ph_logs | Event Annex - The Senate Room

Entry tags:

event

Event Annex - The Senate Room

CRY HAVOC, AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR.

elcome, esteemed guests, to the Senate Room.

The rules of the game are simple. You have a word over your head that you cannot see, and the same word written on a piece of paper in an envelope that also contains a key. There is a door out of this room. Each key opens the door for only one person. You can see the words above others' heads, but you cannot say them, nor can you say any direct synonyms that might give it away too easily, nor can you spell the word or its synonyms. You must find other ways to describe it to allow the other person to guess. More abstract. Get creative with it.

If you believe you know the word, speak it aloud and open your envelope to retrieve your key. If you are correct, you can leave without incident. If you are wrong, your organs will immediately fail and you will die.

Here are the words each participant has been assigned. Players can use them to refer to other players' characters to help them guess, and you can use them to check your answers when you guess, but you can also OOCly know your answer provided you don't use it to ICly cheat. Good luck.

Agent Connecticut

Fickle

Agni Azimar

Traitor (there is an additional document contained in this envelope)

Aloy

Obstinate

Ancient Fuelweaver

Ruined

Anzu Menelikov

Deceitful

Artemy Burakh

Tainted

Capochin Bastone

Inadequate

Cassandra de Rolo

Cynical

Dahlia Leeds

Insatiable

Daisy Tonner

Merciless

Elias Coldwood

Discarded

Ethan Winters

Insufficient

Felix Gaeta

Imprudent

Hector Monaque

Covetous

Jonathan Sims

Hubristic

Lev/Lyubov Morgenshtern

Weak

Luo Binghe

Alone

Marik Ishtar

Megalomaniacal

Mr. Ant Tenna

Histrionic

Papyrus

Ineffectual

Sasavachi Chunome

Misanthropic

Shen Qingqiu

Pretentious

Simon

Selfish

Violet Vespertine

Cowardly

✦Return to Event ✦

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, of course. Of course the old man would pull some horsepiss like this. Tossing her head back, Dahlia groans. "Grandfather, please! I am trying to help you! Are you really going to make me do this?"

No answer. And Dahlia knows from her own royal omniscience that he could answer if he wanted to.

She lets out a sigh.

Fine. She'll do this his way. Better start talking to people. Pursing her lips, she looks across the table at someone and smiles tightly. "Want to try and figure this out?"

Cassandra gives a similar flat smile back. "We may as well. I can see what's over your head, can you see mine?"

"I can." It's admittedly not as bad as some of the others. She gives a pitying look to the blonde man whose name she doesn't know who has the word insufficient dangling over him. "Yours is a word that means... someone who doesn't trust anyone. Though that doesn't terribly narrow it down, there are many words that mean that."

She searches for other things she could say, but trying to describe the spelling or use closer words immediately gives that 'locked up' feeling that used to happen when she'd try to say that Neil was Nyarlathotep. Hm. Inconvenient, but not unexpected.

"It's usually, mm... it's got a more negative connotation. People who are distrustful and smug about it come to mind."

"Hmm. Someone who prides themself on trusting no one?" Her mouth quirks just a little sourly.

"Shall I try to guess mine first, or give you hints about yours at the same time?"

"Up to you. Whatever you think is easiest. Though I'll admit to being extremely curious," Dahlia says. "Demonic omniscience aside, my grandfather... knows me quite well. I'm interested to see how he decided to twist the knife this time."

"Mm. He seems to have gone with ... well, the word is to do with appetite. Not necessarily of any particular kind. And stating that said appetite cannot be ... that it's without limit, and does not have a point of completion."

It occurs to her to suggest that Eligos is drawing a deliberate comparison with Aster, but she decides there's no need to say that part out loud.

"Mmm. The words that come to mind are 'voracious' and 'insatiable.' Am I in the right direction?"

Cassandra opens her mouth, closes it, and nods emphatically.

Dahlia sighs. "Of course. It'll be tricky to differentiate with all the limitations..."

Well, it can wait.

With a scowling pause, Dahlia searches her own mind for words without any walls around them, finally landing on--- "There's a Y in it."

Where? That, she cannot say. She could have named any of the letters, but that one, she hopes, narrows it down more.

Cassandra frowns in momentary confusion, then realizes -- "In mine, you mean? Hm. I take it the Y doesn't start it, that would be too easy."

A beat.

"Skeptical, no. Distrustful, no -- and you couldn't have said trust if it were. Doubtful, doubting, no ..."

"...Mmm, no, think more like someone who's been burned too many times," Dahlia tries. Ugh, the bar on synonyms is so frustrating.

Hm.

But can she try describing synonyms?

"There's a word that means the same thing that is also the name of a stone that's usually green. The ocean near the island is named after that stone."

She frowns, caught off guard -- and briefly unable to recall the name of the ocean. "Emerald, peridot, jade -- jaded. Hah!"

A smile of wry triumph. "Is the word cynical?"

Dahlia raises her eyebrows and gives her half a smirk. "I simply cannot say."

Tenna bides his time. He lingers just nearby, just distant enough to be plausibly minding his own business, and he waits. He waits to see if Dahlia has any luck at guessing her word... But, eventually, he can wait no more.

"H-Hey, there...!!"

Playing it cool, smoothing back his antennae like nothing's wrong (even though he only does this when something is very, very wrong) as he makes his approach, leaning in conspiratorially.

"Do you, uh... D-Do you have a second to talk? Just, one on one?"

"Oh--- yes, of course."

Dahlia's been eyeing Tenna's word the whole time. It's very specific, and not very common. She knows the meaning of it, but isn't sure that most people here would even know the definition because it really is a hundred-Brass word, and even then, she hardly knows how to describe it to him. The idea's been making her nervous this whole time.

She takes him aside, behind one of the folding screen partitions. It doesn't really conceal them, given Tenna's height, but it's a modicum of privacy, at least. "Are you okay? This is--- it's a lot. Tense."

"Oh, h-haha, sure! Never been better, you know!! Aha... Ha..."

Once again, he fails to fight his first impulse — but that's probably fine. Provided he gets to the damn point before much longer, anyway.

"W— Well." He leans in, hands wringing, still trying to be conspiratorial even though they're at least somewhat separated from all the others. "I just...wanted to check in, you know! See if, uh, if you, maybe... If you might, uh, have a good track on...your answer."

Even without eyes, it's impossible to miss the way Tenna glances up to the word floating over Dahlia's head. In truth, he doesn't have the first idea as to how to help her guessing it... But that's fine. It's all going to be fine. Right?

"...Frankly, not really," Dahlia admits. "I've picked up on the fact that it's particularly harsh, but not much else. But it's fine, I'm good at things like this, I just. Need to be patient." A tense beat. "Have you had much luck?"

"Ah, heh, well, not...n-not really." His antennae begin to droop for all of a second before shooting straight back up, as he attempts to rally himself. "B-But, you know! That's just...how games go, isn't it!! You can't expect to win 'em all, right? A-heh... Ha..."

Get to the damn point already, Tenna.

"But... W-Well..." He glances around, as though looking to make really, really sure that nobody is listening in on them. "Look... Somebody has to win. Right? I-I mean, not literally, hah, going by the rules, we could all end up dead in here, r-right—" Get to the point. "Ah... What I'm trying to say is... If any one of us here is going to win..."

As Tenna speaks, he reaches into his waistcoat with a hand that, to his credit, is only just barely beginning to shake.

"It... It's gotta be you. Yeah?" He keeps talking as he pulls the envelope from his lapel and presses it into her hands, not intending to give her a chance to interject. "You're the one who really knows what we're dealing with, here, you're the one who can put a stop to any of this... If any of us can, I know it's you. S-So..."

There's something heavy in this envelope, weightier than a key alone.

"...Take this. Okay? I-It doesn't have to be right now, but... If you use this on me, then— then at least you'll be able to get out." That's how this all works, right? "Right...?"

It becomes obvious before the envelope is even open what's inside. Dahlia's held enough of these, being a collector. Maybe it's the weight placement or the way it slides inside the package as it shifts between hands. Dahlia dumps the small, sharp blade into her palm and stares at it darkly.

"...You know I can't do that," Dahlia tells him. "Not to you. If death really is permanent here, then..."

Then she'd never see him again. She'd lose a very, very good friend. Kris would lose a parent. That strange man from the restaurant, a partner. The town, an emblem of fun and joy. And Susie and Ralsei... It would obviously hurt them, too. Susie adores Tenna, and Ralsei doesn't need any more reason to feel like Darkners should be discarded.

No, that can't happen. There's a shift in Dahlia's eyes as she casts her gaze around the room, shifting into a line of thinking that she hasn't needed to employ since she was well and truly under her father's thumb---- There must be someone expendable around here.

She locks in on someone. Not expendable, per se, but there's enough people around here that do the same type of work, and this is someone who would surely understand doing something like this for the kids...

"I think I have another idea. Will you trust me?"

It's not like he actually wants to die, of course; that much remains ever true. But if it has to be a choice between him or them — if he has the opportunity to make that choice, then... Then...

But he doesn't want to die.

It feels cowardly, this spark of hope that flickers to life upon hearing Dahlia's reply. Nevertheless, he can't seem to stop himself from grasping it tightly in hand.

"I... I trust you." Tenna nods, as though he's convincing himself as much as he's convincing her. "I'll always trust you. Of course I will."

And that much will remain ever true regardless of whatever it is she's about to suggest — right?

There is a slot in the right hip of Dahlia's nightgown that she has had sewn in to every nightgown she's ever owned since she was thirteen. She's stopped using it for the past year or so, feeling no need, but today... she's glad she has it. She slips the knife into it, and takes one of Tenna's hands in both of hers.

"I'm going to figure this out for us. The kids need both of us in one piece, and I'm going to make sure that happens. I promise."

Tenna takes a breath — not one he needs, of course, but the gesture is grounding, even if only by the slightest amount — and gives her hands a gentle squeeze in turn.

"Okay... A-Alright! Alright." Another simulacrum of breath. "If... If you need me to do anything, then..."

Not that he knows what that might even be, at this point. But he has to do something more than this, doesn't he?

"I'll call." One last squeeze for the road, and then she's off.

It takes about a half hour. She doesn't want to come off like she had this in mind from the jump. She meanders and mingles until she lands as organically as possible in the seat next to a quiet man who she is only somewhat acquainted with.

Could she have picked a weaker target, like the small person or the blonde man with an injured wrist who only recently arrived? Sure. Could she have picked someone less popular, like the teenager she knows Kris dislikes? Of course. But she's also heard rumors floating around that some people suspect there might not actually be permanent death, and---- well, it might not be true, but if it is, she has to hope she picked someone who'd understand.

Then, after all that build-up, what she finally does takes all of a few seconds. Isn't that strange? How horrifyingly quick and easy it is to end a whole life? Like cutting down a tree that spent decades growing--- all of that becoming, gone in an instant.

Once she manages to dodge the others, she shoves the key into Tenna's hands. "Go now. While no one is looking at you. Go find Kris and the others, now."

Really, he has no business at all being surprised about it when it finally happens. What did he think was going to happen? What else did he really think was going to happen?

But maybe it's for the best, in spite of everything else, that he is surprised — that he can pass himself off all the more easily as a shocked bystander. At least until realization fully dawns upon him, somehow not fully sinking in until Dahlia is returned and pressing the key into his hands—

"You—"

What he wants to say is something brave, something like it should have been me. It should be you. But it's too late for that, isn't it? And it's hardly the truth, besides.

Tenna's mouth sets into a grim line before his screen flickers with static, before it goes entirely dim. More than anything else, he can't waste this chance she's given him.

"Be careful— Okay?"

He turns, before doubt has a chance to creep back in, and as quickly, as quietly as he can — if not especially stealthily; the act of not drawing attention to himself simply isn't in his nature — he's fitting the key into the door, and he's gone.

"I love you very much, my friend," Dahlia tells him just before he leaves. "I'll be behind you before too long. Good luck."

She has a good guess as to her word... if she doesn't get eaten alive by the abrupt boom in detectives first.

The door closes behind Tenna. It was for them. That's what matters.

No hiding. No excuses. No father to pass the buck to, nor dreary mansion to shield her. She turns to face her sin, to answer judgement.

[ Dahlia is OTA from here. ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Wrap with Tenna, OTA for continuation