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

Rules/Questions

[pumpkinhollow]

- No direct synonyms. Hints must be phrases to describe the word in a full sentence.
- No spelling. You are permitted to give a single letter as a hint but cannot say its place in the word.
- You may not let the other person guess to you and then confirm with a direct yes or no, but you can use body language.
- You can use stories, anecdotes, the names of other people who could be described by the word, etc.
- Not everyone needs to post a toplevel--- you can tag into someone else's and help them, then have them help you
- You can talk to as many other people as you like before making your guess
- If you see an unanswered toplevel, tag in. Don't leave anyone out to dry.
- Time is soup
- Some people have knives and can kill you to steal your key. Knives and stolen keys can be traded.
- Your key only works for you unless it is stolen. You cannot give away your own key, only one you stole.
- You can only use a stolen key if the original owner is dead.
- If someone dies from failing the game, you cannot steal their key.
- Good luck! Any questions?

Re: Rules/Questions

[medekh]

Yo ok I will ask the obvious question.

This is one room, right? As in, everyone can see everything that happens? If character A stabs character B, everyone knows? How difficult is it to pull someone aside and whisper a thing in their ear, would everyone notice that?

Re: Rules/Questions

[pumpkinhollow]

This is one room. However, I'll say that there are things like room dividers/partitions and maybe a separate bathroom or two!

Re: Rules/Questions

[medekh]

Makes sense, thank u!!! <33 I forgot about the existence of needing to pee which is ironic considering.

[for_i_have_none]

Just to be sure -- is there anything preventing people from solving their own word and then staying in the room?

Agni Azimar | OC (D&D, Curse of Strahd) | OTA

[for_i_have_none]

About thirty seconds into the guessing game, after looking carefully around at the words over everyone else, Azimar stands up at his place and slaps both palms down onto the table.

"It's not my nature that I need to understand here, sir," he announces, addressing the air above the table, "it's yours. The word over my own head is traitor." And without waiting for anyone else's reaction, he snatches up his envelope and rips it open.

Organ failure does not seem to be imminent, as he draws out the slip of paper inside, reads it, and ... notices the second piece of paper inside, much larger, carefully folded. He draws it out as well, unfolds it, and begins reading.

All expression, and all color, slowly drains from his face.

[thethirteenthchild]

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?"

[thethirteenthchild]

Well, that can't be good. Not only does this mean the fellow tiefling is exactly Eligos's type to mess with, but also that there's something new to be worried about.

"...Something wrong?"

[not_the_last]

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

[pumpkinhollow]

Nope! If by some lucky chance they already know what the word would be, there's nothing stopping them from using their key and leaving!

[not_the_last]

Yes, but what about staying in the room and not leaving immediately?

[thethirteenthchild]

"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."

Hector Monaque | Great God Grove | OTA

[carefulinspekshun]

Oh, great, here's some new ordeal to have to go through, and this one features everyone in here seeing the worst parts of each other. Fantastic. As if this isn't one a real, actual stress-nightmare that Hector's bad before.

He almost crumples the envelope in his hands, and smooths it out anxiously, cracking an uneasy smile to one of the people closest to him.

"Ssso, uh, this is a new one, huh? Yew... need a hand with dat?"

Dr A. T. Menelikov & R' L.V. Morgenshtern | OCs | OTA

[amourtician]

OOC: Those are collapsible text headers! Click them for the actual TL prompts.

1. as frontlets between your eyes

Anzu casts a cold, jaded eye across the room, and snorts, a little too loud to not be a deliberate signal.

"If the demons wish us to break ranks, they have severely underestimated the community," he says, archly. "Suspicion is not a dandelion. It shan't crack paving stones."

But he's got his hand on Lev's wrist, and he does not look at his bridegroom. Whatever Eligos has branded Lev with, he wishes to avoid seeing as long as possible. The rest are deeply nasty and in at least one or two cases, unfair in that they're only technically true. This is a game, he tells himself. This is just an attempt to lure them all into yet another brittle, petty courtly bitchfest.

But he cannot bear to look.

Lev/Lyubov glances around the room, shudders, and moves to take off their glasses. But Anzu's got hold of the wrist of their dominant hand, and when trying to take their hand back, they inadvertently come face to face with their husband. Anzu closes his eyes in time, but Lev/Lyubov's overwhelmed and never the most agile, and so they see the word.

They shriek in dismay, and lurch back, overbalancing. They and the chair both crash to the ground. They cover their face with both hands, throwing their glasses to the floor.

"No," they moan. "No, that— no. No."

If that's true. If it's true. How much is it true? Is it true concerning their relationship? Is it true concerning all the times Anzu has told him he minds not his frailty, his strained nerves, his brittleness?

They're making a scene. They're well aware they're making a scene. They crawl away from the table and the overturned chair, but make little progress.

2. a time to grieve

Later, still shaken, Lev/Lyubov is huddled in an armchair in the corner, anxiously searching the face of anyone who passes by. Their left hand lies limply by their side, the wrist tightly bound with strips of cloth — dislocated. Anzu perches beside them on the arm of the armchair, his arm around their shoulders. He keeps his eyes closed, not wishing to see the brands upon the faces of his friends and neighbours, but his hearing's acute, and on hearing approaching footsteps, he smiles, and addresses the newcomer.

"Darling! Might thou assist us? We're, ah. At something of a marital impasse here."

Capochin | Great God Grove

[staybizzy]

Well isn't this a fine cobbin' how do you do. Capochin glowers at the envelope in front of him, not even remotely wanting to know the answer. He can think of a dozen. Broken, misfit, useless, self-sacrificial, edible. Great. Just perfect.

But he can't just sit here all day, and Hector's here, which--- oh whoof. He's not gonna like his either.

Well, he needs to get himself and Hector out of here. That's the most important thing.

Patting his pocket, he finds his package of cigarettes and lighter still there. Carelessly, he lights up, unintentionally glowering at someone. "Alright, what's da damage."

Papyrus | Undertale | OTA

[spaghettimonster]

"'The barrier is not here...'"

Papyrus reads this off the envelope slowly, gripping it in both hands. One finger rubs at the corner like maybe the letter will decide to open itself, without him figuring out this puzzle, if he just wants it enough.

(It doesn't.)

He's not really surprised by it, more surprised to find himself gritting his teeth than that, and he puts his envelope back down on the table before looking at his neighbors.

"Could that be... true? All of us are outside of the barrier, just like that? And... and with that, dying could be..."

[not_the_last]

"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?"

Jonathan Sims | The Magnus Archives | OTA

[apocryphalarchivist]

Heart hammering in his chest, it's hard not to feel suffocated by this room, Jon thinks to himself. All of these vicious words bearing down on everyone, with god only knows what above his own head. Too much potential in his hands to hurt someone— himself, any of these people he cares about, any of these beloved town figures, or even those who just got a new chance at life. It's enough to make him feel sick.

What else is there to do besides try to help, though, and fight off the desperation as best as he can?

(The Eye bids him to look, but he cannot See here. The potential of bloodshed feels closer than ever before. He keeps his back away from anyone he can.)

"Best to try to get this over with, then," he offers to someone looking as directionless as himself. "Would you like me to try to start?"

Simon | Iron Lung

[hemonaut]

Simon can think of a few things that his might be. Butcher, traitor, convict. But there's a part of him that hopes, after everything he did, that even the god(?) running this bullshit has judged him More than those.

Either way, his best guess isn't worth dying for. And there's plenty of people in this room, so it's not too hard to find someone else.

"Hey, you wanna give me a hand? You help me, I help you?"

[amourtician]

Anzu snorts.

"Well, probably not enough to initiate divorce over, darling," he says, darkly. "I'll help thee, but ah. Might thou share some of the cigarettes first? Rather ah. Rather more nervy than I expected, nu?"

He's left Lev in the armchair, exhausted from hysterics and with a wrecked dominant hand. Taking some space now seems like a good idea.

[for_i_have_none]

"Oh," he says in a kind of half-whisper, "I think there may be."

This said to the middle of the air, before turning round slit-pupiled golden eyes on her.

"This can't be right."

[spaghettimonster]

There's a lot of things to this game that Papyrus isn't enthusiastic about. The idea that people are made to do any given thing, instead of choosing for themselves and encouraging others to choose in turn, is definitely among those things. And the words themselves...

He shoots an assessing look at the word floating above Simon's head, before offering a smile.

"If you'd be willing, I would love that! I realize these words aren't very complimentary, but I understand you won't mean anything by it. Just saying--" His jaw snaps shut, and he blinks his eye sockets in confusion. Teeth grind a moment, before he manages to say, "that's... weird..."

Aloy || Horizon Zero Dawn

[ihadthewilds]

At first, the words floating above everyone's head could almost be mistaken for text from her Focus, were the words not so unnecessarily cruel. It is indeed still on her head when she reaches up to check, hmm.

Glowing lights around her, visible only to Aloy, fill the room, and she carefully scans the envelope in front of her, hoping it will register the text inside the way it does for other written things. Instead, it only helpfully informs her what she is holding. Envelope. Fantastic.

Aloy huffs impatiently, looking around. No sign of Rost. She needs to get out of here. He could be in danger, or Alex could. But she can't risk dying.

Instead of speaking up, all Aloy does is glower at her envelope. Someone else might need to initiate.

[not_the_last]

"I'll help if I can." She looks from Lyubov to the man leaning over her. "I don't think we've properly met; I'm Cassandra."

Nyura, she thinks is the name Lyubov had mentioned before, but she'll wait rather than guess.

[apocryphalarchivist]

"...Permanent, yes. I'm afraid it's true. I've ran the risk once before, and only narrowly escaped it. It makes sense that the King of Treason would have one last hurrah like this, doesn't it?"

Jon doesn't typically foist up that information so willingly, but there's no reason to hide it. Not here and now, when people need to know exactly what they're in for. His own envelope remains in his hand, his thumb worrying at the edge of it.

"We've got to be careful if we want to make it home. Even if we get out of this room, there's no telling what awaits us afterwards."