Week 7 - Trial

[productions]

week seven trial



victim



suspects



Character Statuses
Setting
Manor Rules
Voting

Comments

POST-TRIAL

[productions]

[Once everyone has finished voting, the doors to the smoking room shut, not to open again. While everyone was filing in and out of the smoking room, the look of the drawing room has changed slightly. There is now a projector, playing on a larged, gilded-edge screen that has rolled down from the ceiling atop the far wall. Right now, the projector is only playing dancing light.

The chairs have all been turned towards the projector, with one exception - a solitary chair has been placed in front of the screen. If anyone was paying attention while this was going on, the Hostess did not once move to accomplish this. The chairs, rather, positioned themselves.

However, once the doors slam shut, the Hostess applauds to herself. An envelope is slid out to her from under the smoking room door, and she picks it up and reads it before displaying its contents to the room.]

Oh, goodness. What a trial that was. Wonderfully done, everyone.

Miss- no, Mister- Nagumo... do you have any parting words for us? Surely such a dramatic trial ought to have a dramatic ending.

[souredsweet]

[when Kaoru takes his seat, it's with strange apathy. also of note: the full body tremors have stopped completely; actually stopped after Felicia talked to the Hostess, if anyone noticed.

when he speaks, it's definitely at a lower pitch than the residents of the manor have grown used to over the last seven weeks. however, it seems softer and strangely lilted, almost musical in quality - or somewhat haunted, maybe.]

Parting words...? I have a few, but I think that I will keep them to myself. I am tired of this; let us finish quickly.

[teenspirit]

[ Though she has shed a great many litres of tears during this trial, Sonia apparently still has more. ]

No! You... Please give us all an explanation...! Please...! We... are your friends...!

[souredsweet]

[the look that Kaoru gives her is disdainful, but it only lasts a few seconds. what comes after is a lovely smile, but something about it is... off, distinctly.]

No one has been a friend to me in all my life, Sonia Nevermind.

[teenspirit]

...

[ She looks... well, kind of heartbroken. ]

Is that so? Did nothing mean anything to you here?

[inthebones]

...

[Susan can't say she's surprised by the outcome, but her words, when she speaks, are soft and weary.]

Did you truly target May? You sent her off to the chapel with the intent of causing her death?

1/2

[souredsweet]

[Kaoru is silent for a second before shaking his head.]

My intent was simply to kill Beat by making it look like a protective or self-defense kill. I never intended for her to come to harm, nor had I intended Gundam to become involved in any way.

[souredsweet]

[and then an ugly smile splits his face.]

But are you truly going to take anything I say at face value after this?

[inthebones]

...Certainly not. But even I may choose to believe in a lie now and then, if only for my own sake.

[Susan's own expression has become flinty. The rage she has demonstrated at the conclusion of previous trials is absent; she can only summon a cold anger.]

I expect my initial assumption for why you choose to present yourself the way you do was correct.

[pandacea]

[She's been crying ever since she came out of the smoking room and shows no sign of stopping yet.]

I still...I still can't believe it...you were always so kind to me....

[souredsweet]

[Kaoru lapses into momentary silence at that and seems to eschew the melodrama in favor of picking up that strange apathy again.]

There may be far greater unpleasantries in store for you. Consider this moment a gift so that you will not be taken aback when worse unfolds.

[pandacea]

A gift...Bernkastel said the same thing when she was executed. [Though it was only a few weeks ago, it seems like a lifetime's passed since then.]

How long...how long have you been planning this? Since this week's incentive was announced? Or perhaps...since we first met?

[allice]

Hold on -- how did you make Beat drink out of the cup? Did you really just take advantage in his trust for you, or was it something else?

[souredsweet]

I never spoke to Beat outside of the trials. Even he isn't stupid enough to trust so blindly.

What he is stupid enough to do is follow a false secret passage clue demanding that he drink an unknown liquid set out on the chapel while he is on the deadweight list during a Wednesday.

[notyetlost]

...








[Well now Poland just feels awful.]

[humanic]

He did what?!

[allice]

What. That's how you did it?!

[B E A T. How fucking stupid do you even need to be to fall for that?!]

I...I guess I'm surprised he didn't die sooner? [Just. Wow. She doesn't want to speak ill of the dead but wow.] But did you always intend for May to be the one to take the fall? She's just a little girl.

[godwhisperer]

[He doesn't even seem to care that others are upset. He's laughing, and not in the smug, ridiculous way he ordinarily laughs.]

You are truly the most loathsome coward I have ever known. How pleased you must have been...how content to shed empty tears at the terrible predicament of May Chang, to make hollow admonitions to me as though you can claim to know me.

The cruelty of humans...ahahaha! You would not know of that!

[souredsweet]

[Gundam had given him an ugly look earlier, and that ugly look is being returned, but it seems strangely at home on Kaoru's face.]

May Chang's death wasn't something I wished for, though I won't lie and say that I wouldn't wish for yours. I have been forced to listen to you spew your insulting nonsense for weeks. A tormented demon? Someone who cannot understand the humans?

The one who knows nothing of human cruelty is you.

[godwhisperer]

Ahahaha!

Is that intended to wound me? And I expected to feel shame at your derision born from your own worthless assumptions? No, I think not!

[notyetlost]

...Why?

I thought we were gonna like catch the mastermind together...

[He's so upset. So so so upset.]

[souredsweet]

[this, Kaoru seems to take more seriously than anything else anyone has said to him so far.]

You will have to do it on your own. You will have to.

[throe]

It seems like your reading was very accurate.

[souredsweet]

[a soft, dry laugh.]

It would seem so. If Gundam hadn't gotten involved, it would be your head on the line. Appreciate the fact that you aren't the one sitting here, all right?

[pasodoble]

"Mister?"