gamehead | graveyard part 2

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graveyard

graveyard part 2

hunter's game the graveyard

You wake up in an unfamiliar cabin.

At first, it almost seems like you're in an entirely different place and that everything had been just a dream. The interior of the cabin looks nothing like the run-down, old-timey shacks that you had been living in before. Everything in here is sleek and modern, from the enormous flat-screen TV mounted on the wall to the fridge and mini-bars stocked with all your favorite foods. There aren't any individual rooms in here, just a common area large enough to house everyone comfortably, no matter how many more people join you...and there will be plenty more people joining you before the week is over.

Because if you look outside the window, it quickly becomes clear that not only are you still in Prayer's Pass, but that you are no longer among the realm of the living. Judging from the tombstones directly outside, you're now in what had been the abandoned broken-down cabin in the graveyard. The cabin's not all that changed; the world outside has gone completely grey and everything you see appears to be faded and blurry. The only things that remain sharp and in color are what's inside the cabin, including your fellow ghosts. Occasionally, people who are still alive may enter, but it's clear that what they're seeing is completely different from what you're seeing. The door's unlocked; however, a mysterious force prevents you from stepping beyond the threshold, no matter how hard you may try. After all, this cabin is a cage for the dead - a gilded one, perhaps, but a cage nonetheless.

On the flat-screen TV plays everything that is currently happening in the town. It will shut off once night starts...and something else will appear instead.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hi, Ema, remember the alien girl whose throat Bruce Wayne cut? She's one of the faces here. She stands between couches, ghost-like, with her hands folded.]

Welcome to the afterlife, ma'am.

[Oh hi alien girl who also died for being helpful.]

Thanks. I think.

[She pauses for a few seconds before her anger boils over.]

Can you believe them!?

You should know England has been lying about being protector. I don't know how they do it so well. I had to die at Bruce Wayne's hand to lure him out. Where on Earth is the bloodhound?

I know. America told me that he's actually the protector, and that England is covering for him...

[That second causes her to pause mid-chew.]

Bruce Wayne... You mean to say England's a hunter?!

[Dammit.]

Your guess is as good as mine about the bloodhound. Their silence is frustrating.

At this point with so much abstention? It looks like the hunters' game. [ ha ha ] I'm almost wondering if that's a good thing, considering how many supposedly decent people have seen it fit to play along based on secret incentives of some kind.

Quite frankly, I want us to lose.

[Because she's pissed about her execution. Her opinion might be different after she calms down.

Maybe.]

We certainly deserve to.

We are doing a pretty awful job of playing. Half of us won't vote, and out of the eight special roles our game has, one is your son's, which I needn't enumerate the dangers of and shouldn't even have reminded you about actually, I'm sorry; one is America's, which he's allowed a hunter to steal, and the other six... are entirely out of the public eye.

Critter implied this utter incompetency is part of why it brought Hanekoma back.

[Ema shakes her head, frowning.] No, there's no point in sugar coating it. Luke's role is to sacrifice himself and stop the dying for a night. I'm just afraid he's going to use it now...

What frustrates me most is how little the other hound--the actual hound--is doing. Have they just been asleep? At least several of the other special roles revealed themselves to me so the we could organize behind the scenes without making a target of themselves. I had ideas on to make it work.

Not that it matters now.

So the bloodhound didn't reveal themselves, even to you?

Somebody will find your notes, though, won't they - or did you hide them assuming you'd survive...

Not even to me.

I had the notes on me at the trial, so they perished with me. Luke may have made a copy when he had them last night, but if he didn't... they're lost.

I put contingency plans into place in case I was killed at night. I didn't think I'd need them for if I was executed.

On you as in on your person? Are you sure they won't be able to search your body?

I'm not sure how well paper survives after being submerged in acid. But I suppose they can search my body, if they're willing to risk it.

[She glances at the television; so far, no one's gotten that close as far as she can tell.]

[Follows gaze and... oh, oh yes everyone does seem to be focused on keeping poor Luke away from the acid. Oh.]

Did you keep any less sensitive notes elsewhere? A diary, for instance?

I gave Luke a note last night that he still has about who he can trust. And I might still have notes in my room about who may have killed you--they're hardly useful now.

[She doesn't mention that they were also wildly off base.]my notes. I just hope he's able to pull it together enough to actually do it.

It was Bruce. Just in case there's any remaining confusion whatsoever. It was Bruce Wayne. He was "You!!"

[Has she mentioned it was Bruce yet? Oh, no, she inclines her head towards the old man somewhere in the room, a much more emphatic gesture with her horns.] That one.

She knows who I am.

[Kanaya plz.]

She said "may". I didn't want room for error.

Hm.

[He just thinks Kanaya wants to rub it in that he died. He doesn't care though.]

[Ohai.

Ema crosses her arms and gives him a look that's not quite severe, but certainly pointed.]

You're shrewd, Mr. Wayne.

...If you think I wasn't sincere in my condolences about Edward, I'd like to say that I was genuine.

You just also used it as a way to get me to trust you. If you hadn't been executed, I might have been dead sooner, or in a situation similar to America's.

[There's a bit of irritation in her voice, but there's also admiration. After a bit, she sighs.]

What I'm saying is that you're far better at this than I am. I'm not cut out for all of the subterfuge it requires.

(no subject)

terryplz - 2013-05-16 20:21 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

glowing_skye - 2013-05-17 22:10 (UTC) - Expand

[ just... sniggering a little over here despite herself. good job, Kan. ]

... Uh, there wasn't any remaining confusion on that point.

[This is kind of awkward.]

Joshua and Charles weren't sure it was him.

Oh. Then I suppose there was.

I kind of assumed it was him when he was a frontrunner and ended up actually being a hunter. But I guess that assumption isn't being held across the board.

[Awkward pause.]

You deserved better. I'm pretty sure the game would be going a lot more smoothly with you there.