WEEK TWO EXECUTION

[grigori]

week two: execution no melodies no memories

Hopefully you got a long night of sleep? Barring that, you got whatever answers, or closure, you might have needed. Because it's strangely quiet, the following Sunday morning, the everyday background music you've all gotten used to reduced to mere echoes on the wind.

Breaking the silence, somewhere, much like the song of Friday, there is the echoing, cruel laughter of voices you should faintly recognize throughout the city. It's followed by humming of that newly familiar song. It's strongest, interestingly, close to the plaza.

As time turns to 1 PM, though, there is a change as the voices fade. While there's no compulsion to investigate it, there's a small gathering in the plaza. Your three Watchers are here with their daemons, and so are... Suigetsu, and his daemon, front and center. All damages and evidence, anything amiss from the weekend, is all gone, and replaced with the state of the plaza from the week prior.

Nearby, the Watchers stand clustered together. Suriel is silent where they lean on their crutch, wings drooping under their cloak as their caracal paces restlessly. Shamsiel is also silent as they stand there to the other side of Suriel, their cloak covering them completely with the exception of their one good arm which clenches at their chest. Keeping an eye on Suigetsu is Baraqiel, tiger-formed daemon tracking Naito closely, pacing where the Watchers have estimated the boundary will be.

And then, another party will be compelled to join them. Rochalizo will find that his feet are carrying him to his destination, Philia sticking close to him as they travel across banks and canals to the heart of the markets. Once he passes through the centermost area of the plaza, opposite where Suigetsu stands, he'll find that he can't go back, and neither can his daemon.

Likewise, no one can enter the plaza further than where the three Watchers stand, having gotten a good gauge of what will happen now. There will be no interfering from outside parties, no matter what it is that's about to happen. Any attempts to do so will result in them meeting an invisible barrier, one that rebuffs them with the same amount of force used against it—so take care.

full navigation ✨ locations ✨ statuses ✨ profiles ✨ audiences ✨
private conversations ✨ murder proposals ✨ curfew ✨ daemons ✨

Comments

[allyship]

[throwing off his drenched cape, rochalizo dodges the arrow. looking up at suigetsu, while half-trying to find the rock again, he gauges the distance. too far? or...

the typhoon's dying. maybe now's a good time to—?

and then suddenly, he stops. it'll be hard to tell what exactly is happening from an outside perspective, save for that the fire fades from rochalizo's eyes. but kaeya, at least, will feel a sense of hopelessness through their tether.

[linkin park music plays]

(i feel like i should clarify that it's not literally playing because that seems like something fyre and i might do at this point)

but with the newfound sense of sorrow, the adrenaline starts to wear off, as rochalizo crumples from the pain.]

1/2

[drinkingproblem]

[They are seriously both on their last legs here.

Preeetty sure his wounds got some real bad jostling there, and while he's got arrows it's going to be a real hard time firing them. That said, everything else is wearing off along with the typhoon; that means Suigetsu and his daemon are feeling the beginnings of a drop. Naito can cushion some of it, but...

Well, he still doesn't sound quite panicked when he calls out:]

Real quiet now, aren'tcha, curly? [and to the audience] Think you've got me now, don'tcha?

[There's a long laugh, a ridiculous cackle that probably hurts considering everything, but hey. Why not. It's the eleventh hour, and he--]

2/2

[drinkingproblem]

[Reaches down for his coin.






A gigantic Alpha Crab bursts into existence in the middle of the execution area, sending up sprays of water from the canal and dirt from the ground. Suigetsu, still cackling unhelpfully, lands lightly on its head.

The crab wiggles its tiny little eyes... looks around... and then ponderously begins to swipe its large pincers at Rochalizo on the ground. Hm.]

[allyship]

[um.]

What the—!?

[unfortunately, in his utter sense of despair, rochalizo's movements are sluggish, and so he doesn't move out of the way in time. a claw slams into him, efore he hits the ground again. Pain flares throughout his entire chest as he lets out another cry.

(sorry, kaeya!)

but then—

again, only kaeya will truly be able to feel it, as the hopelessness dissipates. or, in the wise words of snow:



he can do this. he has to. both him and suigetsu are soaked, but the typhoon is gone, with no more winds or rain pushing back at him. suigetsu isn't too far from him.

wheezing as he coughs up flecks of blood, he pushes himself back up in an attempt to stand on his feet again.]

1/2

[drinkingproblem]

Yeah! Go for it, Alpha Crab!!

[Suigetsu out here being a crab rave cheer squad. His daemon does a little loop-de-loop in its bubble, hovering carefully out of reach of the pincers -- the crab is large, and kind of clumsy, and you never know.

Anyway, since Rochalizo seems to have possibly stopped moving, Suigetsu is going to nock up an arrow again and have a go at his last known location--




]

Hah...?!

2/2

[drinkingproblem]

Ow, ow, hey! What's the big idea?!?

[Sadly he is not getting the full effect of this, because there is no other way to put it: the crab rave has gone full literal and the Alpha Crab is now dancing in place, waving and wiggling its overlarge pincers like it's at the discorustacean club.



.... It is not a very good dancer, but he can't really see that anyway, so it's just going to get inflicted on everyone else. Too bad??

He is way too busy trying to stay on, so maybe it's a good time for Rochalizo to make his last stand.]

[allyship]

[he is. not going to question why the crab is dancing. he is in too much pain and too exhausted for this.

unfortunately, adrenaline can keep him going only for so long, especially when he's losing blood from his shoulder wound. he collapses to the ground again, and despite his attempts to push himself back up, he stays there.

he has to act. suigetsu might be blind, but that has't handicapped him enough. if he regains his footing and manages to fire an arrow, it's over—]

[allyship]

[... but he doesn't really need to stand for this, at least.

gritting his teeth through the pain, half-pushed up off the ground, he mutters,]

Goodbye, Suigetsu.

[like he said at the start, he'll be taking his life.

the air crackles, and then—electricity manifests around them, as if through magic, before it flies towards suigetsu and the crab, sending the canal alight.]

1/2

[drinkingproblem]

[Ah.

Lightning, lightning, lightning.

You can see it coming (in this case, you really can't), but it's not like you can run from it, especially when you are literally water -- he still isn't, not anymore, not right now, but his daemon sure is. Oops. He's also fairly drenched from shenanigans earlier and on top of a crab that's also halfway in the canal; the canal is also halfway on the crab and on shore.

It's a death trap, as surely as anything: even the Land of Thunder wasn't quite as annoying as all this.

He probably has his mouth open to say something else -- he always does. But there's just the sweep and crackle of lightning and it's hard to tell which scream is the crab, which one is Naito's in his head (can sharks scream? they can scream internally, maybe), and which one is his own. Yep, a familiar sensation for somebody who isn't all that familiar with physical injury: burning and burning and burning, inside and outside and all around. This is also what it means to be a Houzuki: you really do prefer the fire to the frying pan.

(Sorry Alphinaud!)

The magic is blinding and neverending, goes on and on for what seems like ages--]

2/2

[drinkingproblem]

[(Also somewhere upon a very unhappy crab's back, there's a whole mess of shards, glass reflecting the dance of thunder to infinity and almost drowning out the last and inexplicable memory left behind by a terribly inexplicable boy.



It syncs up with Flat's beatboxing, somehow, because this is totally an appropriate requiem. ☆)

Everything clears in a cloud of steam and flash-cooked crab, with one very flash-cooked corpse and pile of Dust 'pon its back.

Suigetsu Houzuki is dead.]

REMEMBER -

[grigori]

remember
and dust you shall become in the end

 

 

The Watchers step forward in unison as the barrier falls, the same as they had with the verdict against Suigetsu. Their reactions vary - Baraqiel's earlier humor fading fast, Suriel standing in quiet anger, and Shamsiel will continue to be silent and look away, but it's clear to them that this is the end.

The winds have died down from the typhoon, and it's safe to enter the plaza now, but the air remains charged from the final blow and the remnant of, uh, memories. Naito shimmers into golden Dust, fading on the wind as the bubble of water encasing him becomes nothing more than water in the canal. The knife and bow and arrow both disappear much like the glass had after they were chosen, and it seems like nothing will be left behind.

And that includes the executed, Suigetsu's body turning to Dust like much his daemon - and then there's nothing left, save for the remains of the crab.

Suigetsu Houzuki is, indeed, dead.

The laughter from before returns, echoing, before the unknown but newly familiar voices turn to song again:

given the option of power or death,
the choice is clear; it only takes one breath.
to see a fight off with laughs and no remorse,
perhaps falling now was a just matter of course.
and though he stands tall to fight to the last,
goodbye, good riddance. your time here has passed.

After the Dust clears, and the song ends with more of that laughter, the Watchers will disappear in a shift of space around them. Rochalizo and Philia are left alone in the heart of the plaza with their victory feast.

[allyship]

[rochalizo is

just collapsing back to the ground. he has an arrow sticking out of his shoulder and probably a broken rib or punctured lung what do you want from him.

enjoy your crab, everyone!!]

[spydey]

[ NYOOMING TO THIS FUCKIN TWINK AS FAST AS SHE CAN GO ]

[senjinrouha]

[ NYOOMING AFTER HER. ]

[allyship]

[he's alive everything just really fuckin hurts]

[spydey]

[ she is going to lean in and whisper something to him, and presumably will have monika's kit.

after she'll talk in a more normal volume. ]

We will fix you up in no time, punk.

[rerouter]

[



silently taking her first aid kit out for whoever can use it whew]

[uncoincidental]

[SHE NYOOMS TO HIM AS WELL]

[allyship]

[hi sheba he'll at least try to look up at her]

I think... I did pretty okay, huh?

[despite being incredibly outmatched in terms of fighting]

[uncoincidental]

You did great.

[aaaa, god. she's looking through her satchel for medical supplies but it also seems like the other are helping too? whew, he's in good hands.]

That jerk didn't stand a chance. And you used lightning like you were born for it.

[allyship]

[as he tries to breathe—]

I was trying to think of how to get him near the water... Typhoon interfered with that, tough.

[booksleeves]

[Oh no! Hurrying over to him, though staying out of the way for Yelena and the first aid crew.]

Sir Rochalizo. . .

[allyship]

[he manages a weak smile for susato.]

... I wasn't going to lose.

[booksleeves]

We didn't think so for a moment. [That was scary, but giving him a smile right back.] You were so clever, the way you made use of your feathers!

[allyship]

... Thank you. And, to save any trouble before next trial—that makes four now on my coin.

[he would show her but. he doesn't really feel like getting his coin out right now.]