hydrokinetics | When the moment is just right you see fire in their eyes [Week 1, Saturday post-trial]

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When the moment is just right you see fire in their eyes [Week 1, Saturday post-trial]

[It's later in the evening when he and Annabeth come back from the lake with Mrs. O'Leary. They'd talked a lot, thought things through and caught up on comparing notes and he genuinely thought he would be okay. He thought it would be better to catch up with people, but then he thinks about two people who also struggled a lot with hard choices in this trial.

Noctis, who chose to interrogate Tiara when no one else wanted to. Harry, who questioned and defied the Sheriff wanting to protect everyone else.

He feels as though those two would be good to talk to, figure out what to do before this happened again. It's only when he's back to the hotel that he knocks on Noctis's door, briefly telling him to come upstairs when he's ready and meet him and Harry in their room. Heading to his room and letting Mrs. O'Leary in, he leaves the door open for Noctis to follow whenever he's ready and isn't at all surprised to find Harry there already.]

So...show of hands. Who thought this totally sucked?

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[exhausted. mentally, physically and emotionally—he was already partway there before even getting to where they are, but this first trial took it out of him easily. he didn't want to be the one to coerce the confession, but it had to be done.

he's more or less ready to just flop and lay down on their floor like a lump of jrpg protagonist.

(because that's what he is.)

but he'll reply with a hand in the air, waving like a tired white flag, along with a:]

Think we need a word stronger than "sucked." Is there a word like that?

[And he raises his own hand, too, as he sits on his bed and Mrs. O'Leary jumps up to curl up on his pillow. He faces his two companions with a grim expression, nodding in agreement with their sentiments.]

Would "royally sucked" work for you? [He can't help but huff as he mirrors Harry's stance.] We knew this was coming and it still happened. What does that mean for the next couple of weeks?

[ He slides a few fingers under his glasses to rub at his eyes. What he wouldn't give to just go to sleep and wake up with all this being just a bad dream - but of course he'd never be lucky enough for something like that to happen. He'd take just a good sleep at this point, but even that seems well beyond his grasp. ]

It means we need to keep anyone who might become a victim safe. [ There's an unspoken "if we can". ] I think we saw a lot of true colors come out tonight.

[ There were definitely a few suspicious individuals in the lot. ]

Royally sucked... Yeah. Seems fitting.

[in a really garbage, ironic sort of way. regardless, there's little doubt they're all tired and displeased with everything that's transpired in the last couple of days.]

The problem here's probably that anyone can become a victim. We don't know who'll be looking to do the killing next. True colors or not... dunno if it's really that cut and dry.

[considering the note they started on, with tiara being the unwilling culprit—noct can't really shake the idea that it may not be the bloodthirsty ones that get things handed to them.

it's too easy that way.]

It seems like our sacrificial lamb theory was right from the start. If we can somewhat predict stuff like that maybe we'll have a better chance of figuring it out. I thought maybe we had the right idea of patrolling the hotel between nine and midnight to make sure nobody figured their way out, but the Sheriff brought up a point. Somebody could go out the window.

...Tiara kept saying that Ao had a brother she had to get back home to. That's why Ao attacked her. We don't know how many of these people have really, really important things to get back to. [Including the three people in this room. He licks his lips then, still un-thrilled by the words he's about to say. ]

Someone told me that it might be safer for us not to overestimate our own importance and what we're meant to do. After what happened with Ao, now I wonder if he had a point. If this game's starting, people are going to start thinking about whose lives are more valuable and who needs to live.

[A hand runs over his face.] I agree with Harry though. We need to keep anyone who might be a victim safe, but Noctis is right, too. We're all going to be victims at this point so maybe we need to alter what we're thinking. We should probably keep an eye on the people who we know can't exactly defend themselves too well.

[ Harry purses his lips. As much as he might not like it, Noctis is probably right. This first murder was supposed to be the "clean cut" one, and Harry had so easily bought into Tiara's story. He'd wanted so badly to believe she was innocent.

And by all reasonable procedure, she was. Self defense, and she hadn't delivered the final blow. But that doesn't seem to matter here.

His expression clouds while Percy speaks, especially when he mentions really important things to get back to. Harry absolutely did, but he wasn't about to kill someone over it. Then he'd really be no better than a certain Dark Lord. ]

Nobody should just...decide who's lives are valuable. Besides, there's still too much we don't know about each other to even really know that. [ Or maybe it's that he's definitely a victim of overestimating his own importance and he doesn't want to admit it to himself. ]

There are some really young people here. [ Says Harry at the ripe old age of 16. ] Dunno what all they can do, but a potential killer might think they're easy prey.

[percy's point definitely brings up his own personal conflict; he has an entirely country under his ruling—and those people as well as many, many others are counting on him. can he afford to give his life to save a few individuals here at the cost of his own people, that he's always known were to one day be under his rule?

but all the same—can he really consider killing a person who is completely innocent for the sake of his own life?

noctis honestly isn't sure which choice would be the right one, or the less selfish one. it's the epitome of being caught between a rock and a hard place, a moral impasse that he's not sure he can bear the weight of. knowing he'd be no better than his own enemies, but also knowing that he could be putting his friends, his family, and his people at risk—that's a lot.]

I'd say it might help our case to see if we can find out what people need to get back to. Seems like we all might, but... I'm not sure it'll matter. Might be putting a target on someone's back that still wouldn't play this game willingly.

[like himself. and he knows it. "oh, i'm the crown prince of one of the biggest kingdoms in my world" doesn't exactly bode well.]

Seems like we'll have to talk to more people, I guess. See what people are about. [he's bad at articulating this, and maybe it's obvious that he's not used to thinking on this scale.] Figure out who'd be easy prey, though any of us could be in the dead of night.

[he sighs, heavy and exhausted.] Might be good to build trust before people start turning on each other.

[The fate of the world and civilization rest on Percy and Annabeth's shoulders. The prophecy of seven can't be completed without them and that risks Gaea winning and destroying the world? Is he worried about not getting back? Of course he is. But at the same time he's making friends here and he's always tried his best to do what's best for people he cares about. He notices Harry's change in expression and he notices Noctis's sigh that seems to relay the same thing. They're all stuck in the same position.]

There are a lot of kids here. [Says the other 16 year old in the room.] People shouldn't judge who's more valuable than other people but we need to start figuring out what people feel is important. It'll be good to know, but also it'll give us an idea on who might be desperate enough to do something like this.

I obviously trust you guys or I wouldn't bring you here to figure out what to do. The easiest prey is going to be either the younger kids who don't know how to fight, or the people who're way overconfident because they won't be expecting it. So how do we go around building trust in each other without it seeming suspicious...?

I don't know that we do. This...whole game is built on suspicion, and it's only going to get worse and the weeks go on. [ He hadn't been suspicious enough, relying too much on good intentions. It's hardly the first time that instinct has caused him problems. ]

The further into it we get, the more difficult it'll be to determine who's a friend and who's a foe. Maybe what we need to do is...try to gain the trust of the ones who would be willing to murder.

[ Like those who had volunteered to execute Tiara. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, as they saying goes. ]

Might be a good start.

[there are a couple of people he's already pretty suspect of in terms of their modus operandi; they may not be outright killers, but they seem pretty willing to rile everyone up needlessly.

and then there are others who offered a willingness to kill that noct isn't entirely sure are as morally grey, even if it's because of their own reasons and not because they actually care what happens.]

Ash is my roommate, I can talk to him. [he was one of the volunteers, but he also didn't seem all that interested in killing noct when given a chance; there's a chance he can be swayed, though he's not entirely idealistic to think he can do that in the time frame they have.]

[Those are good points, though he has his own hang-ups on trying to befriend actual crazy people. Then again, that can't be any worse than some of the things he's done in his life already and Harry makes a good point. He makes a face at Ash's name.]

Just be careful, dude. [That's to Noctis, though he does trust Noctis to be able to take care of himself. He rolls his eyes to the ceiling as he thinks back to the names of people he's met and heard of.]

I think our biggest problems are people like Ash, maybe that scary girl in pink...Nui? Diego's the one who brought everything up, so I'd keep an eye on him, too. What about the other guy who volunteered for Tiara's execution? [He means Ocelot, but he doesn't recall the name.]

[ Harry's never really had to befriend someone he knew to be an enemy - not as himself, anyway - and he'd never been very good at keeping his mouth shut when he disagreed with someone. Then again, he's never been in a situation quite like this before. ]

I haven't spoken with Nui before, but maybe I can use that to my advantage. [ She maybe hadn't formed an opinion on him yet. ] The other guy...didn't seem like he wanted to do it, but would if we needed him to. But we might want to keep an eye on him, all the same.

[ And Ezio, maybe, for the same reason. ]

[he'll be careful, but he's really not as concerned with ash as he is about some other people right now.]

Nui's the loose cannon right now. [he'll point out what they probably all need to keep in mind.] Offering to do it doesn't mean they're too suspect. I think... maybe some of them really just wanted to make sure she's not gonna suffer.

[that was the impression that he got. drawing blood as a sacrifice for the greater good—and making sure it doesn't go into the hands of the ones who are actually bloodthirsty.] Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think all of 'em are ones who'd go out of their way that easy.

[capable doesn't mean willing, after all.]

As the weeks go by I think that's bound to change. [Which is his own way of saying that yeah, okay, maybe not everybody who can would be so willing to do so. At Harry's suggestion he nods.] Try to see what you can get out of her, see if she's really as crazy as she acts or if there's something else there. I haven't talked to her and I don't really want to either.

[He knows his limits, thank you.] More than anything we should keep an eye on how people act to other people in the week, too. That'll be a good indicator of who's going to pull something underhanded. There's forty of us right now, that's...13 people for each of us to monitor, ten if I bring in Annabeth. Is that unreasonable?

[ Harry can't promise he'll keep company around Nui long enough to really understand who she is, but he'll try. Even if it means swallowing down the indignation he feels just thinking of how eager she was to get the chance to kill someone. ]

Not really. We don't exactly have much else to keep us busy. [ No schoolwork or jobs to really keep them busy, aside from what was self-appointed like this. Oh, and trying not to die. ] How do we divvy them up?

Seems reasonable, if we can pull it off.

[it does require actually talking to everyone or at least keeping an eye on them—which can get kind of tough if they split up and leave the town proper, especially.

but noct's not unwilling, even if he's still not sure how to approach.]

Tactics like this... not exactly my strong suit. [he definitely doesn't have this Leadership thing down yet, even if he's working on it.] Guess by figuring out who we know and talk to? See what we got and split the rest from there. Something like that.

[maybe? is that how this works?]

That sounds about right, at least until we can group them together and get them to look after each other under our watch. [Percy, for the most part, isn't a great strategist either, but he's managed to get the Greek army together to work toward one goal.] I've been talking to a lot of people since we got here for that reason. The real challenge is going to be making friends.

[And there's a slight smile, like he's not sure how well that'll go for Harry and Noctis.] If you're up for that, I mean.

[ Harry might've had Dumbledore's Army back home, but he's only as good as his best men and women and - he doesn't have them now. He really has to decide to do what he thinks is best, without the advice of those he trusts.

Maybe there was a reason he'd woken up on the train just days after Dumbledore's death.

He exhales slowly through his nose, then nods. ]

I'm in. Anything we can do to keep someone else from being killed.

Yeah, count me in too. Not like it's gonna do us much good to refuse.

[how successful they'll be is probably another story entirely—but it's worth an honest effort.]

Awesome. [He looks more relieved than he should, like he'd been worried that they would say no to something like this.] There's a handful of people we should keep an eye on, but also a handful of people we should protect. We can take a week to observe and start dividing them up amongst ourselves after that. Good plan?

Good plan. In the meantime, just - be on your guard. Both of you.

[ A potential killer could be trying to do just as they were and profile them. Heroes always get targets painted on them. ]

Yeah. Same to you—it's the only way we're gonna get through this.

[noct's been trying to play down his status for a reason; he's pretty used to trying to keep himself on the down-low these days..]

Right. We're all going to play this smart. [There's a small nod then.] We'll meet up again when we've figured some stuff out and made progress.

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When the moment is just right you see fire in their eyes [Week 1, Saturday post-trial]

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