At Least It's Not a Microwave

[Melusine]

"Ew, Zach," Willow shook her head, "don't eat her fish, she's like clearly starving."

Well, everyone was kinda starving. It was more on the lines of malnutrition, Willow knew she had lost weight. She felt it around her thighs and stomach, and while she couldn't quite shut that voice that complimented it, she knew it was bad. But the fish wasn't the answer to that, she needed more than some..... steamed? Yeah, steamed fish. She needed more than that, even if the proteins would be interesting.

Willow stepped forward, revealing her body alongside of her gun to Faith.

"I'm not going to hurt you, but I want to tell you something first..."

Her hand lowered in her bag, grabbing a book. It was the one she had found about ten days ago. Was it with Sierra? Or Katrina? She wasn't sure. It had been a literal lifetime away.

"I'm disappointed in you." She said, her tone deep and grave. "But I'm also impressed so I won't do anything. I can't speak for Zach but..."

She turned toward him. She could press the muzzle of her stungun against his neck and pull the trigger. It wouldn't be that hard.

"I don't think he will either."

Willow looked up and down at Faith, her eyes trailing against her body. It was interesting to see how much twelve days could change someone's body. Was it eleven? Time was fake, anyways.

"Why didn't you kill anyone?" She asked, genuinely confused. "Was it just... no good opportunities or... morals? Are you scared?"

[Ryuki]

Zach kept hanging back as the two girls talked things out. He wanted to keep a safe distance in case shit went south. Faith offered to give him the fish if they let her leave, but Willow rebuked this notion.

“Well, excuse me, I’m starving too,” Zach retorted. Now wasn’t exactly the ideal time to be empathetic. They were nearing the end, and only one person on this island is allowed to leave. Zach folded his arms in frustration.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith grimaced as Willow drifted away from her cover, slowly stepping out into the clearing with Zach, gun swinging lackadaisically by her side. Something about the stare that Willow had affixed her with felt wrong, not quite predatory, just unsettlingly deliberate as her eyes tracked up and down slowly. Every action she was making felt disjointed, every question and comment was too. There was a book in one of her hands now, too, plucked from bag. At least it wasn't a weapon, but just trying to imagine what Willow might do next made her stomach sink, as the impossibility of the task weighed on her.

She needed to get out of here. Soon. Before Willow got bored of toying with her.

"What do you mean 'Why?'" She responded, after a moments hesitation. "I just never had to."

[Melusine]

"I see, I see."

People had to be approached within the right mindset for change to occur. Cornering Faith at the back of a tree should have been good enough for her fight-or-flight reflex to kick in, but instead, the only thing that came out of it was the freeze that Willow didn't really understood or cared about.

Her approach was a failure. It lacked depth and measure. Something that Willow would have been fine with forced correcting if Zach wasn't standing right next to her. There just was something odd about doing this with someone else in the bubble. He really didn't need to be here, but well, he was.

People had to do with the draw they were given, and it included dead weights.

"Well, maybe next time," the if was hovering them so she didn't feel the need to say it, "you'll be more receptive."

She fingered the book opened. An African Genesis. Her finger moved alongside its spine, fascinated by the strange anatomy of the item.

"Here," she said, throwing the book at Faith like a mom throws a toy toward her child, "some required readings."

On that, she turned around and headed toward her bike. Willow threw her head back, looking at Zach and then at Faith. Was she okay with either of them winning this? Maybe she had changed her mind about Faith, even if it bothered her. Even after giving Faith the best reason to kill her classmates, she still opted not to do it. Willow bit her lips, trying to comprehend Faith's facial expressions.

What was the point of all this?

((Willow left the area.))

[Ryuki]

As the girls continued their chat, Zach noticed the fish wrapped in what looked like tinfoil. The smell was fainter than when it drew him to the area, but it was still appealing. Faith had stepped away from the fire, and seemed pretty preoccupied With Willow.

...

Fuck it. Zach was hungry. It was now or never.

Zach hastily snuck over to the campfire, snatched the fish, and leapt back into the brush.

(Zachary Beck, continued elsewhere...)

[Frozen Smoke]

The book landed in the dirt in between them, the orange tinted cover and red text standing out, even if she couldn't make out what it depicted. The colour and motion combined held Faith's attention for a few moments, before it snapped back to the person who'd thrown it, as the fear of it being a distraction bubbled up in the back of her mind. But rather than being poised for the attack, Willow had instead turned her back, and had begun to slowly disappear back into the bush.

She continued to back away herself, slowly, as not to provoke either of them. Faith wasn't sure if Willow was really gone, or if she was just waiting to try and sate whatever was driving her some other way, but a weight felt like it was lifted off of her shoulders as she finally slipped behind the trunk of a tree. Zach moved at the same time she did, scurrying across the open ground, which helped keep her moving. He seemed like he was the more reasonable of the two, but he was armed, had killed people and was hungry. Staying out of his way was less of a decision and more of a reaction.

Faith couldn't help but sigh in frustration as she heard the crinkle of the emergency blanket being picked up. It had taken so much work to find even the slightest scrap of food, and she wasn't even allowed all of that. But being hungry was better than being dead.

She wasn't sure how long she waited after the footsteps of Zach and Willow became indistinguishable from the general raucous of the forest before she left the relative safety she'd found, but it felt at once too long, and not nearly long enough as she hurried to collect her things. Bottles and tins and sticks shoved roughly into a bag as it swung beside her. The book was the only thing to stop her for more than a few seconds, as she passed over it on her way out of the clearing, the lion on it's cover staring indignantly back at her - As if it was demanding attention.

"A personal investigation into the animal origins and nature of man" Faith murmured, as she read the byline out loud, hoping that doing so would help her understand what Willow had meant by it.

It didn't.

But it disappeared into her bag anyway.

((Faith Clementine Marshal-Mackenzie continued Elsewhere))