[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

ROUND 6

[voidhearts]

BOSS ACTION

[voidhearts]

[Esmau lets out a bored laugh. She almost sounds disappointed.]

Is that all you've got?! This is gonna be over even quick THAN I THOUGHT!

[She slams her glaive into the ground. A purple shockwave rushes out from her across the ground. The shockwave strikes all five of you, suspending you in the air and trapping you in large bubbles of Void energy. It's exactly like in the Workshop, she's trapped you all again. But...this time...

On the altar, the Voidheart starts to glow. Black tendrils of Void shoot out of the altar and strike each of the bubbles trapping you. You hear one word echo through your mind.... .... ...]

[DROWN]

[voidhearts]

[DROWN] @minato [DROWN]

[voidhearts]

[You're face down in the pavement. Bleeding. Injured.

You force yourself up. You feel heat off to your side. You look in that direction. You gasp as you see it - the car, turned on its side. Your parents still inside. The flames moving towards them. Threatening to swallow them.

You try to raise a hand towards her. Your arms are so heavy. Your legs won't move. You try to crawl towards her.

She sees you. She manages to smile at you. You feel a huge weight in your stomach. You can't comprehend it in this moment, but somehow, your heart knows - she's already accepted it.

She says one word to you.

"Live."

You try one more time to reach for her as the flames consume her.

You can't reach her.

You won't reach her.

No matter how many times you try.

DROWN.]

[messianic]

[ ...

It's a scene he's seen plenty of times in his nightmares, that's for sure. It's a heavy weight, a painful feeling, an ache of what he could have had if only they'd survived like he did--

It's not a shocking memory, but the ache is sharp nonetheless. And even worse... his mother had told him to live. Her last word, the last thing she could say, and yet...


He's sorry. That's what he knows. He can't drown here, he can't let this drag him down to the depths. But for just a moment-- ]

... Sorry, mom.

[ --for just a moment, he's sorry he couldn't do that much for her, and for his father. ]

[DROWN] @sprezzatura [DROWN]

[voidhearts]

[You awaken to the smell of burning paper. It finishes waking you up with a jolt.

You're surrounded by fire. Worse, surrounded by books on fire. Books you recognize. Spellbooks, biographies, collected works, tomes of all kinds. They're all vanishing into ash before your eyes.

This is Teaferth, your school. And it's burning to the ground. Others are trying to extinguish it. They burn too. You try to extinguish it. The flames don't go out, no matter how hard you try. The headmistress, burning in her attempt to extinguish the flames, accuses you of setting the blaze. You look up and see the flames stretching up infinitely, twisting in every direction in ways that don't make sense. An infinite amount of knowledge drowning in an infinite amount of fire.

You hear a low, coarse laugh in a familiar voice.

Sat upon a throne of charred books is... ... ...

You.

But you, with a sadistic glint in your eyes. You with sharp tusks protruding from your mouth. You with an extra eye on your chest, baring down on you. Those tusked teeth shape into an ugly grin, preening with pleasure at the situation you've found yourself in.

The flames finally find you. Starting at your feet and crawling upwards. Burning you away.

Burning you away, until she's all that's left.

DROWN.]

Re: [DROWN] @sprezzatura [DROWN]

[velluminous]

[ this is how Sprezzatura Vaux burns: screaming until her vocal cords cook ]

N...No. Nononono... No! No!! No! Please, not again! NO! PLEASE!

NO!!!!!!

[DROWN] @akira [DROWN]

[voidhearts]

[You gasp and let out a wheezing cough as you feel a boot in your stomach. You feel blows raining down on your body and your face. You feel the needle of a syringe pierce your neck. You feel yourself cuffed, restrained.

'You were sold out.'

You're knocked down. A boot lands on the side of your head and pushes it into the ground. You get kicked again. While you're laying there on the ground...your "crimes" are read to you.

'You should know your place.'

Your leg is stomped on. You can't do anything to fight back. You're exhausted, drugged, beaten, too weak to resist at all. But they don't stop attacking you. They don't stop berating you. All that matters is that you tried to attack their system. For that....

'We're going to make you understand. You're going to take full responsibility for your actions.'

Why did you think you could change things?

Why did you think you could fight them?

Of course...it was always going to end up this way.

DROWN.]

[survivaltricks]

[jesus motherfucking christ]

[. . . he can still feel it sometimes. phantom pains running through the scars that remain after that horrid experience. phantom reminders of the world that tried its best to crush him, to grind him into nothing underneath its heel. sometimes he finds himself lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling in pitch-black darkness, trying not to let his mind wander to those hazy, drug-filled memories buried deep within the interrogation room]

[. . .]

[most of the time he can pull himself out of it, just by remembering what happened afterwards-- they didn't win. they were never going to win. my future. . . was mine to steal back. and it's that emotion-- the rage-fueled spite that he used as motivation to keep fighting-- that he clings to now as he brings both fists down against the sides of the bubble]

Ffffffuck-- [he hisses the word through clenched teeth] -- fuck you!

[DROWN] @tsumugi [DROWN]

[voidhearts]

["I've given my life....to Danganronpa!"

And yet....

ATTENTION: NO VOTES

You stand in disbelief as Shuichi explains it. No votes means....Keebo didn't vote, which means the world, through Keebo, chose not to vote. The world has changed.

"No one wants you around anymore! No one wants to hear your sick twisted stories anymore!"

The story you dedicated your life to has been rejected by the entire world. It begins to dawn on you, that it's really over...

"It's the will of the outside world. Destroy this entire fictional world, and end the killing game."

And you...can't bring yourself to object. If the world has rejected the killing game....you don't want to be a part of the world anymore. As Keebo flies into the sky, raining laser fire down on everything, you know what will happen to you next. You just stand there and wave goodbye with a disappointed look on your face.

This...is a despair of its own kind, isn't it?

DROWN.]

[cosplayed_out]

[...that was right.

All she had needed to do at that time was vote. If she had used that vote, she would have saved the killing game.

But, she would have never done that.

It would reveal the truth of the situation when the votes were counted. There would be no acting like it was Keebo's vote. Even if the killing game had gone on, it would be spinning like a wheel without a hamster in it. Yet, all she wanted was to undo it all. Fix the mistakes. Bring it back. Make it better.

Hell, when she discovered a prisoner could buy 'wishes,' her first thought was 'I will earn the points to buy a wish and I will use it to revive the killing game...' 'I will revive danganronpa for a season 54... I will... I will'...

And when she met Nessa and made friends and then met younger Nessa and realized how easy it was to manipulate her, she... she...

She can't make it better.

She can't let go of the game. She can't move on. Even now in this fiction of saving Nessa, her strength relies on the abilities of other people. Her successes in how well she's used them to manipulate others... did it matter if the manipulation was for 'good' or 'evil'...?

This...

was

not

a

fun

despair...]

[DROWN]

[voidhearts]

[Esmau just laughs, and laughs, and laughs at all of you as you writhe in the bubbles, being dragged down by your own worst memories. No way to escape.]

I was actually looking forward to fighting you fuckers...

[Minato: 90/100 HP]
[Sprezzatura: 90/100 HP]
[Akira: 90/100 HP]
[Tsumugi: 90/100 HP]

But I'll just have to make do with watching you DROWN instead!

[Your wills, as strong as they may be, are slowly being constricted and dragged out of you.]

[Minato: 80/100 HP]
[Sprezzatura: 80/100 HP]
[Akira: 80/100 HP]
[Tsumugi: 80/100 HP]

[How long can you last like this...?]

[Esmau plants her glaive on the ground, assured of her victory. For as far as you got...it looks like this battle was over as soon as it started, wasn't it?]

[rise]

[voidhearts]

[---crack-BOOM!]

[With a boom of thunder, someone Thundersteps past Esmau and up to the altar, nearly knocking Esmau over in the process. But -- Sprezzatura is still trapped, so who?]

[DROWN]

[voidhearts]

What the hell?!

[Esmau runs for the altar. Only to be struck by a violet Void-tinged Magic Missile that knocks her backwards again.]

What, but - I trapped all five!

[Esmau quickly looks around to make sure. Everybody, including Nell, is still trapped.]

So who...?!

[The smoke from the Thunderstep clears...]

[rise]

[warpweft]

[Nessa is standing there, holding the Voidheart on the altar.]

Th....this is mine!

[She RIPS the Voidheart off of the altar and the memories stop inflicting damage to the group.]

And you're not hurting my friends!

[Esmau ROARS and charges at Nessa. Nessa brings her left hand up to her head - she's suddenly holding an Evoker which she presses against the side of her head and fires. She squeaks loudly at the sound of it going off, but Orpheus, the Master of Strings appears and Bashes Esmau. It does no damage, but it seems to really annoy her.

All of you are no longer taking damage from your memories. But you're still trapped in Esmau's bubbles.]

REACTION

[voidhearts]

[cosplayed_out]

[Tsumugi screams in a very un-Mukuro way as starts to get her bearings...

Right.

A lot... had changed. She had changed. Maybe not completely, but... who cared if she was manipulative? Who cared if she lost the killing game? Who cared if she was hopelessly obsessed with cosplay? Cosplay was fun.

She can feel the bad emotions falling off of her, but it's a temporary relief when she sees what's going on outside.]

Nessa!!

Re: REACTION

[velluminous]

?!

[messianic]

[ that's--?!

It's--he wasn't expecting to see Nessa, and certainly not Nessa wielding one of his Personas, so for the moment he can only watch on in startled amazement. ]

[survivaltricks]

[. . . and then it's gone]

[the suffocating feeling, the memories he'd sooner forget, they're gone, and Akira's eyes snap open as he sucks in a sharp gasp. it takes him a moment to realize what's happening before him, but when he does]

N. . .

[her name teeters on the edge of his tongue]

-- Nessa!

[DROWN]

[voidhearts]

You....you little...!

I'LL KILL YOU FOR GOOD THIS TIME!

[Esmau swings her glaive through Orpheus, cutting it in half. She roars as she rushes towards Nessa, no subtlety, just trying to run her through.]

[rise]

[warpweft]

Wh-whuuuh!

[Nessa holds up her Cosplay Armor -- the Magic Ring! Specifically the Magic Ring from the first edition of The Hobbit, which is just a magic ring that turns the wearer invisible, not the One Ring from the second edition and The Lord of the Rings which corrupts you and turns you into a ringwraith!

Anyway, she slips the ring on and becomes invisible, avoiding Esmau's strike, which destroys the altar behind her. Nessa appears a short distance away and is holding From Heaven. Which is different from the Evoker! They're two different guns! She fires the gun at Esmau, screaming again as the recoil of the gun kicks her hands way up and seems to rattle her down to her bones.]

[DROWN]

[voidhearts]

[The bullets bounce off of Esmau as she runs at Nessa, who uses Cosplay Weapon to summon Gandalf's staff. She's about to use it when she sees Esmau is too close for her to cast a spell in time - she needs to Thunderstep away again - or use the ring to go invisible again or --

The hesitation costs her. Esmau kicks her in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of her.]

RRRAAAAAAHHHH!

[And drives her glaive through Nessa's chest.

The young witch's body suddenly goes limp as the blade runs her through.

This feels familiar.]

REACTION

[voidhearts]

...

[warpweft]

[Nessa lets out a weak cough.

She remembers this. She remembers this feeling. She remembers Esmau doing this to her once before. But she knows this time is different. This time, her mother isn't around to bring her back. This time, she's going to let down more than just herself....she's going to let down all of her friends too.

She tries to tell them she's sorry, but it just comes out as a weak gurgle. She can already feel her vision fading and her body going numb...

...

...

...

'Saving everyone is not your responsibility. You're trying to help people. You and the rest of Echidna are the only people who can take on that role.

So--thank you. Thank you for doing what you are.'

...


'You want to learn to be better you. I can help with that.'

...


'You fought back for us. And I've never been able to thank you for it.'

...

'I don't know who Nell is, and I'll gladly listen if you want to confide and it will help, but I can tell that you're associating me with her. I don't want you to think of Nell when you think of me. I'm Tsumugi Shirogane. I'm not someone you betrayed. You did all you could.']