[Fin] The Murder-Free Hotel

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Gary grabs a little bit of everything Ranma made as he sits with Ranma.

Holy hell, does she ever shut up? Just yammer, yammer and yammer. If I ever wanna go to sleep, I'll just listen to her talk and I'll be out like a baby.

He takes a bite of everything so far.

Pretty good food here. Definitely like to indulge myself in other cultures.

[Florien]

Only to intimidate people, and you people don't need intimidating. I talked a lot less when I was the muscle of our party anyway, my original party. Mostly because back then, I hadn't yet been magically modified until my social anxiety stopped being a thing. Which, yeah, magical modification without medical and government approval isn't really legal, but they can't enforce it for adventurers anyway. What are they going to do about it when the person involved is willing and able to kill anyone who comes for them, you know? And with the social contract out of my way, a bunch of nations don't have license to do anything other than make me pay reparation money.

She shrugs.

The side effects of all that modification for various purposes I think just kind of adds to the benefits. Like, sure, I creep people out who look too closely at me with my helmet off, I heal completely differently than most people, I don't sleep anymore and barely need to eat, and absolutely look like I haven't done either in a very long time, but on the other hand, none of those things are really that bad in my line of work. But yeah, I don't stop talking unless I have nothing to say or I'm in a scenario where I don't need to to get a point across, or where someone else is there who'd be better suited to convey my point.

[wingedcatgirl]

Vivi stares blankly at Kellensea. "Yeah I don't know what those acronyms mean."

[TalesofUnder]

(Doug Grugg's just kind of chilling out here.)

[Florien]

Kellensea quite literally handwaves the question, then dodges it.

Oh, don't worry about the acronyms. Just adventuring terms which carry little relevance if you're not interested in shopping for a party to deal with your issues. Never heard your name, by the way, what is it?

[artsyGeek]

[Haruka looks at Kellensea in a "done with your bullshit" sort of way.]

"..Kel, please. Shut up. We're done with the game. What are you trying to do now?"

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

You know, I think I'd rather have her stab me with my own leg bones than to hear her talk again. Just go ahead and stab them right through my ears, bust up my eardrums. Who needs weapons and armor when you can talk someone to death?

[wingedcatgirl]

"... Vivi Elakha. Literally the first thing I said to you."

[wahoothis]

"And I'm sure your party members are happier with their peace and quiet without you." Okay, that might've been a dickish thing for him to say. But considering Kellensea's an egotistical jackass who treats everyone around her like dirt on her shoe or treasure chests for when they died, she honestly probably deserved that comment. Ranma turned to look at Gary, still munching on his own food. "Eh, I don't really cook a lot. Mostly since my fiancee is a terrible chef herself, and I don't want to hurt her ego. Besides, I'm not as good of an okonomiyaki chef as my old childhood friend and "other fiancee"" He does the air quotes with one hand, resting his head on the other. "Though I guess I did pick up some tips during the times I fought her in Martial Arts Cooking, or the times I worked as a waitress at her shop."

[Florien]

...Oh, so it was. Sorry. Not great with names. Usually I only have to remember my boss, my party, a couple people we work with for a bit, and enemies. Anyway, point is... I... 

WHAT THE FUCK RANMA?! I'll have you know I was considered a hero, and people accepted my adventuring there. They don't discriminate against people for stupid reasons back home. They certainly don't have all this talk of "oh no moral panic time because I want corpses to have rights now I guess" or "oh no moral panic time because someone isn't agreeing that sapience or sentience is the end-all-be-all of what should determine right-to-life." That's just how things ARE! And then I encounter YOU people, and your fucking apathy and hatred for EVERY SINGLE THING that I'VE fought for! I'm glad you don't live in my world, because if you did, you'd bring shame to every life I've improved, every nation that exists because of MY PARTY'S ACTIONS! I'm sick of you people invalidating me. That's ALL you do. You do it over and over because for whatever reason, you can't accept that somehow, my world functions, and it accepts people like me. Because if you admitted that, you'd be admitting you were wrong to not do it at home.

Kellensea starts breaking into an outright rage again.

LOOK! You people, you're all IDIOTS! You just go about your lives, stepping on our people, ignoring them, oppressing them, because you do it with everyone else, I assume. The other people you do this to only seek equality, but you'd better grant US equality with you, because unlike everyone else, we seek REVENGE for what you do to us. The would-be adventurers you oppress WILL tear down your worlds, and WILL oppress you right back if you don't start accepting them. We blend in among you when you hide us, and like it was in the Old Jandom, in the Callaran State, my kind will join together and take revenge on you. Your closest friends will reveal themselves as our kind with nothing more than a knife in your back in retaliation for all you do against us. Because unlike the other people you oppress? We have no external marks of class. And We. Fight. Back.

She stands up suddenly, knocking over a chair, and then, apparently out of things to say for the moment, tilts the chair back up and sits down again.

[wingedcatgirl]

Vivi groans. "Can you two please not start a fucking war in m- in this hotel? We get it, you hate each other.

"... apology accepted, though, Kellensea."

[wahoothis]

"Ah yes, because we don't like pillaging and murder because it's not in world, that means we're apathetic. Not the girl who spent half of the time in the murder school trying to kill us, the other time arguing with us about how we're the wrong ones for not wanting murders. Oh, but I guess it's only fair for you to try and kill us, or shit talk us and our own lives. But the moment anyone questions your moralities and your own lives, or talk badly about your life style, you immediately go on a long defensive tirade about how you're a "hero" and that your life style and your world justifies being a jackass egotist and how us reprimanding you for acting like an entitled apathetic asshole who thinks plundering people's corpse and encouraging murder because she's bored of no death is bad because "Kellensea said so." Because in case you haven't realized this, this isn't your world. Where you don't have to murder just for the sake of getting supplies or survival or whatever other reason you'll use to justify your beliefs. Where you can actually get by in life without killing or looting bodies. Speaking of say so. . ." Ranma just twirled the fork in his hand, pick up a piece of pork while taking a bite of it. "I notice that you're so hellbent on giving long speeches to people you consider lesser than you. Why do you put so much effort in arguing with us expecting us to just change our ways because of a long boring rant barely people pay attention to? Besides the fact your own ego is so fragile that you feel the need to barrier it with walls of extensive arguments. I know I too give long rants, but I don't expect it to actually change your mind. I just do it because you're an annoying jackass with an ego problem. This place must be hell for you actually. Because this place is murder-free. So even if you do assault someone and "break every bones in their bodies," you can't kill them. Now why don't you enjoy your time here, go swim in a pool or play golf or whatever the hell they have here." Ranma yawned, still eating his food. He looked over at Vivi. "Yeah, I'm done arguing with whatever long response she has, because why have ten words when she can do thousand. Because that'll make people listen to her."

[Florien]

Fucking. Vels. You see these people Vivi? Ranma is among the worst, but this is how they all act. They have their weird morals, giving rights to the dead, NOT THE UNDEAD who deserve the same rights as all else that lives, but the the DEAD, with this and that, then they decide that anyone who stands against them on that must be an entitled egotist or whatever! Then they're like "oh obviously this must be your hell because you can't kill." But NO! IT'S NOT! It's my hell because THEY'RE THERE WITH ME, constantly criticizing me for not conforming to their frankly completely fucked expectations of what someone should be! I don't criticize them for their fucking weird-ass behaviors, and I expect to be offered the same courtesy! But NOoO! They have to decide that because MY choices and MY society and who I AM don't align with their view of what people SHOULD be, that because I COOPERATED WITH THE HOST in their killing game and made attempts as was requested of me BY THE HOST, that I'm some entitled egotist! It's like they can't fucking comprehend that I don't think my life is worth MORE than theirs because I'm so eager to preserve what I have! They're like "no you can't ask the host if you can get special treatment" and I'm like "yeah but I'm going to, in case I can, which would be nice" and they're like "NO YOU'RE A MONSTER AAAAA" and it's like... like... UGH!

Kellensea slams her fist down on the arm of her chair dramatically, accidently breaking it.

Uhh... oops. Point is, that's like... that's like saying "hey you can't ask for help ever because I DON'T WANNA ASK so YOU SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO". Like, like fucking... UGH. I wasn't stopping them for also asking for rule changes, they have every right to lobby for them! But NO! They don't WANT to! So they SIT THERE and TWIDDLE THEIR FUCKING THUMBS, and then get angry at me when I don't JOIN them in sitting there doing nothing to attempt to improve my situation! SERIOUSLY! Just because I don't think they deserve a fucking reward for being alive?! Congratufuckinglations, you're not dead! You're entitled to MORE BEING NOT DEAD I guess. I take MEASURES to keep myself safe and alive, and suddenly I'm a COWARD?! Yeah, I bet they don't think it's cowardly to live in a house to hide from the rain, to eat food to avoid starving, but to wear armor to not get stabbed? To barricade a room shut to make it difficult for someone so inclined to break in and try to stab me? That's COWARDICE!? What the fuck is wrong with these people? I explain my views, and they're like "nuh uh your views are wrong because they don't include the part where I'm the center of the fucking universe" and go right back to "entitled egotist", without noticing that I'M NOT AT THE CENTER OF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE IN THEM EITHER. All I say is that I did all kinds of cool shit in the past, and that they didn't do that cool shit, and that that cool shit that I did means that I have experience dealing with a specific situation, but then they're like "well, I've never dealt with that situation, but clearly I'm equally qualified" and then I say "no, because I've actually done this before" they scream "EGOTIST" again! Then I bring up ALL THESE PLACES where they're wrong or points they haven't considered, and then they say "nah too wordy, EGOTIST"

Apparently somewhat calmer after her rant, Kellensea stands up, pushes away the old chair, and drags a new, not-broken one over.

Anyway, that's why they're horrible, and why Ranma is fucking awful specifically. Just because it isn't home, I'm not supposed to be treated like a living entity? Vivi, in the inevitable uprising of marginalized adventurers in places where they are marginalized, I hope you are spared, as much as I hope Ranma dies. You, at least, have tolerated me to a greater extent than most of the people in that game. Hell, let me tell you, this one guy? He went out and murdered someone in an attempt to frame me because he was all like "oh I don't like her because she's playing the game as presented to her" and he didn't even try to deal with his actual problem, ME? And then I'M the coward for taking measures to ensure my security. It's... the thought processes of these people just seem to default to "blame and shame the one who is different from us for all the problems". Like, seriously, I'm like 80% sure that's some kind of victim blaming. "Oh this person said the adventurer being different was the motive for their doing of murder when we didn't want a murder, better blame the adventurer for being so different that that person murdered." Ugh.

Kellensea finally stops talking for a bit, seemingly exhausted by having to deal with "these people".

[SmilyCube112]

Bakugo's now back to being confused over wtf just happened, but decides to just not bother trying to figure it out and leaves, saying: "Fuck this shit, I'm out!"

"Erm, okay?"

[GoldenCityBird]

Neither Rasel or Jindra listened to half of this. They had already long since left in the same direction as Bakugo.

[artsyGeek]

[..oddly enough, Haruka also joins Bakugo.]

"...eyo, Bakugo. Sorry for saying that I don't mind you dead a bit earlier behind your back."

[SmilyCube112]

"You did what?" Bakugo said with a look on his face that says he doesn't actually care that it happened.

[wahoothis]

Yeah Ranma wasn't paying attention to what Kellensea said. If she was expecting a response, she wasn't getting one. At least not from Ranma, who's finishing up his food. He got up, stretched and followed everyone else's example of walking off. "There's some food in the kitchen if anyone's hungry. Don't worry, Kellensea didn't poison these." Ranma half joked, half offer, looking around the hotel.

[artsyGeek]

[Haruka awkwardly scratches her head as she repeats what she said.]

"....I, uh.. Said that I don't mind you getting killed, Bakugo. Sorry about that."

[SmilyCube112]

Bakugo wasn't listening - He had walked off to his room in the MFH and shut the door behind him. Moon wondering what that was about, when Calli says: "Yea, don't bother with him. Best bet is either he won't listen, or he'll yell like a sailor at you."

[GoldenCityBird]

"I've been in that sort of situation," Rasel says. "Well, uh... I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Rasel Noor. I've been staying here for quite a while now."

[Dookie]

Cass comes down to greet the new people.

"Hello! Welcome to the hotel. Good job at not dying!"

[artsyGeek]

"..ah, heya. I'm Haruka Ito, Ultimate Psychologist. It's nice to meet you all!" [She says with a smile.]

[Nearby, you can spot Rebel walking to the others while scratching the back of his neck.] "Hrghhh... 젠장 .. 진짜 아파 ...* ..d'oh. Hey, new people."

* Shit... That hurts like hell...

[SmilyCube112]

"I'm Moon, and this is my friend Angel!"
"Hey."

"I'm Mori Calliope, a Vtuber."
"With over a million subscribers and counting........."

[Kennifer]

Soon Alexis heads back to... whatever common area the others are in. She's wearing a colorful cover-up over her swimsuit and a pair of flip flops, and has managed to get most of the extra water out of her hair.

"Ahh, I needed that..."

There's also probably Kennifer around somewhere.