gamehead | graveyard part five

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.

(The graveyard so far)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mmm...

[Robin just muses for a moment, sighing.]

I suppose we can ask him what he thought he could do when he's here tomorrow.

If he can peel himself off of the ground by the time people are done punching him for his arrogance.

I still don't see the necessity of it, but as this may be our last bit of existence, I can't say I disapprove of something that would comfort them.

[She's still musing over that thought she brought up to Kanaya. It's almost too much to hope...]

We may as well get our last kicks in, yes? [a shrug! he offered to rip an arm off but he's also perfectly fine with sitting back and watching a good show. it's not like they have anything else to do...]

Anyway, they had better stop wallowing and start thinking. The clock's ticking again.

Might as well.

[Ug. Don't mind her frustrated groan.]

It's almost torture in itself to watch and know we can't do anything more to help them.

Isn't it just? [his nose wrinkles and he props his chin up.] I don't care who wins anymore at this point, to be honest. Joshua was right. [even if the "prey" isn't victorious, they can consider it a victory that they discovered the last of the hunters. the rest of this is just rubbish.]

I do hope they won't be trying to give Sharon more time by dropping dead at trials now. That beast said itself that buying time isn't what they should be doing, anyway. ...Not that anything it says can be taken at face value.

I still hold out hope that if one side must win, the hunters are the ones who do.

[Sigh.]

But then what is? Voting for yourself to try something selfless wasn't it. Must everyone abstain completely?

That's all well and good but I don't want to be stuck in this godforsaken cabin for the two or three days it will take her to pull off a victory. You do realize that the creature was likely lying to all of us and rabbit or wolf victory will end in mass death regardless of any promises made, yes?

[he waves a hand] I doubt that's it. It says none of them are playing right, so the true answer may have nothing to do with voting at all.

Yes, I'm aware of that. But its kept to its rules at least decently well, and I find hoping a better alternative to accepting we're all going to disappear for good no matter what.

Then what is it?

[a shrug; he won't argue with her first point even if he thoroughly disagrees with it.]

The common consensus seems to be that Critter is waiting for us to learn a lesson. I'm not entirely sold on that, but what would the lesson be if that were the case, and how could it be presented?

I think it's important to consider the things that have genuinely angered the creature as well. Lithuania's outburst comes to mind first. I don't know how many people caught it, but it also got quite a reaction when I asked it if the wolves or the rabbits were hunters. [his nose wrinkles as he recalls the brief conversation.]

It claimed it didn't like me after that and refused to speak to me again, and considering it gave me Elliot Nightray's role because it liked me, I must have hit quite a sore spot. How do those tie together with our clues, though - especially the last and most blatant one that Joshua's cellphone unlocked? That's assuming we can trust the clues at all, of course.

[He can believe anything he wants. But if Robin falls to no longer hoping she might just disappear again, this time for good.]

Lithuania was a rabbit who shot a rabbit, wasn't he?

[She listens to that, though. Hmm...]

Then I would say that alone might make it obvious the wolves and the hunters are not one in the same, wouldn't it? If they were, why not just say that?

As for trusting the clues... I think it would be best to assume they're real, at least for now. If they aren't, then we've done all this for nothing and we have no information to go on.

Correct, and he was labeled a human for doing so. This is a game that it says is good for humans to play, yes? As there are plenty of non-humans here such as myself and Kanaya, clearly it isn't biology that the beast is using as a guideline.

What, then, is something that we all possess that would put us into the same category? I believe the hamster child was on the right path with his guessing. What differentiates us from the animals Critter so loves? The need to avenge ourselves, for one. Needing a motivator to kill, perhaps. [a sour face. he shifts so he's propping his chin up with both hands now.] At any rate, I'm inclined to believe that we're aiming for the wrong hunter by targeting the wolves, but wolf victory will be a loss for us all as well. If the true game hasn't been won yet as Critter claims, the answer can't lie in wolf, rabbit or vulture victory.

[Hmm...]

That seems to fit perfectly, in fact.

[She unfortunately has no input on it, though, and just sighs.]

What is that true game? What does it want proved to it?

[SADLY he's about as stumped as she is. much less worried about it, but stumped nonetheless.]

I haven't the faintest. Perhaps it wants acceptance? The entire game we've been forcing the blame on each other or Critter but in the end, nothing has really made us play other than our own morals, incentives and motivations. Critter provided that, certainly, but it didn't make us play the game.

graveyard part five

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject