Someone's Watching

[Laurels]

"Yeah, let's hope not," Meka said.

He slowly walked over to the covered body. He took in a brief sigh, then exhaled. This was going to be rough, wasn't it? He figured it was going to get easier after seeing Rhonda and Mackenzie, but he still found himself quite nervous. Things were getting morbid really quickly, and he didn't really enjoy morbidity that much. The world was morbid enough, and there wasn't a real desire to seek it out.

Meka knelt down and reached for the cloth. He lifted it up, and took in the sight of the person. He paused.

"It's Alex," he said. "The blind kid with the dog."

Meka lowered the cover.

"The announcements said Blaise killed him. Blaise also killed Dolly."

Meka rubbed his eyes.

"We're just running into the same murderers over and over again, aren't we?"

[Jilly]

Blind Alex, huh? Wonder if he ever saw it coming. In hindsight, probably not. Maybe if he eyed things over more then-

Okay. Fine. She'll stop.

"Gotta give 'em kudos for going all out, just saying." BANDAGED GIRL shrugged, brushing dirt off one of her boots. "We all wanna go home; shit sucks, but can't fault them for gunning everyone down."

[Primrosette]

Jonathan stopped rolling the rock in his hands and he mulled over Meka's words, feeling a sickening feeling in his stomach. The head injury had made his memory a bit fuzzy over the announcements and he needed some time to try to think about things. He needed to remember everything. Dolly... He hadn't wanted to think about her being killed by Blaise and now he had seen another victim of theirs. Alexander.

The same killers, huh?

Jonathan didn't look at Meka or Teresa as he got up to his feet and he was staring straight ahead at nothing. "I honestly don't care for their reasons for why they are killing people. It is still unforgivable to do this to someone." He said as he pointed at the bodies and he looked back and forth between Meka and Teresa. "I think we need to stop the people who are killing more people than they should. They just need to kill one person, right? Even if I do find killing.... irredeemable; but I kind of understand why it's been happening. A lot of people are just scared and they don't know how to handle a situation that they are trapped in. We need to take out the current murderers, we need to do something."

He wondered if this was a bad plan as he didn't really have anything that could help him out if he ran into a murderer with a gun and he could simply be gunned down. He just needed someone to be on the same page with him and then they could maybe plan an ambush or set up a trap for one of the easier ones to take out.

"Hey, Meka. I can understand why you might want to find Quinn. But why Justin? Didn't he just kill one person?" He asked out of curiosity.

[Laurels]

Meka sighed again. It was harsh to think that it was easy for the three of them to talk about murderers and stopping them. But then again, it wasn't like it was going to stop. People like Quinn and Justin would keep killing until told to stop. Meka figured he could be the one to make them stop, but not with his current status.

Jonathan asked about Justin. Meka closed his eyes for a moment, then opened.

"No, he's killed two now," Meka explained.

Meka tightened his grip on the bow.

"He killed Mackenzie this morning. Mackenzie Butler. We let him in, stupidly thinking he wasn't going to hurt us and that Benedict's death was an accident. But he slit Mackenzie's throat while she slept and I was in another room. And then he just strolled out like it was nothing."

Meka shook his head.

"I want this to stop. I want to make this stop. All of it."

[Kermit]

((Valerija Bogdanovic continued from Raw Deal))

She'd spent the day adrift, wandering aimlessly; trying to find something. She wasn't sure what, specifically. People, probably. Every so often she'd hear phantom voices in the distance. They remained phantoms; Val never found the sources.

Stephanie and Camille hadn't followed her, and for that, she was thankful. She wished them well, but she needed a new start. She needed to build from the ground up.

It was getting late. The rain had stopped. She still wore her pickelhaube. She'd grown fond of it. It was like a security blanket, in a way.

She could hear something. Voices. Clear voices. She could almost make out words. She honed in on them like a missile.

"I want this to stop. I want to make this stop. All of it."

Meka. That was Meka's voice. Meka was a man of action; a man of principle. This was perfect. This was what she needed.

She rounded the corner; her eyes quickly scanning over the group. Meka was there, of course, and there was a boy who's name she didn't know, but she recognized him as one of Ji-hyun's friends; she was pretty sure she'd seen him at protests, too, so that was good. There were two prone figures. She knew what those were. Then, there was a girl with a bandage on her arm.

...Oh. Oh.

Teresa Rojas. Teresa Rojas, who, along with Reuben Walters, had thrown Jessica off of a waterfall on day one. Teresa Rojas, who had then murdered Reuben Walters.

Val's brief smile twisted into a scowl of contempt. She stared into Teresa's eyes. She wanted Teresa to know just how much she loathed her. "Hi, Meka, sorry to barge in unannounced," she said, nodding her head, her eyes briefly moving from Teresa to Meka. "If you want to this to stop, start with her."

[Jilly]

Oh jeez. Maybe Jonathan really did have brain damage. Meka too to an extent, if they really wanted to go and confront people who were just vibing and asking them politely to pwease stop. Or kill them. No skin off BANDAGED GIRL's nose with either.

Maybe she should just pull out. Jonathan was probably gonna keel over from a brain tumor before she could really use him. And Meka was pretty, like, smart and shit, so like. Ya know. Yeah. Probably wouldn't work out.

They must've been making a louder commotion than she thought, since someone rounded the corner and approached. A girl in one of those helmets with the spiky thing on top. Lotta questions about that, but ya know, she seemed like she was just vibing too, so like, who was BANDAGED GIRL to judge?

Oh, it was Val. Val and her... glaring. BANDAGED GIRL looked away for a sec, and then back, and like... she was still staring right through her. Like she was boutta go crazy AND stupid.

"Hi, Meka, sorry to barge in unannounced."

Uh oh.

"If you want to this to stop, start with her."

UH OH!

BANDAGED GIRL kept her "this is fine" face on, keeping her eyes locked on Val and scooting several inches away from Jonathan and the others by proxy.

"You got sum'n to say, Chancellor Bismarck?" she scoffed, her hand sliding down closer and closer to her boots.

[Primrosette]

Jonathan felt a slight wince come over his face as Meka told him what had happened with Justin and there wasn't much that he could say to make things seem alright again. "I'm sorry that that happened. You guys were just too kind to him and he took advantage of that. It's all just so...." Jonathan was suddenly trailing off and he was kind of in agreement with Meka about wanting the killings to stop. Not that they would. "I think I-"

And then a girl popped out of nowhere. What was her name? Valerie? Val? Something else beginning with V? His head was still a bit mushy from before. He was sure that he would figure it out soon and then he could have a harmless conversation with her.

....

Or not.

Jonathan found himself letting out a frustrated sigh as the girl seemed like she wanted to start a fight right off the bat and Teresa was not making things better with her response. He didn't want to get himself involved in a somewhat cat fight between them and he knew that if he didn't; then things would only escalate more into a dire situation. He couldn't just sit on his butt and continue to do nothing.

"Hey now..." He said in a quiet, calm tone of voice as he slowly got up to his feet and he was looking back and forth between the other girl and Teresa. "Let's not get into an unnecessary fight for no reason. ...Okay?"

[Laurels]

Meka didn't get a chance to continue his thought. He wanted to see if Jonathan and Teresa were as fed up with the game as he was and willing to go somewhere to covertly discuss ideas for how to break the game wide open. But that wasn't in the cards, as another person appeared. Meka knew Valerija from school. She was pretty cool from what he remembered, being an activist like him.

But she seemed to have some real beef with Teresa, and Meka had to wonder. Was she close to the person Teresa killed? Or was it for something else. Either way, these two girls were close to boiling over and adding a third body to the garden collection.

Meka looked over at Valerija.

"Valerija? What's going on?"

He looked back to Teresa and Jonathan. Jonathan seemed to be like Meka and wanted to ensure nothing went wrong. Meka was sure it wouldn't go over too smoothly unless he tried to keep things right with the girls.

"Why should I start with Teresa?"

[Kermit]

Val was surprised by the intelligence behind Teresa's Chancellor Bismarck comment. This pickelhaube was no common pickelhaube; it was a pickelhaube designed to be worn by fancy people. Bismarck had worn one of this variety in at least one portrait.

Eh, it was a fluke, probably. Maybe Teresa'd just picked the first pre-Hitler German historical figure she could think of. That seemed more likely.

Meka and the other boy seemed a bit resistant to Val's sudden incursion; which in retrospect she realized she probably should have expected.

Oh no! She hadn't thought this through at all!

She stood there for a few seconds with her mouth hanging half-open. Words. Words, she had to talk. She had to tell them that Teresa'd been trying to kill people since the first day.

Her voice was raised; rushed yet forceful. "She and Reuben robbed Jessica Rennes and threw her off the -" she snapped her fingers, " - waterfall. Day one. She did that one day one. I don't - I don't know what she told you, but she's using you. She's killing; she's just not good at it unless she's killing people who trust her. People like Reuben."

She spat.

"That's why."

[Jilly]

BANDAGED GIRL's hands stopped short of her boots, giving them a little tap before withdrawing away.

Heh... perhaps she wasn't as SOL as she thought if she could keep these boys confused and maybe provoke Val a bit to boot. This was on her for letting Jessica Fugitive-dive away without checking that she actually stuck the landing, but this could work.

Yeah, she could work with this. Thanks, Val!

The spotlight was on her, blinding as always waiting for her monologue.

She started with a scoff, standing up, crossed arms and returning Val's glare with one of her own. Stayed perfectly planted, though, ya know, just in case she had to pull a runner.

"That's hilarious! Because I heard something completely different when I talked to Jessica this morning. Wanna explain that? Or perhaps you're tryna take your frustrations out on someone who's done nothing wrong because all of your little comrades keep dying, hmm?"

[Primrosette]

Jonathan honestly had no idea what to do with these two girls who seemed to be doing the whole 'He said, she said' bullshit and it was starting to irritate him a little. However, they could be either be both telling the truth, one of them was telling the truth, one of them was lying or they were both lying. It seemed like they were both trying to get him and Meka to pick a side and Jonathan wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that. Seriously, starting a fight was not going to help their situation and he didn't want to be a part of something so petty and childish. However, he couldn't just leave Meka to deal with this on his own and they had to actually calm the girls down without making them more mad.

"Guys!" He suddenly yelled to get them to stop bickering and he found himself looking back and forth between them with a clear, disapproving frown as an expression. "Val- Valer- Uhh… Whatever your name is. You're not helping by suddenly coming over to start a fight and trying to raise distrust and paranoia between everyone here. And Teresa, you're not helping by reacting to her bait and making yourself look bad as well. So knock this bullshit off!"

Jonathan knew that he shouldn't have raised his voice at them; but he could really deal without everyone wanting to rip each other's throats out - Goddammit, Ty was still on his mind - and he just wanted to get out of there. He really should have stayed with Declyn and the others. He had to get out of there before things might escalate because of his words.

"Now, I'm getting out of here because I don't want to deal with your pointless bickering. Don't follow me."

((Jonathan Meyers continued in Dance Yrself Clean))

[Laurels]

Meka was surprised to hear what Valerija was accusing Teresa of doing. It sounds like she must have defenestrated Jessica Rennes after he and the other girls left the waterfall cave. Teresa's counter was that it wasn't like that and she had a recent encounter with Jessica to corroborate it. Jonathan just decided to bail rather than allow Valerija to stir up more shit.

Meka let out a long exhale. This fell apart really quickly. He had hoped to at least see if they could drop all the bullshit about the game for a bit so they could at least allow him to start discussing his ideas to break the game. But if Valerija wanted to shake things up, that was fine.

Actually, no. It wasn't.

Meka could just run off after Jonathan and leave the girls to continue bickering, or he could actually step up and do something for once after half a week of doing jack and letting people die. This wasn't going to come to blows, and he was going to resolve it himself.

"Okay, look," Meka said. "I know whatever happened three days ago really sucked, but let's just cool it. Fuck, bringing this shit up is just what the assholes behind this want. Now, we can either add more corpses to these gardens, or we can try to be diplomatic for once."

"Teresa. Valerija. Can you at least try that? I'll fucking stake myself on this if you'll permit."

[Kermit]

..What? Teresa had talked to Jessica in the morning? Was that why Jessica had left? Had she seen Teresa?

Wait a sec, Teresa was saying Jessica had told her that Teresa and Reuben hadn't thrown her off the waterfall. THAT MADE NO SENSE. Teresa was obviously a liar and--

--did Teresa just

did she

did she just say that?

>:C

First off! Teresa wasn't allowed to call the squad comrades! Only they were allowed to do that! It was offensive when Teresa did it!

Second off! HOW DARE SHE!?

Before Val could charge at Teresa like a unicorn and impale her through the chest, the boy who's name she didn't know interjected. First, he called her 'Val'. That was her name. Then, he called her 'Valeruh'. And then, he called her 'Whatever your name is'. Neither of those things were her name. Her name was Valerija. Hard to spell for Americans. It wasn't hard to say! It was pronounced like 'Valeria'. It was not pronounced 'Valer-eege-a'! She could only assume the reason the boy thought her name was something unpronounceable was because A.) she had a foreign accent and B.) her name looked foreign.

It hurt, honestly, that even on death island, she was still being marginalized for being Not From 'Round These Parts. Teresa's comment didn't hurt anymore; it was obviously supposed to be bait. Teresa was acting like a Twitter troll, Val now realized. She was used to that kind of thing. The boy's comment, on the other hand, was entirely earnest. It was meant innocently, which was what made it hurt so much. It was like being asked "No, but where are you really from?"

And he was a progressive.

She watched wordlessly as the boy left. She was glad he was leaving. She'd stood up, and he'd pushed her back down and then told her 'No, you belong down there.'

She felt small. Her facial expression softened and she slouched a bit, crossing her arms and hugging herself tight.

Meka was talking now, she realized.

Diplomacy. Ha. She'd tried diplomacy. All it had done for her was waste four days. She wanted to tell Meka that. She wanted to tell Meka that Teresa would literally stake him.

She couldn't find it in herself to speak. It felt like she'd just had her voice taken.

She just kind of stared at the ground in front of her, dejectedly.

[Jilly]

Ugh. Jonathan. Before Val's reaction really surfaced he just chewed both girls out and waddled away (waddle waddle). Yeah, nevermind about the grooming thing; what a wet blanket. Not even Reuben was that bitchy, maybe a moist towelette if anything until he wasn't on board anymore.

Didn't stop BANDAGED GIRL from flinching a bit when he went absolutely off, though if that was a natural response to being reprimanded like a child or just an illusory act even she didn't know.

Everything was awkwardly silent after Jonathan stormed out before Meka broke it with his "diplomacy" shit.

She clicked her teeth, arms still crossed as she hem'd and haw'd over his words.

...You know what? Sure. This'd be good for a laugh.

She turned to Meka. "If you got sum'n to say, go ahead."

[Laurels]

Meka breathed in, then out. He would have to choose his words carefully. His alliances had all fallen apart over the last several days, and he wanted to make sure Teresa and Valerija would at least be able to be swayed towards his idea. He was determined to at least have something work out. And if they wouldn't join him, then at the least he hoped they'd at least go away without killing each other.

Meka finally spoke.

"Look, we can try to blame one another for stuff that happened here, but we all know where the weeds have really been sprouting from. Not from you, not from you, not from me, and not from anyone else here. Let's just channel that into something productive and against the people who really deserve our fury."

Meka looked to both girls.

"I have some ideas. I won't say them aloud, but if you two are willing to at least do something better with your last few days then petty revenge, then come with me. I can't guarantee they'll work, but they're the sort of things I want to be what people remember me for when they look back on this tragedy. Not my feuds, not my fights, not my tears. My hands, and my resistance."

"So, are you two willing to at least consider that there's something bigger to fight than each other at this moment?"