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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[the_obedient_servant]

He doesn't see Junior as a person.

[They say this flatly. The loathing is clear, but you wouldn't be able to tell by the tone of their voice.]

[coldseep]

( he usually just lets chara go off, but that bothers him )

Of course I do.

[the_obedient_servant]

[They smile pleasantly, dripping with venom.]

You certainly think you do.

If you did, you wouldn't have used him as a tool. Another toy for you to play with.

[coldseep]

( Chara isn't wrong, honestly - he knows that, stripped to its core elements, he did use Junior. Junior was one of the most convenient people to partner with here - he was good at what he could do, Hwylryn could trust him, he was quiet and uninvolved, many would defend him, and few would be eager to vote for him. By all pragmatic metrics, Junior is one of the best choices.

However. )

You seem really eager to talk about the sorts of things you've gone through, as if they're always true for other people.

But you want to talk about yourself, right? So I welcome you to. Consider this a theatre, and this your show.

What happened that made you so bitter, Chara?

[littlegentleman]

[Somewhere in this, words finally filter in through the ebbing panic and wrenching guilt. Used. Manipulated. He registers that Vanis has been rendered unconscious, that Dan Heng is taking Blade's attention. The threat against Hwylryn might not be gone but it's faded just enough that he can't hold still anymore. He can't breathe like this.]

Could you please put me down? Just for a little while, I need...I...

[He wanted to run away. Just like he had tried to do, back home. But there was nowhere at all to go, even if he could. And once Hwylryn does place him back on his feet, he find his legs feel far too unsteady for him to have run even if he wanted to.

Junior walks several feet away before falling to his knees.]

[coldseep]

( Hwylryn will look on with concern - glancing at those who might still hold hostility toward Junior with unease - but he will allow Junior his space, and all that he might need.

Hwylryn knows what he's done. )

[safetycheck]

[ She's been quiet as all of the discussions are being held. She sees that Dan Heng and Homura are attempting to honor her request over by Hwylryn. She'll remember that, and she is thankful, but she is not hopeful.

Hwylryn is simply a lost cause, barely but a glimpse of someone she thought she knew, at least a little. For someone who claims to be so earnest with his emotions, he sure did a good job at fooling Primrose – or her, at least – with having any semblance of genuine care. Lili thinks that he never cared. They were all just convenient for him to have around.

She was put into a situation and forced to judge all of these people, and to be quite frank, she's tired of spending time on strangers.

So, she will simply choose to go to the person who isn't, between the two guilty parties. She only really, truly sees him, after all.

She goes to Junior while he is on her knees. She'd be lying if she told him he didn't deserve how he's feeling now. At the end of the day, though, he has been used and manipulated by two people who he thought – and, perhaps, still thinks – are his friends...and yet, he was also the person who pulled the trigger on two kindhearted people. She can't even imagine the agony Sariel and G'raha experienced, but if it were up to G'raha, even after everything, he wouldn't want her to lose herself to her anger, to vengeance. He would tell her to not lose faith in humanity, in people, in those who were unjustly brought here.

Lili is irreparably broken, but the part of her that's still alive (but perhaps not truly living) gets her to gently go to her knees, too. She looks at him tiredly. ]

Take a moment to catch your breath.

[ She sure has words for him, but she wants him to really hear them. Panicking is not going to allow for that. ]

[littlegentleman]

[Hearing Lili's voice makes him flinch. Even without anger...no, perhaps it's the absence of anger that makes it cut through him sharper than any knife could have. In that instant, with her down on the ground with him, he can't help feeling as though he'd have preferred it if Vanis' blade had struck true. Lili, who knew so much about him, who had offered him even more...and he'd still chosen this. Had chosen her pain and her disappointment. He had gone through with everything, expecting hatred and more...but expecting it hadn't made him prepared for how hollowed out he'd feel.

He nods as he takes one shaken breath after another, but he's too afraid to lift his eyes to meet her face. She deserves it, he knows, but he was too small and too weak.]

[safetycheck]

[ She'll give him the moment, and she knows he took it because he needed to get away from people...so the moment is considerably long. In that moment, she mulls her decisions over in her head. What would Yona have said, here? This was all so unnecessary, so needless in the end. A murder didn't need to occur this week, and yet, here we are. She would have been deeply disappointed, Lili is sure...

...Oh, Yona. They are both sinners in the end. The sheltered, innocent General's daughter is dead, and she feels like despite everything, despite how hollow she feels, perhaps a phoenix has still risen from its corpse regardless. It happened with Yona – she had become so strong, so caring and kind despite the tragedy that befell her. The betrayal, which probably hurt her so much more than anything here could have hurt Lili.

Knowing that, she makes her choice and speaks up after a long silence. ]

You told me you could hurt people who hurt me, but you pulled the trigger on my dear friend, Junior.

[ And there is truly only so much sympathy she can give, now. If Junior was smart enough to know how to operate a gun, if he's this stressed and torn up over getting caught, he should have been aware of the gravity of his choices. What was it that Homura said about Shiv, Ayaka and Richard? If he couldn't live with this choice, he shouldn't have made it to begin with. ]

But I'm in no position to tell you, or anyone really, what's right or wrong. I don't know what those words mean anymore.

[ But these words, the ones she's speaking now, are only for Junior to hear. ]

You're aware of the situation I came home from. There is plenty of crime and people who will quite possibly try to manipulate you in the way others have here. [ A beat. ] But...there is a girl who is working to purge the kingdom of its impurities. It's an endeavor greater than me and I can only hope to do my part in helping her in her quest.

Would you still like to come home with me, Junior? And if you do...would you hurt her, if someone told you to?

[littlegentleman]

[He was willing to take anything she had to say to him--any range of scorn and abuse. But after that long, miserable silence, when the words finally came...even being terrified of what devastation he'd find in her good eye, his gaze snaps up to meet her. Once again, he doesn't know what to say.

His vision blurs as, for the first time in his short life, tears begin to spill out over his lashes.]

I don't understand. How could you even ask me that, after what I did? I don't deserve your kindness.

[Her trust, her friendship, her love. He'd betrayed it all to embrace the thing she promised him he'd never have to be again. No amount of apologizing would make up for it, not ever. For now, he's too shocked to answer the second question.]

[safetycheck]

Please answer my question first.

[ Her voice is the same. Leveled and tired.

But, since Junior is looking at her, he can probably see her eyes shimmering, too, just like his. Unlike him, though...she is trying not to let any tears spill. ]

[littlegentleman]

[An answer...an answer to her question. He has to search himself, because for as simple of a thing as it is to him, it still isn't good enough and he knows it. Wishes he could say more than the basic truth...but unlike Hwylryn, he didn't have elaborate justifications for his feelings.]

Not someone. Just you.

[For An Lili, he would do anything, no matter how terrible. That really was the truth. The only reason he had hurt her was because the same thing was true for Hwylryn. Anything, no matter what, no questions asked.]

[safetycheck]

...I understand.

[ And that's all it really boils down to, at the end of the day...that Junior is loyal to those he cares about, even if those loyalties come into conflict in ways she really, really wishes didn't exist. But she knows that there is no moral high ground to stand on here, and all of this – everything that's happened here – just feels so utterly pointless.

But meeting (most of) Primrose was not pointless. Meeting Blade and Ayaka and G'raha was not pointless. Meeting Junior has meaning, she feels, and if he is loyal to her and can stay that way without the influence of other people here, perhaps Kouka still has room for him.

At least it's only her who was brought here from her world. At least she can keep her offer open, because despite her feelings, she would not be able to sleep at night if she closed her offer and others like Hickey and Hwylryn gave him the same thing, where they could use him and hurt him over and over again. At the end of the day, Junior still has a heart, even if others may not agree. ]

It's not about deserving anything. I just hate seeing people use you like this, despite everything, because I don't think you're a monster. We've all done deplorable things while we've been here.

[ ... ]

There will be plenty of cruelty and hardship, but there is also kindness and warmth to be found in Kouka. So if you will not hurt Yona, my bodyguards, her friends, his Majesty, then I will keep the offer open.

[littlegentleman]

[As Lili spoke, presenting him with an opportunity that he in no way expected to receive from her after everything, he couldn't help but think of something Clover had said during curfew.

Whenever you make a choice, you generally lose out on the other options.

This was one of those times. Once again, in a matter of so many days, he was being asked to make a choice. Neither felt right, or easy, and he knew what whichever one he went with, the other door would be closed to him forever. Maybe to others here, maybe from the outside looking in, it was an easy decision to make. Between two kind people, only one of them had used him.

But he was just a boy. A hurt child who hurt others.]

I couldn't bear it if I hurt you again.

[And he just didn't know if he never would, because as much as he didn't want to, he simply didn't trust himself.]

[safetycheck]

I've laid out the terms in which you could.

[ She says this like he doesn't understand why this hurt her, but it's more because she hasn't laid out the depth of her feelings to him. She's holding back. She needs to keep the peace. ]

And...this series of murders was truly unnecessary. I didn't help through my actions in trial today, but if this happens again – I will not hold back.

[ And that is the one thing Lili needs to make that clear. She is not free of blame here because she did not vote for him, and after spending weeks feeling like Junior needs to be protected because he is just a child, any sort of protective instinct she's held towards him is mostly (mostly) gone, now.

It was a mistake and a failure on her part. One that she'll have to live with. How can she face G'raha again?

She can't. She won't.

She'll wait for Junior to make his choice and leave. And thinking about that, thinking about all the bitterness she's carrying with her when there are so many people here she cares about so deeply who wouldn't want that for her...

... ]

That's...all I have to say. I need to – I need to go, now.

[ She won't cry in front of Junior.

But she will, perhaps, cry in front of Clover instead.

And with that, she gets up and walks away. ]

[fourtuity]

[ Frankly, the only reasons she hasn't tried to execute Hwylryn herself are: 1) her agreement with Lili and 2) someone aiming for Junior while she's swinging. Thankfully Dan Heng and Homura are there to help stop the violence, because yeah. She herself can only honor her request by not acting on her impulses.

Ah, she's so furious about so many things. Even now, the grip on her axe is white-knuckled, barely holding back her rage.

Once Junior is away from Hwylryn, she steps in the way between the rest of the crowd and him and Lili. Enough room to give them privacy, but enough that anyone aiming for them would have to go through her first. ]

[safetycheck]

[ If she weren't so caught up in her discussion, she'd probably start crying again and go to hug Clover. Clover is...

...safety. So vibrant and loyal and Lili wants nothing more but to see her be free and happy. As she told her a week ago, Clover is one of the people Lili will truly miss so, so deeply.

Even the emptiness she feels isn't enough to suppress how much she cares about Clover Field. An Lili doesn't usually think of people in the same way she thinks about Yona, but she is one of them. ]