THIRD TRIAL

[bathymetric]

If you have time for a grisly operation like that, I think you've had all the time you need to gather evidence. Please proceed to the door to the trial room elevator as quickly as possible.

[ Once you arrive, it's the same song and dance as the last two weeks. Angel helps you all get through the vault door and into the elevator, and watches as you all make the slow descent to the dome below. Standing in the elevator is more than a comfortable fit now, even for the largest among you. A few more of you lost and there'll be room enough to pace in here.

But maybe you don't want to think about that.

The dome of the trial room is the same as it's been, the only change the dull red glow coming from the two newly-unoccupied podiums. The screens above flick on, and lower down to make an address. ]

You know the score by now. Find Seteth's killer and you can all go free. Fool them all, killer, and you'll have your life and your reward. Other than that, whatever happens here is between all of you. Call for me if you need anything.

[ The screens rise again, leaving you here.

Welcome to your third trial. ]

Comments

[archboxer]

And if you failed you still would be able to outwit your destiny. What a blasphemous soul!

[pimpplan]

That's where you're wrong. No matter what happens here, I still win.

[bolderfell]

Hah!

[What a turn.]

However this turns out, you get out of jail free, huh? Hilarious.

[Della taught him Monopoly.]

[pimpplan]

Yep! Getting to make it out of here would've just been a bonus.

[thieviusraccoonus]

Not to rain on your parade... [Though he'd LOVE that and will do it anyway.] But don't you have to get away with this to get your reward?

[pimpplan]

[ i'm so proud of you. ]

The title transfers to the next oldest of kin after the previous person dies. There's no one else it could go to.

[thieviusraccoonus]

Uh huh. [That probably makes sense.]

And how are they going to know to transfer it if you die here?

[emberserker]

What, you'd rather die than be someone with an important duty?

["I didn't even want to be a mage. So why..."]

If she wants it so much, why is it such a burden on you?

[philoxenia]

To have something forced upon you-- it must feel like shackles, to some.

[lovelikeyou]

No one should just be born into things like that.

[philoxenia]

... No. They shouldn't.

[bolderfell]

[Oh, well, that's less hilarious. Thanks, Mira.]

[philoxenia]

[ yeah any time therion! :) ]

1/2

[pimpplan]

Because I should never have been born.

[ May as well just get it out there, huh? No time like the present! ]

My own mother told me that, y'know? She ended up dying taking a blow for me from an assassin – Seles' mom, mind you – and she told me that as she bled out. Ever since then, I've had to deal with one problem after another. I could count how many people on both hands that want me dead so Seles could take over and they could manipulate her.

2/2

[pimpplan]

And ever since that day, she's been locked up "for her own protection." You really think it's fair, for me to be able to walk around while she's been stuck in an abbey most of her life –

[ Whoops, he stops talking. Boy's getting angy. ]

[blackmass]

The pair of you think becoming some manner of vessel would be freedom? I may know little of the situation, but you and she alike sound foolish beyond measure, trading one cage for another.

I care not for neither Rhea's own fanaticism nor any personal insult done to her today. I care even less for whatever you sought to accomplish. But you are not the only one who believes they should not have been born, nor are you the sole individual with a desire worth slaying others for.

[That insufferable smile Kirei wore was...very, very empty right now.]

Your anger and carelessness betrays you, Zelos Wilder. Do forgive us for refusing to die for a wish so utterly pointless.

[pimpplan]

[ squints ]

... man, you really are an insufferable P-O-S, you know that?

[blackmass]

I have heard such things on occasion.

You're rather what one would call a 'piece of work' yourself.

[nothingcanstop]

Zelos- if you want to get your sister real freedom and not be a- a tool for some egomaniac, we could- the Professor isn't the only way! This guy isn't trustworthy, why is that news?!

[ she's tired ]

[bolderfell]

Want something impossible long enough, badly enough, and even the cheapest lie sounds like a dream come true.

[nothingcanstop]

...I understand being desperate. I understand being at the end of your rope. But again, and again... We don't even know if he'd give them what they want.

[bolderfell]

Doesn't sound like anything else would, either. Nothing that would leave him alive.

[pimpplan]

I was basically doing the same exact thing right before I got here – the only difference is the names and the place. I had no problem working with egomaniacs before I got here, why stop now?

[ me too della. me too. ]

[nothingcanstop]

...Because there could be people who care about you, if you give them the chance.

[pimpplan]

... maybe. Maybe not. We'll never find out now, will we?

[ He winks. ]