You can't fight crime if you ain't cute

[VoltTurtle]

Sounds of muffled distress came from further up the mountain, and a figure in an oversized orange parka and snow goggles tumbled down a steep slope from the pass overhead, groaning and grunting as it came into contact with the rocks jutting out of the incline. It rolled into view of those around the hot spring, eventually falling six feet into a snow drift near Molly with a flump, sending a cascade of flakes into the air.

"Mmmphwwww," it said.

It did not move.

[Laurels]

Micah kept a stern expression as Mitch doubted him. Molly was willing to peep out from behind Micah's back and to explain that nothing happened. Mitch seemed super pleased to see Molly, so Micah had to hope that this girl's presence would be enough to get them off the mountain alive.

"Yeah, see. No one's dead. We're just-"

Before Micah could say anything else, there was a crashing sound near them. He quickly turned to the source of the sound. He made sure he wouldn't move from his way so he couldn't go over the edge.

He saw something orange over there.

"Um..." he muttered, staring at the sight and waiting for Molly or Mitch to chime in.

[ViolentMedic]

"MITCHEEEE," Molly bellowed back, matching the loudness and enthusiasm more out of a peace gesture than actual enthusiasm. "No, I'm all good!" Good! Good! Defused! Everything was okay--

Something fell out of the sky and into a drift nearby her.

"Eeek--"

Molly let go of Micah 's arm and lifted the zweihander up slightly, point facing the ground, and about to stab down at the sudden assailant before her mind caught up--

She knew that ridiculous parka!

The sword, already in too much movement to not go down, Molly ended up slowly thumping into the snow with a light 'tink' before - height of the mountain briefly forgotten - she instead dropped to her knees beside the figure in the snow and put her face near the ground to try and look closer at him. She heard a muffled noise...? He was... okay?

"Psst? ...Bro?" she whispered. "You there?"

[Fiori]

Mitch did a double take.

For a hot second he thought he was having an out of body experience. That he had just witnesses a premonition of his own demise, rammed off the edge by the flippant cruelty of a disgruntled billy goat.

But then he remembered he wasn't the only person in his friendship circle who had opted to wear a bright orange parka.

"Oh, shit, Lucio!" He'd call out, quickly heading on over to check in on him, using that long digging bar as leverage to help with the more precarious footing.

[VoltTurtle]

"Woogh..." the figure moaned.

It brought its hand up, pulling off its tight hood to reveal the face of Lúcio Oliveira.

((Lúcio Oliveira: Game Start))

Lúcio looked up at Molly, and flashed a smile.

"Oh hey sis, yeah I'm here. Doing good, minus the excruciating pain."

He tried to move to get off the ground, only to groan and stop.

"Don't do anything stupid, Mitch," he shouted back, "take it slow, or else you'll have a little oopsy-poopsy fucky-wucky like me."

He glanced back over at his sister.

"So what's the game plan? Wanna become a mole person with me?"

[Laurels]

Micah felt Molly let go of him as she approached the orange mass that had suddenly appeared. Mitch had also made his way over, and only then did Micah learn that the figure was Molly's brother. Instantly, all tension was erased from what appeared to be Kenny from South Park crashing in.

Micah had to sigh a bit in relief. At least Mitch wasn't back to accusing Micah of killing someone. Either way, Micah was still desiring to get off the mountain as soon as possible.

He moved a bit so Molly, Mitch, and Molly's brother were close together, but he now had a bit of distance from them. Not a lot, but at least enough that he could move down the path again.

"Right, I'm still walking off this mountain," Micah said, gesturing behind him with the pugio. "If you guys need a minute, that's fine. Either way, I'm leaving in the next minute or so."

[ViolentMedic]

“Oh, that’s good… that’s something...”

Molly wrapped her arms around Lúcio and gave him a quick hug, butting her head against his stupid parka for a moment before letting go. She remained close afterwards, sitting on the snow also.

All of the guys present seemed alright, but… Micah, she didn’t know well? Mitch, she did, but he was yelling a lot and getting… paranoid? (Was it paranoia?) Settled for now, but… well… anyway. But Lúcio would never hurt her, she was sure of that. Even barring any fondness, their parents would ground them for life if one hurt the other.

(Though, if their parents had to pick one… they did have more daughters. But Molly shoved that thought aside.)

“Oh, don’t leave us behind!” she called to Micah, before she gave Lúcio a small nudge. “Mole people sounds good, like… that means going to ground, right? I just… I really want to get off this mountain. Can you walk? Or… shuffleslide? Move? Somehow?”

[Fiori]

"Hey, don't worry about me, I've got this br-aAAAAH!" Mitch would exclaim as he lost his footing, skidding down a few feet before using the spaded end of his bar to halt his descent, stumbling slightly but otherwise delaying the inevitable for now. "I'm okay!"

That was a freakin' close one! Who the hell has been maintaining these roads?!?

...oh. Right.

With a bit more caution than before, he'd make his way over to where Lucio was regaining his senses, dropping down to one knee to offer him a hand or shoulder to grab onto. He'd look him over whilst he was down there, praying to god that there wasn't something bent the wrong way around.

When Lucio asked what the game plan was, Mitch felt tempted to make his little proposal right there and then, but decided to hold his tongue for now. Molly seemed much more concerned about getting off that mountain, and... Well, fair enough. Probably for the best they focused on finding somewhere a little less precarious to set up shop. Just as well then that he'd taken the opportunity to scope the island out from his earlier vantage point.

"The road's a lot steadier back the way I came..." he'd say, turning around and gesturing towards the road heading west. "Caught a glimpse of a buncha buildings that away, looked like a military outpost or somethin'"

Mitch then turned to the horizon, pointing towards the mining town down by the coast. "Alternatively, if we keep heading along this route, we'll probably reach that town over there. Might be able to find somewhere good to hold up, figure things out from there? I'm good either way..."

He'd then finally turn back to Micah, giving him a nod. "You do you, bro. Sorry, uh, about earlier... We cool?"

[VoltTurtle]

"I mean," Lúcio began, "getting off this mountain that nearly killed me would be nice, buuut-"

Lúcio took hold of Mitch's hand when it was presented to him, giving a small "thanks man" to his friend and ignoring the shot of pain going down his arm.

"That's not quite what I meant, though," he continued. "Map said something about a mining town, which means they've got digging implements."

He clicked his tongue, tapping the side of his head with his free index finger.

"So, that makes it easy, we just dig a hidey hole, and hang out down there until rescue shows up."

He groaned as he forced himself to sit up.

"I mean, like, there's no way they're gonna buy that accident shit this time, right? Convenient crash, everyone died, no witnesses, never found the bodies. It's too unbelievable, and a calling card for these assholes. Dad's prolly got a task force looking for us as we speak."

His smile turned into a smirk.

"Which means we just gotta wait it out."

[Laurels]

Micah watched as the trio continued to talk strategy. The siblings were looking into hiding and maybe finding a hole to spend the entire game in. There were definitely a lot of things wrong with that, but Micah wasn't asked about his opinion, so he'd let them play Mole People. Mitch had once again stumbled, hopefully clearing Micah of suspicion of pushing someone off the edge, and also seemed to align with the trio.

Micah nodded when Mitch asked if they were good.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Micah said.

He really didn't have any beef with Mitch. Mitch's accusations were from general jumpiness and weren't really that upsetting to be thrown around. Micah could just skedaddle and move on.

"Alright, look, if we're all heading the same way," Micah told the group, "then you're welcome to follow me. I'll go ahead to make sure the path's clear."

Micah turned away from the others and began walking. Micah wasn't going to preemptively enter his grave like the siblings, but he sure wasn't going to die here. He couldn't be the first of the quints to die, so he'd have to find a plan to survive this nightmare so he could go home and have the long, incredible life he deserved.

((Micah Flanagan continued elsewhere))

[ViolentMedic]

“Hey! Ahhh, nooooooo...” Molly flailed a hand after Micah as he got going. “Nooo, my railing.”

Well, no matter. She had Lúcio to cling to, even if she… wasn’t sure if literally digging a hole was the best thing?

“Umm, I think people can, like… get into holes? I’m all for waiting it out? Just, like, maybe not in a literal ditch? I like the house idea better?”

Once she managed to get up, Molly wrapped her arms around one of Lúcio’s and buried her face in it. She kept the zweihander close to her chest using the other, pointing down towards the ground.

“Please don’t trip while going down the mountain. I’m just going to not look, okay?” she said, her voice muffled.

Yeah… hiding sounded good, one way or another.

[Fiori]

When Lucio suggested that they go full Dwarf Fortress and dig themselves a little hidey hole, there was a brief but loud intrusive thought going through Mitch's head: Camping?!? Boooooooooriiiiiiiing!

Of course, it was easy enough to push that thought aside. If Lucio was right and rescue was a realistic possibility, then yeah, obviously holding out somewhere was objectively their best option. He wasn't exactly that thrilled about the idea of killi... Playing anyway, especially if there was a chance all of them could make it off that island alive.

"I mean, if its a mining town, then that means they probably already got mines right?" he'd ask as he helped Lucio up from the ground. "Surely that'd save us a lot of trouble?"

Or they could just hold up in a house as Molly suggested, which again, was a fair point. Maybe not all that exciting an option, but a fair point nevertheless.

He'd glance over to Micah as he went off on his own. Mitch wasn't too fussed either way if their paths were intertwined or not, they weren't exactly buddies but he seemed on the level at the very least. He'd found two of his friends which was a good start, so it'd be wicked sweet if they happened across Steve or Evie next.

"But hey, if you wanna dig holes that badly, I'm your boy" he'd say, before tapping his knuckles against his digging bar. "I've seen dudes dig entire swimming pools with this bad boy on YouTube."

[VoltTurtle]

Lúcio was back on his feet now, levitating up through sheer power of will, and, to a lesser extent, being helped up by his friend and sister. Despite the pain, he stood steady, determined not to take another tumble down the mountain.

Considering the words of his dear M&Ms, Lúcio tapped his chin in thought, oblivious to Micah making his way downtown, walking fast.

"I mean, a house isn't a bad idea, necessarily," he said. "Except the part where it's prime real estate, and some hotshot with a hand full of hardware and a head full of empty might want it more badly than we do."

He thumped his chest, hissing under his breath as he aggravated a bruise.

"Now, I may be strong enough to go all Bane breaking the Bat on a motherfucker, but if some one pump chump blows his load in my face, I'm not gonna be able to clean up the resulting mess. Point is, I don't want to get into any fights. If that means that I gotta nestle myself in the devil's asscrack and sleep rough until we're outta here, then so be it."

Lúcio glanced back down the mountain, grimacing at just how much further down they'd have to hike just to get to ground.

"Man it's cold as fuck out here," he grumbled. "My tits are gonna fall off."

He put one hand on his sister's waist to hold her steady, and grabbed hold of his hood with the other.

"Let's get down to Earth," he continued, throwing his hood back over his head. "Don't lose yourself in the clouds, Mitch!"

((The Oliveira siblings will return after this short commercial break!))

[Fiori]

"Hmm. Fair point..."

Truth be told, Mitch wasn't against the idea of moving to a busier spot himself, but as none of them got assigned a firearm that did put them at a disadvantage vs those who did. Granted if the plan was to grab a pint and wait for this all to blow over, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

He still wasn't 100% sold on burying his head in the sand. Even if they weren't actively participating a part of him wanted to be more proactive somehow, maybe seek out the rest of his friends, loot the town for supplies, anything really rather than sitting around on his ass for hours. That being said, he also didn't want to ditch his friends just because they were planning to lay low, so for now he opted to tag along. Maybe once they all found a safe spot to annex he can offer to go out scouting, with the knowledge of there being somewhere safe he can return to and rest afterwards?

Yeah, somerhing like that'd work for now.

"Hey, wait up!"

((Mitch McDuffy continued in Just thought I would spice things up a bit.))