Zero Sum

Early afternoon of Day 4, private.

The spot with the best freely accessible view of the island, Nature's Lookout was mainly used for contemplative purposes. There are a collection of handmade benches here to provide seating for those that desire it. One notable addition to the cliff face at Nature's Lookout is the wooden platform that extends out over the cliff that people could walk out onto to feel closer to nature and commit items to the earth below.
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Endellion
Posts: 298
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Zero Sum

#1

Post by Endellion »

[ Julien Leblanc ontinued from The Flawed Architect ]

He had supposed that something like this might happen, retribution for the signs of what he'd done that were still borne all over him. But all the same, it fucking hurt, and yet somehow that wasn't even the worst part.

From how it looked, a large chunk of that thigh had been torn out by the bullet that had hit him not long ago. The wound was bleeding alright, even if not as profusely as he kind of expected, and the hole that had been punched through muscle screamed loud enough that Julien had stopped trying to put weight on that leg very quickly. But he could still move, not least due to the wound itself still feeling... not quite just numb, but cold too. And move he did.

Which bothered him.

Why was he moving? He hadn't known the bullet was coming until it had already hit him, so making sure that it was the last thing he ever did get to realise, or that he never had the chance to leave in the first place, would have been trivial for anyone who could aim passably. Yet here he was, limping along with the scythe, already hard to hold onto and growing increasingly slick with blood from his hands, as a crutch and his head on a swivel for all the good it would do him.

Someone had seen what he'd done, maybe, and had a sense of irony about them. Wanted him to bleed his life away slowly, like he'd done to Ashlynn. Which… sure, if push came to shove, he could live with right up until he didn't have to.

Though it seemed he would have to for a while longer than whoever shot him had intended, unfortunately, since he had yet to bleed to death already. Not to say that it wasn't still bleeding even after what little he had done to stem it, nor that Julien wasn't in dire need of all fucking kinds of relief from the pain, but he could move under his own power, and that was enough.

Hopefully he could do more s--

He tripped over and fell, face smashing into the ground, and stopped thinking coherently for a moment as pain tore through him. He hadn't fallen atop his own weapon, in some small mercy, but it was coated in too much dripping blood to be used for a crutch any more, and his hands hurt too much to keep a firm enough grip for long even if he did wipe it clean. Standing up was out of the question too, because his brain had finally gotten all caught up with the hole in his leg now.

Fuck.

So he started dragging himself along the ground. Whatever kept him moving was just fine, and he did at least have one good leg to work with still.
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Shiola
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#2

Post by Shiola »

((Erika Stieglitz continued from Devil Like Me))


With the Cliffs off limits and the Inner Circle too crowded to chance hiding out in, Erika had made the long trek back to the north end of the island, to the Lookout Point. She wasn’t going to try and take potshots off of the platform, instead presuming that she’d be able to use the path to it as a natural choke-point. If she could find a sufficiently well-hidden position to set up in, this place could be a defensible base of operations to branch out from, if she had to. Anyone with the weapons to engage her would have to do so at range, where she’d have the advantage.

That position eventually presented itself in the form of a rocky outcropping just off from the main path, where she had a good vantage point on the trail leading to the lookout point. It hadn’t been long since she’d taken position before she spotted someone walking up the road.

Through the scope, Julien was more than a distant silhouette. It was a little bit too easy to pick out fine details, like the blood on his shirt and the cuts on his hands which hadn’t been there the day before. She wasn’t looking for a justification, but his frosty disposition and the presence of a whole bunch of blood that wasn’t his made her choice of target pretty clear, at least at first.

She’d been moments from sending a twenty-six hundred foot per second greeting to his chest when an idea came to mind. One she’d considered before, but had been too indecisive and ill-equipped to bring to fruition. As nice as it was to think of trying to end things quickly for Julien, Erika realized that more than anything she wanted all of this to end as quickly as possible, and that meant being economical with her acts of violence. If the last two times were any indication, she knew she’d be mentally worse for wear afterwards. It made sense to try and condense it as much as possible.

So her crosshair dipped, towards his legs. The new rifle barely kicked into her shoulder compared to the Martini-Henry, and she watched with grim satisfaction as he flinched from the hit. What she didn’t expect was that he’d keep going. He stumbled on for a couple yards, beyond the sight cone she’d set up. As carefully as she was able, Erika moved laterally to match his attempt at escape. Something tripped him up, and he went down.

The new position wasn’t as good, but she was still mostly hidden from view. It was tempting to send another round over his head so he would stop moving, but that would give her position - and her plan - away.

Watching through the rifle scope, Erika waited.
Aura
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#3

Post by Aura »

(Saffron Fields continued from Tempest of Seasons)

Saffron and Katie had been wandering since the incident with Ty, and hadn't had much luck in anything else of note since departing the platform.

The awkwardness from Katie's fight with Ty was still occupying Saffron's mind. She didn't want that image of Katie staring down at the boy, blood dripping from her knuckles, but it was hard to force it out of her head. She had to live with the fact that Katie had done that, and although she was grateful that she didn't kill him, it was still a deeply unpleasant memory.

Trying to make things feel right again, Saffron placed her hand in Katie's as they walked, and looked over at her with a smile. She could feel that warm feeling that she usually got when they were together, and she started to feel that things were going to go back to being okay. That feeling managed to last until she saw someone dragging themselves across the ground, clearly bloodied.

"Holy shit!" Saffron cried, running over to the injured boy. "What happened? Who did this?" She beckoned Katie over, feeling that her strength would probably be necessary. "Katie, come here!" She didn't want to say that it looked bad, because she didn't want to scare the guy, but... yikes.
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Pippi
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:04 pm
Location: I'm from England!

#4

Post by Pippi »

((Katie Agustien continued from Tempest of Seasons))

She hadn’t known what to say since they’d left the main lookout point platform.

They hadn’t walked far, but the sudden chill that hung in the air had made it feel like they’d been walking for an eternity. Their walk from the garden to the village and to the lookout ridge had been filled with conversation, discussion about where to go and now enthused and relieved they were to see each other again - there’d even, sparsely, been enough comfort and safety for bouts of flirting, fingers tracing along Katie’s biceps, all that sorta thing.

The silence was unsettling. Both of them knew the reason for it, but neither of them seemed to be able to find a way to break the deadlock. For her part, Katie looked down at the ground as she walked, knife tucked away in one pocket, hand clutching Ty’s crowbar in the other. She’d wiped as much of the blood from her knuckles as possible, and thanked her goddamn lucky stars she didn’t have sleeves on this outfit to stain.

She jolted as she felt Saffron slip their hand into her own, and she looked to her left, and her heart melted as Saffron smiled at her. The warm feeling cut through the chill in an instant, as Katie smiled back, a gentle heat rising in her cheeks. It was okay. They could talk things out. She still didn’t know how to feel, about what she’d done to Ty, but if anyone could say something to bring clarity towards something like that, it was Saffron.

Everything always seemed like it was looking up immediately before it all came crashing down.

It was impossible not to notice the figure dragging themselves along the ground in front of them, even without Saffron crying out, breaking away from Katie and running towards them. Their leg was coated in blood, and there was a trail of crimson dotting the ground, and Saffron was yelling to Katie to help them.

And instinctively, Katie didn’t want to go anywhere near them.

She’d had enough dealing with people for today. All she wanted right now was to find some shelter and bunker down there with Saffron once more. Maybe then they could start discussing their plans going onwards.

But if she did leave this person to crawl onwards and bleed out, and they ended up dying from their wounds, then Danya might as well list her name on the announcements as an accomplice to murder. The figure hadn’t attacked them. They didn’t deserve her dismissal. And above all else, Saffron was pleading with her again, for help this time. She had ground to make up, there. Penance for her actions, for the fear she’d caused in her girlfriend’s eyes. She ran over to the duo.

“Oh, Christ…”

Blonde hair and glasses; there were a few guys at school who fit that description, but if she remembered correctly, Julien was the one on the ground in front of her. His leg, if she didn’t know any better, looked like it had been savaged, a chunk ripped out of it and blood spilling into the dirt. She threw her bags down onto the ground, ripping her assigned one open and rummaging through it for the first-aid kit.

“Jesus, Saff, babe, do you know any first-aid? I haven’t touched my kit, so everything should still be in there.”

She knew the basics, had learned them just in case. But this? This was entirely outside of her universe.
[+] V7
B006 - Stepney Cruz - DEAD - Dynasty decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight - Mountain Bike - Localised - Catastrophe - Inferno
Pregame - Chill - Loss - Realm
Trip - Loved

G035 - Katie Agustien - DEAD - There's only two ways that these things can go, good or bad and how was I to know that all your friends won't hold any grudges, I got the final judgment - The World's Sharpest Knife™ - Dread - Skin - ieatnothing - Satisfaction - Tempest - Zero
Pregame - Vend-etta - Flames - Fleet - Monachopsis - Glitter
Trip - G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

B028 - Aurelien Valter - DEAD - When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat, before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream - Spiked Mace, Glock 19, Min-Jae Parker's Crossbow - Nightmare - Bubbles - Neighbourhood - Tragedy - Make It - Fiend - Sleet - Love - Walls - Friends - Key - Everything - Gotta - Ghosts - Alone
Pregame - Shark - Heart
Prom - Link - Gradation - Ballare
Trip - Inferis - Scusare

B052 - Garren Mortimer - DEAD- Cut up and I can't feel my hands, no need to chase, can you relate, can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this? - Bryan Calvert's SPAS-12, Alligator tooth sword - Sky - Geek - Nation - No - Dilemma - Mauerbauertraurigkeit - Struck - Punishment - Énouement - Pain - Learn - lamb - Moves
Pregame - Rain
Trip - Life

Meanwhile
Lyra Doyle - Let's live tonight like fireflies, and one by one light up the sky - Pop!
Pregame - Evolution - Life - Lo Mein
Memories - Forward - Odds

Dean Puchero - By July you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends, people you used to look down on, and you'd figured out a way to make real money - Phone - Angel
Pregame - Generation - Prince
Memories - Star
Prom - Sun - Luster
[+] The Past
V6
Bryony Adams - Burning bright until the end, now you'll be missing from the photographs
Astrid Tate - So what became of loving man, and what became of you?
Mia Rose - You can't understand that I won't leave 'til we're finished here, and then you'll find out where it all went wrong

V5
Owen Kay - I fold my tie and ribbon to hide my scars, that's how it starts
Amy Bachelor - Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks, as you shiver, count up all your mistakes
Francis St. Ledger - So a day when you've lost yourself completely could be a night when your life ends

V4
George Leidman (Adopted from Blastinus) - Now if we jump together at least we can swim far away from the wreck that we made
Beatrice - Jamie - Pippi - Tim - Ada - Tabby - Romeo - Lissa - Freddie - Trinity - Redd - Natalie - Kendra
[+] The Future
Boyd Adkinson - Ain't no surprise that I can't sleep tonight, my only vice is standing by your side
"bryony and alba would definitely join the terrorists quote me on this put this quote in signatures put it in history books" - Cicada Days, 2017
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MethodicalSlacker
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#5

Post by MethodicalSlacker »

There were more than a few reasons why Lucas didn't like what he was seeing, here.

[Lucas Diaz continued from The Erika Vendetta.]

For starters, he wasn't the biggest Julien Leblanc fan. Before he saw him, as Lucas was walking through the woods, he decided to distract himself with thoughts of people he was surprised hadn't been killed yet, and he was mostly concerned with the lives of others, yes, but Julien showed up on his list too. For someone not to have decided that he was too annoying and pretentious and gross to let live any longer meant that he was playing the game and playing it well. Stumbling upon him wounded, Lucas had no inclination to help him, and it was hard to imagine that there was someone who was, in fact, willing to do so.

Thing number two that bothered him about all this was that there were people helping him. Saffron and Katie. Lucas didn't really like either of them, too, though for different reasons. They were both sort of annoying, and Lucas didn't really like hanging out with them, and it wasn't like he really ever got the chance to do that but when he did he didn't really enjoy it. Reasons that were ancillary to the point, the now, the moment; they were trying to help Julien, who had been shot, through the leg, in the middle of a clearing, and they, too, were in the clearing.

That was thing number three. He took a step out from the treeline and into the clearing, jogging over to the center were Julien, Katie, and Saffron were. He might not like all of these people, but at least two of them might want to get the fuck out of here, because the way Lucas saw it there was no way this ended well. Either Julien had a companion who had decided to be metal as fuck and use him as bait to lure in other people and kill them, or Saffron and Katie were putting on a show to lure Lucas out, as if they knew he was there. Lucas was absolutely sure that the latter was not true, because he didn't think Saffron and Katie were smart enough to do that or willing enough to commit to it.

So it was the former, then. This was a trap.

"Yo!" Lucas shouted out as he got to the halfway point between the trees and Julien, "Katie! Saffron! Bring him over back into the trees, if you want to help him; the person who shot him might still be around somewhere!"

He wasn't armed to fight them off, if they were here. He just had his real sword and his two shitty fake ones. That wasn't enough to fight anyone with a gun, fairly. The fake ones weren't even an option, currently. The light-saber was on his belt and the Minecraft Sword was in his bag. He held the Macuahuitl in his right hand, and had his left hand on his hip, pumping up and down with the anxious motion of his foot.

Lucas didn't want to spend any more time out in the open than it took to convince these three to make like trees and join the forest.
[+] Recommended Reading Order
—The Heaven Panel—



Image / Image - G051: Lili Williams: 1. Kidnapped from her school trip and thrown into a horrific death game, Lili wanders the wasteland in search of her past life before it slides away from her for good.

Meanwhile 1. From Here On Out [Complete] Marie Bernstein eats ice cream with her friend and gets a text message.

Image / Image - B043: Arthur Bernstein: 2. Arthur watches the waters from the beach, knowing that their presence spells death. Seeking his sister's comfort, he takes up the spear and walks alongside another.

Meanwhile 2. Colorless [Complete] A family reunion under less than ideal circumstances. When trying to unravel the mystery of her brother's death at the hands of esoteric serial terrorists, Marie discovers more than she bargained for.

——The Earth Panel——




𝄇


Image - G026: Liberty "Bert" Wren: 3. It is happening again. To make things right, Bert must understand where things went wrong.

Image - B049: Max Rudolph: 4. The words we use to construct our realities often also make up the links in our chains. Fleeing a vision, Max builds his most elaborate prison yet.

Image - B032: Lucas Diaz: 5. A life lived through the views of others. In pursuit of revenge and his own death, Lucas Diaz interrupts the falling of many dominos.

Meanwhile 3. Because We Love You [Complete] Selections from a Google Drive, never to be logged into again.

Meanwhile 4. The Lines We Draw [Complete] In the process of collecting his brother's memories, Milo Diaz has a fitful morning.

Image - G007: Violet Schmidt: 6. The stars in the night sky do not make pictures. Breathing on both sides of the water, Violet Schmidt journeys to escape the confines of her own mind, and her reality.

Meanwhile 5. Years of Pilgrimage [???] Dana Schmidt is dreaming.

Meanwhile 6. Colorless II [Ongoing] Charlie Bernstein returns to the desert and finds it empty.

Meanwhile 7. Writing the Enigma [Ongoing] Randy Rudolph provides lodgings for Marie Bernstein as she investigates Survival of the Fittest, the city of Chattanooga, and the meaning of water.
———The Hell Panel———


𝄌
¿

[+] Other Threads
Virtual Pilgrimage: Exploring the Pregame Cities of SOTF
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Endellion
Posts: 298
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#6

Post by Endellion »

It seemed help had arrived, right when he could most use it. How fortunate. "I, ah, don't know who," Julien said, stopping moving so that he could sit up and make the lifting that would inevitably have to happen easier. An obvious question, yes, but they were helping him so it only felt proper to answer.

"And... Yeah, I agree with whoever that is," just another voice he'd never really heard before, but he didn't care at the moment. "Need you to get me the fuck out of here, because walking is," he looked down and beheld the sight of his own exposed inner workings, blood still seeping out, "definitely not happening for me right now. Not without help."

The ugly wound did serve to reaffirm it hadn't hit an artery, at least. Julien had seen the results of doing so, and they were far more immediate.

"You can save your kit, Katie. Have enough for two, so use mine." He doubted any of them were too blind to see the implication of that, and it still seemed the right thing to say, wise or not. Their help was welcome, but he had no plans of taking it under false pretenses.

Of course, perhaps they would assume... calling it the best of him felt wrong. The least bad. There, that was better.
Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#7

Post by Aura »

Saffron really wished that she could say something encouraging, that she knew first aid and could get Julien patched up with minimal trouble. She wished that she could, but reality seemed intent on telling a different story.

"I've patched myself up after a few scrapes and bruises at practice. "She explains, a bit of frantic energy held in her voice. "But this is way beyond anything I've ever seen. I mean... look at his leg." She scrunched up her face and looked away from the leg in question, afraid that she would puke if she kept her eyes on it any longer.

But even though she was grossed out and had no idea what she was doing... she could at least try, right? Julien was in bad shape, but Saffron could still try to at least do *something*. But then again, there was that secondary fear that if she tried to do something for him, she would only make things worse. After all, she had no real medical experience, and he needed a doctor, badly. She was pretty sure that she wouldn't cut it. She stood back up and looked to Katie for help.

"I guess I could try to slap some disinfectant on it and bandage it up, but... would it help? He's looking pretty dire." She looked down at Julien sympathetically and shook her head. "He is letting us use his kit, so we aren't really losing anything by giving it a shot, right?"

Saffron was feeling like she was going to do this. She wasn't sure how well it would go, but she was going to try anyway. She just waited for a reply from Katie first.
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Pippi
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:04 pm
Location: I'm from England!

#8

Post by Pippi »

Well, that desire to stay away from people had gone up in goddamn smoke nearly instantly, huh?

It was an odd thing to consider in the heat of the moment, but Katie couldn’t help but realise just how many of her classmates were cut from the same cloth, as one of the what felt like 50 Lucases from George Hunter burst from the treeline towards them. She moved to grab the crowbar, going as far as raising it above her head, but it was quickly apparent that the nondescript Lucas Whoever wasn’t the person who’d ripped a chunk out of Julien’s leg. Lacking a firearm was a big hint in that regard.

Her gaze flicked between Lucas and Julien and Saffron, gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath, the pressure having increased in the blink of an eye, the reminder that the shooter could still be present turning a nasty clean-up job into a split-second decision.

“Christ…”

There was a lot going on, too much being said for Katie to focus on all of it, caught between Lucas urging them all to move their asses, and Saffron figuring out how best to help. She only had a moment to spare towards Julien’s comment, raising her eyebrow at him, wondering exactly how he’d managed to wind up with enough medical equipment for two.

She would have time to query him later, though. She nodded once at Lucas, before she started to move, stuffing her first-aid kit back into her bag and closing it back up.

“We can’t just leave somebody to bleed out here,” Katie said, speaking mostly to Saffron. “Not like we can do him any more harm with trying to patch him up, but we’ve gotta get moving first. Can you grab my bags, babe? I’ll carry him.”
[+] V7
B006 - Stepney Cruz - DEAD - Dynasty decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight - Mountain Bike - Localised - Catastrophe - Inferno
Pregame - Chill - Loss - Realm
Trip - Loved

G035 - Katie Agustien - DEAD - There's only two ways that these things can go, good or bad and how was I to know that all your friends won't hold any grudges, I got the final judgment - The World's Sharpest Knife™ - Dread - Skin - ieatnothing - Satisfaction - Tempest - Zero
Pregame - Vend-etta - Flames - Fleet - Monachopsis - Glitter
Trip - G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

B028 - Aurelien Valter - DEAD - When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat, before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream - Spiked Mace, Glock 19, Min-Jae Parker's Crossbow - Nightmare - Bubbles - Neighbourhood - Tragedy - Make It - Fiend - Sleet - Love - Walls - Friends - Key - Everything - Gotta - Ghosts - Alone
Pregame - Shark - Heart
Prom - Link - Gradation - Ballare
Trip - Inferis - Scusare

B052 - Garren Mortimer - DEAD- Cut up and I can't feel my hands, no need to chase, can you relate, can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this? - Bryan Calvert's SPAS-12, Alligator tooth sword - Sky - Geek - Nation - No - Dilemma - Mauerbauertraurigkeit - Struck - Punishment - Énouement - Pain - Learn - lamb - Moves
Pregame - Rain
Trip - Life

Meanwhile
Lyra Doyle - Let's live tonight like fireflies, and one by one light up the sky - Pop!
Pregame - Evolution - Life - Lo Mein
Memories - Forward - Odds

Dean Puchero - By July you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends, people you used to look down on, and you'd figured out a way to make real money - Phone - Angel
Pregame - Generation - Prince
Memories - Star
Prom - Sun - Luster
[+] The Past
V6
Bryony Adams - Burning bright until the end, now you'll be missing from the photographs
Astrid Tate - So what became of loving man, and what became of you?
Mia Rose - You can't understand that I won't leave 'til we're finished here, and then you'll find out where it all went wrong

V5
Owen Kay - I fold my tie and ribbon to hide my scars, that's how it starts
Amy Bachelor - Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks, as you shiver, count up all your mistakes
Francis St. Ledger - So a day when you've lost yourself completely could be a night when your life ends

V4
George Leidman (Adopted from Blastinus) - Now if we jump together at least we can swim far away from the wreck that we made
Beatrice - Jamie - Pippi - Tim - Ada - Tabby - Romeo - Lissa - Freddie - Trinity - Redd - Natalie - Kendra
[+] The Future
Boyd Adkinson - Ain't no surprise that I can't sleep tonight, my only vice is standing by your side
"bryony and alba would definitely join the terrorists quote me on this put this quote in signatures put it in history books" - Cicada Days, 2017
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MethodicalSlacker
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Location: Here And There Along The Echo
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#9

Post by MethodicalSlacker »

"Yeah maybe we can do all the helping this guy not die shit once we move him to a spot where he absolutely won't fucking die right?"

Why was he even trying to help out? What was the point of all this? He was the most vulnerable. Lucas wasn't in the clump of people, he wasn't in the trees, he was just in the space between, lingering in a wide open space, telling people to get a move on. If Lucas was the shooter in this scenario, he'd have already killed whoever stood in for Lucas in this scenario. After seeing that the other two were making absolutely no progress in moving Julien—for fuck's sake, you can wait three goddamn seconds to grab your fucking bags—Lucas decided to take his chances with the herd and moved closer.

"Here, I'll get his shoulders, you get his legs" he said, hooking his arms underneath Julien's, "Sorry if it hurts. And I know it does. No way around it."

His eyes went longingly to the treeline. Every impulse in his brain was telling him to stand the fuck up and get the fuck away from here.

But his brain was powerless against his heart, to the chagrin of, well, sort of both.
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Shiola
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:29 pm

#10

Post by Shiola »

She continued to wait, watching Julien struggle. Trying as hard as she could to shut off her conscience, to be as cold and calculating as she needed to be. Trying to remember if the round had landed exactly where she had been aiming, or if it was a few inches off. Whoever showed up, she wanted it to be quick enough for them. Not like it was for Julien.

A beetle crawled across her arm, breaking her concentration for a moment. Insects had never made her especially squeamish, but this was one situation when she couldn’t afford an errant twitch on account of an odd arm tickle. Turning away from the scope for a moment, she reached over and gently brushed it onto a nearby leaf.

“Sorry, friend.” She whispered.

Erika turned back to the scope, and caught a glimpse of people approaching Julien. Immediately descending upon him, trying to help. She didn’t think twice about who he was, who might’ve caused his injury, or where the rest of the blood on his shirt had come from. This person just saw an injured classmate, and ran over to help.

Normally seeing something like that inspired a bit of hope, the same as Julien’s determination might have. Erika just felt a lump in her throat, and a tension in her jaw as she soon recognized who it was that had come to assist Julien. The well-meaning people who had been lured by the trap she’d set. The kind of trap that would only lure in those who hadn’t reckoned with the amoral nature of this situation, she now realized.

Saffron Fields and Katie Agustien. They’d found each other, after all.

“Fuck!” Erika cursed under her breath, tearing herself away from the scope and burying her head in her hands.

After everything that happened, they found each other.

She imagined that moment. The relief they probably felt. How it must’ve felt reassuring to know that no matter what, they’d be together. The fear as they both had to know what was going to happen to at least one of them. No doubt that was Katie’s plan. The more she thought about it, the more Erika found it hard to imagine a kind of love for someone more meaningful than that kind of self-sacrifice.

All she thought about was the end. How much it would destroy her or Ty to see one another die, how she knew whoever made it wouldn’t recover from that. Loving again might not feel like an option. Sleeping without that image in mind wouldn’t be an option, either.

Maybe a few days together would’ve been worth it, still. That wasn’t what she’d chosen. It was selfish, asking Katie to kill him. More than she’d ever known herself to be. Her heart raced, anger and self-doubt coursing through her veins. Whoever she was supposed to be, it wasn’t this. It couldn’t be.

What life am I even saving?

Erika continued to hang her head, still catching the faint sound of voices downrange. There was a third person, besides Katie and Saffron. If she was going to act, she knew it had to be now. Questions on exactly what she was saving continued to race through her mind. It was hard to imagine ever being able to live with what she was considering, knowing the last thing either of those two would see would be the one person they cared about more than anything, dying.

But I will live with it.

Wiping tears from her eyes, she blinked a few times and took hold of the rifle again. It was photography Lucas, she couldn’t remember his surname. If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t want to remember any more about him if she could help it.

There’s only one rule here. Survive. Nothing else matters.

No matter how much she wanted to keep telling herself that, she knew she’d seen him around. Remembered thinking he was kind of cute. Followed his Instagram page for that reason, only to find that he was actually a great photographer. His urban exploration photos encouraged her post-apocalyptic fantasies.

He’s already dead.

Katie was cautious at first when he arrived, brandishing something in her hand. It took Erika a second to recognize its curious shape and faded red paint. It was Ty’s crowbar, the one they’d issued to him as a weapon. In Katie’s hands. Erika watched Katie relent and accept help with Julien. She felt her grip on the rifle tighten.

It’s over, then.

It was hard to imagine him letting her have the crowbar, as unwieldy a weapon as it was. It wasn’t like Katie needed help fighting people. No, she’d taken it from him. Maybe - hopefully, after she killed him.

It’s okay. It’s over.

As her breathing steadied, Erika reminded herself what she had told Michael, what she’d told herself. Not to justify it, or rationalize what she was doing as if it wasn’t destructive or evil. This wasn’t about who they were, or who Erika was or wanted to be. It wasn’t about how much or little she cared for anyone else, or whether Julien or Saffron or Katie or Lucas deserved to die. They seemed to make sense, those things that people thought about from the outside of a situation like this, looking in. When one had the luxury of choosing between right and wrong, without a persistent reminder of mortality wrapped around their necks. There was no morality in any of this, there was no right and wrong. No comfortable grey areas to sit indecisively in. The only distinction that mattered here was between the living and the dead.

She had made her decision. From the moment she'd woken up here, she'd known. Only now was she starting to see what it was going to cost, the self-inflicted scars this would leave on her soul.

Erika had watched it happen, traced the boundary between animate dream-filled life and cold, silent death. As much as the others were acting in the way that human beings probably should, in doing so they’d made a choice as well; they just didn’t realize it. More intuitively than she understood anything else, Erika knew what she ought to do.

The contention of their predicament was clear enough, as were the intentions of the terrorists to follow up on the promises and threats they'd made. To escape, to have the kind of life a person was supposed to, meant the deaths of every other human being on the island.

It hurt. It was selfish, and evil. It was the only thing that made sense.

“I just want to live.”

The whispered mantra echoed in her mind as she pressed the stock of the rifle firmly against her shoulder. Her finger moved from the side of the receiver to the trigger, gently resting on the cold steel. She took a few deep breaths in, steadying her aim.

They were all distracted by Julien’s predicament, and so hitting successive targets wouldn’t be difficult until they registered what was going on. A few centimeters of lateral movement, at most. If she had time she could’ve made it quick for them, but it was more difficult to reliably hit the head at this distance than most people realized. In these circumstances, a high-powered rifle round to the chest was just as deadly.

I hope.

This rifle made things feel almost too easy. She inhaled.

With some consternation, she moved the crosshair to the dead center of Saffron’s torso.

Erika exhaled, and gently squeezed the trigger.
Aura
Posts: 547
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#11

Post by Aura »

With Katie and Lucas moving Julien, that left Saffron's hands free to carry Julien's supplies, making sure that his first-aid kit would be right there with them once they set him down, to make sure that they could move swiftly and efficiently. Of course, those descriptors may have been an exaggeration due to her lack of experience, but she still intended to do the job with as much speed and precision as she could manage given the circumstances. She just had to think about it like patching up a cut. A really, really big cut that was gushing blood and soaking the area around it.

She walked next to Julien and tried to reassure him, despite her own doubts about her ability to handle the situation. "I'll clean your leg and wrap it up as good as I can, okay? It'll probably take a while to heal, but getting rid of bacteria and stopping the bleeding is a good first step." She smiled down at him, trying to keep up her streak of reassurance.

She looked ahead and tried to help direct Katie and Lucas' path. "I think I see a good pot up there. Enough open space for him to lie down and us to move around, at least." She pointed past them to a set of trees that had ample space between them.

There was a loud bang, and Saffron felt a very sharp pain in her midsection. She clutched the spot that had suddenly stopped hurting, then looked down to see a stain forming under her hand, which she moved to see a viscous splatter of blood.

Saffron's legs weakened, and she fell to her knees en route to her body hitting the ground. She was still looking down at her bloodied fingers, knowing what they meant, but not wanting to admit it to herself.
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Pippi
Posts: 1066
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:04 pm
Location: I'm from England!

#12

Post by Pippi »

She was a hair’s breadth away from snapping at Lucas as she moved to grab Julien’s legs, unbottling all of the anger and fear and dread and desperation that had been brewing away inside of her for the past three days, giving him both barrels and letting him know just how helpful his shitty, bitter attitude was, and for him to either save it for someone actually deserving of scorn or to fuck off.

But doing so would have been equally as unhelpful. So she kept her trap shut, muttering only one thing, not trusting herself to say anything more than that.

“Got it.”

Really, it was thanks to Saffron that she was able to control herself, here, for multiple reasons. She’d already hurt her girlfriend once, and they still hadn’t, properly, sat down and talked it all over. As far as Katie was concerned, she still had a lot of making up to do. Ripping into Lucas would just be another step backwards.

And now that Saffron was with her, Katie could just think about her hand in theirs, and their smile, and the sound of their voice and their laugh, and how everything felt sunny and warm with her around, and she could feel her anger drain away.

She wrapped her hands around Julien’s ankles and started moving.

There was a thud and a crack, and Katie flinched. Her eyes scanned Julien’s body, her heart racing, checking to see whether the shooter was still around and had tried to finish him off. There was nothing new, no patches of red aside from the existing hole in his leg. She looked over Lucas, seeing nothing. She started to look down at herself.

There was another, softer thud. A crumpling noise. Katie’s head spun around, looking at Saffron, eyes wide, staring at her girlfriend in a heap on the ground.

“Saffron?”

There was blood on the ground. Blood on her fingers. Julien’s legs slipped from Katie’s grasp.

“Saffron! Oh my God, Saffron, no-”

She heard that same thud and crack, pain immediately erupting from the side of her chest in between sounds, making her stop dead in her tracks. She knew. She knew, even before she looked down, what had happened. They’d run straight into the scope of a killer, and there was no way for her to beat this one into submission, and no way, anymore, for them to run. Her eyes frantically scanned the treeline, even as her tears started to cloud them. She tried to say something to the others, but she could do no more than stammer as her brain and mouth worked against each other. She tried to take a step towards Saffron.

Then she too collapsed, and all she could see was the growing red stain emblazoned on her bright blue hoody, and the blurry form of her girlfriend inches away.
[+] V7
B006 - Stepney Cruz - DEAD - Dynasty decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight - Mountain Bike - Localised - Catastrophe - Inferno
Pregame - Chill - Loss - Realm
Trip - Loved

G035 - Katie Agustien - DEAD - There's only two ways that these things can go, good or bad and how was I to know that all your friends won't hold any grudges, I got the final judgment - The World's Sharpest Knife™ - Dread - Skin - ieatnothing - Satisfaction - Tempest - Zero
Pregame - Vend-etta - Flames - Fleet - Monachopsis - Glitter
Trip - G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

B028 - Aurelien Valter - DEAD - When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat, before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream - Spiked Mace, Glock 19, Min-Jae Parker's Crossbow - Nightmare - Bubbles - Neighbourhood - Tragedy - Make It - Fiend - Sleet - Love - Walls - Friends - Key - Everything - Gotta - Ghosts - Alone
Pregame - Shark - Heart
Prom - Link - Gradation - Ballare
Trip - Inferis - Scusare

B052 - Garren Mortimer - DEAD- Cut up and I can't feel my hands, no need to chase, can you relate, can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this? - Bryan Calvert's SPAS-12, Alligator tooth sword - Sky - Geek - Nation - No - Dilemma - Mauerbauertraurigkeit - Struck - Punishment - Énouement - Pain - Learn - lamb - Moves
Pregame - Rain
Trip - Life

Meanwhile
Lyra Doyle - Let's live tonight like fireflies, and one by one light up the sky - Pop!
Pregame - Evolution - Life - Lo Mein
Memories - Forward - Odds

Dean Puchero - By July you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends, people you used to look down on, and you'd figured out a way to make real money - Phone - Angel
Pregame - Generation - Prince
Memories - Star
Prom - Sun - Luster
[+] The Past
V6
Bryony Adams - Burning bright until the end, now you'll be missing from the photographs
Astrid Tate - So what became of loving man, and what became of you?
Mia Rose - You can't understand that I won't leave 'til we're finished here, and then you'll find out where it all went wrong

V5
Owen Kay - I fold my tie and ribbon to hide my scars, that's how it starts
Amy Bachelor - Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks, as you shiver, count up all your mistakes
Francis St. Ledger - So a day when you've lost yourself completely could be a night when your life ends

V4
George Leidman (Adopted from Blastinus) - Now if we jump together at least we can swim far away from the wreck that we made
Beatrice - Jamie - Pippi - Tim - Ada - Tabby - Romeo - Lissa - Freddie - Trinity - Redd - Natalie - Kendra
[+] The Future
Boyd Adkinson - Ain't no surprise that I can't sleep tonight, my only vice is standing by your side
"bryony and alba would definitely join the terrorists quote me on this put this quote in signatures put it in history books" - Cicada Days, 2017
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MethodicalSlacker
Posts: 1231
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 2:18 am
Location: Here And There Along The Echo
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#13

Post by MethodicalSlacker »

They didn't even get five feet away.

Lucas barely had time to lift Julien off the ground, Katie complying with his request, before Saffron was shot. He saw a look on Katie's face before he heard the sound of the gun in the distance, following the trail of her eyes to Saffron's bleeding body. Katie let go of Julien, and Lucas did too, the weight too much for him to carry on his own, and especially not with a weapon in his hands. He glanced briefly over his shoulder to see his bag hanging from a tree where he left it before approaching the group. He had no time to go over and put it away. He'd have to leave Julien here. It was time to cash out. This was a bad idea from the start. Lucas' involvement was a horrible, terrible mistake that threatened to end him before he got a chance to finish his quest.

His quest.

In the short gap between the first and second shot was when it hit him. Not a bullet, but the truth. This was all too similar to what had happened to him just days before. Someone with a gun, far off in the distance, picking off innocent targets for seemingly no reason. Not showing themselves afterwards to finish them off. Keeping themselves at arms' length, inflicting pain, suffering, undue harm, too cowardly to finish the job. Not a they, but a she.

"Erica," he said under his breath.

And then the second shot hit, and Lucas knew that he couldn't just leave Julien here. Saffron and Katie were lost causes, but Julien could still be saved. He could disarm the trap. A snarl on his lips, a renewed red tint to his vision, Lucas cocked his arm back to throw his sword into the brush, leaning backwards into the lob on his left foot placed squarely in the damp grass.

He couldn't bring his wrist forward before a third bullet pierced his blade, punching a hole square in the middle. It flew from Lucas' hand and scattered in pieces to the ground. He couldn't look. His ears rang with purpose. He turned and grabbed Julien under the shoulders, yanked him backwards, and began to drag him to the trees as quickly as he could. Lucas barely avoided a fourth shot as he backpedaled into the trees, making it some ways before he tripped over a root and landed again on his back, letting Julien go in the shaded dirt.
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Endellion
Posts: 298
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:33 am

#14

Post by Endellion »

Once Saffron had been shot his brain turned off for a little while, going along with Lucas dragging him out of the clearing as best he could manage to try and take some of the edge off the agony of the jagged hole in his leg scraping against grass and dirt.

As soon as he was safe behind a tree Julien curled up onto his side, the one with the good leg, and spat out a mouthful of blood from where he'd dropped face-first again. More red was starting to stain his face, wood splinters stuck under unnaturally pale skin, and he looked even worse than what being shot had done to him.

It hadn't been for what he'd done at all. He had just been bait to kill people who didn't do anything to deserve it, only try and help him.

There were a great many reasons why Julien retched and threw up then, stomach and throat burning just like so much of the rest of him, and he didn't want to think about any of them, so he settled for staying curled up and hiding away in his own head. If he was more aware of himself, he might have found some irony in how the better times he'd tried so hard not to think about were the first thing he ran to.

Not so strong after all, clearly.
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Shiola
Posts: 769
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:29 pm

#15

Post by Shiola »

There were a few things to consider in trying to hit several targets at this range. The smallest involuntary movement on Erika’s part would cause huge deviations in her point of aim. Most people didn’t really get what it meant to fall truly still, to calm every part of one’s physical being. Marksmanship was mostly finding a way to make tiny, almost mechanical movements. It demanded a kind of control, a deliberate nature that didn’t really have a place anywhere else.

It was easy to get a crosshair to sit still on a target; the real challenge was having it stay still through the whole process. Holding it on target as she let her finger drift towards the trigger. Trying not to blink, even as the buzz of anticipation crawled down her arms. Knowing the rifle was going to kick back, and remembering not to blink when it did so. Follow-through was important, especially with multiple targets.

Without ear protection, the shot left her ears ringing. She wasn’t used to that feeling; it hurt.

Saffron went down, and Erika didn’t blink or flinch. A tiny adjustment on her part, and the crosshair floated over Katie. In the five seconds between the first and second shot, she had enough time to see Katie’s reaction. That hurt to see, but Erika remained still. Forced the guilt and derision down with the same faculties that kept her hands still and her breathing steady.

Erika saw Katie fall, hit in nearly the same place as Saffron. The rifle didn’t resist her, easily translating a few barely-noticeable, deliberate motions into mayhem and death in precisely the way it was designed to do. It was fast. She was fast. In this moment they might as well have been one and the same. Erika was nothing more to her targets than Death, reaching out from the forest and taking hold of them.

She was the bullet, and the wound.

A few fractions of an inch in another direction. Another target. He wasn’t reacting the way he should have. Standing in place wasn’t the correct response to being shot at. Neither was trying to throw something at her.

Don’t you want to live?

What are you doing?


The next shot was too soon. Too high. Instead of landing just below his collarbone, it sailed to the right and destroyed the weapon he was holding onto. Now, he was doing what he was supposed to. Dragging Julien away, towards a set of thick trees.

Beyond her reach. Through gritted teeth, she snarled, composure giving way to frustration.

“No!”

Even from here, she could hear Julien screaming, and wanted it to stop. The sound made her think about how long it was going to take for Katie and Saffron. Thoughts she didn’t want and couldn’t afford managed to make themselves known.

It was hard to focus on small adjustments, and recoil, and how still and calm she had to be to make them all die.

Another bullet left the barrel at twenty-seven thousand feet per second, obliterating part of a tree that was a few fractions of an inch’s worth of an adjustment from Lucas’ chest. Fractions of an inch lost to rage, and panic.

It wasn’t easy to dehumanize people doing something so human as trying to save someone else. It shouldn’t have been. It took so much self-control to do something so tangibly wrong. To act in a way that was only ever suited to a place so hellish. She hated what this place made her. She hated Lucas for being stupid enough to do the right thing. Her own shouting was barely audible as each word found itself punctuated by a gunshot.

“DIE! JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY!”

In the five rounds fired at the cover Lucas and Julien had found, it was easy to read calculation and composure giving way to rage and frustration. Splintered wood and tree bark burst from the impacts, but the trees were too thick to punch through. She knew this, and had wasted five rounds in spite of it, lashing out.

The gun was designed to minimize recoil, though. Erika felt less than she wanted to. No matter how much it hurt, she knew it was nothing compared to what was happening to the others.

Suddenly feeling drained, she fought off the desire to tear away from the scope, to turn and run. The part of her that struggled to feel human pressed her into bearing witness to what she’d done. Erika continued to watch Katie and Saffron lying on the ground, and kept watch on the trees she knew the others to be hiding behind.

They die. I live.

After a few moments, she stopped having to blink tears away. The shaking in her hands ceased. The ragged, uneven breathing pattern that came with an onset of uncomfortable emotions slowed down to the measured, mechanical rhythm of a marksman. Once again she felt purchase on the calm, still part of her soul; it helped her through a part of the process she’d missed before, that was no less important than steady hands or a gentle pull of the trigger.

As her body fell still, her conscience fell silent.
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