GRAVEYARD aka the locked basement LOL

[protoshepherd]

[ You're dead. Either you were ousted and seemed as an ally of the Bad Badger, or the actual allies of the Bad Badger actually got to you.

You remember dying. If you were already dead prior to this whole game... well, you're alive again.

Your death may have been terrible. Poison, being stabbed multiple times, blunt trauma to the head, hanged... whatever. You can still feel the pain.

But... Where are you? You see white walls around you. You're in a hospital...? You're in a room, but there's no one else but you and a man in a blue costume. He doesn't want to reveal his real head, so he hides behind a mask. A badger wearing a blue jester's hat.

And... another person? Has that other person been there all along?

Then you remember being in a mansion. Was that all a dream? You try to figure it out on your own, but you can't seem to come up with an answer. If by any chance you look into the badger's empty black eyes, you might feel like you're being taken to a completely different place. It's as if you can see the mansion again. You can see the people talking, but if you try to call out, nothing happens. They can't hear you.

You avert your gaze from the badger, and those images disappear.

There's so much happening. Pain, and this crazy badger.

You, on the other hand, aren't wearing a blue costume. You have a white dress on, with an opening at the back. That was definitely not what you were wearing... or was it?

You have so many questions. But at least you're not alone. Someone can answer those questions for you. ]

--

[ NOTE Your characters will be able to see the events happening in the game while in the graveyard as long as they're looking at the Proto Badger. They cannot participate in any of the polls, or try to converse with anybody that isn't in this room. ]

Comments

[murimurimuri]

I assume so, since he went and put De Killer in that clue.

[shacklebreaker]

... And de Killer bears a grudge against Engarde.

[Blackquill is loathe to let yet another murder slide by, should it come to that, but he also has reason to survive now more than to throw himself in the firing line. He glances over to the door.] We are kept locked in here at all times, I presume?

[murimurimuri]

Correct on both counts.

Don't get me wrong; De Killer's harsh and stubborn but he's not crazy, so I'm sure he knows it's not the place or time. But, you know. Juuust in case, I'm going to stay over here.

[shacklebreaker]

Hmph... Even having "died", you're as cowardly a monkey as ever.

Regardless, de Killer may very well be saved the hassle of bloodying his hands, if the Bad Badgers lose this game.

[murimurimuri]

I'll take that as a compliment.

You'd like that, wouldn't you? You suicidal maniac. Excuse me if I'll be rooting for Dahlia. Or have you sabotaged her already?

[shacklebreaker]

If it is avoidable, I have no intention of surrendering my life here.

As for whether I've already sounded the death knell for our little butterfly... you shall see soon enough.

[murimurimuri]

Whatever you may or may not have done, she's nailing her performance, or at least what I've seen of it. I think she has a fair shot.

Why, I can hardly fathom why so many people dislike her. She seems like a lot of fun to me.

[shacklebreaker]

Be that as it may, Wright-dono and the others have already proven they're willing to vote based on ties of friendship, rather than whether they find a person guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. My partner and I would have been killed a round earlier if not for that, and even then, some were still convinced of our innocence.

For the next vote, Wright-dono's choices are his daughter, the Fey sisters' cousin, a close friend... or the butterfly. So you see? Even the best performance in the world will not change the cards being stacked against her favour.

[murimurimuri]

I can't deny that's a strong factor. Engarde and I died as a result of Team Gavin's incredible talent at pressing lips to posteriors.

But you know, if your so-called "ties of friendship" meant more to these people than saving their own hides, the Feys wouldn't be in here with us right now.

[shacklebreaker]

[A snort to that first part. He can't deny that one.]

Oh...? Do you know who was responsible for the overturning?

[murimurimuri]

No. I do have a pretty good guess, though!

[shacklebreaker]

Who, then? I am only certain it was not my sister, and Dahlia denied it was her doing.

[murimurimuri]

I agree it probably wasn't either of them. Shields is neither devious nor stupid; he wouldn't do the deed without telling your sister, and your sister wouldn't have been able to do it without him noticing.

Dahlia is extremely devious, but she's not stupid, either. Sooner or later she'll be up on the chopping block, and there's no way she doesn't know that. I can't imagine that wily girl wasting a get-out-of-ousting-free coin just to watch one of her enemies die faster than the other. So I'm with her on this one. Rah rah Team Hawthorne.

But there's an answer a lot more obvious than either one of them, isn't there? The Wright girl was gunning for Redd White early on, and her vote this round shows that she was convinced of your innocence all the way up to the end. I mean, unless we're supposing the Feys are the sort of family who murder each other for basically no reason, but I kinda doubt that one!

[shacklebreaker]

But that's absurd! They're Wright-dono's friends... And she only a child, to make that kind of decision... Why would she put her father through that?

[...And yet it was still a very likely possibility at the back of his mind this whole time, but had tried to ignore. Good job, Keyes.]

Perhaps... Perhaps she didn't realise that in granting us immunity, the other team would be taken in our place...?

[murimurimuri]

Because she believed they were bad badgers. She wasn't particularly subtle about it.

That and magicians are like, always megalomaniacs. Have you ever met one?

[shacklebreaker]

Not personally... I find no entertainment in trickery.

[Ever the buzzkill. He just hopes Phoenix doesn't find out about this -- he'd be devastated.]

[murimurimuri]

No? I bet your friend likes it when they the doves fly out of the hat, though. I always thought it would be fun to train a bird of prey.

[shacklebreaker]

He would, though I admit, where the clink has honed my hunting instincts, it has dulled Taka's. He is far too accustomed to being fed within the confines of the courthouse and prison.

Still, you are a skilled animal tamer, are you not? If you can afford a bird of prey the trust and respect it deserves, it will respond to you in kind.

[murimurimuri]

My major worry is that it'd eat everything else, you know? All my poor little chipmunks. I'd ask if they can do hair, but you obviously don't know.

[shacklebreaker]

Keep it well-fed and obedient, and it will harm nothing you do not instruct it to. Raptors are not animals that hunt for pleasure.

As for hair... Would you really wish for a predator's claws near your scalp, or your eyes?

[murimurimuri]

No, of course not. For a trick like that, it would use its beak; you have to tie it into the nesting instinct or it doesn't make sense to them. I had a couple of hummingbirds to do my pigtails back in the day.