[Kitchen] Event #4 “Love is an open door!”

[Madge Baker]

The night was falling. A playful gust of wind ran down Katherine's hair, who was sitting in a chair at the table. The surroundings were actually new! It was an old vintage kitchen. The moment she is going to wake up - sure this won't feel right. Oh, the bright side however she was also untied and free to move both her legs and arms. And she was not alone. The young woman was accompanied by her roommate - Dorian, who was also at the current moment sitting at the table, sleeping.

Before them, at the table, they can see a lit up candelabra and a dinner for two. Oh, how "thoughtful" of Madge to set up a date for them! However, besides the drinks (as always, it was red wine), the food (which were pork chops with some apricot mostarda) the glasses, plates, forks and knives of all sorts - some of them didn't even make sense to be here, they were WAY too big, like some kind of butcher knives - there was two sheets of paper, a couple of pens and... a projector. The projector was turned on and facing the white wall. A picture projected on the wall looked like two big "I" letters; under each "letter" there were 9 dashes symbols (looking like this: ___ )...

Everything about this situation seemed super odd and sketchy but before either Dorian or Katherine could comprehend the situation a delicate yet coarse female voice broke the silence of the room.

"Wake up," the familiar young voice from the basement commanded, "You have a task to complete." The Next moment people could see from the top camera view how a thin hand moved across the I letters pointing at the dashes beneath them. "It's a simple game of hangman. By speaking outloud - guess your word letter by letter or the whole world at once - and u win! Guess it wrong - and u lose. Whoever wins will get a prize to be taken with you from the room to your right," the voice calmly stated and both Katherine and Dorian could clearly see what door the voice was referring too - compared to every other one - this was solid metal, probably thicker than even in their rooms and the basement.

"You have 20 minutes to solve this riddle. Please, proceed with your task," she finished her speech. When the hand moved out of the frame, both Dorian and Katherine could catch a glance of a giant dark spot, possibly a bruise on the inside of the woman's wrist.

And the room fell silent again. Seems like they were waiting for their first guess...

[Time to decide our post-order for the first 10 posts (excluding my posts as Madge) - please, both of u, roll the dice and start guessing!]

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RULES:
1. In this event, two players will compete to save another member of the team. To do so they will need to play a simple game of "hangman". Each player will have their own word they need to guess. [!] You DON'T know who are you saving till the moment the game ends.

2. Before the beginning of the game both players who guess the word roll for "initiative" to determine who posts first out of two. They both will roll for initiative every 4 posts (not including Madge's) to give another a chance to take the lead.

3. You can guess one letter per post. After both of your posts me - Val from Madge's account - will let you know the results of your guesses. I will reply to you BOTH after you both leave a post with your guess.

4. You can guess the whole world as well; guessing it right or wrong will bring us to the elimination of one of the participants.

5. Both players can guess the letters for their own word only. Both words have 9 letters and both of u have 7 (rope, head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg) pieces of hangman figure to be drawn to before your game is considered "lost".

6. Sadly nor Cassim nor Della can communicate with Dorian and Katherine. They will be able to participate in each others threads only after the reveal of the "winner".

7. Listen carefully to what the announcer of the games tells u to do. You never know what's gonna happen next.

WORDS:
KATHERINE: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7 pieces left)
DORIAN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7 pieces left)

PARTICIPANTS:
- Cassim (possibly later)
- Della (possibly later)
- Dorian
- Katherine

DATE:
- June 3rd

[Dorian F. Blund]

A contented sigh escaped his lips as he moved his head to the left. A pleasant breeze was running through his hair, and after so long stuck in the same rooms with very little aeration for the past month, it was a literal breath of fresh hair. It was almost enough to make him forget the aching in his neck, his stiff limbs, the slight pounding of a new headache…
Wait. He had felt like this before. And the window in his room had never so much as budged.

Not for the first time, Dorian’s eyes opened wide, fighting the drug to get a better sight of his surroundings. He had been counting in his head, and if he wasn’t too far off, it had been two weeks since he and Katherine had woken up in that room; approximately the same amount of time he had spent with Cassim before being moved. Had he been taken to yet a different bedroom with a new person?

Wrong. This place was very much not a bedroom; it was a kitchen. And much to his surprise, his past roommate was still with him. “Miss Katherine.” he called, his voice still hoarse from the drugs; his hand reached up for her shoulder to shake her awake, but he immediately realized that she was already starting to wake up on her own, and he breathed a sigh of relief. She was alright, thank God. But where were they?

His sudden movement had revealed to him that his hands were untied, and so were his legs; he was free to move around the room, and he promptly looked for any possible way out. There was only one door that he could see, and it looked massive, too much for him to force open if it had been locked, which he could only imagine was the case. Frowning in consideration, his eyes finally settled on the table, where a copious dinner had been set for the two of them. If he didn’t know any better (and frankly, considering his disastrous love life, he didn’t), this seemed like the typical setting for… “… Are we on a date?”

He was immediately filled with a sense of dread. Shit. Were he and Katherine getting married at last? Was that indeed why they had been roomed together for so long?
Wait… no, they were alone, not a witness in sight to make the marriage official. No documents either, or any altar. This was just a date. Maybe they had all jumped to conclusions thinking that Geoff and Hannah’s situation was bound to repeat itself with new victims. All of the other games had been different each time, after all.

"Wake up, you have a task to complete." Talking about games… Dorian was a bit ashamed to jump at the sound, so deep in thought that the voice had taken him off guard. He needed to focus, dammit. For all he knew, both their lives were on the line. All of his senses were now focused on the voice and the images in front of him; was this the same voice from the basement, Noah’s little friend? He thought so, then again… it had been so long, he might just be convincing himself that it was. She wanted them to play hangman, for an unspecified prize.

Well… the task seemed innocent enough; then again, so was the card game Silvio had been a part of, and someone had still died. Dorian discreetly glanced at his partner; there had been no mention of anyone being killed if they failed, but that did not mean they were both safe. If that was the case; was this Katherine’s life against his own? For all he knew, this “prize” was simply the right to live. One person walks out the door, only one comes back. If so… should he cheat? He had motivated himself, this entire time, with the mindset of getting out of this place no matter what, and look out for himself; he would ally himself with as many people as needed, and would watch over any person who required assistance; but at the end of the day, he needed to survive. Would he risk giving Katherine an advantage, if that meant risking his own safety?

Silvio’s words came back to him; those who held the heart cards had been the ones to fail to pair up, and still, a perfectly innocent woman had been the one to pay the crime with her life. Cheating was useless; for all he knew, they would punish his attempts to protect Katherine by shooting her. It was best to play by the rules and make the most of it, when he had no real idea what would happen either way.

It was probably a good thing, too; he did not want to have to complete his train of thought, and figure out whether, given the chance, he would sacrifice himself, or let one he had come to see as a friend die in front of him for his own good. Better live with the doubt than die with the certainty.

“Breathe.” He quietly spoke to Katherine when the voice finished her speech, glancing at her with a reassuring smile. “Let’s just follow the rules, and I’m sure we will both be fine.” Liar.

“Do you recognize her voice?” he spoke once again, under his breath. He wanted some confirmation on whether or not he was right to think that she was the person from the basement; whoever she was, she seemed to have suffered some kind of injury recently. Had it been an accident, or had she been punished? Noah seemed convinced, if it was the same person, that she was the one behind all of this, but… then she would not have been hurt, would she?

Putting all of these thoughts aside, Dorian focused back on the game. Thank God the lines were far from him, that way he would not have to hurt his eyes by focusing on them. He couldn’t ignore the irony that they had put both he and Katherine, two people who had spent the last two weeks reading almost ceremoniously, in a word game. This would be an interesting contest for sure. Considering his options, Dorian finally spoke out his first choice. “I choose E.” Better not make them wait.

[Katherine Sallow]

A gust of wind ran down Katherine's hair which made her shiver a little and caused her to stir slightly. She had been gassed yet again. Who knows where she would be and with who. "Miss Katherine?" Wait...she knew that voice! Katherine fluttered her eyes open. "Dorian? I..I don't understan..." but before she could finished her sentence and look at her surroundings a familiar voice was heard "Wake up you have a task to do." Katherine eyes winded. No, not another one!
Katherine looked down at herself, she wasn't tied...for once. She stood up and felt the soft red fabric. Oh fantastic back in the red dress...oh god was another wedding around the corner? Her breathing was picking up the pace. She was terrified "Breathe." She heard Dorian say quietly too her. “Let’s just follow the rules, and I’m sure we will both be fine.” Katherine just bit her lip. No matter what they did they would never be fine.

"So she wants us to play hangman? I...I don't like this. The prize...it could be anything and I just hope it doesn't end with one of us dying." She bit her nail out of pure stress. Who knew what would happen next. “Do you recognise her voice?” Katherine looked at Dorian and shrugged her shoulders. "She does sound familiar but I can't remember if it's the same voice from the wedding. All the gas we've been put under has really done a number with my head." She tried to calm herself and looked at the projection.

“I choose E.” Dorian said. Katherine wasn't that good at hangman and she only played it once and lost too. She can't loose this one but she wanted Dorian to live. If the prize was one of them gets to live while the other sadly dies. Ok...always a rule with hangman, start with your vowels. "I choose A" Katherine said with as much confidence she could muster.

[Madge Baker]

The fragile hand moved back into the frame and drew both letters with a red gel pen on the piece of paper the camera was hovering above.

WORDS:
KATHERINE: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7 pieces left)
DORIAN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E _ (7 pieces left)

[Dorian F. Blund]

So, Katherine still couldn’t confirm it to him, just like when she had told him about the wedding. That was not ideal; after a whole month without hearing this voice yet hearing so much about this mysterious woman, he couldn’t trust himself when he thought he recognized her. Heck, did he even know if Noah’s friend and Claudette’s matchmaker were the same person? He had already determined this couldn’t possibly be a one person’s operation.

Katherine was clearly shaken, and Dorian wished to show her sympathy, but his body was tense. He could not blame her for being worried; it was only now starting to dawn on him the situation he was truly in. So much time spent talking with people about deaths, games and punishments, and mentally preparing himself for the very real possibility of going through one soon… it had all dulled its effect on him. At least neither Cassim, Noah nor anyone else he had grown to know was here, and for that he was glad; hopefully they were all safely in their rooms.

They had both guessed a letter right, and Dorian squinted his eyes at the lines. He knew he should be focusing on his own word, but he couldn’t help but think of the possibilities for hers as well. One letter was good, but it would have been better with repeats. He wished he at least had a clue to work with: if this person was cocky, they would pick words that had to do with them or their situation; if she was smart, she would pick words that had nothing to do with any of this at all. This past month, he had come to the conclusion that they must have been stupid; was he right? Would he risk going along with that guess?

Dorian steadied himself, and looked at Katherine. “Nothing in the rules states we will be hurt as long as we play along.” He spoke again, knowing full well that this reasoning was incredibly shaky at best. With that said, he continued. “I choose A as well.”

[Katherine Sallow]

When she saw the hand write the letters both her and Dorian chosen she couldn't help but be happy! Alright so her word began with A but there were no repeats. This was going to be tricky. She looked at Dorian wondering what was going through his head and what his word could be. Dorian looked at Katherine “Nothing in the rules states we will be hurt as long as we play along.” She nodded "That is true. Sorry for thinking the worst so quickly but at least we've started on the right foot." She looked back at her word. All the words starting with A going through her head.

“I choose A as well.” Dorian said. Should she choose E like Dorian did first time around. Before she opened her mouth, she stopped. Part of her wanted to say I...she was stuck and became overwhelmed. Ok calm down Katherine, you can do it. Just breathe and pick one letter. "I choose I." Was it the right letter to pick? Only time would tell.

[Madge Baker]

The hand drew a tine line down representing the rope as a part of the gallows on the picture above Dorian's word and then wrote down the letter I somewhat in the middle after hearing the raven haired woman's guess.

WORDS:
KATHERINE: A _ _ I _ _ _ _ _ (7 pieces left)
DORIAN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E _ (6 pieces left)

[Katherine Sallow]

Katherine couldn't even look at the projector after she said the letter but her gut told her to keep on looking. The hand appeared once more. It drew a small line representing a rope for Dorian and Katherine's eyes widened. Oh this was it. Their luck had quickly vanished. She was expecting the same for herself but instead the hand wrote the letter somewhere in the middle and Katherine couldn't believe her eyes.

"2 letters down and 7 letters left to guess. God this is so stressful." She shuffled over to Dorian, gently took his hand and squeezed it softly as a sign of reassurance then quickly let go again. Once again she was thinking of all the words that would start with A and have an I somewhere in the middle but it was too early to guess the word. Now you have two vowels better do constant next, Katherine thought. "Ok I choose the letter B"

[Dorian F. Blund]

The hand moved towards his word… and ignored it completely, choosing instead to draw a single line on his hangman in the making. The rope. Damn.

This wasn’t good, he was falling back; Katherine got her letter right, too, which only made it worse. His eyes moved from one side of the screen to another, his word to hers. Alright, so, they were only two guesses in, he still had time to recover. He just needed to focus. Should he keep trying vowels, or move on to consonants?

He didn’t fully register the movement growing closer to him until Katherine’s hand was in his; he glanced at the slender fingers, then at her, as she gave him a single squeeze. "2 letters down and 7 more to guess. God this is so stressful."

Dorian squeezed back, more instinctively than anything else, his eyes still on her. That was what you did when people held your hand. And Katherine just looked like she could use the reassurance; but he was trying to keep his nerves in check, and the model invading his space was not going to help him at all. Just as promptly as it had come, her touch was gone, and Dorian was left to wonder. This was a game, of course; but it was also a date, wasn’t it? Were they supposed to be touching each other and engaging in each other’s company? The table HAD been set for them, after all. He did not wish for a second to give this person more of a reason to hook them up; but perhaps placating them a little would work for the best.

As Katherine chanted her letter, Dorian looked over to the table. He may know nothing about dates, but he did know of formal meetings. A date was just an informal reunion between two people who wanted to woo each other; he could handle that much. He wasn’t sure he was in the mood to start eating now, and he doubted Katherine would with how stressed she seemed to be; instead he took the bottle of wine and a glass, pouring as he looked over to the words, thinking. Bringing the liquid to his nose, he smelled: didn’t seem poisoned, though of course, he was no expert. This did seem to be a rather good wine, at least.

“I believe the drinks are safe. Here.” Quietly pouring a second glass, he handed it over to Katherine. “It might help you loosen up.” Or other things. Taking his own glass between his fingers, he moved the liquid around for a second, brought it to his lips and, suddenly lowering it again, spoke: “I, if you may.”

[Madge Baker]

Without hesitation the hand drew a tiny line that was again just like in Dorian's case was representing the rope on "Katherine's gallows". When it was Dorian's turn to speak up the hand moved towards one of the dashes and filled in the letter I right in the middle.

WORDS:
KATHERINE: A _ _ I _ _ _ _ _ (6 pieces left)
DORIAN: _ _ _ _ I _ _ E _ (6 pieces left)

[Katherine Sallow]

Before Katherine pulled her hand away, Dorian squeezed her hand back and she was quite surprised but it brought a comfort to her. Then Dorian went over to the table and Katherine turned to look at him, he held the wine bottle and then poured two glasses. One for him “I believe the drinks are safe. Here.” Then pouring another one for her and then handing it too her. She just stared at it “It might help you loosen up.” Katherine just shook her head. "As much as I appreciate you being a gentleman and helping me keep calm. How do I not know you have a plan with the wine? I may just be overthinking but after that other event...I just can't." She continued to hold the wine glass and looked up at the projection. “I, if you may.”

Without hesitation the hand drew a line for Katherine. Shit. Katherine began to panic and she was on a good streak too but at least her and Dorian were now on an even playing ground. Her hands began to shake and she had to place the cup down on the table. What the hell could this word be? "if only we were given at least one hint then this would be slightly easier but that would be expecting too much." She began pinching the back of her hand, it was starting to be a coping mechanism for her. "I choose the letter...D" Oh god she had a feeling that the letter would not even be in her word and she knew her nerves would take over and she would fail this game.

[Dorian F. Blund]

Success for him, failure for Katherine. Now they were once again matched, with two letters and one line on the gallows for each. Dorian truly hoped that the “hangman” part of the game would not be literal.

Katherine rejected his proposition, and he would not have minded, had it not been for her strange accusation. He raised an eyebrow at her. “’ ‘a plan with the wine’? what do you expect me to do with it? I woke up in this room at the same time as you, and I do not accustom to carrying around drugs.” He did have disinfectant with him, which he was sure could do the trick, but he wasn’t going to waste it like this so promptly. He shrugged; his attempt had failed, hopefully whoever was watching could at least appreciate that he had tried. “I did not know you thought so low of me, Miss Sallow.”

With that he raised the glass to his lips, only dipping them in, savoring the wine and the wet sensation; his throat was dry, surely due to the drugs and the amount of time he’d been asleep since his last glass of water, but he could not risk getting tipsy when he needed all of his mental functions. Katherine was already nervous enough for the both of them. As she claimed her letter, he looked at her word in thought; it would surely help if he could know her result before he had to make his own guess, but alas. “N.” he called. Time to try his luck with a few consonants.

[Madge Baker]

The woman who was holding the red gel pen to write down the letters took a swift glance at Madge.

No. No signal.

She guessed it was not the time... yet. So she patiently drew a circle - as known as "the head" in the game of hangman - on Katherine's drawing, while adding another letter to Dorian's word.

WORDS:
KATHERINE: A _ _ I _ _ _ _ _ (5 pieces left)
DORIAN: _ _ _ N I _ _ E _ (6 pieces left)

[Katherine Sallow]

“I did not know you thought so low of me, Miss Sallow.” Katherine's heart broke. Dorian had called her Miss Sallow once again and she was upset. Katherine kept her back to him and stayed at the table,looking down at the wine. Trying not to cry she breathed in and then when Dorian said his letter of choice she looked at the projection. Big mistake. Her eyes only grew wide with fear when she drew a perfect circle representing the head. She looked away quickly. Her breathing becoming more heavy. She was panicking.

Katherine slowly brought her hand up to her neck and felt it. She could only imagine a rope around her neck and it wasn't nice feeling. She didn't want to speak in fear of hurting Dorian's feelings all she could do was look at the table of wine and food and only panic. Tears managed to fall down her face as she quickly wiped them away. Katherine couldn't even begin to think what would happen to her if she died. Would she get the same treatment as Kamala? What about her father and her children, Thomas and Alianore? So many thoughts racing through her head then she glanced down at the wine. She picked the glass up and took a sip. She shook her head in reaction to the wine. She wasn't a fan of wine but Dorian was right about her needed something to ease her mind. Katherine sighed. Right time to go back to the vowels. "I choose..." her voice was shaky. "I choose...E" It was only downhill for her now and Katherine was now preparing herself for the worst.

[Dorian F. Blund]

The hand on the screen seemed to hesitate for a second, which worried me; soon enough it was moving again, and Dorian felt just a little bit more at ease. He was on a winning streak, unlike Katherine. Things were looking good, but he couldn’t get too confident now.

Next to him, his playmate remained utterly silent, perhaps sulking after his comment. He meant to ignore her, but his eyes wandered to the side and saw: Katherine wasn’t brooding, she was crying. Her weeping was quiet, perhaps due to her being too terrified to make a peep.

Dorian looked away, his expression one of displeasure. He had tried to help her now, just like he had back in the basement, and both times she’d rejected his attempts to make things easier for her. At the end of the day, she wasn’t his responsibility. And she clearly didn’t want to be, either.

And yet…

He shook his head. The rules said nothing about death. He knew that didn’t mean anything, but panicking over something that might never happen was counterproductive. For now, he needed to focus on the game, and his own success. He would worry about the rest later. Neither of them had guessed their word yet. Considering his options, Dorian spoke. “S, please.”