K
Khan of the Mardu
Guest
Original poster
Outside of the hotel at Sirena Beach, you were greeted by the hotel manager.
"Ah, greetings! Thank you all for coming today! Welcome to Hotel Delfino, where we specialize in rest and relaxation by a beautiful ocean!"
"Hello! The police said you have a job for us?"
"Why yes, I do! Unfortunately, my poor hotel has been vandalized recently. You see, a man and woman checked in yesterday and completely trashed their rooms on the second floor! Could you all help me clean their mess up?"
"Yes, of course. But, um...did the man happen to have balding red hair? And the woman a black bob cut and red hat?"
"Why, yes! That's them! Do you know those two?"
"...unfortunately."
"Well then, all the more reason to clean up! Here..." He handed each of you a map of the hotel.
"They were in the rooms on the second floor, on the west side. Please clean up the graffiti and dispose of those weird materials they left behind."
Meanwhile, the vice president had vanished upstairs as he was talking. Perhaps she was somewhere else in the hotel...?
@Jeremi @Verite @Kaykay @LuckycoolHawk9 @Hotel Delfino
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Yamashiro's water would clean up the goop easily, which was useful, since there was a large amount of it. Meanwhile, the Piantas were still amazed by the group. "Ernesti! Yeah, I remember you! And there's Yamashiro and Ritsuka, and Colonel Radec...is everyone else at a different place?"
"Aww...I wanted to meet the silly scarf man! He's funny!"
"Well, I wanna see Hiyori! She just lost her boyfriend, after all!"
"Excuse me?! Hiyori lost her boyfriend on Gelato Beach-Yato! Yusuke is her friend, and besides! He and Alesha are sooooo in love!"
"No way! Yusuke and Hiyori are meant to be!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Uh-huh!"
A third Pianta cut in. "Will you two shut up?! Look at you, fighting over silly romances! You should be ashamed!" The two arguing Piantas looked down, and the third added, "Besides...everyone knows the best romance is between Yato and Yusuke."
Aaaaand all three got to arguing again.
@Gummi Bunnies @thatguyinthestore @dark @Crow @Mari @Minerva @Pianta Village
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"A-ha!" The door to the video room would be kicked open, tranquilizer darts shot at the group. "I should have known the TVs wouldn't play by themselves!"
@thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @Takumi @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Archmage Jeremiah @Afterlife
Everything since Yato's death was a blur. The world around her had faded into nothing but the visual equivalent of white noise, and the sounds and words of those around her were the same. Attempts at comfort had done little to pull her out of her state, and it was quite obvious no matter how one looked at her. She didn't so much as move, remaining dormant on her knees by her deceased god's side for as long as she possibly could, unable to convince her waterworks to stop. By all means and rights, she was completely miserable.
And as time went on, it only got worse.
Passive was the recognition that she should not have stayed behind while others went out to do the work. The realization that she should have at least tried to break from her stupor to listen to Yusuke and the others that had tried to comfort her and provide her solace. It wasn't a mind-boggling concept, but in her state, she simply hadn't been able to see or hear anything but... him. What used to be him. Yato, even- or perhaps especially -in death, clouded every inch of her mind. It was a thing that typically brought joy, but now? Images of blood and pain and his body falling lifeless plagued her, making her want to scream as she had when it had first occurred.
A feeling that was reenacted when the next game came about and she was dragged from her devastated perch.
This time, she was certain she couldn't handle it. She couldn't witness any more death. This time, she longed almost for it to be her that went. If that meant that the others would survive, she would be okay with that. But instead, all she could do was watch. No repercussions were in store for her for standing dormant, save for what was likely the worst possible one of all. More death. As though this alone were not bad enough, one of those marked for the kill was yet another companion of hers. Not nearly as close as Yato, having only known the man since being dragged to this accursed isle, but that did not mean she was indifferent to his death. No, every death, be it of one close to her or a total stranger, sent her heart into a fit of unadulterated desolation. The fact was just that some of these deaths hit her in more vulnerable spots, this one akin to a punch to the gut while she was trying to get back to her feet and catch her breath after just having had it knocked out of her moments before.
"Please don't do this!" she cried out, unable to help herself as it was revealed that Yusuke was the one chosen for death. It was an opportunity she had not had with Yato, an availability to plead for his mercy. But here, maybe she could get through... Maybe these people weren't completely cold and callous murderers as they seemed. Maybe they had some heart she could get through to, she hoped, as tears again pricked her eyes with a familiar sting. "Nobody else needs to die! Haven't you taken enough and caused enough pain?!" she continued, face flushing from her frantic outcries and tears.
Hiyori Iki was a good person. She made good grades(despite spurts of her soul leaving her body in classes, even), had a handful of friends, spent her time with the gods and even went out of her way to save others, even when it put her in grave danger in their place. Danger that Yato and Yukine often saved her from, of course, but that was never on her mind when she made those rash, brave decisions. She prided herself on that, and never really had the heart to shoot others down or turn them away when in the long run, it might be better for her. She saw the good in others, even when it wasn't there. But somewhere deep down, she knew there was no good to appeal to in these people. So she shouldn't have been surprised when Yusuke was lowered and his body was thus unmoving.
That did not dull the hurt that came with this.
Pinkish-purple eyes, brimmed with tears, widened. Her body tensed and quaked fleetingly, twitching with shock and horror. She stared for a long few moments with terror and overwhelming pain before her hands turned to fists, eyes squeezing shut and thus forcing out their tears in supple streams as hands went to her shaking head. She couldn't do this. She couldn't bear it. It was too much and--
...
At some point, though she wasn't entirely sure when, she had simply blacked out. It was unlike her typical spurts of 'unconsciousness', in which her soul left her body and she free roamed in that form. She was unaware of anything that had transpired, and came to feeling only heavy and numb. Her first instinct, formed by habit and reinforced by her lack of immediate memory of all that had happened, was a glance around for Yato or Yukine, ready to drowsily inquire as to what had happened. But all too quickly the memories crashed back into her like a freight train, leaving her originally curious expression drained away into a solemn and melancholy one.
This time, she didn't linger, though she thought little of that fact. Much akin to a stray spirit, she wandered aimlessly, mindlessly following the crowd without even fully realizing she was doing so. At some point, she had gotten onto a boat with some of the others, taking them all.... somewhere. But she didn't really care where that somewhere was.
It wasn't going to take her back to Yato. Not even Yusuke, or any of the others that she had met only to so quickly lose. As such, the destination just felt empty and pointless.
So she continued, brandishing her FLUDD for whatever purpose it might be needed for as they arrived, continuing to aimlessly follow the others with an apparent lack of spirit or mental presence. If any goop remained after Yamashiro's cleaning, she absently sprayed it, finding little joy in providing assistance. Something that usually lifted her spirits. Now, though, it just felt... pointless. But regardless of the fact, her attention was snagged by something that wasn't goop or monsters, her head all but snapping upwards from where it stared at the ground with newfound life at the simple uttering of a name. It was not her own that grabbed her attention, or even the statement that she had lost her boyfriend. These both went right over her head. No, what she was caught on was something else.
Yato.
It took a moment for the conversation involving him to process, especially with the Piantas throwing out more sentences and another familiar name that also was attention-grabbing: Yusuke. But when it processed, her expression went from alarmed hope and curiosity to something else. For once, it was not embarrassment that overtook her at the implication that she was romantically with Yato, or even Yusuke. She did not become flustered or coy or go into denial. Instead, she found her face heating up with something else as she looked to the group of bickering Piantas, lip quivering with frustration and eyes threatening to tear up yet again.
"H-how could you talk like that?!" she suddenly burst out in a display atypical of her typical polite self. She couldn't seem to handle the conversation, the topic bringing her to tears borne from a mix of sadness and deep frustration. "How can you sit back and argue over who they're with when... when they...." she began, only to visibly choke on her words with intensifying tears as she tried to force herself to say what had happened.
She couldn't. Saying it would make it real. Saying it would mean accepting that Yato, Yusuke and the others were all dead, and she was not ready for any such thing. So she fell silent, teeth clenched as tears again poured down her face. She couldn't do this anymore.
@Yun Lee @Gummi Bunnies @thatguyinthestore @dark @Crow @Mari @Minerva @Pianta Village
"This is how you remember our companions? You act as though it's a drama meant to amuse yourselves?!"
As if to act as the outlet for Hiyori's frustration, the khan's expression twisted in a snarling rage as she stepped forward, fists clenched as she resisted the urge to strike physically. It wasn't just the twisted overseers who saw this as a game... it was the whole damn island, thinking it was right to trivialize justice and punishment for a game of death and despair. Every one of these pathetic louts known as the Piantas...
"What if it were your people who were suffering through this disgusting perversion of law?!" She roared at the villagers as though she had morphed into an enraged beast, tongue lashing out when her fists couldn't to tear apart and scar the gossip-mongerers before them. As she spoke, her hands jabbed out at each of the Piantas in an accusatory turn, directing each sentence at a different one to make sure they focused, "What if you were arrested for a crime you had no recollection of committing, kidnapped twice over to ensure that arrest? Forced to play these sick fucking games as you're subjugated into indentured servitude, watching as those you work with and call comrades are made into lambs for slaughtering!"
"All while a bunch of pot-belly, freak people argued over your companionships, uncaring for your lives and that you've been labelled 'criminals' by the twisted system of the freak people's foreign overlords that they seem to particularly pleased to have lording over them!" At that, she fell silent, her smoldering glare doing the talking for her a few moments longer before looking to her companions, "Come on. These fattened bovines do not deserve our time. Let us complete our task and be done with them for good."
@Yun Lee @Gummi Bunnies @thatguyinthestore @dark @Crow @Mari @Minerva @Pianta Village
As if to act as the outlet for Hiyori's frustration, the khan's expression twisted in a snarling rage as she stepped forward, fists clenched as she resisted the urge to strike physically. It wasn't just the twisted overseers who saw this as a game... it was the whole damn island, thinking it was right to trivialize justice and punishment for a game of death and despair. Every one of these pathetic louts known as the Piantas...
"What if it were your people who were suffering through this disgusting perversion of law?!" She roared at the villagers as though she had morphed into an enraged beast, tongue lashing out when her fists couldn't to tear apart and scar the gossip-mongerers before them. As she spoke, her hands jabbed out at each of the Piantas in an accusatory turn, directing each sentence at a different one to make sure they focused, "What if you were arrested for a crime you had no recollection of committing, kidnapped twice over to ensure that arrest? Forced to play these sick fucking games as you're subjugated into indentured servitude, watching as those you work with and call comrades are made into lambs for slaughtering!"
"All while a bunch of pot-belly, freak people argued over your companionships, uncaring for your lives and that you've been labelled 'criminals' by the twisted system of the freak people's foreign overlords that they seem to particularly pleased to have lording over them!" At that, she fell silent, her smoldering glare doing the talking for her a few moments longer before looking to her companions, "Come on. These fattened bovines do not deserve our time. Let us complete our task and be done with them for good."
@Yun Lee @Gummi Bunnies @thatguyinthestore @dark @Crow @Mari @Minerva @Pianta Village
