Rock Lobster

[Fiori]

((Leopold Sutherland continued from Don't Fear the Reaper))

It had been three or five hours since the last announcement, and Leopold was already bored out of his mind again.

There was something about this whole damn island that irked him to no end. Something about it's desolateness which he found particularly tiresome. Sure, it was nice to be left alone once in a while, but good GOD was it beginning to get boring to wander about this lonely rock without any sign of life. Perhaps if it was still being used as a holiday resort it wouldn't be that dull. At least then he could lie back on the beach with a nice joint without worrying about some random SOB sneaking up on him when he least suspects it.

Speaking of which, at some point he needed to deal with the unfortunate fact that he lacked any decent weapons. As much as he wanted to avoid getting his hands dirty, it didn't take a genius to figure out that without any means to defend himself Leopold was as good as dead. Unless of course that he could find his teammates, that way he could let them do all the hard work without him having to lift so much as a finger. Provided that his teammates weren't a bunch on incompetent retards, of course, which was a very likely possibility given his luck so far.

I swear to god, if it turns out some idiot like Todd Hudson is on my team, I'm going to pull my collar and end it all right here and now.

...Okay, maybe that might be taking it a little TOO far, but the fact remained that Leopold was sceptical about his so-called teammates.

In the meantime, he was currently focussing on reaching the resort hotel until it got dark. Judging from the map though, the most direct route involved traversing through a series of tar pits. Least to say, Leopold wanted to avoid going anywhere near them with every fibre of his being. Especially seeing as it was there that Bob Lazenby met his unfortunate demise at the hands of Kevin Fielding.

With this in mind, after leaving the jungle Leopold heading in a generally south-western direction until he was certain that he'd dodged the tar pits, after which his started travelling directly south towards where the hotel apparently stood.

However, it came as something of a surprise for the hipster when he found a large blue lake between him and his intended destination. Huh? Must have gone further west then I realised... Ah well, might as well make the most of it. I've been dying of thirst for hours now...

With a brand new destination in mind, headed towards the clear lake and dropped his bag on the grass beside him as he scooped up some water and took a refreshing drink. Of course, he could have simply drunk from one of the horrifically lukewarm bottles he'd been assigned, but Leopold had always made a point to never drink anything unless it was either boiling hot or ice cold. Room temperature drinks were practically out of the question, and sure enough the lake was cold and refreshing enough to satisfy his thirst.

He briefly removed his lensless glasses so he could scoop up another handful of water to splash on his face, washing off the dirt and grime which had managed to accumulate itself over the past day. It wasn't the most ideal method of washing his face, but at the very least the cold water felt refreshing on his almost sunburnt skin.

Ah, just what I needed... Now then, I should probably head towards that cabin over there. It doesn't look very well-kept, but any roof over my head is better then no roof whatso-the hell is that?

Leopold was genuinely surprised that he hadn't noticed it before, but out in distance he could make out a strange object bobbing in the lake. At first he assumed that it was a piece of driftwood or something, until upon further inspection he realised the object to be something far more horrifying...

...It was a human corpse.

"Gah!" he exclaimed loudly as he shot back up onto his feet, spitting out the possibly contaminated water as he shivered in disgust. Being the kind of person who generally avoided scenes of violence, like many of his fellow classmates Leopold had never seen a real dead body before. At least, in the flesh anyway. He had told himself many times that seeing sights such as the one before him was something that he'd have to become accustomed to if he was going to get off this island in one piece. But when it came down to it, not even someone as apathetic as Leopold could deny the fact that dead bodies were freaking creepy to look at.

Not that he didn't try to hide this, of course. After getting over the initial shock, the young hipster wannabe quickly wasted no time in trying to act all cool by straightening his bow-tie up and putting his glasses back on, readjusting them as he cleared his throat.

"Yes... Yes, of course. A dead body, right. How... Yes, right."

Damnit, you're in a total state! Get a hold of yourself before somebody notices!

[MurderWeasel]

A voice echoes from Leopold's collar...

"Right? Tut tut. You can't possibly hope to be a compelling protagonist if that's all you have to say. Come on. Doesn't it make you angry? Don't tell me you can see something like this and not want to do anything about it."

[Fiori]

What the...?!?

Leopold instinctively swerved around to the moment he heard the strange voice speaking to him, half-expecting some chainsaw-wielding loony dressed up as Uncle Sam standing there with a creepy Cheshire Cat smile.

Thankfully though, that was far from the case. Once he'd confirmed that he was definitely still the only person... Well, LIVING person in the are, it only took a moment or two for him to realise that the source of the voice was none other then the metal collar he wore around his neck. So, this is what they meant when they said that we'd receive advice from our "mentors". Huh...

That said, calling the message he was receiving "advice" was a stretch of the imagination. After getting over the initial shock of receiving a message in the first place, the young hipster couldn't help but raise his eyebrow in puzzlement as the peculiar voice advised him to... Be a more compelling protagonist?

"...Really? That's it? That's all the advice i'm getting here? No words of wisdom or anything like that, just handy tips on how to react properly to the sight of a dead body? Christ, I knew I'd been assigned to the crappiest team on the island..."

He paused for a moment, almost as if he was expecting some kind of reply, before turning back towards the corpse floating in the middle of the lake. He squinted his eyes and raised his lensless glasses as he attempted to figure out whether or not he recognized the stiff. He didn't recall hearing of anyone drowning during the announcement, so he guessed that whoever it was had died at some point after it. However, all he could make out from where he was standing was that it was girl, and quite frankly he wasn't curious enough to get any closer for further inspection. Well, sucks to be her I guess. I'd say better luck next time, but... Well, yeah. Anyway, better go check out that cabin. I could use a nap.....

Ignoring the advice given to him by his mentor, Leopold headed towards the nearest cabin with his bag beside him and stopped just outside the front door, taking a deep breath before knocking on it three times and leaping out of the way of the incoming fire that never came. Once he was convinced that there was no players waiting inside to ambush him, he straightened his bow again and opened the door an inch...

...Only to be met with an awful stench from within.

Jesus, what the hell is that? It smells like a...

It was at that point that he noticed the trail of blood leading into the cabin.

...Ah. That would explain it. Well, worth a peek anyway.

After taking a quick peek to confirm his suspicions, nearly losing his lunch in the process, Leopold decided that it would be best to leave this corpse-infested graveyard as soon as possible. After coming across two dead bodies in a row, the idea of sleeping near a death trap like this sounded like more trouble then it was probably worth. Better to just move on and hope he could find the resort hotel before it got dark.

Well, that was... Interesting. I guess. Not every day you find two dead bodies stinking up the place. Although, chances are, this probably isn't going to be the last time I bump into grisly sights like this.

Better get used to it soon, I guess.

((Leopold Sutherland continued in Metanoia))