ENDGAME GROUP 2: The Trial (Log 2)

[hasagun]

[After Remy and Thalia stumble upon Bill’s makeshift trial room, it doesn’t take very long for the others to appear within the trial room. There are podiums set up as per usual, but there’s...really nothing keeping you to using them. The whole place smells terribly of ketchup, and is completely gold, each wal covered in massive tapestries.

There’s also a closed door at the back of the room. Not the way you came in. Guess someone needs to get in and out.]

WELCOME, TO YOUR TRIAL, KIDDOS! I’M NOT SUPER ENTHUSED ‘BOUT THE WHOLE “BURNING DOWN MY GIFT SHOP” THING, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PARK ANYWAY! GOTTA HAVE SOME FUN BEFORE YOU DIE!

(ooc: this is the second and final log for group 2 - if you weren’t here for the previous log, feel free to use this as a jumping-in point!)

Comments

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford rolls his eyes, and gives a "what d'you know" kind of look.]

Well, fair enough. The other thing, well, I doubt it's going to impress you all that much, either.

[He glances over at Fiddleford as he speaks, gives him a look that weighs more than something intangible ever ought to. When he looks back at Bill, he pulls out Lekmet's second gift from his coat pocket: a pair of large scissors with a goat emblem on the fulcrum.]

Just office supplies.

[hasagun]

INTERESTING!

[just kind of, floats down to take a look.]

WHAT ARE YA GONNA DO, MAKE ME INTO A PAPER AIRPLANE?

[sixfingeredstan]

I'm not an idiot, Bill. I know I can't touch you when you don't exactly have a corporeal form. I know that better than almost anyone here, except for maybe my brother.

[His gaze slides over to Stan, and he gives him a quick wink.]

What am I going to do? Pull something out of thin air?

[stanbyme]

[The wink gets Stan's attention, and he's watching, waiting for a cue.

He doesn't have anything but his fists, but. Well, they did well enough last time.]

[hasagun]

KNOWING YOU PINESES? MAYHAPS!

[haha. hahaha. HAHAHA.]

BUT C'MON, SIXER! YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO HERE!

[sixfingeredstan]

No?

[Ford takes the scissors in hand, stepping around the side of the podium and toward Bill, his teeth grit together, jaw clenched.]

Should've paid more attention to all those camera in the shop, you triangular fuck!

[Ford lunges with the scissors, but not towards Bill, but right next to him. The scissors open and snap shut, his eyes squeezed tight as he calls to mind a dimension he knows is well on the verge of imploding, and when the scissors open again, there's a slit in thin air, opening wide enough to accomodate a person. Beyond that slit...

It doesn't look pretty.]

Fiddleford, now!

[terribibble]

[HERE HE GO

Fiddleford springs forward, hauls back Betty, and whomps Bill just about as hard as he can square in the fucking eye, like some gross little baseball. Gotta get him into that portal, and fast.]

[hasagun]

HU-

[The slit looks...like it's dying. Pulsing. On the verge of implosion. Bill recognizes that look, and he immediately realizes what they're doing.

A dying dimension. One set to self-implode. HOW ORIGINAL!

He turns red, growing multiple eyes and arms. As he struggles against the portal, he reaches out and grabs Betty, and uses another arm to grab out at Stanford.]

IF I'M GOING, YOU'RE GOING TOO!

[terribibble]

[This was not part of the plan they didn't have. Fiddleford yelps and cranes his head -- where's Ford -- and meets his eyes. Grabs his hand across the space that separates them.]

Ford--

[He's spent so much of his life -- and most of his death -- feeling like he wasn't strong enough. Good enough, brave enough. Enough at all.

Being with Ford has made him feel like enough. Wherever they go, they go together. Maybe it's because he's already died once but right now he's less concerned with the possibility that he might die again and more focused on not letting Ford's hand go. So long as he holds on, he'll be fine.

That book Ford had said he'd be a hero. Up until now it's felt like an empty consolation prize for thirty years of suffering. This is the first time it's seemed like something possible.]

[stanbyme]

Like hell he is!

[Last time Stanford faced down a portal to another world, there was nothing Stan could do but watch him fall.

This time, he grabs him.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[He's sure, for a split second, that his plan has worked. That he's won, once and for all.

And then that hand is grabbing him. Grabbing Fiddleford. Ford's breath is knocked out of him as he's jerked forward, into the mouth of that portal. Alongside his husband. When he regains it, it's with a hoarse shout.]

NO!

[From inside the portal, he jerks his hand loose, jerks at Fiddleford's arm, and kicks off to go back out the mouth of the portal.]

Stan—!

[He snaps the scissors shut.]

CW: BISECTION

[hasagun]

[Bill struggles, thrashes, but he goes into the portal as it begins exploding, on the verge of it's own demise. Ford is quick, and it...takes care of it.

The portal closes when they're half way through it.

Stan is left holding...remains. At least one of them. A pair of torsos, and two stubby little cartoon arms. They're cut...far too evenly.

#happy420.]

[terribibble]

[The torsos sure still are holding hands.

Fiddleford McGucket and Stanford Pines are dead.]

[sentree]

[ She knew none of them. Not well. Fiddleford only in passing. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. In the last few minutes, four of their number have died...and it doesn't look like they'll have a box to retrieve them from.

Thalia has no coins. But she goes to each of the four bodies and quietly prays. ]

May your passage be swift, comrades. May you find peace under a more gracious god. [ She grits her teeth. ] Your bravery will never be forgotten.

[fairlypushy]

[Amanda taps Thalia on the shoulder. She, ah. She has a handful of coins. They are . . . definitely stolen off of some park guest but. It's fine.]

Here.

[sentree]

...Thank you, Mandy. I'll... Thank you.

[ She hates doing this again. But...here we are. Coins in their mouths, payment for the ferry. ]

cw: gore

[stanbyme]

[Stan was pulling as hard as he could, trying to do something, anything, to save Ford this time.

And then the pressure suddenly releases, and he falls backward, Stanford's weight landing on top of his chest, and at first he laughs, winded.]

Did- did you really have to scare the crap out of me like that, Sixer?

[But there's no reply. And the brown eyes that match his own, that are looking at him, they're... they're glassy. Gone.

Stan's breath hitches, and he pushes himself up underneath half of the corpse of his twin brother, sees the gore and viscera hanging out of Ford's missing lower half, the blood staining his own clothes, the way that Ford, still holding onto Fiddleford's hand, slides messily off of his chest when he sits up.]

...Stanford?

[His voice is...tiny. Broken. He shakes Ford's shoulder, as if he'll wake up if he does that. He pulls what's left of his twin brother into his arms, cradling Ford's head against his shoulder, burying his face in Ford's collar.

Someone, somewhere, screams. He doesn't even recognize his own voice. Half of his own soul has been ripped away, just as violently as half of Ford's body.]

[lusito]

[....... Yikes, that's disgusting.]

So... I actually hate to be this person for once, but we should probably use this opportunity to get out of here and check that door before something else decides to happen today.

[Sorry for your loss and all that Stan, but Josh is ready to get the fuck out of here now as of all this.]

[stanbyme]

[If you were looking for a reply other than just a broken old man scream-sobbing and cradling half the corpse of his twin brother, you're outta luck.]

[lusito]

[nah it's fine he pretty much expected that so we're just gonna... walk away over to that door to see if it's locked or not]

[terribibble]

[That look is... a lot. A lot that doesn't actually get said out loud. Fiddleford grips Betty a little more tightly.

He trusts Ford. He trusts Ford to fix this, to find a solution. He has to.]

[hasagun]

[he's going to marry betty once he's done killing you! :) ]

[terribibble]

[DON'T YOU SO MUCH AS LOOK AT HER YOU SICKO]

[darnsitall]

[I don't ship it]

[hasagun]

[I DO!]