imeeji_frontstage | BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE GAME TOWER

BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE GAME TOWER - Session 11

Who: Exael and the rest of you lot
When: To be inserted into the timeline after completion
What: Betrayal at the House on the Game Tower

[ The GAME ALERT and map show on the screen of your phones— idols, you know what to do!

The Game Tower elevator doors are open to receive, and close once they have you in their confines and the broadcast monitors click on. You can keep an eye on the city further and further below you, as watch with your host's introduction to today's game.

At the very least it's not Mukuro's face on the screen this time. Instead it's Exael again, pigtails bouncing as she hops up from a grand low bow— it looks like they cut part of her broadcast spiel for you guys. With a showman's flair, she twirls and splays her arms as the camera zooms out to focus on a grand mansion, more Hollywood glamor than anything belonging in Tokyo.

"Summer has come to Tokyo, and so has the season's specialty: The Trial of Courage! Step right up, and charge right in because waiting won't help you at all! Here is a place even angels fear to tread! Azzy's very own, The House of Mirth and Betrayal! This place has a sordid past that casts a shadow as long as the valley of death, and soon our Idols will be adding their own pages to the tale!"

The elevator stops atop the central tower of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and then lurches unpleasantly, wrenching itself out of where elevators ought to go. The sudden movement jolts you, and when the doors open you spill out into into a room.

Hopefully, with not too much time missing. ]

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Ridiculous. I've already made a fool of myself once before, I don't need to make a fool of myself again.

What do you mean?

Such a period of courting only exacerbates the humiliation in the end.

Humiliation?

Come now.

[ patting his head, gentle but firm and with an impatient touch ]

Well, for example. Say you do date this person, say it doesn't go well - now you've bared your heart to someone who no longer carries such affections for you, someone who holds onto your weakness and flaws like a pointed stick. That's the best possible outcome: that they'll leave, having moderately damaged your heart.

Perhaps instead, they'll take you to the altar. Perhaps they'll promise you the world, the sky, the heavens and everything underneath - perhaps you'll wait on that fated day, to be their beloved for time eternal.

[ stroking his face now, his tone hitting a sort of manic calm ]

Perhaps you'll keep waiting for them. What else can you do, by this point? Keep waiting? Say you don't - then what?

Say you do.

The music stops. You're still waiting. Everyone else, your friends, your family, everyone you trusted - starts whispering. How pitiful. How wretched. How miserable. People who you knew and cherished, speaking of you with such disdain.

Where did that person go? Say, for example - they found someone else. No, perhaps they were always with someone else - why would they have been with you, then?

Perhaps it was out of pity. Perhaps it was to humiliate you.

Regardless, what should you do then? Consider it, briefly. If dating didn't work out in the first place, then that person might have learned a few things about you, a few intimate secrets - but someone who you were slated to marry? Someone who was meant to promise their life to you? At that point, those aren't pointed sticks - they're guns and bombs and poison, your greatest weak point. That person has it, now.

What should you do then?

Edited 2018-08-10 11:00 (UTC)

If someone you love betrays you, kill them.

[He's leaning into the hand of course, he loves fucking touches, just touch him more, he's so desperate for it. But anyway his angry ghost has an easy answer and the answer is murder? Obviously.]

Ahahaha!

[ with a fond laugh, and he threads his fingers through phoenix's hair now, gentle pets ]

Well, that's a good backup. But, the answer is "you shouldn't have gotten your hopes up in the first place".

[ you're both wrong but go off i guess ]

[This is fine and safe and he's still petting Loki's hair and leaning like a needy cat into Lucifel's touch.]

M-maybe. But is it... Wrong to have wanted to be happy? To have wanted love? I guess if you know you're just going to be betrayed, then... Maybe it's better to kill people before you can love them.

"Is it wrong to have wanted to be happy?"

[ with a soft laugh, you're so nice . . . you're soft . . . you like pets . . . he likes you ]

I've wondered this, you know. For some time, quite some time - well, I don't know about other people, but for me, I already know the answer to that.

[ and leaving it at that ]

Should I kill everyone, then . . . ?

[Just keep petting him and he'll keep petting Loki and honestly just never stop touching him it's fine. He's not sure what to make of this conversation. It seems really sad. But it's a given that everyone sells you out, loving them, wanting happiness, just wanting a decent life, it doesn't matter, no one can really be trusted.

It still makes his chest ache to think about, and tears sting his eyes again.]

Maybe. Maybe that's inevitable... But it hurts. To think that. That it's... Impossible to be happy.

Do you think it's wrong? What is your answer to that?

Is it impossible . . . ? Surely not. After all, I see others are happy . . . I can see that everyone is happy but myself. So . . . If anything, it must be impossible for me. It must be that . . . I am too wretched to deserve something so precious. I'm sure of that.

That sounds miserable.

[Just kinda blunt. That sounds like it sucks. But also, relateable?]

It is.

[ DUH ]

You decided you were wretched on your own.

[ it's really hard to actually sleep when you two are debating and Lucifel in particular keeps talking shit about himself. ]

Mm.

Are you guys, having relationship problems then?

[Obviously but.]

[ pffhahaha oh wait crap no, laughing hurts nevermind bad idea. ]

He also decided we're having relationship problems on his own.

I'm just saying what you won't say, even when you think it.

[ snappish ]

And, we aren't in that sort of relationship. I won't be humiliated again.

Did someone else break your heart?

He's just stupid and impressionable.

[ muttered, tired, without any venom. he's dying anyways he may as well call Lucifel stupid. ]

Oh yes, so much so that you could keep the wool over my eyes for this long. I'm incredibly dull and naive, of course.

[ i mean, apparently murder

so we're on the right track ]

[ they have learned so much about love this week ]

[Murder of course? Murder for sure.]

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