We’re too young to be critics, we won’t miss anything at all [W4, Thursday night]

[hydrokinetics]

[You know. Before their grave-digging adventures.

So anyway, Thursday sure was something. This whole week sure was something, and Percy's head is spinning and after returning Xion to where Xion needed to be, he'd sat outside of the hotel holding onto Annabeth's letter. The whole thing made his chest hurt, heart sick and broken all over again. And yet, strangely, it motivated him.

It gave him something to think about and it reminded him that he had things to bring up. There were two people in this stupid town that he truly trusted and it wasn't hard to flag either of them down. He suggested that they meet in Natalie's room later that evening (seeing how she currently didn't have a roommate) and went back to his room for some time.

By the time their meeting time arrives, Percy comes back to Natalie's room with a box under his arm and a piece of paper in-hand. He enters the room after knocking, looking up at his two companions. It didn't surprise him that Jason beat him there, seeing how he was taking time to gather things.]

So...before we say anything, can we just agree that pretty much everything is going to stay between us for right now?

Comments

[hydrokinetics]

[This is fine. This is totally, totally fine and his eyes are sharp on Jason to make sure he doesn't actually puke before they read the words on the paper. His gaze drops to his hands, staring at them almost as if they've personally betrayed them.

If there are copies of themselves from different universes down in the labyrinth...what about him? Is that why his powers don't work? Is he an incomplete copy of the real Perseus Jackson? Who is the real Perseus Jackson? The thought's chilling and he finds himself shivering a little even if it's not cold, a deep breath through his nose as he works to sort his thoughts.]

That's pretty relevant, I'd say. If there are alternate versions of us...you think that's what was in the graves, too? That's why your skeleton matched? [He almost wants to ask what people, but he knows better. Not when Jason looks like that. Instead, he does the leader thing and changes the subject for now.] This also raises the possibility that some of the people among us aren't the real deal, too. I don't want to consider what "some of us" would mean, but I'm wondering now.

[He's staring at his hands again.] ...so I found out a lot. I spoke with Hal and I spoke with some other people. Found out what the roles do. So we know what the Coal Miner does, and we know there's a second one somewhere. Hal told me there's eleven roles in this game. Two Coal Miners, one Deputy, one Doctor, the Madame and the Bartender that work together...and five Bounties. No idea what the Bounties do, but he told me about the rest. We know what the Coal Miners do, so I won't touch on that. The Doctor's our guy who's leaving stuff out for us. The camera, the bear trap, the dynamite? That's them. They can also revive at least one person who's died. If they want.

[So that's creepy.] Madame and Bartender work out of the saloon, they can investigate one of us each week and find out if that person has a role. They can also send messages to people each week. Like, anonymously. I don't know what that means but we could have at least four different notes flying around if they've sent one every week. And lastly is our Deputy. [And here he looks so, so angry.] The Deputy's the asshole who picks one person a week to put in jail to protect on Thursday nights, or in the stocks to make them more vulnerable. They're hunting the Bounties, too, but I didn't get an answer as to why.

[He narrows his gaze.] The stocks are chosen by the Deputy. However, the Deputy tells Hal, Hal tells the Bandits, and the Bandits decide if they're going to kill that person or not. I don't know who kills the Bandits if they don't kill, but I'm still gonna guess the Deputy. Hal also said--[And here his voice catches.]--he said that even if I'd stayed with Annabeth, she would have died. I wouldn't have been there when she died, the Bandits or whoever would have taken me out somewhere, maybe killed me, maybe not, just to make sure I wouldn't interfere. It's why I don't want anyone else staying out at the stocks anymore, it's a bad idea.

[He pauses to catch his breath, thinking about everything else he's heard this week. It's clear he's been pretty busy....] So. The locked-up buildings. We have to keep breaking into them. According to what I was told, the whole point of this town is to unlock mysteries. Doing this counts as merit, I bet, and if we unlock more of them we should be able to have more resources. I'm still not happy about the gunsmith since we pretty much just gave free access to a couple of murderers, but whatever. Sheriff mentioned it's something that has to be done.

...there's one last thing. [He takes another breath.] Turns out there is a way for us to win this game with more than one person left living. It's just kind of a complicated method. [With that, he settles to wait for them to process all of that, even while he's staring at Annabeth's letters again to try and decipher them.]

[robitussin]

[Before she responds to anything either of them have said, she looks towards Jason with some concern in her expression, noticing the way he pales. She knows this is a difficult thing to accept, even if she doesn't know exactly why he's so horrified.]

You gonna be okay...?

[Then Percy starts to speak, and she pays careful attention, making sure to take note of all the different roles and how they're meant to interact with each other.]

So... The Deputy is an asshole, the Coal Miner has no problem with killing people if the Sheriff tells them to, the Doctor might be an asshole given the fact that they gave us a bear trap and dynamite, the Bandits are a mixed bag because they change every week, the Madame and Bartender could be useful but might not be, and we don't know what the Bounties do. Awesome.

[The detail about anyone who stays at the stocks, though... God.]

Probably has to do with what he said about how we only see what we're meant to see. Which remind me... He already knows how this will end. He said he's, like, connected to this place? It didn't really make sense to me, but apparently it means he can see into the future of this round. Before you ask, he wouldn't tell me how it ends, and he wouldn't tell me which of us was going to die or when.

[She takes note of the part about breaking into the buildings with a frown, but it's the last thing Percy says that really catches her attention. She leans forward slightly, eyes widening.]

...Don't suppose he told you how?

[impulsiveness]

[He nods, though there's no attempt to clarify if he's saying yes to Percy's question about the skeletons or Natalie's question about his well-being. To settle his stomach, he listens carefully as Percy begins to share the information he managed to gather over the week, compiling and archiving it away for later. It's... a lot. And he's genuinely impressed, really. But the more they learn, the less it feels like they know.

For both of them, he writes:]

Anonymous letter. Like the one Manfred was holding when he died? [It didn't match anyone's handwriting, after all. Though the look on his face implies he doesn't buy that theory 100%; more of a thought than something he's convinced of.

... And he's not even going to touch the Deputy. Fuck the Deputy? Good to know he can feel zero remorse if that person gets killed off, considering they have the option to protect at least one person per week and don't. Bastard.

To Natalie:] Good to know even our FATES are already set in stone. What a load of bullshit. [And to Percy:] Complicated doesn't mean impossible. What's the method?

[hydrokinetics]

[He nods to Jason's question first.] I had that thought, too, but I'm not entirely sure. That would mean maybe they were hoping to lure him out to die. I don't know yet.

[Fuck the Deputy indeed? He mulls over what Natalie's said though, followed by what he knows, what he's lived through, and he breathes out a quiet "holy shit" under his breath.]

I think I can guess. Have you guys ever heard of the Labyrinth? Like, the one that was the prison for the minotaur. [He licks his lips.] Made by a guy named Daedalus, son of Athena. Daedalus made the Labyrinth originally because he was hired by King Minos to create an inescapable prison. That's why the Labyrinth is a huge maze. However, later, Minos had Daedalus and his son Icarus thrown into prison and that was where the pair decided to create wings to fly away. I'm sure you know the story of Icaraus, so I'm not going to touch it. With Daedalus's son dead, he went back to work little by little. Years later, he went to visit his nephew, Perdix. Now Perdix was a really smart kid. He had these plans, right? Plans for transferring a person's soul into an automaton. Statues or bronze figures, like robots sort of. Daedalus, being a son of Athena, he was like: "this is a stupid plan and it won't work? I'm smarter than you, why are you doing this?" But eventually his pride got the better of him, and he murdered his own nephew. Athena wasn't really happy with that and marked him as a murder for the rest of his life.

...Daedalus was kind of a bad person. He spent years hiding out in another king's palace and acted as a tutor for the princesses. Minos was still angry about his escape and decided to best him and bring him out of hiding by presenting him with a challenge. Again, being an Athena kid, Daedalus's pride got the better of him. Minos tracked him down, but the princesses killed Minos to protect their teacher. The problem was that Daedalus knew that King Minos would be waiting for him in the Underworld and after Minos died the guy was, like, appointed to be a judge in the Underworld. Daedalus knew he wouldn't receive a fair trial upon his death, so he went into hiding back in his original Labyrinth.

The thing about that Labyrinth is that it started growing and changing on its own. It grew all over in the ancient lands, and when Olympus moved west so did the Labyrinth. Daedalus was able to live to his old age...but using the notes from his nephew, he was able to create a new body for himself. An automaton.

The point of that story was that the guy was in his fifth body when Annabeth and I met him. Went by the name Quintus, he was acting as a spy for the Titan Army to see if our Camp was worth saving. He'd already accepted a deal from his employers to be a ruler in the Underworld so he could avoid Minos forever and get his family back. Sure, in the end he fought on our side and finally accepted death but there were some special circumstances around that. And when he died, the Labyrinth died because it was tied to his lifeforce.

[A frown.] He was Annabeth's half-brother. And he's who I got Mrs. O'Leary from. So. Think about this. We have a robot sheriff who says he's connected to this place and there's a giant labyrinth under us right now filled with a bunch of horrible things, including alternate universe versions of ourselves who have died before. What do you take away from all of that?

[And finally, he pulls a pen out of his pocket and begins marking up Annabeth's letter to puzzle things out.]

The method, by the way, is that we have to get it down to a number of people, the right people, who won't kill each other. Once we have a group that won't stab each other in the back no matter what and all murderous idea and intent is gone, we could, in theory, end the game. So, like I said, complicated.

[robitussin]

[She listens to all of Percy's story and thinks about it, too, frowning as she lets the implications of that sink in.]

...It does sound similar and I see what you're going for here, but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it's at least a little less horrifying than what you're implying, man. Jesus christ.

[But her tone of voice pretty clearly says that she doesn't hold much stock in the idea of anything here not being completely horrifying. Yikes. As for the second part of what he says... That's interesting, but she doesn't have much hope for it, either.]

So, us three, Xion, Yuna, and Papika. Well, maybe Papika. Papika is actually pretty violent when you stop and think about it. Those are still really bad odds.

[impulsiveness]

[... Well. Percy's story is not disturbing and creepy at all. His eyebrows furrow as he continues to listen, the nausea no less apparent than it was moments ago, but getting a shitload of information dropped on him helps more than he'd like to admit.

On the rulebook, he writes:]

If you're implying what I think you're implying, I'm going to hit the exit button on this line of conversation right now. Natalie's right: That's horrifying.

[Though, you know... When is the horrifying option not the most likely one? Murphy's Law is in full effect in the quaint, little town of Whole Ass. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. That's just how it is.]

I think Damian and Milla could be tacked onto that list. Odd's are still seriously fucked up, but they don't seem like the type to want the game to continue if given the choice.
Though, fyi: Not saying we should place our bets on waiting for the right combination of people. There HAS to be a better way than letting everyone else drop dead.

[hydrokinetics]

[A shrug. Yes, yes, he knows it's horrifying. He doesn't like it either.]

I've been thinking about it since Natalie told us what's under the town. I've been in that Labyrinth and it's just about as awful as you'd think. I don't think it's exactly the same, but the similarities bother me too much.

I agree with Jason, too. Damian and Milla are on that list, but...I don't know about Yuna. [He looks a little guilty about that, too.] I don't want her to get hurt, but I also don't know if her judgment is clear enough yet not to let other people get hurt. [It's a real sign of trust that he says this, the way he lets his guard drop and his insecurities seep through.] ...I wanted to put the bear trap out or lock it in a cell. She decided it would be better to hide it in her room so nobody could get hurt. Hal told me that trap was supposed to be used to stop coyotes or stop a murderer. [In other news. Annabeth may still be alive, otherwise.] But if you guys trust her, I have to, too.

We're not going to wait around for the right combination. There's something much bigger we're missing that makes it easier to end the round early, but what are we supposed to do? It's going to take finding the people that have roles and figuring it out from there.

[robitussin]

I get wanting to hit the exit button on this conversation, but... [A glance towards Jason, even if she's responding to Percy.] If that were true, where would we go from there? That's important to figure out before we say fuck it and move on, probably.

[She shakes her head, though. She doesn't agree with everything they've said next.]

If the criteria is that there's no chance the remaining players would kill each other... I'm not sure if Milla would be on that list. I'm not saying she isn't a good person, don't get me wrong, but I get the feeling that if she really thought it was for the greater good, she would be willing to kill someone here. We don't really know what they offer the bandits to goad them into murder, so... I don't know.

[A soft sigh. She hates saying that.]

As for Yuna... Is the criteria that they wouldn't hurt anyone themselves, or that they wouldn't let anyone to get hurt through negligence or something? Because if it's the second, I would agree with you, definitely. Either way - do you have any ideas as to how to figure out who exactly has a role here?