graveyard part 2

[gamehead]

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.

Comments

2/2

[speakveryclearly]

[She turns suddenly, her glow flickering quite a bit, when she hears Rapunzel's voice.]

You never told anyone anything, did you!

[sun_kissedhair]

[She flinches at the shout, looking guilty yet she shakes her head rapidly.]

I had to wait to see who I could fully trust! A-and even though it took awhile, I did manage to find one other person who knows!

[speakveryclearly]

[Icily, word by word] And who would that be? Does that person know your results?

[sun_kissedhair]

[This is said with more confidence.]

Yes. I made sure to tell them everything once I knew they could be trusted.

I was about to do the same last night, but. . .

I-in any case, what would you have done!

[speakveryclearly]

I don't know for certain because I don't know how many results you obtained were in time to be of use, but I can tell you it would have involved a lot less abstaining.

[That last word is clearly a foul one in her eyes.]

[sun_kissedhair]

So, you would've voted for the hunters even though no one else was?

[speakveryclearly]

Do you remember how and why I died, Rapunzel? Because I voted for Bruce even though no one else was due to his suspicious behavior about the scavenger. Though I'll admit that was a move of exasperation in some respects, since Babydoll was prey and Edward was an unsustainable candidate due to Luke and I wanted to cast a vote for someone. The cause of death of Ema Skye isn't an acid bath; it's people too afraid to vote for anyone at all.

I personally would have confessed my role to Kyouko I think - yes, to Kyouko - and we would have pored over the tapes for hints to their role, then made the case against them in the trial, with or without public admission to my role. If the town hadn't been convinced of anything right then I would have voted for them anyway. Yes, if I'd known for certain even one person was a hunter - I would have voted for them without a moment's hesitation.

[sun_kissedhair]

I wanted to stay alive as long as possible to gather as much information as I could. If I had been executed right then and there, that would be one day's less information I could've gathered for the prey.

I know now that argument sounds weak since I'm. . dead. . .but that was the best I could think of.

I regret that it was I who received that role. Perhaps if you had, you would have been able to do much more with it. . .

[speakveryclearly]

Maybe you're right! Because do you know what I would have left behind? A VOTING RECORD! That couldn't be erased by hunters searching my room or misinterpreted like my diary was. What if the single person you'd trusted had been Akane? Or - even if they were someone you initially read as innocent - what if the werewolf had bitten them?

Who did you trust? Was it England with his offer of protection? Because he's a wolf in sheep's clothing, you know!

[sun_kissedhair]

No.

I knew England was a hunter the night after he claimed he was the protector.

[A beat.]

I trusted all my information to Beat. He knows how to decipher my journal. If I had written information down, don't you think the hunters would've gotten rid of those pages as soon as they could?

1/2

[speakveryclearly]

[She stares at Rapunzel with her jaw dropped for a moment.

No. Two moments. Actually it has to be three.]

Wait 2/3 actually

[speakveryclearly]

[Then she slaps Rapunzel clean across the face.]

Do you have any idea what you've done? The real protector is AMERICA! He thinks England claimed like a bosom friend to protect him and not HIMSELF! The entire town thinks that expect for the multiple people who suspect him for having made such a convenient claim to whom you easily could have made the case for his guilt without ever saying the words "hound" or "blood"!

3/3

[speakveryclearly]

I know that early on you might have still feared you were the deerhound and really it was an impulsive decision to slap you for that, I'm sorry already, but good god, Rapunzel, do you realize what this means? You are the reason not a single prey has EVER been protected from death!

1/2

[sun_kissedhair]

[She did not expect that at all and for the longest moment she just stares, the red mark on her cheek slowly beginning to sting. Should it sting? Didn't matter, it stung in some way or another.]

[sun_kissedhair]

[When she gets over the fact that she was physically struck--something she's never experienced before either--her eyes become shiny again, but she holds back the tears and her expression strengthens if only slightly.]

How could I have known that without looking into who he was?

How could I have trusted him even after when everyone can see how close they are to each other? If England knew he was the protector, why wasn't he targeted to be killed? I know my role was dangerous to the hunters, but a protector role is just as detrimental to them.

How could I have known if he would've believed me or not, or if he'd even act on his role. Because obviously he hasn't done so yet.

You're telling me everything I could've done and should've done now after it's too late. Don't you think I wish I could turn back time and conduct things differently?

But I can't.

I did the best I thought I could've back then, and even if it doesn't appear so, that was the most I could do--attempt to do what I thought was the best course.

You have reason to be angry with me, but don't blame me for being unable to stop everything.

[speakveryclearly]

.....

I understand you couldn't have known about America, or even that a true protector actually existed and wasnt just invented. I even understand not outing the hunters who kept under the radar and essentially only would have been indicted based on your report. I just can't believe you let a hunter hide in plain sight and lead the town around by the snout, one who's still alive, and I'm really angry about that.

You're wrong in one respect, though. America did act on his role. Just in the way England told him to, though. He was tricked into protecting the werewolf, and that's why that person didn't die in the process of turning one of the prey. That's why Critter said that could only happen once normally. I thought you should know that.

[fortissimos]

[ SHOOTING HER A LOOK that slap was quite loud ]

Kanaya. [ She's plenty mad, too. But there's not much they can do about it now. ]

[speakveryclearly]

..... [Seiyaku... no she's being mean... she wilts some.]

She knew about England. [That sentence almost merits an exclamation point, but she manages to just barely suppress her indignation enough for a period.]

[fortissimos]

I know. [ The yelling about it was hard to miss. ] I'm angry too, but... what she did wasn't intentional. She's not the only one who could have done more.

[ She glances off. Yeah, she feels pretty hypocritical picking on someone else given her own role. ]

[speakveryclearly]

Maybe not... [Kanaya doesn't even connect the side glance to Sayaka's guilt immediately; in her own mind Sayaka was once basically the only reason the town has even a fighting chance, beloved gun user aside.]

After all... we have the hounds, Luke, and America known to us. There are four other roles known to the prey yet they remain a mystery.

[fortissimos]

... Right. There's still a chance.

[ Not much of one, sure. But it's something. ]

[sun_kissedhair]

And how was I supposed to know that didn't mean the werewolf's powers would simply go away once they had changed someone? How was I to know it was wrong in assuming that they would still lived, but reverted back to prey after they had bitten someone? I'm not Critter. I'm not some omnipresence in the town. I'm just one person.

And as for England, yes, maybe I could've been more blatant in indicating who he was and have outed one hunter publicly before I died, but I was still running under the assumption that I wouldn't have died so quickly.

You know. It's easy to tell someone what they did wrong after you see the results of their actions. It's much harder being in the situation having to make them.

[speakveryclearly]

...

But not voting.

[sun_kissedhair]

After the vote on the third day I had a talk with both America and England. Because I didn't want to kill anyone innocent I voted for America because he was a safe bet--someone who could have taken a vote and not have been executed for it.

But then he told me not to do that. To vote for myself instead which also includes abstaining.

If I had suddenly voted for England out of the blue wouldn't you have thought suspicions would have been aroused? That I would be questioned and him, as a hunter, would have tried to kill me even sooner?

I wanted to gather confirmed support so that I wouldn't be the only one to have voted for him and killed that night. I wanted others to be able to back my reasoning, or convince everyone else better than I could have. And to do that I needed to find some who were prey--not just the hunters.

If I hadn't died so quickly, today's vote would've gone differently. I had a plan in mind. I just didn't get a chance to use it.

[speakveryclearly]

...I think I've given up on ever understanding human morality.