gamehead | graveyard part 3

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graveyard

graveyard part 3

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.

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[His hands are gripping the teacup that he'd been drinking from so hard that they're starting to shake.]

Ha...hahaha...it has to be Lithuania, right? I'm sorry, Poland, but you know they think he's the watcher. Or - or maybe they missed, Ada doesn't strike me as a girl who knows her way around guns.

[His voice is weak and fraught with false hope; the conversation on the television is making it very clear what happened even to a blind man, but he shuts it out.]

[W-where is the mute button on this remote-- no Poland you can do this.]

Okay um, like don't flip out! But like.

You know how you were all huffy because I was disgracing literature or something that one time at the Hunter's meeting with a totally valid comparison to Romeo and Juliet?

Um. The play is over and "Juliet" is coming.

We are nothing like--

[His voice chokes off as the full implications of Poland's words finally sink in. The worst part was...it was actually a good move. If they didn't have a sure guarantee of eliminating the caretaker at night, then they needed to kill him during the day when he wasn't protecting himself; England would have suggested it himself if it had been anyone but America. He can't be angry at Ada for following his last order and doing whatever it takes for the hunters to win.

...well no, that's a lie. He's furious.]

He can shake it off. It's just a minor flesh wound, he's had worse.

[It was pretty obvious America was going to die. Poland's sure that a person didn't even need their senses to know that unless protected, every attack is fatal in this game. America would be joining everyone else in the graveyard relatively shortly and England would have to face the reality of that.

But. Until then.]

...Yeah you're right. I'm stupid, he'll be totally fine I'm sure!

[And it's Poland's false reassurances that snaps him out of it more than anything else. England would have been perfectly happy arguing with him if he'd told the truth, to stay in his land of denial against all possible evidence.

But he's being pitied. It's a tactic he's used against America often enough to immediately recognize when it's being turned against him, and he hates it. He is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the former British Empire, one of the oldest countries still in existence, and he has made it a point of pride to face every disaster head on - he doesn't need to be coddled. Not even from this.]

...he's going to die soon, isn't he?

[Poland recognizes the shift and answers point blankly.] Yeah.

America's going to die.

[Somehow even after his own death and even England's, it was weird to say that out loud. The death of a nation from something as minor as a bullet wound, especially America dying from a bullet wound seemed pretty surreal.]

[He nods jerkily, just once.

Then he hurls the entire teaset at the television as hard as he can.]

[Kanaya quietly (trying not to disturb the man relying primarily on his hearing) gets up and goes to clean up the mess a hurled teaset creates. Because if not her then who.

She's sideglancing pretty hard tbh - what are the hunters fighting for if England can at least pretend to be glad about America's death to further this goal?? She becomes less sure about being prey every day.]

[He sits there for a moment, chest heaving, his head bowed to hide his expression.

When he looks up again, he's smiling...though it's just a little too wide to be genuine, his voice just a little too brittle to be cheerful.]

So the hunters are going to win then. Brilliant! There's a load off my mind.

Pass me the vodka, won't you, Poland? Oh, and get some rum too if they have it. We're going to need all the alcohol we can get if we have to put up with that git being trapped in here with the rest of us for the remainder of the game.

Uh huh. The weight has been like, lifted completely from our shoulders. [Poland rolls his eyes, who was patronizing who now?]

But if you get plastered and turn into a weepy mess like you always do, he's totally going to hold it over your head for eternity.

[Poland would too.]

Well yes, it's been off our shoulders ever since we died. It's not like we can offer any input now. And if they're going to gallivant about killing America, then they have to win. I won't accept any other outcome.

[splutters in rage] I most certainly do not ever get weepy, thank you very much! As if I'd ever shed any tears over him anyway! Maybe this'll finally teach him to set up better gun control laws.

Pssh. Speak for yourself, if Critter lets me send another clue I'll hack off whatever other body parts I need to. [Lithuania's still alive after all. Although once again tonight doesn't bode well for his survival if America was all that stood between Lithuania and the Hunters.]

Yeah I'm sure that's totally at the forefront of America's mind right now. [Polands giving England the bottle, if he wants to be a drunk mess Poland's sure not gonna stop him. It could be hilarious or at the very least totally blackmail worthy.]

Because the clues have done them a ruddy lot of good so far. I'm starting to wonder if it's not just some way for Critter to keep tormenting us, even in death.

It should be. This would have never happened if he wasn't such an idiot. [he realizes this makes no sense but goddammit he will find a way to blame America anyway]

Mmm... maybe.

But seeing as how the eighth role has not been revealed, the hunters are targeting the wrong person as the watcher, we have no idea what Hanekoma and Mayu are exactly, and we only have six hunters left alive except not really with Ada joining us momentarily?

I'll take like whatever options we have of winning available. Besides, I think they made a few strides clue wise today. At least when you keep in mind what we know as "wolves."

[Poland shrugs.] I guess. If he hadn't protected Lithuania from the Hunters last night he totally might have lived a little longer.

Mayu has to be a hunter. Critter confirmed that there were six left, even after losing Togami. Which leaves us at five and fifteen after this trial...and we still have a poisoning left that's now guaranteed to go through. We also should still have at least one gun. It'll be difficult, but it can be done.

[he glances at Poland...or in his general direction anyway] Hmm...you think this real game is about the prey figuring out what we hunters already know, then? I don't know if the clues are leading them in that direction, though.

Exactly. So it's his fault and Spain's fault. I'm gonna curse him for eternity.

[If that's true, Poland knew he liked Mayu for a reason.]

Three to one aren't the best odds. [Still not the worst odds either though.]

I mean it could be part of it. At the very least if they figure that out they won't be so zealous about lynching us at trials which would totally pro long things. At best maybe even turn things in our favor.

But leave Lithuania out of it, he's cursed enough as it is. [Poland gets the feeling saying "see you later" to Lithuania might have been a poor choice of words... if tonight goes how he thinks it will.]

They're what we started with, and now the town's down to less than half their special roles. Holden probably doesn't have long, but the rest may pull this off yet.

Let's hope they figure it out soon then, before it's too late. But I won't be holding my breath.

Don't worry, I'm fully aware that Lithuania couldn't help being saved. [he hesitates] Besides...a curse on him may be a waste of time in the end.

They're probably better off with Holden dead anyways. [How he survived this long Poland will never understand.]

Pssh. England, please. I'm an optimist, I'm aware that this clue thing is probably hopeless I'm just totally okay with continually being disappointed.

As for Liet? [Poland sighs. Lithuania's been living on borrowed time really.] Mm... Yeah. That might be just another disappointment.

Even if he wasn't a hunter, he'd probably get shot by one of the prey just for being a complete wanker of the highest order anyway.

[takes a swig of rum right out of the bottle] Continual disappointment seems to sum up this entire game quite nicely. I get the feeling that we'll be seeing every country in here sooner or later. What an embarrassment.

You guys were doing pretty good until you bit the big one. Now we're dropping like flies.

Pretty sure there's some lesson here about how we should have worked as a cohesive unit just to make sure at the very least we all survived. Something about teamwork and the power of friendship and world peace...

But wow like as if that was ever going to happen.

Rapunzel managing to find three of us was our death knell. You'd think killing the watcher would have evened the odds, but what a shock that this game was never meant to be fair.

If the prey are smart, they'll be doing what we should have done from the start and forming alliances with each other. Let's hope paranoia and selfishness runs as rampant among them as it did among us.

Mmm...

[No it's true. Even if he avoided the mess that exploded at England's execution, Poland knows he failed at least in part because he didn't know who or what advice to trust.

On a side that ostracized him from Lithuania and Ukraine and put him with complete strangers and England; he'd felt quite alone.

And leaving Poland entirely to his own devices was just never a good idea.]

It was really unfair Ciel got to keep her friends, when every other group got split up on different teams.

I'm jealous.

None of those three seem like they would care that much if they had been forced onto different sides though. The only ones who seemed like they had been genuinely close were Joshua and Hanekoma, and they started off the game against each other. I'll bet anything that's why they're all prey - Critter knew it couldn't torture them over the decision to kill their friends.

Maybe that's the true secret to winning - not caring. If we hadn't cared so much about protecting certain people or about our own survival rather than the survival of the hunters as a whole, perhaps the odds would be far more in our favor right now.

[Poland looks thoughtful for a moment.]

If Critter had said we needed to kill all the prey instead of just out numbering them, I'd of totally killed Lithuania in a heartbeat. And Ukraine.

I'd kill them by myself, no body else even had to come.

[He says it so casually you'd think he was talking about picking up some groceries or cleaning the toilet.]

Edited 2013-06-02 15:17 (UTC)

If I knew they were going to have to die anyway for us to win...America would have been our first target. No one would have suspected me then. [He says it coolly without hesitation as well; if the prey dying had been inevitable from the start, it would have been a kinder fate to spare them from being in this game.]

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