~GAME~

[ghostofissues]

Who: everyone!
When: day 17, morning
What: GAME TIME

[ today, when the GAMESHOW notification goes off and the phone maps lead you to the game tower, the debris is still everywhere, the lobby is empty, and the elevators are unlabeled. The rules don't appear on your screens until after everyone has filed in, the doors have shut behind you, and the elevators have started up and risen at least a few stories.

your phones light up with instructions at the same time as the elevators all shudder to a stop, and a sharp hissing noise starts up as thin blasts of air enter from the walls and fills the room with a horrible, horrible smell. like straight up sewer rank awful. Luckily you won't have to deal with it for long, since you pass out so fast you won't even remember hitting the ground.

You wake up on the floor of a room with the rest of your unit. Mukuro's face isn't on any screens, but the first thing you might process as you regain consciousness is his boyish voice filling the air, shifting from calmly informative to as energetic as ever. ]

… courtesy of danna's abilities, we have much more exacting control over a much broader range of possibilities. Ah, and the stars of our show have just begun to stir!

Then, let's go over the rules of today's event once more!

[ and then he does show up, waist-up on the large tv-sized screen on the wall, smiling brightly beside a diagram demonstrating different possible outcomes - labeled with T's and B's and X's over "losing" stick figures. ]

Prisoner's dilemma! The max-tension psychological classic, with a secret agent feel~

This one is all about trust and betrayal. Originally, two people would be interrogated separately for information, and told that they would be spared if they turned on their partner. But if both of them kept their mouths shut, then their captors would have less over them and they both could be saved. While if they both betrayed one another, then they would both be punished! For either of them to win, at least one of them would have to take the risk and decide to "trust"~

Today's game is a three-person variant, or rather, a three-unit variant! This means that instead of just one other person, our idols will have to carefully consider the thinking of two whole other groups of people in their decision-making! But like the standard "prisoner's dilemma," only one person each is placed at risk ☆ Just like a sacrifice!

[ briefly, the display switches to images of flower arrangements ]

Additionally, since the idols haven't been told who their partners are, we've provided them with a small means of communication - courtesy of this goryou - for them to find some way to identify themselves, earn the other units' "trust," and get a read on what kinds of people now hold the fate of their unitmate in their hands!

[ and back to Mukuro, a bust shot with the diagram gone now ]

The results this time will be a little more complicated than the original "win/lose" scenario. In this case, even trusting each other won't get a good result. Betraying each other is worse, but only betraying someone who trusts you will save your sacrifice and bring your unit victory~! That's why it's important to convince the other units to "trust" no matter what!

And trusting someone who ends up betraying you - well, wouldn't that be just horrible?

Leeet's go! ♥

Comments

[syncintohell]

[ I mean, sort of.

Pauses in his attempts. ]

Yes. My losing it was my own responsibility, so I bore that and found it with my own efforts as well. It is a simple philosophy— one's actions must be paid for by the individual's own efforts.

[sonof]

[ a beat ]

[sonof]

So it is.

Making a purchase, then?

[syncintohell]

Correct.

[ Defiant— will you come to hate him, like threatened? He will not lose his ground on this, regardless, no matter how much he is scorned. ]

[sonof]

[ stepping closer, bumping arms with him to peer shamelessly at his phone screen ]

What kind?

[syncintohell]

[ It's an axe ]

An axe. I remembered I was capable of using one, and I doubt that has changed. Sewing is a far more challenging pursuit, and I have retained that capability.

[sonof]

An axe? What on earth were you using an axe for?

[syncintohell]

Largely, intimidation. Making a point.

[sonof]

In theory, a person could do that even without having the technical skill.

[syncintohell]

It simply requires strength, which is a gift I do have.

[sonof]

Wouldn't that depend on how you're using it? What are you buying an axe for, anyhow?

[syncintohell]

I have already answered that question, and do not see the point in reiterating my answer.

[sonof]

Having done so in the past doesn't necessarily demonstrate that it's within your current interests as well. What point, then, do you plan to make with it?

[syncintohell]

That should they harry me unnecessarily, I am capable of making them regret it. I do not appreciate that our trust was betrayed, and I will refrain from acting only because I do not seem to be harmed. But if another of ours was in the position I was put in . . . never would I ever forgive that.

[sonof]

[ hm ]

Do as you like if it satisfies you, but they already regret it, so provoking them might achieve just the opposite. I've not spoken much to all but two of them, but if our interests are in self-protection, then with the pair of them, at least, guilting them is more effective in the long run.

[syncintohell]

Emotional manipulation is an action taken by lowly cowards.

[sonof]

Intimidation is just another form of it.

[syncintohell]

By that logic you could say appeals with words are a form of emotional manipulation as well. I do not accept that.

[sonof]

[ his fingers twitch up by his mouth like he's reaching for a pipe he doesn't have, once, before his arm drops again. still leaning against Shu's side somewhat ]

Nevertheless, we'll have to leave before your purchase can go through.

[syncintohell]

Let us be off, then.

[ He makes to set off, more intent on the exit than he is on pulling away from Yasuragi but the end result is more or less the same ]

[sonof]

[ tails after without stumbling of complaint ]