They Couldn’t Buy A Fucking Toaster. They’re Broke, John.

[Catche Jagger]

With Sakurako’s leg being how it was, the journey across the island took them through the night and most of the next day.

((Thomas Buckley continued form Lately Kiss My Ass Lately))

The thought of how much time he’d spent out here was daunting when looked at in retrospect, but the time with Sakurako and Sean had probably been the most at peace he’d been since waking up here. Perhaps that sensation stemmed from his company both being relatively relaxed and amicable sorts alongside the lack of extreme group tension, or maybe 72 hours of constant terror started to wear itself a bit thin, made it too hard for the mind to properly comprehend.

That was, until the announcements at the start of the fourth day. That was when they’d found out about Tristan’s death.

He wasn’t the only one, of course. Cheri, whose neck being broken Sakurako had mentioned the other day, was in there too. The comment had gone without much note yesterday, considering all that was happening in that moment, and hadn’t come up since. It was clear now that Sakurako had either seen her fall or come across her body.

Tristan’s death was the one that got to Thomas, though. He was yet another drama kid, one who in most ways was radically different from Thomas, but he was always friendly, vibrant. One of the earliest friends Thomas made at George Hunter. And now he was dead.

In the moments following the news, Thomas had found himself stuck in a strange limbo that came before tears, where his throat felt sore and there was a pressure against the back of his eyes, like a plate trying to push them out of his skull.

He wasn’t sure after the fact if he had, at some point, succumbed to tears.

The fact that Ned Jackson, a nice guy that Thomas had hung out with from time to time, made his way into the same announcements, certainly hadn’t helped matters.

The only ray of hope (and to give it such a positive spin was questionable), was that while Erika Steiglitz had gotten a second kill, Lucas hadn’t been the victim, so he had managed to make it another day alone.

The announcements had also taken their toll on Sakurako, it seemed. Though she hadn’t reacted much to the announcements as they happened, she’d been uncharacteristically silent since that point. He knew he needed to talk to her, about Tristan and other things.

For now, they’d arrived at the village and needed a place to rest.

“Are we looking for a specific building?” He asked, turning back toward Sean and Sakurako.

[Sunnybunny]

"You got into NYU? I'm so proud of NY yoooooou... wait Tris, where ya going?"

Tristan was going to be in the city, and they were going to swap stories about the coasts, East and West. She'd already compiled a cheat sheet for the general area (which began and ended with not going to Times Square ever, not even to get her something from the Lego store)
that was filled with loving observations about her city.

He knew what he wanted and was going to get it.

What else was there to say?

((Sakurako A. Jackson continued from Lately Kiss My Ass Lately ))

What had been a decent jog on two intact legs was so far away she'd started to drift off mentally. She watched the animals they passed by, thought about the animals that had been announced. Some of them seemed to be going for a high score, as if Survival of the Fittest was just a contest.

Blake was dead, the first fallen from everyone she'd run into on the island. A thief and terrible at hiding it, but there was something icky at the thought of him dying after they'd sent him away.

Maybe Lucas was on to something, wanting to kill Erika. Especially considering her and Michael were sharing a Coke and a smile while the world crashed around everyone else.

Lions and lambs, it was all the wet jungle and all the same to her. It almost felt like the island had swallowed everything she was up, gone to pieces. Less immediate than the pain she'd felt at Cheridene's death, but more venomous.

"Purple door. All of them are super colorful, but there's only one purple door, I think."

[Ohm]

((Sean Leibowitz continued from Lately Kiss My Ass Lately))

It was not a easy trip across island. Walking through the night was already difficult as is for Sean, but there was the added pressure of helping Sakurako along the way. Thomas had offered to help, but Sean figured it'd be better if he focused on that whilst he kept his hands around the gun. Not like Sean knew how to use that thing anyway.

Luckily for them it was a peaceful trip. No one vanishing or running out on them. No suprise attacks or killers after them. Just a trek across murder island hearing the sounds of the jungle around them. No biggie.

It helped having someone close at night even if it was taxing. Course, he couldn't admit that.

Same during the day, except for one thing.

Those fucking announcements.

Erika stiegsomething got more blood on her hands and seemed to turn into a fuckin supervillain. Somehow posioning Blake out here, Sean wondered how the hell that happened, but the answer was probably best left unanswered. Either way, it seems like Lucas still had not found her, he was probably better for it. As far as things looked, it was in her favor.

Violet had killed Layla. Shot her in the head. There had been murmurs of her before, but he had been too taken by other events to truly think of her even with the distant thoughts he's had of her. The kind girl who paid for a record solely so he could listen to some music was a murderer, a multi one at that. It made his stomach churn and his face fall. He couldn't tell exactly why, but it could have been the feeling of disappointment that had built over the last few days. At least that was what he was telling himself. Easier that way.

The only thing left to complete the trifecta of terribleness was Zach or Ty killing someone again. Luckily, it sounded like they didn't, but it did not calm the storm inside his head. He needed to find either of them before they do so.

Then what? Hold hands with one of them and tell him that friendship will solve everything and he just had to believe and all that crap? Of course not. But there had to be something that could be done about these killers without getting blood on one's hands.

Thomas speaking pulled him away from his thoughts as they finally got to the village. He could see from their expressions that something was not right after the announcements, but dared not to ask.

Sakurako mentioned a purple door and Sean looked around for something that resembled that color. His eyes narrowed down as he saw something that could have been it. "That over there?" Uncertainty edged into his voice.

[Maraoone]

((Aditi Sharma continues from My Lucifer is Lonely))

And then there were two.

Blake died, apparently. So did Cheri. Sakurako still hadn't been back, 24 hours after the gun incident. Aditi remembered the smudged glasses, dirtied clothes, generally haggard demeanor. Had she seen what happened?

That little question, while interesting, was also pointless to ruminate on. The announcements hadn't named Sakurako as a perpetrator, so there was no need to consider that. The one and only thing Aditi needed to ponder was that her plan was falling apart before it even began.

Adele left, shortly after the announcements. She said she would take a walk, presumably one around the entire island since she still hadn't returned, one sunset later.

It was tempting to say that regret was pointless, to justify just moving past one's mistakes like they'd never happened, but it wasn't. Regret was the brain's way of making you learn from errors, so that one may hopefully never repeat them again. And so, Aditi had plenty of lessons to learn.

She should've taken charge earlier, for one. Blake was a lost cause, and, while the fall of any single person to SOTF was regrettable, he had been disloyal, unwilling to own up to his own faults, and willing to place his life above everyone else's. If there ever was a cog to the terrorist's machinations, that was Blake. So, the island, and perhaps the world, was better off without him.

Cheri and Sakurako, on the other hand, were preventable. A better show of force, an earlier time taken to step up to the plate, and perhaps Cheri wouldn't have felt the need to follow Blake's poor example, and maybe Sakurako wouldn't have had to witness her death, if she had seen it.

And, of course, the gun. It had not left her side for even a second, since Sakurako returned the gun. She had slept curled around the gun, as a child would with a teddy bear. The implications of that metaphor were interesting to delve into in the same way the effects of cutting your hand were interesting to observe. There would be lots to learn, but at too high a cost, so better not to dwell on the matter at all.

To summarize, her hesitation had cost her four allies, and two lives.

One way to think about it was that if they had simply followed her lead, then they wouldn't be dead, and the group would be six. It was a callous, arrogant way to put things, but it was right. But, again, the initiative had been on Aditi to show them that she was a worthy leader, that she was the most capable, and she had taken too long to play her cards, and now, they suffered the consequences. The line between self-reflection and self-loathing felt very, very thin at the moment, and there was a temptation to bang her head into the wall repeatedly, but that wouldn't have inspired much confidence from Charelle.

Another matter, Charelle was. She had only wandered in yesterday to no fanfare whatsoever, no fuss raised by the others. One moment she wasn't there, the next moment she was. She had been active in providing ideas over the past night, in furthering the plan, yes, but she hadn't had as much opportunity to prove herself (or not) as the others had. Not that Aditi was willing to provide many such opportunities. The two had scavenged the houses together, gun always in Aditi's hand, not Charelle's, firing lessons be damned. They could simply improvise, Aditi decided, make an impromptu weapon out of the glass shards that littered the dirt paths in this area.

They had been through every house now, perhaps, had found nothing of note except corpses and the insects that fed on them. Perhaps there were experiments that could be done on those, but no ideas relating to such matters had come up, and Aditi was fine leaving that bridge uncrossed for now. Now, they simply laid in the house, taking watch, she told Charelle. Resting, she told Charelle. Settling in for the night, she told Charelle.

Aditi laid on the bed, gun by her side, safety on, staring at the ceiling. She had to move, she knew, and she had always been one to move when required, but now, in spite of everything, she felt paralyzed. The confidence, adrenaline that came with unveiling that plan, that letter, had all but disappeared, and all Aditi was left was realizing ideas into words, abstractions of nobility, bravery that remained such up to now.

They had to execute the rest of the plan, and Aditi had no idea where to start.

[Catche Jagger]

Noting that the door Sean indicated seemed to fit the description Sakurako gave, Thomas felt his grip tighten around the pistol at his side once more. Though the people here a day ago might have been friendly enough, there was no way to be sure that they had stuck around, or that danger hadn’t taken their place.

After looking the building over for a moment, he spoke to the others again.

“Alright, you guys should probably stay back for a bit. I’ll, uh… go make sure everything’s all clear.”

As he completed the statement, he felt a tug from something that had occupied much of the background noise of his mind since the previous day, and continued. “Also, Sakurako, we should, you know, have that talk you mentioned, whenever you’re feeling safe and such.” He finished the remark with an awkward nod before quickly facing away from her and slowly making his way towards the building.

What the hell was that? Was he having some sixth-sense premonition of his impending death? That would be perfect, wouldn’t it? Make some weird, vague comment in an effort to clear things up, then the door whips open and Quinn Abert blows him away with a shotgun. Perfect punchline to all of it, really.

Nope. Stop talking about talking and thinking about talking. Think about doing and do.

Getting right up close to the door, Thomas knocked and called out to whoever was inside.

“Hey! This is Thomas! I’m not sure if anybody there knows me? I’m here with Sakurako and we’re all cool and stuff, but she’s hurt. Everything alright in there? Can we come in?”

[Sunnybunny]

An awkward nod was met with a weak thumbs-up, all Sakurako had to offer at the moment. But she was glad he was willing to speak to her honestly, even though it wasn't going to be the fun time they always had back in school. She missed it just as much as she missed the hour just before Lefty was all chomped up. Living in the past would be so comfy, but-

Time. Place.

Their sore lack of either.

She moved the blanket shielding her body to wipe the rain/tears from her glasses, nodded in approval at Thomas's measured approach. Granted, if someone was feeling hostile it wasn't like she was going to be a whole lot of good. All she would really be able to do was stop, drop, and roll.

"If everything's okay in there, we should crash for the day and try to do stuff tomorrow. You'll be free of the human kickstand for a bit, Sean."

In the midst of her stress and sorrow, she summoned the energy to snicker. She was pretty certain that they were the same height, which would make her an incredibly sorry kickstand indeed.

[Ohm]

A quick talk and some motions back and forth between his allies told their own story, one that went over Sean's head. All he did was give a simple nod and do his best impression of a support beam for Saku. It wouldn't be long before Thomas was on his way to the door with his gun in hand. After that some hopeful rest away from the rain and a chance for them to really take care of the wound she had gotten.

The wound that had slowed them down during their walk, but it sure didn't seem to slow her down. A chuckle escaped his mouth after her remarks as they waited for Thomas to do his thing.

"Kickstand, huh?" He said as his head turned towards her and with a quick look up and down. "A bit hard to be that when you're my height, don't you think." He managed a smile as his eyes turned back to what was going on with the door.

As long as it wasn't too good to be true, they needed this now.

[Polybius]

((Charelle Chernyshyova continues from My Lucifer is Lonely))

Well this had gotten weird.

Adele ditched them so Charelle had ended up alone with Aditi. From what Charelle could pick out, they had all been one big happy group at some point, but then one by one they peace'd out till it was just Aditi and Charelle. Charelle's role in the group was pretty much just as a stranger who'd just randomly slid in like "How do you do fellow deathgamers". But now she was Aditi's sidekick, or something. DJ MoonMoon the Boy/Girl Wonder.

They didn't talk all that much as they searched the houses for rare drops or whatever. They were an odd couple for sure, and they'd never meshed back at school. Aditi was all about being a serious overachiever and Charelle was... the opposite of that. Aditi insisted on keeping the gun by her at all times, probably afraid that Charelle might try to swipe it and GTFO like their friend Cheri. It was fine by Charelle, she wouldn't know how to use it anyway. And, like, she also didn't really wanna shoot people, y'know?

The announcement had broken up the monotony of searching houses. It turned out Cheri had died falling down a well or something, which kinda(?) explained Sakurako's weirdness the day earlier. There was also apparently someone else who'd left the group and died but Charelle wasn't paying much attention to that. She was only cared about one name. She listened for it, holding her breath; when the announcement passed without it being mentioned, she could relax. That was good enough.

Oh, and Demetri was still alive too. That was cool. Where had he gone off to, anyway?

While Aditi was resting, Charelle was playing the good sidekick and hanging around the door. Until there came a knock. It was Thomas Buckley, who was a cool enough bro in Charelle's eyes (also, not on the announcements). He said he had Sakurako with him, too. It sounded great 'n all, but Charelle had been on this island too long to just let anyone in without some caution.

"Hey, Aditi. We got company." she called to the bedroom "Come out here and, eh, be here with the gun."

[Maraoone]

Aditi's fingernails went up and down, over and around the white bumps raised on her arms. There had been an idea borne from that, last night. It had been one of the first, in fact, a handy one, but an unnecessary one, given the pen and paper already in her possession. Tactile communication, undetectable by both camera or microphone. She had an answer to one of Blake's parting shots, at least, and that gave her some satisfaction, almost enough to make her smile. It was a small victory, however, and one that had been almost 24 hours ago. Ideas slowly dripping in like molasses, far too slow.

She was not transmitting any message to herself, anyways, unless you counted the I's and O's traced around mosquito bites as messages. It was simply a distraction, one to pass the time they were methodically murdering, laying to waste.

Her hands stopped moving. There was a buzzing in the background, lower in pitch than the flies. Voices, she realized. One of them familiar, the other one or two voices not. Then, one of them spoke. Thomas, he said, the familiar voice was Sakurako, he said.

For a moment, Aditi allowed herself to roll her eyes, eyelids fluttering, a quick, sharp exhale. Annoyance on the surface, rage, indignation below, but that was all she could release without raising alarm. The outburst with Blake had been a mistake, beneath her, and she refused to let such an instance happen again. She wanted to be- she was a leader, so she needed to act like one, Canon and his type notwithstanding.

She opened the door slowly, her eyes visible to them through the crack, hand with gun behind the door. Three people: Sakurako, Thomas, Sean. The latter two's names were known to her, but of no importance before the island, and their names had not occurred to her until this very moment, which was a good sign. It meant they hadn't been on the announcements. Thomas belonged to the theater club, and that was all she knew about him. Sean had been one of those potheads with no sense of a future, one of those types who'd ask her 'Would you like fries with that?' a few years down the line. She had never cared for people like him before, didn't feel like trying now, but one couldn't be choosy with allies in circumstances like these. Wide net, and all.

The door finally opened completely. It was tempting to berate Sakurako, to tell her that her absence had cost them time, ideas, lives, none of which they had much of to begin with. It was tempting to laugh at her for her audacity to even come back here, expecting that she'd just be welcomed back immediately. It wouldn't be prudent, however, it would just be a release, short, fleeting, and then she would lose a potential ally and those potential ideas for forever. And Sakurako had been a solid companion beforehand.

Instead, she motioned to the wound on her leg with a nod, facial expression neutral, gun hanging by her side.

"What happened?"

That was prudent to ask, at least. They needed to know of any potential threats in the area, after all.

[Catche Jagger]

In the couple of minutes that passed between his call to those inside and the door finally opening, which Thomas knew factually had passed quickly but of course felt like an eternity like every little task out here, he’d taken a couple steps closer to the door if only so that he wouldn’t fixate on something inane like how his fingers ached from how tightly he held the pistol, or that he was hungry, or that just standing still might make him look like a bit of a doofus to Sakurako and Sean.

However, once a girl that Thomas only vaguely knew as Aditi stepped out, he finally relaxed a little, even though she held a gun at her side. It seemed that Sakurako’s people had stuck around, and Aditi wasted no time on introductions before jumping into dealing with the sweet leg injury Sakurako had picked up.

Thomas assumed it’d be best to let the injured party explain her own predicament, so he kept his commentary to a minimum.

“Hi, yeah, Thomas here. She is going to need a place to rest that leg up and Sakurako said you had this place locked down?” He spoke while giving the new company a slightly awkward wave as he attempted to maintain whatever stood in for politeness out here.

Thomas didn’t want another Lucas-type thing happening out here again. More social complications in a fucked up situation were the last thing anyone needed.

[Sunnybunny]

Sakurako slowly shuffled into the house with Sean's aid, looked around at Charelle and Aditi and a conspicuously absent shopping cart. She frowned. She didn't ask.

"I got caught in a bear trap on the way back here, leg is absolutely fucked. But I still have the thing if your idea involves some kind of metal conduction or..."

It was oddly disappointing to think said plan still hadn't started, but the rain was still beating down everywhere and it wasn't like she'd been any more successful than the cheerleader that decided to lead them. If nothing else, she knew no one here was going to deliberately endanger anyone else, which solved one big problem.

The fact that there was probably no way most of this group would talk to each other outside of this situation was a bit of an issue, but her miracle working skills were decidedly low. If any of them had gotten some booze... ah, but that might cause more problems than it solved.

"I hope you guys have had a better time than me, anyway." Doubtful, since they didn't have any Cheez-its. "'Diti, I think we should get going tomorrow even if it's not fully-formed. We can... I don't know, write messages in seaweed or something. `Relle, sorry I was gone so long, but if you could do me a favor I'll adore you `long as I live."

Giving a weak smile, she dropped Cheri's bags and motioned for Thomas to take her off of Sean's hands. She needed to talk to her old partner in dramatic crime, and luckily there was a room that would give a semblance of privacy and let her prop her dumb leg up.

Her bags should still be in there too.

"Everyone in here's good people, I swear."

She couldn't make them believe her, but even a little faith could have kept them all together when things had started to fall apart the first time.

[Ohm]

Sean didn't have much to say as he helped Sakurako get into the house that Sakurako's friends had holed themselves in. Even when she went off with Thomas and he was left with the other two there wasn't much off the top of his head that he could say without making himself look like a weirdo.

How's your stay been? Gotten anything good? What's that idea she was talking about?

So he stayed silent as he placed his bag on the floor and waved to them as they walked away. He didn't know her company. He knew of them. He'd passed them in the hall at school many times and seen them around doing whatever, but talk to them? Know what to say and what not to say? Hobbies, interests, any of that? Lost to him.

And maybe the same for them in regards to him.

[Maraoone]

Aditi's eyes followed, squinted, as Sakurako and Thomas went into the room, unseen. She didn't appreciate that.

Writing in seaweed was an idea they'd had on day one, if she recalled correctly. Elementary, probably tried by at least one group on every previous iteration of this travesty. She dug her fingers into her palm at the thought of that, the thought of not having moved past such ideas four days later. Metal conduction was, admittedly, something that had not occurred to her, yet. But that, again, wasn't a plan, merely the foundation for one. Aditi had aced her physics classes, like all her other classes, but she leaned more towards theory than praxis, and that was another shortcoming of hers that would cost her dearly. She knew how to calculate the intensity of a signal, but she did not know how to make said signal in the first place. Disappointing, really.

All she had was this paper, for now, and so that was what she gave.

She passed by Sean wordlessly and dropped a paper into his lap, with the words 'READ ME' written in all-caps, on the top. She sat down across him, and waited.

[Polybius]

Charelle stepped to the side as the three people walked in. Sakurako, Sean, and Thomas. Er, well, Sean and Thomas walked in. Sakurako- well, Charelle didn't know if there was an easy verb for that kind of moving. Like shuffling around while other were holding you up. Something to think about.

Well anyway, Sakurako's leg was fucked up super bad. Mood. She'd stepped in a bear trap, which were apparently things that existed on this island. She had a short convo with Aditi that once again made Charelle feel like she'd come into the eighth episode of an HBO show without context. Before heading off into another room with Thomas. Charelle was left in the main room watching Aditi pass a note to new kid Sean.

As this happened Charelle yawned and scratched her nose, providing her valuable contribution to the group.

[Catche Jagger]

As Sakurako motioned for him, Thomas quickly moved to her side to help her along. If something like this had happened back at school, having to stick quite so close to his friend/crush and she indicated a room for them to go into for some privacy might have left him a bit flustered, but here it all felt too necessary, too urgent to feed into some social anxiety or discomforting titillation. After all, there wasn’t much room with the heavy sense of dread filling up his heart.

He guided her as best he could into the next room and had a look around.

“Any place looking like a particularly good seat to you?” He asked, trying to hide the nerves with a smile.

If learning the truth made Sean have to look at you differently, imagine what it would do to her. It would be a betrayal.

To have someone you care so much about see you for how weak you are when push comes to shove. That’s what he’d have to endure.

Run away.

He wanted to. He wanted to run as far as he could, all the way back to Chattanooga. But then he’d just be a bigger coward, right? He’d be doing something even worse by abandoning her and Sean, people who’d at least tried to trust him.

Sakurako mentioned the bed and he led her over to it, perhaps a bit more gingerly than was necessary, before letting her sit down.

“So, we can have that talk now, yeah?” Still smiling. Still acting.