Sink or Swim, Better Dive Right In

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla felt a pang of disappointment, and then realized the fact that the others didn't quite get what she was meaning to do with the walkie talkie was all her fault. She still had the legging-scarf on, she could have explained herself, however tersely. But she supposed it wasn't too bad of a misunderstanding- no, that was too strong of a word. It was just... not what she wanted. She should know better to get what she wanted on this island. Why was she so bitter? It wasn't all about her.

The whispers turned to their assigned weapons, well, "weapons" in most of their cases, but Nikki had asked if there was someone else. Bert held up her drill, and wow that could do a lot of damage applied to someones' head and oh god why was she thinking about that?!

Of course, Bert's plea for someone here to have a better weapon went unanswered. All Mike had was an airhorn. Now that this little circle of answers was complete, Camilla felt she could better elaborate on why she brought out the walkie-talkie. She placed her hand on the one half of a whole in front of her.

Before she could open her mouth, someone called out. Mike hurried out. She wondered if she should continue. The others could fill Mike in later, right? But she shouldn't leave him out. But...

"Henry," was the one word out of her mouth, as she tapped the walkie-talkie. It had to explained, didn't it? No use in delaying. "He's on the other end."

[D/N]

So, what did they have?

A sorta wacky combination of stuff, Nikki guessed?

Mike had an air horn, Bert had the drill, Camilla had the walkie, and Nikki had herself and the responsibility of maybe putting all that stuff together. Well then.

That was gonna be awesomely good enough. Just after they got some more stuff. And more time. And more ideas. POINT WAS, Nikki was smiling because this had already been a super-productive day at least until someone else butted in from outside like Javert and bellowed all "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Nikki's heart didn't skip but her head jerked back against the tree branches and for a second she thought she was gonna bring this whole booth down by knocking it with her gigantic melon. Then a second passed and it hadn't even budged and Mike was volunteering to take care of it. He shuffled out, flailing a bit with his elbows and legs and nudging her aside, and Nikki and them should maybe have planned this to be a bit bigger? Even with the three of them left she was realizing it was still pretty cramped and while it did provide shade it also trapped the heat and oh boy it was gonna get even hotter in here in the next couple hours.

"Um..."

OK, never mind that because it didn't matter and it wasn't the point in the first place.

And especially never mind that because Camilla had mentioned a name. Henry.

She knew Henry.

Oh wow. He was a genius or something. One of those ultra-focused genius things. He'd be the best partner to have here and he had a walkie so let her think just a second and...

"Henry... when you get a chance, you should see about like radioing him and letting him know? I know he's super-smart, he might even be able to use it for something. And um..."

Oh. Nikki'd almost forgotten.

Now that there was at least a bit more room it would be easier. And as she plopped her bags in front of her and took the rest of her stuff out of her school pack she also realized that maybe she should like say something about that.

She pulled out her clothes that weren't presently around the necks of everyone else: extra socks, underwear, shirt... that was about it, and dropped them in her TerrorBag with the supplies and stuff. Yeah this would all fit no problem.

And alright, whispered as she did. "OK, so maybe we should check outside and if we need to talk to anyone else we come back in here maybe?"

Makeup kit. Bottle of coke and bag of chips and candy she'd been saving. Nikki flushed at that. Uh, because she really kinda hoped Camilla and Bert wouldn't mention that stuff. Or... ask if they could have some, ugggggggggghs OK those were nasty thoughts just ignore them and hey perfect time to distract everyone!

So she raised her voice up for everyone and the microphones to all hear. "Hey Bert I'll be done moving my stuff in a second and then you can have my extra pack, OK?"

Managed a chuckle and... well didn't sound like Mike was in some horrible situation outside! All. Still. Good.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Woah, it sounded for a bit like there was someone outside. Mike went and checked it out, and from the sound of the talk things didn't sound dicey, so Bert had the time to pay attention to the rest of the group, which consisted of herself, Camilla, Nikki, and... Henry, now, it seemed like. One of the really smart dudes. Pretty cute sometimes, too. He had the other half of this walkie talkie set? Nice, nice. Knowing him, he was probably hard at work on some really science-y way of getting out of this thing, or whatever. Who knew, though. That seemed to be what Camilla was indicating, though, that he was someone important that they Needed to talk to.

Oh, Nikki was covering for the fact that they had been taking such a long time inside the shelter? That was something that Bert could play along with, no problem at all.

"Sure-sure thing!" she said, raising her voice as well, "Thank you, again, for doing that!"

And then she kind of shifted so she could get a view of outside. Was that Angie? Angie Cortez, right? Bert didn't really know her too too well, but she was, um... not terrible! And she had a gun! That'd make for a good addition to their team, if they could convince her to not shoot them with it, but Bert knew or at least really hoped that Angie wasn't the kind of person to do that.

Right, Angie? Please.

[Melusine]

This tiny shelter was a clown car. One by one, teenagers came out. Again, this was something that was funny to Angie. She just couldn't take this seriously. First, the fucked up fauna, now the clown car skit? Gosh, this was surreal. The worse part is that she knew there were more people inside the tiny made-up lodge. That's why everything felt so strange and disconnected. She felt like she was going insane, but perhaps her mind had never been clearer.

Mike was... someone. It was hard to describe their relationship. Apparently, everyone in 8th grade became gay, and Angie was the only one that wasn't affected by the plague. It was just awkward, but it was the past and the situation was worse than an bizarre date and a coincidental revelation. She did like him. Reminded her of her little brother, but not because he was gay, principally because he was just too happy. Very cowboy, very country. She liked that.

"Oh dear, hey Mike, and..." Angie squinted. That was Liberty. Terrible name, but still very iconic. "Bert."

She unsquinted and slug the gun on her back. She wouldn't need it here. Yes, trusting these people was perhaps a mistake, but she was okay with making it. Her nerves were tired, and Angie wanted to rest.

"I assume there are more people in your clown car?" She said, pointing the leafy shelter.

[Somersault]

"Yep, yep," A shrug, casual as anything followed. The corners of his lips rose just a little, although he tipped his hat to hide it. "Nikki, Cam, ya know, the squad."

She didn't know, 'cause this certainly wasn't Mike's kinda crowd, not really, not when the team was scattered all over, but bad shit called for new shit.

Anyways, yeah, Angie hadn't decided to shoot him up or anything. That seemed real good.

Inwardly, Mike frowned at that thought, 'cause being grateful that someone hadn't shot him seemed just a little weird, but it was sorta true, wasn't it? Still breathing, still going, still with well, people he could sorta call friends, in the way that going on a date with someone in 8th grade 'cause you were real desperate to prove you liked girls and discovered the opposite made people friends.

He dusted off his hands on his jeans, trying to keep his hands occupied while the birds kept chirping and the girls inside the shelter did too. Maybe it'd have been good to stay inside, get in the know and all, but it was more than just a little cramped, and it wasn't as if he'd really know how to give any help here.

'Sides, Angie was out here, with a gun, a real fuckin' gun, and she seemed chill. And like, she was chill back at school, even after the whole date thang, and that really helped, and it also didn't hurt that she had a real cute brother. Who he'd roomed with. And was also here.

...Fuck.

"So, didja wanna hang 'round?" He asked, tryna keep it cool even though it felt like things were starting to bubble just a bit. "Not a lotta space, but we're all good, up for whatever, even got that little thing started."

His wristband-covered hand pointed back behind him, to the ramshackle thing made with his blood, sweat and tears, rye grin on his face.

It fell.

"But uh, don't feel like you have to, 'specially if you're, well, looking for someone and all..." And his words trailed off 'cause Mike didn't know what to add, add a name to that someone, add that he had people he said he'd find too, but nope. Nothing but silence.

Was always easier this way.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla nodded as Nikki said that they should call Henry sometime. That was her plan, once she'd have a moment to herself.

She figured they were just about wrapping up, right? Now they were just cleaning up the evidence. Well, not exactly- covering their tracks? Yeah that seemed about right. Hm. She probably should have said something about Henry seemingly having a plan, she wasn't sure. But that's probably what he meant, if he couldn't afford to let the terrorists know. But was now really the time to bring this up again?

Plus the leggings scarf was starting to get stuffy.

She put a hand to it, to pull it off. Her fingers touched the cold metal of the collar, and froze over. It reminded her that this thing was here for a reason.

Outside, it seemed like not much was happening. It was a trivial matter to reposition herself to be able to peer outside- Mike was talking to some girl, who had a gun. Instinctively, Camilla's stomach dropped, but there was no reason for it to because the other girl wasn't doing anything wrong.

And neither was anyone in the woods, it was just-

Camilla looked down, at her knees, and her arms wrapped around them- just a little tighter now. That was probably contributing to how uncomfortably hot and sweaty it was getting.

[D/N]

"Yup!" she called out, loud enough for the terrorists to definitely hear, nothing suspicious going on at all. "Here's the bag!"

Nikki felt oddly... she didn't know, wistful she guessed when she looked down at the empty bag she was dropping over by Bert. Wasn't like it had any deep personal meaning anything. Actually, whoops, it wasn't even hers, it was her dad's and she'd borrowed it for the Washington trip cause her own travel bag was too bulky and also hot pink and kiddy-looking given that she'd gotten in in the eight grade and never bothered to upgrade. And she'd wanted to look a bit classier for the senior trip thank you very much. So maybe it was just that now all her stuff was consigned to the TerrorBag and she'd kind of thought that meant she was now totally committed to being on Survival of the Fittest, like made it really really and everything and OK OK that was the kind of thoughtline that could take her dangerous places so breathe again.

They needed to get out of this shelter pretty quick even if they were gonna come back in soon enough. It was like the air was getting even denser; her stomach was starting to turn over a bit and her head felt a bit light and she wasn't going to throw up in here or anything was she?

Naaah.

And again dropping down her voice. She was feeling OK.

"Anyway uh Camilla, sounds good. We can give Henry a call maybe a bit later and try to share the idea if you've got like any plans for keeping in touch with him?"

Breathe breathe.

"Let's uh, let's maybe all get out for a bit."

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Thank you!" Bert exclaimed, taking the bag. Wait, why did she need it again? Ah, right, Camilla had the stuff that she needed to put inside. She dropped the power drill in there, figuring she probably wouldn't need it again for a while. Well, she'd barely needed it earlier, but it still made her feel more helpful than not. There were benefits to weapons that were probably just more mental and psychological than anything. The Drill gave her that feeling; she didn't need to use it to kill, but if she needed to hurt someone or rough them up to get away from her, she could do that, and she could also put some holes in things, for no real reason, or maybe big reasons if need be.

It looked like they were all moving out of the shelter right now. Well, that was fine. She could ask Camilla for the stuff that she was holding on to in a little bit. Leaving her bag inside, Bert shimmied over and made her way outside. Mike and Angie were standing around, just kinda talking. Looks like the gun was put away and not about to shoot any of them. Yay! Bert couldn't help but smile, both at the fact that Angie was probably good people and at the fact that she wasn't dead.

"Hi, Angie!" Bert said, actually greeting her and not just staring. Angie was, well, not unattractive at all. Sure, being here for a day had taken a bit of a toll on her. It had taken a bit of a toll on everyone. But she was still fairly pretty, right now. The T-Shirt was a fun touch, even if it was a little garish and well inappropriate considering the time and place and if Bert was an idiot and thought that Angie had something else she could have been wearing she'd tell her that maybe she was committing a big social goof by walking around in a shirt that had the word KILL on it in any capacity.

"You been doing okay?" she asked.

[Melusine]

Finally, faces she trusted. It was odd because if she had met any of these people outside of this situation, she wouldn't have wanted to be around longer than five minutes. It wasn't that she didn't like them, but she preferred being around other people. However, here, these familiar faces were comforting. She still couldn't shake the feeling that this wouldn't last.

Was she a threat to them? Possibly. She had a gun, and she had a tendency to scare people away. Angie didn't walk toward them, she stay anchored on the ground. Being scary could be an advantage, but not for Angelina, not for her long slash short term plan on the island. She wanted to make everyone's suffering less painful, and she wouldn't be able to achieve it through fear.

"Hey guys," Angie's face turned into a frown. She needed to rest. She was tired of running around, people shooting at her, feeling threaten. "You guys don't mind if I rest here a bit? I just got shot at and I need to process it, or something."

She didn't mention her brother because of Mike. She loved the guy, but she didn't like how he looked at her brother. It felt strange.

[Somersault]

"No problemo, mi amiga." Mike said to Angie, easy grin slapped back on again, melting back into the good vibes he really really wanted to be goin' all around here. Was it much? Nah, not really, but it was something just a little less crazy than all the shit he knew had to be goin' down elsewhere. Meant this was okay, just a little, and if he could help make that a reality, that'd be good. If not, eh.

Honestly, he was kinda surprised that Angie hadn't mentioned Ramsey when he brought up the whole searching thing, but maybe it was something he shoulda just assumed, because who wasn't gonna go try to find their family out here? That made sense, sorta, although another part of him was kinda getting 'round to thinking this was one of those girl things, all dancing 'round and 'round, which was honestly pretty shitty, but whatever. Now wasn't really the time to go and be bitch about dumb shit.

Chill, right? Yep, he could be chill, chill as anyone, and so he took in a big deep breath of air, and then let it all flow back out. A team was better than no team, and maybe this team could even get him to his other team, get them off this hell-ass place. That team in question was even beginning to funnel right back out of the shelter, which meant he could ask them 'bout what had gone on in there. That was for later, though.

Just like his plans of actually finding his team.

"Like, if you good with resting up here, we good." Just another pep talk, just another game day. He crossed his arms for emphasis, tossed in a wink for good measure.

"Right, ladies?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Finally, Camilla decided to just crawl out of the hut. She nodded at Nikki, pulled off her leggings-scarf (oh god the air on her neck was so refreshing she had no idea it could be that refreshing) and took the walkie-talkie with her as she made her way out- she should probably call Henry soon, as Nikki said, catch him up on well. Everything. Anyway, it was getting way too stuffy in the hut, but that was rich coming from the girl who spent her childhood free time in a closet smooshed up against a giant octopus plush while reading books.

She wondered if her mother gave Mr. Tentacles away, donated it or something, when she learned about the abduction. Hell, she might have done it even before she got concrete proof of her death. That was like her mother, but then again it wasn't like there was any alternative other than the worst possible one. It wasn't like there was any chance Camilla would actually live through this.

The other girl asked if she could rest. Camilla had no idea who she was, but she supposed she might have been one of the "popular girls", but that was shallow of her to assume. She shouldn't do that. Anyway, whether she could stay or not probably wasn't Camilla's purview, so she just nodded, assuming it would mean agreement with the other's consensus. Mike seemed chill about it, at least. It would be pretty awkward if the others weren't just now.

"Right."

Did someone say something?

In the distance- no, right here.

No, right beside her.

Well, think of the devil. She lifted the walkie-talkie up to her head.

"Henry?"

"Hey, I made it somewhere I can talk for a bit. About the announcements - I don't know about the others, but Nick didn't murder Beryl. She was badly wounded and paralyzed, and he ended it for her. Poor guy fell apart after that. I'm almost to the Yacht - How're things on your end?"

She opened her mouth, and her mind flashed back to what she saw after their last call. Abel's corpse, Benny's corpse, Camila and her fleeting presence-

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

"I figured as much about Nick." As much as she disliked the guy. "A lot... I saw a lot yesterday, after our last talk. It's- I- Abel and Benny... yeah. You probably heard what happened to them. Now I'm with some other folks and-"

Camilla glanced at Bert, for a moment. The others wanted to talk, didn't they?

"-And I think they'd want to talk to you, actually."

[D/N]

OK. Now that they were all moving out of the hut, Nikki... kind of didn't want to.

Of course, she knew she HAD to and everything. Even though the ground was feeling OK and she was getting herself used to the humidity and she could actually, you know, Nikki could stay here forever.

Here and under the bed and hidden away she was the best there'd ever been all alone in the moonlight she can dream of the old days oh wow Nikki you can't get more basic than that and you're better than that. Think right, girl.

So she breathed and crawled towards the front and peeked out as Camilla stepped outside. And hey Nikki finally saw who Mike was actually chatting up. Angie Cortez. Party girl. Not someone exactly in her wheelhouse. But alright. And really props to Mike for being the greeting brigade here. She'd just have to greet Angie herself and they, well they they'd all figure out how to pass the time until they figured out what to do next.

Which would take some figuring out.

Or not. Or not.

Oh no.

Henry was calling Camilla right now!

Nikki was not ready for this!

No, no, no. She was. She was. She glanced over at Bert and ignored her StomachFlips (TM) and then back at Camilla who was saying that we all probably wanted to talk with Henry.

And she was exposed to everything with her head sticking out the shelter.

"Uh, yeah! Tell Henry we'd love to say hi! Um, we're really good friends!"

Nikki and Henry were not good friends.

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Sure!" Bert said cheerfully, "come on in! We got plenty of space, if you don't mind it being a little cramped."

Of course Angie was welcome! Why wouldn't she be? If she wasn't violent, and she wanted a place to stay, then who was Bert to refuse! Of course, it wasn't really her call to say if she was allowed to stay, either, because she wasn't really the owner of the shelter. That'd be Nikki. But still, it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission, sometimes, and she got the feeling that Nikki would come through just fine. Nikki poked her head out of the thing and said that it was fine as well. Great! See, Bert knew what her friends were feeling. She was keenly aware of the—

Wait, did she say something about Henry? Henry Sparks? On the phone? At this time of day, at this time of year, localized entirely within the hut?

"May I speak to him?" Bert said, looking back over to the hut, "uh, I mean, when you're done? Just wanna say hi, and catch up, and stuff. Might as well see what he's up to, right?"

She almost chuckled. It was weird, having what was basically a cell phone on an island that felt at once really big and also really, really small. Made the whole place feel that much smaller, and bigger, weirdly. Bert was an architect, but only corporeally, not metaphysically or verbally. She was running into people left and right. Everywhere she went there were signs of people being there. Like one big party, spread out in many different directions. People were dying, occasionally; so? Bert wasn't concerned with that. It was a little worrying that she wasn't concerned, but something about it just hadn't registered yet and probably wouldn't until she noticed that she wasn't running into as many people as she used to.

Only then would things get strange.

[Melusine]

There was an odd buzzing in the air. It was a nostalgic sound. It came from rainy nights spent hiding inside with the quiet tingling coming from the roof.

Angelina had a soft spot for walkie-talkies. She always found them fascinating, simply because they were rather obsolete. In the real world, they had cellphones which could do everything that walkie-talkies could do but better. The antiquated still had uses in some situation like during wartime.

And on SotF.

Angelina pointed the little shelter. There was a conversation going on, she didn't want to interrupt but she wanted to know. It made her smile. It was a little secret, quiet place, away from their oppressive cameras. Yes, they were still there, but the shelter, the walkie-talkies, the walls of the jungle, all made it private.

"You guys got a walkie-talkie?" Her heart wanted them to say Ramsey. It would be perfect, just like in books, but the real world wasn't perfect, and she kinda liked that. "Who is on the other end?"

[Somersault]

See? Mike got it done, he got it settled, made sure errything and erryone was real chill with letting Angie get on board the Wooden House Cabin whatever. Hopefully it'd be called Home Base eventually, but yeah, they were all good, Bert was good, Nikki was good, Cam too, even though right now Cam was...calling Henry? Oh. That was a real new development.

Mike tried his best to hide the recognition that washed over his face as he finally figured what kinda sweetness was at the bottom of the pie, namely, what the hell the walkie talkie was 'sposed to be for, but that only amounted to him preventing his eyebrows from raising to the tip-top of his head.

"Yeah, good, good, 's all good," He said to the rest, faces running through his mind as he tried to piece together who Henry actually was. Definitely didn't do sports, definitely didn't party, otherwise he surely woulda heard of him, yep, but hmm. Taking off his cap, because sheesh, his brain (and hair) really needed the space to like breathe and really think on this thing, he continued to ponder the question of Henry, when Angie started asking something 'round the same lines that he was thinking.

"It's Henry on the line, yeah." Tossed out casually, practice ball, more to give Angie something to chew on while Mike continued to try to find like an actual piece of something to know him by, keep from drifting off mentally like some kinda space-

Oh, that was it!

"He's uh, into like rocket science and all that space shit."

So, hooray, one question answered, but Mike still had another one right up fermenting in his brain. One that made him feel just a little less guilty, although he still scrunched up his face all nervous-like when he looked back at Cam 'cause like who knew what'd set people off in this kinda place.

"If ya could give him another holler or somethin' somethin', could you tell him baseball Mike's here? And like, that I wanna know if he's seen anyone else on the team."