soulping | TAKSHAKA

- You’re a sheep! You have no idea who the other sheep teams are. The goal of the sheep is to vote out the two wolf teams before the wolves can kill everyone, while not dying yourselves.

- You have your very own team voting account (

teamtakshaka / PASSWORD: T@ksh@ka) that you need to use for voting! This is so any member of the team can change the team’s vote at any time. Use this for ALL the polls.

- You can use this private team post to talk with your team for the entire time you’re alive.

- Two posts will go up in the main community every day until the game is won.

- The first post is a “day” post that will go up in the main community. This post is a mingle for all currently alive teams to talk to each other, discuss, accuse, strategize, etc. In public.

- It also has a “Which team is the most suspicious?” poll. Each team gets to place one vote in this poll. The two teams with the most votes by 6pm will be facing off in the dusk execution post, and one of them will die.

- Use your special team account to vote. Who your team voted on is hidden to everyone else, so feel free to lie about your actions.

- Voting will be frozen at 6pm sharp. Failure to vote may lead to votes being randomly placed by the Yaksinis, and voting ties will be solved with coinflips.

You may notice these posts are put up with my ‘March’ journal. Don’t pay attention to that, I just needed the paid polls feature.

- Then a “dusk post” happens in the main community with another poll. This poll has only two teams: The two teams that were voted most suspicious in the day post.

- In this poll, teams will be choosing who lives and who dies. The team with the most votes will be executed by the Yaksinis. Like the “day” poll, you have to use your custom team account to vote.

- Voting is public! Everyone will be able to see which team you voted on, and vice versa.

- But if you’re one of the teams up for execution, you can’t vote. Your job is to convince people not to kill you.

- If your team is executed, you won’t be able to participate further in the game, and you’ll be sent to an afterlife post to hang out with the other dead teams until the game is over!

- When “Night” happens, there won’t be a public post. Instead, you’ll find a comment on this private team post titled “Night.”

- During this period, you don’t have anything to do and can just talk. However, the wolves will be picking a sheep to kill. If you turn out to be that sheep, you’ll be killed in this post and it’s off to the afterlife post with you.

Need something OOCly clarified, player to player? Go ahead and ask here, I'll get to you ASAP!

[If you require the Yaksinis, in all her terrible glory, just shout. But be careful... She's very hungry.]

I don't know who to vote for...

Neither do I. No one I've talked to seems suspicious. Everyone's angry.

[abruptly]

I don't want to think of anyone as enemies. I don't want to see anyone in the gallows.

Neither do I, no one deserves it!

I told Robin something, out there.

If we throw this game, we'll hurt more people than just us. You can feel it too, right? She doesn't want us to play that way. It'll ruin her fun, so she'll kill us and another team too.

But that's just it. "She doesn't want us to play that way." She wants us to cast suspicion, and vote, and stare mistrustfully at the other teams...for her fun, and our memories. And if we show her we'll obey, she can do it again, and again, and the other Echoes with her, perhaps.

Then maybe we should throw the game, and accept the consequences. Even if it makes us into villains. Even if others hurt because of it. Because that might stop it from happening again in the future--

[his voice cracks a little; he's obviously distressed by this suggestion even as he makes it]

...

[ her stomach drops, and her heart breaks. she can't imagine how much it must hurt to suggest that. ]

I... I can't. I can't ask someone else to die for us like that.

[ Sparrow rubs at her eyes to keep the tears away, and thinks of Eveningstar, Liter, Lupus, Roxy, and Hydra. ]

If it was only us who would die, I could... I could do it. But not if it kills someone who doesn't want to die.

...We could vote for ourselves, instead.

It'd be easy if it were only us, right? That's how we are.

[a sad little grin]

But Sparrow, isn't voting for ourselves also breaking that rule?

...Right. Right, I forgot that.

[ how could she have forgotten something so important? she takes a deep, shuddering breath and tries to force herself to calm down.

panic won't help anyone. worry won't help anyone. she needs to think clearly, and keep a level head. ]

Who do you think is the least suspicious team?

[makes a small pained noise, then--shakes his head a little. His eyes get kind of blank, like he's shut down something inside of him. When he speaks again, his voice is calm.]

I only spoke to members of Ometotchtli, Epona, and Ratatoskr. Both the rabbits and the rat said things that could be seen as suspicious. Liter was more resigned than I'd expect a sheep to be, and Robin made what might've been a slip of the tongue suggesting she knows the wolf's role.

...That's normal for Liter. Remember Rotten-sama's game? He expected Ometotchtli would be targeted.

[ she tries to lean against him, needing something to keep her rooted. ]

...I think Roxy would understand, if we voted for Ratatoskr.

You're right. And the other rabbit seemed really distressed.

All right. I hate to betray her, but if Ratatoskr really is a wolf, she'll be glad we figured it out quickly.

Yeah... And if not... We can apologize for suspecting them.

[and after the results are in, coming back into the cabin with a blank, serious face]

I see. It came out poorly in the end. I still think the rats are the only wolves I can tell.

But for this vote, I'd pick the goats to spite the rabbits' poor luck. That's a rotten reason, but it's all I've got.

...Blaze is at this game.

[ she says it quietly, face red and streaked with tears.

Blaze, the one who was definitely too young to die. Blaze who cried from fear after the Rotten's game.

but then she thinks of Liter, and she knows she can't allow Ometotchtli to die again. ]

The kid?

[his eyes growing slightly more blank]

The others will suffer just as much. Youth doesn't make him more or less innocent.

Maybe not, but it doesn't make it less horrible for him to be here.

It's horrible for everyone to be here.

[after a moment's thought]

I'm not entirely convinced Ometotchtli aren't wolves after all.

[ she sucks in a deep breath, like she was punched ]

I believe in them.

Sparrow, what would you have done if we'd been picked to be wolves?

I would have tried to get people to vote for us somehow.

And that would have counted as sabotage, and we'd have gone down along with another team close to us.

Hmm, but that would only be if we were obvious about it, right? Robin's clever, so I wonder if she left me small hints deliberately, hoping I would notice--

[shaking his head and sighing]

If not, the wolves might kill us tonight. I almost hope they do, selfishly, but then there's no more chance to stop any more suffering. Ah, I can't think. Let's pick Amalthea. I'll do it for you if you can't bear to.

[ she reaches to hold his hand again. ]

I'll do it with you. We're family, right? So, I won't let you do it alone.

[ even if it hurts, even if it's painful and feels like betraying herself. ]

...all right.

Ah, there's one more thing.

If the wolves are playing to win, they will probably kill us first.

...

[ she just nods. she doesn't want to die, she doesn't want Swan to die, but she doesn't want anyone else to die either. ]

We're the heroes who saved the day last time things seemed bad. People listen to us. We're the biggest threat to the wolves.

Oh.

Being heroes...carries risks, too.

Worthwhile ones, right? If people see us as a threat, it means we're effective.

[ i'm still crying because i am a mess and cannot fathom picking either of those teams ]

TAKSHAKA

HOW TO PLAY

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DUSK

NIGHT

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DUSK 1