TRIAL IV

[lesmodsalouette]

Trial

Another Saturday, but this Saturday is your last Saturday. If everything holds, if everything works out. After all you've been through, are you capable of being an optimist? The carnival calls regardless, furniture arranged around as they always are with banquet table and pit in the middle.

This week's new offerings are: a fluffy loaf of a certain type of rye bread, a hearty beef stew and an assortment of fresh pies with candied fruit and cream.

For the last time, find out who killed two of your own: G'raha Tia and Sariel.

(( OOC: Welcome to your first trial! You'll have 7 hours (until 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT) to vote one (1) person guilty of murder. As this is scapegoat style, a correct vote is not necessary. Please remember to vote unless otherwise discussed with the mods, as that is our AC for this game ))

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1/2 RESULTS (Culprit...s?!)

[coldseep]

( Wow, Hwylryn sure has feelings about All That, and for Good Reason. In-laws, as they say. But more on that later. For now:

There is something about Hwylryn that shifts the moment Junior is named as culprit. He has been, since Tuesday, something too weak to walk under the weight of his own grief - until, finally, he couldn't. He's laid down for much of his time. He's sobbed; he's near about given up. And much of this was genuine.

But all of this seems to disappear into the breeze of the warm winds of these endless, rolling plains. He raises himself up, his long hair whipping about him like a tempest, and with striking alacrity he takes up Junior, and he holds him close against his chest, in his arms, and holds him firmly. Protectively.

He exhales soft. Ah, well. )

... Don't be upset with Junior. If you have anyone to take to task, it should be me.

[littlegentleman]

[His name is put out there so abruptly it feels like the whole world just stops. He stands, stunned and tense, his vision pinpricking. He can feel it, everyone looking at him, their mixture of emotions, none of them good. Junior trembles, his heart beating so fast he feels as if its going to explode--he'd only ever felt like this one time, before, and this was worse, so much worse.

Everyone perceiving him.

No, no, no--

He barely even notices when Hwylryn takes him in his arms. He just wants to go away, disappear, disappear forever.]

[baebladie]

[ And as for Junior, Blade's eyes slide on over to him.

Looking at him. ]

...What are you so afraid of?

[ He'll ask, simply, directly.

There's nowhere to hide. Everyone knows.

But at this point, does it matter? ]

[littlegentleman]

[He can't meet his eyes--can't meet anyone's to see what he'll find there. Can't find words because he doesn't have them. It was like Lili thought: he's a coward.]

[the_obedient_servant]

[Chara glances at Junior - then at Angelo - wondering what it is that their cold dead heart should feel.

* Would you be interested in maybe being friends with me?

They knew what Junior was very early on - earlier than most others they would wager. This does not come as a surprise to someone who exists as living proof that children are not inherently innocent.

But this trial leaves a bad taste in their mouth. An ugly feeling in their stomach.

They give Junior a small smile.

The fallen child, the first child, the fallen human, the demon that comes, none of them are capable of having "friends." So any attempt to maintain such friendship is merely a farce. But they decide that they're not keen on abandoning it yet.

They flash him a small smile.]

[simulacres]

[ ayaka understands the fear of being perceived. it's been a fear that has followed her throughout all these years, stuck to her shadow. she knows what it's like to want to become small and invisible, because that's all that she has wanted in her life.

she won't look at junior. she'll look at hwylryn, trying to see if she can read anything from him, even if there isn't any point in it.

with one hand gripping her other arm, she looks away from this. ]

[coldseep]

( Well, Hwylryn sure isn't afraid of being perceived, apparently. )

[divineth]

[Urianger turns his attention to the two of them, expression unreadable, before finding somewhere in this field to sit and contemplate this failure. He's too tired to be angry anymore.]

[oncefallen]

[Something inside him snaps, the emotions he'd been struggling to keep in check throughout the carnival bursting forth like a breaking dam. He'd thrown away that name long, long ago, but in the end, there's still a part of him that can't escape being "Wrath"...

1600 years of searching for somewhere he belonged, for love that wasn't an empty mimicry of the word, for proof that there was something in the world that wasn't just another lie. He'd found all of those things in another fallen angel who'd told him that he was kind and that he deserved happiness, someone who didn't understand love (like him, just like him) but still wanted to give it anyway, who wanted to care for humans even knowing that they would be gone in all too short a time. Who wanted to care for the people here.

And now it was gone, ripped away from him in the cruelest way imaginable by someone he had little doubt Sariel had called friend.]

... how DARE YOU!!!

[He doesn't know what he's doing with the dagger, not really, but in the moment it doesn't matter. He yanks it out of where he's kept it in his sleeve for the entire carnival and launches himself forward, lashing out at Junior with only one thought on his mind.

Kill. Kill him. Make him suffer like Sariel did.]

[simulacres]

JUNIOR!

[ she is not jumping into that because she has learned her lesson but oh my god she is still shouting the boy's name. ]

[remainsilent]

[ He is putting himself between Junior and Vanis, attempting to use his spear to block ]

Cease this.

[the_obedient_servant]

[Chara barely has time to react - all they manage in the split second is to draw their own dagger - prepare to cut the enemy open, but their reflexes have grown slower, so they can only watch as he rushes forward.]

[coldseep]

( Fortunately for Vanis, Hwylryn also knows nothing of weaponry and combat - what he had said to Blade in that regard was entirely true. If he understood weapons, why enlist Junior - why construct a hellish trap to assist his brutish pushing and grabbing and pulling?

So, when Vanis screams - in anger, in agony; perhaps the same thing, really - Hwylryn is already on alert, but lacks the particular prowess to disarm him, especially with a child mid-breakdown held tightly in his arms.

All he does is twist to turn his body away from Vanis - taking the brunt of his entire attack along his shoulder, back - wherever Vanis manages to get it, it's free real estate for his namesake, his wrath. )

There's the spirit. But you have the wrong target!

( He speaks through the pain - or, perhaps he's not in as much pain as he should be? Intriguing. Hwylryn's only complaint is Vanis's choice of target, not his anger - which he finds quite captivating, actually. )

[antemeridian]

Stand down. Hurting him won't bring Sariel back.

[ this irredeemable world, nothing but a cycle...

Homura doesn't have the physicality to interpose herself between them, but she will grab at his clothing (is. is it still casino bunny) to hold him back/slow him down if she can. ]

[arbalestrier]

[what in the world is even happening in this corner of the execution ground

By the time he turns around from where he's talking to Angelo, Vanis is already off so uh. He just sees Hwylryn eat the hit I guess.]

[baebladie]

[ Blade is ignoring the protective scooping up right now - his eyes are simply on Hwylyrn. ]

Explain yourself, then.

[remainsilent]

[ Waiting to hear. ]

cw: suicidal ideation references

[coldseep]

( Blade was certainly one of the ones he expected to have to confront should the truth come out, given what he saw of him in Primrose earlier in the night, and during trial.

He exhales soft, as if dismissing his grief. It does not leave him, as much as he wish it were as simple as pulling off a cloak - it weighs heavy in his chest.

But he knows what he did, and he did it for precisely this reason. He cannot complain about his own hurt now— not when he wanted to confront it. )

You all told me to live. I yearned so badly for the death I'd been denied, to be free of what hurts me - and yet, you all insisted. And, little by little, it moved me so sincerely, I couldn't help but admire the beauty of it.

( And this is what he is - a creature of emotion, of raw nature, blown by the winds of the people around him. He's too sentimental; too unprincipled; too easily influenced.

You all told him to live, live, live - and so, he began to see the splendor in it, despite how much he sought death. )

... But how could I? I can't live, as I am. I love too much. I love you all. I see the beauty in things too easily. I care for those who would become enemies. I don't have the firmness in my heart to say - I will love this one more than you. I will protect them first.

When Siffrin and Ayaka, Richard... when they were at odds, I could choose no side. And that is how it always is, for me. If any of them had died, I would have lost myself to grief.

But I had wronged all of them by failing to choose. I failed Gwawlyn this way. Balthazar, too. My devotion was not enough.

( And so.

And so...

His brows furrow, bittersweet - as if he wishes there were any other conclusion. As if he had run the math through a thousand, thousand times, but there only came one answer, and it was this. )

And so I had to learn to take a side. And so, to keep my promises, for the first time... I had to learn how to protect my loved ones, or else I'd be right back at square one. My beloveds at odds, and me, paralysed. If I could not let myself die, then...

To protect my friends, I had to learn how to kill my friends.

... But I wish that wasn't the price for my life.

( He still wishes he were dead.

But you all asked him to live, and so. )

[the_obedient_servant]

I should have killed you when the second week rolled around. It would save us all from having to listen to this drivel.

[cleansheets]

[ He's learned earlier this trial that Hwyl's way of loving is completely alien to him. Hwylryn would thrive on tainted sheets. Hwylryn would ask to be stained, if it meant he could feel something.

Angelo knows that he'll never understand. They may be united in grief, but they're grieving something wholly different.

So all he has left to ask is one thing. ]

Did you think you would grant me a meaningful death, like this?

[ Or was I just convenient? ]

[simulacres]

But they...

[ ayaka's words die at the tip of her tongue as she listens to this reasoning. yes, she had been one of those that had encouraged him to live, and little did she know that it would have this effect.

she had always said that she would end up betraying those who got close to them, selling them out so that she could save herself. but when she sees and listens to hwylryn, she doesn't even feel that from him. she feels no malice, only the same innocence that you'd expect from anything in nature.

he wanted to please them. they wanted him to live. so live, he does. ]

How does Junior get involved in this?!

[perfectpower]

[You know, he really should have expected this after all the bullshit in the anni 4 event. But somehow he didn't.]

1/2

[baebladie]

[ Blade begins to laugh.

It's a sound that resounds from the room in its entirety at hearing this.

Unfortunately voting for either one of them wouldn't have caused much in terms of an execution.

So, would have it really mattered in the end even if it got revealed?

Well, it's fine.

Vanis' target seems to be on Junior - and honestly, a child can very well sin, so is he surprised? No.

But, this?

Listening to this, it's amusing.

So twisted...

G'raha and Sariel died for this.

He already knows killing Hwylyrn wouldn't be gratifying. It spoils the thought, even as Vanis charges.

He wonders, is he angry that Junior has been roped into this? It's strange. He isn't sure what he's feeling at all, especially as he begins to stalk towards Hwylyn. ]

[perfectpower]

[Ah. He should have known.]

To escape your death back in our world, right?

[coldseep]

You think I did this for a wish?