ambidex voting #8

[vivariummods]

A M B I D E X  V O T I N G Chop chop, everyone downstairs to the first floor! You're all done the puzzle rooms, so you know what to do. Well, most of you, but it's pretty basic, just enter any Ambidex Room you like (they're not elevators, you ignorant test subjects) then vote! How does voting work? Very simple! Pick Ally or Betray, and that's it! But with every round, there's always some prizes, depending on what you vote, so here's this rounds: For anyone who chooses Ally, well, if your opponent chooses Ally as well, then 2BP for each of you. You get all that friendship, blah blah, whatever. For anyone who chooses Betray, and gets a Betray in return, your BP doesn't change at all, but you might get some coins for your trouble, let's saaaay, 20? Generous, I know. Now, the best part: for anyone who chooses Betray and their opponent chooses Ally, Calhoun will be very generous with his prizes, again! You'll get 15 coins and a memory! Also, as usual, those who pick Betray get 3BP instead of just 2. But if you're the poor sap that chose Ally and got stabbed in the back, well, sorry, you lose 2 BP. At least you got stabbed for the greater good, right? And plus, you might get a little something. He'll talk to you later about it. But anyway, happy voting! Calhoun will see all of you later with the results. BASIC INFO ✖ VOTES + FORMS ✖ RESULTS + REACTIONS

Comments

[puzzlinglad]

[Yeah, that's pretty much his life. So this is what Heiji was talking about. Poor Sasuke, jesus, Hershel just regarded him a few more moments before resolving himself.]

We don't know what that means, or what the context is. I know it doesn't sound like it can be anything but horrible but- [He paused, struggling with how to word this.] That's probably what Calhoun wants, it's easier to be scared of something if you fill in the blanks yourself with the worst possible conclusions. He's done this before too, with all that motive nonsense.

[puzzlinglad]

"That's basically his angle, I imagine." He said with a small smile. "For once his height wouldn't work in his advantage, though he's probably just put people in 'time out' as a protest anyway."

But back to morality. "That's what I thought." Hershel answered, almost a little relieved. "Honestly I don't think it's right to decide that the injured man's life is worth less simply because he's the easiest one to sacrifice. He could have a stronger will to live than anyone, he should be allowed to be part of the decision on what needs to be done."

"I guess ultimately the point is someone has to die there for everyone else to live." He glanced heavily away. Rough shit. "That's why the room was unpleasant. The last question was one of the worst."

[not_that_sasuke]

Heiji said something like that too-

[...Wait.]

--He didn't ask you to find me, did he?

[This is the worst. Entirely predictable, considering Heiji said he would do as much, but still the worst.]

[puzzlinglad]

[Have a small smile, sorry dude.] Not exactly, but he knew I'd want to find you I'm sure. He mentioned you went through something rough in your puzzle room but not much more than that, you know how he is. He can be a bit on the nosy side. [He shook his head.] I'm probably not much better, it's just... you are our friend, you know that, don't you?

If you want I can leave you be but- well, there's something I want to tell you about, if you'd be alright with that. It has to do with the motives Calhoun gave us before you came in.

[eeeek]

We're affected by our pasts, sure, but they don't define who we are. It doesn't matter why you know how to do the things you can do, it just... matters how you choose to use those skills now that you're here.

Like, take this whole truth or dare thing - you did something bad 'cause Calhoun made you do it. That sucks, but now you know you shouldn't ever let him bully you into doing something you don't want to do. If nothing else, it's been a learning experience, and now you know how you need to behave in future grey rooms. You can treat this whole knife thing the same way - if you know how to use knives as a weapon, then you've probably got good reflexes, which is a skill you can use to help people avoid traps in puzzle rooms. You don't have to be dangerous. Take what you need to take from the past and apply it to the future without letting everything weigh you down.

[He's not sure if he's getting through to Sasuke, but...]

You, um - you mentioned you wanted two truths, right? So... you had at least one? Was that related to all of this?

[detectiveofthewest]

"The one about letting your loved one die?" asked Heiji. "That's not really anyone's choice to make, though. It's the person who's sick. Though I'm sure whatever you picked would take their feelings into account."

As they reached the garden, Heiji pointed to the small table with chairs. "Let's set up over there, yeah?"

[puzzlinglad]

"It would have been easy if we could know what the person wanted, but I guess the point was you don't." Hershel answered. "You know, in a way I wonder if the real reason for that room was to stir up trouble, maybe make people turn against each other. I'm glad it didn't seem to work if that is the case."

He nodded before heading over, pulling out a chair for Heiji and smiling a bit. "Do you want to go first?"

[detectiveofthewest]

"Sure," said Heiji, sitting down in the chair without much fuss. Apparently he trusted Hershel not to make this a bloodbath.

"I thought Snake and I would disagree more, but we actually agreed on a lot." He seemed rather happy about this. "'Course, Clive was out at the time, so we didn't get to hear what he thought."

[detectiveofthewest]

"That so?" Heiji paused for a moment, as if trying to decide whether Sasuke was telling the truth or not, but it was like basically impossible so...

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. Guess that's about all I wanted to ask, so... don't spend all day hiding up here."

[blind_badass]

*Snake pauses at whatever Hershel is doing because a) It sounds weird and b) he has no idea who it is because they are neither speaking or walking around. So Snake just looks a little confused.*

[blind_badass]

I'm not sure but judging from what I heard from both him and Enjolras, each of them seems to have some kind of...beef with the other, for lack of a better term. Sort of like Clive and Zelos.

[puzzlinglad]

[It takes Hershel a moment and a few loud snips and rips as he cuts this thing up before he notices Snake, sounding almost embarrassed.]

Ah, Snake, hello, how are you? [... this must have sounded weird.] Ah, sorry, there were a few lab coats in our puzzle room so I took one. I'm making clean bandages out of it- or as clean as it will let me.

[blind_badass]

Hello there. *He cants his head and frowns.* What's wrong? You sound troubled.

[puzzlinglad]

He'll try not to casually stab your eye out, even though eye patches were pretty rad. Heiji could be really dramatic detective then. Hershel grabbed the scissors from his sewing kit, regarding Heiji's hair for a moment as he tried to remember what it used to look like. "Do you want it much shorter or just a trim?" Boy he hoped he didn't ruin Heiji's hair...

He couldn't help a smile. "It helps to go in with someone you know like that. I trust Ema and Jake with my life, so even when we didn't agree it never felt hostile, really, just differences of opinion. I imagine it wouldn't be all that different for you and Snake." He paused. "It's an interesting coincidence, isn't it? You were in that room with the person you woke up in the elevator with, I was with the first team I went through a puzzle room with. I wonder if that was intentional at all."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Just a trim. Don't worry too much; you'll get all tense and end up messing up. You know, just go with it!" Yes... great haircutting advice. But at least Heiji's hair was pretty hard to mess up on.

Don't say it like that, ok Hershel

"I'm not sure. Though if we were going with the original teams thing, we were missin' Zelos..."

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji frowned a little. "Well... to tell you the truth, Enjolras is kind of annoying. But Kuzuryuu ain't seem like the kind of guy to make his decision just based on that. Maybe somethin' happened during the sixth round?"

He'd just have to look into this a bit further. "I'm glad he didn't have a problem with you, though. Actually, I wouldn't mind bein' on a team with him again. I can kinda understand where he's coming from."

[blind_badass]

I didn't realize that the other two members of my team seem to have some kind of disagreement with each other. I'm not sure what the details are but I could tell by the tones of their voices.

[blind_badass]

Oh, is that what you're doing? I...was a bit confused about what I heard.

[puzzlinglad]

Yes, I imagine it sounded a little alarming. [People were just hulking out or something.] How did your room go? I know Kuzuryuu isn't Mr. Enjolras's biggest fan so I'm not too surprised to see the results.

[puzzlinglad]

"I didn't realize you had haircutting knowledge." Hershel teased but it was pretty good advice, so he'll take it. He started snipping here and there, trying to make sure everything was even and not a wonky mess. It was a puzzle or something, fifteen picarats.

"True... the other teams don't follow the pattern either, really." Then again Clive's original team was gone, whoops. He frowned a bit at that, he was kind of worried the whole fainting thing stressed Clive out and reminded him of that but hey, he'd go make sure Clive was okay later. Haircutting now. "I guess it is all random, or seems so. I still can't understand why we were chosen for this at all. Simon was telling me after the robot fiasco that he thinks he's here to... well, fail, I suppose, as if we were all individually chosen to add something different to the group."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Guess it's possible," said Heiji as Hershel started to snip away. "In a game like this, even a small change in the makeup of the group makes a huge amount of difference in the way the rounds shake out. One action leads to another, creating a chain of events..."

He looked over at the trees. "If Jake hadn't betrayed Clive, maybe Zelos wouldn't have betrayed Jake and Clive. Then Clive would have had no reason to betray Piper."

[puzzlinglad]

Snip snip snip. "It definitely has been that way, hasn't it? I think back to those first three rounds a lot, if Ema hadn't told me to try to live in a way I'd be proud of I don't know if I would have argued for allying with Jake, and... well that would have went poorly." Hershel answered after a thoughtful pause. "If you hadn't been the way you are I don't know if anyone else would have agreed to allying at that point either."

"Everything's been built from such little details, the good and the bad. Still, I don't want to believe Simon's right in thinking he's here as some sacrificial lamb for the sake of whatever this game really is. There has to be more than that." Or so he hoped.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji looked amused. "So what you're sayin' is, I'm a huge thorn in Zero's side? I'm okay with that. But you are, too, y'know."

He yawned a little. "Everyone's got their own strengths and weaknesses. But as for Simon, I don't think he's as hopeless as he always says. He got this far, right? Even people who look weak on the outside can surprise themselves."

[vengefulyears]

"You were worried about Snake, weren't you?" Don't think he didn't hear that conversation in the generator. "Forget about me, did you check up on Snake?" Because if not, he should go do that and leave Clive to be sad moe trash in peace.

[detectiveofthewest]

"Well, yeah, I mean -- weren't you? I've never seen him freak out like that before, and he's been avoidin' all of us lately. He seems okay now, though. I told him to take it easy and not worry too much about looking cool or whatever."

It was of course just normal friendly concern, nothing to see here moving along.