Whispers of The Dark Group 6

The rest of the game happened in a bit of a blur, as bad weather rained down on them, thanks to Prat, and Avery shuddered a bit. Wow, the dueling captain was really keeping up with the theme of the game while practicing a bit of spellcasting on them, huh?

When the gust of hot air came out of Prat's wand at last, Avery's little brain was nicely defrosted and back to floating in his own head. The lights came on one last time, and Avery stepped into the light as their ruthless murderer with a half-sheepish, half-self satisfied little grin. "Ta-da!" he spun a little with outstretched arms, theatrically, and took a bow. "Did you guys think it was me?" he asked coyly, hoping to elicit a few dramatic responses of 'Darn, I knew it!' or 'Oh hell nah!'

Maisie, with a bit of quick thinking in response to his musings about what the murderer was thinking, had illustrated to the group exactly what he had been thinking: He had picked off the quieter ones first. After Aurelie, he had to murder Peter, because people knew that Peter would not murder his own and only friend in the first round, if he could help it. Why keep someone around who everyone could guess was innocent? Then, when Avery shot Peter but the doctor was around to heal him, he knew he had to get rid of the doctor to increase his odds of murdering success in subsequent rounds. He couldn't have the physician screwing up his murder attempts again, no sir.

From then onwards, he felt the group's suspicion move towards Yolanda/Maria due to her evasiveness at answering any questions directed towards her. If that made her suspicious, he was all for her digging her own metaphorical grave. Maisie was right again, here: He had considered killing Yolanda next, just to keep the remaining people in the game who already happened to know each other from the quidditch match, perhaps at an attempt to stir up a bit more drama, but Yolanda seemed way too good of an option to keep everyone off his tail. Keeping her in the game would only protect himself.

"Maisie... you seemed to know how my mind worked, too well," he said with a bit of quiet appreciation. "I felt that you and Mamori would've come to the conclusion together that it was me, sooner or later, so you definitely had to go earlier than I'd liked!" He hadn't expected any less from his quidditch teammate from that epic impromptu game, in which their teamwork had worked surprisingly well. He always ended up having a bit of a soft spot for those he played quidditch with, as it was with his Slytherin teammates. Those who'd been through hell together and back.

"Mamori, you also had some good ideas," Avery said with his brows raised in the boy's direction. "When you said 'the killer would want us all to get along', I realized: that's actually how I was feeling!" Though, a small part of him also wanted to incite some serious discussion with his questions, just to see where it would lead everyone. After all, the killer made the game, didn't they? He wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing -- what kind of boring game would that make, when he could make it something more exciting? Perhaps he really should've shot himself when he had the chance, which was quite true to his flair for dramatics. He would've loved to see everyone fuss over a bullet wound in his leg, even if it meant taking the risk of accidentally shooting himself somewhere vital.

"Anyhow, I think it was a great game, guys. How'd you guys feel about it? Better luck next time, eh?" he asked with a wink at the group. Not a bad game at all, if he had to say so himself. "Thanks for hosting, Prat and Noah!"

Peter Smith (@Brookline Quinn), Aurelie Duval (@Ophelia Northwell), @ Lucian Allum, @ Mamori Anezaki, @ Maisie Gemmell, @ Yolanda Yates, @ Eonaria Kabukimono, @Prat Pass, @Noah Jupe

She was dead, which was not exactly fun, but it did take the stress off in the final moments of this charade. Still, seeing Mamori alone trying to figure it out was somewhat disheartening.

But in time, it would all come to a stop. As the lights came up for the final time, the answer became clear: Avery had been their killer. "I didn't know," she answered flatly. Her thinking had been more strategy focused. And it was a strategy, apparently, that was right on target: "Maisie... you seemed to know how my mind worked, too well. I felt that you and Mamori would've come to the conclusion together that it was me, sooner or later, so you definitely had to go earlier than I'd liked!" He almost seemed impressed. Nodding, she replied, "Thanks." In this moment of respect, she couldn't help but feel like Avery was a good sport. And that was exactly what she'd come to expect of him as a teammate.

And then she turned to Mamori, "Seems we make a great team." A hand extended, she moved to shake his hand. Despite being on opposite sides on the Quidditch pitch earlier in the term, Mamori was very astute, a quality Maisie appreciated, and he seemed like a decent person on top of that.

As everything seemed to be wrapping up, she turned back to Avery, adding, "You really think I was close? I didn't always feel close, just following patterns..." Her voice trailed off as she looked across to Lucian. In the early moments, she thought they were looking for those answers together, but he's grown silent. Maybe that's just how he was—strong and silent—in a sharp contrast to her friendly, solutions-oriented behavior. What a mystery. "Are you going back to the gala?" she queried.

As the seconds ticked on by, she dusted off her dress, which had gotten dirty from the moment she'd fallen down on the ground 'dead.' Then, she echo'd Avery's call: "Thanks, Noah and Prat! This was neat." Well, messy actually, but fun all the same.

Peter Smith (@Brookline Quinn), Aurelie Duval (@Ophelia Northwell), @Lucian Allum, @Mamori Anezaki, @Avery Chen, @Yolanda Yates, @Eonaria Kabukimono, @@Prat Pass, @Noah Jupe

IC Time: October 19th, 2024

XXXEonaria sat back up from her previously very-dead position, somehow magically resurrected now that the game had ended. The game had concluded in quite the plot twist, causing her to grin as she stood back up. The ‘killer’ was revealed to be the generally suspicious-looking Slytherin fourth year. “Hey, I actually voted for you in the second round! If only someone happened to coincide with me,” she shook her head dramatically, lamenting the lost chance, “this whole thing might’ve been over much more quickly.”

XXX I wonder if any of the other groups succeeded in finding their killer? “But I think you played quite well. Contributing to the discussion yet misleading us. Good game!”

XXXAs the cheery-looking Ravenclaw had said, the killer didn’t seem to have any sort of pattern.. or maybe that was the point. If there was no identifiable pattern, you had no way of knowing who would be killed next, and by who. That left everyone up for suspicion. Except for people who were shot at, of course. Eonaria smiled, thanking their two hosts as well. So then.. is that it? Do we just leave? Aw, I feel like I’ve barely gotten to know anyone at all… though that’s probably my fault for hanging out in the corner at the beginning.

.・-: ✧☾♩♪♩♬　. 。・゜✭・.・✫゜・。.　♬♩♪♩☽✧ :-・.

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SMALL HALL
2024-10-19
Peter Smith (@Brookline Quinn), Aurelie Duval (@Ophelia Northwell), @Avery Chen,
@Lucian Allum, @Maisie Gemmell, @Yolanda Yates, @Eonaria Kabukimono

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The lights came on one final time with the host's intervention — just as Mamori had suspected this would be the last round. The game was officially over, with the killer emerging victorious. Then Avery, who'd been playing Luca, stood up with an absolutely theatrical "Ta-da!" to announce himself as the murderer. Experiencing the immense regret of betraying his usually-unreliable-but-apparently-spot-on-this-time intuition, Mamori dramatically covered his face with his hands and let out an exaggerated groan of "I knew it was you! Should have trusted my gut after all!" If he had a Time-Turner right now, he'd definitely go back to that last round and actually put in the effort to convince everyone. The doctor's sudden revelation about voting for Avery in the second round had Mamori discreetly shaking his head. She might have, oh, perhaps actually announced her suspicions instead of silently casting ballots in the shadows. But then again, that was the theme of this game: everyone keeping their thoughts to themselves until it was thoroughly, completely, absolutely too late to matter — himself included, considering his last-minute surrender. In his condensed version of a murderer's confession, Avery laid out the basics: apparently while Mamori had been getting increasingly off-track, Maisie's insights had hit too close to home — close enough to earn her an early elimination. So essentially, Mamori had bought himself an extra round of survival by being the bigger idiot. How delightfully tragic. Though Mamori had a dozen snarky comments ready to fire, the unexpectedly sportsmanlike atmosphere in the room forced him to hold his tongue. Adding any sass now would be like throwing a dungbomb at a tea party, so he could only nod along during Avery's confession, physically restraining himself from the numerous comments threatening to escape. When Avery asked how everyone had felt about the game, Mamori noted how both of them had struggled with their characters — his own obvious slips when Sofia kept getting hijacked by his real personality, and Avery's occasional third-person lapses as Luca. Though whether those lapses were calculated to make him seem too clumsy to be the killer or genuine mistakes, Mamori couldn't tell. Slytherins were terrifying like that. The young first-year found himself gaining a newfound appreciation for house stereotypes. Still maintaining his newfound civility, he managed a casual "It was fun, though I'll pass on any more roleplaying games in the future, turns out keeping up a character is harder than it looks," followed by a "Stellar performance — both as Luca and as our mystery killer," accompanied by a tilt of his head. Then came Maisie, offering a handshake with a comment about teamwork. Mamori considered suggesting a high-five instead, but decided a handshake was probably more fitting for someone as proper as Maisie. Taking her hand, he found it amusing how she'd gone from his first baseless suspect to the most competent player in the room. "Brilliant deduction work there, partner," he said, though their detective duo had lasted barely two blackouts before her untimely demise. Finally, with a polite nod to the hosts and a quick "Thank you so much for all of this," he headed out of the room.

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