So, out of all the choices Miss Stone gave us after disbanding the crew, you chose to play detective, Lucian.
Lucian
No need to bluff. I know you're not afraid of me exposing you.
Lucian
If it would let more people know the truth behind Laura's death and the conduct of the film crew, you would have gladly exposed yourself, given the right opportunity.
Moira
...But not right now.
Lucian
It's over, Moira.
Lucian
You hid yourself well. A simple identity and an innocent facade were the ideal cover for you.
Lucian
During nearly all of the murders, you were with Tippi. That painter trusts you deeply, and was always happy to provide you an alibi... even as you left your meetings partway through.
Lucian
Looking back, every 'accident' has involved you in some way.
Lucian
Dalton's death was caused by a prop knife being switched, which led to the former prop master being dismissed. You, naturally, took over his work, which afforded you even greater opportunities for crime.
Lucian
As for the second 'accident'...
Greta
When Shelly walked into cold storage.
Lucian
No, she had intended to kill her before that, but failed.
Lucian
Do you remember how Shelly had a hallucination and interrupted the shoot, Madam Stone?
Lucian
While she was rooted in place, unable to move, a heavy container fell from above.
Greta
You saved her. Moira single-handedly held onto the rope, preventing the two of you from being harmed...
Lucian
But it was not out of the kindness of her heart.
Lucian
At the time, everyone was focused on Shelly's antics. Very few people noticed the dangling container—
Lucian
Let alone rushed to the other end of the rope.
Greta
Right, only the one who tampered with the rope in the first place could have reacted that quickly...
Moira
......
Lucian
The failed attempt revealed to all that Shelly suffered from hallucinations, which you took advantage of.
Moira
I knew her deepest nightmares.
Moira
She mistook me for my sister Laura, and babbled all her sinful secrets to me.
Moira
But even to the very end, she never repented. Instead, she began to blame Laura for crossing the line... She had to die.
Lucian
As for Marion and Michael...
Moira
Michael only ever treated me as an innocent little errand girl. He never figured out I was after his life, even entrusting me with the important matter of sneaking out of the plate.
Moira
And Marion? She never felt the slightest guilt for what happened five years ago. She HAD to die!
Moira
Escape? Nobody can escape!
Moira
Do you know just how much suffering and malice my sister had to endure? Yet all she ever talked about was how much experience she was getting, and how happy she was to be part of the cast.
Moira
Whenever I was worried I wouldn't make it as a prop-maker, whenever I silently shed tears as the crew ostracized me... she would use herself as an example to comfort me, to encourage me...
Moira
But it was only after she died that I learned what that 'experience' you gave her really was!
Greta
......
Moira
How dare you look at me like that, Greta? Are you doubting what I just said?
Moira
Surely you haven't forgotten how you bribed the police and the media and suppressed the news of Laura's death. You even turned her accident into a mockery of the truth in a movie! How could she possibly rest in peace after that?!
Lucian
No, Moira.
Lucian
Madam Stone has not forgotten her deeds. Rather, she is doubting your identity.
Moira
My identity? A prop-maker, an unremarkable Zalak, an avenger of crimes unanswered—
Lucian
Laura had no younger sister.
Lucian
She was never a part of your life.
Moira
Wha... What are you saying?
Moira
What kind of interrogation is this?
Greta
Five years ago, after the accident, I gave Laura's family compensation.
Greta
I even hired people to scour her entire family history and their circumstances, all so I could guarantee that none of them would leak the truth, not even her most distant relatives.
Greta
After Lucian told me the truth he had deduced, I was still in disbelief, so I pulled out the list of Laura's family members and checked it again...
Greta
I regret to inform you... There was no 'Moira' on that list.
Moira
...You're lying!
Lucian
I can explain everything that has happened to you, but you will need time to accept it.
She does not know if the man named Lucian will catch up to her, or how long it would take.
The room shakes violently, letting her know that the sabotage she performed had taken effect—
The cockpit is destroyed, the engine's output is locked to its highest setting, and its route is set. The studio plate speeds up as it approaches the nearby Catastrophe... and shows no signs of stopping.
In a few hours, they will find themselves with the misfortune of facing a storm... No, a trial.
The vast majority of this cast and crew had to answer for the accident five years ago...
...My sister. You're real... tell me you're real...
Moira
I know whenever you laughed, there was a dimple in only your left cheek. You had big eyes with light green irises, that were always so gentle when you looked at me.
Moira
You could peel an entire apple without breaking its skin in thirty seconds. Whenever you were happy, you'd whistle a big strong 'phweet'. You'd use Arts to make small ice crystals to use as hair clips...
Moira
You told me about your life in Wrankwood, how your very first role got edited down to only three seconds of screentime in the final cut.
Moira
You told me about how much you struggled just to get a few more scenes. While a few assholes talked about you behind your back, most of the crew still looked after you.
Moira
You told me how, even though you came from a small town where you couldn't even buy a VCR, even though you had to learn a lot of things from scratch, even though opportunities that are easy for others to get are far out of reach for us...
Moira
We still shouldn't be discouraged.
Moira
You never mentioned how much bullying you had to suffer through, how much pain you endured. You would go on and on about how beautiful the sunrise in Wrankwood was, looking towards the future with such firm eyes.
Moira
You also had times when you were sad, even though you only ever mentioned how homesick you felt at night, when all was quiet and the only ones kept you company were the twin moons low in the sky.
Moira
You told me how alike we were, and how you had my back and would support me forever.
Moira
Ever since we were little—
Moira suddenly stops.
She shakes her head like mad, trying to force more details out of her memory.
But she can say no more. She finds her memories of Laura have an unusually distinct cutoff point.
They had never run through the grass together, hand in hand. They had never fallen asleep in each other's arms as their parents sang to them.
As she trawls further back through her memories, every image to do with her sister is simply blank.
*sigh* First the serial murders, now this morning's mysterious explosion. The hell's going on here...
Unlucky Stagehand
Why's the wind so strong?
Unlucky Stagehand
Oh, right, according to the schedule, today's the day we're filming the Catastrophe.
Hautin stands in the street of the exterior set. Thanks to the nearby storm, the once-colorful background walls are covered in a layer of dust.
She never expected to experience so many twists and turns after joining the film crew. She's only ever thought about making movies. As for actually being in one... She can't stand the idea of it.
Unlucky Stagehand
That's... the Catastrophe Miss Stone wanted to film...
Earlier, the Catastrophe everyone was making such a fuss about had simply been a faint gray dot out in the wastes.
Now, it has condensed into a storm that blots out the sky, a storm that refuses to allow onlookers to tear their gazes away from it.
Small-scale spirals of wind formed from Originium dust circle around the plate, visible to the naked eye.
Unlucky Stagehand
...I gotta say, it really is a s-spectacular sight... If you saw a scene like this in a movie theater...
Unlucky Stagehand
Please, Terra bless us. I've had such bad luck, please just let us finish filming safely.
Unlucky Stagehand
No... Who cares about the shoot—a safe return to central Wrankwood is good enough for me! Please!
The plate responds to Hautin's prayer with an even-more-unusual-than-earlier sound and shaking.
Unlucky Stagehand
Whoa! What the Hitchcock was that?!
Unlucky Stagehand
Ahh—!
Hautin has wondered many times before: If she were actually in the middle of a Catastrophe, what would she hear?
The howling of the wind? The roaring of explosions? The shrieking of the panicked crowd? Turns out it is none of those.
It is the sound of walls and metal structures being squashed as flat as an empty can, one after the other.
It is a sound that instills extreme terror in oh-so-fragile humans, who begin to worry their organs, bones, and blood vessels will suffer a similar fate.
The turbulent sky licks against the edge of the plate, tearing sets that once starred in classic movies to shreds with the wind, before flinging them out into the wasteland.
Hautin moves aside the scaffolding that had fallen on her, but finds her legs too weak to muster the strength to move.
She looks at the devastation in a daze, barely able to believe her eyes.
