Interstice of Time

[D/N]

Theo was trying to stand up to him now? Theo? Fuck him and the horse he rode in on, buddy. Yeah, Jesse was about to trust Theo to pick up his bag and calmly leave. Hell, the very fact that Theo thought he could get out of this with that bag and that gun was proof enough that the dude had totally lost it. And Jesse would've gotten to the bad before Theo did, and his backup would've been right behind him, except that Jaquilyn Locke and her new boytoy had burst into the room and turned everything on its head again.

Jaq was accusatory and Theo was defensive and in the middle of it there was the bad news that no, maybe Carmina wasn't just somewhere else and they'd all meet back up later. But Matt and Brianna were preaching calm and at this point, that was the only way to go.

"Right. Nobody touches the bag. Nobody's getting shot. So what happened?"

Of course, Jesse couldn't count on getting the truth. And while sure, Jesse was what you might call an open-minded guy who didn't jump to conclusions, there was only one killer in this room right now. He knew Jaq. Oh yeah, he knew Jaq. He didn't really know Joachim much. But he'd already heard and seen what Theo was capable of.

[Espi]

Oh.

Well this was fucking bullshit.

So apparently not only was nobody going to let him leave them all peacefully, but  some girl Theo didn't recognize (Jacquilyn Locke, maybe?) came in and accused him of killing some girl.

Theo really wished he could remain calm and sort it out, but clearly nobody was wiling to work with him on this. He didn't really know what they were planning with him, but he sure as hell did not give one fuck about their plans or hopes or whatever. He just wanted to walk away now.

"Okay, you guys are being retarded. First of all, whatever your name is, Jacqulyn or whatever, I have no clue who you're talking about. I got here five minutes ago and the place was empty." Theo paused for a second, and an idea struck him to turn the tables for a minute. "And for all I know, you murdered whoever this girl was and now you're accusing me to take the blame off yourself.."

Theo took a breath and looked around. "And no, I don't want to talk. I did not kill anyone in this building and I don't plan to, so please just let me fucking leave."

Theo bent over and reached for his bag.

[Solomir†]

((Ben Ward continued from Welcome to Summoner's Rift))

"Those fuckers..." Ben muttered as he climbed the stairs to the clubhouse balcony. He'd only asked them to wait like five minutes, because sometimes, a guy needed to take a shit. Especially with those awful food bars they'd been given. It might've ended up being a bit longer because he needed to find something to wipe with, but that didn't mean it was okay to ditch him. It was a load of luck that Ben even managed to find the clubhouse, considering he'd almost gotten lost with Jesse and Harlin yesterday looking for it.

He entered the clubhouse into what was probably the clubhouse's bar and lounge. The furnishings in the lounge looked a lot more comfortable than the stupid school buses. It wouldn't be a hard sell to get the everyone to move to the clubhouse as their base. Ben wandered through the building, which was at least half as big as some of the country clubs Ben had been to back home. A depressing comparison, as Ben wasn't going to see any of them again.

"The fuck?" Ben said to himself as he passed a set of double doors. There were voices on the other side. He couldn't make out everything, but what he did hear made his blood run cold. Theo. Which meant Theodore Fletcher was in there.

Ben flung the double doors wide open with a smash. He stood at the top of a flight of stairs overlooking what was probably the main lobby of the clubhouse. Brianna, Vartoogian, Jesse, and Harlin were there, as well as a new face: Jaquilyn Locke. And one more person facing away from Ben; that was likely Fletcher.

"Fucking...." Ben said, his voice filling the atrium.

Theodore Fletcher was a killer. Danya had said so.

Ben's legs refused to run. To where? According to Danya, Fletcher had a gun. Even if Ben was bigger and stronger and better than him, it didn't matter. Ben was going to die.

They were all going to die.

"The fuck you guys doing?" Ben bellowed to the others, "Get the fuck outta here!"

But still he stood there, paralyzed by his impending doom.

[Riki]

So this was how it was supposed to go down.

Jaquilyn accused Theodore of killing Carmina. Maybe smart, maybe stupid. Probably has the chance to direct attention towards Theo. That would ruin the chance to talk to a player, but that was how life is from time to time. Things just don't work out. Then everybody started screeching and getting defensive and trying to understand the situation and everything was confusing, frustrating, irritating.

He decided to stay at the door. Near the gun. Earlier, Joachim did not like the thought of using it, but the situation was different now. Taking his knife out would be very suspicious. Mostly because it was stained by Carmina's blood. And knifes stained by blood usually attract a lot of attention. If things went to hell, he'd have to use the gun. Actually, "he'd have to" is too badly worded. Let's say "he should use the gun".

And frankly, a part of him would not dislike shooting everybody to shut them up.

[umop-ap!sdn†]

Jaq opened her mouth to tell her bullshit before Ben came down from the stairs. She didn't have time to wonder how the hell he got up there, he started yelling immediately.

She stared at him for a second. Rushing into the scene shouting his head off, like they didn't fucking know who Theo was or who he did. Not only that, but standing in place after demanding they all run? She looked back to Matt and Theo.

"Cut the shit, Theo! Me and Joachim went looking for more people and left you with Carmina."

That seemed believable enough. No obvious holes. Not unless somebody here had been with Theo the entire time. Given the scene though, Theo didn't seem to have any obvious allies.

"We ran back after the announcements, after we heard about what you did."

She coated the last word with disgust. It was strange that she was only pretending to be horrified by Theo's killing. In reality, he was one of the only reasons they were still alive. Everything seemed so backwards, but she had to keep herself and Joachim on top and in control. Right now, he was her ace in the hole. She'd slipped up in mentioning he had been with her, but hopefully everybody's concern for dead Carmina's safety would trump that little fact's importance.

Her eyes flicked to the bag on the stairs. That must be his. There was a gun in it. Another gun. She and Joachim had managed to steal one before, was she pressing their luck?

She looked back to Matt to see if he seemed convinced. Her eyes then darted back to Theo when she remembered she was supposed to be interrogating and accusing him of murder. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she slowed her breathing, trying to feign rage. Maybe she should fold her arms to put her hands on her hips to look more serious. Her arms twitched, but remained in their position with one hand gesturing accusingly toward Theo. She couldn't over act this, this couldn't be melodramatic.

She needed this lie. She needed her bag. And dammit, she could really use another gun, too.

[D/N]

(GMing and post order breakage has been approved)

"Whoa..."

When things go to pieces and everyone around you is losing their shit, you can count on Jesse to keep his cool. That was his style. That was his thing. He doesn't zone out. He doesn't go nuts. He keeps things going smoothy and keeps those lines of communication open.

"Whoa, alright guys..."

But hey, sometimes communication goes to shit alongside everything else. Theo and Jaq are yelling at each other and Theo is all defensive and Jesse's already told you which of those two he's gonna trust more. He'd try to figure out exactly what happened with Carmina soon enough, but things were crazy enough that the nuances of the situation weren't gonna get revealed. Especially when Ben comes barrelling back in and yells at everyone to get away from Theo, and now everything's happening at once and everyone's distracted but come on, Ben.

"Whoa whoa Ben, we just got to--"

Come on, Theo was a shithead and a loser and a killer, but he wasn't dangerous.  Nobody was gonna get killed or hurt, because that shit didn't happen when Jesse was around. Besides that, Theo's gun was in his bag, which was the whole reason this crap had started and communication had broken down in the first place, and it wasn't like--

Theo was reaching down for his bag in the confusion.

"Hey!"

OK, so sometimes things go to shit and communication breaks down and things actually do get dangerous. But Theo was the only killer here, and that was when you just had to jump into action and take said killer out.

Jesse took a half-lunge, half-jump and barrelled into Theo with his shoulder, knocking the scrawnier teen off-balance, then dropped down on top of the bag.  

[Espi]

((GMing of basically everyone in the thread approved. Skipping to leave the thread.))

As Theo reached for his bag, a number of things happened.

A voice cried out from the door, which Theo recognized as Ben Ward, the classic dumb jock/bully whatever. Theo paid him no mind.

The second thing that happened was a hard slam knocking Theo to the ground and sending him skidding across the linoleum floor.

Theo immediately scrambled to his feet, head spinning. He looked around at the other people, and back at his bag, which Jesse was now on top of. He needed to think fast; what was he going to do to avoid this rapidly devolving situation?

Theo shouted the first thing that came to mind "Jaquilyn's lying, she killed her!" and pointed at the girl. He honestly had no idea if she really killed this girl, whoever she was, but in this case it worked. People glanced over at Jaquilyn, and Theo made his move.

Theo darted for the window, away from the group of people in the doorway. Thankfully, the glass was gone, as Theo heaved himself onto the sill and outside, jumping down to the ground, where he went full sprint as far away as possible as fast as possible.

His bag, which had his weapons and food, was left abandoned, and Theo raced away from the vigilante group as quickly as he could.

((Theodore Fletcher's story continues elsewhere))

[BROseidon†]

Jaq wasn't being nearly as descriptive as Matt had hoped. He wanted a story he could poke and prod to see if it was consistent, not a, "He killed her!" Matt needed to push this further.

"Co–"

Holy fucking shit what the fuck was going on.

Matt was just pushing to try to get some answers, but before he knew it Ben came barging in and Theo and Jesse had a tiff and Theo was out the fucking window. By the time Matt had processed everything that had happened, Theo was long gone. Matt hadn't even been able to get out a simple fucking followup question.

Theo's parting words reinforced Matt's suspicions that something was wrong with Jaquilyn's story, though. Still, Jesse was the closest person to Theo's bag, and his entire group was between Jaquilyn and the bag. They now had the gun nearly in their possession, and it was just a matter of getting these two remaining clowns out of the way.

"Uh, gonna need you to give a helluva lot more detail than that, Jaq. Like, take me back to the start and tell me exactly what happened."

Matt felt a little bad for Theo. The guy was without food and water; they'd functionally just condemned him to death. Still, Matt needed to get a foothold in the game without making a name for himself, and being in a group with a gun was a good place to start. Now was not the time to feel bad.

[Shangela†]

Nobody wanted to just talk. Diplomacy worked in the real world, yet on this island, Brianna's pleas for a reprieve from the yelling, the violence and the murder, fell entirely on deaf ears.

Brianna wanted to say everything on her mind to Theodore Fletcher. She wanted to know answers. Yet at the same time, she didn't want to know. She was prepared to let Theo speak, when a voice came out from the top of the stairs. A panicked, shaking voice. One that immediately drew attention from the callousness of Theodore Fletcher.

Ben Ward had finally realized the danger they were all really in. It was easy for Ben to act tough and self-centered when it was just the three of them on the buses. It was easy for Brianna to sound heroic and self-sacrificing when it was just the three of them. But now it wasn't just grandiose planning on the bus. They were directly exposed to the horrors of the island now. At that very moment, all their lives hung in the balance. Someone needed to do something heroic. Someone needed to take the power away from the potential three-time-murderer.

The ground erupted with the sound of two boys hitting the unforgiving linoleum floor. Theo was about to take his bag, the bag that contained that malevolent firearm. If he'd been unchallenged, Theo could have easily added the six of them to his already sizable list of kills. Six more families would have to mourn their children unless someone had done something. Jesse had slammed hard into Theo, knocking him to the ground. There was now some distance between the bag and Theodore.

Brianna left Matt's side to help Jesse up off of the ground. Though the action only took a few moments, it saved the entire group. Maybe it would save a number of students. The biggest killer disarmed. Now they had a fighting chance. Brianna and Jesse were crowded by the stairs, Brianna's back faced the majority of the group. "Are you alright, Jesse?" Brianna focused entirely on Jesse, ignoring the disarmed Theodore. Since attention had been entirely diverted from him, Theo had made an escape.

The biggest killer escaped their judgement because Brianna had gotten distracted. Minchione.

Brianna still sensed tension in the room, despite Theo's escape. Theo had earlier confessed to killing Gabriella Parker and Dan Liu in a "bad morning," so why would he vehemently deny killing Carmina? If lives meant nothing to him, why was the accusation about her's something he protested?

Brianna couldn't believe that anyone would kill a fellow student before this morning, yet Theo, along with four others, had proved her wrong. She wanted to believe in Jaquilyn Locke more than anything; Brianna wanted to add more and more allies to her vision of escape. Yet the lingering fears hung around Brianna like a cloud of smoke. What if there wasn't just one murderer in the room, but two? The distrust in others made Brianna's stomach churn in painful knots. Brianna didn't want to doubt her classmates and friends; it's exactly what this "game" sought to do to them.

She let Matt lead the conversation, keeping a close eye on the bag that stood by Jesse and Brianna's feet. It was good that they had isolated the weapon from him, yet the idea of actually touching the cool metal firearm sent a chill down Brianna's spine.

[Lexi†]

((Sorry guys for holding this up, I totally got confused about the order and thought it was someone elses turn!))

The arrival of the new face to the situation did not help matters in the slightest. Instead of Jac helping to enforce the numbers against Theo and make him stand down, her accusations seemed only to rile him more. Still, the numbers were there and with Jesse inching closer to grab the bag, Theo would be unarmed and easy to take down. Not to kill though, Chris would not be willing to go to that level but to interrogate, hold captive till they found out what he did to Carmina, why he had flipped into a killer with such ease. Maybe they could give him to someone to get revenge on? He didn't want to kill, but Chris was sure that letting someone else take that decision was better. He dropped his arm once Bri had taken the weapon and kept his eyes on the situation, only momentary glances at the other participants in their lopsided stand off.

Within moments, all of the pressure of the situation, the build up and increasing worry exploded into a frenzy of action. Ben's arrival  threw the entire situation into a tail-spin. Startled by the shout, Chris instantly looked up at Ben giving his warning, taking his eye off the Theo situation which culiminated with Jesse trying to take Theo down. He failed and by the time that Chris had reacted and raced to the window, Theo was already a considerable distance away. Even without the element of surprise, Chris didn't know if he would be able to catch the killer and more importantly, he didn't want to have to face down the murdering son of a bitch if he did. In the snap situation, he had reacted and now with the immediate threat gone, he realised how quickly it could have all gone south if the man had his gun drawn with him.

"Like what the actual fuck!" Chris shouted out loud, anger still in his voice. It was too confusing now, where had Jac come into this, although her story had made sense, especially if Carmina had let her in to help. However, he was content to let the others sort it out while he slammed his fist into a wall in anger, trying to remember to breath deep. If Theo killed again, they let him get away, the blood would be on their hands. Hell, the blood was already on his and Jesse's for leaving Carmina alone. If she was truely dead, they had left her alone to face her fate and despite their less than distant knowledge of each other, he felt guilty in what role he may have played in her probable demise.

"Hell Jesse, we left her, we left Carmina alone. If we had taken her with us, she would be right here right now. Like hell, is this our fault?"

[D/N]

(since it's now Day 3 hopefully we can get the rest of the thread wrapped up shortly)

Holy shit. It worked.

No, screw that. Of course it worked. Fuck yeah instead.

Fuck yeah. It worked. And they had a gun.

Jesse was dazed for a moment after knocking Theo down, dimly knowing that he was lying on top of a lumpy canvas bag and not much else; Brianna helped him up and then it came back to him. Theo had gotten away in the confusion, apparently. Without his supplies, or his gun. And the brief thought of that slimy loser wandering out there without any of his stuff was enough to bring a brief smile to Jesse's face as he got back to his feet.

"Thanks, Bree."

But any further thoughts along those lines would have to hold on a minute longer, because they were still in a situation here. Jesse nodded to Brianna as Matt started back in on Jaq. And the kid words weren't misplaced. With Theo gone and the threat safely, quickly deposed, maybe they could finally get some answers here.

Cause Jesse knew Jaqueline Locke, all right. She'd shot him down last year. One of the few. And he couldn't quite trust a girl who'd do that to him. Jaq was either too smart or too dumb for her own good. And sure, Jesse would take just about anyone's word over someone like Theo Fletcher, but whatever Jaq and Joachim's stories were, they hadn't quite jelled together yet into something that felt real. Now, maybe they could all get on the same page, but even if, Jesse couldn't quite consider them his people. Certainly not in the sense that folks like Brianna, Ben, and Chris were--

--and c'mon Chris, did you really need to bring down the mood like that? Why introduce that at all? You're making Jesse falter a bit here, and that's never good.

"Huh?" Jesse turned away from Jaq and the bag.

"Look we... we still don't 100% know what happened here, but no way, no way we--"

No fucking way was Jesse going to start on that line of thinking.

[umop-ap!sdn†]

(Crap, let's wrap this up guys! GM as needed. Short post because we need things to get going!)

Theo was gone. His weapon remained, but he himself had escaped. That meant one less target,  but one less person to fight over the gun with. Maybe it was time for more lies. Lies and deception had been useful tools, why not take a gamble on another.

"If it's anybody's fault she's dead, it's mine."

Hopefully the bold statement had gotten their attention. She inwardly smiled at the bit of truth laced into the claim.

"I left them my gun for protection. He probably took her out and cleaned up... fucking psycho."

That was probably what Theo would have done. Jaquilyn's "clean up" of the murder had been one of her consciousness. It hadn't been very successful, but she didn't have time to deal with those feelings just yet.

That wasn't her only failure to clean up either. As Jaquilyn Locke spewed her venomous lies and tried to work the audience, the blood on her white sneakers screamed for attention.

[BROseidon†]

Jaquilyn was being vague. She was refusing to provide specificity, and instead was speaking in high-level generalities. Matt didn't have the academic background to know why this meant that Jaquilyn was lying, but his gut was telling him that she was. Joachim was also not there, which was unsettling. Jaq hadn't mentioned them getting separated. There was also a minor detail that didn't make sense.

"Presumably you guys would have met Theo after he'd already killed with his own gun, given that his kills came pretty early. Why'd you leave your gun with him if he already had one."

The story didn't add up, and the gun in question was probably currently in her possession. Thankfully, they had Theo's, but there was no way to know if it was even loaded.

Matt glanced down quickly, and noticed red splatters on Jaq's shoes. Blood? Probably.

"I think you take your bags and leave."

[Riki]

It would be a lie to say that Joachim was not impressed by the little stunt Theo pulled. Sure, this may or may not harm Jaq's plans in any way. But Joachim had a gun. They too, as it seems, but Joachim figured that he was more likely to be ready to shoot one of them. To make a point, or to defend. Being aware of how deeply he has sunken stinged briefly, but Joachim had no big problems with casting any doubts aside. He had to concentrate on the here and now.

Especially because it seemed that Jaq's gamble did not pay off. Even Joachim realized that her story was not completely flawless. And so did the other people. One could cut the tension and the hostility with a knife. Worse, there was that weird form of exitement again.

Joachim has already carefully picked up the gun. Nobody seemed to notice it. Probably because he made sure to use the door as a cover, probably also because Jaq was a great distraction.

Taking the bags and leaving?

To be frank, Joachim did not trust any of these people who are definetly not Jaq. And there was that slight suspicion that they would use Theo's gun on Jaq the moment she turned her back. Joachim could not let that happen. Jaq was why he has killed Carmina, if Jaq was to die, everything would have appeared so... useless.

The gun was heavy. Heavier than he imagined. And touching it was an odd experience for itself. Alienating, but also, as if he was granted a grand power. Which, technically, was true.

He stormed into the mansion, pointing his gun to no person in particular, but he figured that he could aim at somebody in a mere fraction of a second if he wanted. Joachim wanted to say something at first, but in the end, he decided that it was better for Jaq to give commands.

[umop-ap!sdn†]

Matt wasn't taking to the bullshit. That was annoying. Who the hell did he think he was, threatening her? She had done them all a service by having Carmina killed. Fuck, she'd made a sacrifice in bloodying her own hands to make sure everybody could live another day. She'd even dragged that dying bitch through the forest to try an make amends.

Before she could lose her temper, the door opened, and Joachim held the gun threateningly.

That was her ace. She'd almost forgotten about the backup she had. Her partner in crime, the only person she knew she could trust was at her heels and ready to protect the team. Wow. He'd been alone with the gun, and hidden. He could have taken off with it at any point. He could have left Jaq to the wolves the way she'd just tried to do with Theo. But he was still here, still with her, and still on her side.

He almost looked cool.

Why was he still around? He would be a named killer tomorrow, and he had weapons to boot. Why was he still helping? Why hadn't he hung her out to dry? This was Survival of the Fittest, not a three legged race.

She smiled at him, relieved. Happy to see he was still around and with her. This wasn't the murdering savage she'd seen earlier. This was something more complicated than that.

Jaquilyn took a step towards Joachim, putting her hand on his shoulder and looking at the others.

Next to Jo, behind the barrel. She'd never smirked so big in all her life.

"I think you take your bags and leave."