Endgame

[idolpro]

Who: You lot
Where: Game Tower
When: Day 155, sunset

[ The house is silent; you awaken in your starter rooms, with injuries healed and the gripping hold of possession released as though it were all a dream.

It wasn't though, was it? The scars that remain, whether physical or emotional, are proof of that. If you need more proof, well - when the elevator opens for you once more, to take you back down to ground level, you'll find you can carry whatever is on your person back down with you as souvenirs, although their effects don't carry over.

Once you take the elevator down, you'll find most everyone else there too - most everyone, anyway. Some are missing, and . . . well, the doors to the outside aren't opening to let anyone out, although non-participants may enter to fret over their loved ones.

Soon enough, once the last elevators go down, the doors will unlock and you'll be free to hurry home, as the last rays of the sun disappear behind the skyline. Night is coming once more. ]

Comments

[we_meet_again]

So you were here too...

[Cobalt's spattered head to toe in blood. The shirt he's wearing is not pep!pep! standard issue, and the whole front of it is completely ruined -- torn open across the chest, with most of the buttons popped off.]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Cobalt.

COBALT.

That is a lot of blood]

Seems like all of us were.

Not even our newest idols were spared.

[Laughs. Mirthlessly.]

Must have had to bump up ratings due to maintenance.

[we_meet_again]

[Don't worry, it's mostly his own.]

What a terrible first game.

Do you think it'll make the others seem easier by comparison?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

No.

But I think it will make them more jumpy in the subsequent ones.

And who knows what rivalries are going to spring out of this one.

[we_meet_again]

Is that what happened the last time this game was run?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

It did.

But the landscape of the production has also changed since then.

It was the first game where someone died. Death was still a thing to be feared. And we were down three units.

[we_meet_again]

I guess we'll have to wait and see, then.

[He rubs his face, tired]

Was this the same house as last time?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Almost.

Had some additions. Was ... missing a few things.

[we_meet_again]

The timing for this game seems too convenient.

Considering the expense to run this game, I can't imagine someone would have brought us here for ratings alone.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

We can talk specifics later.

[Points to the blood]

What the fuck happened to you?

[we_meet_again]

...

Stabbed to death once. Killed someone. Got into a spear fight and killed someone else. Then someone put—


—put something in my chest, and—

[he can't seem to get the words out. He swallows, tight.]



...Sorry. I don't think I can talk about it right now.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

...

You have a place you can go to tonight?

[we_meet_again]

Yeah. Just, home. I want to go home and take a shower and sleep for a year.

How are you holding up?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Never died.

[Technically]

But still a lot of clean-up to do.

[we_meet_again]

I don't doubt it.

Have you already had a chance to check in with your unit?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Making the rounds now.

...

I think Duality is having the roughest time.

[we_meet_again]

Oh dear...

He's a sweet kid. No wonder it'd hit him hard...

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Keeps silent and neutral at that. Yes. He just murdered one of his best friends.

Like you do.

In the house.]

Yes.

He has a lot to... unpack. Hopefully soon -- when they bore of our vacant expressions as entertainment and fucking open the doors.