Season 1 / Emily - "Life Finds a Way" [The First Trial Projection]

MILGRAM

Erin | Vincent Churchwell “Can I ask how is this meant to work, if you have any idea yet yourself?”

Thankfully(?) Ei didn't have to answer before the answer showed up in and of itself.

He blinks, squints, cleans his glasses briefly, but the odd visual effect here doesn't abate. Hmph.

"About like that," he replies drily. He does take stock of the prisoners to keep an eye on here… but it's at least a more cooperative lot.

"Look around as you like, but be cautious." He frowns at one of the many biohazard stickers. Oh boy.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

...Ah. When Vincent had imagined a projection, going off the name, he REALLY hadn't expected it to be so... immersive. This was a loooooot more detailed than he was picturing, and also: He could no longer see the Door that he had come in through. Okayyyyy… Maybe leaving right after seeing what it was like was gonna be a little harder than initially planned.

Vincent frowns initially too at the biohazard stickers, glancing around, though after a moment hums.

"…I see. And, I suppose this setting makes sense for a student researcher, at least." He pauses, glancing between the wardens and Nobuko and Andrew who've also managed to end up here, it seems. "…And yes, for any who might not know, that door in the back has a biohazard symbol on it."

He's gonna take a little peek at the Lab Benches first. Let's see Just how real this all was, at the very least.

Emily Lewenhock

Erin | Vincent Churchwell He’s gonna take a little peek at the Lab Benches first.

While a few scratches and letters more intentionally carved into the black surface show the benches’ age, they seem to be in good condition. Aside from the expected sinks and valves, the only things of note seem to be a composition notebook sitting on one desk and a closed checkbook sort of awkwardly tucked behind a spigot.

Andrew Edgeworth

Forget projection, this was an entire - albeit limited - personalized landscape. He idly registers what Ei and Vincent say. Emily was a student researcher, huh? Makes sense with the laboratory-themed…everything. He wasn't particularly interested in opening the biohazard doors anyway, and was internally grateful someone like Sylas or Tatsuko didn't come with him to cause chaos on accident or on purpose.

Andrew blinks a bit to get used to the tunnel vision, even lifting and lowering his glasses to make sure it wasn't his own vision. He notices Vincent at the lab benches out of the corner of his eye before deciding to head over himself.

"…" He leans over slightly to try and pull the checkbook out from behind the spigot. Haha, get it, he's an accountant?

Emily Lewenhock

Andrew Edgeworth He leans over slightly to try and pull the checkbook out from behind the spigot.

It’s just an old-school checkbook that can easily be removed from its hiding(?) place.

There’s nothing written in the log pages, and what appears to be the first check of the stack is made out to Emily Lewenhock for an amount with a lot of zeroes. The “For” line is blank, and the signature line has… a signature on it? The dark red words almost seem to be flickering between a few different names, superimposed just enough that you can’t make out any particular one. The same situation seems to be happening with the pre-typed information in the corner of the check, though at no point do you perceive an address appearing where you’d expect one to be. The check background is a cute but fairly generic strolling cat.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

...Ok. This was a little Freaky that he could actually Touch the things in this room, actually- Vincent had a bit of a dazed expression as he runs a hand on one of the bench's surfaces. This... Was he being make to hallucinate this??

"How is this..." No, he should know by now, none of the wardens actually know shit about this thing either. So instead of finishing the thought, Vincent sighs and focuses on getting his bearings.

Eventually, he looks over towards Andrew, spying a very reality breaking looking check that even Vincent can tell isn't a fully filled out one

Emily Lewenhock It’s just an old-school checkbook that can easily be removed from its hiding(?) place.

"...It could be metaphorical. A... 'blank check' for a research grant would be my first guess." Not that he wants to be making too many Assumptions here either, but that was at least the most charitable thing he can think of. Vincent hums though, thinking on it. "Hard to come by as just a student, though. I'd imagine a lot of graduated researchers would kill for that. Ah- That was… just a turn of phrase."

Oops, forgot for a moment she actually apparently killed someone, sorgy. Quick, distract from that blunder by skimming over that composition notebook-

Nobuko Yoshida

Seeing the others able to physically interact with the environment leaves Nobuko taken aback. She would have to let Shiori know that, especially as if Mr. Ei's warning held weight, the things in this 'projection' could potentially harm them. That wouldn't do at all.

But, it seems that not only do they expect her to play the role of prisoner, but investigator as well. She simply nods to herself. Best to get the job done then.

Nobuko is going to take a look at the refrigerator-esque machine. Perhaps whatever was inside would be informative?

Emily Lewenhock

Nobuko Yoshida Nobuko is going to take a look at the refrigerator-esque machine. Perhaps whatever was inside would be informative?

The machine radiates warmth as you approach, a mostly transparent door only obscured by the handle and a large biohazard sticker. A sickly green light, kind of like one inside an oven, illuminates the contents. Inside are several rows of racks containing lines of petri dishes.

Emily Lewenhock

Erin | Vincent Churchwell Quick, distract from that blunder by skimming over that composition notebook-

It's a used but unremarkable notebook. The title slot reads “B. cereus Log #4,” with “Emily Lewenhock” in smaller cursive below it.

Upon opening the notebook, you find neatly but obviously hand-drawn tables logging dates, temperatures (hovering around 37 Celsius), plate numbers, and a space for extra notes. It’s very repetitive, day after day, page after page after page and you find you cannot stop flipping the pages as they seem to continue far beyond where the end of the notebook should be.

MILGRAM

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

While Ei was significantly distracted just trying to figure out how many lab benches there were—how is that a mutable thing what is even going on here what could that possibly mean about the murder or was he just having a stroke?—he was more or less keeping up with the other goings-on.

Including whatever's going on with Vincent there. Aside from the notebook also not following natural laws why this, the way the guy looked still flipping it…

Ei stepped over and attempted to bump the notebook out of Vincent's hands.

"Hey. Are you all right?" If he were more medically minded there would probably be some pupil dilation checking going on right now, or something. As it is he's mostly just squinting between the prisoner and the book.

Andrew Edgeworth

"With how loosely everything here adheres to reality, all of this being a metaphor would be a safe assumption. Last I remembered, signatures don't do that." He murmurs in response to Vincent before putting the check book back on the bench, open in case anyone else needed to look at it more closely.

"…a grant would make sense." Well, he's not going to say 'or a bribe' out loud.

Andrew makes his way to the fume hood, not having high hopes it would give more direct information either.

Emily Lewenhock

Andrew Edgeworth Andrew makes his way to the fume hood, not having high hopes it would give more direct information either.

Aside from the large biohazard label slapped on top, it’s a fairly unassuming fume hood with the expected labels and buttons. There’s some lab equipment inside, including a sink and a few stacks of empty petri dishes, with traces of something whitish on them.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Vincent's little embarrassed distraction has quickly turned into something else entirely, huh-

At first, Vincent is just skimming the pages and flipping through at an even pace, expression neutral with eyes that are flicking over the words. Though, as he keeps turning the pages, he does look just a touch uncomfortable with it, even if you'd have to look closely to tell.

But then he keeps turning, and turning, and turning, and turning, and turning, and suddenly his face darkens quite a bit more obviously. He physically cannot stop turning the pages, pages he already Doesn't want to be reading, let alone flipping through eternally, oh fuck.

"I...It's not letting me..."

Oh thank God, someone was approaching him, and suddenly that notebook is falling from his hands onto the ground, at which point Vincent takes a sharp intake of breath and steps firmly back away from it.

"Y… Yes. I'm ok. Thank you," he says to Ei. Well, he didn't necessarily look it emotionally, but physically that was probably true. Vincent takes a slow breath and flicks his eyes up to the others. "Don't… try t'read that. It wouldn't let me stop, and just… it's the same thing, forever."

Haha-

"What… all needs to be done here before we can leave, do you all think?"

Emily Lewenhock There’s some lab equipment inside, including a sink and a few stacks of empty petri dishes, with traces of something whitish on them.

Looking at that Lab Equipment will help, mayhaps? NOT touching, at least yet. Though he is also looking for any form of safety equipment that might be around while he's at it.

Nobuko Yoshida

Warmth? Well despite being similar to a refrigerator, it seemed to do the opposite. This was the first rate observational skills you could come to expect from a high-class butler. Nobuko notes the biohazard symbol, and elects not to open it. You don't pull food from an oven without gloves on, and she imagined a laboratory worked similarly.

She leans closer, examining the petri dishes. Perhaps what was inside would be visible, or at least labeled?

Emily Lewenhock

Nobuko Yoshida She leans closer, examining the petri dishes. Perhaps what was inside would be visible, or at least labeled?

Each petri dish has several waxy colonies of something or other growing on the gel inside. Despite being labeled in marker with different numbers and letters, the contents all seem identical from here—except for one in the back that’s clearly eating at the gel a bit differently.

Emily Lewenhock

Erin | Vincent Churchwell Looking at that Lab Equipment will help, mayhaps? NOT touching, at least yet.

Nothing jumps out at him as being particularly notable from here!

Erin | Vincent Churchwell Though he is also looking for any form of safety equipment that might be around while he’s at it.

The storage spaces mostly seem to have reagents and several empty boxes of PPE. How helpful.

Andrew Edgeworth

Andrew looks back for a moment, a bit confused as to what Ei and Vincent are trying to achieve, then promptly looks back to the fume hood when it looks like the two are…as okay as they could be.

He reaches inside the fume hood as carefully as possible to feel around, one hand on the middle bar in case it took on dream logic to the extreme and tried to bite off his arm or something.

Emily Lewenhock

Andrew Edgeworth He reaches inside the fume hood as carefully as possible to feel around,

Your fingers brush some of the grainy traces, and you feel a little off all of a sudden. You shiver, your chest hurts, and a moment later it’s hard to breathe.

Nobuko Yoshida

Nobuko glances at the one in the back. Curious. It would probably be worth further inspection, but there was no way she was even thinking about opening this container without making sure both herself, and the others are properly protected. And, as luck would have it, it seemed like there was the appropriate PPE provided! As she's about to make the rounds, she catches sight of Andrew over by the fume hood. Oh dear.

"Mr. Edgeworth, are you quite alright? You don't look well."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Hm.

"...I'm not particularly a fan of how little there is in the way of safety equipment here. The PPE boxes are empty." BAD sign for some kinda germ lab, really. No PPE after all-

And, speaking of... Andrew looks like he is Not Doing Too Hot either, uh oh. Unsure of exactly what he can do here, Vincent frowns as he looks his way. There was NO way that this projection was actually poisoning them, right? Right??

"...Andrew, you should wash your hands immediately if possible," he says quickly and firmly. That's like... SOME amount of worry shown for him, maybe. If Andrew is able to do this on his own that'd be ideal, but if it seems like he Can't like Vincent Couldn't before, he may actually step in.

...Ugh. This thing was still going, too. Was it on a time limit? Or did they have to Find something to end it??? Vincent is at least LOOKING at that Door in the back hoping for a bit more context on what it's deal is before he goes around opening it.

Emily Lewenhock

Erin | Vincent Churchwell Vincent is at least LOOKING at that Door in the back hoping for a bit more context on what it’s deal is before he goes around opening it.

It's a pretty ordinary wooden door! No additional warnings or red flags. Just a plain ol' handle.