The call was going when her computer finally let her log into Skype. As she joined, she opened up a Firefox window.
"—s bullshit. There's no way anyone smart would have picked him."
That was Mark, then. He liked to gripe about people getting points due to "luck"; of course, he ignored it if he was the one scoring. In that case it was a smartly planned pick.
"Hey, Georgie. You were lucky to miss Mark's bitching."
"It's true, though!"
"Yeah, I never said it wasn't."
It was always the same, really; Mark would find something to complain about and Stevie would try and rein him in. It never went anywhere. Mark would find something else eventually, and the cycle would repeat.
"Oh, is my wife here?" came a high pitched squeal.
"I'm here, baby," Georgie replied, putting on her best girly voice. Lindsey was probably her best friend in the world. For some reason Georgie had never figured out, Lindsey had taken to calling Georgie her wife, even though Lindsey actually had a boyfriend. It was kind of weird but also charming at the same time.
"Oh god, my ears," Stevie moaned.
Georgie was busying herself with getting her streams set up and with booting up the fantasy league they were all part of. From what she had been told by the others, Stevie and Mark had been in a fantasy SOTF league for the last season when the teams had first been introduced. They said it was alright but kind of messy and not many people were doing it.
This time, they'd set up their own league and invited a bunch of their friends into it. It was surprisingly simple. You just made up a team name—her team were the Purple Platypuses because alliteration—and then you drafted five kids from all those in the season to make up your roster. Mark was probably complaining about the fact that Lindsey had picked Marcus Redder and/or Gene Steward, since they were the only guys she had. Mark was still top of the league, though. He had carefully constructed his team and it was showing. Although she had managed to swipe Vahka Basayev from him, which she had yet to hear the end of.
It hadn't exactly paid off though. He had only gotten into some confrontations and was still only on one kill. It was an issue because kills were where the big points were. Right now, Shadi and Laura were talking and Laura still thought Shadi was called Clarissa. Nothing exciting happening there.
"Right, I'm going to get a snack and go to the toilet." Mark said, his tone indicating that he was incredibly frustrated by what was going on.
"Not in that order, I hope," came Lindsey's immediate reply. Georgie couldn't stop herself giggling. It was always the same and had been for a good three years, ever since she'd joined SOTFNation, a fan-forum for Survival of the Fittest. There had been an awkward period when she'd just lurked in the chat room not really talking to anyone, until Lindsey had ended up forcing her to talk by continually asking her questions. Then she had claimed her as her 'wife'. After that she had ended up integrating with everyone else fairly quickly. Lindsey, Mark, Stevie, and Kieran were still the people she was closest to. It wasn't like everyone else was bad, but she just got on really well with those four. Stevie and Mark were like brothers with the way they always had a back and forth going. Lindsey was the loud one and Kieran was the quiet one who kept everything chill and made everyone laugh with how deadpan his jokes were.
"Oh, hey, guys. Just woke up. Did I miss anything?" a slightly slurred voice said.
"Nah, you're okay, Kieran. So how did your job interview go, Georgie?" Stevie asked.
Georgie put her drink down and clicked off the stream. She left the browser on Facebook so that she would be less likely to get distracted. The door to her room opened as her cat, Ty, pushed his way in. She leaned down and stroked him as he went past her chair and jumped up onto her bed. Once he was curled up on her covers she turned back to the screen.
"I think it went well, actually. It was kinda weird going into the back of—"
"There's a massacre!" Stevie yelled over her.
"OHSHI!" There was frantic clicking as everyone pulled up their streams or switched over their browsers to see what was happening. It was brutal. The different reactions were funny to hear. Lindsey said it was gross, Stevie didn't say anything, and Kieran just kept swearing under his breath. Georgie changed the tabs once the death banners finished appearing on the stream to check the league table. Then she started laughing. She'd gotten enough points to get into the lead. Mark was going to be so pissed.
"Alright, I'm back. What did I miss?" Mark had finally returned from whatever it was he had been doing. Georgie couldn't contain how pleased she was.
"Oh, nothing, just the biggest massacre ever."
"Huh?" She heard Mark click onto the steam and then onto the league table. "Oh, this is bullshit!" Then she started laughing along with everyone else.
~*~
"Hello, my favorite ratings reapers." Once again, the voice of Ritzy Daggers echoed throughout the resort, booming inside buildings and whistling through the trees from hidden speakers. "How are all of you this evening? I hope you weren't planning to sleep soon, as I know you're dying, some of you literally, to know what's what on the up and up. Let's not waste our time together, shall we?"
Ritzy's finger tapped on the microphone as she scrolled through the list again, giving an unintentional drum roll to the announcement.
"Showing us that the early birdy does indeed get the worms, Marcus Redder made Jaxon Street bite the curb and carved out poor little Angie Hart's still beating... everything. Well, maybe not everything, but you get the idea.
"Meanwhile, Vincent Holway and Vahka Basayev were enjoying a nice and peaceful morning, fishing down by the river where things started to get steamy... as Vahka decided he had enough of Vincent and stomped on his head until it was fish paste. Don't worry, kiddo; we've all had bad dates.
"Gene Steward bludgeoned Will Brackenrig to death with a pony pogo stick. I don't even know what else I can say about that. Sometimes the jokes truly do just write themselves.
"On the slightly more serious side of things, we have Jewel Evans continuing her streak of double kills, blowing both Shawn Thornton and Sebastian Bellamy away, toppling their royal army along the way. A mad savage brings down an entire empire. Inspiring stuff.
"Less gracefully, Ashley Namath shot Caroline Leveson in the neck while the two were in a tussle. There's a saying about this. Oh yeah, don't bring stupidity to a gun fight. You lose every single time.
"Our pal Gene Steward strikes again by crushing—Ahahahahaha, holy shit, this will never not be funny to me, Jesus Christ—Bunny Barlowe's throat with the pogo pony stick. It could not be confirmed at this time if he was actually pogo-ing while doing so.
"All things come to an end, kids, and so too did Gene Steward, brought low by the ire of one Bella Bianchi. Maybe chicks with B.B. initials have vengeful instincts for one another, I don't know. Either way, she put an end to the pogo stick rampage before it got stale, and for that she has our thanks.
"Aaaand now we come full circle. Pia Malone decided to shake up her style and not shoot, but stab Genevieve Cordova, all while Genni spat on her. Poor communication skills, obviously. But hey, if you can't go with the jam, you're gonna get slammed.
"Finally, the curtain call of the night. Down at the Nature Walk, there's been a huge massacre. Laura Mason served as the pre-show to the whole thing, getting hit upside the head by Shadi Williams. Genesis Bradley-Baker was the showman of the afternoon, fibbing some hoohah about Christopher Schwartz wanting to kill her. I mean, he did shoot her, but she was lying about it at first, so shame on Ms. Bradley-Baker. Shadi Williams didn't feel like sharing the spotlight, and made Saachi Nidal extinct, same as the Jade Rhinos. Then, Erik Sheely decided to steal the spotlight for himself, killing both Eden Bishop and Shadi Williams with sheer brute force. Not too shabby for a cheerleader. Erik Sheely's time as the star was short, though, as Christopher Schwartz decided to remind him who really deserved first billing. With bullets. For the grand finale, underdog Christine Wallis went head to head with Christopher Schwartz, ending with them both dead."
Ritzy's spoke those words with her enunciation flagging only slightly. At the end, however, she let out a large exhalation over the speakers. Even Ritzy needed time to recover after such a mouthful.
"Alright... phew... okay. With that, kidlets... we're making the Nature Walk a danger zone... out of respect, and so... there's some stench when you go scavenging... and also the... Space Bam Alley, The Aqua-Museum, Lernean Beauty Parlor and Sunshine Tower... because we needed four more. Alright... have a good night... children...
"Somebody... get me... some fuckin' wate-"
DAY TWO: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020, 7:00 PM
Weather: As predicted, the frosty weather has returned with the fall of dusk. The wind makes a loud howl as it flies through the night, the chill accompanying it lending bite to its bark. Snow falls slowly all over the resort, signifying a few more inches for the morning. The temperature reaches a low of about 20F/-7C.
#1 James Houlihan (Chainmailleaddict)
#2 Naomi Skye (aristeia)
#3 Regina "Reggie" Aston (Imehal) - Brendan O'Toole (Polybius, Hero Card Used)
#4 Colin Pigeon (Flare)
As normal, three days for cards and DZ's, extra seven to finish deaths.