Ain't nobody got time for this

Day 3, sometime around noon. No crying about announcements allowed.

Accessible from the asylum grounds through a door with a rusted lock, the bell tower was a pre-existing structure before the asylum was founded. Initially ignored as the staff had no real use for it, after a patient threw himself off of it, the bell tower was sealed with a heavy metal padlock. Despite this, it was still rung at certain times throughout the year, meaning the bell was still in good condition when the asylum was abandoned. Despite the lack of maintenance since, the bell and tower are still generally intact, although a few of the stairs may be slightly rotten. The padlock, however, rusted and appears to have been broken to allow access to the top of the tower. The top of the tower itself provides a nearly three hundred and sixty degree view over most of the island, although the safety rail doesn't appear capable of standing up to much force anymore.
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MK Kilmarnock
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Ain't nobody got time for this

#1

Post by MK Kilmarnock »

((Jerry Fury continued from that thread where they did the thing and he totally bamboozled Ass-ka))

Jerry figured there were worse ways to be. He started the game near a tower, having some awesome monologue (he was pretty sure it was awesome if his memory was to be believed; if anybody had been watching that camera, they were likely moved to tears). Now he was near a tower. That was a bookend, right? ... Wait, if it were truly a bookend, then this would be an 'end', and somebody would be killing him here.

Not desirable.

Not that being killed was something penciled in on the agenda for Jerry "I have a gun now" Fury. He had a gun now! He had a gun, he had a gun, he had a gun, hurrah hurrah hurrah! He wasted no time once out the doors of the asylum pointing it this way and that, making the obligatory 'pew pew' noises and humming some secret agent theme to himself. He had yet another companion with him, this time good ol' Noodle. He hoped Toby would prove to be more useful than Nadia, Queen of the Tableleg or Ben who was only good for that ice cream pun and nothing else.

No, wait, Ben was also good at abandoning people. So much for sticking to a plan, huh? They had it all figured out, and then Ben had to go and fuck off, leaving Jerry to pull double duty. Now, nice guy that he was, he was doing his best to help Noodle find Trav. Finding Trav... it was a task that appealed to Jerry as well, loathe as he was to directly admit it. Maybe they'd get to have another duel if the opportunity presented itself. Jerry imagined the two of them finding Trav, only to find he had succumbed to the evils of the game. He'd demand their weapons, maybe their bread... Jerry would drop his in defiance, maybe stomp it into the ground and challenge Trav to hand-to-hand combat.

Pretty reasonable little daydream, he thought.

"Huh. So this was the thing we all heard ringin'. You've heard it too, right?" Jerry asked Toby, staring up at the structure that looked like it had seen better days. He wouldn't be surprised if a goddamn Hunchback were hanging around this thing. "I mean, not that I blame them. You put a giant bell out in the middle of nowhere, people are gonna ring that shit."
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#2

Post by Privyet† »

((Matt Moradi continued from Coming Out Of The Closet))

Outside. It felt like it had been years since he was outside the asylum, but here he was, still running for his life. Ben and Nate were dead - he was almost sure of that - and Alvaro was probably looking for him. Maybe he wanted to finish the job.. after all, he'd be the one that got away, wouldn't he? He'd mourn them later, when he had the time. And maybe he'd feel stupid if their names didn't come up in the announcement. He'd feel even stupider if Ben had managed to kill Alvaro, somehow. Stupid and cowardly, but not too much. What else could he do? Dark basement. Crazed gunman. He was the closest to the door, so of course he'd run away. What else was he supposed to do - run at him, unarmed?

Sure, maybe he'd have knocked the gun out of his hand and he'd be a big hero and they'd parade him through the asylum. Nate could be the marching band and Ben could give him a medal for being such a big fucking hero. Or maybe he'd have gotten shot in the face. He certainly liked to avoid getting shot in the face, and having had around one second to weigh his options, he chose to get the fuck out.

He started to slow down. He was tired, having just run the fastest he'd ever run in his entire life. He doubled over, catching his breath. He'd have to avoid that in the future. Getting trapped in dark rooms with violent murderers. He started to walk - he needed a place to think things out. Sit down for a couple of minutes. If Alvaro was after him, he thought, he was doing a shit job at finding him. The bell tower. Of course. Why not? Here's hoping someone already hadn't set themselves up in there with a rifle and the intent to shoot whoever walked nearby.

People. Two of them. One of them had a gun. No sniper, it looked like, unless there was a sniper and they were friends of his. He tried weighing his options - they could decide to murder him. And they would, in fact, probably have an easy time doing it. On the other hand, he was entirely alone. Nate and Ben might be dead - at the very least, they weren't with him right now. The idea of Deranged Lunatic #21 deciding to sneak up on him and drive a knife into his back was, at best, unappealing.

He walked up to them.

"Don't shoot," he said, still out of breath. "I'm unarmed." He laid all his cards on the table.
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Namira
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#3

Post by Namira »

((Toby continued from You Gave Up Being Good))

Having Jerry around made it difficult to concentrate. He had a tendency to chatter, disrupting Toby's train of thought. It was already difficult enough to stay focused in this situation, with limited food and rest. Any distractions were amplified threefold, and Jerry made for one hell of a distraction.

And yet, there was a slight comfort in not being by herself. Toby didn't like Jerry - he was all ego and full of hot air, but, as she'd considered when first encountering him, she knew him. Knew him well enough to establish a strange sort of trust. In that he could be trusted to be Jerry. So, as long as she kept in mind that he was Jerry (and she was hardly likely to forget), she would be well aware of what to, and what not to expect.

Sensible conversation was on the 'not' list.

Thusfar she hadn't bitten his head off. There was too much at stake to get into stupid arguments - there'd been too much at stake when her biggest concern was homework and the kids to waste time with squabbling with Jerry.

"Heard the bell. Didn't think much of it. Knew it wasn't Trav."

Because Trav wasn't stupid, and drawing attention like that was stupid.

Company.

Matt Moradi, fellow academic. Sort of.

"Oh shut up," she answered, irritated. "Noone's shooting anyone here."
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#4

Post by MK Kilmarnock »

"Wow, speaking for the both of us," Jerry grumbled, clearly deflated. "But you're right."

Jerry turned to the new arrival, who he was about 90% sure had the name 'Matt Moronic' or something like that. If that was not indeed Matt's last name, then the substitute was there only because Jerry mentally replaced it with 'Moronic' ever time Matt's name was ever called over the PA. Never quite had the disposition to say it out loud. To the guy's face, anyway.

"Yep. Proooobably not going to shoot you, as long as you don't do anything dumb," Jerry stated matter-of-factly. "I mean, I've got the means to. Jerry motherfuckin' Fury is packin' but I think we can all agree that firing like a nitwit is just a waste of bullets." He figured it was better to leave off the part where he didn't exactly have a ton of bullets to waste, but more than enough to do the job. Ass-ka was dumb enough to give him a loaded gun after all. Jerry wasn't particularly sure just how many bullets she THOUGHT was in it, but rest assured, he checked, and it was enough to at least kill... what, three people? Maybe two with spectacularly bad aim. Guess that meant he had enough insurance against Matt and two mystery people. Icing on the cake, he still had his switchblade as backup.

"So, uh..." Jerry kept his eyes on Matt, but was speaking to Toby, here. "What makes you so sure it ain't Trav, exactly?"
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#5

Post by Privyet† »

Looks like he wasn't going to die today. Well, maybe today, just not right now - and what more could a guy want, really? A gun? Actually, yeah - he could use one of those. Maybe a bulletproof vest, too, considering Jerry motherfuckin' Fury is packin'. A helmet would be nice, too. And while he was at it, maybe someone could just send a helicopter here so he could just leave. A helicopter with a bed, preferably. Fuck, was he tired.

Naturally, he wasn't going to get any of those things. Not easily, anyways. But it didn't hurt to hope, did it?

"Okay, uh, shit, uh.. it's not who think, it's fucking Alvaro. He just killed two people. Fuck, I was right there, man.. he could've gotten me." Truth be told, he wasn't feeling all that good. Maybe it was the running. Maybe it was Sandy's rotting corpse, his friends dying - probably a combination of all three, to be honest. He sat down on the grass, the adrenaline starting to leave him. Just narrowly avoiding death made him feel relieved, more than anything else. Alvaro could've gotten him, but he didn't. He only had himself to thank for that - himself and Alvaro's grade A marksmanship.

Fuck, was he tired.

"Wonder if that bell tower has any.. fuckin' chairs in it, or something."
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#6

Post by Namira »

Yes she was speaking for the both of them. Shut up, Jerry.

She didn't bother saying that aloud, specifically because it was Jerry. It would be like trying to tell a brick wall to stop being a brick wall. Maybe momentarily satisfying, but then it would go right back to being a brick wall again. Jerry had the added disadvantage that he could be a wall whilst being smug. And talking.

...

Toby was starting to go crazy with these analogies.

She didn't make an effort to conceal her impatience at the conversation. Toby's efforts on suppression were focused on one area only; the fact that she didn't have a plan. She'd been trying to keep that stuffed underneath the surface for the past couple of days now, and whilst she'd managed to keep from saying it, she hadn't stopped thinking it. Finding Trav didn't count as a plan. That was step one of a plan. Plans, even the most basic, had more than one step.

And that was what terrified her. That was what made her want to double over and puke her guts up all over again. What came next? Find Trav, and then what? She needed him to be there because he was her friend. She'd needed Abby. She'd needed Jennifer. The list could go on. She wanted to be there to stop the same thing happening as had happened to the others, but what else was there? She'd get unlucky or her guard would drop or-

Anything. Anything would happen, and then someone else would be dead, because it wasn't a plan.

She forced the panic down.

"It wasn't Trav because you only make a shitload of noise if you don't care about people knowing where you are, or are too stupid to work out that everyone will know where you are. And you only don't care because you want to bait people in to jump them, or want attention. So again, are either stupid or a psycho. Trav isn't. It's not Trav."

She glanced at the tower again and then set off for it, forcing her weary feet into the slowest jog in the world.

"Come with, if you want," she told Matt. "But don't fall behind."
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#7

Post by MK Kilmarnock »

"Well, geez, alright," Jerry said, clearly deflated. "I know we're on a death island playing a death game with death bombs strapped to our necks while sick weirdos watch us and proooobably jack off to it, but there's no reason to get all agitated." Jerry turned his back to Matt for a second to watch Toby head toward the bell tower at about half the speed of smell. Chills went up his spine the moment he realized what he had done, and checked over his shoulder to check on Matt... make sure the guy hadn't spontaneously teleported while nobody was looking at him.

Having confirmed that Matt was indeed not Slenderman or Michael Myers, Jerry dug a heel into the ground and pushed off, running by Toby to reach the tower first. "Yep! That sure is a stone tower, alright," Jerry said, craning his neck. From how close he had gotten, he couldn't make much sense of the top. Guess that was something he should have done before getting close enough to kiss the masonry. "Shame it ain't wood; I woulda set it on fire or somethin', get a signal going. Or does that count under 'stupid and getting attention' to you?" Jerry asked. The words were set up perfectly for a sarcastic comment, but his wide eyes and eager tone sold it differently.

"But y'know... for a helicopter or somethin'. And uh, what was that about Alvaro?" Jerry asked aside to Matt. "Think I remember hearin' his name. Maybe, maybe not. He's gone all murder-happy?"
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#8

Post by Privyet† »

Matt's plan, around a minute ago, was to get away from Alvaro. So far, that seemed to be working - he hadn't suddenly provided a loving home for a bullet - and he didn't exactly have much time to plan beyond that. Sure, getting new 'friends' would be a good plan. Strength in numbers and all that, but for some strange reason he didn't really trust Jerry. He just struck him as the type of person to shoot him while he was asleep because he just realized he hadn't killed anyone yet, if he had to get more than a tiny bit specific.

A few dozen other scenarios involving Cochise's best and brightest student ran through his head. Sure, he was being paranoid - he couldn't deny that - but Alvaro was Nate's friend. He didn't know Jerry, Jerry didn't know him. If Jerry wanted to kill him, he probably could do it and feel the minimum amount of remorse someone feels when they take a human life. An amount of remorse on par with realizing you left the oven, if he had to guess.

Quite frankly, he was hoping he'd kill Toby first. That'd buy him enough time to run away.

He stood up, starting to walk towards the bell tower, after Toby.

"Yeah," he said, in response to Jerry's question. He wanted to say something clever, but he was just starting to realize his only two friends on this rock were probably stone cold fuckin' dead. "I guess he's always been murder happy. I guess."
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#9

Post by Namira »

Jerry overtook her.

That shouldn't have annoyed Toby. It didn't actually mean anything - she was tired both physically and mentally, muscle soreness and general fatigue. Hey, maybe Jerry was even faster than her just in general; it wasn't as if she'd ever tried to footrace him back home. And honestly, whether or not she reached the tower first mattered a lot less than whether or not Travis was in there; one more place to check off the list and then get moving again.

So it shouldn't have got on her nerves. But it really, really did. That was so Jerry. Get in front of her for the pure sake of getting in front of her.

She glared at his back, and was still glaring when he turned to ask her a question about burning the building down. Or lighting it up. Honestly her temper was starting to get too frayed to pay attention to what he was saying.

Toby also didn't reply to him. At this rate she was going to cram a verbal fist down his throat if she actually addressed him.

She glanced at Matt again.

"Right, because Alvaro was just going 'round school knifing people."

Toby clenched her fists and shook her head.

"It's the place, not the people. For as long as this has been going on, you get killings. Killers. You think every person who ever killed someone in this game was a school shooting waiting to happen? Bullshit."
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#10

Post by MK Kilmarnock »

"I meeeeeeeean," Jerry said in drawn out fashion, hunching his shoulders and holding his hands out. "On the one hand, I'm with you. I didn't really peg Alvaro for a hacky-hacky, slashy-slashy." Jerry made a noise to punctuate the sentence; it sounded like the bastard child of a giggle and a pig's grunt. "BUT I could think of a few kids that I'd look at and go 'maybe I should be nice to 'em, give them candy so when they pull a Columbine I'll be left out."

Toby seemed to have a pointed tone with Matt right now. Hey, that was fine. He wasn't actually being helpful or saying smart things like Jerry knew he, himself, was. Here, he'd prove it! He pulled at the handle of the door to the bell tower. And pulled. And pulled. And pulled.

"Fucking door!" Jerry grunted, his knuckles white from straining. He released his grip, leaning his shoulder against the door... which promptly gave way, causing the boy to stumble into the building with a start. He only came to a stop by continuing forward momentum to keep his feet under him until he gripped a hold of the stairs.

"I'm okay!" Jerry called to Matt and Noodle. "Found the way in!"
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#11

Post by Privyet† »

Bullshit, she said. Maybe she was right - it was pretty doubtful that Alvaro would have started killing people anywhere but here. But he had a choice, Matt thought. He didn't have to go out of his way to kill anyone. Maybe if he hadn't said anything Nate could've talked him down. And maybe he shouldn't dwell on that sort of thing right now - it'd only make him regret running away just a tiny bit more.

"Okay, maybe the people going around killing everyone weren't, uh, about to go crazy. But they have a choice, right? They don't have to do it."

It just didn't make sense to him. Something that made somewhat less sense to him than the moral struggle he was currently going through was the notion that Jerry should be allowed to have a gun. He seemed to be struggling to figure out a door. What? If he's this smart, then who gave him a gun? Whose idea was that? He really hoped he started off with it. If not, he really had to question why someone gave a man as clever as this a gun. Was the gun even loaded? Did he even check? He could picture it - Jerry is about to get stabbed by some psychopath. Out comes his gun. Click. There goes Jerry.

There goes Jerry, finally figuring out how to open that door.

"Holy shit."
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#12

Post by Namira »

Toby wasn't sure whether she wanted to headbutt more; the closest wall, or Jerry Fury.

This was such a waste of time. Jerry fucking around being outwitted by furniture, Matt just being a ray of goddamn sunshine.

Her fault for making the school shooting analogy really.

"Great," she told Jerry, blandly. "Anyone actually in there?"

Toby stuck her thumbs in the waistband of her shorts and shrugged at Matt. Had a point, this time around. "Yeah. I know. But it's a forced choice, not a voluntary one. Put a gun to someone's head and tell them they'll die if they don't shoot someone else," another shrug. "It's as good as what's happening here, just with bombs."

She still didn't have a plan. Discussing the philosophy of it all wasn't going to come any closer to giving her a plan. Fuck. Fuck.

Where the fuck was Trav?
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#13

Post by MK Kilmarnock »

"Well c'mon," Jerry said indignantly. "You tell me. Don't you think the slightest bit of common-" Jerry caught himself, listening to what he was saying. After taking that extra one or two seconds to catch the words and send them out with some reconfiguration, he reset his tongue: "No, there ain't anybody on the ground, at least. And I hiiiiighly doubt Trav is clinging to the top of the tower like Quasimodo."

Jerry stepped back out through the entrance... though really, from the side he was standing on, it was an exit to the bell tower. Now that he was back outside, he could safely call it the entrance once more. "Sorry, Noodz. Trav ain't here. We should be trying something else." Jerry gave a shrug and a roll of the shoulder. "I mean, I like the guy too but there's gotta be a better way of spending our energy. What if he's all the way on the opposite end of the island and we're.... here we are, being super thorough on the other side. You SEEN the map of this place?"

Not often did Jerry Fury try to be the voice of reason. Even now, when he did attempt it, he probably wasn't the best. But shoot, he had to have a point HERE, right?

"Whaddaya say we look around the point a bit but then turn around and head along the beach?"
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#14

Post by Privyet† »

Matt had seriously started to reconsider hanging around these two. Sure, Toby was.. fine. Didn't strike him as the murdering type. Jerry seemed like an accident waiting to happen. Like he'd wave that gun around in his general direction and it'd go off by accident and then he'd be dead. Jeez, what a rotten way to die - getting accidentally killed by Jerry Fury of all people. He only hoped that when it did happen, no one could see it. No cameras, anyways. That's the best he could hope for.

As for the philosophy that comes from being trapped on an island with more than its fair share of crazed murderers - the total number being far higher than what he'd normally like it to be in any area he was in - he figured it wasn't worth much more talking about. He'd spent two days moping around in a closet. All he had to do was make sure he made it out of here in one piece and pondering what led Alvaro to pick up a gun wasn't doing him much good.

"Ah, uh.. yeah, I dunno. He'd probably come down if he was in the tower, right? Whoever this 'Trav' guy is - I mean, he's your friend, right? He'd come down if he heard you."

Walking around aimlessly. Something to do. Better way of spending our energy, as Jerry put it. He didn't particularly object to his plan, mainly because he couldn't see how walking around could end up with him dying.
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#15

Post by Namira »

Yes. Jerry. Thanks. She got it.

This was stupid. This was hopeless. This was throwing a dart at the wall blindfolded and hoping for a bullseye. Travis could be anywhere. This wasn't a small island. She. Got it.

But if she didn't stay in motion, she was going to go insane. The next step was already leading her somewhere off a cliff, she didn't need the people she was with kicking the foundation out from underneath her.

Toby crouched down. Any other day and she'd be telling Jerry to shut the fuck up for calling her 'Noods'. Sounded like nudes for one thing, and for another, she didn't even like him calling her Noodle in the first place. Only reason she even let it slide was because he came to club. Kind of a dick move to tell someone in club that they couldn't use her club nickname. Any other day, and she wouldn't have been going insane trying to fit into her head that her friends were dead and dying and she couldn't find anyone better than Jerry freaking Fury to group up with. (Matt didn't count, because he was too much of an unknown quantity).

"I know, Jerry, but what's the other option? Not like we can text him, is it?"

She balled up a fist and clunked it lightly into the ground.

"Yeah, he would," to Matt, then back to Jerry "Yeah, we should."
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