The Royal Alternian Punishment Pits could be accommodating when it needed to be. It was "Royal" after all. It could hardly hold that title if it didn't offer more comfortable cells to trolls that had yet to be convicted. Especially if those trolls were highbloods of note.
That said, the cell that held Eridia Tsifer wasn't much more than a featureless room. It contained a thin-walled recuperacoon, a load gaper, a desk, and a chair. All were bolted to the floor. The temperature at least only fluctuated between "passable" and "frigid." Eridia was allowed plain black clothing to help ward off the permanent breeze.
It was in this room that Eridia was left to await her trial. The crime was bizarre; the outcome, dramatic. Suitable arrangements needed to be made, and that took time. Weeks passed. Eridia was allowed little mail, and fewer visitors. All were monitored stringently.
At last the night of the trial arrived. Eridia was blindfolded, shackled, and led from her cell--perhaps for the last time. One tram ride of indeterminable length passed. She'd arrived at the Busthind Fault Courtblock.
The arena was as enormous as it was ancient. The amount of stone seating was egregious given the difficulty of the hike to reach it in the first place. Sweeps ago the Courtblock had been the scene of many infamous trials. There had been fewer in recent history. The modern era tended to favor more efficient, easily-televised spectacles of due process. Still, the stage carried the same powerful aura of its younger sweeps.
The stage itself was a simple stone platform. It was far wider than it was long, and surrounded on all sides by a black-deep pit. This was where Eridia found herself now. The guards released both her blindfold and her shackles. One of them pressed a familiar pair of emeici into her palm. They immediately left across the platform's bridge. The bridge retracted shortly after.
A surprising number of trolls had made the trek to spectate the proceedings. Alternia loved a spectacle. That was already amply provided by the events at the haunted mansion. Intrepid thrill-seekers skirted along the edges of the stands. Many brought cameras. None dared to go beyond the boundaries of their designated seating area, though. The guards seemed almost redundant.
After a brief moment of crowded mumbling and a few heckles from the stands, the audience fell quiet. Clipped footsteps echoed across the rocky terrain. Another bridge extended from the opposite end of the stage.
The legislacerator had arrived. Renowned Neophyte Xiaque Makkoi entered the Courtblock.
OOC: • The trial is a BATT between NPC Xiaque Makkoi (Ancestor) and Eridia Tsifer (Adult) • The specifics of Eridia's sentence will be determined by how well she fares against the legislacerator in terms of both combat and pleading her case! • Other characters are welcome to spectate from the stands. Standard ORP rules apply. • The trial will have been advertised. As long as a troll can travel to Busthind, they can spectate. • Interfering with Alternian court proceedings is EXTREMELY ILLEGAL.
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:26 pm
HP: 60/60 Military Weapon: +1 DMG
Xiaque Makkoi was a tall troll dressed for equal parts function and form. They adjusted their thick leather gloves as they walked across the bridge. Their thin ponytail trailed behind them like a banner. For all the pomp and circumstance of their arrival, they looked young.
Gloves straightened, one hand tucked itself securely behind the troll's back. The other came to rest on the elaborate hilt of a thin fencing sword. Their sharp teal eyes flicked to Eridia. They made no attempt to hide their visible appraisal of the troll before them.
"Eridia Tsifer. You stand here charged for crimes against the Alternian Empire. Interference with a government-sponsored operation. Conspiracy with metaphysical forces. Aiding and abetting a known serial killer. Attempted murder of military personnel. Behavior unbecoming of one in possession of Alternian military rank."
Xiaque's withdrawn hand whipped with a presentation flourish fast enough to cause a snapping sound. They leveled Eridia with a proper, if dismissive glare. "What--if anything--do you have to say on your behalf?"
HP: 40/40 Adult Bonus+1 DMG Military Grade Daggers +1 DMG Novice Trinket, Defensive style B 3/3 Novice trinket, Offensive style A 3/3 Novice Support Artifact, Style B! 1/1
Roll 1d4. 1, 2, 3 = 1/4 HP Restored 4 = Max HP Restored
Offensive Adept Artifact, Style B! 2/2
Roll 2d6. Deal double damage on this attack. +1 ongoing DMG for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.
Offensive Adept Artifact, Style A! 2/2 ****Grey items are disabled!****
Eridia tried not to think much about it. The cell, the blindfold, the trial... If it weren't her trial, she'd be siting down with the the other spectators. Staring with a big grin a the bloodshed about to happen.
All of that, she'd be doing all of that if it weren't her. Eridia would've like to think this as all just a bad dream. That all of this was just inside her head and she was lounging back in her hive after a long night. Her blood pusher beat hard against her chest as the purpleblood observed her surroundings. Having her old weapon shoved to her hands almost made her jump. But the old feeling of her daggers made her feel barely calm. Spinning them some calmed her a bit more. Calming her wrecking nerves that reminded her what she hid in the knots of her hair.
The clicking sound of the boot's soles made Eridia look back, paying attention to her opponent -the legislacerator- that would be fighting against her. As cultured as she was, Eridia had heard a thing or two about them yet, she never imagined she would be fighting Xiaque Makkoi. The highblood clenched her fists as Xiaque spoke of her crimes. What crimes? "What do I have to say?" She said, trying to contain her rage.
"You seem confused." Eridia simply said. "In fact you all are. I didn't do any of that." Was it the part of her that didn't allow her to understand her wrongdoings speaking? Or was she thinking irrationally once again, trying to shift all the blame away to some stranger that just... Didn't exist? "I understand that you are all confused But I need you all to comprehend that I didn't do anything that merits all of this!" She gestured to the court. "I didn't do anything wrong." How many times did she had to explain herself? Why was it so hard to understand! She tried not to get her buttons pushed by the dismissive glare and continued. "I did not interfere with a government-sponsored operation, or conspired with a ghost against the empire!" But she did try to kill Zindel. But, she was about to surrender before she got shot. She considered that. They could lock her up, keep her in a cell but Eridia didn't want to go through court. Nor did she want to be stared at as she bled to death by a merciless crowd. It wasn't even a matter of strength.
"Xiaque Makkoi,"She took a deep breath. "I plead not guilty."
"Ha, ha." The legislacerator chuckled as if they had only heard of laughter as described by someone else. They only waited as long as it took Eridia to make her plea before moving.
Xiaque filled Eridia's vision, seemingly before their boots even had a chance to stop making noise. The sword detached from their hip. Rather than waste time spinning the blade frontwards, they simply uppercut the pommel into Eridia's torso.
"Already you perjure yourself! More than a dozen trolls bore witness to your crimes! You insult them; you insult me; you insult the empire!"
Xiaque hopped back from Eridia and continued to bounce on the balls of their feet. They were taking pains to allow Eridia the chance to get at least a couple more words in edgewise. A legislacerator and a gentletroll were one in the same.
HP: 32/40 Adult Bonus+1 DMG Military Grade Daggers +1 DMG Novice Trinket, Defensive style B 3/3 Novice trinket, Offensive style A 3/3 Novice Support Artifact, Style B! 1/1
Roll 1d4. 1, 2, 3 = 1/4 HP Restored 4 = Max HP Restored
Offensive Adept Artifact, Style B! 2/2
Roll 2d6. Deal double damage on this attack. +1 ongoing DMG for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.
Offensive Adept Artifact, Style A! 2/2 ****Grey items are disabled!****
"Ack!" Eridia flinched as the pommel struck her torso, taking a few steps back as she tried to relax. Her pain tolerance was high, she knew it, she boasted of it plenty of times and training herself for it had helped throughout the sweeps. "Mercy." She whimpered, trying to keep her mind together through this- trying to keep herself from feeling the pain until she was safe.
The more stress, the more her body would feel the pain. So she took a few breathes, allowing her opponent to get close, for them to partly have their guard down and feel a tinge of sympathy for the pitiful felon before them. "I... I wasn't aware of what I was doing Makkoi. I wasn't myself after the first seances took place!" She yelled with eyebrows furrowed.
"I was under the influence of a metaphysical being. I tried fighting against it, no one said anything until the first droplets of blood dripped on the floor. I hesitated, tried so hard to keep myself mentally present. To do what I was supposed to do in there. Bring him peace so he could move on." Her lips trembled are Eridia tried so hard to be the victim that had lost her will to act rationally during Gerard's seance. Mixing the truth with lies was dangerous, yes, but whether or not they could distinguish which elements were in fact true could help her out of this. Top performance. She needed to top this performance. If not she would rot in a crummy cell. Hell, she could even get culled.
She pressed her hand on her forehead Sobbing as she remembered the pain she felt when she lost him. "I asked for help through my communicating device." She charged at the teal blood, grappling their wrist before quickly delivering a cut on their abdomen. "Or have the dozen witnesses deny that?"
Hivestuck
Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 9:29 am
Hemera was definitely there, in the stands, watching. Why? A sense of duty? A sense of personal responsibility? Taking notes for judicial interests? She wasn't sure. Mera didn't want to think about the 'why' for once. In fact, she didn't even really want to be there, but the indeterminate 'why' tugged her in anyway.
All she could do was watch on with dull disappointment. Maybe anger, if she cared to afford it. That said, she didn't want to see Eridia put under more physical duress after the mansion investigation. But that was how the system worked, and she currently wasn't in a position to do anything about it. Making a spectacle out of someone's fate...that left a poor taste in her mouth, no matter her feelings about Eridia's choices and behavior.
That mouth kept shut, in a thin line, though. She just wanted this whole affair to be over with.
This? Eridia being called up to justice? Eridia getting destroyed by the law? Bloodshed? Psykgi couldn't miss this. She took a seat in an appropriate section -- something that she wouldn't be bothered about for her blood, but something that would offer her a great view. Having military rank and a lovely white lab coat did help, though.
A good seat was important: she didn't want to miss any drop of lavender blood, if possible. Or, any word of Eridia's bs. Both were equally satisfying. She glanced at the crowd around her, recognizing a certain tealblood in the same row, several seats down. What luck! Sergent Moachm was always a welcome sight.
Psykgi turned back to the fight -- No blood yet, but the words were still gems. Typical Eridia! Psykgi nearly bit her finger in amusement to keep the giggle in.
This was going to be delightful.
Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:57 pm
Quella Fehtan
Quella dropped into a stone seat heavily, shifting a little this way and that as she struggled to find a comfortable position to sit. The hard carved rock didn't make that easy. Sighing, the blueblood opened her little paper bag and popped a exploded grain kernel into her mouth. Maybe she'd just stand. The hunter settled down as a hush slowly fell over the courtblock. The accused was being escorted inside.
Blindfolded and bound, shoved and prodded into the center of the stage, Eridia looked... well, not like herself. There was a roar from the crowd as Xiaque entered the stage and they began opening arguments. Quella could feel excitement beginning to build in her chest. A savage smile spread across the blueblood's face. This is what she was here for, the contest of accused and accuser. Strength against strength. The pure truth of that contest. Only two possible outcomes.
One troll wins. Another loses.
And it wasn't like Eridia didn't deserve a bit of a beating. After giving up control to some sort of evil spirit or something, it was clear she needed to find herself again. That kind of weakness was stupid, inexcusable. But Quella knew Eridia was a fighter, and she was looking forward to it. Xiaque was intimidating as hell, but if anyone could fight their way out of this, it was Eridia. The hunter grinned. They wanted her to roll over, but if they thought that was gonna happen, they had another think coming. Quella hopped to her feet as Eridia delivered a rebuttal in the form of a nasty dagger slash.
"There you go!" Quella whooped out as Eridia gained a little distance on the legislacerator, ignoring court etiquette entirely. It wasn't like she was down there fighting or anything. The hunter got a few startled glances as she hollered into the mostly silent crowd. "Fight for it, purpleblood!"
Buzzwulf
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Micillia
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Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:42 pm
Chiara Moteku
Adult Chiara grumbled as she walked up to the stands. She had tried to bribe a guard to poison that Xiaque troll, but it was a no go. Of course she didn't go as "Chiara"! She took the appearance of some random troll she didn't know. Anyway, the ploy didn't work, and she had to make a run for it, and change back into her original form. Her only way of helping Eridia was thwarted, and she was grumpy about it. Now all she could do was watch from the stands and grumble. The blueblood had managed to visit Eridia before this whole thing, and managed to get her a comb and some makeup. Obviously it helped, Eridia looked pretty good for a troll stuck in the pits.
Edits edits, sry
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:56 pm
Hemera let out a quiet sigh and looked away. She looked across the stands for familiar faces. Likely there would be trolls from Awassi's hive who either wanted to see how this unfolded or wanted to see if there could be even more drama.
Psykgi stood out, Leeroi's moirail. Especially her hair. She gave the redblood a half-wave.
Then she immediately jumped at the sudden yelling near her. Mera looked over at Quella with a frown. This was the kind of behavior she expected at Leeroi's gladiator league, not within serious court proceedings. And this was the private from the investigation, no? She should certainly know better.
"As much as your support is appreciated, you should reel it in before you become a disruption," she commented.
"Yessir!" the huge blueblood boomed out, loud enough to make pretty much everyone in the nearby stands roll their eyes. She snapped off a grin and a sharp salute at the military tealblood, popping up to attention in the stands. There were calls of "down in front!" as Quella blocked the fight for the spectator's behind her with her huge frame. Still, she stood at attention, clearly looking to be dismissed.
"I just couldn't help but feel partially responsible for the situation with Eridia at the haunted house. If I'd stopped Zindel when he was nettling her, maybe none of this would have happened. So I figured I would show up and root for her." The hunter rattled off, ignoring the cries and occasional shower of peanuts from the stands above. "I don't believe I caught your name before, sir, but I wanted to thank you for trying to help when Eridia was being all crazy-like." She glanced down at the fight on the stage below, hoping the higher officer would let her release the salute so she could watch the fight. "After all, we're all pack, right? And that's what pack does."
Gl!tch~
lemme just get out of the way real quick
DraconicFeline
Come and say hi!
Micillia
And you too!
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:02 pm
Mera couldn't claim to know anything about nettling, but she understood how it was to feel somewhat responsible for the turn of events. Still, though, it was Eridia, and based off of her well-known Gerard obsession from the original gathering...the purpleblood was her own worst enemy.
On top of the general atmosphere, Quella's annoying other trolls just added to Mera's rigid anxiety. "Okay, okay. At ease." Still weird to be talking like that to anyone. "As per order from sergeant Hemera Moachm. Just...quiet down, please. And sit. Your support is overwhelming everyone else here."
What was with highbloods and only noticing the world around them when they wanted to? This blueblood would certainly get along with Leeroi, but maybe a little too well.
She sighed, then kept her voice low. "I would suggest that you not shoulder guilt if you can help it. Tsifer is still responsible for her own actions and decisions. If she were to be saved, it would have been long before being allowed to be at Gerard's seance to begin with." Like if their commanding officer bothered with responsibility before it was outright damage control. "I also don't want the worst to happen to her, but it's...a very complicated situation." And apparently nothing else could get the purpleblood to see how much her fancies and delusions were hurting her, and now others.
Mera meanwhile didn't want to think about her botched efforts at trying to talk Eridia down. Failures...left a poor taste in her mouth.
If Psykgi recalled correctly, the huge blueblood that had just disrupted the crowd was the same one that had come out of the ruined mansion. She'd been carrying a greenblood and a redblood, if Psykgi recalled -- both non-military -- and had apparently responded to the situation...
Which is, incidentally, a great euphemism for Eridia. Psykgi thought, amused.
The crowd shifted a little as the blueblood moved over to Hemera, and Psykgi could tell that a conversation was going on... oh gosh, well, why not.
She took advantage of the disruption to slip over to the two of them, taking her seat once again. She made it quick to avoid protests, but honestly, the fight was only beginning. She was sure the best bits would be later, when more blood was on the floor, and more arguments were in the air.
"I can attest to that." Psykgi commented, "She was completely obsessed with Gerard for ages. Gosh, you should have seen her... ah... paperback collection a few sweeps ago!"
That brought back... debatably fond... memories of reading some of the crazy things that people had written about the troll. The serial killer. Rutven. He'd been intriguing, sure, and her interest in those paperbacks had gotten pretty keen. She suspected she'd only really kept up that interest as long as she did because of Eridia, but even then she had lost interest in it eventually.
By the time they had broken up, Psykgi had all but forgotten her phase of reading terrible speculative celebrity romances out loud. Whatever remained of her personal copies probably had ended up lining one of Ma'am's brood nests, if Psy hadn't outright trashed them.
But Eridia... Well, Psykgi suspected that her collection had only grown. And, maybe, had grown more esoteric.
"Mint?" she offered up a palmful of the candies.
Buzzwulfx
Gl!tch~x
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 7:08 pm
"Don't bother feeling sorry for her," Lorata advised as she slipped into a seat at Psykgi's side. She reached out to pluck a mint out of the redblood's hand, giving her a small smile and ignoring that she hadn't actually been the one being offered one. As she unwrapped it, she glanced back up to take stock again of who she was speaking to. Hemera warranted a nod of greeting and Quella's enthusiasm was certainly interesting. "Like Hemera said, she's responsible for her own decisions. And she decided to be a disgrace."
She popped the mint into her mouth and bit down on it with a crunch as she turned her eyes back down to the battle, which was more a measure of her irritation with Eridia's situation than her level tone had been. She'd thought the purpleblood had had heroic potential once, and maybe after this she'd be through with the process of denying that even to herself. But maybe it would be worth it in the end, to get to see a real legislacerator in action. Justice being done, like out of the stories.
Gl!tch~
DraconicFeline
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KitsuneAura
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 9:49 pm
Quella Fehtan
"Yes, sir," Quella said, as meek as she could. It only came out as a rumbling murmur rather than her more casual shouting. "Didn't mean to cause a scene. I just get kinda excited by fights." She eyed Hemera for a moment, wondering what her own relation to Eridia was. The tealblood smelled... conflicted. Like she wasn't quite sure herself. And more than a little worried. Quella opened her mouth to offer some kind of sympathy just as a redblood shifted into a seat behind the pair, offering treats.
"Oh! Thanks!" Quella said, taking a mint and rolling it around inside of her chagrin tunnel. She crunched down on it and was rewarded with a burst of minty flavor. "Oh wow!" the blueblood gasped. She was starting to get used to civilized life now, but every once in a while it threw little surprises her way. Her lookstubs watered for just a moment as it felt like her mouth was temporarily filled with a blizzard. Then, as quickly as the feeling had appeared, it was gone.
"I don't mean I feel sorry for her at all. I just meant - I thought she was an alpha. Like she knew how to lead a pack." The huge blueblood cracked her knuckles, an echo of popping joints reverberating from the stone of the stands. "I just wanted a shot at her myself, and now I don't know if I'm gonna get the chance. Same as all of you, I assume." The hunter grinned at each of the trolls.
At the same time, Quella felt a little embarrassed. Hemera she'd at least met, and she'd seen the redblood at the seance, but she couldn't remember her name at all. Just remembered the scent of peppermint. And she'd certainly never met the purpleblood. Was that scent... salt? And what in the world was a paperback?
"Er, sorry. Private Quella Fehtan." the hunter said, sticking a meaty hand towards the newcomers.
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Chiara Moteku
