[Mafia] Your Final Frontier: Go 4th and perish!

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Lloyd comes back to join the others after leaving the library.

Yeah, the stuff at the library, it'd make better toilet paper. Seriously, my old prison had a better reading selection.

[Guma]

Should we consider finding the judges? Maybe they know something.

[Kennifer]

"They probably do, but somehow I don't think they're too eager to tell us."

[PointMaid]

Probably not. Weird, though. Never heard of judges in a prison. Unless it was, I don't know, a parole board. And if it was that, why not just say so.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Well it is a TV show apparently. Like some sort of twisted version of American Idol, expect in prison.

[PointMaid]

That's kinda twisted, not going to lie.

[Florien]

Well... Floran doess have to correct you very quickly, it'ss ssome twissted verssion of american idol except in prissson that'ss OSSTENSSIBLY being broadcasst. In practice, it'ss never going to be sseen. Thiss exisstss becausse floran'ss done thiss before and becausse it really improvess a few metricss on thosse mapss with the countriess shaded in bassed on whatever'ss being meassured. Floran'ss tired of alwayss being "no information".

[TenOfSwords13]

You've done this before? Really, that's kinda low. Also... what the Jurassic is American Idol?

[Caret]

"Eeveeeee... (...OK, can't really hold a conversation here. Heh, oops. Maybe there's some weird alien device hiding around here that could translate what I'm saying.)"

> search for anything that could help alleviate your communication difficulties

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

It's some TV competition show where people sing and it has judges and people get voted off. Although I don't think too many have died from being voted off from that show. This though, this is still a sick and twisted form of entertainment, whether people see this or not. I've already been through something similar like this once already, and I barely got out alive as it is.

[TenOfSwords13]

You're experienced in this? How did you get out last time? I'll trust you to plan our way out of this.

[Florien]

Firsst time was a... sstupid deal that Old Hydroxyl got into that floran had to fulfill. Ssecond was becausse of a sstupid bylaw that floran didn't really have a way to override in a convenient amount of time due to another few lawss. (Thosse lawss are gone now.) Third time was very much "jusst becausse" though, and at thiss point it'ss pretty routine.

Do we need your story, Sendri? We already know you pretend to hate half the stuff you do. I'm shocked you even admit there was a director before the Hex Kid over there.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Yeah.... I was snowed in a cabin alongside several other people. Like a newlywed couple, some woman who chuckled at everything, even some obnoxious death cultist freak. I wasn't able to do much there because some ghost of a little kid possessed me and made me snap my own neck. And yes, I was dead for a while. But after the killers were voted off, I, alongside the other innocents who were killed, were brought back to life. All I can tell you is watch other people, be careful on who to trust. And don't think it will always be the obvious choice, because sometimes it isn't.

[TenOfSwords13]

Huh... I doubt we'll live if we go down this time, but... you were reborn? That makes me want for more questions... but I suppose they should wait.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Yeah, I guess you could say that, Lloyd said with a shrug. But yeah, I think you're right there. If any of us buy here, no more second chances to walk away from this. We'll really have to watch ourselves. Geez, talking about all this, and my neck still hurts.

[PointMaid]

Karma's ears definitely pricked up at all that. Huh.

[GoldenCityBird]

Dan nods. "Like a twisted version of Big Brother, innit? Only, well, with 1984's Big Brother added to the mix." He sighs. "Well, guess I should just wait it out and do what I have to."

[Florien]

There's a whirring noise and a loud clunk over the speaker system, followed by a loud feedback noise.

shit ow fuck

what whyyyyyy

Floran'ss jusst turned on the universsal transslator thing. Now, get back to fun or work or however you have to feel about plotting againsst your enemiess. The Sstupid Eevee requessted it. Rather rudely.

[Kennifer]

"Kind of a shame it isn't a singing competition; that sounds a lot more fun. I wonder if I'd get points docked for mostly choosing songs from musicals..."

Inez paused a bit... her friend Alexis had mentioned a thing like this. Not the televised bit, but the plant person making people kill one another bit definitely sounded familiar...

[Caret]

Bow walks back to the rec room with a proud smile. She lets out a triumphant laugh.

"I can talk now! All it took was some 'friendly' pestering. Pfft, words. They're a funny concept, actually. Where do they come from? Why did Arceus bless humanity with the gift of speech, but not Pokemon? There are so many questions at the tip of my tongue, I'm struggling to keep them from flooding out of my mouth!"

[PointMaid]

Now Karma is giving Bow a big, toothy grin with a tongue flopping out. Well, hey!

It's an interesting sensation, isn't it? I wasn't able to talk until I was about a year old. Experiment, they called it.

...Kinda freaked out the scientists the first time I did it. She gives a laugh that's more like a bark.

[wingedcatgirl]

Hallie rejoins the group. "Arrow game was annoying, so - wait, is the foxthing speaking English now?"

[Florien]

Fun fact. Singing is stupid and bad.

Fun fact, you know how all those 2d vaguely puzzle walking sims usually from indie studios that tend to have really washed-out or few colors and a vaguely unsettling atmosphere and invariably are riddled with instakills that don't send you too far back all have at least one of those instakills that chases you and it's always like a vaguely eldritch creature that moves so fast that your top speed of "walking but slightly faster" feels horrifyingly slow and that it could very much catch up to you any moment but it's just slow enough that you can run from it and the music which is usually super eerie gets way tenser when it shows up and it's either incredibly loud or completely silent and there's no in-between, and while you usually get a vague explanation for their purpose near the end of the game you've usually passed all the explainable ones already at that point?

Less of a fact and more of an observation actually.

[Kennifer]

"Ah, our hosts think singing is bad, so did I get arrested because someone didn't like my singing?"

Inez had to chuckle at that thought.

[Caret]

"Singing? Eh. I'm a pretty decent singer, but it isn't really my vibe. Dancing on the other hand? C'est là que ça se passe."