Event Annex - The Senate Room

[pumpkinhollow]

CRY HAVOC, AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR.

W

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 ✦

Comments

[not_the_last]

Cassandra doesn't do anything so blatant as grimace, but her mouth does tighten slightly. "I've no doubt you're right."

(Later, much later, when they're all back in Pumpkin Hollow and a day or two has passed, she will lie awake and think about that word. And wonder what it says about her, that she considered it such a mild thing.)

[hadnoright]

Daisy huffs and is quiet, for a moment, before piping back up with: "Still the skeptic, huh?"

She caught that glance earlier, senses too keen for it, made her pay a bit more attention to what she'd been hearing.

[not_the_last]

"I suppose so. At least in cases where there seems to be more reason to distrust the source of information than otherwise."

A beat.

"And I've been right to doubt before, at least once."

[hadnoright]

"Mm. True," Daisy gives her, nodding her head to the side. "He is the king of betrayal. Has plenty of reason to lie. But christ. Hell of a thing to lie about."

[not_the_last]

"That's where I'm not certain. I can see how it would serve his turn to tell us this same thing if it were true. And if he'd said nothing about it at all, of course we would assume that nothing had changed, so ..."

She exhales. "I wonder if it's less to do with what's going on in here, and more about what we'll find when we leave. Or with wherever the rest of us are, if that's not the same answer."

[hadnoright]

"Got to be the same answer." There's a slim chance it's not, but she's pretty damn sure it is. "We get out of here too easy, he's not going to let us just. Go home. Find the others without some other trick."

She taps her claws against the table.

"...sure would be bold. Dragging everyone outside the barrier like this. Long-term, it's a lot of souls to take out of the meat grinder. Especially when the meat grinder's a mostly closed ecosystem."

[not_the_last]

"And what does he get out of it? Satisfaction? Somehow greater than keeping us around beyond death?" Cassandra shakes her head. "I don't know. There could be something more to it, but ... I don't have any support for this, mind you, it's just a feeling. But I feel sure that even if he has told us the truth, he's done it in such a way as to leave us believing something false."

[hadnoright]

"Mm. He's all about betrayal. Think there's plenty of that to get out of removing our safety net."

She thinks about the knives in the room. Yeah. Plenty.

"But," she leans back, "I'm not worried about myself. I can get out of here. And whatever's out there would have a hard time killing me anyway. But everyone else..."

[not_the_last]

"Mm," Cassandra says, and nods.

And then, dryly, and a little quieter: "For what it's worth, I am worried about myself."

[hadnoright]

"Yeah, well. You're squishy. Be surprised if you weren't." It's flat, but it's sort of teasing. "Just, y'know. Be careful who you spread those doubts to. Someone might challenge you with less words."

[not_the_last]

Her mouth quirks wryly at squishy. It's true, especially without her armor.

The next words give her pause, and she takes a moment to visibly consider them. Not a particularly long moment.

"Noted," she says, just a little tightly.

[hadnoright]

"Not a threat. Just a warning. People will look for excuses."

And there's knives in the stupid fucking room. Because of course there are.

and wrap!

[not_the_last]

"Thank you," she says, and means it. "I'll do my best not to give one to anyone."

She hasn't caught sight of any of the knives yet, but it's only a matter of time.