Wood and Wire

[Brackie]

It seemed as though Daniel finally agreed with her on something: Dustin Royal (and for all this time she was under the impression it was spelt like "Royale". Oh well, silly her) was a lech who was of no use to them at the moment. She couldn't really give a crap whether he was dead or alive. The world would be a much better place without people like him taking advantage of-

-Well, it seemed like DK here agreed with her, as he seemed to be ready to act initiatively. Paige smirked. This was sure to scare him off. She was about to comment about his nature, especially with his...'lovely' remark to Big Guy here about fucking, when another girl burst into the scene with a scream.

"JESUS!" Paige yelled as the girl almost toppled into her, engulfed by another girl. Christ, these types were just popping out of the waterworks, weren't they?

DK seemed more concerned about the issue at hand, and turned back to Manwhore Royal. Paige smiled. Finally, results!

Dustin, however, didn't seem to get it. He tried to endear himself by making another remark to her. Teeth gritting, she responded again to the lech.

"Did you not get it, Royal? Fuck. Off. Or do you need this gun shoved up your-"

"Oh, by the way, not packing anything major. May I?"

Paige rolled her eyes as the new arrival ran back to her bag and her weapon, looking like a javelin at this range. Paige's befuddled look at the weirdest girls she had met so far did not distract her from the fact that Royal still wasn't going. He was still trying to be an endearing little rat, and she trusted BG here to refuse him the honor of joining them.

"Get rid of him, would you? He's dead weight. Like, someone's probably gonna come after him for revenge or something. Hate to say it, but people prolly got some worse stuff with them than that thing, and are prolly gonna be a lot more, what's the word...inclined to use it or something. Cause once that happens, I'm outta here, an' you're left..."

Paige motioned with her head to the blue-haired girl and the cowering young female with the javelin and her bag.

"...with these two."

Paige stared back at the blonde blue eyed weasel trying to faff his way into their situation. She hoped this got good.

[Ares]

"You, shut the fuck up," DK barked towards Paige, "You, keep your hands where I can see them. I don't buy your bullshit Royal." He growled back towards Dustin.

This whole situation was going to shit and in a big hurry. So much for Dan's desire to try keep calm.

"Everyone here listen right now," DK said with as much authority as he could muster, "I am leaving. I don't give a shit who wants to come with me, except you Royal. I don't trust you and I just straight up don't like you. If you follow me, I may well granted Paige's wish to see a bullet in your head. So yeah, that about covers it. You two, stop hugging. You, keep quiet, and you Royal, fuck off."

With that DK adjusted the shoulder strap of his assigned pack and began walking down the trail, his destination unknown.

((Daniel Kensrue continued in Conquistador))

[Pigeon Army†]

What the hell did I do to them?

Paige and the big guy - whose name Dustin still didn't know - were unrelenting in their desire to see Dustin anywhere but here, and they were starting to win Dustin around to their way of thinking. Sticking around with the people shoving guns in your face was probably not the best idea in the long run.

Paige piped up again, the cute gymnast weaving a tale of how Dustin would attract only the most violent and vengeful types on the island, out to murder him for the one night stands and broken hearts he left in his wake. Dustin couldn't help but chuckle, somewhat derisively, at this screed of speculative bull. It was almost flattering, the idea that all these girls would care so much about how Dustin had betrayed them that they'd go out of their way to kill him.

To Dustin's eternal lack of surprise, the big guy snapped at Paige to shut up and told Dustin to remove his hands from the bag. Dustin did as he was told, slowly raising his hands above his head again as the big guy rattled off another rage-filled speech.

"Everyone here listen right now. I am leaving. I don't give a shit who wants to come with me, except you Royal. I don't trust you and I just straight up don't like you. If you follow me, I may well granted Paige's wish to see a bullet in your head. So yeah, that about covers it. You two, stop hugging. You, keep quiet, and you Royal, fuck off."

The big guy pushed through the small group and stormed off down the road. Dustin lowered his hands and looked at Paige. "Thanks for your help," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You'd better get going; don't want to lose your BFF."

He turned to the two girls who'd been watching the fiasco unfold. "Girls, you both seem very nice and I'd like to extend an offer to you. I'm going to need some back-up on this island, and you two probably will as well. So, you can either come with me and have a good time and good support, or you can go with The Incredible Hulk and his loyal sidekick and be yelled at for not being angry. Your decision. Just follow me if you want to tag along."

With that, Dustin grabbed his guitar from his side and sauntered off down the road - the opposite direction the big guy had headed, just to be sure - absentmindedly strumming the tune to Ballad of a Thin Man.

((Dustin Royal continued in Ten Shades of Gray))

[Super Llama†]

Unfortunately, it seemed that the pilot episode of Donkey Kong and the Manwhore wasn't turning out so well, with Donkey Kong telling the Manwhore to get out or else he'll chuck a barrel at him. As the two of them went their separate ways, Maria was suddenly faced with a decision, as Dustin offered to let her and Cass come with and DK...sort of went "Yeah whatever you can come along I don't care I'm too busy being ANGRYYYYYYY!"

Man...Donkey Kong was kind of a dick in real life.

Maria mulled over her options: She could go with the jerk, who had a gun, and his sidekick, who also seemed like kind of a jerk. Or she could go with the other one, who seemed like a jerk, too, but not as much. And he has some kind of mystery weapon.

Maria thought about it. And thought. And thought. And her leg was itching. It was kind of getting on her nerves. So she reached down and scratched it. That was better. And she thought.

And it was time to go with the group with the smaller asshole quotient.

"Okay, let's go." Maria nodded matter-of-factly, picking up her flare gun and her fallen packs, and started after Dustin, looking back at Cass. "Don't worry. If we can't catch up or something, at least we'll still have each other. We can be like Batman and Robin, and you won't even have to take off your pants or anything." Maria smiled and didn't bat an eye at her bizarre words of reassurance. Nor did she think that maybe Cass would maybe like to go with DK, or maybe go off on her own. Perhaps it's because she was busy imagining how awesome it would be if she really WAS Batman. She could probably use some bat-device to deactivate her collar, then summon the bat-plane to go kick some terrorist ass with her bat-martial arts skills.

Damn, that would be sweet.

{{continued in Ten Shades of Gray}}

[Brackie]

Paige simply hated being talked to like she was being right now. Over texts or in person, she demanded RESPECT from those who spoke to her. Now everyone was being sarcastic, rude little bitches and she was about to explode. The situation was quickly becoming dissolved, a far cry from anything she would have liked. Daniel was going, and warned Royal not to come with her, Dustin had left in the other direction, and Maria had started to follow him.

"Look, this isn't a popularity contest! We've got stuff to protect us! He has a guitar and a stupid smile! You go with him and you'll end up with gonorrhea, and he'll dump on the side of the road once he finds someone hotter...YOU'LL FUCKING DIE, YOU KNOW THAT?!" Paige started, but soon, she was left alone.

She kicked the tyre of the truck in frustration, and immediately started to hop around in pain on her other foot, clutching her probably broken toes. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, but it hurt like a bitch.

So...what do I do? What do I FUCKING do?

Paige looked around. There were only two paths out of here, and she didn't know where either of them lead. She wanted to see them both (all the while avoiding Royal, of course) so she wouldn't have to decided, but....

Paige, not sure of what else to do, picked up her discarded voodoo doll, and brought it close to her chest. It wasn't bad looking, almost like the weird doll out of Lilo and Stitch.

There was one way out of here, and Paige certainly wasn't going to follow the path that would end up with her catching disease.

"Hey! Wait up big guy!"

Paige, voodoo doll in hand and bag around shoulder, started to follow after DK. There was a long ride ahead of her.

((Paige Strand continues in Conquistador))

[Solitair†]

Cassidy stared with wide-eyed curiosity at the big guy's blowout. Everyone had different ways of dealing with the trauma of SOTF, it seemed, and his was lashing out at anyone who crossed him even slightly. She guessed she could understand it in theory, but her mind kept drifting to the possibility that his verbal abuse might become physical abuse. It wasn't like in fighting games, where Chun-Li could hold her own against Zangief or M. Bison. It was more like those godawful Lifetime movies that her mother liked to watch, where the heroine becomes the prisoner of a man so abusive and so demonic that she wondered how these girls ever fell for cunts like that to begin with.

The jock offered for anyone except the other boy to come with him, and Cassie frowned in response. She was generally considered to be out of her gourd by the student body of Bayview, and even she knew that she and the jock boy would be about as incompatible as bluegrass and death metal. Most likely she would proceed to grate on his nerves one too many times, causing him to shoot her in a drunken roid rage. Maybe she'd kill him at the same time with her pointed stick, maybe not. Neither image made her want to sing.

The decision was fortunately made even easier when Maria seemed to decide on the same thing, proceeding after the pretty boy when the latter made tracks. Perhaps if Maria went with Jock McCock over there, she might consider putting up with him for the sake of friendship, but no; the only reason she'd ever follow him was taking off in the opposite direction.

Cassie adjusted her bag and weapon in order to making running more comfortable and prepared to chase after Maria when the other girl expressed her disbelief. She'd made the other choice, apparently, mostly because of pragmatic reasons, though it might have been a personal history with Blondie, too. To this, Cassie simply shrugged at her and moved on.

((Cassidy Wakemore continued Ten Shades of Gray))