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

[hollowheart]

Just the people in my village. Others out there might possess it, but who knows? [She did know, but it was neither here nor there, a rarity on the margin of careful calculations.] The rest of them, they don't like us shifting, either. They can tell we're different even when we're all lumbering around like hulking beasts. It's like having a target on our back. [And for some reason this doesn't seem to bother Annie, as if she's come to terms with it.

She digs her heel into the dirty floor at Kaoru's mirth, seeing if she can wear out the sole of the finest boots she's worn in her life.]

You were obnoxious. I couldn't wait for you to get out of the kitchen whenever you monopolized it.

[souredsweet]

Hoh... Scorn from both sides? [he knows how that feels, but his expression lacks empathy by virtue of him not really knowing how the whole empathy thing works.] What an unpleasant way to live.

[he hadn't actually expected that Annie found him that obnoxious, though, and he laughs again.] Really? Did you? I could never really tell what you were thinking, always wearing that face... I'm a little surprised.

[hollowheart]

You mean this delicate, concerned face of an angel? [Of course, Annie doesn't mean a word of that, but old habits die hard. It's good to hear laughter here again after weeks of terror.]

I did keep my distance from everyone, if you can blame me for that. We all try to survive in our different ways.

[souredsweet]

[it's almost as funny to hear that as it is to hear her call herself a frail girl. the smile on his own face remains, only barely petering out toward the end.]

I could not blame you for it at all. We do what we need to survive; you were wise to keep your distance from most, considering how morally righteous with anger people were at that point in the game.

[hollowheart]

It was like screaming into the void. [and this is perhaps the first genuine show of frustration Annie shows in forever.] But we're only human, aren't we?


...Well, not quite, but you know what I mean.

[souredsweet]

Close enough. [the sentiment was conveyed, anyway.]

We were talking about that once, actually... [he doesn't specify the who, considering who it was - someone who is not among them currently, who Annie had switched her vote from.] How unfair your treatment was for a while. Watching morals shift from that point on, though... That was something I didn't think would happen.

[hollowheart]

Hey, I knew what I was getting into when I planned that murder. [She's acknowledged the hypocrisy and even pointed it out, but Annie doesn't see herself as a victim. It's past the time for defensiveness, though.]

I will be honest. I'd have been happy with sleeping the rest of our confinement away while the rest of the players finished everyone else off. Chalk it up to laziness or apathy; I've been accused of worse. But that's not human nature, is it? The thing separating us from pawns is our feelings. You can move a pawn across the board, but you don't expect it to fight back.

I wonder if they ever expected us to fight back. Their notes on how Sonia and Yuzu behaved were so... Clinical.

[souredsweet]

Didn't you sleep for most of it, anyway? [until Rin became involved, at least... which was only two weeks, not that much at all. it's clear he means it as an exaggeration, though; something of a playful jab.]

You and Spain both. Between the two of you, you really could have slept through it all. [the mention of the notes, of humanity on a whole - which he does not consider himself a part of - has him looking thoughtful.]

...I don't think they did. I doubt they would have given us the final trial if they thought Felicia could convince us to ruin it.

[hollowheart]

It's my coping mechanism. Spain is just lazy. [And she would have been content to spend the rest of the game in bed had she not made friends to talk to.]

Heh. And to think I bragged about not playing soldier in someone's shitty game right before I woke up in the mansion. That sure showed me.

[souredsweet]

We actually thought he would be the first in our number to die, you know, and he wound up making it to the end. [SORRY SPAIN...

that particular revelation has him arching a brow. his gaze briefly shifts to Kanaya, recalling something she had said earlier.] A taste for parallels, or something like that... It looks like that assumption ran deep.

[hollowheart]

Maybe it was sheer, dumb luck.

You think they handpicked us for this, then?

[souredsweet]

I think it's a possibility that can't be overlooked. I cannot say what the reasons might be, though.

[hollowheart]

No matter. It doesn't change our circumstances when we do return... If we return. Although all of this has been an interesting diversion. [And the fact Annie prefers this setting to her world says a lot.]

[souredsweet]

[if Chizuru weren't back in his own world, he'd prefer it, too. that's something he can kind of sort of empathize with, in his limited way...]

What will you do when you return?

[hollowheart]

Which version would you prefer? The wounded, damaged little soldier girl thing Alice and Susan've gotten attached to? I've never been as fond of that image as they were.

[She leans the rest of her weight against the wall; it is something she'll have to deal with, sooner or later.] I guess I'm going back to being a police officer, until I'm needed again. [She knows her days are numbered as soon as she steps back into her world. It's something she's made her peace with already.]

[souredsweet]

I wouldn't want any falsities. The image doesn't seem to suit you, anyway. [he can only thing of pitiable things when he hears wounded and damaged; it doesn't suit Annie at all.

that has him arching a brow, though.] Until you're needed in the military? Or— what was it, were you always a police officer and never in the military? I never listened well when they were talking about that.

[hollowheart]

Until I'm needed to be a mole, again. I've only enlisted in the military and then the police force to burrow my way in as a spy. [It's a tremendous weight off her chest to confess that to someone. It feels good to let it out, especially to someone with no horse in this race.]

What about you? How are you going to manage from here on?

[souredsweet]

[and he does seem to be interested to hear that, but only in a muted, detached way. not only does he have no horse in that race, but he has no particular reason to even try to care about it on a deeper level, and so he doesn't.]

Oh. A spy for your own species, I would assume? [he's smart enough to pick up on that much at least, especially from what he had heard during her week 2 trial.

the question, on the other hand, is met with a few seconds of silence.] ...I can't say with certainty yet. New options have been presented and I need time to think.

[hollowheart]

Who else? [She's progressed past the point of shame or pride by now. It's just another fact of life. Annie's never been eager to leave this place at all, but she hasn't viewed her future with any sense of morbidness. It just is.]

Is it because of your time here?

[souredsweet]

Good luck, then. [because hey he doesn't particularly care about humanity on a whole even though it's been proven to him that individuals aren't all bad.]

...I think. There was only one option before I came here and I still want it. [he won't lie about that, at least; Chizuru's misery is something he does still want to see. one day of good intentions doesn't undo a lifetime of suffering, after all. still...]

...I think I may reconsider. Maybe.

[hollowheart]

Good luck to you, too. [Despite her perpetually bored expression and her show of detachment, Annie's longed to understand those around her, even as they were involved in the mechanism and tribulations of the game. She wants to ask more, but now is not the time, and it may never be.]

[souredsweet]

[he, too, seems to be considering saying something else. in the end, he just manages a brief smile.]

It's a shame we won't be able to see if that luck actually comes in handy. [if the whole 'we're going home and parting ways forever' thing is to be believed, anyway.]

[hollowheart]

We can always leave each other mysterious flowers on a mantle as a secret sign.

[souredsweet]

[he laughs openly at that.]

Cross-dimensional floral messages... Ah, perhaps that is the business that Kanaya should go into.

[speakveryclearly]

[Here as furniture and light source for this entire increasingly anxiety-inducing conversation, finally speaks up.]

There isn't a lot of natural flower growing that goes on where I come from these days, as you might expect from the environment in which a species could reach the brink of extinction. I hope you wouldn't mind tokens of the synthetic variety considering you're my built-in consumer base.