The Tides of March

[Iceblock]

Wait. Hold up. Was she going to have to be Vincent here?

Caroline was confused. Not about the part where Dee said they were going to cause havoc because they were mad. She'd got the gist of that already. Not even when the bearded guy asked her if she had anything flammable on her, although that exasperated her maybe a little more than she wanted to admit. He was going to ask a person he just met to help him light things on fire. And Dee was helping.

Their plan, their reason for doing so - that was the thing that didn't make sense.

What was for sure was that this time, Caroline wasn't the one crying. And, what was more, she found that the amount of caring that she had reserved in the caring tank for other people's problems, usually about as full as anyone else's, was suddenly running empty. Blame SOTF, blame Vincent being an asshole, blame whatever. She had enough to care about without getting dragged into this mess.

"Let me get this straight," she said, her eyebrows dropping low. "You want to burn stuff." Her hands went to the left. "To get back at the show." Her hands went to the right. "Which makes money off of drama and explosions."

She shrugged, palms up.

"Do you have any idea how little sense that makes?"

[Shangela*]

Crud. Dee would have preferred if Caroline had just said her piece and just walked on out. Instead the girl was clinging around like flies on horseshit. Just as foul, too. Caroline wasn’t a bad girl in any sense, probably one of the better eggs in the basket at Whittree. Dee was just angry that she was right. The girl had a point.

What would Asa’s plan bring about? At best, they’d get a little bit of rage at the game out of their system. They’d smash some windows, break down some doors, put a couple holes in the walls. But at the worst, the producers could like to play God and blow their heads off to holy hell for no real reason. Sure as heck she was mad, but Dee wasn’t normally stupid. Right?

Dee was done crying. She told herself she wouldn’t sob like a newborn calf, yet a couple tears had trailed down. Damn it, that wasn’t her fault at all. It wasn’t like she made herself a joke casted member. It was all on the producers. Rage came back like a bull charging at a big red sheet.

Dee’s face contorted slightly, wincing out of aggravation. Dee had been so sure that getting back at the producers would get her some sense of satisfaction and revenge, but now she wasn’t so sure. At least Asa had a plan. Caroline came on over and crapped all over it.

“What do you suggest we do instead?” How dare Caroline walk in here with her nose held all high and mighty up in the air. She didn’t have the God-given right to call them dumb. Caroline was popular, pretty, well known, and she had a good weapon. The producers obviously liked her. She had everything going for her here; a whole band to team up with, a weapon to defend herself with. She wasn’t the joke here, not like Asa and Dee had been.

“Look, Caroline. We’re just damn mad, okay?” As mad at Dee was at the moment, she knew she couldn’t take it out on poor Caroline. The girl had no better say in being here than Dee had. They were all on this vacation from heck together.

“Look at me, for starters. I’m not much to look at, but plenty to gawk at. You think the producers are having a hearty little chuckle at my expense? I know I can’t do a lick to get myself out of here, but at the same time, I’m not willing to roll over and let the buzzards eat me.” Was she going to die here? Probably. Unless God had a very merry sense of humor, Dee wasn’t gonna get out of here in one piece. But that didn’t mean the show would finish her off easily.

Just like every trip to the dentist, or to the dress store, or to the local church, they’d have to drag her out kicking and screaming.

[Laurels]

Oh great. This girl was a critic. She did have a point that the show did make money off explosions and chaos, but that wasn't the kind Asa had in mind. He had to restrain himself this time from getting pissed at the girl. He couldn't let his annoyance with this girl show like it did earlier with Dee. Thankfully, Dee decided to be the one to flip out and argue back at the new girl. That was good for him, since it meant that he could look like the rational one.

When Dee finished speaking, Asa decided to explain further.

"Yes, it's like my ally in anger says," Asa said, adjusting his glasses and facing the new girl. "We're mad, but we're not frothing with so much rage we can't be civil. Hence why we're leaning towards civil disobedience as opposed to mad rioting."

Asa stepped closer to the new girl, keeping his brush axe to his side and under the poncho.

"What I'm thinking isn't so much burning the resort and salting the earth, but more about testing how much we can do while we're in here. There are some rules that prevent us from doing too much, and our own survival should be something to always consider above all else, but why should we play their game when they can watch us play our own game?"

"Besides, burning down the buildings is a lousy idea when it's this cold outside. I was thinking more in lines of burning messages in the ground or leaving other obscenities around the arena. You know, things like 'JARED CLAYTON HAS A SMALL DICK' or 'RITZY DAGGERS CAN GO FUCK HERSELF.' I mean, we're allowed to test the censors, so why not?"

Asa brushed some hair out of his face.

"I hope that clears it up for you."

[Iceblock]

"Watch your distance, wise guy."

Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand.

She hadn't really come in here to point out the flaws in their plan. No, she hadn't come in here to listen to their plan at all. The only reason she was in here in the first place was because she'd been stupid enough not to avoid windows when she was trying to be sneaky.

And yet she had spoken up, had channeled her asshole side anyway. Could have just nodded and smiled and left after making some small talk.

To be perfectly honest, Caroline didn't know exactly why she'd said what she did. She wasn't much for watching her words. She just kinda... talked, and sometimes maybe she got carried away. Dee was respectable enough, had decent grades back in school, but she was here with some guy from another school, with a flawed plan between the two of them. The guy's newest explanation made it seem a little less flawed, but Caroline still wasn't a fan. Maybe she'd spoken up because the plan had sounded so stupid at first. Maybe she'd spoken up because she'd somehow wanted to look out for Dee, for a moment, even though she didn't really care what they did or what happened to them after she left.

Maybe it wasn't the time for self-reflection.

"I'm not here to tell you what you should do or, I don't know, should want to do," she finally said. The fire iron tapped against the side of her leg. "If you want to test their limits, sure, go find stuff and burn messages into the snow. It just sounds like a pretty stupid way to have revenge, that's all."

[Shangela*]

Dee took a step back, both figuratively and literally.

Caroline certainly wasn’t dumb. She’d always had horse sense. From grades on tests, comments in class, to everything, really. In all gosh darn honesty, Dee should have trusted what Caroline said over anything Asa’d promised.

But on the other hand, Asa’d been the first person to not scare the living heck out of Dee. Even dress boy looked crazy enough to try something for the sake of fame.  Asa sounded so certain, so sure. He knew this show sideways and out. His plan sounded simple, but there had to be something more churning in his butter barrel. Right? Dee had to believe in that. Maybe he was just holding back from Caroline. Dee hoped to God that Asa had a bigger plan after this.

“Like I said, it doesn’t seem like we have many options here, Caroline. I ain’t got a weapon; I ain’t got the sense to use it, and I ain’t got the brawn God gave a horse.” Dee was at the frayed end of her rope here.

“You either fight, get killed, or fight back. Maybe our plan don’t make a lick of sense to you, but I ain’t standing by and doing nothin’.” Dee’s fiery temper ashed out. Any backdraft of courage, branded in rage, went up in smoke. All that was left was the hollow, scorched shell. “I reckon that if you think our plan is so stupid, ya’ll should go on and get outta here.”

Caroline had something to fight for. She had her girls. Sarah, the really nice one. Valerie, that really quiet one. Anzu, or Anzo, the Japanese girl with the really bad attitude. People liked her and people were rooting for her.

“C’mon Asa, let’s look around here, see if we can’t raise a little bit of heck.” Maybe Caroline had a point. What happened if they tested their graces against the producers. If they wanted to, Asa and Dee’s collars could blast their heads to Texas in a heartbeat. They were playing with fire here.

But maybe that kind of death would be better. Something quick, instant. At least no one would see her get slowly picked off by someone stronger and better. At least no one would see her cry.

[Laurels]

"Believe me, if I got to have revenge the way I wanted, things would be a whole lot different. I'm just working with what I can," Asa told the new girl. "We're pretty impotent here, so there's only so much we can do."

Dee called him back and suggested that they try and see what they could destroy.

"Sounds fun, but let's be smart first," he said, turning back to his ally.

"Here's the thing, if we're going to fuck with these people, we need the right supplies."

Asa held up his brush axe.

"I don't know if this could destroy any of these display cases, but if we found a crowbar we might be able to. At the same time, we might need something extremely flammable, like gasoline or something similar. I checked my first aid kit earlier and found a lighter, so that can be our heat source."

Asa swung his backpack free from one shoulder and swung it in front of his chest. He quickly opened it up and began to rifle through it with his free hand. Asa pulled his map out and began to look over it.

"We need to find the place where the best supplies for creating chaos could be acquired."

[Iceblock]

Fight, get killed, or fight back. Those were the choices, the words that stood out in Dee's retort.

A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth.

They wanted her gone, but that was almost an afterthought to her. Caroline hadn't been planning to stick around. She'd said her piece. Dee's buddy, whose name she'd probably never know, had taken some sharp metal tool out of his poncho and was putting together plans as if she'd already left.

"Then good luck, Dee," she said. She half-turned, ready to head back out into the cold, but paused. "If you happen to see them, would you tell them I'm looking for them?"

Dee would know who she was talking about. Caroline didn't expect the other girl to follow through, not if she really was as angry as she seemed, but it was worth a shot.

In any case, what they did afterwards was no longer her business. Probably never had been.

She left without waiting for an answer.

((Caroline Leveson continued in Fear and Loathing in Tiki Land))

[Shangela*]

((Feel free to move Dee out of here with Asa when you write the exit post.))

For what it was worth, Dee offered Caroline a short, curt promise. “If I find any’o’em, I’ll be sure to send ‘em your way.” Which way was that, exactly? The girl had been as helpful a screen door on a submarine. If she’d managed to run across that band, Dee wouldn’t have the foggiest way of telling them where Caroline ran off to in a huff.

Not that this place was entirely big, Dee started to realize. For seventy-something kids, the area was feeling a mess full cramped.

Asa was going on about his master plan. Some kind of anarchy by fire. Good lord, there would be fire. What better away to fight hell with, well heck, hell itself? They needed fire in order to ignite the heat source. While Dee didn’t know those fancy English class words that Asa was saying before, she could understand basic chemistry.

Lighter + Gasoline = Vengence.

Only one problem; no gasoline. There was no way in heck that they’d leave any of the staff cars behind. Even if they did, they’d have scrapped them clean of any go-power. If they didn’t have the sense to do that, what would stop the kids from going on their merry way out of here?

A chill crept down Dee’s back from the cool of her collar.

Oh right. That.

“I don’t reckon that they’d give us access to anything that can light worth a damn. Even the kindle we’d get would be all sorts of soggy and unusable.” Shit, what could they use?

There were all sorts of places that they could look for something flammable. Yet for some reason, they were starting off in an aquarium. The name practically had water right in the damned title.

“Oh, you reckon that the beauty salon has something we can use? I know that aerosol lights up like a damn blow torch if you hold it up to a lighter.” Dee tried to sound like she didn’t speak from experience. Experience here meant that she and her brothers had been little hellions as kids, and taken Mama’s hairspray and burnt up the critters on the sidewalk.  

[Laurels]

((Understood))

Asa continued to look over the map. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the other girl leaving. That was fine with him. He didn't know the girl, and if anything happened to her, he'd probably not even recognize her name on the announcements. She had people to look for, and she could go for them. Just as long as they stayed out of his way, he'd be fine.

He focused back on the map. There had to be flammable materials around here somewhere. The restaurant area might have some cooking oil available. All he'd have to do is put a pot of that stuff on a stove, turn it on to high, then hurry away before it burned and ignited. That sounded pretty cool, especially if he made a trail of oil and let that catch fire as well. However, that would mean torching the one place guaranteed to have extra food, so perhaps he'd have to save that plan for if he was really out of options.

Dee then mentioned the salon. She was right: aerosol was highly flammable. Asa grinned. This girl was a damn genius.

"Aerosol cans sound like a great idea," he said, folding his map up and putting it in his pants pocket. "We can get some of those, then find things to torch."

Asa put his backpack back around both shoulders. He adjusted the poncho with one hand and held the axe in the other. He really hoped the poncho did exactly what he hoped it would.

"Well, let's not waste time. Let's raise hell."

Asa pushed the doors of the museum open and made his way into the blistering cold of the arena. The salon was just down the road from the museum, so it wouldn't take too long to get there. He had an honest-to-god plan and a partner who looked like she'd complement him well.

The producers wanted to see how he'd react in the game, and he was going to give them one hell of a show.

((CJ3 Asa Rosen and IS1 Dee Dixon continued in Honey Badger Don't Care!))