WEEK FIVE: REMOVAL

[retellers]

WEEK FIVE: REMOVAL (25 remain) Time to wake up, participants of the Realm. At 8am, everyone will receive a message on their PHS. Go to where the freaky puppet hell theater used to be across the bridge. Even if the participants ignore the message (or are sleeping in, shame on them), as 9am approaches they will fall victim to a compulsion to head to the specified location. Three Leaders, Tiger, Goat, and Swan, are already present, Jeanne with them. Goat speaks. "... We are the choices we make. May yours bring you closer to the future you wished to see." Once they finish speaking, an alert goes off from a PHS in the crowd—specifically, Zuko's. No explicit message this time, though! Presumably, everyone gets the idea by now and now no one has to deal with glitched text. Regardless of their will, they will feel compelled to walk towards the scene. No other participant will be able to interfere; should they try, a barrier blocks their way.

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Comments

[supremity]

[ Hua Cheng's expression is stormy - he'll help pick up the slack for Zuko's brooding while he's playing executioner - but he leans into Xie Lian at his reaction. Because he can remember a flash of fire in a young boy's face, as punishment, and this -

This is too much. Even to him, these executions have been excessive, and this is no different. ]

[dianxias]

[ it is almost visible how much of a chord what jeanne says strikes in xie lian. he's not reaching for hua cheng, this time, but he bites his lip, and keeps his eyes on the scene ahead.

instead, one hand does come up, to press softly against the barrier, and curls into a fist. ]

[supremity]

[ While remaining quiet, there's an obvious rigidness to Hua Cheng at this point. He moves easily, slipping his arm around Xie Lian, even as his gaze stays on the spectacle in front of them. His fingers curl in his robes at his side, grounding.

It's hard to tell who it's meant to comfort more, though. ]

[dianxias]

[ though he doesn't turn away - this last exchange has him tensing even further under hua cheng's arm.

ultimately it's jeanne's final speech that gets him to inhale, quietly, and briefly pull his hands away from the barrier to press his fist against his palm and bow his head.

they'll bring the removed back. they have to. for the sake of jeanne's act, for - for the sake of all of them. it is so like jeanne, for her last words to be a message of hope.

after, he straightens, and lifts his chin to watch, somber, hurting, but determined. ]

[dianxias]

[ and the moment zuko kneels, xie lian says - ] Zuko.

[ with eight hundred years of sadness behind each syllable. ]

[supremity]

[ Neither gesture is lost on Hua Cheng. He watches on, pensive, taking in Jeanne's request and Zuko's obvious misery. His hand squeezes tight against Xie Lian, with the weight that comes with just a single name spoken.

And he watches yet another holy figure veritably walk into death with their head held high, despite it all. ]