SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

Okay, Cheridene stopped running. Great! Sakurako slowed down to something more of a jog, still panting, cursing herself about not focusing more on cardio. But it was okay. Maybe the others would be pissed, and she was too, but besides her emotions and knee there still wasn't any damage done.

No harm, no foul.

"If it was mine you could just have the damn thing!"

It was a menace. A tool to keep people safe, but clearly the mind-warping proprieties of it were not to be messed with.

"I'll say it was a goof or something, just come back with me."

Both her hands went up, there was nothing in them. As pathetic as it was, nothing would make her happier than to just put this behind them and get out of the rain. Get on with the plan that may or may not exist. Just do anything but this, a confrontation that never had to happen at all.

Cheridene shook her head. The rain bounced off either side.

"We both know they're not gonna buy that, come on." A goof? No way. They weren't that stupid. "Look I'm sorry, but this is my best shot. Just hanging around you guys wasn't gonna work out." Not when you have people running around, clearing entire rooms. They could all be bunched up in the middle of the night and killed in seconds by somebody who knew what they were doing. Nobody at GHHS was a soldier, but you got good at doing this sort of shit with practice. If the announcements were any indication, some people were out there practicing, and they were sitting on their asses.

Cheri stepped backwards.

"I don't wanna shoot you, alright? Just... leave me alone. This is mine now."

"We have been taking forever to get started, I can hardly blame you there. But... won't it be lonely like this?"

Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed. Not exactly how she wanted to spent her time, even if it meant that Cheridene was actually being more sensible than her in this case. Everybody played the fool sometimes...

She lived the role.

"Maybe you're braver than me, or have more to go home to, but I can't imagine being the last one standing. Just thinking about it makes me feel like a complete asshole."

It was the ultimate zero-sum game, which was why Cheridene's next words made her grin at the other girl, then giggle.

"That's the first and last time anyone's said that to me here. About not wanting to pop me full of holes, I mean."

She didn't want to smile. Dear God, how inappropriate that would have been. And yet Sakurako made her do it. Cheri wanted to hate her, so much.

"Damn it... I love you, Saku," Cheri said, still backing away and still sporting an unwilling smile. "But yeah. I really do want to get home, and I just... I'll take being lonely over being dead."

Step.

"I wanna live. Know what I'm saying?"

Step.

"I'm gonna win this thi-aaauuuoh SHIT!"

Her heel caught on an unexpected root and Cheri started her tumble through some bushes. She had expected level ground just behind the shrubs, and instead was greeted with a steep slope, slickened by the rain. Her first attempt to stand saw the ground giving way from under her beneath an icy cloak of dead leaves, and she continued to tumble, rolling ass-over-keel down a hill and feeling like she was hitting every rock, stick and stump on the way.

"Love you too, Cheri."

But before she could think of anything else to say, gravity and the ground's wetness conspired, stealing the other girl away from her just like that. She wasn't close enough to snatch her to safety, which meant Sakurako had a front row seat to the funniest, most horror-inducing thing she'd ever seen.

If she had a scorecard to rate the physical comedy, it would easily be 11 out of 10. It was like watching Ninja Warrior, or Lucas's B's social life, and it seemed like Cheridene was just going to keep rolling forever, hitting everything in her way. It was spectacular, and so, so awful, because she wasn't in the safety of her home watching television, and you couldn't really laugh at someone falling in real life until you knew they were okay.

Well... people did. She didn't like to.

As if in mockery of Cheridene's rapid descent, Sakurako was slowly, carefully walking down the sloped hill. It wouldn't do for them both to tumble down with no one to bear witness, and more importantly she was going to have to do some first aid. Perhaps the only bright side at the moment was that the packs were here too, saving them from having to use torn clothes for bandages.

A thought of the cameras popped up, unbidden, reminding her that this was going to be watched. Set to music. Memed to death.

She rolled her eyes, kept moving.

Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

FUCK FUCK OW FUCK OW OW FUCK DAMN SHIT OW FUCK FUCK BITCH TIT OW FUCK FUCK OW WAS THAT A SNAIL OW OW FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK OW FUCK OW SOMETHING BROKE OW FUCK FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

Trying to stand up honestly just made the rolling worse. All it accomplished was creating more distance between her upper body and the ground, distance that would be imminently closed in the blink of an eye and another tumble of her body which was increasingly beaten by the slope. All in all it couldn't have been more than eight seconds. A cowboy at the rodeo rode a bull for 'only' eight seconds but Cheridene now understood how that could feel like a hell of a lot longer. Both of her calves smacked against a thin tree trunk -- a cruel mercy. The sudden stop of her legs spun her around so her head was where her ass had been and now she was rolling the other way for a few rolls, but it slowed her down, enough to come to a stop at a dip where the ground had just about leveled out.

Through it all, Cheri had managed to keep her vicegrip on the gun. The part with the tree was the bit that managed to dislodge it, given it caused her to roughly turn and spin in the opposite direction which was just a brilliant way to get dizzy. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she tried to do was scramble for it.

The second thing she tried to do, initially unsuccessful in locating the firearm, was to stand up. She scooped at her calves with the palm of her hand and winced at the stinging she received. Sure enough, looking at her hand after revealed it to be covered in dirt and blood. She'd gotten scraped up bad all over, especially on her legs, either on the way down or by greeting that tree. Definitely both, really, with only proportional blame argued for each. Cheri pulled herself up to her knees and saw a glint of metal among the wet leaves. She snatched it up between her fingers and fiddled with it, having the invasive thought that it would be awfully silly to accidentally shoot herself by fiddling with the gun and arranging it in a panic.

But she had it gripped the right way again. The safety was probably on. That's why they called it a 'safety', wasn't it? Gasping for air through the pain and shortness of breath, Cheridene Williams struggled the rest of the way to her feet. One eye opened; the other wasn't opening properly just yet. Sakurako was just... walking at her kinda slowly.

She stepped back again. The ground just... wasn't there anymore.

How... how did she not see that? The pit behind her, the pit she was falling into. Either natural, or dug by somebody years ago, she had no time to think on. She only fell about six feet, a short fall all things considered, before landing.

This time, the gun had fallen from her hands, damn near just throwing it straight ahead of her out of reflex, where it landed somewhere on the ground in front of where she'd stopped rolling. She'd just have to crawl out of here, go over and pick it up. All before Sakurako could do the same thing. She'd just have to... move.

Her body wasn't obeying her commands. Her neck did seem to be at this strange angle that made breathing difficult, and where before all she could hear was the rushing of her heartbeat, now she heard nothing. Cheridene started falling again, and this time it was the vision of the world falling away from her, dropping from its view like she saw it through a screen suspended above her, and the rectangle of light was growing smaller and smaller.

She stared at it, until it turned to black just like everything else.

G017 - Williams, Cheridene: Deceased

It was okay and then it wasn't

Cheridene'd stepped backwards again as if Cheridene didn't realize that wasn't safe but Sakurako was there and was running and could help if she could just get there fast enough but her knee was bleeding and the lack of balance sent her tumbling down but not far or fast enough to get to get where she needed to she ended up stopping a few feet before the trees that had stopped Cheridene's first fall and couldn't stop her second and Sakurako made her way to the edge of the gap and looked at

"I just... I'll take being lonely over being dead."

The body of her literally fallen friend and she kept calling her name and waiting for an answer even a blink of the eyes because maybe she was just what was that word oh yes concussed but then that didn't explain her neck's position it was like an chalk outline which was super morbid so she should just let that thought go but she had to be sure that she tried her best it wasn't about the game this wasn't a game this was her friend who needed help so carefully she followed the path Cheri had set but looking forward very carefully

She was not graceful but her steps were sufficient

Cheri's body was warm but there wasn't anyone home even she called her name slapped her cheeks a few times tried to right her heads position and she was laughing like a hyena because this was so stupid they were supposed to be talking still and her cackling laughter blended in with her tears as Sakurako slumped against Cheridene's body and all this over a gun that

NONE OF THEM HAD EVEN NEEDED YET


--

At some point she was back home at the base bags over her shoulders precious weapon in her hands she opened the door and looked at Charelle and Adele chuckled because their names rhymed and she was happy to see them breathing looking waiting maybe for her she didn't know it was too heavy of a thought at this point and she placed the gun in Adele's hands where it should have stayed took a deep breath gestured to her red eyes smudged glasses dirty clothes and said nothing at all

Adele was smart enough to understand what she couldn't say quick as a whip that girl and Sakurako couldn't go on like this at some point she'd have to just sit down, take care of herself, come back to the world

((Sakurako A. Jones continued elsewhere))

Charelle kept her head her in hands, safe in her cone of darkness as she heard the wacky shenanigans were happening around her. It wasn't like she didn't care about it- okay, maybe she didn't care that much, but she cared a little. Was just she didn't feel like getting involved. Wasn't her gun that madlad Cheri'd zoomed off with. Nah, it was more important for Charelle to sit in silence and think about how Mikki was-

...

It was kinda funny, though. They just gave the girl a gun and next second she's zoomin off and Saku's chasing her like it's Sonic vs. Shadow. Cheri was getting ready to show off the true power of chaos control, and... shit, what kinda reference was that? She wasn't feeling the meme queen at the moment. Too dazed. Big F to the BFF-

...

What was she doing?

Charelle raised her head in looked at the door, in time for Sakurako to come back in with what she Charelle assumed was the gun they'd been yelling about. Girl just gave it to Adele and left again. She blinked, and scratched her head.

"Uh, what just happened?"

'Rako had the gun, had given it to her.

Adele had it back now, still no sign of Cheri. She was gonna let that be, just for now. She turned her back to Charelle, face stony, eyes unmoving. No crack, no nothing. No feeling. Couldn't think about what could happen. Just about was, right now, and what had happened, anyways.

"Well, we got the gun back."

Maybe she could've slipped in a comment there, something 'bout how Charelle had seemed to do absolutely nothing at all, but honestly? It'd take too much time, too much energy, so, as almost always, whatever.

"If you want, go take a rest or something. I'll keep watch."

Aditi had been engrossed in her paper for all of it.

Well, that was a lie. When the words 'get', 'the', 'fucking', and 'gun' rang through the air Aditi dropped the pen immediately and bolted to the door, only to see a room that was once filled with four girls now half its size.

The world moved in slow-motion as Aditi phased through furniture and ledges, trying to gather her wits and summon them to the fact that her weapon had been stolen.

And when the world returned to motion, everything was back. Aditi's everything. Her gun, in Adele's hands. Cheridene was no longer there, and Sakurako was no longer there.

And then.

'Take a rest of something.'

...

"No."

Aditi strode back towards her room.

"Stay right here. I need to show you what I've spent the last two days working on."

It was time for a presentation.

Adele was drilling a hole in Charelle's face with her eyes. She was dead serious. It was actually scaring Charelle a little. She wasn't mad that she hadn't helped with the gun, right? C'mon, it's not like she could've done anything even if she'd tried. Couldn't run at sonic speed with her knee. Though, the offer of rest sounded pretty good right now. Maybe she should-

Oh, wait, never mind. Aditi had to show them something. No rest. RIP....wait, had Aditi been there with them the whole time? Charelle hadn't noticed.

Charelle turned back to Adele and shrugged. Might as well listen to what Aditi had to say. That would be polite, and Charelle was always polite and shit.

Aditi strode back into the room, paper in hand, to stand in the living room in front of the two remaining girls. It struck Aditi as somewhat ominous that there were far less people with her than there was when they started as a group, but that was all the more reason to get her act together. To tell them what she'd been working on, and the way to word it.

"Okay."

Aditi rubbed her throat, before absentmindedly moving her hand to the back of her head, where she had been punched not too long ago by a boy who was no longer with them.

"I apologize if I took so long in preparing this, but I needed to get my words right. For you, for anyone who I hope we can get to work with us again, and for...those watching, friend or foe."

She shot a glance to the nearest camera.

"When I was learning how to debate for the debate club, I look up what debating would be like if I was to continue it in university. I was not sure of how much time I would be able to dedicate to it when I was no longer living under my parent's roof, so I had to make sure it was worth continuing. What I found was that the moment you leave high school, the entire landscape changes. Because of how it works. Debating no longer becomes a ground for anyone with a quick tongue and a pechant for memorizing. It's suddenly a leisure drive for the privliiged, upper-middle class, white-"

Aditi gave a look to Charelle.

"-straight, people. And that's not bitterness, or looking at a trend and drawing conclusions. Those who could afford the time and energy to adjust to the new format, of screaming academic studies and talking points at each other until they win by default over the other team who has not had the time or energy to devote to this, they were the ones who would always win. They did an entire study on this, and found that it benefits those people. From that, I decided not to pursue it further once I finished high school, even though it was previously one of my passions. My hobbies. Now, the point I'm getting at is not that SOTF benefits straight white upper-middle class people over most. It's that by virtue of its format, the ability to survive SOTF has become inaccessible. The game has changed from life. What you've been learning and training for your whole life is suddenly useless."

She paused.

"Unless."

"The reason I'm bringing this up, is that there was a man named Ryan Wash. He was queer, black, and first-generation. He worked together with another debater on his team, and they employed a completely different approach. The debate suddenly became a meta debate. Rather than addressing the point, they addressed the rules and structure of debate itself, which completely threw everyone off-guard. They argued how it benefits the people I just mentioned, and how the entire institution was an attack on poor African-American students."

Aditi grimaced internally, aware of the fact that her place on national platform just meant she most likely sent an entire vanguard of white nationalist incels towards two of her life's heroes by mere virtue of mentioning them.

"And the crazy thing is that it worked. They eventually won two national championships, the first two African-American students to do so, ever. And it was all because they took the risk to approach the debate from a completely new angle, one that had never been done before, and turn the entire thing on its head."

She had begun pacing, even though she had no intention of doing so.

"I suppose you're wondering what this has to do with us. What it has to do with us, is that we need to approach SOTF from the same angle. Now, we can't get out by accusing these terrorists of being racist, because I doubt that will work, but we need to apply the same principle. We need to find a way to nudge at the rules. We can't break the rules, because that has immediate deadly consequences. We can't take out the cameras, or start a fire, but we need to figure out what we could do that we haven't been told we shouldn't do. Because those are the ways out."

"What I've noticed as I've seen this progress over the years, is that every year they keep on adding new rules. The first year, people could destroy cameras, have electronics on them, burn down entire locations...it was a mess, but the moment it was utilized to try and get off the island, things were put in place to stop it. Suddenly, destroying a camera means you get your collar immediately detonated. Same with trying to burn a place down. And nobody has any sort of electronics anymore. And I think we can use that to our advantage, no matter how much they want us to believe that it is hopeless."

"Because if we do this, if we follow this, the best case scenario is we stumble onto something we shouldn't have, and it leads us down the road to escape, which I'm guessing will not be easy. The next best-case scenario is we die, but the boundary we have nudged means that it's suddenly a rule next time. And if people are smart, which some of them will be, then they'll do the exact same thing we did, and create new rules that need to be enforce. And eventually, this entire thing will become too unfeasible to run. There'll be no point, because it would lose the point. Everyone will be forced to follow rules, despite the fact that these terrorists and their entire creed lies in the fact that...well, I can't tell you what, but my point is that what would be the point of running this thing if there's so many rules dictating our outcome, when there's such an important point they need to be making?"

"And that."

Aditi paused in her pacing.

"Is how we're going to be getting out of here."

She turned back to the remainder of her group.

"Now."

"Any questions?"

Aditi went into the whole big speech. Sounded like she'd spent the whole time on the island rehearsing. Charelle listened. She couldn't tell where it was going at first, but as it came into focus a big smile crept across Charelle's face. This was her scene.

Aditi finished, and Charelle stretched and leaned back. She rubbed her knee. Looked to Adele, and then back at Aditi.

"Nah, no questions. I'm in."

((Taking over for Aditi Sharma))

It was that easy, huh?

Well, of course, it was, it was a good plan she had right here. Days spent on it. Any resistance met would've been out of misunderstanding, rather than due to any flaws within the plan itself. Or, rather, the outline of the plan, the foundations. Johnny, as impulsive and irrational as he was, had had a point before he ran off. The terrorists were listening in. Even this very speech would put them on their radars already, so there was no room for error, no room to show any more cards than they needed to. But this was enough, this speech right here had already convinced the room. The first followers.

Now, they just had to form the rest of the plan.

A smile broke on her face.

"Then, let's get started."

And so, they spent the rest of the night putting their ideas into words.

((Aditi Sharma and Charelle Chernyshyova continue in They Couldn’t Buy A Fucking Toaster. They’re Broke, John.))
((Adele Jones continues in Our House))