Mildew and Melancholy

[MK Kilmarnock]

Every word that Bret said, Wyatt paid close attention to and held onto carefully, for what might have been the first time in his life. It was the only time he could remember, in the moment anyway, where he deemed the words of his brother to be this important. A good deal of that probably lent itself to having a smoking gun and a dead body in his field of vision. And they were locked into his vision with an intense and unwavering focus, even as Bret was the one speaking. The reality of the game laid at their feet, Wyatt's and Tirzah's. What happened in the next few seconds stood to change the course of the game for the three of them still alive in the yacht; what a shame it was that things were far too late to change for Ron.

Because, hidden under those grotesque features lumped into something vaguely resembling a human face, and behind that shameless fit of begging and pleading to be made useful, there was an important lesson to take. Wyatt thought Ron represented what happened when you came onto the island without the necessary tools to survive, and he was still certain there was a scaffold of truth to that. But, when Ron had died, it wasn't just because he was in a fight that saw him horribly outmatched. Wyatt knew he could have opened the kid's brains all over the floor. But that never happened. Ron died because the circumstances changed. He got caught up in his hopeless scenario, thinking he might score his 'win', only for somebody to swoop in and take it. Or just to put it simple and short, Tirzah happened.

Tirzah represented the random element -- the wild card. Wyatt was sure he liked it better when she represented a hot babe with a gun who would fit right in on the next 007 cover. That was easier to get excited over. Here, they had a situation where they had to think. He, and he realized this with incredible disdain that left an unpleasant feeling in his stomach and a matching bile in his mouth, had to think carefully about what he was going to say. That was usually Bret's game, not his. If a solution could be solved with the force of personality, a little grit and a lot of weight being thrown around, he could brute force it. And wouldn't you know it, there weren't too many situations at high school that couldn't be solved by doing just that. For once, this was not one of them.

Wyatt exhaled the breath he'd been holding through his nose. The Carter family had no idiots.

"Yeah, so that's pretty tempting, but my brother makes a pretty good point." Wyatt thumbed behind him. Bret was back there somewhere, he wasn't about to turn his back to the armed femme fatale just to figure out where Brawny Man was standing. "We were gonna take Ron's shit anyway, and that was before he uh... 'fore you killed him. And nice shot by the way," Wyatt added with a wave of the hand. "But we could just as easily ask you to part with your things and not risk you getting hurt."

The natural twinge of guilt closely tied to even thinking about hurting a girl was tempered only by the fact that less than a minute ago, Wyatt just watched a kid bleed out because this chick decided to ballistically pop some of his bacne. She wasn't just some harmless innocent girl and if they had to rough her up a little, maybe Mom would understand. Still, he couldn't help but hope it wouldn't come to that. Not when they could strike up a better arrangement.

"What I'm saying," Wyatt said, carefully lowering his sword - fat lot of good it would do against a gun anyway, so he could spare the gesture - and offering the biggest smile he could muster. "... Is that you'll need something to sweeten the deal. Like, what would we get from having you around, besides having all your stuff?" There was a quick beat to his questioning before something else popped to mind. "Oh yeah, and offsettin' the fact we'd have a known killer with us? This ain't your first, is it, sweetheart?"

[Ruggahissy]

"What if?" she said, echoing part of Bret's question. She took a moment to think.

"Oh, then I would be very sad. Boo hoo" she said, balling up her fists and twisting them up by her eyes in an imitation of crying and pouting.

During that moment of thought Tirzah figure that if they tried to take her things, she'd slide her gun over to Bret on the floor along with Ron's bag. When he Bret reached down to pick them up, she'd kill him with the second, unknown gun she had on her. Wyatt would probably run over to see if he was ok and maybe she could get him too.

But she didn't particularly want a blood bath, which is what would happen one way or the other if they tried to get her things like the had tried with their classmates before her.

Wyatt seemed a little more willing to finesse the situation, which she appreciated. She came to wheel and deal, after all.

"Ah....well I killed him because he was attacking you. You're welcome. My controversial recent actions are not ideal, but I figure if I lay low from here on out other people will become bigger problems. I won't kill anymore people, scouts honor," she said, crossing herself, not aware what kind of hand motion scouts did. "With the kills I might be able to talk people down into giving you their stuff with less of a fight. No more Rons. And I heard about Bryan. No more Bryans."

And so having reached the end of the summary of the situation Tirzah smiled back at Wyatt, leaning in to match him with her left hand on her hip.

"What else would you want? You'd have my company and I'm delightful."

[Deamon]

Tirzah didn't make her offer any more tempting. She was still a known killer and was only offering her own supplies, Ron's bag, and a gun. At the same time though, she did also have a gun, it meant anything that could be considered aggression could have been met with a deadly retort and the confined quarters made something like that a risky prospect. That didn't even go into the other obvious issue. Bret hadn't intended on harming Paloma and he didn't intend on harming Tirzah if he could avoid it, which meant he had no leverage if violence did break out; if she forced him on his threats he would be at a disadvantage.

Wyatt actually had the better idea, although Bret couldn't see what else Tirzah could have done. As far as he knew she had offered up everything she was willing to part with, the chances of her giving up the second bag—which he assumed was her original one—were slim. Unless she had more supplies hidden away somewhere, which could have been the case, but again that felt unlikely. That meant Bret continued to weigh up the options they had, all while trying to avoid the situation he didn't want to engage with.

"Wyatt's right," He said finally. "You'd need to offer something else to make this worthwhile."

[MK Kilmarnock]

So far, Tirzah wasn't really selling herself. Wyatt WANTED to be buying and to pick up what she was putting down. She was a cute enough girl, though maybe not electric in all the right places that got him rock hard at the drop of a hat like Ivy. Make no mistake, Wyatt liked a strong woman too, and seeing Tirzah standing the way she was with the gun had this really weird mixing effect with the shock and... hell, the fear, too, of watching somebody die in front of him, but now he was sobering up from that like waking up next to Sierra after their one-night-stand. Shit didn't look quite as pretty.

Tirzah was really making an effort to make this shit work, so in that regard, Tirzah 1, Sierra 0. But when it came to offsetting the risk that came with taking her along, not to mention the strain on supplies, there were some difficulties in figuring out if the pros outweighed the cons. That shit took math. Wyatt was so damn sure that there wouldn't be any math on Murder Island.... just couldn't get away from that shit, could he? He groaned, still being forced to think things through carefully and hating every second of it.

"Alright, to be fair to ME," Wyatt said with a raised finger, "if you hadn't come in and... did that, I probably would have killed him." Wyatt elected not to pause to let that sink in. "And what do you mean about Bryan? Uh, what exactly didja hear?"

And as Wyatt examined Tirzah waiting for a response, he took in how she was standing. Fuck, how was it that she was pissing him off and kinda being cute at the same fucking time!?

Okay, fuck thinking.

"Your company would be delightful if it comes with, uh, benefits, yaknowwhatI'msayin'?"

[Ruggahissy]

"Well..." she said, considering Bret's request for more added value. "I'll take on half the night for keeping watch. You two can get more sleep. And isn't that priceless for the energy you get back?"

Wyatt seemed a little more aggressive and she leaned back a little to account for his leaning forward. Tirzah stood still and looked at the two of them. Wyatt in particular seemed to be inspecting her back with quite a bit of scrutiny.

"I heard you tried to take his stuff and he put up a fight," she said simply, easing herself back so she was standing straight now instead of leaning back, holding up her hand as if to tell Wyatt to calm down. Tirzah looked at him blankly and the next statement took her a split second to parse. Her brows furrowed and then unfurrowed, which was accompanied by her saucer eyes widening, then settling into the upturned shape that resulted from her smile.

It was another commodity she had to trade and that was the simple fact of it. It was a fair price given the potential exchange of services, but she wanted to minimize vulnerability.

"Hand job not to exceed two minutes," she fired off quickly to start the negotiation, pointing at Wyatt and closing the gap between them.

[Deamon]

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Bret muttered, rolling his eyes.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Ugh. Any more time spent thinking about Bryan was too much time. That fucking guy said he fought back? "Yeah, he fought back," Wyatt said his thoughts aloud. "Let his gun go off at somebody, not us, then we had to play fuckin' tugga war with... bah, forget it. OH and we got his shit so, fuck'im!"

Okay, that wasn't the point. Get back to the task at hand, think about things more fun than Bryan. Like Tirzah giving... Actually nah, fuck that too. Ain't no two minutes of rub-and-tug getting him off, then he'd be left just finishing the job himself. What would he even have her for if he was just gonna finish the rest of the job, and without the aid of his phone to cycle through nudes? Signal or none, if they'd at least let him keep the device he'd have a few precious hours of his saved photos to run through and entertain himself. But no, fine, take the porn ya fucking monsters.

Wyatt clicked his tongue to his teeth and shook his head. "I got my own hands, thank you very much. How about some dome?" He raised an eyebrow in punctuation. "Not like I can suck myself. And at least be a good girl and do me the courtesy of getting me off."

[Ruggahissy]

"You really trust me, huh?" she said, punctuating the end of the sentence with the sharp snap of her teeth coming together. She hooked her index finger on the corner of her lower right eyetooth and winked.

Tirzah half smiled and gave him an incredulous look. No one had really thought she was a "good girl" possibly ever in her life and the phrase smacked of the caveman thinking she expected from Wyatt.

She put her thumb under her chin and her index finger against the side of her cheek in a thinking pose.

"How do you feel about feet?"

[MK Kilmarnock]

"I think foot fetishists are the freaks OTHER fetishists make fun of," Wyatt retorted. "I'm not interested in fucking your... belly button or whatever, either, if that's the kind of shit you're gonna suggest next."

Man, she had a point with the teeth though. What was he thinking? Shoulda mentioned a 'I feel teeth, you feel lead' clause. He wracked his brain thinking of a way they could meet in the middle, when some ancient knowledge borne from an old porn video he couldn't remember the name of sprung to mind. Her chest wasn't HUGE but... yeah, maybe it'd work.

"You can always lemme fuck your tits. Though I still don't understand why you wouldn't wanna ride the Wyatt express; that'd be good for the BOTH of us."

[Ruggahissy]

Tirzah held her hands up, though with the gun still in her right hand, as a signal to calm down.

"I'm not here to judge, I just wanted to explore what the options were," she said steadily.

He made another suggestion and she was somewhat surprised because in the back of her mind she had had that as her solution to find a middle ground agreement. Perfect, exchange of services reached.

"Well, I still want to wear white when I get married!" she said slightly exaggerated manner.

She thought that fucking him would leave her in too vulnerable a position to be killed by someone walking up, or maybe even Wyatt himself. There was also a power dynamic element to it. She didn't want this guy thinking that he could just ask for anything straight off the bat and she'd roll over, so to speak. Lastly, she wanted to keep that as an extra bargaining chip. Maybe by dangling that carrot over his head, Wyatt would be more motivated to keep her around longer.

"But.. I guess that could maybe work since you brought it up," she said, appearing to consider the offer she already knew she would take. "In exchange I stay with you until day six. At day six we can, you know, renegotiate or stick to the original terms," she said, tugging on the hem of her skirt at "renegotiate" and then sticking out a hand. "Oh, and my hair stays clean."

[MK Kilmarnock]

"There goes my fun," Wyatt heaved a sigh, but he wore a smile now. "Damn, girl, you are a TOUGH fucking negotiator."

He moved the sword to his left hand and drew up his right, bringing it down to clasp Tirzah's. "But you got yourself a deal. Day six, we'll figure out what to do from there."

He and his brother would figure it out, just in case things got crazy, but this really was a net positive for them. Tirzah brought a lot to the team: Food, weapons, an extra set of eyes, a demeanor that was mostly cute but admittedly shook him off base. And if it shook him, it'd probably rattle anybody else back into their cozy safe-space... emotionally speaking, of course. Ain't no truly safe spots around that saved you from a bullet to the brain or a knife to the gut.

And if shit did go south, at least he got to come once or twice over the past few days of his life, right? Sometimes it's all about the little things.

"I'll take that gun, then. Looks dope, where'd ya get it?"

[Deamon]

The situation was ridiculous but Bret recognized that Wyatt appeared to have made his mind up. The idea of trying to convince him that this was a bad decision would be a particularly arduous task. One that he wasn't sure was worth the hassle. He had doubts about the plan. He had doubts about Tirzah's agenda. There were far more benefits for her than for them as far as Bret could see. He looked over at Tirzah and considered the gun he held. Then he spoke.

"Get it over with, I'll keep watch outside."

He gathered his things and headed out. He would talk to Wyatt about it later, for the time being, he would let his brother have his fun.

((Bret Carter continued elsewhere...))

[Ruggahissy]

Tirzah struggled to maintain balance as Wyatt shook her hand. Despite her unsteady stance, she saw the word lit up by flash bulbs: safety. She'd done it.

She handed the gun to Wyatt and waited a beat, but he didn't turn it on her. A bright smile spread across her face.

"I woke up with it in my bag," she said, feeling confident because it was the truth.

Bret didn't seem thrilled, but there wasn't much he could do since his brother had made up his mind, which was interesting information.

Tirzah nodded and took hold of Wyatt's wrist.

"Yeah fine, we can seal the deal, but not um....next to that," she said, eyeing Ron's body, still oozing blood.

((Tirzah Foss continued elsewhere))

[MK Kilmarnock]

"What? Jesus fuck, NO," Wyatt made a face. "Why in the hell did the both of you decide I wanted us to do it here? Like, HERE!?" He signaled to the grimy window, the mold-covered wall, the lifeless body of Ron, soon to be putrid and rotting. Yeah, fam, that really got his rocks off. Couldn't get it up without a dead kid nearby.

And you know, he joked about that, but then Wyatt secretly wondered if there had ever been anybody fucked up enough to do something near a body on the island before or, holy shit, with one. Somebody better call up whoever does the announcements every morning, because Wyatt had effectively just killed his own boner for the forseeable future.

Nothing Tirzah couldn't fix with a little elbow grease. Speaking of things feeling amazing, the gun she passed on to him had just the perfect weight to it. It had heft and didn't feel like a toy in his grasp, which was no easy feat, but it felt manageable. It was going to have a helluva kick; he'd get Bret's permission to test it out on something, something inanimate of course, later. For now, he motioned for Tirzah to leave with a curt "Ladies first," snickered about how Bret had actually been the first one to leave, and he followed directly thereafter, taking great care to avoid getting some Ron on his shoe.

Sorry, bud. You or me, and sure as shit ain't gonna be me. Not today.

((Wyatt Carter, continued elsewhere))