No Encores | Execution | Chapter 1
There's hardly any time to react to the stunning development before another of the metal plates on the walls slides open and something comes shooting out, almost too fast to see before one end of it has closed around Hidehisa’s neck. A metal clamp, not quite a collar but securely grabbing them nevertheless and then - just like that, they’re gone. Yanked backwards into the darkness of the wall, which scrapes shut again promptly behind them, barring any attempts to follow or mount a rescue.
Within minutes there’s the sound of more movement - this time from above, as a massive screen descends from the ceiling and lights up. Images flicker onto it, settling into high definition.
NO ENCORES
[CW: Falling, Head Trauma, Serious Injuries, Written Gore]
The background scenery deconstructed then transformed into something else entirely, laying flat and then springing forward as a new location like a children’s pop-up book, cardboard caricature. A pair of glimmering fabrics, one black, one white, descended from the ceiling.The gentle rippling of the cloth soothed his ears followed by the hum of an excited crowd. He faced the new set, a circus just like home. What better way to mock him with a final performance. The disheveled, weepy Hidehisa couldn’t refuse despite the circumstances. A gig was a gig after all. It called to him. He forced the biggest smile he could ever muster and secured himself in the aerial silks.Â
The audience, composed of faceless androids, roared as he took off. It was a basic routine, nothing too spectacular- they didn’t pay. They didn’t deserve his best. He twisted and twirled, impressing no one. Slowly, his routine lost vigor, and soon, Hidehisa hung there, taking his final moments of suspension before ascension.The faux crowd soured in an instant, fizzing recorded playback booing his idleness. He did his all to ignore them, until yet another android wobbled up to him in stilts, carting a cartoonishly large pair of scissors. Hidehisa’s watery eyes widened, then closed shut. Surely he’d perish falling to the floor from this height, his greatest fear, the most despairing of executions. Without further warning, the scissors clip shut over the silks.
The trapeze artist plummeted to the floor with a sickening crack. He couldn’t move. His ribs pierced his lungs. His skull had split in two. And yet, he was still alive. A broken sob creaked from his fragmented body. Why was he still alive!? Through the wooziness of his fading consciousness, he heard... an ambulance? Though the pain of a thousand hells, he managed to lift his head. He was saved.Â
Or not. He wasn’t.Â
Riding in on a toy car was another android, with a smile painted on its blank face and a red clown nose glued in place. It honked and spun donuts around Hidehisa for the audience’s malicious recorded mirth. It even ran over his near- corpse a few times. But wait! Can't forget the showstopper! A single robotic hand lifted and smashed down on a dangerous red button. Something clicked from above and the clown car skedaddled. What could be worse than this?Â
An anvil, that’s what.
Right out of a cartoon and onto the stage, Hidehisa was put out of his misery with a horrendous ten thousand tons, staining the front row in his entrails and fluids. Should’ve brought a raincoat.
HIDEHISA MURAHASHI, ULTIMATE TRAPEZE ARTIST, HAS BEEN EXECUTED.
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[Art Credit: Kaz/Ley]
