EXIT
Author's Note: An alternate ending to Round 1. Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of World's End Club.
Pairing: Reycho x Pochi.
Summary:
Your life's just a game. Play like your life depends on it or don't play at all.
Knocked unconscious on the bus during a meteor strike. Trapped in the Undersea Theme Park by a crazy character out of a movie. Manipulated to play a deadly game. Pielope's splatterific Game of Fate.
Dissolved into a green pile of sludge…What a gross way to meet your end.
10 out of the 11 of them wouldn't outlive 1 hour. Unless no one accomplished his or her Tasks. Then, the Sludgebot would have 11 kids total to process.
Tattsun was already gone.
Whoever or whatever Pielope was, the members of the Go-Getters Club were cornered. Without the [Magic Key] she spoke of, nobody from the 10 still un-gunk-ified had a chance of escape.
According to the rules of the game, your "Taskmate" is the person whose wristband scrolls your Task. Reycho could, per Pielope's insidious input, try stealing peaks off the other participants' wristbands, make deals for the information, or kill to clinch a fleet-footed lead ahead of his peers.
But Reycho wasn't about to comply with their kidnapper's terms. Tattsun made that mistake, and paid for it. They could choose not to play!
Unfortunately, paranoia (more than self-preservation) is a damn powerful motivator.
His friends also weren't acting like their normal selves. They were acting like they were…like they were brainwashed!
Besides him, Vanilla and Pochi appeared to be the only ones able to come at this logically.
Aniki and Nyoro turned outright ruthless; Chuko and Jennu, conniving; Mowchan, confrontational; Pai, deceitful; and to Kansai, everyone was reduced to a little snot-nosed jerk weasel in need of stepping on.
Vanilla wondered why her brother had gone cycling off the deep end.
Reycho and Pochi wondered why solely the three of them didn't go off the rails.
Seemingly.
In these, the deadliest backstabs, Reycho stuck to Pochi. His voice was so calming. Focused, ignoring his concurrent focus on the console always gripped between his thumbs.
Perhaps due to Reycho wearing bright, open colours and Pochi's predilection for darker, more sullen tones, people jumped to the conclusion Reycho was the sociable one, while Pochi was the quiet one.
While Pochi hated exercise, submerged himself in his console, and was an introvert, he talked circles around Reycho. Reycho didn't talk much. The Go-Getters Club simply learned to infer his intent via his movements and facial expressions.
Reycho decided before they exited into the donut-shaped hallways, Pielope wouldn't have the last laugh.
Reycho was prepared to die to straighten the Go-Getters out.
He depended on Pochi to read him.
A hug is all Reycho needed. A hug, if refusing to play dumped him inside the Sludgebot's slimy belly.
Pochi…He hugged Reycho with all the emotions he was not comfortable showing anyone else.
"Task…completed. Task…completed."
A robotic claw ripped Pochi from Reycho's arms.
Reycho's Task: [Hug one of the boys by 10 minutes before the time limit]
"Pielolooooon! Congratulations, Reycho! You're the game winner! Everyone eliminated!" Pielope laughed and clapped.
Game over.
I'm just a kid. And life is a nightmare.
