Huff and puff, bitch - you ain't blowing down shit.

[The Honeless Beard]

"So. You're new here. Let me bring you up to speed: I'm going to use you to kill two more people, and after that you're out of my hands. I know you've probably got a history or whatever, but I already know how effective you are at shooting people in the back. We'll keep cruising. Good for you?"

[Lilith]

Bothered.
She was still sleeping. She had to recover.
“Did you know that your brain is a peninsula because of your pesky stem? Would you like to be an island?”
Pestering.

[The Honeless Beard]

Two more to go. Two barrels on the shotgun. Two shells at a time. There was something there, something that slid off of Ivan's smoothed out brain and landed behind him with a soft clink. He swore he heard a clink, but when he turned to glance downward nothing was there. He laughed lightly, mopping at his suddenly sweaty forehead, his shoulder burning from the gunshot wound.

But yeah. Two more to go. Two barrels on the shotgun. Rhonda was gone, and he had her gun, and that meant-

Rhonda.

"Sorry," he corrected, "no. Actually, it's three. I don't even know if Rhonda will- but three. Three on the list, or, rather, two then one on the list, I guess."

[Lilith]

Aren’t you putting yourself through so much work?
To achieve what?
What are you achieving by doing this?
There’s nothing to be earned from this, and yet you persevere.

“I have something on Thursday.”
She reached out.
From somewhere?
“Will it be done by then?”

[The Honeless Beard]

"Yeah," Ivan said, "yeah, two then one. Two then one. Like morse code, you know? Dot dot dash. Cause there's no way else for this to end, you know? I'm fucking ruined here, I'm - it's like they built what I went through in a lab and-"

He paused.

"It's like I'm the heavy, you know? From old western serial television. The dude they brought in for the like, first episode? Some kind of out of work actor or something. Dad's always bringing people on the pod to talk about shit like that. Production methods, editing examples. And there's like-

"There's no doubt that I'd be a contender, you know? On day one, when I rushed Fisk - I had the fucking gun. I won the fight. It was a shit fight but I'm sure there's a way to cut it together to - anyways, I'm me, I've got all these plans, plus that gun - boom, instant top 25 lock, easy.

"But I get fucked up," Ivan continues, chuckling.

He sighed, then, leaning back against the nearby railing, watching the waves. After a moment, he sucked in - his bruised ribs visible and nearly shiny, his shirt long since gone.

"Rhonda had protagonist energy. You know?" he asked.

[Lilith]

Dot-dot-dash.
Dot-dot-dash.
Dot-dot-dash.

You? U? Yew?
Dot-dot-dash.
He'll keep himself together somehow.
In this echo.
Dot-dot-dash?
You?

"If you were a killer, would you kill yourself too?"
Dot. Dot. Dash.
Incomprehensible.
"No. Dot-dot-dash wouldn't be."
"Coward."

"I think Rhonda is a pretty name.



Is she pretty?"

[The Honeless Beard]

"She's - what? She is. Pretty. I thought she was her though," Ivan said, shaking his head and turning with the shotgun, cradling it with both hands.

"I guess they both are. It took getting shot to figure out what I'd done there, and - I don't know. I really don't know. Emmy's... I don't really remember her name much, but Emmy's - she's pretty cute."

He paused, glancing skyward, the sun illuminating the bruised ribs of his bare skin, the various other bruisings around his stomach, one on his hip from hitting the railing of the ferry and going overboard. His story with Season 67, written in blue and black ink, mistakes highlighted in red pen on his shoulder and forehead. Ivan spun the shotgun in his hands, trigger finger idly stroking both triggers, a gentle, free touch.

"But Rhonda had protagonist energy. I guess, if we're watching this, I guess I'd want for her to get the hero cut, you know? There's not much hope for my cut - I don't think you can make anything of my time here other than what it was before I got here. But I hope she got the hero edit. I'm comfortable being the heavy if she gets to be heroic."

[Lilith]

Excerpt 1:
“The show may not craft a “villain edit,” but it does use villains to counterbalance the participants who win and give them a foe to trounce. The problem, obviously, is that when the clash is depicted as between a white participant and a participant of color, the participant of color will often automatically be seen as the villain.”

By Matthew Rodriguez

Excerpt 2:
“Just as he began to doubt the idea that the winner’s edit could be pinpointed early, his edgic awakening came, courtesy of another poster. “Someone was like, ‘Actually, that’s not the winner’s edit,’” Johnny recalls. “There’s actually this thing called edgic, and it gives you the best key to who actually is having the winner’s edit. Sometimes someone that you think is having the winner’s edit doesn’t actually have it.”

By Ben Lindbergh

Excerpt 3:

“One of the main differences between scripted and unscripted is who’s driving the success of the story. Feature films are often thought of as director driven. Scripted TV is the writer and producer’s medium. However, one could argue that Reality TV is made in the editing bay. Hours of footage needs to be whittled down to identify the desired conflict and character development. Reality shows, just like history, are not always grounded in facts, but rather in the interpretation of them by those in charge. Are there any responsibilities in that interpreted representation or is it simply entertainment?”

By Paula Goldberg

[Lilith]

She compiled.
The data moved and twisted.
“I hope she does too.”
If it wasn’t too late.

“Shouldn’t you go?”
A pause. Analysis.
Dot-dot-dash.
“To be done before Thursday?”

[The Honeless Beard]

"I'm pretty good with deadlines," Ivan replied.

This little piggy built a house made of bricks,
Hand over hand over hand over fist.
This little piggy built a house made of bricks,
Huff and puff, bitch - you ain't blowing down shit.

[The Honeless Beard]

(10ga. and Ivan continued elsewhere)