The Mock Trial

[airlockedmods]

[Jesse McCree is dead, the first victim of, what the Overseers seem to hope, is a long game of motives and murder for whatever their reasons. With the investigation completed, C.E.C.E.'s voice comes over the system and directs the Champions to proceed to the locked elevator door at the end of the hallway. Once all Champions are on board, the elevator begins a slow descent down beyond any area that they've been able to explore so far. At least the elevator music is charming.

When the elevator door opens, the Champions enter a courtroom with 21 podiums arranged in a circle and each one marked with a name. McCree's face grins casually at the 20 surviving members from one of the podiums, a greyscale portrait in honor of the dead.]

Congratulations. We have now entered the trial portion of the test. I trust that you will do your best to determine who disturbed the peace by committing murder. Once the culprit has been found, they will face an appropriate punishment for their crime. If you fail to determine the culprit, however, they will be allowed to leave the space station and the rest of you will face punishment instead.

Comments

Execution: 404 Not Found (cw: gore, evisceration)

[airlockedmods]

[The votes are placed, and CECE tallies them with a digital trill.]

Well done, Champions. You have all voted correctly. The culprit was Saenoki Naho, the Champion Blogger. For the crime of disturbing the peace, she has been discharged from the Deep Space Champion Excellence Program.

Formulating execution.

[Everyone's PIP disconnects with the podium, but when Naho's does there's a crackle and ropes of shining light wrap around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides. Just like that, she vanishes, but the screen on every person's podium lights up with a video transmission.

Naho stands by herself in a room. There's a table with a laptop, and the light from the screen is the only light in the room. A popular blogging platform is on the screen, and she moves over to the computer, trying to make a post. The words "Someone help" have barely been typed out onto the screen when there's a notification alert. They pop up until they cover the screen completely.

What have you done?
You are a monster
You have killed before
He's Coming.

The last one has an attached picture that pops up with it, of a blue-haired man. He's running from something. Naho closes the image quickly and tries to fight through the notifications, but they keep coming.

Killer
Monster
Murderer
Heartless
He's Here.

Another photo of the same boy, this time backed up against a dark wall, frozen in a scream. Naho backs away from the computer, but she can't tear her eyes away from the screen when the next photo pops up, taking up the whole screen.

He's Gone.

The man's sightless blue eyes stare up at the camera, filmy with death. As Naho stares, a horrified scream bubbling up in her throat, red text fills the screen like dripping blood.

YOU DID THIS.

The dead man's hand snaps up, grips the camera. The other hand reaches out and breaks through the screen, taking hold of the edge of the laptop and pulling himself closer to the screen. Naho falls to the ground and scrambles back against the wall, eyes wide in terror as the broken corpse of the blue-haired man slowly drags himself out of the laptop and looms over her. She trembles in his shadow, and his head lolls unnaturally on his neck, mouth splitting into a rictus grin as he reaches out to her.

His fingers sink into her flesh and she screams, fighting him off until with a spray of blood his fingers pierce her by sheer pressure. She grabs his wrist desperately, but he just sinks his other hand in and pulls her stomach open while she screams and writhes in pain. Blood sprays all over their faces, and her struggle becomes weaker, twitching feebly. The camera cuts to the laptop's webcam view, showing the growing pool of blood on the floor and the back of the man in the yukata, Naho's feet kicking weakly as his shoulder moves and her scream becomes higher and more agonized, breaking off into sobs. He jerks his hand back with a spray of blood, and her scream tapers off into a gurgle. The camera then switches to her PIP, showing her face from beneath, blood dripping from her lips as her mouth works soundlessly, as the dead man's bloodied hand holds a throbbing chunk of flesh in front of her face. He clenches his fist, squishing her heart, and the feed cuts off with a low, thin monotone.]

[have_a_heart]

[Kanade watches impassively, though she's shaking regardless. At the end, she turns.]

That was unnecessary. Why are they doing any of this?

[damnfourthemerald]

A good question. Another good question is how. [Despite her shaking, she manages passivity better than he does. His expression is dark, furrowed, hard to tell what he's thinking--is it revulsion, despair, resignation, deep thought?] Some kind of transporting technology...though what appeared to transpire--it doesn't seem very plausible. [Come on, who can just crawl out of a screen?] It could be a sick holographic show for us while she's killed in some other way.

Perhaps death is some perverted fascination to these 'people'. [The Doctor had suggested reality tv, even though...Shadow doesn't...really know what that is...]

[stitch_in_time]

Could be. Let's hope it is.

[He watched the execution, the whole thing, as stoically as possible. However much he might blame the Overseers, this is still something they had a hand in, and he can't shy away from that.]

[His hopes that Naho's true death were cleaner aren't terribly high, though. The holodeck already makes things solid somehow, this could easily be the same tech taken to a deadly level. The others can take comfort in whatever beliefs they want. And he's not giving anyone ideas, if this whole display isn't enough to deter any future attempts at playing by the Overseers' rules.]

Fascination with death is a polite way of puttin' it. More likely they think they're proving some grand point or philosophy they've built up in their own heads.

[damnfourthemerald]

It'd be nice if they would share that philosophy with the rest of the class. We shouldn't have to be lab rats.

[humanitarianherbalist]

It does seem more likely to be a performance. After all, we have already seen what their "holodeck" can do. [The Griffin frowns.] Still, that was unnecessarily brutal. She should simply have been pierced as she did to her victim.

[refusedtoleave]

Even if it's fake, it's still sick. Why else would someone do this? Make this?

[semperperatus]

Oh my god.

[This was like a goddamn horror movie. Worse. Far worse. Its a mockery. A horror show. He lets out an angry shout as the man suddenly pops back up, dragging himself out of the laptop. He knows where this is going.

The moment he goes for her stomach, his shaking fist slams onto his podium. The Overseers must be watching this somewhere. They have to be able to hear him.]

YOU BASTARDS! STOP IT!! She's already--

[Just a kid. They voted for this. They voted for this travesty.

He shuts his eyes after this, his teeth clenched. All he hears are the screams, the squicking sounds, the gurgling. And once the feed ends, he practically rips his PIP out of his podium and begins to storm out of the room.

Just try and stop him, Overseers.]

[waitforit]

[ Wow, guys. WOW. Holy shit. A multitude of expressions make their way over his face, mostly revulsion, surprise and disgust. Even looking away, the sound is enough to make him gag. Yeah, Barney is....

Well, he's gone?

He. He's gonna just run away. Maybe throw up somewhere.

Bye. ]

[misplacedxsheath]

[Margulis has seen some truly horrific deaths in his time, between war and the Gnosis. The execution doesn't even earn a flinch, although his eyes narrow in disgust.]

Hmph, they aren't even trying to pretend this isn't some manner of sick game to them.

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi reaches out when the ropes appear, only to stop. Because where did she go?]

D-did that just happen?

[It seemed so impossible. But Naho had just disappeared right in front of them. She's pale and shaking but she doesn't look away. After a few seconds of just staring she finds her voice.]

Why!? That's going to far! That's not an execution, you're just being cruel for the sake of it!

[stitch_in_time]

They're doin' it cause they can.

[He's speaking softly, but there's a hard edge under his voice. The Doctor's gaze is still fixed on the screen.]

To show us they can, try to make us feel powerless.

[refusedtoleave]

It's disgusting-

[She cuts herself off, lowering her voice, not taking her eyes off the screen.]

We're not really powerless are we though...?

[voltrounds]

[Ricky doesn't make it all the way through. When the feed ends, anyone who looks her way will see her with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears.]

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi had been so intent on not looking away that she just forgot...

When she notices the girl. She slowly walks over and stands behind her for a moment, unsure.

Then she sighs and slowly puts a hand on Ricky's shoulder. She gives a small tug to turn her around.]

... Come on...

[voltrounds]

[Ricky stiffens at the sudden touch, but doesn't put up any resistance to being turned around. She lowers her hands and cautiously opens her eyes.]

...okay.

[refusedtoleave]

[She's just going to slowly nudge Ricky away and put herself between the girl and the monitors. Keeping her back to it.]

Let's just go back upstairs. With the others.

[curdle]

[ For the crime of murder, the law is clear. Repentant or not, one who has willfully killed another shall be put to death. This is what Thomasin knows to be the will of God. She hasn't been to a hanging before, but from the beginning of this trial she accepted that this was the only possible outcome.

But she never expected the dispatch to take such a nightmarish form. They butcher hogs and shoot wolves more humanely than this. This is cruel, and terrifying, and she cannot look away from it.

She stands and watches the whole execution in silence, her fingernails digging crescents in her palms. When it's over, she stands and stares at nothing. ]

[damnfourthemerald]

[It's an awful, needless, terrible thing. He's seen personal tragedy, but never brutality like this. Despite his memories and despite himself, he thinks that this is truly what humanity gets driven to.

But he can't. He must not let himself fall into that kind of apathy again.

When the elevator opens, indicating that they should pile in and return, Shadow makes a line for it, intent on taking an entire lift for himself and people can take the next one, but he pauses by Thomasin and her blank stare and clenched fists. Looks away, debating with himself, to leave her be or to--]

Thomasin. [He keeps his voice low as to not startle her.] We should go now.

[curdle]

[ This is not the first meeting she's been too shocked to leave. Around six months earlier she stood in her neatest clothes and broad-brimmed hat and stared at the village congregation as the rest of her family left the meetinghouse, and tried to comprehend that she was no longer one of them. Her brother Caleb had snapped her from her frozen state, and they had left the plantation forever.

This time it's a hedgehog. Go figure. Thomasin turns her head to look at Shadow. Her pupils, and her voice, are very small. ]

Aye.

[ She unsteadily steps away from her podium and starts walking. ]

... thank you.

[rosetagonist]

[ One second, Naho had been here and then the next... she wasn't. The video feed started up and it was sending shivers down her spine, eyes widening when the man came through the screen toward Naho. No amount of huntress training and the tragedy at Beacon Academy could have ever prepared her for this.

Naho's scream causes Ruby to go pale as a sheet, the spray of blood afterward making her cover her mouth with her hands but she never could expected it when the view changed to show a different side of what was going on. Her silver eyes were fixed on the screen in horror, and before it's even done she's sunk down to the floor with her hands having moved to cover her ears so she doesn't have to hear that.

All while she doesn't even realize she's started crying, her small form trembling, eyes shut and not wanting any more of this. ]

I can't...! Make it stop... please...

[misplacedxsheath]

[Margulis is going to crouch down again to offer a hand up.]

Stand up. There's no point in remaining here now.

[rosetagonist]

[ It takes a noticeable couple of seconds before she looks up at him with tear streaked cheeks and pain still lingering behind her silver hues. ]

...So... it's over? It's really... we can leave this room now?

[ She's already reaching to take his hand, trying to gather her composure now even if she'll likely not be able to get Naho's screams out from her head. ]

[stitch_in_time]

Hey! Hey, it's-

[Well, nothing about this is okay. Nine's gonna crouch next to her, hand on her shoulder.]

It's over.

[rosetagonist]

[ That first initial touch got her to still somewhat, but it's when the Doctor speaks again that she finally looks up at him. This just... was so exhausting and painful. How did everyone else manage to handle this? ]

...It... is? [ She initially sounds unsure, raising a hand to try and wipe away the recently fallen tears. ] Naho didn't... I know she killed that guy but all of... that wasn't what she deserved!