[...]

This is a MILGRAM-based fan project. Compared to the original series, this project has a bigger focus on the characters' pasts and what lead them to be who they are today.

Unlike the original project, time in the prison does not move in real-time. The first memory extraction happened 2 weeks after they woke up, and after that every memory extraction is 4 weeks apart.

The verdicts system and the consequences for each final verdict work differently from canon. This will be discussed in-depth further in the story.

Injuries and death don't work as they do in real life. There will be no permanent deaths before the final verdict.

The “words for the prisoner” section of the voting form will not reach the prisoners directly, but they will be the Warden's thoughts, and they may affect the way prisoners are treated in the following trials.

➼ Directory

╔ Trial One:

╠ Introduction

╠ Warden's VD: Schadenfreude

╠ Prisoner Cards

╠ Voice Trailer

╠ Jun's Judgment

╠ Tadashi's Judgment

╠ Anniversary

╠ Nobui's Judgment

╠ Yuuhiko's Judgment

╚ Warden's VD: Sapere Aude

╔ Intermission One:

╠

🐰: —Say, do you think her presence will be for the better or worse?

In any case, that was the last of them.

S: Right. Um... What should I do now?

🐰: Sleep until the next trial. You know this already, don't you?

S: Right, right... Shouldn't I... do something before then? It's a bit anticlimatic to end it right now...

🐰: We could review your notes on the prisoners, since you won't be seeing their current selves again.

S: Ah...! Sure!

🐰: ...What's with the look?

S: I just wasn't expecting an actually helpful suggestion from you.

🐰: I have to do my job sometimes, whether I like it or not.

S: Hm, really? 'Cause it looks like I'm the one doing all the work.

🐰: Hmph. Let's see how well you did, then. First up, number five. What can you tell me about her?

S: Ah, Jun. I can't help but feel bad for her.

🐰: Is that so? Don't you think that's exactly what she wants you to feel? She's an actress, after all.

S: Even so. She couldn't fake the circumstances I saw in her memories. Even if the “Jun” I've come to know is completely fake, that doesn't change what she went through.

🐰: So you forgave her not for her personality, but for her past. I see.

Then, what was her crime?

S: Killing her mother. It seems that she was always searching for her approval, and even became an idol to follow in her footsteps, but in the end she was abandoned. It's cruel.

🐰: Really? Don't you think she should be independent by now? She's already an adult, why should her mother still have to hold her hand?

S: That's a selfish way to think. If you put someone in a situation, it's your responsibility to help them through it, even if you're not technically obligated to do it.

🐰: Aren't you taking away number five's agency in this? Who's to say she had no idea what she was getting into?

S: It seems she started modeling when she was very young. I can't blame a child for doing what their parent tells them to.

🐰: Sure, she may have started at a young age, but she could have stopped at any time once she was older, couldn't she?

S: It's not that simple. She may have felt that she had no choice, or there was something else motivating her. As I said, she seemed to be looking for her mother's attention in particular.

🐰: Right, right. Do you think that was the only reason?

S: I don't know. I haven't learned enough yet.

🐰: Fair enough. Alright, we can move on.

S: Why are you questioning me so much?

🐰: I want to make sure you're confident in your decisions, as well as understand your thought processes.

S: Hmph, fine.

🐰: Next, number six. What can you tell me about them?

S: Well... They seem to have killed a lot of people, but the murder they're here for is of their father, right?

🐰: Hm. I can tell you that their most recent murder is the one they're being trialed for.

S: Right. So, they killed their father... somehow. I'm not entirely sure about what they did, but it was motivated by wanting to protect their sister.

🐰: Couldn't it have been just as much to protect themself?

S: If that was the case, they would have done it much earlier, wouldn't they?

🐰: Right. Then, what of their past killings? Can you really say you can forgive those?

S: I thought about it. I can't say I agree with their worldview, and I don't approve of killing for money, but it seems that they didn't have a choice.

🐰: I see. Then, if you say number five was motivated to stay because she wished for her mother's attention, why didn't number six try to escape?

S: If I had to guess, it was mainly fear. It seems like there was an escape attempt as some point, but it ended with someone close to them being killed. It makes sense that they would be too afraid to try again, until they had an external motivation.

🐰: You're painting them in a very charitable light. It almost makes me forget they killed several people with no remorse.

S: You said it yourself– I'm judging them for the murder of their father, not what happened before. I've decided to forgive the person they are today.

Besides, you can't say for sure they felt no remorse. Tadashi seems like a... complicated person.

🐰: I guess not. Fine, I'm satisfied. Let's move on.

Tell me about number seven.

S: Hm. At the same time that her case seems the clearest, it's also really... vague?

🐰: Elaborate.

S: She hit a girl on the head with a bat and killed her, that much was obvious. But I don't really know anything for sure about the girl who died other than that she and Nobui were at odds, and might have been friends at some point.

It's like... I know a lot about the crime, but nothing about the victim.

🐰: Hmm. Tell me what you know about the crime, then.

S: Nobui and her friends got caught somewhere they shouldn't be, and she panicked and killed her victim because of that. She says that she should be punished for it, but it just sounds like empty words.

🐰: So you think she's lying?

S: I don't think she's being truthful, but I don't think she's intentionally lying, either...?

She claims to want to do the “right thing”, and I'm sure that's true in theory, but when it comes to things that would be unpleasant she hesitates and acts against what she says without thinking.

🐰: You say she avoids things that are unpleasant, but didn't she arrive covered in bruises? Doesn't seem that pain or trouble are a big concern for her.

S: I guess... There's a difference between physical pain and mental pain. She prefers the former.

It's the same with guilt, too– it's one thing to have others be mad at you, and it's another to accept your own faults.

🐰: Right. So, you decided to not forgive her?

S: Yeah. She seems like a nice person, but despite that... No, because of that, I decided to give her what she asked for. She'd just be mad at me otherwise, right?

🐰: I see. Let's move on. Number eight.

S: Ahh. I can feel some sympathy for him, but he gets on my nerves.

🐰: Is that so. What do you think his crime was?

S: I'm not sure. He had a friend who he was jealous of, and eventually that friend started to be bullied by their friend group and committed suicide because of it.

🐰: You seem pretty sure.

S: That's the thing, though – I have no idea what Yuuhiko himself did. It didn't seem like he even participated in the bullying, so I wondered if he caused it somehow, but I don't have any evidence for that.

🐰: Right. Seems like he's managed to completely clear whatever happened between them from his mind. That must have taken some work.

S: You mean he's been repressing it for a while?

🐰: I think he's been repressing a lot of things.

If you don't understand what his involvement was, why did you think he was unforgivable?

S: Like I said– he just gets on my nerves. I can't stand his attitude. He won't even accept responsibility for whatever he did. It's annoying.

🐰: Ha. That's funny.

S: What is?

🐰: Nevermind. Is there anything else?

S: Hmm...

I noticed some similarities between the prisoners. Is that by design?

🐰: It's common for pairs to have similar relationships to their victims, though sometimes they are paired for being directly connected to each other's crime, instead. But the latter is not the case for anyone this time around.

S: I see... Yeah, alright. I guess there's nothing else, then.

🐰: Right. Off to sleep you go, then.

S: ...

Hey... I've been having weird dreams since I woke up here.

🐰: You've mentioned.

S: I don't want to sleep for that long.

🐰: ...

[sigh]... Did I not say it before? Your role as warden is to find out what the prisoner's crimes are. That means all of you.

S: ...

notes:

jun: to be honest i dont have much to say about this one i think its all pretty obvious. something that happened on accident was that i sketched a bunch of crack formations and then i realized this one was formed in a way that implies the impact that broke the mirror was on jun's heart and i really liked that. also jun is trapped in a mirror because she is stuck being someone's reflection we all know this. you can make a connection to the evil queen asking the mirror if shes the fairest of them all and getting mad when it says no but i wasnt thinking about that when i was drawing this.

tadashi: flower is their older sister, the locket is yuki, larger painting is their father. these portraits were used to represent tadashis victims in muzzle, so them trying to escape the portrait is symbolically them trying to escape the position of victim. their portrair is turning red, while their fathers is completely red, showing how they became a little like him in order to survive. the locket wraps around their portrait like a chain. the flower has three petals with one missing, like how the family has three living family members and one dead (this one was unintentional).

nobui: by escaping the hat, you can say that nobui and everything else are escaping confinement, and she is the only character who is not trapped in any way in their art. the representations of her friends have spiral eyes, which with nobui are used to show madness, but you can also take it as them being hypnotized. the watch is monochrome and backwards, showing both how akane doesnt fit into nobuis colorful world, and how nobui wishes to turn back time. by coming out of a hat she is taking on the role of rabbit, since thats the stereotype for magicians pulling things out of their hats, but i only realized this when the drawing was already done.

yuuhiko: his drawing is the smallest because all the props are contained inside the cage, since the cage is his entire world. inside the xs the swan is missing, yuuhiko is similar to how he looked at the end of selfish recall, and there is blood on the bottom of the cage. since xs mean mistakes, its showing us what yuuhikos biggest mistake was. also this was unintentional but the xs being the only thing outside the cage could be seen as yuuhikos mistakes being the only things that ever reach anyone. but i wasnt thinking about this i just did it because it felt kind of empty lol.