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

[golden_dream]

... Yeah.

[Rosa had her limits, but she could understand Kyrie desperately looking for the worst sort of devil's bargain she could hope to achieve]

Do you want to...?

[meatitfeedson]

Want to what?

[golden_dream]

Get out of this room, for starters.

[meatitfeedson]

... That's probably a good idea.

[She gets to her feet finally and gives Rosa a smile.]

I should be congratulating you.

[golden_dream]

...I wonder.

[she'll offer Kyrie a hand up]

You had probably guessed my prize, even if we couldn't talk about it, right?

[meatitfeedson]

Yeah, it's probably something like "that man never left me", right?

[It's not so far off from what she wanted so she can really sympathise...And be incredibly jealous.]

[golden_dream]

... Yes.

He was a different man before he left... I want to tell myself that, at least. That's the man I'm going back to. The man who loves me and who'll help me raise and care for Maria.

...

[she wondered if it was sake to talk like this. If anyone understood it'd be Kyrie, but there was... no doubt... that Kyrie wanted something very similar]

[meatitfeedson]

That's good, I'm sure you and Maria will have a really happy life as a family.

[But that just makes it hurt even more. That's what she would have had, together with her son, Rudolf and Ange. From the very start instead of waiting 12 years to finally be together. If Rosa can have it, then why can't she?]

[golden_dream]

...You want to get a drink? Or... something. The hotel has a lot of refreshments, that's all I'm saying. I'm not sure I want to jump right home yet. I don't... I'm scared to think I'll suddenly be 20-something again and have to relive the last decade.

[meatitfeedson]

...Yeah. I don't feel like going anywhere yet.

What do you think is going to happen? If you're probably going back in time or... Something, will it be the day we left for the rest of us, or two weeks later...?

[golden_dream]

I have no idea.

[pause]

For that matter, what about Eva-nee-san? Will she just vanish?

[meatitfeedson]

...Ah, that's right, I hadn't even payed attention to that - I dropped my vote for her, but Junpei was still supposed to do it!

[golden_dream]

He was supposed to?

...I believe you. Junpei is a lot more conniving than any of us counted on.

[shakes her head]

That and I don't even know what Natsuhi-nee-san's prize was. That's yet another cog in the machine.

[meatitfeedson]

It has to be about money, right? Especially if they really are embezzling from Father...

[golden_dream]

...I don't know. They already live on the island in the mansion... don't they have all the money they need?

[meatitfeedson]

Are you kidding? That place has to be draining money constantly. And Krauss is such a piss poor business man.

[golden_dream]

...I see. So debt-forgiveness, or something like that.

[she knew all about that.]

[meatitfeedson]

Or to repay all the money they stole from Father...or just a plain big lump sum. That's what I'm getting.

[golden_dream]

Is it the gold?

...That's what I had as a consolation. Just my share.

[meatitfeedson]

No, I'm not even sure how much, it just said "loads of money" with a weird video.

[I'm just taking my signup super literally because I realised I never specified and now it's hilarious to me ok]

[golden_dream]

Oh... well...

I'm sure Rudolf-nii-san will be happy...

[meatitfeedson]

He'll be thrilled.

It's just...I would have been plenty grateful for just that, if only a miracle hadn't been waved around in front of my eyes.

[golden_dream]

...Yes.

[she didn't even need to ask]

[also, they probably... reached the bar about now? She'll pass Kyrie whatever drink she want and start on her own]

Ronove... wasn't too happy with me. But then he disappeared. ...Like magic. In the middle of a sentence.

[meatitfeedson]

[She's feeling hard liquor after this. A shot of whiskey or several. Sitting at the bar gives her an opportunity to get out a compact mirror and check just how bad her makeup is too (it's awful, with all that crying).]

...Ah. Sorry for getting you involved in all that.

[golden_dream]

[she sipped a mixed drink, for once choosing the weaker option]

...It was inevitable. If I skipped voting for Rhys, I'd have Rhys' ghost in my face. If I hadn't voted Junpei, the game would still be going on.

Though with this outcome... it does feel like five or six different plans all came together at the same time.