final trial

[airlockedmods]

[With the announcement, the Champions can crowd together onto the teleporter with no issues. Once that's done the process of teleporting is automatic and happens in the blink of an eye. Once second they're in the center of the cafeteria before a soft blue light surrounds them and then they're standing in the middle of a circle of podiums. It's so much emptier than it was just a few weeks ago that their voices echo when they try to speak up.

The room itself it the same shiny, chrome-covered atrocity as most of the rest of the ship save for the sections of floor that aren't the teleporter: those are thick clear glass that show nothing but empty space and stars beneath the Champions' feet. As for the podiums they're the same sort of garish chrome with a digital screen facing toward the center of the circle. More portraits and names in blaring red have been added this week. Thomas MacLaine, the Champion Accomplice, Manaka Sajyou, the Champion Mother and finally Roxy Lalonde, the Champion of ████████.

The Overseers are waiting when they all arrive, standing on a floating platform just high enough to be out of reach and back far enough toward a far wall to have a full view of the courtroom. Both are dressed well, Rox in a pressed grey dress jacket and skirt and Blaze in a black suit with the sleeves rolled up to expose his numerous tattoos. He still has the eye patch and Rox watches them with keen interest as they enter.]

Welcome back, Champions. There are six of you here but, if things go correctly, only five of you will leave. I don't think I have to explain at this point what will happen if you choose wrong.

This shouldn't take long though. We all know what happened. Anticlimactic but not everything can be a good mystery I suppose. [She folds her arms across her chest, looking down on the Champions.] Let the trial begin.

Comments

[unhappylittletrees]

[Jamie had arrived in the cafeteria alone and, right up until Bolton reappears on the teleporter, was sure he'd be staying that way. Twenty-one people are dead, possibly twenty-two, and he's completely alone in an empty cafeteria with nothing but an AI and his dead best friend's ripped hoodie.

When Bolton finally arrives Jamie is hunched over in one of the chairs, his head down close to his anxiously bouncing knee. He doesn't look up when he senses someone near him but he does visibly tense, like he's waiting for some final blow to strike at any second.]

[dejabrew]

[Bolton's heart breaks at the sight of him. He straightens up, licks the blood from his teeth.]

...There you are, baby. Sorry I'm late.

[unhappylittletrees]

[All at once Jamie goes very still before he lifts his head to look at Bolton. His eyes are wet and bloodshot and his face is splotchy and pale. His lower lip is bleeding slightly from where he's been gnawing it, waiting for Blaze to inevitably come and finish him off.]

Jesus Christ. [He practically leaps from his chair, knocking it over in the process of throwing himself against Bolton and burying his face in his neck with a broken sob.] Jesus Christ, B, I thought-I thought-

[I thought you were gone too.]

[dejabrew]

[Bolton doesn't have the strength left in him to keep them both standing when Jamie launches himself at him, but he tries to bring them down as gently as possible, sitting on the teleporter. He pets Jamie's hair, buries his face in it and breathes deep.]

You're okay. You're okay, Jamie, we're okay. I'm here, I've got you... I'm not going to let anything happen to you.