Post by luminaryofdespair on Oct 20, 2022 22:59:20 GMT -5
 Five unfortunate souls find themselves walking up in a classroom with boarded up windows. I say souls because they're not people. Rather, they're spirits inside sentient, human-sized voodoo dolls that are dressed like team Chris Page. There is a television paused on an episode of License to Jill with a pig mask resting atop the television. On the board is a drawing of three crowns on a mountain of gold and blood. The group of dolls rise to their feet with confused looks on their faces. After a round of "Who, what, when, where, and why the fuck" led to no solutions, the group can feel their heart rates rising. It was like they could hear their heartbeats. Panicking, one of the men yells "FUCK THIS!" and then he runs out of the classroom. Damn. Chris Page isn't even participating this time? What a shame. Then again, I suppose I have myself to blame. Before Corey, Spencer, and I stomped him and a couple of his cronies out four months ago, I did tell him that he was better off being a manager outside the ring instead of pretending to be a general inside of it. Guess he took my advice. Of course, the more likely option is that he's still traumatized, so he sent in a handful of interchangeably expendable puppets to do his work for him. It's fine either way. He could send 5, 50, or even 50,000 soldiers at us....and they'd all end up broken and beaten. On paper, it looks like part two of Team Action Wrestling vs Team CCPE, but there's a lot more to this match than that. The five of us share versatility. We adapt to situations so well that they have to adapt to us afterwards. We were handpicked. Brought together to put aside our differences long enough to put down the starting five of the marionettes. You guys on the other hand, are just a bad bag of trail mix. A mix of things that don't go well together, only being held together by the bag you came in. You're just more victims of manipulation, tricked into believing that you all can run things wherever you go...until you get out played and then looked over in disgust by the same man you all work for. Then you'll all play the blame game and point fingers to save your own asses because that's what you do. It's who you all are. Not a team. Not a united front. Just five selfish souls, unaware of the despair that's about to rip you all apart. Less than a minute after the first guy ran out of the classroom, the other four hear the sound of him screaming. They look at each other for a second. Then, they go outside the classroom together and are horrified by the sight of a body on the ground. The dead doll had had its heart ripped from its body. Suddenly, a chime echoed through the school. *DING DONG BING BONG* A voice spoke through the numerous intercoms. Monokuma: A body has been discovered! To the remaining survivors who will soon join this poor, unfortunate soul, welcome....... .....TO HOPE'S PEAK ACADEMY! Monokuma: If you're looking for a way out, it's at the front entrance of this school. However, it's locked, and the only way you can unlock it is by repairing any five of the generators located throughout the building. Simple, right? Well, as long as you know who doesn't get to you too that is. Finally, if all but one of you are killed, a hidden hatch will open somewhere in the school that will lead you to safety..... unless the killer gets there first. Let the game continue! Bye byyyyeeeeee! Puhuhuhu! The intercom cuts off and the four remaining wayward souls look at each other nervously. "The fuck are we all standing here for!?" The Peter Vaughn doll yelled, trying to shake off the jitters. "Split up and find the generators!" "I don't think that's a good..." The James Raven doll objected, but the other three had already started running in different directions. Vaughn makes it up to the second floor where he finds a dimly lit fitness center with a generator inside. After taking a moment to flex in front of the mirrors, he walks up to the broken device and starts repairing it. As he progresses, the lights in the gym start to brighten. Confident with how quickly he's making progress, he laughs to himself, bragging about how "easy" this is. All of a sudden, the lights flicker, causing him to pause. He looks up at the lights, and then at his reflection. That's when he noticed something strange. His reflection looked different. It was younger...happier....innocent....unaware of the heartless monstrosity it would turn into. Life sure has a way of changing a man, doesn't it, Peter Vaughn? You and I both started as starry-eyed kids just happy to be employed. A feeling everybody has whether they want to admit it or not. However, that feeling fades for many of us. We start getting opportunities. We start achieving things. We start FAILING AND FALLING. That's when we see what we're truly made of. You and I reached the same fork in the road and you chose the path that let the grind turn your heart cold. Now, every time you see someone with any sort of optimism in the eyes or someone else, it makes you jealous because that's become something you lack. You can't recapture that appreciative joy and hopefulness that you once had. It makes you angry, which is why you've become more ruthless and violent. You HATE people like that. People like....me....who still carries that optimism. I attract greatness to me while you drift along with other grumpy miscreants because misery loves company. You don't want to admit to it, but you still wonder what could have been had you not sold your soul for a few shiny objects you didn't think you could win on your own. Success you didn't think you'd achieve without throwing away your morality. When you see your teammates, you're already wondering which one will go rogue and abandon the pack first. When you need a tag or a helping hand, you're gonna get met with a cold shoulder from your own team followed by a continued beatdown from mine. Once more, after seeing us walk away with the win, you'll look at me and wonder what could have been, and you'll realize that you chose the wrong path. Peter stands up and walks over to the mirror. Memories flooded into his mind, reminding him of the man he once was. Tears started to stream down the reflection's face, confusing Peter when he touched his own face and discovered that he too was crying. The confusion quickly turned to horror when the tears became a stream of blood. Once more, the lights flicker. Vaughn jumps back when he sees his reflection has become a shadowed figure that's walking through the mirror. "What....what the FUCK are you!?" He grabs a dumbbell and swings at the figure, hitting it in the face. The figure stops, but it doesn't stagger or even raise its hand to touch its face after the strike. "Yeah! Take that!" He goes for another hit, but the figure catches his wrist and snaps it. While the doll cries out in pain, the figure catches the dumbbell and, in a single swing, caves the doll's head in. It drops the dumbbell on the deceased doll as it silently exits the room. A familiar melody echoes through the school again. *DING DONG BING BONG* Monokuma: A body has been discovered! That's two dooowwwnnnn....is the despair setting in yet? Puhuhuhu I wonder who's next..... The intercom cuts off and we see the Mark Flynn voodoo doll on the third floor fixing a generator in the game room. Everything from retro games to modern games could be found inside. Flynn seems to be having trouble fixing the device. He gets up and kicks the generator. "Stupid piece of shit!" Unfortunately for him, the kick made things worse. So he starts takes his frustration out on an arcade machine. After he punches it, the screen lights up, displaying a figure in a pig mask. The figure appears to be staring directly at Flynn, its head following his every move. Suddenly, a pair of clamps come out from the bottom of the machine, grabbing his ankles. The door to the room slams shut. He tried to yell for his comrades, but it was to no avail. The only answer to his cries that he got was the appearance of the killer. Shuffling a deck of cards, the killer watched as Flynn tried once more to free himself. "King of the Midcarders" eh Mark? That's a hell of a bold title to have. Standing tall above all of the mid tiered maniacs. It's something to be proud of..... unless you're in a match like this. In this case, it's something you should be worried about, for what is a midcarder to a main eventer? Let alone five? What is a king looking down on pesants to three kings reaching beyond the sky? You're an self-centered tyrant who's too afraid to hop out of the pond and swim with the sharks in the ocean. I'll give you credit for admitting to and accepting your limitations, but your....'allies' don't look at you as a teammate. To them, you're a scapegoat. Someone they can look at after you all lose and say 'Well if it wasn't for midtier Mark here, we would've won. He's not on our level'. They're already waiting on you to disappoint them. You're extra weight to them that's dragging them down when in reality each of you is just as useless as the others. So I ask you, how does it feel to have a match with no opponents to look down on because they're all above you? To have teammates who are ready to blame you for THEIR mistakes as well as yours. To be so far out of your element that even YOU wonder what you're doing in such a Marquee match. It's not a blessing or a testament to your talent and work. It's a trap and you've walked into it with no hope of escaping. That's the price of sailing with fairweather friends. When the seas get rough and we're kicking your ass, they're gonna let you go overboard and drown to save face. You made a bad alliance, 'king', and now your kingdom will fall. Knowing that there was more work to be done, the killer stops shuffling. They take a card from the deck, showing that every card was equipped with razor sharp edges, and fling it at the Flynn doll, piercing the back and drawing out a wince of pain in response. The figure does the same again....and again....and again.... rapidly flinging the cards as they rip away at him until he falls to the floor in a bloody heap. Every card that has been thrown thus far has been a 7, the middle card in the deck. The figure walks up to the voodoo doll clinging to life with the last three cards in the deck in their hand. Then, they slowly lay the cards on top of the doll's body. One.... Two.... Three.... Three kings above another corpse. The figure walks away. *DING DONG BING BONG* Monokuma: A body has been discovered! We've got a hat trick of horror now! Only two survivors remain, and not a single generator has been fixed. AW, TOO TOUGH IS IT? DIFFICULTY SETTING TOO HIGH? Well I've got good news! Neither of you will be around much longer. It's just a matter of seeing who's next. Ahhhhhhhahahahahahaha!! Waaaayyyyyyy up on the fourth floor, we find the voodoo version of Sebastian Everett-Bryce in the back corner of the computer lab fixing a......computer? Nah, just kidding. He's fixing a generator. He's actually been making good progress. The thought of fixing all of the generators himself runs through his mind as he fantasizes about escaping and being the star of the team, the ultimate survivor who lived to tell the tale. While he was throwing his own personal red carpet event in his mind, he failed to realize the projector had turned on and a shadow veiled figure was crawling through the wall where the projector's light was shining on. Is this what it's like to be a 'star' in your eyes, Sebastian? Having the fame of being one of Page's puppets. Getting main event matches like these all over the wrestling world? Hanging out with a bunch of desperate pricks like yourself? It's a rush, isn't it? UNTIL YOU RUN INTO US. Going full speed is fun until the wheels fall off and you crash. It's not gonna take long for the wheels to fall off for your squad. Your mouth may say you want to win for the team, but you really want to be THE REASON it happens. You wanna be the one everyone is praising after the match, and we all know you'll be willing to blind tag yourself in if you see one of your partners getting too much attention. You can't help it, and it'll be your downfall. You can't stand not being the center of attention, so the fact that you're not even the most well-known name on your own team eats away at you. Of all the people on your team, you're the one who cares the least about the outcome of the match. You know your crew can't hold a candle to mine, so you're gonna do whatever it takes to try to get as many highlights in as you can, even at the expense of your partners. All to have something to back you up when you're begging Chris for forgiveness after bringing an L home. Welcome to the part of being a star he didn't tell you about. Getting outshined by a constellation of brighter talent. The figure grabs a computer monitor and smashes it across the back of the doll's head the moment it realizes it was no longer alone in the lab. Disoriented, the doll couldn't escape as the Figure grabbed a mallet and started smashing his hands. Then his ankles. Followed by his kneecaps. The sounds of bones crushing grew more uncomfortable to hear until the figure dropped the mallet, crouched over the helpless doll, and snapped the neck. *DING DONG BING BONG* Monokuma: A body has been discovered! That means you're the last survivor.... congratulations! The hatch has been unlocked! It's located somewhere on the first floor. If you get to it before the killer does, you'll escape, but if noooooot..... you'll face the same despair as everyone else before you! Let the race begin! The final voodoo doll heard the announcement from the garden on the 5th floor. With no need to fix the generators anymore, he runs toward the stairs. After descending to the fourth floor, he finds the Sebastian doll laying on the ground. James looks mortified at his fallen ally's corpse before the urgency of the situation drags him away. Onward and downward. Third floor. A pool of blood, cards, and a lifeless Mark awaited him. James nearly slipped on the crimson ground as he passed another deceased teammate. To the second floor he went. Peter's body laid outside the fitness center with a bloody dumbbell next to it. Finally, the first floor. Where it all began. Just a few feet from where the first doll died was the hatch.....being slammed shut by the killer. It was as if the last bit of hope had been engulfed by despair in that moment. In a last ditch effort of desperation, he rushes at the killer, only to be stopped by four shadow figures resembling Spencer Adams, Regan Voorhees, Jill Park, and Corey Black. Oh James, how unfortunate you are. From one bird to another, I almost feel bad for you. You've been here before, but now you're on the wrong side of the equation. Staring down an old friend in Corey Black, secretly reminiscing about fighting alongside him. A beautiful dream compared to the nightmare that is reality. We have a team that's dysfunctional on paper. You have a team that's dysfunctional by nature, and that's what gives us the edge. No matter how hard you try to rally your troops, all it will take is one thing going wrong to bring the house down. Sad thing is you're no different from them. Another soul corrupted and driven to madness. It must suck to see the team you were once apart of now has a squad full of people that are each better than you. Meanwhile, you're stuck smoking that mid pack. You're better than this, James......right? I suppose not. It would be foolish of me to think that you're just some misguided child who was led astray. You've been in the game too long for that. You being here is a conscious choice. Just like you being reduced to nothing more than an expendable tool was a conscious choice that YOU made. You're a shadow of the man you once were with a heart colder and darker than a raven's wings. This is going to be a long, painful experience for you, James. Here you are, trying to avenge your fallen friends from a few months prior, only to end up meeting the same fate as they did. You know you can't beat us with that so-called team you have with you. Hell, even if there were five of you instead, you still wouldn't stand a chance. On the bright side, at least you'll get to have a reunion with Corey before you get pummeled into the afterlife. The Raven doll looks at the Corey Black figure with disgust and hatred as he's being held in place with a dagger just beneath his chin. His eyes turn towards the approaching killer. There was blood all over the black and white cloak they were wearing as they floated slowly towards the final victim. The shadowy aura around them fades, revealing it to be the Luminary of Despair, CJ Phoenix. Without saying a word, he Talon Kicks the knife into the skull of the last voodoo doll. The other four figures release their hold, letting the body hit the floor. *DING DONG BING BONG* Phoenix: A body....has been discovered.... There's a slow fade to black. Suddenly, an eye appears on the screen inside of a ring. It's almost as if the movie is watching the figure now. Screams of agony from the voodoo dolls before their deaths can be heard faintly in the background. The Faceless figure finally hits the eject button. Nothing happens at first, so they try it again. This time, it opens, the tape shoots out, narrowly missing the figure. Momokuma's laughter can be heard as the eye fades away. |
