Don't Fear the Reaper

[Hollyquin*]

[[Leopold Sutherland continued from Smoke on the Water]]

Leopold had spent quite a while in this rainforest. How long, it was impossible to say- telling time by the position of the sun wasn't exactly a skill he'd picked up back home. Besides, he spent half the time he'd spent sleeping, a skill he had picked up during his long hours in the mansion, whiling away the hours with music and marijuana and long naps to sleep off the effects of both. Here on SOTF-TV...okay, some part of him knew it was stupid, letting himself sleep so much, especially this early in the game, with so many kids still alive. Especially without any allies around to watch his back. But whatever, Leopold was not betting on allies, he was not betting on the white team (with his luck, he'd be stuck with a bunch of ingrates from the enemy school), he wasn't betting on anything other than himself. And he was currently in a rainforest, all alone, waiting for something to come out and hit him on the head.

Not literally. He'd had quite enough with being hit with things, thank you very much.

Either way, he slept quite a lot. Behind trees, under trees, even in a tree on one rather memorable occasion when he'd managed to lift himself onto a thick, low-hanging tree branch and fallen asleep. Nothing he'd ever done back home, that was for sure- Leopold Sutherland was not one for climbing trees, or sleeping outdoors, or...or anything he'd done here so far, really. He wasn't one for getting hit by socks filled with rocks or being hit on by girls dressed like Smokey the Bear, either. He was pretty sure those things were pretty odd, though, even for commoners.

God knew what his father was thinking of this whole thing. Probably thought he should be getting his ass out of the forest and looking for a nice fancy resort or something to commandeer. If one could be said to commandeer a resort. Leopold didn't know, all he knew was that according to his map there was a resort around here somewhere and his upbringing, his almost genetic attraction to class and comfort, they called for him to go find it. Find a nice suite for him to sleep in for the rest of the game and wait for everyone else to kill each other. That would be nice. Good and in his skill set, even.

Also in his skill set was not moving for as long as humanly possible. Yeah, that would be nice. It was hot and sticky and humid in here, and the heat just increased his need for sleep and sleep and more sleep, though it was soaking him in sweat. He stripped off his turtleneck and stuffed it in his bag- shirtless with his bowtie still on, he looked like a male stripper, which appealed nicely to his inaccurate sense of irony. He put his bandanna in his pocket, sticking out enough to be seen, too tired and sweaty to re-tie it in a nicely asymmetrical way.

And he fell asleep again.

Only to be rudely awakened by the announcements.

Leopold listened with vague interest at the overly excitable voice that only just penetrated the thick fog of heat and moisture and sleepiness that crowded his brain. It wasn't like there was anything he'd care to hear- except for the danger zones, some part of his mind chided him. He had watched the show, after all, who hadn't- anyone who spent as much time doing nothing as he did would know all about SOTF-TV. He knew enough to know that he'd best listen up...

The hotel and the lake. Got it. So much for commandeering the resort, if that was a thing. Ah well. Another excuse to stay here. Much more interesting was the knowledge that someone had already been killed- not a name he'd heard before, probably some idiot from the enemy school. Hopefully not an idiot from the white team. Every member of his team to go down cut his chances of getting out of here alive by quite a lot, loathe as he was to actually work with them...

One down. ...Quite a few to go, but who's counting, really?

He noted the killer's name- Karen, was it?- but it wasn't anything he recognized, either. So obviously not anyone important, then. Leopold shrugged to himself and stood from beneath the tree he'd been sleeping under, choosing a direction and walking aimlessly. This strategy had worked so far, and hopefully would continue to do so. With any luck he could wander around this rainforest shirtless for the rest of the game, Sutherland family dignity be damned. As long as he could keep breathing, and sleeping, he was quite content.

Also, if that throbbing in his shoulder would just go away- that would be nice, too.

[Hollyquin*]

And suddenly there was another announcement.

Holy shit. Time traveled fast. Especially when you were sleeping through most of it.

It was the announcement itself that woke him of his stupor, though he hadn't actually been asleep. He'd actually been contemplating getting the hell out of here. Sure, he hadn't died yet, and sure, no one seemed to be coming around, and sure, he was pretty safe, but he was bored as fuck. Sleeping and generally doing nothing was fine when you had a lot of weed on hand to make everything seem just a bit more interesting, but he was completely lacking in mind-altering substances and, excessive heat or no, he'd been sleeping so much that he was having trouble falling back. And wandering around was just...boring and sweaty and no.

The announcements were almost a lucky break from hours upon hours of unmitigated boredom.

"Good afternoon kids! How's it going out there for those of you who are still standing? Yes, that's right, even amongst some of your vehement denials, your peers are playing the game!"

Hm. That didn't surprise him, particularly. People always played, you had to be super naive to think otherwise. Though his fucking bubble he was living in, this shelter called the Rainforest, made it kind of hard to imagine that bloodshed was going on so (relatively) nearby.

He listened to the whole thing with detatched interest. Apparently the Purple team was winning and the Black team was losing, not that he knew a damn thing about either team. He wished that announcer dickhead would do him the service of at least saying what teams the dead were on. A few names sounded familiar, obviously the deceased from Silver Dragon- Lou had been a complete loser, entirely below his attention and from an entirely worthless family besides; Harold was exceptionally similar. Bob had been similarly poor (by his standards) but had been okay, a huge compliment coming from Leopold. And Holly...Holly had been a customer, that was enough for him to not dislike her. He wasn't fond enough of any of them to actually mourn their passing, though. He wasn't sure he was that fond of anyone. At least, anyone here.

And then there were the killers. The first set of names were unfamiliar, which made him nervous- they seemed to be mostly from the enemy school. But he recognized the name Kevin Fielding, how could he not? The kid was from real money, the way he himself was, and he was also exceptionally irritating. And apparently he had killed someone. Excellent. He really was going to be needing a weapon, and soon. And Zachariah was even worse. Nothing worse than a lower-class (see here: upper-middle class) boy with delusions of intelligence. Fantastic- two people he sort of liked were dead and two he hated were murdering people.

Maybe he should stick to the Rainforest after all.

But chances were one of them would wander here sooner or later, and he'd have no way to defend himself if they did. He needed to find somewhere better to go. Preferably somewhere he could find his team, that would be nice. Wasn't his mentor supposed to give him advice? That would be good, right about now.

"Oh, and stay away from The Cruise Ship until I give you the go ahead. Old danger zones are open now kids."

A cruise ship? Clearly he hadn't been paying enough attention to the map. That would've been fun. On the other hand...it looked like commandeering the resort was an option again. Even if commandeering was definitely the wrong word. Whatever. It was kind of nice, having a destination in mind. Maybe he'd get lucky on the way.

He kind of needed the help, to be honest.

[[Leopold Sutherland continued in Rock Lobster]]