We're Here Because We're Here

[backslash]

((Min-jae Parker continued from Five Finger Death Punch))

Jae and Vanessa had left the asylum behind as soon as possible after the awkward encounter with Trav and Cass on the rooftop. The other side of the island looked a lot more like civilization, at least going by the map, so they made the harrowing, faltering trip across the bridge and set up for the night in one of the staff dormitories. There were noises during the night, possible movement elsewhere in the building, but no one showed their face. Everything hurt more the next day, even with the effort Jae had taken to elevate his leg during the night, but it was back to their semi-aimless trek all the same. Time spent hesitating was time wasted.

They were somewhere between buildings when the speakers hidden around the island crackled to life for the first time.

Jae was religious, kind of. His mom's whole side of the family were Buddhist and when she started actively practicing in the home, he had gradually absorbed enough of the traditions to consider himself part of it. The whole putting it into practice bit was another thing entirely, but he tried to keep the principles in mind most of the time.

So in Buddhism, or at least the Min-jae Tradition of Buddhism, death had never been a particularly big deal. He'd never experienced it in close proximity. He'd been to a funeral, once, when he was four or five and his maternal grandfather had passed away. It was a vague, unpleasant memory for reasons entirely unrelated to the actual funeral and much more to do with thirteen-hour plane rides and the general strife that always existed between his maternal relatives. The concept of death was the equivalent of a time-out. This round's over, let's see how you did and where you end up in round two.

Jae had spent the early hours of the morning trying to reconcile that view with the steadily-growing dread in the pit of his stomach for the forthcoming announcement. Nobody in his school was probably going to end up in Hell. Even if they did, Hell was just another stop of the wheel, the equivalent of being made to sit in the corner and think about what you did before you get another chance. Most people would just end up right back where they started, in a metaphysical sense. Sorry guys, but this time around was a wash, have another go.

So there was the knowledge that everyone's soul would probably be okay in the end. It was hard to care too much about souls when you were still very much attached to the physical world and had so much that you still wanted to do.

It was hard to care about souls when every name Danya listed off with a hint of boredom was such a senseless waste.

Scarlett McAfee, there was a nastier shock than Jae had been expecting. He hadn't liked Scarlett; he'd been suspicious of her, and let's be totally honest here, he'd threatened her at the Sadie Hawkins dance. Vague threats more in the vein of social ruin than physical harm, but threats all the same. Thinking of the dance inevitably lead to a tangle of other things, other faces, and he tried to put them from his mind. There was the issue of Nancy, wholly unrelated to the rest of Jae's turmoil involving Scarlett. Nancy, whom he'd seen only briefly, running from him while he lay bleeding on the floor, had gone on to take a hatchet to Scarlett for no adequately explained reason.

Then there was Alvaro. Maybe Jae had expected to hear his name one way or another, but... Well, this made it real, didn't it. Alvaro had run into somebody else and had indeed succeeded where he'd failed with Jae. Barry Banks was less clear in his mind, but Jae had thought that he and Alvaro were soccer teammates. He would have assumed they were friends.

It just proved what Jae had already realized: Alvaro was fucking crazy.

He didn't feel particularly vindicated by the confirmation.

There was also the deeper realization, the more selfish one; given his nature, Jae knew of the people listed off, but he didn't know them. They were, to put it crudely, people he didn't really care about. People who might have died a year, five years after graduation in some freak accident or by a drug overdose or some terminal illness and he'd have gone "Oh, that's too bad," and moved on with his life because he wouldn't have been there with any of them when it happened. Time's up, on to round two. Scarlett stood out the most, and the entirety of their acquaintanceship was the incident at the dance.

And in a way, that made it easier. He could say Nancy and Alvaro were psychos, that there had always been something there, something fundamentally wrong with them, and of course they'd snapped. Of course somebody had gotten hurt. Isabel Ramirez? Grade-A bitch back in school. Loved hurting people for giggles. Of course she'd take it further. All of the killers, they were messed up from the very start.

So what did that say about Jae's certainty that if he ran into Alvaro again, one of them wouldn't be walking away from it this time?

By the time he and Vanessa reached the radio tower, he still hadn't come up with an answer.

[Grim Wolf]

(Lizzie Luz continued from Thirteen Steps)

The question stuck with her.  She couldn't shake it.

What did you do to live? What was the alternative, with a gun in your hand and a collar in your neck?

Killing was wrong.  Unequivocally.  With a guilty giggle, she found herself thinking of the Doctor.  To resort to violence was a failure, wasn't it?  But then, the Doctor still killed so many threats.  Wasn't that what made him terrible?  Wasn't that...

Focus.  He's fiction.  You're real.  And you're really going to die, if...

She found her strange dizzy mania didn't quite fade as the day want on.  As she drifted across the island, she thought, and thought, and feared, and laughed, and could not find an answer.  When night began to fall, she did not try to find a bed: she found the most abandoned corner of an empty building, not too far from the gangling radio tower.  She fished her rumpled brown coat from her bag, shoved it beneath her head, and slept a restless, dreaming sleep.  A sleep filled with visions of blood and guns and the figure of the Doctor, talking madly.

She awoke only at the squeal of static.  To the sound of the same merciless man who'd told them of their fate.

She listened drowsily, and felt the first stab of hurt as she heard the name of Jennifer Su.  Poor girl.  Lizzie remembered Tara standing on the edge of the cliff.  Had it been like that?  Had it-

"Florentina Luz found herself with a second smile when she ran into Isabel Ramirez in a bad mood; let's give a warm round of applause for the first person to bite the bullet and take someone else out."

She sat up all at once.  Any trace of that strange mania vanished.

Tina?  Artsy, grass-in-the-ass, quiet Tina, sneaking weed with Cris behind the compound?  No.  No, come on.  That wasn't...no!

"Up next, Nancy Kyle took it upon herself to take an axe to Scarlett McAfee. Ten points for guessing what happens when hatchet meets human body."

The name hit her like a physical force, hammering into her ribs.  She gasped audibly, clasped at her heart as though she could feel it breaking.  Not Lettie.  That wasn't possible.  She hadn't even thought to look for her.  Fuck, Lettie!  Fuck, Cris!  Are you okay?  What are you gonna think, when you see...

And Nancy fucking Kyle?  Anime weaboo dramabitch who had killed her fucking friend?

"In a fun little turn of events, Conrad Harrod got twitchy and in short order Harold Porter got opened up. Harold didn't hold on for much longer than that, and bled out."

For shit's sake, no!  Harold, soft-spoken and determined?  Face-to-face with the horrors of the world and standing by his friend, refusing to run?  More noble than she'd known was possible?  So noble she couldn't resist-

"Alex Tarquin got on the board when he went Rambo and slashed a piece out of Rea Adams. Nice form, Mr Tarquin."

Slashed a piece out of Rea?  How?  With her sword?  With the sword she'd given to him, because he'd talked so big and dreamed so large and she'd wanted to believe there could be Doctors?

Lovely Lettie, learning Spanish from her and kissing Cris on the sly.  Tina, always watching.  Alex, who'd seemed larger than life until he killed.  Harold, who was larger than life, 'til he got killed.

It was all too much, all at once.  So many people she'd known dead.  Another she'd known, turned to killer.  Fuck, had Astrid been right?  Were they all gonna...were they...?

She sank back into her corner, pulled her legs tight against her chest, and started to sob, angry and grieving and daunted all at once.  Crying because she felt so wronged, and so powerless to make anything right.

[Slam]

((Vanessa Stone continued from Five Finger Death Punch))

Between the radio in her jeep playing the greatest hits, or the insanity of the announcements reeling off the death toll, Vanessa preferred the former.

Nancy had killed someone. Vanessa had tried to lend her a hand, offer her some weed, get her to chill her ass the fuck out, but apparently the blue haired pop star had gone off the deep end and really had axed someone a question. Had it been done out of fear? Had she actively decided to fuck someone up? There were so many questions, but Vanessa was in no hurry to walk up to Nancy and ask.

She couldn't help but give Jae a look when Alvaro's name came up. He'd gotten off lucky, she supposed, with just a busted leg. Compared to Barry Banks, he was downright fortunate, and that just confirmed that Alvaro was downright trouble. They always did say it was the ones you'd least suspect.

The only good thing was that she didn't hear Cam's name come up in this twisted lottery, and that prompted a sigh of relief. She didn't hear anyone else from PC either, but she remembered that that only meant one other person if BB and Brady had had the (still totally bullshit) luck to be going on the other trip.

Well, it was probably a plus that Coleen hadn't gotten herself killed, if she was around. She supposed that much, anyway.

The two neared the radio tower, Vanessa getting the lay of the land all the while. This area stood in stark contrast to the asylum they'd left behind, but it was still a few decades behind what was back home. At least it was something new compared to walking down Main Street for the five hundredth fucking time.

As the two walked within range of the small building that Lizzie had sought shelter in, Vanessa craned her neck towards it to cue Jae where her interest lay. She was pretty happy to see inside all the buildings dotted around the island, because what the fuck else was she going to do, but this one just happened to catch her attention first.

Straight forward as ever, Vanessa let herself in without so much as stopping to press her ear against the door. Lizzie's cries echoed out as she did so, but that wouldn't have deterred Vanessa in the first place.

"Yo, someone in here?"

[backslash]

Jae heard the crying as they approached the shack, and was just far enough behind Vanessa to only be able to hope that whoever it was in there wasn't in the middle of some kind of psychotic break with a deadly weapon as she barged in. Hopefully the pair of them were just threatening enough to discourage any attacks, but not enough to provoke more out of fear.

He limped the rest of the way over and leaned in the doorway behind Vanessa, fingers brushing the collapsed baton in his belt in a way that had almost become habit over the last day. He'd practiced unfolding and collapsing it for a while the previous evening; he was never quite able to shake the feeling that he looked like some kind of stupid discount jedi, but it was still a solid metal bar that was useful for smacking people upside the head if so needed. Get them some riot shields, and he and Vanessa were the cheapest SWAT team you'd ever need.

Lizzie Luz didn't look like she was in the middle of a psychotic break at least. She looked distraught and weak and frankly pretty pathetic, which was probably the best case scenario. It chafed at Jae somewhat, to be relieved at someone else's suffering. Some people considered him a bully, he was self-aware enough to know that, but he'd never hurt people for fun. Tears made him uncomfortable regardless of the reason.

Lizzie had some pretty good reasons to cry right now though, considering the announcement. Her cousin - sister? Jae wasn't entirely clear on all the crisscrossing Luz family lines in Cochise - had been the first person murdered. Who knew who else she'd been close to, she'd never seemed a social butterfly.

"Hey," he said shortly, unable to muster anything else that seemed appropriate. He felt like he had words filling him up all through the morning, waiting to spill out of his mouth, but this wasn't the time or the place, and Lizzie was an unexpected addition to the audience. Jae tapped his fingers against the baton and his tongue stud against the inside of his teeth and glanced around at the rest of the gutted control shack as they waited for Lizzie's response.

[Grim Wolf]

"Yo, someone in here?"

Voices at the door.  She looked up, panicked.  She'd just heard that monstrous list of the dead.  She'd lost the brave man she'd barely down, and the cousin she didn't know well enough, and the friend who...who...!

Who was left that she could trust?  

She stared at the two people who'd just burst in, eyes still red and cheeks still damp.  Jae?  The weird Asian goth kid.  And with him was...

Oh, Nessie.  One the guitarists for Peyote Coyote.  She rubbed her eyes, almost smiled, and then remembered that one of the men she'd met yesterday had killed someone.

"Hey."

"Uh," she started.  "H-hey."  She sniffed again, tried to clean her face.  Stupid.  Why are you embarrassed about crying?  After what you just heard, who in their right mind wouldn't be sad?

And who in their right mind wouldn't be scared?

"Sorry," she managed.  "J-just...Harold and...and Lettie and Tina, you...y'know?"  There was a hitch in her voice.  Fuck, she'd never been much of a crier, but she couldn't imagine it.  How could it be possible that she'd never seen Scarlet again?  Never see Tina?  How could it be possible...

What the fuck?

[Slam]

"Hey, hey..." Vanessa said, crouching down near Lizzie. "It's cool, don't cry." If Vanessa was someone who touched people, she would've given Lizzie a comforting pat. Instead, there was just an awkward empty space as she tried to find the words.

Vanessa had been pretty lucky, as far as people she knew dying went. Her grandfather had died a few years back, though they'd never been all that close to begin with, and that was about it. Now she was on an island where people were dropping like flies, and she was face to face with someone who'd lost at least three in one night. Pretty awkward when not long ago she had been glad that no-one she knew had bit it.

So yeah, trying to make her feel better probably wasn't going to be as simple as a 'There, there', but she was where she was.

Harold, Lettie and Tina. Shit, what had happened to them? Knowing that might've at least given her something to work with, she groaned silently. She'd have to make a note to pay more attention next time, or at least make an honest effort to remember to. If people and people's friends were dying, it wouldn't kill her to at least give them the dignity of not being glossed over.

She was taking too long; she had to say something.

"I'm really sorry."

And that was all she could think to say.

[randomness]

((Jordan Green continued from The World Turned Upside Down))

Jordan had barely slept at all.

There was too much space, too much time, too much room for him to think, to wait, to wander. Where nothing happened and where he made nothing happen.

His mind was wandering aimlessly, just a constant stream of thoughts with no meaning or direction. They somehow had the luck, or the misfortune to have met no one else since the morning, and that only added to the creepy feeling that the island had given him thus far. It was too quiet around here, as if even the insects were too afraid to make any noise, and the only sounds he could hear were what he guessed was the distant crashing of waves upon the shore.

Mid-morning came, bringing with it the voice and its list of names. Names of people he knew, of people he saw in school, of people he heard so much about, but said nothing to, people who he had passed by in school without saying another word, people who had been simply been there all his school life and were just suddenly not there anymore.

Ten people. That was a lot of dead people. Seven killers. Far too many as well. Did it really take so little for people to start killing others? He barely knew most any of the killers but it seemed unnatural. It was somehow simultaneously worrying, yet distant and unreal.

They'd talked after that, him and Hazel, about what they were supposed to do. He had no idea what they should be doing, but somehow at the end of it all, they'd decided to head to the radio tower. Maybe they'd find something there, unlikely as that felt. What were the odds that they would leave something anything there that was useful after that fiasco all those years back. They had years to prepare for this.

But when they reached there, it was clear they weren't the first people to think it was a good place to head for. There were already people there, the Korean goth dude whose name momentarily escaped him was clearly the one standing in the door frame. There were clearly others inside, given how he was standing.

"Um, hey! Are you guys..." His question trailed off with the thought that he had absolutely no idea what he was planning to ask.

[backslash]

Jae stayed looming in the doorway, content to let Vanessa try and comfort Lizzie. He hadn't known Lizzie and Scarlett were friends. He'd just been walking along, thinking uncharitably about how he'd never liked Scarlett and he wanted no part of Lizzie's tears or her accusation if she somehow divined his thoughts. He'd swung back and forth on whether or not he really wanted to run into somebody else, but he hadn't wanted this, whatever it was.

He settled on not looking directly at Lizzie while Vanessa talked to her. Awkward eye contact with a crying person was the worst.

And of course as soon as he thought that, a voice sounded from behind him and Jae remembered that quite a lot of things involving injury and possible death were objectively worse than having to deal with someone while they cried. He would have spun to face the new arrival but his immobilized leg resulted in more of a stumbling turn that left him grabbing at the other side of the door frame for support.

There was an instant of nerves and adrenaline as Jae steadied himself, an instant where he was vulnerable and his good hand would have taken too long to get to the baton. He saw the guy who had spoken, didn't see a weapon.

He saw Hazel.

The world tilted for a moment and then righted itself again as Jae pushed away from the door frame and took a couple staggering steps towards her. He stopped abruptly, remembering where they were and what he must look like, and the fact that Vanessa was still crouched on the floor with an upset and possibly-unstable person. Jae was left frustratingly in the middle, too far away from either pair to do anything.

"Hey," he said again, stupidly, choking down everything else that threatened to spill out again now that he could see her. Fuck, he hadn't realized until she was right in front of him how scared he'd been that he wouldn't see her again.

He glanced over his shoulder at Vanessa and Lizzie. "It's okay, everything's cool, it's Hazel and... some guy." Prevent a panic before it started, prevent more tears. He met Lizzie's red-rimmed eyes and quickly faced away from her again.

[Ruggahissy]

((Hazel Jung continued from The World Turned Upside Down))

"Jordan," she said quickly. "From drama," she added, trying to add context. She felt that it might help explain to Jae the nature of their relationship and why she trusted him in as simple a package as possible. She then felt a bit embarrassed that she saw the need to clarify their relationship.

She and Jordan had an remarkably unremarkable night. No attacks or noises going bump while they slept. They had been awakened by the announcements, but didn't discuss what they'd heard. Jordan didn't seem up to talking about either the killers or the dead and Hazel didn't want to rock the boat.

"Um, hey....sweetie," she said somewhat hesitantly. She twirled a piece of shiny black hair around her finger and nervously slid it back and forth. Hazel knew that it was silly to still be nervous and uncertain about her relationship with with Jae considering that was now low low low on her new island list of priorities, but even still, the tips of her fingers tingled slightly.

This too vanished in a flash when she realized both the crying girl in the room and the state of Jae.

"Are you ok? What happened?" she said with a hand over her mouth, looking at his leg.

[Grim Wolf]

"I'm really sorry"

"Yeah," Lizzie mumbled.  "Me too."

And suddenly there was a whole fucking crowd of people, and yesterday that had been hard enough, but today?  Today, when she knew how many of her classmates (including Alexander god damn hypocritical asshole Tarquin) had already turned to murder?  How could she possibly feel safe?

Worse than that: how many of these people would be dead before the day was over?  How many others would lose their friends and...

Harold.

Harold, dead after all he'd said to Tyler Yazzie, with the fearsome rep who only wanted to look after his friend.  How had that gone down, she wondered?  And what did it say, when the great debater couldn't talk his way out of this?

What did it say to any hopes of heroes who could keep the blood from their hands?

"Have, uh..." she started.  "Have any of you seen Tyler Yazzie?"

[Slam]

Vanessa turned to see who it was when Hazel and Jordan arrived, more out of habitual curiosity than any paranoia. She let her guard down when Jae vouched for them, the two not being the most familiar people at Cochise to her, but nothing was ringing any warning bells. More importantly, it gave her an opening to let herself up and dash away from ineptly trying to make Lizzie feel better, and meet the new faces instead.

She was about to get up when Lizzie asked about Tyler Yazzie. There was a name that gave even Vanessa pause; she was all about punk rock and the look, but Ty took it to a point where he looked just flat out mental. She didn't like to judge people by their appearance, but when your face had more metal than skin it was hard not to.

But no, she hadn't seen him so far on Whatever-it-was-called Island, and she let Lizzie know that as she moved to greet Hazel and Jordan.

"Hey." She said to Jordan and Hazel, offering a simple wave as she took to Jae's side. "Alvaro Vacanti happened," she nodded her head at Jae, stepping in on Hazel's question with nary a second thought. "sounds like the little fucker's lost it."

"The table leg's my handiwork, though." She smirked, still quite proud that it hadn't snapped in half on them yet. Then came that familiar awkwardness as she wondered what to say next again. What were you supposed to say in a place like this?

"So, what's been eating you two?"

[randomness]

It was hard to be upset at not being recognised. It was normal enough of an occurrence, even if it wasn't an entirely pleasant one. It wasn't as if he went out of his way to get noticed, and Hazel's introduction was more than enough for him.

Besides, it'd be hypocritical of him, given that he had been struggling to remember the other guy's name as well. Jay. He was half-certain of that now, but only half, and he decided that he'd simply avoid using his name for as long as he could. His temper was was well known enough and Jordan wasn't exactly keen on dying simply because he messed up someone's name.

Vanessa and Lizzie were inside the building, Liz looking like she was crying, or had been, Vanessa talking to her, probably trying to calm her down.

Jordan only noticed the injury when he started limping towards them, the table leg that had been hastily tied to his leg making it clear that this was recent. Vanessa's words of explanation, that Alvaro did it, didn't make him feel any better. There were people dying, people dead on the island, and this was made it feel much more real than the names announced out of thin air.

"There's not much really. We've just been wandering about until we found you guys. We haven't seen Ty about either. Sorry."

There was electronic equipment behind them, a tangle of wires and machines that looked far less decrepit than he had expected from anything on this island.

Might it still work? It was unlikely to the point of ridiculousness, the place had been on the map, and that probably meant that they wanted people to come here to try and fail to get any of it to work. And yet, for all that, they might as well check it out.  

"Has anyone tried any of the electronic stuff here?"

[backslash]

Vanessa answered all the questions thrown their way easily enough, not bothering to wait for Jae to compose himself. On one hand, it saved him from making more of a fool of himself. On the other, having her announce to everyone they came across that Alvaro had been the one to beat the shit out of him was pretty goddamn embarrassing.

"Yeah," he punctuated Vanessa's statements with a shrug. "Long story short, Alvaro's gone nuts and, well... you guys heard." He grimaced. As far as he knew, Hazel wasn't close to anyone whose name had come up either. She seemed more concerned about him either way, and that brought a pleasant bit of warmth to him.

Jae glanced over his shoulder at the tower again as Jordan from drama asked about it. "We just got here, so no. Place looks pretty useless, anyway." When he turned his attention back, his eyes were drawn to Hazel again. She didn't look hurt or particularly traumatized, just worried and tired. All in all, it was probably a sign that she'd had it better than a lot of people so far.

He took a few more steps forward anyway, closing the distance between them. Should he hug her? Would that be weird to do in front of everyone?

...Ah, fuck it. He reached out and pulled Hazel into a firm hug. "You've been okay?"

[Ruggahissy]

Jordan took over for the questions that were asked of them. No, they hadn't seen Ty. No, they hadn't encountered anything particularly dangerous or unusual.

Vanessa said conspiratorily that it was Alvaro who had messed up Min's leg, which was unpleasant news. Before she could react, she'd moved on to asking them another question which Jordan answered. Hazel and Min gazed at one another as the other parties discussed until Min added his own thoughts.

"That's what I gathered from the announcements," Hazel replied.

Min took her into a hug and she smiled looking down as he did. She hugged back.

"Yeah, pretty much what Jordan said. Lucky, actually, I mean, as much as you can be considering the spectacular bad luck of being here at all. It's been ok," she said, wanting to relief any lingering worries.

((Hazel Jung continued We're In This Together))

[backslash]

((Skipping to exit))

Okay. Hazel was okay, things were okay for now. Except for all the ways they really, really fucking weren't, but to continue harping on that would just exhaust him.

Jae didn't want to stay here, just standing around in the open talking about how everyone might or might not be fine. He appeared to be the only person out of five who was even moderately armed, and he was half-crippled. They needed shelter, and the radio tower's little shack wouldn't do.

He cleared his throat to attract everyone's attention back to him. "This is nice and all, but I want to get inside somewhere. There isn't anything here for us, and there's no telling who's going to show up next. Anyone who wants to come with me is welcome to, if not... good luck, I guess."

Hardly an inspiring speech, but Jae had never been considered inspiring. He kept his arm around Hazel's shoulders as they set off.

((Min-jae Parker continued in We're In This Together))