The Disappearance of an Internet Angel

[DerArknight]

Seeing Fitz give Cassie some water made Dawn feel guilty for not checking up on her friend sooner. This whole situation was tearing on her attention.

When Fitz told her to look for Madeline, her anger lessened a little. She was still irritated at how Fitz seemingly didn't care about Tenshi's death. Especially since he had been the one to kickstart everything. If he hadn't allowed Alex to grab the gun, Tully, Cedar and Tenshi would all still be alive. And yet Fitz cared more about looting their belongings. But calling him out right now would achieve nothing. Dawn took one deep breath. This wasn't like her. She needed to calm down.

So she followed his order and left the building, looking for Madeline. The girl was kneeing at the ground, hugging herself.

Carefully, Dawn stepped closer, thinking about what to say.

Are you okay?

No, no one was okay right now.

Can I do something?

What could Dawn do?

It wasn't your fault.

Yeah, that sounded half-way decent.

"It wasn't your fault."

[Applesintime]

“It wasn’t anybody’s fault.” Madeleine hollowly echoed, turning back to look at Dawn. For being the person who’d actually done it - swung the blade and killed her friend - she was in a lot better shape than the girl who’d only held the arm taut. But if it wasn’t anybody’s fault, then nobody could be blamed. And Madeleine really wanted to blame somebody right now.

Pushing herself to her feet, Madeleine walked past Dawn and into the building again, paying barely any attention to Fitz looting the dead.

“Hey, Cassie. We should get out of here.”

[ViolentMedic]

Dawn listened. Went to find Madeleine. Cassie said thank you.

“S’fine,” Fitz muttered, as he continued stacking the food. Making the bars into neat little piles. He primarily remained focused on this task, though occasionally his gaze shifted back up to look at Cassie before returning to his task.

Madeleine came back and made her aim clear. Fitz held up a hand, though he was still looking downwards.

“Hold on a second. I’m nearly done.”

He left the bread on the stacks that weren’t his, but took some extra crackers. It was hard to balance perfectly. Some had eaten more than others. Cedar’s food had barely been touched. But it left everyone with a lot more supplies to get by on. By the time Madeleine had stated an intent to leave, only the first-aid kits were left.

The first aid kits… he’d left the fullest one (Tully’s) with the stack he’d designated for Dawn. The second-fullest (Tenshi’s) he’d left between Madeleine and Cassie’s, some dents in the supplies from yesterday. The emptiest was Cedar’s, missing more from her kit than Tenshi’s but for the same reason. Fitz kept that.

“Cassie, that stack’s yours. Dawn, that one. Madeleine, that one. The first-aid kit in between those two piles is Madeleine and Cassie, since… figure you’d leave together.” He waved vaguely at each of the pile.

With that, he was left with the two smoke grenades and the Halloween mask. The whistle was with Dawn.

“Does anyone have any use for these?” He held up the grenades in one hand, the mask in the other. “Feels fair… one item each, if we include the whistle Dawn’s got. And… well... you turned up, so...”

He tailed off for a moment, not finishing the thought. Then he pulled the mask back an inch.

“I… like witches, so...” Though he didn’t pull it back entirely. He’d run out of items to sort. The task would be complete, once these items were allocated. He delayed on finishing the task, until the others picked and finished it for him.

[Fiori]

"Oo-Oh... Okay" Cassie stuttered, still obsessively wiping her hands clean as Madeleine suggested they leave.

She couldn't blame her for not wanting to spend another second in that building. Cassie herself was already shifting away from the cell, trying to distance herself from the body on that cot. A part of her almost admired how Fitz was able to keep himself calm at a time like this, focusing on the horrible but necessary task of evenly splitting up his fallen friend's equipment.

Cassie could never do a thing like that, or at least she didn't think she could. She was way too sentimental, easily growing emotionally attached to things that weren't deserving of it. Like the ice skates she'd been assigned, which at one point she considered breaking apart to try and turn into a bladed cudgel, only to shrug the idea off because she couldn't bear the thought of damaging them. Maybe she needed to be more pragmatic, like Fitz. Take a step back, consider the big picture, focus on what needs to be done next instead of stewing over what can't be undone.

Of course, it wouldn't that easy. Her chest still felt tight, an intense tingling forming at the back of her head as she looked away from Tenshi... But for now, she kept that bottle lid screwed on tight. Tried to keep her eyes forward.

"I'll, um..." she whispered, looking down at three items on offer. "Go with one of... Those, I guess?" she continued, pointing to what looked like a grenade of some kind. Not the kabloomy kind though, looked more like teargas, or smoke maybe? A part of her felt like she didn't deserve any of them, that she shouldn't be rewarded for helping Dawn butcher one of her friends. Then again, how often would she get a chance to acquire something useful that didn't involve her doing something horrible first?

Nevertheless, as she began to fill her bag up, she found herself dwelling on a question. One she desperately wanted to ask, but one whose answer was uncomfortably uncertain, so much so that in the end she had to force herself to look up and say it.

"Um... Wh-what about you guys?" she asked, looking from Dawn to Fitz, then back to Madeleine. "D-Dawn's an old friend of mine... Sh-should we, um, stick together or..."

Her words faltered, her eyes diverting back down to her bag. She hated being an imposition.

"N-nevermind, forgetIsaidanything..." she mumbled.

[DerArknight]

"I agree," Dawn replied to Cassie's timid proposal.

"The situation may be bad, but that is all the more reason for us to stick together.

"... also I am fine with the whistle." This was more of an olive branch towards Fitz.

[Applesintime]

Safety in numbers. That made sense. And it would have been the right call in any situation. But Madeleine didn't know. The sounds Tenshi had made, they kept ringing around in her head like a scream in an echoey room. The noises of the blade she had given Dawn cutting through flesh. That feeling when Tenshi's arm was taken from her body and went limp.

Every time Madeleine looked at Dawn, it kept coming back. She knew it was irrational, that safety in numbers, especially with the man who had a big rifle, would keep her and Cassie alive until the end. But there was just... something about how cavalier the two of them, Dawn and Fitz, were being about this. Something about how they were just casually divvying up their dead friend's belongings as if they were just trinkets they found on the road, as if they just didn't care. It was just...

so, so frightenly infuriating.

Madeleine took a deep breath. This wasn't worth it. There wasn't any point. What's done is done.

But, like a ladder starting to topple in slow motion or a coffee cup set on the very edge of a table, no matter how you rushed towards it, the end was inevitable.

"H-How can you just... just act so casual?! Like - Like your friend didn't just die, and you're already picking and choosing who gets her stuff! That's just... that's not right!" It was stupid. It was irrational. But it was what Madeleine's heart was saying. And if she could do one thing, it would be following that. It was hypocritical when she'd talked about taking stuff from dead people if they needed some, but there was a difference between taking from someone who'd been dead for a while and starting to pick and choose who gets what when the body wasn't even cold.

[ViolentMedic]

“I know!” Fitz snapped. “I know it’s not right! I’m not stupid!”

As his calm evaporated, he dropped the witch mask into his bag. He started haphazardly throwing his own stack of supplies into the bag, amid his ammo clips and the strips of rotten tent he’d hoarded.

“But what else is there?! Do you think we should look for a will? Should we hold a funeral first? Should I weep and pretend it was a surprise that the one-armed deaf girl who wouldn’t even cooperate on trying to communicate didn’t make it? After all night of watching her lie there? After watching her ignore the reality of this game--of everything!--for days?! You say ‘just died,’ I say I’ve been watching her die since this game started! Even before we let Cedar die to buy her a few more useless hours!”

The moment the last few words passed his lips, Fitz clammed them shut. A look of discomfort flickered across his face before the expression hardened. He stood up. Bag strap over his shoulder, gun tucked under his arm, and two smoke grenades in his hands.

“You know what? I’m not doing this again.”

He strode for the door. On the way, he shoved one of the grenades into Cassie’s hands. He looked at Madeleine for a moment, holding the other… then shoved it in his jacket pocket. His eyes flickered quickly over the three, and just a little longer on Tenshi’s bundled-up body underneath the cot. Then he turned and left.

He wasn’t even visible any more when he called back, “And don’t waste your emergency blankets!”

((Russell “Fitz” Fitzroy continued in No Chance.))

[Fiori]

Cassie jolted as Madeleine snapped at the room, a startled look on her face as she sat back against the nearest wall, holding her legs up against her chest.

She'd never seen Madeleine act like this, certainly not in reaction to anything she had ever done. Was Madeleine directing her anger at her as well? Deep down she knew it was mostly directed at Fitz, but she couldn't help but feel like she was guilty by association for not calling him out first.

For a moment she thought she was putting on a brave face, trying to think pragmatically about the situation like him. Now she felt like the worst human being on the planet, an intense feeling of guilt gripping her chest tightly. She was a vulture. A parasite, more concerned with divvying up their ill-gotten loot than mourning for their fallen classmate. A classmate who died right before their eyes, after they had mutilated her. After they had butchered her.

She started breathing heavily again, the bottle lid loosening a little. Fitz shouting back didn't help either, Cassie burying her head against her knees and covering her ears, trying to drown it all out. Distance herself from the cacophony of accusations flying around, hide from it all like the pathetic coward that she was. She barely even registered the grenade pushed into her hands, letting it drop limply to the floor with a metallic clank.

"P-please..." she mumbled. "S-s-stop shouting..."

[DerArknight]

Madeline exploded, ranting about something Dawn had been miffed about as well.

Cassie seemed still shocked.

Fitz just left. No hint where he was going. No promise that he would be back.

And Dawn? Dawn just watched their group fall apart.

No. She had to do something. If not, she would start screaming back at Madeline.

"I... I will go after him." She declared so while grabbing "her" new possessions and stuffing it into her backpack. "We will return once Fitz calms down again.

"..."

Her hands stopped mid-air for a moment.

"Sorry for dragging you two into this. This wasn't... I didn't... You know?"

Dawn's attempt at a smile failed miserably.

"See you soon."

She made it maybe fifty meters away from the building before she realized that she was clueless which direction Fitz had taken.

Or if she even wanted to return.

((Dawn Montogomery continued in Would You Like To Pet The Kitty?))

[Applesintime]

Well. Madeleine didn't know what she expected to happen there. But Fitz had stormed out and Dawn had followed after him soon after. She'd just... stood there, unsure of what to do. Unsure of if she'd even done the right thing. But she couldn't really do anything now, could she? Tenshi was under the cot. There was only one thing to do.

"Hey, Cassie. Let's get out of here."

She sounded tired.

((Madeleine Molliqaj continued in Cue Fanfare))

[Fiori]

"W-wait, whuh..."

Before Cassie even clocked onto what was happening, Dawn was halfway out the door.

She wanted to call out to her, to tell her friend to wait a second. There were so many things she wanted to talk to her about, things she didn't get a chance to say because it wasn't the right moment. 


I'm sorry about what happened to Ethan.

It's okay. You did your best and that's what mattered in the end.

We'll find a way out of here, I know you'll be able to think of something.

Thank you... For talking to me, when nobody else even knew I was there.


In the end, Cassie didn't say any of those things.

"Oh... Okay..." she mumbled weakly, watching as Dawn walked through the door. 

She waited. She probably would've been willing to wait all day if Madeleine didn't insist on them leaving, and with the stench of that body filling the air she didn't want to linger much longer anyway.

With a hesitant nod, she would gather up her new belongings, before following Madeleine through the door.

((Cassie Chao continued in Cue Fanfare))