The Fourth Announcement

[Megami†]

Every time Danya stepped foot into the foyer of his cushy two-story home, he couldn't help the wide grin that inevitably spread across his face. He was home, and for Danya, home wasn't a place he saw often enough. While many men are content to be "married to their job", Danya simply wasn't one of them. It wasn't that he disliked his job. In fact, he thoroughly enjoyed it. However, as he walked into his home and was assaulted by the smell of something burning in the stove, he couldn't help but be reminded of how much he missed his family.

"Daddy!" a bubbly, high-pitched voice echoed out as the sound of running footsteps came rushing from the kitchen, "Daaaaaaddy!"

Danya couldn't help but smile as eight-year-old Amora rounded the corner, nearly tackling him to the floor in a tight embrace. Somehow, every time Danya saw her, it was like she'd grown up even more. Physically, she hadn't changed all that much... her long brown hair was still tied up in two braids, and her big blue eyes seemed to beam with a sort of youthful innocence. Danya didn't have much time to reminisce before he found himself being pulled into the kitchen by the eight-year-old.

"Guess what, Daddy?!" Amora squealed, not even giving him time to respond, "Guess who's here?! It's Tracen! Tracen came home!"

"So your mother said," Danya beamed, following Amora into the kitchen where Lilly, his wife, looked up and greeted him with a large smile of her own.

As she pulled a casserole from the oven, the source of the burning smell became readily apparent. Her eyes moved down to the hot pan in her hands and then back to her husband. For a moment, she looked upset, but instead simply shrugged her shoulders and let out a small laugh.

"I thought I'd make something special for when you came home," she started, then sighed somewhat, "But... it didn't turn out so well."

"Fine with me," Danya insisted with a nod, "As long as you made it, I'll eat it."

"I don't think it's edible, Dad," another voice rang out with a soft laugh.

"Well now," Danya beamed once again as his attention fell on his son, "Been a while, son."

"Sure has," Tracen responded with a grin.

Twenty-two and a soldier for the homecountry's military, it wasn't often that Tracen Danya found himself at home. The fact that his father, who he'd always looked up to as an idol of sorts, had taken the time off from his busy job to fly home and see him meant a lot to Tracen, and the expression on the soldier's face showed it.

"It's good to see ya, Dad. I didn't think you'd be able to come in."

"Are you kidding?" Danya grinned, "They couldn't keep me away!"

"So... about dinner," Lilly spoke up once again, her face flushing red as she looked at the mess of burnt food that was her casserole, "I'm thinking takeout sounds good."

"How about we go out to a nice dinner?" Danya suggested with a grin, "It's been way too long since we've gone out as a family."

---

Things might have been going smoothly at the Danya household, but back at headquarters, Dorian was making some vain attempt at preparing himself for another announcement. As he sat, reviewing the tapes from the previous day, he seemed even more jittery than usual. Danya had only been gone for a day, but the strain of essentially running SOTF was taking a toll on his nerves. The fact that the day had been slow only added insult to injury, and Dorian couldn't help but feel that he'd be blamed for the fact that the students had all but stopped killing one another.

"Oh dear," Dorian sighed quietly as he watched a replay of Darnell Butler's kills for the day. One other student, a cheerleader by the name of Jodene Zalack, had managed to score a kill, but other than that, the day had been a total disappointment. Danya certainly wouldn't be happy about that. To make things even worse, the storm that had been on the horizon was starting to kick up on the island, and between the rain and the wind, the cameras weren't doing much in the way of visibility.

It all equated to one thing. They were losing ratings.

Danya was gone for one single day.

And they were losing ratings.

Could things possibly get any worse?

Dorian frowned visibly as his attention turned toward his watch. It was time to make the morning announcements once again. As much as he rued doing the announcement yet again, it didn't seem as though he was going to have any choice in the matter. No word had come in that Danya had returned yet, which meant that Dorian was in for another long day.

---

"G-good morning, students," the shaky voice echoed out from the island's speakers, "As you might have guessed, Mr. Danya is still away, and so... and so I'll be doing the announcements once... once again today."

Dorian nodded in affirmation to himself. So far, so good. He was sounding much better than he had on the last announcement. Maybe this wouldn't be so horrible after all... except for the fact that he still had to deliver the bad news about there being only three deaths the previous day. He certainly wasn't looking forward to that.

"Well first of all, I g-guess I should mention that the weather outside is... is getting pretty nasty, b-but you guys probably know that already. It might be a good idea to get out of the rain... the cameras work better inside and all... but... but anyway, I suppose you all want to know which students were killed yesterday. W-well, there were only three deaths yesterday, which is... not good, for you all. I'm sure you remember... i-in the guidebook, how it says you have to have at least one kill every twenty-four hours, r-right? T-three kills... it's not very good. If not for the two students who were doing the killing yesterday, you might all have had your collars detonated."

Dorian cleared his throat quietly, trying to keep his voice from trembling.

"B-but anyway... as Danya would say, on to the deaths. T-the first student to die was Daniel Brent at the airfield... he was beheaded by Darnell Butler. Second to die, also k-killed by Darnell Butler, was Eduardo Trinidad-Villa. That brings Darnell's k-kill count to t-three, I believe. Um... t-the only other death for the day was Khrysta Lawrence, whose throat was slit by Jodene Zalack."

In a roundabout way, Dorian was glad that not a lot of students had been killed over the course of the day. That meant he didn't have to sit here and do the announcement very long, and that was a good thing.

"So... so that's all of the students who died today. I think if Mr. Danya were here, he'd tell you to do better or something like that. Um... let's see... b-because the boss is away, we didn't hold any sort of contests this month... it's not like we really had too many kills to vote from and all, s-so I guess I can skip that part. So, I guess all that's left is dangerzones... um... all the current dangerzones are cleared, so y-you can now re-enter them. As for new dangerzones... um... oh, goodness... the... the barracks, the brook, and... and the northern shore. They'll become restricted in ten minutes, so get out soon, please."

Content with the announcement, Dorian promptly cut the speaker and headed back into the safety of his cubicle.

---

The OOC Stuff:
The only OOC thing I really have to do this month is dice rolls. This month's were Kyrie Joseph and Lilah Morgan. You guys know the deal with these by now. If you're switching characters, let me know ASAP. You have three days to begin and five to finish the deaths. Happy hunting!