The Chemicals Between Us

[Ruggahissy]

Lori hooked her thumb underneath her false head and tipped it up to her forehead so that most of her face was visible.

"Hi, Meka," she said again. "It's Lori. Lori Martin."


She stood up nice and straight, having good posture that seemed unnatural.

"Like Claudeson said, as long as you're cool with us we're cool with you," she said optimistically, backed by the soft crackling of the fire. "We're good," she said. Lori looked over at Miguel (?) who had said nothing besides "hey." That made her nervous. She shifted, making sure that her gun was in her lap but still firmly in her grasp.

"How have you been?" she asked generally.

[Laurels]

Okay, it was Lori Martin. Not that Meka was expecting it to be anyone in particular, but now he had a clear idea who was present at this campfire. Lori asked how things were going, to which Meka sighed.

"Well, not very well. I avoided getting murdered twice, but that meant two of my friends died instead," he explained. "Quinn killed Rhonda, and Justin killed Mackenzie. So, yeah. Not so great."

Meka stared at the fire. Everything had been cold and damp for the last week or so. Seeing something so warm and animated was really nice.

"So now I'm just trying to get around without truly participating in this mess. And you?"

[decoy73]

Lori Martin. Manuel had never actually spoken with her much. Meanwhile, Meka had turn out to have been with Rhonda and Mackenzie, both of which were dead, which was similar to his own experiences.

"I was with Yuka and Sal. Yuka split after finding Yuki, and Sal went somewhere. Still don't know where any of them are. So now I'm in the same boat. Just trying to not die." Manuel sat down, finally taking off some of the stress of carrying two bags.

[Cactus]

There was a level of disassociation that Claudeson observed from both Emeka and Manuel, and barring any swift moves or deceitful tactics on their part, he knew that he and Lori held the upper hand. Whether or not they decided to try anything violent, he was unsure, yet by all appearances, these two boys were meek, unable to understand or comprehend their current situation. There would be no attack coming from either of them without sudden and violent retribution from Claudeson, and the very thought made him smile darkly once more.

"Quinn and Justin," he echoed Emeka's report of whom was responsible for the deaths of his friends, "they are actively hunting our peers, yes?"

That was two of the student body that he had barely interacted with. Justin Greene was inept, barely able to string a sentence together and was the kind of person that Claudeson had always expected to find in the homeless shelters that he volunteered at some day. Quinn was someone barely on the periphery of notice; constantly looking haunted or terrorized.

Survival of the Fittest had been a boon for her.

"We have travelled together since I ran into Bret Carter accosting Lori," he offered. Looking over at his owl-clad companion, he revelled in the knowledge that Bret would never hurt anyone, ever again. His voice was calm, almost soothing; his words anything but.

"He is no longer someone anyone need concern themselves with."

[Ruggahissy]

"Hahaha, I know how that is!" Lori said in response to the boys. She was trying to be personable.

She became deadly silent when Claudeson reminded her that Quinn and Justin were two of the people who had killed quite a bit. He addressed her now and she bit her lip, thinking.

"Oh, no. We met before Bret --"

She stopped, realizing that it would be kind of difficult to explain how they ended up traveling together since she'd tackled him and there was the matter of Michael.

"But not much before. But he did, yeah. Claudeson saved me from Bret. He was like, he started talking to me and then he was saying really rude stuff to me. I shoved him and then he grabbed me and then Claudeson came and he saved me," she explained quickly.

She looked at her companion quickly before looking back to the other two.

"So no one has to worry about him! It's a good thing, right?"

Lori gripped the gun tighter in her lap and looked at the boys. They weren't looking too lively. It was true that she and Claudeson had the power in the situation, but they weren't monsters. Maybe.... Maybe they could rob them? They would need the resources as time went on, and it wouldn't be like they were killing anyone. Lori paused for a moment. Was it really ethical for her, a white person, to be robbing minorities? That would be perpetuating the bad acts of white people stealing from minority populations going back many generations: land, customs, even Taco Bell was actually a white guy stealing hard shell tacos. Could she do that to Miguel (?). Lori looked at Claudeson. Well, maybe that would be better since he was black? Or would that be perpetuating negative stereotypes about African Americans?

Lori fretted silently.

[Laurels]

Meka listened as the others spoke. Manuel hadn't run into any dangerous people, but had seen Yuka and Sal. Meka found himself more drawn to what Claudeson and Lori said. Bret Carter was dead. One half of the Carter twins was gone. Meka breathed in and out, letting that roll over him. That meant that Wyatt was still around, probably pissed and hellbent on vengeance. Like hell Meka was going to cross paths with Wyatt Carter in a place like this, especially if it meant that it was more likely to happen being around Claudeson.

Meka lowered his head and shook it. That wasn't what he should be thinking about right now. Wyatt Carter was a threat to a lot of people, but Meka didn't need to think he was a threat to him. Yet, anyways. But that wasn't Meka's concern right now.

The cackling fire was his main thought.

"Well, I'm surprised to hear that Bret is gone," Meka said. "But I'm definitely not going to hold that against you. If anything, I'd rather we be diplomatic right now and discuss what we're going to do next instead of dwelling on the past."

Meka rubbed his palms together.

"So, Claudeson. Lori. If I may," he began.

Meka gestured to the fire.

"Are you willing to share some fire?"

[decoy73]

Bret was "no longer someone anyone need concern themselves with." That was both disconcerting and comforting at the same time. On the one hand, it meant that Claudeson had likely killed Bret, but the way Lori said it, Bret had attacked her, so Bret wouldn't be attacking them. But nothing to worry about? There was Bret's friends, and what if they had gotten Bret to back off or join them, and Wyatt would come after the pair now, and

"No. He's dead, so ... we can just focus on staying alive and warm." Manuel just held his hands out to the fire.

[Cactus]

In the end, Claudeson felt a level of disappointment in both Manuel and Emeka. Both boys had the potential to be so much more than the sum of what they were, but both of them were fixated on the smaller picture, the moment-to-moment of keeping warm. They were so far out of their depth — they had barely flinched when he had professed the end of Bret Carter. Perhaps that was just their fault, the reason that they would both inevitably end here on this island. Both of these boys seemed broken, barely a threat to he or to Lori.

Rather, they were entering the lion's den, and Claudeson knew that neither of them recognized it.

"Please," he gestured to the empty space across the fire pit from he and Lori, inviting the boys to join them, "be our guest."

Of the duo, he had to admit that Emeka surprised him for how sullen and out of it the boy looked. A passionate advocate for his own personal politics back in Chattanooga, he simply appeared tired and beaten down by the flickering light of the fire. The fury and energy that Claudeson expected to see from a person who considered themselves such an advocate was absent, extinguished. It was almost as though that whole aspect of his public persona had been a fallacy.

Another fake.

Another liar.

Another person who had misrepresented what they were.

How could someone so fierce and impassioned lose their drive so heavily? If nothing else, Survival of the Fittest had awakened something within himself, it had driven the darkness away — or driven him towards it, for a moment he wasn't sure — and he still felt as though he were buzzing with some sort of energy. Where was the poet, where was the activist, where was the crusader? He had all of the aura of a wet fart.

"We should try and rest soon, before dawn. The announcement will ensure that none of us can rest, and we should not remain stationary." Claudeson took a sip from a water bottle that was sitting at his side.

[Ruggahissy]

This was going fairly well, still. Things were pretty stable. Both of the boys seemed to either see the encounter with Bret in a sympathetic light to them or just plain didn't care because it was Bret. Harsh, but you keep what you sow, she guessed.

She slumped down, sitting with her right hand supporting her chin and her other head resting in her lap. Lori chewed on her lip and looked at Claudeson after he invited them to sit. He didn't look especially pleased with the situation. His face set into hard lines looking at them. Maybe he wasn't sure if they were as easy going as they seemed. Lori was getting kind of weird vibes off of them, if she had to be honest.

Maybe it would be easier to see what they really thought with a little bit of encouragement?

Lori's hand slipped into her bag. It wasn't like her drugs had done any lasting damage to anyone she'd given them to. Ivy, Declyn, Ace, Amelia, Joanne. They'd all been perfectly fine after an hour or two, Amelia's kiss virginity not withstanding.

She'd even saved Michael's life! Sort of. In a way.

He drank her harmless drugs thinking they'd kill him. That made her sad to think about, actually. She wondered if Violet was still with him, and this prompted her to hope that Claudeson wouldn't abandon her. This, in turn, hastened her work

Her fingers tripped open the bottle and she grabbed two pills. She then turned to the bag and mimed looking around the bag while she unscrewed the cap off two bottles and slipped the pills into their respective bottle.

"Here," she said, feigning finally having found the bottles. "You guys are guests," she said, illuminated in harsh shadows from the light of the fire, smiling in the chiaroscuro.

[Laurels]

"Great," Meka said in response to Claudeson's permission. "You're my Prometheus, man."

Meka shifted over and set his bag on the ground. He opened it up and began to rummage through it.

"I have some places I want to go before daylight," Meka said, "and I'd rather save my flashlight batteries. I think I can fashion up a torch with some stuff in here."

Meka grabbed the first aid kit out of the bag. He hadn't really been injured that much, aside from punching a wall a few times after Mackenzie died, so he wasn't sure how much they gave him. But there had to be something flammable like alcohol in there. Maybe some string or some gauze to at least tie an extra shirt or some cloth around a stick.

Now, Meka was creative, but moreso with words than with his hands beyond gesticulation. If he was going to make a torch, it was going to take a lot of trial and error. At the very least, there were a few people who could at least humor him or offer tips/materials to aid.

Meka looked up when Lori spoke. He saw the owl-headed girl holding out a water bottle towards him. Well, she was convivial, and it wasn't like Meka had any reason to turn down charity.

"Oh, thanks," he said, taking the bottle and taking a quick sip.

He capped the bottle and set it down before he went back to rummaging. There was a large stick behind his seat that he could use, but the flammable material had to come first. Surely there was something to help him spread his message across the island at a burning rate.

[decoy73]

That sounded good. Saving up energy. By the warm, warm fire. Meka wanted to make a torch because he wanted to get up early. So long as there was still four people and a fire the next morning, he was fine.

"Here."

Lori held out a water bottle. Manuel's eyebrows rose momentarily as he took the offered bottle. He looked at it for a moment before taking a swig. It felt nice. Even if it was lukewarm. Another swig soon followed before he put it down by his bag and lay back, hoping that he could get some sleep.

[Cactus]

"A worthy endeavour," Claudeson was forced to admit at Meka's ingenuity. While they very obviously had the ability to make fire — the blazing vortex before them proof positive enough, fashioning a makeshift torch would be a bit more of a task. The terrorists who had abducted them had not exactly gifted with them the ability to make large fires.

Plus, the reward for doing so was a one-way ticket to eternity, thanks to the collars around their necks. If Meka wished to tempt fate by doing so, Claudeson was not going to stand in his way. Slightly raising an eyebrow at Lori's surprising show of magnaminty, he watched as the boys accepted her peace offering. While they'd been travelling together, Lori had been a lot of things, but overly generous hadn't been one of them. Her smile, intended to show warmth, told him a different story.

What was she playing at?

"So Emeka," he started, allowing his glance to linger away from Lori, "whom do you seek? Most people are seeking something — or someone. A purpose is a powerful thing. Would you care to share yours with us?"

His own words stung him. Purpose was powerful; he had known his for a long while, until the world had come tumbling down around him. To have a purpose would be to have a direction, and until Claudeson was able to sort through the shambles of his own psyche and understand what his own purpose was here, he knew he would be unable to grasp hold of stable ground any longer.

All of that underneath the surface, and he simply smiled at Meka and Manuel, matching Lori's genial appearance.

They were all liars, in the end. Even him.

[Ruggahissy]

Well, they both took the water and drank. There seemed to be no effect so far. Lori leaned in curiously to see if there was some minor change she hadn't noticed. However, Manuel just announced he was going to bed and then hit the hay. It was kind of anticlimactic.

Maybe they just had a higher tolerance than the other people she'd drugged? She never saw how it had affected Michael, but he seemed totally find the next day.

Lori hugged the owl head close and decided to make her own little are ready for sleep. She fluffed up her bag to use as a pillow and laid it down carefully. The rest of the owl suit was next to her. She laid the head near her bag and hugged the headless body.

Lori took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

[Laurels]

So there really wasn't much to use. There were alcohol wipes, which Meka figured would burn up fast. There was thread for needle, but the string from the bow might be better to tie things together. Meka did have a few shirts and clothing items, which could hopefully stay lit for some time. This was probably going to be a MacGyver situation, so hopefully he could find something that would work.

As he moved the alcohol wipes onto his lap, Claudeson asked him who he was looking for and what his purpose was.

"Well, there's a few I wouldn't mind finding," he explained, continuing to ruffle through for anything of use. "A lot of my friends from school are either gone or stayed home. I guess I want to find Marceline, if anyone. We were together with Rhonda and Dolly, but our group split up. She lost Dolly the same day Rhonda died, and I want to find her to at least check in on her. It's sad to think this is our first real bonding moment, but I think we can help one another."

Meka grabbed the small scissors from the first aid kit.

"So that's a start at least. I guess-oh!"

The scissors slipped from Meka's fingers and fell to the ground at his feet. Meka leaned forward and reached down to grab them, but paused. Somehow, the ground got farther away from Meka as he reached out. He continued to reach, but could see the ground sinking further and further away, the scissors getting completely out of reach. Meka continued to stare, his mouth slightly agape.

"Whaaaaaaaaat?" he drew out, keeping his hand outreached towards the scissors.

If Meka was actually aware of his surroundings, he would have known that the scissors were just inches from his hand, but as he remained there frozen, they seemed to be eternally out of reach.

"What is..."

[decoy73]

Manuel looked up at the sky. The stars were actually quite clear. Of course, they were twinkling due to being all the way out in space, but that was to be expected. The sky was a little lighter than he expected with the moon the way it was, a weird shade of greenish-pink. He was likely a little dizzy. That probably explained why the stars were spinning so fast.

"Heh, heh-heh. Hehheheheheh ..."

He looked to his right as the trees were just bending and flashing.

"Weee ... wwweerrrre ... together withRhondaandDolly ... butourgroupsplitup." He looked at the scene.

"Waat?" When did Meka get so bendy? And he'd never seen that shade of yellow in Meka's hair before.