BEGINNING OF THE END

[Genndy Oda C.O.G.]

I will stand. My death has never looked so promising.

[Jeroic9]

So wait, where and when would this happen? Also, still no smartphone, so unless someone would lend me theirs I am ineligible.

[Sicon112]

F*ck it, I'm in the voting pool. Why? I have no idea.

[Tohrinha]

If it at all will help, I will.

[AMimsyBorogove]

Heh. Sounds like fun. If I had a smartphone, the means of transportation, and the necessary activity to be of use, then I'd gladly volunteer to see if I couldn't deal old fishy a good punching or two, so to speak. As is, though, I doubt I'll be able to do any good. So, instead, I suppose all I can do is offer the suggestion that SOMEBODY MAKE A METAGUARD REMIX OF LIBERA ME FROM HELL TO USE ON THE PHONE, and DO IT PRONTO.

Sorry I can't be of much help in this regard, either. I'll try to make it up to whoever ends up drawing the short straw by making good on your sacrifice and writing a really good defense fic.

[Pixelmage]

Very well, I'm in. It will be interesting to punch him... Or break my arm punching him.
Though the App issue means the Crack has to be at my place... so...

[Sicon112]

Heh. Sounds like fun. If I had a smartphone, the means of transportation, and the necessary activity to be of use, then I'd gladly volunteer to see if I couldn't deal old fishy a good punching or two, so to speak. As is, though, I doubt I'll be able to do any good. So, instead, I suppose all I can do is offer the suggestion that SOMEBODY MAKE A METAGUARD REMIX OF LIBERA ME FROM HELL TO USE ON THE PHONE, and DO IT PRONTO.

Sorry I can't be of much help in this regard, either. I'll try to make it up to whoever ends up drawing the short straw by making good on your sacrifice and writing a really good defense fic.

....Actually we DO have an SUV and a tablet.... Just saying.

[eli_gone_crazy]

I will fight. I like a Challenge.

[Mr. Administrator]

WE ARE HEARTENED BY THE SHOW OF READINESS. BUT WE MUST CLARIFY THAT THIS WILL NOT BE FUN. YOU WILL BE IN HARM'S WAY.

[Jeroic9]

Yeah, I didn't make this clear, but if someone can lend me a smartphone, I would love to fight Mr. Hentai Cliches. However, very few people I have easy access to would be willing to let me do that. After all, it might get damaged in the battle and they're all as cheap as I am.

[Adell]

Well this is it, I guess. It’s funny; we had joked and assumed that it would be Cthulu that caused the disturbances on the other side of the wall and it turns out it was that very talk that drew him towards us. I have to take some responsibility for that. In a way, we kind of brought this problem upon ourselves. So then, I say, who better than us to fix this, then? Mr.A seems worried about the threat the green giant can do, but I’m not sweating at all. Do you know why?

Because I’ve read, I’ve watched, I’ve even listened to what you guys are capable of doing. I’ve seen how brilliant each and every one of you has been throughout this whole ordeal, and know that when it comes down to it that you have everything you need to tackle any sort of problem when you work together. This is just one last obstacle, one last hurtle until we’re home free. And I KNOW we can do it; cause we don’t fail, that’s just the kind of people we are. We’re not just a team or Tram or whatever you want to call it, we’re friends. I mean that, sincerely. I never thought I’d meet such cool people getting involved in this whole thing. If there is ANYONE I would trust the world with, it’s you guys. That’s why even something like Cthulu doesn’t stand a chance.

…And that’s why I’m going to putting my name on this thing. To put a stop for this once and for all. It might be dangerous (ok, it WILL be dangerous), but that’s why I want, need, to be the one to go. We’ve all been through so much, and much like how the characters have changed from this experience, I feel that we too have changed. And honestly, after everything you guys have done, for each other and the characters, I don’t want to risk any one of you. I see a lot of you volunteering, but it doesn't sound like you're really understanding what Mr.A is asking of you. Maybe I'm not sure either. It makes me free great that you'd all make that call so quickly, but I fear it is jump you might be making without realize the gravity of the situation. It's jump you're making that I might not be able to help you with. He's asking you all to die, to lose it all. I can't let that happen to you. I won't.

I’ve been here since the very beginning, and I’ve always believed in doing what was right. It wasn’t always easy arguing that point, holding true to those beliefs, but I did. Not just for me, but for you guys too. Some of you may not agree with me; not want me to take the unnecessary risk, but I promise you, this is the right thing to do. I’ve never been more certain about the decisions we’ve made here until now. After giving you all my support for so long, I finally want to ask you to do the same.

So here I am, asking you for your help, your support. Let me be the one to do this, let me pay you all back for working so hard to securing our future. Not just for you or me, but for everyone; for the fictionals and for the people of our reality. I trust you guys to make the stories that matter and to give us what we need to stop this thing. So please, trust me with sending it back. I’ll show it what happens you try to threaten people I care about. I survived a hurricane; I can survive a giant squid. We’ve beaten the odds so many times already, and I know with your help, there’s NO way we’ll lose. So let’s do this, let’s show what makes the metaguards so awesome. Please.

[Sicon112]

WE ARE HEARTENED BY THE SHOW OF READINESS. BUT WE MUST CLARIFY THAT THIS WILL NOT BE FUN. YOU WILL BE IN HARM'S WAY.

I have a very twisted idea of fun.

[Dryunya]

Bullshit! No way I will let you volunteer for this, so I can go back to my home country like the man who did not volunteer! No way!

But srsly. If everything goes smoothly, I should get a tablet (again) within the next couple of days. If the location is not an issue, I'm somewhat free from 17th to 19th. Considering my lack of involvement lately, I might as well die for the cause.

[Tohrinha]

WE ARE HEARTENED BY THE SHOW OF READINESS. BUT WE MUST CLARIFY THAT THIS WILL NOT BE FUN. YOU WILL BE IN HARM'S WAY.

We know. We're still volunteering.

[Krika]

I will step up. It's not like I've done much spectacular, mostly just behind the scenes stuff anyway. It'd be nice to be important for a change. Not to die. Death is bad. But eh, I'm just pulling up the date, eh?

I stand ready.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

WE ARE HEARTENED BY THE SHOW OF READINESS. BUT WE MUST CLARIFY THAT THIS WILL NOT BE FUN. YOU WILL BE IN HARM'S WAY.

I guarantee you, Mr. Administrator, I do not take the danger lightly. But I would not be the person I have always believed myself to be if I did not step forward for this. I want to fight Cthulhu. I need to fight Cthulhu. For you. For my friends here. For the WORLD.

It's worth it. It's always worth it to fight for what I believe in, even if I might not come out on top-- but I have faith that I will.

I know it's worth it.

[SpiritfChaos]

I joined this so I could help save the world, but so far, I've done about jack shit to accomplish that. Let me do this, if I can.

[AMimsyBorogove]

Perhaps the same could be said of all of our motivations for joining, Chaos. In my opinion, death or not, let's just say it hardly matters. I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines while everyone else does things for me. I think it's high time I did something to save the wall, and if that means using a cellphone to blow myself up along with the High Priest of the Great Old Ones... I'm game. I'm a hikkikomori whose purpose in life could basically be summarized as referencing everything I can because I can. Which is to say... no purpose at all. Now, I've just been presented with the opportunity to sacrifice myself saving the world from freaking CTHULHU. I don't pretend I don't know what happens to people who come into contact with beings from Lovecraft's mythos. I don't pretend that I'm not worried by the prospect of facing down a being beyond Human comprehension. But, on the other hand, if I turn this down now when somebody's life is actually at stake because I'm too lazy or too scared to face the outside world and its truths... then I would be facing a fate far worse than whatever that tentacled bastard could deliver.

I'm tired of sitting here at this desk, trying my hardest to live in the land of fiction while viewing the world outside simply through Google search or TVTropes articles. I'm lazy, I'm weak, and I understand that. I've done very little for this ARG, even if I've been "active" for a very long time. I'm by no means the person you'd want to rely on to save the world. But, perhaps it's better than way. All of you are so much more capable, and are needed much more than a nameless, faceless shut-in locked within a cage of his own making. I trust in the power of Administrator's app, and in the hopes, dreams, and beliefs of every last one of you. That power we all possess is more than enough to save us all, even in the hands of someone like me. And so that's why, even if I don't have the strength of my own to accomplish anything, I'm still willing to volunteer, believing in the Metaguards who, even through me, could yet save us all. If I can reach the crack, then damnit, I'll fight, even if it does kill me! I won't cower here any longer, sitting idly by while my betters die for my sake. I won't live a life taken from someone more deserving than me, nor will I ask a comrade who has already done so much to die in my place. Because even if I do die, I'll have done so for a reason much greater than for whatever reason I might live afterward.

In summary, I know it's selfish, and I won't lie and say that I'm not reluctant to volunteer. But I'm stepping up, too, ready to walk right over the edge if I have to, because to stand and fall for what you believe in is far better than to cower because you can't even believe in yourself. That's what it means to be a man. That's what it means to be a Metaguard. That's the meaning I've finally found, and the meaning I'll uphold, even at the risk of my very existence.

That's all I have to say. Sorry if it's selfish of me, but I feel like it's something I have to get off my chest. =/

[Krika]

Let me be clear, I'm not taking this lightly. I'm being flippant, joking, and otherwise being really not-serious about the prospect of dying, because really, how am I supposed to take it? It's death. It's final. Nobody should have to die before they're good and ready too. And yet, that happens all the time. Death is not just a thing, something that happens, instead of the defining event that it should be. I am going to take death as non-seriously as possible because if I do take it seriously, the sheer weight and terror of dying, of leaving this world, of ceasing to exist, blinking out into the void, or hitting whatever afterlife you believe in (which in itself may or may not be a bad thing, really), I won't be able to do anything. I'm going to be paralyzed with fear, terror, and general "Oh god I don't want to go."-ness.

And I say that those things can SUCK IT. They can take all of what I'd feel, and have it given to them via Ass Shove.

Because I've had enough of those things. If I go, I'm going with a smile, a sarcastic remark, with a curious attitude toward what happens next. Everything dies, and I'm no different. I am going to die at some point, and if I can die with meaning? Well that's all I've really wanted out of death, anyway. Death doesn't seem to mean much to some people, and mine in all likelihood won't have any. So, if I can make some meaning out of putting myself in harms way, then it's better than a ton of other ways to go.

And really, this is what I would want to do. I'm a protector (or I like to thing of myself as one, anyway). I want to stop other people from being hurt. I can't stand to watch those around me feel pain, whether emotional, physical, or otherwise. I'm not going to stand around while my friends are hurt. I'm going to try and make them not hurt anymore, and if that involves me putting myself between them and Cthulhu, so be it. Because I want to reduce the pain in the world. I want to make sure that those that I love, my Nakama, and my friends don't have to be hurt. If I have to take all that potential pain upon myself, then so be it, because none of them are in pain.


And that is why I am volunteering. Not out of kicks and giggles, but because I, as the person I am, literally cannot stand by and not try to help.

Godspeed to whoever must hold him off.

EDIT: For reference, if this ARG were real, this would be the exact same logic I'd be using to volunteer. Take it as you will.

[narrativedilettante]

I will gladly volunteer to die. I've been part of this since early days, and if you need an idea of my track record just look at my title. I will do whatever I need to in order to succeed.

There is one problem, in that I don't have easy access to a smartphone at the moment. Still, I'm throwing my hat in this ring.

WE ARE HEARTENED BY THE SHOW OF READINESS. BUT WE MUST CLARIFY THAT THIS WILL NOT BE FUN. YOU WILL BE IN HARM'S WAY.

Mr. Administrator, we are not underestimating the danger here. We are merely not cowed by it. Every one of us is brave and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Besides, death is the undiscovered country. I may well find my fun in exploring it.

[Inukai44]

I think this suits the moment "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our World, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this World or a large part of it were subjugated, we will carry on the struggle."

[GuestUser17]

I've been in harm's way before and survived, so why not do it again. Sign me up!

[Inukai44]

I'm up for it too i'be been doing nothing for too long

[GuestUser17]

I've seen so many headstones over the last several days that it would only be fitting to join them.

[WackyMeetsPractical]

Sounds like a marvelous adventure. Unfortunately, I have no smartphone, or transportation. And I have family visiting in a week. Also dying sounds painful, so I'm out. But I know there are so many others here willing to make that sacrifice. Good luck guys.