A) But try to convince them to let her go, first. If they get murderboners (and I expect them to get murderboners), try to capture them alive.
And then torture them for a few days to see if, deep down, they're as sick as you.

>>1048166
>>1048169
Why the torture and murder all of a sudden?
Now, hear me out on this, but what if we went with B? We could probably do some lying and using some facts so Olivia is ultimately innocent. As far as we've "heard" about this Philip fellow, he would be significantly larger than this coyote girl, and last we saw her she was even thinner than us. Maybe she ate Phillip, but ultimately she couldnt had been the killer due to how extremely malnourished and anorexic she was. Sure everyone can give her shit about eating a person's corpse, but we should remind everyone that this is the post apocalypse and she doesnt do this because she enjoys esting people.

Worse comes to worse, we can offer to do guard duty over Olivia for the night, let her knock us out, and let her run away.

A

>>1048166
>>1048169
Not to mention, just because its an option to attack doesn't make it an automatic success. Sure Nick and Truffles are medium sized crestures like us, but they're heavier and now armed. Even with a sneak attack im not sure we can take them.

Say we succeed and kill them bothm we get. We get a finite amount of meat but can't, or at least shouldnt return back to the haven due to increased stress of losing a total of three of their own in a span of under a week. Really suspecious. Now say we fail to kill them, thats pretty straight forward. They would probably outright kill us for treason. Nick i can't be botheree to care about, but Truffles has grown on me. Dude is a pretty wholesome grandpa and a talented tinkerer.

>>1048156
B-b-b-b-b!

I really want to say C, but I'm going to go with A. I'm not okay with betraying Olivia, but these guys are a different story, kill the shit outta them.

C.

>>Yeah, so you probably could tell the meat came from a beast. In my defense I found him dead, uh, I think he fell out of a tree and broke his neck. Didn’t want him to go to waste and now the commune thinks he was murdered so I don’t want to tell them about it.

Ol' reliable. And you REALLY gotta sell it this time. Include the fact that you dragged it out here for the dual purpose of feeding Olivia so she can go home and to get rid of it faster. This can be corroborated with the opposite end of the blood trail leading to your camp.

For further convincing that he was dead already, Nick already believes you were too weak to have done it, and even though you didn't know Olivia, is shouldn't be hard to convince them that you couldn't have fought him and come out unscathed even if you'd done it together

>>1048196
This only if this say

>>1048196
This

B. That’s one of the reasons we kept her around, even if it wasn’t our favorite.

you know, it seems like they hate carlos, regardless of the fact that phillip got murdered. If we are to confess that he "fell" out of a tree, why not try to err... convince them to pretend like carlos actually killed phillip?

Y'know what, I didn't expect C to get popular, but I will totally change my vote to back it since it did. What lies behind door number 3?

A and C are stupid and unreliable, though A at least gets the quest back to murder-cannibalism if the fight is won. Really though she's a mangy little coyote, siding with her is dumb waifu shit and there shouldn't be any compunctions about selling her out for survival.

B

>>1048242
*DROPKICK*

>>1048196
Sounds good, but only if we're not cashing in and jacking out. Olivia's family won't wait forever. They can't.

You could also confess to hiding the fish thief without confessing to murder? Like yeah, you're a liar, but it was because you have a soft spot for her, she was starving and you told her off without endangering her by selling her out. Please don't hurt her over those fish?

(Also, you can vouch for her innocence in Phillip's murder, as she tried to steal fish AFTER his disappearance. What'd she need that much meat for?)

I'll go with B. Sounds like the kind of shrewd pragmatism our protagonist would go with.

>>1048156
Doing B now. For that [B]igger [B]ote

>>1048248
Okay thats way smarter i should vote for this

>>1048248
This is also kinda smart.

Suggestion 2022/11/02(Wed)18:35 No. 1048306 ID: 9ea24b
File 166743931593.png - (128.12KB , 500x500 , p47.png )

You’re tempted to panic and attack Truffle and Nick. With their complete focus on Olivia, you could easily stab Nick in the neck or kidney then defeat Truffle with your superior weapon. With the extra food you’d be able to leave the area with Olivia and return to her home.

No, you’re not in the mood for more bloodshed. You kind of like Truffle and Nick is annoying but still a person who lost his friend. If you were hungrier maybe you’d think differently.

You’re not going to let them capture Olivia either. You’ve invested a lot into the coyote gal and letting her take the blame just feels dirty. Call it softhearted but that’s where you stand.

>C, with extra lying
“Wait!” You hurry to put yourself between Olivia and the other beasts. “She didn’t do anything to Phillip, she was still stealing fish after he went missing.”

“Then why did the blood trail lead to her?” Truffle glares at Olivia, who’s frozen in place.

“Well…Okay this is going to sound bad, but I found Phillip already dead under the oak tree the first day I got here and uh, dragged his body away. Didn’t want it to go to waste and I didn’t know the rest of you guys lived nearby. Eventually I found Olivia and brought some of it to her and by that time I didn’t want to say anything that would get me in trouble.”

You’re not good friends with Truffle or Nick, so you can see in their faces that they don’t believe your lie about finding Phillip dead. Nick looks supremely disappointed that Carlos isn’t the killer and Truffle grimaces in disgust.

You throw out another last ditch effort. “Maybe Carlos killed him and made it look like an accident?”

“Lift your hands up, son.” Truffle unfastens your knife from your belt and Nick gets a firm grip on your thin wrist. “We’re going to take you back to the library and decide what to do with you.”

He turns to Olivia. “I don’t want to see your hide anywhere near our home. You come for more fish and we’ll hunt you down.”

Olivia stares at you in dismay as you’re escorted away, jaw hanging open with no noise coming out.

It’s chaos back at the library once Truffle shares the news. Carlos, Mitzi, and Dorothy seem extra betrayed. Your arms and legs are tied and the muzzle is fastened over your face. They even take your goggles so you can barely keep your eyes open and leave you on the bare floor while they gather everyone for a meeting.

The rest of the day passes like this. Your hands and feet are numb and you’re hungry and thirsty. The beasts seem split between immediately putting you to death and keeping you as a prisoner until you tell them the full story. Eventually night falls and you’re put under extra watch.

Two randomly selected guards: Deer and capybara

Bad luck, you got two beasts you’ve never even shared a word with. You curse yourself for doing the right thing when you could have gotten away scot free with just a little extra murder.

What do you do? You have extremely limited mobility but can still talk (it’s a fancy kind of muzzle).

Confess to your sins, explain you had absolutely no food and no other options.

and/or just sleep and dream, really all we can do right now. Maybe pray and hope that Olivia comes save us somehow since we helped her earlier.

But yeah, as I said around the start, this is why we shouldn't form friendships with our meals.

Oh! if we do decide to attempt to dream, lets try to dream of our past life before the nukes hit, (or just go into deep thought about the good ol' days if we cant sleep)
John backstory ahoy!

>>1048311
we must never say we directly killed him

Take a chance that they aren't total hardasses and see if you can at least get something to drink. Food probably isn't happening, but if they seem friendly enough you can try.

>>1048306
Well this is a weird day. If they plan on keeping us prisoner, can them give us regular rations? Else they should probably kill us. Better that than have a what do you call it, mental death?

>>1048311
Im not a fan of telling them the truth. They would definitely kill us, and out of all the people there we only have one or two friends.

>>1048343
They're hardly close enough friends to believe him over the others as well.

Never admit it. Stick to the story. There's a saying "a lie told often enough can eventually become the truth." and the most important person to convince is yourself.

>>1048348
The fact they're debating about putting him to death means they already strongly suspect John's the killer, even if previously they didn't seriously consider the idea that John could've murdered their large squirrel man. Sticking with the "oh I only found the already-dead body, I swear" story is unlikely to resolve in our favour, though maybe we'd be lucky enough that they'll just banish him. John has failed at being a serial killer zombie, and -- for what?

They don't have to wait very long to see John degrade back into hungry zombie mode, either. Just two or three days without proper meals. They might kill him regardless because that's the practical and sensible thing to do to a lying cannibal zombie man in the post-apocalypse. We'd have been better off with a full confession on the spot when we found Olivia if we were going to go this route at all, if only to pretend John has a bit of decency and a meaningful distance between his zombie and regular self.

Anyway we need to wait for Mitzi to get on the guard shift. Or ask to see her and speak with her one-on-one, or something similar. She's closest to John and probably the most credulous one overall. We can try to trick her to loosen the bonds -- we even have a legitimate reason if they're tied so tight our limbs are numb. And maybe at least convince her to sneak us some food. Maintaining John's reason and humanity will be important if we're going to try and drag this out, but they won't keep us prisoner forever; two people at a time watching us is a very real expense in work-hours for their community, and that's without them wasting food and water on us. We could nevertheless wait for a luckier selection of guards -- ones we know better, ones John might be able to convince in his favour with some better lies and justifications. If worst comes to worst and execution seems imminent, we can try to argue for an alternative sentence like indefinite forced labour.

>>1048369
A bonus in our favor is people like carlos knowing we are too weak to fight anyone like philip we are a sickly scraggly fellow mostly bone who would out of desperation eat anything and this was the day we got a full description of philip

Suggestion 2022/11/03(Thu)15:39 No. 1048397 ID: 9ea24b
File 166751518707.png - (92.74KB , 500x500 , p48.png )

>Confess your sins
At this point that would be suicide and you don’t want to die. It’s that will to live thing you can’t seem to get rid of. Unfortunately this means you don’t have an easy way out.

>They strongly suspect you’re the killer
Yes, but there’s enough reasonable doubt that you still have people who want to believe your comfortable lie.

>You’re going to degrade back into hungry zombie mode soon
Yes, at the end of tonight in fact since you barely got anything to eat besides a light breakfast today. A good incentive to ask for some food and water.

>Wait for the guard shift reroll
After several restless hours of waiting, the deer and capybara return to bed and two other beasts take their place.

Two randomly selected guards: Dorothy and Nick

Score! Dorothy’s a sweetheart and Nick, uh, has a complicated relationship with what he wants to be true.

A. Focus on Dorothy, ask for food, water, and a chance to use the bathroom. This can get your mouth and hands free depending how you spin it.

B. Focus on Nick, speak to him in private and offer your services. In murder.

Well, on the bright side we're back on track. Focus on Nick.

>>1048397
A

When was the last timecwe brushed our teeth or flossed? Like ever? How do we still have some teeth left? Oh right its only been like half a year since the end of the world? We better keep up the teeth care if we want to keep them.
Ask for reading material. What, they think we'll escape or something? Fat chance. We're just a skinny sick white boy. Maybe we can read up on some books about survival, or herbalism and foraging. Its be nice to know how to unfuck out body more.

Yes, we should really appeal to Dorothy's sense of kindness, and sticking with the "I was starving and the body was right there" story.

If we tell Nick we'll help him kill Carlos, he'll know for sure we are a manipulative bastard and he will likely side with the devil he knows.

Warn them about the encroaching zombie state, if they want to get anything from you they need to feed you.

Tell them you like them, you like this place (even if it's not a lie, put some extra flair to it) and that you wouldn't want to hurt them but that indeed, you were starving and did what you had to survive.

As a token of good faith, offer to give back what you looted on Philip, if they want to organize a funeral.

>>1048397
Tell dorthy we are starving dont remember if we even had dinner

Suggestion 2022/11/04(Fri)18:00 No. 1048470 ID: 9ea24b
File 166761003342.png - (112.75KB , 500x500 , p49.png )

>Don’t tell Nick you’re a killer
You were going to be a little more subtle than a straight up confession, but that’s a valid point. You’ll focus on Dorothy.

>Skinny sick white boy
It’s true. Hopefully this will net you some pity points.

>Dental hygiene
Among the myriad of side effects of the zombie virus is an above average resistance to cavities. It helps that you’re not exactly eating any sweets and you have an old toothbrush you use regularly without toothpaste. Five years of the apocalypse and your teeth are doing pretty well!

>A, appeal to Dorothy’s sense of kindness
“Dorothy.” Your voice is slightly hoarse from lack of water. “Please, can I have some food? I haven’t eaten since breakfast and I get kind of unstable when I’m really hungry.”

Dorothy hesitates and glances at Nick, who shrugs.

“I didn’t want to eat Phillip, I was just doing what I needed to survive. I-I’m scared.”

Your innate puppy dog eyes finally win Dorothy over. She takes you a bit further away from the main sleeping area and gets you a cup of water and some leftovers. You hold very still as she unclasps the muzzle and unties your hands so you can feed yourself.

“John, I wish you had told us about Phillip sooner. The others may have been a bit more forgiving but now I don’t think they’re going to let you live.” She closes her eyes with a pained, conflicted expression. “If I let you go, can you please leave without causing any more trouble? I’ll say you escaped.”

Dorothy is showing you mercy. Any beast besides Mitzi and Dorothy that encounters you from now on will attempt to kill you.

Important choice:
A. Find Olivia and leave the city immediately. You won’t be bringing any spare food to Olivia’s family.
B. Leave the city by yourself and travel back to the nearest outpost, doing what you did before to survive.
C. Maximum murder cannibalism time. Work with Olivia to hunt down more of the herbivores so you can bring more meat to Olivia’s family.

C. Let the bloodshed consume you

C. Take some(one) for the road.

C. Dorothy and Mitzi are cool though, so spare them from your hunt. Dorothy especially, she just gave you your freedom.

Carlos is a top priority target, that ration reducing rabbit is probably gonna get himself killed even if you left peacefully. Might as well do it in a way that'll do someone good.

D. Stay and stand trial. Prove that you are innocent! (even though you aren't)

>>1048479
This. Be selective in who you hunt.

>>1048485
Possibly

The group is in chaos with other guys planning to murder that albino asshole rabbit even if his condecending testimony would support us being too weak to kill phillip

>>1048470
A
It feels kind of fucked up to promise to leave, only to come back and kill everyone. Can't we just kill other strangers, or continue hunting for rabbits?

A for me, no need to try your luck.
Hunting them down when both you and Olivia are in such a weak state is suicide, you can't take them all at the same time.

A) This can't go on. And not because of moral issues, but due to long-term hate-crime consequences.

You've already corrupted the community into distrusting all carnivores. If you spit on their mercy, they'll devolve further into knight-templars against all carnivores. If they survive - and you kind of need them to survive for this region to recover - they must have some mercy remaining for your kind, or you'll plant the seeds for a future apocalypse.

Don't give in to the behavior of the virus. Don't let the hate spread.

>>1048470
A

>>1048470
Before we go, see if we can convince Dorathy to ask Mitsu if her trap caught a rabbit, and if they can leave it with us to take on the road, or smuggle in some food for us. We'll need food to be sane. A curse from our disease. Failing that can we somehow get our survival knife and other stuff that had been confiscated? Do we still have our canteen?

Suggestion 2022/11/05(Sat)18:03 No. 1048530 ID: 9ea24b
File 166769662558.png - (106.42KB , 500x500 , p50.png )

>A and C tie
Staying to hunt the herbivores is high risk high reward, not to mention kind of a dick move. Meat and resources are very tempting though, and you can always be selective on who you kill. It’d be safer in the short term to find Olivia and leave, but who knows how her family will react to another mouth to feed? At least you’ll be able to pass on your knowledge of snares and traps. Probably tons of rabbits out in the former farm fields.

>D?
There are a couple of free thinker voices who favor staying and standing trial, which you’d consider a more pacifist choice even if it isn’t feasible (Dorothy mentioned you’re going to be killed if you stay). You decide to count them as anti-C votes.

>Ultimately A
You ask Dorothy for your things and she fetches your pack, knife, and goggles. You whisper your thanks and gratitude before limping on your numb feet into the night.

Your final stats are:
Hunger: 6 + 3 (daily hunger) - 2 (leftovers and breakfast) = 7/10
Thirst: 3 + 3 (daily thirst) - 1 (cup of water) = 5/10
Tiredness: 6 + 1 (investigation) - 1 (poor night’s rest) = 7/10

You’ve made a loyal friend in Olivia, but the survival situation is still dire. At least your body is intact and you have knowledge of the cavern if you ever return. Olivia has a few morsels that she gives to you as you pack your bag with Phillip’s old meat and bones, before starting the trek with the coyote out of the city.


Thanks for reading, John’s story may continue in the future.

>>1048530
Great thread boss. Be seeing you later.