cheesed to meet you

[almostinhuman]

"Your friends probably walked off on you, if I had to guess. You're the first people we've encountered in a while."

A note of tension rung loud and clear through the discussion. Marching into the room with a casual and friendly air hadn't, in fact, made people in the murder gameshow any friendlier. Nadine would've probably felt the same way if the roles were reversed. It was only natural that people would distrust pretty much anybody they didn't recognize, especially if they didn't share the team bandanas. That they'd had friends outside who were now mysteriously gone probably didn't help matters.

What also probably didn't help was how she was still standing directly in front of the entrance. It wasn't the most reassuring place for her to be.

Nadine quickly shuffled to a barrel resting on its side against the wall. Sitting down, she settled into resting her chin in her right hand and her elbow on her knee. She hoped this more relaxed position was enough to communicate that they weren't here to threaten anybody, and eased the apprehension. If it got them to go back to futzing with the collars, well, that was an added perk.

"Don't feel the need to stop what you're doing on our account. Never know when you'll get another chance for it, right?"

[Laurels]

Shoshanna adjusted her position on the hammock before standing up, trying to keep her back away from the new girls. Her mind was abuzz trying to figure out if the girls were dangerous or not.

According to the ladies, they didn't see either of the boys when they came on. So unless they were both tangled up in the nets above them or were dead outside, then they were no longer on the boat. The girls could have killed them quietly, but considering their plan involved switching out on the crow's nest, that would mean only one could be dead at most, with the other high above and safe. They would have heard them if they had used a gun, and neither girl looked particularly injured. They were also both quite open on the fact that they hadn't seen anyone else on the boat. If they were dead, Shoshanna would have figured that their stories wouldn't have lined up, or they would have just admitted it. After all, the girls couldn't have known Jasper and Shoshanna were inside the ship just from seeing Gus and Leslie outside.

Plus the girl who was blocking the door casually sidestepped it to sit down. If these two were murderous bitches, they wouldn't be trying to give that up.

"Well, we can do massages later," Shoshanna said. "Why don't we do something more fruitful?"

Shoshanna grabbed the papers she had written on earlier, along with a pen.

"More than weapons and rations, information's the most important thing to trade while we're here," she told the girls, stepping slightly closer to them.

She quickly wrote on the paper with the recent announcement information. She then held it out to the hijabi girl.

"I was wondering if you had any info about the killers on the last announcement. Where you saw them, what they are armed with, who they're allied if, how their names are spelled, anything like that."

On the paper, in a corner of the paper, circled, read the text:

We're escaping. If you want to join us, play along.

If they weren't going to, Shoshanna would find out quickly.

[AnimeNerd]

...well, shit. They weren't lying.

Or, at the very least, if they had lied they were damn good at it. Add to that one of the girls having moved from the doorway, and Jasper was able to feel some form of relief that he didn't just completely not notice his allies dying outside.

Of course, that relief only turned into annoyance at the realization that sitting girl had a point. Not annoyance toward her, but the Krakens that had left the ship.

'So much for trying to prove his brother wrong.'

But, he didn't let any anger show. The look on his face showed boredom more than it did any malice. No need to get pointlessly angry about something he couldn't change, and definitely not in front of two potential allies.

He had to admit, though, the thought of getting an actual massage didn't sound bad to him, but maybe later. After surviving the night, probably.

He stood back on his feet before shifting his neck a bit-just enough for it to elicit a satisfying crack or two-before letting his now usual charming smile came on.

"While you talk that over, I think I'm gonna head out and take watch." He turned to Shoshanna. "Someone's gotta do it if we've been ditched, yeah?"

He was feeling a bit more confident than probably necessary, yeah. The two new girls didn't seem like threats and could be beaten easily if they tried anything shifty, but he doubted it would even come to that. As far as he was concerned, there didn't seem to be any reason to be worried about these two.

And with that thought, he walked out onto the deck of the ship, feeling good about how things would be going in the future.

[[Jasper Suárez-King continued in When Betting On High Card Pays Off]]

[Wham Yubeesling]

She looked at the paper. Stared at it for a brief moment. The… code was significantly less hidden than expected, but at least that made it easier to decode. Code back.

“Hm. I haven’t met any of these people here, but… I’ve seen them around at school. I know a bit on what they’re like. And I know how to spell their names. If you’re willing…”

She put her hand out and got the pen. She focused on the paper after that. Added a ‘yes’ underneath the question. A smiley face next to it.

And also she fixed up all the names Shoshanna had spelt wrong. As a little bonus.

((continued elsewhere…))

[almostinhuman]

The situation had cooled, thankfully. Nadine had been worried for a moment that the tension would reach a breaking point, but they'd managed to convey they had no bad intentions. That things had settled down was a good sign these two weren't the murderous type, and could probably be trusted.

The boy left the room to replace the missing watch, seemingly satisfied that Nadine and Marion were not a threat. The girl, meanwhile, grabbed some paper and asked them for information. She seemed particularly concerned for info on the kids that'd come up on the announcements. Of course, Marion and herself hadn't actually encountered anyone at all since leaving the ship they started on, and Nadine was only vaguely familiar at best with most of the announced killers. Nadine nearly chimed in to say as much, but stopped when she spied a note scribbled into the corner of the paper.

'We're escaping. If you want to join us, play along.'

She certainly hadn't expected things to go quite that smoothly. She'd thought getting other kids on board with the escape plan was going to be far more difficult, but here they'd found allies effectively for free. Given they'd been examining the collars, they'd maybe even gotten further towards an actual escape than she and Marion had managed on their own so far. If they had, it'd be a huge step towards turning their escape goal into and escape plan, and even if they hadn't, extra heads and hands made it that much more likely they could actually pull something off.

She waited to see how the other girl would respond to Marion's reply, content to stew in relief and satisfaction rather than ruin it with words.

(Nadine Flores continued in When Betting On High Card Pays Off)

[Laurels]

Jasper walked past them and out to pick up the watch outside. Shoshanna figured he'd make it abundantly clear if Leslie and/or Gus were dead, and the fact that the girls were letting him go meant that they had nothing to hide.

The hijabi girl commented that she was willing to explain some details about the people on the announcement (and she could clear up the spelling of their names). She also signed the paper, making it clear they were willing to escape with them.

"Okay, sounds like we're good to trade information," Shoshanna said. "I've got a bit of notes we can exchange."

Shoshanna gestured to the hammocks.

"Come," she proclaimed. "We've got plenty of hammocks to get comfy on. Let's dish."

Shoshanna walked back over to her spot, getting the rest of her notes from earlier. She wasn't entirely sure what the two girls had to offer, but this was starting to look promising. Maybe they had run into two chill girls who also had designs to get out of this place.

Either way, the clipper ship was becoming Escape HQ, and Shoshanna hoped to keep it that way going into the second day.

((Shoshanna Kowalczyk continued in When Betting On High Card Pays Off))