tootsiepop | catch-all: luna.

[After spotting Luna outside on the stairwell, Connor's just going to go ahead and approach her, curious.]

Hello, Luna. [Even though they saw each other like, a couple hours ago. Gosh.] What are you doing out here?

Hello, Connor.

[There's nothing wrong with being polite, and he seems like the type to enjoy ritual and routine. :) She's here to help.

Luna peers up at him -- it's probably dark, but eyy robots can see whenever so there's probably really no difference here.]

It seemed like a good idea to finally move on from the trial. I imagine many will need their own time in the aftermath.

[But she also indicates the spot on the stairs next to where she's sitting. She's evidently fine with company.]

I see.

[It's probably dark but, eh. Robot eyes. Connor will take a seat next to her, maintaining a polite distance while also sitting straight like he's got a stick up his butt. Bad.]

Then, would you say you're satisfied with how everything turned out?

[He reminds her of some other robots she knows, though none of them were specifically given to his specialties. It would be something to smile at, in other circumstances. As it is, the thoughtful expression on her face just lightens a little once she's done pondering his question.

It's a complicated one, of course.]

I didn't know the victim. I barely know the killer or the one he's linked to. Satisfaction doesn't seem to be the right word; that would also depend on how this trial and its consequences affect how our contest plays out going forward.

[The point of the song and dance of crime and punishment is not only moral satisfaction, but deterrence, after all. Thus her reserved judgment. But:]

And yourself? All this seems to fall under your area of expertise.

[Having the question turned on him gives him a pause. His LED spins yellow for a fraction of a second, an indicator that his processing speed has kicked up — before it returns to blue.]

I'm not.

[Like, uh.]

Though we were able to successfully identify Itachi Uchiha as our suspect, we had no way to pinpoint which god he had pledged his loyalty to. That we cast our votes for Love was a matter of sheer luck... and that is without discussing the colateral damage. [Rest in pieces, Julius.] This is unlike any system I've been programmed to work in, and I am... concerned, that we will not be as lucky in the future.

[She watches the moment of intense beep booping, because that's the noise I imagined for it.]

I think that, at the time that we cast our votes, we believed we were relying on evidence.

After all, having so many things pointing to Itachi Uchiha seemed too much to be coincidence, even if Strung Red turned out to be a lucky red herring later. [she's admittedly still a little nonplussed about that, a lot of things sure did come together to make this trial a crazy one] I think that this was the best outcome we could have achieved in the time we had, with the knowledge we had.

In the weeks to come, we will come to understand the system better. Ourselves, the gods, and even this place, I imagine.

[Of course, there are a lot of things that will change; they know that already, the fickleness of the rules and the setting. Still.]

That is my hope.

[The rules are too fickle. He was programmed to be adaptable, yes... But for something like this? He feels like he's navigating uncharted waters.]

Unfortunately, our increased understanding of the system comes with a price. As those of us who would never kill another learn more about the trial system, so do those whose intentions are not nearly as benevolent. They've already seen how "justice" is dealt out in this system. I doubt they'll repeat Mr. Uchiha's mistakes.

Of course.

[She dips her head in a slow nod.]

Though I wonder if you can say with certainty that there are those here who would never kill another, Connor. All living things -- no matter who or what they are -- move according to changing desires, and the changes in their environment, and this is no ordinary environment -- as you know. The more this competition pushes us, the more everyone here will be driven farther from the systems they've known.

But it is also that chaos that can work to everyone's advantage. We have all started out on roughly the same footing. Few of us know each other. Few of us trust each other. As relationships change, we will also see interference from all the strange abilities that the gods have given to their followers.

We may all learn from the trial of Itachi Uchiha. But I think one thing that we should learn above all is that this system is as unpredictable and as wild as all living systems.

[Connor will be running into Luna in the Courtyard. He stops for a brief moment, observing what she's doing, before greeting her in his standard Ken Doll Voice^TM.]

Hello, Luna.

[Ken Doll Voice............

I hate that my computer's Cortana literally started talking while I was tagging this, this is cursed. Luna certainly recognizes the voice -- it would be hard not to, that cadence after all the screaming and yelling of the trial. She glances up from where she appears to have been kneeling before the statue of one of the deceased.

(It's probably Ava's, the only complete version of her now that the nerds have descended on the rest.)]

Connor. How did the trial treat you?

[As though she wasn't there herself, in the thick of it and derailing all the way.]

As well as it treated the others, I imagine.

[Which is to say: Jesus Christ, what a hecking mess.]

And you? How are you feeling now?

[Is she still, like. Cursed to speak the word of our unholy savior, Madoka Kaname.]

I would think that we avoided the worst possible outcome.

[Well, there wasn't actually any best possible outcome that they know of. But there were a lot of other ways for that particular trial to go wrong. She's not arguing so much as pointing things out. Perhaps prodding a little.

The chaos of the whole thing definitely bears thinking through, at least.]

I feel rather the same as I did during the trial. Perhaps we are all holding our breaths. Piety does know how to keep an audience in suspense.

[As for the unholy maiden Madoka Kaname, perhaps he'd like to ask more specifically and find out? :)]

Indeed. Piety truly does know how to keep a captive audience... Though, I admit I still don't understand their particular stance.

Faith. The ability to believe in an outcome, even one of low or uncertain possibility, because it aligns with your principles or the way you believe the world should be. Is it strange to you?

Of course it is. I was programmed to work on hard facts, not faith. It's completely at odds with what I was designed for.

catch-all: luna.

w1, post-trial.

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w2, saturday.

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