dumb fish child (
hydrokinetics) wrote2017-01-29 07:54 pm
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Wait for the dust to settle down around us, and stick to what we know [Sunday Night, W2 going W3]
[Sometimes Percy wishes that he lived a normal life. Sometimes he daydreams about what it'd be like if his world didn't have to deal with danger, if he could be blissfully unaware of the monsters in the world, if he could just be happy and unimportant, a boy with a brand new driver's license, a mountain of homework, and plans for a good date night with the best girl in the world while juggling SAT prep for college.
Instead, he has none of that and in a way he wonders if he has the advantage. The things here don't scare him as much as they would other people, he thinks, (though he's affected even so) and it helps him to keep his cool during moments like this morning's execution.
Truthfully, if he was normal, he's fairly sure he might scream and never stop.
As such, it's easy for him to gather his bearings after the Sheriff's warning and it's almost instinct now that he seeks out Natalie and tells her to meet him that evening. He's aware that privacy is hard to come by in this place, but he figures most people won't be out right now. It's why he waits in front of the general store and raises a hand in greeting, giving her a quizzical look.]
How good are you at climbing?
Instead, he has none of that and in a way he wonders if he has the advantage. The things here don't scare him as much as they would other people, he thinks, (though he's affected even so) and it helps him to keep his cool during moments like this morning's execution.
Truthfully, if he was normal, he's fairly sure he might scream and never stop.
As such, it's easy for him to gather his bearings after the Sheriff's warning and it's almost instinct now that he seeks out Natalie and tells her to meet him that evening. He's aware that privacy is hard to come by in this place, but he figures most people won't be out right now. It's why he waits in front of the general store and raises a hand in greeting, giving her a quizzical look.]
How good are you at climbing?
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Normally she looks away when someone is actually about to be killed, and she can't get the sight of the quickly spreading blood out of her mind; the looks on everyone's faces in the moment after it happened linger there, too.
So, when Percy asks her to meet with him, it's not something she's about to resist. She needs a distraction. She heads to the general store at the appointed time, giving him a nod as he raises his hand in greeting. When the question comes, though, she raises her eyebrow slightly, tilting her head.]
Fairly good. Why, what are we climbing?
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He nods toward the roof then.]
The support beams and the edge of the saloon to get up to the roof. It's not hard, I did it earlier this week. But then again I spend my summers tackling a lava climbing wall.
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[She'll be fine, probably. She glances at the roof.]
That's one way to get some privacy, I guess. You want to start?
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I wish I could say this was my idea, but I saw a friend do it earlier this week. Didn't seem like a bad idea.
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[Once he's up, she starts herself; she isn't as athletic as he is by far, so it takes her longer, but she does make it eventually. She takes a seat next to where he's parked himself.]
So. What's new?
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[He doesn't mind her taking it slower, and by the time she makes it up to the roof he's leaning back on his hands and staring out across the road to another building.]
Tell me you didn't know anything about the bandits before this week and that you're just as surprised as me.
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[She bites her lip and shakes her head.]
I would've told you if I did. I've told you basically everything else that I've found out.
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Why do you think I called you here? I was serious when I said it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep touching base as this game keeps going. [He chews the inside of his cheek for a moment.] While we were trying to figure out the executioner vote, I went outside and talked to the Sheriff about the bandit role to figure out if there's a way around it. For once he was surprisingly helpful.
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[She turns to him in surprise, because... The Sheriff was helpful, that's a first.]
What did he tell you?
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[But anyway.]
He gave me a summary of what to expect and how to expect it. Bandits are going to change each week, but it's still possible we could get somebody acting as a bandit twice. Means that whoever got away today could easily do this all over again. [A beat.] He also said that they could say no, but there's a failsafe in place. What does that sound like to you?
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[She tilts her head back, thinking.]
Sounds like... Oh, this is probably a good time to say that he told me how many roles there are and all of their names. So, I'm wondering if his failsafe is another person he picked out whose role is to kill if nobody else does. That's the only thing I can think of, unless part of his job is to do that, which I doubt.
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Are you kidding? When did he tell you that?
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[Quickly, and then she holds up a hand, listing them off.]
So. Two Bandits, which he made sure to specify was a weekly role, which means I'm assuming these others go for this entire thing, not just a week. Those are Doctor, Madame, Bartender, Deputy, and Coal Miner. I have no clue what any of them are, but there you have it. If they're each one person, five people total.
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Nice to see he's sticking with a theme here. [A pensive noise follows.] I think we can probably guess what some of them do but not all of them. I mean...Madame? I think you're right though, since he specified it was weekly I don't think the others are. So we have...38 people left. Of those, we have a potential of five of them having a role in this game which is...one-seventh? Or something, I don't know, Annabeth usually does calculations.
Let's take that a step further. You think maybe all of the roles are failsafes for each other to make sure nobody's slacking off in the game?
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[A nod, thinking.]
He said roles were to help and to hurt... We can probably guess that Deputy and Doctor are some of the helpful ones, and obviously Bandits are the one of the ones that are supposed to hurt. I guess they could all be there for checks and balances. It would throw a wrench in things if one part of this shitshow just stopped happening, right?
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I don't know if I'd say "deputy" helps though. Aren't deputies like the guys under the people in charge? What if they're working directly for the Sheriff? But a doctor can't be bad.
The other thing is that all of those roles match up with locations in this town. Except for "Madame" unless they mean, like, one of the boarded up buildings. [He drums his fingers on the rooftop.] There's also the worst case scenario that they're just like the bandits and there's actually two of each. But that bumps us up to ten people. That seems a little risky even for the Sheriff, but it's not like he's playing by good rules anyway.
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[That's an interesting thought, and she's still thinking it over as she speaks.]
Yeah, fair. I was considering the whole 'law enforcement is usually good' thing, but considering the law enforcement we have here, not to mention the laws themselves... Maybe a deputy would be an asshole too. Sucks.
But madame is what they called the manager of a brothel, right? It wouldn't really surprise me if one of the boarded up buildings was modeled after one. It would fit the theme. [Anyways.] He mentioned specifically that there were two Bandits, too, so I think all the others must be one person.
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[He was doing fine, but then Natalie mentions a brothel and he suddenly seems a little embarrassed, ignoring the way he almost-blushes and looking away from her. He's too pure for this.] It wouldn't surprise me either. There's what, six buildings we don't know? What else could fit into a wild west theme that we don't have yet? [But.] That logic makes sense. It's weird what information he's forthcoming about and what information he tells us we don't get to have. Like the ability to look at Manfred's body this weekend.
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[And then she laughs again, a bit harder this time, when she catches his expression.]
Oh my god, you're such a teenage boy. I'm not an expert on wild west stuff, though, so I don't really know what other kind of buildings they might have designed. [And then a shrug.] It's not too hard to get answers if you can convince him you've earned them. That's how I got the names of the roles.
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[He glares though because leave him alone, he knows he's a teenage boy.] I think he's nicer to girls than he is to other people, but at least he didn't yell at me this week. He gave me a lot of information during the trial like what counts as a murder and who we can vote for. [A pause.] Asked him about that camera, too.
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[She rolls her eyes.]
Please, I'm more of an asshole than at least half of the guys here. If he was nicer to girls, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't get that benefit. [But, huh.] What'd he say about the camera?
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[Real pleasant, Percy. But at the same time he narrows his eyes slightly.] That's probably why I like talking to you. [He's used to speaking asshole, apparently. His girlfriend's brutal when she feels like it, he gets along with Natalie and Jason...yeah, makes sense.] I asked him if the camera counted as the whole "see what you're only meant to see" and he said that's just part of it, more or less. Makes me think more stuff like that is going to come up in the next couple of weeks.
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You like talking to me because I'm an asshole. Charming. [She sounds more amused than she does offended, though.] More stuff like that as in more randomly appearing technology, or more weird shit seen on the cameras?
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[Stop embarrassing him? Stop this?] Look, you know what I meant. [But the amusement helps and he looks up at her again.] I'm guessing the former. He called it a facet and not the whole thing. Besides it was too good to be true, having a camera with all of the right information on it. [...] Do we know if Xion still has it?
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[It could be good to have a place where they can all weigh in on what's happening and what to do.]
Do I? Do I, really? [Yes, she does.] It'd be great if it would actually show us anything useful for once... I think she probably does, yeah. She doesn't seem the type to leave something that important alone for long.
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[He rolls his eyes, even using the toe of his sneaker to nudge at her foot. Stop that.] It won't. That's not our own merit, so I bet it won't. As for Xion...I'm worried about her. Is that weird?
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[But this totally doesn't count as forming a team, nope.]
Of course it's not weird. Someone should be worried about her, honestly. You know what she told me when I went to talk to her about how she basically offered to get murdered?
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[It does. Embrace it. Percy's pretty pleased, honestly. But that next question is a little alarming, so he raises an eyebrow.] No. I didn't even know you talked to her about it.
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[She nods, then sighs and runs a hand through her hair.]
She gave me this big thing about how she isn't supposed to exist and she's not real, so it doesn't matter if anything happens to her. Obviously don't tell her I told you this, but that sure happened.
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[That's. Probably a joke. But he's quiet then and he looks oddly pensive as he takes in those words.]
Not supposed to exist like...she's dead already? [That's depressing.] I'm not going to tell her that, don't worry, but what does that even mean "she's not real"? I've met plenty of ghosts and monsters before and she looks pretty real from where I'm sitting.
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[Yuna is too pure for these talks, probably.]
She said she wasn't human, that someone made her to act as a weapon... I don't know. I didn't want to press too much, she was getting pretty upset.
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I'd probably get upset talking about something like that, too. But I guess that explains why she's never had a birthday party before. This just adds to the mystery of "why are we here?" Us specifically. Sheriff says it's nothing special but I still don't know if I believe him. Not after everything I've been learning.
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[She doesn't want them to be any more distressed than they already are.]
Yeah, no, there's no way this is random. I don't think one single person here has lived a normal life. There had to be some thought put into it.
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[But...he lets that go.] Sheriff tried to tell me otherwise, but I think he's probably full of shit. As usual. [He sneaks a peek at her then.] So...that includes you, too? Not normal?
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[She runs a hand through her hair. She hates kids being here too, hates knowing that something could happen to any of them at any point, and there would be nothing she could do.]
Yeah, nothing new about the whole full of shit thing. [She glances towards him for a moment, then looks away with a shrug.] I guess.
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But they're definitely assholes. Who thinks it's a great idea to bring a bunch of kids and people who can't even fight? [It still pisses him off. But he cools down a little and gives her another intrigued look.] You guess? Doesn't sound entirely sure, you know.
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A conduit? Did he explain anything more about what form that might take?
Someone who's looking to spice the competition up, I guess. It wouldn't be as interesting if it were just adults who knew how to defend themselves. [His look only earns him another shrug.] It's harder to think of yourself as weird when you're talking to a demigod, you know.
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There're plenty of ways to make this way more interesting than bringing in junior high school girls. You'd think it'd be more interesting since it'd be evenly matched. But it just proves they're cheaters, too. [And from that he goes quiet again before looking up at the sky.] Maybe I shouldn't have told you that part. It's been a while since I told any mortal and the ones I did are kind of involved anyway.
But try me anyway. If you want.
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[She didn't think they would be able to have any sort of contact with the people who brought them here, so she's curious to hear his answer.]
Yeah, they suck in basically every way. [She shakes her head.] Nah. I'm glad you told me. My puny mortal brain can take it, promise.
[She casts him a sidelong glance for a long moment before shaking her head.]
Nah, you still got a ways to go before you unlock my tragic backstory.
[Her voice is light and teasing again, though, far from serious.]
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So anyway, if we're going with that, his employers could show up to more or less possess one of us and deliver information.
[If they were sitting in the grass, this is where he'd be mature and throw dirt at her. Instead, he rolls his eyes.] Give me a break, Goodman. [The true sign of camaraderie. Last name usage.] I'm not saying I'm going to work until I unlock it, but...[A shrug.] You've listened to all of my craziness. Figured it's only fair to leave the offer open.
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[That idea is too strange for her to even think about.]
I look forward to seeing you try to convince me to do that. It won't be easy, man.
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[That's probably not meant to be vaguely insulting.] After everything I'd told you about my life, you think I'm used to anything being easy? Even my own girlfriend won't let me catch a break.
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[She respects it.]
Guess we'll see who's more stubborn in the end.
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...stubbornness at least will help us stay alive while we figure out what's going on. I've been talking theories with someone and the whole thing makes my head hurt but it makes some sort of sense considering we're all here. It just involves multiple timelines.