Confessor Imori, 5 Armed Confessors arrive, following Tikva.

Oh gosh, oh gee, this is one SCARY LOOKING set up -- as young troublemakers are filed in one by one, the Velenosa princess paces up and down the room and rough looking inmates growl from their cells.

Except... one of them is a really bad actor. Like, PAINFULLY bad. His growls are too big; he's pushing. He earns a scowl from Saoirse and a smirk from a few of the kids, one of whom is whispering about how to get into Adult Only establishments throughout Arx.

Fecundo has come in, perhaps out of sheer curiosity, taking up a spot along one of the back walls. He is just watching how this will play out, one might think.

2 Armed Confessors, Gia the peregrine falcon, 3 Rubino and Zaffria guards, Rary the Lycene beauty arrive, following Grazia.

The terrible actor in his inmate's cell shuffles in the face of that Velenosa Stare and looks at his feet. Shit. Ruined it, didn't he? As the man processes his own guilty conscious, Saoirse waits for the malcontents (YOUTHS!) to sit. Once they do, she gestures to the cells. "This could be you. Or," oh hey! Tikva! Saoirse points to the pretty pretty princess with cool clothes. "THAT could be you." The entire room turns to look at Tikva.

In this case, Tikva is kitted out in full inquisitorial regalia, the fine leathers and rubicund of her armor a dull gleam of blood-dark scarlet but for the candles' flames that glimmer golden at her collar and bracers. The short fluff of her sunset hair is a lot less dramatic than the outfit, but she tries. Lifting her hand to begin to wave, it occurs to her that there's not a lot of drama in waving, so she drops her hand again and says, "Hello. I'm Inquisitor Tikva Grayson. I work here!" (Her voice is bright and quite cheerful. There is very little scary about Tikva.)

For a moment, Fecundo looks between Saoirse and Tikva, perhaps doing a comparison as he watches the presentation. He can't help but smile at contrast, shaking his head softly. He does not interrupt and stays out of the line of sight of the kids as best he can.

Grazia is, on the other hand, fairly intimidating. Dressed in Inquisitorial black and red, which are conveniently her house colors, which explains the proliferation of feathers on her clothing, she cuts a somewhat imposing picture. Nonetheless, she moves to stand near Tikva, a very neutral expression on her face.

Saoirse's dark expression deepens a little bit and as Tikva talks, she scoots toward the back of the room to whisper to Fecundo. After whispering, she scoots back to the front. The kids aren't really scared - one is still staring at the terrible actor in the cell, the others are starting to hoot and holler over Tikva. It's going to be chaos.

One of the kids heckles Tikva, saying something dirty. Back slaps all around. Saoirse looks at Fecundo and nods once. Go, go! she seems to say.

"As you can see," Tikva says with a grand wave of her hand, "the House of Questions can be a forbidding and intimidating place! It has a long and storied history of seeking out hidden enemies of the Crown! Now, are /you/ enemies of Crown? I bet you're not going to say yes!"

Fecundo's schools his face into an even mask and pushes off the back wall. His hand is on the pommel of his sword, but it isn't drawn and he stalks towards the front of area, seeming to head in the direction of Tikva, Saoirse and Grazia, "What are you doing wasting the time of these miscreants. They're not going to learn anything from the fake criminals behind the bars there. They ned to know what it's really like when things go wrong." Now he draws his sword, seeming not concerned about the number of guards and looking like he means business.

Saoirse checked composure + performance at difficulty 15, rolling 1 lower.

Grazia folds her arms in front of her chest and looks sternly intimidating, which might just be her resting bitchface.

The guards look at each other. The kids look at each other. Everyone seems ....confused. Saoirse rushes to the center of the room, toward Fecundo, and cries, "Oh! Oh no! Oh help! It's -- it's a DEMON WORSHIPPER." The kids are like:wtf? The guards pause with their hands on their pommels. And Saoirse, such as she is, is Not a Good Actress. To the youths, Saoirse gestures wildly. "Quick, get back! And let the guards," she motions to Tikva and Grazia, "of the inquisition show you what happens when you're a," she waggles her fingers. "Demon worshipper!"

Fecundo checked charm + performance at difficulty 15, rolling 9 higher.

Fecundo is not a terrible actor and he stays in the role, though is moving at a proper pace to let the guards and inquisitors intercept him before he actually gets to the kids. He does not, however break character, waiting to see if the kids flinch or the guards get to him.

Tikva checked composure + performance at difficulty 15, rolling 48 higher.

Grazia checked composure + intimidation at difficulty 15, rolling 14 higher.

Grazia is a terrible actor, so she just glares at the children and lets Tikva do the acting, arms crossed across her chest, looking particularly put out.

Tikva fwips the badge she wears on a chain necklace and holds it up. "Stop, evildoer!" she declaims. It's very dramatic. "By the authority vested in me of the Master of Questions, I must arrest you in the name of the Crown! Submit for questioning so that we may attain the names of your accomplices in Abyssal Consort!"
Her confessors stomp forward to help make the actual arrest. Because, Tikva's weapon is a bow. It's not going to help in close quarters.
"Once we wore masks specifically to represent the facelessness of Justice, but the Master of Questions has determined that an inquisitor must stand behind the courage of her convictions and look into the face of those we accuse!" Tikva goes on with fierce passion in her voice.

Some of the kids have no idea if this is real anymore. One of them, confused expression on his face, asks, "Wait, howdya know if someone's a demon worshipper?" His friends whack him to be quiet, there's an arrest going on! They sit, riveted, and Saoirse leans in reeeeal close. "You don't know. ANYone could be a demon worshipper. You. Or even /me/," she whispers terrifyingly to the boy. "The work of the Inquisition is to wheedle that information out -- and CRUSH anyone who dares go against humanity." And with that, the princess turns back to the unfolding scene, which was presumedly paused while she delivered such an ominous message.

While he puts up a fight, for the show of the kids, Fecundo doesn't really doesn't put all of his effort into it, allowing himself to be subdued, but running his mouth at the same time, "I'm not alone. You'll see. There are more even if you get me." He glares at Tikva, Grazia, Saoirse and the kids.

"It's sometimes very difficult to tell," Tikva agrees, sorrowfully. "It does require a lot of focused attention and surveillance. But as this gentleman here demostrates--" She gestures, as two confessors wrestle Fecundo's arms behind his back, "--many evildoers are connected to each other, and that means that we can ask them lots of questions. Even if they don't want to tell us where their friends are, we train and study different ways to trick them with our questions so that they'll give us more information than they mean to! Like when your parents trick you into admitting you haven't done your chores!"

None of these kids know wtf Tikva is talking about. Chores? Parents? It breaks the illusion for them and they start to get rowdy again, laughing and shoving each other. One or two keep watching, but by and large, they figure this is fake and kids will be kids, aka: jerks.

A guard gets into it, arresting ("arresting") Fecundo and declaring, "You'll never harm anyone ever again!" all DRAMATIC like.

Fecundo lets himself be drug off, even put in one of the cells by the other actors, But doesn't make any more noise, letting the others do the talking.

Grazia continues to be grumpy about anything and everything, arms crossed and neutral expression on her face. She does keep an eye on her cousin, though. Can't have him really getting arrested, after all.

"Now, not all of the crime we investigate is Abyssal Consort. That is merely the oldest and most scary of the crimes on our rolls," Tikva says. "There are many traitors to the Crown, murderers, kidnappers, and thieves of a grand scale, and we are tasked by His Majesty with finding them all."
When Tikva says the word 'kidnappers', she looks very concernedly at the squalling kids they're addressing, like someone is about to STEAL THEM at ANY MOMENT.

"And do you want to end up..." Saoirse whips an arm to point at the criminals behind bars, "LIKE THEM???" The kids peer at the cells, staring at the thieves and murderers and kidnappers who glare out of their cells. "They get square meals?" a particularly skinny kid snarks, to great laughter.

"If they cooperate," Tikva says mildly.

Fecundo shakes the door to the cage, maybe in an attempt to make the kids jump. He still hasn't taken that cold look off his face.

"So -- don't crime. Do Inquisit," Saoirse concludes, narrowing her eyes at the kids. That seems to be the conclusion, such as it is. "Or you'll end up like Lord Fecundo over there." With that, the children are gathered up and marched back to the Lowers, where they probably WILL crime and NOT inquest. But maybe they'll stay petty thieves.