The City of the Specter, Atem's Palace

[metagame]

The corpse sinks to the floor
Even the brightest gold, even the sharpest blade
Becomes sand, becomes dust

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[metagame]

Those of you who have trespassed upon my soul... You must be punished!

[Atem points to the group with his skeletal hand.

For many of you, the room darkens and distorts. No longer can you see the tomb, your friends, or Shadow Atem. Something is deeply, terribly wrong. Can you hear your heartbeat in your ears? Feel a pressure building behind your eyes? Is it difficult to breathe?

The Door to Darkness has been opened.]

[pointzeropercent]

[Well. He passed the game before, so he's kind of just standing here like :man_standing: while most others experience the horrors. This sure is a pickle.

In any other situation he would just go "okay nice talking bye" and just walk out, but this is a palace after all. Exiting can't be that simple. With the only way out being forward, Sou musters his courage to keep a sense of calm while he speaks.]

So...can I pick the game this time?

[metagame]

Ah, that's right. Some of you won...

Do you truly want to play a game with me?

[pointzeropercent]

Sure. It was fun last time, when we read together and played a card game. I wouldn't mind playing another one.

Do you know how to play high-low?

[metagame]

Where you guess the value of the next number?

Even a child knows that game.

[pointzeropercent]

Great! Let's play it then. We can go back and forth with a deck of cards, and the person who messes up first loses. As far as the loser goes, I know you'll do the whole punishment thing if I lose, but if you lose then you cooperate with us. How's that sound?

[metagame]

[Let's pretend he just magically conjures a deck of cards, alright!]

Then let's play... You first, Sou.

[pointzeropercent]

Alright.

[The first card he draws is a 3!]

I'll say higher.

[And look, he draws a 6.]

[metagame]

... Lower.

[And viola! It's the Four of Clubs.]

Your turn.

[beathollow]

( mafuyu is going to attempt to use energy shower on the punished! )

[metagame]

[Mafuyu's Energy Shower catches Atem's attention.]

Re-Horakhty come to me!

[Re-horakhty appears behind Atem with her closed eyes.

content warning: body horror

Between her ball joints weeps black ichor which has also smeared her golden armor. Closer inspection will reveal a demonic-looking creature trying to claw its way out between her armored chest plates.

He attacks Mafuyu with Freila for 17 damage!]

[beathollow]

( oh you just had to have ball joints, didn't you?- is what she might think if she wasn't just attacked with the element that hurts most- mafuyu recoils with a scream. )

--Didn't they already lose?! What's the point of this?!

[metagame]

[:)]

Oh, come on Mafuyu... You're smart. You should know better than anyone why I'm doing this... It's for them to suffer.

[beathollow]

And you know I can't abide that.

[metagame]

What are you going to do about it?

[He readies his khopesh and Re-Horakhty for another strike...]

Talk to me until I give in?

[beathollow]

( oh, this bitch. )

Oh, no, not yet. I think you need a good smack upside the head, first.

( ... but she will try energy shower again, even if she's knocking an arrow.

ya done pissed off the pacifist with your soulbox, man. :/ )

[privatedomicile]

["Not today" wasn't a valid response, huh? Because not long after, Jesse finds himself in complete darkness. He looks around, and there's just nothing for a moment, until he backs up and trips––over nothing in reality, but to Jesse, it's someone familiar. She looks exactly as she did when he found her dead, and she's not alone.

cw descriptions of gore / overdose / emetophobia / body horror

People he knows and saw get shot in the chest, or had their head crushed by an ATM, or were dissolved in acid. People he doesn't know, only recognizable by charred skin and the smell of jet fuel. Of course, Jane Margolis, eyes partially open and bile still lingering on her mouth, takes the majority of his focus.

All of it is his fault. Jesse tears up, staring forward with his clouded over eyes.]

[emptyself]

[ well, soujuurou isn’t mentally all There after breaking through his own pear wriggler, but jesse clearly needs help.

he approaches him, talking in a dull tone. ]

Jesse. Jesse, please. It’s alright. This isn’t real.

[privatedomicile]

[He thinks he hears somebody familiar...yeah, that's Soujuurou, isn't it? Even knowing that though...(8)]

No. It is. Even if they ain't here, they're...they're dead for real. [A few tears fall down as the thought crosses his mind: Maybe he doesn't deserve to get out of this.]

[emptyself]

That might be real, but… you have to keep going. You need to…

[ what was that thing that he said? what was it that he said!?

oh, right!

he grabs jesse by his shoulders, saying in the most sincere tone he can muster: ]

You need to have balls! You can do this, Jesse!

[metagame]

Balls Obtained!

1/2

[privatedomicile]

[Can he really keep going? He's had the nerve to try and look out for other people despite knowing who he is, consider them friends even. Soujuurou doesn't know that Jesse's girlfriend died because of him, or that he's made and dealt drugs for years. What right does he have to call him a friend? Hasn't Jesse already decided that he's a bad person?

But then––

Soujuurou says that so sincerely.

Oh right, the riddle. Having courage and all that. Can Jesse really say all that and then cry like a little bitch over some zombies that skeleton Pharaoh Jigsaw is showing him?

––wait, he didn't even tell Soujuurou what that meant!]

2/2

[privatedomicile]

Holy shit.

[Jesse just starts laughing, because how the hell can he not when Soujuurou is sincerely yelling at him to have balls.]

(and got a nat 20 while doing so you cannot make this shit up)

You're right, mountain man. Oh my god, dude, I didn't even tell you what that friggin' meant and you got me! That takes massive balls!

[Jesse gives him a light friendly punch on the shoulder, still chuckling at that.]

Come on, let's get that skeleton bitch!

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou takes the slap on the shoulder with no problem, only staring owlishly at jesse.

in reality, it’s not like he really knows what balls means in this context. he knows it’s not a ball you would use in sports, which means that it had to be some sort of lingo. ]

I thought it was your slang for something like courage. Was I close?

[privatedomicile]

Spot on, yo!

[Jesse starts to stand up in order to actually get ready to fight aforementioned skeleton bitch.]

Usually you gotta go for the head on a zombie, so I’m guessing we wanna do the same to scramble fake Atem over there.