The Ten Duel Commandments

[Emprexx Plush]

((Caedyn Miller IT'S NOT A PERSON WHO DIES, BUT WORLDS DIE INSIDE US))

There was a logic to it. Really, she'd thought the whole thing out. At this point people were gonna be scurrying to hidey holes like this one whenever they were safe just to avoid anybody with a gun. You had to know where your prey was if you were gonna be an effective hunter. The Cassowary knew that. She was a goddamn apex predator. Nowhere was safe from her.

Yeah. That was it. Definitely wasn't wandering aimlessly to places that reminded her of Jazzy. That was just a coincidence. No need to look into that.

Just so happened she was sat against the wall right where they'd curled up together that night. She wasn't staring at one of last spots she'd held her. Kissed her. Had her. Just so happened that it was in her sight lines as she stood guard in the room, waiting for someone to stroll inside thinking they'd be safe here.

When she shattered that thought with a bullet to the skull, she wouldn't be thinking that it should have been her. Jazz wouldn't collapse to the floor of her mind's eye again. And she wouldn't feel anything before she moved on to the next spot.

Maybe the garden. People would feel safe in the garden, wouldn't they? And wasn't that willow tree the best spot to keep an eye out for them?

Yeah. That was it. Nothing more.

[Riki]

[[Fiyori Senay continued from Origin of Symmetry]]

Fiyori ran.

There was, of course, no particular reason as to why she should have done so. She did not know where her targets were, nor where they would go. Speeding up was of no poiny. And yet she felt a heroic wind driving her, replenishing her at the same time.

In the end, all that mattered was that she survived. As long as Fiyori lived, they all would come before her eyes. Slowly, bit by bit. And Fiyori would kill them all.

Fiyori arrived at the lobotomy lab. When she stopped, she noted her body heaving under the weight of the physical exercise. She felt none of that.

What was present, however, was an urge. A hunger, a wish to finally eat again. It was strange, as strange as things could still be. Fiyori required roughly 2000 to 2100 kcal per day. Taking in the varying levels of exercise she got in over the days, Fiyori should have rationed her good perfectly.

But apparently she did not, and now she had this unbearable hunger.

Speaking of unbearable.

"Getting lost in thought, Caedyn?"

[Emprexx Plush]

Should have picked up on the footsteps coming down the hall. Her gun should have been up as soon as the heavy breathing carried through the door. The last excuse she had was the sound of the door opening, that alone should have been enough to throw her at the ready.

She could feel her arms around her neck. That small hand grabbing her collar so tight and pulling her in for a kiss. Jazzy never was a great kisser if you went with the classics, but god did she give it an effort. Somehow when she'd held her like that, it made her feel so small in a way that was safe. Comforting. She'd never really thought about it all that much when they were together, but now thinking back on it she could feel that warmth as strong as ever. She never wanted to let go of it.

And then it was gone.

Fiyori was there instead.

Enter: Ghost of Infidelities Past, Center.

Caedyn stared up at her from the floor, her gun still hanging loose in her hand over her knee. "What's up, Fi?" Honestly, it was far from the worst spot she'd been in. Kimiko. Jae. Whoever'd shot her back in the closet. None of them had seemed that interested in talking, so it couldn't be that bad. Or maybe Fiyori liked to play with her food. It didn't make much difference either way. Caedyn was gonna kill her either way.

[Laurels]

((Alba Reyes continued from Origin of Symmetry))

Alba slowed down a bit and caught her breath. She had been running after Fiyori for a while, across the bridge and back into the asylum. Most of the area around the tower was off limits, so she wasn't surprised Fiyori had headed east. The challenge was managing to keep track of where Fiyori was going, and that meant Alba had to push herself a lot harder than normal when running after someone.

Fortunately, enough days of conserving energy had paid off in this pursuit. Alba noticed that Fiyori was heading for one of the labs and made her way after her. She kept the rifle close to her side and the bags close on one shoulder. She entered the same room and saw Fiyori standing facing a wall.

"Fiyori, there you are," she said. "I was-"

She then realized who Fiyori was talking to.

"Caedyn."

[Riki]

"Odd, I thought you were Alba."

She glanced to the side, but then motioned towards her initial target.

"This here is Caedyn."

Unceremoniously, Fiyori unstrapped her bag and as she held it in one hand, the other opened the zipper. As she finished, she dropped the bag to the floor. Had Caedyn, or anyone looked at it, they would have seen the raging bull peering out.

To see Alba was able to follow her was making her uneasy. Perhaps Alba would gasp in shock with what was now to transpire. But she killed Kaitlyn. She should know better.

"Caedyn, if you are willing to hear me out - I have come with a fantastic proposal."

[Emprexx Plush]

She rose, nice and slow. The gun kept hanging at her side for now. This was almost interesting, after all. Caedyn glanced down at the gun. Her eyes roamed up to Alba and moved on without acknowledging her to meet Fiyori's gaze. A couple of days ago she might teased about wanting to hear those words in better circumstances. Now she didn't even smile. "I'm not busy. Let's hear it."

[Laurels]

Alba smirked a bit at the unintentional joke, but turned serious when she remembered where she was. Caedyn Miller was here. They were friends from roller derby, but Caedyn had been killing over the last few days. She could assume they'd still be friends despite everything, but Kaitlyn already proved that friendship back home didn't equate to friendship here. Heck, she even killed Jeremy, who Alba had a nice chat with a few days ago.

Fiyori had a wager that Caedyn wanted to hear.

"Fiyori, what are you doing?" she whispered to Fiyori.

[Riki]

"Judgement-free murder."

She kept silent for a few moments. The mighty impact of her words had to properly settle in with Caedyn after all.

"Caedyn, listen here, you've killed a shitton of people by this point. But you know, you gotta do what you've gotta do. No complaints from me. In fact, right now I can even sincerely say that I still like you."

Fiyori chuckled. The thing she was to propose wasn't very funny but she laughed nonetheless.

"So I'll offer you this chance to kill me. I won't talk back, or complain, or whine, or do some sort of shitty morale posturung. Because frankly at this point I'm as tired of it as you are. The only thing I'll do is... shooting back."

Her chuckle has settled. Now, her grimacing grin bared her teeth against Caedyn.

[Emprexx Plush]

Fiyori was the problem. She had to keep her eyes on Fiyori. Caedyn knew Alba. Even now, Alba wasn't just gonna go wild on her. They were friends...sorta. So it wasn't important to try and play to her. This game was gonna come down to the wild card.

The offer left her blinking for a few moments. It sounded like a pretty good deal. Not like she cared too much whether Fiyori was angry about the fact that she was gonna die or not, but...yeah. Sure. It'd be nice to have a little validation for once. She could see the whole thing playing out like a movie: backs to each other, guns drawn. Ten paces or whatever the fuck they could squeeze out of the room, with Alba as their witness. A sudden flourish. Muzzle fire. A body hitting the ground as a gun clatters across the panning camera shot, settling on a shocked, dead face. No judgement. No posturing. Probably just a few simple rules and a good, clean, fair kill where the best woman won.

Caedyn furrowed her brow like she was deep in thought. "Okay...yeah. That sounds pretty good."

She didn't look up before the gun came flying up past her side. It hadn't even stopped moving when she pulled the trigger and the kick sent her stumbling backwards. Her head hit the wall and set her ears ringing...well, either that or the gunshot. Probably that.

Under the ringing she could barely hear herself. Her voice came out as a hacked wheeze. "But then that happened, sooooooo..."

It was a struggle just to try and look straight to see if she'd hit. But she didn't have to look. She'd had a big enough target to play with, and The Cassowary knew how this scene played out. The best woman won. Because the best woman didn't play by anybody else's rules.

The gun was already pointing vaguely in her direction, but Caedyn's blurry vision eventually caught up with Alba too. A dazed smile oozed across her face. "So like, were you her back-up? What's that like?"

[Laurels]

((All GMing approved))

Alba's eyes widened when she heard Fiyori's proposal. She couldn't believe Fiyori would be suggesting a game just like Kaitlyn. Maybe this one was a lot more reasonable and balanced compared to Kaitlyn's cove-drowning game. But either way, Fiyori was looking for trouble, and she was likely to die because of it. If Fiyori lost, then Alba would be alone, and with an armed and dangerous Caedyn.

Alba stepped a little back from Fiyori. She wasn't going to run, but she wanted to give the girls their space. She breathed a bit when Caedyn agreed; not from relief, but just from a need to exhale from stress.

Of course, the stress immediately returned when Caedyn raised a gun and fired. She let out a cry as Fiyori fell to her knees. Caedyn got knocked back a bit, which gave Alba time to raise her rifle to Caedyn.

"Don't!" she cried out after Caedyn hit her head against the wall. "Don't try anything!"

Caedyn then pointed her gun towards Alba. Alba swallowed a lump in her throat. Caedyn asked if Alba was Fiyori's back-up.

"I was just traveling with her," Alba said. "I didn't know she was going to do this."

Alba quickly glanced back at Fiyori, then Caedyn. She couldn't believe she was actually in a standoff again. Fiyori was hurt, and Alba was now probably going to repeat what happened with Kaitlyn.

"Why did you shoot her? Why didn't you at least try her idea?"

[Riki]

This sudden and inevitable betrayal shocked Fiyori. No, seriously.  She had expected Caedyn to wait at least until Fi turned her back to shoot. Cunts got no standards these days.

Oh well. This was actually going even better than planed.

Regardless, Fiyori fell on her knee, and she fell on the floor. Her hand landed on the raging bull. She grasped it tight.

...

Cassowaries are a protected species throughout Australia. Their meat is considered a delicacy either way. Here is a recipe for Cassowary Fillet Kebabs.

You need:

1.5kg Cassowary (tender cuts, drums are okay)
2 tbsp. soya sauce
2 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
8 cherry tomatoes
4 large mushrooms, cut in half
1 red sweet pepper, cut into 8 squares

In a shallow glass dish, combine soya sauce, honey, ginger, garlic and lemon peel; mix well. Add Cassowary: stir to coat. Cover with an elastic wrap; refrigerate for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Preheat the broiler. Remove Cassowary from the marinade; discard marinade. Using four (ten inch) metal skewers, alternately thread Cassowary meat, tomatoes, mushrooms and red pepper. Place on broiler pan. Broil three inches from heat, turning two or three times, until meat is medium rare and vegetables are lightly browned. Place on serving plates; serve immediately. Serves four people.

...

Fiyori opened her eyes. She took the gun out.

[Emprexx Plush]

Awww. Alba was pointing a gun at her. That was kinda cute. The only problem was Caedyn had had a lot of guns pointed at her, and you know what she'd learned?

People who had any intention of using them didn't chat you up. They just pulled the trigger. That pretty much summed up why she'd done what she'd done. But Alba wasn't going to get that, so she had to teach her. She could focus on her now, after all. Fiyori was dead. Caedyn won. There was time for a little fun before the inevitable.

The Cassowary clicked her tongue and let her vision settle. The world was still ringing, but she could play through the pain. She'd acted through worse hangovers, probably, and this was gonna be her finest monologue. "Now, technically speaking, I did exactly what she said. Let the record show: At no point did the defense state 'and let me get my gun out first.' All that was guaranteed was no whining, posturing, or complaining. Just...how did she say it? Judgement-free murder."

A giggle echoed through the room, distorted and alien in her damaged ears. Could be the endorphin rush as well. It was making her giddy. "So I murdered her, and I didn't judge her for dying like a stupid bitch. Fair's fair, right?"

The barrel of the gun bobbed a little as she stared into Alba's eyes. "So...how did you wanna do this? Feeling an open casket? Or is that dumb? Nah, don't say it, that's dumb. We'll be soup by the time they send us home anyway." Caedyn's index finger came to point at her temple. "What do you say, promise to give each other nice clean shots to the skull? I gotta get some karma back for styling on Fi like that, so I'm feeling generous!" Push her hand. Make her realize she can't do this, just like all the others. Alba was as weak as Nancy, and Oskar, and Kimiko, and Jeremy, and most of all Fiyori. She'd crumple, and she'd try to negotiate, and she'd die.

That's how this always worked out. It was almost getting boring.

[Laurels]

Alba listened in as Caedyn spoke. Caedyn tried to make excuses for what she did, and then tried to turn the subject back to them. The two of them were holding guns to one another, and it was clear that a fight was going to occur. One or both of them were probably going to die right now. Alba knew she'd probably have to fire, but there was something else getting her right now.

Caedyn wasn't like Kaitlyn. Caedyn was enjoying this, but there was something much less tolerable about what Caedyn was saying. Alba winced, then moved her finger closer to the trigger.

"Oh my god... you don't even care," Alba said.

Alba briefly bit her lip and started to talk.

"This is all a joke to you. You just killed someone and don't even care that you could die right now. I mean, I know you didn't have the best rep before we came here, but were you always so shitty?"

Alba shook her head. Fiyori was probably dead now, and Caedyn was clearly the kind of person she should have shot on sight.

"Caedyn, were you always just waiting for something like this game to come along?"

[Emprexx Plush]

Ah, there it was. The self-righteousness. The questions. The need to understand why, all because she couldn't do it herself. Caedyn almost pitied he-

G011: CAEDYN MILLER-DECEASED

Oh dear. Oh dear, dear, dear. It seems you've made a mess and you can't even explain yourself. Don't worry darling, I'll take it from here.

Just so we're all clear, Fiyori shot her. Everyone saw it coming. Well, everyone except the one who needed to most. That's not what needs to be answered for here. When the assuredly Tony Award winning musical about the life and deaths of Caedyn Miller-and yes, honey, I said when, the talks are already on the table-, there's a hanging question provided by her former team-mate there: Why? Where you waiting for this? Judging by the gurgling, the hole in her forehead and its gaping partner in the back of her skull, and that brilliantly convenient little tag up there, I presume she's not in any state to answer it. That's where I come in. There's a very simple answer, really, and it's the same answer to every question about her.

Why lie and cheat and stir up trouble for no personal gain at all?

Why party with people she hates and sleep with people she can't stand?

Why strip and smear and sermonize identities she never really held in the first place away just to spite those who love her?

Why love Jasmine?

Why manipulate Oskar?

Why smash Bridgette's head in?

Why shoot Jeremy?

Why taunt and torture Cass?

Why cheat Fiyori?

Why die?

As I said, the answer's very simple: Because she could. And if you could do anything...

Well. Wouldn't you?

[Riki]

Fiyori stood still for a few moments more. Only the heavy breathing gave away the energy of that moment. Fiyori waited, because even when the body of Caedyn fell to the ground, with its holes in the head, Fiyori didn't quite believe she was dead.

But she was.

Fiyori lowered the gun, and slowly turned around.

What happened was that Fiyori rose to her feet, took the gun she had, walked straight up to Caedyn and shot her in the fucking face.

She was not quite sure what to say to Alba.