I Hate You, You and especially You

[Wham Yubeesling]

Okay, so, train of logic for the past few seconds:

• Original dude dipped. Took his friends with him, too, so Jaxon couldn’t just, like, follow to where he’d isolated himself and do an ambush. Plan “rob dress shirt dude” was no longer possible. Maybe next time.
• Angry guy got angry. Specifically, angry at Jaxon, ‘cause apparently everybody here could see through walls. Regardless, this hiding spot was busted. Jaxon was gonna have to come out either with his hands in the air or his hands ready to throw.
• Maybe he could also hightail it, but nah. He’d been here in this rainy rainforest for long enough, he at least wanted to get fuckin’ something out of it.
• So comin’ out to talk wasn’t gonna do a lot either. It’d put Jaxon on the defensive. Gave angry guy— who, like, probably wasn’t going to welcome a total stranger with open arms, given how he was like to the three total strangers earlier — all the advantage.
• So, like, best decision was to take the risk. Run out, close the gap, give Jaxon a fucking hand full of poison ivy. Stun him, grab his stuff (wherever it was) while he screamed in agony, dip before the other guy could get back up.

And all that had put Jaxon here. He was in the clearing, roughly two metres away from the other guy, who’d just grabbed a big fucking stick. Better than poison ivy hands. Better than fists. Better than anything Jaxon had.

Well, maybe, maybe not. That thing looked like it’d take a second to swing. That thing also looked like it’d be able to really whack anything right in front of the other guy’s face — needed, like, a little bit of spacing to really get a hit in. Spacing that Jaxon wasn’t gonna give. He moved forward. Closed the gap again. Tried to get right in his face and tried to grab the other guy’s shirt. Tried to make sure that big stick of his wasn’t gonna be a problem.

[DerArknight]

Once again, the guy with the selfmade boxing gloves proved to be too fast. Before Fabiano could get in a good position to swing the tree branch, Boxer was standing right in front of him, swung another fist that Fabiano avoided and grabbed Fabiano's shirt with the left hand.

Bad move. Not only because the act of grabbing the fabric made the poisonous gloves pointless, but also because the moment Boxer needed to get a good grip was enough time for Fabiano to start his counter-attack.

Letting go of the branch, Fabiano raised his arms and grabbed Boxer's shoulders.

Then he leaned back a little before slamming his head straight into Boxer's face.

[WorldFat]

((Philia continued from An Hour of Freedom, full of new resolve and a purpose to survive in this twisted game of life and death.))

Philia had continued, walking, attempting to retrace her steps back to the campsite, but gotten lost along the way. Shit. This wasn't the same part of the river she had seen Seychelle, probably, die while crossing. And..this isn't the path back towards the camp. She continued, up into the forest, unknowingly walking towards the other kids.

She eventually heard a yell and stumbling. Oh, dear God, no. She unslung her rifle, putting it in both hands.

Now...to find a way to get a visual of the possible enemies through this forest. That will be difficult.

...And let's hope nobody has to get hurt.

[Wham Yubeesling]

The hit connected. Jaxon let go of one arm as his head was pushed back and something warm joined in with all the rain on his face and oh

oh man

did this prick

really call that a headbutt?

Jaxon showed him what a real headbutt looked like.

[DerArknight]

Boxer staggered back, blood shooting out of his nose. His grip loosened as well.

If Fabiano wanted to keep the upperhand, he had to act fast and either hit again or go for his tree br-

He wasn't fast enough.

Way too soon for Fabiano's liking, Boxer regained his balance. In the next moment, the boy slammed his head forward, crushing against Fabiano.

Being unprepared for the attack, Fabiano's teeths bit into the inside of his mouth. He could taste blood flowing out of the nonrelevant but still painful wound. The part of his face where the poison ivy had touched skin started to feel funny as well.

And to top it all of, his staggering backwards was stopped by the tree that had given him shelter from the rain, resulting in an opening.

With his opponent surely unwilling to give him time to prepare, Fabiano did the first thing that came to mind.

He raised his head and spat out the mix of blood and saliva that was in his mouth, sending it flying in the direction of Boxer's face.

[WorldFat]

For a moment, she thought she saw someone she met before. But...not that isn't anyone- well actually now that we think about it, it DOES look a lot like Jaxon!

Yes! That is Jaxon! Whats...he doing? Oh, he's beating this guy's ass - wow this guy is very unimpressive. Jaxon seemed a lot better at fighting - did he do boxing at some point? Maybe he did, it seems like it. Either way, he's beating this guy's ass. Wonder why? Hope nobody gets hurt, honestly.

Philia slowly raises her rifle in their direction, they shouldn't be fighting! We have to work together to get out of here! Philia seems very optimistic about herself and her plan to save everyone - boy what a hopeless optimist - so she attempts to get their attention to stop the fighting...

"Hey, guys, y-uh-th-st-uh-y-" AAAHHH STOP STUTTERING

"Stop! Fighting! Chrīstós!"

[Wham Yubeesling]

So, like, you’d imagine that getting a bunch of spit and blood in your face when there was already a ton of rain and blood there would do jack shit. That’s what Jaxon imagined, right before some of that shit got right into his left eye. Made it flare up in pain. Almost made him let go to put a hand up to cover it. But no. He could manage. He could keep grip. He could-

Hear the noise.

See the gun. The familiar face.

Let go. Put your hands up. Back down very, very slowly.

“Philia?”

[DerArknight]

And with that, the fight was over.

Not because Fabiano had defeated or scared Boxer away. All he had done was holding his ground until a third party arrived.

Boxer seemed to recognize the girl. He spoke a single word, Philia, which Fabiona guessed was the girls name. Interestingly, Boxer appeared surprised at this reunion. It was unclear what the relation between the two was.

Not unclear was that Philia could shoot both of them dead in two seconds if she wanted.

Fabiano decided to slightly raise his hands and say nothing. Doing anything else could easily get him killed. Better to wait and see what Philia would do next. Surely she had made a plan before interfering.

[WorldFat]

"Just-just, stop fighting! Jesus!"

Philia was impulsive. She didn't think she'd get this far.

Oh, dear.

"Jaxon, and other...guy, we-we should, like, not? Ya know? 'Cause...killing..is bad?"

Cough-ahem, "And..also because, we should try-try to...get outta here-yeah! Ya know, the, uh, ya know?"

...

Do they know? I don't.

[Wham Yubeesling]

Jaxon wasn’t really sure what the hell Philia was talking about but also she had a gun so Jaxon wasn’t really gonna try and disagree with her. He just… stayed where he was. Hands up. Couple feet away from the other guy. Make it very clear he wasn’t trying to fight him.

“Wait. You alone?”

Would’ve even, like, dropped his weapons, super show just how much he was into peace and love and stuff if it meant not getting fucking shot if it weren’t for the fact that he had nothing other than these poison ivy hands. They barely even worked when he shoved them into the other dude’s face. Fucking worthless.

“Where the fuck did everyone go?”

[DerArknight]

Okay, so Philia's plan was to stammer some barely understandable crap about working together and escaping. While Fabiano wasn't a fan of violence, he realized that the only options to get off the island where to be the last one standing or to get the collars off and escape. But if Philia had any concrete ideas for the latter route, she didn't seem very confident in them. Apart from that, if their abductors had more than one braincell, they were being supervised right now. By openly talking about escape, Philia had already doomed any plan before it even began.

At least she revealed that Boxer's name was Jaxon. So when they split up, Fabiano would recognize their names during the announcements.

But on the other hand, was splitting up really the best thing to do?

So far, Fabiano's attempt at being a lone wolf had brought him nothing but trouble. Back in the farmhouse he had toyed with the idea of finding sime expandable meatshields, but Soraya had more or less distracted him and then the whole Jen-debacle had happened.

Jaxon clearly knew how to fight. And Philia had a gun, but apparently not the mental strenght to make the most of it. They were surely not the allies he had hoped for, but they would hopefully not slow him down while still giving the benefits of not being alone. And odds were that the chances to find new "friends" would go down the further the game progressed.

Thinking all of this, he still remained silent. Right now Jaxon was confirming that he and Philia had been part of a group and asking her where the other members were.

Fabiano would have to wait for the right opportunity.

[WorldFat]

"Seychelles..well, I think she's drowned. Rainbow...I don't even know. And the other guy, the South African, he disappeared."

A little sad. "Everyone's gone. But..we-we shouldn't be fighting. Lets...work together? Yeah?"

Nervousness, and a sense of distrust...
...but Philia wants to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Wham Yubeesling]

Soooo everybody had dipped. Now it was just Philia. All alone. Wouldn’t say defenseless ‘cause she still had that gun but… man. Least Jaxon had meant to come back when he went out for smokes.

Which, against what was probably smart, he was actually gonna do. Right here. Right now.

“Yeah, sure,” Jaxon said. “Beats being in this fucking rain.”

Also beats having a gun pointed at him in the name of peace and love.

Also also beat having angry guy right next to him. Still angry. Still probably gonna do something angry the moment nobody was looking. Wasn’t exactly a great choice for the long term of this, but, like, Jaxon could count 99 problems for him right now, and maybe teamwork could make the dream work.

Or, like, could make 30-40 of the dreams work. Wouldn’t solve anything about being here in the first place, that was for sure.

[DerArknight]

To Fabiano's pleasant surprise, he didn't need to say anything for the conversation to have his desired outcome. Both Philia and Jaxon seemed willing to team up.

Now it was time to take action. Fabiano took a moment to sort out what to say. Since had had a boxing match with Jaxon mere moments ago, acting all friendly as if nothing happened between them would be extremely suspicious. But on the other hand, calling Jaxon out for attacking could end badly. Philia knew Jaxon, so she might chose his side over the words of a stranger.

So he tried it with professional neutrality.

"I agree", Fabiano spoke while lowering his hands to show he trusted them a little. "In our situation, teaming up sounds way better than going alone."

Then he turned to Jaxon. "We two surely had a terrible start, but I see no point in continuing hostilities that help no one. So let's just leave this behind.

"By the way, my name is Adrian Calleia."

While he could have used a new name, Fabiano settled on going with Adrian again. If Soraya had told their group about him, then there were at least four people who knew him as Adrian and two who knew him as Fabiano. Adding more names would just raise the possibility of people figuring out he had told different stories to different people. Things would already be problematic if he met the two guys from the camp or Jen again. No need to have to avoid Soraya's group as well.

[WorldFat]

"Good, good-uh-y-yeah." Big ahem.

"So...maybe..out of this rainforest? I am wanting to see if Seychelles body may have...washed up."

Philia still had an extremely negative view of death, really, really against killing in any way...

...apart from self-defense that is, then...I guess she'd do what needs to be done.

"And...I'm really trusting both of you not to kill me when my back is turned. We can...get out of this. At least...try to find all people who refuse to play, and-and maybe help them out too? I mean..."

Philia looks around. Cameras.

"It's like...some dark-net red room. Like those forum stories? What're they gonna do if everyone refuses to play? Kill us? That'd upset the audience, wouldn't it? They paid to see children...kill, each other."

"Well, fuck them."