Until all our yesterdays are lighted fools...

[Dannyrulx†]

She had just been about to reply when Alan's voice echoed out from behind her.
"HOLY FUCKNUGGETS!" Hannah nearly jumped out of her skin, pausing to place a hand over her extremely rapidly beating heart. "Jesus Alan, you scared the crap outta me! Couldn't you be a little less... Sneaky?"

His words sunk in whilst she paused for breath and to help calm her heart, before continuing. "Also, whilst that sounds like a fun idea, there's a camera right fucking there so they just heard that." As she said the sentence, she indicated with her spare hand towards the little plastic circle that beadily watched them.

"Also, even if that did work, how would we..." Why was she getting all complicated? Alan's idea was as stupid as anything, and entirely reliant on a bunch of murderous psychopaths forgetting their 'jobs' in order to laugh at antics that they had probably seen before.

"Alan, that is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard in my entire life, and note that some of these ideas were suggested by me."

Well.
That was simple.

[Maraoone]

After Irene asked her question, another familiar figment of high school came floating back to Olivia, another familiarity on this alien island, but it was not something she wanted to return to her. What came to her, bubbled up from inside, was this residual guilt, this constant urge to apologize. At first, she thought it came out of nowhere, but then she remembered that she had been looking at Irene when that sad laugh came out, that half-chuckle, that all-too-long stare. She hadn't meant anything by looking at her, she just waited for her to finish speaking. But, something that Mrs. Webber, their English teacher, had told them one, two years ago came back to her.

They were about to write their first draft for a speech plan at the time. It was supposed to be a persuasive speech. Olivia ended up talking about how more women should enter vocational schools, how they should try working in the trades as well. It was some nothing speech that she'd written, spoken, to fulfill a requirement, to pass English. And it didn't matter, this wasn't what Olivia wanted to think about. But, yeah, they were about to write drafts, but before they started, Mrs. Webber started off this spiel about communication, how it was omnipresent. How communication was passive, not active. Even if you never said a single word, even if you failed to make a single gesture, there would still be so many things that you could read in a person. Their eyes, for example. Or how fast or slow their breathing was. Whether they hunched or stood upright. And if all else failed, then even the complete lack of any gestures, complete silence, even that would be a message. A very telling one, even.

Maybe that's what had happened, what Olivia hadn't taken into account. Maybe she had been looking at her a weird way, made Irene feel weird and awkward. Maybe she was making Irene feel like she didn't belong? But no, she didn't even do anything, she didn't do a thing. This was stupid, she was overthinking. Even if she did say sorry, what would she say sorry for? Sorry for looking at you the wrong way? She was making up her own sins, her own problems to worry about. She didn't do a thing, she was innocent, she didn't do a thing.

But why did she still feel guilty? Why did she always feel like she was messing things up?

This was stupid, all of this was stupid.

And then Irene asked what to do next. She knew that there were buildings, that there was this bell tower above them. She knew there would be people there, more people. And, she still couldn't confront everything about the game. Maybe she should look at her weapon first, see what the terrorists stole, what they gave. Maybe then she could prepare herself. Maybe.

She was about to talk of staying here, of hiding from the world a bit longer. Maybe talk about looking at the ocean, this wide, wide expanse of blue, about how they didn't get to see stuff like this that often.

But then two people came. They were, they were like partial variables, like, she knew their names and all, but they ran in different circles. They were mostly blanks. New beginnings. And, these were not beginnings that she wanted to deal with. She felt her blood rushing fasteronetwothreebreatheOliviabreatheand then it slowed down, but not as slow as it was before, and then the guy, Alan, he started talking about messing with the terrorists, and messing up the system, and while Hannah could have phrased it better, Olivia nodded, but that was all she would do, because her heart started beating faster because they were thinking days in advance, days that they might not have. And her hand drifted to her collar as Hannah mentioned the camera, it drifted to this gun to her head, this mini-Johnny Three, and then, she thought of Margaret, her mother. She thought of her and of rebellion, and while she wanted to hope, what could she hold on to with this semblance, this shell of a plan? But maybe she could hold on, maybe she could escape, and maybe she wouldn't have to think about the game, think about all its implications, maybe, maybe, maybe,

She looked at Alan and Kaitlyn, and looked for that foundation she could hold on to. "How?"

[Cicada]

Olive was quiet, like desert nights, like studious and stuffy lectures Mrs. Webber side. Unreadable, like ancient texts, also like studious and stuffy lectures Mrs. Webber side. There was language to a friend's face but Irene wasn't sure she quite understood. Too many variables that couldn't all be neatly slotted into polynomials. Just some eyes, some lips, little bit of nose. Lots of colors. Hard to quantify, except with a 'cute'. 'Adorbs'. 'Squad goals'.

'Unsettling'.

Alan and Kaitlyn, suddenly, and now even Hannah's freaking heartbeat was somehow too loud. Less noise than implication, but Irene was probably reading that all wrong. Smelling at things that weren't there, like her hopes and dreams or whatever. Anyways, more friends! Alan and Kaitlyn were sorta like Tessa, weird yet somehow fascinating to listen to when they talked about things that didn't make sense. Irene would happily have curled up to any of them and played their lapdog if-... Wait wait, back up:

... Asha, other other Jerry, Tessa, Alan...

Yep, they had definitely been in her brain at some point and she definitely knew them.

Hannah's retort to Alan was like the end to a joke that Irene didn't quite understand. A punchline she didn't quite get. To the face. Sure there was a camera there that might or might have not been there when Irene might or might not have been on this beach before? But really, what did it matter that folks watched them? Folks watched Irene stream games all the time. Back home, and all. The compare and contrast didn't seem to congruently add up; again, studious and stuffy lectures. Like everything else it just seemed to be more info to be lost in the shuffle. Like faces and names and the blast of a gun collapsing both her ear drums

Bang bang went Hannah's heart. Went not Irene's gun.

"How?"

"What?" Incredulously. Irene recalled a time when she'd asked herself five 'w's and an 'h' and had a plan whose contents she could remember in vivid vagueness. "Where have you guys been, who have you guys seen?" She couldn't come up with a 'when', because time had no meaning save for the length of shadows cast by the sun. 'Why' was sometimes a vowel. Irene felt hands on her hips, hips on her gun, foot on her mouth. One of those things didn't belong, probably.

[D/N]

"Huh?"

Wait. She fucked up.

"I mean, when?"

Hehehehehe.

"Uh, hey Irene! Woke up near the bridge. Crossed it a bit later, saw a couple juniors and Alan, we made our way here. One said her name was Lily, other was that Scout something kid."

Oh yeah.

"Nice gun," Kaitlyn said.

Wanna trade, Kaitlyn didn't say. Yet.

She glanced over at Hannah, who was kinda geeky and weird but not all that bad, and Olivia, who she knew from around school but not much other than that. They were... at least a step above the last group of lumps she'd been with? Yeah, that. And Irene was always cool.

"And you guys got any better ideas or you just gonna fuck around, try to float away on one of those boats out there or something? Maybe like we know that already and there are like... plans within plans. You get the idea?"

Plans.

Kaitlyn gratefully dropped the shield she'd still been lugging around on the sand. This cave or whatever was kinda nice. Maybe she could leave the shield here because she reeeeeeally didn't think she could deal with it much longer. She could stash it behind a rock and come back when she needed it. Not that Kaitlyn was gonna leave straight off the bat. Like she'd said, it was nice. No one here was much a threat. She could stay here awhile.

And plan.

Because she was starting to feel that chill deep in her stomach. Fear, maybe. Or just.... Kaitlyn couldn't quite find the right word for it. She glanced over at Irene's fucking beyond awesome gun. No, that definitely wasn't fear. Because Kaitlyn Greene would never be scared shitless of Irene Djejari, or her gun. And Kaitlyn Greene sure as hell wasn't scared of Hannah or Olivia. Alan, maybe?

Oh, piss out. Wasn't fear.

She'd have to mull on just what it was, then.

[Dannyrulx†]

There were far too many people in this place for comfort. Irene, Olivia, hell even Alan was Ok, but the rest of them were crowding them in, an that spelt bad news. She heard a bell peal pver the island, and indicated fro the other two to come closer. "You near the bell?" She whispered. "I say that's someone telling us now is the time to get the hell out of dodge!"

As she said this, she grabbed both of the girl's wrists and tugged hard, indicating that she was going to run. "With or without me, ten seconds..." She didn't want to wait around any longer than that. Things were heating up, and she didn't want to be part of said things heating up.

[Zetsu]

"Nononono, if you head for the bell we're comin' with you. We're going there anyways, and since you've already like stolen all our thunder and shit we're not gonna let you go if you don't haul our asses with you."

Alan bet that came off as annoying. Annoying was good, right? Better than being scary, better than scaring the fuck out of them and making them run and shit, right? Oh oh oh and it also made him look like a joke, which was good, cuz yeah it was all part of his master plan to look weak and ineffectual and incompetent, and then, well, then the people all safe and complacent in their leather chairs laughing at you, all safe and smug on the safe side of the TV screen, they all flip out and scream because there was Alan and he was sitting there staring at you and then he leans in close, reeeally close, and he grabs your shirt and whispers one word: timing. Timing, fuckers. And then he runs you through with the most badass weapon he can find. And it'll be glorious.

Yeah. All part of the plan. And maybe it's because he was calling it a plan, but really he was already feeling tempted to just fuck that shit. It's not like it would actually work, right? And maybe someone somewhere would be able to actually pull that off, but it wouldn't be Alan. You know why?

You really wanna know why?

Nah, you don't. Sorry. He's being all annoying again.

And Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn was getting it. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. You put it all out there in the open. And then you point out that you're really putting it all out there as a ruse. But, see, within that ruse there is a

You get the idea.

And when the terrorists think back to all those times their fingers hovered over the button, telling themselves that there was no way in hell a kid talking about escape plans in full view of the cameras was serious, well. You know what they say about regret.

So he'll play the badass who's actually kinda incompetent but see that's a facade that's all just a facade to make you underestimate him so see there wasn't any need to change what he was doing, right?

Right.

"No boats. Not yet. Not until we have a shitload of weapons on us so that when they come after us in their assault chopper we can flip 'em the bird."

You watching Alan, kids?

Well. Watch this, then.

[Maraoone]

Olivia looked for a foundation, and all she found was air. Just hot, dense air hanging between each and every word both Alan and Kaitlyn said. She looked for something to hold on to, like a blind man without a cane, and all they gave her was smoke. She looked for hope, and all they gave her was doubt. And she didn't need air or smoke or doubt, she needed this 'maybe' to become a 'definitely', she needed an escape so that she wouldn't have to look in her bag again, so that she wouldn't see that she was girl number 62, that there were at least 61 more girls on this island with her, more Irenes and Hannahs and Kaitlyns and more variables that weren't variables but her classmates, she needed, she needed substance, words with actual meaning.

And instead of telling her what they would do, how she could never face another camera again, they just acted like some other collar, restricting, laying out all their can'ts. You can't go to the bell tower, you can't float out on a boat. She knew that. And so what? What, what does that have to do with escape, what have they thought up, have they thought up a single plan, have they thought at all? She needed them to tell her the what's and when's and how's of this because if they didn't have that, then, then...

What would she do?

So, she held tight to Hannah, whisper-shouted, "Wait."  And she shook her head to herself, cause this was stupid, so stupid, like phantom guilt and flipping the bird and hot air, just so stupid, such a stupid plan. But she stayed because she still had a maybe to hold onto, like, maybe there was something of substance beneath all the bluster. She looked at Alan, and said, "But how? How do you expect to get weapons?" And she closed her eyes for a bit because getting weapons meant they would have to- stop it Olivia, breathe- and she inhaled, and said, "And, and what are you going to do about this?"

And she hoped.

[Cicada]

Nice gun. Did Irene agree? She didn't know, but she glanced her eyes over and downward to be sure. It looked nice. Smooth curves and powerful edges against her not so smooth curves and not so powerful edges.

"I mean, if you want to come with us...?" Plans, they had plans. Kaitlyn, Alan, Hannah had plans. Things Irene didn't have. Once upon a time they'd have all been gathered in a big round circle of crossed knees and empty lunch trays and the school bell with the chromatic tone of ding ding would have been about to ring. And they would have had plans, and Irene wouldn't have had plans. Plans were hard to make. They had too many variables and faces and fun easy little things that slipped through the cracks and became good times on dry sun-bleached desert days.

Maybe Irene could...

Stop watching Alan, because Hannah and Olivia wanted her here. But Irene's feet belonged there, but her head was pulled over here. Somewhere where she probably belonged. She orbited her two friends vaguely, feet shuffling sand in place. Hannah whispered all shouty, Irene shouted all whispery. "Okay, ten seconds! You guys have ten questions...-" whoops that was Olivia who had ten questions- "uh, seconds. I mean."  Irene wondered if the other two over there had heard. She herself maybe had heard. Olive breathed a lot, Irene could hear it when her own ear was hovering right on Olivia's sorta warm shoulder. Irene had probably forgotten to do that at some point. Had to make sure there was air in her lungs and all.

Ten more seconds to watch Kaitlyn and Alan waaaay over there. Watch them with blank eyes scrubbed clean by an unkind ocean breeze.

Ten more seconds 'til the bell made them go. Ding ding, it had once went. Once upon a time.

[D/N]

Holy Christ Hannah. What did she want? Dance out the right answer or they'd scram? They were all just hanging here, and if people like Hannah were gonna bolt anytime the situation got like the slightest bit out of their comfort zone, this was gonna be a shitty time for them. You gotta embrace new things.

Because it was all about new situations, wasn't it? Space aliens. Zombies. New sensations. New feelings like that one in Kaitlyn's gut.

"Yeah, let's head to the bell if ya want. We're totally cool. And weapons? I mean, there's ways."

She shrugged. They'd take that as they would. Irene'd be cool. And Kaitlyn was pretty sure she could draw Olivia in if she wanted to. As for Hannah? Fuck, two out of three ain't bad. But who knew. Even she had to realize that the group dynamic was probably the best way to start this thing off. Maybe not later, maybe not even tomorrow, but Kaitlyn was slow-playing this for now. She had to.

Oh fuck off. She'd just made a poker reference in her head. Kaitlyn hated doing that. 'hurr hurr now the chips are all in aren't they?'

Besides, this game wasn't even a bit like poker. It was all new. You didn't trade things in poker. You did kill the weakest in poker, though. Feast on the loser who signs in with a straight bankroll and no idea how to play.

Actually, maybe you didn't kill them. And yes, Kaitlyn knew full well that there was a big fucking difference between busting out and this, you wads. But maybe you strung them along. That was always a possibility.

And you positioned yourself.

Would anyone trade a gun for a giant heavy shield? Maybe. If they had the right reason to do so. Incentive and stuff.

"So, uh..."

Wait. Kaitlyn's feet were wet. She looked over her shoulder.

Water was starting to rush into the cave.

"Hell is this?"

High tide, folks.

[Dannyrulx†]

Water. The water was coming in. And fast too. The bottom of her trainers were already being splashed by waves, and the boat that she'd sat on previously would probably be floating in a few. Well, if it was waterproof. She urgently tugged at the hands of the two girls, and whispered loudly "the water is coming in and we're gonna be flooded if we wait around, so let's go!"

She glanced at the others inside the cove. "And you might wanna get out of here as well. The tide's coming in fast, and drowning is my worst nightmare, although I can't speak about you."

[Zetsu]

What's that?

Alan closed his eyes, letting the sea breeze wash over him. Fitting. Dramatic wind, dramatic speech. And it'll have to be fucking dramatic if he was going to get anyone to stay with him. Yes. A wind was perfect.

High tide was coming. Yeah, that was a thing. High tide was coming, and that meant that, theoretically, it was time for Alan to hightail it out of there and save the speech for later. It's not like you could fight against nature.

Fuck that authoritarian bitch. This was important.

He would've done it, too. Stood there like a rock, stubborn and unyielding, letting the water rush up to his eyes without moving a muscle, giving a monologue. Like, really, a fucking monologue with the wind at his back and water pouring in around him. It was the chance of a lifetime. Who was he? He was The Rising Tide. That's Rising Tide with a The. And everyone bows at his feet, because that was fucking awesome.

Alan couldn't swim.

So I guess he'll settle with a 'you're fucking coming with us, then'.

Except that was possessive, dominating. Bad Alan. Shitty, patriarchal Alan.

"We're fucking coming with you, then."

There. That was better. Didn't make it seem like he was trying to make himself the leader. Of course, Alan was going to be leader. That was a foregone conclusion. But it was better to be smooth and subtle about it. Alan was a snake. A finger-tenting mastermind with a silver tongue.

You wish. But that didn't mean he had to be blatant about it, you know?

[Maraoone]

Olivia shook her head to herself again. 'Ways' wouldn't be enough to get them out. This was hopeless, just stupid, just an elaborate form of suicide. Her eyebrows started furrowing. She felt somewhat disappointed with the two, rather angry, really, because she'd made herself look like an idiot thanks to them. Who knew that someone talking about 'messing up the system' didn't actually have anything close to a plan? And this was supposed to be a happy moment, a normal moment where she'd meet up with Irene and Hannah, talk like they're in the hallways, and just waste time. But then here Alan and Kaitlyn come with their 'plans'. And maybe she'd been hoping for some instant solution, some easy way out presented to her on a platter as soon as she woke up, something to help her ignore this island.

But they had nothing.

And she wasn't quite sure how to say, 'Oh, it's been nice talking with you and all, but the answer will have to be no,' to Alan and Kaitlyn because that was a little too direct, a little too brusque, and she knew she wasn't good at endings, but she didn't want this one to be too harsh because as much as she tried to push it to the back of her mind, this possibility, she knew things escalated all too quickly in this game. And she wasn't quite sure how to get themselves out of this situation because apparently, they were coming with them, as if they'd agreed to this 'plan' of theirs. And she was about to say sorry to Hannah for wasting her and Irene's time when all of a sudden, ice-cold water splashed all over her feet. She gasped, and her eyes widened a bit. Her skin felt covered with goosebumps already.

Then, Hannah asked to leave a second time, and this time, Olivia gave a quick nod. And then Alan imposed himself and Kaitlyn on them, because apparently none of them were good at this whole whispering thing, and Olivia started breathing a bit heavier, but then she stopped because why was it so hard for her to say no, why was that two-letter word so difficult? Well, they'd have to come with them anyways unless they wanted to drown- no, no one's going to die here, don't even think of it, stop- take a swim, so they'd have to deal with them later on. But the water was rather convenient for now, really, and being like, 'Oh I'm sorry, I'd love to talk but this high tide's rather inconvenient, don't you think', sounded much better, much nicer than just saying no. It would buy them a bit of time at the very least. Or maybe they'd stay here, get the signals, the nudges and winks that all added up to, 'Please leave.' Or stay, rather, while they left. Maybe, hopefully, they'd make it much easier for all of them.

So, she said to both Irene and Hannah, just loud enough for the rest to hear, "Yeah, let's just go before it gets too deep."

[Cicada]

No plan at all. That actually seemed about right, like the sorta thing Irene would have expected anyways. Cochise Green Belt, couple of friends, ton of bullcrap. Sometimes her friends were smart and wise and inspiring like Abby or Caedyn or something but other times, well... Not so much? But. It all made sense anyways. It was just the way it was supposed to be. Like the water beginning to erode at the soles of Irene's sneaks. Tides. Gravity. Nature.

Just the way it was supposed to be.

"Well, I guess...-"

"Yeah, let's just go before it gets too deep."

"Yeah Olivia's got it right." Suddenly Hannah and Olive were whispering- or something that was maybe whispering, really hard to tell with the acoustics in this cave- in  the general direction of Irene's ears. Hannah continued to insist, "These two are kinda creeping me out, and their plan still makes no sense. We should bail while we can." Huh. Well fair point on the plan making no sense. It just wasn't given enough evidence, like the sort of argument Webber would happily red ink up. Irene didn't think Alan and Kait were so creepy, though maybe there was something odd in how Alan just stoically stood there when Irene could somewhat recall that he couldn't swim? Hm.

"-... Yeah, let's just all get out of here?" Maybe Alan and Kait would follow maybe they wouldn't. As long as they followed just enough to not drown in the cave, and all.

Irene wasn't moving more so than she was moved, by familiar warm and firm grips of her hands. Irene was dragged for a second, the immovable object jet-skiing over an inch of water, then she remembered: She had feet. Irene surged forward with the meanest of her power supplies, bounced free of the cave within a few seconds. Hannah was right on her heels.

Olivia glanced behind, seemingly a bit distracted, but followed her friends with some urgency she could muster and was also quickly gone.

((Hannah Kendrickstone, Olivia Fischer, and Irene Djezari continued in the way to dusty death))

[D/N]

Kaitlyn hated getting her feet wet, hated soggy shoes, but for this, she'd make an exception.

Because as the water started flowing over her ankles, her heart sped up and she looked out of the cove to the open sea.

That half-smile again.

She was grinning both at this whole situation and Alan's response to the girls, of course. That was one hell of a one-liner there, Alan. Wham. The look on their faces. Yeah, it was like Kaitlyn and Alan were coming at them, Katy Buried-style.

The water kept coming in. It was colder than she'd expected and then Kaitlyn realized why the fuck would she have any expectations of what the ocean felt like. This was her first time ever to be standing in an ocean, wasn't it. Wow. It was like, actual saltwater and everything and it was past her socks now and lapping incrementally upwards.  Kaitlyn's concentration was momentarily broken by that realization and she breathed in the air and holy what, was she actually tasting the salt or was that just some stupid kind of, she didn't know, temporary hallucination thing or what?

And when she glanced back at the trio, Hannah/Olivia/Irene had blinked first. Going from sight. As far as Kaitlyn really cared,  probably gone forever.

Those girls just didn't fucking get it, did they? Kaitlyn wins again. And Alan... he could be along for the ride another day or so at least, she guessed.

"Smooth," she said. "Uh... we can still try to follow them if you want."

Yeah. The pace of the water quickened a bit more, and as it started lapping up Kaitlyn's shins she chuckled and decided it was time to step out. She hefted the shield back up on her shoulder, letting it bear the brunt of its weight for a while. Ugh. You know, she'd actually considered leaving it here, kind of make this cove a stash place for it or any other heavy stuff she wanted to own but maybe didn't want to carry around the island 24/7. But this wasn't the place to do that, needless to say. And she was starting to feel the butterflies in her stomach as this tide was coming in really damn fast now. So she took one more moment to feel the salt on her bare legs.

Kaitlyn liked that.

It was only after she'd gotten back on dry land that turned around and looked at the cave again. Saw the water continue to flow in the mouth and was she imagining things, or was it really not as fast or furious a rush as it had seemed when she was standing in there?  

And cursed herself as she realized she'd left way too soon. She'd blinked, too.

Kaitlyn hated that.

(Kaitlyn Greene continued in Robber Barons)

[Zetsu]

They would've probably been useless anyways. Yeah, that's the line he was going to go with. Whose line was it anyways?

Except he shouldn't be thinking in terms of utility, because that concept was total bullshit for his goals. Goals. Fucking goals. What were Alan's goals again?

Right.

It was time for a paradigm shift. Sounds fancy. It means he's shifting his paradigm, is all. But, like, maybe not that much. Means, not ends. You know.

He shivered a little. He was gonna have an actual plan. May God have mercy on his soul. Well, Eris.

You throw a golden apple in their midst and laugh as it fucks everything up, but you gotta remember you're doing this as a force of good. And that means you can't fuck up, even when you're doing a stupidly hammy evil laugh. Especially when you're doing the stupidly hammy evil laugh. It's meaningful chaos. Chaos with a purpose. Maybe that made it impure, but he could live with that.

The answer to Kaitlyn's question was no. He said it out loud.

"No."

It was a little no. He liked that. Liked that effect, the way it hung in the air a little.

"Cuz it's about time I get my shit together and stop dicking around with this."

Now to come up with an actual plan. Well. That was the hard part, wasn't it? And it looks like Kaitlyn's headed out now, so uhh let's just keep being a totally useless leader, shall we?

He wasn't really the leader, of course. Way to take the pressure off, buddy.

((Alan Banks continued elsewhere))