[Fin] Murder U Too - Endgame

[wahoothis]

". . . Are. . . you talking to me or Bakugo? Because you always call me a monk for whatever reason, just never heard the sorcerer part before. I was just asking the name, didn't realize it was a touchy subject. Adventurers: Always gotta think crazy stuff. . ." Ranma mumbled under her breath as she

>Look for something that weird graffiti on the wall could correlate to? A keypad, a computer needing a password, etc. Anything of the sorts?

[Florien]

Not you, Ranma. Bakugo. With you, Ranma, I have more specific issues. But you're not a raging incompetent idiot with presumably bizarre grudges that you are unwilling to resolve in proper fashion. At least, I hope you aren't... right?

[wahoothis]

"No. . . ? alsoI'mtheonewithissues? girlplease. . ." Ranma mumbled under her breath as she looked around.

[Florien]

I'm an adventurer, I'm not deaf. Anyway, you still haven't explained why it's disrespectful to take things from dead people. I'm not letting that go. Like, EVEN IF you buy into the bullshit that the dead need respect, isn't it respectful to take their stuff? It's like "Your stuff is really cool, and now that you don't need it, I will use it because it is really cool that you had this cool stuff" or whatever. Just... EXPLAIN. I need an explanation to understand your... your fucking WEIRD disgust with everything I do.

Kellensea sighs in an exasperated manner.

Look. We're presumably reasonably close to finding an escape route. I've killed NO ONE AT ALL, and not for lack of trying. I won't lie, I'm extremely annoyed that all of you have apparently remarkably good "NOT DYING" skills. Just... Let me have this. Let me kill someone, ANYONE, or at least explain, in DETAIL, WHY you think what I do is wrong. Back home, I have to wait between kills, sure, but I'm an ADVENTURER. I can always go out on mercenary work, or find some bandits out in the wild, or build a giant pyramid of baskets and when some town bully comes to knock them over, kill them! It was fun here at first, but this SUBTLETY that it requires here, It's PAINFUL. Subtlety is... is EPICYCLES. It ruins things! There's more places it can go wrong! But AHG. UGH. JUST... UGH. Why, WHY can't you let ME be... ME!?

She flops over on a charred cafeteria table and just lies there.

[wahoothis]

"Well we would, but considering the fact you're caught up in your own beliefs, you'll find it weird. So this is the last time I'll say it because to be honest, getting really annoyed with being the one who has to explain this. People want to have their stuff with them when they die. For safekeeping, or whatever. Like, imagine if a parent loses a child. They want to remember that child, so they keep everything in their room the same way as it was the day the child died. Yes, the dead child doesn't want it like that because they can't, but the parents want it like that to remember their kid. It's the same thing with family members and friends. They want to respect the dead. If the dead doesn't want their stuff taken, then you don't take their stuff. If the dead tells you before hand to take their stuff, such as in a will, then you may take their belongings. Or look at it like this: You're asleep one night, all your prized or sentimental belongings hanging around the room. Then the next day, you wake up and see all your stuff is gone. You'd be pissed and upset, no? Now imagine that, but actually being dead. Unable to do something. That's another reason people don't want their stuff taken, because it's theirs.

When she heard her compliment their "not dying" skills, Ranma scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well for one, we have morals. Things might be different where you live, but here, we don't want you to kill anyone. We don't want anyone here to die. Each with our own reasoning and beliefs. My pride as a manhood, along with my good ideologies prevent me from killing anyone less I want to ruin my malehood. That aside, it's not a martial artist's job to kill anyone. He must protect those who can't defend themselves from threats. And each time, I managed to defeat them without a single life lost. You can go back to your mercenary life when we all get out of here. You're not going to die from your growing bloodlust."

[Caret]

Bow has silently left the dorms, and now decides to...

>explore the locker rooms

[Florien]

There, see? Was that so hard? A fucking explanation? Done. It's a weird explanation, an irrational one, but it's ONE. Now I know whatever weird shit you're into, now I can vaguely understand whatever weird ancestor worship cult all of you are inexplicably members. And now, I can continue in my ways, knowing exactly HOW it's an issue to you. But as for the "no-killing" thing, I'm getting desperate. Frankly, I've nearly done it a couple times, when your guards were down. So can you... just find your mythical exit? Or, or, this is the option I want, though you know that already, can I knife one of you and kick down the door and go without hassle? Personally, I'd prefer the Fox thing or Bakugo... Maybe Alexis because of her weird obsession with catching the guilty to like, an inordinate degree, but any of you would do. So... like, I'd like to get out and get, at very least, to some place where I can have... a LIFE again. I have material possessions, but my vendor trash stockpile is almost capped out. Soon, I'll be dropping vendor trash to replace it with more valuable vendor trash. At this point, I just want to... FUCKING ADVENTURE again.

She rolls off the table, falling to the floor with a muted clank of several layers of armor, stands up, and 

>walks off to investigate the outskirts of the area, where the void is.

[artsyGeek]

[Haruka decides to > go to the warehouse and makes an attempt to create a makeshift weapon, in case of emergency.]

[wahoothis]

Ranma covered her mouth, seemingly holding back. She couldn't and ended up letting out a louder laugh than she mean to. "Sorry, it's just mindboggling how you actually think someone will let you kill them, then expect everyone to let you waltz out like you're the only one with a life to go back to. You really think that highly of yourself, huh? Besides, you're already on an adventure. You're searching for an exit out of a murder room with a gender-swapping martial artist, a girl who can't keep her hair down, a glitching girl, a fox thing, a psychologist, a girl who wrote who knows how many notes on you, a househusband and a dick who can make explosions with his hands. Not exactly the ragtag group I'd expect to be stuck with after everything, but you take what you can get, ya' know?"

[SmilyCube112]

"How the hell am I supposed to know? Fuckin' Deku's the one who knows, not me! He had to deal with her."

[Florien]

(Kellensea cancels action: Explore, interrupted by Ranma.)

This isn't an adventure. It's... Not. I don't have my party. I can't even consider it a solo one because there's no POINT if I have to just sit still and not kill. It's not thinking highly of myself, I'm just an adventurer. I can't convince you people to lay down and die, I can't do that at home. I'm heavily implying that I'm getting closer and closer to taking a chance, even if I risk death for it, just to feel someone die in my arms, or to watch someone fall with a bolt embedded in their chest. It's... not an addiction, really. It's just PAINFUL boredom, which I just want to END, for a bit. At very least something is HAPPENING when someone's dying, and I CHANGED something. If I just sit there, I'm not an adventurer, I'm a... a... civilian again. I HATED being a civilian, I got away from it as soon as I could. I HATE your social contract, I want to abandon it now! It's been only six days-ish, I've gone much longer... but what was implied by the host?... We're not going back home. We're going to some miserable prison dimension where I won't be able to be happy, because I won't be able to do what I've done my whole life, the only thing left that I ENJOYED. My original party, half of the other four are dead, one won't speak to anyone anymore, and the last, she's... not who she was, not anymore. My new party, they're a dumbass MORVYNITE, a fucking guild mercenary, some kid who's not even CLOSE to ready, and the kid's henchman.

Kellensea grabs Ranma by the shoulders, and starts shaking.

I HATE THEM ALL! I'm just BETTER at everything than them! They're smart, sure, they're certainly adventurers, but they're not MY PARTY. It feels WRONG every time I travel with them, work with them. I DON'T FIT WITH THEM! It can't go back to how it used to be, It can't ever go back, but if I could, if I COULD JUST DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN FOREVER, I would. It's been 21 years I've been doing this. The first ten were some of the best years of my life, but then we WON. We had to go and WIN. We retired. Zharzy goes and fucking dies too damn young, Sedriel gets shot at his funeral, and we CAN'T EVER ADVENTURE TOGETHER AGAIN. Sauthaiss goes and gets her cushy government job, gets insufferably fanatical, and now I don't... She's not HER anymore. Lansse goes off, and he won't tell me where he LIVES! It's like he just fucking disappeared into civilian life! And I keep doing this, I keep trying to recapture how it felt, I keep overthrowing governments that are causing issues, hoping one, just one, will give me the feeling that I felt when with the Agents, when I was opposing Selvan. And Always, Always, in the back of my mind, I'm wondering, if this is the time that I'll be able to FEEL again, and always, the answer is NO. I HAD FUN here, the first few days, but then you kept living and insulting me and degrading me and calling me insane, and you know the worst thing? IT'S THE MOST I'VE FELT IN YEARS! It's not GOOD, but it FEELS like something other than endless boredom.

She breaks off the grab.

...I'll find happiness somewhere. I always told myself that. "somewhere". But leading makes me MISERABLE. I can't lead, not like Sauthaiss could. The part I liked best, after the friends, was the killing and looting, but that's not... that's just not all of it! Party members are the people you spend all your time with, and there's BIG gaps between the killing and looting. I'm not going to be happy again. I'm not going to recapture it, I'm just going to fucking die in a blaze of moderate glory, but I don't WANT that. I want to be like... like Lucintsea, she... she found a way, I don't know HOW she found that way, but she FOUND it, is the point. She's easily going to live thousands of years, and she's happy. She never lost her glory, her victory, though most of what she built is gone now. And then, then, what if that way is closed? What if, because whatever happened to her happened during her final victory, I can't have that, because I already achieved that and fell from my high on it? But I NEED TO KEEP LIVING, that's what I DO. Veltirississ has me as one of her favored, so I'd be safe, if I went with her. But every year when she comes by to check on me, I tell her this, and she tells me that she can't help me with my choices, because she'd only make the decisions she already made in her time, because she isn't ME, she says that. And I keep going, I keep moving, and I keep killing, and keep taking stupid risks mixed in with hyper-caution, and I don't want to STOP, EVER. I'll be a CIVILIAN then, and I can't DO that. I NEVER could, but every day that goes by, I'm more and more convinced that the ecstasy of a real victory won't ever come back, so what am I supposed to do but throw my body at more and more things, hoping against hope that I can one day feel like I've WON again.

Kellensea breaks down into audible tears. Between sobs, she chokes out some more half-formed words, but no meaning can be deciphered from them. For once, her rapid mood swings don't seem to come by to pull her out of this... Until Bakugo opens his mouth. She flips into an utter blind rage, and stands, her body twisting in ways it really shouldn't as she gets up.

OH, YOU. HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW? HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHY YOU WON'T KILL THE BEARER OF THE NAME THAT BOTHERS YOU?! THAT'S NOT EVEN A STATEMENT THAT MAKES SENSE! I've met some fucking IDIOTS in my time, but YOU! YOU ARE AMONG THE WORST!!! You VOTE for me out of SPITE, you vote for KAI out of DUMBASSERY, somehow, EVERY FUCKING TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH, you MAKE. THINGS. DUMBER. Of course, your VOICE is grating as well, not JUST the words you say. I've EXPLICITLY AVOIDED CHOOSING TARGETS, but you, YOU. There's TWO OF YOU HERE. Remember the rules? REMEMBER THE FUCKING RULES OF THIS GAME? I'm giving you one chance to apologize. One chance to beg for fucking mercy. IF you miss that chance, you die. I don't care anymore. I don't care how close to the end we are. You die, and I will extract your bones and eat your marrow. So. Do I have to repeat myself, Bakugo? Because if the answer is anything other than "No Kellensea, I apologize for being a fucking aberration against the very concept of intelligence, an affront to all entities capable of thought, please spare my worthless life, though I do not deserve such mercy", or something along VERY similar lines, you are GOING to die, and I am probably GOING to get executed, but at VERY LEAST the world won't have YOU in it.

For all her talk, for how long she went on for, she seems unflagged. She has her hand on one of her daggers, another hand on a broken bit of piping, lying on the ground in the ruined kitchen, and she's already

>taken a defensive stance, in case Bakugo or Ranma should attempt to subdue her.

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

>Lift a weight to see how heavy the weights are

[wahoothis]

Ranma stood there idly as Kellensea broke down in her rant of not being able to kill. It sounded inane. . . But there were some parts she sympathize with. Missing the glory days wasn't a bad thing, and missing your party, which she figured was the closest thing to a family to Kellensea, wasn't either. But once she started shaking her and yelling on about how great she was, how this experience was the most fun she's had all day, and finally her hate speech rant against Bakugo, some of that falter. Kellensea seems to keep swapping between "hey, maybe she's actually sympathetic" to "I hate you all, why can't you let me kill you?!"

When she hears and sees Kellensea grabbing her dagger and pipe with the intent of killing Bakugo should he say what she doesn't want to here, Ranma gets in between the two of them in her own defensive stance. "Stop, before you make the biggest mistake of your life. He's not worth it. I'm sorry what happened to your people Kellensea, believe me I am, but. . . You shouldn't kill anyone here, not when we're so close to the end! You want someone to kill? Kill the one holding us here when we beat them." She said, staring Kellensea in the eyes. "Believe me, losing what you had sucks. I would know from experience. But you know what you do? You adapt and move on for the time being until you can find what you're searching for. Your party member, your old one, what would they want? Would they want to see you die in this killing game? Is disappointing them with your death worth it to quench your thirst for adventure and blood? They wouldn't want you to die, you don't want to die, and we don't want you to die. But we can't just give up and die. We all have our own goals, our families, our lives to go back to as well. That's all the more reason we shouldn't kill ourselves fighting each other! I'm saying this one more time: The host or whoever the hell is running this place is the one we have to defeat. On your adventures, do you ever have to defeat the big bad or something of a group? It's just like this. Beat them, and we can all get back to our lives. Of course the host says there's no exit. That's what all people who kidnapped groups say, and every time that group escaped. This one isn't so different. We will get out of here, the ones who are left. And that includes you Kellensea. You're part of this group whether you want to be or not. We're not going to let you give up and get yourself killed. Because that's what we do: Look out for one another. Even when that other person doesn't instill the same thought. So for the last time, please calm down and don't do this. You don't want to die, you know that. . . So don't give up here. . . Don't give up to their game."

>This whole time, Ranma's standing in between Kellensea and Bakugo remained in her own defensive stance. She'll only attempt to subdue Kellensea if she tries to kill anyone.

[Kennifer]

Alexis will

>Meet up with Bow in the locker rooms.

[SmilyCube112]

Bakugo ignored all that in favour of going to the Abandoned Kitchen to >Search for anything edible.

[Florien]

Kellensea is silent for a moment after hearing Ranma speak and try to convince her to stand down. Then, in a flat, quiet voice...

That's not an apology or begging for mercy or both. I can't let this go.

She continues standing there, in the same stance, even as Bakugo walks off. her voice recovers enough for her to actually speak clearly.

We find the exit. We get out. If we don't do it soon, I AM going to beat Bakugo to death. And you leave my party members out of this. If they were here, they would WANT me to do this. They'd have helped me. The first day here, the five of us would have killed all of you and been out by refusal to convict. And defeating the big bad or whatever? I did that. With Selvan. He was a spellcaster too. But I had HELP. To deal with someone like this, I need... more than I have. I'd need a spellcaster of my own, and a bunch of things from back home, some of which are exclusively government property, so I'd have to go break into a military base. I'm not taking on a challenge which is not reasonable to easy for someone of my skill-set, and taking on a would-be god with significant power already in their own demiplane? I'm good. I'm not that good yet. Tell me this Ranma. You say you don't want me to die. That's a lie, we both know it. If I were to kill someone right now, I'm sure you would be second in line to vote me to my death.

She pauses again, and then something comes to her mind, her voice tone shifts again, and she speaks again.

The host vanished. They're not around, they haven't stopped us from exploring. This is either some kind of trick, or the host is actively not watching us. That means, quite obviously, that the host couldn't tell who murdered who, if someone were to make a move right now. That's... interesting. Right?

After that statement (a total change of subject), and her abrupt shift in tone and apparent mood, she walks off, still holding the broken bit of piping and with her hand on her dagger's hilt.

>Get back to exploring around the outer ring of the area, where the void is.

[wahoothis]

And surprise surprise, Kellensea doesn't listen. At this point Ranma's just wondering why she even bothers. "I wouldn't want you to die. However, that doesn't mean I'd let you simply leave after killing someone. If you try to kill someone, I will stop you. That much I can guarantee. Unfortunately for you, though, we don't have time to play "argue about letting you kill someone and walk out" all day. We're actually going to look for an exit."

>With that, she walked off to continue searching for anything of use. Can she find anything that'll help them or give them a clue as to what's going on?

[wingedcatgirl]

LATE UPDOOT OTL

---

>Look for something that weird graffiti on the wall could correlate to? A keypad, a computer needing a password, etc. Anything of the sorts? [Ranma]
It's on the floor, but never mind that detail. Ranma looks through the dorm rooms and doesn't find anything that would be logically correlated.

>explore the locker rooms [Bow]
There's nothing in them but lockers. It kinda seems like they weren't even used.

Alexis arrives shortly after Bow does.

>investigate the outskirts of the area, where the void is. [Kellensea]
There's a sharp drop-off before reaching the actual void, and the side of the cliff seems to go inward from every edge. Not far past the edges is more cloudsmoke, encasing the whole place in a bubble. It's hard to see for sure, but it looks like this is a floating island.

>go to warehouse, acquire makeshift weapon [Haruka]
Haruka digs through the crates and stuff and manages to find a crowbar. Guess she's Gordon Freeman now har har

>Lift a weight to see how heavy the weights are [Monika]
Well they've all got their weight stamped on them, from 2 pounds to 20.

>continue searching for anything of use, anything that'll help them or give them a clue as to what's going on [Ranma]
After further searching, Ranma digs up another paper map of the place. On closer inspection, this one has the main lobby building marked with a big red "EXIT" and some circles.

... That's the one that was crushed by the HQ, wasn't it?"

[wahoothis]

Ranma slowly realized this, cupped her hands and took a deep breath in. "Well shit. That's probably not good. Hey guys, look at this map here!"

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

Monika goes back to the others and sees the map.

Well... There goes our front door exit.

[artsyGeek]

[Haruka grabs the crowbar before running to Ranma's spot.]

"What is it?"

[Kennifer]

-Locker Room-

Alexis smiles at Bow.

"Well, it doesn't look like there's much here. I picked up this bag in case we find something useful, but maybe we should check out somewhere else, huh?"

[wahoothis]

"Unless any of you have been hiding someway to remove or burrow through an HQ, I don't think using this exit is possible. . ." Ranma'd said, showing the map to them.

[Caret]

Bow grins back at Alexis.

Well, looks like the parachute was useless after all. But still, better to be safe then sorry. Anyways, I found nothing really interesting so far.

[Florien]

Uhh... wait. You say the exit is inside where the old place, where we were, is? So it's behind the same door, right? I bet the door itself is reinforced, but, if there's one thing I've learned... well, people don't ever do the same to walls. Hell, there was this scientist person we met, or rather, hunted down and killed, but the point's the same. She installed these big mithril doors, and even an adamantine blast door in her labs. She didn't bother to reinforce the walls and floor around them, so we dug around them, kicked them down, killed her, and then we carried the doors out and melted them down and sold them. So... we could just... climb up the back and blow open a hole in the wall BEHIND the exit door. And now that we know this area back here is accessible... we have a clear shot and a safe distance to stand from.