imeeji_frontstage | FOUL TOXINS

Entry tags:

FOUL TOXINS

Who: Everyone!
Where: The Game Tower
When: Day 498

[ Welcome to the Game Tower! On the screen is The Red Sea Witch, who does a curtsy before speaking to the audience: ]

Gyahaha, hello! ✩ Today's show is a game long-time viewers might recognize! The rules are simple: poison others and don't get poisoned! Have fun~✩

RULES | ROOMS | EFFECTS | ENDGAME + WINNERS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ This is like pulling teeth, isn't it? Sorry, Venti. ]

Poisoned ZRAEL. Thought it was a good call, but then we got poison from Heart, so. Who even knows.

[ What the fuck happened in this game, honestly ]

I'm sure you were operating on some logic, right? So what was your reasoning?

[ ...You know, he wouldn't offer it in his own defense, ever, but being asked point-blank? That's different. Lupine's quiet for a moment, then he murmurs, low and steady, ]

Only one win condition, you know? Poison another team — 'successfully'. Nothing in there about getting through the game without being poisoned. Just... 'successfully' poison someone else. And they said they'd keep going until at least one team 'won'.

So. We had two options. Send the poison to a team like BiT, hoping they wouldn't have enough to go around — or send it to a team I thought would sooner poison themselves. sIV, or Heart. [ His voice sounds kind of funny. Gonna clear his throat, try again. ] At least with BiT and ZRAEL, I figured they'd also be poisoning someone else, or retaliating in the next round, so. You know, we'd both get the win.

[ It is Extremely Funny how badly he underestimated both Zari and Doctor here. New Heart plays hard, it turns out. ]

—We wound up flipping a coin. ZRAEL lost.

[ So you see the thing is that Zari's extremely justified in murdering him, and you and Lumine shouldn't really try to stop it. ]

[ He nods, slowly. Doesn't even really react to sIV being a potential target because yeah, it tracks. ]

It's logical. It checks out with what I understand of those units as well. Or -- how they used to be.

In this case, it seems your crime is lack of omnipotence.

I wanted to end it fast. I wanted...

[ Lets that trail off. Eyes shut. ]

Worst case scenario, I thought we'd just be dead. [ Heavily. ] Pep can fix that.

You can explain your reasoning to them, if it wouldn't feel like making excuses. They might actually value hearing it, rather than assuming it was a senseless act.

'I thought you'd play harder, but I was kind of crossing my fingers that you'd get dogpiled so you wouldn't have enough antidotes to cure yourselves'? I mean, I could try saying that, but I don't think it'd help.

Edited 2022-09-12 04:59 (UTC)

"I thought we'd both play hard, each get a win, and end this game quickly," is a much less deliberately negative interpretation of the same.

That's not to say they won't still be angry, but they won't be assigning emotions to the decision that are misconstrued.

Sure, that's one of the outcomes I thought we might get.

[ A little bit — dismissive. But it was harder to listen to Venti's version of his motives than it was to say the deliberately negative one, and his tail had been lashing, but it slows down as he continues: ]

Besides, they've... already heard some part of my reasoning. The poison delivery system was helpful that way.

[ Slows, then finally stops. ]

Taken out of context as dramatically as possible, I'm sure.

Wouldn't make for good TV otherwise.

[ Just sighs ]

Well, hopefully Aliza is understanding. [ lol ] You'll be beating yourself up enough without her helping.

[ If he were under a truth compulsion, this is where he'd say something like I mean, I hope she's not. ]

She's definitely owed one good punch.

Maybe just one.

[ So if you got a vote you'd wanna veto the let-her-get-real-close-to-killing-him-and-hope-that-helps plan. ]

It might be a bit more than that.

[ His gaze goes up to the ceiling. ]

You know, I don't think we've ever really talked about this? Our game strategies. I used to tell everyone, as soon as I knew we were on friendly terms: no hard feelings if you wind up killing me in one of these games.

It's all a bunch of rock-and-a-hard-place bullshit. People are gonna be making impossible choices all the time, and... well, I've never wanted to let the machinations of our captors dictate who I get to be friends with.

[ Beat. ]

Not trying to tell anyone how to feel about it happening the other way around, but. At least she would've known she could send us poison, and Doc would've known he didn't have to hide it.

Mmm, well . . . for many, saying and doing are different things. You can say "I may end up hitting you in a game," but when it actually comes time to pull the trigger, it's easy to balk and walk back your own determination.

[ Is he guilty of this? MAYBE. ]

Are they wrong for doing so? Are you wrong for not doing so?

It doesn't really matter. All of these choices are contrived, and barely real choices at all. Designed to leave you just enough agency to feel guilt in the weight of your selections, but not enough to actually give any real freedom of choice.

[ That first one is an easy 'no', the second is... well, it's not usually part of why he feels like a crappy person. Eventually, he chuckles. ]

Pretty sure it still would've helped if I'd talked to her about this at all. But — yeah. That's where I am with it. Far as I can see, choosing not to take it personally when someone targets us is about the only real, uncoerced choice we've got here.

[ ...And, ]

Besides, I made a promise.

A promise . . . ?

...When I first got here.

I guess we had a reputation for being — soft? For sacrificing ourselves to avoid hurting anyone else?

[ He gives a very tight shrug. Reputations are relative, he's learned that the hard way. ]

Promised I wouldn't let us lie down in front of the bus anymore if I could help it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

FOUL TOXINS

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME

Re: ENDGAME