The Third Announcement

[Megami†]

For the third time since the beginning mark of the SOTF ACT, the speakers sprawled across the island crackled to life, blaring the same hauntingly happy tune that they had played on day one.  A very distinct voice, one the children should've come to know on an almost personal level by now, hummed along in tune with the song for a moment before stopping.

"Good morning, kids!" the usual greeting came out, "But then, there's really nothing good about it, is there?  It's pouring out there, little warriors, and I do so hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like the worst is yet to come.  This is one hell of a storm.  Makes me glad I'm nice and cozy in my warm, dry office.  But it stinks for you guys, doesn't it?"

Danya grinned to himself.  It had rained during the first program too, and he couldn't help but recollect how they'd lost several of the camera feeds during that storm.  Hopefully, they had fixed that problem.  Besides, from where he was, the weather wasn't an issue.

"On to business, I suppose.  We only had fourteen deaths yesterday, but I guess I can forgive you all this time since you're fighting it out in such horrible conditions.  So, on to the deaths."

Truth be told, Danya had had some quite pressing matters to attend to yesterday.  Conferences, threats, demands, that whole schpeil, and so he had more or less missed the entirety of yesterday's program.  Oh well.

"The first to die was Derrin Istoli, killed by Chiaki Takao.  Second down was Mr. Zachary Foreman, though I think he prefered to be called some geeky video game name like Zaid or something.  He got shot up by Bryan Calvert.  I have to tell you, Mr. Calvert, you've been giving us quite the performance over these past few days.  Bravo.  Third down was Okalani Shimane, who must've had some sort of emo fit of rage or something.  She decided to hang out in a dangerzone to see what would happen.  I'm sure you all can determine the outcome for yourselves."

What was with these kids, anyway?  So many kept lingering in the dangerzones.  It was like watching lemurs run themselves off of cliffs or something.

"Fourth down was Jackie Kovacs, courtesy of the one and only Felix Travertil.  Fifth to die was Stacy Holorson, courtesy of Franco Sebberts.  You guys should head over to the mall and check out the aftermath of this one, it was a quite interesting little death.  Number six was Adrian Gray.  Let's just say the Gods must've hated him, because he fell off the dam.  We don't know if he died on impact or if he drowned in the river water, and quite frankly, none of us care enough to find out."

What?  It was the truth.  Danya had a couple personal favorites in this game, sure.  He even had a couple bets riding on a few of the players, not that he'd ever tell who.  Still, in the grand scheme of things, the game wasn't even a quarter of the way over yet.  Looking at it like that, it made the deaths feel very insignificant.

"Number seven was Alexander Bee.  It would seem that somehow, his collar detonated itself.  Isn't that terrible, kids?  Mr. Bee was toting around a claymore mine in his backpack, so it's actually very good for all of you that the "unfortunate" incident occurred.  When Alexander went kaboom, the claymore set itself off and killed Gigi Sinclaire and Satoru Kamui -- that's number eight and nine for those of you keeping track -- in the blast."

"Tenth to die was Anthony Ainsworth, killed by Penelope Withers.  Eleventh?  Kyle Rizea, also blown to bits by Bryan Calvert.  Keep up the good work, kid.  Twelfth down was Jack Russell, sliced and diced by his best friend, Mai Oshinari.  Miss Oshinari eliminated herself from the competition right after, making her the thirteenth to die.  Pity, I like asian girls."

He knew that comment would probably send a student or two writhing in disgust.  He enjoyed it that way.  It was fun to mess with them a little bit, get into their heads, make them think they knew him.  The great part was, none of them really knew anything at all.

"Finally, last but not least was Lavender Heart.  It's quite the love story, you know.  Lavender sought out her best friend, but was wounded by Stephanie Crew during her search.  Valiantly, Lavender continued on, struggling across the island until she finally found the beautiful Miss Mariavel Varella.  Lavender died in her arms, after confessing her love to Mariavel."

He even let out a fake sob and sniffle as he told the story.  Mr. Danya had to admit, he was quite the actor.  Well, maybe not.

"So very, very tragic.  But so very, very good for ratings.  It's just a shame they didn't find one another before.  I'd have loved to see another lovely lesbian couple running around the island.  God knows I enjoyed the ones we had in the last game.  I'm sure Mariavel would've gone for it, too.  After all, every guy she's run into across the island has molested her, or at least tried to.  It's all right, Miss Varella.  You're bigger than most porn stars these days because of it, so you should really be thanking them!"

It was sick, it was twisted, and if by some twist of fate Mariavel won Survival of the Fittest, she'd probably leave him, much like the winner of the first competition, with a scar that he wouldn't soon forget.  Still, he couldn't help but poke fun at her.  It just got them angry and riled up, and inevitably, that made them all the more likely to rampage out of control.  Danya wouldn't be in the way, but the other students definitely would.

"So, now that that's out of the way, we should move on to more pressing matters, yes yes?  Dangerzones.  As of right now, the forest, hospital, and hotel are cleared and you may now re-enter them.  Today's dangerzones will be the residential district, the mall, and the industrial district.  If you're lingering in any of these areas, I'd suggest you make a mad dash for your lives right about now."

Was that it?

"O-oh yes!  Just one more thing!  I nearly forgot, silly me.  Hahaha.  The office poll!  Once again, everyone here voted, and we had a tie for our favorite kill.  Boy #2, once again, we're loving your work up here.  We'd like you to head toward the marina to pick up your prize.  Girl #25, congratulations.  You're the first girl to win one of these polls, so head on over to the marina as well for your reward.  One more thing, kids.  Once Boy #2 and Girl #25 leave the marina, it will NOT be reopened for re-entry.  We've decided to close it off permanently.  Nobody but the winners of these contests will have access.  It sounded pretty good to us.  But hey, look on the bright side.  It doesn't mean that you can't stalk them on the beach, does it?"

He smiled to himself.  Slowly but surely, the gears were beginning to turn and set things in motion.  Everything was falling into place once again, and soon, America really would be purged.  Just like it was supposed to be.

"Stay dry, little warriors, but don't stop killing!  We've got nearly fifty down, but this game is far from over.  Do what you have to to win.  Lie, cheat, deceive, backstab.  Murder them in their sleep if you have to.  Survival of the Fittest, kids.  The fit will survive, the weak must die.  Don't forget why you're here, and keep the blood flowing!"

~~~

The OOC Stuff:

Alright, Mitsuko was nice enough to help me out this month by conducting the death rolls.  She rolled five to die, and those characters are Damien Carter-Madison, Lee-Ann Collier, Debrah Dollop, Russ Gofis, and Edgar Judah.  Since Edgar is, unfortunately, now an inactive, his death rights are up for grabs, so if you're interested, submit your ideas to SOTF_Help.  To everyone else who was rolled, if you're interested in using one of your swap cards, or if you have someone willing to use their hero card for you, please let me know ASAP.  I'd like links to the place your characters will die in THREE days, please.

The winners of this month's contests were Nealosi's Franco Sebberts and Mitsuko2's Mariavel Varella in a tie for Best Kill and Nealosi's Jackie Kovacs for best death.  Thanks to everyone who voted.  I'll roll prizes for Franco and Mariavel and post it up here later today when my computer isn't acting up.  Nealosi will have his choice of Death prizes (swap card, hero card, roll nullification, etc.).  Just post here letting me know that you accept.

Just one more thing.  We've had a few handlers with SEVERAL characters drop out of the competition for various reasons (congratulations to Riserugu on her pregnancy, by the way), so now we've got a plethora of characters sitting on the roster that something needs to be done with.  The staff have taken in some of them, but there are still plenty to go around.  THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS ARE UP FOR ADOPTION.  I'M NOT GIVING DEATH RIGHTS TO THEM AWAY YET, SO DON'T ASK.

Alex Ovechkin
An Linh Tuan
Sarah Dao
Eli McConnell
Zilya Merchenkov (?)

If you want to adopt them, post here letting me know.  If they aren't adopted, I'll open up a new topic and give everyone the opportunity to kill them off.  As always, thank you for your participation in Survival of the Fittest!  We wouldn't be here without you!