I Have To Return Some Videotapes

[Wham Yubeesling]

“God.”

She’d gotten up to follow right before Fisk told her to and went outside. She didn’t exactly have as good an angle — somebody needed to keep guard while Fisk was all over the railing, but she got the gist. Someone had made it out of here. Presumably, they’d managed to hit ten. Verity couldn’t really tell who it was given how far away it was, but… she had a pretty clear guess.

She wondered, for a moment, how it had happened in the end. How they had managed to claim victory. They’d still been a bit away last time Verity had heard, so…

So she wondered, another moment, about who’d they’d managed to take down. Who’d still be alive, once the day had been fully broken. Who there’d be left to take out.

And she thought, for a moment, about the past. A moment she’d spent in this very same hall, right after Shiva had told her she still had a chance. It’d… motivated her. Maybe too much. She’d tricked Shiva into overloading her mic, making anything she said inaudible so long as the music kept playing. It was for a plan of hers, at the time. Something she didn’t want the audience to know, for some reason. She… she could barely even remember what she’d said, all those days ago, but…

But there probably wasn’t much of a point, even if they'd managed to get that audio. Her faint memory of a plan, like everything else here, had long since gone off the rails. Now…

“I guess…”

Now was the time to focus on the present. Who she was right now. What she was going to do.

“I guess that means we’re in the endgame now.”

[ItzToxie]

“Basically, yeah. There’s not many who can touch us besides you know who.” He stepped back into the banquet hall, and reached for his bag. Materialized an orange spray can, shook it till it rattles. “Speaking of which, you seen Greg around, I figured he was with you... eh probably not. I figured he could help us with our mutual friend, but he’s a flake. His loss I guess.”

Tsst.

Tsst.

Tsssssst.


Fisk left his calling card on Junji. “It’s no matter. Let’s go back to the rooms and get some rest. We got a big day tomorrow. It might be our last, one way or another.”

With that, Fisk gathered his belongings. He needed the sleep, he’d missed out for what? Two- three days in a row now? His only dreams were come addled hallucinations at this point, he hoped he’d get something better tonight that he’d actually get sleep.

((Fisk Bateman continued elsewhere.))

[Wham Yubeesling]

“Thought he was with you, honestly.”

Which meant their prisoner had gotten away. Which meant that… Verity was going to have to stick by Fisk from now on. Keep the two together. Make sure nothing happened in her absence. Made sense, regardless — this was endgame, Verity couldn’t afford to just separate herself from her ally for the sake of fresh air — but with Fisk there was an extra element added to it. When she went off, he’d lost Gregory and also nearly got himself killed against Junji. Ergo, if she wanted to keep Fisk alive, then she couldn’t get separated from him. She needed to be the person at his back. The reminder that The Respects hadn’t been quite wiped out as of yet.

“Right,” she said. “Let’s pick a different room, though. Just in case Gregory tries to come back.”

In the meantime, though… Fisk was right. They needed rest. They needed to be in the best position they could for the upcoming day, because…

Because this was the endgame, now. Do or die. For better or worse, tomorrow would determine everything.

((Verity Stewart, continued elsewhere))