Experiment 10 - Theta

[testingphase]

[ The elevators do not take you up to your living area. Rather, they take you DOWN, to a small room with three white walls, and one that is a thick, translucent plastic. There appears to be a chute of some sort behind the plastic wall. ]

Now, in order to determine how well you know each other, we're going to see which teams are the most popular. The rules are simple:

* At the end of the test, each team will suffer an attack. Each attack will kill about half of everyone present.
* You may choose one team (other than your own) to defend from this attack. A team that is defended will not be harmed.
* If you wish to defend yourself instead of another team, you must choose a team to attack.
* You may not refuse to choose.

Comments

[jackoclubs]

. . . already?

Haa. . . you seem like a nice guy, Garry-san.

[jackoclubs]

[notices and shifts closer, reaching out to take her arm in his hand]

[swallows a bit dryly himself]

. . . yeah. Out of those three.

[fishpanties]

[inhale, exhale. trying to calm down]

All we can do is try to work out who's the least likely to be protected.

[lovedtodeath]

[reaching to squeeze her shoulder]

I won't argue with that.

[fishpanties]

[bites her lip]

Give me a number between one and twenty.

[jackoclubs]

[god is this how we're really deciding. wry laugh]

. . . thirteen.

[fishpanties]

[painfully tense '^']

Kaito and I've narrowed it down to three.

[lovedtodeath]

If I had to pick between trusting you guys versus the robots, I think there would be no contest.

[jackoclubs]

[snort]

Yeah, yeah, I think most people would say that.

[uuugh this is so dumb]

. . . Aoko and I have narrowed it down to three teams. We're gonna pick randomly.

[madasahero]

You are quite right. Which other team has a large number of new teammates? Kappa, perhaps? The young man with pale hair told me they kept losing people.

[jackoclubs]

Kappa, Alpha, Epsilon.

. . . Aoko and I wanna pick randomly. We think all three of those teams could use the protection.

[lovedtodeath]

[nods]

Sorry I can't be of much help.

[madasahero]

[nods] That is not a bad idea.

[fishpanties]

[i know, right? aoko's on the edge of tears]

I... I know who I'd rather protect, but if we don't agree, picking like that might-...

[lovedtodeath]

And you're surprised with me trusting you.

[fishpanties]

You're new.

Do you know anybody on Alpha, Kappa, or Epsilon?

[jackoclubs]

Might. . . what?

We can only guess at this point. Even if we didn't pick randomly, there's no guarantee that we'll pick right.

[jackoclubs]

[pulls up a wry smile and shakes his head]

. . . nah. This isn't something worth being trusted over. We could very easily pick wrong.

[madasahero]

[Nods]

I would vote for Kappa, since they are a new team, on top of everything else.

[jackoclubs]

[pinching the bridge of his nose and nodding]

. . . all right. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope we can protect 'em, then.

[fishpanties]

[doesn't respond for a moment]

Alpha.

[madasahero]

[Nods]

I do not know any of them that well. But Kappa is one of the new teams, so perhaps...

[lovedtodeath]

I met a nice fellow on Kappa prior to the test. White hair, but I didn't catch his name in time.

[madasahero]

[HOLDING HIS BREATH and discreetly standing in front of Aoko. They might have just killed themselves.

[jackoclubs]

. . . Sion-san's voting Kappa.