guillotineroom | [elevator] [sphinx]

[ When you open your eyes again the first thing that you, and your teammates, may notice is that you are confined within an iron cage, rectangle in shape. Further inspection will reveal that outside of the cage is a large structure of sorts, reaching far above you. It kind of looks like an unfinished clock tower, really... there are spots that look finished and bolted tightly, and others that look like they had been left once and the work never thought of again.

Also, it's pretty chilly. You might get to notice that.

It's foggy and windy—the kind of wind that howls and roars, jostling your cage against the tall shaft, and every so often you feel as though you might have had the ghost of a raindrop on you. The tower-like build creaks horribly ominously in the wind, and you can see the rusted metals swaying slightly. But if you decide to look around...

Flapping above you (and not helping with the wind) is a harpy-like creature, iron chains wrapped around their talons. Though, maybe it's more like a lion? The chains are bolted to the top of your cage. There are also little indicators on the structure, the same distance apart, that seem to be declaring different levels or heights. They look horribly unhappy to be here, but they're also impressive at ignoring any call you might have for them.

There's a door to the cage, but it won't open, even if it's just a simple-looking locking mechanism. If you peer out, it's too foggy on the ground to make out very much, but you can make out nine other, tower-like structures with similarly flapping harpies. Each one, including your own, has an emblazoned emblem of every team's patron monster, so that you can see where everyone is—it's just difficult to make out exactly who may be in each one. Even more difficult to try and communicate like this.

Attached to the door is an aged metal panel with a screen and four buttons; two to choose between the team names that appear on the dark green and black screen, and two to choose whether you wish for that team to go up or down.

After a moment, a little speaker in the corner starts playing an incredibly bad quality version of this.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I want to be clear, if it were up to me, this round we would be raising Yatagarasu and lowering Basilisk, but I know all of you will start complaining, and I don't feel like knocking all of you out and just playing the rest of the game by myself, so here's a list of moves that I think make sense, while still taking your preferences into account.

[Sadly, this sentiment counts as pretty good teamwork by his standards.]

Raise Unicorn, raise Kraken.
Lower Basilisk, lower Bugbear, lower Unicorn, lower Phoenix, lower Yatagarasu, lower Sphinx.

I am very strongly against lowering Cerberus, because I think it's far too likely to either not be enough or be overkill and waste our move.

Personally, I would raise Kraken, lower Basilisk or raise and lower Unicorn.

I'm fine with raising Kraken. I imagine people are going to be focusing on Unicorn now that they're as low as they are and their thoughts are going to be more for those they know.

[ A sigh. ]

You know my lowering vote.

I know. And I know I'm not swaying you, so there's no point in talking about it.

I agree about Unicorn. That's why if we raised them, I would also want to lower them. Their relative newness also makes their position unpredictable.

If you start trying to knock people out, I will retaliate. If all of you have lost your powers, it means you are on my level.

[SO WATCH IT BUSTER OR I WILL SLAM YOU AGAINST THE WALL OF THE ELEVATOR AND WE WILL ALL HAVE A BAD TIME. Anyway]

...I am not opposed to either of these plans. But your mathematics on Cerberus depend strongly on no other teams making any decisions. I am not sure that is the best way to go about things. A great deal of points in both directions will happen without our perception. What is the point in trying to be so precise?

I said I didn't feel like knocking you out. If I did, I would've done it already.

[It should be illegal to be that casually confident that he can just fight five people with no abilities or items.]

The reason I don't want to lower Cerberus is because a great deal of movement is going to happen in both directions. Trying to account for that movement while there's already another team at the same tier as them is basically impossible. While they're in this position, it makes the most sense to wait a round and see what that movement is before we make an action on them. Our current choice to raise or lower a team has a higher percentage of mattering in the short and long term if we put it somewhere else.

Fine. If we are making this a compromise, I want it defined clearly. If you will accept us waiting a turn before voting to lower Cerberus, what are the circumstances under which you will accept Cerberus being lowered? We cannot have you arguing next time, again, that the situation does not warrant it.

The first circumstance would be if they're at 10 or higher and in immediate danger of losing if they got raised again. Which is not going to not happen in this round. I am about as assured as I can be of that.

The second circumstance would be if they're two or one spaces from being lowered into the next tier, which would allow them to be safely raised an additional time. Which is likelier, because at the very least, they will probably lower themselves this round.

What I don't want is to choose to lower them, then find out they lowered themselves and two other teams did as well. Our choice is wasted if we do that.

It will still be bringing them down lower than they were before. I am personally fine with choosing to lower Basilisk, as suggested, but what happens if no one raises them? If all the other teams raising people at the bottom pick one of the other two? Our vote would be "wasted" in that circumstance, given that they will not move anywhere at all.

At any rate... I understand your reasoning better now. But. If we are making a true compromise, then the conditions for next turn will be defined by the parties that want to protect Cerberus. If we show restraint now and choose someone else, next round, you will choose Cerberus as long as those parties still wish to do so. Regardless of the position of Cerberus at the time.

Basilisk and Bugbear are going to be raised, the only question is how much. They're in a far more precipitous position than anyone right now.

My priority is to avoid as much death as possible, I'm going to make an argument for what I believe the best move is for that purpose every round. If Cerberus meets either of the circumstances I just mentioned, I'll vote for lowering them, because that would be the correct move. That's the compromise I'm willing to make. If you don't like it, outvote me.

...If we're acting on a pure majority vote, I vote to lower Cerberus now. Raising Kraken is acceptable.

I... really want to lower Cerberus, but that's a want based in fear, not rationality. Of course, if we theorized wrongly and they end up in greater danger I'll be rather miffed. [furi: really pissed off]

But let's put that aside for now, you know my selfish vote. I have no real feelings on raising and lowering Unicorn, it could go any number of ways with them being a relative unknown. Of the other options you presented I'm most inclined to lower Phoenix or ourselves. The former of which is just me playing favorites again, I know. So with that in mind I'm also open to raising and lowering Unicorn, or hearing you out on the raising of Kraken and lowering of Basilisk. I'm not going to reject an option rashly.

Lowering Phoenix makes sense because they would only need to be lowered one more time after that, to be put into the next lowest tier and there's a decent chance they'll lower themselves anyway. Regardless of your preferences, I'm fine with that.

Lowering Basilisk makes the most sense because Basilisk and Bugbear are definitely going to get raised this round, possibly as much as three or four times. They're in an extremely precipitous position and may be in severe danger next round.

Raising Kraken would be because they're in the middle and it's relatively safe. They're higher than multiple other teams and thus, aren't likely to be raised multiple times in one round. Their position in the middle makes them decently likely to go completely unnoticed overall.

[listening carefully and mulling it over]

Right then. I'll say I'd prefer to lower Phoenix but I see the reasoning behind lowering Basilisk. I'll defer to you on this one, whichever you think is most logical. Raising Kraken is fine too, I have no strong feelings one way or the other about them, but their position--as you said--makes them a safer choice than most.

[sighs]

Let's just get this over with. We'll see if these postulations are on target.

[ visibly distressed because people are having ✨ disagreements ✨ (no they're not, they're having healthy if not tense discussions, but still!) she will stick her stupid horns in between if people start to fight. ]

Um... I...

I still don't want to raise Unicorn, if possible... So I suppose that means I agree with lowering Basilisk, and raising Kraken.

[ spirits. that sucks to say. ]

But I'm throwing in my support for everyone who's saying that we absolutely must lower Cerberus next round, regardless of where they've ended up as a compromise.

[elevator] [sphinx]

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