Monday June 11, 2018: Undisclosed Location, 11 PM
The clock on the wall ticked in time to the beat of Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise” playing through the small bluetooth speaker set on a battered filing cabinet. Just for a little bit, a small group of friends… acquaintances… …. Co-workers could enjoy some time to themselves in preparation for the days to follow. The hardest part was behind them all, but the most treacherous days could still be ahead of them if they slipped up. For those who were there ten years ago, they remembered the consequences, and they passed on the tales to those who weren’t.
A small circular table sat in an enclosed space that didn’t give much wiggle room for three of its sides. Maybe two-to-three steps to reach the two doors on either wall for the fourth. It was cramped, but it was all they had, the only space Greynolds could afford them when setting up their little game. A cooler sat underneath, giving birth to growing piles of discarded cans and bottles over time, with chips, crackers and snack cakes placed here and there.
“Alright, let’s get set up for game two,” said Dennis Lourvey. To his left, Josie Knight. To her left, Veronica Rai then, continuing around the table, Adimabua Lawal and finally Boris Petrikov, seated to Lourvey’s right. “Still Hold’em- Adi, hand me those chips? Count ‘em up, we should all have 20K. And Boris,” Lourvey pushed up his glasses and threw a glance to the sullen-looking man sitting beside him, “I swear to fuck, if you go all-in on the first round AGAIN we’re not inviting you back for our game nights, got it?”
Adimabua placed the chips in Lourvey’s hand as directed with a smile to Boris. Whether he took it anywhere from mocking to sympathetic was his decision; he was not certain how he meant it himself. Little was certain in the tense energy of a game in full swing. There was confidence, yes, the reassurance of a routine practiced for more than a decade by some of his compatriots. There was an air of unease around it though. For those who had served under Mr. Danya’s predecessor he assumed the fear of discovery played some role. Others, like Boris, had more personal discomforts. Only a portion could be attributed to the nature of their work. When Boris scanned across the collected $100,000 around the table with a flicker of hunger in his eyes Adi suspected it came from more than greed, but who could say? Still others were unreadable to him. If there was more beyond the surface to Rai, for instance, he was uncertain he wanted to find it.
Before he came aboard that was a rare feeling. The gossip of hidden motivation had been his favorite way to pass the time at work events before now. Even he was wrong, and in fairness he was often wrong, it was more engaging than most activities thrown together by committee. Where was the harm? In his old life he was harmless. The worst he could expect were harsh words. Adi did not play such games with the Taskforce. He was too fresh with tensions too high to expect unwelcome questions leading anywhere but an equally unwelcome departure. The words had not been used explicitly, but he considered himself in a probationary period where the threat of termination had taken a more literal meaning.
That did not require him to be unfriendly. The cards Lourvey dealt him tipped upwards at the edge of the table and he shook his head with a chuckle. “Fortune does not favor our corner,” he mused to Boris at his side. “I am reminded of a card game we played in university, Thuni. We played for money, or drinks, or,” a gesture with two fingers in front of his lips cut off the thought, finishing with a shrug. “As students do. There was also some undesirable task assigned to being the greatest loser. Does this game have similar penalties?”
Something like a smile crossed Rai’s face at the suggestion. Though Adi hadn’t been speaking directly to her, she responded from his other side. “Why not make some? Make things more interesting.” She nudged Josie under the table. “Worst loser can do Josie’s laundry.”
She wasn’t that good at poker - strategy had never been her forte, nor had discretion - but she was hanging in there. Doing better than Boris, at least. Guy went all in way too soon. Rai had just come to assume that Boris was at least tipsy at all times, and that assumption held now.
“What the fuck?” Josie said with a grin and laugh as she raised her beer to her lips. “If we’re talking when I get back from the island sure. That place is a sweaty hellhole.” Poker was a game she had acquired a lot of experience with over the course of her life hanging around in bars, and in a more important way she’d learned how to effectively cheat. Although the difficulty of cheating was raised when there was so many people at the table.
“And yeah Boris, we prefer taking our time and making Lourvery sweat it out over as long a time as possible.” The can she had been drinking from was discarded and another one retrieved. It had been fun, with the additional benefit of she was getting paid for it. Josie let the cards slide across the table to her and didn’t look at them before betting. “So what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” She asked the gathering, grin still spread across her face.
“If I have to do your laundry that would quickly top the list, lemme tell ya,” Lourvey shot. He flinched when something furry and orange hopped up into his lap. “Damn it, George, can it wait!?” he asked the ornery old cat, who had decided Dennis’s lap was now the ideal napping spot.
“Better you than me,” Rai muttered. “I’m allergic.” Not completely untrue, but the reality was that she just wasn’t much of an animal person, either in the way that people usually meant it or in the Josie way that meant she liked to hang them on her wall. The time she spent petting the forlorn seeing-eye dog until he stopped being so damn pitiful at being taken away from his person didn’t count.
Boris interrupted the proceedings by shoveling his chips to the center of the table.
“All in,” he slurred, getting a collective groan in response. Lourvey slammed his can of Red Bull on the table, while the old tabby in his lap was too grizzled and stubborn to care.
“God dammit Boris, go to bed. You’re drunk,” Rai grumbled.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018: Undisclosed Location, 9 AM
Another day down and more deaths had appeared on his list. Including some that had been missed from the first day. Tracen wasn't sure how things like that kept happening even after all the years they had been running things but he had just accepted it as part of the setup. Ironically, he was always drawn to how unprofessional it made them seem, as if anyone who would be watching the feeds or the students themselves cared about something like that. It was a strange and ridiculous ouroboros of how they viewed themselves. One of the first things he had learned from Greynolds and the old tapes of his father was that presentation was everything and missing deaths ruined their presentation. It was a small detail that maybe only he cared about, but letting small details go unaddressed was what had led to his fathers' death in the first place.
So when Tracen had been passed the list he had glared at it for a long while. Then eventually he had managed an 'alright'. As he sat there watching the clock tick ever closer to nine his annoyance ebbed and flowed. It would be fine. He could deal with it after. His pen tapped against the desk as the time ticked over. Then he pressed the button.
"Goooood morning students! We are back once again to give you a rundown of how the game and is going and I have to say you certainly have packed a lot of drama into twenty-four hours so thank you for that."
"First up, we begin with a set of interesting events that transpired in the early hours of the morning. During the course of an argument, Mikki Swift ended up shooting Phillip Olivares and Terra Johnson but in the process Terra managed to shoot her as well. Then just when you thought it was all over Zachary Beck managed to stab an injured Bree Jones, and she nearly made it as well. These things happen I suppose."
Tracen clapped his hands together.
"Right. Try not to cut things so close to the announcement in the future, kids. It messes with our bookkeeping, and we know that none of you want to be forgotten.
"We begin the day proper with a more lowkey death as Sapphire Waters bled to death following an altercation with Lorenzo Tavares. It was so lowkey that it wasn't even noticed that she'd died because of our previous announcement. Imagine having your death upstaged by a disembodied voice."
"Next up white knight to be Danny Chamnanma fell, literally and figuratively to Quinn Abert who notches up her second kill after stabbing Danny and then using him as a crash mat. Points for style."
Tracen read the next name on his list and the description of their death and gave an exaggerated sigh.
"So, it appears that a group of you don't understand health and safety and managed to emulate a set of dominoes, leading to Cammy Walker-Grimsley to fall off the Nature's Lookout platform. Since this was a Rube Goldberg machine of stupidity no one gets credit. Oh also, if you thought you heard someone calling for help in the wilds, don't worry, you did."
"Compared to that our next kill is elegantly simple. Kyle Harrison was shot by an angel...did I say angel, sorry, I meant Violet Schmidt. I hear those two get confused a lot."
"Ron Kiser didn't watch his back and ended up with a bullet in it courtesy of Tirzah Foss. Hats off to Miss Foss, she's a real go-getter."
"Another death by gunshot as Desiree Beck had her mind, and head blown courtesy of Erika Stieglitz who went long with the shot. It was quite impressive."
Tracen tapped the pen on his desk again as his eyes scanned the rest of the list.
"It appears that the horror movie prop we put on the island with you got put to its proper use as Nona Hart or Marco Hart now whatever you prefer, it's not like we care. The important part is they put the insides of Kayla Harris on the outside."
"As we continued on with the day we had a battle between two heavyweights as Jeremiah Anderson was bested by Nick Ogilvie, who continued showing his hatred of throats. Protect your necks around that guy.
"Kelly Nguyen got a mercy kill... oh no wait, she killed Mercy Ames. Best make sure you check your food and drink if someone else has handled it before you; you never know what might end up in there.
"Then there was a tale as old as time. Friend finds friend, friend approaches friend, friend gets shot. This happened to Regina Petrov and Caroline Ford when Caroline shot Regina and then decided to vandalize one of our cameras, so we followed through with our warning and blew her head off. Do not mess with our cameras."
Tracen let some menace seep in as he finished off the list before perking back up again.
"Anyway! As our time together this morning comes to an end I must remind you that in good news you are free to go to The Waterfall but in bad news The Menagerie is now off-limits. If you stick around or wander into there, you're going to find out just how effective our collars are."
"And the final thing on our itinerary is to offer congratulations to Violet Schmidt. We thought you did the best job of eliminating the competition today and as such you are the winner of today's BKA!"
Tracen gave a small burst of applause.
"Your prize of blackened chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned green beans, and a new weapon, can be found in The Menagerie, specifically The Aviary. We hope you like it."
DAY THREE: TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2018
Weather: The dark clouds that moved over the course of the previous day have settled above the island. Rainfall is expected all day. The temperature has remained steady and highs of around 84 degrees F, 29 degrees C, are expected. The humidity across the island has remained and the winds across the island have begun to pick up meaning a storm could be on the way. The moon is in a waning crescent with one day until the new moon. The third announcement will come at 9 AM on June 13.
As always, it's not an announcement without rolls, and here are the latest ones:
Summary:
1. Dolores “Dolly” Upton (backslash)
2. Yuki Hayashibara (Ryuki) Ned Jackson (Ryuki, Swap Card used)
3. Blake Davis (Super Weegee)
4. Clayton Barber (The Bearded One)
5. Ramsey Cortez (Jilly) Camila Cañizares (Cicada, Hero Card used)
6. Reuben Walters (blastinus)
7. Madison Springer (Mimi) Rhonda Lawson (Espi, Hero Card used)
There are three days for cards and for regular posting to wrap up for threads that are now in danger zones and a further seven days for deaths and leaving posts. Please remember all the rules summarized previously.
Lastly, congratulations to CondorTalon for winning this month's Best Death Award with the death of Camellia Walker-Grimsley. A thread for quote nominations will go up shortly.
B018: Ned Jackson- 
G039: Yuki Hayashibara- 
B034: Zachary Beck- 
