Survival Of The Fittest

Luke laughed at Teo's response, but paused at Bounce and Charles's reaction.

"Not a stunt?" Luke though, thinking about the implications for a second before shaking them off. "No, it can't be real, there are too many flaws in the possibility.

Luke mused on the ideas. What would a person have to gain for doing a show like that, if it were real? Money, perhaps? Getting a show on air takes quite a bit of money and manpower, not to mention costs for equiptment like cameras, and recording, and all the infostructure to produce a show. It can't be through merchandise and television, surely? Those have papertrails and links that anyone should be able to trace back to their source.

Logistics were another thing. Transporting a mass of people, suddenly dissapearing from their lives? Improbable, near impossible. Not really something imaginably *quiet.* And what of the winner? If the show was true, then surely their experiences would be heard, more wideplace? The governement would know whether all of this were true or not and thus there would be measures within our school system to prevent this sort of thing occuring to student here. The government cracked down on terrorism after 9/11, securing the airlines and leading a war. Isn't this show, if real, no different?

No, it can't be real. Luke summerised, Besides, the idea that someone would willing have students, people whom they were friends with, willingly end those bonds is.... just too terrifing. It has to be fake.

Luke looked up at Bounce. Though, whoever this girl is, she appears to know a bit about it. Luke paused, then grinned to himself, smelling a challenge, Let's see if it stands up to reason.

Luke heard Teo talking, but he didn't notice: his interest had been piqued.

"I still believe the show to be a stunt and I'll prove it." Luke said to Bounce and Charles, pulling out his notebook and ripping out some pages. He arranged them in a brainstorm-style, placing "SOTF, stunt or not?" in the middle, with blank pages around it. He wrote, "Money" "Government" and "Operation" on a seperate page each.

"Take this point," Luke indicated, picking up the page saying "Money" and moving it to the centre of the table. "A show like this, real or fake, would require a heck of a lot of it to run. Besides however they film the thing and what all that equiptment costs, there is whatever the students get; various weapons, whatever. Costs after these basic needs for it to run would diverge here, depending if it were real or not. If fake, there's only the cost of props and actor salaries, within a studios budget."

"But, if real, then costs rise a significant amount." Luke continued, adjusting his glasses while he was speaking, "We would then be talking real weapons, the cost of getting real people there, keeping the people there in terms of manpower and physical security, like an electric fence as an example to keep them all in place. Then, after said show is said and done, getting it to a station to be broadcasted, which, geez, is another bag of worms. Quickly, I can't imagine studios would willingly accept being handed the show if it were real and if they were, that sort of thing must be traceable. So, if real, they're putting themselves on side of terrorism. Maybe they would, it wouldn't surprise me but I honestly would doubt it. Therefore, if we keep to the line of thought that it is real in this senario, it must be hacked into the station it is broadcasted on. Which, once again, is more money. I guess if one has the ability to hack a station, theyhave theability to stop it being traced so easily, but still."

"Forgive me for thinking it out for so long, but my point is this," Luke finalised, leaning back on his chair. "IF real, this show would cost a staggering amount in pure production and the more money it costs the easier it would be to find it and shut it down. I just can't see it being feasible. How do they gather the funding to keep it going? It can't be something so obvious as mercandise. Why? Paper trails are traceable, they wouldnt produce it themselves as companies aren't the easiest things to hide and if real, it's the first place someone looking to shut it down would go."

Luke looked to the table, interested in hearing thoughts on the matter. He was wishing he knew a little more about the subject matter; some of his thoughts probably were addressed long ago. Then again, his mind wandering back to the implications of what it meant if it were real, he was glad he knew so little.

Bounce rolled her eyes as everyone and their cousin at the table decided to sound-off about SotF. They really had no idea what they were talking about... and had completely misinterpreted what had been meant by stunt in the first place. Bounce hadn't been trying to suggest it was all real (although the evidence suggested that was the case), just that it wasn't a show designed purely to get ratings with over the top gore and sex. There were, as she'd pointed out, good and engaging storylines and characters.

She looked down at her dinner and shook her head. She'd somewhat lost her appetite and was irritated besides by Luke and Charles.

"I have no interest in your unfounded accusations," Bounce informed the latter, before looking to the former. "As for 'money'... are you suggesting paying the salaries of hundreds of actors would be cheaper than equipment? And besides... if it were fake, there is no explanation for the fact that in the previous game, a good deal of footage had to be reconstructed. The whole program was off the air for a good while."

Bounce shook her head again.

"None of you have the first idea what you're talking about. Good day."

And with that, she stood and headed off out of the cafeteria. Blunt as always.

((Bounce --> Elsewhere)

Charles shook his head, he may have been rather opinionated (and so was the girl by the looks of it), but he wasn't completely off-base was he? Maybe... no... well.... It didn't matter anyway, the girl was gone and there was no point continuing an argument in which only he had a clear position.

"Well, since I've finished my lunch, or at least what I could stomach of it, I think I'll be going too." Charles said, adding, "And if you still have any ideas as to SotF being a falsehood, I would suggest looking into the fate of a girl named Amanda Jones."

Charles pushed his way though the crowds to the cafetorium's exit.

((Charles Richard Dawson continued elsewhere))

Relaxing somewhat, now that more.. vocal.. of the students had left, Logan attempted to change the subject to something a little less contraversial. "So.." he began, smirking somewhat as he spoke. "Damn, this got awkward, didn't it?" he continued, scratching the side of his neck and resisting the urge to laugh at himself for pointing out the obvious.
He was quiet for a few seconds, during which he opened a chocolate bar and took a bite. Finally, having decided what he wanted to say, he actually did change the subject. "So, semester's almost over, what're you guys doing with yourselves next year?".
With that, the lanky young man leaned back in his chair, took another bite, and casually surveyed the rest of the cafetorium with rather bored eyes.

Teo leaned back as his fellow classmates got up and left the table. Clearly, someone had hit a nerve with Bounce who stormed off in a fashion not unlike an indignant cat. Surprisingly Charles followed suit, albeit with a little less venom in his closing statement. Glancing at Logan Teo shrugged as he took another bite of his steak. "Wow, yeah, tough crowd hey? Next year, probably doing an economics or business degree or something. Haven't thought about it too much though, the class trip is going to be great and I'm going to be awesome."

Teo didn't mind talking about the future, but in all honestly, he had a general plan so far and didn't really worry himself with the details, he was in complete control so it didn't concern him. People seemed so set in the far future these days, he just wanted to have some fun for the next little while, and, although Tash wasn't going on the trip, it didn't mean he couldn't check out some of the girls in the year in a little more secluded area. Plus, the camp itself would be fun, and from what he had heard about it so far, would definitely lend itself to his competitive side. With only a few more days of school left he was raring to go.

Teo glanced back at Logan once again. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but everytime he ran in to the dude he felt that something wasn't quite right with him. He was polite enough and his honesty, at points was refreshing but there was just something Teo couldn't place which screamed out to him that Logan was 'off.' Maybe it was the way he seemed to be constantly analysing everything around him, or that he would just state information without regard to people's emotional state, it was something Teo couldn't understand. Either way it didn't affect him much, so he dismissed the thought.

Turning to Luke he motioned. "What about you big boy?"

Pausing for a second Teo remembered that the girl's tennis team was playing a match. Something he wanted to watch. Those short skirts were so hot.

"Actually dude, I'm out, I'll catch you all around."

Standing up and putting his stuff away Teo headed off, a grin on his face.

((Teo Weinstock continued in Resolve on the ISLAND))