[Roleplay - Drop-in] Murder-Free II: The City's Portaling Revengeance

[wingedcatgirl]

Cyan - Deep Storage 2
"Hydroxyl?!" Finch exclaims.

"And Jones, too," Vivi mutters, still keeping her focus as much on the anchor as possible.

"... Um, when it comes to those two in particular," Finch says, "I think most of the hotel would be okay with whatever happens to them. Not that I'm endorsing letting them starve to death, but..."

[Florien]

Cyan: Deep Storage 2

Not that you're endorsing it but you're totally endorsing it. Got it. Standard disavowal, I'll mark that down if someone decides to judge us for war crimes. Wait, which one's Jones and which is Hydroxyl? Neither ever gave a name. Well, maybe the fire elemental did, I didn't understand a word out of its mouth, and I'm not entirely sure it was even speaking words.

Kellensea waves her hand.

Ah, I'm sure it'll be fine. I bound the doors and secured the vents. Unless that lizard can make like, something to cut bolt-cutter resistant cables out of elevator grease and whatever else is in there, they're probably going to remain in there for a while. Hopefully until they TOTALLY DON'T STARVE, RIGHT? WINK.

Having just said the word "wink" to further underscore her blatant lying, she watches the spell-doing.

[wingedcatgirl]

Cyan - Deep Storage 2
"... okay I feel like I need to clarify that I'm actually not endorsing letting them starve to death," Finch says. "... maybe Hydroxyl.

"Finch! No war crimes!

"Ugh, okay, fine, not Hydroxyl either! ... Can they even starve to death in the hotel, with its no-death-allowed thing?"

Vivi Elakha casts Interdimensional Anchor.

The designated area gleams with magical energy for a moment, then it fades.

"Beats me," she says. "Don't really feel like finding out. Jones is the lizard and Hydroxyl is the gasbag, also."

[Florien]

Cyan: Deep Storage 2

Oh. Alright then. You'll have to remind me to like, toss some vaguely food-like items in or something though. Jones is the lizard? Huh. I'd have thought the names would be the other way around. Any particular reason you and the others don't like them so much and would be vaguely interested in them starving, or are you just in a "let's harm someone" mood? If it's the latter, I totally get it.

[wingedcatgirl]

Cyan - Deep Storage 2
"Jones got a lot of people killed in the very first murdergame, including me." Vivi shrugs. "I can't really hold a grudge about that, myself, but for some reason a lot of other people can. And from what Finch tells me, Hydroxyl did about the same in a later game, only he's a lot more of a self-righteous weirdo about it, plus he cut a deal with him to run more murdergames in exchange for not being executed when he was found out."

[Florien]

Cyan: Deep Storage 2

Oh. Okay, cool, got it. One's a killer who killed a bunch and the other's a killer who came up with dumb reasons for WHY they killed a bunch. I get why the second one is more annoying. People not admitting that they like it or at very least didn't see anything wrong with it, and coming up with bullshit reasons to justify themselves to a stupid unaccepting society-at-large. Like, you're known to be a killer, so it's not like coming up with dumb reasons is going to make you better liked among the enemies you've made. "Oh, I was in a cult and they mind controlled me to do it", "Oh, I don't know what came over me, I deeply regret it", "Oh, they were going to kill my family or friends or something" or what-have-you. Bullshit, you liked it. UGH. People... though the bargaining thing sounds alright, why are people upset over that? Like, he has the right to try to bargain.

[Cassie]

Hotel

"Is there a fucking hot dog around here? I'm hungry." Hank asks.

[Kennifer]

-Hotel-

Kennifer, who was... still sitting around the whole time holding her head, shrugs.

"Used to be some in the kitchen, which used to be that way. But this place keeps fucking changing around, so I can't promise anything. Is that pineapple still here? Maybe they know... gaah, I need some kind of painkiller, this shit hurts again."

...good job making the newcomer think you probably have brain damage there, Kennifer.

[wingedcatgirl]

Cyan - Deep Storage 2
"We don't like it because it means that while people like Cutbug and Ikei got killed, Hydroxyl gets a sweet licensing deal, and in exchange he's serving him and putting more people into the situation that got people killed," Finch says.

"I mean they all got better, kinda..." He shrugs. "Maybe people coulda gotten over it, given that, but the self-righteousness super didn't help his case. Being all like 'I'm the good guy, actually, because I'm giving Sendri some entertainment and Sendri rules the galactic whatever and that means that anything that makes Sendri even marginally happier is axiomatically good no matter what the cost to anyone else, I love Sendri so much and would like to smooch them a lot now'."

He might be exaggerating for comic effect.

"Least he restricted himself to saying 'smooch' this time," Vivi mutters.

[Florien]

Cyan: Deep Storage 2

Eugh. Obsessive, unrelenting, servile... To a leader, no less. You've got a lieutenant. Rather, I have one. Because I've captured him. You get my point. Lieutenants are obnoxious things. Can't stand them... not the military ranks, to be clear. The military ranks are fine. You get me, whatever. Eugh. Can't believe I've got lieutenant particles all over me. Remind me to clean my stuff after I feed the prisoners.

With that, Kellensea walks through the portal, assuming the ritual done, and reenters the hotel.

[wingedcatgirl]

Domed City - Deep Storage 2
Vivi shrugs and re-enters the portal, returning to the hotel.

With the portal's destination approximately identified, its color changes from cyan to white.

[Florien]

Hotel: Disused Elevator Shaft.

Kellensea heads over to the disused elevator shaft, only to find the door, previously bound shut with a cable drilled through it, has been broken open, the cable apparently cut with some kind of heat-based tool.

...Huh. We've got escapees. Guess I don't have to feed the prisoners. Keep an eye out for them, I guess. How that lizard made some kind of high-energy cutter out of what was in that shaft, I don't know.

From an unseen source somewhere in the building...

You put a living plasma cutter in there with me and you expect me to not use it? Look, it is very rude to throw people in a pit, but it is also extremely rude to continually underestimate their intelligence like this.

[wingedcatgirl]

Hotel - Hallway
Vivi groans, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "All right, you two - that means Jones and Hydroxyl, for the avoidance of doubt - here's my offer. You don't make me intervene between you and the other residents. And I don't make you wish you hadn't made me intervene.

"... I don't even know if they can hear me from here."

[Florien]

Hotel: Hallway

Down the elevator shaft, a reply is shouted. The voice is a high pitched growl more than anything else.

It is not you I am worried about. You died easily enough to my incompetent associate, however long ago that was. Not the current one. I don't know whether he is... competent or not, because I have not actually known him long.

...To be more clear, It is us that will need protection against THEM, not them from us. Banishment from this place and returning to it aside, to my knowledge it is quite impossible to kill people here, correct? Now, we could make your lives quite difficult without killing you. It would be fair, you did try to imprison me and... presumably my new associate for some... overlong length of time. But we will not because we are very generous. Right?

Then, a second voice speaks. It sounds echoed, even more so than the elevator shaft would make it, and thickly accented.

Speak for yerself. Ah been thinkin', they torture an' try an' kill me, then give up an' toss me in soli-tary con-fine-meant? Ah don't think they deserve our mercy. How many days? How many months? How many years'd they take from me lahk this? Ah can't abide it.

Maybe they do not deserve our mercy. But we are magnanimous like that. Also, it is far more likely you will see your... I presume this "Sendri" is your Shaper? Again if you cooperate with them.

Sendri'll remember me! They're probably comin' this very moment, jus' marshalling their resources! They'ven't forgotten! They never forget! An' it'll be more impressive if'n ah'm standin' atop a pile of former an' current enemies of the Alliance! YA CAN SHOVE YER OFFER WHERE THERE AIN'T NO LIGHT SHININ'!

Erm... Right. Okay, my newly former associate, do with him as you will. For now, your offer is almost acceptable, just aside from the fact that you happen to seem to be assuming that any altercation would be malicious on my part. My very presence seems to offend the rest of the people here, for whatever incomprehensible reason, so that issue needs... resolving. Until you are willing to comply, I have no choice but to hold the hotel hostage. I may not be able to kill any of you, but I can make your lives miserable. Leave an improved offer at a dead drop in room... oh, let us say... five hundred and fifty five. I will consider it then.

See? Completely incomprehensible, the fire elemental. Can't understand a word it says. Anyway...

Kellensea groans loudly.

Ugh. Under normal circumstances, we use the dead drop as a trap. That's what I did back home. But I'm sure you have different ideas.

[wingedcatgirl]

Hotel - Hallway
Vivi's wandering around, trying to track the voices. "Thanks to the Echo, I understand them both fine enough," she tells Kellensea, mistakenly presuming her 'incomprehensible' comment to refer to an actual language barrier.

"Amy only killed me so easily because his rules dictated that she could, Jones. Under normal circumstances, a random pugilist trying to ambush me in the night... well. They'd wish they hadn't. But if others attack you unprovoked, I can certainly make sure that that's their problem, not yours. Rules are for everyone, not just former killers.

"As for you, Hydroxyl. I warned you not to make me regret my decision. I may no longer possess the absolute power of the pink smoke, but I am still the Warrior of Light. I have felled gods, ancients, and destroyers of worlds. This hotel may not permit me to slay you, but that does not mean I will permit you to be a giant dick to everyone."

She seems to be flat ignoring the dead drop thing.

[Cassie]

Hotel

"...you're physically fucked in the head, aren't ya? Whatever; I've had worse and bounced back from it."

After talking with Kennifer, Hank scurries off to the kitchen, raiding a fridge for some hot dogs.

---

"...What's taking Glasya and Henka so long?" Henrik questions over how it seems that both of them haven't got out of the Red Portal despite Hank and Piccy already exiting.

"Ugh...Someone got left behind, huh?" Piccy asks Henrik.

"Yeah-" Aaaand Henrik notices Piccy in all their messed-up glory. "AAAAAAH!-"

[Zanreo]

Then, a man dressed in a light grey suit and red shirt appears in the hotel. "Ugh... can't believe I died so early..."

[wingedcatgirl]

The indigo and red portals turn white.

[Cassie]

"Hey guys! Found a pink dude here!" Hank says, dragging a short man in pink out of the kitchen.

"H-hey! OW! GOD! UHHHH- STOP!"

---

"Hello? Hello!? Why did the portals turn white!?" Henrik yells, worried.

[Zanreo]

"Hey! You're that cop bastard from the mafia mansion!" "Kiryu" says upon seeing Yukichi.

[Cassie]

"You had a history with this piggy? Alright." Cue Hank carelessly leaving Yukichi behind to look for more food.

"Cop bastard-NO! I'm not a bastard, and I don't work for that bastard of a cop!"

[Zanreo]

"...So. Someone got you too?"

[Kennifer]

Kennifer's... probably around somewhere after her brief "get yanked out to go in a vignette and die again" thing.

She does not look particularly happy about having died again, especially since for the longest time she'd wondered if she even could.

[Cassie]

"It's not that someone got me too, it's that the others are fucking dumb and sent me off to get burned by that damn Carmello guy! Ughhhhhhhh..."

"Got chilli dogs!" Hank walks back to "Kiryu" and Yukichi with of course, some chilli dogs.

[wingedcatgirl]

Around somewhere
A teen catgirl wanders in. She spots Kennifer, gives a polite wave, and continues to wander through the hotel.