Don’t break anyone’s heart, they only have one. Break their bones, they have 206

[EllisWilson]

Ray had missed the grab and landed on his belly. The gunshot was ignored in favour of blind aggression as he tried to drag himself onto her. The warm barrel of her gun pressed up to his face put a stop to that. It could have been a painting, the two on the floor, her keeping him at bay only thanks to her revolver, and him the jittering beast with blood leaking from where his ear had been. Not that he was considering that, he was mostly considering how much he wanted to crush this girls neck with his fingers.

“Oh, yeah,” he spat through gritted teeth. “I heard getting shot fucking sucks.”

His own defiance was a bit of a shock to him. Maybe being at the mercy of someone who wanted to kill you lost its novelty after the third time. He stayed there, about half way up her as she could decide if he lived or died. Once again, he was trembling, but less so than before.

[CardboardAirplane]

Right. Bad spot. Good job Ilya, someone you were considering keeping around is at gunpoint and you aren't in custody of your weapon. Really couldn't have paid more attention to your surroundings and noticed Marnie before she started shooting?

"How much did you hear?" Ilya kept his feet planted on the ground, hands behind his back. Girl already had a trigger finger. He didn't need to give her a reason to fire.

Okay she had a lot of reasons to fire. Really good reasons, but the longer he could hold that off, the better.

"I get it. He hurt someone. And I understand you're pissed, rightfully so. But it was closer to self defense, he said. And you know, you can't really shoot him—kill him, for that." He tried to speak in a calmer tone, less like a savage, more like someone who could be reasoned with. Though the slowly rising speed at which words came out showed just how quickly he wanted to get out of here.

"People are gonna see you killed someone too. Let him go, okay?" Negotiations aside, his fist clenched and unclenched as he tested the waters and tried taking a step or two forward.

[AnimeNerd]

"Oh yeah? Drea tell you that?"

Didn't expect it to, but she hoped it stung.

Snatching the strap of the bald boy's tank top, she pushed herself up using him as support, keeping the gun pointed at his head the whole time.

The barrel pressed against his skin as the boy in blue began talking.

Thoughts blazed by a lightyear a minute.

"More than enough."

One bullet left, at best she'd get one and have to be quick to grab-

"Not so sure about that, but believe whatever you wanna believe."

-seemed panicked, he didn't have the upper hand, maybe she could trick him-

"Pretty sure they won't give me as much shit as either of you if I do it, by the way."

-risky, and things went bad enough as it was, what she really needed was-

"But...I'm not a monster."

Pressure against the bald boy's head lightened, for a moment.

"You can have him back..."

It came back just as fast, more force behind it now.

"If I get something too."

She hoped the smirk spoke more of cockiness than it did her fear.

[EllisWilson]

Ray had no idea why she brought up Drea. His fucking ear is probably gone because of her, who the fuck did she—

“AUUGH!” He yelled as the hot gun barrel was pressed into his skin. He might have heard it sizzle briefly if he weren’t so focused on the throbbing in his skull. Ray wasn’t a math wiz but he knew how many bullets you could fit into a six shot revolver, she had to have, like, one or two left after all that shooting.

Not that it would do him much good with the barrel burning his goddamn skull. She was talking now, and Ray felt that familiar fear in his chest. The feeling that was now mixing with a sneering contempt as she kept talking. Not a monster, she claimed. The release of pressure on his head only reinforced the burn that was doubtlessly imprinted on his forehead, and heat mixing with cold prickled him in a big, bad way. Who did she think she was? Who was she kidding? NoT a MoNSteR. Was Ray a monster? Is that what she thought? Fucking… fucking…

“Fuck you, cunt!”

[CardboardAirplane]

"Well, that ain't the greatest then." He smiled sheepishly, like a child who just got caught doing something wrong and then trying to laugh it off.

As much as he did want to argue, he knew it wasn't the best way to go about things, especially since he was now the crisis negotiator in a hostage situation. Marnie had given a way out of this now; trying to talk her down wasn't playing by her rules.

"I guess they wouldn't." He admitted. "No different from self-defence, when I think about it."

And someone here wasn't doing anything to try and de-escalate. Ilya would've thought Ray would try and keep his mouth shut. He shot a quick glance towards the other boy, but otherwise kept his eyes on Marnie.

"I have..." He paused. Ilya put a hand up to his chin. "I have bullets for your gun. A lot more than you probably started with." He pointed a finger towards the bag of ammunition.

"If I give you those, would that be enough?"

[AnimeNerd]

Smile dropped.

Eyes narrowed at the bald boy.

She wanted to say something clever, or at least a good come back to the comment.

"Shut the fuck up, Ray," came out instead, with additional pressure against his head, hoping he'd be forced to look at the ground.

Back to business.

Her eyes were no less narrowed at the boy in blue, teeth being shown once more.

"How conveeeeeeenient."

Dragging the letter out like she was the character in that meme.

"You have bullets, just for me? You're absolutely positive about that?"

A tilt of the head, towards the bag he pointed at.

"What else ya' got in that magic bag?"

[EllisWilson]

And the gun barrel was back.

Ray was forced to tilt his head down under the gun, his internal grumblings no longer being vocalized as his fear overtook his anger. The look on her face would have have been worth it if he weren’t bleeding. If he didn’t have a broken ankle. If his face wasn’t seconds away from being blown open. Ultimately, all he could do was be the hostage, and trust this girl (who clearly wanted to kill him) to not kill him.

Fat chance of that.

He looked around with just his eyes, not wanting to give her anymore reason to shoot him. Her yammering, though he knew it was right beside him, sounded all over the place. Fuck, was he going to have to deal with this for the whole game? He thought as his eyes shifted over the spilled contents of his backpack. Lunchbox, first aid kit, the pillow was still jammed halfway inside the bag, but that wasn’t what drew his attention.

What drew his attention was the pair of grenades. Frag grenade and a flash bang, and he only knew that because of Call of Duty. Ripley’s gift to him before it all went to shit. He might thank him later. There had to be a later.

He gave Marnie some side eye. She was still giving her attention to Arkadi while he spider walked his fingers toward the flash bang, which was the closer of the two, not that he was gonna complain. Whatever plan he had wasn’t past the ‘grab it’ portion, but… it would be fine.

[CardboardAirplane]

He blinked as Ray got reintroduced to a gun barrel to his head. Serves him right for running his mouth, but he wasn't saying that out loud.

"Nah, reaaaaaaly, reaaaaaally." He dragged out the vowels the same way she did. The smile dropped, though the tone in his voice remained the same.

If he knew where this was going (Ilya was pretty sure he did), he was about to lose more out of this than he would've liked. Guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

"Less a coincidence and more just having a little bit of everything. Could've spoken to anyone with a gun, and I would've had something for them." He gestured over towards the bag again. Ilya kept his eyes off of Ray but was tempted to look towards him since he was pretty sure something was going on in his peripherals.

"In simpler terms, this probably has ammo for every gun in the arena. How much? I 'unno. Enough to fire at least once? Guess that's the bare minimum required to shoot a gun." He gave a weak laugh, surprised himself that he was still trying to crack a joke at a time like this. A bad one at that, but still a joke.

"If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself. See if you can tell which one's for the pistol as well."

[AnimeNerd]

An eyebrow raised, doubt clear on her face.

"For real?"

So many questions, so little interest in speaking more than she had to.

Shrugging, she looked at the bag for longer than a glance.

Staring, clearly contemplating.

Snapping back to the boy in blue, she spoke again.

"You know what? Sure."

Leaning down to grab the treasure chest, the gun stayed trained on the bald boy's head, even if no longer pressed against it.

"I won't say no to more ammo."

Her hostage's efforts went unacknowledged.

What was he going to do? Reflect her?

[EllisWilson]

Ray couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed him. His fingertips were brushing against the edge of the flashbang, but, for a moment, he paused. What exactly was he going to do with it? He’d be eating a bullet the second she caught wind of him trying shit, and he wasn’t about to set off a grenade when he couldn’t get away from it quickly. Even without her grip on him, his ankle meant there was no chance of him making a break for it. The odds were against him no matter what he did, he realized. No fucking choice anymore. Not like there ever was when they all got dropped in here.

If she was gonna kill him, though, he wouldn’t let her be happy about it.

He pressed his fingertips onto the flashbang, flicking them so that it rolled close enough for him grip fully. He tried to pull his hand behind his back before Marnie noticed.

[CardboardAirplane]

If there was any victory in this situation, it was just the sliver of satisfaction towards the fact that he was right. Hell yeah, there was ammo for everything in that bag. Wanna check again? Maybe a third time to make sure you're seeing things right?

The fact that he was definitely about to lose it all soured that victory. Nevertheless, he continued with a smile, even if he couldn't help but let some of the irritation shine through.

"It's all yours then." He waved a hand, almost like a bow, before stepping back. He was far enough away from the bag already, but this was to make the gesture clearer.

"Mmmmmmight I ask," he started. "Why do you care to have the rest of the ammo in the bag? I don't know what you're plan is, but does it involve amassing more guns so that this is actually necessary?"

Ilya eventually gave up and started glancing towards whatever Ray was doing from time to time. It was hard to get a clear picture from those short glimpses. Once he figured out more what he was trying to do, he made a conscious effort not to look that way.

[AnimeNerd]

It was a small smirk, but enough.

"Eh, it's pretty simple."

Took a bit more effort than expected, but it got off the ground.

"I just don't want you to have it."

Eyes narrowed once more, this time into a glare.

"Don't think you deserve it, after killing Julia five seconds after I left her."

The toes on her right foot were pressed against her left ankle. One, two, three, four.

"You do deserve to deal with this asshole, though."

Left foot pressed against the bald boy's back, uncaring if the pressure knocked him over.

All she cared about was the momentum it gave her wheels.

[EllisWilson]

Ray barely caught himself before his face smacked into the ground. He had to use both hands, which caused the flashbang to get flung in front of him, skittering across the floor. Whatever, he didn't pull the pin anyway.
He wanted to throw a fit. He wanted to beat the ground with his fists and scream about it. He certainly would have if he wasn't overcome with stinging pain and a heaviness in his limbs. Still, he rolled onto his side and worked himself up enough to say his own kind of goodbye.

"You're a still a cunt!"

[CardboardAirplane]

"Yeah. Sure." He nodded his head, clearly unmoved. Should he have it? Scratch that. Did he deserve it? Well well, if you wanted to be technical about it, that was his assigned utility. It belonged to him. If anything, it was at least getting used if it stayed with him. What was she going to do with it? Throw it in a limo and drive it into the border? What was this accomplishing? Hindering his ability to kill now so that all of them could die later? If she was gonna take it, she might as well use it.

"Seems legit." He shrugged. "Meeehhhh, okay, run along now. You did your—"

Ilya abruptly stepped back once he noticed the flashbang. He didn't bother to check whether it was primed or not. He shoved his hands in his pocket and took a couple steps back.

"You did your thing, skate along now, safe travels, ya know."

[AnimeNerd]

"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too."

Waving dismissively, using the hand that held the gun as the other was too weighed down.

Pressing her toes against the other ankle one, two, three, four times, she gave herself some more speed.

Eyes and gun still trained on the boys, even as she made it to a door.

One more message to the two.

"Seeya later, boys."

She slipped away before they could process whether or not it was a threat.

Then, under her breath -

"Just let me [[roll away]] chat."