WEEK 5.

[trustfellows]

WEEK 5 Tabitha Smith, Sigrun Eide, and Solf J Kimblee are all dead. Regardless of what you think of the trial or the events leading up to it, there's no denying that you can feel the dent in your numbers now. After all, ten people are gone now. It may be hard, but all you can do is keep going. Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; come Sunday morning, the clock chimes the hour at seven o'clock and there are no dead bodies to be found, so it can be assumed that all of you are safe for the time being. That said, you'll be feeling a little groggy when you wake up; it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... What with Jericho's excitement at the last trial, it's evident now more than ever that the new floor that's opened up to you is a gift, a reward for a job well-done. Because while surviving is something that you'll continue to try to do of your own merit...well. Let's say that he's so, so very proud of you. PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 25 PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 24 PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 23

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week five of Trustfell! Feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget to save those threads for coins and the activity check!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Coordinators, you can do so through private meetings with Alena!]

Comments

Conference room

[matchbreaker]

[ Elda walks into the room with the same notepad which was handed out at the trial for people to sign. It's her sketch book, and she came in here to try to access her memories in the form of sketching.

But...

... Huh. No one's Ever in this room. It's odd, given all their meetings they never seem to use it. She's had it as a private enough place before now. And seeing a woman with a head in her hands...

Well.

She sits opposite the woman, slapping the notepad down a little harder than was needed. ]

Ushiromiya, what's got you?

[chessturner]

[When Elda slaps the notepad on the table Kyrie looks up, startled. Ah, it's you, Elda. Kyrie sits straighter, adjusts her tie and tries to look like she wasn't just giving the thousand year stare at the table]

Those dreams...they're memories, aren't they? Events that happened before we arrived here.

[She's hoping they aren't, but it's a very faint hope]

[matchbreaker]

I have no idea. [ She says that first, but then corrects herself. She presses her lips together into a thing line, and then flips open her sketch... notepad. Beginning again, ] But... evidence would seem to point towards that being the case. Nothing in mine confirms one way or another, but two people I know for certain - Kimblee among them - had facts on their profile or personage clarified through them.

[chessturner]

...I see.

[Well that settles it: it's more likely these are memories. Kyrie takes a shaky deep breath, putting her hands on the table]

Battler-kun...he's my son. My husband lied to me. I have spent the last eighteen years hating him because...I thought my son had died, and that he was his first wife's son.

I'm at a loss of what to do now.

[Especially if Jericho fulfilled his threat of telling secrets. That'd mean Battler knows about how much she hates him. Or hated. She doesn't know yet very well what she's feeling]

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . What the fuck?

That's about the last thing she expected to hear and the woman blinks because of it. Not having fully processed what Kyrie's just said what slips out unbidden of anything she intends is: ]

What an asshole.

[ Oops?? ]

[chessturner]

[That gets her to laugh. Wow, that's succint, Elda!]

Yes, he's a devious man. Not that I didn't know he was like that. I'm not a saint either, so I thought I'd know how to handle him.

[She admits to herself that's one of the reasons she loved him, because of how cunning he was. She never thought he'd use his cunning against her like this, though]

I keep wondering if I should have noticed...I don't know how I didn't find out after this long. I suppose I only cared about hating Battler-kun, so I missed anything that could hint he was...you know. My son.

[matchbreaker]

No, I ... I understand, at least in so far as you husband is concerned. My most recent memory has revealed to me just how much my James hid from me. I suppose the difference is that I never had any illusion that I was somehow more clever than that foolish man.

[ she shakes her head. But no, this isn't the time for that. Because to have been denied and deceived about a connection in blood...? Elda frowns a little deeper, flipping to a new, blank page of the notepad, taking the pen in hand. ]

The loss of a child is a horrifying prospect. It's one that we vampires are - honestly, I'm lucky that I don't know it personally, but so many of the young wives experience that, if they experience birth at all. That's more than enough to make one blind. And once one is set in a paradigm, well, that can allow things to continue as they are.

[chessturner]

At least he admitted it. He even said I was welcome to kill him if I wanted, because he deserved it. I can't say I disagree, but I won't hurt him. He's the one of the only two people in my world I care even a little bit for.

[The world can burn, for all she cares, as long as Rudolf and Ange are okay. Well, Kyrie holds herself over them, because in the end Kyrie cares about her own well-being above everything else, but she's willing to do anything for them]

It's nice to know you kind of understand how this feels...and I hope you never have to feel it yourself.

[matchbreaker]

Mmm. I won't, not this specifically. James is dead, and I'd held him on far too short of leash for him to have pulled anything that theatrical.

[ . . . It's...

It's so odd, this conversation. ]

I won't pretend my understanding is perfect, as such. Rather... well. [ Mmm. ] Tell me more, Ushiromiya, about all these players. Let's begin there.

[chessturner]

What do you want to know?

[She's willing to talk, and while she stalls for time trying to order her thoughts, she asks that question. Give her a moment to compose herself, Elda!]

[matchbreaker]

Whatever you think is a fair introduction to them. You've given me a lot of names very rapidly. I can't pretend to know your life near so well.

[ and, well, walking through it from the basics might be helpful to her. ]

[chessturner]

[Kyrie, done putting back her usual kinda stone-faced expression, starts]

Rudolf is my husband. I met him long ago, when I left my family to be his business partner. He's always been like that, someone who'd try to pull the wool over your eyes. We got along, we grew closer the more we worked together, but he's a womanizer, women kept throwing themselves at him, until Asumu came by.

[Her face sours when she mentions Asumu. Take anything she says about Asumu with a grain of salt, here's a scorned woman talking!]

That bitch...she kept doing her little defenseless sensible woman act until she got Rudolf wrapped around her little finger, and he let her get away with it. I was his second pick. We both got pregnant at the same time, and she used that to force him to marry her. [She repeats for emphasis:] Asumu used Battler to get him to marry her.

[Kyrie doesn't mention how she'd have done the same]

Battler is...Battler is a nice kid. He listens and tries to be logical. Even if I hated him, I taught him everything he knows about logic. It was partly as a little revenge against Asumu, and Battler lets himself be led away by emotions, but at least he tries.

When Asumu died from sickness six years ago, Rudolf wasted no time in marrying me. That made Battler so upset he left the house and separated himself from the Ushiromiya family. I was...I actually was happy about that. It meant I wouldn't have to see him at all times. He never blamed me, he always thought it was Rudolf's fault. He kept coming after Rudolf and I had our daughter. This year he forgave Rudolf enough to return to the family, so...we'll now all be a family, I guess...

[That all pretty much covers the basics of Kyrie's family, yep]

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Mmm. She wonders if Kyrie notices the contradiction her two stories have created there. ]

Huh. So it really all comes back to your resentment of that other woman, doesn't it?

[chessturner]

[She doesn't, hah]

Pretty much. Let's say that if her sickness hadn't gotten her out of the way, I'd have killed her sooner or later.

[That's a lot of resentment]

[matchbreaker]

You really love that Rudolf of yours so much?

[ Like holy shit girl she- well no, she would murder rivals for James but still. ]

[chessturner]

I do. You must have felt the same towards, James, didn't you? The drive to do anything just to keep yourself at his side.

[matchbreaker]

No, no, I did. [ . . . How does she put this? Mmm. ] Rather, I'm more surprised you would need to feel that, between your looks and obvious intellect. I suppose that's my surprise.

[ And, to some extent, that a human would understand the sentiment but no need to bring racism into it ]

[chessturner]

[Kyrie manages to smirk a bit]

A person needs to be prepared to kill for love at least once in their life.

[She shrugs]

Besides, I sacrificed my former life to follow him. The least I should do is make sure it's a decision I wouldn't regret, and so far, I don't, despite everything that has happened with him.

[Not that...she was that fond of her birth family. Surely she'd have left them no matter what]

[matchbreaker]

I don't entirely disagree...

Ah! One thing though, did you realize the contradiction yet?

[ Tapping her hand on the table. ]

[chessturner]

Contradiction? What do you mean?

[Nope, she still doesn't, hah]

[matchbreaker]

[ should she...? She considers and: ]

... The contradiction might lead to more painful things. If you wish, I can keep you ignorant.

[chessturner]

I'm a grown woman, Marker-san. I think I can endure it.

[She endured last night's dream, surely she can endure whatever Elda has to say!]

[matchbreaker]

[ She should hear this more from a friend than her... But ah well. She leans forward and folds her hands together, ]

If you gave birth to that Battler boy and then Rudolf decided to change the narrative about which baby was stillborn... then it stands to reason that it's impossible for that other woman to use the birth of her son to convince him to marry her.

[ It just makes sense, right? That only works if Rudolf was ignorant as well, even if that woman was in the dark as much as Kyrie. Rudolf would know full well that it was Kyrie's child. Unless... well, it's possible there's some fourth dimensional chess she can't comprehend, but it seems obvious to her. ]

[chessturner]

Oh, that. Sorry, looks like I missed a detail. [She shakes her head]

He bribed the doctors to swap the babies. That's how he did it. That gave Asumu the chance to force him to marry her.

[To any person that'd mean Rudolf chose Asumu as his wife instead of Kyrie, but Rudolf's cowardice and attachment to both Asumu and Kyrie was extraordinary]

[matchbreaker]

... That doesn't solve anything? That just means she was ignorant too. How could he possibly be blackmailed?