Unknown Seas Mods / NPCs (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bathymetric) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
unknownseas2022-07-30 10:31 am
bathymetric) wrote in unknownseas2022-07-30 10:31 am
Sixth Trial
[ After a time, as always, your investigation is interrupted by the Mayor's now-familiar voice, calling out to you over the loudspeakers. ]
And that's gonna be time. Pack it in, everyone, bring what you're gonna bring because it's trial time.
[ There are so many bathyspheres missing, you cannot help but notice, as you all pile into the station for your standard trip down to the trial room. Your number has dipped to about a third of its original size - a fact that becomes even more evident when you reach the circle of podiums at the bottom of New Rapture's ocean trench. ]
You all know why you're here. Someone killed Pillage Idiot, and it's your job to figure out who. This is your sixth one, I sure hope you have the procedure down by now.
[ Welcome to your sixth trial. ]
And that's gonna be time. Pack it in, everyone, bring what you're gonna bring because it's trial time.
[ There are so many bathyspheres missing, you cannot help but notice, as you all pile into the station for your standard trip down to the trial room. Your number has dipped to about a third of its original size - a fact that becomes even more evident when you reach the circle of podiums at the bottom of New Rapture's ocean trench. ]
You all know why you're here. Someone killed Pillage Idiot, and it's your job to figure out who. This is your sixth one, I sure hope you have the procedure down by now.
[ Welcome to your sixth trial. ]
EXECUTION(?) - Xenologue ??: Disappointment (1/2)
Well, congratulations on the correct vote. Sorry, Maybelline - you tried to play the game, but it just wasn’t for you. If it’s any consolation, either way you probably get to see your dad and your wife soon.
[ Then darkness takes Forrest.
The projectors click on. The first thing you see, funnily enough, is a forest, before the camera swings forward to focus in on a very small, scenic village in the mountains. Forrest is in the middle of the town square, on his knees and bound into a stockade. Almost comical-looking fantasy bandit types loiter around the place, leering in sort of nonspecific directions as one might imagine bandits wont to do.
Next to Forrest, though, stands one bandit who’s bigger than the others, more vicious-looking. In his hands he holds a huge battleax, and it doesn’t take a non-bandit education to imagine how that might be intended to relate to Forrest’s current position.
The bandits start to cheer, all together, and chant in unison. ]
Blood! Blood! Blood! Blood!
[ … Well, no one’s ever accused a bandit of being a sensitive and artistic soul before, hm?
As the executioner lifts his ax, it’s easy to miss the slight disturbance to the background behind him. Could be a trick of the light, you know? Either way, what happens next is definitely unexpected: a bolt of dark magic out of the blue absolutely destroys the executioner. This is followed by another bolt, and another, as a man riding a horse with a deeply unsettling head decoration shaped like a skull rides into town, handily dispatching the bandits. Even those that manage to get close enough to take a swing at him either miss or find their axes deflecting off of him, dealing no damage.
As he does this, and Forrest sees him do so, the viewers can in greater detail see something happening in the background. Along the middle of the air, seemingly, there’s patches of a sort of rainbow distortion - to those who have owned a flat-screen television, this is pretty similar if not identical to the sort of distortion that comes from pushing or pulling directly on the surface of the screen.
The rider finishes up with dispatching the bandits, then rides forward to look down at Forrest, not even bothering to get off of his horse. There’s a tome in his hand, a spellbook that clearly radiates power and should, you imagine, command respect. The rider’s visage is hard, gaze cold as he looks down at Forrest, who is still in the stockade. The trick of the execution is clear: this rider, whoever he is, will kill Forrest, and the day will go on.
But that’s not what happens. Because something changes, this time. Something goes your way, for once. ]
2/2
These things, it seems, are enough.
Forrest leaps out of the stocks, spinning out of the way of what might be a magical blast or might be a cloaked gunshot and picking up the battleax. And with a speed and strength you wouldn’t previously have expected of him, certainly not before what you found this morning, he leaps forward and slices through the machine’s chest - in just near the shoulder, and out near the waist at the opposite hip.
Then he strikes again, taking the front legs off the “horse.”
Then again, to the stockade, which splits into… metal, despite seemingly having been made of wood? There’s a pause as Forrest takes a moment to take things in.
Then he attacks the scenery.
What seemed moments ago to be a vast landscape turns out to be, apparently, a number of massive screens, and as Forrest’s ax connects with them, they break and fracture.
The Mayor deigns to reply to this, apparently. ]
Oh god fucking damn it, this is what I get for not having some sad brainwashed lesbian in cold storage—
[ It’s… definitely more upset than you’ve heard her, before now, that mad libs of a phrase aside. Yet still, somehow, she sounds restrained, just… colder. ]
All right, Forrest, feeling good about finally standing up to daddy? Real cathartic for you? How about you just save us both the trouble and let me reintroduce you to your friends—
[ But it’s too late. As Forrest cuts away at the screens, he finds an opening and takes it. The camera lingers for only a moment before cutting away from the swathe of destruction he’s cut, but it’s clear.
Forrest isn’t dead. Not yet.
The lights come back on, and the Mayor speaks up, frustration clear but pushed mostly down, the repression evident in the vocal strain. ]
Out. All of you. If he makes it back, you can have him. You seem surprisingly okay with having killers and traitors in your midst, after all.
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okay no fuck this. he's lingering. he's felt like such a shitty leader that he's going to pull out his sword and stick around to make sure Forrest makes it out.]
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[Okay no, never mind, Gaius looks like he's going to try to do a dumb thing, he's going to intervene.]
Gaius, come on. Let's return for now.
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[gaius is this place even adjacent to the trial room.]
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[Let's try not pissing off our captor okay!!]
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...
I suppose you are correct, yes. It is better to retreat.
[...he does look sadly over his shoulder because :C :C :C]
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Go on, then. [shes not moving though.]
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[DON'T ENABLE HIM LIKE THIS ZINDA.]
We should have some time to investigate, should we not...
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Do you really think now is a good time to risk irritating her? We can return and decide our next course of action together.
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[--wait no what]
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1/2
I’m in no rush. Thought I’d just stick around, wait an see if he makes it back.
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[OK MAYBE NOT THE ENABLING WE WANT HERE—-]
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I know you loved him but can we not make things worse here...
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[… it makes her hesitate, at least. for her eyes to flicker to the podium where the girls had stood.]
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I gotta get this fuckin blood off me. [AND SHE BOLTS.]
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Do you really think she wouldn't? Is it worth taking that risk?
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