Season 2 / Vincent Churchwell - "Sins of the Father" [Second Trial Projection]

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

The preacher stares at you, a hollow look in his eyes as the gun continues to point towards your face with a look of pure rage and contempt.

And then, he laughs, bitterly, lowering the gun just Slightly. You have no idea which thing you’ve said or done might have reached him, if any have at all.

“Ahahahaha… No, no. ……But let me tell you this. One day, you will understand what I’ve done.”

CW: Suicide

Before you can do anything at all, the Preacher turns the shotgun directly on himself, pointed towards his head, and pulls the trigger. With a bang, your vision swims, and you know you SHOULD be seeing the visceral carnage that’s happening as a result of someone blowing their own brains out.

End CW

But then, you feel as though your mind has left your body, and you see the scene around you differently, instead focused on a young boy with black hair knelt in the middle of a room filled with blood. Somehow, you get the impression that he was just you, as though you’re going through an out of body experience, your own physical form ripped away from you. He can’t be more than 10 or 11 years old.

And then the scene warps yet again for just a moment and instead of a child, in the very same place even in a different room, you see Vincent, with knife in hand, over the body of a woman in pink who lies dead on the ground.

The final words of the pastor echo still in your head. One day, you will understand. Whether you want to or not, one day, you will-

All before your vision goes black, and the projection ends.

MILGRAM

Everything around you shutters into darkness. A breath, a blink, and then you’re once again standing in the relatively empty courtroom. Any injuries or other strangeness incurred during the projection has vanished in like fashion. It’s all finished, it seems, though the wardens still have to release the prisoner from the pathetic remaining restraints on the chair themselves.

As you’re all shooed away, down the long hallway and back to the core of the prison and your daily life there, all that’s left is for you to ponder what on earth all of that meant.

Emmy | Akemi

As they emerge from the projection, Akemi remains frozen and nearly white as a sheet for several moments, she sways ever so slightly, very nearly threatening to collapse, before she finally catches her balance. Her mind is racing as she tries to claw back her composure– she had been losing it far too often lately.

Breathe.

She can feel herself shaking, and her skin prickling with raw adrenaline.

Her throat feels dry, but she feels she needs to say something to save face. She cannot have this happen again, not so soon. She is better than that. She will NOT be reduced to some trembling heap a third time.

Even as she determines this, she still is clearly pale, and her voice comes out in a far less even manner than she would prefer.

“–I…believe we have some things to discuss, Mr. Churchwell, once you feel up to it. None of us were harmed.”

She swallows hard, quickly turning to leave (and with the hopes that her expression is not so apparent). Before reaching the door, she looks just slightly over her shoulder, toward Kaoru.

“And, Naito-san…I would like to speak with you, as well. It is up to you, if you would prefer to, or not.”

True to her original goal, at least, she got through this without saying a single word directly to Tatsuko. Arms crossed over her chest, she quickly makes her exit. She has a LOT to think about.

Kaoru Naito

Kaoru exits the projection with no clear discomfort besides closed eyes, face still otherwise. What throws him off are Akemi’s words, a look (of… annoyance? surprise? simple acknowledgment? it only lasts a moment) twitching onto his face before clearing.

Whatever, whatever, whatever, he kills that feeling for now and ignores the wardens, stepping up towards the chair Vincent’s in. If he sees them think about stopping him he’s going to want to tear into them.

“Y’ good?” he asks in a mumble. To him this hardly made Vincent look ‘guilty’, it just made his thoughts keen bitter and misanthropic. There’s a want to say more, but he hesitates because, well, usually the things he says get bad reactions, and for once he doesn’t want one of those, so he stares at Vincent like some kind of inquisitive animal trying to get a read before setting a hand on top of his head. It’s the first thing that comes to mind that he thinks he’d like. Pat. It’s what he’s got in him.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Vincent stirs slowly with a few body twitches from the state of unconsciousness he’d been in during the projection, blinking blearily at the room with an initial look of fatigue despite this Maybe counting as ‘rest’. He was tired going into this, so it’s not terribly different than before the projection started, but… Perhaps that’s because he always looks a little haunted regardless, for as long as you’ve known him here.

And now, maybe you even know a little more of why.

This time, thankfully, it isn’t long before Vincent gets his bearings, but that only replaces his tired look with one of subtle anxiety as his eyes dart around at the people in the room, even if he’s trying not to be overt about it. It was just… the last time he went through this…

Vincent can tell that Akemi’s not doing great, it being a little hard not to catch her paleness and shaking as she gets out her words. But having at least mentally prepared himself a little for that possibility, Vincent just gives a shaky exhale and looks down, sparing her the respect to at least not linger on it. He can’t shake the stress of both knowing what they might have seen, and not knowing for sure what they have, but he can’t fully hide the relief he feels at her saying no one was hurt.

“I’m glad you weren’t.” Physically. “And… yes, we can do that as soon as you’d prefer. …I’m sorry for whatever you had to see,” he says quietly, still looking down as he tries not to draw attention to himself.

But then… He hears someone moving in front of him, at first assuming it to be a warden coming to undo his restraints (which to be fair, they probably also are), before instead Kaoru’s long dangly straitjacket sleeves come into view instead and he hears his voice (asking if he’s good…?), and Vincent looks up just in time for Kaoru to pat his head.

Vincent stills a little bit with widened eyes, perhaps holding his breath for a moment, but… mostly he just looks a little bewildered by this initially opposed to offended. He doesn’t shake Kaoru off, and even takes a slow breath as he manages to de-tense a bit more than he was before. Somehow, he does actually seem a bit calmer with Kaoru’s hand on his head the longer he keeps it there.

“…Yeah, ’m good,” he also kind of mumbles back with a tiny nod that Kaoru can feel. He knows he gets no real privacy in this place, but it’s the best at a private exchange he can really get. “Just tired. More worried about you all, really.”

After all, it’s not like he could remember whatever it was they’d just gone through- They were the ones who’d had to actually deel with all that while he got some stress-sleep. Not the worst he’s ever had though, even just while here.

Feeling better grounded, Vincent sighs, and glances towards anyone else still in the room, Tatsuko, Kaoru, and Wardens alike.

“I’ll try to answer anything anyone wants to know, if any of you have questions. And if you don’t, I guess… just think what you will.”

They should all already know his stance on his own actions, by now.

Kaoru Naito

“Hush with th’ helpin’, Mother Teresa, we’re fine; let’s get you outta this fuckin’ thing.”

He shoots the chair itself a glare, pulling Vincent up out of the chair. The glare he shoots the wardens is less hateful and more measured, more like… they better go ask him questions later. Vincent’s basically the easiest one here to talk to, if they can’t even talk to him, what’s fuckiiing the point.

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