trial #4 - execution

[judgejudy]

DAY 8 (evening) Complex Population: 19 At 7PM, a tone rings out, but it's not Judy's voice that filters out over the intercom. "TALLYING VOTES. . ." The voice is mechanical and robotic, and a pause lingers in the air. It seems that the voting system is run by some kind of AI. "CONSENSUS REACHED. MAJORITY VOTE. RHYS, EMPLOYEE ID VTSCI62270894. STATUS: GUILTY. RHYS, PROCEED TO THE JUDGEMENT THEATER. CHARGING..." There's the sound of clicking, and Rhys will receive a very sharp shock to their ankle monitor. If they don't step into the judgement room, the shock will increase in strength every ten seconds until they're unconscious. Regardless, the voice continues to drone on. "DESIGNATING EXECUTIONER. . . AL—" The protocol starts, but cuts off abruptly. Instead, Judy's voice speaks up. "Consider this an official notification for the entire population. If you feel a noose tightening around your neck, I am at least accommodating. If there is someone in particular you want to take your life, I can override the selection protocol for that purpose. Perhaps next time, Alice, since Rhys has requested Jack. Please proceed to the judgement theater." No one else will be able to step into the judgement theater after them without receiving a nasty shock before they can step too close, and once they're both inside, the door closes behind both of them. There's a clicking sound from the walls, and the panels on the right side of the room are pulled up to reveal a thick glass that allows you to look into the Judgement Theater. It seems justice is meant to come from the the hands of the jury. — ic rulebook character statuses character profiles votes

Comments

[heroizes]

[ There's not much for Jack here in terms of actual thought so much as just running off fear and instinct. The shocks almost feel secondary to what Rhys does to his eye, and he desperately tries to claw at him or do anything he can just to get him off or away, even when Rhys draws the scalpel away. ]

Fuck you.

[ He's breathing hard and on the verge of passing out, but he still feels that's important to say, apparently. It's brief, since that's about all Jack has the thought to manage, but even though he's barely listening to Rhys, just staring him down with his one remaining eye, and when that scalpel is poised over his throat, the expression on Jack's face is easy to read. He's about to die, and he knows it, and the betrayal he feels in that moment is clear. Though of course, that last statement of course catches his attention. That expression shifts to confusion, but it's even briefer.

The scalpel sinks into his throat, and Jack makes a noise again, but this one is much wetter. He almost scrambles to grab Rhys's wrist, but it doesn't seem to be to stop him. Jack doesn't have the strength to, and maybe he just knows he can't. But he still grabs Rhys's wrist desperately like he wants to at least hold him there.

Though he'd been ignoring the window up to this point, he looks that way briefly, to Elizabeth and Sakyou primarily, but as Rhys moves to vomit, Jack's grip on his wrist weakens enough to allow it. He looks up to the ceiling of the room, and as Jack bleeds out, he closes his eyes with a pained expression, though it's not for the physical pain.

Jack dies thinking of how Elpis is going to die with him. ]