[OPEN TO KENOMA] EXECUTION OF THE INNOCENT

[aionpcs]

WHO: The Regent and Interested Kenoma
WHAT: As promised, the Regent is carrying out the Innocence Entity's invite-only execution.
WHERE: The Regent's Throne Room.
WHEN: Firaseri 22nd, after dissipated Kenoma have emerged.
WARNINGS: Disturbing imagery, gore, limb loss, general unpleasantness.

It's the evening of the 22nd when the call goes out: it is time for the execution. This is purely an event for the willing and or eager, and besides being informed of it, no Kenoma will be pressured into attending. Those that are interested, however, will be led to the Regent's throne room for what promises to be a very special occasion.

Upon entry, the set up of the throne room will seem quite familiar to those that have been there before. A cavernous room filled with nothing but the throne itself, its emptiness seems an intentional call to the void. Several stairs lead to the dais where the throne sits, currently occupied by a the Regent. As usual, any details about the Regent are obscured behind flowing robes and a faceted mask. Presently, they are swirling around a glass of what is presumably wine, but drinking absolutely none of it. Any Kenoma that seem interested will be offered a drink by one of the Citadel servants on duty.

It's not just the Regent present, however. Off to the right side of the room, an arrangement of familiar void-dark spears have been fused into the wall and floor, with their prisoner still held at their center, pierced from all sides. Estinien Wyrmblood appears as little more than a shadow of his former self at this stage, every ounce of color stripped from him, in sharp contrast to the black ichor that bubbles and drips from a cruel assortment of wounds. One eye is swollen with infection, oozing void, while the other is completely blank with whiteness. Each limb has been shorn down to a stub, as if burned by a dark fire from the outside in; all except a set of ragged, broken wings strung up being him. His torso, pierced as it is, seems to be barely holding onto form.

If he reacts to the arrival of 'guests', it isn't apparent. Instead, he seems practically comatose, all except for that open eye and the shallow movements of his breath. His shard is exposed, resting beneath his collar bones, an eye-like shape that has become similarly colorless. The usual sheen of color that all shards hold has faded away, now showing nothing but the gray of the stone beneath it. Those with True Sight will see that he has fallen to the first tier of Pleroma, and even that he is only tenuously hanging on to.

At their throne, the Regent lifts their glass.

"Welcome, kindred."

Comments

ATTENDANCE

[aionpcs]

Please make a note here if your character is attending the execution. The Regent will be paying attention to who turns up.

[entsetzt]

Crane will be there, and watching the execution with great interest.

[zauneyete]

Silco is here, predictably, with bells on!!

[vapour]

Tartaglia is present.

[subsist]

Kaeya is present.

[killandrecycle]

Being the disturbed girl that she is, Majorita will be there and enjoy herself greatly.

[cutlery]

Sebastian wouldn't miss it for the world ♥

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch will be around.

[baltimores]

Amos will be there; he woke up just in time for this!

[hundredpower]

Barnaby is attending.

[expiera]

Ciel will be present. Gotta finish what you start.

[sterngaze]

Liem will be attending.

[lifespanned]

Misa will be present!

[vivificantem]

Paul is present.

[semicharmed]

Matt will be there! Watching in an uneasy cocktail of emotional horror, spiritual fascination, academic curiosity, and a strange thrill of transgression.

[tohell]

J will be attending.

[uproared]

Mordred is there, dragging down the IQ of the room.

(Edit: she'll also be in full armour, helmet included.)

[regression]

joonghyuk will be present!

[regressor]

Havoc will be present.

[devilmancrybaby]

Binghe will be there, even though he is currently in the body of a 10-year-old,

[oomfies]

lottie will be attending!!

[fightforthejoyofit]

One dumpsterfire, reporting in.

PREGAMING

[aionpcs]

You may post any general pre-execution threads below this top-level. If your character is addressing the Regent specifically, please call them out in the subject of your comment.

open.

[vapour]

[ — Estinien''s still Pleroma aligned, though. That's the first thing that registers to Childe as he approaches the display, his mind flashing a reminder visual of that mangled corpse of the Innocence from that nightmare he had that night. Childe observes in silence, not thinking very much at all other than a brief good for him. Of course, he knows it's probably to do more with the Innocence entity than anything else considering he's still breathing but barely being head together in any manner. Yeah, he saw that, too, didn't he?

He saw the Kenoma, too, dripping and leaking and consuming. Nice to know his mind isn't too far off the mark.

He saw something like this and yet not like this at all. His dream was fake, but there's something in the back of his mind that needs kept locked away that reminds him he's seen something almost like this in the Abyss— heard it, saw it, felt it, and smelled it because the Abyss was everything and everywhere when one was in the void. Was this something that would have happened to him if Skirk had not rescued him? If he never found a way out of the Abyss?

Entrophy always seems to visually exist as a kind of primordial swamp, dragging anything back to where it came from, doesn't it?

He's mentally triggered himself over this for the last several days that he ultimately feels ... nothing. Not in a way suggesting he's unaffected but that he's been desensitized. There's nothing that follows that realization, either—neither relief nor concern. It's a pin dropping in an empty room onto an empty floor. Even so, his eyes are sad, having an eerie light in them that they didn't have prior, reminiscent of his Abyss Form's cape. Normally, that would be a good thing, but Childe's pretty sure it's part of that curse that had him retain Abyss Form after the battle.

It has to be a curse.
What else could it possibly be?

Closing his eyes, finally, Childe turns away to look over those present and make note of the ones who are not there that should be. There's no pressure or mandate, but there is silent expectation and silent assumptions made as with everything when there is a choice. He goes to slide his mask back over his face, having only taken it off in some semblance of respect. If he is going to gaze on someone or something fully bared to the world, he can spare the same, even if ultimately their states don't even remotely compare.

For the rest of the Kenoma, his mask is just fine. He hasn't seen any of them in days, and he knows none of them questioned where he might have been during that time (although the most likely ones had been severely injured or dead, so what's to expect?)... Besides, he's noticed when he doesn't wear the mask that sometimes he sees things that aren't there. He can only assume whatever has been done to his eyes means such things will take time to adjust back to normal. Even now he sees momentary tendrils or drips or smears on the wall made of Kenoma essence where it doesn't seem to exist—or something like tears leading to the abyss? He's had a hard time telling the difference at this point. The only thing he's sure of by now is that they're not real.

Childe hesitates with putting his mask on fully as his ears pick up the sudden haunting, sorrowful sobbing and the dirty ruined white feathers at the very edge of his vision that are gone as soon as he turns to focus on them.

Almost sure, anyway. Besides, he's never needed the help of any additional "curses" after what's he put himself through.]

THE MAIN EVENT

[aionpcs]

Once they've had enough revelry for the evening, the Regent rising from their throne signals that it's time. Striding to the front of their dais, they lift their glass, still not a drop from it drunk.

"To all of you that made this possible," the say. "For hundreds of years this creature has eluded my touch, unwilling to relinquish Horos from its grasp. It's only now, as the end arrives, that it dared be lured close enough that it could be marked... and oh, will it ever be.

"I truly believe that those standing here now will be my final generation of Kenoma. That you above all others will witness as the final threshold is crossed, leading millennia of my most devoted followers behind you. It is nothing less than what I promised them. That, though they may not be at my side in life, they will follow me in death to a new reality. One where death is no limitation, but simply a rite of passage."

They slowly begin their descent of the stairs as they speak, moving towards Estinien's broken body. Their dark claws hook beneath his chin, lifting it up as if to appraise whether there is any life left in his eyes. Inconclusive, perhaps.

"To think, that the Innocence gave it all up for this. A few stray fools who accomplished nothing for their cause. It shouldn't surprise me, really. If there was one thing the Pleroma will never achieve, it's learning when to quit."

With that, wine glass still in one hand, they dig the claws of the other into the flesh around Estinien's shard.

cw: physical and psychological torture

[coerthantorment]

In contrast to the Regent's ultimate intent, their touch is the first thing to send a jolt of genuine life through his tattered form - though only in the sense of a creature barely clinging to it. His eye widens, seeming to realize only now what's upon him. He squirms and shakes like a man driven to the very edge of total madness, formless, guttural sounds escaping from his mouth.

Though he's long since lost any sense of time, this is a cycle he's been suffering through for days. The Regent's touch against his shard is an inescapable agony, his soul rotting with exposure, his heart begging for an end that won't come. There is no dignity in this anymore, no noble shows of resistance. It's just raw, animal suffering - the kind that extends far beyond what the victim even comprehends. A beast dying without ever knowing why.

Like every time before, the Innocence rises up in turn, trying to wash away the poisons that ail him, to hold him close and soothe what remains of the man within. Dualistic forces of comfort and agony, light and dark, Pleroma and Kenoma wage war within him. Like a no man's land in a neverending war, whatever life or meaning his soul had once had has been eroded in the conflict. He's just a vessel for these powers to clash. He's just a thing that feels pain.

He sees others standing around the Regent, peaceful as they watch this happen. His lips move like wants to say something, maybe to beg for them for mercy, but he cannot speak. The only thing that emerges is a gurgle of inky blood.

His form glows softly with the Innocence's presence, for what may be the last time.

REACTIONS

[aionpcs]

For any reactions characters might have to the execution.

[zauneyete]

His skin prickled, even dressed from toe to the neck, he felt the chill of the Regent's power, applied with force to Estinien, and to that horrible thing, that lay at the center of his shard. His vision left him for a moment, and he's left with the vastness of nothing. Existence, gone. A lack of everything -- and Silco, whose soul would never be quiet, feels content at the sight. A world without the few things he had even considered important wasn't a world at all -- and he knew it could not be replicated -- and having such a bleak nothingness laid out before him is...

Grand.

It's over far too quickly, and that old loathing settled back in, but it's a wonderful day to still exist, if the Regent has so utterly destroyed the Innocence. Estinien's shard lay in their hand, and he could see it, the lack of... anything. All of that power, all of the abilities that Thing had given him, and what had it gotten him, in the end? Murdered. More than murdered, it seemed. Tortured, miserable. Fighting against the tide of what they were trying to do, Estinien had been nothing but the ultimate in the Pleroma -- to the point of signing on with that Entity. He'd taken more than all of them on, he'd fought them all, with power to spare. Silco had barely been able to believe the existence of the Sanctifier. So much power. So much ability. And he'd squandered it. There could have been the ability to rend reality in twain, with that. What had he done instead? He'd charged in for friends, squandered the power, and left The Thing to hold the weight of it. Which of course played into the Regent's hands. He honestly wasn't sure who was the more foolish, the Thing, or the man who had held it?

Not that it mattered, he supposed. Not now.

He took a step back, and then another, from the crowd, now that It was gone -- the Innocence obliterated -- and one might think Silco was leaving -- but no. He spoke quietly, to one of the servants, and although they tried to keep it quiet, there was the tell-tale pop of a champagne bottle, that broke the silence.

With a flagrant look, to whomever looked up, and toward the noisy bottle, he said: "Too soon?"