Ludum de Morte

[Never_this_again]

Yuu did not pay any attention to the argument between the others. When two of them got up, apparently to search the mansion for a exit, he was partly thankful for it, as it meant less stupidity in the dining room. There was still much left, but nevermind. When they were away, another boy had taken seat at the table and a girl demanded them to be more serious, he finally had to share his opinion: "How on earth can you guys be so stupid. To think that somebody who was able to kidnap so many people in a single night without anyone noticing would leave any chance whatsover for us to leave this place without playing the game?" 

 

He made a small, dramatical break before going on, this time, facing one of the girls opposite to him: "You say nobody is going to kill anybody, but you would be surprised how far people go in moments of imminent danger. Victims of plane crashes often resorted to cannibalism. It just needs one of us loosing his nerves to start a bloodbath. And it will happen, I am pretty sure that the game master has some stuff up his sleeve to force us to kill."

 

"Like, gift us weapons," he waved a hand over the untouchable breakfast, "take away the food, award the first killer with a price money. That guy is smart. Maybe smarter than all of us, except me of course. He wouldn't play this game, if he wasn't sure he would win."

[Draconus297]

Aaron was annoyed when someone oh-so-rudely bumped into him, but quickly shrugged it off- there were bigger problems to deal with, like the issue of getting out of this gilded cage.

 

Aaron was interrupted yet again, this time by someone who could apparently speak English. "Hm? Yes, I am indeed American," he replied in English. "Why do you ask?" He considered the comment about his eyes for a while. "Thank . . . you . . . I suppose. Look, I sincerely apologize, but unless you have something important to say, can it wait? I'm a little preoccupied at the moment. I happen to be trying to find an alternative to this . . . murder business."

 

As he reached the wooden door, Aaron's expectations were met to a T- a massive masterpiece of an oaken front door, bolted in such a fashion that even an experienced lockpick would have trouble opening it from the inside. After taking a glimpse of the heavy cleaver in his right hand, Aaron decided that it would be nowhere near enough to breach this thing. There were no visible windows, and Aaron suspected that the wall studs would be exceedingly close together to prevent a breakout in that fashion.

 

All in all, quite the lobster pot trap. Aaron was torn between being impressed and angry.

 

Naturally, even with escape out of the question, Aaron was still hesitant to play into this psychopath's games. Given his knowledge of this type, he knew that this kidnapper would be monitoring the house at all times, either through cameras or through being here himself. Naturally, either of these presented an alternate method of "victory"- destroy the cameras to frustrate their captor into freeing them, or find the person to obtain a key.

 

It became a question, not of what to do, but how to do it. This was a puzzle Aaron could see himself solving.

 

Content with his alternative solution, he began humming "Flight of the Valkyries" to himself.

 

Of course, there must always be a contingency plan. Every situation must be taken into account. This is why Aaron decided to pull a loop of wire out of his backpack and wrap it around his hand. Worst coming to worst, it would make an excellent garrote.

 

Aaron continued humming on his return to the dining room, not the slightest of hints as to his thought process on display- all anyone would see would be a smiling young man with a wire wrapped around one hand, a clean knife in the other, humming a piece of classical music.

[Peridank]

Crow kept quiet and tried to figure out what the was doing. He proceeded w/ him back to the dining room. ~Your being weird... stop following him and try somewhere else. He obviously isn't caring the slightest bit of you. Not that someone would~ Crow then went to his seat, he began to fiddle with the fork he swiped. His mind set on learning. If he were to more about these people... he just had to watch them.

 

His eyes moved to a Japanese male... glasses... Yuu. That was is name. He talked faster then the average man would, his brain processed faster then others. Yuu was a smart boy. To his features, the cringe of his brow, Crow has seen this before. Yuu was confident just like the American. But even he had to feel the edge of what could quite possibly be his death. His hair was orderly and refined in a manor, a bit of a perfectionist.

 

Crow examined everyone in the room but 2 (Naoko; "Thomas")... when he reached a girl with a camera... he stopped half way. He became curious if this was his way of learning to kill. He placed the fork on his lap, he then began to rip the table cloth. Focusing on the others no more.

[Merci]

While everyone else was talking, Amaya had been hiding below the breakfast table, armed with a frying pan as she peeked out to observe the various others from below, listening to what they were talking about.

Having snuck into the dining room while the residents weren't paying attention, she'd originally attempted to swipe a card but quickly learned about how she needed to sit in her own chair, the one with her name on it for all to read. But first of all, before doing any risky, she needed to gather as much information as before. She needed to gauge the level of danger and whether it was worth revealing herself or whether she'd have to tolerate a day or two of starvation.

In all honesty, she was a bit suspicious of the fact that they were being offered breakfast in the first place, but then again, there was no way the perpetrator would give them poisoned food if he or she wanted to find entertainment out of them killing each other.

Speaking of which, in particular, her attention was focused on the foreign guy who'd identified himself as a 'Thomas Adams', though as there hadn't been any such names on any of the chairs, it was obvious that this was a made-up name. The very aura he projected was terrifying, his presence different from that of any of the others. It was the kind that she knew all too well, and his foreignness only added to it - well, if he turned out to indeed be her target, then finding an escape route would have a higher priority than ever, since that man struck her as the kind of person she absolutely had to avoid, no matter what. Even after he revealed the name of his own target, which was frankly baffling, it wasn't much comfort. After all, despite her own dulled senses, they were screaming out to 'AVOID THIS MAN NO MATTER WHAT'.

As for everyone else, she wasn't entirely sure what to think of them. They seemed mostly normal, but it was hard to tell from just a glance. Apart from Thomas, there was also this guy calling himself Yuu Fukui whose overly intellectual attitude in this situation was worrying, and she wasn't about to dismiss his boasting as mere bluffs. Confidence like that didn't come from just nowhere. Apparently, there was also another foreigner around, but the aura he exuded was nowhere near as dangerous.

One, two, three, four, five, six, sooo including her, there were seven- No, hold on, eight. There was another girl, apparently, somewhere out of her immediate view by the drawers. Must've been looking for something useful, though she highly doubted that there'd be anything apart from plates and utensils. Though then again, for those who lacked equipment like knives, a plate shard would do just fine as a weapon.

I've gained enough.

Once it seemed like everyone else had mostly done with their speeches and all, there was little reason for her to hide. The only way for her to gain more information like this now was to reveal her presence, as risky as it was.

Then, taking a deep breath, Amaya crawled out and got up. It would look like a strange girl had popped up out of nowhere, with a metal frying pan, a surgical mask, and most of all a maid outfit. The sight was probably bizarre and out of place compared to the rest of them, weird to the point that they might've even begun to consider that she was connected to the manor and culprit. Who knows.

But nonetheless, she was the last to actually take her seat and look at the card (someone brought a gun?). Afterwards, she coldly glanced at the rest before raising her weapon a little higher to demonstrate her hostility towards each and every one of them, without saying a single word. Trusting no one.

Let's hope that this was the right choice.

[Draconus297]

Aaron returned to the dining room, still holding his wire and butcher knife. "I'm sorry, everyone, but unless you feel like risking our lives by setting the door on fire, it does not look like we will be escaping any time soon."

His eyes flicked over the arrival- a girl in a maid outfit who had armed herself with a frying pan, of all things. The suspicion that she viewed him with was admittedly disheartening, but he kept up his kind facade. Just a little longer and he'd have an alternative route out, he'd leave, and then there would be no more dealing with any of these people ever again.

Then again . . . no, murder was a last resort only. Even if his target would be a self-righteous, snobby fool who probably deserved it. Aaron scrunched his nose at Yuu.

Aaron sighed. "Our kidnapper is most likely a classic psychopath. As such, his or her first concern will be to make sure they can see every moment of our plight, and possibly add little pushes to get us more likely to snap. This means one of two things: either there are cameras in the house, or," Aaron paused for dramatic effect, "our kidnapper is here with us. So, we will all sweep every inch of this place in pairs. Is my plan acceptable?"

[Peridank]

(It's being glitchy... I apologise... pls move along, I will work on it)

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Naoko bit her lip, unable to take in all that was going on. First a girl came out from under the table, then more stuff happened, and more stuff, finally ending with one who had previously appeared to be a nice, harmless guy punch a hole in the wall. She could feel a drop of sweat drop down her brow, but before she exploded from the pressure, a voice could be heard, coming from unseen loudspeakers:

 

*My, oh my, you eight sure are bad at sitting down in some chairs.* The voice sounded as if it came from a male, within the same age range as the captives. Despite the playful tone, there were hints of annoyance, and perhaps even anger. Even so, it continued, *Well, at least you are all in the room now. Time for breakfast. I was thinking excitement, with a side of suspicion.* The platter in the center of the table opened automatically, revealing upon it, not food, but seven bullets. *Now, if you read your place-card, though hardly any of you did, you would know that one of you has a gun, albeit with no bullets. Here are the bullets. Now, by giving them out 1 by one, you can exclude 1 person from being armed. Hopefully you can guess correctly~ Till next time!* The voice cut out first into static, followed by silence.

 

Naoko sat, her mouth open as if she was about to say the words that she could not quite find. "What... what are we going to do? I mean, I don't have a gun, so wouldn't the best plan be to just give all of the bullets to myself..? Unlike what would seem to be most of you," She indicated toward the mysterious entrant, who was still brandishing the frying pan, "I have no intention of killing, so I should be the safest place for them. Is anybody opposed to this idea?" Once again, she bit her lip, hoping that the others could trust her.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

Finally, Saori stopped searching. She had enough of collecting plates and wine glasses, and instead returned her attention to the table. Lo and behold, the bullets had arrived, right there for Saori to reclaim for her own. Unfortunately, they were all presented in front of everyone, so even if she was quick in her attempt to snatch them, it would only give her away as the girl that brought the gun in the first place. Offering to take the bullets would be the next most obvious idea, followed closely by attempting to control the situation. But she had to do one of those three things, otherwise she was gonna be screwed. Eventually, she named her poison.

 

"I told you before, all we can assume is that this guy holds all the cards... so we'd best play along with what he wants," after saying this, Saori collected the bullets one by one, but kept them clenched in her hand instead of attempting to pocket them, "And that means the rest of us get one."

 

It then became clear; Saori was going to enforce the rule that everyone but one gets a bullet and give out the bullets herself, because that was literally her best strategy in terms of attempting to control the suspicion without raising suspicion. Of course, the first bullet was gonna to Saori herself. She was gonna have to reload it into her gun later when the coast was actually clear, but for now, she placed it inside the upper portion of her dress. A rather crude place to put anything to be honest, but to be fair, this was the only place that she could legitimately call a pocket, since her dress didn't actually have one.

 

The next thing Saori did was purposefully drop a bullet right in front of the weird girl with the surgical mask/maid outfit combination (Amaya). She had a hunch that the girl had only raised the frying pan that she wielded because she had paranoia that was starting to set in. If that was the case, Saori wouldn't be surprised if the girl had then dive-bombed straight for the bullet that had been dropped in front of her all of a sudden, so Saori waited for her response... before approaching the Americans.

 

"You, err...  you seem like a nice guy, so here..." Saori told the American that she was meaning to address (Crow), before studying the other one (Aaron) to determine whether or not he should get one too right now or if Saori should hold onto it a bit longer. She revealed her answer by leaving.

 

However, now that she'd given bullets to two people she knew damn well weren't her target, Saori knew what she needed to do, and who exactly to give the next bullet to. She returned to the table, and examined the place-cards carefully, before eventually coming across that one name that she could never pronounce properly. She tried once again to say this strange... V word if it could be called that, but once again, she was thrown into a state of pure bewilderment. After staring blankly at it for quite some time, Saori gave up on trying to wrap her head around the word, and walked up to a different girl (Velia) that she'd meant to have picked at random.

 

"Excuse me. How am I supposed to pronounce this word?" asked Saori, pointing to the word that the girl would likely recognize as her own name.

[-Noel-]

"Excuse me. How am I supposed to pronounce this word?" 

 

Velia heard an unfamiliar girl voice. She looked up and saw a small girl with the equal or probably less height than Velia herself whose height is already less than average. After briefly looking at her own name on the card (which, somehow, already got rid of her last name) and the face of the girl who asked, she replied

 

"You can say it like how you pronounce "Veil", also I don't mind being called "Beria" or "Beruia" due to your Japanese's pronunciation..."

 

She looked around the room while speaking. It seemed to have more people than last time she remembered, also everyone is... looking this way? Velia looked at the end of others' sight and finally saw the bullets in Saori's palm..

 

"W.. WHAT'S THAT THING DOING HERE!?"

 

It seemed that 4 years were not enough to get rid of painful memories, also, in conjunction with her current mental state, Velia suddenly raised her voice and harshly push Saori's hand away faster than anyone could response, resulting in the scattered bullets around the room...

[Draconus297]

Aaron stepped back, caught off-guard by the introduction of live ammunition. He raised his knife in suspicion.

"Listen, whoever you are," Aaron said, trying to find exactly where the voice had come from, "this is a terrible idea. You've played the wrong card. I'm not sitting down to any meal you've prepared, and it would take someone extremely trusting to believe that you would prepare a safe meal. If I'm honest, I'd be more likely to eat the drywall if I were to eat. Now, before things begin going off-script, perhaps we can negotiate."

Aaron looked at each of the others in turn, waving his hand in a manner asking everyone else to butt in and help his case.

When he noticed that the girl distributing the bullets specifically denied him one, Aaron refused comment- it would take an idiot to believe this rather obvious ploy. He suspected that she herself had the gun, and intended to take her ammunition back later. Aaron subconsciously tightened his grip on his knife- she was near the point of killing, and he felt the need to watch his back.

The girl freaking out was not really his concern, but Aaron decided his PR needed the boost. "What's wrong, Velia?" he asked, a tone of quiet concern making itself evident in his voice. "I understand this is a stressful situation, but freaking out will not help. Please calm down- we need to think of a way out that doesn't involve murder."

Despite saying this, Aaron had already worked out four different ways to take down Yuu- not that he planned to use them, but contingency plans were always good to have.

[Never_this_again]

"Oh, come on," Yuu commented on the foreigner complaining over the food, "First putting us all here and then poisoning us? That'd be stupid. Of course, the food could be drugged or something, but that would ruin the whole point of this game. So you can eat what you want, I assume." To prove his point, Yuu took a toast from one of the plates and demonstatively started to eat, while watching the girl distribute the bullets among the others. It was oblivious that it was her holding the gun and she was making a move to be prepared to kill, if it might become necessary.

 

When the other girl scattered the bullets across the floor, Yuu was moderately surprised. Such a strong aversion against something could only involve a bad memory from the past, that made her develope this fear.

 

One of the bullets rolled over to him and he picked it up. It was pointless keeping it as he had no gun available and the one holding the gun already had one, so if she had to kill him, he was already screwed. Although there was the possibility of aquiring a gun later in the game, it was unlikely. Their game master, he assumed, would more likely make them kill eachother by their own hands, rather than having it done by artillery. One girl bringing a gun with her must have been a spontanous descision.

 

"You can keep it, I don't need one," he shoved the bullet over to the foreigner who was comforting the girl, "Although I do know how to operate a gun, I do not have one and the chances of aquiring one later in the game are pretty low, so instead of keeping it and risking being robbed of it, I might as well also give it up." After this, he resumed with his breakfast. This was not a game of weaponary, he thought, it was a game of nerves and brain. He was far superior to the other with the latter and as long as he knew that, he could keep calm, so he just had to wait for the first one to make a mistake.

[Peridank]

Crow looked at Yuu, cocky as ever, eating a slice of bread. Looking down at his plate remembering how hungry he was. He looked down at the bullet, he smiled. ~Just like the man said... better to make decisions~ He snuck the bullet into his pocket. "Well I admit I'm hungry too... a simple answer of the food being poison is unlikely as Yuu pointed out. So..." Crow then picked up a strip of bacon taking a fair bite. "I say we simply enjoy, save the killing till we are fueled up... hahaha..."

 

Crow began to look at the startled girl, then the girl with a frying pan, another he failed to scan. "Is their a reason you have the frying pan? It's because you don't have a weapon other then that... do you?" Crow looked around... and devised a plan. "Well I say we don't listen to that wacko on the speaker... and give all the bullets to you." Crow began to pick up dropped bullets, leaving the 1 hidden in his pocket. "This is what I managed to pick up." He smiled at the girl lovingly, holding the bullets in front of her.

 

Crow was expecting others to coincide with the plan giving up their bullet. He would know which one it was most likely if they refused. "Btw... I didn't catch you name... a face without a name is no face at all." Crow giggled.  

[Merci]

While keeping her distance away from everyone else, the armed maid watched as one of the other girls took the bullets and began to distribute them. A slight look of shock crossed her face as one was dropped right in front of her, and just as Saori predicted, she divebombed straight for it, grabbing it right before it hit the floor with her remaining hand. What was that supposed to be for... An opening?! She glanced back up, but by then, the girl had already moved on. Next time, such a careless mistake wouldn't happen again.

The girl proceeded to hand out one to a foreigner before, to her slight relief, refusing the other. A part of her was already thinking that he had to be her target due to his appearance, but there was no way to know for sure. Besides, her relief didn't last long, as the next girl it had been offered to promptly scattered the remaining four. However, despite this apparent opportunity, she didn't move to take any of them in case she ended up leaving another opening that her murderer would just want to take advantage of. To pick up any of the dropped bullets, she'd have to get closer to the others, which she wasn't about to risk.

"...?!"

Imagine her surprise when the other foreigner suddenly walked up to her, having picked up the remaining few bullets and offered them to her. A trap? Could it be a trap? But at the same time, though she had no gun, any advantage would be welcome at this point. Was it worth it? Or should she just go away? Her eyes narrowed, looking down at the open hand with suspicion before cautiously extending out her free arm, taking a step forward. Then, without warning, she swiped the remaining bullets and promptly jumped back in case of any sudden attacks.

"T-" Though still regarding him with extreme suspicion, she opened her mouth. "T- thank you."

But in any case, it seemed to be safe for now. A genuine offering. Was he just trying to gain her trust this way, or were really no ulterior motives? Though she did appreciate the gift, there was no way that she was going to drop her guard anytime soon. Indeed, when he asked that question, requesting for her name while smiling, her warning signs were raised and her eyes narrowed again, gripping the frying pan tighter.

"...Amaya." The maid responded in a quiet, wary voice, averting her gaze a bit as she did so.

Her tone had been lowered enough so that none of the others would overhear it, and really, telling this stranger her name was already risky enough.

"Now, your turn," Amaya continued, pointing the metal frying pan at the foreign stranger. "Name. To be fair."

[Peridank]

Crow was shocked at the gesture, threatening him with a frying pan. ~Hey... that looks like...~ Crow began to laugh. He remebered watching an old show from his child hood, the old women would always use a cooking device to smack her husband, when ever he would scare the dog. Crow held it in... not wanting to come across as rude. He cleared his throat.

 

"My name is Luke... Luke Valentine. But please, no one calls me that... call me Crow." Crow laid a soft hand on the pan. "Forgive my laughing, but your pan reminded me of a screaming dog. Hahaha" He realeased the pan. Looking at every one else. "My idea stands..." He announced... "I say we give her ALL the bullets. She has no gun... Yuu... that is your name?" He looked at Yuu, smirking. "You are a man of high intellectual presence... are the odds against me?"

 

~Go on Crow... they all see you now. Make the impression good~ Ideas ran through Crows head. Ideas of what will happen next. Maybe when they all escape... they could go out for pizza. They could have fun.

[Draconus297]

"I didn't specify poison. It could be a testosterone-based additive, to make us more aggressive and cloud our judgement," Aaron said offhandedly, having realized halfway through his statement that no one cared anymore.

He filed away the information before him- the girl was named Amaya, and apparently held high suspicion of him. The young man inwardly sighed- he had worked so hard on this persona, and it was apparently useless. He made a mental note to begin structuring a new personality to project later. As it was, there were bigger problems- like finding the exact method by which their captor was keeping an eye on them.

"Has anyone noticed anything odd with the walls? A suspicious dark spot, or flawed construction?" Aaron asked. "If we find and disable whatever the kidnapper is using to watch us, we might become boring enough to let go," he suggested. "If no one has, we should really sweep the place."

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Seeing her only friend begin to panic nearly sent Naoko over the edge. Jumping out of her seat, she wedged herself between Velia, and the boy whose name she had not yet confirmed. "Don't worry, Velia. Nobody is going to kill you. I will make sure of that." Turning toward the boy, who had gone as far as to announce his own target, she continued, "Your idea... seems like a good one. I propose that we split into smaller groups to search the area, as it has been quickly demonstrated that there is far too much chaos in such a large group to get anything done. I... can go out with Velia... We can make sure each other stay safe..." At the back of her mind, a thought creeped up, but what if Velia is going to kill me..? Quickly, she pushed away these thoughts. Velia couldn't hurt a fly, especially after the incident with the bullets. Even so...

 

Biting her lip yet again, she opened up more toward the boy. "Since you already said who you are supposed to kill, you should probably stay away from Yuu... He doesn't seem like the friendly type, either..." Looking down at the table, a thought occurred to her, as she quickly turned back toward the unknown boy. "My memory isn't the best, but that Thomas name you said wasn't on any of the cards I saw on my way in. Could you... show me your card? I understand why you would want to keep your name secret, given the situation, but I need to be able to trust you... so please, tell the truth." Even as she realized how quickly her attitude had changed, she could not help but look at the boy more lightly after seeing him comfort Velia only moments before. Biting her lip, she spoke more softly, "Please."

[-Noel-]

After causing a chaos, Velia kept telling herself that this is just a nightmare that'll end soon. It seemed someone has tried to comfort her but she didn't even notice who was that. She remain closed herself, until she heard Naoko's voice

 

"Don't worry, Velia. Nobody is going to kill you. I will make sure of that."

 

Velia opened her eye looked up at her friend. She calmed herself before saying "N-No, I.. I didn't afraid of being killed, I just..." with the very soft voice as if she was whispering, though she raised her voice as she smiled and continued "...Thanks" to her only friend as the latter worriedly looked at her before turning to the foreign boy...

 

Later, from what she heard, the group decided to split in 4 pairs of people to increase the efficiency of exploration. Velia let out a sigh of relief as Naoko said she would go with her, and after hearing "...We can make sure each other stay safe..." Velia's eyes suddenly raised as she realized what Naoko's meaning. They're going to split into 4 groups of 2 people. Suppose that she's someone who wants to leave this place no matter what and is ready to kill others, will she let this opportunity to kill all other people while they're separating slip away? The answer is obvious for her; No. Velia sharpened her mind as she picked a fork from the table in her jacket's pocket without letting anyone see it. At least it's better than nothing if the girls actually got ambushed. She also instinctively touched her watch as she looked around and remember the face of everyone who now become her housemate. She won't let herself, her friend or anyone here die for nothing, absolutely.

 

Velia then looked at that Thomas boy who was asked to uncover his real name. She narrowed her eyes as she analyzed. His action when they first met (Revealing his target), the unnaturally nice acting despite the situation, plus the fact that he has killed someone before that she could sense, all of these could be summed as an obvious "this guy is dangerous" sign on his head, still, Velia don't want to think of anyone here as an enemy, so she talked to the boy, the sign of weakness could no longer be found in her voice.

 

"She's right, and I also want to trust you, so.. tell us your real name, please."

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

Saori only wanted to give Velia a bullet, and then move on to the next person to give him or her a bullet. But the next thing she knew, she was pushed off balance, and ended up dropping all the bullets she had on hand. The bullets had rolled too far away from Saori for her to reliably recover, and so her element of control was lost. Saori could only sink her head down low and reminisce on this potentially fatal mistake... but perhaps there was a way to redeem herself.

 

It turned out that the American that Saori gave a bullet to earlier (Crow) had picked up most of the bullets that she'd just dropped, and gave them to that weird girl (Amaya) to keep for herself; before suggesting that... everyone else do the same? Saori thought she'd shot down that idea. Then again, it was that naive and moronic chick (Naoko) that suggested it, and that was probably why it was shot down. But Saori's natural pessimism shone through nonetheless.

 

"I'm sorry... I don't think that'll work in practice," Saori stated in a regretful tone, "You see, there's an expression that states that you shouldn't put your eggs in one basket, and if we were to follow your suggestion, then... that's the equivalent of what we'd be doing. However, you're risking making the gunman's job easier."

[Peridank]

Crow liked the idea of splitting up, one on one time would be nice. He still waited on Yuu's response while making a quick reply to multiple comment's. To the idea of splitting up... "Sounds great to me, I'd LOVE to get to know you all better."

 

To the comment on Thomas's real name. "I can forgive you for lying... but I thought you were being honest, but tht somehow escaped my sight." And lastly... to the remark of making it easier for the gun men. "Like I said... I doubt Ayama has the gun. Further more... I TRUST her. She is obviously careful enough to not loose them somewhere, or to someone. Again... am I not correct Yuu?"

 

Crow began to go over everything. So far he had a fork, a bullet, and torn off cloth from the table. He made a hole in the wall, and knew about the opening in the closet. That was the first place he wanted to check out. As long as that stupid rat didn't show up again.

[Draconus297]

Aaron looked back and forth, glad at least one portion of his plan had gone well, but annoyed that the stupid name cards had given away his ruse.

"You are correct," he sighed, "I have not given my real name. I used my father's first name and my mother's maiden name. Sorry, but this is a desperate moment, and I felt that an alias would be appropriate. After all, all we were given was the names of the people we needed to kill. From where I stand, if we didn't give our real names, we couldn't go after our proper targets without guessing."

He shrugged, and leaned in to Naoko. "I'll tell you my real name," he whispered, "if you agree to keep it from the more . . . unscrupulous houesguests. I have the feeling that not everyone can stay as calm as I can, and I don't want a bullet in my head or a frying pan to the back of the head." He gave a genuine, lighthearted smile at his mild humor. "My name is Aaron," he said softly.

"Now," he stood to his full height, allowing his leadership persona to kick in, "we will all split into pairs. Velia and Naoko are together, and I'm guessing no one really wants to pair with myself, so I'll take whoever is left over after you've sorted yourselves out." He raised the huge cleaver like a cavalry sword. "We will search every room of this house, top to bottom. Whoever has the gun, if it has enough punch to it, I would love to have it be as easy as punching holes in the door and then widening them." Aaron got a fierce expression. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

To himself, he added "without murdering each other" in English.

[Never_this_again]

Yuu sat at the table, calmly eating some things from the plates, until it counted as a respectable breakfast. "The odds of you dying, killing or living?" he asked that Crow guy, when he asked for his opinion. "Your odds in dying are the same as everyone elses, currently 50%, but it might move up to a maximum of 87.5%, if the game master decides that each of us killing one other isn't enough."

 

He took a short break to bite and chew another piece of bread, "your odds of killing... they might vary, as I haven't seen enough of you yet, but right now I calculate them at 11.3%. You seem like a peaceful guy all along, maybe a little unstaple," he took a moment break again, "if I rethink that, I might say 26.7%. Your odds of living... I'd say 0.000001%. But that's the chance I give everyone here, the game master would not let anyone of us out alive, the dangers of us calling the authorities might be way too high. Of course that's depending on where the hell this place is. Or, if that was your question, the odds of recieving all of the bullets, I assume lower than the odds of living."

 

He detached himself from the conversation a little again, before he heard his name by the Crow guy again: "I don't know if she is trustworthy, but I can almost certainly say that she is not holding the gun," 'because the other girl is.' "I could elaborate on the why, but for now, that's enough."

 

When the foreigner with the fake name and that one girl convinced the others that they should scoop the place in pairs, he turned to that Crow guy again: "Since you seem to be the one guy here who values my genius the same as I do, would you like to pair up with me? The other options around here all seem so ... one-dimensional."

[Merci]

"Ru-u-ke... Va-ren-tai-nu..."

The maid hung her head and tested the foreign, hard-to-pronounce word on her tongue a couple of times, with a difficult expression, while at the same time deeply thinking to herself for one reason or another about this new information. Then, after a long moment of silence, she looked back up with an ever-so-slight warmer look. "Kuro is indeed better, as you say... So. That's what I'll call you from now on."

Having either misheard or mispronounced his nickname, it seemed that she was going to call him the Japanese equivalent for 'black' from now on, knowing pretty much next to nothing about what the word meant in English. At the same time, she ignored his comment about the pan, as perhaps he wasn't aware about the fact that this pan was sufficiently metal enough to crack a skull and scramble one's brains with a sufficiently hard hit.

Amaya blinked in surprise a little later when Kuro said that he trusted her, since to her knowledge she hadn't given any incentive for such a thing, but she wasn't about to protest. An ally could be useful, and chances were that he wasn't going for her life, though the possibility was still there that he was only doing this to get close to her. She had to remain on-guard at all times. The bullets she'd been provided had already been hidden, and the guy Kuro was talking to was scary in his own right - different from the Thomas Adams guy, but there was a cold aura to it nonetheless.

"Those numbers...are made up. Too many unknown factors." Amaya remarked towards Yuu, while glancing in the other direction. She shouldn't have raised her voice, but his attitude and response were too annoying to just ignore.

Shortly after saying that, she distanced herself away from the others again a bit as they began to pair in groups. What, and leave openings? As she couldn't decide which one to pick herself, she simply resolved herself to wait until the others were all done, and then simply pick the last one.

[a bad post]

Mamoru sat very passively as the others talked, taking the time to watch the others, notice their mannerisms. He didn't feel like talking anyway. Anyone of these people, except for maybe that Thomas, could be planning to kill him at this very moment. He was quite startled though when a girl with a surgical mask, and a maid's outfit crawled out from under the table holding a frying pan.

 

He shifted uncomfortably at this seat as that same boy suggested they all split up into groups. To say he was uncomfortable with the idea was an understatement. He had absolutely no clue who was trying to kill him, and there was a good 1 in 5 chance provided the person trying to kill him was his own target, and Thomas hadn't lied about his target being named Yuu. If either of those things were true then he had a 1 in 6, or if both were true, an even worse 1 in 7 chance to end up with someone trying to kill him.

 

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of what seemed like a PA system coming on. A male voice sounding very suspiciously, and disturbingly young came on talking in a sickeningly bright tone for what he was attempting to orchestrate. Mamoru's heart sank when the voice mentioned a gun, and nearly heaved whatever food he hand in his stomach right then and there when the platter opened revealing eight bullets. One for each of them. Oh God. One of them had a gun now!? It was sort of funny to think that one of them could end any of their lives with the pull of a trigger.

 

Before he could have his say about what they should do with the bullets, one of the girls grabbed them off the table saying they should be distributed evenly. She only handed three out before one of the girls, a foreign one this time, freaked out and knocked them all over the floor. Before the girl who had been knocked over could collect them again, another foreigner picked them all up and gave them to the young woman who had been apparently hiding under the table. 

 

The girl who had passed them out originally was decidedly against that. 

 

Could she have the gun? Mamoru thought to himself, it was very plausible considering that she had been the one to take charge of the bullets, and then why would she want to distribute the bullets amongst everyone rather than keeping them for herself. It obviously warranted further thought, so for now Mamoru placed this girl under the very suspicious column in his head. 

 

As the other began picking partners he remained silent. There was no way he was going to go with any of these people alone. Any of them could be trying to kill him, and if he made the wrong decision then he might not be coming back to this room alive. His best bet would either be to find his target and go with them, or go with that Thomas kid as they were probably the least likely to try and kill him. For now he decided to just sit back and what for someone else to pick, going for any of the remaining three who hadn't teamed up would make him look to eager, as though he was trying to get them alone.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Naoko silently gulped to herself as the unnamed boy leaned in to her. He seemed to be showing more care than when he had first arrived, but even so his body language was... aggressive, to say the least. Taking out the camera and pulling up the image of him, she erased the pseudonym, pulling out the stylus to replace what was written with the truth as he said it. 

 

"My name is Aaron"

 

Naoko suddenly froze in place, feeling as if one of the bullets that had just been distributed hit her square in the chest. Quickly regaining her composure, she looked back up at him, "Nice to finally meet you." Turning around to face Velia, she grabbed hold of the younger girl's wrist and tugged gently. ​"We need to get going... being in here... it is making me fidgety." Looking into Velia's eyes, Naoko made an attempt to show the urgency in her situation. "Just... let's go..." Turning back toward the door and walking out of the room, she brushed past the one she now understood to be Aaron Jeffrey Todd, tears streaming down her face. Stopping just outside the doorway, she held back any sound that her crying would cause, addressing the group: "Velia and I are going to check the halls. If anyone needs us, that is where we will be."

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

"Well, if you're so certain, then... I won't hold it against you," Saori told Crow, "But none of us know what the gunman is capable of. Please remember that."

 

Saori left on that statement, but even if she was found out to have the gun, then that would still be true regardless. Crow didn't know what Saori was capable of. Amaya didn't know what Saori was capable of. Velia didn't know what Saori was capable of. Hell, not even Saori knew what she herself was capable of.

 

And then some cocky nerd (Yuu) arrived, and began spouting out what he 'calculated' were the odds of everyone else's survival. Saori had already gauged this guy's level of arrogance just by what he said and his tone of voice, but even so, the fact that he was able to roll such percentages off his head like that was a cause for concern. Although Saori herself was supposedly rather intelligent, she never had the confidence to try her hand at outsmarting anyone, and the last thing she needed to be targeted by was one who could plot their way around everything she could possibly throw at them in defense. It was certainly enough to furrow her brow.

 

But there was only one thing for it. Saori had to try and get as many of the bullets back as she possibly could, and for now, that meant befriending Amaya, and gaining enough of her trust for her to relinquish the bullets that she had. Saori didn't know where to start, but she did know that she had to think this through methodically. After all, she had no idea on the total amount of mistakes that she could afford to make... if she could afford to make any more at all.

 

But first, Saori decided that she'd best get something to eat. She only had a single hash brown and a glass of orange juice, but she decided to fit what she could in her knapsack. After all, she could always eat it later if she was a little hungrier, or even use it as bait. Finally, Saori returned to where Amaya was standing.

 

"We need to talk," she said flatly, before making her way outside the dining room.