Heel-and-Toe

[MethodicalSlacker]

She pondered Lily's words for a moment. She had a point about the running water thing, a fact that didn't sit too comfortably with Lili but was more than likely the truth of the matter on Spiderland. As she made more remarks about people playing, Lili realized that she was glad that her earlier comment stayed in her head. Optimism had run its course long ago, its limp corpse floating across the tumultuous water in a viking funeral pyre, burning brightly even in the midday sun. It was now the Aeon of Realism, and Lili wasn't going to cling to the past any longer than she had to.

"You've got an argument there," Lili admitted, "It's not gonna stop me from checking the warehouses, but the chances of me finding anything are pretty slim, I guess. I'm not exactly comfortable with waiting until it rains to gather water from the sky, either. Then there's the whole trade thing, but that's not likely to go far. What else is there, then, stealing?"

Lili wasn't a sneaky person, but she could probably manage to nab one or two bottles from people if they were careless. She didn't have much of a backup plan if she was caught, though. A nightstick was a handy tool to knock people unconscious with, but then there's the whole "waking up" thing to deal with. Anyone on the receiving end of a nightstick swing wouldn't be very happy with Lili. They'd have more than a few choice words for her if they managed to catch up.

"How long do you reckon it'll take before everything goes to shit, then?" Lili asked, "Before people start getting really, crazy." She was just making small talk, considering Lily had been the friendliest person she had met so far. Lili hoped the two could at least leave the building on good terms.

[ViolentMedic]

Lily just shrugged. She didn't want to outright say that stealing and murdering were the only way someone was going to get extra water, but that was all she could think of. It wasn't fun to contemplate.

"I'm surprised no-one has lost it already. It only takes one twitchy person with a gun." Lily turned over a small container in her medkit, reading the label before writing it down. "It would have to be soon. If it doesn't happen by tomorrow, we won't have to worry about it." She put the container back in the kit. "But I doubt it'll come to that."

She shut the medkit and slipped it back into her bag before flipping over to the next blank page in her notepad and drawing a line down the middle. On the top of one column, she wrote 'players.' On the top of the other she wrote 'victims.' It'd just be stupid if she missed the first few names tomorrow because she hadn't set out a space for it.

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Oh, cool," Lili remarked, "You found a pencil. I'm guessing they took all of your writing stuff too, so you found that somewhere around here?" Lily was making two separate lists of people, "Players" and "Victims", but neither could be filled at the moment. They had far too little information to be able to do that kind of thing yet. She was probably waiting for tomorrow's announcements.

Lili remembered the shoes in her backpack, and wondered if she could show them to Lily. Would she recognize who they belonged to? How angry would she be that she had kept a secret from her? No, the risk was too great, Lili decided. She'd find out anyway, come morning.

"Who do you think we should watch out for?" Lili asked, "As far as potential players go, that is." She wanted to make it clear to Lily that she was on her side, the light side of the force. She carried around a purple light saber, which was undefined in its alignment, but she was certainly not a member of the Sith. Lili took her lighter out of her pocket and tossed it lightly up and down in the air. She needed to keep her reflexes sharp at a time like this. The second she stepped out of the building, someone violent could be waiting. Heck, someone violent could come through the door right now, barge in and shoot them both.

Lili looked up at the entrance, and did not look away for a long time.

[ViolentMedic]

"I found these in the nearby library. There's probably still something there, if you need it. I didn't ransack the entire place."

Who she actually expected to play, though... hmmm.

"I really don't know," Lily said. "Could be anyone. I mean..." She pulled a face. "I am predisposed to say Caedyn, but honestly that's based on personal bias. She's never actually been violent."

She tapped her foot against the ground, thinking properly on the question. It probably was best to consider it now, rather than wait until confronted with it.

"I mean... I can't pick out individuals. And I wouldn't bar out anyone. You never know, right? But if I were to guess at the sorts of, uh... qualities?" Lily tapped her foot against the ground again, frowning. "Well, I'd probably be most afraid of anyone small and bullied who'd been given a gun. That's only guesswork, but... anyone who thinks they're already in danger of being specifically chased, or who's bitter towards whoever bullied them... and then given the means of dealing with that?"

Lily flipped over the page of her notepad, and then flipped over a few more, leaving space for a few days.

"...I wouldn't want to be a bully on this island. For multiple reasons."

[MethodicalSlacker]

Lili was small, relatively speaking, and she had been bullied when she was much, much younger, but she didn't have anything close to a firearm. Either way, she technically fit a few of the other Lily's criteria, which unsettled her a bit. As for Caedyn, though, she knew that she'd be more than a little unstable here. Lili had done her very best to stay out of Caedyn's way when they were in school together, but even from a distance her antics seemed toxic at best. Lili agreed with a nod of her head.

Her mind wandered back to the shoes in her bag. The thought that someone could have jumped from the bridge already, at this early in the game, sent chills down her spine. Inside her head, she berated herself for not checking over the bag, but she just didn't want to be near the toll booth group any longer. It was seriously unnerving. Even just thinking about it made her hand shake. She caught her lighter one last time and put it back in her pocket, fearful that if she tossed it anymore that she would drop it.

"Do you think," She asked shakily, "Anyone would've...done something else drastic?" Lili danced around the exact words, biting her tongue.

She waited for a response, anything that would reassure her that the owner of the shoes hadn't done something drastic, that she had only left her bag and shoes because she had gone a bit loopy, but wasn't dead. The chances were very, very slim, but she held onto them all the same.

What if it was someone she knew? The thought left a bad taste in her mouth. The only person she could really pin as likely to do something like that would be Asuka, and she knew that Asuka's more depressive days had passed a year ago, and even then she wasn't depressed in a suicidal way. The rest of her loosely knit circle of friends and acquaintances weren't people she'd pin for suicide right away.

So who was it? Maybe Lily would know?

Lili stayed silent, going still in her chair.

[ViolentMedic]

"Drastic? That's a wide definition. I wouldn't count anything out."

Lily could feel irritation creeping up on her again. Too many questions and Lily wasn't learning enough.

"I doubt the answer is yes, but have you... watched the game before? Anyone who has would know what to expect."

[MethodicalSlacker]

Wouldn't count anything out, huh? Lili probably didn't want to take the shoes out of her bag, then. Not a good idea to turn that into a thing already. She'd never hear the end of it if Lily told anyone else. People would think that she wasn't trustworthy.

"I've never even seen a clip," Lili replied. It was a half-lie, as she'd accidentally seen a clip once while browsing the internet looking for obscure music, but the clip wasn't of anything particularly shocking - or if it was, Lili had clicked out of the tab before it could happen. Lily was right, anyways, about drastic being a wide definition. Maybe she should test the waters a little?

"What I mean is, well," Lili continued, her voice trembling a bit more, "People have probably...taken fate into their own hands, before, right?" It was the best she could do to not outright say the word 'suicide' at the moment. She began tapping her fingers on her thigh, miming a song she'd memorized on flute. Would she ever hear music again? Even if she somehow did, would it ever be the same?

[ViolentMedic]

"Hundreds of kids have been in this situation before. Maybe thousands. If an idea has occurred to you this early, someone has likely either considered or done it," Lily said flatly.

This was going nowhere. Lili had no more answers and too many questions. Lily put her notepad away and closed her bag, so that only her map and mirror shard were outside it. The map wasn't helpful for hideouts, but if she was careful and combed a possible area...

"I think I'm going to leave now. I'd rather not be followed."

[MethodicalSlacker]

She was relieved, but she was also crushed. Crushed that she hadn't been able to tell Lily what she had found, and crushed that she hadn't been able to change her pattern of running into unfriendly people.

Most of all, she was crushed about the fact that she would be alone again.

Lili slumped back in her chair.

"Okay," Lili replied after a short pause, trying her best to sound unfazed, "Good luck out there."

[ViolentMedic]

Lily got up and carefully made her way around Lili, never exposing her back. She stopped at the doorway, chancing a glance out there before looking back at Lili.

She thought about saying good luck. But it didn't feel right.

"If I were you, Lili with an I, I'd be much more careful with who you approach from behind in the future."

Good advice was all she could give. It was common sense that would decide this. Not luck.

((Lillian 'Lily' Caldwell continued in I'll Cross That Bridge When I Come To It.))

[MethodicalSlacker]

Lily walked out through the door.

"I'd be much more careful about who you approach from behind in the future."

Lili sat still in her chair, watching the space where Lily had been only moments before. She didn't know how long she had spent staring at that spot when she finally got up from her chair, only that she needed to find someplace else to go. Someplace with people who weren't cold to her. Did she need to go anywhere with people, anyway? She could make it on her own, right? Why make friends when you have to kill them eventually? She hung her head low as she stood up. She wasn't going to play the game if she could help it, but if she lasted long enough that she had no choice...

Lili sighed. She had already decided just a little while earlier that she would check out the warehouse just down the way, and she wasn't intent on forgetting about that. She just hoped that she'd find someone pleasant there, someone who would convince her that she wasn't going crazy, that she wasn't cursed. Georgia Lee? Asuka? Even maybe Ben Fields, he was nice to talk to. After she swung her bag onto her shoulder, she gripped her nightstick with both hands, holding tightly to stop her shaking fingers from trembling any longer. Once again, she looked at the open door. On the other side, Spiderland. Inside, refuge from her fellow classmates until they found her or until the area was declared off limits. Would she spend her last few days in solitude, or would she risk her life outdoors? More importantly, did she have the strength to do either?

She doubted it.

Lili stepped outside.

[Lili Williams continued in Consuelo's Departure.]