ENDGAME

[kentucky_mcgiygas]

[A wall panel in the green room slides out of view, revealing an elevator. Get in it and it will take you down to the hotel (description here), where your fellow contestants - alive and ghostly - await.

You may spend as long as you want here, ordering up as much room service as you like, but when you're read to go home, you'll find that one floor (new to the current hotel occupants) has nothing but doors with your names on them. Exit, and you'll show up exactly where you were when you left.]

((THANK YOU FOR PLAYING EVERYONE. Ghosts, feel free to materialize and talk to people. You may now speak about your prizes.))

Comments

[jinglebros]

You! You!

[ Help poor Niles, he's being tackles by a scarfed madman!

Or, you know, a very glad Santa. One of the two. ]

[locktouching]

[Drops his bow as he sees Aoi coming.]

Wait, your injuries--!

[Falls backwards onto the carpet, doing his best to cushion Aoi by wrapping arms around him.]

[jinglebros]

....ow!

[ Santa probably popped a few stitches but he doesn't really fucking care yet, he's just going to cling so hard to Niles okay. And maybe cry a little. And kiss his face a whole lot. ]

[locktouching]

Damn. I missed you so much.

[Kissing is nice, but he really just wants to hide his face against Aoi's chest and also cry some. He's been sunk in a deep misery ever since being hotelled.]

[jinglebros]

I almost hotelled myself so many times to come and be there for you! You must have been having so many nightmares all by yourself... I hated to think about it!

[ He lets Niles cry into his chest, petting the man's hair while he does so in an attempt to comfort him. ]

[locktouching]

Didn't I tell you you'd make it to the end?

[Brings Aoi up with him as he sits himself up, then rubs his eye with his palm.]

Yeah... the worst thing of all is that I wasn't there anymore for you or Lord Corrin. That I had no more ability to protect either of you... I had become so worthless...

[jinglebros]

You didn't become worthless. The idea of you kept him going. He finally stopped saying he would kill himself for others.

[ Leans against Niles and puts his arms around him, pulling him in close. ]

He knew he had to win if he wanted to see you again.

[locktouching]

[Surrenders his balance into leaning back against Aoi, hopefully not putting any pressure on his injuries.]

...I really wanted to see you again... back then. I wanted to be there to talk to you right away when you came back.

...To tell you how much I wanted you to stay with us.

[jinglebros]

...well, guess what?

[ He smiles at Niles and presses a kiss against his cheek. There's no pressure against his injuries, but even if there was, he'd take it right now. ]

I am<. I changed my grand prize.

[locktouching]

...You did?

[Picks up his hand and holds it.]

[jinglebros]

[ He holds his hand in return and smiles brightly, nodding. ]

Why do you think I did so many embarrassing things during the truth serum game? I made a deal with Ronald. I'd take a worse truth serum and expose a little of who I really am... if he let me go to Nohr.

[locktouching]

Aoi...

[Smiles a little, leaning forward to bump foreheads with him.]

You know we're at a war, on a path of bloody conquest, right? Will you be okay with that?

[jinglebros]

I've done some shit already.

[ Determined voice as he looks into Niles' eye, intensity in his gaze. ]

I can handle it.

[locktouching]

I'm happy to hear that. I would selfishly want to take you with us anyway.

[jinglebros]

...are you okay with it, though? The shit I've done to get here?

[ Worried all of a sudden. ]

None of it was very pretty.

[locktouching]

Why wouldn't I be? You haven't turned on me for every dreadful thing I've done, and everything I thought of doing...

[jinglebros]

...you probably know who stabbed me, right?

[locktouching]

...I was able to see a lot of what was happening. But I missed a lot. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole time.

[jinglebros]

[ He exhales and it takes a moment to bring himself to say it. ]

June pressured me into getting stabbed for a deal with Ronald and I made Junpei do it because I was scared she might go too far and accidentally kill me trying for a better deal. Of course, he went too far and nearly did.

[locktouching]

...Let me see it.

[Drifts a hand near the wound. Not touching, but examining. Checking the popped stitches.]

[jinglebros]

[ Lets him examine, wincing now that he's thinking about the wound and more aware of the fact the stitches are popped again. The wound's about the width of a scissors blade and almost to the bone, but not quite. ]

He wasn't supposed to stab that hard. or break my arm. Or hit me in the head. Or any of this.

[locktouching]

Once we get back to Lord Corrin's army... I can heal you myself. I should be getting reclassed for my consolation prize; I'll have healing staves to use on you right away, and they will make you healthy in little time. You won't have to suffer anymore.

[jinglebros]

..I'm not sure I understand any of what you just said. [ Aoi smiles in an unknowing sort of way. ] But the 'not suffering' part sounds great to me.

[locktouching]

Even if you asked to be attacked, I feel like I should pierce a few arrow shafts into that friend of yours.

[jinglebros]

[ He grins at that but shakes his head. ]

We can punch him, but I don't think we can shoot him. It wouldn't be a great way to say goodbye to June.