AMALTHEA

[soulping]

You step into a small airy room made entirely of porcelain and frosted glass. Squishy armchairs — the old fashioned type; pretty velvet affairs with patterns of roses in your team’s color and legs of dark wood — line the walls.

Pride of place in the center of the room is a table, upon which rests: a list of instructions; a spread of cards; and a box made out of mirrored glass with eleven slits in the top. Each slit is outlined in a team color.

Beyond the table is a huge, floor to ceiling hourglass. A certain number of blood red crystals reside at the bottom ...

Comments

ROUND 1

[soulping]

Bank: 15
Hand:
Steal all of the food (4)
Remove a limb (9)
Remove an eye (7)
Remove an eye (7)
Slow Kill (10)
Remove a limb (9)

DISCUSSION

[soulping]

DECISION

[soulping]

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

This game again.

[ Looking over those cards, and.

Ha even the lowest one is like one of Rook's bad pings.

Also Nyssa ur choice in pattern is SHIT. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[forthemackerel]

[ stares at the cards ]

You've been through this before?

Re: DISCUSSION

[goodbyenurse]

...Rook?

I have an idea. We should play the ones that require the most energy expenditure on Nyssa's part.

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

The choices in cards weren't quite as extreme, but still had some that were uncomfortable.

If the ticket is the same, that means it's something that, at the end of the game, ups our chances of winning.

Re: DISCUSSION

[forthemackerel]

This isn't any way to win.

Re: DISCUSSION

[bypastime]

[Reading over the cards slowly, color draining from her face.]

Only one of them is even...how are we supposed to play these...?

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

She'll still probably be getting back more than she puts out for them.

[ And somehow he figures Nyssa torturing people is so old hat by now that it hardly takes up much of her energy at all. ]

I don't mind doing that since we have a big enough rotation to alternate between. But what the others wants to do is important to find out first.

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

No ... it's not.

But these games aren't about winning.

Re: DISCUSSION

[goodbyenurse]

Of course.

I was thinking stealing all of someone's food. For it to be meaningful, she has to block off a patron echo--no easy feat, to say the least.

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

... I know. No matter what we do, it's not going to end well.

Re: DISCUSSION

[forthemackerel]

They're about protecting those that are important, right?

Re: DISCUSSION

[forthemackerel]

It isn't fair for anyone.

Re: DISCUSSION

[bypastime]

There has to be a way to figure it out!

Like this one, um..."stealing their food"...what does that mean? From their dorms? Can she even do that...?

Re: DISCUSSION

[bypastime]

But...there, there has to be one outcome that's best. It's not a game if there's no way to win! We just need to find it!

[STARING AT THE CARDS INTENTLY as though she can magically make them change into something less horrid.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[forthemackerel]

We can win, but that might not be pleasant. It's more about surviving.

The important thing is to protect our team and allies the best we can.

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

That's assuming it's something that'll happen out of the game instead of it translating into something like an effect. Like in Nafuna's game that time.

[ Looking around. ]

I wonder if she'd give us an answer without being vague or stupid about it.

Re: DISCUSSION

[goodbyenurse]

...You could ask.

[...]

This time, I will relegate the decision making to your discretion.

[Since last time. I got. A little jerkish.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[bypastime]

No, I...I know that. If we just end up hurting everyone, then, I...I don't...I couldn't consider something like that 'winning.'

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

Right. And deciding what you want to do to protect yourself for them.

So, what do you want to do, Cascade? In terms of playing ... how many cards, and how high, which ... ones to choose if you want to even do that.

Re: DISCUSSION

[unguilded]

I'm not sure. We'll have to ask her-- assuming she'll give us a straight answer. And if she does do that, we'd have to make sure we repayed whoever we chose back for it later, if we can't return it to them.

Re: DISCUSSION

[forthemackerel]

I agree. I'd rather aim to save as many people as we can than aim for shards.

Re: DISCUSSION

[bypastime]

Of course, of course! But, well, if that is what it means...I mean, compared to the others, that one's not really bad at all.