the end

[productions]

murder manor end



servants' wing

20 players alive.

[The walls of the servants' wing shudder and groan, but do not give out. Inside, the servants' wing is pitch dark, lit only by the glow of Kanaya's skin. Very slowly, the energy field flickers and vanishes, the great machine stops humming, the keypad goes dark, until it is simply a cold piece of metal.

It's difficult to tell what is going on; outside, it sounds as though a powerful storm is raging. The sound of heavy winds and crashes that could be thunder can be heard, and sometimes the walls themselves tremble as though in danger of giving out. Occasionally, bright flashes of light seem to light up the building for a moment, seeping in between cracks in the wall. It certainly sounds like a storm powerful enough to destroy the shack everyone is huddled in, but the building remains standing.

Inside, it is incredibly crowded. Twenty people, two dogs, a horse, and a dove are all sharing the space, not to mention the rodents, miniature panda, and Rin's lifeless body, and the space is only one room half taken up by a large machine. It is also gradually growing bitterly cold.

Gradually, the lost abilities and memories (including reunion memories) will return to everyone inside. The storm continues on for about a day; you'll have to wait it out.]

Comments

pre-memory gain, no SDR2 spoilers

[godwhisperer]

[Once the door is shut, his own memories start to come back. The first ones are vague - the things he lost from his childhood, vague memories of meeting his Hope's Peak classmates on an island somewhere. And...there was a game somewhat like this one?

It's all very confusing, and he feels a little too preoccupied to care much. Instead, he settles in with the group to wait out the storm, a little quiet and subdued but no more than he has been.]

your friendly neighborhood lightbulb

[speakveryclearly]

[The tableau is not all that dissimilar to the reunion, as people will begin to recognize. Kanaya gravitates towards Annie and Kaoru. Instead of fetching snacks, however, she responds to requests for light; next to her, it is almost so bright one can read, while in the cabin at large there may only be enough for silhouettes.]

[inthebones]

[The atmosphere inside the room seems tense, but... hopeful. Susan stands pressed up against the wall with Rin's body arranged in a sitting position beside her so as to take up as little space as possible. Every time the winds rattle the shack, she leans forward so as to avoid the brunt of the vibrations. At some point during this uncomfortable day, she'll speak up, breaking any uncomfortable silences if there are any.]

I can't believe you killed me, Lithuania. The next time I'm asked who to revive first, I shall have to pick someone else.

[After a few moments, she reaches up and removes her bobby pins; her hair proceeds to rebuild itself into its usual style.]

...It seems like we really will be alright.

[hollowheart]

[Seated on the floor between Kanaya's legs and back to her chest, Annie toys with the ring on her index finger absently, exhaustion hardly catching up with her, but the rush of adrenaline is gone.

The memories have come in waves, the odd and the familiar faces and voices of her comrades blurring until they emerged into clarity in her head. They weighed heavily on her shoulders for a while.

And then the searing hot recollection of the week past, washing over her with a quaint sort of relief. It's like coming home in someone's arms.]

[humanic]

[For someone so talkative and gregarious, Stiles seems to be unusually subdued for once. He slides down one of the walls until he's huddled in on himself, too exhausted and drained to stay on his feet. It's over. Of course there was still a good chance this was a trap and they were all dead anyways, but now there's nothing for them to do but wait.

The sobs come suddenly, rapid shuddering gasps that he tries to muffle by biting hard into the flesh of his palm. They aren't sounds of relief at all, or joy, or even guilt. For all of his panicked flailing and screaming, Stiles has never once let himself admit how much the game has taken its toll on him. There was always something else to focus on, something to be distracted by. Trying to prevent murders, investigating, finding the mastermind, befriending who he could, surviving - no time to grieve or reflect for long, not when there was so much that needed to be done. Even after Poland's death, he'd only teared up for a few moments before pushing it aside and getting down to business.

Throughout the entire game he's kept his sarcasm and sense of humor up like a shield, deflecting anything too serious that might come his way and keeping at bay the emotions that threatened to choke him until he couldn't breathe. Now though...there's no longer anything to guard against, and everything he's been bottling up for the last ten weeks hit him like a fist. Ten weeks of horror, ten weeks of death, ten weeks of executing people through the most tortuous ways possible, of never being able to protect anyone, of terror he'd be the next body they'd find, of a hopeless struggle against an enemy they didn't even know, of endless coffee cups and reading everything until his eyes hurt because anything was better than the images of the faces of the people they'd failed--

It's over. They might not have won, but all things considered, they've come out better than he'd ever dreamed. They're leaving with more people alive than dead, with those he'd thought he'd never see again.

So why doesn't he feel any better about it?]

[pandacea]

[May looks startled for a moment before an expression of awestruck joy lights up her face.]

I can feel everyone's chi again! [Her happiness is somewhat tampered down by the reminder that there should be nine other souls in here with them, but she can't keep her eyes from shining with relief. Out of all the things they had stolen from her, this ability had to have been the worst. It had been like having one of her senses taken, like going blind.

Finally, finally, things are starting to go back to normal.]

[motheringnation]

[Ukraine is just huddled up by herself. Listening to the storm rage and trying not to cry as she thinks of her sister.]

[speakveryclearly]

[She has a vivid auditory memory, suddenly, of Sollux being the last straw for Karkat and inciting a breakdown in Gamzee's arms. Unfortunately, Kanaya has too much a lapful of Annie for Stiles to receive similar comfort from either of them. She turns towards him, making the motion gingerly to keep her horns from risking the walls' integrity, and pity overtakes her. Not the kind driven by heavy humors, but all the same, she cannot dismiss the sense of camaraderie.]

You know, I'm not sure if this means anything to you yet, but you were the best moirail once removed a troll could ask for. I'm glad we didn't have to be the kind of group that would... leave you behind. You were too much of a good influence.

[humanic]

[He can't see at all how he was a good influence when he'd been leading the brigade to dump Rin for someone else, but he lifts up his head a little anyway. Where platitudes fail, curiosity will always get the best of him even in the middle of an emotional breakdown.]

Moirail? [And then as the rest of what she says hits him--] Wait, leave me behind? [YEAH GUESS WHO HASN'T FIGURED THAT PART OUT YET...]

[speakveryclearly]

[She can feel Annie's body melting into hers again; it's an accelerated version of the process that overtook them before. Is she at the same place, then? Cradling her cheek in one hand as Annie's hair brushes against the back of her hand, she makes a little test.]

I know you told me to be more greedy but I should have figured this would only go so far.

[speakveryclearly]

You were her friend. [She translates out of obligation, knowing "only" is a misnomer and not enough to convey how heavy it is that the girl with whom she doesn't needs words also has a conversational partner.] The lights went out before you came back with Lydia, and some of us thought it might not be safe to wait. She stayed my hand.

[throe]

Minx—

[ The moment the storm begins, the memories begin to slowly return to her. They're hazy, memories muddle together and disjointed. She drowns — no Minx drowns — they both drown and they save each other, screaming for help. The concern she felt when Minx turned up at rehearsal and the insecurities she voiced to Riot about her sudden change... Rapture places her hands against the sides of her face.

'Help is not in my vocabulary!'

Then it hits her: they both survive. All three of them survive — of course they do, they're the Stingers! Rapture finally realizes that everything she's fought for, everything she's said and done, all the stunts she's pulled have made more sense than anything else in the world; her loyalty never changes wether she knows what happens to them or not. A swell of pride envelopes her: they're always bound for surpassing the worst to survive.

She pushed that button for them and them alone and when it all hits her, she opens her eyes and looks around at the dark shack again. Without skipping a beat, she stands up straight and smirks. ]

I knew pushing that button would end up being a good idea.

[inthebones]

...I can sense souls as well, too.

[A wan smile towards May. It seemed inappropriate to be overly celebratory at at time like this, but having had such an essential part of her stripped away had been difficult to bear that first week. That morning she had awakened and pounded at Belarus's door...]

And... quite a bit more, actually.

[Susan had entered this game with the world muted in every sense. Her awareness suddenly expands - it feels as if she can sense every crack in the stone beneath her feet and every clump of soil beneath that, as if she can hear the heartbeats of those around her and identify the one to whom it belonged, as if she can see clearly once again even without Kanaya's dim light...]

It seems our 'important memories' have returned to us as well. The influence of this game must be loosing, somehow.

I do wonder what's going on outside. Perhaps we're being carried over a rainbow.

[inthebones]

...It seems you were just in time.

[That first blow against the door had come rather too soon for Susan's tastes. ...She would say that there were nine people who probably disagreed with Rapture's assessment, but everyone knew that without having to be guilt-tripped.]

You sound more triumphant than usual. Everything's well?

[inthebones]

[Susan hesitates for only a moment before addressing Gundam. Somehow, of all of them, the boy who had once declared himself to be more than a mere human, too far beyond humanity to feel such silly things as emotion, had felt the burden of their choice most keenly at the end. ...Most visibly keenly, anyway. It had hardly been a secret when the votes had been tallied who it was that hadn't been able to bring himself to pick nine.

But perhaps that shouldn't be such a surprise.]

You said this option was unacceptable as well. ...Do you think you can find peace with it, now, after it's done?

[hollowheart]

[Annie hates waiting. She's never been fond of uncertainty and hesitation, and beyond this rooms was very little space for certainty. And yet, this is the safest she's felt since her arrival. She hardly protests at the light fingers against her skin but she remembers snapping at Poland for getting too close.]

Sometimes you have to be greedy because no one else can be greedy on your behalf.

[she tilts her head so that the top of it brushes along the underside of Kanaya's chin.] but maybe you like me fighting for you.

[humanic]

[It's yet another horror piled up on top of the rest - what if they hadn't made it in time what if they'd pushed that button first what if they didn't and everyone died because of him - and for a moment, he can't breathe at all. It takes a dint of effort to remind himself that it's fine, everyone's fine, and he can't hide the shakiness in his voice no matter how hard he tries.]

I wouldn't have blamed you if you'd left. [It's mostly the truth; part of him wants to throw it in her face that Annie had nearly been the last to go through instead, and what would she have done then? But he knows even as he's thinking it that it's petty and cruel; he would have guarded that button zealously if it had been a friend trapped in there, but for someone he didn't know what well? He knows full well he likely would have been the one arguing to sacrifice them for the greater good.

The second part of her reply draws him up short though.]

...Annie did, really? [And now he looks like he wants to cry again, but for an entirely different reason.]

[vytis]

[Lithuania sits down beside Ukraine. He has Rin's laptop and Ruta in his lap, and he pets the dog absently. He hasn't allowed himself to really think more than superficially about Belarus's situation until now, because it's awful, and even having seen himself that empty shell and knowing she hadn't been in the theater with the rest he wanted to vote for her anyway.

He's done so many things wrong while he was here.]

I'm--Україна-- [He wants to apologize, but just saying "I'm sorry" isn't enough. Instead he twists enough to hug her.]

[vytis]

Well, I try to be practical, you understand. It's not my fault you're always so helpful in the trials. [A pause, as he remembers their current situation again.] Or, you were. There won't be anymore trials now.

...We saved as many as we could. [Though Lithuania doesn't feel good about the situation.]

[inthebones]

...It was all inconsequential in the end, wasn't it? Whether we picked the right person or chose the scapegoat... we would have had the same number to save.

[A momentary silent comes in response to his next comment.]

...I've spent my time thinking if there was any way we could have deduced the truth. Her role - an actress looking for fame. The possibility of something like that never once crossed my mind.

[souredsweet]

[Kaoru has been very subdued and silent since May pulled him back across the barrier separating the living from the damned, and he will spend large parts of the day remaining that way. there's a lot for him to process, after all. even though his own missing memories had returned weeks ago, he feels more lost now than he had before.

occasionally, he'll furtively peer at the people who had been arguing to save him despite the things he had done, or anyone whose saving vote the theater screen had allowed him to read. he knows he needs to talk to them eventually, but... later. he still needs more time.

at some point, when missing abilities begin to return, he idly raises a hand to tug at some of the longer locks of hair framing his face, pulling it in front to examine it as it shifts from black to a snowy white.]

[pandacea]

[She tries to squint through the cracks in the walls.]

It seems like it's awfully cold and dark out there for a rainbow.

I'm starting to remember things too. People I'd forgotten...[The smile on her face fades away to something more wistful.] Do you really think we'll all be able to go back home?

[speakveryclearly]

Yeah. [On the one hand, shame that she was so close to the kind of crime that rankled her the most in other contexts. On the other... she can't stand the thought of letting sentiments destroy the happiness of herself as well as so many others. Neither of those things happened. They aren't important, only theoretical possibilities. Against all odds, she hasn't drowned, and only can float in the breaking waves. She wants to joke but how can something feel funny when he's so low in the valley?]

Contrary to popular belief there is some extent of loyalty non-humans can achieve. [And really? Kanaya couldn't bear to do that to her again.]

[souredsweet]

[thank you, friendly neighborhood lightbulb.

that shocked air of WHAT'S GOING ON has abated slightly by now, but Kaoru is still quite rattled and silent in turn. he glances up only when the soft flickering light that signals Kanaya's approach can be seen, and his hesitance to speak vanishes in the face of such a now-familiar and welcomed presence.]

It's like the end of the ninth week. [when the theater lights had gone dark, he means; Kanaya's frantic arm pinwheeling was definitely a sight to see.]

[inthebones]

I admit I stopped believing it, after what happened with Lithuania. It seemed as if the game was aiming for nothing more than prolonging our misery at that point.

[Susan will move aside slightly so May can peer out if she wants.]

But I think... after all of this.

There's room for a little faith.