Pearl and Destiny

[Hollyquin†]

[[OOC: Apologies for the delays and for the crappy post. Writers block. ><]]

Jasper-Declan was not an argumentative person. Though no one would argue that the things he did say were dishonest, he generally saw no reason to speak his mind when doing so would likely provoke people. And so he saw no reason to argue with his newfound allies as they exited the warehouse.

Mentally, though...

It is strange, how people will go out of their way to pursue a chaotic situation. Even when the most likely outcome is an increased danger to themselves. I wonder what drives them to choose this path...? Why do humans have such a terrible sense of self-preservation? Is it not most logical to remain inside, where there is no danger yet present? What is likely to await us outside? This is Survival of the Fittest, after all. Horrible things are lurking everywhere...

At any rate, I should accompany them. If there is danger outside, they shall need my protection.

So he quietly followed the others outside, remembering again that exactly what the weight in his hand represented.

He did not look at the people. At least, not right away. First he found himself again taking in his surroundings, and especially taking in the air as it cooled.

Like the fresh breezes of autumn...indeed, this may be my last cool breeze. Everything that occurs here may well be my last.

He shrugged that off and turned his attention to the new people. Two girls. A boy. The boy was injured, bleeding from the leg. One of the girls seemed to be attempting some sort of first aid. He was unsure. He was also not particularly interested. Mainly, he was here to make sure the newcomers were not violent, and they didn't seem to be. In that respect he was lucky. They were all lucky.

And then, announcements.

Announcements?

He listened, again, without much interest. Only one name would have struck him had he heard it, and he did not. The name Hayley sounded mildly familiar- she is an acquaintance of Alex, is she not?- but his mind passed that over, her name blending with those of the other killers. He noted the names, but he knew, looking out at the three newcomers, that any one of them could have been included on the list and he wouldn't have known. He didn't know their names.

However, Jasper-Declan being Jasper-Declan, he was unafraid as he took a few steps closer.

"Is there any way I could be of assistance?"

It seemed like the right thing to say.

[Zabriel†]

Stacy allowed herself a small laugh as Sarah pawed at her. "I'm okay Sarah. It's okay." She hugged her around the waist. "We're going to be okay."

She tried not to think about the dead. None of their deaths would have meaning. They were all just caught in this sick game. There was no doubt that the game was real. But what did it mean? What purpose could it possibly serve?

"Why are we here?" Stacy wondered aloud, allowing Sarah to handle the medical things. She knew a bit of first aid, but Sarah had the bag. Stacy would just be getting in the way if she jumped in now.

Something bad? Stacy looked at Sarah with concern and spoke softly. "What happened Sarah?"

"Try not to think too much. Let's just patch you up and figure out where we go from here..." Stacy advised the boy.

[Arscapi†]

Marion sighed and put the first aid kit back since apparently no one was going to take her up on the offer. She stepped back from the group. There seemed to be no point hanging around her when no one was answering any of her questions. There was a lot more ground to cover and stories to collect. She glanced over the group and shrugged she didn't know any of them really well. They all seemed to be involved in their own little subgroups.

"Well then time to move on," Marion told herself. Decision made, she gathered her things, making sure that her pencil and notepad were handy and started off. She paused after a half dozen steps, to double check the map, making sure she wasn't heading into a danger zone. Satisfied with her direction, she tucked the map away, pulled out some crackers and munched on them as she walked.

((Marion Summers continued in Caged in Like Animals))

[blastinus]

Even though Marion didn't voice her current mood, George could glean the sentiment from her actions. They who had come to aid this threesome were being ignored rather flagrantly, and it seemed like it wouldn't be a good use of their time to linger any longer. Following Marion's lead, George stepped away from the group, but while Marion went her own way, George rejoined Jasper and Carly. With a disappointed look on his face, he shook his head and said, "I think they've got things under control. We should probably just let them be. You coming, Carly?"

George had decided that now was the time to leave for a less crowded space. Seeing as this group had their own plans, it wasn't necessary to recruit them either. Adjusting his bag on his shoulders, he stepped off towards the trees, motioning for Jasper and Carly to follow. He had a plan for a place to go, but he wasn't sure that either of them would like it. Still, if Jasper came along with them, the two of them could keep Carly safe enough, and that was all that George was concerned with at this time. He would have to find a better weapon before he thought about rescuing a larger number of people than this.

What's with these people and not working with me? Do I have bad breath or something?

George made a mental note to check that hypothesis at the nearest available opportunity.

(George Leidman continued in The Moon is Laughing at You)

[selphie_trabia†]

((Co-written with Inky))

Once again, Sarah was unable to notice or even hear the announcements, or even the two people she ignored leaving. The sounds washed over her like a loud drone as the wound on Brendan's leg expanded to fill her entire field of vision. She resisted the urge to vomit at the sight of the blood and open tissue. She took a deep breath in and then slowly exhaled it.

Her father had often stressed the importance of a cool head in an emergency first aid situation. When she was sent home from school for vomiting during a frog dissection, he had been extremely disappointed with her. She remembered that lesson well.

Sarah dug around in the bag that Stacy had handed to her, pulling out a T-shirt, which she wadded up and handed to Brendan.

"If it hurts, bite down on this, okay? Because it really is gonna hurt a lot. Lean back, please and lie down if you can," Sarah said as she unscrewed the top of a fresh water bottle. Brendan nodded, and laid back down on the rock.

Blood pouring from the cut obscured her vision of it. Holding Brendan's foot in one hand as firmly as she could, she upended the bottle of water over the top of the wound without waiting for Brendan to bite on the shirt. A deluge of water poured out quickly, flowing through the wound and dispersing the dirty blood pooling in it. Sarah could feel a controlled urge to kick ripple through his foot, but there wasn't much resistance from him.

Not much resistance at first, that is.

Sarah rotated her hand a little to control the speed of the waterflow, slowing it down just a little as she felt Brendan's foot start to squirm. She held on as tight as she could, but the muscles in her arms were fairly weak. A few flecks of blood, kicked off by Brendan's slight flailing, landed on her shirt. Thankfully, the squirming subsided soon aftert it began.

Keeping the flow of water on the wound steady, Sarah examined the cut, still keeping a grip on Brendan's foot. Slowly, she lifted the foot as high as she could, so that the actual foot was above Brendan's head, slowing the flow of blood.

For all the bleeding that was happening, the cut wasn't as deep or as bad as she thought. She couldn't see bone, so that was a relief. Still, it was deep enough that she could see the yellowish tissue indicating the subcutaneous layer of fat, which meant that the wound probably needed stitching as well if Brendan was to walk around. She squinted at it as the water continued to flow over the wound.

"I'm going to paint this with iodine and then slap a bandage on it. That'll numb it up some so you can walk." she murmured to herself, "It needs stitching, but we'll need to go where it isn't so sandy and blowy."

[Brackie]

And now they were going, regardless. Dammit, he had never spoken to those guys before, and now the chances were he never would. If Sarah would have just told them what she was doing...

But it wasn't the time for that. His leg was looking worse and worse by the second, and now Sarah needed to get a real good look at it. A lay-down, wet-t-shirt in mouth, and several seconds of agonizing pain in his leg later (it was tough, he had to stop himself from kicking Sarah as the water poured over his cut) she reached her diagnosis. A good thing to, as his foot was starting to lose some feeling, suspended in the air there.

...Stitches?

...
...
...
...
...他媽的.

No, no, no that wasn't going to do. It couldn't be that bad, could it? He hadn't even fallen that far, only a few meters! A few meters down a hill, and he had to get stitches on his leg? Uh, no, that wasn't going to work at all. He wasn't going around with his skin sewn together. It would heal, it had to. It just probably needed time.

"Uh...I agree with you on that, but I think we should probably get away from here before you do any of that. Yeah, it's all bad and stuff, but I...look, can I walk on it at least, or do I need some help with that?"

Looking around, he nodded to the other girl with them, Stacy or something. He wasn't familiar with her, the problem with being somewhere between a social pariah and an all-around average person. He still didn't know most of his year enough to be on a first name basis with them.

"How about you find somewhere to stop, and...is it Stacy? Stacy, she'll help me walk? I mean, I think there's a town somewhere near here? How about that Sarah?"

[Zabriel†]

Stacy looked the boy over and shrugged.

"We can go into town. Maybe find a place to lie low for a bit. Give you a chance to heal up a bit more. I don't know how the hell you managed to cut yourself so bad, but it's a good thing we caught it now. If that cut gets infected you're fucked."

Stacy reached into her own bag for a bottle of water. She uncapped it carefully and took a long drink from it. Then she remembered that she'd grabbed the food and water Sarah had left behind.

"Oh right! Hey Sarah? Things got a little hectic at the lighthouse, but I managed to grab some of your things before I ran out of there. I figured you could use the food and water, and I wasn't sure how long danger zones would last for. Sometimes they get reset, sometimes they stay. I didn't want to take the chance of just losing them."

[selphie_trabia†]

((Extreme super light GMing approved by Inky))

"Thanks Stacy!" Sarah said brightly, taking the bag from her friend.

She turned back to examine Brendan's wound, stopping the waterflow when the bottle ran out. Blood was beginning to ooze out of the wound again. Reaching into her first aid kit, she withdrew the tweezers, surgical tape and a large cotton pad, which she attached to the tweezers and dipped liberally into the iodine solution provided with the kit. Once it was soaked through, looked at Brendan and slid something into his hands. Two wads of cloth.

"I want you to clench your fists on these because this will hurt." She said calmly as she began to clean the open parts of the wound that she could reach, making sure not to tear it open any further.

She kept her mind focused on her work. The more she focused, the less she could think about what happened at the clinic. The less she could focus on Jaclyn's missing face and Charlotte's speared-through body.

Once the wound was clean enough, she held the edges shut as tight as she could and taped it shut with the surgical tape. It wouldn't hold, but since their destination was close, it would do until she could stitch it shut properly. She put a bandage over it, winding it down tight enough to squeeze Brendan's leg. With any luck, the blood would partially clot and she wouldn't have as much work to do when they arrived.

She still wasn't sure if they could wait on the stitches but at this point, they didn't quite have a choice. She needed a place for Brendan to lie down. She needed a place for her "field hospital".

"Don't put any weight on that foot at all if you can." She said, uncertain.

She put the first aid kit back into the bag filled with the items she got from the clinic, mostly bottles of various medicines. She was going to have to visit the infirmary later to get more medications.

((Sarah Tan continues in Gypsy Rap.))

[Brackie]

((Also some GMing to go))

Brendan could see that Sarah was getting focused again, so he kept his foot in the air and laid back down as she did her work. Before she did, however, she slipped something into his hands, and muttured something about it hurting.

...hurting? What's supposed to be hu-JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!

He could feel the iodine that Sarah was using burn into his skin. Bar the previous experience (water? bah, who cares about that stuff?) THIS was the most painful thing he'd ever felt in his life. Well, the most painful physical thing anyway.

His hands clenched down on the pieces of cloth as his skin was painfully cleansed of the disease and anything else that would have infected it. Finally, a few minutes of agonizing pain later, it was over. His skin was still prickling with the odd sensation, or what was now odd to him, of NOT being on fire, but still in extreme pain. Some surgical tape, over his skin, an extremely tight bandage, and a good warning later, it was over. His foot was still rather numb with a stinging sensation, and he was not sure he could actually walk. It could definitely rip something, right?

Sarah had started off with her bag, and all that was left was...Stacy.

"Uh, yeah. I think she wants to go now, and I can't really walk, so..."

Touching the ground with his right foot, he pushed himself up. He spotted his bag on the ground next to the others on the ground, and hopped a few paces forward to scoop it up. He had everything he needed here.

Smiling, he motioned towards the direction that Sarah was headed.

"After you then...no wait, I'll need a bit of help," Brendan smirked. He put his arm around the goth girl's shoulder. With this, they started off after Sarah.

...and as long as Sarah didn't remember that the two pieces of cloth, that is, two pairs of her panties, were now spread out in the deepness of his pockets, then he was probably gonna have a great time of rest once they stopped.

It was an island after all. Wasn't any crime in enjoying himself.

((Brendan Wallace and Stacy Hart continued in Gypsy Rap...))

[D/N]

Of course, it wasn't like Carly had much of a choice to make. What was she gonna do, NOT follow along with George and anyone else who'd tag along with him? Sh'yeah right.

Besides that, she totally agreed with George that staying here was bad news. She'd TRIED to be nice to the rest of them, but it didn't look like it was getting her anywhere, and was she going to just stick around and trust them blindly? Sh'yeah NO. Carly might not have been the most forward thinker of this group, but now that she had something resembling a shred of self-confidence in her, she wasn't going to just toss her life away through sheer stupidity.

(Carly Jean Dooley continued in Late Dawns and Early Sunsets)

[Hollyquin†]

Jasper-Declan frowned an almost imperceptible frown.

He was being ignored.

Not that he wasn't used to that- Jasper-Declan had spent essentially his entire life (outside of his home) either ignored, mocked or resented, and as he was basically a harmless oddball the first was by far the most common. But even after the short time he'd spent with George and Marion and Carly, he'd grown a bit...Spoiled, is that the word? Perhaps spoiled. Spoiled enough to believe I do not deserve contempt or to be ignored. Perhaps to others that is normal but to me...spoiled.

This was a selfish action, was it not? To come here and attempt to help people I do not know? At possible expense to myself...they could have been armed. Could have harmed me.

His frown grew slightly deeper. 'Could have harmed me' wasn't even a sentence. He obviously wasn't thinking clearly.

And yet, I am given no attention. Is it not prudent to accept assistance when it is offered? Especially when it is clear that assistance is needed. And yet...Perhaps it is simply because it is me.

He grew sad for a moment.

Then paused.

Then shook it off. His face returned to it's usual, blank expression. Neutrality at all times.

It does not matter. Others have always ignored me...George and Marion and Carly are exceptions, like Alex and Jay, not a replacement rule. The island is no different than Bayview...except, perhaps, with a bit more blood.

"I think they've got things under control. We should probably just let them be. You coming, Carly?"

Jasper-Declan blinked, having not realized that George had approached him. Carly was nearby- for a moment, Jasper-Declan thought that the invitation did not extend to him- that he was on his own again. The melancholy that this thought brought him did not have time to sink in before he realized that George, who had began to walk, was motioning towards him, too. He realized at this point that Marion was gone.

Perhaps she had her own plans...ah, well, such is life. At least I am still in good company.

"In good company?" That wasn't the kind of phrase he'd ever heard himself use. This island is doing odd things to my brain.

He followed, silently, lost in his mind.

[[Jasper-Declan continued in Late Dawns and Early Sunsets]]

[Brackie]

((End of Thread))