A New Morning

[Ohm]

As Lukas was explaining his plan, Zoe was thinking about the chances of this plan succeeding.

Can we really do this?, go through SOTF without killing anyone?, especially when there are people gunning for the ten kill release?

From the sounds of it Lukas wanted to do this to send a message and piss off a few fans.

He really hates this show, I've heard of people who hate it, but I've never met anyone who hated it this much.

He asked her if she wanted to go for it.

Fuck it, got nothing better to do.

"Sure, count me in."

[VoltTurtle]

"Naomi, yours?"

Naomi tuned out the conversation of Zoe and Lukas. They seemed to not want to kill anyone, and that's all she needed to know. The girl with the flamingo seemed interested in her, she didn't quite know why, maybe she was just desperate for an ally. Naomi could understand that.

Although... if Chris wasn't on her team, she would probably not make very many allies. In the event that Chris was on her team, the girl could serve as a good ally... or if Chris wasn't on her team, an easy kill. Give a good start for Naomi on the path towards those ten kills.

Naomi was disgusted that she was already thinking like that. She wasn't even sure that Chris wasn't on her team, even if the more she thought about it the more pessimistic she became.

She addressed the girl again. "Are you looking for an ally or something? Or are you just trying to be friendly?"

[Maraoone]

"Cathryn."

While talking with Naomi, she was listening to Zoe and the guy's conversation. She wasn't even that sure why. Maybe she was just trying to make extra sure that they weren't planning to kill her. Anyways, the guy kept on rambling about this plan to 'lay low'. It was incredibly idealistic, and there was no way it would work.

She looked at Naomi again. "Uh... both."

She nervously chuckled while saying that. Maybe this wouldn't work out so well. Naomi seemed quite suspicious of her. She needed to make it clear that she could be relied on.

"Sorry, I just don't want to be alone. And there's not many people from my school that- wait, wait, what?"

Cathryn stopped because Zoe said yes. She actually agreed to whose-his-face's plan.

Maybe the gas affected some people more.

Cathryn turned towards Zoe. "Wait, I'm sorry, what? Zoe, look at me and listen carefully, because this is the only time I'm going to try to help you. This guy's plan," pointing at him, "is stupid as fuck. It's basically 'Have a cup of tea and wait for this to blow over.' I'm not sure if you watch SOTF that much, but I'm pretty sure that hasn't worked yet. I mean, even if you plan to escape or whatever, you need to put actual effort into finding the flaws. Waiting for everyone else to just kill each other and coming out as the last survivors sounds nice in theory. And I swear, if it actually worked, I would drop everything and join this plan. But it won't. If this is what you plan to do, you might as well start making your coffins already."

[CondorTalon]

((Christopher Schwartz continued from Kal-El.))

Christopher wasn't sure when he'd made it to the hotel. He'd been looking around for people he knew, but no such luck so far. In fact, he hadn't found anyone at all really.

But that also meant they hadn't found him.

Christopher had pretty much been stalking around the place... if there were any authority figures around he might have seemed suspicious. But here... it paid to be cautious.

As was the case when he reached the hotel doors. he hid himself to the side of the door frame and peeked in.

Wait... is that...

He brought his hand out, knocking the door twice before retreating back.

[Aura]

"Alright, now let's get out of..."

Lukas was cut off by the emergence of another girl from the background.  She didn't seem dangerous, but she was outright pissed.  She bitched him out about how his plan was stupid and how it was never going to work.  She went on about how he had probably never seen the show, how he had no idea what he was doing, et cetera, et cetera. Lukas just folded his arms and waited for her to stop before he made his retort.

"Okay, first off, you're right, I don't watch SOTF."  He began.  "However, if you think for one second that I'm just going to act like a gladiator for the morons that run this shit, then you're sadly mistaken.  I know that this plan ain't much, but if there's any way to get home without adding to the body count, then I'm gonna take it.  Personally, I don't hear you coming up with any better ideas."

He shrugged and stole a brief glance at the door.  "Now if you're about done here, I believe me and my teammate were about to be on our merry way."

[Ohm]

Cathryn had apparently taken issue with Lukas's plan, rambling about how it won't work.

“When did finding your teammates and not making yourself a target a bad plan?, But she does have a point making it to the end with no kills is nearly impossible, but now is not the time to be thinking of that.”

And now Lukas decided to chime in, saying that while his plan's not much nobody else is coming up with anything.

“No point in arguing with her, she's not on our team so what she feels about the plan should not matter to us at all.”

Right now I should be concerned with survival and laying low should help with that.

Sounded like Lukas was ready to leave this place.

“Right, let's get out of here.”

[VoltTurtle]

Naomi didn't have a chance to respond to Cathryn before she turned away from her and started talking to Zoe and Lukas.

She frowned a bit. She didn't like being cut off, but she couldn't control other people and make them do what she wanted. Then, there was a knocking at the door. She turned to the noise. Who would bother to knock under these circumstances? Either someone who didn't know what they were doing or someone who knew exactly what they were doing. Naomi didn't want to be put in a bad position by answering the door, but she had a feeling that whoever knocked wasn't someone who wanted to kill anybody.

She walked over to the door while the other three talked and opened it slowly. Then, to her surprise and jubilation, her boyfriend was standing right there. She hugged him energetically before he could say anything and without anything herself. Then she noticed his team bandanna. Her heart sank. What she had been fearing was true. They were on different teams. She let go of Chris, trying her best not to relay her feelings. If both of them wanted to leave, she needed to kill ten people.

But for now she wouldn't focus on that, her boyfriend was here and it was time to spend time with him. "So, I see that you found me." She smiled and hugged him again. "Now let's not get separated, sound good?"

[Maraoone]

He really was going to push through with this, wasn't he? Never mind the fact that those two don't have any game plan aside from 'Wait it over', no, his plan is still better. It's not like four to five times a year, every year since 2006, SOTF ended in bloodshed. And Zoe agrees with him too, because it's not like Cathryn's opinion matters.

"There isn't a better idea. Unless you can think up some ingenious way to get these collars off and let us escape, I don't think there's anything else we can do. Whatever. It's your grave you're digging."

She scowled and turned away from them. It wasn't any use talking with them. If they wanted to lay down and die, Cathryn couldn't do anything about that, now could she? She was just trying to help.

She noticed that Naomi had run over to some guy. Apparently, they were close or something. Without anything better to do, and not wishing to interrupt them, she just stood there, arms crossed, waiting for them to finish talking.

[CondorTalon]

Somehow, it had all worked out.

Naomi not only noticed the knock, but responded to it as well. His plan actually worked.

Christopher almost fist-pumped. Almost.

"Yeah," he said, returning the hug. "I'm glad I found you."

With the two of them together, staying alive should be a much simpler task. The problem then became, of course, that only one of them could survive. It was a hard concept to swallow. Unless they found a way to escape or...

We are, once again, offering freedom to the first student to achieve ten kills.

His smile suddenly turned to a frown, and he looked Naomi in the eyes. Had she thought the same thing?

[Aura]

The conversation didn't really go anywhere else, not that Lukas had really expected it to.  Lukas had an idea, the girl thought that it was terrible, and then they just stood there for a moment reaffirming their stances on the matter.   All they had learned was that, in all likelihood, they would not be working together in this ordeal.

Still, Lukas figured that this sort of thing would happen.  You can't get everyone to agree with you, after all.  It's frustrating as hell, but he was just going to have to let it go for now.  Besides, he needed a change of scenery, hopefully one with fewer bloodstains on the floor.

"Okay, if that's all, I guess I'll be taking my leave.  C'mon Zoe, let's get out of here."

Lukas turned on his heel and walked out the front doors, away from the hotel.  He had a teammate and a plan now.  All he had to do was figure out a way to make it work.

Somehow, he knew that would be much, much harder than it sounds.

((Lukas Graves continued in It's Dangerous to Go Alone, Take This))

[Ohm]

So after Lukas and Cathryn had ended their conversation the girl she that had entered earlier had found one of her friends by the looks of it.

Doesn't look like their from the same teams though, not staying here and finding out what happens.

Lukas was ready to leave this place behind and right now Zoe was itching to leave too.

"Right."

Zoe walked out of the hotel and followerd her teammate to their next location.

((Zoe Walker Continued in It's dangerous to go alone, take this))

[VoltTurtle]

"I'm glad that we're together again."

Naomi responded with that to Chris. She wasn't quite sure what to say. She wasn't quite sure what to feel.

She was happy that she was together with Chris again, but she was dreading the fact that she would have to kill ten people in order for the both of them to go home.

She needed to go home. She needed to be together with Chris. And these people were likely going to die anyway, she was just expediting the process.

But no matter what she thought she couldn't really justify killing ten people to herself.

She looked over at the scene behind her. Lukas and Zoe had left by the looks of it. Cathryn was still standing there.

She looked at her stun baton. She looked over at Cathryn. Cathryn looked fragile and had a pink flamingo as a weapon.

Naomi needed to start somewhere...

She brought herself up to Chris's ear and whispered into it. She needed to let him know what she was about to do. "Okay. We're on opposite teams. Unless one of us is the first to ten kills, only one of us can leave. I don't want you to have to bear the burden of killing ten people, so I'm going to." She lowered herself back down, still talking low, but more audible. "It's the only way. I'm sorry."

She looked back up at him. "But... do you have anything you want to say? Before I do something that I'm going to regret for a long time?"

[Maraoone]

Cathryn simply glared at Zoe and the guy as they walked out the door. She didn't like losing arguments, especially with people she didn't like. It sucked even more since the argument may or may not have affected how long they lived. Typically, Cathryn didn't look out for the welfare of her classmates, but this was SOTF. Any missed word or action could mean a life. Oh well. At least, she tried, right?

Still, it didn't mean anything.

With that, she looked over at Naomi and the other nameless guy. Once again, she was being left out, but that wasn't anything new for Cathryn. It was the status quo back at Whittree. It didn't really bother her. Or at least, it shouldn't. After all, Cathryn was perfectly happy with the few friends she had-

Were they here?

For a quick moment, Cathryn panicked and started breathing rapidly, but then she calmed herself and tried to remember that hazy time in the auditorium. She was by herself when she was abducted, so she couldn't tell if anyone like Leah was abducted at school. And at the auditorium, all she could remember was the sheer noise. She also remembered looking around, but due to the gas, it was a blur, and all she saw were people that she either didn't recognize, presumably from the other school, or people she didn't care for. Not a single one of her friends.

Both thoughts were equally terrifying. If none of her friends were here, she'd be completely alone. But if any of them were here...

She preferred the first option. Much better that she suffer alone than let any of them suffer with her.

Cathryn noticed that Naomi was whispering to the guy. This made her nervous, so she tightened her grip on the flamingo. Whatever was being said, Naomi didn't want Cathryn to hear. That wasn't a good thing. For a moment, her mind said to not worry, not overreact, et cetera, but when had that train of thought done any good on SOTF? This was a place where paranoia was a good thing to have. So, she bit her lip and waited to see what would happen next.

[CondorTalon]

He knew it. He fucking knew it.

He should have seen it coming, really. The chances that the were same team were going to be close to none, and they were both smart enough to know that if they were to survive, this would have to happen.

But why was she insisting that she had to be the one to reach the goal. Even if she thought that she wanted to spare him the burden, didn't it occur to her that he was thinking the same thing?

...Okay. He had to think this through.

Obviously, the desired outcome was for both of them to get back home. In order to do that though, they had to either be on the same team. Out. Or, one of them had to kill ten people, while the other one had to survive to the end. Then there was the dilemma of who does the killing. Put morality aside, it was true that the person to make it to the end had to be smart enough to actually make it to the end. Then there problem was that they wouldn't be the only ones out to get the prize. Last season showed that the condition was a very real one. So if Naomi wanted to reach the goal she had to be quick, which would put a big target over her head. So if this plan would involve Naomi being in danger for a majority of the game, was it really the best course of action? He remembered what happened to Karen last season. She'd almost not made it off the island, and that was after she'd gotten ten kills. What if someone was faster this time?

Then what of the alternatives? Escape? Highly unlikely. The collars had flaws. He'd heard of escapes happening in a few past seasons, but they were few and far between. Escape was almost a non-option.

What about getting the ten kills himself? As before, going for the ten would paint a target on his back for others. But would he handle that better than Naomi would?

"Are you ready to paint such a big target on your head?" was all Christopher said.

[VoltTurtle]

Naomi was silent for a moment before answering Chris's question.

"I doubt I was going to make it out anyway. Might as well do something that gives us a chance, no matter how slim."

She didn't think she was going to get the ten kills that she needed to go home, but this was the only way; forcing Chris to try to get ten kills wasn't something she was going to do. "I will bear the burden for us both."

She looked at the stun baton and back at Cathryn.

She decided against it.

She turned back to Chris. "For now I'm not going to do anything. Let's just... get out of here."

She turned back to Cathryn. "Hey, Cathryn." She gestured to Chris. "This is my boyfriend Chris. We're getting out of here. If you want to come along with us just follow behind. I don't mind and I'm sure Chris doesn't mind either."

Naomi adjusted her shoulder strap and looked back at Chris. "Now let's get moving."

((Naomi Young continued in Don't You?))