post-trial 3 | rule changer.
Maybe you’ve already look away from the corpse.
Maybe you sit there, transfixed.
Maybe you’re finally feeling -- in the pit of your stomach, in a chill that reaches from your bones to the hairs on your skin -- that something here is terribly, achingly wrong -- that maybe before, when it was just an owl forcing you to do things -- excusable in the sense that he didn’t control you; excusable in the fact that no one had forced ORWELL or IVEY to kill--
...Maybe it was that, before, the owl seemed almost as if he was in on a game -- a little bit of punishment here, a little bit there--
But soon it doesn’t matter.
And Gambit shakes his head -- leaping from his throne to fly around the table:
“Do you see the kind of world we live in now, my gentlecreatures? For I, too, have rules I must abide.”
And your table begins to descend as well.
Rita’s corpse still hanging -- well above you, now.
“Of course, you did find them -- so there’s no reason to punish you for your conduct... but that was still... besides those three of you... what an exercise of mischaracterization! I feel I must remind you: I did this because to reward you with those items would be too great a cost for me to bear; if I didn’t need them dead, myself, you would have not impressed me then....”
Though he does seem to hang in the air a moment, as if in thought:
“...Of course, I suppose when you’re blindly accusing and attempting to figure things out... with no recourse for how right or wrong you may be... it does make the whole process a bit of divination to even hit... one thing right....”
And another, longer pause.
Before he says, almost to himself:
“...And I suppose that they had never... had much luck... in not mistrialing either.... Perhaps it’s a common thread....”
“...So! I am decided. As it would be somewhat novel for me to see people solve much of anything, how about I rule more in your favor? That is to say... midtrial, I will always report to you just how close you are to each element? Surely that would be great fun!”
And the table settles back in its usual place again -- the gates of the Casino lowering.
“...I will prepare for it next time, my friends. As always... do remember, you have two killers in your midst... and from the looks of it....”
“Well, I’ll be surprised if I even have to think of a motive, this time! Hoo-hoo.”