imeeji_frontstage | BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE GAME TOWER

BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE GAME TOWER - END

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. ]

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[ 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....

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.

[ 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.

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.

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

What is it?

...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.

[ .....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?

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.

[ ... 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.

Ghosts are...ah, memories. And it, ah, is even worse when the lower soul is involved. There's, ah, nothing left but rage and pain and hunger.

[persephone and ghost lore???]

...you don't, ah, know where you and the ghost began and ended, do you?

[ ... yeah that's a hell of a lot more than he knew about ghosts. but he just kind of accepts that Persephone knows more about ghosts than he does. it all sounds like it makes sense, anyways. rage, and pain, and hunger....

... eventually. he nods. ]

Even though I wouldn't do any of that now. .... it's like it knew just the right buttons to push, and what parts of myself it could use.

...maybe that's, ah, why we had that ghost. Maybe there was, ah, something in all of us that it could use. A resonance, as it, ah, were.

[pause] ...I don't think, ah, it would have helped if I'd remembered all this during the game. I, ah, don't even know why I know so much about ghosts. Maybe I was, ah, an exorcist as part of being a shrine maiden?

[narrator: he was not.]

... mmm... [ that also sounds. like a reasonable theory. it might be something he wants to look into later. when he's not vacillating sporadically between actually being able to think about what happened and wanting to sink into the earth and disappear. ]

Maybe. I don't know how useful it would have been, though. [ ha... ] These "producers" are sadists. They wanted a specific outcome, and that's exactly what they got.

Probably, ah, not very useful, especially in the moment. And there, ah, definitely wouldn't have been salt around. [nods in agreement re: the producers] It was, ah, inevitable.

... I don't know about that. I found a lot of weird stuff in there.

Salt can, ah, be used to ward against ghosts. So if the, ah, producers wanted us to be possessed, then I doubt that they would leave any in the house.

There was a larder... with fish. In a can. ... and uh. A girl... doll. Thing. With pink hair. [ he's now just kind of. retreated into trying to remember what all was in the house. besides murder. ]

I think there was a dining room somewhere.... or a kitchen.... you'd think they'd have salt there.

... there was some weird bondage room too.

...weird, ah, bondage room?

This sounds like, ah, a large house...

... you probably didn't even make it farther than the basement...

[shakes his head] ...four, ah, rooms. I didn't even, ah, make it to the chapel.

... hah. Maybe it was better that you didn't.

[ like he's smiling but it's Tired and even a little bitter. ]

...maybe it, ah, was. Though I, ah, didn't mean to get Anubis killed, too, following me.

[looks away for a moment]

....... you shouldn't feel bad for that. You're not the one who killed you both. And Anubis made his choice to follow you.

...I, ah, know he made his choice to follow me. But I, ah, knew what Kuzuebiko intended when I went with him...

[did not go with him unknowing, is what he's saying.]

.... [ well that just makes you smarter than he was, Persephone. ]

[ he just... kind of sighs out. honestly he's been through a lot and he's tired, and he's not really sure what to make of any of this aside from. "Persephone is perfectly capable of murder". which maybe, to some degree, he already knew. ]

Well next time you decide to follow a murderer, don't do it on your own.

(no subject)

forgottenmercy - 2018-08-16 18:51 (UTC) - Expand

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