Day 7

[kentucky_mcgiygas]

Today we have something exciting for you, Mackentuckyfuckians! This is going to be a D-D-D-DOUBLE ROUND! That means each of you get TWO VOTES for the price of one! They can't be for the same person!

As for our immunity challenge, it's a game some of you may have heard of - Never Have I Ever! And in the spirit of McDouble Day, we're going to be awarding TWO immunities this week! DETAILS INSIDE!

((Vote here!
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PLOT-RELATED THREADS:

Hanzo leads the voting discussion
Ronald makes an announcement))

Comments

[very_good_end]

Indeed it was. A hidden tryst, if you will. I'd ask you for your and his motives... but I think you'd just misinterpret the question to bring up more irrelevant asides about the actual 'experience' as it is.

Suffice to say, were you offered any other favors in exchange for his... cooperation, Arataka-san? Something like 'help me vote someone else to death,' or 'ignore who I voted for in this round'?

[proficient_in_photoshop]

I really did not need to be asked for more than attending to that body, Erika-chan. Have you seen him? He was doing shirtless handstand push-ups earlier.

[very_good_end]

Well, perhaps you didn't need to be convinced to initiate the act, so to speak. But perhaps in the glow afterwards, when emotions are high, he asks a little favor of you, when you're in the mood to give it.

--Again, not a sexual one. One related to the game.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Erika~ no matter how you look at it, you're asking me for the steamy details! You gossip~ I'm embarrassed!

[very_good_end]

...No, you don't have that much shame.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Says the shameless gossip.

[very_good_end]

I seek the truth, Arataka-san.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Okay. The truth is, I hit that, because you could grill a quarter pounder with cheese on the heat off that man's body, and if I'm about to die, my last romantic act as a man isn't going to be turning a ninja down.

[very_good_end]

... [heeheehee]

You said something very interesting, just now, Arataka-san. Thank you for that new piece of information.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

...

Wait. No. I gotta know, tell me.

[very_good_end]

No, no. It was very relevant, after all. Thank you for taking us down this road.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Damn it, just tell me what the hell you're thinking, I do not follow. What, is pointless suspense a detective thing now too?

[very_good_end]

...You're right. I was hoping you could rub together your little grey cells, but I suppose it's impossible.

[sigh]

You mentioned assassins earlier. You mention ninjas now. You mention you have had an affair with Genji-san, the 'ninja'. Presumably, he is the 'assassin'.

Meaning, you have been sleeping with someone who you know commits the murder act as his profession, and are protecting him from being voted because of said relationship. --Rather than announce he is a murderer, 'numb to taking human lives,' as you said, as a matter of course, as Matt Engarde and Shiba Reiichirou were named.

Just from the act of listening to a little talk Arataka-san said while inebriated, this level of reasoning is possible for Furudo Erika.

...What do you think, everyone?

[proficient_in_photoshop]

What? No. There are multiple open killers here. Remember how I suspect you're a serial killer? I haven't gotten over that. And I think he should be voted out, because I think everyone should be voted out. Including myself. One at a time.

I don't care who's killed someone before. We're not hunting murderers here, we're ousting active killers because they're not giving us a choice, for some reason. I care if someone wants to kill someone now instead of just agreeing to non-lethally vote each other out.

[very_good_end]

Are there? Name them.

It's true, convict Prosecutor Simon Blackquill has been imprisoned and given the death penalty for murder... but the circumstances are suspect and his confession unconvincing. He is likely innocent of the crime.

Jesse McCree has claimed to be a bounty hunter, but... that's not quite the same, is it? Bounty hunters aren't assassins, neither do they necessarily kill their targets.

Mr. Rhys has claimed to have killed before, but in self-defense, in a setting where there is no actual law enforcement. I'm sure Fiona would claim the same thing.

Of course, there's the diminutive Hiei-san, who claims to be a demon who will freely kill when it suits him, but that can be laughed off as ridiculous.

That leaves Zelgadis Greywords, who claimed to be a 'sorcerer,' but there's no reason to connect him to murder either.

...That leaves both Shimada siblings. And Arch Priest Aqua, but she is ridiculous in everything she does.

And, really, if you're going to call me a killer, you need to have evidence, which there is none, because I have not killed. I'm the detective, after all. I cannot be the culprit.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Okay, you just listed every single person present. You asked me to name them, and then you named everybody here. Bounty Hunters are assassins, Rhys has seen piles of bodies, Fiona just essentially personally shanked Handsome Jack. So did two other people here.

Lady, I am just trying to brag about smooching the hottest guy you or I have ever seen. It is the nicest thing that has happened to me in this entire week of burning hell. Why are you making this into a whole thing. If you're seriously going to start trying to get people killed, I'm going to regret keeping you here.

[very_good_end]

Then vote me out.

Really. Go ahead. I'll volunteer for it, if I don't win immunity.

It'll be very hard to organize a completely unanimous vote as long as there are idiots willing to vote for me because of their dislike... including those lowlife Reynolds siblings, and that idiot Arch Priest Aqua. Not to mention Hiei.

But, really, this is irrelevant.

You really only had a physical relationship with him? Without any feeling?

...I don't buy it, Arataka-san. It takes a special type of personality to sleep with someone you don't care about, and you don't have that personality.

I think he's used you as a means of keeping suspicion away from himself. 'I'll sleep with the 'leader' who's organizing the votes, surely he'll never point out I'm a trained assassin who thinks nothing of killing people if I give him access to my ass,' which Arataka-san has continually asserted is worthy of his consideration.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Geez, you really sucked the fun out of this conversation.

Okay, Erika, you're right, you caught me. I don't want him to die and we're likely to cooperate. Neither of us wants to win. Good news for everybody. I'm sure this is shocking information. I still never said he was an assassin. The Shimada family's ninja history is completely public.

Also, did you seriously just say Hiei could be laughed off? Because I feel like that's a bad idea. His votes have been dangerous this whole time.

[very_good_end]

Finally.

See. I can believe it when you say you don't want to win, Arataka-san. Can I belive you believe it when you say Genji-san doesn't win? Perhaps. Can I believe Genji-san, who is numb to taking the lives of others, really doesn't want to win? ...Ah. Perhaps not.

Hiei-san is on the level of Arch Priest Aqua. I believe he was successfully cajoled with her into voting the 'right' way this time.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Uh. Where the hell are you getting that Genji is numb to taking the lives of others? He's a ninja. And the majority of people here are numb to taking lives. You are completely numb to death. Chill out.

[very_good_end]

[eyebrow raise]

From your own words, of course.

Yesterday.

"'How will I look my loved one in the face if I get people killed to conveniently save my own life.' ...Isn't that a basic concern everyone should be having?'

Then you added: "I mean, aside from assassins with a lifetime of training to be numb to taking lives, but they're the only ones with a professional excuse."

What would cause Arataka-san to say this as an example, I wonder?

It would only make sense if he heard someone describe themselves that way, or some way similar.

At the time, I could not narrow down who you meant by 'assassin,' but we've conceded it could only be the Shimada siblings, correct?

Furthermore, given you have been in the... shall we say, intimate embrace, of Genji-san, it makes sense he would tell you such information about himself.

Will you deny your own words, now, Arataka-san?

[proficient_in_photoshop]

Wh... I meant "assassin" in a general killer sense! Again: bounty hunter. How is that not an assassin? I've been asking McCree to do dirty work this whole time and he hasn't blinked.

And I can't believe you just said the words "intimate embrace" without them shriveling in your mouth before you coughed them up.

[very_good_end]

Did you? ...I don't think you did.

On the contrary, I think you're desperately trying to change the subject.

[proficient_in_photoshop]

[increasingly irritated and unimpressed.]

You also think Hiei should be laughed off when he's openly admitted to throwing an odd vote.

This is interesting, though. I've been honest this entire time. I want everybody out of here, clean track record or not, with as little death as possible. I've only agreed to kill in the last two round to defend the lives of others. But you seem immediately eager to find reasons to start picking people off, one by one, for the sake of your mystery fantasy. And the first person you seem to be going after is the guy I sleep with? If he wanted to invest in somebody to help him win, he wouldn't pick the guy desperate to leave the moment everyone noncompetitive is out. I'm afraid we were just looking to escape for a little bit, Furudo. I don't know what the fuck you're looking for.

[very_good_end]

Oh, don't misunderstand. I don't mean Hiei-san's voting record. I mean his claims of being a demon. He's obviously just a child playing pretend. I believe he was a non-voter the first round and his second round vote was for Prosecutor Blackquill, because 'he irritated him,' as he claimed. But, unless he admits he was the vote for myself the third round, it's proof he can be cajoled into voting properly. I suppose it follows his 'demon logic' doesn't it? Yelling at him 'vote this way or there's consequences you little shit,' was a lot more of a motivator than whatever Mr. Blackquill said to him. Unless he does claim responsibility for my vote, he's still a lesser risk than Arch Priest Aqua, who was willing to go against the group twice in a row, even when confronted. They're both risks, obviously, but there's a rank there.

At any rate, do you remember how I said the killers from now on were going to be 'hard mode' or harder? ...The 'assassins' so to speak are proof of that. Mr. McCree, and the Shimada siblings have all admitted to being from the same setting. They likely are all killers. In which case, we can judge their future actions by their current behavior.

Mr. McCree will continue to sit on his barstool and drink. Good for him. He's claimed he doesn't care about his prize, because it is a physical impossibility for him. He might actually have meant it.

Hanzo-san is at least making pretensions of cooperating and organizing a vote. ...Don't get me wrong, there's ample evidence not to trust him, of course, but that foot hasn't fallen yet.

Then there's Genji-san, who has claimed he was a non-voter the first round, lied about his name when we first met, and further was very evasive when I tried to ask him if his long term goal was to win the game. ...Now I hear he has a sexual relationship with the very important for organizing the votes Arataka-san. Am I really to believe this was just a 'fling', with no ulterior motives? He's obviously using you and playing around with your feelings so he won't be voted. His voting record is suspect, his personal character is suspect, and his relationship with you seems very manipulative, indeed.

And really. Don't accuse me of trying to 'find people to kill.' I've already said I'll volunteer to be voted out, didn't I? It will be truly disappointing for my investigation to come to an end like this... but I have no chance of winning a popularity contest, for obvious reasons.