Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?

[UnmaskedMountain]

[Luciano Ascencio continued from Bloody Palms]

Luciano had taken to the back of the group; Originally striding, he decided it'd be better if he didn't establish himself as the leader of their trio, for both safety and to avoid drawing attention to himself as a major player, and hung back behind Amy and RJ.

Amy had led the discussion, instructing them to crouch back behind an access structure so they could talk without the constant fear of being killed. By Pippi and Luanne. For a second, he almost felt the urge to explain who the two were - Amy knew Pippi vaguely, but didn't seem to know Luanne. Luciano knew them both, to some extent; admittedly he knew Pippi far more than Luanne, as the former got discussed far more than the latter, but it would hurt his pride to admit he didn't really understand the latter so he avoided thinking about it.

They were lesbians. Well, good for them - The way they held hands was cute, in a way. It was unfair that people like them, nice people, as far as Luciano knew, had to suffer like this; it's why Luciano had to play the game, he had to make sure the actual psychopaths wouldn't get to innocent people.

Gazing across to Pippi and Luanne, Luciano fazed out from the conversation and followed the two with darting eyes. Fuck, he wish he'd learned to lip read. RJ murmured something about speaking to them, but Amy didn't respond and so Luciano let the idea fizzle out too. He wanted to expand the group, definitely, but he wanted people without too strong connections with each other - A good group only works if all members are dedicated to the core idea or person, rather than another member. Ha, there might not be a core member, but at least survival was a core idea here.

Thus, Luciano just watched as Pippi and Luanne departed the boat. Having been crouched for the last few minutes, he flicked his head up towards Amy. "I guess we didn't expand our group for now." He murmured, trying to smile, "You got what you wanted, then - It's good that those two didn't look violent, though." He continued, before beckoning towards the cruise ship. "Where are we going from here then?"

Luciano didn't want to be the leader, and he had a new plan. First things first, though, he had to appease Amy and RJ. The means always justify the end, right?

[Slam]

Amy said nothing as Luanne and Pippi made their leave, RJ’s question left unanswered. She also said nothing as Luciano made his comment. She had got what she wanted, yes, but she knew that it wasn’t what Luciano had wanted in the first place. She didn’t really care if he was unhappy with the plan, but she was couldn’t help worry that he might’ve been trying to be sarcastic with her.

She looked at the entrance to the bowels of the ship that Pippi and Luanne had left by. Her goals hadn’t changed, she still wanted to find somewhere private to change her outfit and stop to breathe. She was worried about bumping into the two if they followed them down there so soon, but what other choice did they have?

She could’ve repeated herself and reaffirmed their previous plans of exploring the depths of the boat, because she couldn’t see why they would do anything else, but she would have had to have said it to Luciano. Luciano’s glib comment to her had made her concerned: that he was thinking less of her, or was annoyed with her; she could not decipher his tone. She didn’t want to get into an argument with him, or say something to make him more annoyed at her, because even the idea of that only made her feel more exhausted. If it wasn’t for the superior firepower that this alliance brought, and that RJ at least seemed to be trying to be friendly, she would’ve left them both already.

So she did what she always did in such situations. She shut her mouth, and looked to the nearest neutral party member for their input.

[AnimeNerd]

RJ waited too long for an answer. Maybe he really wanted to avoid the two girls on a subconscious level or something. Maybe they had just spotted them at a bad time and they were already on their way inside the ship. Didn’t matter in the end, the result was exactly the same; Pippi and the other girl were gone.

And now it was up to him to make a decision again. Where would they go from here? They needed to be smart about this, or at least careful. He still didn’t expect anyone running in swinging a machete around like they were Jason Voorhees or some shit, but he wasn’t expecting everyone to be friendly, either.

But there was one other thing on his mind. Something that outweighed the other concern.

“Maybe we should stay here for a minute and get our bearing?” He suggested, looking at Luciano for a second before shifting his gaze to Amy. “We should probably get to know where we are, right? And maybe figure out exactly what we all have?”

It was putting off the decision, RJ knew it. But he really wanted to figure this place out. Yeah, it was a bunch of boats all connected to each other, but what were these boats? Wouldn’t it be safer to know which ones were which? Plus, if Amy and Luciano were like him at all, they hadn’t really concerned themselves with the other supplies in their bags. They should probably see what else was in their backpacks, just in case.

[Slam]

Actually, Amy had decided, she had waited around with these two for long enough.

“I’m- I’m going to look ahead.” she announced, very quietly because she didn't realy want to be heard. It was more likely that she'd have to justify it if she was, and it didn’t really make any sense as a strategy. There was still a chance she would bump into Pippi and the other girl, and she was effectively losing her best weapons, but her need for solitude was winning out over any sense of forward planning.

Besides, she rationalised as she turned to walk down into the ship, muttering only an “I’ll be back in a minute.” with little regard to any protests. She was safer leaving now when they had each other to occupy themselves, than when it was just her and one other person. Less likely to try and stab her in the back, because either Luciano would then stab RJ, or RJ would get all white knight and shoot Luciano.

She was safer by herself. Or at least, it was easier.

((Amy Barrows-Shaw continued in Changing))

[AnimeNerd]

RJ was trying to think about things before they had been put on the flotilla. Not the briefing he'd gotten from Claudia or just the about life in general before this, but what was said between those. The speech from the guy apparently in charge of the show. They had said everyone was given supplies to help with general survival, but he was having trouble remembering what some of them were. Had he mentioned instructions on how to use some weapons? He felt like they were talked about, but he wasn't sure. And what about a map? Had they actually made something like that? Or, more appropriately considering the circumstances, did they actually let everyone just have maps of the surrounding area? And what kind of food did they have? He knew they had to have something, and he was starting to get hungry, and-

Wait. Wait.

What was that?

He had just barely heard it-head too cluttered up with his own thoughts before he realized that he was one companion short and-

Oh God No.

She's trying to split the party.

Is he the only one that's ever seen a horror movie of these three?

"Wait, th-that's not-"

But she was already gone. As if she were screaming directly to the killer 'I'm a practically defenseless girl, come and get me!'

He knew this wasn't a slasher. Pretty far from the normal kind, at least. But fuck it, there were enough similarities for now that he felt one thing was true.

Follow the typical tropes, and you're dead.

Turning to Luciano with a bit of fear clear on his face, he let out a breath-not a sigh, surprisingly-as he started stepping away.

"I-I'm sorry. I know we shouldn't split up too much but..."

'But I think you can handle yourself better than Amy.'

He didn't say it, but it felt more or less true, at this point.

Instead of saying that, he just swallowed down some saliva and put on an apologetic smile.

"Sorry."

And with that, RJ turned the way Amy went and started jogging.

[[RJ Blackburn continued in Changing]]

[MurderWeasel]

As RJ vanishes into the ship, a voice echoes softly from Luciano's collar.

"I'm not so sure this group is a keeper, being honest. I can taste the crossed priorities from here. A teammate who doesn't want to cooperate is just an anchor dragging you down, unless you really want her around for some reason.

"...you know, speaking of, maybe we can take this moment of relative privacy to get that straight. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish? I like your style, but I'm not so sure I see the end to your means yet."

[Mini_Help]

Maybe Jewel was right. Maybe this wasn't going to work out.

Luciano watched RJ head on after Amy and hesitated. A good group needed to have right motivation behind it. If everyone wasn't pulling in the same direction then the whole thing would fall apart.

"Let me get back to you, Jewel," he told his collar. "I need to think about a couple things."

Square one, or a solid foundation? Luciano needed more time to know for sure.

((Luciano Ascencio continued elsewhere))