lights, she becomes visible.
Yuki is the Thing With The Quivering Jaw. Although many people would suspect a pickpocket to be someone no one should trust during the event, Yuki has been reduced to a near catatonic state as they slowly starve to death.
I remember Doubt did one of these before and I thought it'd be a helpful little guide to anyone who wasn't fully caught up with OuT or those who didn't read it fully but wanted to know what happened.
Once Upon A Trial
Thirty one students awaken in a mysterious land known as the Marchen Kingdom. The supervisor and prince of the Kingdom is a swan named Swanami, who promises a life of peace to the students. However, things turn deadly when a creature known as Monogoose arrives and takes over the Kingdom by force. With her arsenal of threats, sadistic manner, and a number of lethal lackeys, she forces the students into a game of Mutual Killing.
Chapter 0-Prologue
Victim: Foerlie Clover-SHSL Bad Luck
Killer: N/A
Executed: N/A
Miscellaneous Info:
When Monogoose arrives and usurps Swanami, turning him into Monoduck, Foerlie confronts the goose on what she has done. However, their bad luck tips against them and they are crushed to death by a falling bolder. Though many blame this on Foerlie’s luck, many are quick to blame the death as a murder at the hands of the goose.
Chapter 1
Victim 1: Maro “Momotaro” Moto-SHSL Folklorist
Killer 1: Maro Nakashima-SHSL Sociologist
Victim 2: Maro Nakashima-SHSL Sociologist
Killer 2: Maro Nakashima-SHSL Sociologist
Executed: N/A
Miscellaneous Info:
With the promise of a wish coming true in exchange for the life of a student, Maro Nakashima jumps at the opportunity and murders Maro Moto, their assumed crush, though they suffer an injury at the hands of their victim. Under the impression that the wish would come true at the well, Maro N. accidentally falls into the well, breaking their neck. The trial is complicated when the bodies are found arranged in an M, suggesting a live killer. With the lead that the killer has an injury, the class attempts a strip search. However, prime suspect Etnis who had a trail of blood leading to their room and claimed to have ‘sustained an injury while doing a handstand’, refuses to comply with the strip search. They admit to the lesser evil of arranging the Maro corpses to form an M. The group decides to go out on a limb, convicting Maro N. of the murder. The verdict is correct, and the first trial of the Mutual Killing Game begins without an execution.
Chapter 2
Victim 1: Min-Yun Yi-SHSL K-Pop Idol
Killer 1: Momoko Hotaru-SHSL Beta Tester
Victim 2: Bambi Russel-SHSL Archer
Killer 2: Etnis Von Maceachtighearna-SHSL Contortionist
Executed: Momoko Hotaru-SHSL Beta Tester
Miscellaneous Info:
The next chapter of the Mutual Killing goes just about the same as the first, with two victims. While Min-Yun was killed in Momoko’s self-defense, the beta tester disfigures the scene horribly, taking Min-Yun’s eyes and placing them aside to be retrieved later, slicing off her fingers, and arranging the scene to look like a suicide. Speaking of the blind, everyone is shocked to see Bambi Russel who had previously blinded himself, or so everyone thought, show up dead with both his eyes, arranged in a cult-like ritual. Most of the trial is spent attempting to find Min-Yun’s killer rather than Bambi’s, as Ricardo, Anaki, Mia, Lei, and Mayu are all devastated by her death. During another strip search, it is revealed Momoko has bruises from her altercation with Min-Yun. Although she’s outted to be the culprit, Mia attempts to use their last moments to find Bambi’s killer instead. However, time runs out on them.
Chapter 3
Victim 1: Etnis Von Maceachtighearna-SHSL Contortionist
The bloodiest week of the Mutual Killing begins with a splash, as Etnis attempts to swim a lake in the new area to a tower. This turns deadly as the lake is infested with mermaids who devour Etnis. Upon attempting to survey the lake, Daichi is attacked and chooses to sever his leg to save himself. Also at the lake, a misfire from Emeric Desjardins SHSL Squire (who turns out to actually be Ayuta Okada SHSL Reenactor) injures Pascal’s leg. Things continue to get worse as the delivery fairy, Briar, has his wings sliced off for aiding the students.
Upon delivering the motive of the week, Swanami attempts to oppose Monogoose only to be attacked and have his arm cut off. Ricardo attacks Monogoose in a blind rage, but she slices the fingers of his left hand off, matching the wounds Momoko gave Min-Yun, his proclaimed sister. Meanwhile, the motive weighs heavily upon Mayu, who fears for her father’s safety. She attempts to overdose on sleeping pills only to be interrupted by Yuki. Desperate to save her father, she murders Sani and Kohaku.
The trial hits several snags along the way, both from little evidence and from Pascal’s rage at having his sort of boyfriend die leaving him threatening the killer with a knife. After suspicion is cast to Koe, Mayu confesses to killing the two, and Yuki is forced to reveal their part in the murder. Although the majority vote is cast for Mayu, Koe steps up in an attempt to save her. Due to Monogoose shipping the two, she allows this and Koe is executed, leaving Mayu in a great depression.
The chapter begins with Simon Sweet, the baker of the Kingdom, being killed by the croupier of the Kingdom due to aiding the students. Due to the controversial themes of the last trial, most of the class has split views on how to view Mayu and this leads to a division among most of them. As an effect, Mia moves out of her shared room with Ayuta due to his view that Mayu is a true murderer. Knowing that Ayuta was left alone in his room, his friend Renee, desperate due to hearing her mother’s voice, sneaks into his room and kills him by slitting his throat. Before the trial can begin, a previously missing Arthur is brought into the Marchen Kingdom by Briar, but both are shot down by Andre, Arthur for his tardiness in the game and Briar for assisting the students. Due to the lack of available information, the trial begins to hit snags and Daichi is accused of being the murderer. In order to save him, Renee confesses to her crime. However, before the execution could begin, Daichi calls for a mastermind vote in order to save Renee since he had admitted to being in love with her. The mastermind vote is a bust, and Daichi is confronted by several angry classmates, including a normally calm Kazuma. Since the class has so little evidence, the vote is cast for Renee and she is executed.
Chapter 5:
Injured 1: Mia Thompson-SHSL Swing Dancer
Injured 2: Anaki-SHSL Pirate
Injured 3: Kazuma Hanamo-SHSL Cosmetologist
Injured 4: Renee Petit-SHSL Ballerina
Victim 1: Mayu Harugawa-SHSL Diplomat
Killer 1: Pascal Servez-SHSL Mailman
Victim 2: Persephone Artino-SHSL Bounty Hunter
Killer 2: Pascal Servez-SHSL Mailman
Executed 1: Ryouta Koboyashi-SHSL Timer
Executed 2: Mia Thompson-SHSL Swing Dancer
Miscellaneous Info:
Unlike the previous chapters, Mongoose refuses to open the new area of the Kingdom due to losing her key. Mia, noticing a key around the goose’s neck and having found out that it was for something important, attempts to steal it. The attempt is in vain, as Monogoose slices off her hands for the attempt. Daichi, who Mia had previously aided after he lost his leg, decided to make up for Mia’s action and make a deal with Monogoose to get her hands back. However, he is under the impression that he will take the bullet, but in exchange for Mia’s new hands, Anaki loses her eye, Kazuma loses an arm, and even the dead aren’t spared as Renee loses her feet.
With the promise of leaving the Marchen Kingdom, Ricardo and Pascal come up with the idea for a murder plot to kill Persephone, believing her to be the mole and Mia due to her words towards Ricardo. However, when Mayu attacked Ricardo after the duo had knocked everyone out, Pascal kills her and the two dismember her. The death of Mayu and Persephone leaves a great toll on their friends, and before the trial can begin, Ryouta is executed for arriving late.
Although the evidence points towards Pascal, Mia seems committed to the idea that Ricardo committed the crime, admitting she does want Ricardo to die. This is met with negative reactions, especially from her best friend Yuki, who shares a strong bond with Ricardo. Due to the stress of having failed to protect Persephone and Mayu, having lost her hands, recovering them at the cost of her friend’s eye, and unsure of how to live in a life where Yuki hated her, she confesses to killing Persephone and Mayu and is executed.
Chapter 6:
Injured 1: Pascal Servez-SHSL Mailman
Injured 2: Min-Yun Yi-SHSL K-Pop Idol
Victim 1: Anaki-SHSL Pirate
Killer 1: Arisa Sato-SHSL Microbiologist
Victim 2: Kazuma Hanamo-SHSL Cosmetologist
Killer 2: Arisa Sato-SHSL Microbiologist
Victim 3: Daichi Fujimoto-SHSL Police Officer
Killer 3: Arisa Sato-SHSL Microbiologist
Executed: Arisa Sato-SHSL Microbiologist
Miscellaneous Info:
At the completion of the fifth trial, Monogoose arranges for Pascal to be freed from the Kingdom due to his successful murder. Pascal refuses, though, when Ricardo, his new boyfriend, isn’t allowed to come with him. The class is again divided and enraged by the needless blood spill, and Yuki goes to the extreme of slashing Pascal’s eye.
The bloodshed continues in the dead blog when Min-Yun Yi hears that a treasure chest in the lake protected by mermaids contains pearls that can cure any injury. Suffering the loss of her entire body save for her head, she recovers six pearls, using two to cure herself and Renee. The rest are sent to the living realm to be used on the live kids, one for Kazuma, Anaki, and Ricardo. However, Kazuma’s pearl is accidentally given to Pascal and he is cured of his injury.
The motive of this week is perhaps one of the most heartbreaking, for it allows those who died to return to the living world. Although this allows many students to come to closure with their deceased friends, it turns out to be far worse than imagined when the dead students begin developing the wounds of their death. And since some of them died so brutally, it’s pretty bad. Meanwhile, Yuki admits to Daichi and Anaki that they are indeed Livewire, the mole of the mastermind, and the trio begins their attempt to catch the mastermind. However, the mastermind Hellfire finds out of Yuki’s betrayal and promises to punish Yuki for their actions.
The three victims of chapter six end up being the Yuki’s closest remaining companions. Due to Hellfire’s threat and the appearance of paper stars which Hellfire used to tell Yuki which locations to approach them in, it becomes clear that the mastermind and the killer are one in the same. The class confronts Arisa on this, believing her to be the culprit due to the fact that her calm demeanor matches a statement about the mastermind, she has a large bruise on her back that she doesn’t logically explain, and Yuki received one of her hair ties from the mastermind.
Endgame:
Arisa Sato, rightfully convicted of being the mastermind of the first instalment of Once Upon A Trial, begins to show her true colors of insanity as she unravels her plot as the mastermind. Revealing her true name as Arisa Aberforth, she monologues on how she grew up the child of wedlock of an absentee father and a poor mother, having grown up on the streets of Chicago. When she woke up in the Marchen Kingdom, she was approached by an unknown party who allowed her to test the students, bringing them down to her level. However, she still doesn’t know who it was that helped her with the Mutual Killing, and dies without knowing.
As Monogoose appears before the students once more, a stunning light overcomes them and the dead are placed among side the living again. It’s revealed that the student that wasn’t among the original thirty was in fact Daichi who has been working with Monogoose and Swanami the entire time. He reveals that the world outside of the Kingdom was overcome by an event known as the most Despair-Inducing Incident and all of the students in the Kingdom died in the event when they gave into despair. Daichi reveals he was never a student of Hope’s Peak, but was actually an angel alongside Monogoose and Swanami.
The Marchen Kingdom is actually a state of Purgatory where the students must replay a game of Mutual Killing several times. Each round, a mole and mastermind is selected and Daichi is put into the game to try and stop the mastermind before they kill too many people. Of the original students, the ones that survived the game have been declared to have overcome despair through their hope and are given a chance at reincarnation while the remaining students who died in the game have to play through the game again. With this, the first round of Once Upon a Trial ends with the survivors leaving to their reincarnation and the victims to replay the game again.
Going off the fact that the Most Despair Inducing Incident happened before she arrived at Hope's Peak, as soon as the incident began to happen, Mia and her family immediately panicked. Afraid of the terrorism picking up in Japan, they attempted to flee back to America to ensure that they were safe with their original family, hoping that America hadn't been put through the despair.
However, it appeared that the incident was a world-wide affair and New York was harder hit than Japan. While attempting to take the subway from the airport to Brooklyn, the car was taken hostage and was blown up by terrorists. Mia was burned by the explosion but died when she was crushed to death by the remains of the subway car. Instead of using her last breath for a hopeful prayer to live, she just begged for it all to end quickly, ending her life with despair.
Just as a concerned and somewhat dissatisfied viewer reading the denouement, I have some questions. It seems that only the survivors of the game get to 'move on', due to not giving into despair, but strictly speaking only the murderers did. Why do the victims have to repeat this game? Why do those mistrialed on have to? And with memories being erased, doesn't that make all the relationships people formed meaningless? Will the students ever get these memories and bonds back?
It’s less about not giving into despair than surviving despair. My personal headcanon is that it’s less of a moral test than a spiritual roadblock that the students have to overcome. As for the reincarnation, no, all the surviving students and all the ones that survive afterwords will be reborn as new people. In my personal feelings, however, that doesn’t make the bonds and friendships made here meaningless. Just because you don’t remember something doesn’t make it unimportant. Even if the students don’t remember the people that move on, or the previous games when they worked together and helped each other and grew close, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen, that it didn’t matter. It helps to think of this game as part of the larger story of multiple games, where, as Yuki said, people find strength in their friends, dead or alive, and ultimately beat that round’s mastermind. I plan on making a longer post on this once the game properly ends.
That said, I understand that many people are unsatisfied with the ending. I’m very sorry about that. The knowledge that people may walk away from the game feeling unhappy has been weighing on me heavily, to the point where I’m starting to make myself ill. I think that making this post will help me to feel better, however.
The simple fact is that while this kind of plot would have always left some people unhappy, it could have been handled much, much better. OUT as a game has been riddled with OOC problems— of the five mods that we started with, only two actively participated, Huong and Kay both had severe personal issues during this game, and when Huong made the decision to go on hiatus for her own mental and physical health (which I and everyone else are very glad she did), things became chaotic. Endgame itself has been a technical nightmare to put together, and all of this conspired to really fuck us over. I’m relieved and proud that we managed to complete the game at all, especially since, ending aside, almost all of our players have told us that they adore OUT, and consider it one of the best games they’ve been in. That means a lot.
OUT2 will be better. We’ve learned a lot from the mistakes of OUT1, and we hope that despite your feelings on this ending, you’ll understand the difficulties we faced and join us for the next game.
Thank you for sending in your concerns politely. Some people involved with endgame have been sent hatemail, and even if I stressed over how to answer this ask, I’m glad that I did.
Oh and also, at one point in chapter two Mia was freaking out about being away from her room. I'm gonna go ahead and say why since Lee was the only one to figure it out. Mia is super embarrassed about this but she still sleeps with the baby blanket her mom made for her and she of course left that in her room when they were stuck at the sleeping bears. Luckily she got to cuddle up with Persephone to make up for that.
