WEEK THREE: EXECUTION

[saturations]

EXECUTION: TRIAL BY COMBAT

Sunday morning starts peacefully enough, until around noon, when alarms start going off on your phones. The dreadful noise is accompanied by a reminder of the execution taking place in the Central Node. You can snooze the alarms at first, but they begin to get a little more insistent. If you're being stubborn, you can probably hold out until exactly 1 PM, when an archway opens right in front of you and pulls you in.

Today the Central Node is eerily quiet and empty. There are a few blankets laid out on the grass for those of you who wish to sit instead of standing the whole time. No refreshments have been provided, but the Residents are already there waiting for you.

As the last person enters the node, an enormous archway suddenly opens. This archway once again leads to an area which is pitch black inside, with white and grey dust falling softly like snow. The chilly air feels even colder than before, and you instinctively know you must not approach it. If you try to push through anyway, something is blocking your way. Smaller tears to the same space open in the air, at the very least. You can see what's happening, even if you can't follow.

Because - once the archway is open, Percy and Vax'ildan alone will begin to walk through as though drawn. All you can do now is watch and wait.

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Comments

[countermeasures]

[hot pants is very good. unfortunately, jiuqing's roll of a 5 means even with her help to shove her out of the way, she's not able to avoid those claws. malik is tall enough, and she's short enough, that he's likely to slash her face, if anything - but the attempt at moving bares her neck, and his claws sink into the skin at her throat, piercing past the faded remnants of a thick bruise.

jiuqing's eyes widen in horror as they stick there, and she brings up her hands to grip his wrist. a bleeding wound here is not something she'll be able to easily survive if he tears his claws free, so she has to keep it in there for now. that will also keep him from slashing at either of the others, at least with that hand. won't it?

but she hears steel's call, and she focuses, a splash of metallic color shimmering over her shoe -

before she aims a metallic-strengthened kick between his legs, as hard and as accurate as a roll of 11 will allow.



also she coughs up some of that gross color and hopes it hits him in the face.]

[disingenuous]

[ She hears Steel. Even as vibrant color spills from her lips, she hears everything they say as she rushes for Malik. Feeling ill won't deter her. Feeling sick to her very core won't stop her.

If this is something she must do to stop his suffering, if this is something she must to do to save others, if this is something she must to do save herself—

She hardens her heart. There is so little of it left.

They killed Buzen. They took Chinatsu, someone who represented the possibility of good in sea of darkness. They are taking Malik, who reminded her of her younger brother, someone who needed a little love and affection, someone she was starting to see as—

How many times has she had to kill her brother? How many times has she already relived killing a brother this week?

What is one more?

What is one more?

No matter how much and how hard Jiuqing's kick connects, she lunges at Malik and wraps her arms around him in an embrace (with her 14) and she summons as much color as she can.

She will kill if she has to survive. She will kill her heart.

She will kill another brother if she must. ]

[godcards]

[ Malik never cared about fairness. It was always about his needs first. Three on one isn't very fair, and if he were in his right mind, he'd go on a long winded rant about it. Try to make them feel bad about how sick and wrong they are for doing this to him. He can't fight, he didn't do anything wrong, it's not his fault, leave him alone. It's always something with these people who can feel something normal. Friends to support them, a family to keep them safe- the same kind of people who will push back at his provocative behavior. They're all just stupid, aren't they? Can't see the truth like he has about how dark and hostile the world really is. Isolated, lonely, and cold.

He's blinded, kicked, and hugged all in short order, causing his already dysfunctional emotions to short-circuit. He's crying again, laughing at the same time, right in Roxana's ear. ]

I'm so angry.

[ He's everything and nothing at once. ]

[fleshedout]

[Claws, latched into skin. Roxana moving forward to embrace the monster that was once a boy, just a lonely boy with no friends. Just yesterday, she had chased him down to get him the help he needed-]

[I wouldn't lie to you! If you want me to promise you or anything, I'll do it! she had said, running after him.]

[And then the end of the chase, him finally relenting to being taken care of, looking so tired, so exhausted. You aren't going to make me do a pinky promise or anything?, she says, and he just asked, with some confusion, What is a pinky promise?]

[Hold out your pinky, just like this. You wanted a promise. There you go.]

[...Then I guess I'll have to see if you follow through.]

[Hot Pants grits her teeth, launching herself forward, her mouth stained rainbow, her fist surrounded by green. Her eyes are welling with tears. Somewhere, in her memory, is a small young boy, clinging onto her for dear life, her brother - and then just as sudden, the scent of blood as he's ripped to shreds-]

Hey, pinky promise, Malik! I won't- I won't let you suffer anymore-!

[And she aims her punch at his chest, tears streaking down her face.]

[Another thing lost. Forgive me, please-]

[countermeasures]

[he's angry.

of course he's angry. he didn't ask for any of this - not to be here in the first place, not for his color to be imbalanced, not to turn not to turn into this creature. jiuqing remembers their conversation earlier in the week, remembers a young boy who just wanted to see the outer world, and grits her teeth.

this isn't fair.

none of this is fair.

she can't move much, too wary of loosening his claws in her throat, and she keeps one hand on the wrists, but shifts the other, reaching into the pocket of her borrowed coat.]

Sor..ry... Malik...

[she brings her hand up. there's a glint of colorful metal in the light -

brings it down, into his shoulder - the shoulder belonging to the arm that isn't attached to the claws in his throat. with a roll of 11 it's probably not enough to kill him, but a knife in the shoulder will hurt anyone, man or beast, and maybe it will keep him in place...

...so that roxana can finish the job.]

[disingenuous]

[ The world is dark and hostile. Roxana would never disagree. She hears those words of his and thinks, yes, I am, too.

There is no use prolonging this. She will make this as quick as she can. ]

See you in hell, Malik.

[ And she brings up her own knife to slit his throat with deft precision. ]

[godcards]

[ First, Hot Pants punches him, sending him reeling back a few feet, dragging Jiuqing along with him. He wails at the pain, doubling down on his god awful shrieking when Jiuqing stabs him. This isn't how it was supposed to go. This isn't what was supposed to happen.

When he was younger, all he wanted was freedom. To see the bright open expanse of the world, bathed in sunlight. He wanted a way to avoid all the pain and humiliation of his childhood, and he wanted catharsis - vengeance - against those who wronged him. He wanted to come out on top for once. He wanted everything to keep going his way. He wanted to fight back against the heavy shackles of responsibility that kept him bound away from society. He wanted something to show for all his years being wasted away in seclusion from the real world, knowing nothing but hurt.

It still hurts.

Everything hurts.

Roxana slits his throat and he chokes, blood spilling from his mouth as well as his neck. This is the end. Nothing he did mattered. He accomplished nothing. He's never going home again. He's never seeing his sister or Rishid again. Three thousand years of tradition, obligation, duty - gone. It's over.

Malik Ishtar is dead. ]

[saturations]

[the color bleeds away, out of the abomination, into the ground. it soaks the ground in bright neon shades, too bright for the eye to look at long, that hiss and fizzle, even appear to glitch on and off before they begin to cool, almost magma-like. hot pants, roxana, and jiuqing may want to move away quickly. the color burns to the touch, and the closer you come to it, the more drained you feel. you continue to be unable to look at this color without becoming sick and vomiting color yourself.

but it's only a small patch of dirt in the central node that seems affected. malik is gone, the rest of you are all unfrozen, and so long as you look away from the spot where he stood, you'll recover as well.

hot pants, jiuqing, and roxana will feel drained and exhausted for the rest of the day. but all of you are free to go.]