In spite of terror,

[Dr Adjective]

[Evie McKown slinks in with her tail between her legs.]

"Ride all summer l-"

Evie's muttered verse came to an abrupt end as she made to exit the Quarters building. A sharp crack split the calm air, followed by a heavy impact nearby. Then another. Another. Even as a veteran only of simulated warfare, it didn't take overlong for the girl to recognise rifle fire. Someone far off was firing into the building, though by the sounds of it, they were hitting another side of it. Had Evie spent more time her prior, she might've been able to work out that it was the side with a direct entrance to the dining area. Had she been paying closer attention to the end of the announcement, she might've remembered that that was where Kitty Graves was set to pick up her latest prize, courtesy of sororicide.

But she hadn't done either of those things. She could only assume that either she was being shot at by someone with terrible aim, someone else was being shot at by someone of aim at least bad enough to need to shoot repeatedly, or someone was just firing wildly into a building.

All three options gave her the same conclusion that she did not want to be even close to the firing line of the person with the rifle.

So she slowly emerged from the doorway, checked all directions for as far as the wind and snow would allow her to, then bolted in the opposite direction to the origin of the gunshots.



As it would turn out, her new cover was a more familiar building. By this late stage, she barely registered the partially-covered corpse by the door: she'd seen worse. Done worse. She'd spent a night in the Infirmary before, first encountered Chloé and Lara there... and now both were as dead as Snow Drift over there. Less-lovely memories firmly aside, it was at least known ground. She made haste to check for obvious inhabitants, assessed it likely empty, took a deep breath, and burst in with her gun drawn.

SIlence greeted her.

A moment passed, Evie's eyes darting about the deserted room. Worse for wear since her last visit, riddled with gunshots and slick with blood and... was that ice cream over there?

At last she exhaled.

Evie pulled the door shut behind her, then methodically checked the interior for anyone who might yet be hiding. Nobody. Whomever had spilled the blood and/or ice-cream was seemingly long gone, and the place was hers, at least for now. Returning to the small office she'd sat in to fume several days prior, Evie slumped into the comfiest-looking chair and caught her breath, cradling her gun in her lap. It had all been so much easier when she was the only one armed, or at least when the person shooting her had been in plain sight and died pretty quickly. She'd let her confidence get the better of her in her estimation of the odds going forwards. Better get that in check.

Better get her breath under control, and keep an eye on the door, too.

[Fiori]

The door remained undisturbed, for now. Nor were there any unexpected noises elsewhere within the infirmary.

Outside however, a figure could be seen darting from building to building, keeping their head down as they made their way through the research station.

((Lillian Larsen continued from ...except for those who fear it))

Lily needed to act quickly, or lose out on her best shot at putting a stop to Katelyn's reign of terror.

Trying to snipe her from a distance proved ineffectual. Frankly, she was a terrible shot, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. If she was to have any hope at taking Kitty out, then she needed to move in closer. Not TOO close, obviously, especially given the grenade launcher Kitty was packing. But as long as Lily kept her distance, she should still be able to outrange Kitty even after moving in for an easier shot.

Unfortunately, that meant entering the research station, as there was little to no cover anywhere around it. A dangerous move, and a profoundly stupid one at that, but she couldn't afford to let Kitty get away again. She HAD to capitalise on this opportunity, even if it meant putting herself at risk for the rest of the island's sake.

She sped through the snow quickly, throwing herself into the shade of the first building she could find to catch her breath, before slowly skulking her way through the complex. Rifle at the ready, eyes on the lookout for trouble, darting from building to building as she sought one with a good view of the quarters.

Eventually she found just what she was looking for, putting her back up against the wall to wipe her brow, before taking a cautious peek around the corner. She wasn't sure which building this was, and she wasn't about to start poking her head through doors knowing that several of those structures were listed as dangerzones. A part of her wondered if she'd receive any warning, like a telltale beep, or if you'd blow up the second you passed that threshold. It wasn't something she felt inclined to put to the test.

Still, ahead of her lay a large green two-story structure, the bottom floor of which contained the dining hall where Kitty was due to pick up her BKA. It was difficult to tell if there was still anyone inside, Lily kneeling down to rest her rifle against her knee, peering through her scope to see if she could spot any movement through the windows.

Unbeknownst to her, the building she was using as cover was right next to the infirmary, and she was in clear view of the office windows.

[Dr Adjective]

Seconds passed, threatened to turn to minutes. Evie turned side-to-side in her seat, alternating kicking gently with each foot to set the desk-chair turning about a quarter of a full circle. Her eyes likewise alternated between her view of the door to the outside, and the gun nestled in her lap. As far as she knew, it'd killed three. Two of them by her hand. One of them entirely of her own volition. The full weight of it hadn't truly landed on her yet, but the shadow loomed over her head all the same.

Something to look forward to should she make it home.

An errant light caught Evie's attention after a time, as she was reaching for the walkie-talkie at her hip to inform Claire of her new safe-enough spot. It lasted only a moment, casting an unusual glare on the wall, then it was gone. The girl stood, crossed to the small window across the room, looked furtively outside. The source immediately became obvious - the scope mounted atop that mean-looking rifle being aimed by... was that Lillian Larsen? The hot goth-adjacent possibly-Satanist one? Would make sense, Evie faintly remembered her name coming up as receiving a best kill award, if only because it had been a change from Kitty and Salem hoarding the rest.

That presumably answered the identity of her not-so-sharp-shooter from earlier. But who was she firing on?

Wait. Best kills, Kitty, Salem, wheels were turning.

Oh. Oh yeah. Kitty had gotten the latest one. For killing her own sister, which even at this late stage of kill-or-be-killed struck Evie as a little fucked up. And more importantly, Evie didn't rememeber for sure, but it certainly added up that she might be picking it up at the Quarters' dining area.

Fuck. She really did need to start paying much closer attention to the news.

Shifting aside to position her body behind the metal wall rather than the glass window, Evie continued to peek out from behind the curtain. If luck remained as firmly on her side as it had done so far, there was a chance of killing two very dangerous birds with one stone, and walking away with a veritable arsenal of ill-gotten gains.

[Fiori]

No signs of Katelyn. Not even a hint of those pink cat-ears.

In fairness, a player with her notoriety wouldn't have made it this far if she was that careless, especially if she was aware of there being a sniper on the prowl. Thinking back to when Lily collected her own BKA, she remembered having a fair bit of time to shift through it, enough to even stumble across a half-empty bottle of whisky that was laying around. So there was a decent chance that Kitty was still inside there, planning her next move.

What Lily needed to figure out then was what that would be, trying to put herself in Kitty's shoes. The front entrance was a no-go, too risky at this point. That left her with either the backdoor, or crawling out one of the windows. Both were risky, given how much open ground there was surrounding the building, but it wasn't like Kitty had any better options.

Unless... On her way over, Lily passed a number of entrances outside the other buildings, each leading down into a tunnel system of some kind. Every building had one, all save for the quarters itself. Seemed like a pretty big oversight at first glance, until it crossed her mind that there might be a way of accessing the tunnels from inside. Something like that'd be the perfect escape route, certainly what Lily would use instead of braving it out in the open.

If that were the case... Then that meant Kitty could be anywhere in the facility by now.

Lily bit down on her bottom lip, a chill running down her spine. It was hard to not feel like she was being watched.

Feeling pinpricks at the back of her neck, she suddenly spun around to look behind her, rifle at the ready...

...no killers prowling up on her, thank Christ for that.

She did, however, spot some movement out the corner of her eye in a nearby window.

Lily pretended not to notice at first, a bead of sweat dripping from her brow as she turned back towards the quarters. Quietly observing the green building from afar, just in case she caught another fleeting glimpse of her mark.

Her head then snapped back towards the window, her eyes meeting her observer's before they had a chance to slip away again.

[Dr Adjective]

From Evie's perspective, it seemed like Lily was waiting for someone. Assessing the situation, Evie concluded she must either not have gotten her target, or had more than one to worry about. She'd fired several times, and Evie hadn't seen or heard anyone fleeing the Quarters, the obvious takeaway would be that Lillian wasn't a great marksman and she'd emptied her gun into the walls before deciding to reposition.

The curtain twitched as the girl behind it leaned in for another look. Yeah, Lily's focus was on the same door that Evie herself had exited from. Another point for the she's hoping for an ambush column. Evidently she wasn't aware of the additional way in and out through the basement, but perhaps her quarry wasn't either. Maybe there was a version of this where the two could cooperate somehow? No, no that didn't seem likely, what reason would either of the girls have not to just shoot the other in the back the second they were done with the bigger threat? No, best to just keep a low profile, wait until the aftermath to make a...

Shit.

Evie's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by Lillian's eyes locking with hers. She immediately stopped thinking about cunning plans, panic instead taking centre-stage in her mind. She jerked away from the window, half-expecting it to explode in a shower of shattered glass within seconds. Then she dropped to the floor, unwilling to take the risk that Lily's mean-looking rifle could penetrate the walls at closer range. On hands and knees, Evie scrambled behind the desk, clutched her handgun tight, and tried to breathe steady as she awaited the inevitable hail of gunfire.

Seconds passed in agonising stillness, broken only by the staccato rhythm of air in and out of Evie's nose.

Nothing.

Had Lily recognised her? Had she taken Evie for a scared bystander taking shelter from the firefight, not seen a fellow lurking predator?

Well... eventually she'd have to get up and find out. Evie lifted her eyes to the door, expecting it to burst open any moment.

Yet stillness reigned.

[Fiori]

The figure behind the window quickly withdrew, ducking out the way before Lily had a chance to tell who they were.

It wasn't Kitty, of that she was certain. She was a brunette for starters, though given that Jezzie and Evie were still on the loose that did little to comfort her. Nevertheless her onlooker seemed more concerned with remaining hidden than starting a fight, which was promising, though Lily made sure to keep an eye on that window just in case.

She glanced back at the green building up ahead, trying to focus on the task at hand. The sensible thing to do right now would be to circle around the quarters, confirm whether or not Kitty was still inside, before seeking out another good vantage point to scope out the rest of the facility. Even if she was using the tunnels to sneak around, she'd still need to go overland eventually. There was still a chance Lily could catch her out in the open again if she played her cards right.

It was difficult, however, to ignore the girl in the window. The last thing Lily wanted was for some innocent third party to get caught in the crossfire, or fall prey to Kitty whilst she was poking around elsewhere. For all Lily knew, she might not even be aware of the danger she was in right now, and as long as she remained hidden Lily couldn't even signal for her to be careful.

With a frustrated sigh, Lily quickly scanned her surroundings before rushing to the infirmary, slamming her back against the wall beside the window. She couldn't continue without warning whoever was in there, taking a deep breath as she reached out to lightly tap on the window with her knuckles.

"Psst, hey!" she whispers, maintaining a hushed tone to avoid drawing too much attention. "Keep your head down! Kitty's on the prowl nearby..." she continues, pausing for a second as a thought crossed her mind. "Don't suppose you've seen her?"

[Dr Adjective]

Until the stillness broke. Unlike prior extended silences, this time it wasn’t shattered by an explosion of violence, or even an outburst of anger. No, just a gentle knock on the window. It reminded Evie of her mother’s many police procedurals, like a cop was about to motion for a driver to roll down the window, ask if the driver knew why they’d been pulled over.

It was such a weirdly out-of-place gesture, though given the harsh stage-whisper that followed, it started to make sense. Lily obviously hadn’t recognised her after all. She also helpfully confirmed that Kitty Graves was in the vicinity, probably hadn’t gone far since taking out her sister in the basement.

So. Options.

Evie put her left hand on the ground, prepared to climb to her feet. She had two obvious courses of action: play along, or shoot first. Would Lily recognise her voice? Probably. Her face thereafter, for sure. But there was a chance to learn something in the mean time. Alternatively, as her sore wrist could attest, Evie’s gun packed a massive punch and could presumably punch through the window just fine, make very short work of Lillian and score Evie the Killer a very nice rifle.

New steps, but essentially stop the same dance.

Ultimately, she opted to go with caution. To keep her options open. Evie stayed behind the desk, on one hand and one knee, and responded with the same hushed tone.

“You’re the first person I’ve seen around here,”

It was… mostly true. The basement could be argued to be around elsewhere.

“Was that you shooting?”

[Fiori]

"Yeah... That was me" Lily replied after a momentary pause, inching along the wall away from the window.

Much as Lily wished she was wrong, there was no mistaking that voice. That was Evie McKown on the other side of that window. Under normal circumstances that wouldn't be an issue, after all Evie had always struck her as pretty harmless. Their social circles didn't exactly overlap, but she'd never heard anyone badmouth her or gotten the impression there was anything amiss with her. It's why she was so shocked when the news dropped about Evie gunning down Chloe, before later adding DeMarcus and Lara to her tally.

Then again, perhaps she shouldn't be so surprised by now. So many of her classmates had caved into this game, several of whom were folk she considered friends at one point or another. Christ, she could hardly consider herself better at this point, given her reasons for being there in the first place. She could tell herself all she liked that she was just trying to protect her friends, but that didn't change the fact that she was trying to hunt down one of her former classmates. Like it or not, she'd gone and given into this game as well.

Still, who knows. Maybe Evie wasn't playing, and she'd just run into a series of unfortunate circumstances. Lily wasn't counting on that being the case, however. She was finding it increasingly difficult to give folk the benefit of the doubt anymore.

"Was aiming for Kitty. Saw her heading into the quarters" she continues, keeping her eyes on the green building ahead of her. "Dunno if she's still there, or if she's used the tunnels to slip away..."

She glanced back, peering over her shoulder just in case, before letting out a sigh of relief.

Well. Time to address the elephant in the room.

"You've, uh..." she began, words lingering in the air for a moment. "Been busy, I take it?"

[Dr Adjective]

At least that confirmed things: Kitty was in the neighbourhood, and once more sheer dumb luck had protected Evie's hide from the island's top predator. Next time she'd be armed with knowledge, next time she'd be careful. Careful like Lily had apparently been trying to be, aiming to hunt the most dangerous game from a safe distance.

With Lily at the window, Evie decided it was safe enough to move closer, make the conversation just a little less difficult and frankly weird. She rose to her feet, crossed back to the window. Even so, she kept her back to the metal wall, her gun ready to shatter glass and whatever else was unlucky enough to be on the other side of it. Lillian on the other hand saw fit to risk poking a different dangerous animal. Everyone knew to fear a vicious cat, but otters had seemingly avoided the same reputation, though Evie herself knew it all too well. Lucky for Lily then, Evie remained largely rational.

"You could say that," she began. "I can explain, if you're interested in hearing it,"

Wait. Why did she even need to explain herself? Lily had literally admitted her plan to assassinate Kitty. With a gun she earned by impressing the terrorists better than anyone else on whatever day it was, by killing whoever the fuck. She wasn't better than Evie. Not that anybody was, but even the basic "killing bad" moralist outlook was right out too. So Evie poked back.

"Not as impressively as you though, apparently."

[Fiori]

Lily shrugged. "Didn't seem all that impressive at the time" she retorted, her palm stinging as she thought back to that painful memory. "Don't think explanations will be necessary. Neither of us are exactly innocent anymore."

Truth be told, she wasn't in the mood to start trying to justify herself to Evie. She'd long made peace over what happened, accepted that she wasn't able to figure out a way of stopping Janice that didn't involve lethal force. She didn't forgive herself for what happened back at the mines, but it was the only thing she'd done that seemed to make any difference. If that's how things worked on this island, then so be it. Better that than sitting quietly as her friends died one after another.

Lily also wasn't interested in hearing whatever excuses Evie was likely to conjure up. She'd already let two killers slip away after letting them say their piece, one of whom gave her that scar, the other went on to win another BKA. She wasn't going to be that naïve again, not if she could help it.

Still, there were pragmatic reasons why she wanted to avoid a confrontation with Evie. They weren't exactly alone, after all.

"Look, imma level with you Evie..." Lily began, gripping her rifle tightly. "I'm not interested in a war on two fronts right about now. Not sure if you're aware, but Katelyn has a grenade launcher. Either of us start making a ruckus, and we're both good as dead."

[decoy73]

((Kaede Tsurumi continued from We Can All Agree Snow Kinda Sucks, Right?))

Two days, two more announcements, and, what, twenty more people dead?

Death was getting boring.

Well, Joshua James was dead, and Kitty had killed her sister, so, there was that.

Kaede just walked into the infirmary building. She and Dani had split off yesterday, probably to give each other some more space, but now Kaede was getting antsy. It was the weird thing about being alone that she was realizing - nobody to turn on her, or for her. So she was going around, well, aimlessly, and when she heard the voices on the other side of the door, she just started knocking.

She wasn't completely defenseless, though. She had pepper spray, and she'd found an incredible weapon.

A rock.

[Dr Adjective]

So she’d already decided who Evie was. Made it seem somehow fair or even-handed by making it an indictment of both of them. Sure. Okay. Maybe Lily knew herself to be a callous killer, that didn’t give her the right to put Evie the Killer in the same box. Evie hadn’t embraced the notion, just… accepted the practical necessity of it.

Or maybe she was reading too much into it. But to be described as somehow guilty, it incensed her. Evie was not the guilty party, she just refused to be a casualty as well as a victim.

“And why should I, hell, why should either of us trust each other in this, if we’re not-innocent?”

What reason did Evie have not to just shoot Lily the second her back was turned? What reason did Lily have not to do likewise? Assuming she was even telling the truth, each other’s weapons and supplies were still very tempting bounties. Maybe she should just…

“How’s about you walk away in one direction, and I w—“

Another knock. Truly, politeness was not dead.

“Who the hell…”

Evie’s words were lower, perhaps inaudible, but certainly still spoken aloud. She put her back against the wall, turned towards the office’s closed door, and aimed her gun squarely at it. From experience, she was reasonably sure the flimsy barrier would provide little defence against .50 calibre rounds. Why she chose not to shoot immediately, she didn’t truly know, but perhaps it was the incongruence of the polite knocking.

“Who’s there?” she asked the door.

“Are they with you?” she appended, aimed more towards the window.

[Fiori]

"Because we both want to walk away from here alive, that's why" was Lily's curt response, keeping an eye on that window in case Evie opted to make the first move. "Not asking you to trust me, I'm telling you to not do something stupid that'll get us both killed."

A part of her couldn't blame Evie for being paranoid. Were it not for the killer packing heavy firepower lurking nearby, she doubted they would still be talking at this point. She couldn't just let Evie walk away, not after what happened the last few times she let a player go. But neither did she want to risk revealing her position to Kitty, and end up as another tally on her scoreboard.

For a moment, she briefly considered the idea of trying to talk Evie into teaming up with her, work together to take out a mutual threat. She was quick to dismiss the thought however, way too risky. Lily had little doubt that Evie would gun her down the moment her back was turned. Much as she hated to admit it, the pragmatic thing right now would be to quietly part ways, put some distance between themselves before figuring out her next move.

Evie seemed to be in agreement, taking the words right out of her mouth... Before an errant knock on the door threw everything out of whack.

A knot formed in Lily's chest, briefly taken aback by this new development. Had Kitty snuck up on them?! No, that couldn't be her. Kitty wouldn't have bothered knocking. It was more likely some innocent third party who had arrived at the worst possible time, not realising how much danger they had just put themselves in.

That... Changed things, a bead of sweat running down Lily's brow.

"Eeeeasy now, Evie... No, they're not with me" she replies, waiting to hear the newcomer's response.

[decoy73]

Knock knock knock

Nothing. Well, there might have been more talking, but there was no door opening. As such, Kaede had only one thing to do.

Knock knock KNOCK

“Who’s there?” She paused at the voice she barely heard above the knocking.

"Kaede. Tsurumi. Can I come in?"

[Dr Adjective]

Two thoughts came to mind in response to Kaede's answer. The first, perhaps obviously, was that it was Kaede. Unless she was lying in a strangely specific fashion, but how could a non-Kaede newcomer possibly know that her arrival right now, right at this particular moment, would put Evie even more on edge than she already was? How would they even know it was Evie? No, it wasn't someone trying to take advantage of how Kaede and Dani had been joined at the hip for as long as anyone could remember, and how Evie had just killed the latter mere minutes ago. It was just a really cruel quirk of fate, or probability, or whatever unseen force decided to put the two girls together here, now.

The second was that she didn't seem to be aware of Lily's presence, which made the denial of being in kahoots plenty believable. So at least that took just the slightest sharpness off of that edge.

So. Could she come in?

What would be worse? Waking up tomorrow morning and learning that you'd just run into your best friend's killer, hadn't known, hadn't been able to do anything about it? Waking up that way having been invited in from the cold by her, too? Finding out from her directly, just bluntly being told "oh hey I shot your bff, my bad"?

Or dying without ever knowing?

But then, if anything was likely to spur Lily to violence, it'd be hearing gunfire, wouldn't it? Right now things were calm, if Evie broke that seal, Kitty would become merely her second priority. Evie would top the list. Not ideal.

But speaking of violence, of gunfire...

"You armed, Kaede Tsurumi?"