The Flotilla, 5:27 AM Local Time, International Waters
The Selkie command centre aboard the mentor ship had steadily morphed into some manner of cave over the past couple of days, one inhabited by the elusive Emmouse.
Jonathan couldn't quite remember when they'd started mentally labelling their assigned mentor as a mouse, and it was vaguely annoying. That was what a burnout sleep schedule and two team swaps in as many days got you. They were lucky they could remember their own name right now; more than MarWIN ever managed.
Winchester had been a massive headache, coming in swinging his dick around like he was god's gift to the show and not just the most credible guy that production could scrounge up on short notice. They were out in the middle of the ocean, for god's sake, it wasn't like they could find a mentor in the kitchen cupboards. Jonathan wasn't sorry to see the back of him, and in their opinion, he'd shown exactly why he hadn't been brought back until now by throwing a tantrum when Emmy replaced him. Had he thought she was completely out of the picture?
Jonathan wasn't convinced that Emmy was in the right frame of mind to be back in the mentor chair, but she'd insisted and had yet to break any more monitors, so they were reserving judgement. She was definitely lower maintenance than MarWIN, but that didn't exactly make her plain sailing to handle. Maybe that was why the powers that be assigned them to her in the first place. For Sixty-Six, Jonathan had been a lucky media intern thrown in at the deep end working on the team of Brandon freaking Parker, which was great up until the exact point Parker melted down on a biblical scale. Jonathan's boss had imploded or something, and Jonathan had wound up having to handle the mess.
They'd obviously done something right, because one season later, they had their boss's job. And the exact same amount of mess.
Emmy was... Emmy was a high schooler. Out there on the flotilla, high schoolers angsting and killing each other and being dramatic was good television. In here, it was a group of underqualified production assistants trying to handle an emotionally unstable teenager.
Uh, minus the killing each other, unless intern Millie's overlong smoke break had much more sinister origins than anticipated.
Jonathan poked their head around Emmy's door, finding her right where they left her, entrenched in her swivel chair. Laid out in front of her on a desk was a bank of monitors, prioritising four feeds. One of them hadn't seen movement for the better part of a day. The remaining three featured a surviving Selkie apiece. Emmy was still buried up to her neck in a blanket, barely moving, empty water bottles strewn around her.
"Brought you something to eat, Emmy." They'd called her 'Miss Soon' initially, but that hadn't gone down too well and Jonathan had course corrected. Didn't want to blow their spot as one of about three TV staff she tolerated.
"Okay." She still didn't move. Didn't even look at them, eyes still fixed on her monitors. Jonathan glanced at the coffee table next to Emmy's chair. The sandwich they'd brought her earlier lay there untouched.
Jonathan was too much of a professional to sigh.
The quiet was abruptly cut by a sharp knocking at the door, which was already swinging the rest of the way open by the time Jonathan turned around. Framed in the vacated space was Jewel Evans, cane outstretched where she'd rapped it against the door, a tablet tucked under her arm and a cup of coffee in her free hand. Just behind her, Jonathan spied Tracy, equipped with a large bottle of water and a tall cocktail glass of something fruity.
"Good morning," Jewel called, voice cheerful and energetic in a way that belied the time the makeup department put into concealing the dark circles under her eyes with even darker circles. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Without waiting for a response, she set off across the room, giving Jonathan a quick smile and a nod before making her way to Emmy's side. She set the mug of coffee down next to the uneaten sandwich with an audible click of ceramic on wood, and a moment later Tracy placed the other two beverages next to it.
"Thanks," Jewel said, "maybe you could see if they've got some morning pastries in the kitchen? We can wait a little if they're not ready yet."
Just like that, Tracy was off again, all but skipping out of the room.
Jonathan was hit with the vague sensation that they'd just been sideswiped clean off the racetrack.
Emmy barely acknowledged the whole display, her eyes flickering briefly over to Jewel, and then back to her monitors. Not that Emmy had been anyone's best friend on production, but one of the few explicit requests she'd made of Jonathan's team was that she wanted the various crews to stop trying to shove her into situations with the other mentors.
There were a couple of seconds of awkward silence.
"I brought drinks," Jewel offered. "Coffee, water, piña colada. Your pick."
She rested the cane on the ground, pressing her palm against the head, though it was difficult to tell whether or not it was actually bearing any weight.
"It's been a night. I figured we could all use something."
"Why are you here." Emmy's voice was as flat as a marble slab.
Jewel smiled, no sign of being phased by the chilly reception.
"Concern," she replied. "And, I suppose, wanting to get out of my head a little."
A pause, a chuckle.
"Or was that a question with a broader scope?"
"No." Jonathan thought that Emmy was going to leave it there, but then she continued. "You checked in. Don't you have people to mentor?"
"I do. Fewer than a few hours ago." Her intonation stood out mostly because it wasn't flippant, free of the sarcasm and teasing edge that colored so much of what she said. Emmy snorted a noise that resembled a laugh in name only.
"I'm keeping track." Jewel turned her head, tapped an earpiece half hidden under her hair. "But that's not all that matters."
"Does it matter if I actually ask?" There was a sudden bite to Emmy's tone.
Jewel's lips turned upwards more. She picked up the big glass of fruity drink, took a slow sip, and set it back down.
"Of course it matters," she said.
Emmy finally turned her head. Nothing to mask the dark circles under those eyes. "I'm useless. Might as well have given them all a talking doll."
At that, Jewel paused for a moment. Her smile softened, and the cane wobbled slightly as she shook her head.
"No," she said softly. "You're not."
"I ditched halfway through. I haven't spoken to Olivia in days like-like a text that you haven't answered." Emmy slid a couple inches down her chair. "They deserve better. One of them could have—" She faltered, clamping her teeth on her lip, looking at that empty monitor.
"You're here now." Jewel lowered herself down into a kneeling position beside the chair, somewhat stiffly, and slid the bottle of water towards Emmy. "My mentor second-guessed me and then vanished.
"But it's not even about that. It's..."
She shrugged, rolling the cane in her hands.
"Having a friendly voice, a person who cares, knowing that someone's watching over you. That's what means the most."
"Maybe. Maybe it's a reminder I'm safe and they're out there." Emmy brought her arms, blanket and all, up to her face. Her next words were murmured and muffled both. "Why'd they pick me?"
"I can ask, if you want." Another little nudge to the water bottle. "After, of course. But that's something that's not as important. It is what it is. And you're doing what you can."
If Jonathan was Emmy, they thought they might have batted back Jewel's comment with a 'what makes you think they'd tell you?', but they weren't and she didn't.
Instead Emmy made a noise that was a sigh and a sob all rolled into one and sat up, all the way up—Jonathan hadn't realised just how far she'd sank in the chair—throwing the blanket off to pool on the floor. "I'm not gonna have another breakdown, if that's why you're here."
Jewel chuckled, again.
"Nope. This is purely my own initiative. Whatever the expectations—"
She waved a hand vaguely in the air.
"—we're on the same side, and I want to do what I can for you."
"Team mentor. Whoo. I—" Emmy stopped short, eyes settling on Jonathan in sudden recognition that they had never left.
Oops.
Jewel followed Emmy's gaze right to Jonathan. She gave a small shrug, raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
"It's late," she said. "You look like you could use something too."
She gestured at the array of drinks.
"Why don't you take your pick and take ten?"
They knew a dismissal when they heard one, but Jewel didn't call the shots around here. They looked right past her and over at Emmy. She hesitated, seeming to genuinely consider, and then gave them a nod.
Alright. Good enough for them.
"Emmy. Miss Evans."
"Get some rest." Jewel stood, took the coffee cup, and crossed to where they were, pressing the warm ceramic into their hands. "There's a lot left to go."
I've done this more than you, Jonathan did not say, because they were polite, and on reflection, killing ten people was a pretty different skillset to managing a celebrity's PTSD. They gave her a nod, and then stepped out of the room. Jonathan didn't even like coffee, but the next team member they saw would definitely appreciate it.
Ten minutes... that was long enough to check the kitchen's stock. Maybe there'd be something Emmy would actually eat. Who'd be a mentor wrangler?
They smiled fondly as they walked down the corridor.
The Flotilla, 9:00 AM Local Time, International Waters
"Good morning, Mangrove Garden," called the amplified voice of Ritzy Daggers, reverberating through the halls of the cruise ship and from speakers on those nearby boats which were still in play. Farther afield, on the fringes on the flotilla where nobody was left alive, the speakers now lay silent.
"It's been a busy night for you. In fact, we're at the point where less than twenty of you remain. And yet, somehow, every team is still in play. That means it's anyone's game. Well, except for the ones who died.
"Let's get right into it. Leah Hemingway was the first to fall, at the hands of Seo-yun Lee, who she had on the ropes before just... giving up.
"Next, Anthony Golden demonstrated the Golden Rule, delivering unto Luciano Ascencio the same cheap shot he himself has suffered, what, three times? Between that and the stabbing that followed, it's hard to say which was the insult and which the injury.
"Did you know that this is the longest a season with teams has gone? It's true—the kids the last two times were out of here about a day before this point. It seems like it's starting to wear on you, too, or at least Laura Hakštok got ground down, because she just shrugged and went to swim in a Danger Zone.
"I've teased some of you about unfinished business before, but Seo-yun Lee serves as both a good and a bad example today. She took my warnings to heart, going back to rectify the mistake she made in leaving Matias Juarez alive, but didn't quite finish him off. The gunfire ultimately did the trick, but if he'd lasted another thirty seconds I'd be joking about killsteals again.
"Akeno Kudo didn't have to worry about that when she finally finished her feud with Sergio Gallo. Oh, there was some interference, but at the end of the day the final blow, and the credit, is all hers.
"Now here's some big news for you: Gabriela Garcia-Campos brought an end to Seo-yun Lee's reign of terror... but not quite how she intended to. Seo-yun was down and disarmed, but one moment of hesitation from Gabriela was all it took for the tables to turn. The extraction crew picked Seo-yun up soon after, making her the third girl in a row to manage to hit the ten.
"Oh, but in the time between that last kill and her trip home, there was one more piece of cooperation worth mentioning. Fisk Bateman and Verity Stewart worked together to tackle the mountain that was Junji Yamada. After all, there was more than enough of him to go around.
"That brings us to the teams. And quite a bit has changed since last time, let me tell you.
"With eighteen kills, the once-mighty Crabs still have a pinch, but they won't be regenerating their lost claws anytime soon—they're down to three members alive.
"The Krakens have bumped their total to twelve, but in case you haven't figured it out yet, the one responsible for ten of those just caught a lift out, leaving only one team member in play.
"Remember a few cycles ago when it looked like the Selkies were sure to collapse? Well, now they still have three members, and are up to eight kills, and six of those were even people outside their own team.
"The Leviathans took heavy damage, and are also reduced to three members. Not so much for violence, they're still holding steady at three kills.
"The sole remaining Mariner hasn't died, but also hasn't accomplished anything new; the team total remains a whopping three kills.
"After another casualty, the Buccaneers join the ranks of three-member teams, and with no recent kills, they're lingering at four, one friendly fire.
"The Sirens cut the roster to three before it was cool, and three they number still. Even better, they've actually picked up a kill, bringing them to seven—fourth place by raw numbers, but the Selkies' count includes team kills and the Krakens' ace is gone, so the Sirens are worth watching.
"And, finally, our loner is still alive, but still has only the one kill.
"With that out of the way, we're pulling the circle in again. Everything outside the cruise ship is now off-limits. Get comfortable with each other, because you're going to have to get even more closely acquainted really soon.
"I'll check in with the survivors this evening. Ritzy Daggers, signing off."
Weather: 9:00 AM, Day Five, Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Bright and warm, it's a perfect day outside, though with the cruise ship the sole remaining open area, most students will only see it through the windows, unless they venture above deck. Following a student's actions yesterday, many rooms in the corridors now have their lights on full blast, though the pattern cannot be clearly discerned from inside the ship. The ninth announcement will arrive at 9:00 PM on Friday, April 21.
And, the rolls. This time, we've only rolled three characters; the next set of rolls will take us to the final ten, rolling however many characters that requires (four or fewer, as the case may be). As always, please remember all appropriate etiquette.
1. Ivan Rodriguez (G-rated Hentai) - Amanda Brookes (Spindarene, Hero Card used)
2. Gregory Miller (Applesintime)
3. Elliott-Blair Østergaard (RetroVenus)
Three days for cards, and a further seven for deaths. We're back to the usual three/seven split for Danger Zones. Once again, we're going to be turning post review on for the DZs after the first period elapses, so don't panic if your post does not immediately show up after that window; staff will approve it ASAP.
