We Know Who Our Enemies Are

[delicateMachine]

((What did the names on the announcements mean to Alice?))

Over the course of the previous day, she'd settled on an answer. She hoped that by figuring out what she wanted her reactions to be ahead of time, once the time came to actually feel she'd have some modicum of control over her emotions.

Every person dead was one less person in her way. She had momentarily wished for a yearbook, so she could cross out of the face of every name listed; before realizing that'd introduce a very real danger of reminding her that these were still fellow human beings that she'd spent the majority of her life with. It would still be satisfying, in a perverse way. Alice liked lists.

In a similar vein, every killer was one more person doing her work for her. One more person that she could safely push over the edge of the tower without guilt. Not that she wanted to, of course; and even after two days of numbing herself the thought of murder still made her a bit sick; but if she had to do it it'd be best if it was someone like Katarina. Someone who wouldn't be missed by many.

This plan survived first contact with the morning, too; at least until the terrorist listed Eris's name with all the emotion of a local weather station. With her corpse out of sight, Alice had managed to suppress the vivid details of what she had done the previous day - the unnatural coldness of the skin she had accidentally touched, the little spots of blood that had found their way onto her clothing and remained there, still; mixing with the stains her own blood had made.

She puked over the side of the lighthouse. At least she hadn't eaten breakfast yet. That'd be a senseless waste of nutrients.

[General Goose]

((Chuck Soileaux continued from A Chuckpost.))

Chuck had, overnight, attempted some exercises. He was no expert in keeping fit and supple, and bar a few token stretches, made no effort along that front. No, the exercises he attempted were eye exercises. He had exposed his eye to the air, briefly, for a moment, and regretted exposing the still sodden cuts almost immediately. For the next day or so - and here, each day was literally life or death - he would have to be cautious.

He had taken a crossbow bolt, stuck it in the ground, and looked at it from a short distance. Having a clear point of reference had allowed him to experiment with strategies to tackle those two flaws. He had taken to tentatively holding his hand out, before committing to anything intricate, just to check the depth perception. Had taken to swaying his head from side to side, to accommodate for the loss of vision.

And so, as he approached the lighthouse, the casual observer might notice first not the bandage, but the deliberate and almost theatrical ways in which he moved his hands, and the dizzying manner in which he swayed his head from side to side.

The lighthouse, much like Chuck, was far worse for wear. Vomit and blood and bulletholes. As he approached, he made sure to take out the crossbow and hold it at the ready. At least, what he thought was at the ready. He'd seen a couple of medieval war movies and a couple of episodes of The Walking Dead. That was the extent of his knowledge about proper wielding of a crossbow. It was heavy, and cumbersome, and prevented him from scratching his nose and tugging on his Boo ears.

"Hello! I come in peace!"

Chuck wasn't sure if he meant that as a joke or not. Either way, it was not his finest line.

The vomit was still fresh.

He was pretty sure it hadn't been there as he'd approached the building.

Fuck, there was a speck on his shoe.

[jimmydalad]

((Saachi Nidal continued from Two is Better Than One))

Saachi had needed time to herself. Some would say it was enforced upon her due to her circumstances, but she ignored those hypothetical people if they even existed. In her mind, she was going to need it eventually and maybe it was a good thing that she got metaphorically shot in the knee and lost her closest ally. Said ally had tried to kill her after all, maybe it was only a matter of time before Jay snapped on her and she'd end up on the wrong side of the trident. It was only a matter of time.

That's what she had to tell herself. As day turned to night, she took the time for moments of introspection. Her mind was her strongest asset now. In a way, it always had been before. Without Jay to cover her mistakes, however, she'd have to rely on it more than ever. She took time to consider her advantages and disadvantages. She had more than enough supplies, but no ranged weapons. She was smart and didn't have to worry about appeasing allies, but she was now open more to being attacked from behind or surprised.

Each different thought was a distraction from the reality of what had just happened. Putting away the feelings that came with losing her advantages and had her only ally die right in front of her. The recognition of her powerlessness in the situation and the control that Katarina had over her. She stubbornly refused to acknowledge those emotions. After all, they were signs of weakness. Of an inability to cope with what the game threw at her. She was better than the game and she was better than the other kids. She wasn't going to let the game beat her.

Having spent most of the day in the woods, intentionally avoiding other groups and generally keeping to herself, she eventually found a place to sleep. Taking advantage of some of the leaves and other debris that had fallen on the ground, she covered herself up and slept. It wasn't comfy, but the darkness helped masked her from the others.

- - - -

So she had been the one to take his life in the end. In a way, that soothed Saachi. It was always meant to have been him and her at the end and she, at least in her mind, was destined to be the one to finish off Jay. Take that KK, you bitch. She wasn't able to take that away from her. Saachi did note that she took Eris's life. A part of her felt that she should've been the one to take her life due to their rivalry at school, but maybe it was better they hadn't met. For all she knew, Eris had a gun too.

She took in who the killers were, more focused on Jay's announcement than anything else. A strong reminder that he indeed was dead and yesterday did happen and wasn't just some macabre nightmare. No, that was a macabre reality. Once the announcement was over, Saachi set off. She never really had a destination in mind. AS long as she was careful around others, she could be safe. Maybe she'd catch someone unawares and she could pounce on them. She still needed to win, after all.

- - - -

As the lighthouse came into view, she was greeted with the sight of a girl puking over the side of the lighthouse on top and a boy a few meters in front of her on the ground. With his back turned towards her, Saachi paused for a moment. It was difficult to see what weapon he had, so she had to be ready for anything.

He didn't seem aggressive, judging from his words, but maybe that was a ruse. In any case, Saachi stopped and waited, judging the situation first before she dived in headfirst. Already, she began thinking about what to say should they notice her. Her name was just in the announcements, after all. Twice.

[delicateMachine]

Hell. Couldn't he have waited another five minutes? What, had everyone just gotten up and started sprinting once the last echo of the announcements had died? Now Alice's guest - both her guests, she corrected herself after she glanced away from Chuck - knew where she was. Had seen her vulnerable.

That wouldn't be such a bad thing, if she hadn't been unarmed, injured, and now without even a trace of last night's meager dinner in her stomach. Her only solace was that Chuck didn't have a gun - that crossbow was probably even more unwieldy than the harpoon gun. Even if he tried to make a miracle shot from dozens of feet below her; she'd have plenty of time to dive for cover.

So for now, Alice stood up, leaned on the railing. Tried not to look at the vomit or blood below. At least Eris - at least there wasn't a corpse, too. The cameras wouldn't get to watch it rot.

"Do both of you?" She called down. Didn't look like the two were together. It irked her to rip out a page from KK's book, at least from before the girl had abandoned any sense of subtlety, but she needed any advantage she could get.

[General Goose]

Chuck was busy lifting his foot up, checking the couple of droplets of vomit he'd came into contact with, when the reply came from above. Alice. Shy girl. He hadn't really had much in the way of interaction or history with her. But he had no reason to think that she was aggressive. No reason to think she was anything else other than, like Chuck, a hapless victim of this all, aimlessly trying to make it to the next morning.

And then she said 'both'.

"It's ju-" Chuck stopped himself. It probably wasn't just him. She had the vantage point. He had the limited peripheral vision. Unless she thought his hat was an autonomous being, she was going to be in the right, about how someone else was on the scene.

He swivelled around. Spotted Saachi.

Saachi. Why was that name on his mind?

Oh yeah. Announcements. After the whole Sophie Jasmine thing, Chuck knew the announcements weren't comprehensive guides to who to trust or not trust. But she'd killed a couple. Enough that they were able to refer to her by family name only for the second kill.

"Uhhh...." Chuck's voice almost fell to a squeak, before he remembered it had to carry upwards. "I can't speak for Saachi."

[jimmydalad]

Saachi gave a second as the focus turned towards her. From where she was, she wasn't able to tell what sort of weapon the girl had on her. She deduced that she didn't have a gun. After all, if she did, she probably would've pulled it out and used it as leverage against them. In the end, she wasn't going to be a threat from that vantage point without a gun. With that decided, her attention focused squarely on the guy with the weird ghost hat.

The first thing she noticed was that crossbow. Then the fact that the guy in front of her was Chuck from Debating. He was friendly, enough for her to feel comfortable that he wasn't going to go full KK on her. That was a nice change.

"I'm not looking to start any fights," Saachi called out, trying to ease the worries of the pair.

If she could've had things her way, Saachi fancied having that crossbow for herself. Range was something she was going to want to have, considering that the trident was currently her only way of having range superiority over others. Even with the trident, it wouldn't compare to weapons such as KK's. While a crossbow wasn't a gun, it was a step towards it. That was more than enough for her to have a vested interest towards getting it.

That didn't mean that she could just attack Chuck for it. While she could probably get the jump on him, she'd risk ending up on the wrong side of that crossbow and that wasn't a battle Saachi was willing to take. Additiionally, she didn't know what the girl on the lighthouse had. With the blood and bulletholes in the lighthouse, that was enough to have her be wary as well, even if she deduced that she didn't have a gun. In the end, she probably didn't need to make enemies out of them just yet. Once she had more information, more things to work off of, then she could begin executing a plan.

"As much as I love standing outside, would it be possible for Chuck and I to head inside?"

It was an innocent enough question, but Saachi didn't like being out in the open and vulnerable to attack. She hoped that the girl was feeling at least a little charitable.

[delicateMachine]

Alice wondered if Saachi had said the same thing to the two people she had killed. Maybe not - she seemed to recall there being something about a "partner", but she was never really one to pay attention to the flavor text. Plus, the vomiting had had an irritating side effect of driving everything except the pure data of the names out of her head.

It'd be preferable if she had a pen and paper - her memory was good, but it wasn't good enough to keep the dozens of names of the dozens of people she didn't particularly care about straight in her head - but you didn't have to be particularly attentive to realize that the girl striding up to the lighthouse with a trident mere minutes after being accused of a double homicide was probably bad news.

If Alice let her get close; she'd have basically no way to avoid being skewered unless she used Chuck as a meat shield. But if she bolted now, all that Saachi would have to do was wait at the bottom of the stairs. She'd probably have sufficient time to stab Chuck in the back if she was feeling ambitious, even.

Didn't look good, but she had to try something except hoping for a murderer's mercy.

"Sure. Put your weapons down first, though. Both of you," she called. It was a line that would only work on an idiot, but Alice had learned not to assume intelligence or competence of the people who were still alive.

[General Goose]

There was a lot for Chuck to unpack here. He had been very deliberate, very explicit, in not speaking for Saachi. And Saachi pretty much eliminated any goodwill she may have been able to acquire by requesting Chuck and Saachi to be admitted as one. She was linking them together. Making them appear as one coherent unit, one team, asking Alice to make one decision affecting both of their fates.

There was also something more pedantic. More trivial, more idiosyncratic, at play. It was slightly obnoxious for Saachi to speak on his behalf. He hated when people did that, when people assumed what he wanted and used that assumption to make their own requests seem a little bit less selfish and insular. But what was annoying about this was, again, being linked with Saachi. It was who, that was the problem here. Chuck's instinct was to bristle with indignation at being spoken for.

But what really vexed him was that he was being grouped together with a repeat killer. After Jasmine, Chuck was not inclined to be charitable. He was not a naturally judgemental person. Naturally he was all about forgiveness, about rehabilitation, about eschewing assumption and prejudice. He couldn't afford that luxury right now. Not anymore. Not after Jasmine. The announcements had only just played, but Saachi could've stepped on someone's throat on the way here.

For the first time since being on the island, Chuck felt angry. Sure, the injustice of this all, the trauma of being the victim of an atrocity, had created an abstract sense of fury, beneath the surface. But for the first time, it was his guiding emotion. "Don't speak for me, Saachi," he muttered, between gritted teeth. It was barely above a whisper, but the meaning would have been clear from his expression.

And, as he feared, Alice seemed to be taken in. She now viewed them both as intruders. As threats. Asked them to put their weapons aside. That was insane. Chuck had the better weapon! He would be the most disadvantaged by such a move! And what was to stop Saachi from swooping in and nicking his crossbow? Fuck that. He looked up at her. "Hey. Alice."

A little bit of her vomit had gotten on his shoe. Least she could do is let him in.

He didn't make that point just yet. Though, to be honest, Chuck had handled it with a lot of clemency already. He deserved major brownie points for his composure here. Chuck's Cajun accent was pretty prominent now. His near-unconscious effort to suppress it fell away in moments of extreme emotion. The final consonants tended to drop away; his p's and b's merged into one; theys became deys. His voice had been too weak earlier for it to be noticeable the last time emotions ran high. But here, it was apparent.

"Alice. Listen, you can't treat me the same as her. I ain't hurt a fly. She's killed people. Two! You can't hold me to the same standard as her. And you can't ask me to put my weapon down. That means she might grab it. She might become more dangerous. That makes things more dangerous for everybody."

Chuck didn't particularly care if Saachi heard him, but his voice was projected upwards.

[jimmydalad]

Saachi was taken aback at how antagonistic Chuck had become. It wasn't like she was trying to attack him yet. Granted, she did fancy that crossbow so maybe Chuck would've had reason to be tense around her if he was aware of that. Was he just sour that she appeared on the announcements twice? She had assumed that he was trying to get into the lighthouse like she had been planning on doing. She felt a flicker of anger rustle inside her at Chuck's remark, but she repressed it for now. No need to let her emotions cloud her judgment just yet.

It was pretty obvious to herself that she was never going to take Alice's terms of just dropping their weapons. Saachi wasn't stupid. That was just a trap waiting to happen, especially if she had some allies hiding in the lighthouse waiting for unarmed prey to come in. Even if she wasn't, weapons just lying around were prime targets for scavengers to steal. If she saw a weapon left alone, she'd definitely take it. It seemed Chuck had reservations about it too, though seemingly for different reasons.

"God, you are just an idiot, aren't you?" Saachi muttered under her breath. He did know that she was practically right next to him, right? Chuck was doing a really good job at pissing her off and if she was feeling a little more vindictive, she'd just slam her cleaver right into his dumbass neck so he'd shut up. Her grip tightened on her cleaver and a huff shot out of her nose. While she had assumed that Alice didn't have a gun, her assumptions could be wrong. Saachi wasn't here to risk her life because some cajun asshole pissed her off.

"Ok, disregarding the fact that Chuck is stupid, I don't think either of us are in the position to just casually drop our weapons. We're in a life or death situation and asking us to drop our weapons is essentially a death sentence. If you've got friends waiting to jump on us inside, I'd rather have a way to defend myself rather than just keeling over and dying."

After she had finished hollering up at Alice, she focused her attention on Chuck. It was clear to her that he wasn't planning on being friendly with her. Her words took on a biting tone as she gave a verbal dressing-down.

"As for you, Chuck, we have no idea or inclination that you haven't hurt someone just because your name wasn't in the announcements. For all we know, you tried killing someone on your way here with the crossbow of yours. Also, get your morally superior head out of your asshole. Even if you haven't hurt someone, trying to play the "I'm good, she's evil" card isn't going to work here, especially when killing and death is an inevitability, not a possibility."

Most of it was just venting frustrations and maybe she should be a bit more careful with her words considering the fact that Chuck had a crossbow. If it came down to that, however, she could probably get the jump on him before he had finished preparing his weapon. She fingers danced over her cleaver in anticipation, as if she was preempting the inevitability of it all falling apart.

[delicateMachine]

Yeah, Alice hadn't actually expected that to work. Congratulations, Chuck and Saachi, you both managed to meet the bare minimum amount of thought required to still be alive after three days. That was all the credit she was willing to give them, though.

Chuck needed to spend less time worrying about the crossbow when he had just turned his back to a trident-wielding Saachi. Having a crossbow was better than being unarmed, sure; but only barely. If someone was standing still about fifteen feet in front of you, you could probably do some serious damage to them. It'd be nearly impossible to hit a moving target, though; and what happened after you missed?

Would you hope the person you just tried to kill would politely wait the fifteen or so seconds it'd take you to load another bolt into the crossbow, instead of just running away or rushing at you? Unless you were trained, it was a weapon that'd basically only be effective in a tight, confined space. Like the lighthouse. Maybe Chuck did know what he was doing. Was he so offended because he really had been planning to kill her? Alice couldn't tell, so she'd assume "yes".

She'd have to do no such assuming in Saachi's case. Killing was inevitable, but the girl had to know how that phrase sounded coming from a killer's mouth, right? She wasn't making a very good case for herself. Needlessly antagonistic, too. At least Alice didn't mind Chuck in the context of everyday life. She'd rather be around an idiot that still at least pretended to care about morality than an idiot who was basically flaunting her amoral intentions. Either way, none of them could stay.

"Chuck. Yesterday, my best friend got shot in the head. I threw her corpse off the cliff so I wouldn't have to smell her today. You've probably got some of her blood on your shoes. You really think I'm gonna just trust anyone?" Alice had been trying for an emotional appeal, but her delivery came out detached. Maybe he'd just assume she was just in shock. Maybe she was still in shock. At least she wasn't still vomiting.

"And yeah, Saachi, you're right that it's smartest for both of you to keep your weapons. It's also smartest for me to not let either of you in. Understand?"

[General Goose]

The fact that Chuck is stupid?

Who the fuck died and made Saachi chief stupidity inspector? He must have missed that name on the announcements.

Between gritted teeth, Chuck turned towards Saachi, and her blatantly unfair accusations, and growled at her. "I've spent my whole time on the island cowering in fear trying not to bleed to death, so fuck you!" He left out the bit about travelling through the tunnels providing impromptu video game soundtrack covers, How dare she impugn his motives? Not everyone was as heartless or...'pragmatic' about the island as she was.

"Not everyone's decided to play Danya's game, you dumb fuck," he concluded, knowing this was not his most...eloquent debate performance. The anger vented, he looked up at Alice.

"That's...understandable." At least he could understand where Alice was coming from. Sure, she was currently governed by paranoia and jaundice, a sort of unpleasant attitude Chuck wasn't exactly happy to see. But he couldn't blame Alice for that. Not when his own mental state, too, was scarred by witnessing some traumatic event. And it wasn't like Lance was his best friend. So, though comparing traumas was not a healthy habit, he could totally see how Alice was justified in her anger. "I've seen some shit too. But nothing on that level. You're...entitled to be on the defensive, right now."

And so Chuck suppressed his instinctive rage at her parochial and isolationist behaviour, and nodded. He had to park his emotions sometimes. If he wanted to survive, both physically and as a decent human being. This was one of those times. Plus, he had a far more deserving target for his scorn and disgust.

"I totally get why you're paranoid. And because," and here he reverted to his old ways of partisan point-scoring, "unlike Saachi, I'm not some self-righteous fucktard looking for an excuse to validate my social Darwinian tendencies, I will respect your decision. And leave you be."

As he left, crossbow over his shoulder and bag draped awkwardly around his torso, he flipped Saachi the bird.

God, she's a bitch.

((Chuck Soileaux continued in La vulgarité de l'escalier.))

[jimmydalad]

It was hard for Saachi to feel any sympathy for Chuck. She was thoroughly unimpressed at Chuck's response and rolled her eyes at his following retort. So what if he wasn't playing the game right now? That wasn't the point she was trying to make. She had no patience for people who tried to push themselves as right because they didn't want to face the reality of the situation. Saachi had been thrust into the game almost immediately and she adapted. It wasn't her fault that others were slower on the uptake.

Saachi stayed silent as Alice responded. It didn't seem like she was going to budge on her opinions any time soon. She probably could argue with her over a long period of time and wear her down to the point of getting her way. She didn't care that much to go inside the lighthouse, however. She honestly was more focused on the crossbow than anything else. With that in mind, she turned to Chuck, who seemed to be leaving while still claiming he was better than her just because he was a "good guy".

"At least I'm trying not claim to be some sort of moral crusader on this island and screw others over, you asshole!" Saachi called back to him, returning his middle finger with one of her own. It certainly wasn't poised or graceful, but any patience she had for the idiot was lost when he tried to throw her under the bus just to get into a stupid lighthouse. Brushing her hair away with her free hand, she let out an indignant huff and gave herself a few moments to calm down before turning to Alice.

"Sorry about that. You make a fair argument. I could argue with you for hours, but I don't really see the point. Good luck to you. Hope someone doesn't come along who's not willing to play along with your rules. I'd hate to see what happens."

Her response probably could've sounded more genuine if she tried, but her focus was elsewhere. Her mind was still on Chuck. If things went her way, she'd not only get a nicer weapon, but she'd be able to wipe the smile off his smug face before he bit the floor.

After a few moments, she went off in the same direction she assumed Chuck did. The thought of sweet retribution brought a smile to her face.

((Saachi Nidal continued in We're Mostly Made of Water))

[delicateMachine]

Alice didn't need Chuck's permission to keep herself alive, but it didn't feel bad to be understood. Or at least, to have someone claim that they understood. Didn't mean that he got upgraded to survivor material, but she hoped he'd be alright for a while longer, at least.

Didn't look like Saachi felt like letting that happen, though. Alice frowned, grip tightening on the railing as she watched the stupid - but no less dangerous - girl stalk Chuck. Hopefully he'd be able to shoot her at least once. Hopefully someone would get around to shooting her before she decided to hold a grudge.

Stupid and unsubtle she might be, but Saachi did have a point - if she'd seriously called Alice's bluff, there wouldn't be shit she could do to stop her; at least unless Chuck had decided to back up his moralizing. If Alice was caught out in the open like that again, it probably wouldn't be by someone who was interested in negotiations; especially as the days wore on.

She wouldn't fuck up again. She wouldn't be weak again. Alice settled down, leaning against the stairwell wall; and began to consume her long-overdue breakfast. At least the vomit hadn't been anywhere that she'd have to clean up.

((It was gonna be a long day.))