Fire Emblem On Forums: Mortal Transgressions (IC)

[RedMageCole]

"I have it locked away— go ahead and try to find it, if you're so confident...! You'll be apprehended within minutes!"

 

Kane shakes his head slowly.

 

"To be perfectly honest, I want him dead too... book or no book. The logical part of my brain usually triumphs, but this time... this scumbag has had so much of a personal stake in my team that even logically, I can't justify him staying alive; we got what we came here for, anyway. And yet... again, it's up to you all. It's not like there aren't already ramifications to our work, just I worry about the state of Ulux afterwards considering the lack of queen or even an heir for that matter..." Kane goes deep in thought, listening to everyone.

[ElfCollaborator]

"Hm. Book's in a vault or some hidden alcove, probably trapped because of course he would, definitely nowhere obvious.....normally I'd like a few days to stake out the mark, but a few hours, I could do with some help looking for it and breaking in. If we find it, Kane, we at least get to unravel a little more of whatever the hell this whole business is."

It turns out yes, Lenore is exactly that confident.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"I don't think it's our place to kill him. Might I suggest a different approach?" Lysander said putting away his tome, and dusting off his clothes. "We can offer him to the people. Let them decide their own justice. If they believe their king was fair, they'll let him walk free. But I have a mind that the people will seek justice, justice that they need more than us."

[ElfCollaborator]

"Marvel's got a fair point. boss. After all, makes more sense for them to do it than some foreigners. I'm betting there's a LOT of angry families who want his head on a plate."

[RedMageCole]

King Darcy did not look happy about Lenore's on-the-nose guess and simply continued to silently half-growl at everyone.

 

"Not a bad idea for sure... would drum up some support for our cause, as I highly doubt he's a popular king, and it would slightly alleviate the problem of anarchy. The problem of what we do with this scumbag until morning arises. We got a decent basement, at least... keep him tied up there and make for Ulux in the morning. I wasn't planning anything tomorrow, but we could get it out of the way early and not everyone needs to come with. Or... we can tie him up to some kind of post in the center of the nearest city with a note and let it be handled from there. Risky, but less bias from us. More options..." Kane continues to think, but it's clear he wants to hear from most of the team as well.

[Shauntaro]

"I.. don't think it's right for us to decide if he lives or dies. ..Here, at least." Shin continues as he his grip tightens. "..I hate him, for all the horrible things he's done to all these people.. so I know he needs to get what's coming to him."


"But if we do decide to kill him here.." Shin pauses and squints, trying to figure out how to word his thoughts.


"I-It just... ends, for him. He suffers for a small moment, then it's over. He doesn't have to face his consequences.. a dead man can't. If he's alive, he will have to suffer and live through the pain that he himself has caused -- and atone for all he has done." he then says, with an expression that's clouded with gloom.

"Though.. not like those deeds can be forgiven anyway.. b-but.." The boy trails off, the thoughts in his head return to being a jumbled mess.


"Sorry.. You know what I mean.." He goes back to his usual hesitant-ness. "..Let's just finish up here and go home."

[Swordstar]

"We could give him to the queen."

 

Mim strolled over so she was between the dancer and the fallen king, keeping a steady eye on him.

 

"It's a way to spare his life while removing him from power. Have him be a hostage, until the time that a new ruler can be decided. Then he can be put to trial for his crimes. But if we leave him to the people or just kill him, people will die. And not those who deserve to. The military will pick a figurehead, or a general will step up, and they'll crush the poor back down. Even more so if the people are the ones who kill him. Have to set an example and all of that. We need to have there be an actual transition unless we want the blood of innocents on our hands. We can't leave them worse off than when we started. That's not who we are."

[Chevaleresse]

"How many people, I wonder, begged like this before they were killed by this man, or men like him? How many women stayed silent, or lied to themselves about what he had wrought upon them, for fear of what would happen if they spoke the truth?" Justine looked between the edge of her blade and the wounded Darcy, before turning towards the party. "There are friends from my girlhood who I will never speak to again because of this man. We should give him to the people. . . but I am one of them as well." The swordswoman elected to leave it at that.

[Aurorix]

Baldur stood in silence after Darcy began to plead for his life. An overwhelming wave of emotions ran through his body at the sight of the defeated scoundrel. He couldn't believe they actually did it. He renounced himself to be nothing more than failure trying to scrape out any forms of tangible redemption or reparation, but this... Maybe... maybe her dreams weren't an impossible task to accomplish after all. He could feel the tears welling up but forced them down and hid them well to save face. This something he was all too experienced with by now but never had he have to hide tears of joy. He mumbled to himself just loud enough for only those paying attention to hear,  "Soon enough, Ester..." It won't just be Ulux but all of the world's leaders who fail to do their job shall meet the same fate as the man at their feet.

 

"Former King Darcy is not fit for his throne nor to further stain this world with his existence. Therefore, I am of the belief that we should end his life here and now." Baldur finally chimed in. There was a pause before he continued,  "However... I supposed keeping him locked up until the people can sentence him is also a valid option. So long as this maggot no longer sits on that throne and one more suited to lead a kingdom is placed there, I have no qualms on whether he draws breath. I just want to avoid letting loose a snake that will try to hunt us down in the future if we can prevent it."

[Flannelmagician]

Just the idea of letting King Darcy live just another moment made her blood boil. She wanted to strangle him and watch as the his life slipped away from his body, she wanted the sick enjoyment of taking another life, but deep down she knew that this would only provide a temporary support for her violent emotions and that ultimately she would be left unsatisfied. 

 

"You know, when I served time as a sister we were taught the concept of repentance, working hard to not commit the same sins you've spent your life committing. I think more than anyone I want this asshole dead, but even I'm not stupid enough to think that killing him will bring back everyone he and his fellow goat-lover have destroyed. I hate him, and I wanna kill him with my own two hands..." 

 

She pauses and looks downwards and back up again towards King Darcy.

 

"I want this monster to spend the rest of his life in agony, I don't want him to have a singular moment he's not in pain regretting every single action and every life he's destroyed, think of it as attempting to repent for all the misery he's sown." 

 

Tabitha had more she wanted to say, but in this moment it was taking ever fiber of her being to control herself, to stop herself from running over there and slamming his head into the pavement as many times as her anger would allow it. She was tired and unsatisfied. 

[Powder Miner]

Lizaveta starts out with a perhaps predictable opening, but a bombastic one nonetheless.

"He needs to die."

"...but I can agree that it is best for the people of Ulux to have a chance to do it themselves. I'm from Vini, this kingdom's neighbor -- many aspects of life here are the same there, and it's because of people like Darcy and the aristocracy and merchantry of Perus that life is such unending misery. So suppose that we leave him alive, and just try to put him behind the queen. He is a king, and he is a manipulator, and he has been a king and a manipulator for a long time -- we pat ourselves on the back, leave, and then he just worms his way back into power, and the misery continues. Suppose we just put some other person in charge of the monarchy -- do we have a nice list of candidates for monarchy? What do we do there? Are we kingmakers? But suppose we do put someone in. Maybe they're a Stella, but for every Stella there are three monarchs that are corrupt, evil, incompetent or all of these things -- and because it's a monarchy, the misery goes on for generations and generations and generations. It certainly doesn't end just because we find someone clean-looking and slap him into the throne.

 

We need to give the people of Ulux a hand in their own country. We have Minstrel here," Lizaveta wasn't sure if they were being listened in on by the trapped guards, "But the people as a whole deserve a chance to determine their own future. Do we just come in and say that we know better than the peasants, that they should just sit down while we put another monarch over their heads? Maybe if we leave it open, some general comes in, sure. But generals can't last forever... eventually, maybe even in a mere few years, he would be deposed. But a monarchy like Ulux's can last nearly forever, the same old misery and the same old oppression century after century. And maybe... maybe the people here can come up with something better. Maybe they can some up with a country that isn't defined by its particular brand of misery first and foremost. For that is what all of the kingdoms are defined by, yes? It is not a coincidence."

[Swordstar]

Mim frowned, moving as if she simply adjusted herself to better see those she was talking with, but managing to place herself between the king and the others. She couldn't quite bring herself to trust them in this.

 

"You're naive if you think it that easy. I never said we install a new monarch. But if you think that letting those who have had no power for years suddenly gain power with no safeguards or protection will work, you're dreaming. They don't have the same weapons, the same supplies, the same anything as those who have been in power do.

 

If we keep him hostage, it gives us a chance to work with the situation. If we give him to the people, they kill him and then what? They place a leader who then gets killed by a general, the army makes examples of those who 'revolted' and homes and businesses are burned. Women captured while men are killed, and everything ends up back where it was. Or one of the neighboring countries sees an easy target, invades, and gains new land for their country.

 

Our goal is long term change, is it not? I don't necessarily want to put a new king in place. But I don't want to leave the people of this country undefended and exposed. Unless you think that we can fight off multiple armies, killing him just leaves these people to be pushed further into the mud if they try to step up. And if you think anything else, you are foolish."

[Aurorix]

"Look Scarlet, while I would love to continue to hear another long winded speech about how every ruler in history is somehow tyrannical or how every person in Perus that has a sum of money must be the total scum of the earth" Sarcasm oozed from every ounce of that sentence. Man every time she speaks he just wish he could adhesive her mouth shut.  "Just say your damn point, we don't have time for your honeyed words and fancy build up. Unless you want every guard in the castle to swarm and capture us."

[Zetaark]

"Death's too good for him. That and having to deal with actually cleaning up the mess of ousting a king sounds like a pain that I'm not qualified to deal with. Also I'm not sure we'd all have the time to make sure things don't burn to the ground after we leave," Fey mutters as she moves towards Darcy, still a bit injured. "That being said, taking him hostage gives us a few options, and maybe he can cough up some interesting info on the way. Who can say" Fey shrugs as she waits for the final decision.

[Powder Miner]

“I led with my point, Orchid, it’s not my problem if you can’t understand.”

 

Mim’s words caused her temper to flare, though.

“Here you are calling me naive and foolish, but it seems to me that you have less of a plan than anyone else. So, say we take the king hostage... then what? What’s to stop any of the things that you just theorized from happening? If the military is really that organized and ready to take power, then why in the world would they ever wait on the account of Darcy? Why would they have some sort of undying loyalty to that man in particular? We’ve already defeated him, so if the army wants to revolt, then they already know they can. And certainly it’s not like the other monarchs are going to care about him, either. For a country like Perus, Vini and Ulux are already easy targets. They have economic capacity and military might that far outstrip anything of these two countries and have for a very long time — if Perus wanted to go to war, then they already would have. They are simply satisfied being paramount, dominating everyone else by dint of their size and their power, and there’s nothing that can be done in Ulux to change that. For that reason, as much as I despise that kingdom, they will probably not let any other kingdom go conquering.

 

You can only rely on having a hostage if they’re worth something, and Darcy is a thoroughly worthless man. He would have stayed in power because he would have seemed invincible; we’ve already broken that. It wouldn’t matter if we take him as a hostage, because nobody is going to stop to prevent his death except for the most corrupt noblemen in Ulux, and I doubt very much that you want to put people like Pud in power.

 

If the ultimate goal was to keep anybody from getting ideas about changing who’s in power, then that was out the window the moment that we decided to come here and take the relic. When you start to challenge the systems of oppression that rule Purgus for the fragility they truly have, then you can’t simply expect to pull back and depend on the status quo. It is already too late.”

[Swordstar]

"You're not very good at listening sometimes... I never said I didn't want power to change. I said I wanted to be smarter about it than just tossing a king to the downtrodden, saying 'Here have a king, good luck figuring out how to run a country' and leaving. Which since I don't think our plans have us staying here for any amount of time, that's what your plan would seem to do.

 

Unlike you, there are plenty of people who still believe in the Right to Rule as granted by the gods. The mark of royalty we know about, however you want to say it. A hostage king is worth more than you are giving credit. You're letting your emotions influence you here. Am I certain that keeping him hostage will work? No. Am I certain that tossing him to the wolves will result in chaos and the poor being trampled? Yes. The people aren't organized here. You don't have a revolution base. 

 

We have goals here. We are looking to make real changes in the world. This isn't the way to do that. Tossing an unprepared population into power with no support just leads to dead populations. I don't have all the answers and don't claim to. But neither do you, so stop acting like you do."

[ElfCollaborator]

Lenore rubs the back of her head, having listened to the whole discussion. 

"She's right, you know,  much as I hate to admit it. He's not some con we can just knock out and leave to the wolves, much as he acts like one. We kill him with no backup plan, we might as well be asking for chaos. We're a bunch of people with some weapons, a house and some disguises, not well-prepared revolutionaries with an entire government ready to toss out to cover our tracks and clean up our mess. More I think about it, the more I'm thinking we knock him out, get the book, and figure it out from there. We finished the mission, we're not equipped for much beyond that."

[Powder Miner]

Lizaveta sighed and pinched her nose.

“That’s fine, I don’t need things to be instant anyway. But don’t be surprised when taking a king as hostage is both less useful than expected and more of a commitment than we’re prepared to make anyway. I can just let events prove me right.”

[ElfCollaborator]

"Scarlet's got a point too. Darcy's dead weight to us.  We can't exactly ransom him, and we can't exactly use him as a bargaining chip. If we keep him hostage, we got an entire country weighing on top of us wanting their king back, on top of whatever fresh hell the others will raise once they realise that Virtuous has the balls to hold a king hostage. Of course, it's not like that's anything new either."

[RedMageCole]

Kane listened to every word. Arthur was a little less keen on listening, instead opting to pace around the room to make sure that no one else would attempt to come into the throne room as the discussion happened. Darcy knelt there, continuing to seethe with anger.

 

"As it stands, we have two dominant options. We can either take him to Queen Stella as a hostage, or we leave him to the mercy of his own people. While I do entertain the thought of keeping him a hostage to hopefully keep the military from an intervention, the people do have a right to decide and there's also the problem of my uncertainty of how Queen Stella would approve of- Golden Eye, look out!"

 

As Fey wandered closer to Darcy, the man in his desperation whipped out the Killing Edge he hadn't been using and threw himself into a deep forward lunge not too far away from her. However, Kane was quicker on the draw, having brandished a Glue Pack and hurled it to his legs, sticking him there and causing him to wave his sword around uselessly. Good thing Simeon made one for Kane, huh?

 

"Damn... it...!"

 

"Did you honestly think I wasn't keeping an eye on you? First of all, before we decide anything, we need to knock him out or tie him up before the glue wears off so he doesn't try anything like that. Second, time is still a factor. We don't have all the time in the world to chat, I'm afraid, as much as I'm sure we'd like to prove our points. We'll need to do a show of hands and fast."

[Blasbo]

It's over. She would have liked to get a few blows in herself, but...since the one who was mainly wronged by him got her licks in, she doesn't mind it so much. After all, if they were to fight the bastard who ordered her father killed and she didn't so much as get a swing at him, she'd be very, very upset. And...at the very least, they managed to save everyone they could. It's only a pity they couldn't avoid killing the ones they did...

"...It's probably not my place to decide if he lives or dies. And personally, if he dropped dead right here I wouldn't care--might give his corpse a kick in the ribs, but I certainly wouldn't feel bad. If we decide to keep him alive as a hostage, or to stand trial, then I won't have much quarrel with it...so long as he faces some consequences, of course. If the latter, then perhaps he should have a jury of women; if he's such the charmer he believes himself then there's no problem, is there?"

 

She pauses a moment before continuing. "...I don't really know what the right thing to do here is, between taking him hostage or not. I just don't want him to be able to go on like nothing fucking happened."

 

She turns her gaze to the Killing Edge he'd tried to draw on them, staring at it a bit wistfully--it's a fine blade, not her own but one that speaks to her nonetheless, and she takes a few moments before speaking again. "...I would like that sword, though. That's a nice sword. It's not like we're going to let him keep it, is it?"

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"Snowbird's idea raises a few concerns." Lysander rubbed his chin in thought. "If we keep him hostage, we'll have to feed. We'll have to hide him, and we'll have to keep watch on him at all times. Fighting will become much harder, and if we hire someone to do all this for us, then we have to trust that person. It all sounds like a bother. However the romantic thief in me objects to the complications. One thing is to steal from a king. But to steal A king. That's something special. I'm all for it, let us keep him until our mission is complete. We will sort out the details later, but we should exit the stage sooner rather than later." 

[Shauntaro]

To leave him alive, they'd either leave him hostage or leave him to the people.. everyone raises good points, who's to say who's right? But in all honesty.. Shin couldn't be bothered to choose. He just wanted to get this over with and go home.


"I.. really don't have the insight to make a decision for this. I'll go with what the majority decides and figure out how to deal with the results of either choice: If we take him hostage, I'll adapt.. If we leave him to the people, and he somehow continues his tyranny.. we can just come back and end it, again."

[RedMageCole]

Kane tallied everyone up; there was a lead for taking the King as a hostage.

 

"...I see. I'm sorry Scarlet, Minstrel, Thistle, Dragon... Majority rules." Kane said in a 'that's that' sort of manner. He turns to King Darcy. "Are you going to come quietly and tell us where the book is, or what?"

 

King Darcy did not look pleased with this turn of events. He still waved around his Killing Edge.

 

"I refuse! My deal is going free and then you get the book! But if you want to comb the castle and pray that my loyal guards decided to flee instead of getting reinforcements, be my guest... and there will be no way in hell and damnation that you will get my sword!" He adds, snapping at Reiko.

 

"Can we shut him up already? Anybody got some rope or something really, really hard to smack him upside the head with? Preferably the latter?"

 

"I do have some rope in my bag... taking him conscious would be more risky and he doesn't seem willing to give up the location of the book anymore..."

[Blasbo]

"Oh, is that so? Tell me, if I whack you in the back of the head with the hilt of my sword right now and take it from you then who's going to stop me? I wonder, will the Devil himself rise to your defense?" A hand goes towards her sword--she doesn't intend to cut him down, of course, but she wouldn't suggest that if she wasn't willing to follow up on it. He's being awfully mouthy for someone in his position...though, to be honest, she can't say she might not be just as defiant in a similar position. That's just who she is.  "'Cause I fucking doubt he can be bothered for your scummy ass."