Shades of Justice - RPLOG
Participants
Date
25/3/476
Log
The castle guards are out in force today; someone must have been anticipating trouble. Arrivals are quietly ushered to the nearest available seating under their scrutinizing gazes. Those who are coming in armed are certainly noted. The Judge, an elegant white swan starkly contrasted by her black robes, is already seated front and centre, watching too the flow of arrivals.
Mazurek is one of those arriving, this time without his entourage of guards. Instead only the PitBull Teen is escorting him. Like the other day he is only in his shorts, and he takes the seat as close to front as allowed. The patches over his eyes are moist, a product of the water magics he employs.
Saibh makes her way in, wearing her usual getup and largely keeping to herself. She is scanning the crowd, but seeing no one of interest aside from the judge, just quickly takes her seat
Kurzon is practically obligated to attend such events, lending the blessings of the creators to such things and in turn witnessing justice being metted out by the people. It's quite educational and at times can be quite rivetting. Of course the scent and eventual sight of his medical charge has him rising from his initial seat with a few appologies and a bit of effort avoiding treading upon smaller folk before he is able to begin making his way over to sit framing Mazurek with Donny, greeting both simply as he sits. Once in place he takes a deep cleansing breath, habit and duty maing him detoxify the region for the health of the healing scaley.
In short order there remains only standing room. Rumour has already spread about the nature of this trial, and the good folk of Firmament have come out in droves to witness it. The doors are, at last, closed, cutting off a significant source of light to the chamber and plunging much of the public seating into a heavy shade. Murmurings proceed unabated until the swan claps her gavel, then swiftly fall to just a few persistent whispers, and finally silence. "Court is now in session." The judge's voice carries clear and even through the entire hall, "Bring forth the defendant." When the side door opens and the figure, who remains silhouetted in black even as he passes directly under the rays of sunlight streaming in through one of the large windows, is guided by a soldier to stand before the judge's podium, the murmuring resumes, louder than before.
Mazurek senses the presence of the large bear while he is approaching, and he instinctively shifts to make some room for his 'doctor'. After Kurzon has seated and made sure to detox the immediate area, the bear finds the dragon leaning against him with his head on a shoulder. He speaks softly amidst the buzzing of voices, "Good to see you, you big teddy bear."
Saibh crosses her arms, leans back in her chair and puts her boot against the chair in front of her as she watches the proceedings, still scanning the crowd from time to time, maybe looking for trouble, familiar faces or just someone interesting to watch while the dog and pony show gets started.
Kurzon is very fortunate that his flesh under his fur is a deep chocolate brown in the manner of the creator's likeness that he shares or else the burning blush flowing into his ears would be obvious to the world. As it is, his robes are all that keep his body from radiating the heat through his armor.
"It is a pleasure to see you in good health as well, Mazurek as is it with your son, Donny. Though you can't see it, the one being tried today is not so fortunate...the shadow hangs heavy upon his shoulders."
A few persistant strikes of the gavel bring the courtroom to relative silence, though in some corners of the room hushed conversation continues. "State your name for the record." The shadow hesitates in his response, "I'm Zakiya." Only the pendant around his neck defies the darnkess that consumes the rest of his form, his outline suggesting only a canine heritage. "Zakiya of the Shadow, you stand accused of theft, how do you plead?" The defendant is suddenly aggressive in stance and tone, "I only did what I had to, if he would've sold me the--" By then the crowd is raising quite a racket, drowning out the remainer of the outburst. It takes several moments and repeated demands for order before the swan is able to address the Shadow again. "You will limit your response to 'Guilty' or 'Not Guilty,' please." "Not guilty!" Pre-emptively, the judge strikes her gavel and fires a glare around the bleachers before responding, "Bring forth the plantiff."
The warmth of the bear's body is more than enough for the exhausted Iguana to fall right to sleep without another word or sound. Once his head rests on Kurzon's shoulder, he's out like a light and will need to be carried home after the trial.
Saibh keeps her seat while the crowd begins yelling. Resisting the urge to yank the people immediately around her down, she instead leans forward peers through the gaps in the crowd until things settle down. She's watching both the shadow and the judge now.
Kurzon is quite shocked himself at this point, the last shadow he met was a mindless monster and this one spoke as a normal being, worse yet, this one claimed victimization! How does one come to terms with such a thing? How does it take place?
Fulror approaches the source of audible outrage, pushing into the court and closing the doors. He's not entirely sure of the proceedings of sweetwater, this sounds interesting, although hopefully a late arrival in the midst of one of them is not frowned upon. He makes his way calmly through the crowd, returning any angry looks he gets with a scowl, which fades away when he moves to sit next to a familiar face, Saibh, excusing himself to anyone he might displace. He murmers something to them when he's able to reach them, and looks around at all present.
Again the side door opens, and this time emerges the stout figure of a tortoise, easily recognizable to anyone who frequents the marketplace as one of the numerous vendors who operates there. Zakiya inclines his head towards the arrival, which is the only sign that he's looking that way for lack of visible eyes. The guard escorts the defendant aside, allowing the plantiff to approach the podium. "State your name and occupation for the record." "Marcel DuPont, Adaptable Clan, proprieter of DuPont Produce." he barely lets the swan finish before answering, though his words are a bit sluggish. "Mister DuPont, please recount the incident for the court." "Certainly." Again the turtle speaks up the instant the swan finishes, prompting her to arch a feathered brow. "I was tending my stall on a typically busy afternoon when I was approached by that 'gentleman,'" He pauses to gesture at the shadow, "He was, to be frank, your honor, rude. I decided his crown wasn't worth the attitude, so I told him in the politest terms I could muster at the time to take his business elsewhere. Well, instead of that, he seizes up a big armful of my goods--" "That's NOT true!" blurts out Zakiya, and once again the crowd uses the outburst as an opportunity to get rowdy as well.
Saibh leans over and murmurs quietly, "The shadow supposedly stole, the crowd's on edge and the merchant's probably not the nicest sort to the new sort about. Five to one says the merchant's lying through his teeth though" she then leans back and watches the proceedings, wondering if maybe it wasn't such a good idea to publicize this particular trial.
