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"Well, the point isn't an eventual escape. If we wait here, we get trials, torture, and death. If we leave - trials, torture, death. It's probably not, um, circumvent-able. However, if we leave long enough that a certain amount of time passes, it might ******** things up enough that one of our friends is spared having to kill one of us!" Temperance resisted the urge to cross her arms. That was a defensive stance and she was feeling offensive.

She rubbed her temples for a second. "Look, we don't have to be inaccessible for long, anyway. Just long enough. It's surely almost time. The door is impassable - too thick and unless someone can lockpick, it's out." The windows, though, were glass and presumably breakable. And if no one was going to help her, she was going to try and break up and bodily pick up each of these ******** people and hurl them through the goddamn broken thing.

What happens next is a bit weird.

The chair bounces off the window - actually bounces, and for a moment, it looks like Temperance's feat of strength has failed.

Then, the window very clearly says,

"Aw, nuts," and falls, still a whole piece of glass, backwards out of its frame and into the bushes beyond.

YOU ARE NOW FREE TO LEAVE THE SAPPHIRE STUDY AND MAKE YOUR WAY THROUGH THE GARDENS TO THE SILVER HALL

Shiloh was squeezing himself onto the bench as he spoke, sandwiching Lady between him and Thorne. Usually he didn't like the close proximity, but this was vaguely comforting. "That... sounds confusing." his brow furrowed as he let that sink in. Imagine being trapped here not months, but years. Then again, Shiloh felt like he'd been here a lot longer than three months. Time blurred together too easily when all it did was rain and rain and rain outside. Lady didn't look that old though; Did Shiloh look any older? When was the last time he looked at himself in a mirror—really looked. He couldn't Remember.

Instead, he watches as tensions started to rise, Temperance standing to try and bust the window open with a chair. Shiloh made no immediate move to try and stop her physically, instead he stared. "Do you really think we could get anywhere?" he wasn't a pessimist, but he was definitely an opportunistic optimist, and this really wasn't an optimistic situation. "You should've just left your damn mask on— didn't they tell guests not to take them off?" he looked around the group.

"Don't make it harder for the people who've already been here for a while. You don't even ******** glass spoke, and then promptly fell.

"I..." Shiloh stared at the obvious path to... not this study, but remained frozen there, frantically looking between Thorne and Lady, "We're not leaving right? We're not—" he looked at the rest of the group, suddenly gripped with anxiety. "If Melany finds out, if—" Shiloh spoke rather evenly and calmly, but the jerking of his motions gave way to his trepidation. Had he always been this cowardly? He hadn't, had he? He looked at Temperance again.

shibrogane

The Semblance of Unity

Thorne watched the entire display with the look of oh god, we're going to die sooner now. It was not a pretty expression. He had been fine to just wait here - whatever was happening would happen sooner or later unless someone killed Melany tonight. And wouldn't that be something?

But that was about as rare a chance as getting a good night of rest here in this godforsaken place.

He stopped playing the piano, lifting his fingers with a sharp exhale as the window spoke and bounced and Temperance tried to convince them all to leave.

Easily, he placed his hand against Shiloh's back, warm and steady but light enough that it didn't impose. The words shot at him were met with a steady, solid look.

"I'm not going anywhere without you," he said. There was a line between making a good decision and a reckless one, and he'd crossed it on his first night with Melany. He still remembered them drag Shiloh in. He had no promises in his body that he wouldn't make that mistake again, but this night would not be one.

To Temperance, he added, "You have no idea what any of them are capable of when provoked. This isn't a game of hide and seek. This isn't a game." He felt that old heat inside of him stir. He eyed her through the window, flatly. "You've been here for one night. Don't presume to think you know what the difference looks like when you get to walk away from this in the morning."

With a soft sound like a snarl or a growl, Thorne stood up from the piano bench. To pace or prowl or do whatever dogs did best in a cage. He glanced down at Shiloh, cutting a restless figure there in the half light.

"We can go, if you want. But I'll stay if you insist."

He had gambled and lost with Shiloh's fate enough. This time he would let him choose.

Temperance leaves. They're down a person, but it doesn't really matter, because in the end he didn't consider Juniper or Temperance to be in their boat. Maybe they were all tithes in technicalities, but realistically? They hadn't endured the same things. They hadn't endured all the pain and suffering and torment. No, they were here for a single night. They didn't know. They couldn't have.

His hands nervously clasped together, fingers interlocking like a cage. Escape, but to where? His blue eyes turned up to Thorne, and for once his youth really showed. Behind the tired eyes was just a stupid boy who had found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn't want to be alone. He didn't want to do this, and yet—

"I don't think there's anything left for me in the real world"

Something struck a chord in Shiloh's heart at the admission. Countless nights spent staring at his ceiling, hearing his father downstairs as he broke bottles over counter tops as he wondered if there was any point. Nights spent wondering if the bruises on his skin and the blood on his bed sheets were worth anything. Nights spent wondering if getting up everyday and going to school and coming back home in the thick of the evening had any meaning. Nights spent wondering if he should even come home, if there was ever really a point to living at all.

Empty, useless, hallow, worthless. Shiloh stared at the mask as it was held out to him. "But..." his voice was thick with strange, rampant emotions. He shook his head, "That's not... that's not true."

He sighed out a shaky breath, memories and realizations slowly mixing together again. He hated it when people told him things would be okay. He hated feeling like his opinion meant nothing. He hated the heartache and the pain and feeling like nobody understood him. He hated knowing that the reason he felt misunderstood was because he had never let anyone into his life in the first place. Jamie—That's right, Jamie—they were friends. Jamie got him to laugh, to smile, to—

He looked at Lady, seeing Chel in her place as she offered the turtle shaped mask to him. He promptly shoved it back, just as he had done before.

"I spent—" he took a deep breath, "too ******** long here, to just— to just run the ******** away!" There was a renewed vigor there, a renewed anger. I didn't let everyone walk over— let everyone ******** spit all over me just to— just to ********... ignore it."

His hands made balled up fists, and then they relaxed.

"I'm not just—" breathe "I can't. I can't." he shook his head again, looking at his palms, "I can't... I've made it this far, I can't just give up." I can't keep running from my problems he added in silence. Would Jamie want that? How much did it hurt, knowing you had been forgotten? Shiloh didn't remember everything, but he remembered that warmth, that gratification. He wanted to see Jamie again.

Melany's tithes had to stick together.

"I... I'll go to the hall with you guys." he said, slowly but steady. "With you guys." he said with emphasis.

Rabbit winced when Temperance knocked the window out of its frame, swallowing once and remaining still for a time after that. He supposed he'd have no choice but to follow if he was left entirely alone, but for now he was staying put. He tried to see what Alois was doing out of his periphery, but registering nothing more than his brother's pouting, Rabbit finally turned and asked,

"You gonna go?"

It wasn't a declaration of solidarity between Ezra's sons or anything, but he would probably vacate the area sooner too if Alois chose to leave.

Temperance seemed more upset that Alg was going to have to murder someone as opposed to being upset for the person being murdered. Interesting. Still, Temp's way of thinking about trying to get out of here wasn't out of agreement with Jun. Putting this court and council in a tight spot would be terribly enjoyable.

What the hell? Juniper stared at the window that had just...spoke. It did speak right? She hadn't imagined that? But what was just as bizzarre was the way it fell. Like one solid piece, after the chair had bounced off of it. Welp...either way there was now a door to freedom for everyone. A door they could use to try and put a damper in their patrons plans.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind she heard Lady's words. Make it worse?

Juniper pushed away from the door she had leaned against after Alois left it to make himself comfortable in a chair. She walked over to the chair Temp had vacated and let herself flop down in it. Reaching up she pushed her hair back over her shoulders as she contemplated this train of reasoning. And, she realized Lady could be right.

Where would they run to? Sure, maybe Temp and herself would not really deal with consequences, but the rest of them? No. She couldn't do that. She could save her own arse, or attempt to anyway, and put the rest of them at a greater risk to be punished for it. She had made the mistake of not putting her mask back on. She'd deal with those consequences with the rest of them.

By this point, Temperance had made her getaway after spurting off about making a change with her decision. Juniper wasn't so sure if that was plausible. So much for being a nurse who cares for others. she mused. Wouldn't a person like that be self sacrificing? Maybe not. Mayne Jun was just being a idiot herself by staying. It was a hard thing to decide but really...she had to follow her gut and heart and both of them were in agreement.

"I am not going to abandon the rest of you." She said softly. "It was my own damn mistake that I am here and the last thing I want to do is make your lives any worse than they have to be. So, if anyone is staying here, I'll stay with them." She shrugged. "I don't even know if I am in any danger by staying here, not like the rest of you anyway, but I am not going to just....throw you all to do the wolves to save my on hide. Even if I don't agree at all with the s**t you've all been put through. There has to be a better way of going about all of this."

She glanced at Lady and Alois though with a sad expression. "I am sure there's more in Ashdown for you both. I can't imagine that life is so terrible there that you'd want to abandon it."

"You keep saying things like that," Rabbit replied. "And they're not true." He turned to watch Thorne perform a truly acrobatic feat of Olympian proportions, uncurling and rising to his own shaky feet once the trio of tithes were gone. "And no one even needs a ******** distraction because they don't care that we're in here anymore."

And with that, Rabbit followed Melany's children out the window, though with much less grace than they had displayed. He awkwardly spilled past the frame and into the bushes before collecting himself and shuffling off in the direction of the silver hall.