When Betting On High Card Pays Off

[Fenrir]

Before she could get close, something began to hit the ground in front of her in rapid succession; it fell like rain, like hail, hitting the deck with a staccato rhythm. Akeno threw herself to the ground to avoid the bullets, diving back and throwing her hands over her head liked it would do anything if one of them hit her.

They had another person, somewhere, watching the deck with a gun. She crawled away, towards the edge of the ship where she hoped the railing would give her some cover, and the hail of bullets ceased a moment later. Was she out of sight of the shooter now? Some angle of the ship that prevented them from hitting her from… the cruise ship, maybe?

Akeno peered between her arms at the one with the bloody shiv. Her blood was pounding in her ears loud enough to deafen her. He somehow managed to look smug even through the hood.

She was going to kill him.

[Primrosette]

Bacchia could only watch as Jasper was gurgling and squirming on the wooden deck like a dead fish out of water. It didn't take long for him to stop moving and she couldn't help but feel more relieved than guilty. Again, she didn't have any personal issues towards Jasper and honestly they could have had him with them for just his strength alone. A bodyguard. They really needed to come up with better plans about how to take people out of the game. It was too bad that he was just here with them at the wrong time.

She glanced at the shiv that was imbedded in Jasper's leg and she carefully pulled it out, feeling disgusted over the small squirt of blood that came out onto the deck beside her. Coloring the brown wood with a shade of dark red. She actually threw the shiv away as it looked like it was damaged in the process of jamming itself in Jasper's leg and she glanced at the bleeding cuts on her left hand. Well, it looked like she had to be more careful with her hand now.

She really needed to get her sword. But first, she had to check on James.

She crawled over to where he was laying and she touched his shoulder gently, ignoring the pain that was flaring up from her side and hurting ribs. She was just relieved that they were broken. "H-Hey, James. James, can you move at all?" She said with genuine concern for him getting injured like that. "We need to-"

She suddenly heard a hail of gunshots and wood was getting ruined. She noticed a girl. Akeno. Trying to get out of harm's way.

The one that had been shooting had come from the cruise ship. Most likely Vasily. There was no way Keegan would be able to shoot in his condition.

"Fisk. We need to go now! Take James and run. I just need to get my sword and I'll catch up to you both." She nodded to him before she slowly got up to her feet and glanced over to where the sword had been kicked over to by Jasper.

She then trying to move quickly without hurting herself more in the process.

[Catche Jagger]

Um....

Ow.

What?

Oh shit, were those gunshots?

James slowly started to sit up. Fuck his head hurt.

“Uhh…" He sounded like a zombie, but he wasn't dead. Probably.

[ItzToxie]

As he made his way towards his compatriots, he noticed that Bacchia was getting herself back up, a little banged up, but no worse for wear. His eyes trailed over to the broken shiv she discarded as she pulled herself together. "Good shit Bacc, remind me to make you another."

Their focus turned to James who was not as mobile. His face was bleeding quite a bit. Fisk hoped it was only his nose. "Shit, James! Hey, can you hear me? Get u-"

Akeno. She was coming right for them! Not good! Fisk stepped back, bringing his blade out in front of him, hoping that Akeno would just get caught in the moment and run herself into it-

Their was a faint buzzing like a cellphone on vibrate ringing in the distance, followed by the tokatokatoka of holes breaking open in the wooden deck between the two. Akeno stopped, and turned right around. The holes followed her legs until she went back into cover, a safe distance away from the group.

Fisk laughed behind his mask. He flashed the cruise ship a thumbs up, eyes still trailed on Akeno. "Little late to help your buddy isn't it, Akeno? Hehehe, unlike Jasper here, MY guardian angel actually has my back!" Fucking schmuck.

His focus tilted back to James, whom Fisk knelt beside as he started to sit up. Bacchia wanted to get out of here, that was fine, Fisk shared the sentiment. "Come on James, you still with us?" He held four fingers in front of James' face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

He held out his arm for James to grasp.

"Come on man, get up, we got you."

[Fenrir]

Taking a deep breath, Akeno lowered her hands from over her head and pushed herself up onto her knees. It didn’t do much to calm her down, but she forced herself to keep taking more deep breaths as she thought things through. She needed to deal with this calmly.

It was hard to keep her cool though, when this guy was talking so much undeserved shit. He had far too much arrogance for someone who was preparing to run away from her.

Fuck him.

They had a fourth member over on the cruise ship with a gun and that meant she couldn’t risk chasing after them; she didn’t know how accurate they were or how much or how long they could fire for, but it would only take one stray bullet to ruin everything. They were right there, right in front of her, but the gap between them might as well have been a chasm.

Akeno punched a clenched fist into the wood of the deck.

Maybe if she was quick enough she could get close to them before the shooter could stop her? It was only a few meters of open ground, as long as she got a good start she could be make it before the bullets started raining down; then the shooter would be too scared of hitting the rest of them to open fire.

The idea was almost tempting enough to act on, but she knew she couldn’t take the risk. She couldn’t do anything to them, unless they moved closer to her first.

Useless. What was all that training for if she couldn’t do anything when it counted?

Fucking hooded killers.

Fucking guardian angel.

Fucking Fisk.

For people wearing masks, they weren’t overly concerned with not saying each other’s names around other people; Fisk, James and someone else, plus a fourth person over on the cruise ship. If Akeno couldn’t do anything now then she would just have to track them down later.

It was the least she could do, the only thing she could do after letting things get to this point.

But for now she could only watch them leave.

[Catche Jagger]

“Fisk, he didn’t knock out my eyes. Um… it is four, though, right?”

James took Fisk’s hand and slowly began to rise to his feet. Fuck, his head was pounding, but it didn’t feel as bad as his face. It was like someone had stabbed it with a knife, only to start beating said knife with a happier. He could feel his eyes watering, but he totally wasn’t going to cry.

Jasper was dead, James knew that before he saw the body and he didn’t look too hard when he did see it. Bunch of blood, didn’t want to see the face. Pretty morbid shit all around. It was fucked up and unnecessary but he also might be dead without that.

Instead, his gaze wandered back toward the edge of the deck, where Shoshanna had gone over and from which she had seemingly failed to return. He swallowed, then turned right back to Bacchia and Fisk.

“Yeah… we really really should get back. Please.” His voice sounded odd, congested as he spoke.

((James Highchurch continued in Picnic After The Panic))

[almostinhuman]

(Nadine Flores continued from cheesed to meet you)

This was not Nadine's favorite way to wake up in the morning.

They'd met two new allies- Shoshanna and Jasper, according to the former- mere hours ago, but it had been a surprising weight off Nadine's shoulders. Not only did it give them more people to work with, it gave them a better degree of shelter than they'd had before. It was hard to plan when you were sneaking around between the jetties, and the ship's cabin was certainly better than the decrepit ship they'd started on.

Nadine awoke to the announcements, revealing another set of dead kids and another set of kids with blood on their hands. Shoshanna awoke at the same time, but before either could say much, commotion outside attracted her attention and she bolted out the door, flare gun in hand. Nadine hadn't seen what happened after that, but she could certainly hear enough to know it wasn't anything good.

Nadine slipped over to the cabin door. She gave a quick glance back to Marion before opening it just enough to see the deck outside. A number of other kids Nadine didn't recognize were out there; a couple of them seemed a bit banged up. Shoshanna wasn't anywhere to be seen, near as Nadine could tell. But Jasper...

He was obscured partially by the mast and partially by the other kids, but he was absolutely motionless on the floor. She couldn't see him clearly enough to tell how injured he was, but the pool of blood on the floor communicated well enough what had likely happened.

Nadine shut the door silently, hand over her mouth. She could do little but hope she hadn't just given herself and Marion away.

[ItzToxie]

“Just checking to see if he didn’t cave in your brain is all. Come on, let’s get you fixed up.”

Hearing James reply was a massive weight off of Fisk’s shoulders. He had him worried for a moment there. Fisk didn’t want to lose another one.

Fuck. Giselle was still dead wasn’t she. She was, and it still hurts. Fisk’s eyes trailed over to the mess that was Jasper. Sure, killing him made Fisk feel a little better, but he could’ve taken James with him, and the thought of that...

But Jasper didn’t. Fisk inhaled. Closed his free hand until his knuckles cracked. Lessons learned. Don’t face people like that upfront. Lure them into a trap in case your friends freeze up. That one v one to another one v one shit didn’t work. Like a video game.

Whole point was to gank. They didn’t do it and it gave Jasper something to talk shit about if he did make it. Probably why Akeno over there felt so brave until the rattatattat of reality hit this boat. Akeno was going to be a problem later, Fisk felt it in his gut. Another future corpse unaware that they’re that, selfishly thinking their life is worth si-Five, let alone just one of The Respects.

Fuck it, the three of them lived and learned from this encounter, at least Fisk did. Hopefully James learned to not freeze up anymore. If they’re in another situation like this, they’ll know what to do next time. At least James sent that other bird overboard. Fisk still had a lot of anger to take out, but in lieu of taking it out on James or Bacchia, as fairly or unfairly as it were, he’d put it to something more productive.

“Go on ahead back to base, I’ll catch up.” Fisk took two steps forward and slid his metal clad toe underneath the handle of the hook-spear bastard child. He kicked up and caught it with his hand, before pointing it in Akeno’s direction. He took a single step on Jasper’s shoulder to Captain Morgan-pose, his free hand took his mask off, wasn’t covering much now anyways. Couldn’t help to laugh at the absurdity of this situation.


“Heehenhnhnn~ Akeno! Guess I gotta let you live outta the goodness of my heart then, eh? It’s only fair I express my gratitude for your help, after all Jasper would’ve taken quite a bit longer without that staring contest you two had! But alas, two out of three’s still two out of three!”

Okay, this was supposed to be mind games, but Fisk had to be honest with you. This felt good. If Fisk had to cope with losing someone close, so should someone else. Fuck Akeno, she let her friends die anyways. He had zero pity. Jasper wanted to act up and talk tough? Fuck him, he learned to Respect. Fisk was entitled to talk all the shit he wanted.

“For your sake, I hope you don’t follow us! No matter what you attempt, it will all lead to the same result: learning Respect!”

You could say he was laying it on a little thick, but you give a drama kid free reign to adlib? Play a part that was meant for them? If you don’t expect them to take it, you’ve never been in drama club. Call it hammy all you want, this shit was fun. Took away some pain too. Didn’t help they deserved it for fucking with Fisk.

Waste his time, he’ll waste your life.

“Au revoir, Akeno~!” He twirled his new toy like a baton before resting it on his shoulder. He walked away, turning his head towards the cruise ship, watching that feint little glimmer in the distance mostly, but also keeping an eye on his back.

He hummed The Passenger to himself as he made his way home.

((Fisk Bateman continued elsewhere.))

[Primrosette]

As Bacchia was half-jogging, half-running to where Jasper had kicked her sword near the railings on the other side of the boat or ship or whatever; she heard Fisk basically provoking Akeno and she wanted to slap Fisk upside the head for sure an idiotic move. She really needed to make him know that he couldn't make everyone mad at them. She was actually getting a bit fed with Fisk's unnecessary cockiness. But that was the charming, silly side of him, isn't it? She groaned quietly to herself as her side was aching a bit and she let out a shaky breath.

She picked up the sword with a bit of a struggle as she had to bend down a bit and she turned briefly towards the sound of a door closing. Ah, so there had been more people in hiding and she just hoped to god that it hadn't been anyone that she knew personally or that they could have seen her without that damn mask that she was abandoning. She was sure that Jasper's blood was on it after all.

She noticed that Fisk and James were already a bit ahead of her off the ship and she knew that she had to catch up. At a slower pace.

She really need to think about The Respects group thing better from now on. She was a bit out of breath as she forced herself to hurry after the guys.

((Bacchia Rubus continued in A Simple Favour))

[Laurels]

Shoshanna only remained under the water for a few seconds. The shock of suddenly falling into the ocean, feeling her eyes sting from salt water and her ears and nostrils instantly filling with water was a huge lurch that forced her to start flailing her arms and kicking her legs, whatever it took to get above the surface. Shoshanna wasn't the best swimmer; she really only swam a few times every summer if she was at the beach or a public pool, so she really only knew the basics. Of course, swimming in the endless ocean was different than a piss-filled rec center pool, so Shoshanna had to hurry and get out before she drowned.

Shoshanna surface and spat some water out of her mouth and coughed. Her eyes stung and she could feel her hair sticking to her forehead. Her back was still throbbing a bit from hitting the ramp before falling in, but she could still move her legs when her brain told them to, so she was glad she wasn't handicapped by the fall. Of course, she had to get out of the water.

The rocking of the waves pushed Shoshanna into the side of the clipper ship. She groaned as she pushed her arms against the side of it to give her some cushioning in case the current wanted to lurch her against it again. She blinked her eyes open and tried to adjust them to the sunlight. She could hear some shouting above deck, but she couldn't entirely make out what it was. She glanced up. She couldn't see onto the ship, but James wasn't looking down at her, so he must have decided to leave her in the sea and get back to Jasper.

"Fuck. Jasper, hang on-"

Shoshanna was about to push off the boat to try and reach the nearby jetty, but she quickly fell silent when she heard gunshots. She lowered herself into the water, only keeping her eyes above the water. She quickly dogpaddled under the ramp. A gun had somehow been brought out into the fight. Nadine and Marion didn't have guns, so where was it coming from.

From the corner of her view, Shoshanna saw three figures running along the jetty and away from the clipper ship. Her eyes widened. It was the three attackers. James, and the two other fuckwits.

"Shit. Shit. Shit," she quickly muttered as she watched them run away.

Once they were a good distance away, Shoshanna swam to the edge of the jetty and pulled herself onto the walkway. She crawled on her knees for a bit, watching as water dripped off her and onto the deck. She stood up, one hand on her back on the spot where she hit the ramp before going over. She could feel her ponytail hanging limp down her chest. She ignored how obnoxious it was going to have wet hair for the rest of the day (in her experience, it took forever to air dry). She had to get onto the ship.

Shoshanna stepped, her water-filled shoes making a grating squishing sound, up the ramp and back onto the deck of the ship. When she finally arrived at the deck, she looked out at what remained. There was some new girl standing on the deck, and what appeared to be bullet holes on the deck. Nadine and Marion were still not here, but Shoshanna finally pushed those other details aside at the most pressing detail.

Jasper was lying on the deck, a pool of blood forming around him. He wasn't moving, and she could see he wasn't breathing.

"Oh god," she muttered, her breathing starting to pick up.

Shoshanna's eyes remained wide, still stinging from the salt water and the sun. But now something else was starting to make them sting as she looked at her dead companion. She rubbed her eyes. He was still there, and still dead.

Her focus turned to the other girl.

"You," she blurted. "What happened? Which one of them killed him?"

[Fenrir]

She hated Fisk.

Akeno wasn’t sure she had ever truly hated someone before, it was so much easier to just ignore someone than hate them, but Fisk managed to bring it out of her. He’d always been kind of insufferable, the type of person who was far too in love with the sound of their own voice, but that was nothing compared to the way he was acting now.

It wasn’t even that he had been the one to stab Jasper in the end. He wasn’t alone in causing her friend’s death, that girl had bought him the opportunity first and Akeno… she hated herself for the part she played in bringing about this situation.

Or the part she didn’t play.

No, she hated Fisk because of everything else. Everything he was doing right now; boasting, showboating, goading her, all while she was unable to do anything about it and he knew it. Fisk didn’t want to spare her, he was running because he knew he had nothing left to give and he knew that, they both knew that; he took her helplessness and spun it into his own gracious act.

The only reason he was able to get away with this was because he had someone watching his back. Jasper didn’t; Fisk knew that too and he was more than willing to throw that difference in her face. Akeno wasn’t sure if he even knew the knife was there but he was managing to twist it anyway.

She tried to tune him out, let his words wash over her without really paying attention to them, but it wasn’t working very well. The deep breaths really weren’t doing much to ease her temper either.

Her hands were starting to ache from how hard she was clenching them.

He finally left the boat and the girl went with him, leaving Akeno alone with… well, she was just alone.

She didn’t get up right away, instead she began to count. Just because Fisk and the others had left didn’t mean the guy with the gun had stopped looking over this way; it would be just her luck to stand up right away and get shot.

Akeno counted all the way to thirty then stood up; then, when she wasn’t immediately riddled with bullets, she began to walk around the deck. She turned to look towards the cruise ship, but couldn’t see anyone moving around over there; maybe that person had left as soon as the rest had.

When the other girl arrived, soaking wet, it was to find Akeno still staring off in the direction of the cruise ship. The voice brought her attention back to the current situation, back to the deck, but it took her a couple seconds to realise she’d been asked a question.

“Fisk. Fisk and the girl.”

[almostinhuman]

It took a minute for Nadine to work up the nerve to open the door again. When she did, three of the bloodied figures had departed, giving her a better view of the scene. Shoshanna was still absent, but one of the other girls remained on the ship, wandering the deck and staring out to sea. The deck itself was spotted with blood, and seemed pierced by bullets in several places.

Most importantly, though, Jasper was still dead. Of course he was. Closing herself in the cabin wasn't gonna fix that somehow, it would simply let Nadine ignore it. She hadn't even really known Jasper, but knowing he was dead, seeing he was dead, was heavier than she was prepared for.

Briefly, Nadine contemplated shutting the door again; she didn't think the remaining kid had participated in killing Jasper, but she didn't know if she could be trusted. Then Shoshanna returned, soaked but alive. She took the sight of Jasper about as could be expected, before confronting the other girl on his death. Shoshanna at least didn't seem to think of her as a threat.

Nadine opened the door and stepped onto the deck, interrupting the two with "Shoshanna, thank God you're alive. Are you hurt?"

[Laurels]

"Fisk. Fisk. Fuck."

Shoshanna repeated the name the new girl gave of Jasper's killer, only cursing when she realized where she heard the name. Fisk was one of the dual killers who killed Seth in the last announcement. Now he had two kills to his name. Shoshanna put her palm to her forehead and pushed some of the water that was dripping down her forehead back.

Before Shoshanna could ask the girl anything else, the door to the cabin opened, and Shoshanna saw Nadine standing there. Nadine was still alive, and from how she was acting, it looked like Marion was safe. Shoshanna could barely respond to Nadine though.

She stepped closer to Jasper's body, leaving more wet footprints on the deck to seep into the paneling and bullet holes. She stood over Jasper's body, wincing a bit as she looked over his corpse. Shoshanna felt a bit sick as the smell of blood mixed with the scene of saltwater.

"Jasper..." she muttered.

She closed her eyes a bit and hung her head down. Jasper had only been a friend for a day, but for a guy who looked like someone who would be an object of lust for a sitcom housewife, he had been a really good friend. Shoshanna was glad he was the first person she met in this place, and for him to be taken down so quickly and brutally was something she couldn't abide.

She clenched her fists and her teeth. Shoshanna, having been a fan of the show and having studied it extensively, knew that it was a potential detriment to lose one's self to grief in this game. But even then, Shoshanna had to allow herself a moment to mourn her friend.

[MurderWeasel]

A voice echoes from Jasper's collar, steady but slightly subdued:

"Hey. Shoshanna.

"Well, that wasn't what anyone was hoping for. I guess that's it for me lending you a hand. It was nice while it lasted.

"I just want to say, good luck. I'm still pulling for you.

"Unless, you know, that gets in the way of what my team wants. If that happens, well, duty is duty. But even then, I want you to know it isn't personal. I'll still get that signed copy ready for you."

[Fenrir]

Akeno wasn’t sure how to describe how she was feeling.

The anger she felt at Fisk and the others was still there but it had waned surprisingly quickly once they were out of her sight, reduced to a simmering heat in her chest. She felt like she shouldn’t let that anger fade too quickly, that they didn’t deserved to have that anger disappear before she could catch up to them, but it was hard to maintain that sentiment. It was swallowed up by guilt, instead; she couldn’t deny her part in Jasper’s death after all, even if she logically knew that he would have just been gunned down even if she hadn’t arrived.

Her guilt was in turn consumed by her anger as soon as she remembered Fisk’s words, his gloating, sneering face and creepy laugh. Fuck him. She needed to stay angry so she wouldn’t forget to pay him back when she caught up with him and the others.

Back and forth, from one emotion to the other, while a heavy lump of grief sat in the corner waiting for its turn to come to the fore.

She forced her hands to relax, so she wasn’t clenching her fists hard enough to turn her knuckles white anymore. They felt tight so she opened her hands as far as she could, fingers bending back from her palm, and then closed her fist again; she repeated that, trying to work some feeling back into her hands and loosen the tendons up.

If she had to pick one word to describe how she was feeling know it would probably be ‘indecisive’. Her head and her heart weren’t in alignment at the moment and it was giving her some conflicted feelings; her mind was telling her to do one thing, her emotions were telling her to do another and her body just wanted to do something, anything, so long as she was moving.

She wanted to chase after them right now, run from the ship and hound after them until she found them and make them hurt. She wanted to go back to her old plan of getting ten kills. She wanted to scream herself raw and hit things until this feeling went away. She wanted to curl up into a ball and stay there for a while. She wanted…

Akeno didn’t know what the hell she wanted.

She took a step forward without thinking, almost beginning to pace around the deck before she stopped herself. Instead she stuck her hands into the pockets of her jacket, only to take them out again immediately once her right hand touched the garrotte wire inside. She crossed her arms over her chest.

Her heel started to bounce up and down.

Finally she looked over towards the girl who had asked her about Fisk. She’d been joined by another girl at some point and from the way they were both acting they must have been grouped up with Jasper before this. Akeno didn’t recognise either of them, but from the way the first girl was bowing her head they must have been at least a little close to him. That made her feel a little better for some reason.

Even Jasper’s mentor was chiming in. The voice was a little familiar, but that wasn’t the most important thing here; it just confirmed that they were indeed a group.

Akeno felt out of place. She felt like she was intruding on something.

She didn’t belong here.

“What are you going to do now? What were you and Jasper doing before this?”