I've Got No Strings

[NotAFlyingToy]

((Oskar Pearce, God Help The Outcasts))

The fingers of dawn stretched across an auburn sky, cupping the night in a blistering palm as the sun rose in view over the landscape of the garden. Oskar sat, his back to a tree, as the world shifted from night to day in a beaming sparkle of colour, warming his bones and opening his eyes.

Some said that the sun was hope against the bleak, warmth against the cold of night, joy amidst the lingering fear and dread that darkness draped itself in.

Whatever hope, however - whatever warmth and joy was to be gleaned from the colour that erupted around him, was tamped out when the speakers began to blare.

He listened, rigid, spine stiff from the position he hadn't moved from all throughout the night. His mouth tightened into a firm line, jaw bones expanding outward as he clenched his teeth. One hand lifted upwards, toying with his spider bite.

It had begun.

His gaze slid to Caedyn, his head cocking in a kind of question. His eyes darted towards Jane, Jane's bag, as the announcement continued to sound.

One eyebrow lifted.

[Emprexx Plush]

((Caedyn Miller continued from God Help The Outcasts))

People were already killing. It really wasn't that hard to get them going, was it? Like, she'd always heard the little bits of rumors, stuff came up online all the time, but she never believed it. Here they were though. Their first morning, and some of her classmates had ran eagerly into murder without a second thought from the sound of it.

This was gonna be easy. Way, way too easy. That little, innocent gesture Oskar gave her reminded her of that. If she was reading the whole thing wrong, it'd just wind up being a waste of time, but if she wasn't...if she wasn't, Jane wasn't going to be a problem for much longer.

How would he read affirmation? Approval? Was he just gonna rob her? Was he gonna beat her up? Was he gonna kill her? There was no way of knowing. She never would have expected this out of him in the first place, and they weren't all that close. He was going to do something, though. All she needed was to tip him over the edge.

Caedyn looked to him as the echoes of the announcement died out, then gave a nod and a small tip of her head towards Jane. It was time.

[Rorick Skyve†]

((Jane Madison continued from God Help the Outcasts))

Jane was sitting on the ground, her water bottle still held firmly in her grasp. She had just been about to take a sip when that announcement had been made. Oh, how the three of them had discussed what to do, spent half the last fucking day with dilly-dally. All just to determine they'd stay and camp out right where they were. Not that Jane had really wanted to, but between the choice of staying with people - no matter how shitty they were - and wandering off alone on her own, she had chosen the former.

So they had stayed there, set up camp, waited an entire day. And now people were dead.

That goddamn announcement, it had messed with her fucking head. She had completely forgotten she was thirsty, just sat there, bottle in hand, staring off at absolutely fucking nothing. Not that she had had much hope before. She wasn't some sort of pollyanna, some incurable optimist thinking things were gonna get back in order on their own. No, she knew she was beyond fucked.

Still, being almost sure and now having absolutely fucking certainty were two different things and she'd have been happy staying with the former. Couldn't do that anymore. Fuck, if she'd have gone and wandered off, maybe her goddamn name would be on that announcement right now? Had her head cut off by some chainsaw-wielding nutjob; over the top, but memorable at least. That was usually the first kill in a shitty slasher horror movie.

For fuck's sake, what was she even thinking right now? She had got get a grip, stop daydreaming and actually start doing something. What that was, she didn't know yet. But it had to happen.

Jane set her bottle on the ground, inhaling deeply, then exhaling. She did this a few more times, before deciding to lift herself up and off the ground. As she did, she turned her gaze to the other two. Really about fucking time they all actually started cooperating.

"So hey, guys? What do we do now?" Took her a second to notice, but she was shaking a bit. Goddamn, she was not okay.

"I mean, we gotta get moving eventually."

[NotAFlyingToy]

"Sure we do," Oskar said, easily lifting himself to his feet and stretching his fingers to the sky. His shoulders shifted, muscles tightened, and he let out a little sigh, shaking himself out.

He moved closer to Jane, shield at full, teeth showing wide.

"You okay?"

[Rorick Skyve†]

((skipping with permission))

Jane turned her face away from Oskar, looking at the ground. "Honestly like...I don't really know. I mean, you heard that thing just now too, yeah?"

Yeah, she definitely wasn't feeling good. Not that she was surprised. She knew it was only going to get worse, with each hour and each day, granted she even made it that long. Ugh, no, what was she doing starting to go all hopeless like that, this wasn't helping her or anybody.

"I mean, I fucking knew those people, damnit. Yeah, not all of them, but still, it's just insane thinking that they're all fucking gone."

She clenched her hand into a fist, trying to picture herself sending it straight into the jaw of whoever was responsible for the mess they were in. That was more like it. Sure, being angry wasn't a hell of a lot more helpful than being all down and depressed, but it just felt so much better. Would keep her spirit up that way, at least.

Jane looked at Oskar again. How the fuck was he staying so calm?

"Fuck it, no use dwelling on it now. Let's just get outta there."

[NotAFlyingToy]

"Mm," said Oskar in reply, continuing to advance towards her. They were a half-dozen paces apart, his footfalls feeling heavier, forced, a quaking in his lower lip that he shifted his head downwards to hide.

In his mind, he looked brave as he approached - the image of control. He pictured it so clearly, even when he fought against his limbs, trying to keep them straight and true.

There was a weight in the waistband of his shorts, related to the little book he'd read by moonlight in the shadow of the tree.

"We will be," he said, his right hand coming up, gesturing towards the bag she had.

"With that."

[Rorick Skyve†]

Jane raised a brow in confusion. So what, he was pointing at her, what'd he mean by -

She looked herself down to figure out what exactly he was pointing at and her eyes met her bag. Was she missing something here, not getting the punchline? Yeah, of course she'd take her bag with her when they left, what was so goddamn special about that?

"Yeah, so what's your point exactly? Unless you're trying to give being Captain Obvious a shot, I have no goddamn clue, to be frank."

Maybe Oskar was getting instable, saying stuff that made no sense. She couldn't exactly blame him, what with the news and all and just everything being fucking terrible in general.

[NotAFlyingToy]

Oskar reached towards her, palm outstretched, and crooked his fingers.

"Listen, let's not make this, y'know. Difficult."

He smiled, talked in a soothing voice.

"Give me the pack, please."

[Rorick Skyve†]

At first, Jane thought she had heard him wrong, misunderstood what he was saying, something  like that. Tried to wrap her head around the meaning of those few words. Wasn't that difficult. He had asked her to hand it over. To not make it difficult. That -

The fuck. The fucking hell, was that midget going insane? Seriously, this had to be a sick fucking joke, that guy wasn't really trying to rob her, was he? Jane instinctively frowned, clutching her bag tighter with one arm, pressing it against her side.
Her instincts told her to take a step back, but her mood was telling her to fuck that noise and take a step towards Oskar instead. So she did.

"Are you trying to pull my fucking leg? You're not being serious, right?"

She caught a glimpse of Caedyn somewhere behind Oskar and shot her a glance, trying to look as pissed off as possible. She didn't even really have to try.

"Did she set you up for this?" Jane raised the arm that was not holding the bag and pointed at the other girl in an accusing manner. "Did she tell you to try and mess with me a little or something? If so, fuck her and fuck you. Seriously, fuck you both."

She was mad, god fucking almighty, she was mad. What a bunch of malicious fucking clowns, trying to scare her at a fucking time like this. She really felt like just smacking them both over the head, but she had to keep herself together, she knew that. They wanted that, they fucking wanted her to flip. Goddamn assholes.

"Our fucking classmates are dying left and right, you just heard it! What the fuck is wrong with you two?"

[NotAFlyingToy]

Oskar's gaze flicked to Caedyn as Jane snapped back, eyes sliding back towards the animated girl, who had closed the distance between them.

He took another step towards her.

"Not a thing," he said, keeping those soothing tones, one hand stretching forwards again, "not a thing. We don't want this to get violent, just..."

He flexed the fingers of his open hand.

[Emprexx Plush]

The funny thing was, she didn't have to do a thing. A glance, a nod of the head, a shift of her shoulders, an unspoken agreement between them, that's all she had to do, and it meant nothing. She could back out whenever. She didn't have to be the bad guy. In fact, if anybody walked up, she'd have completely deniability.

"You should do what he says, Jane," she said quietly. "He sounds really serious. Just...we don't want anybody to get hurt, okay? We can figure this out. Just do what he wants and give him the bag, this doesn't have to be crazy."

She was just an innocent bystander making the best of the situation. She didn't put Oskar up to this, not really. It was all what he wanted. If he decided to read her going along with it as support...well, that wasn't her fault, now was it?

[Rorick Skyve†]

Alright, alright, this was getting fucking ridiculous, who did those two pissants think they were, poor man's versions of Jesse James or something? 'Nobody needs to get hurt', bla bla fucking bla. Fucking Oskar and his nice guy act, little hobbit was starting to get more creepy than anything. And Caedyn just---she was fucking Caedyn, so what'd she expect? Should have known better, should have known better from the start.

"You two can go eat each other's shit in hell."

Jane felt the rising urge to punch both their lights out, knock'em flat and leave them lying there; they could make out with each other when they woke up for all she cared. She looked from Oskar to Caedyn and back, her breathing becoming increasingly heavy. Fuck it, she was sweating too, just from how much this was pissing her off.

"You want my stuff? Fuck that noise." Still clutching her bag with one arm, she brought her other one up again to flip them the bird. She was actually straining her hand muscles so much that it hurt doing so, her knuckles shining white underneath her skin.

"I'm getting the hell outta here, should have left you two freaks to yourselves the second I met you!"

[NotAFlyingToy]

Oskar reached backwards with his free hand, dug the weight from the base of his spine, and pulled the little pistol out, pointed it at Jane.

"You're not," he said, and, following the moonlit page instructions, flicked the safety off with his thumb.

His shield was down, now, the deft motion of the safety flicking off reminiscent of the daisy chains he'd crafted so carefully, fighting down panic. His mouth was a serious line, his open palm cupped under his hand - his gun hand - steadying the quake that threatened to betray him.

"Give it to me."

[Emprexx Plush]

"Jane."

Her voice came out quiet and shaky. This was, uh, not how things were supposed to go. She figured Oskar had something, but she hadn't figured that much. Oh god. Oh god. He could actually kill her. Everything was really, really fucking serious all the sudden.

"Jane, he...he's got a gun, okay? This is crazy, you need to calm down and just..." She licked her lips. This wasn't right, she wasn't supposed to have to see it, but it was Jane, Jane was such a stubborn bitch, and, and-"Oskar won't hurt you, right Oskar? Nobody hast to...you don't, y'know, so just...just put it down and step back and we'll talk, okay?" Oskar was crazy. He was really gonna kill her. It wasn't the plan at all.

She could work with that.

"J-just for once in your life, don't be a stupid bitch, okay?"

[Rorick Skyve†]

Oskar was reaching for something, something on his backside. What, was the fucker going to literally pull something out of his ass now?

The first thing her eye caught of the object was a gleam, somehow metallic. It was small. Black. And it was pointing right at her. No way.

He was pointing a motherfucking gun in her face.

"Wha-?"

Jane froze, her mouth just hanging open. The fuck. Where'd that come from, where the fuck did he get that fucking gun from? No fucking way, this was beyond insane now, this couldn't seriously be happening to her.

"Hey, hey."

She let go of her bag, heard it collide with the ground, sounds of the wine bottle clinking against something. She didn't even bother to take a look at it, all she could do was stare into that tiny fucking tool in Oskar's hand.

"Why do you have that thing? That's not fucking fair, why do you goddamn lowlife get stuff like that?" Her voice was trembling, threatening to break, grinded between fear and fury.

"Fuck you, seriously. You don't deserve to have that." She gave it her best to spew those words out with as much spite as she could muster. Jane could feel all her muscles twitching, she had to fight her own fucking body for control.

"And fuck you too, don't even pretend like you're not in on this!" She pointed at Caedyn, feeling the panic rise in her throat, steadily upwards. "You and your goddamn good cop/bad cop routine! I mean, I'm the stupid bitch here? I'm not the one pointing fucking guns at people!"