Interruption
The sun is low in the sky when the citizens of Llamaville reach a decision by the narrowest of margins. As they prepare to lynch populartajo, however, they are interrupted.
"What was that?"
"You heard it too?"
"It sounded like... someone yelling. But far away."
"Someone could be in trouble. Maybe we should..."
"No. Let's finish this first. We've taken long enough reaching this decision..."
The noise heard is, indeed, someone yelling. They are not, however, far away, but rather in a basement under the Community Centre. In order to understand what they have heard, we must first rewind a bit.
Last week...
"Yes, sir. The list is almost finalized. We had one last minute replacement, but..."
"Good. And none of them are aware of the true nature of the... experiment?"
"We've left little hints that there might be some evil afoot, while denying that there is any actual danger. We'll make sure to keep them paranoid and lynch-happy, but at the most they'll suspect we're incompetent and let criminals into their perfect little village, but they'll never guess that they are part of a television show."
"Good. And the video of this meeting...?"
"This is being recorded?"
"I record everything. See to it that this doesn't make its way to them before the end of the show. Unless it moves the plot along. Now, about the companion show..."
"Monty Hall is lined up to host. He'll be perfect, and it'll make tying in the movie trailers that much easier...
Four days ago...
"And this is your crew of psychic monkeys..."
Monty Hall is touring the underground facility with Mr. Grey's assistant. He looks around at the rows of desks, each occupied by a monkey wearing what appears to be an antenna on its head. Monty Hall scratches his own head.
"Psychic... monkeys..."
"Yes, Mr. Hall. Obviously, you'll be far too busy preparing for the show to write your own material. So, these monkeys will figure out who the lynch will be, and attempt to type out a script for you. Between the thousands of them, they'll come up with
something
coherent."
"You people are... weird. But you pay well."
An hour ago...
"Where is my script?!"
A thousand monkeys make the same exasperated sound in response.
"I don't care if you didn't know who was going to be lynched! We're out of time!"
One of the monkeys stands up on its desk and throws down his antenna. The others continue typing furiously.
"I can't do this... we'll do it live."
All the monkeys look at him inquisitively... or is it expectantly?
"WE'LL DO IT LIVE!"
Some of the monkeys smirk. Some roll their eyes. Most of them shrug. They get paid either way. Cash, not bananas.
Later...
"Thanks for joining us tonight. We'll leave you with this video of populartajo killing babies. Goodnight, folks, and join us tomorrow morning for InVy Live, Day 4!."
populartajo (Mafia Goon) has been lynched. It is Night 3. Deadline is Thursday, October 1.
