WEEK ONE: EXECUTION

[hellscapes]

Hello, deadlings.

Ha. Ha ha.

Yesterday was a wild chain of events, wasn't it? Nine hours is a long time to work, but you solved the case and voted for the correct culprit. Lucky you. But the weekend "fun" isn't over just yet.

On Sunday morning, you'll soon hear a sound coming from the dock. There's a large ferry waiting for you, and even if you resist you'll eventually find yourself compelled to climb aboard and set off on a short voyage. The islands around you look fairly blurry, but you don't go very far before you stop at a slab of land with two large buildings stationed. You won't be able to look at the one on the right now, the one you've come to know as the trial bar. Instead, your feet navigate you to the building on the left as the door creaks open. On your way in, you notice some posters hung beside the door, advertising today's event.

Inside is a bar. It's pretty swanky in comparison to the others you've seen, tables and chairs arranged comfortably for everyone to have a seat and spread out however they'd like. The bar is fully stocked with all kinds of alcohol along with an arrangement of bar food for anyone who's feeling a bit peckish. At the head of the room, there appears to be a stage washed in red lights with a wide area for performances.

At a table in the corner all six demons are gathered around.

-Bloody Mary and Midori are seated together, staring intensely at the stage.
-Blue Hawaiian and Malibu Sunset are draped over each other, phones in hand and slightly covered by Cosmopolitan.
-Rosé is seated nearby, looking impatient.

As you find your seats and get yourself something to drink, darkness begins to fill the bar and a banner unfurls over the stage.

TODAY'S PERFORMER:
FOUR
10AM
Enjoy the show

No matter where you look, you will find that Four is not amongst you. But there isn't time to look further before the lights dim and the curtains draw.

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Comments

[reignite]

[ her hand shakes as she watches the scene, but her expression remains distant. distant like someone so accustomed to observing, monitoring, to only watching from afar but unable to have a direct hand in it.

unlike the emotions running through the others, pushing them to the barrier and trying. she stays where she is, keeping herself on the outside. this Scenario is not hers. even if she wants to help. her voice is quiet, distant still. ]

It's going to be like this every week. [ isn't it? she has seen so much in her lifetime, but even she can still be affected by it, but for those who haven't lived as long as she has.. their pain is much fresher. hurts so much more. she looks onto them all, a little heartbroken. ]

[nascens]

[Like last time, he sits apart from anyone else, watching the scene unfold with his arms crossed over his chest. He stays a little longer - about until talk of a virus starts, at which point the STAGE IS PROBABLY BLOCKED ANYWAY YALL HELP; he gets up and slips his way out again with a much testier air. Bye nerds.]

[astika]

[...

chandra glances away from the scene to observe uriel for a bit. in some ways, it's familiar. there are always two types of deity figures, it seems—those like chandra, who have long since been derided as having a heart of ice, and those like uriel, who can never fully let go of their own.

then he looks away again, turning his attention back to four and lu bixing.]

So it is. [...] Even knowing that won't help the people here prepare themselves.

[engineers]

[


The stage goes pitch black.


it doesn't go silent, though. the voices of the people of the eighth drop down to a low hum in the background, whispered cacophony that's overlaid by the desolation. the hands start to melt into shadows and nothingness, grasping at the edges of broken cities, and then four's shadow takes over the stage.

it's eerie, for a moment. the bells are dissonant - the chords aren't quite right, the hum of the miserable crying and screaming of the eighth galaxy going silent as the music starts to play. there's the sound of shuffling feet and the bells, the neverending bells, the soft hum of singing voices, tolling and then

a brighter burst of bells - a major key note. a flash of light that illuminates the stage. one - it shows a figure. it shows lu bixing's back, as he shrugs off the last of the hands that claw onto him, bursting free from the bloom of four's shadow and melding together - blackness, again. another bell burst, major key, brightening, another light shows him five steps to the right, catching lu bixing moving out of the way of a shadowy hand that grasps for him, this one sharp like it's grown claws, his expression burnt into determination, cast into stark relief by the there and gone light. blackness. another flash of light. major key bells. blood on the floor of the stage, lu bixing, moving, out of the way of something, the shadows wrapping around his hand.

(he can't see. he has no control. it feels like back then - like the way his body betrayed him, over and over and over, the stage he had to make it through.)

a bright hit of the bells and a voice that says, How many times are you going to fall?, a flash of light that illuminates four, briefly. the music swells. a voice that says, The Eighth Galaxy doesn't need the Union., a bright flash of light, a hit of the bells. lu bixing jerking to the side, four visible in the next flash, again, blackness, darkness, a stage of nothing -

A dissonant chord, this time.

A flash of light.

The beat just a little off.] Four!

[voidshift]

...I don't know if it would be that easy, with this.

[his ears pin back a little further, though, external signs of emotions he's struggling to keep down.]

Or if that's even worth it.

[cavaliered]

[she listens - she listens, and she breathes.

the lights hurt. the flashing lights and the bells make her head ache.]

He can't fucking help himself. [she says finally, but she doesn't pull away.]

[forefall]

[ with every major chord of the song that comes with her shadow, a small sound wave accompanies it. it can be avoided if you listen enough, if you care enough, but when has four ever done that? she watches as lu bixing moves with each and very flash of light and does nothing at first except start to laugh.

she laughs even as the light shines how she fails to dodge and is hit by her shadow, driven out of her own mind by the song. a voice echoes from the shadow, the flower has taken her over.

she tries to direct her shadow towards lu bixing, to harm him, to grab at any part of his body, his limbs, his face, anything—to hold him down and die with her. he calls her name, and she runs at him the next time the light flashes, intent on ending it, readying to wring his neck.

the stage lights up. she sprints.

it's dark again. so dark. a bell chimes. ]

[forefall]

[ a voice booms from the shadows: you're not an ordinary fella! ]

[refate]

[ the discordant note goes straight to the pit of his stomach with something akin to dread.the bell and four's mania don't help. he's still holding onto gideon for the moment as he turns his head, just slightly, against the flashes of light, but not looking away. ]

No. He can't. To do otherwise would be against his nature, no matter who was up there.

[greatvalue]

[watches. lin jingheng lose it.]

... I don't think that's all.

[Hmmm, syringe danger. Hateful! He has no idea what the fuck kind of trauma Four and Lu Bixing are both grappling with here, but it's A Lot.]

Enough? If you have the mind for it or whatever. It's... You can concentrate. And transform it into something useful. Like the bomb, or— [...] But that doesn't mean whatever it becomes is any less dangerous to you.

[engineers]

[astika]

[sorry hunter you put in the effort to explain but chandra is pausing at the new turn of events if it wasn't supposed to be real it's real now]

[engineers]

[ anyway.

you know how the space is an infinite, empty void of blackness? how between seas of stars, there's nothing - no oxygen, no light? that's what the stage feels like. the sound, though - the sound booms, loud and clear through the execution bar. the music starts to speed up. faster, faster, faster, the major key bells bringing light. it moves in flashes, faster and faster and faster, makes the coordination of four and lu bixing both look like it's in stop motion frames. as he ducks out of the way, as she sprints at him -

four's high pitched laughter rings, brightly, and hits with a dissonant note. off-beat.

the light flashes and illuminates the entire stage, blooming outwards into the shape of a flower, and everyone will see the way the shadows grab onto lu bixing's head. how four sprints at him with every moment of killing intent, with every desperate strike of someone unloved.

the lights go dark.

there's a splat.

the music slows to almost nothing.

silence, like the void of space. ]

[cavaliered]

[ok well sisi is fucking with us but gideon doesn't know that so the splat happens and gideon just

bellows. not painfully, not in fear or upset. not that, she's not afraid.

no, no, it's anger.]

[bookpapers]

[all they can do is watch, all lavi can do is watch, so he inhales sharply when that's taken away from him.

but this is a part of seeing too -- the emptiness, and then the flashes of light showing Bixing still moving, the sound of his voice when he calls Four's name. and then the sound that follows. it feels like forever, and it's also too soon.]

[selfdestructs]

[ WAVES HANDS. YELLS. CRIES.

dva just staring at the stage, holding her breath.

she hates this. NINA HATES THIS. WE LET SISI AND ARA DO THIS.]

[awol]

[ hey he just.

falls to his knees and stares at the darkness.

and stares.





and waits, eyes affixed where the stage would be in the darkness, his body still as stone, as though he's holding his breath. ]

[greatvalue]

[jingheng pressed to the barrier as something goes SPLAT

(snow voice) omniscient girl help]

[bookpapers]

[at that Lavi flicks a glance towards Ryn, but what's happening or not happening on stage arrests his attention again.

DID THE DDR MUSIC REALLY HAPPEN? HELLO? anyway, there's nothing else to do but do what he's already been doing, which is to wait for it all to be over.]

[awol]

[ omnipresent girl please save us.

lin jingheng has never looked this stressed out and likely never will again (because of the fucking effect of the week, pixi omg). ]

[refate]

[ he doesn't startle, at least, as he holds his breath. instead, his jaw tightens, teeth grinding, as he hisses: ] Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

[ where are you where are you where are you - ]

[greatvalue]

[manifested ddr but at what cost

just holding his breath after that splat now.]

[refate]

[ one hand is free against the barrier.

he snaps it out for one of hers. and they're left to wait. because THEY DID THIS. ]

[forefall]

[ all four wanted was silence. silence from the world, silence from own thoughts, silence from her fears. she has never known space, but as all the music fades to nothing, as the beats are farther and farther apart. the music ends

the lights come back. the stage is illuminated, and four is still and on her knees, shadows hands up and holding her down.

she hates all of this, but all she can do is stay still because when was the last time she had this?

when was the last time she had peace?

when was the last time she was embraced? (akira hugged her yesterday, but he left!!!) when was the last time she was embraced? ]

[greatvalue]

[no it's gonna be because he's going to die of a heart attack at this rate

hunter sucks in a breath when the lights come back and there's four, but— scanning the stage furiously while his eyes adjust to the lights.]

Where...?

[SISI WHERE'S OUR BIXING]