"Hi, hello, and g'day, and welcome to our first day of the annual Games Tournament!"

Jesse blinked sleepily at the ceiling, Ariza's voice carrying clearly through the room. Maybe there was some sort of jukebox system, but Jesse could hear Ariza's voice over the loudspeaker very clearly.

"The game will start in two hours, so make sure you eat something before we start- I'm not sure how long the game's going to last. Further instructions will be provided when you reach the area where we'll be playing the game."

Ariza paused. "I should probably explain how you're going to do that. To reach that area, you're going to need to head back to the warp pads- that's what I'm calling 'em from now on, the teleportation areas- and teleport back to the main hallway that you found yesterday. That also gives you an opportunity to have breakfast! Anyway, after that, please head back to the warp pad and find the sign that reads 'Game Arena'. Once you get there, I'll explain how we're going to start the game."

Another short pause.

"Oh, and your pets aren't allowed with you while you're playing the game, so please leave them in the watching room before coming to where the Game Arena is located," Ariza added hastily.

Yet another short pause. "Okay, that should be it for now. See ya, so long, and g'bye~!"

The voice clicked off.

Jesse let out a lazy sigh, reaching down and scratching Reuben's ears. "Alright, buddy, we'd better get going and eat something," she said, kind of lazily.

Reuben let out a little piggy whine, sitting up and waiting for Jesse to also sit up. Once she did, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and standing up, he hopped off as well, snuffling and rubbing against her leg. She hadn't changed or anything, but she still felt fine in her clothes, so she supposed it could've been worse. "Alright, let's go find ourselves some breakfast."

Reuben let out a happy oink and trotted over to the door as Jesse quickly straightened out her clothes and made sure she didn't look like she'd just slept a whole night in her clothes. Even though she had. And she didn't look that bad anyway.

Well, it was about time to wake up, anyway.


Jesse hadn't expected to run into Stella's pet llama.

Literally. Her door slid open and she walked straight into the llama, the creamy llama with the scarf letting out an alarmed bleating sound as she walked straight into it.

"Oh! I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Jesse asked the llama, backing away and meeting the llama's eyes. It was so cute- a little smaller than a full-grown adult, yet a little bigger than the size it should've been if it was a baby. She had the overwhelming urge to pet it.

She quashed this urge. It was Stella's pet, not hers, and as Jesse had learned the hard way, petting pets that aren't yours are sometimes a recipe to get the owner of said pet very angry at you.

The llama- Jesse was pretty sure the llama's name was Lluna- Lluna stared at her for a moment, blue eyes blinking at her slightly.

And then it cocked its head back a bit.

Jesse barely had time to blink in confusion before a large amount of llama-spit hit her right in the face. Thankfully, she'd been in the middle of blinking right when it did so, so she didn't get any of the saliva in her eyes, but... still.

"Oh!" Jesse jumped back, managing to bang her back into the wall from surprise.

Stella's voice faded into being, sounding a little amused. "Oh- sorry. I didn't realize that she was going to spit on you."

Jesse gave a little giggle, wiping the spit off of her face and blinking up at Stella. "Well, it's a surprisingly good defense against people who might randomly try to pet her," she said, chuckling slightly as she spoke. "Although I can't blame people for wanting to pet her, she looks so fluffy." And Jesse gave Lluna a warm grin.

Lluna stared at Jesse, before backing up a step, lowering her head, and then bumping it right into Jesse's midriff.

Reuben gave a defensive oink, making Lluna tilt her head up to stare at the little pink pig. The llama looked almost interested by Reuben. A moment passed before the llama bent closer and sniffed Reuben.

Reuben snuffled at her.

And then the two of them both straightened up, Lluna butting her head into Jesse's chest again before trotting back to where Stella was standing.

Stella blinked at her llama, before looking up at Jesse and arching her eyebrow slightly.

"No, I don't know what's going on either."

"Alright, I was just wondering."

The blonde woman hummed, glancing down the hallway to see that Ivor had emerged from his own room, running a hand through rather-lank hair with a tired sigh. "Well... shall we all head down to breakfast, then?"

Jesse paused, before shrugging. "Yeah, that sounds good."

Stella hummed again, regarding Jesse with a sort of interested look. Jesse wondered what that was about for about a second before Stella began to walk down the hallway. "Well, come along, then."

"Um- yes, ma'am."

"You don't need to call me 'ma'am', I'm not that old..."


After some time, where Axel picked Jesse up off of the floor and gave her a tight hug while she halfheartedly complained about it, and Petra came and clapped her on the back so hard she nearly did a faceplant into where she was eating her bread, and Olivia checking over her to make sure she was okay because Aiden was on her team, and spotting Romeo sitting next to Xara and looking worried and terrified and like he was very happy all at the same time, with Binta chatting happily with Xara while shooting a death glare in Romeo's direction for reasons that Jesse really could not grasp, while the Warden sat very far away from Porkchop, Oxblood (who seemed just as pleased as Xara had to see him), and Anthony (who did not seem so displeased but still), and Val managed to somehow send a fish flying across the room and slapped it right into the side of Aiden's head, and Aiden picked up his half-eaten apple and threw it back at her, managing to start a miniature food fight with Mevia picking her plate up and leaving with a scowl on her face, Ivor dragging Harper away from the large donut flying in her direction, and Hadrian trying to tell everyone to shut up and getting hit with a piece of wet seaweed-

When, in short, everyone had finished eating breakfast, they followed Ariza's instructions and ended up in a very, very large room. There were small, upright boxy containers that extended all down the hallway, signs clipped to the sides and tops topped with nice colors, like gold, green, cyan-

"This looks... incredibly like some sort of test lab," Harper mumbled, running her fingers along one of the containers before checking the sign on the side.

She blinked.

"Er... Gill, was it?"

Gill blinked at suddenly being addressed by the white-haired woman. "Oh- yeah?" he asked, traipsing over to where Harper was scanning the red top of the container and checking inside the machinery.

"This is yours."

Gill blinked again. "Huh?"

Harper backed up a step and tapped the sign, which, now that Harper wasn't standing in front of it, Jesse could see read 'Gill'.

"Hey, I have one too!" Cassie exclaimed, pointing at one with a blue top.

"Yeah, my name's on this one..." Stacy's lips twisted as she looked the container up and down. "Um... I'm a little worried..."

Ariza cleared her throat, making everyone jump as her voice issued over the system again. "Um, hi everybody! We're going to start the game in a minute, so here's the deal. To play the game, please find the box... tube... thingy that has your name on it and step inside."

Magnus (Magnus the Rogue!) scowled, crossing his arms. "Oh yeah? What happens if we don't want to?"

Ariza was silent for a moment. "... oh, wait, you can't see me shrugg- okay."

Several of the 'players' had to smother slight grins at that.

The black-haired girl cleared her throat and resumed speaking. "Then you can just warp out and head to the room where orientation was held and watch it, if you'd like. If you don't want to watch it, you can just head back to your room and do whatever. Like I said, I'm here for everyone to have fun, not forcing them to play."

Em and Nell automatically glanced over their shoulders in Hadrian, Mevia, and Otto's direction.

Mostly Hadrian's.

Jesse barely had time to wonder what that was about, before Ariza picked back up, "Anyway, once you step into your... I'm just going to call it Play Station-" she paused, giving a soft chuckle. "Heh. PlayStation."- before picking back up, "you will need to flick your wristband to learn your role for this game, and also for the Play Station to figure out that you're inside and begin the game for you."

Ariza paused, before giving a slight laugh. "I think you guys'll find it cool. See you soon!"

And her voice clicked back off.

There were several moments of silence, and Jesse could see everyone glancing around at each other, as if waiting for somebody to step into the tubes first.

Well, why not?

She finally walked forward, looking at the golden top and then the label that read 'Jesse' neatly, before simply stepping inside. She fit pretty neatly, considering she was so small compared to most everybody.

As the door of the container started to slide shut, Jesse could see Axel giving a smile and a shrug at Olivia before sidling into his own container, which surprisingly held him pretty well. Then Olivia stepped into her own, Petra sighed with a roll of her eyes and entered, Lukas- surprisingly- gave a little shrug and walked into the containers, Ivor rubbed a hand down his face as if he was irritated beyond the dickens and passed hers-

And then the door finally slid shut, blocking off everything. Jesse couldn't even hear if anyone else was stepping into their own containers.

An awkward moment or two passed, before Jesse glanced down at her wristband. It was flashing a message on the black part.

Please flick your wristband to begin the game and receive your role.

Jesse flicked the wristband, the screen flashing to life. The screen from the day before appeared, showing Jesse's picture on one side, smiling slightly. She remembered this picture. It was part of a picture she'd taken with Olivia and Axel a few years before, after they won a game at Endercon.

She had to wonder how Ariza had gotten it.

The data for her role flickered up, and Jesse scanned the screen quickly.

Name: Jesse.

Role: Mystic Seer

People still in the game: 45
Murderers: 10

Phase of Game: Introductions

Jesse frowned, arching her eyebrow slightly at the role she had. "'Mystic Seer'...?" she murmured, curiously. What on earth was a Mystic Seer?

The screen flickered, text appearing.

The Mystic Seer replaces the Seer when she is in the game. Each night, the Mystic Seer wakes up and chooses a player. She is able to see the exact role of a player, unlike the Seer, who in the normal game can only see if the player is a villager or a werewolf.

Jesse's eyebrow went up, but she barely had time to do anything else before Ariza's voice sounded in her ear, making her jump a little bit- she'd forgotten about the earbuds.

"Please keep your head upright for the next minute. Do not shake around. This will not harm you."

"What will not-?" Jesse's question was cut off and answered simultaneously when something thudded onto her head, coming down over her eyes so that everything was pitch black. She nearly jumped, but at the last second remembered Ariza's warning and froze stock still. She didn't know what would happen if she did move, but she wasn't ready to risk it being something bad.

A moment of nothing but darkness and soft whirring in her ears, and the odd feeling of... tilting?

And then something appeared in the darkness.

Name?

Almost as soon as it was onscreen, it was replaced by another message: N/A for this round.

Welcome, Jesse.

Appearance?

N/A for this round.

Jesse's picture flickered into being for a moment, a window nearly opening before closing itself and the picture blinking out of sight. Jesse could barely keep track of everything. It was honestly a little dizzying.

More things began to click and whir, a rapid succession of images switching and clicking into place on the side.

Touch: OK.

Sight: OK.

Audio: OK.

Taste: OK.

Smell: OK.

The moment everything was clicked in on the side, they swiped off.

And then everything was a little too bright, Jesse making a soft sound as she raised her hand to block her eyes, the long sleeve on her arm sliding down a bit-

Wait.

She was wearing a t-shirt, wasn't she?

Jesse blinked the sunlight- yes, sunlight out of her eyes, looking down at her outfit, eyes widening as she realized that her sleeve was, indeed, long and almost breezy, a nice shade of bluish gray. Once it reached her waist, the shirt clinched slightly before flowing down to her ankles in a loose, gray-blue dress with a small apron over it. Her hair was the same, but otherwise she'd changed into what looked very much like a villager's dress.

"What the-?"

Jesse swiveled to see Aiden immediately to her left, pinching the sleeve of his white shirt, the blue sewn vest over said shirt complementing the brown pants he was wearing. He also had a weird sort of hat.

"Oh... okay, this is... um. Hm." Turning, Jesse could see Mevia on her right- two 'spaces' away- adjusting the sleeve of her own dress, which unlike Jesse's, was mostly red. Except the lower half of the dress was black.

Actually, her outfit looked very similar to what she usually wore, except the waist was clinched a little more and looked almost awkward to wear.

Ivor abruptly faded into existence a moment later, right next to Jesse, wearing an outfit somewhat similar to Aiden's, except that his vest was brown, and his pants were a very dark brown instead of the shade of brown Aiden's was wearing. He blinked down at his own outfit, then over at Jesse, who was blinking up at him rather innocently. He looked almost taken aback.

"Uh..."

"Yeah, I don't know how this is..." Jesse's voice petered out as the sunlight's glare finally faded away enough to reveal the rest of the area.

They were currently all standing in a very large circle, what looked like a town square surrounding them with shacks and village houses surrounding the area. Trees interspersed the area, most of them on the edge of the village, and there were carts, barrels, crates, you say it, even a low wall in some areas.

Ivor's own dark blue eyes widened, and a strange smile twitched at his lips.

"Fascinating..."

"Yeah, I'm still surprised at how good of a job our team did."

Aiden flinched as Ariza appeared in the space between him and Stella, Stella starting and almost ripping the sleeve of her own purple-sleeved dress. Ariza wore a simple black robe that looked a bit like the one that death wore, except that the edges were rimmed with pink and the pink shimmered slightly whenever she moved. The hood was flipped back too, and Ariza's hair looked the same as it had on the TV screen the night before.

"Well, I'm glad, if... not surprised to see that everyone's here." Ariza inclined her head, a pleasant smile on her face. "Everyone ready to start the game?"

Nobody shouted 'yes'.

But nobody shouted 'no', either.

Ariza waited, before a smirk crept over her face. "Guys, when I ask that, I'm actually asking to make sure you're ready. I don't want to start the game if somebody still needs to check their role."

A general murmur that they were all ready.

Ariza nodded. "There we go, that's something at least. Also, fun fact- you can check your wristband at any time. When you're in the game, you can't see other people's wristband screens- this way you can't get anybody's role."

Instantly, a huge wave of people flicking their wristbands and bringing up the screens ensued, Ariza shifting her weight and patiently waiting for everyone. Jesse glanced at Aiden, who was looking at his wristband. His screen should have been extremely obvious to her from her position, but she currently couldn't see anything at all, except that he had it up.

Once everybody had satisfied this curiosity, Ariza tilted her head. "Now is everyone ready?"

A general mumble.

"Alright, great." Ariza cleared her throat, adopting a mild, cheerful tone. "Welcome to a quaint little village full of very interesting people. It's located kind of in the middle of nowhere, but everyone's so friendly and nice and everyone just moves in whenever they find it convenient to just have somewhere out of the way to live." Ariza pauses, knowing that all eyes are fixated on her from where they're all standing at their podiums.

"So, let's all introduce ourselves to each other. Shall we?"


A/N: O o f

Sorry for lack of updates, I've been busy and my schedule got all thrown out of whack. Plus I have a summer class... wah -_-

Let's bring back the RQTC!

RQTC: What's your favorite video game? Indie, commercial, whatever.

Mine is... well, Minecraft: Story Mode xD Either that or Professor Layton.

Responses to reviews!

TheAmberShadow: (shrugs) I guess we'll never know. / That's true, but Jesse would be even more flustered if that came up. Trust me, though, it WILL come up. Just not until after this game xD / Hehehe xD / Indeed, those are fantastic strategies. / Ohhh boy. That's a fun story. Originally, my original username was something like Althea Ezerin (back when I was... like... 12 or 13) and I like writing stories. Eventually I got bored and wanted to change it, so I kept the A name (but changed it to Arima because I was into ghosts back then), and my favorite Pokemon at the time was Lucario, so I just took off the O. Eventually, I wanted to type something in my Quotev username (I think it was 'Arima Lucari is praying for Paris') but it wouldn't fit, so I needed to shorten the username. What I did was I changed one letter of Arima (guess which one) and took off the 'ri' so that it'd fit. Behold, Ariza Luca was born xD / Thanks!

homeworkoverload: Pffft, nice xD / Thank you! / Haha, I just got tired of saying 'Mafia or Werewolf' and mashed them up xD / Jesse's a total cinnamon roll, haha. / That... doesn't sound like a very good friend.

LunarTheMooncake: Haha, yeah. xD / (thumbs up)

AquaK13: Oh, yeah, she'd do much better than the blonde thing we have in office right now -_- / (laughs) Yeah, it kinda sucks. / It's really a lot of luck that you have to deal with. / Oh yes, that's always fun xD / I never focus on looks; I just focus on what people are saying xD / It's sort of the 'Ultimate' version, so... a bit different xD

CremeDeLaMeme: In this case, the 'teams' are only set up to determine how many points you get- if most of your team are murderers, and the villagers win, you just wouldn't get that many points. But yes, that can happen xD

J.M.M.: True that.

LittleAngelbun: (thumbs up)

x.X. A.L. X.x