BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE GAME TOWER - END

[idolpro]

Who: Traitors and Survivors, Exael
Where: The Game Tower, and leaving it
When: Day 25, morning-- it appears that game lasted the bulk of day 24 into the night.

[ Abruptly, the nightmare ends.

You, in the rooms you kept restarting in, awoke. Before you can even panic, before even despair, the elevator doors were open in front of you to take you downstairs again. It could be a trap, sure, but your head is quiet— those fucking ghosts are gone. You also appear to be wet like someone dumped, perhaps, a bucket of holy water on you while you were asleep. All your wounds are gone, and you have been left bereft of any physical damage from your ordeal.

Unless you choose to take some with you. Nothing prevents you from taking any of your spoils downstairs with you, if you wish it, though all revolvers will have no ammo.

On the screens as you descend back to the lobby, Exael is clapping on screen, broadcast showing her in the mansion's entrance hall. "And so close the gates to this forbidden garden, and so closes this chapter of our story! Just as—" her hologram flickers as she doesn't seem to notice, chattering still to the cameras, "so too will—" fzzt, fzzt. Static, flickering, and then back into focus, "So give them all a hand! Everyone, you've done well! You stand before us still, ready to present us all with more marvels after having survived such grisly wonders with—" "—in the balance!"

As she speaks, she doesn't notice a figure approaching behind her. He's in a slick suit with both hands in his pockets, and you've seen him before— his portrait is in the foyer. His shoes are utterly silent as he walks across the marble floor, till he's right at her back.

"Audience and actors alike, we've been blessed with—" Her hologram doesn't flicker this time, but she stops speaking. Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to figure out what's amiss, and only belatedly begins to slowly look over her shoulder.

"Exael," he says with a friendly hand on her solidifying hologram shoulder, the effect spreading beneath his touch, "We need to have a chat about your requisitions paperwork."

She tilts her head, eyes wide with a finger tapping against her cheek as she thinks, "I didn't do any!"

"Yes," he agrees, smiling with all his teeth. "I know."

The broadcast cuts. The doors open to let you leave. ]

Comments

[bevoted]

[ if Persephone is waiting for him to talk first he's going to be waiting for...... a while. he's not shaking, or even crying. not yet. he's just. leaning there, his eyes closed. as if he had actually fallen asleep. honestly maybe he did.


but eventually he just breathes in. and breathes out. heavy. shaky. ]

Persephone, [ he hasn't even opened his eyes. hasn't even looked up to make sure it's him. he just. knows somehow. ] I'm sorry.....

[forgottenmercy]

[just going to sit with him in silence, then. hum a little, soothingly.] You don't need to apologize to me.

[bevoted]

[ ..hh...ha ha. ]

I have. A lot to apologize for.

[forgottenmercy]

...maybe, ah, so. But not really to, ah, me.

[bevoted]

.... I couldn't protect you.

[ there was. a lot going on at the time but. ] I should have... stuck by you. Except... even if I had done that, I... [ do. thought crimes need to be apologized for.

well the problem is in order to apologize for them he'd have to admit to having them and then Persephone would actually know about them and he's. not sure. if he wants that either. ]

... I wasn't in my right mind. I know that. But that doesn't excuse any of it...

[forgottenmercy]

...I don't think anyone I talked to was in their right mind: you, Anubis, Lucifel, and Kuzuebiko. I don't know what was happening, exactly, but I knew that. You don't have to tell me everything, if you're not ready to talk about it, but could you please explain...that? [headpats him soothingly as he talks.]

[bevoted]

[ god he's honestly trying real hard to not give into the ghosts of anxiety that tell him to be wary of headpats right now. ... so he just ducks his head down further. he's not sure if it's making it easier or harder, that Persephone is being so reasonable in the face of... all this.

- wait, what? ]

Explain... "that"?

[forgottenmercy]

[Persephone is being genuinely reasonable, too, because Loki is one of His People. outside of that small group...not actually so much.] ...I didn't, ah, get very far, but even so there were, um, things happening that were...affecting my mind. [says the person who was mechanically sane.] Was that, ah, what happened to you? And to, ah, everyone...?

[bevoted]

[ mechanically sane. that's a little concerning... but also not surprising. when he has the time and the mental capacity to think about it he could even draw similarities between Persephone and Lucifel in that way.......

his brows furrow as his gaze shifts to the ground. somewhat unfocused. for many reasons, but the foremost being that... he's trying to figure out. how to even grasp what all of that was. ]

No... yes. I mean. .... a lot of it was. But a lot of it was also... [ just. him. ]

.... it affected all of us differently, I think.

[forgottenmercy]

...what, ah, exactly was 'it'?

[bevoted]

.... vengeful spirit. A woman scorned, who couldn't accept rejection or the idea of being alone.

She wanted revenge. .... she was so... bitter. And angry. And alone...

[forgottenmercy]

...ah, a ghost. She, ah, possessed people... [>thanks to this prompting, he remembers that he actually knows quite a bit about ghosts.]

[bevoted]

That's my best guess at least. It's... [ hard to think about. right now. every time he does he either wants to be sick or shut down or both. ]

At the time, I wasn't really thinking about it...

[forgottenmercy]

...I'm, ah, sorry I couldn't help you more.

[bevoted]

[ .... pf. ] That's another 50 points.

[ but before Persephone can actually pay him IT'S A JOKE PERSEPHONE he moves on ]

There's nothing you could have done. I was in there... for a lot longer than you. By the time you showed up it's a miracle I held myself together at all...

[forgottenmercy]

[did persephone just transfer the points anyway, even though loki gave them back last time? yes he did.]

...I, ah, see. I still wish there was, ah, something more I could have done. Even if...

[bevoted]

[ persephone please he doesn't even have the brain power right now to send them right back, he's sending them back as soon as he sees them. ]

No. [ it's not quite. firm just. decisive. ] You did enough. ... I know you got killed. I'm sorry. I couldn't protect you... but I'm glad that you were on there for one round. At least....

[forgottenmercy]

You don't, ah, need to apologize.

And I, ah, knew I wasn't going to leave alive. But I was, ah, glad to not be alone.

[bevoted]

[ he wants to say "you could have", but. ... .... ]

..... I... don't want to argue with you. If that's how you feel, and if you're okay with that outcome. ..... but it doesn't change how I feel either. I failed to protect you.

[forgottenmercy]

I was, ah, the one who ran off alone. That really, ah, didn't help you with that at all...

[sighs] ...though, ah, I should really tell you something.

[bevoted]

[ "if you didn't do that I would have probably killed you myself"... goes unsaid for now. maybe forever. who knows. ]

What is it?

[forgottenmercy]

...I knew what you, ah, wanted when you wanted to go to the chapel for a wedding. [he knew the traitor goal, too. also he was sort of a kissmurderer, loki, you saw his first memory.]

And I, ah, agreed.

[bevoted]

[ .....a......a......

sorry Loki isn't available right now and he's really not sure how to respond to that.

give him a second. ]


You... wanted to be murdered by me?

[forgottenmercy]

I'd already, ah, concluded that I was not going to come out of the game alive. And if, ah, I were to die, I would rather be killed by someone I cared about.

...besides, the idea of that wedding seemed to, ah, make you happy.

[bevoted]

[ ... god... alright. well. that's kind of a lot to process right after he got out of murderhouse. ]

......... I don't know if it made me happy, or if I just thought it would. Killing you wouldn't have made me happy either. ... it just seemed like... the only option at the time. Back then, I was afraid... of everyone leaving me, of everyone figuring out who I really was and hating me. So I thought "if I kill them myself, before they can leave me on their own, then it will be fine even if they hate me".

[ god. he grimaces, shaking his head. it's awful to say it out loud when he's actually not possessed right now. ]

It was stupid. I was... stupid.