WEEK 11

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (11)

monday - thursday (14) survivors Sunday's trial was only mere hours ago, but you find yourself faced with a new week on The Pygmalion. When you awaken, you will find the ship restored to its previous state, all areas interfered with during the murder looking mostly the same as they did before. It seems you have more exploring to do. The robot in the cafeteria has prepared another breakfast of various foods. (OOC: Please submit your murder proposals by 9 PM EST Tuesday.) taken list profiles private conversations setting rulebook murder proposals ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[tevinteriscoming]

How do we test the loophole? And what do we do in the meanwhile? There's a fairly straightforward dichotomy of choices. [And since, for obvious reasons, this was already on his mind earlier in the week.] We don't have much time to figure something out before the souvlaki make the decision for us.

[antietam]

I mean, how can we prevent the souvlaki from doing anything in the first place?

And... I don't know if we can do anything individually, but River must be able to. We have to appeal to her somehow.

[tevinteriscoming]

Of course we can prevent the souvlaki from killing. [A little more snappish than he means, sorry Adam. And very resolute for a dude who has been doing pointless patrols the past two weeks, but.]

It's never mattered before because plainly we were never going to be given a fair shake to avoid Alice's trials no matter what we did. But there are only fourteen of us, and if we must do this, we can do this. We can make it impossible for the souvlaki to strike.

Appealing to River is a good idea. But in the meanwhile we must prevent the souvlaki from acting.

[antietam]

[ That's fine, he's not in a great mood either. He barely seems to notice. ]

Alright. How? It takes too many of us to even get close to killing them. You told me yourself, we're probably not going to survive them at this rate.

[tevinteriscoming]

Haven't you noticed they never use their alien form until after they're caught? I don't think that they can. Our real concern isn't fighting them, it's the proximity mine and the turret.

...We assign groups of three, with no member of the group who would be capable of subduing the others. We communicate with one another via text and don't sleep unless in shifts of one. We remain on the middle deck - the upper deck and lower deck are too spacious, and there are dangerous items there.

[antietam]

[ He's with him up until the groups of three part. ]

What about people who don't want to put themselves at risk of rooming with an alien? [ ie him. ]

[tevinteriscoming]

You've put yourself at that risk every evening you've roomed with Luke, haven't you? [It's sort of comforting in these arguments with Adam to drop all pretense of being nice.] If there's no loophole and we prevent a kill, we'll all die anyway. No one is taking on any more risk than the rest of us.

[chiseler]

[Sliiiiding in here and fixing Dorian with a flat look.]

I really hope you're not implying you think I'm one of them, Dorian. [But he's not thrilled with that idea either.] My own concern with groups of three is that fourteen isn't divisible by three. So who gets screwed?

[tevinteriscoming]

I'm implying that literally any one of us could be one of them. There's no reason to assume the buddy you would choose is safer than the one you wouldn't.

Four groups of three, and one group of two. Which ought to include Dave, as he's the only one we can be certain isn't one of them.

[chiseler]

[A derisive snort. Yeah okay that's a little fair but he's still not happy about it, especially with Dave now in the picture.]

The problem with putting Dave with someone is that we already saw what happened to Elizabeth. Dave is one of the most vulnerable people on this ship right now, so we'd have to choose extremely carefully. How do you propose we split these groups anyway? Draw names out of a hat? [...not that anybody has a hat but whatever.]

[tevinteriscoming]

No. We do it by abilities; we have to make pairings that will neutralize the most dangerous among us. If I had to choose now, Dave with Adrien. He's in no shape to fight, and he'll be safe with Dave. But it's only a thought.

[chiseler]

And in some cases some of us know the abilities of other people better than most. Look at Marinette and Adrien. They're partners back home, they know exactly what the other is capable of. Why not stick Dave with Marinette and Adrien in that case? [He pinches the bridge of his nose.] By splitting people up like this, Dorian, you're putting everybody at a disadvantage. The people who've been staying with people for weeks on end--look, if they don't know their roommates' abilities by now then what the fuck have we been doing for the last eleven weeks?

Dave attacked Adrien because Adrien and Dave talked about their abilities. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep people with people who know how they fight in case they need to defend themselves?

[tevinteriscoming]

[He wasn't going to say his reasoning for pairing Adrien and Dave outloud. He thinks it's quite obvious, in fact. But he'll speak in a low tone to Luke, one that hopefully can't be overheard.]

I don't really care about the pairings for the most part. But Marinette is easily the most powerful person here. Adrien may know how to fight her, but he's badly injured.

[And a little less clandestine.]

That's precisely the problem. The souvlaki know our abilities too. But they will be far more ruthless than we could ever be towards our loved ones. But I don't intend to enforce a plan no one else wants, nor am I under any impression that I'll be allowed to. If you've an idea of your own, let's hear it.

[chiseler]

It's not a bad plan, it just has a bunch of holes in it. [He shrugs, not exactly liking the reality that Marinette is powerful. But then again…] If you're worried about Marinette, you just have to exploit her weakness. That's not hard.

The real thing is you can split everybody up however you want. I'd like to hear how you plan to enforce it. People have free will. They'll do whatever they want.

[missmaladroite]

And what weakness would that be?

[She's right here, Luke]

[tevinteriscoming]

How I'm going to enforce it? I don't intend to enforce it, Luke! I can't make anyone do anything! But I would hope, if we agree we'd like to try not to have someone get killed, that we could listen to reason. So who is it who is unwilling to cooperate? Is it hypothetical people, or is it yourself and Adam? If it's the latter, feel free to do as you please. If it's the former, then fine, but give me a counterproposal. Something to actually work with.

lmao i completely misread so i'm just gonna repost

[missmaladroite]

How many times do I have to say I can't be an alien because my Kwami would know....

[Rubbing her forehead] And you're wrong. Dave is more powerful than I am - I think everyone could see that during the battle. [Because she was pretty much ineffective.]

And-- we need to make sure he's with people that will watch his back. Just because he's powerful, he's not infallible. Luke is right. Considering they went after Elizabeth, he's in danger.

[monsieurchatastrophe]

I can still fight. [adrien, priorities--] I've got a better shot fighting those things than someone like Adam or Jessie-- they don't have any powers. Dave's clear, and I don't disagree that makes him vulnerable, but he's one of the strongest people we've got left. If you put him with someone, it should be someone who doesn't have a chance of hurting him and who definitely won't be able to defend themselves if they're attacked by one of them.

[ah, so that's it. nothing against hanging out with his yaoi option but self-sacrifice martyrdom etc]

[tevinteriscoming]

[Adrien. The things you're describing are definitely the exact reasons he wanted to pair you with Dave. Please don't die.]

All right, then. You and I and Marinette? Will that be acceptable?

[monsieurchatastrophe]

[listen he still has cataclysm shh shhh it's fine he probably won't get murdered. He looks like he didn't expect to be agreed with so easily, though.]

I-- sure, I guess. [and then he pauses and adds:] I'll go with Dave if people don't-- [feel safe? want to? he doesn't know how to voice it] If he wants me to. But I don't need to be protected.

[sure yeah ok]

[toprotecttheworld]

Are you absolutely sure that Dave is the only one we can be sure isn't an alien? What about those...'roles' people keep mentioning?

[tevinteriscoming]

If you know something about a helpful role that can prove itself, I'm listening.

[toprotecttheworld]

[ABOUT THAT]

[antietam]

No, I haven't. I trust him. I don't trust anyone who I might be randomly roomed with based on ability.

I know Luke's abilities better than anyone here, so I think we'd be safe for this experiment.

[tevinteriscoming]

I'll let Luke say his piece, then. We'll see whether his priorities are the same.

[Not going to continue this conversation. He knows he lost Adam's respect long ago, but still. He thought Adam would have been smarter than this.]