Carp Diem

Seas the Day: We are Day 6 now! (Now PM first) Content Warning: Graphic Grossness

These bubbling, oozing black pools found on the island's north-eastern side have a sinister appearance. Largely avoided by the miners, the tar pits are found in a grassy expanse of land with a few signs posted containing warnings; over the years, sunlight and rain has worn and corroded some of these signs almost but not quite to the point of unreadability.The biggest pits are obvious at a glance, but smaller patches or tar sometimes burst through the surface unexpectedly, and a number are hidden beneath underbrush. What cannot be mistaken, however, is the strong odor of tar which permeates the whole area.
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Cake
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Carp Diem

#1

Post by Cake »

[[Wendy Fischer Continued From: 'Cause We Are Young and We Are Sick ]]

Hmph. Applesauce harlot.

Maybe it was a mistake letting her and that kitty catfish accomplice off the hook. This time. All she could do now was pout, weep and sleep. All alone again. No Scarlett. No Kasumi.

Not even Mr. Dolph.

Day break. The sun had risen once more, illuminating the land of shadow.

The next day's announcements had come to pass. With each passing morning, the shadow man who's voice she had once feared, the one known as Victor Danya, had become less frightening, but nonetheless dreadful as ever.

He was also a very bad liar.

Perhaps they assumed she was - Dumb.

Nails scraped at her forearm. She knew what she saw. Kasumi wasn't lost to natural causes. The special energy which developed some fondness for her porcelain friend, had been stolen, unjustly taken when Wendy wasn't there to watch over her. Just as Everett's had been snatched by the monstrous Bunny.

They'd all get their turn soon. Maybe even K.K. too. Take away all their power. Like the ones they took.

Wendy spun the Louisville slugger in the air, spun it in circles as if it were her cheer-leading baton, an adequate replacement for her tar stick. She twirled it, rotated it on its own axis as she examined the carvings etched onto its surface. Wendy wasn't quite so devout, but if she had to guess, it looked like these words came from some sacred source. It was Kasumi's once, her personal totem. It meant a lot to her friend, so now it meant a lot to Wendy.

Thump, thump. It touched the ground, a feeling of solid heft vibrated through the bat with every tap. What should she call it? Bible something. Basher? Beater? Thumper. Ah yes. Like the sound it made. For some reason, the name felt right. A wavelength that she hoped Kasumi would have liked.

Wendy placed it next to Mr. Dolph's cooler for a moment, to gather her collected flowers, plucked from her favorite butterfly filled field of dreams. Her lips made a minor shift of smile as she thought of Panya, the butterflies masking her flowery face, her eyes. Then of the gardener whose Doc Marten boots had refused and defied the earth's will, by continuing to stay as flotsam at the surface of the sloshy pit.

There had been some work to be done, but she was finally finished. Having spent most of yesterday recovering from her despair.

A small bouquet of flowers on each of them, lined up next to separate pits. Her fuzzy blue sweater covered Sebastian's half head, a reminder of their teacher.

Wendy stood there in her hot pink shirt, Uggs and strawberry print boy-shorts in all her pants less glory - the grunge and gloom of the naturalistic graveyard allowed her to stand out like bright neon on black and white, the only ounce of life, among the bodies of her fallen classmates and allies. Everything was now ready.

"Dearly Beloved," she started to say over the faint pops of tar bubbles. "We are gathered here today. To get through this thing called: Life."

However, a ruffling shift of grass or leaves in the not so far distance announced the potential arrival of someone new. Wendy spun around and waved.
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Latin For Dragula
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#2

Post by Latin For Dragula »

((You were expecting a killer, but actually it was me, Theo!))

It was funny in a way. The scene was something out of a horror movie. Body parts sticking out of bubbling pits. More above them. Wendy, who was definitely more than a little mad at this point, spinning around in some kind of mock funeral before addressing an imaginary crowd. Was that too grand? Maybe she wasn't seeing anything but was there. She could just be talking to the bodies. Yeah, that scanned. That was a good scene. He could see it on the page. He'd also seen it all playing out in front of him frame by frame and there was plenty of time to avoid it it. It took deliberate, nonsensical effort to keep walking forward. And why would he ever put in that effort? He could be blunt. He could be a pain. He could even maybe sorta be selfless. But he didn't stand anything to gain, anyone to save, any scrap of memory to cling to, any chance to survive marching up on Wendy like this.

That's why it was funny. Because he wasn't thinking about any of that. He wasn't thinking about much at all really. There was just this impulse, almost like riding a high, that confronting whatever Wendy was doing was the right call. What he'd expect from himself, if he ever imagined doing this kind of thing at all, was that if you had the lens on the hero and they rolled into a scary situation like this, they didn't just walk away. They didn't blink. They responded. That's what made them a hero. Not just the will to do good, because there were plenty of good people who weren't heroes, but the will to be interesting. Keep that focus nice and tight. Make sure everybody knew exactly who and where they were supposed to be watching.. Theo'd never really thought about that, or wanted it. He still wasn't thinking about it. Still didn't want it.

He was just doing it.

There weren't any thoughts or arguments bouncing around his head, and when Wendy turned around with that excited wave he didn't so much as flinch. Day in and day out since he'd run away from the Shipping Yard, he was sure he'd look over his shoulder and find James. Fall asleep one night and wake up just in time to see a grenade sailing towards his head. Turn a corner and get caught with the butt of a gun in his face. Blink and find hands around his throat. Hear that soft tell tale thunk you always heard in video games and never live long enough to register the earth shattering kaboom. There were all sorts of ways that he could have killed him, and he'd been so afraid for every minute of it until he just...wasn't anymore. James couldn't take his victory from him, and any threat Wendy could have made fell way, way deep in his shadow.

"What're you up to, Wendy?"
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#3

Post by Cake »

"Paying last respects."

She stood steady, position unchanged. Toothiness rose with every unfazed foot forward.

One dandelion in the breeze, had miraculously found it's way back to Wendy. Tearless. Debonair.

"Are you here, for the burial."
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#4

Post by Latin For Dragula »

Wendy was a little shorter than he was. Enough to be noticeable. Thinner too. Nothing about her was larger or more intimidating in a physical sense. Logically if you stood them side by side and asked who would win in a fight without any other details, people would probably pick him.

Physical space couldn't capture how large Wendy was. Even standing level and staring down to her he could feel her growing. She didn't just match him. She didn't just exceed him. She didn't just tower over him or dwarf him. She erased him. In this moment this was her show, her moment, her territory, and he was nothing but a prop in it. His question didn't even register; it was like she had approached him. Now the focus was on her questions, and his answers would only be redirected wherever she wanted him. The pace, the tone, the atmosphere, it all rested squarely in her hands. Standing in the shadow of her ever expanding smile, Theo couldn't help but feel the world melting away around him.

Open sky turned to the cold walls of a large cavern. Bubbling pits of tar became pools of jewels and gold. Bodies turned to skeletons clad in rags and leather and rusted metal. And Wendy rose as a great, grinning dragon beckoning the little adventurer into her cave. It wasn't real, he knew it wasn't real, but in a way it was strangely comforting. Theo didn't know how to look a killer in the eye and say anything at all, ignore the body of his classmates, keep walking through the foul air instead of running away to hide, or keep from collapsing into a fit. But none of that was a worry here. He wasn't Theo here. If Wendy was a dragon, he was a hero. Heroes entered the cave. Heroes bargained with death. Heroes protected their friends.

And heroes always, always, beat the dragon.

He didn't smile, or waver, or take another step closer, or even speak. Maybe shifted on his feet a little, scratched his ear. He couldn't stop the little nervous ticks. But he wouldn't flinch. Not yet. "Maybe," he said just above a whisper. "Who're you burying?"
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#5

Post by Cake »

"All of them."

A flat, expressionless gaze to pools of darkened ooze as she answered. Turning back to Theo, she studied him for a second in silence, before curling the corners of her lips.

"Oh oops, I misunderstood. You wanted me to give you a full viewing tour for who is at this wake, didn't you? Gosh, you must think I'm soo, dumb."

Wendy chuckled onto her left wrist, giving direct eye contact to her latest acquaintance with those past few words. She still had no idea why they ever called it a wake. They weren't awake and would never wake, it was really silly and made no sense at all. Her slight cheer faded once she stepped over to the first body. She picked up the cracked snow-globe she had found and left there, lifted it and underhand tossed it at Theo's feet. A gift, an extended olive branch for the boy of very little words.

Maybe she was talking too much again, but he asked her, so she would answer as much as she could. She was always super excited to talk to new people.

"This was my good friend, Kasumi. She was - crippled - by K.K... and that," she pointed the bible-thumper to the blue sweater covered corpse a couple feet away. "That - used - to be Sebastian. Except, you remember what happened on the bus right? Well, it kinda looks like that. Thought I should cover it up. But you can take a closer look if you wanna."

She motioned at the dandelion forward. A modest look that said: 'don't worry I won't bite,' inviting him closer.

"Miranda," she enunciated through gritted teeth. "Ended them both."

Wendy looked over once more to the Doc Marten boots still floating at the surface of one blackened, mud-filled burial site. Perhaps that one was already full from both the gardener and the gnu.

"Those boots were Bridgette's. She fell in..." Wendy sighed, figuratively dropping her face to the ground at the memory of Mr. Dolph's sacrifice. "But that's okay: She cut Panya down near the meadow and tracked me here — so she had to go."

Both Vincent and Bridgette already had far more than they deserved, but Scarlett's friend Sebastian and her late friend Kasumi did deserve much better. They would have their own separate sites to lay rest. They were lucky to have been near this earth's natural cemetery to get such a treatment. They wouldn't be left festering or defiled by anything. Preserved, fossilized forever. A majestic sight indeed.

Wendy only wished she could have given Everett Taylor such a beautiful send off.

There was one more, but Wendy didn't feel she was ready, not yet. She could wait a while more.

"Did you know any of them?" She looked at Theo once again. "Any final words, for our dearly departed?"
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#6

Post by Latin For Dragula »

Theo had listened to the announcements enough to know that parts of Wendy's story didn't add up. Bridgette "fell" in because of her, though the details were kinda scarce. So what else could she be lying about? Or maybe a better question was, was she lying at all? Did she really not understand what she'd done, or was she trying to trick him, or was it something else? Why did it matter so much to him? It wasn't about survival, he knew she'd probably try to kill him no matter what the answer was at some point. But there was some kind of compulsion to understand her before...well, before whatever needed to happen happened.

It didn't help that taken on its face he felt like he was intruding on something. Obviously this was really, really fucked up, but there was an air of ceremony and care to it through all the effort. He wasn't super close to anyone here either. He'd sort of known Sebastian, but other than that he didn't feel like he had the sort of connection that Wendy must have to go through all this trouble. Maybe that was a bad assumption. It could be she didn't know them either, but she needed this for some reason.

Either way, he had to see it.

"Sebastian was a friend, but I'm not very good at speeches. I think I'd rather listen if that's cool."
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Cake
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#7

Post by Cake »

"In that case, a moment of silence."

She bowed her head to the ground with hands clasped together at her waist.


...


"Alright. Now that we have that over with."

She sauntered over to the cadaver wearing her sweater over half a head. The bible thumper had been positioned right under an angle of the boy's back.

"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Sebastien Bellamy, you are dead to us."

Wendy meant to push him in with the bundle of flowers resting on his chest as he descends to his final resting place, but what ended up happening instead was an inelegant overturning of the boy horizontally. The flowers went in first, sinking below the surface, only a few petals colored the mud palette, poking out from atop. Sebastien himself, landed belly-first into the swampy pit with a splat, as the slime slowly pulled him by the face down, or at least, what was left of it. It slurped him up.

She stood there and watched him sink in silence, another body swallowed up by earth, much more quickly than Bridgette. A head tilt and 'hmm' later, Wendy begun to look back at her acquaintance. Messy, not at all what she intended.

"Well, I mucked up that one."

Traces of a smirk rose at her own words.

"But Kasumi is a good friend of mine. I would like her's to be perfect. Would you help me carry?"
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#8

Post by Latin For Dragula »

There was a word for when you were totally invested in a scene and then out of nowhere an actor lost character. They called it a break. It was pretty popular in live theater or filming; of course you wanted to see a flawless product, but half the appeal was watching things go off the rails wasn't it? Knowing where things were supposed to be going, how people were supposed to act, and watching it all crack over something as small as a pause or as large as someone laughing uncontrollably in the middle of a serious monologue fascinating in its own way.

This felt a lot like that. There was a script Theo was supposed to follow. There were expectations on him. There were things he was supposed to do and that people wanted him to do, and any divergence from that would bring the whole charade crumbling down around him.

It'd help a lot if he could read it. Because he didn't know what to do. Was he supposed to stop her? Help her? Persuade her? Was she the villain, or just trying to help in her own weird way? What was her motivation? What was his? What would anyone here want? Would they even care anymore? Should that even be a question?

Questions.

Too many questions.

Theo was lost in his own head, unaware of the world passing him by under Wendy's gaze.
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#9

Post by Cake »

"Is there: something on your mind? Something bothering you, Theodore?"

Blank. Zoned out. She waved her hand to no avail.

"Hellooo?"

The cooler was opened, load lightened. Then Mr. Dolph became a flying fish.



WHU-PACK!
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Zetsu
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#10

Post by Zetsu »

((Irene continued from waste of words))

You know who doesn't deserve thoughts when you're traipsing through a tar-filled swamp? Those fuckers. Roy. Johnny.

Alice.

Alice, for making Irene feel guilty. Alice, for making Irene feel guilty about leaving Roy and Johnny and the non-fuckers in that group, who were probably all gonna die and now it's all Irene's fault. It's Alice's fault it's Irene's fault. That doesn't make any sense, but then again feelings don't make any sense. Otherwise how can you explain the fact that Irene feels guilty over leaving Roy and Johnny when the fuckers (who're gonna die pretty soon regardless of what Irene does) literally chased Irene off? Irene hadn't done anything wrong, right?

And even if she had done things wrong (she hadn't), leaving them hadn't been one of those things. They'd just spend all day pissing each other off, either because they didn't get along or because they forced themselves to get along by not being themselves. They can go off and fight and win, or escape, or whatever, if it made them happy. Irene can go off and...be happy, if that's what makes her happy. What's the point of an extra day or two if everyone's just gonna be miserable, y'know?

And even if she had done things wrong (she hadn't), there's nothing she can do about it now. So she might as well not devote thought to it and pretend to herself that it's not her fault. Because it's not her fault. It's not her fault. It's not her fault. It really isn't. She doesn't have to pretend.

Okay, fine, Alice's death was Irene's fault. Well, it's not entirely her fault, but let's say for the sake of argument and Irene's mental health and happiness--because clearly thinking about how it's not her fault makes her think about how it's her fault, anyways, so what's the point of telling that herself that it's not her fault even if it really isn't her fault--it is, in fact, all her fault. What do you do then, Irene? What do you do now?

She should try to make up for it, yes. Try to be happy. Try to make others happy. Well, congratufuckinglations, Irene. Well done for pointing out the obvious. But how're you gonna do that?

Still waiting on that answer, Irene.

She walked around a stand of trees, and there they were. People.

Fuck. Still waiting, Irene. You kinda need that answer. Now.

And then there was a flying fish and whatever shitty unsatisfying answer Irene would've thought of was suddenly rendered invalid.
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Latin For Dragula
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#11

Post by Latin For Dragula »

Certain feelings, in Theo's experience, were hard to put down into strict words. They had to be anthropomorphized into something more than a voice in his head or an emotional state. One in particular echoed around inside him constantly. A low, weary, panicked noise like a dying gasp that never ended, just ebbed and flowed between white noise in his subconscious to a loud ear-drum bursting roar when he was feeling particularly paralyzed with indecision.

It got loud a lot.

When he'd walked up to Wendy, it had been the quietest it'd been in a long, long time, but it was always there. Building. Growing. Distracting. It came to a point that as he spaced out in the middle of the field there wasn't conscious thought distracting him so much as the internal need to try and drown out the cacophony that didn't seem like it could blare anymore obnoxiously as he tried to get some semblance of control over himself. His self-reflection was wrong in two very critical ways: Firstly, he couldn't block it out. He knew that. It was usually outside intervention that dragged him out of his head to try and face the real world again, and in this case that came in the form of cold, wet scales striking him across the face and sending him tumbling backwards with his mouth agape and his arms flailing for balance.

He'd nearly caught it when he felt one foot after another stumble backwards into something thick. Sticky. Clinging. Dragging. As he was sinking down, his second mistake became clear: that sound could get louder. Much, much louder, to the point that it wasn't content to fill his head anymore and instead escaped down and out through his throat into a panicked, monotone, disbelieving groan loud enough to be heard all through the surrounding clearing.
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#12

Post by Cake »

"Whoops."

She knelt to him. Eye level. Seconds passing by.

Just like the gardener and the gnu; it had trapped another. The dandelion so delicate and clean, now tarred. Feathered. A show of vocal turmoil. Undeserved unlike others before him. It was not his time yet.

"Alright," a tone airy, light-hearted, sisterly. "Come on."

Reaching out, Wendy offered him an open hand. Maybe two.
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#13

Post by Aura »

(Yumi Nunes continued from Hoping to Catch a Break)

The cabin was far behind them at this point, and a quick look at Yumi's map revealed that, judging by the landmarks they had passed, they must have made it nearly all the way across the island at that point.  She hadn't done this much exercise of any kind for such a sustained period in her life, much less running.  And with adrenaline having run off quite a while ago, she had reached a point where she was almost dragging her feet as she kept moving onward.  She didn't know where she was going, but stopping and waiting didn't feel right either.  For all they knew, Saachi could have been right behind them.

Speaking of people behind them, Ramona and Maxwell hadn't caught up to them yet, and Yumi was getting worried.  Were they lost, or had Saachi gotten them?  She didn't know what had happened to them, and that was almost as stressful as if she had known the truth, whatever it might be.  But for now, it was just her and Felicia again, just like it was back at the church before Ramona and Lyndi came by, and before Jay and Saachi showed up and showed them the brutality of the game firsthand.  The only solace she had was that she was with her friend, and she hoped that things would stay that way.

The two of them reached the outskirts of the tar pits, and right away, Yumi was bothered by the smell.  She didn't know how to describe it, but her best guess was that it smelled like melted tires.  She had never smelled melted fires before, but the way that the smaller puddles nearby looked kind of like melted tires probably did a good bit towards putting that idea into her head.

Carefully watching her step to avoid losing a shoe, she saw something through the bushes that caught her attention.  There was a guy and a girl, and the girl was wearing what registered in her mind as an astonishingly pink outfit, with a shirt so bright it might as well have been glowing and... wait, was she in her underwear?  Why was this girl running around with no pants?  Yumi was baffled, and she turned to Felicia in hopes of clearing things up a bit.

"Uh... F-Felicia?  What's happening over there?"
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#14

Post by KamiKaze »

((Felicia LaChapelle continued from Hoping to Catch a Break))

Every few seconds, Felicia would look at the GPS. Just for a little sign, a blip that read either B002 or G011. Maybe things would be okay, or at least approaching it. How could it, though, after what she’d seen? She saw Lyndi’s head getting split open, she saw Zubin just explode, and Ramona’s hands…

Even if she was alive… she was hurt. And they’d ran away.

How pathetic.

Felicia knew about the sort of thing that happened the last time. The way she knew was pretty simple: one evening, she was watching YouTube. She’d been looking for a clip from a movie to show her friends, and then she saw it. It had an innocuous title, so she didn’t think much of it. At first, she thought it was from a found footage horror film. She’d seen a girl hide under a mattress, apparently hiding from something. She’d looked nervous, as if there was something- or someone- that could hurt her. What that someone was walked in, a boy. He’d sat down on the bed, but it was clear he realized someone was underneath. Then, he looked down, and he pulled her out… he pulled her out…

Felicia had shut the video off shortly after. There was no way it was from a movie. Everything looked… real. Too real. She’d remembered shaking and running to the bathroom to throw up and calling a friend to talk about what she watched in tears. Of course, the video got flagged and taken down, but it didn’t change the fact that it happened. Felicia had found out that it was from SOTF, and to find out someone went through something like that… she couldn’t think of it. So she tried to bring awareness, do her bit to make sure nothing like that happened again.

When she thought of it now, it only told her that anyone could be going through something as horrible right this moment. People she knew, people she was friends with. How many people had died? She’d already seen Lyndi and Zubin, of course, but she knew about Yasmin and Eris and Bridgette and countless others.

She had to keep an eye on the GPS. And she had to keep an eye on Yumi, too. She’d lost her before, she didn’t want to lose her for real. So she had to make sure she was safe.

Before Yumi had said anything, Felicia had seen more blips. B019, G028, and G029. Not a sign of B002 or G011. Just as she’d noticed, Yumi spoke up, and she lifted her head. There was a group of people hovering around… oh jesus.

There was a boy in a tar pit.

Felicia’s heart pounded, and for a moment, she hesitated. But only a moment.

“Yumi… I think he needs help.”

No, something told her. It’s stupid. But it’s also the right thing to do.

She slipped the GPS into her jacket pocket and stepped forward, seeing more people. Her eyes glimmered with recognition, for a second, before turning tense.

“Wendy.”

She had no idea what to make of her right now. But, she needed to make sure that boy was out. She turned her head away, and let out an arm of her own.
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Zetsu
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#15

Post by Zetsu »

...

The arrival of even more people snapped Irene out of her daze. Two people were already going over to Theo to help, and Irene still hadn't moved a muscle. Unacceptable.

Irene bounced on the balls of her feet, took quick strides over to where Theo had gotten himself stuck in tar.

"Yes. Wendy. And Irene, too!"

Irene reached out, flipped her right hand into an upside-down 'v', made a slashing gesture, and high-fived Felicia. Or low-fived? Low-fived. Reached out with her other hand, booped Theo on the nose, and offered it for a handshake.

"Mmm. Hi Theo! Sorry you got bitchslapped. Fishslapped. Mishap. That was. Quite a mishap. But thanks!...for your...shoot. Can't think of anything that rhymes there. But thanks for your sacrifice. It was appreciated by yours truly."

Irene tilted her head, withdrew her left hand, and offered her right. Plastered the widest grin she could make on her face.

"Oh, and, uh...you can come on out now. Sorry, I forgot about that", she raised her left hand, "for a second."
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