THE SECOND PROSCRIPTION

[strangerpeople]

THE SECOND PROSCRIPTION
(CW: Coffins, claustrophobia in general, skeleton bones)

Most interesting.

[Suddenly, a bright light from above lights up, same as last week, from the bone chandelier. Once more, the light only seems to shine on one individual, as the Elder Steward appears, looking pleased as punch.]


Excellent, excellent. You have condemned The Noodles to die by quite the majority, so certain you were of her guilt!

[There is a long, long pause. Finally, though, the Elder Steward does something unexpected. First, he throws his hood off to reveal--huh. A rather young-looking and handsome figure. Odd.]

But...

[A slow, fanged smile appears on his face, before he turns to Eric, raising a toast with a glass of something that might be red wine-or something else.]

You were wrong. Congratulations, Fast. You have exceeded my and Our Lady's expectations. You have damned an innocent woman to the cruel death you deserve for your crime, and your fellow shall be forced to watch. For this you shall be rewarded protection for that special person, as promised.

Now.

How does it feel to know what you've done, hm?

Comments

LAST WORDS

[strangerpeople]

[Well. Does Zelda have any last words for everyone after this?]

1/2

[inadequacyfeelings]

[She had hoped it wouldn't come to this, yet here we are. Zelda gasps when she's announced as the one with the most votes. For a moment she says nothing, until...]

...so this is it.

[She sighs]

To this day I have been having doubts if me being here would mean Hyrule is doomed. I wanted to think it wasn't, and I focused myself on the events that were happening here to not think much about home and what it may be going through at this very moment. I kept telling myself that once I returned everything would be fine, that I could save everyone or at least stop it from getting worse.

Now that's moot. I will die here. Without Link to defeat Calamity Ganon, and without me to keep him imprisoned it's all over. One hundred years sealing him...and it all ended through no fault of my own.

[...]

Given everything that was said in this trial I cannot blame anyone but one person. A lot of the clues were pointing at me, and I had no convincing rebuttal. I bear no ill will.

[But as she said: 'All but one person']

Eric...

2/2

[inadequacyfeelings]

...the protection of one person better have been worth the demise of an entire kingdom. I hold you responsible for the fall of Hyrule.

[Looks like that's all she has to say]

[yonosoymaria]

You didn't deserve this. You didn't -

[He does not look away. His voice has failed, but he does not look away. When he does find his voice again, it is broken. Humbled. Horrified, really.]

If there is a way to put things to rights, I swear to you that I will find it.

[inadequacyfeelings]

[She snarls at him:]

Silence! Don't meddle with me or anyone else anymore!

[joinhands]

You should have thought of that before you won my favor.

[The words come out like a wind-up doll's music box. She rotates her head, also like a doll.]

I suppose you deserve to know this, Zelda. I certainly had some confidence in the case against you, but the reason I insisted like I did was because I ~believed~ in Eric and he was on the hook. I'm sorry.

[relieable]

[Osomatsu is shaking. the wrong person was accused. he stares at Zelda for a few moments, his breathing getting faster. then he whirls around on Eric looking murderous, spitting venom]

You son of a bitch.

[yonosoymaria]

Leave a woman who would cast me to hell herself out of this. Call me bastard, my father wouldn't want a son so foul, but leave her out of it.

[He closes his eyes, agonized, unable to believe he's quibbling about language at a time like this.

No matter where he looks, his teacher is there, furious and disgusted. It does not occur to him that even a dhampir cannot move so fast.]

He loved you. That was... it didn't even look like him, as he said that, but it was... that was what he said, at the last.

[relieable]

[at the last... ah. Osomatsu wasn't going to cry, at least not in front of everyone here, but he's gutted, and frustrated with himself for letting Franciscus down. tears prick at the corners of his eyes]

...You... You chopped off his head! [it comes out a strangled wail, and he grabs his face in between his hands, trying to focus himself] He was trying so hard... to do right by everyone...! And you...

CW: request for execution via (likely) torture with some detail given

[yonosoymaria]

The first thing I saw was fire. After that, this... I am mad. I see a man who is not here beside you looking at me as though he'd rip my throat out with his teeth if he could. There was fire. I saw Dracula, as he was last year when John and I had to... had to pick up where our fathers left off. I did not know it was him. I swear to you I didn't know. When - when he didn't go to ashes, I... it's what I had to do for Gwendolyn, it's what my father and Ar - Lord Godalming did for Lucy, I didn't...

[He shakes his head, slowly, momentarily at a loss for words.]

I deserve worse than this place could do to me. You're from somewhere... that he'd tell a stranger, even if it were a secret, you're from some place like the America Whitman hoped for, you're from somewhere that it's safe to - to - God! God, Almighty God, you were both of my kind and I have killed not just him but -

I -

Let the woman with the talons have me. She will take her time, if you tell her what I've done, I'm sure. I've crossed - there is no going back from what I've done.

[icanhearscreams]

As someone who’s a literal bastard, he’s worse than that.

He’s an enemy pilot.

[yonosoymaria]

[If there's anyone here who is willing to kill him and can do it, it's Jun.

Somehow, that's not really a comforting thought....]

[incendiarize]

[At least one person here isn't looking at Eric with hate or anger.]

So that's why you said what you did about taking the fall...

[But maybe the understanding is worse.]

Living with it is harder.

[yonosoymaria]

[This isn't the sort of thing one admits to a boy, but - ]

I have no idea how to do it.

EXECUTION. (CW: maiming, constriction, claustrophobia, impalement)

[strangerpeople]

All right, now. I think it's been long enough.

The lamb must go to the slaughter.

[The Elder Steward snaps his claw-like fingers. Instantly, everyone's shackles-except Zelda's-pull them back into their coffins, shutting on them. All they have is the small window with which to see in the dim, dank darkness. Zelda's chains merely fall, letting her go free as the ground begins to shake once more.

The golem lumbers out again, holding what's recognizable as a saw. Zelda is standing there, a regal princess awaiting her fate with dignity. The horrible thing leans closer and closer to her face - until instead it closes in with the saw to cleanly amputate her left foot at the ankle. The metal sheet presses up against the side of her leg, smearing blood on the line of her dress as a result. She cannot hold herself up for long like this, not with all the pain, and with a cry Zelda topples to her side on the ground.

The metal of the saw remains close though and suddenly turns into a set of chains. They bind her legs completely together and then spiral up her torso to wrap around her throat and mouth. She is muzzled completely, but her eyes and nose make it clear: She can still breathe. Still conscious. The chains tighten in the grip of the golem. Involuntarily, Zelda thrashes in the face of the pressure.

The golem turns away, slinking off as if bored. It's taking the chains with it, and Zelda falls down flat in her back - at the last moment that the last link slips away, and a sort of wire casket appears, made of tightly woven thorny vines that prick various places on her body. Two of the larger thorns press into her throat, and blood begins to flow out in thin streams. Another in her heart - off to the side. More in the femoral arteries. Not to mention the amputated foot was never going to do her any favors. Hemorrhagic shock takes over her body, and after a convulsion, her eyes fall closed, as if she's falling asleep. But then a minute after that, it's clear she will never wake up as her face pales.

Then, suddenly, she dissolves into foam, leaving behind a blue egg.]

[15unknowns]

The perfect end for such a perfect, innocent princess.

[With that, the Elder Steward puts his hood back up, and seems to melt into the darkness. His voice is jovial as he disappears.]

Do take some food with you. It will do none of you any good to starve merely over your principles, would it?

[And with that, the shackles release.]

[necroyalty]

[ Ambrosine ponders over this for a moment. Zelda did not deserve to die; nor could she bear to just...leave that here.

She could do that for Felicity because who gives a fuck, but Zelda...

She takes Zelda's egg, but does not eat it. ]

[relieable]

[he's too disgusted to eat again right now. but... he'll take a few of the orbs for later. he doesn't want to starve to death.

he's going to look for Hydrangea.

this world took Franciscus from him. he needs to process this]

[icanhearscreams]

[Jun doesn't bother with the food.]

[Instead what he does once the shackles are released is attempt to run towards Eric. He has nothing to throw at him, but maybe he can throw himself or Eric -]

[hexposition]

[Emma's totally been here the whole time, what are you talking about?

There aren't really words for what she's feeling right now, none that she can put her finger on, but does it matter?

She can mourn later, wail into her pillow and hate herself and everything else for how all of this has turned out.

For now...

Jun's dashing forward, but Emma's taller, able to close the distance between the two of them faster than Jun can close the distance between himself and Eric. She throws her arms around his middle, hugging him from behind with all her strength to hold him back.]

No! Don't you dare lower yourself to his level!

[icanhearscreams]

[He freezes, eyes wide. No one's... ever touched him like this before. He's not sure what to do.]

[He can hear the high voice, practically feel the pigtails digging into his back. But...]

He's an enemy combatant. He's already destroyed someone's world. Do you want him to destroy more?

[incendiarize]

[It was no easier on his claustrophobia, but at least the coffin was anticipated this time. This execution was harder to watch, though, for multiple reasons. He squirms in his chains.

Red for killers. Blue for innocents. There's no way he's touching the 'food' again. He'd rather starve. But he does give the supply a baleful gaze - he's hungry, and he knows they taste good, Eric directed him to them a week ago...but he won't take any. He feels sick to his stomach again, anyway.

Speaking of taste, the taste of iron has been intensifying the whole trial. It's only now that it's over that he notes why, and spits out a bit of blood.]

[notadinosnack]

[Being next to Arthur, Thanatos picks up on that real quick and goes over to Arthur. He's going to take a look and see if there are any potential injuries on him that could cause it.]

You okay?

[incendiarize]

[He's still wiping blood from his lips. It's not a lot, but he sure is bleeding.]

Mouth hurts...

[yonosoymaria]

["That is a perfect end for nothing," his teacher's voice snarls in his ear, low and uncommonly rough. "And you are nothing to me, now. I have not been so furious to be wrong in well over a century."

Jun is running towards him, but he's stopped by Emma. Something's said about making him suffer, he can't really hear it. Somehow, Eric finds himself on the ground. He wasn't struck by anyone, but he fell.

Jun didn't kill him. Yet.

It still isn't comforting to consider that "yet".

Eric is slow to stand, and slower to leave. He lingers by the platter of souls for a moment, but he takes nothing with him when he leaves.]