pokebox | murdergame voicetesting with nin!

murdergame voicetesting with nin!

[The room you wake up in is not your own. In fact, you may not have been sleeping at all before you're suddenly waking up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. The bed isn't terribly uncomfortable, but it certainly isn't the nicest thing either; it's a standard cot, surrounded by the towering stone walls of your room. There's a wooden desk with a plain key on it, a simple chair, and a mirror, but absolutely nothing else. No decorations, nothing to indicate where you are or how you got here, and certainly no answers.

Should you leave the room and start exploring, you'll find that you're in some sort of fortress. A medieval one, from the looks of it, given that there's no technology to be found anywhere and the laundry room involves no actual laundry machines. The front doors are sealed off with some sort of magic sigil and guarded by two hulking suits of armor that stand ominously in the way. They won't react if talked to or poked, but you get the distinct feeling that they're watching you...

The other rooms are about what you'd expect - a kitchen and dining room fit for function rather than fashion, an armory that is strangely empty aside from some training dummies, a war room that is really just a round table and chairs, and a small library. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but that's likely intentional.

After all, in the foyer there are two very important pieces of information behind unbreakable glass: the first are the rules, written in a flowing hand and dark ink with the usual rules - including one notable one about killing for your freedom. Beside it is a second set of information and pictures: profiles of all the Soldiers brought into this little game, it would seem.

Enjoy your stay in the Fortress; the General will be watching you.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Training dummies? Sounds like something out of a fantastique.

[They're probably in Wurral... hm. Something to ask Kim later.

As for the guns, he rubs at the back of his head again.]

I don't know what to tell you. They're just... guns. RCM ones are all front-loaders, three bullets max. You can find broken down jacketed breach-loaders from the Revolution, but they don't make bullets for those anymore. And there are mercs who have automatic weapons. They're terrifying things.

[A shiver passes over him. He's definitely talking from personal experience.]

I hope I never see them again.

[............]

Bullets?

[YOU LOST HIM LIKE TWO SECONDS IN, SORRY BUDDY]

[The blank look he gives the guy just gets blanker over time.]

...yes?

[o...kay, now we're both just confused, this is going swimmingly.]

That's what your guns fire, ja? Ours are... [brief gesture??] I suppose you could call them small explosions of aer.

[Con...siders...]

That's "a-e-r", not the air we breathe. You... don't have that either, do you.

[That's not even a question, he's so tired already.]

Uh, no.

[Though now he's REALLY curious because it sounds kinda cool.]

Bullets are... [another long pause] ...small projectiles. They go very, very fast. Getting shot in a vital organ is usually fatal. Even if it's not a vital organ, it could hit an artery, cause you to bleed out. Infections can happen... it's bad.

And that's with a front-loader. Automatics can hit you dozens of times before you've even hit the pavement.

[Okay, this he can follow! Yeager nods, clearly interested.]

The guns we have can't fire that quickly! Even the smaller ones can't do that much damage.

[Fascinating! Shame the library didn't have any books on how that works, because he'd love to bring some notes back for the Soul Smiths to study. For Leviathan's Claw's benefit, of course.]

Only automatics can, really. The front-loaders are used sparingly; every shot of them counts.

The RCM really needs better armor to protect from those. I got shot in the leg by one. Nearly died.

[Actually, Yeager has probably noticed he still walks with something of a limp. His leg has yet to fully heal.]

[Oh, that would explain that! Yeager nods, but it doesn't exactly seem very sympathetic.]

Ours aren't nearly as dangerous. It takes more than a few shots to kill monsters, after all!

[And humans. But he will not say that so you don't question how he knows that.]

[Harry is either oblivious, or too focused on other aspects of the conversation to even notice.]

Monsters, huh? Now that really does sound like something out of a fantastique.

[The grin on his face is extremely awkward, and it's gone after a moment.]

Your world doesn't have them?

[But what do you... do... if you aren't fighting monsters??]

We have to keep them out of our towns and cities with barriers; they're simply everywhere.

No. Other people are frightening enough.

Fifty years ago, the Revolution was sparked. [Even knowing they're from two different worlds, he doesn't elaborate beyond the name. The implication there is probably obvious: there has only ever been one revolution.] My city lost the war so badly the government was dissolved by the Coalition, and has been controlled by them ever since.

[This clearly bothers him a great deal. It's been something he's thought about for a long while now.]

40 million people died in the war. I think that's much scarier.

[Other people are frightening enough.

Heh, he's certainly not wrong there.]

My, that sounds truly dreadful. We've been lucky to avoid casualties that great.

[Though does Vesperia even have 40 million people?? Citation needed.]

We've also been lucky enough to avoid conflict between people, but we did have a dreadful war with monsters some years back. Some of them truly are something else...

[And for a moment, he seems uncharacteristically serious, eyes drifting away to focus somewhere else... But the moment's over quickly when Yeager claps once again, right back to his obnoxiously cheerful self.]

But there's no sense in dwelling on such unpleasant topics, ja? Let's see what else is here!

[And off he goes... Are you following??]

Ah, sure.

[He moves on easy enough.

There are more important things going on, anyway, like the whole fact that they've been kidnapped by someone trying to intimidate them into killing each other.

Harry believes it, regardless of whether or not Yeager does.

So, time to follow for a change!]

[Off we go! Right next door is the war room, which... really doesn't look like a war room at all, given everything seems to have been emptied out of it. The table in the center has an indent where it seems something once sat on it - like a giant map, perhaps - but now it's just a meeting room with a large table.]

Hmm... Nothing particularly useful here either.

[...weird. And again, something he is completely unfamiliar with. Well, it looks like a place where meetings happened, but that's about the most he can glean.]

There's not much to do here, is there?

[Points towards this nonsense murder strangers situation being real.]

Apparently not...

[And finally, the kitchen and dining room! These are some very old-fashioned appliances, so Yeager will likely be more at home here than you will, Harry. The dining hall looks more akin to a mess hall - long tables, plenty of chairs, and still no decorations or anything to make the place feel lived in. At least the food's stocked well, and there's plenty of it!]

It would seem they've provided quite a bit for us, anyway... I wonder how long we'll be here?

[Because surely this isn't going to turn into people murdering each other, right?? No lmao, Yeager doesn't believe that for a minute.]

[...well, how old of appliances are we talking here.

Is there a lack of stoves and refrigerators?

Regardless, he's going to be taking stock of everything, especially anything that could potentially be used as a weapon. Looking at you, kitchen knives.]

Too long. However long it is, it's too long.

[We can have old-timey stoves and refrigerators, as a treat.]

Ja, agreed. I have my guild to get back to...

[Among other things. Yeager shrugs a bit.]

Perhaps our captor will give us some more information soon?

[Oh, well then, it's not bad! Harry's the "pick up spare change off the ground for food money" kind of poor. He can work with this.

Probably.

Does he even reliably remember how to cook? Something to worry about later.]

I would assume so. Otherwise this is just going to be a tense flatmates scenario.

Well, I'm sure we'll run into each other again soon, Mr. Bois.

[Did he miss the memo or is he being a pain... you decide!!]

Until next time!

[It's a long while before Harry approaches Yeager. He's been meeting all of the others, taking stock of the situation... basically, he's been busy.

Hours after they went their separate ways, the so-called mastermind of the kidnapping made his appearance. Not too long into the General's speech, Harry interrupted him to call him "Moralintern scum" to the confusion of literally everyone, including the General, but that sure didn't stop him from voicing the opinion that they have the numbers to overthrow him, and that the kidnapper doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

For the most part, the group seemed to agree with Harry, even if they don't agree with his... er, perspective entirely. At least up until the first motive.

A stack of sealed envelopes with the names of the participants suddenly makes itself known in the war room. Inside the envelopes, is a letter with an embarrassing secret written on it, and the threat to reveal it to the rest of the group should someone not be killed by the end of the week.

Whatever is written on Harry's doesn't seem to bother him, at least not outwardly. He stares at it blankly before crumpling it up and shoving it in his pocket.]

For a kidnapper, the "General" sure has bad ideas when it comes to blackmail.

[This "General" certainly is an interesting person - Yeager's spent time showing up to chat with him at odd hours just to see what information he can get from the man, but he's frustratingly elusive. Though really, it would be disappointing if he spilled all his secrets too easily. After all, this is a rather entertaining little "game", and something Yeager's curious to see played. But so far there have been no deaths, and he's been content to play along with the others.

A "motive" isn't particularly surprising, though the contents of the letter are. Yeager could think of far more damning secrets the General could have used - secrets Yeager might even be halfway tempted to kill over - but the one he's chosen is surprisingly mundane. Yeager and "embarrassing" belong in the same sentence all the time anyway, so he doesn't particularly have anything that actually bothers him here.

Still, he pockets the envelope with a shrug, turning to Harry at that.]

I wonder if he's intentionally starting us off easy... Or maybe someone happened to get a particularly bad secret?

[But like, if he didn't then who the hell here did?]

Maybe.

[A pause.]

No, that's definitely it. This is targeted. Me, I don't remember most of the embarrassing shit I've done in my life. Including the one written in here.

[He pats at the crumpled up paper in his pocket.]

Know I did it, though. Kim and I had a long talk about it. The guy my profile mentioned; Kim Kitsuragi.

[whose name I typoed because I'm dumb]

We're strangers here, so it doesn't really matter to me if other people know, too.

Ja, but I doubt he would have given it to us unless he thought it would work on someone.

[Of course, if they have any sense, they won't make a show of it. You never know, though!]

Of course, that's what I meant. It's targeted at one person in particular. Maybe two.

[He raises a single finger up for emphasis.]

He doesn't need thirty people to act, just one.

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