Season 1 / Andrew - "Penny for your Thoughts" [The First Trial Projection]

Emily Lewenhock

…Cramped in the room or the mask? But the mask pops back out before she tries to comment, and then—

Ah, retributive justice. They are in prison, after all. She wrinkles her nose a bit at the redheaded offender, but it's not like she's doing anything other than… Being Like That.

And well, that was a short projection—oh no just another funny nothingness gap. And this must be what they call an out-of-body experience! Or dissociation! Or something! Weird in any case, but at least it's over soon, and with nothing, like, weird happening.

"Mm. A brother? Or doppelganger…" That seemed a bit too similar for the latter, though. Unless they have a whole stunt double situation on their hands, which would be ridiculous but so was everything else.

She's not in the mood for the phone or notebooks, so she squirms her way around to try the briefcases. Boy, this was going to get exhausting even without the collateral damage.

Andrew Edgeworth

Emily Lewenhock

When you make contact with one of the briefcases, your vision fills with a bright white light. When your vision clears, you feel yourself on a bed in a place completely unlike the apartment you were just in; a small but nice bedroom. Everyone else has stayed visible this time…but even if you wanted to look around at the just-out-of-focus surroundings, your sight is trained on a college pamphlet. The words swim around every time you try to zero in on them, but the photo makes it plenty clear what the little booklet is for.

Suddenly, two figures with indiscriminate, black silhouettes enter and place a briefcase at the foot of your bed. Their movements are stuttered and stiff, like animation with a too-low framerate.

"You and your brother have been freeloading long enough. You're both 18 already, go make something of yourselves."

With another bright light, you have returned to the apartment.

Bow-wow

"OUWWWH…" Bow-Wow complains loudly as Tatsuko crashes into him. He was out here being so nice and considerate and then Tatsuko decides to score maximum points…

But he's quickly much more distracted by the way the room…and his perception of reality shifts as his hands touch the coins. He resists the urge to yell, "What the fuck?" out loud for just long enough to watch along.

Oh man, preparing food? Presumably for other people? Oh, it was like deja vu!

Regardless, Bow-Wow is… relieved when he's finally back in his own body.

"I…I'm assumin' y'all saw all that too?" He's a little… discombobulated, admittedly. Emily confirms, and he nods. "Brother, I'm guessin'…" Bow-Wow knows a thing or two about those!

MILGRAM

Better the wardens be here than most of the cast size-wise, but they sure aren't immune to a round of Tatsuko pinball. Apparently it doesn't count as enough harm to trigger whatever forcefield thing goes on with them, because they all get a good bonk.

"Watch it!"

"Wah! Is everyone okay?"

"If you wanted to take my hand, all you had to do was ask."

Unclear whether someone had actually grabbed her hand in chaos or if Tatsuko had just bumped hers, but either way.

Tatsuko Onizuka

"Haha! Yeah! Pinball!" Tatsuko cheers. She tacks on a quick "sorry!" right after, not actually looking very sorry at all.

She groans. "Ugh, brothers. Who were the other guys now, parents? College? Ugh, I take everything back. This is the worst."

She reaches out to grab the flip phone and open it up. Maybe she can find something interesting on there.

Andrew Edgeworth

Tatsuko Onizuka

No teleportation this time! The moment you open the phone, the screen lights up. Remember when phones weren't password-protected?

It's just a single email with the heading, "9:30 AM APPOINTMENT." All the text rapidly change into different letters, but several letters that remain the same distinctly read: "Gather up your press kit and present what you have."

Emily Lewenhock

"Oh gosh college pamphlets." Free war flashbacks for the academics.

The silhouettes are concerning, framerate quality aside. But "brother," right there.

"Well. Guess we didn't have to keep guessing for long." Questions can be answered! Hurrah.

Tatsuko Onizuka

Vendetta against all three, there? Certainly can't blame her over the college one. Run while you can.

"What's on the phone?" There may not be much space in here, but not a lot of good viewing angles to get yourself into, either.

Bow-wow

If Bow-Wow were a different person, he'd respond to that with 'Amen, Sister!' but he doesn't because he hates joy and whimsy, of course.

Admittedly half-unintentionally, he tries to move out of Tatsuko's war path, and ends up grabbing at the spiral notebooks in the process.

He also feels bad for Andrew… if he were smarter, he's sure he'd be getting hounded about college by now…

Andrew Edgeworth

Bow-wow

Despite the grip you have on the notebook, it slams open, throwing pages and pages of pencil sketches and concept art fill the air. The text is hard to read, but simply because there's so much writing crammed into little space. All the writing frames practically millions of drawings of magical girls, monsters, or worlds; each page almost being art pieces in their own right.

As you flip through and scan the pages, a stranger's voice laughs behind you. His voice is on the higher end, but still distinctly masculine. There's no visible owner to the voice, but it's notably the same voice that came out of the Andrew look-a-like from before. "I'm telling you, Andrew, magical girls are the next big thing!"

The pages remain after the voice has stopped talking, floating aimlessly. You lose yourself in the hypnotic way they all move and slowly fade away…along with the projection. You have a good bit of time before all six participants crash to the ground.

Not that they know that.

Bow-wow

No freakin' way.

"Did… Mr. Andrew draw this?" Bow-Wow kinda asks nobody in particular, blinking at the pictures on the page. He's never really… been a massive anime guy, but he's… aware of its existence! But this stuff is pretty epic, so he's not gonna judge too hard. Even if he did watch anime, he'd be a basic kinda guy anyway…

He tries to wiggle around some of the others, like he was reaching for some of the pieces as they begun to vanish. Oh god…he's still floating… It's still far closer than Bow-Wow has ever wanted to be to anyone ever. He's pretty sure he hits someone as he attempts to plant his feet back on solid ground… in the hopes that when he does… crash back down, it won't be so bad!

MILGRAM

Just as you’re beginning to wonder where else there could possibly be to go, everything around you shutters into darkness. A breath, a blink, and then you’re once again standing in the relatively empty courtroom. Any injuries or other strangeness incurred during the projection has vanished in like fashion. It’s all finished, it seems, though the wardens still have to release the prisoners from the chairs themselves.

As you’re all shooed away, down the long hallway and back to the core of the prison and your daily life there, all that’s left is for you to ponder what on earth all of that meant.

Andrew Edgeworth

Not too long after everyone's back on the ground (either gracefully or…not), Andrew himself stirs into consciousness. He's clearly a bit groggy while blinking himself awake. It wasn't exactly fun feeling the layers of machinery over him, but he was mostly surprised at how…painless the process was.

As Andrew is detached, he looks up, prepared to answer questions or face scorn. Only to see Emily, Bow-Wow, Tatsuko, and the other wardens in a semi-formed pile in front of him.

"…what on Earth happened?"

MILGRAM

Projection complete!

The Wardens will judge as they see fit… but maybe you have a voice, too? [Voting is now OPEN.]