[Final Day] Endgame

[arsgoetia]

And just as suddenly as everything had began, the demons are gone—all of them. Not a single crow feather remains. As if being sucked backwards out of a vacuum, sound and light flood into the room and the hallway, crashing down on you. You are back in the real world, with noise and physics and sunlight streaming in through the window.

You are also left with two bereft Bellcourt children, the older of which is suddenly doubling over in his wheelchair and shouting in anguish.

Comments

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

No! They're not telling the full truth!

They expect her to commit more crimes in the next two months. They want her to, so that they can punish him!

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

Wha—WHAT IN THE WORLD MADE YOU THINK THAT?!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

You don't take a person as collateral; you take an object. You only take a person if you want to hurt them!

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

And what object would have been worthwhile? None of them are as valuable to her!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

Value? Value? Justice isn't about calculating the value of someone's life! It doesn't matter whether the objects are as valuable to her as her own father's life, it just matters that she values them at all!

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

Value matters when making considerations of collateral! You control people through the value of what you hold!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

Justice isn't about control!

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

This isn't about Justice—!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

That's what it was masquerading as! That's why they insisted on us making sacrifices on her behalf; it was a form of penance. But now they're holding him for no other reason than blackmail!

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

That's what I've been saying!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

Then why hold him, if not to hurt him when she misbehaves?

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

Why are you putting it that way?!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

That's what it is! It doesn't matter how we phrase it, it's always going to come down to that! And now that she's angered them so much, they'll interpret anything as a breach of the conditions.

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

She's not going to break the contract because he's her father!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter. It'll be interpreted as if she did anyway.

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

Are you saying she should just sit back and do nothing?!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

No. Just that she needs to consider her actions before making them!

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

And what makes you believe that she will not?!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

Before or after forming pacts with demons?

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

She never formed pacts in the first place, that's what the Seal was for!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

What the hell did she do?

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

She bound them to the Seal!

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

I don't know what that means!

[sits down and presses his hands to his temples.]

We just risked our lives and our sanity and no-one has said why.

[tsundeargodwhy.livejournal.com]

It's—it's different for some of us. Miss Lucia was looking to demons for companionship in place of her family and—I at least—I wanted to . . . bring her back to something normal.

[kepthishead.livejournal.com]

It's different in that you knew what was happening.