[ He's gonna be blunt: ]

We're picking another team to neutralise attacks with.

There was another game we played. It was about protecting other teams rather than attacking them. Bugbear lost and were killed for it.

[ He grimaces. ]

I think it was Cerberus we protected last time? They might choose us again...

Should we just choose the team we picked last time?

[ He sighs, shoulders slumping. ]

I don't want to see more people die.

[ He crosses his arms, looking incredibly put out with having to even consider that someone may die because of their decision. ]

Probably the team we chose last time.

I dunno. New people have arrived since we last did that protection game. They might have other ideas on who they want to attack. There's nine participating teams if I understood right, so nine possible attacks. Echidna can protect one of us. Even if we hope that Cerberus attacks us in return, another team might still slaughter us.

[ He lets out a frustrated noise, scrubbing his hands through his hair. ]

I don't know! Maybe? The Warden's all but holding a gun to our heads to make us choose. Just by looking at some people I can tell there's no way we'd all simultaneously abstain from voting - that'd probably just get ALL of us killed anyway. But if it were me, I'd hope that everyone would pick one team to target, because then no matter who that single team picks to retaliate against, we'd all be safe.

[ He folds his arms, chewing his lip. ]

What if they don't pick us though...

[ That has him falling completely silent. Well, it's not like he didn't KNOW that, but... ]

I hate this.

I haven't really talked with many people outside of our own team. Even if I had...everyone else has their own friends and people they wanna save. I couldn't ask them to save us and let others die.