SECOND EVENT: THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

[birdkeepers]

At exactly 2:00 in the afternoon, an announcement goes off: the intercom clicks on, and the warden reads a list of names. "... If your name has been called, please come to the cafeteria. You're to participate in the next event! If you do not go on your own, a guard will find and escort you

Comments

GROUP 3

[birdkeepers]

The Dark Ace is led into the teachers' half of the room, and Dahlia Hawthorne is led into the students' half.

[coreopsideae]

Dahlia looked around at her surroundings. This room didn't look particularly dangerous...

Primly, she sat down in the metal chair and smoothed out her skirt, then looked through the window at the man there. "Good afternoon," she said with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

[tiaratraitor]

The Dark Ace was, once again, more disappointed than anything else. Still no combat, but at least this time he had been promised blood. Or, he thought disdainfully as he looked down at the list in his hand and the controls in front of him, death, rather than blood. It wasn't ideal, but it would do.

He glanced up at the woman on the other side of the window. She seemed polite, sweet, and everything else that made him want to sneer, but for the moment he kept it to himself. He straightened the paper and eyed the list of questions - ridiculous - before speaking and looking back up at her.

"I assume you're ready." Oh, she was not going to enjoy this, he was sure - unless she was some hidden genius.

[coreopsideae]

"Yes, sir." She nodded hesitantly. "I-I'll do my best! Please go easy on me... I don't know if I'll do very well."

[tiaratraitor]

This time, he did sneer, but only looked back down at the paper to ask the question rather than taunting her further.

"Hn ... " For how simple the questions looked, some of them were fairly tricky. "The letters in the two words 'new door' can be rearranged to make one word." The Dark Ace looked up through the window at the woman, fingers drumming on his knee in anticipation of what might be an incorrect answer. "What is the new sequence of letters?"

[coreopsideae]

She blinked. What kind of question was that? N, E, W, D, O, O, R... And they could form one word?

"Er... Renwood?" That sounded like it could be the name of a place, and place names were words.

[tiaratraitor]

Tricky, very tricky. For a moment - and it was a very brief moment - the Dark Ace was glad he was on this side of the game.

"Incorrect." He reached out and pressed the button on the console, not entirely sure what the result would be - his grasp on history tended to relegate itself to more recent events, not psychology. But he watched her very carefully to see just what this place had in store.

[coreopsideae]

"I-incorre--" She didn't get to finish repeating the word; the shock from her collar cut her off. She shrieked, convulsing where she sat.

"H-hey! What was that?!"

She glared for a moment, then quickly schooled her serene expression back onto her face.

[tiaratraitor]

Electrocution? Apparently not to a fatal degree - at least not immediately. The Dark Ace looked down at the console and then back up at the woman. The shock could only have come from her collar. So, that was how this was going to work.

"Punishment, apparently," he said in a voice tinged with interest. He set the card aside, face-down, and sifted through the others. If people were meant to die during this, it wasn't going to seal his reputation as dangerous, just psychotic, if he killed her; then again, it was hardly his fault if she couldn't answer the questions right ... "Ready for the next one?"

[coreopsideae]

"I... I don't like this..." Dahlia whimpered. "I... I quit!"

[tiaratraitor]

"You quit?"

The Dark Ace raised one eyebrow, a finger poised over the button that had delivered the previous shock.

"I'm going to assume you heard what she said. If you get a question wrong, I press this. If you refuse to answer, I press it as well." He cracked a very thin, humorless smirk. "I think that trying to quit is close to refusing to answer. Now, are you ready, or do I press this and ask anyway?"

[coreopsideae]

That bastard, he was enjoying this! Not that Dahlia could really blame him; she likely would, if she were in his place.

"W-wait, no! I--I'll answer." She sniffles, though, and a single pure tear slides down her cheek. "P-please don't hurt me again..."

[tiaratraitor]

"That," he said, pulling his hand away from the button and apparently ignoring her distress, "is entirely dependent on whether or not you can answer these questions." He waved the cue cards, then sorted through them and stopped at random. One question was as good as another. "How many stripes are there on the United States flag?"

[coreopsideae]

"Ah!" She smiled in relief. "Thirteen! Seven red, and six white."

An easy one, at least for someone from America. Perhaps this wouldn't be too bad.

[tiaratraitor]

Well, of course she'd get that one right, it was easy. The Dark Ace scowled slightly and tossed the card aside, reading the cards one by one as they came up to try and find the more difficult ones. Or just more unnerving ones. Some of them certainly had a morbid bent, but then again, this place was devoted to its theme.

"Lucky for you." He leaned back in the chair slightly, watching the woman from over the top of the card he'd picked. "List five symptoms of Ebola infection."

[coreopsideae]

"E-ebola?" She bit a lip. "Um... Er..."

She paused. She had to think about this one. "I-I'm going to answer, I promise! J-just give me a moment."