Not Laughing Hyenas

[Sh4dE]

((GHIII Gene Steward, Enter))

Gene followed the guy and the two of them went to the nearest place, the Beauty Parlor. Last time nobody was here, but he thought that was good, because then the two of them could have peace and could organize team stuff or something like that. Not that Gene had decided where to go, as the other guy basically lead.

Both of them entered the Beauty Parlor and as Gene could recall from his memory, not a single thing changed. And still nobody was here.

Gene then moved to the counter, leaned his stick against it and placed his bag on it. He opened the bag and pulled out the map and put it on the counter, that way they might discuss strategies and plans later.

He looked at the map and moved his shard over it to point it at various locations.

Colin, team yellow, was in the casino.

Aidan and Laura, team yellow, were somewhere, but he didn't know where. At least it's confirmed that Aidan and Laura haven't found Colin yet. But if they do, team yellow would be OP.

Gene realized that blackbeard and him should've killed Colin, when they were at the Casino. They outnumbered him and Team Yellow already had two members that found each other.

Vahka, team lightblue, and Vince, team rainbow, were also somewhere on the map, but he wasn't sure where.

Lukas and his girl, team red/orange/whatever, were at the Tour Guide, but if they followed his advice, they probably were somewhere else.

The girl he bumped into, team purple, was dead at the condos. Team Purple just had 4 or less members, which was good.

Then he had the information, the announcements gave him. Taylor died at the Sunshine Tower, going there would give him the colour of his team, which could be useful. And taking that bandanna would be even more useful. And then there was the fact the announcements gave, that nobody was in the DZs. Probably. People who died of collar detonations still happen, though.

When he finished thinking about the map, he looked again at the other guy. They should probaby share their information so they gain more information.

Gene however wasn't somebody that usually trusted strangers, especially the ones that throw fruit machines at him. Pissing blackbeard off, who doesn't seem to be friendly at all, by talking about SOTF strats, wouldn't lead to a good outcome for Gene. Blackbeard probably had some anger issues after all, as he smashed some machines at the Casino. And he abandoned an ally. Gene was sure, that might easily happen to him too, in case he pisses him off.

However, if they do something that hasn't to do with SOTF at all and know each other more, he might be more friendly and chilled to Gene. Befriending with an ally can never be wrong. Else an alliance could fail. And directly talking about the life/death situation they are in wouldn't be a good way to get friends, as many contestants are mad about that. A card game would probably be the best solution.

"Come on, let's play Crazy Eights."

With a smiling face, Gene put his shard on the counter and pulled out his stack of cards and put it on there, too. Then he drew eight cards and put them on the table without looking at them. Then he drew eight cards for himself and looked at them. He smiled more.

"Look. These cards have cowboys on them. Ain't that funny?"

He then looked at blackbeard and his smile faded. He realized that a card game was not the best solution. Because that hand...

Gene stared with opened eyes at the hands of blackbeard. That was unexpected.

"Who...who shot you,..."

What was his name anyway?

"...teammate?"

[General Goose]

((Yagmur Tekindor continued from Take That Money, Watch It Burn.))

Yagmur had never sat in one of these beauty parlour chairs before. He knew there had to be a technical name for them, but his mind was not one for boring trivia. They were surprisingly comfortable, yet not so much so that it was either emasculating or distracting. He needed a glass of rakia in one hand and a TV remote in the other, then he'd actually be at home.

He wasn't actually interested in the silent strategising his new teammate was doing on the other side of the room. He'd just abandoned someone. Because of the rules these despotic cultural philistines had imposed on them. He'd never abandoned someone before. He was silently praying - no, he wasn't religious - hoping that Colin would be fine. He might have quietly uttered the words "Stay safe, Colin" under his breath, so low only the collar could pick it up, but he couldn't remember.

He hated this shithole. He never got the appeal of SOTF-TV. The idea it was the only smart entertainment thing humanity could do? No. That was bullshit. The world had just invented new mediums of gaming and internet videos, humanity had not exhausted those creative wells yet. Nope. It was laziness. And even if forcing real-life drama by getting kids to kill each other was the only new innovation humanity's media figures had left, well, fuck that. There was enough non-snuff film content out there in the world to last a hundred lifetimes.

If only people weren't so fucking scared about spoilers.

As he slouched down in the chair, posture uncharacteristically sloppy, the hand holding his glass of rakia drooping particularly low, Yagmur decided he'd give SOTF one thing. It was unpredictable. Well, so are the policies of the North Korean government, and the crises in Nigeria and Somalia, yet no-one was making hit shows of them. It was laziness and ignorance.

Damn, he needed to write this down, Yagmur thought, swirling his rakia around in his glass. It was some profound shit. Find a moment in the action, and then whip out the truth-bomb, reach out to the moronic idiots watching at home. Maybe do it while tits or violence were occurring, to ensure the editors couldn't cut it out. He deserved a drink for his thinking. He moved to take a sip of rakia, before remembering he had no glass and no alcohol, bemusedly blinking at his hand before realising.

He may have been an alcoholic back home. Well, an alcoholic with a high tolerance, he felt he needed to add that qualifier.

Straightening himself up, he came back down to Earth just long enough to realise his new team-mate had began talking to him. He asked about the fingers.

Yagmur was not impressed.

"Really? You can't tell the difference between a two-year old wound and a fresh one? Does it look like I just lost these fingers?" Yagmur sighed. "I'm not a doctor. I never will be. I respect them and their considerable levels of intelligence, even though I ignore their nannying advice most of the time. But you don't need to be a doctor to recognise that this is not a wound I recently incurred. It's completely healed over. It was a woodworking accident, not a gunshot. You really are not a smart person, are you?"

[Sh4dE]

The guy spoke and implied he wouldn't know that it was an old wound. Gene had seen that his fingers weren't bloody and therefore an old wound. He just couldn't recognize how he lost his fingers. It could've been a gunshot wound, so he just used the verb "shot", which seemed to be fitting for the situation, as some people were armed with guns.

It probably was better than asking: Who crushed your fingers? Who bit off your fingers? Who cut off your fingers?

It didn't happen often that people lose fingers. But then it was revealed that it was a "woodworking" accident and not a shoot-out accident or a car accident or a gun experimenting accident or something like that.

Oh, woodworking. He's doing the stuff like Brendan and Shadi.

So the guy insulted Gene as stupid, but that didn't bother him at all. He thought he was the smarter guy of them. He wasn't as hot-headed as him. And after all he had ten fingers.

He didn't answer explicitly, just with his hand scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, haha. My bad."

Gene thought about distracting him and to change the topic into a direction that would be in the favour of him.

"So yeah..."

What should I even talk about?

Gene stood there, saying nothing at all. He didn't want to talk about irrelevant things like the weather, but he didn't want to talk about the game.

Fuck it. Be direct.

"So...we're both Golden. Uhm, have you seen other colours lately? And what's your name, by the way?"

[General Goose]

((Godmodding approved))

"Yes, I have seen many colours lately," Yagmur replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm, swirling around in the chair to face his companion. Just in case this kid was one of these idiots who couldn't understand sarcasm, and just to ensure the morons back home didn't misinterpret Yagmur's sarcasm for blind ignorance of the rules of the game, he added a disclaimer: "No, I get what you mean, but haven't seen anyone else on our team, and haven't really paid that much attention to team colours so far."

In response to his second question, Yagmur decided to avoid any wit or sarcasm that might go over this idiot's head. "It's Yagmur. Y-A-G-M-U-R. Turkish origin," he said, quickly dealing with all the normal questions he got over his name. "And your name?" he asked. Mentally referring to this idiot as "this idiot" wasn't exactly sustainable or helpful, and wouldn't exactly help build up a strong team mentality.

Unfortunately, the idiot's response didn't do anything to lessen the suitability of "this idiot" as a codename for the idiot. He tried to make it sound witty and smart. "My name? Gene. Not Eugene. Not John. Not Billie-Jean. Not Jean-Baptiste. Just Gene."

Yagmur grunted in response.

Then the announcements played. Despite being the second time, he already knew what to expect. More friends and acquaintances dying or killing, mixed in with some people he didn't know, supposedly all from the Albuquerque school.  Then Gene's name came up.

"Gene Steward's you, right?" Yagmur asked, getting to his feet, looking Gene in the eyes. "What happened?" he asked, demanding an explanation.

[Sh4dE]

The guy didn't pay attention for the bandannas. So no more information.

Well, fuck you

He put on a smile.

"Oh, okay".

His name apparently was Yagmur. Vahka, Yagmur, what is wrong with the names of the school? And why is everybody there a fitness freak?

Then, the announcements. Ritzy spoke again, announcing the dead, the killers and rivals.

Jewel once again had some kills, she'd be free in a day in case no one stops her. Matt was also apparently participating in the game and he's dead. Killed by a "Pia".

Then asshole Gabriel died. But he surprisingly wasn't killed. He just was injuried and died from his injuries.

Shadi, the girl who also was in the Drama club and who was pretty friendly, until he left killed two people. A guy he didn't know and Sarah, who was a girl from his school.

Lucia then got her second kill. She killed the girl who killed Damion. Nice.

Jewel is seriously going to be a problem, as she is armed as fuck now. And she killed Erik, who also was here, which sucks.

And then his kill was announced.

The girl's name was "Valerie Fitzroy", so probably a british girl. Maybe the other school is from England? No, there was no british accent.

He loved it when Ritzy announced his name. Gene. Steward.

Now, everybody heard his name. It might be that some people don't watch every scene in SOTF, but they sure do watch the announcements. It was a glorious feeling. He had no idea where the origins of his names were, but it felt wonderful. He could be proud of it, but having the name announced isn't good at all, as the other contestants hear it.

"Pia" got her second kill by killing Riley, a friend of him. A fellow SOTF fan. A friend that had much experience. She claimed to have watched much. But, she was shot. So Pia has a gun, definitely.

Last death was Ramon, who was killed by some Corin. Also had a gun.

19 dead. 8 killers.

Gene looked at the map and thought about where the DZs are and then put it back into his bag. He wouldn't need it anyway, as no useful information was given.

When Yagmur asked him the question about Valerie he replied with an apathetic face.

"Well, like she said, I bumped into her and she fell. And then she was dead."

Gene looked around to avoid the eye contact of Yagmur. He hoped Valerie wasn't too close to Yagmur. While he looked around he saw a mirror reflecting him.

He felt odd, standing there in a pimp suit, mostly because he never wore one.

It looked like he'd be a player by supporting the producers by wearing the silly, but warm suit. Gene actually wanted to be a deceiving player, not to be pretty obvious. Back when he was home, he told himself to be deceiving and smart, if he ever gets put in the game, not to be somebody like Harold Finston Smythe or somebody else.

Reality was different. He tried to trick other players first, to play smart, but then Aidan and Laura attacked him and robbed him. Then he walked into Vahka. He didn't want to get into a fight, he just expected there to be a "crack" and a dead body. Then he attacked Valerie, which wasn't smooth either. Then he would've gotten nearly in a fight with Yagmur, if they weren't in the same team.

He touched his neck. He removed the patch. The wound was hard, but didn't hurt.

Gene was lucky. He got in trouble, but he was alive.

He should be more careful, he should take care of his appearance. He shouldn't get wounded and end up like Gabe.

He shouldn't be offensive anymore, gain trust and use it.

And the first guy he should gain trust from is his teammate.

Gene then looked back to Yagmur, smiling.

"Do you still wanna play Crazy Eights?"

[General Goose]

Yagmur was about to make a judgement on Gene's excuse (so he was an idiot and a psycho who liked this shit), but he was distracted by Gene opening his mouth again.

"The word 'still' implies I wanted to play Crazy Eights with you in the first place," Yagmur replied monotonously, face expressionless, his frustration at his luck mounting. Yagmur wasn't really much of a cards person. He preferred to spend his nights drinking, woodworking, reading, and combining the above. "The only card games I play are poker." Really, that was the only card game he knew how to play.

That, and Snap, but he sucked at that.

Even pre-finger loss.

"Have you got any productive suggestions?"

[Sh4dE]

"The poker chips are still in the Casino, so yeah..."

Gene put the cards back into his pocket.

"Uhm, we could either wait here until somebody comes..."

Gene then put everything he "owned" back into his bag or pocket and grabbed his pogo-stick and put his bag back on his back.

"...or we could go somewhere else to meet people."

[General Goose]

He motioned for Gene to lead the way, with a gentlemanly gesture and a polite nod. This was quite different to what his good hand was doing, reaching into his bag and slotting his gun into his pocket. It was poor gun safety, but he checked the safety was on, and this wasn't exactly a safe situation anyway.

Before Gene could raise an objection, Yagmur assured him that it was "Just in case some fucker tries to jump us."

He wasn't an expert on this game. Yagmur knew that. He wasn't a strategist. He wasn't a master tactician, a trained sharpshooter, a brilliant manipulator, a daring escapee. All his skills and personality traits were useless here, and he hadn't been crazy enough to prepare for the horrible, unreal nightmare scenario of getting picked for this piece of trash bloodsport.

But he was smart enough to realise paranoia was a good thing.

((Yagmur Tekindor continued in The Jellies Experience.))

[Sh4dE]

It probably was the first time Gene's teammate wasn't rude to him. For once he didn't bawl him out.

And then Gene saw that Yagmur had a gun. A gun wasn't as impressive as grenades or bombs, but it was way better than his pogo-stick or his shard.

It was perfect to protect both of them and to elimate threats.

Without a word, Gene walked with Yagmur out of the Parlor to another location.

A gun.

GG.

((GHIII Gene Steward, Exit))