BXBX NOVEL Chapter 686
“Question,” said Green 2 suddenly cutting through the silence, “does anyone actually know how to vote? Obviously, we didn’t vote for Kat’s double... but I don’t think the other fakes will be so easy to guess. We can’t just go around stabbing everyone and comparing blood samples. Not when it seems like Kat’s fake has the correct colour blood for everyone else...”
At Green’s question a box appeared slightly off the middle of the room alongside a bunch of paper and three pens. The cause of its slight offset was of course, Green 1 who was taking up enough space that she would have needed to be moved to fit the box in. “Well, I suppose that answers my question...” mumbled Green 2 with an odd look on her face.
*Indeed. It also tells us that Thyme is watching, or Thyme has someone watching us at the very least. Not a major surprise... but it does mean rougher tactics might be on the table. I wish it was that easy to figure out a rough method though. Stabbing people other than myself doesn’t really help, I’m the only one with fire immunity so chucking more of that around is kinda pointless.*
Kat let her eyes get to work, looking between the individuals that were present and trying to find difference. To her surprise, she actually did find a few. There were new dings and scrapes on the dwarves’ armour... both of them. *Shit. The armour must have gotten damaged in the first task. Neither of the sets match up perfectly with the ones in my memories. That’s just what I needed.*
Kat next tried looking at the beards for clues but wasn’t having much luck at all until she spotted Dwarf Two 2. Instead of being naturally coloured like it should have been, Kat noticed that there was a small patch of brown hidden in their beard. *That means Two 2 is the fake right? They have fake dye in their beard, or well, real dye that they shouldn’t need... unless...* Kat scanned the dwarves again and cursed internally Dwarf One 1 had naturally grey hair by the looks of things. The issue was, Kat couldn’t tell if they’d switched outfits, or if that was an intentional mistake by Thyme for them to catch.
*They both use the same weapon as always, and the big problem is that while their hair is a different colour if you look closely... their faces are really similar. Even with my eyes I struggle to really tell them apart. Perfect memories I may have, but perfect eyes... not yet. To my mind they look the same, but they can’t be... hmm... then there’s the fact that it’s Dwarf Two 2 and Dwarf One 1. Does that matter? I doubt it’d be as simple as every 2 being a fake. That would be much to easy to sort out now that I’ve proven who I am.
.....
Urgh. I don’t know enough about the dwarves. Do I call it out? Do I call both of them out? The only thing I really have at the moment is the knowledge I AM the original and that everyone knows it. I could easily let this knowledge out onto the field... but do I want to? Is this a tactic from the dwarves to try and catch the fakes? Wait... no, there’s no way they could know... but they might have swapped them around anyway just because they can. Ok. Here’s the plan. I’ll wait.*
And wait Kat did. The time ticked down slowly with some hushed whispered Kat picked up on... but weren’t anything noteworthy. It was all nonsense just to make it seem like they were saying something important. Kat let this go on until she was fairly sure there was only five minutes left. “Ok. So... I see we aren’t getting anywhere but I want to point this out. The dwarf with a two written on him had grey hair originally, now, he has dyed grey hair with brown hair underneath,” Kat watched as her two sets of teammates tensed, but the dwarves all narrowed their eyes. “Now wait. Before getting too excited I also noticed the dwarf with a one now has that grey colour. I don’t know if they swapped places or not. However... you dwarves SHOULD know.”
“It’s called compartmentalisation,” grumbled Dwarf Four 2. “We do not in fact know, only One and Two would know if such a swap happened.”
*Oh that’s just great. Not even the dwarves know which one is which.*
Kat noticed the set of four dwarves, the pairs of One and Two were pointedly not saying anything. *Grrr... they aren’t going to say anything it seems. They aren’t even reacting. Shit. Why would they do something like this like dumbasses.*
That’s when a somebody decided to through a wrench into the whole thing, Dwarf Three 2 said, “Just because we try to compartmentalise doesn’t mean much when there’s limited space. I saw One and Two swap so those are the fakes,” Dwarf Three 2 pointed at Dwarf One 2 and then Dwarf Two 1.
The tension in the room ratcheted up another notch, most people eyeing One 2 and Two 1 while the Nixilei’s kept and eye on the other half of the equation. “Well I DIDN’T see anything,” said Dwarf Three 1 “One of us is a liar you know that much. But I’m staking the claim that I saw nothing,”
*Well, that’s just lovely. Just when I thought we had some confirmation.*
“One minute remains!” said the voice of Thyme echoing throughout the room.
“Shit, we need to vote for somebody,” growled the Gareths together. Green 1 popped her head back up upon hearing the growl and looked around at everyone very much on edge before sitting up straighter and glancing around.
“What happens if we just don’t vote for anyone?” asked Nixilei 2. Nixilei 2 was expecting, or at least pretending to expect, an answer to that question. The only response she got was after a few moments.
“Thirty Seconds remain. You will be forced to vote for someone between rounds if you do not vote before the time is up,” said Thyme’s echoey voice.
*Shit shit shit. Who do I vote for?*
“Well, I’m just going to vote for the other me,” said Green 2, “No sense worrying about this too much. If everyone does that it’ll be up to Kat to break whatever tie she wants,”
“No don’t be so foolish,” said Nixilei 1, “the copies can vote together to vote out a real person... assuming they can. Wait can copies actually vote? Was this covered?”
Once again, no rule clarification appeared and Green 2 wasn’t wasting anymore time. She moved forward and quickly scribbled ‘Other Green’ on the paper before showing it to everyone and dumping it into the box. Kat however, noticed a bit of slight of hand at play and was able to clearly follow Green 2 as she hid the ballot, she’d shown everyone in her sleeve before dropping another paper into the bowl.
*Damn, I bet that’s blank and she’ll vote in the darkness. Wait that means this has to be the fake Green! Not only would Green just sleep everywhere she can, I don’t think Green would make such a ballsy play.*
“That Green-” Kat’s tried to point this fact out to everyone but the teleportation sucked her away from the room before she could make her point clear.
“Greetings Kat,” said Thyme, this time they had a Victorian era dress and a parasol and were standing in front of a table with a single piece of paper with a pencil beside it. “You will need to vote for somebody right now. If you do not vote within the next minute, you will be eliminated instead despite finding your double already.”
*Urgh that’d be right. Kat thought as she slowed her perception of time. So who do I want to vote for? Green 2 is definitely the fake. I didn’t exactly get a chance to bring that up with everyone though. Would it be a waste of a vote? Hmm... maybe I shouldn’t look at it that way. If I vote for the fake Green that’s one MORE vote that’s definitely going to the fakes. I mean, who else am I going to vote for? I don’t know enough about the dwarves to pick between them. The Nixilei’s are scarily in sync. The Gareths haven’t made any big moves. Hmm... the Kresses... well I don’t really think either of them acted out of character. I... hmm...
I think I’ll have to vote Green 2.*