imeeji_frontstage | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Champions & Losers
Where: The Game Tower & the walk back home
When: Day 78 evening

[ Finally, the elevators open for everyone to leave. As they open to ground floor, confetti balls pop open from the ceiling, with "CONGRATULATIONS!" banners hanging in the lobby of the Game Tower.

The television screens are on this time, broadcasting some choice moments while radio announcers excitedly chatter - they're loud, but you can probably make out the audio from the television if you concentrate. Occasionally, the television also flips to a kill count tracker, as well as a ranking system.

"Listeners, this was sooo hard for us to choose. All the contestants were so good! But there can only be winners and losers, so here we go - "

"Up first, our most vicious underdogs! You cheered and cheered for them, listeners, and they heard your voices! It's ☆ZRAEL in first place, with the most kills! They did so well they even got a second category of most brutal murder - "

"It was the boat, right? It was totally the boat!"

"Couldn't it be the rock!? That was so brutal!"

"Well, that's ☆ZRAEL for you, they're sooo ruthless! So cute, best unit! ♥"

"wwww we have a ☆ZRAEL fan here wwww"

"Next up for most individual kills is avante en garde - Cardigan tooooooootally carried you guys wwww"

"Speaking of carry, did you see Whiskers with those strategic kills on WILD CITY!? He's a sneaky bastard!"

"Fucking bastard!"

"Yeah!"

"But my heart honestly broke when I saw A Bird With Blue Wings . . . AlcheME!, man . . . they just hit you straight in the heart with that most emotional kill. . . Damn. . ."

"Speaking of hearts, Heart Soldier Senshi - they were really good, huh? Best co-op kill of the game! Totally like O●●●wa●●●, right?"

"Yeah, it was like I was watching a match on O●●●wa●●●. I don't usually watch those though wwww"

"Last but definitely not least! sensitIV!"

"You know, they didn't do half bad."

"Yeah, it was honestly pretty average."

"But Nyarlathotep was so great! His struggle to survive! He'd even put more arms on himself to do it!"

"Do you think he could attach even more on himself? I want to see that, now!"

"Hahaha! Well, that's all the time we have for today listeners, but you should definitely watch all these choice moments - the audience picked them! Here comes our highlight reel!"

The chatter goes on, becoming indistinct and eventually fading out. The television screen is still playing the highlight reel, though.

☆ZRAEL, avante en garde, WILD CITY, AlcheME!, Heart Soldier Senshi, and sensitIV will find their wounds healing, leaving behind no scars - they'll also find 800 points in their bank, though ☆ZRAEL will find that they get a bonus for a total of 1000 points from this game. Everyone else will find 100 points in their bank, and they'll also have to get themselves their own healing.

Something to note though, is that Hurricane is missing. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Now she's going to fuss.]

Is that what you have to say about that?

What?

It was a good shot! I didn't even know he was there.

And he blew your head off. Be a little more annoyed.

And then what? Give him a stern talking to.

Please.

He deserved the kill and the win for that.

This game wasn't just a contest of skill.

Yes yes. It was also to show off that we're capable of creating conflict for good entertainment. And apparently---

[Gesturing to the screen]

There are many of us capable of just that.

So you're fine that he just shot you in the head on request for the sake of good entertainment?

We had a "discussion" the first week he arrived here.

On whether the win was more important than the loser knowing who the identity of the winner. You can guess who advocated for which side.

Looks like his ideology worked for this match. I'll have to prove mine in a later game.

Did it work? How are you defining "more important" here?

. . .

Why are you more upset about this than I am?

Why do you think?!

I died in a game that had a killing objective. Wow. Shocking.

If I were to get upset each and every time it happened, I'd be as useless as those jokers on Bad End.

Nothing about getting upset when you die makes you useless.

Well then what's "useful" about it?

...I could make the argument that it's part of a survival drive to not die again, or discourage other people from doing it repeatedly. But it doesn't actually have to be "useful" either. It can just be... how you feel about it.

Does everything have to boil down to feelings for you?

Not everything, but we were literally talking about the feeling of being upset, and my conclusion was that you can feel it. I don't think that's a particularly wild conclusion.

Upset, huh?

Yes, I am fucking upset. I'm upset that people kill or hurt someone out of passion or stupidity or make-believe ghosts or whatever excuse of the week they want to use, and then don't fucking own up to it.

I'm upset that most people have traded caring about the trauma of the day instead of seeing the big picture and the end game.

I'm upset that I had to fight off people I respect because they are too engrossed in drowning me in their stupid fucking morals to let me play as I see fit. Or that they only see things as black and white.

And I'm upset that I had to waste a perfectly good round looking for clues Exael might have left us in the game fighting off a pep!pep! brat because I beat his twincest-soulbounded-facetwin in a previous round on an agreed upon duel.

And among all that bullshit - I would consider Whisky shooting me in the head a fucking relief against the other garbage I had to deal with.

...

[Those are certainly some feelings. She takes a deep breath, in and out]

And I'm not allowed to be upset that you're in a position where someone shooting you in the head is a relief to you?

You're allowed to feel whatever the fuck you want.

Just don't tell me what I should or should not be fucking upset about.

...I would just like it if your bar for satisfaction was a little higher than being murdered straightforwardly, that's all.

Why? Some people don't even manage to clear that much.

I haven't been killed at all so far. Have you suddenly become a lot more willing to compromise?

[Bristles like a fucking porcupine]

Well congratulations.

What do you want? A round of fucking applause.

No, I want you to stop acting like dying doesn't matter to you. It's because if you admitted it did, it would mean admitting something terrible happened to you against your will multiple times, and you can't handle that loss of control, right?

But it's worse this way. By pretending it's fine whether you live or die, you're giving up on it entirely. You're admitting you have no control over it at all. And you're letting other people make that decision for you.