Planet Genesis -- The Capitol

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She chuckled, "It is, trust me I been there." Softly her face faltered before returning back to normal. "anyway... i uh have no clue what else to ask." Thaila said sheepishly.

"Do you believe that all these kind things he did were done out of desire to help you, or desire to gain your kindness and loyalty?" the prosecutor asked Starr.

"You would have to allow him to speak to his own thoughts at the time of his helping us to know his thoughts of that time." Starr said with a smile "I found him to be lonely and wanting friendships, but that is an opinion."

"You seem to be of the opinion that he can be trusted," the prosecutor said, "Is that true?"

"I do have that opinion. I would trust him and have, even with my life." Starr said honestly then looked to Merith and smiled, adding a joking tone for a moment before getting serious again "His timing could have been a little better, but still, he could easily have ignored our plight and left us to the humanists and their plans for us 'aliens' but he came to save us that day."

"I see," the prosecutor nodded. "Thank you. That will be all for now."

Starr nodded and looked around the room again "Merith is not evil, misguided and with some sins to atone for, but not evil. Remember that he chose to come here and face his past when he easily could have turned away or made us go anywhere else in the universes." She said before taking her seat.

The Inquisitors looked annoyed at her last words, but didn't say anything.

"Shut up, princess, you had your turn to talk!" Someone from the other side of the room yelled.

Starr looked over to that side of the room with a frown. "I am Queen Starr Gemma Nicolati of the Star Dragon Empire, and yes, I was given my turn to talk, unlike the rudeness of interrupting a trial in progress as you have done. My turn is over and the next to speak I will assume is young Shane here?" She turned her head, posing the question to the inquisitors though she stayed seated.

The anamcara who had interrupted glared and opened their mouth to retort, but one of the Inquisitors pounded his gavel and shouted, "Order in the court! If either of you speak out of turn again, you will be held in contempt, do you understand?" He glared at the anamcara especially until they nodded meekly, then looked to Shane, "Mr. Jenkins, please state your defense."

Starr dipped her head and settled in her seat to watch the rest of the trial.

Shane blinked, looking to the Inquisitor then to Starr then over to the Amancara. Wow, what a thing to follow up. He took a breath then stood to give his version, again citing the good that had been done but not glossing over the bad either. He added on that he would trust Merith as he was now, though he hoped a cure for his affliction could be found and fixed like his genetic code had been.

"What do you believe would be a fair punishment for Merith's crimes?" The prosecutor said, "You seem more willing to admit his crimes than some of your friends."

Shane tilted his head at that then shook it "I don't think anyone here is denying he did bad things, like blowing that planet up over grief of his daughter being murdered, though that was before the creator fixed him. To be honest, I don't know what his punishment should be, though making him fight the bad keepers could be part of that, but that in turn could make that ax thing take him over again which would make him not be him again..."
He paused then shrugged "We all change and grow as people when we find something to love. For him, it's our crew, Heny, his children, Vanessa. Isn't that what learning leads us to? Forgiveness of past wrongdoings so that we can grow as people?" If not, then he had better be sure not to even mention his past crimes. He certainly wasn't the same person he had been before getting on Vestia. "We are a crew of misfits, and maybe that is what it takes to change a misfit, a place where they can be accepted based on who they are now and who they can grow to become in the future, without the 'bad' of the past overshadowing everything. No one is perfect and no one should be held to the standard of perfect. We tried to give him a way of not coming here, tried to make him leave on one of the smaller ships on Vestia, but he insisted on coming here and taking responsibility for his crimes. He tries to think none of us like him anymore, because of the bad he has done since we have known him, but we are his friends still. Every one of us knows that everyone makes mistakes and the best way to get past those mistakes is to learn from them then move on and try to be a better person after."

"No matter what else happens, I will still be his friend. I will not hold his past against him. Especially not with the looming war that will come."

Ellie gave Shane an adoring look. She'd liked him before today obviously, but hearing him talking so eloquently, while looking so hot in his suit, was kind of life-changing. Or maybe just hot. It was hard to tell right now. Oops.

The prosecutor nodded, there wasn't a whole lot he could question Shane about there, so he switched to a different topic. "And how long have you known Merith?"

(um...whatever the date was they visited Mars, lol)
Shane answered the simple question even though it was less than the year Ellie and the others had known Merith

"You've seen a fair bit of Merith's personality by now, then. Have you feared for your safety due to his actions, which your colleagues have reported to be at times irresponsible and selfish?" The prosecutor asked.

Shane shook his head then shrugged "No. Starr has been teaching me my magic and I know how to defend myself from things like his pet. I was scared when we were in the hands of the Family, but we escaped them together. I was scared when the one we named Todd came onboard and threatened us, because we could see that he had no remorse for his actions, even afterwards. Merith doesn't like being bad, not from what I have seen of him, not like Todd or the Family members we came face to face with. Merith does like joking around and sometimes pushing people out of their comfort zones, but every time he's been talked to about or admitted what he has done wrong, it has been with remorse for his actions or part in whatever the bad thing was. I don't think he would let the kids be hurt by his pet, or really anyone else on our ship, not if he could do anything about it." He said then looked to Kay "Though I wasn't there for the hand-biting thing Kay spoke about. Most of the time I think we forgot Merith even had a pet at all, because it wasn't seen often. I think I saw it once, and that was after we docked here, when that other guy came to visit?"

"Who is Todd?" The prosecutor asked.

The rogue keeper we gave a name to because he never gave us his name." Shane answered then shrugged "We still don't know his real name, but that guy is powerful and scary and looked like a teenager. He was running from the Family too I believe." He glanced to the others to get an affirmation or head shake 'no' on that part.

Matt nodded, damn creator. Those guys were dicks.

Asher nodded as well. That sounded right.

The Inquisitors looked a bit disturbed. Creators terrorizing people, that was not something anyone liked to hear.

The prosecutor nodded. "All right. I have no more questions for you, you may be seated."

(That's everyone, right? Now what do we do at this trial? Just get the news about the Family really fast so we don't have to try and do more court proceedings?)

(hahaha gimmie a mo and I can set things up over on Vestia. Uh.. court stuff does courty stuff. Maybe they'll question Merith? I doubt he'll say much though, he didn't seem overly keen on defending himself previously. So er... maybe show some footage of various stuff? I dunno. They do courty things for a bit. We can kinda gloss over? haha)

(Okay, I'll write up a summary thingy of what happens at this hearing. It'll be kinda vague but it should do. )

Dawn looked to her tablet when it vibrated, letting her know she got a message. She frowned and forwarded the message on to Kay, just so he would know. She told the hawk girls and Sawna and got up to slip out of the crowded building as quietly as she could.

Sawna decided to go with Dawn, just so the medic wouldn't be alone in the streets as tensions were so high.

Kay had his tablet on silent and honestly wasn't expecting it to vibrate suddenly. He jumped and stared at it.
It took a minute or two for him to realise that meant he had a message. he didn't get messages much okay?

It didn't feel like now was an appropriate time to be checking texts though, especially not with these inquisitors periodically looking down at them.
He half felt like they were all on trial too. Gulp.

As soon as they had a break he'd check it. For now he just looked appologetic at the inquisitor who glared at the sudden vibrating buzzing noise and ducked his head.

Next Merith was asked to speak for himself. He did, sort of, with many weak attempts at smirking and lots of attempts to give non-answers to the questions. It was pretty obvious he was terrified, but he was trying to seem cool. He didn’t really seem that interested in defending himself though, and honestly most of what he said could be considered somewhat bad for his public image.

The prosecution grilled him enthusiastically until he was called off by the Inquisitors, and then it was the offense’s turn to give their statements, which took a long time and included a lot of personal stories of what Merith had done, and even a few stories from people who had survived his experimentation. The statements weren’t even half finished when a small anamcara messenger floated up to an Inquisitor and whispered something in his ear, which made the giant’s eyes widen, and then a frown cross his face.

He called for everyone to wait and gave them permission to talk among themselves, then left the room with the other Inquisitors.

Kay frowned, looking to the others in concern. What was that about?

he remembered the tablet, tapping it to bring up the message Dawn had forwarded.

oh no.

He gulped, looking to Matt and shoving the tablet toward him.

Matt read it. "Shit..."

Asher watched the Inquisitors leave, nervous at their obvious concern about whatever they had just been told, looked over at Kay and Matt when he heard Matt swear. "What is it?" he asked quietly.

Ellie frowned at the Inquisitors' hasty exit. Huh. She didn't hear Matt though.