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]

...

You know... I was already a bad person from the start, though.

[That's pretty much her usual MO.]

[cartesio]

I know, but not bad enough. We need you to stop doing this out of convenience and start going out of your way to actually cause havoc and harm.

A traveler who does immoral things for herself and keeps going on is of no use to anyone. A traveler who travels with the intention of ruining the cities and countries she visits is extremely valuable.

[In other words, stop being neutral and go full throttle into the negative end of the spectrum no matter what]

[quickpersuader]

[...That just gets a small smile from her, and she sets down the box to instead hover a hand over the persuader on her left.

Canon.]

Sergeant, you really don't know the story behind the bullet you gave me, do you?

[There's no way he could say something like that if he did.]

[cartesio]

I know, I know. You should say it for everyone's benefit, though.

[quickpersuader]

...

It's a bullet I engineered to murder the king who created a country where the people were forced to kill each other.

[She rests her hand on the grip.]

The law I put into place made sure the country collapsed after that... so no one else would get caught up in such a thing.

So, Sergeant. If you knew that, why do you think I've been holding onto it instead of using it on anyone else here?

[cartesio]

[If he had eyes they would shine so much at the sound of Kino making a country collapse]

I think I can make a pretty good guess.

[He sounds almost pleased]

[quickpersuader]

Good. Then you'll know...

I'll be sure to spend it once we have the proper authorization to destroy everything you ever worked for here.

[cartesio]

Right, right. We'll see about that.

[The percentage on the screens change. Kino's go from 90% to 92%]