Just Pay Separate Processing And Handling

[ThePureLight7*]

[Yellow #1 - Skye Thsani: Continued from Trees, Trees Everywhere]

Skye walked through the forest with his bow loaded. He wanted to make sure that he was safe in case he ran into anyone. He might not have been able to hit the squirrel, but he was pretty close, and a man is significantly larger than a squirrel. He didn't run into anyone, and eventually made his way out of the forest to the shore. He walked along the side of the water for a little bit before setting his things down beside him and sitting down.

"Fuck," he yawned. He was getting tired, but he didn't want to risk getting attacked while sleeping. He took out his map, and set it down in front of him. "I should be at the north beach right now. I might be able to find somewhere at least kind of safe in an area with a lot of tree-cover... I don't want to risk running into Marcus at the forest again. I can rest here for a minute and then start working towards the rainforest area."

He folded his map and put it back into his daypack. He grabbed another piece of Wonderbread to eat.

[CorruptDropbear*]

[[Daniel Renard continued from Fifth Wheel]]

And now he was worrying about killing people again. Of course he would be, there are others that were out to fight. Fight or die. Kill or be killed. Etcetera goddamn etcetera-what the fuck was he going on about. OK, so you saw one of the most level minded people just kill themselves over the pressure or the… whatever of this “game”, and that other person wants to kill you. Well, that was a bit of a dodgy line to say considering that she wanted to kill anyone NOT on her team, but that was beside the point. What was that, three people that he had almost run into that wanted to rip him a new one? And no r- no team members, he corrected himself. Call them team members. There’s no need to say that colour.

Paranoid? Slightly going overboard? Either way, Daniel was growing increasingly insane about what to do. No weapons meant no fighting, no teammates meant no helping others, and his weapon itself was in all cases meant to be a defensive technique. Or a “I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE SUDDEN SNIPER ATTACK” thing, but he needed a weapon to do that. Yeah, kind of a long loop he was stuck in. Every so often he would check, unsure whether to dare go up to someone and risk his fate or keep solo and… do what?

Another dot on the GPS. On the edge of the beach, resting from the looks of things. This posed a quite problematic decision again. Gambling his life for a teammate or something was very bad decision making. Then again, the worse thing was if he actually missed something or someone that he needed. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. He sighed, placing the GPS into his pocket. “I don’t have a lot of options here anymore, do I?” Stretching, he walked over to the dot, glaring out into the sound of the beach. There, in the distance was a figure. A person that Renard thought he recognised…

Oh, come on. Skye, that drunk emo- well, not emo, he was into that crappy emo sound. Oh, and yellow team, to boot. Not the most welcoming of things to be behind. He watched as he munched on his bread, Daniel looking at his sides and blinking. The idiot had left his weapon on his side. Not out of reach for him, but- No, too risky. One sound and it’s all over. But Daniel was running out of options here, wasn’t he? No weapon? What does that leave him, dead before the second half of the game? He knew how this would play out eventually. Only the cunning, the smart, the people that took advantage of a situation got out of this shit alive. Well, you also had to be extremely fucking lucky. Considering his chances of getting picked for this was not very good.

Then again, he probably could bluff his way out of it if he wanted to. Or run. Crossbows ain’t machine guns.

Blinking, Daniel making his decision. Walking out softly, sneaking around branches, over the soft sand, closer to Skye’s back. Renard’s heart was beating fast. This was insane. Of course it was. The whole situation was insane. But this was going to be the icing on the biggest chocolate cake ever made. He was close, only a few feet away. His skill in creeping around had finally come in handy for once. Getting down low, he slid over to the side, out of Skye’s vision. And then quietly as possible, he reached for the crossbow, fingers about to wrap around its middle.

Surprise.

[Frozen Smoke]

(( Zachariah Johnston continued from Movement ))

Zach was walking. He couldn't afford to stay still. He'd heard the announcements, which had pissed him off for two reasons. One was that they said that he had killed someone by kicking them. in the balls. Was that even possible? He didnt think so. Unless you can die of pure pain. And secondly, it had put his name out there as a killer.

On one hand, it'd make him a target of fear. Small time players would avoid him. But, it'd mean that everyone, in this early stage of the game would be actively hostile. And there'd be no more kills like Mar'. Never trust a player.

He had that on a t-shirt...

He looked at the cameras as he passed them. He had taken to just talking to the camera's as if they were people, it kinda made the loneliness fade. He was used to talking to himself though, so it wasnt stilted, it was pretty cracky though, as he just said random crap that he was thinking about. Clothes, sites he liked, how pissed he was at not knowing what that fucking sword was called, banal stuff like that.

It probably didnt make him seem all that sane.

Meh. Maybe he wasnt sane and he just hadnt noticed yet? How could you tell if you were insane anyways? You'd think that all your crazy deluded stuff was real right? No crazy people knew that they were crazy, did they? They always maintained that everyone else was crazy.

Hell, maybe he had snapped and was just running rampage through the school, thinking it was SOTF?

Shit, that was pretty dark.

He needed sleep, didn't he?

"I need to find a hammock... And a fuckton of beartraps" He murmured through a yawn, stretching his aching arms.

Then, he stopped.

Guy, holding rifle. 3 O'clock. Facing away. Weird glow coming from a bunch of branches.

He blinked.

No, trick of the light, just a guy and his gun.

He placed his hand on the sheathed swordy thing. He wasnt about to draw attention to himself, so he walked sideways until he reached a light bit of cover.

Maybe he'd put his gun down to clean off of something?

He could get there before he'd be able to grab it, he was sure of it. He was getting good at running. Sure, mainly for his life, but it was still running, so he was practiced. Practiced like a... something.

So he watched, patiently. Waiting for his chance. A little smile forming on his face.

Good things come to those who wait

[MurderWeasel]

A voice echoes from Skyler's collar...

"Say, I don't suppose you could say 'I love Verizon,' could you? Ideally right now?"

[ThePureLight7*]

Skye had zoned out for a short minute, looking out at the water, so he was roughly snapped back into reality when he heard the voice playing in his ear. He cringed a little at first, then grabbed his ear and turned his head a little. "I love Verizon?" he said, confused. Then he stopped. He thought he saw movement towards his side when he turned.

He reached out and grabbed his crossbow as he turned towards the movement. His eyes were wide as he jumped back and saw a boy there, who was apparently just reaching for his weapon. "What the fuck!" he shouted, alarmed. He pulled the crossbow up and aimed it at the kid, hoping that he didn't have a weapon of his own. He was trying to steal a crossbow, so Skye believed the odds were likely tipped in his favor.

"Alright," he said after taking a moment to breathe, "What were you doing just now? I want you to explain yourself calmly, and I most definitely do not want to cause a scene..." He backed up a little, keeping his bow trained on the boy in front of him.

[CorruptDropbear*]

Shit. Fucking goddamn Verizon. I will fucking switch to AT&T as soon as I get off this goddamn rock.

Now Renard was in trouble. Well, if trouble was a nice little crossbow right in the stomach. Survival odds... not that great. A few days, maybe, if it was properly sterilized and wrapped and all that shit? No, that would be in the arm. Stomach would be a few hours to live. Either way, a slow way to die. Not pretty. Daniel was tempted to say 'What the fuck do you think it looks like?' but that would probably end in pointy things going in fleshy things. Instead, he put on a big smile, grinning and shrugging.

"Sorry man, I just wanted to have a look at it, looks pretty cool." Daniel shrugged. How much bullshit could he say? Eh, probably anything to make him think twice about shooting him would be good. "A few of my Red teammates were looking for people we could trade weapons with. Ya know, one of our team members can't lug a sniper rifle around, too heavy. She'd probably be interested."

Pure bullshit, but it served a few purposes. The guy might think that he had backup, maybe a person who can snipe from far away. Also gave him a legit reason for looking at the weapon. Kind of.

Yeah. Just smile and nod, boy. Smile and nod.

[Frozen Smoke]

He listened as some quiet noise carried it's way across the wind to his ears.

He watched as the guy moved with snappy careful movements, rifle in hand.

Shit. This guy was either a player, or JROTC. Either way, charging him, here, with maybe... 10, 15 seconds of sprinting between set off and contact, where he'd be out in the open and easy pickings, did not seem like a good plan. What did seem like a good idea was keeping his head down and fucking off.

To sleep.

That sounded good.

He needed a gun to, that was on his to do list, oh, and a group. A few people to watch his back whilst he answered the call of nature, cleaned his gun, "Cleaned his gun" and other menial but important tasks.

Yeah.

He'd leave this guy alone.

(( Zachariah Johnston Continued in Shelter by The Lakeside ))

[ThePureLight7*]

Skye kept his crossbow aimed at the boy in front of him, making sure that he didn't try to escape. He looked around as the boy spoke. The kid mentioned some partner with a sniper, but Skye couldn't see anything. He's bluffing... he said, Then again, snipers aren't really supposed to be seen... He looked back at the kid. Even if he isn't bluffiing though, the guy's teammate probably has no clue how to use a damn sniper rifle anyway. I'll see what I can get from him...

"Bull. Shit." Skye said, aloud, "Don't act like I'm that stupid. You were clearly trying to steal David!"

He paused for a second. David? Really? he scolded himself, Did you just name your crossbow? And what's more, did you name your crossbow David? As in David Bow-ie? How the fuck did you come up with such a stupid pun on such short notice? He rattled his head a little, and aimed his concentration back towards the kid.

"But don't worry," he said, lowering the crossbow without letting his guard down entirely. He didn't see any weapon on the kid, and he figured that he didn't have anything long-range if he was trying to steal his crossbow David. "I won't hurt you unless provoked..." he said, "I've already got too much blood on my hands."

Good, he thought, Build some tension... Make vague comments about your prowess as a killer... Let him know that you are not one with whom he would like to fuck, while still letting him know you're not a complete monster planning on snapping on him at any second. He stepped forward and offered his hand out to the boy, making sure to keep the rest of his body a safe distance from him, in case he had a knife or something similar. "My name's Skye..." he said, kindly, "Yours?"

[CorruptDropbear*]

Bullshit. Everything that he was talking about was absolute bullshit. They could both tell that they were telling absolute crap. Skye hadn't been on the announcements as far as he'd heard. At least, he was pretty sure that he wasn't on them. And he had named his crossbow. Only fucking madmen named their weapons. And- wait.

"You don't know my name?"

Daniel tilted his head to the side, confused. "We were in the same music class at school, remember? Renard. The guy with the keyboard." He did a jazz hands impression in thin air.

...fuck it, this wasn't getting through to him. At all. Sighing, he looked at the hand in front of him. Slowly, he gripped, shaking. "Daniel Renard."

He then pulled forward, his hand now around Skye's wrist. He'd be unbalanced as shit. Enough time for him to hide. Not wasting time, he forced his shoulder at Skye, turning into the jungle again, dashing into the greenery.

"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, BITCH!"

God, he had always wanted to say that to him. He slid into a bush, watching what Skye would do. Take a chance or run away?

[ThePureLight7*]

The boy sat there for a moment, seemingly compliant, before speaking up confused. "You don't know my name?" Skye thought for a second. Should he know his name? He knew that a bunch of people from Detroit Central had been taken for the program. This kid looked kind of familiar now that he thought abo- "We were in the same music class at school, remember? Renard. The guy with the keyboard."

Nope. Mind's a blank again.

The kid proceeded to do jazz-hands in the sky. After Skye didn't respond, the kid sighed and reached his hand out to him. "Daniel Renard," he said. Well, I guess that was easy. Skye started to smile as it seemed he was making a new fri- "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, BITCH!"

Goddammit! Quit interrupting the narration! The kid just pulled Skye into the ground and ran into a nearby bush, shouting taunts at him. Just fucking perfect. Skye fell forward, and sand flew around him as he landed. He coughed a little, closing his eyes. He stood up, groaning, and readied his bow. He scoped the area, and started following the footprints towards the bush the guy was hiding behind.

Hell, he thought, I'm already gonna be in the next announcement anyway. Might as well build some sort of reputation. It's not like there's any possibility this guy could kill me. He just did fucking jazz-hands a second ago... (This coming from the guy who named his crossbow.)

[MurderWeasel]

A voice echoes very quietly from Daniel's collar...

"Good job, Renard. You have him off balance. Use that to your advantage. If you can capitalize on your opportunity here, you'll have a good start on the rest of this."

[CorruptDropbear*]

The collar spoke. Off balance. The collar wanted him to continue the fight. Why the fuck would he do that? He was weaponless- No. Nononono. He had himself and the advantage. He was the weapon. The advantage was the weapon. What did he mean by capitalize? Daniel's eyes flickered back to the crossbow. Skye probably didn't know how to use the weapon effectively. It was a deterrent, visual scare. But he still needed it. If he could learn to use it or at least aim straight, that would turn it into a weapon slightly lower than a gun, but higher than whatever the fuck everyone else had.

Renard slowly crept sideways, silent, creeping around Skye. He was following the footprints. Not as dumb as he thought. Either way, he still hadn't noticed him. Almost behind his blind spot. Perfect ambush again. He had a plan. Tackle him to the ground, step on his arm until he let go of the crossbow, take it and get the fuck out of dodge. Well... he could also get permanently get rid of him as well. Daniel shivered at the thought. He would have to do it once at some point. Here could be his first.

Daniel blinked and stared at the floor. Rocks. He picked one up. Not sharp, fucking heavy though. Wasn't how it went in the movies? A blow to the head with a rock. Stretching up, he took a silent step forward. And another. And another.

And swung, rock in hand.

[ThePureLight7*]

Be prepared... Skye thought to himself, looking at the bush and holding up his bow, If he didn't move from behind that bush, then I'll have to push him around a little more. If he still won't cooperate, I might have no choice but to... He shook his head a little. No, no. He probably won't be back there. He probably ran away. He couldn't be that stupid to just stay here with an angry kid with a crossbo-

Skye was suddenly iterrupted by a blow to the back of the head. He fell to the ground, grunting a bit and throwing his arms in front of him. He caught his fall of the sand in front of him. It was fairly coarse, so his arms were scratched up a bit. When he fell, he dropped his crossbow David and it landed on the ground in front of him. "Fuck!" he shouted, coughing up blood.

Goddammit! he said in his head, I must have bit my tongue. The back of my head is probably bleeding. How the fuck did he get behind me?! He looked around at the line of trees and bushes beyond the beach. He must have run around a bit and come out beyond my line of sight. It had only been a few seconds, and he was still very disoriented.

He grabbed his crossbow David and turned to his back, looking up at Renard. He couged a little, and sat up straight so as to not choke on his blood. He spit some of it out, and lifted the bow. "Stay..." he said, pausing between breaths, coughing a little and spitting out blood, "The fuck... Back... I will... Not... Hesitate... Now." His arms were shaking a little bit, but he started to straighten up more as he slowly regained his composure. He figured if he shot now, he could easily hit the boy. This kid was no damn squirrel; he was a much easier target.

[CorruptDropbear*]

It took Daniel a few seconds after impact to realise that he had actually successfully hit him. A small patch of blood on the rock meant that it must have done something serious at least. Raising an eyebrow at the rock, he shrugged, almost confused. He thought this fighting thing would be harder. Don’t get cocky though. That would lead to problems.

He slowly stepped back, tossing the rock up and down in the air, watching Skye with curiosity. He still didn’t have the goddamn balls to shoot. Pathetic. Maybe he knew that it was only a threat while loaded. If he fired, he’d lose his arrow, and Renard didn’t see any other arrows on the guy. He probably has the rest in his bag.

Wait.

Daniel took another step back, leaning on an angle, flicking his eyes at the beach. Skye had left his bag there. Food would be in it, as well as the other arrows. Arrows could be thrown around. Not the worst weapon. He could use that. He definably could use that. On the other hand, he already had Tristian’s bag and his own, enough food to last him until the end of the whole game. No, he needed a weapon, not food. Arrows weren’t good weapons. Crossbows are. Daniel wasn’t settling for second best here.

Daniel slowly went back again. His left arm was facing Skye, trying to not show as much of a target. Feeling the rock in his right hand, he bit his lip. He was never a perfect thrower, but in this situation he didn’t have much choice. If he hit, he’d probably be able to go in for a good kick. If not, running away with three bags wouldn’t be impossible.

Quickly, Daniel slammed the rock forward, throwing it hard at Skye. Chances are it would probably catch him in the gut - hopefully painfully.

[ThePureLight7*]

Renard backed up a little more, and had another stone. Skye was ready this time. When he saw the guy started to turn towards him (he was facing sideways; likely to avoid creating a large target), he rolled to the side. He groaned from the severe pain felt in rolling, but he steadied himself and shot the crossbow in the guy's direction. Hopefully that'll hit... Since I moved nearer to his broadside, there's a little more of him to hit. he thought to himself, I can't afford to have to go grab the bolt and reload again. If not, that asshole still knows I'm not bluffing him.

As he thought, the rock landed to his side, throwing sand everywhere. Damn, that sucker was big. Why are there so many huge-ass stones on this beach? Some of the sand got in his eye and he winced a little, but otherwise was fine. It still hurt like all hell for Skye to move too fast, but at least he could do it.

Enough playing around with this guy... He's clearly not willing to cooperate. He could hear the announcement in the background, but couldn't pay too much attention. He could make out Devonte and Marcus' name, but didn't hear his own. He figured that maybe he had missed it. He'd figure out what was happening later, once this other guy was dead.

There is no way I am going to die like this. All of my dead friends would never let me hear the end of it in the afterlife. "Hey, Frank, did you read Skye's obituary? It says he suffered a horrible death-by-jazz-hands! Hahahahahaha!"