SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, MORNING
Sophie McDowellLauren Rowe
Mirabella Strong
Cyrus White
Monica Brown sat at her battle station and paged through her notes, her groupings, her monitors, once again. She'd actually managed a solid night's sleep. Jim Greynolds himself had wandered in around ten, peered over her shoulder for a while, standing slightly too close, then told her that he'd take things from here so she could be rested for the next shift. She hadn't argued, though it had rankled a little to leave her post. She didn't much care for picking work back up, especially after someone else left their fingerprints all over it.
But everything had been in order upon her return. Greynolds gave her a quick rundown of some of the night's highlights, but, as was apparently usual, most of the kids had slept through it. Monica was just checking a section of her list, adjusting for the death of one of her notables, when the phone beside her rang.
"Yes?" she said, picking up even as she let her eyes skim over the screens. She found it, middle row on the left, before Lourvey finished telling her the names of the students involved.
"Is it any risk?" she asked.
"No." It was unusual to hear that degree of confidence in the technician's voice. "A knife wouldn't scratch the finish. Like, they jam it right into the joints, it still won't make a dent."
"Okay," Monica said, a smile curving across her lips. "Thanks."
The students on her screen were messing with Rebecca Everett's corpse, and Monica found that she didn't particularly care that they wouldn't be able to cause enough damage to the collars by hand to make them detonate, let alone somehow deactivate them. What had dropped into her lap was the perfect opportunity to make an impression.
Under normal circumstances, the collars of dead students didn't beep. They didn't seem to be active at all, in fact, unless someone were to cause enough damage to one to trip its very-much-still-operational security measures. All of that could be changed, however, with a few keystrokes. Monica's fingers flew across the keys of the netbook, typing. It was a typed interface, so that mistakes were nearly impossible. Anyone who might need to detonate a collar could type quickly and accurately enough that it wasn't notably different from point and click anyways. It took her under a second to set things in motion.
AUTHORIZATION: KZHX87GHS
COLLAR(S): G062
SPEED: F
CONFIRM: YES
And just like that, the collar around the neck of Rebecca Everett's corpse began to beep rapidly. A few seconds later, as the would-be escapees scattered, it exploded. And that, by all rights, should have been the end of that. Monica flipped a switch, bringing the audio for the screen online, even as its image shifted, now showing the students outside, from a direct side angle. The cameras this time were a nice mix of the old, classic, large ones and newer button cameras, set to activate and transmit based on motion detectors or manual commands. Students in past years had shown a tendency to focus on what they could see, often attempting to stand in blind spots. The setup crew had made sure that most buildings had an appealing corner or two, seemingly outside the range of the most prominent cameras, where the view from the smaller lenses was especially good.
Monica's smile flagged for a second as she heard what the students were saying, but then it returned, broader than ever.
They were going to try again? She blew up the corpse as a warning, and so they were going to try again? So be it. That old definition of insanity, the one everyone credited to Einstein, ran through her head. And if they had no hope of making any headway, if they didn't even have the first clue what they were doing, if detonating the boy's collar wasn't strictly necessary, well, there was nobody who would tell Monica not to kill him, either. She had full discretion, and this would be another useful little lesson. Maybe after this, the survivors would play nice.
AUTHORIZATION: KZHX87GHS
COLLAR(S): B034
SPEED: F
CONFIRM: YES
As they shouted and panicked and died, Monica took a drink of water. Killing someone hadn't felt like as big a deal as she'd expected. Maybe it was the distance involved. Whatever the case, she was glad to have given it a go when it wasn't crucial. If anyone else came closer, she now knew there would be no hesitation.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, 8PM
One of the great mysteries for the students of Survival of the Fittest, one of the most niggling little unanswered questions, unknown even to those students who had survived, who had come face to face with the terrorists and asked questions and spoken their minds, revolved around something seemingly minor:Who the hell took the time to drag someone up a mountain? To pin some sad unconscious kid into a coffin in a haunted house? To strap not one but two children into rollercoaster cars, each on a separate hump?
Who was the asshole who stuffed Bill Ritch in a box?
Shamino Warhen was that asshole. It was part of his job. He always strove to keep humor and business separate, but every so often the two became inextricably linked, and it was then that he relished his work the most. He'd provided some of Victor Danya's better material, and while Tracen wasn't half bad, Greynolds had asked that Shamino give the boy a little crash course.
He'd already, very politely, pointed out that it was absolutely unheard of to name people involved with a kill who didn't pull the trigger. It had taken years for Victor to settle on that, but they'd decided that it was far and away the best choice, because it allowed for a little subterfuge, a little trickery.
But now Tracen knew, and it wouldn't happen again, and he'd agreed to let Shamino start the announcements off tomorrow, and the tech crew had been very accommodating of his little request, so everything would be a bucket of fun indeed. Tracen would write most of the material, but Shamino was pretty sure he'd get to steal the show.
SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2012: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, 9AM
"Good morning, kids," a voice boomed out. It was not Danya's voice, but that of a different man, smooth and calm and just a touch apologetic. "My name's James. I'm the collar guy, and, well, I'm sorry to say, after two promising days, nobody actually managed a kill yesterday. You know what that means."At that, every student's collar emitted a single beep.
For two seconds after that, silence reigned. Tracen took a sip of his coffee. Shamino scratched his neck. Then he leaned forward again.
"Just kidding. Keep up the good work. Here's Danya with our main attraction."
"Thank you, James," the more familiar voice began. "While we're talking about everyone exploding, though, I have a little misconception to point out. Now, I told you all that any day without kills would end in every collar being blown. Far be it from me to discourage you from advancing our little game, but, to clarify, that's a day from one announcement to the next, not twenty-four hours on the dot between actual kills. I figured that'd be pretty self-evident, since it'd be stupid to blow you all up at noon because all the previous day's action went down in the morning and nobody quite managed to get in gear right after the announcement but, eh, I guess logical thinking isn't all of your strong suits.
"But, kids, I want you to know this: When I play, I play fair. The rules are what they are, and as long as you don't try to cheat, you have as good a chance as anyone else of seeing home again. Better, if you play your cards right. And that's the only way you ever will make it back.
"Now then, who died?"
Tracen held up a finger, and a technician muted the broadcast as he cleared his throat and took another drink.
"Brandon Baxter got himself into a tight spot in a danger zone. We were going to blow him up, but he beat us to the punch, setting off a pocketful of grenades. That's some real courtesy for you.
"Yasmin Carrol wasn't quite so clean about it. She managed to hang herself in the school building. I hope this doesn't become too much of a trend. Remember, even if it seems hopeless, you always stand a chance. I wouldn't have put money on some of our last winners.
"Rutherford Roger Junior rose from the dead and wreaked bloody vengeance upon Lauren Rowe, adding a nice new decoration to the haunted house.
"A short time later, Maximilian Sawyer struck, and in the space of a few minutes snatched away the title of top killer. He drowned Amy Bachelor in the hotel's swimming pool, then shot down Ilya Volkov and Lydia Robbins when they came to investigate and try to disarm him.
"In another failed attempt at vengeance, Nina Clarke fell prey to Madeline Wilcox. You'd think she'd have known better than to threaten the girl who stole her gun, but, like I said earlier, logic comes more easily to some than others.
"Rosemary Michaels thought she could remove Joey Caputo's collar with nothing but a little knife. It worked, too. Well, his head came off with it, but you can't have everything.
"Continuing the trend of collar stupidity, Clayton Leven wandered into a danger zone, and Tessa Blackridge tried to file her collar loose. You can add those to the list of ways to not make it back home.
"Joachim Lovelace surprised Adonis Alba, shooting him with his spring-loaded knife in the middle of their fight. That wasn't very sporting, Mr. Lovelace. Were you afraid you might not win fair and square?
"Mallory McCormick was gunned down in her own pillow fort, victim of Hansel Williams once again. Continuing the shooting trend, Yuan Stephanie Chan took out Brian Zhdanovich, and Makatala So'oialo bagged herself two points in the form of Carlon Wheeler and Alex Ripley.
"Finally, Natali Greer passed away in her sleep, after banging her head and not taking the time to look after it. Take care, kids. It's not just each other you have to watch out for. Nearly a third of our deaths today were from a stupidity epidemic.
"With that out of the way, today's danger zones are the Homestead again, the Nuclear Living Site, the Shipping Yard, the Northern Town, and the Southern Town. Our grand prize winner today was too close to call. With the office staff split, we've decided that Joachim Lovelace, Maximilian Sawyer, and Rosemary Michaels should all head into the southern part of town, to the overpass. We've dropped off two polish sausages and a pint of Neapolitan ice cream apiece, but only one weapon. We'll leave it to you three to figure that one out.
"I'll see the rest of you tomorrow."
DAY FOUR: SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2012
Weather: Still overcast today, with light drizzles in the afternoon. Cloud cover in the morning, clearing up slightly around 5pm. Moderate towards the coast, increasing until the rain and then tapering off slightly. Highs the same as yesterday, around 60F, 16C at 4pm. One day from the new moon. The fourth announcement will come at 9 AM on June 18.
We're back in business. I am cleaning up threads that have not had any movement done right now, reposting them all with Help. Threads in progress: Please finish quickly, or Help will take over.
A few quick notes: There is no activity enforcement yet. It begins December 1st; this means every character must have post between the 1st and the 14th to avoid a warning. For deaths, in light of this, we're starting the week timer ticking on December 1st as well, though the card deadline begins now. All deaths, including restored old ones, must absolutely be done by the 15th of December, no exceptions.
We are not holding anyone to old continuity. As such, old deaths can change, but if they do please let me know so I can edt the announcement.
The new rule on one-shots is still in effect. I'll have a pretty version up soon, but the gist of it is this:
[ul]
[li]Only the person posting a one-shot will have the activity timer ticked for them.[/li]
[li]One-shots spanning multiple posts must be completed within 24 hours of the first post being made.[/li]
[li]One-shots must be entirely posted by a single handler.[/li]
[li]Consecutive one-shots will not count towards inactivity. This is true even if the first one-shot was not counted towards a character's activity (say, if they were in a one-shot posted by someone else, then went to their own, the second would not count).[/li]
[/ul]
This is to reduce instances of one-shots being used to avoid RPing entirely, or being used to substitute for normal threads. We're fine with one-shots for artistic/readability purposes, and most everything is still allowed by the rules; they just now prevent using one-shots to the exclusion of all else. These rules will be enforced in spirit over letter; if you post a private thread and then bail on it a day later with nobody else joining, that is a one-shot. Gaming the system will serve only to annoy staff; if it looks like a one-shot and walks like a one-shot we will count it as a one-shot.
Finally, the rolls:
1. Rose Matheson (Solitair)
2. Steven Salazar (MurderWeasel)
3. Corey Esposito (CondorTalon) - Yukiko Sakurai (CondorTalon, Swap Card used)
4. Alex King (Slamexo)
5. Gavin Hunter (Ghost of Ravenstar) - Megan Emerson (JillSandwich, Hero card used)
6. Alice Gilman (dmboogie) - Casey Malkovich (Tagabasa, Hero Card used)
Three days for cads, until December 7th for deaths. Please be speedy, and thanks for bearing with us during these tricky times.