night one; hunters

[gamehead]

Through the night, the wind howls and a blizzard rages, but everyone is safe and warm locked inside their cabins. Everyone, that is, except you. At 11 PM precisely, the door from your bedroom to the outside world creaks open. If you were sleeping, you will find yourself stir to the sound.

Outside, despite the sounds of a blizzard and the whiteout blocking the views from your window, the world is still and calm. The ground and trees are blanketed in thick snow, but no snow is falling and the wind is no longer blowing.

You find yourself drawn out into the snow, unable to feel tired or cold despite the freezing temperature and the late hour. It is impossible to resist the call you feel to journey out into the dark woods, past the old graveyard, to where the trees meet the cliffs and caves at the edge of the mountains.

Here, you and fourteen others gather. There is a feeling in the air as though you are being watched, but besides the other visitors, you're all alone. For now, you don't know what has brought you here, but you can't bring yourselves to leave.

((OOC: Just a note on how threads with Critter will work! There will be several 'stages' to Critter's explanations, which I'll be accomplishing by posting various subthreads. You can tag into any stage assuming your character has heard the rest, or you can tag earlier on and we can thread until you reach the next stage.

So, for example, in Critter's arrival, when you reach the point of needing to know the rules, your conversation progresses to the next subthread directly below the arrival. You can then reply to that subthread to continue the conversation if you want. I may stall on replying to you if your reply is getting to a subthread I don't want to post quite so quickly.

I know this is confusing, but this is so I can thread with all of you as much as you want without having to get into weird thread orders and so everyone hears all the relevant info.))

Comments

[gamehead]

Fine, fine. I'll show you.

[Critter laughs and looks up towards the sky. There is a bird flying overhead...An owl.

The owl swoops in to land near Hermione. She will recognize it as Hedwig.]

[liberatio]

[It's really difficult to look stubborn when Critter says things like that. Even more difficult when Hedwig appears. She's seen her since she died-- thanks to Mayfield, but this just leaves her uneasy as she turns to glare at the creature.]

People are different. Even if this is the same owl it's just as likely it's a similar looking one to confuse me.

[A breath.] Why is this game so important to you? What do Harry or Ron have to do with anything?

[gamehead]

Hermione, you're really making trouble for me.

I brought Hedwig because I'm not going to hurt her. Why would I hurt an owl?

If I bring a person here just to prove I can, they will die. Is that what you want? I'll bring Harry, or Ron, or your parents if you really want.

[liberatio]

Considering how keen you are to hurt people, who am I to say you won't hurt her?

[She tries to look stubborn but just looks uneasy.] Why would they die? What's the purpose in this? You're calling it a game but all it is is murder.

[gamehead]

I only hurt prey. Hedwig eats mice. Is that murder?

But them...it would be to help you understand your role. I'm not taking any more of this. Do you want me to kill them, or no?

[liberatio]

What you're doing is murder. Lives aren't some game.

[She frowns.] I don't want you to kill anyone. Nor do I want to kill anyone.

[gamehead]

Watch.