W2 🛸 PLAYER CYOA: BUP SQUAD (TEEJ) 🚀 BAIKEN, ICHIBAN, THRONÉ

[dropoffs]

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[kabari]

Ichiban, make this guy do it.

[ she is also. staring at verg. help. ]

[frotag]

Wait. Waitwaitwait.

The guys are the fuel?

[ HE DOESN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH BEING TOLD WHAT TO DO BUT HE DOES HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS PART ]

[verminous]

[He sighs, a very tired, annoyed sort of sigh, staring them both down even though he's answering Ichiban.

"Well, its inventor isn't here to explain the details, so... we'll leave it at this. The 'guys' are the only kind of fuel this bus's engine will take, and you won't find it just anywhere."

The side of the bus pops open with a groaning, metallic sound, revealing mechanisms that look very nearly like jaws.

"Throw them in. Mephistopheles will extract what it needs, and convert the rest."

He continues to stand in their way, but... he's not going to tell the ladies to help Ichiban, either. How they do this is their business, he's just not letting them back in until it's done.]

[naeddre]

[there's... a pause, from throné, as she looks over her shoulder at the mostly dead men. it's clear she's hesitating.

... she has a strength of eight so she is not going to be able to move the men into the mechanism regardless, but. there's a little war going on her head about what she has to do in order to get past this, and what she is willing to sacrifice. maybe she should fight a little more on being told these things, but she is so very good at following orders.]

[kabari]

[ baiken, meanwhile, is not one to be told what to do. ]

Piss off. You want it done, you can do it yourself.

[ SHE'S HAD ENOUGH OF THIS 'VERG' GUY. she will fight you old man. though for now, she continues to glower. ]

[frotag]

[ ichiban also stands his ground, growing angrier by the second. ]

No. I don't care what the details are. Sure, maybe they're not paragons of humanity, and maybe they would've killed us if we didn't knock 'em out first, but I'm not feeding people to some fucked up nightmare bus!

[verminous]

[He's giving all of them a flat, disappointed look. Why was I still using quotes when there's just one npc here right now.]

You do know how things work in this City, don't you... you've been told your options. Work with them or you're not getting anywhere.

[naeddre]

[... well, she's going to step off the bus. she'll let baiken beat the shit out of verg.

she wanders over to one of the barely alive guys, staring down at him like she's deliberating.]

[kabari]

The hell's your problem? What has this City done where I'm supposed to give a shit?

[ she isn't even angry about the dudes. maybe she should be. maybe that will sink in later - but for now, all she sees is some pompous douchebag trying to give orders. ]

What, too afraid to get your hands dirty? Might want to try another profession then.

[frotag]

[ ichiban also has a bone to pick with their mysterious host, but baiken looks like she currently has that on lock, and he's not about to get in her way. no, instead he's veering toward throné as she stares down at one of the thugs.

there's a moment where he almost reaches out to place a hand on her shoulder, but vividly remembers the last time he touched her without warning and quickly withdraws, instead just saying: ]

Necchan, c'mon. You can't be serious.

[verminous]

My role is to be a guide, not a participant. To put it another way... I'm not paid to care how you get anything done. Just to make sure you do it.

[You know when someone has a palpable Aura of intimidation about them? He's got that, his eyes now a brighter red, but he isn't making a move. If they don't start any, perhaps there will not be any. Who's to say.]

[naeddre]

[ichiban is so good at learning

throné looks up at ichiban when he approaches.]

... If you and Baiken think that we can make it through this without dying, then I won't. [folds her arms.] But I will not die here. I made a promise.

[kabari]

[ really having a jotaro-dio standoff here.

except, sadly, baiken isn't as hotheaded as she used to be, and has enough sense to know that cutting this man down (well. attempt.) is not where her priority should be. it isn't even fun to insult him, because he doesn't care. ]

Stuffy bastard.

[ well it wasn't like she wasn't going to insult him, mild as it is in the grand scheme of things. she STOMPS off the bus to her other two companions. ]

Figure it out yet?

[frotag]

[

ah, but then baiken is joining them, and she asks the million dollar question. ichiban looks between the two of them, his eyes lingering on throné's a little longer before he breaks his silence.

"you're a good man, ichiban." ]

Look, I wanna get out of this in one piece too, but I don't want murdering these guys to be part of the plan, either. [ . . . he faces the metallic teeth in the bus's newly opened hatch. ] We're not going anywhere until we get some fuel? Then I'll do it.

[ THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT YOU'D SAY YOU SHITTY PROTAGNIST PIECE OF SHIT!!!!! ]

[verminous]

[WELL.

Since we have determined this is happening...

Now that he's looking at the bus, Ichiban can tell it actually seems hungry. The driver was not simply using a turn of phrase; it's gnashing its 'teeth' like it's starving, after they've failed to give it any fuel, and when he approaches despite Throné's attempt to interfere...

It doesn't take much effort. He barely has to get near it before the mechanisms catch him, devouring him eagerly.

Ichiban is dead.

Wherever Throné has put her pocketwatch, she can feel warmth from it. A very faintly visible chain runs from it to her, through her to Baiken, to... well, right now, to the bus engine.

Oh, yeah, and if she was still standing close or if Baiken has gotten closer? They're splattered with his blood. Mephi's a messy eater. It's sowwy.]

[naeddre]

[o-oh

well let me tell you a thing that you're going to very quickly learn on this cyoa - throné is not a fan of blood! she does not like it! so when ichiban's horrible meat remains splash her face and her white clothes, she kind of bluescreens. it's a loading screen up in there as she goes through all five stages of grief very quickly.

she is a little shellshocked? like. w - what do you even do with that? a man just died in front of her that she considered a friend and she doesn't know she's on cyoa so she just. thinks he's dead. like, for real, forever. maybe he is!

she feels the warmth of the pocketwatch where she has stashed it, unfortunately, in her... well i'm not sure she's wearing a bra, so just, like, there. in her bobbies. she is too shocked by ichiban being dead to care, and she stumbles back a step or two and just stares at the bus.]

[kabari]

[ for all her blustering, death isn't as easy to shrug off as she'd like it to be. there's a separation between her feelings and her actions, an acceptance of the kind of person she is, that makes it so she can swing the sword. cut people down. it is different in this context - a selfless choice, yet still a violent end that none of them can control. was it worth it?

she's shocked too, at the suddenness of it. the finality of it. no fanfare, no nothing. just carnage. she looks to throné, noticing the chain. great. awesome. she doesn't like that it leads to the engine, if only because she isn't sure she can convince throné to throw herself in, if that's what any of this means.

any other time, baiken would just walk away. but she can't.]

[frotag]

[ ]

[naeddre]

[okay! well. i mean i wasn't kidding my tag is that she's just standing here staring at the bus teeth like what in the goddamn FUCK do i do.

she's not unused to violence, but the fact that she's expecting something to change and nothing really does has her stunned.

how in the fuck are they going to get the other bodies in there.]

[verminous]

[The watch is ticking in her chest, now, just by the way. They can both probably hear that happening. I'm really gonna have to keep writing it like this if that's where she's keeping the watch huh?]

[kabari]

[ okay. well. something has to happen.

so baiken tears herself away from the scene and back to verg, her beloated. ]

Hey. What's up with the chains?

[ (teej voice) he doesn't know what the fuckity-fuck you're talking about ]

[verminous]

[He glances up at that, from where he was checking his own watch, completely unconcerned with Ichiban's unfortunate demise.]

Your ties.

[It seems at first like that's all he'll say, but he does at least elaborate:]

You'll drag each other into hell, or drag each other back out of it. That's up to you. But I would hurry up and use the watch; we should have company soon.

[naeddre]

[that seems to snap her out of it a little. she looks up at verg, and then. pulls the watch out of her tiddies. what's it doing?

there's a thought that crosses her mind - something awful and twisty and sad, because you can drag each other out of hell just makes her think about viktor. but she pushes it aside firmly, and focuses. can she try somehow to bring ichiban back with this thing? she shakes it.]

[kabari]

[ why is that your first instinct. ]

[verminous]

[The watch rings as an alarm sounds. Their vision goes dark, and when they can see again-

They're standing in front of an enormous door, one that looms far above them. Heat emanates from the gap between its panels, agonized cries and wails audible through it, and as it creaks open, the heat increases. Not enough to burn, but it's absolutely unpleasant.

When there's enough space made... hands reach through the gap, with a multitude of laments. One of them, they can see clearly, belongs to Ichiban.

The question isn't exactly spoken aloud. It's more that they feel it, in some way:

Will they share the pain?]