graveyard part 3

[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

[notyetlost]

[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.]

[tsunneverset]

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.

[notyetlost]

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.

[tsunneverset]

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.

[notyetlost]

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.

[tsunneverset]

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.

[notyetlost]

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.

[tsunneverset]

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.

[notyetlost]

[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.]

[tsunneverset]

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.]

[motheringnation]

[Ukraine was sitting off to the side and almost chokes on her drink when she hears that.]

[However she just calms herself down and goes over to locate Poland.

And slaps him.]

[notyetlost]

OW!

[Ukraine didn't even set him up to take that gracefully, Poland clamps on to his stinging cheek trying very hard to blink back a tear.]

[motheringnation]

[In Ukrainian because yeah hey England. Ukraine meanwhile is trying to keep back tears as well.]

How can you say that so casually? I thought we were your friends.

At least sound like you'd be sad if you had to kill us.

[notyetlost]

[Poland is loathe to speak in Ukrainian after getting slapped across the face after Ukraine promised she wasn't going to hit him. Let alone the total hypocrisy of the situation. But too many people speak Polish here for there to be any privacy.

Have some Lithuanian.]

Don't twist it around like that, you are my friends--best friends. The fact that you died does make me sad! But you're telling me you totally wouldn't do the same thing? If I hadn't died the way I did and survived with you till the end you weren't going to kill me?

You were the watcher. You would have figured out what I was eventually and you would have killed me just like all the other wolves.

[motheringnation]

[Stays in Ukrainian but lowers her hand again. Just ignoring her tears now, go away tears.]

That doesn't mean I'd have been casual about it! You know we'd all kill each other if we had to, to survive, I know that. .....but you say it like it's nothing!

[notyetlost]

Excuse you, I've been dead for a week! You weren't here to greet me when I died, you don't know how I felt or how hard it was to be here all alone. Not that I expect you to pity me or whatever, I'm a wolf.

But now I have to sit here listening to how much you hate people just because they're hunters and how much you wish they'd all just die-- You just died I get it. Let it out. I can take it.

But don't tell me how I'm feeling about stuff just because I'm not sitting here moping!

[motheringnation]

The only reason I want them to die is so this stupid game can end!

[But at that she just deflates because from what she can hear from the hunters, they want that too...in some strange, everyone else has to die way that she doesn't even think she wants to understand. Instead she wipes her eyes.]

No....you're right. I.... just don't understand this and ...everything ...and I'm sorry.

...I said I wouldn't hit you either didn't I. ....I'm sorry Poland....that was horrible of me.

1/2

[notyetlost]

And I was one of them, so congratulations you totally might get your wish!

[Poland's angry and aggravated and frustrated. He doesn't want Ukraine to feel sorry for him, but he's not going to let her stomp all over him either just because he's not as big of an emotional mess as he was when he first died. The fact that he kept bursting into tears about everything little thing earlier in the week was embarrassing enough.]

2/2

[notyetlost]

[And... then Ukraine had to go and apologize. Really there's nothing more Poland wants to do but cry for losing his temper and yelling at her.

Who wouldn't get mad at him for saying what he said. She'd died because of his "team" and it'd only been a day.]

... U-ukraina.

[motheringnation]

I'm sorry.

[Just sad and emotionless at the same time.]

I don't want to fight with you. I don't care what "side" you're on. It doesn't really matter anyway. We're already dead.

[notyetlost]

[Poland's shoulders fall, he feels like he's being crushed under the weight of everything again. He switches to Ukrainian instead of making an apology.] Shut u-- S-stop. Just stop. I shouldn't have said that, it was--[True.]--mean. I wasn't thinking.

[People keep saying that it doesn't matter, but if it didn't matter why would Critter still insist that Poland couldn't tell Ukraine why he'd played? When people died and were brought back they didn't remember anything that happened in the graveyard. There wasn't any risk that they would skew the game. So why? Was it his penance or his punishment? Was it just to further entertain Critter?

Was it even worth keeping anymore with the Hunter's odds as bad as they were when the game started? Or trying to get Lithuania to understand clues to a whole other game even Poland didn't understand?]

No. It matters. It totally has to matter... [There's none of Poland's usual confidence or optimism behind the words. With Ukraine here and Lithuania possibly joining them soon, it's becoming desperation.]

[motheringnation]

[Ukraine has been close to utter defeat many times in her past, but it seems like this might have just thrown her over the edge.]

Why does it matter? We can't do anything about it any more. We're stuck here and powerless.

[Just....nope, she's gone.]

I just want the game to be over, one way or another. So....we can find out what happens to us after.

[notyetlost]

It matters because I totally said it matters! That should mean something if you really don't care about sides.

And there's stuff we can do, we can send clues and try to help. It's not the same as playing, but we're only powerless if we want to be powerless.

"Shche ne vmerla Ukraina."

Since when do you just give up?

[motheringnation]

[She goes stiff at that. It's funny how being dead breaks her more then being killed does. But that...that is just as effective as a slap in the face. Probably more so.]

[A moment later, she no longer looks broken.]

I don't.

1/2

[notyetlost]

[Poland can't help the smile that cracks on his face when Ukraine says that, he stands up straight again.]

That's right. You don't.