Rise, Rapture, Rise

[Primrosette]

Getting advice on what he should do was making him mull over how to take action in this situation. He could sense how it was still after Leah had lowered the crossbow and Jewel wanted him to help everyone in this moment. Even if he did give Olivia a small wave and a nod as she was a close friend and Anthony was someone who couldn't stand him for what happened back at that alligator incident. Normally he wasn't that good at realized that he could be insensitive towards other people's feelings without the person saying at him or someone else pointing it out for him.

Beau sighed softly and he muttered under his breath, "Okay, here goes!"

He turned his body slightly and he took a step forward into the room, making sure to cast his eyes over the people in the room fully. Hailey, Leah, Lucia, Olivia, Anthony. What the heck was he supposed to do now?

"So, hey, how about everyone gives each other some space as this room is way too crowded? And I know that we are all scared right now, but panicking and waving weapons that we have no experience with is only gonna make things worse." Beau was glanced back and forward between everyone before his eyes were settled on Leah. "Hey, Leah. So we're a part of a team together and I would like to make sure to stay by your side as a friend. But if you need some space, just let me know. Because I can get all up in people's personal space and stuff. Let's-Let's try to think things through in a nice, calming manner and not kill each other."

He paused.

"Is that okay?"

He hoped that he hadn't messed things up more. He wasn't good at things like these honestly.

[Somersault]

Hailey nodded at what everyone else was giving, taking in the moment and letting it be...momentous. That sounded about right.

"Yeah, what Beau said," Hailey responded, continuing to smile at everyone in hopes that would cause people to feel a little less murder-happy.

Most of the people there, she reasoned, were people who in normal circumstances tended to de-escalate things, or at least not go around actively looking for trouble. To be fair, all of that seemed quite moot at the moment, ethics and morals cast aside in the name of survival. Or fame. Not to be cynical, because cynicism was the route to satanism, it really was, but having gone to many a high school party, Hailey had to be quite blunt in saying that many of her classmates had quite misplaced priorities. God love them, but she couldn't even dare to think of the words that could be used to describe them. That harsh, seriously.

Hailey was hoping that she wasn't coming across as harsh right now, though because that seemed like something liable to get her sent up even faster. That wasn't a comforting thought, but it kept her grounded. Kept her remembering there'd be those ravening wolves in sheep's clothing, false prophets and soothsayers. Which was all a fancy way of saying people would be liable to lie.

Not that she would point fingers, because the blame game never did anything but result in shame, but there certainly wasn't any good in her taking everything by face value. She stayed smiling, but her eyes remained wide, searching.

[carduinal-cyn]

"Sounds OK with me, Beau!" Olivia replied, flashing him one of her trademark grins and a thumbs-up as she took a few steps backwards. For a moment, she had expected Leah to crack under the pressure and claim first blood with that fearsome-looking old crossbow. Luckily for everyone, Lucia and Anthony intervened at the perfect moment, and the crisis was averted. She made a mental note to thank them both later, and then she traced the words "Anthony" and "Lucia" on the fabric of her jacket so she wouldn't lose said note in the clutter of her brain.

It dawned on her that in the midst of the pre-Beau chaos, Leah had asked—in an uncharacteristically foul-mouthed way—for that book the producers had given her in lieu of a real weapon. Olivia's first instinct was to give the wigged-out girl with the deadly arrows everything she wanted, but her gut was whispering very different advice. Olivia, they gave you that book for a reason, she thought, even if it might seem pretty useless. She realized she hadn't gotten much of an opportunity to look at her weapon of choice, and so she hefted the heavy pack over her shoulders and fished it out.

There it was: Ten Kills, One Life by Jewel Evans, the black binding and blood-red letters lending it a certain "ow, the edge" quality. The name struck Olivia as vaguely familiar, and only after she read the title did she realize that she'd been given a book by the vicious young lady who'd escaped from SOTF by murdering ten of her classmates.

"Hey, Leah?" she piped up from her spot near the back corner of the yacht. "What do you need this book for, anyway? It's not like we're gonna get out of here by reading."

[Applesintime]

This situation was... not great. Stuff seemed to be starting to calm down now, at least. Beau, as much as he was an annoying fucking asshole at times, had shown up at the perfect time. He may be a dumbass, but right now they needed a dumbass to try and calm stuff down. And really, was he a dumbass if he was bringing the mood to a calm instead of a simmer that threatened to boil over? No. He had a point, that they should all take a step back. However Anthony had a bit of an idea. Leah with that crossbow was... not a good idea. And so, still holding the pillow in front of him, he remained where he was.

"Hey, uh, Leah. Don't worry about apologising and all that. Why don't, uh... you let me take care of that crossbow? You don't wanna like, accidentally fire it and do something that you might regret, right?" He gave her a nervou smile, speaking slowly and gently. It felt like guilt-tripping her, and he felt like a pisshead for doing it. But he'd take a little pang of morality in his chest than a bolt in it. Plus, to be honest, he did want that crossbow. He could go hand-to-hand if he needed, but shooting someone carries less risk. Of course, he hoped he never had to do that, but of course this was Survival of the Fucking Fittest. If the assholes at home didn't get their daily bloodshed, they'd complain.

God, if he died here, it'd probably be made into a stupid fucking meme or some shit. He had the sudden urge to flip the camera the V-sign, but of course that would only startle people and that wouldn't be good. Plus, he'd have to let the pillow go. And as little as it might do, it gave him a false sense of comfort.

"But yeah, let's just- I agree with Beau and Lucia. And- yeah, let's just... play chill. Everyone be like... yeah." Anthony cursed in his mind. He had no idea what to say, and he was worried about Leah's response to the questioning. Honestly, he didn't really know anyone in here well apart from Beau and Leah, so he had no idea how anyone was gonna react to all of this.

Well, he knew how he was reacting: poorly.

[Yonagoda]

“Yeah, yeah,” she breathed out. “Let’s not get violent. We’re all in this together, mm-hm.”

The book. She’s wanted to read it- heard some reviews, a lot of hype, and it just interested her in a dull way. She thought she would never read it. She thought she would never read any book again.

“Olivia, I know it’s weird, but, um, Jewel’s my mentor, and I also just… wanted to read a book, any book, because it’s, like, my last source of entertainment in this place. And I think, I…

Well,

I need it more than you, I guess.”

She put the crossbow down on the ground and tugged at her wrist nervously. “I think I’m self-aware enough to know I probably shouldn’t be trusted with this. But I don’t really trust the rest of you with it either. It’s er, no offense but I don’t think anyone’s trustworthy here, right?”

[ciphermitarai]

Lucia had to zip in a quick breath to hold herself back from the urge to spit a playful bicker of a reply—Leah still had a weapon, after all, and it was smart not to trust. Petty banter was not something that was often survivable here. Survival, survival, survival. Remember the three rules. They’d already tried to provoke them into breaking one with some stupid fucking condom, God. Were they sponsored or some shit?

Her energy was being misplaced, but time moved too fast to care. So here Leah was, a perfect model of some final-fucking girl, practically offering that shit up. She just needed a little push. Hand it over so nobody gets too hurt. And the moral side of her brain wanted to hit her for saying that, but it was true. Better to die on night two than night one.

Ha.

Nah, she couldn’t emulate Vasily just yet. She’d probably lose it that way. She just wasn’t that... cutthroat, she guessed was the word for it. And even right as she thought it, she knew it was denial.

That voice in her brain was still her, after all. And it wanted her to live, so...

“Leah, I already have this. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have by now, okay?” She gently moved the cleaver out from behind her, perhaps not mindful enough of Beau, but that couldn’t hurt too bad. “I, um...” She racked her brain for the right words, finally stumbling upon them after a moment. “I understand that you’re scared, but—“ God, she sounded just like her dad. “... you might end up hurting yourself with that thing instead of hurting anyone else. So can you hand it away...? Who do you want to have it?”

Not the most comforting words, but hey. Lucia was trying her best.

[Primrosette]

Leah wanted Olivia's book. Anthony and Lucia both seemed to want her crossbow. Beau and Hailey wanted to have peace. But it seemed like there was some pressuring doing on and Beau's smile faltered a little. Okay, okay. Beau knew that death was a part of life and blah, blah, blah. He had been willing to put himself in danger for viewers by making himself pretend to fall off a building while parkouring, almost choking to death on creamy pickles and chocolate-coated curry that was too hot and spicy for him (also freaking nasty as hell to eat and he ended up ill for a whole week or so), he almost suffocated in a wolf fursuit due to wanting to mess with an old friend called Avery whom he had not seen in years, etc, etc.

But enough about his past!

"Alright, alright. Look-" Beau glanced beside him and he suddenly noticed the cleaver in the girl's hand; thinking that it was a cool weapon for Lucia to have, to be honest. "Oh shit! Nice weapon, Lucia!"

He was getting distracted. Whoops!

"Uh, anyway...." Beau sighed softly and he touched the top of his cap, pondering over his next words to say. "Look, you guys can't just ask her to give her weapon to one of you if she doesn't trust any of us here right now. Even if Leah doesn't want it, she should still keep it just in case and maybe it could be a comfort thing. I don't know."

He shrugged, feeling at a loss. How was he supposed to gain his teammate's trust if she even thought he had bad intentions?

He turned to look at Olivia and he felt himself slightly relaxing at the sight of her. Heck, he didn't even care if she was on another team. Olivia was a friend and he would never betray her. Even if she had to betray him, he would understand. "Oh? You have a book of Jewel Evans, Olivia?" He perked up a little and he strolled over to his friend with ease, not caring if Lucia decided to butch his head with that freaky cleaver. "Can I have a look too? Since there might be something useful in there to learn!"

[Somersault]

Hailey liked to think she was a person with a lot of patience. Patience was a virtue, after all, but it was one she was progressively getting short in. It couldn't have just been her who thought that letting a clearly unstable girl hold onto a crossbow was clearly not alright. In fact, it seemed pretty stupid, and coming from her, a person who hated to use such rude terms, Hailey believed that said a lot about the present situation.

"Well, some offence is taken, sweetie," Hailey told Leah, a pinched grin on her face. Not that Leah wasn't right about being able to fully trust people, of course, but considering Leah's general demeanor and actions so far, Hailey just thought it was perhaps a bit of a bridge too far for Leah to say that they are were all equally as untrustworthy. Hailey thought she was handling herself perfectly fine and in a perfectly responsible manner, yeah, and to have that questioned really did sting. "I mean, I just think we can all agree that the crossbow should go to someone who feels that they would use it for the right reasons, right?"

No offence once again, but Hailey was quite sure if it was going to be given on someone those grounds, that meant it should be her. Not because she was a God-fearing person, no, well, not entirely because of that, but because she wasn't trigger-happy or pressuring. She just wanted something that she knew could be used as protection, especially as the tension in the room felt like it continued to rise.

People were moving, now, walking, but Hailey was not about to join them. She had her route straight to the door, and that was where she was going to stay.

[carduinal-cyn]

"Yeah, go ahead," Olivia replied to Beau with little inflection in her voice. She passed her blue-haired buddy the copy of Ten Kills, One Life without another word. Though an unusual event for the girl, this sudden lack of social skill was not without reason. She'd heard the sound of metal being placed on the floor. Her eyes were glued to the floorboards now, scouting. The noise came from the center of the room, she knew. But the only ones with metal were Lucia, and...

Oh.

Now we're cooking with gas, she thought.

There, amidst the legs of her classmates, was Leah's crossbow — brand spanking new, beckoning to her. Her eyes flashed with greed. Those two could take the stupid book, for all she cared. "Survival of the Fittest" was the name of the game, and finally, FINALLY, she was given the opportunity to do just that! Why, Leah had practically handed it to her — she'd been begging for Olivia's "weapon" for a few minutes now. A weapon for a weapon. That was a fair trade, yes?

And that was why, in the midst of the discussion, Olivia acted before anybody else had a chance to assert themselves and claim Leah's crossbow. Without warning, she bolted, running straight through Leah and Hailey in the process. She snatched the crossbow right off the floor in one fell swoop.

The tension bubbling up in the yacht had officially boiled over.

[Applesintime]

Anthony just kept his eyes focused on Leah. He felt bad, about trying to pressure her like this when she's clearly not in a good mentality, but this whole nightmare of a show didn't care about that. It was those who were able to do what had to be done, lie, cheat, steal, who ended up living longer. But that wasn't him exactly. He wasn't a liar, a cheat nor a thief. And most importantly of all, he wasn't a killer.

"I mean, Leah, we certainly know I can be trusted to take down crocodiles, heh." It felt like a lifetime ago. Out in the hot Miami afternoon, the sun beaming down on you cheerfully and trying to drown you in your own sweat. A far cry from this marina of murder, where the sun was beating you with a murderous intent instead. He was about to open his mouth again - what for, he wasn't even sure himself, but then Olivia ran straight for the crossbow, leaving Hailey and Leah in her wake and snatching it like a toddler with greedy hands.

Shit.

Anthony wasn't going to let her just fucking take it. She started running for the door, and so he charged after her. That was his fucking crossbow! Not Olivia's toy to steal, no. This was his ticket to survival, and he'd be damned if it was ripped out of his metaphorical hands so this tiny girl could murder someone with it.

He caught up to her, feet stamping desperately against the wooden floor. The girl turned around, probably to see who was chasing him and Anthony managed to push her against a wall peppered with bulletholes and a fading facade of wallpaper that would have looked good thirty years ago. Keeping his body pressed against hers so she couldn't break free, his hands reached for the crossbow, fingers trying to find anything he could wrap them around and tug the weapon from her sweaty fucking hands with. It was him or her. He managed to grab onto one of the metal parts on the top, and started pulling as hard as he could. If she resisted much more, he would break her fucking wrist if he had to.

"GIMME THE FOHKING CROSSBOW!" The Cockney accent had came back in full force, Anthony looking into Olivia's face with something almost resembling hate inscribed on it.

[carduinal-cyn]

One moment, Olivia had glimmering steel in her hands and a clear path to the exit. The next, there was a boy pushing her against the wall, grasping desperately for the crossbow, and howling in her face with all the righteous anger of a perfectionist chef whose subordinates had failed to locate the lamb sauce. Her perennial smile had vanished, replaced by a momentary flicker of fear.

But it was unbecoming of her to panic so quickly. Olivia was hypercompetitive in any given game, sure, but she never opened matches with a chip on her shoulder. She hadn't heard anyone mention death yet, nor had she seen it. It's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine...

An instinctive realization. It dawned on her that she was stronger than this boy, and he'd left himself wide open in his blind anger. Her mouth curled into a teasing grin, and her eyes narrowed. It was a smug, insufferable smile, the kind that circulated around the internet in the early 2000s attached to phrases like "problem?" and "u mad bro?". If he was going to try and take what was rightfully hers, then she'd make his attempt as humiliating as possible.

"Whoa there, someone's getting a little hot under the collar," Olivia sneered. "I didn't know you were into pinning girls against the wall, Anthony. They've got some real pervs back in Britain, huh?" She let go of the crossbow with one hand, which she used to cup the side of his cheek, and her voice lowered to a whisper. "If that's the kind of thing you want from me, you should go to some more parties."

Then, she aimed a brutal kick at Anthony's loins. Her foot made direct contact. How painfully ironic a fate for a soccer player.

[Yonagoda]

They were using her, and she only sort of knew it.

They wanted the bow, and she only sort of knew it.

Until she got a confirmation in the form of Olivia-del-Whatsherlastname rushing towards it the moment she set it on the ground. Her bright yellow form knocked into Leah, sending her a step back.

"Wha- you cunt," she snarled- not because Leah needed the weapon, but because she really, really should have known. (She was just telling the truth!)

And then Anthony (stupid, heroic little Anthony) rushed in- to defend her? Or to claim the weapon for himself? She didn't know. It was sad that he resorted to violence this early either way. He didn't really had to do that, but it proved her right. This game takes people's personalities away. They won't be themselves by the end of it. Anthony wasn't an exception. (Him and Olivia needed to die before that happens. They all need to die before that happens.)

For a moment, it felt like there was hope, or at least some sort of happiness that masqueraded as hope, but Olivia had to open her fucking mouth. Teasing. Sex jokes. Needles little sentences. She didn't know her very well, but it's alright. Not knowing her very well makes it a little easier to accept the fact that she was dying. Every dumb, useless word that came out of her mouth made it a little easier to accept. Leah would like to say that she was wishing death upon her classmates out of kindness, but there are people that deserve to live more than others.

Olivia hadn't proven herself to be one of them.

Leah almost asked her to give it back, but that's useless anyways. She bit her tongue instead. Metaphorically, at least. Someone was going to get shot, anyways. It didn't really matter when.

Except it was still a little better to die on day 2 than day 1, so she grabbed her bag and got ready to bolt. Or hide behind Hailey. One less non-teammate to worry about if that happened.

[Primrosette]

Beau felt like he had been in slow motion while he had watched what was happening after Olivia had handed him the book and she had dashed for Leah's crossbow like a speedy gazelle. He had tried to reach out for his friend quickly to stop her from doing something that was just a bad plan in general and he felt himself being held back by his arm that had Jewel's book in his hand. He turned his head with an expression of confusion at the person holding him back from getting involved. Lucia.

He wanted to ask why. But there was no time for that. Next thing he knew was that Anthony was pressing Olivia up against the wall, demanding that she would give up the crossbow to him. Beau didn't like that one bit. It belonged to Leah, even if she did or didn't want to use it. Beau was not liking this at all and now Olivia being all dirty with Anthony. It normally would have made Beau giggle childishly, but now all he could do was wince at the act.

Conflict.

Beau had always hated it.

So why did he feel the need to rush into danger? Why did he, of all people, want to be the hero?

"What the hell are-"

He cringed when Olivia aimed for Anthony's manhood and he made a mental note of not leaving himself open to anyone who could hit him in the nads.

Ouch!

[ciphermitarai]

Lucia reached for Beau instinctively, holding him back in a well-trained lock, borderline baring her teeth at the others. Just daring the others to come near.

She couldn't say she hadn't expected something like this to happen. Inciting action, all that. Her eyes stayed tracking the others, but her voice hissed towards Beau—"don't get yourself killed!" in a speedy bastardization of everything she really wanted to say. They got themselves into this! Don't get hurt trying to stop it! You don't deserve it! That didn't matter now.

Not that she was about to think morally about everything. They were simply doing what they needed to survive. If she wanted, she could kill Beau right now while all this chaos was going on. Just take the cleaver in her other hand and—

No! That was stupid. That was utterly stupid! She was trying to protect him in the first place! She couldn't give up that morality now. And logically, at the same time, she didn't want to... draw too much attention to themselves, attention that they didn't need. Because too much attention meant weapons aimed in their direction. So she stifled the urge to hurl at Olivia's jokes (not paying much mind to the fact that she kicked Anthony in the nads, after all, she thought he should've seen that coming)—yelping out a quick "What did you expect?" to the bitter girl near her in the meantime—and pointed the cleaver away from herself and Beau, ready to drop him and fight if anyone tried anything. If anyone came even the slightest way towards them.

Doing the exact opposite of her original intention to lay low. Great!

Either way, she was going to make it out of here alive.

[Somersault]

Hailey would've liked to consider herself a quick-witted person. Sure, she was no Einstein, but years of softball had taught her to be ready for split-second reactions, and to have her feet to the ground, ready to run at a moment's notice.

Considering how quickly the situation deteriorated from tension to outright fighting and a hostage situation, she was pretty certain she'd be able to blame this not on any slow-wittedness on her part, but the fact that her fellow students had deteriorated into insanity, idiocy, or incompetency within the first few minutes of waking up here. Actually, saying each person here embodied only one of those felt a bit generous, considering what was coming out of both Olivia and Lucia's mouth. Who did they think they were? But like, actually. Were they trying to copy people who'd been on this before? She couldn't tell.

In any case, Hailey was pretty sure they were emulating the people who hadn't gotten out of here alive, which was cold comfort when considering all that had happened. Still...

She clutched the cross over her neck.

A good Christian would've tried to find a way to defuse the situation. A good Christian would've sought peace first and foremost. A good Christian would've put aside the fact that some harlot elbowed her all to get her grubby hands on some crossbow and-

No. Hailey had to be a smart Christian. And with that, she tried to make her way to the exit as stealthily as she could. Considering everyone was mostly preoccupied, that seemed relatively simple, but that was the principle of the thing. Other deeds would get her into Heaven. She just needed these deeds to get to the point in life where she was actually ready to go to Heaven.