Tuesday, June 19, 2018: Undisclosed Location, 8 AM
The goat grazing by the water’s edge looked up just as Josie released the arrow. It sailed through the air before landing in the animal’s neck. It staggered a few steps before collapsing, Josie slung her bow over her shoulder and casually strolled over to the downed beast putting a foot on its neck. She shushed its dying pants and pulled her radio out:
“Yeah put me down for that weird French kid and tell Lourvey I can go get some of his bae’s hair if he wants.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific about which weird French kid,” Rai deadpanned into her own radio, slouching in her chair back in the cafeteria. She was pretty sure she knew which one, actually, if only because all of the others were dead now. Still, she wasn’t about to have Josie up her ass later because she made some kind of clerical error.
Stockton - or Domino, as some preferred to call her - had called everyone together a short while ago, setting Rai’s nerves on edge for some kind of emergency. Instead, it was apparently time to indulge some kind of workplace tradition; fantasy football, only with dead teens. Sure. As good a pastime as any.
Rai had radioed Josie for her pick, making sure she wouldn’t bitch the rest of them out for being left out like she had the last time, while she thumbed through the notes on who was left. She wasn’t sure who she’d go with; in her frank estimation none of the kids were a good pick. Ugh, she was going to end up betting on the army brat, wasn’t she?
“Urgh, the weird one who’s not a girl or whatever, Blaze or some shit.”
The overtired, depressed and scraggly-looking tech seated across the table from Rai - ‘seated’ was a strong word actually, he was more ‘slumped’ than anything - was absorbed in swiping through his phone that he held unconventionally close to his chest. “Tell Josie to go drown in a lake,” Dennis Lourvey mumbled. “All my desirable picks are out now, so what’s even the point?” He cleared his throat and downed a shot of red bull, one of two cans that he’d taken out for lunch along with a single protein bar and a sad-looking slice of cheese pizza. “I guess give me the running back DJ guy.”
Abby seemed more flustered than was usual. Rather than her normal dead-eyed wandering through the halls, she was aggressively slurping down ramen noodles at an adjacent table.
“I don’t have time for games and candy or whatever!” she said, slamming the cup of chicken-flavored water down. “One of my goddamn cameras is broken and idiot Ronald broke protocol and set off two explosions!”
The hand-wringing wreck of a man filling a tray of drinks at the counter behind Abby meekly piped up. “A-Actually, my name is Dona--”
But Abby was already gone, muttering numbers and swears into her styrofoam soup cup. Donald looked over to Rai and Lourvey before quickly averting his eyes and absconding with the drinks, headed for the accounting office.
"Ah, Mister...what was it?"
"Oh, j-just Donald is fine!"
Adi's smile dimmed as it did each time they had this exchange. He could pull the boy's file if he wanted to force the issue but it was a matter of respect; self-respect enough for Donald to raise his level of address, and respect enough for Adi to recognize his informality caused discomfort. Adi ignored his correction and reached for the tray. "You are here for my bet?" Presented with such an opportunity earlier in the proceedings Adi would have papered his office with documents of past and present relevance. Certain trends would emerge, he possessed no doubt towards the predictability of data, and they could be taken from abstraction to hard numbers. He could invent models of a sort not unlike a modern day talent scout surveying prospective recruits, and a short list of potential winners would form in time. Yes, he could have done the work.
The results would have likely been wildly inaccurate; these were not numbers he knew how to create let alone manipulate. It would have been an entertaining distraction, though. He wondered if he might take a run at it next year, then opted not to linger how comfortably he imagined that future. "I will take the disgraced...what was the word on his brow? Meninist?" Adi chuckled. "All around him lose their heads but he remains unharmed. Freshly armed as well. Mr. Mortimer will outlive them all."
Rai rolled her eyes at all of them and penciled in a set of initials by each selection. Domino had already picked the Nguyen girl, maybe hoping for a hat trick. Rai suspected she was soon to be disappointed.
Then again, maybe that was part of the point: the thrill of betting against overwhelming odds. With a sigh, Rai added the initials VR next to Faith Marshal-Mackenzie.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018: Undisclosed Location, 9 AM
Tracen sat down and despite how smoothly everything was going he was starting to lose sleep over the clean-up prep. Not because he was stressed about, that wasn't the case at all. No, it was just a lot of work to coordinate and organize. They needed everyone to understand what they needed to do and be ready to do it as soon as they were able. Some departments had already started work on some of their portions of the clean-up, getting as much done early as they could. He appreciated that sort of thing. But he had been careful to caution people not to lose their focus on the most important part of their job. They had already seen one incident caused by a lack of attention and focus, and he personally found it bothersome. But that was an issue for another time, he had his own job to do and an announcement to deliver. So after one final pass of his notes, he flipped the switch and brought all the speakers on the island to life.
"To begin today the buck stopped on Thomas Buckley who was shot by Sakurako Jackson.
"That's a nice simple one to start but make sure to focus because things are about to get messy. After a disagreement turned violent there was a firefight between Ivy Langley, Myles Roux, and Ace Ortega, that saw Myles shoot Ivy and Ace shoot Myles. You all with me? Good. I know that was a lot."
Tracen took a large gulp of coffee and then continued.
"Back to some of the simpler stuff, Diego Larrosa showed his mastery of the shovel once again when he used it to cut Camilla Bell's throat. It's becoming a signature of his so if you see him with it, protect your neck.
Tracen read the next two names on his list and scowled. He hated it when issues weren't dealt with or acted upon in a consistent fashion. It was one of the big issues of his furthers time at the helm of the Arthro Taskforce and he had taken great pains to bring in more consistent rulings across the board when he had been brought on. So the two deaths he had to read out next irked him.
"Next, the collars of Emmett Bunnell and Jonathan Meyers were detonated after they destroyed a camera during a fight. Do be careful with those - some of our camera monitors can be a little trigger-happy when their equipment gets damaged. It's quite expensive, you know."
Tracen drained the remaining of his mug and slammed it back down on his desk.
"We're in the home stretch for the day now as Yuka Hayashibara was filled with buckshot by Erika Stieglitz and bled out as a result. A simple and effective bit of murder there.
"Then after a fierce fistfight, Tyrell Lahti defeated Claudeson Bademosi by drowning him, which for those of you after a bit of trivia is the first kill via drowning we've had this version. Very exciting stuff. Mr. Lahti only had a short time to celebrate his victory however, and then the wounds he sustained during that fight did him in as well. Remember, kids: you can win the battle and still lose the war. Plenty have already."
"Our next kill indulged in a bit of the old ultraviolence, as after a bloody fight Lucas Abernathy was shot to death by Kelly Nguyen.
"Keeping the shootings going Abraham Watanabe finally saw the forest for the trees and as such filled Forrest Quin with lead. I don't approve of the pollution, but I approve of his results.
"And lastly, former contender Madison Springer had a bit of a tantrum and then decided to throw in the towel by shooting herself in the head. Try not to follow her example; it's very disappointing for the viewers at home."
Tracen slid his kill notes to one side and turned his attention to a new piece of paper.
"As your numbers continue to dwindle so to do the number of safe zones you have access to and today is no different as we are removing The Lower Wilds from play. If you can guess where we're going with this please send a postcard in, just hand it to one of the monkeys and they'll pass it to us as soon as they can.
"Finally we move onto the most exciting part of the day as congratulations are in order for Abe Watanabe. Your meal of chicken-fried steak and collard greens can found on The Beach, along with a little something extra on us. It'll be in that lovely VIP area; you know the place, it's the decking with the umbrellas.
"And that's everything for today, if you were planning on lying low until numbers were dwindling before you struck, now's the time to make your move. You'll thank me later. Until tomorrow kids; just remember, you're nearly home."
DAY TEN: TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2018
Weather: The temperature on the island has dipped a little more and the breeze has picked up across the island, turning into a light wind on the coasts. The temperature has highs of around 86 degrees F, 30 degrees C. The moon continues to be in the waxing crescent phase. The tenth announcement will come at 9 AM on June 20.
The rolls for this set can be found below.
Summary:
1. Helena “Hel” Fury (Emprexx Plush)
2. Michael Froese (Kermit) Valerija Bogdanovic (Kermit, Swap Card used)
3. Paloma Salt (Melusine)
4. Shauna Cooke (Namira)
5. Violet Schmidt (CrossBowPig)
Please remember the etiquette surrounding rolls, kill requests, etc. No gloating in the chat about not being rolled, no repeated pleas for heroes outside of the announcement thread, and no unsolicited kill offers to those who have been rolled. This includes making general offers to all that your character is open to killing. Be courteous to your fellow handlers.
There are three days (72 hours) for cards and Danger Zone posts, and a further seven days for Danger Zone exits. The remaining time can be seen here.
Congratulations to BlizzardeyeWonder on winning BDA for the death of Camilla Bell! We'll have a quote nomination thread up shortly.
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