[Fin] Murder U Too - Endgame

[wahoothis]

". . . a brick. . . Of course, our solution is a brick. Why wouldn't our saving grace be a freaking brick?" He's not even angry. He's just done with all the absurdities of their situation. "Alright, anyone knows how to make a brick, or where one could be?"

>Look for this so called brick.

[Kennifer]

"Yeah, I don't have 'go through some portal an insane lady made via ritual sacrifice' on my to-do list just yet."

[wingedcatgirl]

>Search for bricks [Ranma]
The building is made of bricks. what do you mean the map appears to show otherwise. i'm talking about the part just offscreen.

[Caret]

Me nether. Especially if said portal is activated by stabbing people.

Bow shudders.

[Florien]

Hey, I've been called a brick, in the sense that I break windows and that I'm very difficult to kill. So if you speak metaphor, I'm your saving grace. Now get the fuck on board with my plan. It's a GREAT plan, and if you think otherwise, please, tell me the flaw in it aside from "oh boo hoo I don't want anyone to be killed even if they will almost certainly come back to life shortly thereafter, I want everyone to be happy always." I've solved your problems twice before, and I'll do it again. I'm an adventurer. That's what I DO. I solve problems.

[artsyGeek]

> Check everyone's rooms. Including the ones dead. Just wanted to check something.

[Huney]

"I don't like the almost certainly! I think I'd just prefer it was a certainly certainly! Without stabbing too! I just don't get why we'd do it when there is a possible way out with no one getting hurt!"

[wahoothis]

Ranma stared at the bricks making up the wall. ". . . Tempting. . ." He'll save "trying to punch out the bricks to use" at the very last. "You said something about making a brick. Do we have to make the brick ourselves? Anyone here with prior construction knowledge-" Hearing Kellensea continue on, Ranma decided to do something. He just took off one of his black shoes and throw it hard at her. "SHUT UP, WHY DON'T YOU? No one's on board with your moronic plan! You want a sacrifice, stab yourself for all we care. Just don't get us involved with it."

>Look for stuff to make bricks.

[wingedcatgirl]

>Check everyone's rooms [Haruka]
Everything seems as it was. The corpses have been removed, but since nobody seems to check up on those after a trial, those could have been cleared away ages ago.

>Look for stuff to make bricks. [Ranma]
Ranma looks through storage for material that could make bricks. Amongst the things he finds are some long coils of rope, some canned food, some more medkits... none of this seems useful for brickmaking.

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

I think it's less about making bricks, and more about manipulating boundaries to manipulate reality in general. The Other Host just made a brick because it's simple, I presume.

[Kennifer]

"Yeah, because finding seemingly-obvious evidence is anything close to opening portals with ritual sacrifice. Psycho bitch."

[wahoothis]

"Boundaries in reality? I have. . . zero clue what that means." Ranma said, holding the rope, canned food and medkit because he might as well take that stuff. Pragmatism- The Saotome Family code.

[artsyGeek]

"..manipulating reality? I.. thought that's impossible."

[wahoothis]

"It kind of makes it sound like we're in some kind of dream. . . Oh god, I really hope that isn't the case again. . ." Ranma said with a miserable grumble, really hoping this isn't something like Happosai's dreams again. Least it doesn't seem deviant enough to be that old perverted miser's dream.

[Kennifer]

"Someone's dream? More like a nightmare."

[Florien]

So, to be clear, none of you are on board with my plan? Because I'm going to go through with it whether you like it or not, and I can't sacrifice myself to open the portal. I really don't think you're going to find a way by playing with bricks, and I think you'll hate my second idea even more, because it will take literally tens of thousands of years, and we'll all be dead by then, and only our descendants will escape. And inbreeding will be a problem, and generally, it has a much higher failure rate, I'm sure. The point I'm making here is, one of you is going to be my sacrifice, whether you like it or not. I'm reasonably sure you'll be fine. For once, TRUST AN EXPERT. You're NEVER going to find a perfect solution. There's no perfect ending to a story, there's just the point where the teller stops talking. So just LISTEN TO ME, TAKE WHAT I HAVE TO SAY AT FACE VALUE FOR ONCE, AND LET'S GET OUT OF HERE NOW, or I'll MAKE YOU TAKE IT AT FACE VALUE.

There's an extreme amount of menace in her words, but underlying that, for the first time, perhaps, fear. Kellensea is quite clearly afraid of something.

JUST COOPERATE. Please. Please. I need to get out, I don't have time for vague hints and gradual insanity. For all you know, this is a TRICK by the host to delay our escape plan! Perhaps they figured out what I'm doing and are attempting to patch the loophole now!

[Huney]

"..."

Komaru turns to the others, enthusiasm starting to evaporate.

Indeed, she's starting to look pretty fucking pissed.

"Do you all know if there's any rope around here? Anything to bind people with in general?"

[wahoothis]

Something just snaps inside Ranma. "JUST SHUT THE HELL UP KELLENSEA!" And that's another shoe getting thrown at you Kellensea. Ranma's going to regret that, but he already threw one shoe, and walking around in one is pretty annoying. Plus they don't always fit him when he changes form, so it could be a heads up just in case that happens. "We're sick and tired of your bullshit. You don't know what the hell you're doing! Something's going on, and we're working to figure out a way out of here. Except for you! This whole game, you've been by yourself. Looting people's corpses under the guise of pragmatism, hoarding away in the office, and with every day that passes without a death you expressed the similar disappointments as our hosts! And now you want to do some ridiculous ritual that most likely won't even work, and you claim to be an expert on something you're not even sure will work a hundred percent." Ranma's face was bright red, he was absolutely fed up with Kellensea.

"You know what your problem is Kellensea? This whole game, you've been alone. Alone and working for me, myself and I. We've been trying to work together and figure a way out. Because we're a team, we don't want to leave by ourselves. What have your plans been for survival? "Let me kill all of you guys and take your souls with me. Let me kill one of you guys and leave the facility to get my team. LET ME PUT POISON EVERYWHERE AND NEARLY KILL YOU GUYS. LET ME PERFORM A BLOOD RITUAL AND SACRIFICE ONE OF YOU IN A DANGEROUS AND MOST LIKELY FLIMSY GAMBIT!!! You're not doing this for anyone else. You're doing this for yourself. Because the way I see it, you're alone. You've always been alone this whole time. And to be honest, if we do find a way out of here and you stick to your stupid ritual, you'll be left here all alone because of your "self-preservation" and methods of survival. Now please shut the hell up and let us actually figure a way out without having to kill someone. " If one looks close enough, Ranma was holding his head down, possibly to hide some tears that had formed in his rant against Kellensea. ". . . yeah. I found some. . ." Taking a deep and shaky breath, Ranma held up the rope.

[Florien]

Is that a threat Komaru? Or are you finally helping me by choosing a sacrifice? It's a threat, isn't it. You're going to tie me up, for fear I'll ruin everything, but you're the ones RISKING OUR ESCAPE. It will only take a moment, you'll be fine afterwards. No certainty can be found that you'll all survive this, but no certainty can be found that your other plan will do it either. Please. Cooperate. It won't take long. It's safe, it's routine. IT SHOULD WORK. But since you're convinced that your plan is so great, that we should try the risky option first, we can do that. But if the host closes the loophole? If there suddenly IS no way out, but there was by my method? I reserve the right to kill you, and I expect to be released without comment.

Kellensea scoffs at Ranma's rant.

It's not a gambit, because I'm not actually sacrificing anything for a positional advantage. But you're right. Fucking shocking, right? I've been working alone, I've been working for me, most of the time I've been here. But Komaru and Kai are in my party now, and I work WITH THEM now. That's why I'm even CONSIDERING your views, considering your options, that you people keep putting forwards. If I wasn't in a party, I would have grabbed one of you, sacrificed you, and been out by now. But my party members, wrong-headedly, don't want me to kill anyone yet. So I WON'T. I need to get out. I need more options. And I've presented you with a way out. I don't know if it will work. But it PROBABLY will, in some capacity, work. If you try to tie me up, I will break your arms, and I will tear the bones out of your skin, and I will suck the marrow from them in front of you. You need to TRUST me. I've been correct before. Twice before. And YOU. ARE. GOING. TO. COOPERATE. I don't know why, but I keep holding out hope, hope that one of you will become sane. Hope that the kernels of sanity I see in many of you will grow into ACTUAL SANITY, ACTUAL ACCEPTANCE. But every time, I'm disappointed. EVERY TIME. I try to believe in all of you, try to hope you'll come along willingly, see the world as it is, and not as you want it, and YOU. KEEP. NOT. DOING THAT. At this point, I'm tempted to lock all of you in a room with no food and no water, and keep talking to you until I fucking turn you into cultlings, and then release you from my thrall once I've sufficiently replaced your fucked up diabetes inducing worldviews! BUT I CAN'T DO THAT, so I NEED TO KEEP TRUSTING YOU, AND YOU KEEP HURTING ME.

[Huney]

"... Well."

Kellensea hit something at least.

"Fine. If you're so certain, it would be fine if someone just... gave themselves up for it. Right?"

She steps forward, with a loud, louuuud sigh.

"I know you're not sentimental, Kellensea, but... could you explain this one more time? If someone could possibly die for this, I need you to be certain. If I die, are you sure everyone will be safe?"

[wahoothis]

". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . h. . . Hurting you? HURTING YOU? Are you fucking kidding me right now?! Who the hell cares about your hurt ego? You're the one who's been threatening to sacrifice one of us, saying we have a choice. You're just as bad as the ones holding us here. So if your fragile ego's being hurt at no one wanting to go along with your plan, than boo-hoo. Because I don't know what it's going to take to get it through your thick skull, or if it even can, but we don't want to sacrifice anyone. We're not the ones ready to drop other's lives just to benefit ourselves. Why do you think people haven't been dropping dead like flies? Because we're the ones whose been keeping an eye on one another. We're the ones whose been looking out for one another because WE want to escape. No I or ME. WE. That might sound cheesy or idiotic to you, because I don't know what crappy life you lived that made you believe that pathetic mindset. But guess what. We don't care what you think anymore. We don't care about your self-serving schemes. And we don't care whether or not you're better than anyone. We're all tired of you Kellensea. None of us wants to see you die like the way you want to see us perish, but at this point, we're starting to lose care in what happens to you. Is that what you want Kellensea? Nothing else matters, as long as you stick by your own guns? That your own ego and feeling of right and wrong has to be the one that stands above everyone else's. That even if everyone else turns their back on you, as long as you're right and better than everyone, who the hell cares if that success comes with being alone in the world. We're offering you a chance, a way to not be alone. And that's to actually work with us without sacrificing someone else. We're done playing by the rules of this game. It's time we stand up and rebel. Now tell me Kellensea, do you want to get out of here with all of us, or do you want to play into their hands. Because even if you do your ritual, there's no guarantee it'll work. There's no guarantee the ones holding us here will simply let you do it if it really worked." Ranma took a deep breath, before. . .

"Komaru, no. You can't sacrifice yourself!" He said, gripping his hold on the rope, getting slight rope burn in the process.

[Huney]

"Hey, it's a maybe right? I'll be fine! Probably..."

[Kennifer]

"If this bullshit idea of hers kills someone..."

[wahoothis]

"Komaru, please. . . She's not even that sure if it'll work. She keeps on switching from being an expert to decreasing the chances of survival ratings. This is the same girl who decided poisoning the sink faucets was a good idea. And now her idea is a ritual that she's not even that sure about that involves sacrificing someone else. We've already lost four too many people, we can't lose anymore. . ."

[Huney]

"I'm not doing this until I'm absolutely certain it'll be okay for the rest of you. I'm not that stupid, so let me help out just a bit! But I want numbers. Real ones. What are the chances of my survival and what are the chances of it working? I'll back down if they're not good enough."