WEEK 8 - Execution

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (7)

sunday EXECUTION (22) survivors As voting comes to an end, a song filters in played so loud that it becomes distored and fragmented. If a participant checks their datapad, they will see the the victim and suspect chosen by majority's pictures displayed. If they attempt to scroll, they will see a list of characters and their votes in alphabetical order.

victim




culprit



accomplice



Character Statuses
Setting
Rulebook
Votes

Comments

[tevinteriscoming]

[She's welcome to be angry. He's not going to protest. Instead, he'll explain himself calmly, like it's academic]

He told me everything several weeks ago. It was the week after the first trial where he was a suspect. He showed me on the tablet what Alice had shown to him. If he failed to kill when she demanded it of him, what he saw on the tablet would come to pass. I pointed out we ought not to believe Alice. He pointed out he could hardly ignore the risk it was real. I asked him to wait.

The following week, the parasites were revealed. Alice told him he would have to hunt them, but that he might live even if selected for execution if he successfully killed one. [There's a little more emotion in his voice at this; he's angry, more than anything, with this aspect.] She gave him nothing to use, or to go on. As offers go, it was less than worthless. But what choice did he ever have but to try, given what was at stake?

[missmaladroite]

He had a choice. [She mutters angrily!!! She processes the rest of his explanation sourly, glowering at him, but listens nonetheless.]

Are you sure he was acting alone? What about other details of his role? Did he tell you?

[tevinteriscoming]

Yes, and what a choice it was. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. [Rubbing at his temple; he doesn't want to be hard. Marinette doesn't deserve an ounce of his frustration. There's nothing hypocritical about her anger, to him, not when she's been so brave and has fought so hard all along.] He tried, you know. He didn't come to me expecting an accomplice, he came to me because he wanted me to understand. If he wasn't willing to try something else, he wouldn't have risked coming to me.

I don't know. He didn't tell me many details. But he was shown a video. It seemed from his description he was originally intended as a failsafe, in case no one chose to kill. After Elizabeth and Rhys, she changed her mind, and sent him off to kill aliens with very little thought or planning. That's about all there is to it. He did mention once it didn't sound like Alice was in charge, that she was taking orders from someone.

[missmaladroite]

[There's a part of Marinette that can understand Bull's part in this, that he was being manipulated as much as any of them were, but she's too angry and hurt and upset to acknowledge it. It's so much easier, right now, to try to focus vitriol onto Bull and Dorian, two men whom she'd trusted, who she'd come to see as reliable, who threw everything away to pull off this murder, only for Bull to confess at the last second. If she keeps being angry, then she can't feel hurt, betrayed, or lost.]

And why didn't you stop him? [It's useless to ask that now, but she can't help but snap that one out.]

We guessed that already. The question is who. [She glances back up at Dorian] But he wouldn't have known that, would he?

[tevinteriscoming]

Ah. Now there's a question. [Don't think for one moment while he was defending Bull's choices he was also defending his own. That's the crux of why it feels easy to blame himself, but he can't be too angry at Bull.] I didn't have the answers he needed to hear. The type of man he was - he couldn't have ever taken that risk.

He didn't know who, no. Or if he did, he couldn't tell me. I had that impression - he was always dancing around things he wasn't allowed to say.

[missmaladroite]

[So he tried. Or he claims to have tried, in any case. Marinette processes this with a cynical little huff, but doesn't comment.]

Anything else?

[tevinteriscoming]

Something about proof. He said that he was shown proof of some sort. Fool that I am, I didn't inquire further. It was enough to convince him...

[Thinking through that conversation again.]

Kaffas. No, he did say, didn't he? I thought he'd been referring to something else. It was [eyeballs. He'd thought he'd been talking about Maria and Niles, but he puts it together now.] something grisly. Body parts. Of whom I can't be certain, but his men, I presume. [It's clear that's who they would use to hurt him. He has a sudden mental image of Bull, being given an eye, who from, Krem? Now there's a terrible picture. He's sick with anger and horror all over again.]

So that's the sort of manipulation they will use, if they feel they really must. Better to be forewarned.