15strangers | trial 4 afterparty

trial 4 afterparty

[Boy, that all sure Just Happened, didn't it? It Sure Hecking Did.

Akane helps drag anyone who needs it out of the theater as best as she, a tiny frail sick girl, can, before heading straight to Hubert's room and retrieving the letter he had told her was there, and then finding a sheet of paper, a pen, and a small knife, writing a short one of her own, and paying Charon to send it to the afterlife.

After this she brings Hubert's letter to the mess hall, as gathering for food after these things seems like the common thread that's bound all of them together.

Akane herself still has a lowgrade fever, and that last trial was not easy on her, but it seems to her like there's more important things to do at the moment.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's more about...keeping the consequences of your actions in mind. Not acting on every single impulse, but instead considering whether or not you're going to regret it before you follow through on a desire.

I... I never really had the time to think like that. But... I mean, isn't it easier to just put yourself in a position where you don't have to think of any consequences? It's... it's easier. It's safer.

[Alastor may get reminded to how passive Hermes was during the first two trials... before he started to get bored. Almost as if he was watching a personal TV show.]

The only way you can avoid your actions having any consequences at all is by isolating yourself from everything you could have consequences on.

And believe me, that gets insanely boring after a day, let alone years or centuries.

Edited 2023-07-17 04:18 (UTC)

[Uuuuuuuuuuuuh]

[For the first time after he has taken his gauze off, Alastor can see Hermes smile and giggle a little. He's still looking at the ground, though, anxiously fidgeting.]

Yeah... That would get suuuuuuuper boring...

I was trapped in an inanimate object I could only move at all because I have telekinetic control over it, it was a nightmare.

And anything short of that is going to have some sort of consequences for your actions, even if it's only on a handful of people.

I guess it's different now that I'm in the real world...

...

You're... you're not... um. Are you...

[Hermes doesn't want to bring attention to his clockwork condition, but at the same time, is very confused why Alastor hasn't said anything. Hermes dares not glance at Alastor.]

Not...what?

[He tilts his head to the side.]

Y- you... aren't saying anything about... um.

...

...M- my... Shell...

Given what you said about when and how it started, I'm not surprised the marks are more prominent now.

[Hermes WINCES at he says that, deciding to eye the gauze and trembling a little.]

...

It doesn't mean it makes you look any less incredible, Hermes!

[ Guess who overheard what Alastor had said?? ]

[!!!!]

[Hermes startles!]

...Wh- what...?

[ He has a way of popping up unexpectedly. Sorry about that, Hermes. ]

I meant that you shouldn't hide them anymore. They don't take away from how you look.

But... I... B- before I came here, I...

...

I usually took one or two hours to shine and polish up my shell...

Um.

I... can't l- look my best an- anymore...

Of course you do, Hermes. I think you look incredible and I can tell just how much work you put into looking that way.

[ His voice softens, light and gentle, holding up one of his scarred hands. ]

Here. Look. Do you think my scars make me look bad?

[blink]

W- well. You're... not a clockwork.

That's not what i'm trying to say. I have these 'marks' on me, but do they make me look any less 'good' to you?

[ He gestures with his other hand to Hermes' legs with the red marks on them. ]

What I'm saying is I don't think they take away from how you look, and not hiding them would be more honest about your condition as well.

[...Having come from a computer game where the culture is mostly racist against clockworks, FOR SEMI GOOD REASONS AS THE MAJORITY ARE ACTUALLY DANGEROUS, this is... baffling to think that Roland is okay with it.

So excuse him is he just goes up to you and hugs you. He needs this.]