When first-year Kathy Nguyen found herself alone with fellow first-year Elizabeth Peterson in the Prentiss Hall elevator, she clutched her guitar to her chest as Peterson leaned towards her with her choice weapon, a bobby pin. Nguyen’s cries of “Wait, no, no, no!” could be heard on the main floor as the elevator doors opened.
Despite her pleas, Nguyen became the latest victim in the game Assassins, which has absorbed first-years in recent weeks.
“It always comes up as an easy topic of discussion with everyone. The general question is: Are you still alive?” said first-year Daniel Merritt, a resident of Anderson Hall.
Hosted by Resident Advisors and Directors of Lyman, Jewett, Anderson and Prentiss, the game assigns participating students an anonymous target to kill with a (harmless) weapon of their choice. Assassinations proved tricky and nerve-racking because kills can only be made while the assassin and victim are alone and cannot take place in a public area such as restrooms or classrooms.
“It’s harder than you think,” Lyman first-year Sam Sadeghi said in reference to the skill or luck required to find the right circumstances to make a kill.
On Sept. 14 at midnight, the Jewett game began with 98 players, shortly followed by the 18 by Lyman; they each played within their individual Hall. Anderson and Prentiss are in the midst of playing a combined hall game that began on Sept. 25. Andrew Johnson, RD of Lyman, has a board filled with 3×5 cards, each with the name of a still living student written on it. On Friday, Oct. 2, the board had just 14 names left. The game will continue until only two people remain.
“Everyone was really, really paranoid the first week,” said junior Jewett RA Jeraldine Enriquez.
Jewett called an official end to their game on Friday, Oct. 2.
“The hype began to dwindle down and people started going about their daily business without being so afraid of getting killed,” said Jewett RD Justin Daigneault.
“The hard part of Assassins is trying to get someone without being creepy,” said first-year Anderson B-section resident Brandon Hopper, shortly after having made his seventh kill.
This has proven incredibly true in the Anderson and Prentiss game since many students were given targets they had never met or that required finding a way into a dorm building not their own. Many Prentiss girls felt disadvantaged since getting into Anderson required inside help. Furthermore, the location of the Spirituality Room in Prentiss allows anyone access before 8 p.m. This resulted in the presence of more males than usual in Prentiss Hall as first-years sought their victims.
Some assassins took being ‘creepy’ as a fun part of the game. Targets found notes placed on their doors and even in their rooms.
In Prentiss, first-year Kenna Little found a note on her Dox Section door: “I know where you live. Your Assassin.” A feud between neighboring first-year section mates Johanna Otico and Rachel Ramey led to a polar bear in a noose left in Otico’s room and a taped body left in Ramey’s.
Though creepy to some students, Assassins has proven to bring first-years closer together.
“[Assassins] has been a really great way to meet people from Anderson,” said Little.
