Let's end this spiral down, pick ourselves off the ground [W5, Sunday]

[hydrokinetics]

[It's early evening when the Bounty group gathers again. There's more to discuss now that they've had time to cope and pick themselves up again, ready to get back to work. Time is still marching on and it's nothing that they can waste.

Together again, they settle. The room is quiet for a time as they all gather their thoughts. With everything that came up this weekend? They need a new plan of action.]

Comments

[impulsiveness]

[The room will remain quiet because, hah, it's Jason "speaking up" here. But he carefully writes something down to show the group.]

We know now that both the Bounties and the Doctor are eligible as Bandits. Revealing you've been chosen as a Bandit before and during the trial is a death sentence, too.

[And, boy. That makes him feel ill. But there's something else written on the page.]

We need to come up with a game plan. What will we do if one of us gets picked?
And don't suggest dying. That's stupid and won't help us beat the game.

[robitussin]

...What about Hannibal?

[She bites her lip.]

Now that the Madame isn't here to investigate him.

[hydrokinetics]

[He's tucked up in a corner of the room with his eyes on a sheet of paper, pen occasionally scrawling something and stopping again.]

...one of us is going to have to do it. I don't know how, but we have to pick up the slack now that both our Madame and Bartender are knocked out of the game.

But Jason's right. We should figure out something about the Bandit situation, too.

[robitussin]

No, I mean... If one of us gets chosen, what if that person agrees to target him?

[thatsthespirit]

[her body is still on the verge of giving out on her, and so she's sitting down in a chair with her eyes closed and her hands in her lap. she is, however, fully awake and listening]

If Dr. Lecter is the Deputy, then the Bounty Leader is the one who needs to kill him to end the game. Remember?

If one of us targeted him instead, then we'd be removing the only certain win condition from the game board.

[insincerely]

... Is our little leader here even capable of doing that?

[Damian Wayne has been, uh, very vocal.]

[robitussin]

Right, but that brings us right back to whether he actually will or not before they find him and kill him.

[insincerely]

[Shinnosuke's back to standing at a distance until someone drags him closer again, yep.]

I... sort of brought Dr. Lecter up with Xion. I don't think she realizes I suspect him for any real reason, but anyway, on Monday she and I are planning on making a list. Going through every person in the town and determining what ways they might be problematic for the possible end goal where "no one is willing to kill each other", etc.

If she knows anything about him, she might bring it up then.

[elemancy]

[get tf over here, punk.]

[insincerely]

[no!!]

[robitussin]

Any chance I can get that list from you when you're done with it?

[elemancy]

It's not like we have a lot of options.

[to do that without dying.]

We can try to come up with something, but... I think we need to prepare for the worst, too.

[when it comes to them being eligible as bandits and what it means, that's... important.]

[hydrokinetics]

And what exactly is the worst at this point? [Like he's aware but he's afraid to say it.]

[elemancy]

What Jason's telling us not to say.

[but listen? okay?]

[hydrokinetics]

Noctis...[No???] We can't lose any of us. We have to find another option.

[impulsiveness]

[gently




bops him in the head with his notebook. stop.]

[thatsthespirit]

[TRUST EXERCISES TIME]

Regardless of what we decide to do, I think it's important to maintain the bonds of trust between us.

. . . thus, while I agree that we should all do our best to stay alive, I think we should tell each other if we were chosen as a Bandit at the conclusion of the trial.

[elemancy]

Yeah. That's definitely part of my plan. Now's not the time for us to keep any secrets from each other though, if we can help it.

[thatsthespirit]

I agree.

[she's not usually a secretive person to begin with, her shady movements as a Bounty aside]

I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly felt a twinge of doubt when the Sheriff revealed a non-Deputy and non-Coal Miner role was responsible for one of the Bandit kills this past week.

[elemancy]

I... yeah.

[he was a bit concerned, but only a bit.]

But that doesn't really solve the problem of what to do. Not completely.

[though milla probably already has an idea of what noct is thinking and may suggest for a worst case scenario.]

[insincerely]

[uggggh spilling his own secrets goes against every instinct he has but]

... I'm already shady as it is, so yeah, I guess I've got to confess afterwards if I don't want to be suspected, huh?

[thatsthespirit]

I'd prefer it.

[she opens her eyes and gives him a crooked sort of smile]

I think everyone else here would as well. We have to continue trusting each other, regardless of what happens.

[robitussin]

...Okay, but do we know that confessing even if it's not at the trial won't make us end up like Sara?

[thatsthespirit]

When the Sheriff told us that it was against the rules to confess to the crime before the trial was over, he also stated that we could confess to it later, if we wished.

[robitussin]

[She nods.]

Then, yeah, you're right. We should tell each other.