final trial

[facultwist]

Wake up, Rosenblum Hall. Wake up.

You have everything you need now. The last two months, and yet somehow just a week and a half, have all led you to this moment. You have seen the tragedy and desperation at the heart of what has happened at Rosenblum Hall, and what is currently happening at Rosenblum Hall.

What is left, of course, is to determine what happens next at Rosenblum Hall.

True to the Headmistress's word, you are each and every one of you found and taken back to the trial room. The Witch transporting you is a curious feeling, as if the whole world turns upside-down around you, and yet you end right side up.

Each of you stands at your podium, along with whatever evidence you've collected. The whole menagerie of animals, thankfully, remains together to take over the Headmistress's Office. Which probably feels like the least of what she's earned.

The 22nd desk is uncovered, but so far empty. The time has come to fix that.

"Time to put your evidence together. This is my trial, so... you know. Do your worst and all that. Once you have an idea how it all fits together, we can talk face to face."

Comments

[rednails]

[It takes all the time in the world and no time at all. Here they are. Mariko doesn't know what to do with that, with all of this-- so she does without. What else is there?

She takes the desk beside Thomasin's and places notated sheet music at the top of it.]

I went into the basement with Dagr. The basement walls were damaged from the fires, but the floor was different. It was hollow. I had to work to open it up and underneath there was... [She pauses.] There was a bedroom. Not much-- a bed and a piano, some shelves.

[She holds up the sheet music.]

This was at the bench. It looks like a duet, but a lot of it's scribbled out.

...

[Quieter, hastily;] And some granola in the corner.

[curdle]

You found—these must be of a pair, then! [ it's what she's always wanted... to match... just like the olsen twins ] Can you read music, Mariko?

[ WOMP WOMP WOMP ]

[tomestones]

[It feels surreal to finally be at the end of all of this. It also feels surreal to be brought here in such a way, but Dagr's not thinking about that right now; we've got bigger things to focus on!!]

Like Mariko said, we examined the bedroom in the basement. There was a small bookshelf with several books - poetry classics mostly, in Latin and French and English, of course. There were also these: [they hold up a couple of books they brought with them] books on the occult. From a quick look through, they mostly seem to be about healing rituals and rituals related to undetectability and safe passage.

I also took a look at the bed that was down there. It... didn't paint a pretty picture. The mattress was removed some time ago, so there wasn't anything personal, but there were iron chains attached to the wall around the bed. They were manacles, meant as limb restraints to keep someone there. There was enough slack to get to the piano or bookshelf, but definitely not enough to escape.

While I was holding them, I had another vision of the past. Maria and Louise Monroe were there, with Louise in the chains and Maria freeing her. I was able to see Louise's arms this time - they were covered in burn scarring. "Just leave me! Let them burn me as a witch!" She said. And... She mentioned the disasters - she wanted this place to burn down to ash, the earth to shake and collapse everything her father built, and the wind and storm to tear the walls from the foundation.

[iseedollpeople]

... I don’t think that was Louise.

[hootheart]

Fire. Earthquake. Storm. All match.

[hootheart]

[Tiera cries out as she's spun around, separated from the family she's just found again, and deposited at her desk. Still, she does have her investigation results typed up, which she taps a button to read out.]

Evidence Report:

The Witch House had some candlewax on the floor, arranged in a circular shape. It appeared that area had been previously used for a ritual, although most of the candles had been cleaned away, and some parts of the floor had been replaced. While most of the graffiti appeared to simply have been left by teens over the years, there was a carving near the baseboard of a heart, containing the initials "E.A.M." and "M.F." with a plus symbol between them. The room also had a bed, which appeared to have been shattered from the weight of people jumping on it over time.

There were also stairs, leading down into the basement, which had much less sign of being visited over the years. There was a wooden chair, several empty wooden boxes, and a pile of logs, all rotted. There was also some cookware, with no manufacturer's markings, suggesting it was from before the industrial revolution, as well as an iron wash tub.

Most significantly, there was a wooden plank covering a hand-painted label, which read "AD CANADIA." Upon reading this label, a vision appeared of two girls, likely Louise and Maria. They were canning food, and speaking of leaving for Canada. Louise spoke of wanting to be a witch, despite Maria's assurances that they were nothing of the sort. Before the vision faded, Maria specifically mentioned canning peaches. The vision also revealed a secret switch, which opened a passageway that Alena investigated in more detail.

[rednails]

[Mariko turns to Thomasin, eyes wide.]

The peaches!

[iseedollpeople]

[Mei grips her desk with a small frown until the world sort of settles again. Not really a fan of the space-time dumping here.

She deposits her bag with a sigh after that and starts pulling things out. There’s a thing of marble and some framed(?) pages.]

There were some windows to the past in the administration building...

[...]

The Monroes had twin daughters, but at some point one of them was painted out of the family portrait. Ingrid Monroe’s writings say that she was locked away after almost dying to save her brother.

[She shakes her head.]

They kept hiding her even after the people of Charity wanted to destroy her. Not Louise. The other one.

[rednails]

... What do you mean "windows to the past"?

[Somehow visions make more sense than that.]

[shellhawked]

Two of them?

[It keeps coming back to twins.]

[curdle]

So Canute was not the only one in the fire. She would have been burned terribly, and in those days...

cw: abuse and homophobia, vvhoops

[curdle]

[ Thomasin is in the library when she's taken. She has the old sheet music, the envelope, her dagger, and a gun. She is furious and sad and sick at heart, but instead of miring her in misery, all of those emotions steel her with a sense of finality that straightens her spine and strengthens her voice when she speaks. ]

I searched the attic of Rosenblum Hall while Mariko and Dagr took the basement. The first thing I discovered was that this was where the gifts from the dumbwaiter were being kept. There was never any magic to that, at least, no matter how she took our things—some of the commoner items we got had run out already. I looked upon them, and could find nothing more important than that.

The rest of what I found... had little to do with our Headmistress. In the back corner, covered by a cloth, there was a grand piano. It was the very one I saw Louise playing in my vision the first week. Sheet music, what looks like half a duet with the other side scratched out, sat in place there. [ She holds it up with the front facing the group. ] ... It may be of little importance, but if any of us can read music, I should like to hear what this would sound like. On the back, someone had writ Roman numerals paired with a series of numbers. I'll return to those later.

There was also a trunk, covered in dust. Inside were two white dresses and a sealed letter, both of Louise Monroe's making. I... I know not if I can read it aloud without making a spectacle, but I can tell you what it says. Louise was writing to her sister, now dead, and wrestling with her legacy.

[ Anger fills her now. It keeps her eyes dry. ]

Aloysius and Ingrid Monroe kept their third child a secret from the world and a captive in their house. They claimed it was to protect her from the world, which would look ill upon a girl with "her deformities." The mara Ingrid said haunted the Hall was their own daughter, crying out in the night from her secret place in the basement. She must have been allowed some level of freedom, for Louise mentions the two of them and Maria spending time in the garden when their great-aunt Astrid was away—and when Maria came to Charity, they fell in love. Little wonder Louise was never mentioned in the witch panic. It was her sister, who they could only call "bestial", who fled into the woods with Maria Fairfield, and who hated this place as a prison.

And history forgot her, for it had barely known her in the first place. Louise did not, but she feared that to reveal the truth would only render her sister an object of ridicule and speculation, so she kept secret of her. Like as not she worried for herself, too, just as their parents kept her locked away to preserve their own reputation... but she at least tried to do better by her. She passed the story down to her children, hoping to keep the knowledge alive until it was "the right time" to tell the truth to the world. I believe she meant that. As a show of faith and love, she named Rosenblum Hall after her sister, who Maria called a "rose in bloom." She made the two wedding dresses in the trunk for the two of them.

... But of course it was never the right time. If they know the story still, and know it to be true, the Monroes' descendants could reveal it at any time. But it would soil the school's character, and what should they care about a girl who died centuries ago next to the money they might make? They will never tell. [ She blinks fast and awkwardly clears her throat. ] —As for the numbers. Each Roman numeral corresponded to the books Hatsune found in the library. It was a cipher. On the hundredth page of each book, the first number signified the line, the second the word of the line, and the third the letter of the word which should be written down. In the end, those letters made a name.

Elsa Ann Monroe. That was the name of the sister Louise wrote to, the one we assumed was Louise all this time.

[hootheart]

[Tiera's eyes widen and she lets out a screech of shock.]

E. A. M. Explain heart carving! Always call ghost L! Same sound!

[iseedollpeople]

You found the name.

[Who names their daughters with similar starting sounds? Haunted-ass historical families, apparently. No wonder the school is cursed.]

[rednails]

[Mariko watches closely as Thomasin speaks, eyeing the soft planes of her face as she wrestles with this anger, this sadness. A swell of something rises in her chest as this feeling becomes her own, two halves of the same whole.]

... Do you think they got away? In the end?

[It's perhaps too hopeful of a thought. She recalls the dresses as if she'd seen them herself, can practically picture them.]

[shellhawked]

Took you long enough to drop the gleeful villain act, Olivia.

[Hawke's had her floor time with two very good dogs and it's fortified her. Her usual seat on top of her desk podium is taken and she yanks off her backpack to start pulling out the student records, a few local history books and Jules Duret's book.]

Satsuki, Mei and I got into administration. There was a whiteboard that laid out every motive, murder and execution with the names in the order that they happened and were supposed to happen. The last part, this week, said "Assimilation Complete". On the back she'd written down really excited notes about the dreams we talked about.

Out student records were on the bookshelf and and had notes about us too. [ She holds those up.] Things about us that were different from the other versions. There were some books on local history. She was researching the area and things Burnbriar students would know. [Picking up the last book she found.] Satsuki found more context for this but this is a book on ghost possession by a name named Jules Duret. His mother had discovered how to use a mix of of common events and hypnosis to let ghosts possess the living.

Olivia- the Interim Headmistress- was trying to manufacture this game to be as close as possible to the original one we've started remembering so we could get possessed by...well, ourselves. She was trying to tweak it though, so we'd be a combination of both versions of us.

[Which leads into:]

She had Mari's file too. The accident in the abandoned pool with the ritual didn't kill her but it almost did. She left school after, her family got a nice settlement for it and now she's an indie musician in Canada- [Hawke holds up the online print-out.] Going by the name Maria.

[curdle]

... Olivia, and Elsa. We finally have their names.

[ so she has something to YELL when she's kicking their ASSES ]

[thanoptical]

I think Maria possessed Mari. Remember all the evidence we found of Louise--I mean Elsa--looking for Maria? Plus something I found of Olivia saying that Maria wasn't here anymore. She used to be, for three hundred years, then she left. I think the people who wanted to summon the witch accidentally summoned Maria and because of her nearly drowning, Maria's spirit stayed in Mari's body while Mari... is here instead of Maria.

[iseedollpeople]

[...]

Bringing back the dead doesn’t end well.

[It’s a bald statement, but she says it in a cold enough voice to make it a judgment.]

[thanoptical]

[Satsuki has been quiet, thinking on the things that's being said as she finally speaks up.]

I have a lot of evidence. I'm sorry if some of it doesn't make sense, I was in the same room as Hawke so I saw what she saw too and I combined it in my head. We went to the Admin Building with Mei but we went up to the Headmistress's room. First... hey. [She speaks to the room directly, not the group.] Interim Headmistress. I know your name, even if I don't know your face... Olivia. Olivia Massell. I know you're from Oregon and that... well.

[She turns back to the group. Placing a pamphlet for a group called Parentage on the desk.]

This is for what looks to be a cult based around the idea of trying to reach one point in time eternally. The people who ran it, Cyan and Marigold Massell, died in a plane crash but their daughter is still alive. I know Olivia is the Interim Headmistress because of some other things I found in that room.

[She points out the envelope of polaroids.] This is a group of photos taken of us in a mansion similar to Rosenblum Hall... yes, as we were back in our memories. Of course someone has to take those pictures and there's our mysterious 22nd person in a mirror in one of them: a blonde girl in a green sweatshirt. That's Olivia.

And remember those letters we sometimes leave for each other when we die? We did that too. Of course some of them mention Olivia but one from Kana in particular... [She points out the weathered and worn letter.] Really seemed to be read a lot. This writing matches the writing from something Lottie found in the church. All you can do is get her killed.

They also mention a Headmaster who, I assume, ran the game they were in. This has our profiles, plus the Headmaster's, Isabella's, and Olivia's on it. I kind of remember the Headmaster's face... I hate him.

[She pauses. Then sighs.] I've got some videos of things I found on the computer. First, is a series of four videos. One is from Buzzfeed--something about what Hawke said about Duret. Or rather, not about the guy who wrote the book but his mother, Madame Duret. She tried to get a bunch of girls possessed by ghosts of dead artists. The other three are from Olivia's phone, probably.

The first is her digging around Rosenblum Hall, the second is her talking to someone about how that they need to replicate the general outline of events to make the possession work and how as soon as something changes things would go badly and the third one is her arguing with the witch after the last trial. That she had two rules for the witch and both were broken--give the culprits a chance to survive and never show them dying. Apparently Olivia saw Misty die from her execution and didn't want that for any of us.

Then I found some animals in another room--I guess Olivia was taking care of our pets.

[But uh. There's something else. Satsuki takes a deep breath.]

Then I got a notification about something. The cameras we haven't been able to see. She's been spying on us but there was one in a room we didn't find. I found... our dead friends.

[And yes she clicks play for everyone!]

emeto/nausea cw

[rednails]

[Mariko sees the video and she gags, fully feeling like she's going to embarrass herself by throwing up everywhere. The sensation lingers but the threat subsides.

Jesus fucking christ.]

Oh god-- [She puts her head in both hands, staring at the desk instead of everyone around her, at the video.] Are they-- are they alive?

cw emeto

[curdle]

Oh, God—

[ YEAH SHE'S COVERING HER MOUTH AND TAKING SOME DEEP BREATHS SO SHE DOESN'T PUKE

after rebooting for a good chunk of time, she yells up at the ceiling: ]

How could you think you did right by this?!

[kickdownthatwall]

[holy shit all this other stuff. uh. okay. well.]

Yes! I was taking over after Tiera. I went further into passage and found lots of ancient jarred food. I am guessing maybe peaches were in there but how am I to identify fruit that is older than your country, maybe...? Anyway, there were words carved into wall that are French and Latin, which are languages I do not understand. Does anyone alive know these...? I did write them down in case anyone is able to translate.

Anyway, I could not go too much further into tunnel because wall collapsed. There was tree growing in what was left of passage, and it had bits of very old-timey clothes and outdoor gears all over it. I decided to climb tree to see where it went and it seems like passage went close to lake.

[shellhawked]

Since they were trying to escaping to Canada, the outdoor gear makes a lot of sense. Maria or Louise must have left it there for when Maria got Elsa out of her chains.

[Gasp. Has her lifelong bitching about the French finally paid off?]

I know French.

[planetshown]

[ The Interim Headmistress's entrance into the room isn't grandiose. It's the same as all of yours so far. Just a gathering of shadows and she's here, staggering a little. ]

Ow, what the hell, El?

You were doubting too much. I am removing you from your position.

Bullshit! You wanted this as much as I did!

[rednails]

Alright!

[Mariko is being very brave by not vaulting over the desk and wailing on this girl. Please give her a medal when this is done.]

Start talking! You've got your little trial-- now what?

[facultwist]

[ The pool of water in the center of the room begins to boil. The room quakes a little.

And Elsa Monroe arrives.

She floats in the air, eight foot tall, faceless and cloaked from head to feet. And you know why. Iron chains, like those Dagr and Mariko saw by her bedside, reach from her limbs and coil in the air like snakes. ]

Our business is not entangled as you say. You all have your lives. I can fix all of this. We need not continue this debate.

Kill Olivia that I may take her body, and I will help you find new vessels for your dead. You know this world, know how many do not deserve the lives they have. It would not be hard to find acceptable losses.

[ She looks into what is empty space to you all, but not empty space to some of you. ]

This is the conclusion. This is what must be done.

[ Is that kind of ending acceptable to you? ]

[thanoptical]

Kill Olivia so you can run to Canada and maybe kill a bunch of bad people so we can put our friends into? Is that what you’re offering?

[Hell nah]