Final Trial

[cartesio]

Final Trial

It takes a few minutes after everyone talks with the generic mannequin. The easygoing conversation, the bragging from Gant, Keith's exasperation, it all stops when a very heavy and ominous presence fills the room.

"I think it's about time this circus stopped"

It's the Sergeant. He's standing on the doorway, arms crossed. The shadows on his face wriggle, he seems to be rather furious, but is restraining himself from lashing out

"I should have guessed you bunch would take advantage of all that noise and ruckus to sneak in here. I was careless, I admit. 'Oh, this is over in like four hours, it will be okay if I step away to deal with that'. Careless."

Slowly the Sergeant enters the workshop. Behind him, the door slowly disappears, fading away, until where the door was now there's only a smooth wall. The Sergeant raises an arm, the entire room shakes.

All the mannequins fly up to the ceiling, the one that was now Damon Gant turned back into the empty husk the mannequin was before. The one with a t-pose has the same fate. Once all the mannequins are up on the ceiling, the operation tables are uprooted, bolts and screws flying around. The tables are twisted in the air, formed into knots, disassembled and assembled all over again, until several rustic podiums are formed and deposited on the ground.

Seven podiums, with him at the center. The Sergeant crosses his arms and speaks:

"Get on those spots. Tell me... ...how much do you know?"

Is it a rhetorical question? Who knows. You still have to answer, though

Comments

[quickpersuader]

I suppose that is a problem.

[Hmm... Still not moving though.]

But I also have a medal. You were going to honor that, weren't you?

[cartesio]

Yes...unless you give me a reason not to. You shouldn't be in here. To be frank with you, Kino, I'm very upset.

[Is he bluffing? Who knows. He sure as hell doesn't sound pleased at all, that's for sure]

[quickpersuader]

Are you really?

[Poor, poor Sarge - not really.]

[cartesio]

You're all sneaking in here and messing with things you don't understand. That's plenty of reason to be upset!

[As if to punctuate it, Kino's podium crumples a little, like it's being crushed]

[quickpersuader]

[Good thing she's not standing there!]

Does it matter? It's pretty much over anyway.

[cartesio]

If there's something I hate is when something doesn't go according to plan. This whole thing you're doing now is way off the rails, to say the least.

[He huffs]

You could have waited in the motel until noon, and it'd all would have ended nice and peacefully, but no! Now you're here.

[quickpersuader]

I thought you already knew I was curious, though.

[She does sort of make that her entire life.]

I've traveled to many dangerous places just for fun.

[cartesio]

And what exactly are you getting out of this? Fine, you saw a bunch of stuff you shouldn't have. Do you even understand what's going on?

[Go on, Kino. Piece the things together!]

[quickpersuader]

I finally get to frustrate the person who forced us all to stay in his little simulation and kill each other. I think even a small trade off like that is worth it.

[It was very kind of him, giving her all this info the whole time, too.]

[cartesio]

You know, it's exactly for that kind of demeanor that I gave you your medal. You're so...infuriating. And weird. Especially weird.

[quickpersuader]

You're the one who kept eating that kinoyaki all this time, though...

[She seriously thought he would quit right away, but he just. Kept going with the torment?

It was kind of amazing to watch, really.]

[cartesio]

What can I say. Food is a novel experience. It does get tiring to have to stand in front of doors all the time.

[He welcomed the distractions, even if they came with ghost peppers and weird seasoning]

[quickpersuader]

I think that makes you much weirder than me, honestly.

[cartesio]

At this point I think it's clear I don't have a choice in entertaiment.

[protectandselfserve]

Washing dishes is also a novel experience for you, I'm sure!

[cartesio]

Oh, you shut up.

[He sounds so offended about that. Don't judge him, Gant, he hates being judged]

You don't wash dishes when you don't need things like food.

[protectandselfserve]

If you don't need food, you don't need to leave filthy dishes lying around like an animal, Sarge.

[cartesio]

[ He actually huffs at that. ]

Nobody invited you to go snooping around my private quarters in the first place, so your commentary is both un-needed and unwanted.

[protectandselfserve]

How do you live like this, though, Sarge? Even if it's all zeros and ones, I'm pretty sure that's going to produce a virus at some point.

[cartesio]

I don't know if you noticed, but I'm way past the point of having to worry about that.

[He points at his face. Yeah]

This isn't supposed to be like this, you know.