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 ))

Locations Profiles Investigation Voting Main Nav

Comments

[ocenon]

[ His frown tightens into a thin line. ]

And what of Junior? Was he able to choose a side?

[ Because it really looks like that was made for him, given how everything looks. ]

[coldseep]

( Certainly, he asked Junior at every juncture, but he's not so foolish as to think that's defense. There is no correct answer here, because, fundamentally, children cannot choose. Few children would not crawl after their parent out of affection and instinct.

If Hwylryn did not understand this, he would not feel as guilty as he did when he asked Junior, in the lead-up, and in the after.

So he asks the more pragmatic question: )

What answer are you looking for here?

[ocenon]

The answer you have, Hwylryn.

[ He doesn't want any particular answer out of him – there doesn't really seem to be a great deal of judging from him. Striving to achieve what you think is right, even while turning on those he worked with and cared for, intentional or otherwise, is proof of his own tyranny. Richard has nothing but respect and honor for that, but he still wants to hear what the other has to say about it. ]

[coldseep]

( ...

He glances to the rolling plains; the warming wind. )

... I had asked if he wanted to kill these two. He said he didn't mind. I had asked several times, in the follow up.

( One branch, and then some, where Junior could have not to join him, allegedly. )

Sariel had grown dangerous, so I took him away. I had left G'raha to him, but...

( So that was one branch where Junior could have chosen not to kill, allegedly. )

He was the one who chose to kill Sariel. I was going to do that myself.

( Another. )

But... I don't know if these things were his choices, or ones I forced him into, little by little, by swallowing up the path behind him, by adoring him so much.

( In some ways, Junior had learned to choose between his loved ones before even Hwylryn had - and, like Hwylryn, he had found it hard to swallow the consequences that follow.

But is it a choice, if he loved Hwylryn? Is it a choice, if he wanted to do right by him?

Does love ever leave you with a choice? )

... I didn't want to do this with someone I didn't love the way I loved like Junior. ( Why couldn't you pick someone else? Ayaka said. ) I asked him. I let him choose. But I don't know.

Maybe I just thought I was letting him choose, when I understood he was answering my love with devotion.

( The right choice - by mortal standards, at least - would have been to make the informed choice for Junior.

But Hwylryn was so steeped in grief, so beyond himself with loss, he couldn't make the best choice for himself, either. His choice for Junior could not be made in the best state of mind.

He just wanted Junior to love him, and choose him, unconditionally, because that's how he feels for Junior, in turn. )