Man, I Hate Poke Wars

[Iceblock]

((Kathy Clements continued from Salted Trees))

She was reading the map as she walked, making a note of everywhere she might be able to find writing utensils, in general. Maybe even a weapon, if she really needed to defend herself. Of course, she always had her trustworthy cane. It was, perhaps, questionable how trustworthy the cane actually was, since she hadn't used it yet, but she preferred to think the best of it. Didn't want to hurt its feelings, either.

The Resort Hotel might have some paper. They always left Bibles in the drawers, didn't they? Same with the Cruise Ship, though she wasn't so sure about that. Some ships had a library, from what she'd heard before. She wasn't so keen on defacing books, though. Actually, she kind of hoped that they'd taken all the books out of the Cruise Ship, if the Cruise Ship had had a library before it was appropriated for Survival of the Fittest. What a waste of perfectly good books, if they hadn't.

Timothy was talking to her now. Saying things about talking to those two people... She hadn't even noticed the two. Looked like a boy and a girl. Timothy was still telling her to do things, something about attacking with her cane if they attacked.

Kathy hoped they didn't attack, but she followed Timothy, somewhere off to his leftwards, backwards direction. Her hand felt sweaty on the grip of the cane.

[Egads*]

"Well," Peter began, "I think we shou-"

Suddenly, he was interrupted by a male voice. He turned to look at the newcomer.

He noticed the right arm was not raised. Suspicious. How could he trust someone that he didn't know was keeping a weapon lowered to strike once their guard was down? But, the same could be said for him and Renée, he supposed. Still, he didn't want this kid any closer than he had to be.

Also, he was sort of scared shitless. Not that he would let anyone see that.

"Stay right there, friend. We're not gonna attack you, but you're going to have to show us what's in your right hand."

To illustrate the point, he raised his own hands, showing nothing being held in them. "Renée," he mumbled, "keep calm. Can you see if he has a bandanna?"

[MurderWeasel]

Before they could move anywhere else, new people arrived, causing Peter to break off his reply mid-sentence. Renée looked at them, tensing up for a second. Her hand wandered to the straight razor. Her breathing accelerated and deepened slightly, adding more oxygen to her bloodstream. Her adrenal glands hadn't quite kicked in, but, with the way things were going, it was only a matter of time. The boy from the pair seemed to be the leader. He said they weren't there to fight. Everyone said that, though, unless they were insane or came in shooting.

Peter requested that the newcomer show his weapon. Renée was inclined to agree. She also gave the two a look over, searching for signs. Were they on the same team? No. The girl had an orange bandanna wrapped around her arm. The boy's was white.

White.

Renée waved and gave him a smile. As she did, his name clicked into place like magic. Timothy. Another SDA student. He'd always been a bit different, but Renée could respect that.

"Hey," she said, gesturing to the bandanna around her head, counting on Peter to pick up her meaning. "Looks like we're supposed to be working together. Peter and I are allies, though, so right now Team White and Team Whatever-He-Is have a ceasefire. I'll glad extend the offer to your friend. As long as you two aren't playing, I think we'll get along well."

All her cards were on the table now. Timothy could join them or move on, but if he attacked Peter, Renée would do everything in her power to turn the rest of the White Team against him. No way was their team going to tolerate villainy. Not on her watch.

[Lord_Shadow]

Once again, he hadn't been attacked. So he felt it only fair that he show them his weapon. They didn't seem to have anything quite as good as he did, so there was little danger in doing so. He started to raise his right arm when the new girl spoke.

She said they were supposed to be working together, and she pointed to her bandanna. "Well I'll be." He brought his left hand down and clicked the safety back on. If they turned out to be hostile after all, that would really suck, but when it came to guns he knew safety always came first. He suddenly chuckled. "Why didn't I notice that pun before?"

The girl was, Renée, if he remembered right. He wasn't really good with names and faces, but he was kinda sure he got her name right. "Well all right. Looks like White Team is all for truces here. Kathy and I have a little trial arrangement going on right now." He gestured to her. "Who would have thought two different people on the same team would have the same idea?" He tipped his hat to Renée. Dame sure was smart. Well, maybe not as smart as him, as he was only doing this to catch people off guard so he could shoot them dead when he needed to.

"Your name's Peter right?" He asked the boy. "The name's Timothy Walker, and I'd be honored to join up with you two. Together I'm sure we can make it through this thing." He smiled. At least one of them would make it through. But at some point, Peter and Kathy would have to be sacrificed for the greater good. That's just the way it was.

[Iceblock]

Stuff was going on; the guy was saying something, then the girl said something...

Oh. Wait, the bandannas were the same. The girl was on Timothy's team. That was good, she supposed. Now Timothy'd have someone else to trust, and all that. It did get Kathy a little worried, though. They seemed nice enough, Timothy and the other girl. And they all seemed to be getting along - they all seemed to know each other somehow.

To tell the truth, she was a little worried that at some point, they'd all gang up on her, get rid of the girl that none of them really knew. But she tried to stay optimistic. She kept saying that, didn't she? Their little makeshift team, if it came to that, would be, hopefully, much safer than going it alone.

Kathy lowered the cane slightly as Timothy was messing with his gun. He wasn't going to shoot them, was he? Not when they were being nice? No, he wasn't. Probably just making sure it didn't fire. What did they call those things that people switched to make guns not fire? Oh, whatever. It wasn't important.

Either way, they were all being nice and not attacking, so she let her guard down temporarily.

Timothy mentioned her name, and Kathy gave them a nervous smile. "It's Kathy Clements," she offered quietly. All these new people that she didn't know, from some other school... She wanted to see someone she knew (was that a bad wish, to wish that they were on this island with her?), a recognizable face.

But she told herself, patience. She'd get paper soon enough. One short-term goal, no enemies, no problem.

[Egads*]

Peter acknowledged Kathy, but kept his eyes on Timothy, "Yeah, that's right. Peter Campbell."

He knew the guy from around school, but he never talked, or so much as even interacted with him. For all intents and purposes, he's never even met him. Watching him, Peter felt a little uneasy. Probably due to the gun in the newcomer's hand.

Peter didn't trust him.

With Renée it was different. First of all, she proved that she could trust him. As well, her weapon wouldn't be well suited to attacking someone who already noticed her. Furthermore, even if she did attack him, Peter was larger, and could probably overpower her. But this guy held something that size isn't applicable to. One squeeze, and Peter could be dead.

There's not telling what this guy could, or would, do to win. Peter didn't forget the rules. Only one team wins. How long until this guy saw Peter and Kathy as expendable?

He kept his eyes locked on Timothy. As long as he held that gun, Peter could not fully trust him.

[MurderWeasel]

It was introduction time. They were all getting to know each other. That was the first step to being a real team. They had to trust each other, to be... well, if not friends, to accept each other at least. There would be another way out of here. Even if there wasn't, Renée wasn't going to tolerate any killings. Well, okay, she wouldn't put up with any killings outside of self defense or preemptive strikes against prolific players. They weren't going to go hunting, though, weren't going to be vigilantes. That was just playing for people who couldn't stomach the morally questionable.

"Nice to see you, Timothy, and nice to meet you, Kathy," Renée said, smiling broadly. "I'm Renée Carlson. I went to SDA with these two."

It was a painfully obvious statement, but that was alright. Explaining it helped, somehow. Right now, Kathy was the odd one out. She was the unknown quantity. Renée knew she had nothing to fear from Peter and Timothy. Timothy was on her team; killing her would be counterproductive to his purposes and make his survival less likely. Peter, she just trusted and liked. It was a combination of gut instinct and little things he'd done, but she was sure he wouldn't be putting a knife in her back, even if he did upgrade his weaponry at some point.

So the goal now was to make Kathy feel welcome and wanted. They had the start of a real coalition here. Teams White, Orange, and... Peter's team.

Renée held her hand out to Kathy, still smiling. You shook hands when introduced. Basic manners. Civilization didn't end the second the men with guns took them away.

[Lord_Shadow]

"Good, great actually." Timothy adjusted his sunglasses. "Well, me and Kathy were on our way to find her some paper. We figured the hotel might have the best chance of having some. What say we all head that way?"

He still thought that getting paper, of all things, was an incredibly pointless waste of time. But if he could show Miss Clements that he was a good enough guy, she'd stick around. He was sure of it.

As for Renée, she was on his team so there was little to worry about. Peter was his biggest concern, but since Mr. Campbell didn't have a visible weapon on him Timothy felt that he didn't have to worry as much.

He decided he'd better read that manual more. No sense not learning how to use his weapon to the fullest potential. It might just be the difference between life and death. He took the manual out of his pocket, where he had stored it during their walk here. He flipped it open and began to read. "Still don't know if I can actually shoot this thing, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Assuming Lady Luck has that in store for me."

---

The flop came up. First card was a 2 of Hearts. Useless to him. Next was a 3 of Diamonds. This certainly wasn't looking good. The final card was a 10 of Hearts. He kept his smile inside. Three cards to a straight at the moment. If luck landed him a Queen and a Jack, he was sure he'd take this hand.

The next round of betting started. He watched as the others tossed in their chips, called, or folded. Typical play, but almost all of them were terrible at hiding their feelings. Not that it would have helped. Kathy came up, she called. So did Renée. Peter raised the bet.

Timothy adjusted his glasses. What did that guy have up his sleeve? His turn came up, and he tossed in his chips to call. Next up was the Turn. A showdown was coming. A good one. He was very excited, but you wouldn't know that from looking at him.

He kept his face as calm as could be. He was no open book, only others were.

[Iceblock]

Kathy shook Renée's hand, while still somewhat wrapped up in her own thoughts. "Nice to meet you too..." She left out her school; she didn't need more people judging her on her economic status - except this time she was probably poorer than all of those that stood around her.

All of them were from SDA, that's what Renée had just said. What did that stand for? Soup Donation Association? No, it had to be some sort of school. Kathy supposed it didn't really matter. Probably some nice school, from what she was seeing, from Timothy's suit and whatnot. Probably a school like the kind Kathy would have gone to if her family could have afforded it. She didn't know how she felt about that.

She was acutely aware of her backpack's pressure on her back, weighing her down slightly with innumerable and mysterious objects. Tempting, the idea to just sling it off again and rummage through, to actually see what she'd gotten besides the cane, the map, and the bandanna. It didn't seem like the time, though. She didn't know when the time would actually come.

Timothy had just said something, something she apparently hadn't been paying attention to, and was now flipping through his weapon manual. Kathy had a faint inkling it might have been to the tune of getting her paper, so she just nodded slightly, tapping her cane on the ground.

It had switched to her left hand somehow. Maybe it thought her right hand was too sweaty. Strange.

[Egads*]

Peter stood, standing for the first time since he awoke. His legs wobbled a bit, and he was a bit off-balance. He managed to stabilize himself, his knees ceasing their tremors. He bent over and plucked his bag from the ground, slinging it over his shoulder.

He felt the spine of a magazine poke him in the back. Damn, he thought, that thing is going to haunt me.

He placed himself in between Timothy and the girls, keeping his eye on him. Seeing Tim being distracted with his manual, he turned to the girls and addressed them himself, "Well, this is all great, but where should we go now? We should hurry, though. We may meet with someone else out here. Someone not so... receptive."

[MurderWeasel]

Kathy shook Renée's hand, and Timothy mentioned that they were looking for paper for her, for some reason. They figured the hotel would be the best place to find it. Renée forced herself not to cringe. Of course they wanted to go to the hotel. So would everyone on the island. The place was sure to be a magnet for people and trouble. She dug her map out of her pack, and looked it over as Peter asked about opinions. It was good of him to do so. It bought Renée time to argue them out of their current course, and it gave Kathy a chance to weigh in. It wouldn't do for Timothy to dominate things, or, if that was his idea of a plan, to lead.

"I think we should avoid the hotel," Renée said. "At least for the first day or so. People miss home. They want to sleep in a bed again. The problem is, that's true of everyone, including the killers, who may also realize what a draw it is and go there to hunt. I think we should go to the ski resort. It's isolated, so it should be fairly defensible. People are more likely to leave than they are to go there. Plus, we may find paper there. There has to be some sort of structure around."

She found it very easy to speak to them like this. Renée had never been shy, and she felt in her element helping people out here. She knew enough about this show to avoid any major pitfalls. Okay, hiding wasn't a heroic course of action. If she heard of any of her friends dying, it would probably eat at her. But the fact that they were going somewhere safe didn't mean they all had to stay there. They could have a core group hold the ground, and send people out to grab other trustworthy students. Renée would just volunteer for that duty.

That made sense. That was the way to do it. She just hoped the others would agree with her.

[Lord_Shadow]

The penalty for dissent always had to be severe. How else would anyone stay in line unless they knew staying out of line was not worth the trouble? Eventually, Tim would have to work off that mindset. For the meantime, he'd have to at least pretend to give a damn about the opinions of others.

Though in this case, the other person's opinion was the less stupid one. Hearing Renée outline why it was a terrible idea to head to the hotel served as a sort of wake-up to him. Of course all the idiots and killers in the game would head there.

As for the Ski Resort being the place to go, he wasn't sure about that. But for now, best to stay with the group on this one. Renée seemed to be not only the speaker for her little duo, but also the sensible one. "God knows I'm not getting a fountain of ideas from Kathy." He shut the manual, and adjusted his sunglasses with his other hand. "I'm a firm believer in luck, and how we just have to roll with what we've got. But I get where you're coming from. There's no sense tossing all our chips into the pot this early into the game. If you think we'll be safer away from the hotel, I'm with you." He glanced at Kathy.

Even if she wasn't, if she wanted to live she was going to have to be okay with it. Not like he'd waste his time protecting someone who was going to be all take and no give. Not like there was a lot she could give. Useless weapon, useless in strategy and planning. It was almost like the only thing she was good for was looking... well, good.

He was beginning to regret bringing her along. A liability would only end up hurting his chances later. But going it alone was stupid, and he didn't think Renée would value team affiliation higher than friendship. "Are those two even friends? Who knows? Who cares?"

"So we going to stand here talking all day or are we going to take some action? You can warm up the dice all you want but at some point you have to shoot 'em, ya know?"

[Iceblock]

Kathy didn't have anything good to say. But it looked like everyone'd pitched in their two cents, already, and she was the only one left.

The ski resort - that was an idea. Would there be paper there? Perhaps. Receptionists, or whoever managed the place previously, might have left notepads, pens, whatever. It was hard to run a business without basic writing utensils.

"I don't have a problem with going to the resort." She tapped the cane on the ground a few times, thinking about her next words. "If anyone corners us there, though, will we be able to get out? I mean, we'll be pretty good targets against the snow..."

Kathy shrugged slightly, deprecating her own words. "It's as good an idea as any. Probably safer than the hotel."

It was then that Timothy voiced his displeasure with the lengthened discussion. Kathy couldn't help but agree, though she felt a little guilty about it. Surely there were better places on the island to hide - maybe she was dooming them all with her quest for paper?

Couldn't she afford to be a little selfish, to pursue that one little goal she'd set for herself?

Too many questions, not enough answers. Questions that she didn't want to ask herself, answers that she didn't want to hear. She hoped they'd travel soon; maybe it'd get her mind off things. Things that she'd have to deal with eventually.

[Egads*]

Peter smiled warmly. Seeing Renée talk like that, the take-charge decisiveness, really made him feel like they were making the right choice.

"The Ski Resort it is."

He looked back over to Timothy, narrowing his eyes. His smile faltered a bit, but didn't disappear. He turned back to Renée, and said, "I know I'm not on the same team as you two, but I'll help anyway I can. If I can somehow get a hold of my team mates, we'll have plenty of power to scare people into not attacking us."

He said this mostly towards her, not out of spite for her team mate, but because he saw her as more than a member of an enemy team, more as just another kid on the island, and more than a parter.

At that moment, Peter was more sure than anything in his life, that Renée was a leader. He smiled to her once more and said, "What do you say we head out, boss?"

[MurderWeasel]

There was assent, at least, enough of it for Renée to roll with. Timothy's tone didn't sit very well with her, but he was right. they needed to get moving, and it looked like it fell to her to see that through. Since no one seemed completely opposed to the idea, and no one seemed like they were being ignored or steamrolled, Renée nodded, smiled, and said, "Alright, then. Let's go."

Of course, it wasn't quite that simple or immediate. She had to get her compass out, to take a moment to compare landmarks, the map, and the navigational device, but, once that was done, she was pretty sure she knew the best direction to take. For a second, she considered asking if everyone was ready, but the last thing this group needed was more indecision. They were slow enough as it was. Someone had to take the wheel.

Still, that didn't mean she'd ignore her companions.

"If anyone needs a break, or wants to change the plans, just call out and we'll stop and talk, okay?" Renée said.

And, with that, she started walking.

((Renée Carlson continued in Whatcha Gonna Do))