Shun The Non-Believer

[KamiKaze]

((Sidney Rice continued from Give a Finger))

Hmph.

Hmph hmph hmph.

Well, that didn't work out so well, did it?

Sidney had placed herself on a bench, and was currently still fuming over what had happened at the lava pit. Seriously, didn't anyone have any common sense?

Ah well. She was stuck with this lot now.

People were probably wondering why she was still hanging out with a good portion of Green team, while she herself was a Yellow team member.

And the answer was simple.


Sentiment.


After all, she and David were... kind of friends. You probably couldn't notice it at first, though. But the point remained. The only reason why she was hanging out with these people was for that reason. She could come up with a bunch of excuses, but that's essentially what it boiled down to.

But Chelsea? Chelsie needed to pay.

If this had been back home and she was feeling lazy, she'd go online and link her to a screamer or shock site. However, she wasn't that uncreative most of the time. Still, seeing Chelsea's reaction to this vid she liked tormenting people with would be a riot. All she could say about it was... it involved a Border Collie.

She also remembered that Halloween party back in Freshman year. Sidney had waited for a specific girl to show up and wander by herself, and ending up chasing her around the outside of the house with a mask and fake plastic knife. It was one of the many reasons why she wasn't invited much to parties even now, but was it worth it? Yes it was. The girl literally pissed herself. She could see the piss stain and everything!

However, chasing Chelsea while dressed as a Playboy Bunny and having an ACTUAL gun wouldn't work. It could easily result in her own death.

Besides, Playboy Bunnies didn't make people piss themselves in fear. If she had some kind of monster mask, sure, but no one got any, at least that she knew of. NOT FANSERVICEY ENOUGH, apparently.

Maybe a spark of inspiration to make Chelsea learn her place would pop up. Maybe.

Sidney swung her legs back and forth on the bench, clearly in thought.

God, she needed something to drink after all that heat.

Opening her bag right next to her and pulling out the Coke, she lifted the tab and opened it.


Oh jesus, this shit was warm! Gah, standing nearby a lava pit turned out to not be good for it. Sidney made a face as she lifted the can from her lips. Well, better than nothing, at least.

Finally, she spoke.

"So! What's the plan, guys? Just stay here for now?"

[Courtography]

(Alexis Allwell continued from Give a Finger...)

Lexi was glad to have finally found a group, one where two people were guaranteed to be on her side, no less. She was really glad to be out of the rain forest. Finally. By now she was extremely thirsty though. She had never bothered to look in her bag, actually.

She opened it up and found rope. And rope. And more rope, finally ending with a grappling hook. Was this her weapon. She dumped it on the ground, it wasn't useful anyway. Then, underneath a water bottle. She broke the seal, taking in gulps of the refreshing liquid.

Then Sidney asked about plans. Lexi didn't have any, didn't know what to do in this situation. She didn't want to fight anyone. She wanted to somehow, someway, just leave and not have to deal with any of this, but of course she had no way of escaping. She wasn't smart like most of those escape people in past seasons. "I don't know, what does David want to do?"

[decoy73]

((David Myerez continued from Give A Finger ...))

Black or blue. It wasn't green. David didn't really know how to feel about that. On the one hand, Harold seemed to be a wad of crazy that David didn't really want to deal with. On the other hand, it meant that wad of crazy could go after him. Depending on what weapon Harold had, it could end up either way if it it hadn't been for the Marvia girl - that would likely be Sidney's job. David reached

"So! What's the plan, guys? Just stay here for now?" Sidney asked the big question as she took a drink of Coke. David took out one of the water bottles from his pack, opened it, and took a long drink to make up for the liquids he had sweat out over by the lava. Naturally, the water was lukewarm - tasted weird, too. Probably because of the temperature.

"I don't know, what does David want to do?" Great. Lexi had designated him to be the go-to guy. David didn't really have a plan, except for "find the rest of the Green Team and lay low." Actually, that actually seemed like a good plan. Camp somewhere that could be guarded, and leave only if it goes Danger Zone. It could work.

"I was thinking maybe we could find the rest of our teams and then hole up somewhere. Then, if they want to get us, they'd have to fight for it."

Seriously, though. Good idea?

[MurderWeasel]

A voice echoes from Sidney's collar...

"Say, Sydney, since you seem to be getting quite your share of camera time in that outfit, I don't suppose you could talk about how much you wish you had your Verizon^TM cell phone, could you? You know, just throw it in here and there? I'd really appreciate it."

[KamiKaze]

No, I don't know what we should do. Let's ask David.

Gah. So he was the leader now or something? She... guessed, judging by how quickly Lexi asked him what to do.

But at least he had something reasonable to say, like let's find our team mates and hide. Seemed reasonable enough. Sidney wasn't sure if Odile wanted to be around them any more, though, based on what happened at the lava pit. Maybe they should put a shock collar on Chelsie dear or something from this point forwards. That would actually be funny. "I have a bat, ever hear of the 20-whatever foot rule- ACK! ACK! Don't- OH GOD!" Sidney couldn't help but briefly smile a bit at the image.

But oh Lexi...

"Hey! Don't toss the rope away. It could come in handy, you know? You never know when you need to tie someone up", she said to her, afterwards sipping a bit more of her soda.

To be honest, she was kind of glad that it was quiet for the time being.

A silence that was ruined by-


Oh god, what was it now?


Sidney jumped and almost dropped her Coke when the voice came on. Okay, who was that? It sounded like an advertisement. An advertisement directed at... her. She didn't even know that you could get radio ads here!

And then it hit her. That wasn't just any ad. Fuck, that couldn't be her mentor. It just... couldn't. Her mentor did not just tell her to talk about cell phones. So basically, her mentor may or may not be a corporate shill. That was... oh god, that was horrible. At least Green Team's was kind of funny, and they had warned them in advance that they were going to be terribad. But her mentor... jesus christ, here they were, trying to win the game with god knew how many people trying to do the same thing, and the first thing that came to their mentors' minds was "Fight against vague things! Team up with random psychos!" and "BUY OUR PRODUCT!"

So, as Sidney gripped her can tighter, she knew one thing. She had to reply to that.

"Yeah... sure, okay. I wish I had a Verizon cell phone... so I can kill someone by shoving it up their ass, you asshole!", she shouted, trying her best to direct her voice towards the collar.

There. He got his fucking playboy bunny ad. Happy? She sure hoped so.

[Nami*]

(>_< I am so sorry for the complete lateness of this post. I have been museless since getting back, and should've said something earlier. I'm sorry.
Chelsea talks a lot in the post, so I bolded her speech.)

((Chelsea Roberts arrived from Give a Finger ...))

Chelsea had always thought she was in relatively good shape. A little skinny maybe, with thin, noodle arms, but fit.

She'd been wrong.

Not too wrong. She wasn't about to fall over, but after a day of walking her backpack felt filled with lead instead of supplies, and she felt like she'd sweated out half her body weight. Her calf muscles ached a dull, throbbing sort of ache that gnawed at her, breaking her down until it was hard to think about anything besides how much she wanted that ache to cease. So, when they finally came to a stop, Chelsea almost fell down in her hurry to sit, wriggling out of her back pack recovering her own bottle of water from inside it.

Somehow she remembered to drink slowly instead of guzzling the water down, and even lukewarm it was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted. She drank quietly while the others talked, choosing to focus on them rather than her aching legs.

When David finally put forth his plan, or idea for a plan, Chelsea winced. One of the things she'd let her mind do during the last few hours was figuring out their next step, and she'd already thought up lots of flaws in that particular plan. Still, she didn't know how to phrase it, she didn't want to start a fight, but she couldn't keep her mouth shut either with something so vital. Before she could figure out how to speak up, a voice came from within Sidney's collar, like the green team's mentor had spoken before through Chelsea's. Except, instead of giving some type of useless 'fight the power' this one was telling Sidney to... say some sort of ad for cellphones... while in the bunny suit

Well then... perhaps the green team's mentor wasn't as terrible after all if this was what the 'good' mentors were like. Or maybe yellow team's mentor just sucked also and the other teams all had tactical geniuses for mentors. Or, even worse they-

Sidney's rather gruesome and completely appropriate broke Chelsea out of her worry loop before she could really start going, and she remembered what she'd been about to do. Deciding on the blunt approach she said, "But how exactly would we find our teammates? They could be anywhere, and-" she glanced at Sidney for a second before looking away, "Well... they might have people with them that aren't on our teams but won't let them go, will we have to bring them along too?" They could end up with half the island that way, "And even if we do find them, and they aren't with anyone else, I don't think holing up somewhere is a good idea." If they could even find somewhere to hide, "If we do that, we're stuck with limited supplies and anyone attacking us, if they're smart, can just lay siege to our little hidey hole, or set it on fire, or-" she stopped herself and looked down at her feet in silence for a few seconds before continuing, "And even if none of that happens, all the producers have to do is declare our spot a danger zone and we'd have to leave. And I'm sure they'd do that as soon as we settled in." Sieges were boring after all.

Chelsea realized she'd just spout off an essay devoted to poking holes in David's plan. She winced again, although this time at her stupidity. "I-I just think we should stay on the move." she said, still looking at her feet, "That way we can run away from any danger."

[Courtography]

Oh! Lexi felt like a screwup again. The rope could be useful. She just hadn't thought about it. She started scooping the rope and hook back into her bag. She listened to David's plan. It sounded good to her! She would get to rest, instead of wandering through a rain forest like she had been.

She kind of dazed off for a few moments when suddenly, Sidney was talking angrily at her collar. It was confusing. She had missed something. Had Sidney's mentor told her something? If they had, it wasn't anything Sidney agreed with. Like, David hadn't agreed with their own mentor. She briefly considered that the mentors were a dumb thing to add if no one was going to do what they said, when Chelsea spoke up.

Why didn't she agree with David? She just wanted to keep moving all the time, that would be exhausting! No, Lexi liked David's idea much better. Find somewhere to rest where they didn't have to fight people. Besides if they never stopped moving when would she sleep? She was about to speak up about it when the announcement came on.

She didn't know a lot of the names that were read off, but wow a lot of people had died! Then they got near the end. Harold was dead! She didn't know how she felt about that. He was a giant creep, but did he deserve to die? And then at the end, Odile had killed someone. The girl who had protected her, then left her behind had killed someone. That was bad bad bad.

The announcement may have cut her off, but she was going to voice her opinion! "I agree with David," she replied in almost a whisper.

[decoy73]

"Say, Sidney, since you seem to be getting quite your share of camera time in that outfit, I don't suppose you could talk about how much you wish you had your Verizon^TM cell phone, could you? You know, just throw it in here and there? I'd really appreciate it."

David just stared at the source of the voice - Sidney's collar.

Niiiice. Their mentors were a protester whackjob and a corporate shill.

"Yeah... sure, okay. I wish I had a Verizon cell phone ... so I can kill someone by shoving it up their ass, you asshole!" Leave it to Sidney to come up with a witty comment. David just had to laugh at that.

"You forgot the part where he's supposed to be there, so he can be the one we take out. Damn, our mentors are useless."

Chelsea then went into a spiel about how they should all keep moving around, how David's plan was flawed, but Lexi spoke up agreeing with David as she picked up her weapon, a hook and rope.

"Okay, so that's two for hiding, one for moving. Sidney, I guess the call's up to you. For now, it's just us. Move or hide?"

[KamiKaze]

Dave seemed amused by her comment, even noting that she forgot to mention that he had to be the one with the cell phone up his rear. Well, someone was amused, at the very least.

As Chelsea rambled on about finding team mates and whether or not to let other team members hang around, Sidney couldn't help but notice that she gave her a glance. Great, so she was the tag-a-long, as well. Awesome! Now she was just the yellow team corporate groupie or whatever! Joy joy joy.

But in any case, she had a point. Staying in one place was bad. Maybe find somewhere new to hide out each day? Seemed fair enough.

And right at that moment, her thoughts were broken by... another announcement? No, not from Miss Crazy Protester or Mister Corporate Goon this time; an island wide announcement. Last time only one person had died, and his name was Anthony or whatever. It seemed like the body count had increased this time.


....

Harold was dead. Andross had killed him.

She didn't know what to think. She hated them, or at least loved to torment them, right? It was a strange thought, knowing that Harold was dead and Andross actually succeeded at killing people. To be honest, if she ever pictured Harold dying, it would be home alone, having a heart attack after eating one cheeseburger too many. Not... oh god, a groin kick? Somehow that seemed appropriate, considering his entire nature. He was probably perving on some girl again. As for Andross... jesus. She had no idea he'd have the balls to do that sort of thing. Sure, the guy was freaking obsessed with this show, but she'd expect him to be, well, actually she had no idea. Picturing him on SOTF wasn't a mental image that came up very often.

In other news... Odile had killed Lispy Girl, a.k.a. Holly? Damn. So she ran off from them, and then went off to kill Little Miss Lisp. Well, progress at least. Again, she didn't know what to feel now that Lispy was dead. Holly was another person who she tended to get on the nerves of. Of course, didn't mean it wasn't fun to irritate her.

Finally, she was mildly relieved she had gotten way from the cruise ship. Why? She didn't want to lose her head. Simple, really.

And so it ended.

Sidney had gripped the half-empty can even more tighter throughout the announcement, causing dents to form in the aluminum.

Okay, so now it was her turn to share what her thoughts were.

"Why can't we do both?" she started. "Like, spend the night in one hiding spot, and keep moving each day so the dangerzones and shit like that won't get us?"

Simple enough, really.

[Nami*]

The announcements started while they were talking, the announcer listing off the names of those who'd died that day. She recognized the voice, recognized the playful tone and off hand way of speech as he listed death after death, killer after killer. It didn't last very long, a few minutes at most.

They were the worst minutes of Chelsea's life.

She'd heard the announcer before when she'd watched SOTF. She'd always found him too playful, too off-hand with his commentary. It'd always sucked out the drama for her, turning death matches into jokes like that.

Now she was in SOTF, hearing him blithely tell them about how people were dead. She hadn't seen them die. Hadn't heard them. Hadn't critiqued the person announcing their murders.

That didn't mean they weren't dead.

Dead

People were DEAD and she had no fucking idea who they were. She had no fucking idea if she knew them. All she had was their names, and Chelsea didn't remember names. Only faces.

Chelsea hadn't seen their final moments, hadn't heard their final words. She'd done that before though, when watching SOTF. She'd seen all that, witnessed all that violence and death. But, just hearing those names had more impact on her than all those years of sitting idly by while innocent teenagers died.

Names she didn't recognize, names she couldn't recognize. But those names- those people, had been like her, innocent. All of them, even one of the names she did recognize, Harold, the maniac. He wouldn't have been one if not for this... -- she couldn't think of a name for the island. No expletive was strong enough. -- This... place had caused that. People like that announcer had caused that. Hell, she had caused it, in some tiny part, by watching the show. And, she...

Thought of her mother and father and brother. She knew they'd be watching her, been watching her. And they would, until the end.

The end of the show, that is. Her death would not be here, for everyone across the world to see and be entertained by. Her last words would not be spoken on this island. Her family wouldn't see her die, killed by another victim of this. Her dead would not be another line to fill out that bastard announcer's speech.

That final thought made her realize she'd been staring at her feet, completely silent, for more than a minute. Her head snapped up, and she looked at the other three in turn. She knew these three, it didn't matter how much or little. Chelsea knew them. She knew they wouldn't die.

Not as long as she was alive, and she'd already established that she wouldn't die, either.

Her logic was flawed, of course. Not that she gave a flying fuck. None of the group were going to die, circular logic or no.

As for the other person who's name Chelsea had recognized... Odile had left the group, and had become a murderer.

No one in the group was going to become a murderer, either.

That decided, she spoke, "That was what I was suggesting the entire time. I never meant that we would always be on the move, there's no way we could keep that up." She looked at David and Lexi, "I thought that was obvious." She didn't care if she sounded like a bitch anymore. She would not let them die because they misunderstood her and tried to do something stupid. "It doesn't really matter, anyway," she added waving a hand at the night sky, "It's too late to go anywhere, we should go to sleep." As soon as she finished that, Chelsea remembered something so prevalent in the books she'd read that she was astounded she had ever forgotten it. "We should also take turns keeping watch, so no one can sneak up on us..." Chelsea trailed off, her gaze going back to Sidney.

The bunny girl had worried her from the beginning, after all, she was the only one of them with a gun, and she wasn't on green team. There was no time for worrying anymore. They had to trust each other, regardless of team. So when she spoke, it was more to Sidney than any of the others "The person on watch should have the gun. That's our strongest weapon, and they'll be the best person to use it if something happens, since they'll be awake." She didn't need to explain herself, but she did. Sidney had to understand why she would ask something like this. If she went along with this, each of them would have a chance to kill all the others while asleep, and none of them would take it. There'd be no worrying about whether or not they'd kill each other, because they would have already had the chance and not done it.

She realized it was a risk. She didn't care. For the first time in her life, Chelsea had a goal that she had to reach. She had never felt like this before. Chelsea was... motivated.

To anyone else, that was probably a stupid thing to realize. But Chelsea had never truly been motivated. Not until this moment. She knew what to think though.

None of them were going to die.

(I realized some of this dialogue was simply atrociously written and fixed it. What I get for writing so late at night, I guess.)

[Courtography]

Lexi didn't mind Sidney's idea. Alternating between moving and hiding. That was good. It would keep her safe. Them safe. David safe. And Chelsea agreed. That was fantastic! Well not fantastic...she was still in the death game, but still.

She didn't even know Sidney had a gun at that point. They were better armed than she thought, even though she was the only one without a real weapon. That was okay, she didn't want to fight, didn't want anyone else to die. But they had a plan.

That was good.

[decoy73]

The speakers went off. Apparently, Odile's statement was now a moot point, as Crazy Harold was dead. But then Odile went off and killed Holly Hergenroeder. If Sidney wasn't teamed up with her, it would be ... no, it wouldn't be. They had departed on friendly enough terms, mainly due to Tiffany being a bitch and Chelsea being less than welcoming. The cruise ship was now a danger zone, so he couldn't return there.

"Why can't we do both? Like, spend the night in one hiding spot, and keep moving each day so the dangerzones and shit like that won't get us?" Sidney spoke up about the plan, calling for a compromise. Chelsea then stated that Sidney said what Chelsea had intended. Okay, so what? Are you trying to backtrack on your mistake? David looked around. Nobody else here, but still, it was nighttime.

"Okay. Then let's camp here right now. I could take first watch with someone else for three hours while the other two take the next three hours ... if everyone agrees with that."

[KamiKaze]

It took a few seconds, but Sidney quickly figured out what she meant by mentioning the gun and being on watch.

Oh hell no, what?

Did... did Chelsea just subtly suggest that someone should keep up all night with the gun? Her gun? Sure, she clarified that Sidney's point was the original point she was making, but Jesus Christ. Sidney did not feel safe without that thing, obviously. Especially in the hands of Miss "Twenty Feet And Your Brains Will Be Smashed Into Pudding". Good lord, so apparently the plan was for someone out of the group to take her gun while she was sleeping and wave it around.

Obviously, Sidney did not feel comfortable with that. She wasn't sure what David or Lexi would do with it, now that she thought of it. But she wasn't going to risk Chelsie dear screaming down the hallways at people who could potentially- god forbid!- be in some way or another on their side. She already scared off another Yellow with that, did she need to scare off any more?

Maybe she would ask whoever had the weapon had to give theirs up for the night and leave it with her. Or she'd have to stay up all night to make sure they didn't do anything retarded. Either way, one thing was certain; it was going to take a while for them to be able to manhandle her weapon.

But in any case, it was time to sleep. According to David, they might as well stay for the moment. He volunteered to keep watch, which was good. Though she still didn't want people messing with her gun.

"I really don't feel comfortable with people holding my gun while I sleep. Sure, say what you want, but I don't like the idea of someone else having something I own that could reduce my brains to apple sauce. So, tell you what. Either I take the weapon of the person keeping watch while they have it and sleep with it like a medieval or baseball nerd's teddy, or I stay up all night watching whoever has it, no matter who it is. Got it, Chelsie dear?"

There. Got it out nice and clear. She wasn't too comfortable with that sort of thing, as previously noted. Who would? If Chelsea was the one to get the gun, she would be uncomfortable with that kind of proposal as well. So why should she suggest that on other people? Was it because she was yellow? Probably. Oh those colorists and their colorism. Wait, was that even a word?

In any case, either Sidney was going to stay up or have to snuggle up next to a sword. She wasn't sure which was better, but okay. At least she'd have some sort of protection.

[Nami*]

(Sorry this took so long, I was museless once more 'm afraid. I have permission to do a small bit of GM'ing here with Sidney)

All and all, the rest of the group reacted well to Chelsea's sudden change of attitude. Sure, David's idea of taking watch in pairs had kind of messed up her plans, but it was also a good idea. It would be much harder to fall asleep on watch that way. Sidney had even agreed to hand over the gun and hadn't left, like Chelsea'd been half sure she would. Still, Chelsea couldn't have her staying up all night in fear someone'd blow her brains out. Better to tire her out with first watch before having her hand over the gun.

"How about you and David take first watch together, then. I'll give you my bat when it's time for the second shift." she said, warming up to the idea. The two seemed to know each other, after all. They were probably the best to keep eachother company, and Lexi...

Chelsea didn't really know anything about Lexi, the girl was so quiet, a watch together would be good. Chelsea wanted to know her. She wanted to know all three of them. They didn't have to be friends, but...

"That works." Sidney said, snapping Chelsea out of her reverie. The bunny girl still didn't look especially happy, but she seemed almost resigned as she turned to talk to David.

For her part Chelsea turned her attention to getting comfortable for the night. The producers had apparently decided that a sleeping bag would be too much luxury for the players, so she decided to just wrap herself up beneath her hoodie. It was as good a substitute for a blanket as she was going to get, considering how big it still was on her.

There was no making herself comfortable on the grass, but with enough wiggling back and forth, she managed to lean against her backpack without any of it's contents jabbing her in the back. She was still hungry and thirsty and scared, but the moment she got comfortable it was an effort not to fall asleep right away. An effort Chelsea didn't feel like making.

(Chelsea is Asleep)

[decoy73]

((25-4s ... nearing limit!))

"I really don't feel comfortable with people holding my gun while I sleep. Sure, say what you want, but I don't like the idea of someone else having something I own that could reduce my brains to apple sauce. So, tell you what. Either I take the weapon of the person keeping watch while they have it and sleep with it like a medieval or baseball nerd's teddy, or I stay up all night watching whoever has it, no matter who it is. Got it, Chelsie dear?"

"How about you and David take first watch together, then. I'll give you my bat when it's time for the second shift." Sidney gave her consent as Chelsea rolled over on her side and fell asleep. David looked at Sidney in her bunny outfit

Damn ... He shook it off as he looked around, sword in hand, and he sat down, eyes finally focusing on the gun for a second, before they stared down to the ground.

"So, Sidney. Guess we're on our own, huh?" David chuckled.