WEEK FOUR: 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, Atsushi and Vin alone will begin to walk through as though drawn. All you can do now is watch and wait.

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Comments

[fleshedout]

[Yeah, she's so smad. Anger, burning hot. She's an angry person. Not one whose anger stays for long, but she allows it to herself, and it burns.]

[But then the hairpin comes, and she blinks with some surprise as her emotions seem to do a 180, from surprise to a certain...solid determination, even as her other emotions seem to still restlessly stir under the surface.]

...Thank you.

[countermeasures]

[whew. jiuqing's vibes are more obviously concerned and anxious than before, but there's relief mixed in, too, as hot pants's emotions shift back to solid determination. there's not much she can do about what's under there, but...

they just have to get through this, somehow.]

You're welcome. [...] I told you, remember? If you need help, you can lean on me.

[fleshedout]

[Well! Mod update sure is a bitch!]

[That determination is now melting at the new feeling. Something's inside. Something is going to go wrong. She's holding the other's hairpin, and trying to watch the proceedings, but her hands are shaking, anxiety moving to extreme heights.]

V-Vin...come on...

[Oh. And there she goes.]

[There she goes.]

[countermeasures]

[oh—

well, this is an unpleasant sense of anxiety. jiuqing reaches for hot pants's shaking hands, giving them a gentle squeeze.]

She can... she can do this.

[but god, she feels like she's going to crawl out of her own skin right now. her other hand comes up to brush her fingertips over the scarring at her throat, and she shudders.]

[fleshedout]

I-I know she can.

[It doesn't make it better. She'll take Su's hand and hold it like a lifeline, the tears starting again. The anxiety, the sight of Vin killing someone she loves, that final kiss...]

[Despair, despair, despair.]

[countermeasures]

[it doesn't make it better at all. but she holds tight to hot pants's hand.]

It's— almost over. It has to be. Just a little longer...

[fleshedout]

...

[There it is.]

[The deed is done.]

[Tears are streaming down her face. Sorrow for Vin, sorrow for Atsushi.]

[At least its done. Another week awaits.]

[countermeasures]

[another week awaits.

jiuqing had just been hoping that, somehow, the week would be awaiting all of them, not all of them minus atsushi.

she wipes at her eyes, then pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and presses that into hot pants's hand.]