i should've known the job would fail from the start.  rory thought he'd grabbed the bag of ski masks but it turned out to be just some black socks that were waiting for laundry.  in an act of lemonade-making, i suggested we wear the socks on our hands, since at least that way we wouldn't leave fingerprints (yet another detail we'd overlooked in the planning stages).  it turned out to be a poor choice seeing as i dropped my gun several times right from the get-go.  i think it really undermined my authority throughout.
as it went, we got all the way to step six--the part where we tell the cops we'll start killing off hostages if we don't get our list of demands filled out (strange enough, the list of demands was the first thing we completed out of this whole fiasco).  needless to say, the cops didn't provide anything on the list seeing as how they would be putting themselves at such a disadvantage if they had.  a fully-armed apache helicopter?  we were watching a war movie while we wrote it.
so reggie is trying to kill the first hostage and he's having a real heck of time with it.  he really was excited to do the whole mafia/piano wire strangle thing, so we decided to let him go for it.  none of us really wanted to kill someone anyway.  you've got to be a crazy person for that stuff.  so he's over there and the wire keeps breaking when he's trying to choke this guy.  it just keeps going twing and he keeps saying "damnit!" and pulling more wire out of his pocket.  finally, herb asks him what's going on and that's when reggie admits that he's been using guitar string instead of piano wire.  he said that you've got to go right to a piano store to get piano wire, but there's a guitar center just down the street from where he lived.  herb got real mad, especially on account of reggie only bought the high-e strings, and they're apparently the skinniest of the whole lot.
so then herb grabs one of the strings and he tries, but he just cuts his hands up right away.  reggie says "you gotta wear gloves when you do that, herb," and gave him his socks.  herb tried again.  twing.
the man, probably out of his own will to end the misery, started gurgling something to the effect of "if you get a pen and use it to twist the wires together it will consolidate the tension--" but then reggie just shot him with his revolver.  a shame since the advice really seemed like it was going to be helpful to everyone involved.
i exchanged a look with rory that said "looks like it's gonna be a long day."