FIRST TRIAL

[umbralant]

Trial I

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The opera house doesn't seem to have gotten any changes. There are no lights on the windows, the lobby is dark. Only when everyone is gathered there something does happen: Rembrandt appears, opening the main stage doors, the large and heavy doors creaking when they open.

Rembrandt herds everything together, guiding them down the halls of the seating area. You better not stray from the hallway -- there's a very palpable sensation that something's deeply wrong about this place. You may perhaps see the form of something moving, blending with the darkness. Wait...it's several forms. A few pairs of intensely blue eyes, eyes that so far only Ango may have seen before, gaze at everybody. You really shouldn't try to approach. At least they don't try to come closer, cowed by Rembrandt's presence.

The main stage is the objective here. It's lit rather brightly, with the spotlights the Lady had used for her introduction a few days ago, illuminating the stage. In what's a rather ominous touch, the backdrop depicts hellfire. There aren't any props around, other than a few seats that seem to be spares for seats in one of the minor auditoriums, not even enough seats for everyone. Rembrandt blends into the darkness.

"Welcome!"

That's the Lady's voice, coming from high up. Looking up, you'll find a balcony to a side, large and with two seats. There's the Lady, wearing her dress, visible even in the darkness. She's standing up right now and leaning on the railing, shouting at them.

"Let's try to make this short and sweet. We figured it'd be fun if you all got to discuss who killed dear annoying Elliot. Give us a name, and we'll execute that person. Nice and simple, don't you think?"

"So, culprit who saved so many people from us...now you have to struggle for your own life. Oh, we never told you about this before? Don't feel bad, there's a lot we don't tell you all about. She sits down, adjusting her dress.

"I'm not going to pretend I care about you all catching the right person. Just give us a name and let the culprit go free, for all I care. Get started, we don't have all day to do this! You only have seven hours! Get moving!"

Here you are, all the actors in this impromptu play about justice, and the audience is...well there certainly is an audience larger than you were expecting. Everyone will hear the noises of those things moving around in the seating area, from time to time directing their eyes at the group, but they still make no attempt to approach. Looks like the audience that really matters is up there, in the balcony.

Let the trial for the death of Elliot Schafer begin.

[OOC NOTE: From the halfway point of the trial and onwards, you'll have the option to ask the masterminds for the chance to get a hint! Be warned, though: the price will involve some body horror for your character. Keep that in mind when deciding to use this option!]

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Comments

[p_q]

Then you could have saved us time and all this farce.

[tokihanate]

I'd love to but I wanted to see if there some truths to come out that don't relate to me at all.

[ Like some people's powers. ]

It'll be handy later, for the next time.

[p_q]

Next time the meaningless concept called justice is paraded here? Useless. Everything you do merely plays into their plans; you're a pawn in the palm of their hands, and you've accomplished nothing. How did it feel, being a dancing puppet who couldn't stand even for a moment?

[tokihanate]

Pfft. I don't think this is justice either.

I've already lived another life as someone's puppet. It doesn't feel like this.

[p_q]

And what does this feel like?

[tokihanate]

Regretful.

[ As opposed to vengeful. Hateful. ]

[p_q]

And what does regret do now? There's no use for such an emotion, just as there was no use for whatever emotions their little photographs tried to stir. Such things have no place in death.

[tokihanate]

I've already been to a death-like place. There's no light or darkness in the void.

But what can I say? [ He shrugs. ] I'm still human. I have... had wishes things aren't what they are. But I also accept them because the past isn't meaningless.

[p_q]

If you'd experienced true death, you wouldn't bother to call yourself human.

[Blandly. So blandly. But his gaze is intent all the same, in some way.]

There are few things more meaningless than what is gone.

[tokihanate]

[ He shrugged. ] Alas, I lived. And lived. And lived. [ And there's weight to each of those. Like it was painful to live. Like it was joyous to live. Like.... ]

And now I'll die.

[p_q]

[There's a minor tilt of his head at the ponderousness of the repeated statement, bird-like, as though listening to a far-off sound he doesn't quite recognize.]

And now you will die, and understand the true void.

If you're lucky.

[tokihanate]

[ He'll hmm thoughtfully and give a sigh. ]

Well, I'm sure it'll be different from the Imaginary Dimension at least! [ And he shrugs, as if he's shrugging off all his woes. ]

[p_q]

[He watches impassively. People try and put on all sorts of faces, in the face of death. He could keep calling it out, but is it worth the effort, in the end?]

Your place of near-death.

Was it worth it?

[The question is wholly unrelated, but is he going to give you the satisfaction of a logical transition. Not really.]

[tokihanate]

[ Since he's answering questions, sure why not. He doesn't question the change. ]

Which one?

[p_q]

Any of them.

[tokihanate]

If the future is brighter for them, then of course it is.

[p_q]

You won't see it, and you have no guarantee of whether it is brighter or not. Anything that ends in death is merely a gamble here.

[Here, specifically. It might be a little different back in the complicated interlocking of Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and whatever else; especially for these types of individuals. But here, there's very little.

It's intriguingly empty in a different way.]

[tokihanate]

Seeing it doesn't matter. They'll change it.

[ He trusts them. His will and resolution are with them always. Even if he isn't. ]

[p_q]

On the basis of what? You won't say something absurd, such as that you are connected despite everything that has been cut off here, will you?

[There's a faint weight to the statement that makes it nearly a demand.]

[tokihanate]

[ He laughs quietly. There was a connection last time. Through that boy that was him and was also Feather. This time, there isn't that. Feather is gone. But it's okay. ]

The future's already changing. They'll keep fighting for it themselves, they don't need me around for that.

[p_q]

... How illogical. To gamble your existence on that which you cannot see, created by those you cannot watch.

[Apparently he's just going to be stuck on that for a while.]

[tokihanate]

You've never had faith in anyone, have you? [ He laughs quietly.] That's a sad existence you lead. [ His life has been incredibly full of life, filled with love and hate, sadness, betrayal, friendship, loss, amusement, fulfillment, unrealized dreams, everything. It's apparently not something the other can understand.]

[p_q]

Faith in that which you cannot see or use is merely blind, and I don't see the point in it.

[There's the faintest steely undertone to his voice. That one of these people, these humans -- no matter what else they might have been -- and one on his figurative deathbed would presume to throw misguided pity at him; it certainly doesn't sit well.

He turns away.]

Existence is neither sad, nor happy, nor anything else that you people tell yourselves. It merely is, until it no longer is.

But I suppose that is not a thing that is taught, but experienced.

[tokihanate]

Right. [ He just smirks in that way that says, "I have already." ]

I suppose you'll let me know on the other side or something.