[elevator] [sphinx]

[guillotineroom]

[ 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.]

Comments

[pagereturner]

[He runs his hand through his hair. He can only spend so much time beating up themselves, because:]

Whoever raised them was taking an extremely stupid risk.

...the options to lower this round are ourselves, Basilisk, Kraken or Unicorn.

[ambiography]

Then the first question is-- prioritizing our own position, or one of theirs?

[pagereturner]

I think this team has already made enough selfish decisions for one scenario.

[ambiography]

[tiredly:]

Well, they haven't actively killed anyone so far, so we have that going for us.

Do you want Unicorn or Kraken?

[pagereturner]

If somebody raises Unicorn right now, they're either doing it on purpose or they're imbeciles, but two teams chose to raise Nymph at 7, so I can't even try to count against that anymore.

[But it still has too much of a chance to do nothing, soooooooo.]

...

Kraken.

[ambiography]

We were still the only ones who thought to raise Tsuchigumo last time. If we can't count on what anyone else does-- then we can't count on anyone deciding to lower them or leave them be, and it's only going to take one raise unless we make sure that it takes two.

[davincible]

... I would second Unicorn, if that's what you're saying. Regardless, lowering anyone at the higher points is something I would deem important. The fall won't be kind to most of us.

[pagereturner]

Kraken being raised twice is more likely than Unicorn being raised once. We just watched a team at 7 get raised twice.

[davincible]

You don't think the teams below them don't stand a better chance of being raised multiple times instead? Not that this is ideal.

Or as predictable as some of us would have hoped.

[pagereturner]

I have no idea which is likelier between Yatagarasu or Bugbear getting raised three times or Kraken getting raised twice. I never even considered that Nymph would get raised twice from 7, because it's absurd to choose to raise a team at 7, but it just happened.

It should be impossible for Unicorn to get raised from 10, but I'm not even confident in that anymore.

[davincible]

... You look like you could use a drink.

[pagereturner]

I could use my sword and my stories.

[ambiography]

It is, yes. I don't necessarily think anyone else at our level is a bad decision, but if anything could happen, then we should go with the one that offers at least that extra bit of room.

[davincible]

I can tell this isn't going to be an easily-reached decision already...

[ambiography]

...no, it isn't. We're already split three ways, and we haven't even gotten around to who to raise.

[davincible]

... Oh, boy.

[ambiography]

We're going to have to figure something out.

[davincible]

We're going to need to have everyone state their preferences first, I believe. And narrow it down from there.

[ambiography]

Sounds like we're in the process, at least, but making it a little more formal couldn't hurt. Possibly a first preference and an option we'd still be all right with taking.