vivarium | ambidex voting #8

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ambidex voting #8

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well that didn't take very long. He does glance down at Heiji briefly, but finds he can't even maintain eye contact without feeling guilty. Instead, he tucks his chin behind his arms, looking away.

"...I thought they'd pick betray." It's just barely loud enough to carry to Heiji's place on the ground. That's the response that made the most sense, isn't it? Someone who has a history of attacking people, someone who has stabbed you in that very room - how could you trust someone like that?

"And you still picked Ally, huh?" Heiji climbed right up into the tree, sticking to the lowermost branch because he wasn't sure how it'd do with their combined weight. "You've sure got some guts."

Yeah, that's right. Heiji's response to thinking you were going to get betrayed and voting Ally anyway was BADASS, MAN. He did, however, look concerned that Sasuke was looking so down about it. "Uh... wait, are you down because you thought they were going to betray you and they didn't? Or...?"

He honestly isn't even sure anymore. If they had picked betray, that would have been fine - deserved, even. He wasn't about to try to defend himself from losing points when he was the one acting suspiciously to begin with.

Though of course Heiji had no idea what happened, so saying that much was moot right now. He takes a short breath, shaking his head.

"--I attacked Zelos in there. And apparently... I tried to stab my brother once, too." So. Yeah. It would be completely understandable if that particular bridge was burned.

"Wait, what?" Yeah, that. Heiji hadn't been expecting that one. In fact, he nearly lost his grip on the tree limb, though with some quick thinking and a little scrabbling he managed to right himself before he fell over and contributed more to Sasuke's bloody aftermath.

Any danger to himself was quickly forgotten, though. He held up a hand, using the other to rub at his temple. "Okay. Back that up for me. Was it another one of those things where he surprised you?"

He gives a start when Heiji looks like he's about to fall, even shifting a bit as if he were going to try to grab him before he could topple. Though from his current position, he probably wouldn't have been able to make it even if he'd made the attempt...

However, once Heiji's clearly safe, he settles back into place, looking away again.

"No. It's the room. Calhoun makes you play truth or dare. When I asked for another truth, he dared me to stab someone instead."

And he actually did it. And he hates himself for how easily he had given in. Maybe it would have been better to turn that knife on Calhoun after all - at least he would have gone down fighting instead of acting the coward.

"That's not even allowed in truth or dare!" protested Heiji because that was really the first thing that came to his mind.

"...Okay, yeah, that's kinda bad. But... Zelos let you do it?" Because he hadn't thought Zelos would take a knife for anyone, man.

He shakes his head. Heiji guessed rightly; it hadn't been willingly. But Sasuke is fast when he wants to be, and he clearly knows how to handle a knife.

...Wow that got awkward fast.

Edited 2014-10-26 22:53 (UTC)

"Did you... at least aim for something nonvital?" Like Heiji wasn't Zelos's #1 fan here, but he still didn't want the guy to get stabbed jeez louise

"His leg." Calhoun had demanded an actual stab, not just a scratch. But all the same, maybe there was some other way he could have curbed the pain or... or something.

Well... at least it wasn't his face? Zelos seemed rather particular about his face.

"That's pretty rough. But if they still voted with ya anyway, I guess they must have understood that you didn't want to do it. Like... you probably did it under duress, right? I mean, I'm assuming he was holding something over your head. Not that that really changes the fact that you stabbed him..."

Heiji rubbed at the back of his neck. Sorry Sasuke, there really wasn't that much he could work with here. You did stab a dude, after all. "Sorry, I'm probably not makin' ya feel any better. Um... so. There are a bunch of people here that've been making some pretty questionable decisions. I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that in situations like this, people do things they wouldn't ever do normally. Like if he'd just met Clive on the street, I don't think Zelos would've voted to starve him. You know? But that's what ended up happening in this game. Because it's designed to make people turn on each other."

"I don't know what it's like to be in the position you were in, but... now that you know what you decided to do in the past, you can decide how that affects you in the future, right? Like the next time it happens, you can tell Calhoun to shove it if you want."

That or his hair. Zelos would have probably killed him in return if anything happened to his hair.

"He wouldn't have let us out otherwise." But that just makes it sound like he's trying to find an excuse for what he did...

He releases a short sigh, running a hand over his face. "If he wants revenge for what I did, that's fine." Sasuke had chosen to go for him out of the simple fact that Ema was still recovering from her own injuries - it wasn't fair to him in the slightest.

"You... did you vote Ally because you wanted them to vote Betray on you?"

What the hell, man? Didn't Sasuke care if something happened to him? Like stabbing Zelos wasn't right but...

...

"Maybe it would have been better if they did."

What. The hell? Heiji stood up on the tree branch purely without thinking, which set him once again wobbling to try and maintain his balance.

"How can ya say that? I ain't agreein' with what you did, but... don't you care about what happens to you?"

"Losing two BP wouldn't hurt me that much." He'd be down to nine - big deal, he could still eat. "He'd have his revenge, and they'd both be closer to medical kits and dorm access."

So. No, not really.

"That's not what I'm talkin' about!" said Heiji. "Look, you stabbed Zelos because Calhoun said ya had to. Then you voted Ally because you felt ya had to. That time with Simon, too -- I figured you were just hidin' that cut because you ain't trust me or something, but you did it to keep from upsetting Simon, didn't you?"

"This is your life we're talking about! You're not gonna get another one. Everyone else is trying their best to keep going -- you really okay just sittin' back and letting things happen to you? You're important, too, you know! You dunno who's waiting on the outside, worried about you!"

His head dips slightly with a small frown when Heiji mentions the cut. Perhaps unconsciously, he gives his hand a few tentative flexes. He hadn't really wanted to give the impression of distrust then but... He hadn't wanted to worry the others, either.

It's only once Heiji's finished speaking that he quickly shoots back: "Besides a brother I tried to stab, too." He's sure that one went over well, no matter what the context was.

"...It's fine. I don't plan to die, but I can survive with what I have already. There shouldn't be a problem with that, right?" Hershel had brought it up before; the low chances of any of them really being able to escape once they had enough points to open the number nine door. He wasn't in any particular hurry to earn points - losing a couple wasn't much of a concern, either.

Heiji sighed, lifted his cap off of his head, and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, besides him. I admit I don't know what the story behind that is.

"It's just... sooner or later, I think you're going to have to make a choice, and it's going to be even harder than this one. You might need to choose between two people, or something even worse. And you might not be able to just make up for it by givin' up a few BP.

"If it was me, I'd wanna own every decision that I made in here. Because if I ever do hurt someone, then that person deserves to know that I did it for a reason -- 'cause I did what I thought was right.

"...Anyway, I don't know what happened to you or your brother, but I think you deserve just as much as the rest of us."

"...The others might not agree with that." Even without counting Zelos, he's pretty sure Clive still hates him after the thing with Snake. And given what kind of a game they're all participating in, that's a whole issue in of itself.

He huddles in his spot, still frankly uneasy about everything, even if it shows up muted at best from what can be seen his expression. "If I have to make a choice, I'll... figure something out." Who knows; maybe he really will have the courage to go for Calhoun one day.

"Yeah, well," said Heiji, settling back down on his tree branch and somehow managing to lean almost full-body against it, like it was a damn hammock or something. "That's their opinion. A life is a life."

He let out a quick puff of air that was not quite a laugh. "Man. I really had you pegged wrong. So why'd you stab Yuusuke, anyway? You get in a fight?"

"...I have no idea. That's just what Calhoun said when I asked for a truth the first time." He should probably take it with a grain of salt, and he does realize that, but the combination of everything that's been happening recently concerning knives has him on edge. He'd tried to deny it while he was in the room, but... was it really so impossible that he could have pulled a knife on Yuusuke at some point?

"What, so he ain't even have proof?" Heiji seemed outright offended by this idea. "What kind of lazy accusation is that? At least back when he was blackmailin' half of the people here, he had some kind of evidence like they actually did what he was saying. Even if it was probably cherry-picked."

He half thought about telling Sasuke about that ridiculous mud Calhoun had slung at Hershel, only he'd promised not to, no matter how ridiculous it was. "Well, I guess the take-home is to pick 'truth', huh? Wonder what he's gonna come up with for me."

Maybe one time Heiji had seen a granny about to cross the street, and he hadn't offered to help her. HISTORY'S GREATEST MONSTER

"That's what I was trying to do. Hopefully yours will go better." Sasuke really isn't stupid enough to give Calhoun a chance to order him around, but... Calhoun is also a dirty little cheater, go figure.

"-He actually showed you evidence back then?"

"Yeah," said Heiji. "But I promised not to tell anyone about the specifics, so if you wanna know those, you gotta ask around yourself. I'd say the evidence was.... hmm. I guess it was convincing enough that you might believe it if it was presented to you personally. But it was secondhand at best. Wouldn't hold up in any court."

In other words, it wasn't good enough for Heiji.

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