"Well, I don't know that I'd put it in such words, but I'm not thrilled with being here, myself." Vlad answered a bit neutrally, looking over Kaiji's expression and then the new card on the table. The temper Kaiji was showing now wasn't helping Vlad's game at all--it was impossible to gage whether his actions were based on the card he'd played or his own impassioned words. For the moment, Vlad focused instead on the words.

"Leaving would be nice, and winning better still, but I'd prefer if I understood the game being played here a bit better." His explorations last night had been enlightening, but for every answer he seemed to only come up against new questions. The purpose for this huge, intricate ruse still eluded him. "But I agree that he'd probably orchestrate our deaths cheerfully if it suited him. Not a very comfortable position to be in." They were only alive now, Vlad believed, because the doctor had some use for them alive. And that was no guarantee, merely an excuse for not panicking over the situation.

"How to win..." Vlad muttered again, "Well, I suppose we'll need to find out the rules of the game and then how to cheat at it, yes?" Smiling a bit again, he put out a Citizen card. Barring any way of telling otherwise, he went with his own mood--neutral, civilized, not desperate yet. Not the Emperor, but not the Slave either.