They Only Want You When You're 17, When You're 21 You're No Fun

[KamiKaze]

((Mary Cheung continued from VHS Horror))

So hey, fun fact: apparently a little arrangement of ships like this is called a flotilla. And that was such a fun thing to say. Flotilla. Flo-till-a. It sounded like a drink order, perhaps one with ice cream. Not a boat thing.

Mary had to repeat it a few times in her head. Flotilla. Flo-till-a. Maybe Pennywise ordered it. Flo-till-a, clown guy holding an ice cream drink like some kind of ad. “We all float down here! You will too!”

She giggled under her breath as she stepped onto the deck. It was easier to think about clowns hawking ice cream drinks.

This was a kinda cute cruise ship, though. It was crowded here on the deck, which would be an improvement if it wasn’t, but hey, we can’t all be perfect. Sometimes you are crowded with chairs and stuff, and sometimes you are a boat in a death game.

She slammed the oar and her bag onto the floor and plopped herself into a bench. Did she sit? No no. She laid her back on the seat, and draped her legs against the backrest, letting them hang off the back. Some people thought it was cursed when she did that, but eh. It was nice to see the world upside-down for a bit.

Mary had an idea of what needed to be done, definitely. She closed her eyes and inhaled at the thought. It was nice, not seeing anyone else so far. She liked being there with the sea air, and the occasional caw of seagulls, and the sun beating down. Reminded her of home.

Miami had an element of sleaziness, but there was also an earnestness to that sleaziness, kinda. Lots of immigrants, lots of people who want to become someone else. Mary had lived there all her life, but she understood why someone would want to become someone else. Maybe they were thinking of home when they selected… wherever this was. The flotilla. Ice cream formation.

Mary opened her eyes. A camera whirred, somewhere near the entrance. She saw it after she heard it.

And she smiled. And winked. She had to.

[Ohm]

On all other accounts, waking up on a surprise cruise might have been a welcome surprise to others. To Leo, it was the worst that could have happened to him. Not least of which is the show he was now on.

Survival of the fittest. Leo could barely stand that show when he was back in Miami, it was an affront on all his morals and sensibilities, and now? When it was going to be the reason he was going to die for someone else's fame and supposed glory?

He hated it, every single bit of it.

Many of his classmates were ones who bought the hype, who bought everything this show peddled to them in a rapid heap. They would have signed up for this if they had the chance. There were going to be ones who played, for fame or survival. Either or, it meant danger was all around him.

Standing on deck whilst looking at his surroundings, Leo held his bag roughly with both hands. Leo could see there were a bunch of boats together, sort of Flotilla setup. If it weren't for the unspeakable things that were probably happening on those boats, it would have been a beautiful shot.

He'd already had a look inside to see what they had given him, and whilst relieved they hadn't given him anything lethal and expected him to kill, they had instead given him scuba gear. But they wouldn't have made it that easy to try and get away, would they? He couldn't swim away with this.

Right?

The sudden appearance on the deck from another spooked him from those thoughts as he momentarily jolted back a step or two and stared at the girl on the deck. Mary Cheung.

She was in the grade above him, but he knew about her. She had a hurricane party when Miami was reeling from one, he'd heard other students complain about her responses to criticism and how attention seeking she was with how she would act. Leo personally didn't mind, it was nice having someone who wasn't afraid to be themself at school that wasn't fully into SOTF.

Maybe...he had something to work with here?

“Uh, hi there."

If he could just not sound like he was about crap himself, then maybe.

[KamiKaze]

Mary flinched. She quickly found out her current “sitting” position wasn’t ideal. Not ideal at all! Someone just broke her solitude while she was just… vibing, she guessed. She quickly sat back up, unhooking her legs from the backseat and placing them on the sitting part. She turned her head.

Okay, so it was… a guy. She remembered that he seemed… nice-ish back home? Very academic and one of them soccer kids, so not really someone in her circle. But why couldn’t she remember his name? It was L-something. For now, she was going to call him… uh, good nickname until she remembered?

“Uh hey…”

She stopped for a beat.

“Soccer guy?”

Mary had to wince at that.

But then she had to pause.

Then, with a swift motion, she reached down to grab the oar.

[Ohm]

The awkwardness was mutual which made Leo feel a little bit better about himself and made him slacken his grip on his bag a bit, at least until she could not remember his name.

Soccer guy? Really? There was a reason why Leo had given himself that nickname and it was so th- why is she reaching for the oar?

He let slip of the bag and held his hands up, open palmed as it landed with a thud on the ground. He stared back at Mary, wide-eyed.

"Whoa, there! I'-I'm not going to do anything to you or the like." He paused to swallow some spittle that suddenly had made its presence known to him. His eyes darted around him to see if there was someone else there that could have garnered that reaction and saw none.

Was he really that threatening looking? Or did he just make the biggest mistake of his life?

"So, yeah, not going to hurt you. Just...looking around." He gestured with his left hand where it was held, swiveling it around with the index finger out.

[KamiKaze]

That’s… what he’d say if he wasn’t, right? Wasn’t that the name of the game? Apparently, you could escape or something, but like… what are the odds? Mary wasn’t smart enough for that. She wasn’t sure if she was smart enough to play it vanilla.

(Flotilla vanilla. Flotilla vanilla ice cream drink.)

“Uh…”

She looked over his face. Okay, was he genuine or just trying to get her guard down? In theory, it’d be easy to like, whap him. Whap whap whap him with the oar until brains come out looking like scrambled eggs. Should she just go for it? Or…

“Hey. If you’re not like… psycho, or whatever, can you do me a favor? Don’t worry, I won’t bite.”

She laughed. Hesitantly.

Okay, so… actually doing something might be off the table. But, there was another idea. Another something.

[Ohm]

"Favor?" He found himself saying as this staring contest between the two continued. Leo's wide eyed stare contrasted her expression. Leo prided himself on discerning people's intentions, what they thought and felt at a moment, but now? He was pulling a blank, Mary might as well have been a white sheet ghost in his eyes.

It could have been the nervousness. It could have been his discombobulation at waking up in this place, in this game where people would die for ratings. It could have been because he didn't really know Mary that well, or that he once thought he did.

"What kind of favor?" He tried to keep his tone even and his voice low, but the edges of nervousness snuck in here and there to remind him that he wasn't tough, that he wasn't ready for this. That whatever she would say could end with him off this boat with her the victor for deciding this game, and whatever the reward she would get was worth it.

His hands had gone down at this point, down to his sides as he waited for her reply. Fingers moving, etching for him to walk away from this, maybe grab the bag and make a run for it if possible.

[KamiKaze]

Mary leaned forward, trying to parse his expression a bit more. Okay, so, maybe he was telling the truth? And like, she didn’t need to go whap on him. Maybe. Technically she did, but like, you know.

Pick your battles, Mary. She could almost hear her therapist, her dad, one of the pastors, someone say that.

But favor! It’s not a murdery favor. Unless you choke, but like that’d suck. Choking would be a stupidly mundane way to die, especially here. Like getting run over, or getting a heart attack, or something.

“Okay, so… I don’t eat meat or wheat? Right?”

She laid the oar on top of herself.

“But the food… it’s not veggie or gluten-free friendly! It’s like, Subway sandwich, squid jerky! You know? So, uh…”

Mary had to take a moment to figure out what she needed to say. Another laugh under her breath.

“Wanna trade? I’ll take anything that I can eat, and uh, you can take my jerky and stuff. Dunno if you got the same stuff, but it couldn’t hurt asking, right?”

If he agreed, it’d mean he’d be telling the truth, right? No whap whap. Just keep it cool, remember you can pick your battles.

[Ohm]

Mary spoke again, and Leo's wide-eyed stare was replaced at this point by a perplexed one at her request. A trade for food, something gluten free. No meat. He stopped himself from making a deep exhale.

He was worried over nothing, at least for now.

"Food? Yeah, I can work with that." He said, a laugh coming in between as the situation seemed to become less and less tense for him. This, this was something that he could do.

Leo slowly crouched down and his left hand went for his bag. His fingers gripping one of the straps as he carefully stood up and started to step over to where Mary sat with her oar. His steps that were at first large, became smaller and smaller as he got closer and could see up close the thing she held in her hands.

So he stopped a bit from her. He was not getting closer with that in her hands.

He dropped the bag on the ground again, and with his right foot roughly shoved it towards her.

"Here." He said as he took a few steps back and folded his arms, outside of the bandanna he'd pilfered from it that clung snugly to his left arm, everything else was in there.

[KamiKaze]

Mary tensed up. Soccer boy was getting closer. Too close. Teeense.

But he slammed the bag down and kicked it towards her, like it was full of garbage. Okay, so… was she just supposed to rifle through, or…? She didn’t know the correct etiquette in this situation. Then again, what was the code of honor in murder games in general? Normal social situations were difficult for her to figure out even without the murder bits! Tossing the murder bits in made it only more awkward and weird.

“Well… might as well offer my… offering? Yeah... gimme a sec…”

Mary placed her feet onto the ground, and then her oar to the side. Slid her own bag onto her lap. Unzipped, took out the icky bad stuff.

“Sandwich… dried squid… crackers…”

With each uttering of said food item, she placed it onto the ground in front of her. Honestly, it was kinda humiliating. They went out of their way to make the bread loaves delicious Udi’s, but they gave her a tuna sandwich, which was like, the combo of everything she didn’t eat. Not to mention the squid jerky and crackers. Mary did admittedly like squid jerky, well, before she became a vegetarian. But apparently when she was younger--like, elementary younger-- the dentist found it stuck in her teeth when doing the whole routine cleaning thing, and since then she’d been more diligent about flossing. But she didn’t eat it anymore, so she didn’t have to worry about that, at least. And crackers were crackers. Anyways, either it was A, an oversight, or B, they just didn’t care!

Mary picked up the oar again and used it to push the bad icky food towards Soccer Boy.

“Here you go. Bone apple tea.”

[Ohm]

Seeing what Mary was doing, he crouched down for the food she sent over. His hand snaked over and gripped his bag, roughly dragging back towards him as he started to fill it with the food he got from Mary. Once he was done, and feeling mighty hungry after seeing what they had given them, started to do the same with the food she wanted.

"Thanks." He said with a smile. The nervousness from earlier was gone when Mary didn't seem like she was seconds away from beating him to death. Pleasantries were much preferred.

As his fingers gripped different kinds of food that were placed on the ground next to him, silence filled the area the two were in. He could hear waves and the water surrounding them, he could hear distant sounds coming from the boats, however faint they were.

He tried to keep those sounds out so he could focus, but instead it felt like ice prickling his back. So...

"What are you going to do?" He asked as he laid the wares next to him, eyes momentarily moving up to look at her. She probably had no more idea than him as to what to do. Just having been dropped here after all. But some talk, any talk at this point would be good for keeping those sounds away.

[KamiKaze]

“Hm,” Mary started, using the oar to try to pull the nice friendly food towards herself.

That was a good question. She’d considered doing that, but, well, it seemed kinda scary and intimidating right now, she’d realized. She was still not smart enough to figure out how to escape. She could do another something, but it looked even less appealing. Apparently, there were teams or something? But teamwork… she had bad experiences with group assignments and stuff, and like, working on a social studies assignment is one thing, but unambiguously trusting someone with your life? That was another. It didn’t help that she had no idea who these people were, so they could be some of the okay-ish people or full-blown pooplords like, dunno, Laura. And she knew she wasn’t a master of strategy.

“Nothing major, for right now,” she said. “I don’t want to be a bore, though. Can you… can you imagine? D... dying on live television, and the last thing they say is like, ‘here lies Mary, a waste of oxygen, she bored us to tears.’”

She laughed again.

“Maybe... you have like, ideas. Or something. Oh, and thanks. For the grub and stuff."

[Ohm]

No idea. So he was right, both of them were in the same boat as one another. No matter where one sliced it, they were stuck here with no way out and no idea how to deal with this. Leo might have had an easier time if he had his camera with him so he could at least take some, but he had left that in his locker before he got taken away at school, so many pictures that he could have taken...

Mary made a joke about dying on TV and what they would say, Leo chuckled at that, though it wasn't really funny. They were all going to die here, and a few lucky ones would get out if the teamwork nonsense they talked about would work. Despite his distaste for the show, he'd hear about it all the time and if he remembered right, the last few had something similar and yet only one got out. Well, one and a murderer.

10 kills. Got to incentivise the masses apparantly.

"I'm not sure." He said, it was a cop out answer to her. He had avenues to work from, but no idea how to get there. He could work with a team, keep everyone up until the end. Escape was an option as well, but who knows how to do that. An errant look at his scuba gear...maybe that could help?

If anybody had an idea, he'd give it to them. See if that helped.

"Though, I've got no intention of playing and killing. I'll leave that to the fans." He scoffed out as he zipped up his bag and stood up. He could barely hide the distaste behind his words as he said them, and if that offended whoever that was watching then they could go to hell for all he cared.

[KamiKaze]

“Ah… I see.”

Okay, yeah, that was true. There were… a lot of SOTF fans at school! An alarming amount, even. Mary, again, had always found the show boring at best and uncomfortable at worst. Plus, the fanbase was weird. Like, really really weird. She would not be surprised if there was an online encyclopedia of every contestant’s feet or something messed up like that. She was friends with people who liked it, but well, she made no secret that she thought the show was kind of weird and uncomfortable and boring and that the fandom was arguably worse in its own way.

“Maybe they’ll just like… gush into the corner about how cool it is they’re on SOTF, and leave everyone else alone?” she said, tilting her head while keeping a smile on.

Doubt it, honestly. Some people just were that obsessive, and like, again, the name of the game involved killing people. If it hadn’t happened yet, it was going to happen shortly. But couldn’t hurt to joke.

[Ohm]

He raised an eyebrow at that comment and the smile. That would be the dream, wouldn't it? But Leo had seen how their eyes would light up when they talked about the deaths...if they could, he was sure a few of them would have signed up for it.

"I wouldn't count it, though it's a nice dream." His tone was uneven now, the thought of people who'd enjoy this, who'd enjoy being on this show with the chance of taking someone else's life. It made his stomach twist like a whirlpool.

"Just keep your distance from them, and remember who they were." People like Ivan, remember their faces and names. They might change all of that once they got here, but it didn't change who they once were.

And with that, he now had a plan forwards, find the ones not in love with this carnage and maybe talk sense with them. Get them out of here with what little of them they had left.

And leave the maniacs to each other. Let those that wanted to hurt be hurt.

That sounded good.

"Have you seen anybody else around?"

[KamiKaze]

Mary put a finger to her chin in thought. Her knee bounced. She thought back.

“Hm. No. You’re the first person I’ve seen so far, I... think.”

You think, Mary? No, no, you know. Let’s… not count her little camera monologue as her talking to someone. She kinda said some stuff to him that she already said before, but don’t need to tell him more about not being boring.

But oh, she couldn’t help but feel a little twinge at him being all ‘lol doubt it’ and ‘keep your distance from the crazy fans lol’. Like… she couldn’t figure that out herself? If someone’s obsessive, then they’re obviously gonna do obsessive things. Common sense. She stopped smiling, though.

“What about you? Like, do you know if anyone’s… y’know, gone loony? Or just, someone to keep an eye for?”

Maaaybe she gave that twinge away by how she phrased that and her tone. She couldn’t help but cringe a little at that.