Chapter 46: Fantom Frigate

[CondorTalon]

((Carol Hong continued from Pier Pressure.))

The ship was definitely the kind of thing you'd see in an amusement park, with its garish decorations and over-designed architecture. Of course, if Carol had actually watched SOTF, she'd probably be able to recognize it. But she didn't, so she didn't.

As it were.

Carol navigated the caricature of horror as she looked for a good place to settle in, at least for the time being. Now that she was a) alone and b) not panicking, her thoughts were just... kinda empty. She knew she had a goal to work towards, but nothing else beyond that. How, exactly, was she supposed to find her teammates? Sheer, dumb luck? Perhaps she should ask her mentor... oh, but he said that he couldn't talk to her anymore today. Cool and nice. Great. Well, she'd have to just hole up and hope that she survived that long, because right now she really, really didn't feel capable of finding someone. She wouldn't know where to even start looking.

So then, the only other option was to wait for someone to come to her and just... hope they wouldn't try to kill her.

...Yeeeeah.

She started calculating the probability that the next person to find her would try to kill her... only to give up almost immediately when she realized that a) she didn't know what percentage of the other people in this game were on her team, and b) she couldn't even know who in this game was out for blood.

"Cool. Great!" she said. Out loud. Accidentally.

[Maraoone]

((Matias Juarez continues from Doves in the Wind))

And those were the first words Matias had heard from someone other than himself since he woke up.

First thing anyone had said in his vicinity, too, since he left the ship.

Ashanti seemed like a reliable teammate for the meantime, yeah, a strong one, yeah, but a fun one? A talkative one? Someone who seemed to give a rat's ass about him? Nah.

That is to say, the two hadn't really talked much. After they emerged from the bowel onto the corridors of the cruise ship, he decided to let her take the lead. It was her flammable metal behemoth son she wanted to do... something with, after all. They hadn't even really decided where to go, much less what to do. But he could wing it. They could wing it.

He didn't mind the silence too much, mind you. He supposed a silent teammate was better than an obnoxious insufferable talk-your-ear-off haha-I'm-so-quirky teammate yes Vasily he was talking about you thank God they weren't on the same team together. But yeah. If she wanted to be silent, so be it. Yada yada I'm not here to make friends I'm here to win, something like that. Not that he'd dare say those words out loud. The ones who usually said those words on SOTF were the bitchy Disc 1 villain types who proceeded to die one smash cut later. Call him superstitious, sure, but he wasn't taking chances.

Anyways, yeah. Silence. Fine, he could live with it, could think his thoughts for a while.

Gave him more time to contemplate the arena.

The fact that, holy shit, there wasn't even any land beneath their feet. The whole place was nothing but boats and ships and these little rickety jetties in between, all in the middle of the sea.

It had felt kinda overwhelming stepping out from the interior of the ship, laying eyes on the rest of the arena, on all these pathways and sailboats and rowboats and old boats and houseboats, on the occasional ant-sized passerby he spotted from afar.

He felt small.

And that was just when they were on the cruise ship. Once they'd stepped off onto the jetties, he realized how vulnerable they were. They were open to all directions here, fully exposed. He hoped the producers hadn't gifted anyone a sniper gun. That wouldn't be fair.

The air out here was oddly cool too. Like the closest thing to winter Miami had. It gave him chills. His arms and shoulders had goosebumps, and he somewhat regretted taking his hoodie off. But putting it back on would require taking Ashanti's bag off his shoulder and then his own bag off his back and then he'd have to stop and tug it on and then put his bag back on and her bag back on and it was just a whole fuckin' dance he didn't feel like doing. He wanted to spend as little time out here as possible.

Eventually, the two found themselves wandering towards the ricketiest ship of the bunch, for one reason or another. Ghost ship, the map had said, as if this show wasn't scary enough.

It was occurring to him, the more that he looked at the map, that this side of the arena was kinda dead. Most of the ships were on the other side of the cruise ship. The idea of entering that thing didn't really enthuse him, at first. He was about to sign out to Ashanti, ask her what the point of being here was.

And then a girl's voice sounded out from inside.

He didn't recognize the voice immediately. But then again, he didn't really know most of his teammates well.

If she was a teammate, then they could ask her to join up, blah blah blah power in numbers, it'd go off without a hitch.

And if she wasn't a teammate, then.

You know.

He looked at Ashanti. Waited for her response.

[Brackie]

((Ashanti Baker continued from Doves in the Wind))

Ashanti hadn't meant to lead herself out of the ship, but when she began to realize where she was, it was the only real choice.

There wasn't even a bank of land anywhere. It was all boats, everywhere.

So do you know what that meant?

It meant the smart people, the lateral thinkers, they're not going to be on the cruise ship. The cruise ship was a giant mass in the centre, so they're not going to be there. They're going to be checking out everywhere but the cruise ship. Granted, the absolute morons in her class were probably also not going to be on the cruise ship. But either way, this meant that even though the trek out of the bowels meant trotting across some extremely unstable jetties, which threatened to topple both Ashanti and her metal backpack into the deep from which she would never return, it was the smart thing to do.

Which meant no complaints from Ashanti; verbal, ASL, or otherwise.

Granted, she was an absolute sitting duck. She couldn't run, she couldn't dip or dodge, and she didn't even have anything on her to defend herself with. Between them they had a scrapbook and an expensive, explosive baby in a buckled sling, so they weren't making the compilations any time soon, unless the fact Ashanti wasn't speaking was making her a notable character.

And it was through that simple line of thought that Ashanti wanted to break into a sprint because it wasn't the point. She wasn't supposed to be doing that, thinking of herself as a character on this show. She was a human being with a life and a destiny and the capability of doing so much with it if only she was given the choice and not forced into signing over everything she once was. She was going to get out of here, somehow, in some way, and make sure she had a hold of who she was and not some white men in Hollywood.

But as they passed across the deck of a fake pirate ship from one of Ashanti's least favourite seasons, she heard a voice.

She stopped in her path, jetpack swaying her slightly. She turned around to Matias.

"Find out who it is."

Speaking was still difficult, as badly unbalanced as she was.

"If she's on our team, great. If not-"

She stopped speaking, and stared nowhere in particular.

This was Matias's part of the plan, right? Finger across palm? She'd agreed to it, because she had to. Was she going to actually do it herself? No. She had a jetpack on her back and no weapon, what was she going to do about that? Nothing. She didn't want it to be her plan, it was all Matias. She didn't know what this made her in the whole thing, but for now she was lingering with the important tool, out of the way, ready to run at a moment's notice.

Of course, her part of the plan was that she needed whoever it was to be smart enough to figure something out with said important tool, regardless of whatever team they were on. She'd gone over stuff in her head on the walk, and many of those ideas would probably end in her head blown to limbo, so she needed someone with a prettier mind to do the mental legwork.

And this was all far too much to convey with her hands, so she didn't finish her thought.

[Lord_Shadow]

((Edited for scene flow))

((Genevieve Erickson continued from It Matters if We All Live ))

She wasn't a bad person. Anyone would've done what she did in the heat of the moment. Besides, she was just as helpless as Jodi was. She needed the protection.

If only it was loaded, but see would take what she could get. A weapon of intimidation is better than no weapon at all.

She wasn't a bad person. Jodi was going to die horribly anyway. She just tried to spare her future pain.

She wasn't a bad person.

She—

"Shit!"

These damn rickety jetties were gonna be the death of her. What was she even doing out here anyway? She needed to find people on her team and yet she was headed far away from where any sensible person would think to find anyone.

She was coming up on some sort of derelict vessel. This wasn't going to get her anywhere. She should probably leave, but she could see there were people nearby making their way inside.

Take a chance?

Take a chance.

She walked up, making sure to keep the Blunderbuss pointed down but at the ready.

If things got dicey, she could run. Last one in, first one out.

Yeah, and a whole lot of unknowns.

She could still get killed today.

[CondorTalon]

There was a possibility, a good one in fact, that no one had heard that. What were the chances that someone was happening to pass by at the exact moment that she uttered those two words? Not likely, right? She hadn't heard anything since then, so she was fine, right?

No, well... no... there was no use taking that chance. That kind of thinking got you killed. She didn't have any evidence of that... but she was right.

She needed to hide. Just in case.

Carol bolted to her feet, hoping desperately that the further noise she made didn't sound over the waves. She looked around, desperately trying to find somewhere... some way... to remain hidden.

[Maraoone]

"YEAH."

The thought didn't need to be finished. Matias understood, she understood.

Good.

No more discussion needed to be had. No more thoughts about it, he thought. So, he just.

Entered the ship.

He crouched his way through a jagged hole in the side of a hull, carefully laying his feet down so as to minimize the creaking of the wood planks beneath his feet.

He looked left, right, didn't see anyone in the dimly red-lit hallways.

He made a signal with his hand, above his shoulder, motioning for Ashanti to come over.

And he didn't even think to look back.

[Brackie]

A lot of the reason why Ashanti hated Stephanie's season was that it was just way too corny.

And a lot of that corniness was exemplified by the hull of the ship she was stepping through.

Real pirates were interesting. Real pirates had a long and varied history, complicated societies, badass female leaders on occasion.

Theme parks had no time for nuance, so Ashanti had no time for that season.

And that was exemplified by what Ashanti saw as she stepped into the ship. There could not have been anything more cliched hanging around - barrels, decorations that were supposedly part of the ship, you name it. Of course, the fake red glow that permeated everything was to be expected, but still.

Ashanti looked around the fork in the road, having lost glimpse of Matias. See, that was the thing with carrying around a large jetpack on your back - you weren't exactly quick on your feet. And the thing about refusing to speak? Means you can't call out for the guy you're travelling with. Luckily, Ashanti saw him turn a corner, and Ashanti began to follow.

She had to be light on her encumbered, because that's what they were doing now. 75% on the hunt, 25% on the hide, 100% quiet either way. She stopped every so often to make sure she wasn't being followed herself. But every time she did, she couldn't see anyone.

[Ohm]

The two had been running for a while. Leo could not tell how far they had gotten from the captain’s quarters, corridors would shift around them, wall textures would change and so would the furniture, but how far? Or even how long they had been running? Only the beat of his heart could be a tell, or the stream running down from his eyes, whether from the pain in right his arm that clutched tight to his stomach, or the pain from his heart as he tried to make sense of what Seo-yun had tried to do to him and Mary...hard to tell at this point.

He reached up with his left arm to rub his eyes.

A bump into a chair, legs fumbling beneath uncertain of whether to just fall or not. Bag flinging through the air only held back by the strap around his left shoulder before anticlimactically coming back down with a crash to the side of his stomach.

Still, he kept going. Leaving the chair behind turned uselessly to its side.

He just kept running. He was good at that. Always had been. Even when he was so weak and useless as a kid, his legs could carry him far when he was hurt or scared. When others would pick at his insecurities and attempts at friendship. It was better than to fight back, it was better than to sink to their level..

Even when he got stronger, when he got more confident, he just got better at it.

He was soon off the ship, paths having been made for them to traverse in between all the ships in the flotilla.

Even the buoyancy couldn’t stop him. The wind whipping at his face and the cold streaks that had found their way down his cheeks didn’t stop him. Mary’s voice calling out didn’t stop him.

Leo kept going, as far away from this cruise as he could.

He only stopped when his legs couldn’t take it anymore as he reached the closest ship - the ghost ship - then Leo collapsed onto the floor. Having dashed through a door to get inside. Bag splayed beside him as his lungs breathed fire and the gasping sounds of him catching his breath filled the room. The emanating pain of his arm cursing through his mind, one last memory from a friend he hoped he'd never see again.

[Lord_Shadow]

Fuck, why did these damn things always have to be like this?

This place was a damn trap and navigating it was going to be a bitch. Genevieve passed through the hallways quietly. Things were going to be difficult here. Talking to people might be damn near impossible.

When every shadow looked like an enemy, when every corner could hide danger, and when every person could be armed, talk was most certainly a stupid plan.

Regret filled her like water filled a bottle. This had been a stupid idea and going to find her allies here was a ridiculous notion. She needed to turn back and leave.

The only problem was that she hadn't kept track of all her movements. She had no idea how to get back out quickly. She turned round and around, unsure of where to go next.

Things were going to be difficult, far too difficult. She needed to run out and get to safety.

She just had no idea where to go.

She picked a direction at random and set on her path.

Then she slammed into a wall, smacking her face dead hard.

"Sonnuvabitch!"

That was not smart. Not smart at all.

[KamiKaze]

((Mary Cheung continued from 명성과 재산))

Clickclack clack click.

Even while running, Mary registered the oar clumsily hitting against the floor and furniture, the rustle of her daypack, the rapid footsteps, the loud breathing. Eventually, the sound of the footsteps changed, along with the light hitting her eyes.

Even then, they didn't stop running.

A few times, she stumbled. Over the chair had Leo tossed aside, her own oar, even her own feet. She felt herself slam against the walls a few times. Her legs ached. Maybe it was from the running, maybe it was because she fell on the chair so weirdly. But the pain was dulled in comparison to one thing: terror and adrenaline.

Her breath and heartrate continued to pound in her ears, her eyes, her mouth. At some point, they hid inside a different boat.

Then, Leo collapsed. And Mary plopped herself on the ground nearby. Her chest exhaled and inhaled deeply, her shoulders shook.

She was reasonably fit, sure? But like, running that much...

Then again, Seo-yun and Mandy had attacked them, right?

Mary curled her legs up towards her body, leaving the oar next to her.

When she got a bit of her breath back, she spoke again.

"So... uh... not a doctor, but uh--- uh... arm? Like..."

She couldn't speak. She kept trying to force it out.

[CondorTalon]

And all of a sudden there were footsteps. Everywhere and nowhere, echoing through the derelict halls of the ship, the sounds of foot beating against wood sounded around her.

How close? How close? Carol didn't know. She was trying to hide, but she hadn't quite found a spot yet. It felt like time was running out.

A shout there, a low murmur here, was she just imagining it? Was paranoia creeping up on her? The occasional bump from the walls around her would snap her out of that train of thought though. She had to find a hiding spot. A good hiding spot, of course, she couldn't just dive behind the first couple of barrels or crates or whatever and hope to not be seen. She was smarter than that. They were smarter than that.

She turned the corner and her breath caught in her throat. Someone was ahead of her, turned the other way so that Carol couldn't recognize who it was. But it was the large... thing on their back that caught her attention.

One. Five. Ten milliseconds too long. She scrambled, doubling back around the corner, whereupon her foot collided with a plank of wood leaning against the wall, sending it clattering onto the floor.

Carol winced at the sound as she continued to run.

[Maraoone]

Matias' nerves felt electrified all of a sudden.

That girl that just cursed? The one behind them? Her voice wasn't the one he'd heard earlier.

And then, the more he stayed in place, the more he listened, the more sounds seemed to come from everywhere. Thumps, shouts, splashes.

Like, yeah, this place gave off haunted house vibes. And yeah, haunted houses were typically corny as fuck. But the reason why, the reason for that was because there was never any real threat in them. The zombies who'd jump out at you, the ones with knives sticking out their throats, caked in layers of foundation, walk all stilted and janky, they were just regular joes making about as much money as he did, by which he meant next to minimum wage. The jumpscares were just animatronic. The lights just lights, and so on.

The girl who'd popped out from behind that corner? From in front of them this time? The one stumbling and scampering around the corner? That was very, very real.

It occurred to him that he'd led the two of them into a poorly lit maze. That there could be more people hiding behind corners or doors. That he couldn't quite tell if they were about to be jumped by an entire group of players or not.

So yeah he ran. He ran the same direction that girl did. If she was running away from them, then she probably wasn't much of a threat to them, right? Better the devil you knew than the one you didn't, and he sure as hell didn't recognize the voice of the girl behind them.

He looked behind himself and took hold of Ashanti's hand, making sure she followed. If he lost her here in these dark hallways, there was no way in hell he'd be able to come back for her, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to find another teammate so easily.

The ship was a labyrinth, and all the weight on Ashanti's back meant that any stop in momentum, any turn too sudden would blow them the fuck over. It felt dangerous just moving.

They roughly followed the path the girl took, the one he'd seen, and there was a part of him, in the back of his mind, cackling at the image of this girl flailing in these hallways, probably thinking she was about to die right this moment, being chased by two unknown strangers, when really they all just wanted to fuck off out of here. In another time they could've talked to her, chased her down, whatever the color of the bandanna dictated, but it wasn't safe here. They were the ones being chased down too.

Eventually, he turned a corner and caught glimpse of a bright blue, piercing through the dim red of this ship, and he dragged the two of them into the light.

((Matias Juarez continues in Matias & Me))

[Brackie]

There was now, somehow, a lot going on.

Another voice.

Some random girl Ashanti never got a good look at popping out in front of them before about-facing back again.

And now Matias was freaking out.

She knew just as well as him it was time to leave.

But he'd roughly grabbed her hand and was pulling her through the hallways, and if she was speaking she would have been swearing at every turn, because being forced to get anywhere close to a run in that thing was like being forced to run up a treadmill leaning on a wall. Ashanti didn't like any of this, because along with the enforced cardio, she felt like a child again with her oversized backpack and not being able to go anywhere without her parents grabbing her hand, or even worse with Aaliyah grabbing her hand.

It was a crosfade of things she really hated, was the thing.

Did Matias have a point he was trying to get to? Probably. Dying in here would suck, and neither of them knew what was happening around any of the corners. They didn't have the upper hand here, they were down in the pit.

So when they finally reached the other side of the labyrinth, Ashanti could finally breathe again.

((Ashanti Baker continued in Matias & Me))

[Ohm]

The rhythmic beating of his heart against his chest was all Leo could hear at that current moment, even as his throat gasped for air, as his chest rose and fell where he lay on the floor.

He could barely catch the noises around them. Footsteps, big and small, echoing around them. Voices as well, different pitches and tones, though obscured by the walls as to be hard to catch to whom it belonged to.

They had run from one place to be free from people, and instead ventured into another place with more people. Ones they cannot see, but hear. Were they friendly or foe? Leo did not know, but using history so far as a barometer, these people were probably foe as fuck.

He needed to control himself, get his bearings. Figure out what to do, well, he knew what to do, but how to get there, who to trust and how he would get there...

Wait, was Mary asking him something? Something about his arm?

Leo breathed in.

And exhaled.

"I-I know." He said, his eyes blinking rapidly and feeling the smidge of dried liquid underneath them. Despite being indoors for the time being, it was cold.

He rolled to his side, carefully keeping his right arm close to himself away from the ground. Left elbow pressed against the ground as he looked over at her.

"Do-do you know ho-how to...d-deal with this?" Hopeful words fell in between breaths, even as he slowly tried to calm himself down his heart refused. Instead it pressed and beat against his chest like it wanted out, to get away from this place as much as he did.

[Lord_Shadow]

There were too many people around.

She never thought she would think that, but there the thought was.

This place was a death trap and going inside was a stupid decision.

She rubbed her nose, still hurting from running into the damn wall. That's what you get from not looking where you were going.

She heard more talking and running and whatnot. Genevieve was getting sick of just running around not finding anyone, but she didn't want to get blindsided and caught in a bad position.

"Fuck me, this is probably the stupidest thing I'll have done."

She took a deep breath, planted her back against a wall and readied the Blunderbuss.

"I've kinda gotten sick of the running around okay." She yelled out, trying to keep an eye on each side of the hallways. "I'm Genevieve Erickson and I'm a part of Emmy's Selkies. If any of you out there is on my team, follow the sound of my voice. Anyone else, likewise so long as you don't plan on attacking."

This plan was the worst. What was she thinking. So no one wanted to reveal themselves and fight. That didn't necessarily mean they weren't capable of doing so.

Everyone was running around making noise and shit. Were they all cowards, or were they planning an ambush? No clue, no idea, no plan.

She wouldn't get shot in the back, but she might just end up watching herself get shot in the face.

Shot.

All because she had to open her goddamn mouth and be stupid.

"Please, no more of this crap. I'm looking for allies, friends, whatever. I just- I just don't wanna be alone."

She wished to God that she had been given a real gun. Or even that she had been able to take some ammo. Not like she had anything she could use.

All she had was fakes and lies.

And if someone saw through them, she wasn't the one that would leave unscathed.

She didn't want to die, but then she didn't want to be here anyway and well now how did that go for her?

She closed her eyes for a moment. She could practically hear the cocking of a hammer in her ears.

One pull and all her worries would end.

She knew it was coming.

She just didn't like that she didn't know when it would come.