Chapter Text
–Afterwords–
They both died! The game ended- and no one won! The screens in the room turned off one by one. Annie and Ganji both got up when all the lights suddenly turned off, and eventually, all the players appeared in the manor’s main hall, the fluttering of diary pages ringing in their ears.
The board didn’t announce a winner, just stats. Who had the most kills, the most cafeteria visits, room visits. Mundane topics like that. But there was no winning team.
For a while, people argued that team Naib should have won because Qi fell after Ithaqua, but people then pointed out that Patricia and Norton took longer to dissolve into pages, in fact- Norton dissolved after Patricia, and that was after both Ithaqua and Qi were out. So should Vera’s team have won? It seemed a bit unfair though..
These arguments were all shut down when the manor proposed they have a rematch, no one wanted to go through that craziness again. It was settled then, the gamemode wouldn’t launch, and everyone who played would get a one week vacation. This was to everyone’s benefit, no one wanted to argue further and risk someone holding a grudge against them.
Melly was invited to Vera’s room the night after everything ended, something about celebrating ‘this bullshit being over’ with a good time together.
William and Luca ended up treating Ganji and Annie to a day out in Chinatown to apologize for the emotional turmoil, even if they didn’t really cause it. While they were out, Aesop showed Ithaqua where their rooms were. The night watch did feel guilty about the manipulation scheme, to atone, he knit matching sweaters for them. They were left in Ganji’s room with an apology note.
The night watch also went out with William for a drink. Of course being underage, Ithaqua didn’t drink. But William was enough fun on his own to make the experience fun.. Until Ithaqua had to help William back to his room that is.
Eli treated Naib to dinner, and Naib made sure to bring leftovers for his dear informant after. Qi took a bit to cool off, she, like many others, got way too into it.
Antonio did end up sleeping with Luchino, but the reptilian’s unrelenting heat lamp and the fact that he kept getting kicked off the bed made him forget about doing it a second time.
In a few days, Edgar offered Qi a portrait of her, free of charge. He didn’t give her much of an explanation past he ‘got inspiration’.
And Norton..
“Come on, why’re you two so hesitant?” Norton leaned back in his chair, “I’m just treating you two for carrying me to the end.”
Ithaqua looked at Aesop, who looked at the drink in front of him.
“Why would I poison you? You’ve never really done me harm and the game is over.” Norton sipped his own drink, “Is it so weird I want to thank you two and treat you?”
“Who said anything about poison?” Ithaqua asked. Norton shrugged and smiled, which didn’t help his case. Ithaqua leaned away from the drink, “Aren’t you mad that I coerced William into betraying you?”
Norton just stared at him, not in a guilty way, in fact he was completely void of emotion as he stared. It was then Ithaqua had another idea of why Norton was so adamant on taking them out to drink.
He hesitantly took the cup, and turned around, drinking the horchata under his mask. When he turned back around, sure enough, Norton looked disappointed.
Aesop, too, drank under his mask. Norton let out an exasperated sigh before leaving, mumbling something about wasted points.
“I’d show him his face if he’d asked.” Ithaqua smirked.
“Night Watch.”
“We’re back to titles, Embalmer?”
“Ahem- Ithaqua.”
Ithaqua tilted his head, as if waiting for him to say something. Aesop leaned in and whispered, “Would you like me to do your makeup sometime?”
“It’s nice to see that friends were made but- it really did traumatize some people,” Patricia ate one of her brownies, “I heard you and the night watch got chummy?”
“He wanted a rematch, we now spar on Saturdays and Tuesdays.” Qi took one and put a normal amount of icing on it, “He’s a formidable opponent.”
“If the game came out again, would you do it again?”
“..Probably not, it’s too.. Pressure.” Qi made a hand motion.
“I get that.”
“It reminds me of how our actual manor games were like with drugs and all, and those were not fun.”
“Well- at least we made friends out of it?”
“I guess, but I prefer normal dinners as rewards for short ten minute matches, to another ten day manipulation murder scheme for a possible one week vacation.”
“That is completely understandable, it was probably not easy for William to have to betray Norton like that.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s still bringing him coffee every morning to make up for it.”
“Poor Ellis..”
Three teams, with strategists, informants, and pawns. A game of elimination which turned out to be without a worthy reward, never launched. Players were left feeling conflicted about the experience, but no one argued for its continuation.
Pawn and Informant: Dismissed.