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.]

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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.

Once one does, it's likely others will follow.

[Yeager shakes his head once that's out there and lifts his shoulders a bit.]

But we'll see how it goes, ja?

What a ridiculous farce this is turning out to be.

[It's muttered darkly.

And then, like what seems to be usual for him, he goes very quiet.]

[...you okay over there, buddy...]

Well, I suppose we should have expected as much from the rules...

[Given how much he's spaced out over the course of their two conversations, does it look like he's okay...? He's also still limping, of course. And it seems like his shoulder might be bothering him, too.

Regardless, he seems like he's somewhere far away until he starts talking again.]

There must be a way out of here. Something that doesn't involve sitting around waiting for someone to act.

[eh it's fine, it's not like yeager's a normal person anyway...]

I'm sure all of us have been searching for a way out - but I also don't think our captor is stupid enough to overlook something like that. One of the others was talking about a meeting later today, ja? Perhaps we'll learn more then.

Oh.

[Like he'd forgotten that, even though everyone had been present when the announcement had been made.]

Right. It makes sense that other people would be doing their own investigations. The more eyes on this place, the better.

Precisely. So no sense in getting too worked up just yet!

[Though really, he can't imagine that the meeting will reveal anything particularly useful.]

[He doesn't think so either, but he doesn't say so. Best not to voice doubts like that aloud, for the sake of people who aren't... well, cops.

And whatever the hell Yeager is.]

Not until the clock starts to run down, at any rate.

Ja, true enough. We'll see how it goes then, shall we?

[Of course, the meeting doesn't reveal anything of value, and instead turns into a shouting match because some people simply can't stand the thought of listening to anyone else. Everyone leaves feeling vaguely frustrated; they haven't discovered a way to escape, and it seems unlikely that any measures to prevent murder will be particularly effective. Yeager chimed in here or there, but mostly argued against the proposal of sharing a room with anyone; he likes his space and having anyone else in it is simply out of the question. So in the end, there's a small group determined to carry out patrols at night, but otherwise nothing has changed.

Well, at least until Friday morning, where they find a blood trail leading to the library. Within is one of the younger members of their group - Sayaka Maizono, stabbed through the chest.

They're ushered into a dark and foreboding courtroom and put through their paces; a trial to find Sayaka's murderer, where if they vote wrong, the killer will walk free and they'll all die. Yeager has nothing much of value to contribute aside from pointing out a few people who could be capable of such a precise stab wound, so he mostly watches as everything goes down.

While many people are greatly upset by Sayaka's death, it eventually comes to light that her killer was merely acting in self-defense, that she attacked him first, and he had to defend himself with one of the kitchen knives. Yes, he stabbed her and killed her, but was it truly his fault when she was the one who attempted to get the jump on him?

In the end, they aren't really allowed to consider that. They have to vote for the killer or they'll all be executed in his place. And so they vote for his title, and he's dragged off, beheaded before them in a brutal execution.

Some of the others have put together a gathering to try to get everyone out of their rooms after that. Yeager isn't particularly bothered - he liked Sayaka better than the killer, but she made her choice and died for it so he's hardly all that torn up about it - but he decides to see exactly what this gathering is like.

Clearly someone's been stress baking, because there's a lot of sweets to consume and plenty of tea. The hosts are out and about trying to greet everyone with a smile and some cheer, but it's obvious this is a strain on everyone. Yeager's taken up residence at a table, paging through one of those books he doesn't particularly care about reading.

Though really, he's keeping an eye on everyone present. He's curious about those who are taking this hard, after all; it's not every day you send someone off to die, after all.]

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