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

[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.]

[thatsthespirit]

Honestly, I don't think so.

[HA. . . it isn't that she doesn't have faith in Damian, it's just. she knows how he feels about murder]

But that's why we're trying to think of ways to end this game without killing the Deputy. Either way, I don't think it's wise to target him as a Bandit kill before we come up with an alternative solution.

[hydrokinetics]

Especially if he somehow turns out to not be the guy we're looking for. If that happens, there goes our actual medical doctor. We still have a lot of territory to explore, too.

[thatsthespirit]

Yes, precisely.

[she brushes a hand over her ribs. still bruised, yep. her arms are also still bandaged]

We may be wary of him now, but none of us can deny that he's done us all a great service. Regardless of his true motives.

[hydrokinetics]

I think what we should probably do is just keep an eye on him, try to talk to him as if nothing's changed. Kind of what we were planning with Xion. Dr. Lecter is still helping us for some reason and it's hard to not be grateful for that.

But that also means being able to act cool. Can we all do that?

[impulsiveness]

Then even if it isn't Dr. Lecter, what SHOULD we do if we end up finding the Deputy?
Damian won't kill them. Everyone in this room knows that. But they'll keep placing people in the stocks as long as they're active.

[S...o........ What is the point of keeping the Deputy alive if they know Damian doesn't have the guts?]

[thatsthespirit]

But if the Deputy is killed, and we still don't have an alternative, then we may be forced to continue playing this game until there is only one person left.

I don't want to fight against anyone in this group.

[plz let's not make this a game of "who is the last one standing"]

[robitussin]

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

[thatsthespirit]

[she opens one eye and nods]

I don't think Damian will kill him, if I'm going to be frank. So that leaves us with finding alternative solutions.

Unless the Sheriff can confirm that a regular Bandit killing the Deputy ends the game, I think we need to be careful about singling him out as a target.

[she just doesn't want to gut their chances of ending this game before it reaches the "last one standing" point]

[insincerely]

Doubt it. I asked the Sheriff before what would happen if the Bounty Leader died, and his answer was something like "guess you gotta kill your way down to one then."

[thatsthespirit]

That's what I thought.

And I'd rather we not have to fight among ourselves to be the last individual standing.

[robitussin]

You told me in the last meeting that we would need him either way to find those solutions, didn't you?

[A sigh.]

If we have a lead we're not following, we're putting him at risk. Even if I revive him once, I don't think there's anything stopping them from killing him again if they know who he is.

[thatsthespirit]

Yes, that's right. I had hoped in the beginning that the Deputy would be willing to work with us for a peaceful solution, but--

[she isn't quite sure if that's viable anymore?? they'll have to. . . see. . .]

And while that's true, if Damian is killed by the Deputy then the individual in that role has succeeded in outing themselves. We can then plan an appropriate retaliatory measure.

[although she'd. prefer. Damian. not die, tbh]

[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!!]

[elemancy]

[tough shit or you're gonna be a shinnosuke sandwich with percy and noct as the friendship bread slices.]

[insincerely]

[stop bullying him???]

[elemancy]

[no!!!]

[robitussin]

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

[insincerely]

Yeah, no problem.

Though aside from working towards an actual solution, I'm also hoping to see if she suspects anyone in this group.