voice testing! canon is the ring series, mostly for the final chapter.

[accursing]

My death was supposed to be poignant, you know.

Something meant to signify the end of my mother's memories haunting us all.

The only thing we've achieved by dragging me out of that dark, repugnant well is assuring me that my favourite suit is never going to look the same ever again.

Comments

[pianogavin]

[Oh hey there stranger! :P Want to practice?]

[accursing]

[ there is no amount of ;lkkAHDLSKFKSDKGL;DSKJ;!! gratuitous caps lock for me to be able to display the level of yesness i feel ]

[pianogavin]

[I am so honored <3 any ideas?]

[accursing]

[ WELL YOU KNOW ME AND OVERPLOTTING EVERYTHING

i was remembering what you said about klavier thinking of ryuji a little bit like kristoph; in ryuji's canon he curses a man to die in three days and the man actually dies and so he becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, and maybe klavier's the prosecutor for it or something.............. ]

[pianogavin]

[Ok, let's say they're taking his testimony or something?]

[accursing]

[ yeah that works! i can write a starty-starter thing! did you want to do it here or elsewhere 'cause hOW DOES THIS STUFF WORK ]

[pianogavin]

[We can do it here! -winks suggestively- and if you would that'd be great <3]

[accursing]

Being arrested isn't the honourable way to go, especially not now that Ryuji's got a clock running on how long he has left to live. Unfortunately, justice is more stubborn than he counted on, and as he sits in the detention centre with his hands cuffed and his head tilted back, he wonders just how long he can manage before being bailed out.

There's got to be a weak link somewhere. Being charged for murder just because he cursed a man isn't, by the standards set in the law, enough to keep him held for long. The lack of scientific evidence should be his ticket to freedom.

And yet here he sits.

When the officer outside his door tells him he's got a special visitor, Ryuji almost worries his sister's come over. However, he's told the moment he steps out of his cell that he's going to be talking to the prosecutor handling his case. Is it here, perhaps, that his window of opportunity will be found? As he's escorted (without a fight) to the interrogation room, he keeps his posture straight and his gaze fixed straight in front of him.

The door opens and he's told to sit and wait, and Ryuji keeps his expression blank as he runs through possibilities and plans in his head.

[pianogavin]

Klavier has no fond memories of this place. Sure, he's here more often than not for work, and work never really bothered him much; but these walls were tainted with memories of Daryan and Kristoph, and that was more than enough to sour any lukewarm feelings he'd had about the detention center prior to their arrests.

He walks in the door with some files and a tape recorder in one hand, taking the chair across from Ryuji with thoughtless swagger built into every movement. Sometimes when Klavier does this people recognize him. Frankly he prefers it when they don't, it makes things harder for him as a prosecutor, but much easier for him as a man.

"Herr Takayama," He begins, setting his arms on the table next to the recorder and studying the detainee before him with eyes a little icier than usual, "I'd like to record this conversation for the purposes of testimony. Do you consent to being recorded?"

[accursing]

The German title isn't something Ryuji expects, but then again, neither is the appearance of the man here to question him. He looks like someone who belongs in the spotlight, not the dull fluorescent glow of a dreary place like this. Still, Ryuji doesn't comment on it. He nods his head instead and rests his cuffed wrists on the edge of the table between them.

"Yes," he says, tone of voice plain. He doesn't mention that the case is a lost cause and that there isn't much to know besides what's already been laid out: that Ryuji had cursed the man on national television because he'd outright expressed doubt in their existence, that he said the man would die in three days and that he would, and that Ryuji was not at the scene of the crime. He only keeps himself amicable and calm, pointedly ignoring the sharper edge to the prosecutor's gaze.

"Is this where you start asking, then?"

[pianogavin]

Klavier hits the "record" button and places it in the center of the table. He had been a long-time skeptic when it came to things like curses and spirits and whatnot, Kristoph had always brushed those things aside as superstitious drivel, but watching the Fey clan's mediums work in videos of Wright's old court cases certainly threw spirituality into a different light. Curses were something he generally ascribed to that same wheelhouse of mysticism.

His job here is to get the truth. If that truth is that this man cursed someone and that person died, his job is to figure out just how involved he was in the murder. If he carried it out with his own non-spiritual means he would be prosecuted as a murderer. If not? Well, that would be an interesting case.

"'Asking'?" Klavier tries his best to read Ryuji's face, but he is certainly no Apollo in that department, "Something in particular? What question are you anticipating, Herr Takayama?"

[accursing]

"Something out of the ordinary. But I suppose that's not so much anticipation as much as it is a ray of hope." Ryuji doesn't tear his eyes away from the blond man before him as his fingers link together. His expression is calm, at least as far as the muscles in his face go. "I assumed being arrested meant the police had more questions to ask than the ones they already verbalised before putting me in handcuffs.

"But lately it's been more of the same."

If it sounds like he's complaining, it's half-right. Not so much a cynic regarding the justice system as much as Ryuji isn't one to put his hopes on it, his entire experience here only strengthens that notion. There's something in the back of Ryuji's mind that tells him that this man is most certainly the type more suited to smiling than looking serious the way he does now.

"If you haven't got anything for me, I'll ask." His smile is tight-lipped, and though it's polite, it isn't warm or inviting, either. "Do you believe in curses?"

[pianogavin]

Something deep in Klavier's gut remembers feeling watched like this, feeling like someone's eyes were threatening you with a knife even as they smiled or laughed or threw off a casual remark. He's just used to those eyes being blue, not brown. And yet, even with that sense memory bubbling up like bile in his throat, he is assured by how calm he is when dealing with a blade of a stare. He certainly has experience.

"I can't say I do, no. But," He hums thoughtfully, "I've seen some strange things in the court room, things I simply cannot explain, ja? So I like to think I'm... open-minded."

Klavier leans in a little and presses on, "I think I'm supposed to be the one asking questions of you, though. So let's begin, shall we? I want to hear your take on the events that transpired leading up to Herr Kaneda's death. Walk me through it, from the cursing to when you found out that he died."

[accursing]

So he's finally gotten the gist of his job. Though the question dashes any of Ryuji's previous beliefs that he'd be getting something new, he takes it in stride and simply recalls things as they come to him.

"We were together on a night programme discussing the occult. He claimed them to be either illusions, hoaxes, or matters unexplainable by science--and that the third category didn't exist. I thought this wrong and said so." He speaks bluntly, finding no reason to elaborate beyond what's been asked of him. "When he elaborated that these were all superstition, I told him I had the ability to put him under a curse."

The thumb of his right hand rubs the base of his left. Ryuji puckers his lips vaguely, the cupid's bow of it emphasised before he continues to speak. "I said he would die in three days and he accepted it. According to him, if he survived, then he would be proving me wrong. After that, I didn't see him again."

He holds up his hand, his pinky finger, ring finger, and finally his middle finger all lifting up one by one. "Three days passed. I heard nothing. On the morning of the fourth day--" Ryuji's index finger uncurls as well. "--there was an article in the newspaper that said he died during a live broadcast the night prior. Later that day, the police entered my workplace and interrogated me. That's all."

Ryuji blinks once only to moisten his eyes.

[pianogavin]

Klavier has faced down Wright's team in court enough times to know what they would be jumping on in terms of testimony, and right off the bat he can hear the defense teasing out the "motive" course of action-- if the reason for the "curse" was a public appeal to prove that the occult is real, that meant that anyone who wanted to prove the validity of the occult's influence had a pretty decent motive. Sure, they would have had to be pushed pretty far to go to the lengths of murder, but there were people who would benefit enough that it was possible.

Or maybe Klavier was just trying to do the defense's job for them.

He sees the spark of challenge in Ryuji's eyes, daring him to ask something new, something interesting. Ach, all in time.

"These questions are perhaps boring for you after what I presume is the thousandth time, Herr Takayama, but I must ask them as a matter of course for the record. Once we've established your story we may begin a real conversation."

Klavier leans back in his chair, "Do you have an alibi for the time of death? Were you with anyone who can vouch for you?"

[accursing]

"I don't think I have an alibi in the water-tight sense. I was with my sister," Ryuji begins, his knuckles going a little whiter as his fingers tighten their grips on each other, "Adopted sister. Her name is Mai Takano and she lives with me. But I doubt she'd be of any help."

His hands remain folded, his posture straight and perhaps even straighter than the suit on his body. Two nights in the detention centre does that, he supposes--the sinful wrinkling of suits. It's a shame, too, because it's his favourite one.

"Mai isn't all right in the head. She was involved in an incident a few months ago and hasn't opened up to anyone since--not even me." This is the only time Ryuji's expression takes on a more hopeless note, but he doesn't let it linger. The last thing he needs is for anyone to question him further regarding a girl who has nothing to do with this, so for Mai's sake, he wraps it up. "That being said, questioning her would be pointless."

[pianogavin]

For someone charged with murder, this man seems awfully concerned with appearances. He also seems to be very attached to his adoptive sister, though depending on the kind of man Takayama is that may or may not be a farce. Klavier stops before he can dwell on it and narrows his eyes as he decides his next move.

"Do you believe in curses, Herr Takayama?" He inquires.

[accursing]

"Yes."

Like many of his previous answers, Ryuji speaks with absolute certainty. However, the only difference is that with this one, there's almost a hint of reverence in it. It's a vague difference in his regular tone of voice and likely unnoticeable unless the prosecutor knows what to look for.

"I do."

[pianogavin]

Klavier doesn't quite know what to look for, and he can tell something is different but not, perhaps, what. Instead, he makes a mental note of it and forges ahead.

"So when you cursed Herr Kaneda, you did so with the full intention of killing him?"

[accursing]

"I did so with the full intention of making him apologise for his preconceived notions of them being false." His lips pucker just slightly, but return to a relaxed line after. "He wished to be cursed, so he was."

And he happened to die after isn't a good way to end a statement, but it's tacked there all the same with the power of suggestion. Ryuji's hands gently unfold themselves only so he can lean back in his seat. He's outlined his side of the story, he thinks. There's no reason to be rigid for it any more.

[pianogavin]

"If you truly do believe in curses, then you were essentially dooming a man to die for being, what seems to me, a nothing more than a petulant idiot," Klavier sighs with a hint of humor and a bitter twitch of the mouth, "Is that an accurate read of the situation?"

He toys with a ring on his finger, tone dropping back to seriousness, "Did you hesitate before handing the man a death sentence? Did you think about what that meant?"