“That’s not part of the Zodiac,” I compin softly.
The cat ignores me, as a cat is wont to do. The kitty has twitching, lively, 3-dimensional ears with an unnatural smoothness that betrays its animated nature. It’s half-bck and half-red too, the colors split diagonally right down a stitched middle.
“Hey, wait a minute. That cat’s not part of the Zodiac!” The Tiger steals my compint—like I said, that delinquent punk really should have been the one to get the Snake! Of the eleven others, she stands out to me in the worst way.
But, the next voice that comes is one that’s adorably cute. It’s that from the digital cat, so loud and sweet that it overpowers the rest of the room.
“I nyo that, I nyo! Of course I’m not part of the Zoda-cat. That’s why I make a purrfect nyastermind, you see—I’m above all the offurss; while you all have one life I have nyan.
If you just list-nyan to what I have to say, I’ll give you the condit-nyans to escape. But I won’t take kindly to interrupt-nyans, nyahahahaha!”
Its hysterical ughter reverberates throughout the hall. The threat’s intimidating. Petty too, like a kitten’s tantrum. But, a boy immediately rises to challenge this half-crazed pet—the same boy who’d been sitting down when I’d first come to.
“I’ve had enough of this,” says the boy with the Goat brand. “You recognize that we each only have a single life, correct? Then don’t waste my precious time with this game, this situation, this reality TV.”
The Goat’s hair is a shock of white, and his skin is the color of rotten garlic; his face however, is beautiful, and unlike everyone else, he wears a simple robe. It’s as though he’s a Greek statue come to life. A demigod, a philosopher, an emperor? Or a soothsayer perhaps…
“It’s nyat a waste though?” asks the cat. “It’s the most important moment of your kitty-bitty lives?”
“I’d rather watch a game show than be in one,” the Goat snips. “If that’s what you’re trying to say. Real life has so much more to cheer about than being trapped with a menagerie of beasts.”
“So, you’re saying that you love your life outside this pce…? Enough to give it such nyonderful praise…?”
“Of what remains of it, yes.” The Goat says, looking around. No one else is standing with him; there’s an odd light in the animation’s ft, geometric eyes.
“Nyahahaha! Then let’s all show our gratitude—it’s time to appud!”
“Huh?” He says, reflexively.
“Huh?” the cat mocks back, sarcastic. I finally add my own two cents, before the Goat “huhs” himself right into a humongous argument:
“...Dragon, do you really know what’s going on?”
The Dragon’s own panicked face worries me as much as the virtual cat’s sharp-fanged grin. Stay calm, he mouths. Stay rexed, everyone, he murmurs again. But, even if we take his advice, the cat certainly doesn’t, and its already shrill voice rises another two octaves.
“Appud! Appud!” the cat demands. “Appud if you’re grateful for the miraculous gift of life. After all, this is a game with an enormous reward, with those very same lives as the prize! This will be a beautiful, amazing, meowvolous experience… and if I had any crimal gnds, I would surely be meowved to tears…”
“What the fuck,” the Tiger says, as the Dragon holds his head in his hands. Truly, what a ridiculous person that dark-haired boy was—putting on a brave face and lying about his knowledge, just to keep everyone calm. And even with all that stupid, selfless effort…
“Where’s the cheers? Come nyan, come nyan!” the cat cries out once more.
Sparks collect uncomfortably against the snake brand on my colr. It heats from a comforting embrace to a scalding, burning iron. My hand rises up against my neckband
and I can see the Horse, the ponytailed girl to my left, grimacing in pain.
The first few pairs of hands join in, smacking hesitantly. But now, everyone seems to be wincing and struggling against their colrs in between each trembling sps, a horrible acrid, skin-like scent burning in the air.
“Thank you, thank you! But we can do better than nyat!’
“Tch!” I wince.
“Come on, appud!” the Dragon says. “Snake, Tiger, Rooster…!”
“Shut up!” I say.
“I don’t know what’s going on!” he calls, as my colr sears me. “I’ll admit it, I don’t know what’s going on at all, so—”
I join in.
Our appuse becomes thunderous. The chamber’s circur-shaped, rising to stained-gss skylight nestled in an enormous dome, and our cps echo and bounce off the walls til it seems like we’re an audience of one thousand men. The Pig, the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog… does it matter what our real names are? Looking at them as the electric charge recedes, I think each of them seems to loosely resemble the animal etched on their chain—and each one of them acts the part of a colred beast, now thoroughly tamed. The iron around our neck cools off.
Our cps falter, and the chamber falls into silence.
Someone coughs, and our colrs sizzle one more time, but aside from that reaction it seems the danger has passed.
“Yes, yes, your rapt attention, please! It’s time! To expin! The name of the game in which you’ll stake the gift of life. Welcome everyone to the Werrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrewwwwwwwwwwoof Game!”
The Werewolf Game? For the first time in minutes, I instinctively sit upright. The rules of Werewolf are usually exactly the same as those of my favorite game, that of online Mafia.
“Nya nya~! In a super kawaii vilge, there are twelve zodiac animals living togethew, all snuggly-wuggly! But oh noes, there are three sneaky-wolfie outsiders in disguise as other animals, nya!
“When the moon goes up-up, the naughty wolfies get togethew and pick a vilger to 'nyaaap,’ making them go bye-bye from our game, nya. And they’ll keep giving everyone the ‘big sleep,’ until all the other vilgers are dead.”
“This might sound super scary, but the adowable vilgers have two weapons to fight the meanie wolfies!
“The first weapon is the daily trial! Every day, all the cutie pyers will py detective to find the wolfies and vote for who they think is the suspect. The one with the mostest votes gets a big oof and is executed, nya.
“The second weapon is even more paw-some! Two of the vilgers will be blessed with super secret powers tonight! One becomes the healer, a super doctor who can protect another pyer from the wolfies during night time. The other becomes the seer, who can pick another pyer’s role each night and find out if they're a friendly vilger or a sneaky-wolf in disguise, nya!
The wolfies win if there are as many of them as the townies, 'cause then they rule the game. But the vilge wins if they manage to find and execute all the wolfies, nya!
Check your Card to see what your role is, but shhh! Don't show it to anyone, or the cat God will give you a big scary 'nope' and it's worse than a game over, nya!
But win the game, and your meo-ward will be a nice long life!”
A slot pops open in the wooden counter, revealing an electric device about the size of a personal phone. I gnce at it quickly before sliding it out of sight.
Vilger. That’s my role.
“Nya nya! Stopping another pyer from voting in the trial, nyat voting anyone, or spilling your 'real name' will lead to a big boo-boo, death! And you can use your Card to peek at some extra conduct rules that we've added just for you, nya~
Best of luck as you pyfully outsmart each other in this super cute deduction game! Paw-paw!”
The video shuts off, and this time the screen simply says the following in big, wide, text:
DAY ONE | VOTE TIME
The monitor by my knees fshes too and changes to a new UI…
PICK A PLAYER
ID
Status
ID
Status
Dragon
IN
Dog
IN
Snake
IN
Pig
IN
Horse
IN
Rat
IN
Goat
IN
Ox
IN
Monkey
IN
Tiger
IN
Rooster
IN
Rabbit
IN