Survival Of The Fittest

"It doesn't have to go down like this."

It was hard not to panic in a situation that left her as good as helpless again. She blinked, blinked, blinked as she used her free hand to reach in one of her bags, pulling out an unopened bottle of water. It wasn't really a sacrifice on her part.

Cheridene's.

She slid the bottle towards the potentially violent Violet, sighing when it bounced off of Dane's shoulder. It was still in the interloper's general direction but... yikes.

Blink. Blink.

I visited my friend at his new house. He told me to make myself at home.

Thomas's hand... oh, she'd have to apologize later, she wasn't gripping gently. It was a good thing Sean had so much courage, him being able to admit his feelings in a situation that was soooo twisted warmed her heart. Free hand going to her mouth, she started to bite her nails in a way that drew blood.

So I threw him out.

The tension was so hard to bear, and breaking it would just interrupt what Sean had to say. However the other girl felt about it, he deserved to be heard out.

Hopefully this talk would just be with words.

I hate having visitors.

Violet made no move to attack, weapon still lowered.

For now.

Yes, for now everything remained calm enough, though a palpable tension still hung in the air. Thomas did not take his hand off of the pistol.

Sakurako’s little bit with the water hopefully helped Violet feel a bit more at ease, even if Thomas’s hand did feel like it was in a vice (though Thomas wasn’t exactly innocent of doing the same to Sakurako).

Then Sean had to go explaining himself.

What the shit is he thinking?

Now, it didn’t seem likely that Sean’s confession would make Violet violently upset or anything of that sort, but it certainly wasn’t going to deescalate things. It could catch her off-guard or make her feel threatened.

It’s just another thing that could send everything spiralling into chaos. You don’t need any more of those.

Still, there wasn’t much Thomas could say to help things as they were. All he could do was try to keep a calm expression so as not to overwhelm their new arrival.

Oh. That's what it was.




...oh.

That's what it was.

---

Throughout her travails on the island, Violet had been taking each encounter, presented to her by a synchronous and aware world—a set of forces that adapted each and every interaction to her rising and falling karma—to have a lesson hidden within. There was a meaning to each exchange, a fable behind each face she fled from, feared, or felled. Sometimes, that message was a warning against future exchanges.

The knife Layla pressed against her throat taught her that anyone she used to trust could betray her; the fact that it was sheathed on her belt loop taught her that she could overcome her.

The guilt she felt when she faced Dolly meant to stay away from others; the fact that Dolly was long gone meant that Violet had succeeded in carrying a burden that would crush most of the people that she used to know.

The horror she felt at seeing Kyle sprayed against hardwood taught her that killing someone was wrong; the crossbow she received as a reward taught her that she'd have to do it again.





What was Sean teaching her?




Or,

more accurately,

what was the world trying to teach her through Sean?

---

"I care about you, um, Sean," Violet stammered out, trying not to look at his face, "and I'm glad that I, uh, left a good impression on you, as a friend."

The air was still and sticky and hot. Violet was sweaty under her cult robe. She took a swig of the water bottle that Sakurako held out to her. The water was also warm. She wanted to spit it out all over the ground, spit up all the blood and dirt and pain that had balled itself up as a cyst in her throat. The filthy feeling on her skin from the thought of Sean touching her. She stopped seriously breaking out in hives years ago, but if there ever was a time for the hives to sneak their way back in, to make their way crawling onto her skin once more, it was now. Once she freed herself of these three, she'd have to ditch the rest of her clothes, or at least her shirt. The robe was enough to protect her against the environment, and layering up under that in this weather exposed her to heat stroke.

"Um, I hope that, we can remain friends? In the little time we have, that we can stay on good terms, I think, uh, that would be good."

It wasn't the smoothest speech Sean had ever done. Words almost fumbled, the heat in his face rising and the clump in his throat threatening to make it's pressence known. But he'd said it and she reacted better than he thought she would.

Still shot down, Sean could see from the body language alone that it was the case as hard as that was, but at least it was just figuratively and not, y'know, literally.

Though... It would be a lie to say it didn't hurt. Like something pooled up in his chest had gotten punctured out. Even with all he'd heard about her, he still thought of her the way he had done back then, but that isn't enough.

Unlike Thomas, he wouldn't find success in that area.

"Yeah... as friends." He'd said his piece and she had said hers. And that was that. A shuffle in his feet as he breathed in and out.

Technically, it was all fine and dandy and all that, probably the best way it would have gone for them in this case. He could take some hurt there as long as his group was safe.

He looked back to them, Sakurako and Thomas. They were his priority now. and he hoped they had something to distract him from these thoughts and feelings that were now itching inside.

She'd never seen an exchange quite so awkward before, and she'd walked in on Blake and Aditi's food incident. It was like a paper airplane sailing in the sky only to land in someone's lunch. The Price Wasn't Right for Sean, and he'd won...

(The soft smile when he looked back at them, for one.)

Well, friendship certainly wasn't nothing. Sakurako valued it dearly, but...

The moment just seemed so anti-climactic, nearly banal. Her grip loosened, letting Thomas's hand rest a bit. The hand without the gun, and really, did friends need to keep their guns out around each other? That answer was simple: Violet was Sean's friend, not the two of theirs, and Sakurako didn't know if the other girl honestly meant to stay on good terms with him or was just being tactful.

She looked a bit too far into the game for tact. Much too far to be a part of The Rest of The Plan, because even if by some miracle they succeeded at being recused... everyone who'd killed on this island was still essentially condemned to their death. Her smile sharpened.

It'd be the ultimate fuck you to every thoughtless killer here.

It was an idle thought, less than nothing.

On the positive end of things, no one had freaked out, and no one had gotten shot yet. Sakurako’s grip on Thomas’s hand loosened and he did the same to hers, though he wasn’t prepared to let go just yet.

However, Violet had clearly kind of turned Sean down which felt like a bit of a letdown after Sean’s ballsy move.

But is that really a negative? Violet’s clearly not in the best spot and if she went and returned Sean’s feelings, what would that mean? You’d be dragging along a ticking time bomb that would put all of you at risk. It’s better this way. It’s better she leaves.

It like a crappy way to think of things, but Thomas understood that the people he cared about were better off without Violet around.

Still, it was better he let her leave of her own accord, rather than having the three of them make some move that might upset her. Violet had proven more thoughtful than he’d feared, but there was no way he was going to bank everyone’s safety on Violet’s continued ability to act reasonably.

Violet still stood separate from the rest of them, a wall of mutual unease keeping them apart. Even with the brief overtures, this was still a standoff, but no one was willing to draw or act like friends in anything other than name.

Somebody’s got to call the bluff or you all will just end up standing here until Aditi and Charelle show up, which might just make everything worse.

Why did Thomas have to be the one to move this forward?

“So, would you like to sit down for a bit? I mean, we don’t want to hold you up if you have someone you’re looking for or somewhere to be. Also, just so you know we’ve got a couple other people that might be swinging by here in a bit, but they’re cool.” He explained calmly, maintaining that welcoming smile. “But yeah, we totally have the space for you to sit down for a bit.”

He was smiling, but he was hoping she’d take the opportunity to ditch. It felt underhanded, catty to approach it this way. Thomas wished he could just ask her to go away, but Violet Schmidt had a gun and guns made everything more complicated.

You have a gun.

Yeah, but that was different. Thomas hadn’t killed anyone.

It seemed like Sean was taking this all in stride. He was alright with being friends. That was good! Splendid, even. A desired outcome. He looked a little shifty, but Violet had been the same just a few weeks ago at Desiree's house. She knew how he felt, which made this all the more difficult for her. The memory was distant, almost wholly faded with the harsh staticbuzzynoise of the last several days, but although Desiree had not explicitly rejected her she'd been silent enough that it was implied. It was impossible, anyhow. How can you love someone you don't feel like you can touch, anyway?

Thomas offered Violet a spot in the group and an opportunity to stay with them for a bit while she recuperated. She was tempted for a moment, but she desired not to stay any longer near Sean. It'd be harder for him if he had to be present near her, after she killed any hopes he had at a relationship. Besides, there was a strong impulse in her chest, telling her to take her leave. It felt not of this world, a guiding gradual tumblingrumblingnoise that would guide her away from this trial and to the next. From here, they would not be easy. Another murder was on the horizon. She was sure. Death was on the approach.

"I'd like to," Violet began, "but I should get moving. I've, uh, got some things that need doing. Personal stuff. Like finding a place that isn't out in the open, to sleep in, eventually. There's a temple up on the hill that, um, that you could probably go inside, and sleep, in case the rain comes back or someth—"

Something slammed into her ankles. Something heavy. Something solid. It took her off of the ground, sending her stumbling forward. The gun left her hands, flew over the people in front of her, bounced once off of the ground, discharged into the air over the sea, and clattered a few feet more, just enough to go over the edge of the cliff. Violet threw her arms out, her hands now free, to catch herself, but her knees hit the ground first, scraping against the dirt. Whatever hit her stopped when it did, coming to a final halt right behind her. Panicked, Violet turned around, a hand on the knife in her belt loop, ready to jump at whatever foe had made the mistake of trying to ambush her today, whatever poor unfortunate soul would soon be departing this plane—

and found that the one responsible for sending her to the ground had already made that journey long ago—


and screamed in terror before falling back onto her hands.

Violet seemed to agree that it was best for everyone that she go, which was a bit of a relief, but Thomas had no intention of letting his eyes off the girl until she was well out of sight. He didn’t want her getting second thoughts…

Mid-sentence, Violet seemed to lurch forward suddenly, an aggressive move.

Thomas acted on instinct.

Shot up to his feet.

Fired the pistol.

The recoil didn’t knock him back so badly this time, but he heard Violet’s gun let out a loud blast at the same time as his own and for a moment he was convinced that the two of them had just killed each other. At least he’d died saving Sakurako and Sean, he’d grasp his wounds and fall back off the cliff knowing he’d saved the people he cared about.

But…

But as he stared into the spot where he had fired, the spot where Violet Schmidt had been standing, it became clear that “had” was the operative term. Violet was now on the ground, screaming and… there was a corpse?

Where did…?

He was so focused…

Violet didn’t even seem to have her gun now. Thomas had no idea where it had gone, but there was no one else here that could be using it to cause a problem right now. The problem here was that he’d almost killed Violet for nothing.

What was that about guns making things more complicated?

Oh holy shit Thomas had been the one to fuck this all up. Everything was going to go to hell because he acted too fast. He wasn’t paying attention to anything else because he was so worried about what Violet was doing!.

No, shit happens, right? Focus. How do you maintain control of the situation now that shit has happened?

It wasn’t an entirely reassuring train of thought, but he did need to focus on the immediate. He decided that pretending that he hadn’t fired would likely be a bad move, even if Violet somehow hadn’t noticed the distinction in the two discharges. And so, Thomas aimed his pistol directly down at Violet, the two time killer, and hoped she would be better than him.

“Fuck… Fuck, I’m sorry Violet. Y-You’re right… You probably should go.” Thomas’s voice was quiet, but controlled. If he spoke any louder, put any more emphasis into his words, it felt as though something in him might crack open, spilling forth nonsense that he did not need right now.

It seems like everything was fine. Thomas was offering her to stay, in a way that was the opposite of what Sean wanted at that moment. Things were ust going to be awkward around them and Sean could tell she wasn't really up for it herself. As they talked, he looked back to Sakurako to gauge how she felt about this.

Sean felt a jolt run up his spine as the sound of gunshots cracked the air and he jumped back as suddenly as the shots that were fired. For a second Sean couldn't tell what had happened as his arms went up in front of his face as a shield and only dared to put them ever so slightly after a bit, but Violet was on the ground sans gun and Thomas had his drawn. He told her to leave.

Words wouldn't make their presence known from Sean, instead he stood there staring at him. Eyes wide. And when his eyes went back to her, then he saw the body. It took him a bit to recognise who it was. Arms went down fully in shock.

"is that Kyle?" His voice barely above a whisper. He almost couldn't breathe due to the smell alone, but it wasn't that that made Sean's heart almost stop.

It was the name and what it represented. What he had ignored for the sake of this.

He took a step back from her, and him.

Thomas graciously offered Violet a place to rest, and Sakurako knew that was a lie the moment she heard it. It was like offering someone the last of your... well, she generally didn't eat them, but theoretically it was like offering someone the last of your fries.

The correct answer was thanks but no thanks.

Not deeply invested in that talk, she looked up and things took a turn for the...

"What the fuck?!?"

Cinematic.

Someone came crashing down at Violet's feet, which made her lose her balance, which made the gun go off and into the winds, which made Thomas stand and fire at Violet, and the rolling person made the occultist go tumbling for just a bit, which made Sakurako attempt to save the new Cheridenes before she realized that simply wasn't happening with no support for her leg, which made her howl in frustration, and then.

The stench of death hit her nostrils, sickening enough to make her gag, as she realized whoever had been sent to visit them hadn't died in front of her eyes. Seemed Violet understood it too, but Sean somehow recognized the ??? as Kyle, someone who'd been about as genuine a person as you could find at George Hunter. He was really smart too, the kind of person who might have figured out the loophole in this situation had he been given the time.

Time was a real bitch here, wasn't it?

Thomas had decided to double down on his violence against Violet. Really double down. She was clearly in distress, it wasn't necessary, and the Rube Goldberg machine that popped up two minutes ago hadn't been the cause of his choice. Maybe the catalyst, but certainly not the cause.

All this going on, and she couldn't help it. She needed to know this Thomas as much as she knew her buddy back home.

All this going on, and she couldn't help but utterly dissolve into cackling laughter, clutching their bags to keep from tossing herself off the cliff. This was so horrifying and tense, but above all it was fucking hilarious. Someone up there had a sick sense of humor, and she was glad that Aditi and Charelle wouldn't see them like this, more Three Stooges than fellow conspirators.

"It's actually raining men! Or maybe someone really just wanted to let the bodies hit the floor..."

She could feel Dane narrow his eyes at her, in spirit.

Kyle was here.

Some specter had caused him to rise, headless and decayed, from his splayed out mess on the floor of the temple, and shamble out and down the hill. He tripped on the way, rolled all the way down, and took out Violet's legs—or maybe it was a concentrated effort of the un-dead, an act of revenge. The smell of death hit Violet's nose yet again. She knew that scent like a sister.

Violet couldn't see the pistol for a few moments. Her vision was tunneled in on the fallen body of Kyle as she panted and gasped for breath, eyes wide, skin set aflame, as she waited for it to rise and pounce yet again. The more she breathed, the wider her field of vision—the wider her field of vision, the quicker she saw the gun. She looked up at Thomas, steady, pointing down at her with his weapon, ready to splash her brains across the dirt and send her soul straight to the hells. A thousand pinprick voices stabbed at her pupils from the inside, screaming at each other about what Violet should do.

Her rifle was gone.

She had to suppress the urge to get up and look for it. If she did, she'd surely be shot. It was probably gone for good, whether that meant that one of the others had it or that it had gone over the edge of the cliff. Violet kept eye contact with Thomas as she caught her breath, her hands still firmly planted on the ground behind her. She'd be in no position to protect herself if someone jumped on her right now, bashed her skull into the ground. This was it. Violet could lose. Right here. Right now.

But only if she wasn't careful.

This was, like everything that came before, a trial. This scenario was designed. It was designed to defeat her, but there was a way she could get out. There was always a way to get out. No challenge up to this point had been unwinnable. Think. She'd held Lorenzo off at the pier. She'd convinced Kyle to help her, and to come with her. She'd beaten a robber who, by all rights, should have killed her. She walked into Michael and Lori and Claudeson's fight on the waterfall and come out alive, a blind jump into darkness. She could come out of this.

Violet looked again at Kyle. Tried to. The sun was in her eyes, and they were watering. If she lifted a hand from the ground, Thomas would shoot her. She couldn't wipe the fluid from her eyes. Couldn't keep it from spilling out. It was humiliating, sitting there, with water coming from her eyes. She wasn't crying. This wasn't enough to make her cry. Violet had been through worse. And yet the tears came, silently, rolling down her cheeks.

Tears.

That was it.

"Sorry," she said, "I'm sorry, to have frightened you."

Violet leaned forward, taking her hands off of the ground only to put them back down in front of them as she leaned over Kyle's corpse.

Tears fell from her eyes and onto his chest.

"I'll go," she said, "just give me a second, okay?"

She sniffled. There we go. Looked up at Thomas, eyes glistened with tears.

"Please?"

Please.

Fall for it.

(Zachary Beck, continued from Low Times)

Zach looked at the sign before the cliff. Whatever was written there had long since faded. It probably used to be a warning sign. Zach kept a sharp eye out for every step he took as he moved forward, less he somehow walked off the edge like lemming.

He could see the ocean. Nothing but ocean. A large, wet void just below the high elevation of land. Zach wondered, if one were to take the plunge, would they died on impact from shock? Or perhaps, would they drown if they were lucky (or unlucky) to survive the fall? Either way, Zach didn’t want to find out, nor think on it any further.

In the distance, he saw a few figures. Damn, he didn’t think there’d be anyone here. Upon closer inspection, he could see Violet Schmidt on the ground. She’d been named before in the announcements, right? The next couple of people sent a chill up Zach’s spine.

Sean and Thomas, who he had ditched when the second announcement started playing. Shit, this was gonna get really fucking awkward. Zach just stood there, taking in the scene, watching it unfold, debating on whether or not he should leave or have a screwy reunion with them.

In the moment of chaos, Sakurako had apparently leapt from her place in an attempt to save someone that was already dead, probably hurting herself in the process considering the shape her leg was in. Additionally, Sean had, rather to Thomas’s surprise, has managed to identify the remains as Kyle.

Wait, hadn’t Violet killed a Kyle, or had that been Princess’s Violet? It was hard to keep all the names completely straight in his head, and Thomas hadn’t been taking notes.

Regardless, Sakurako and Sean would definitely not be happy about Thomas’s latest fuck up and he could already feel the looks he’d get. Still, Sakurako made a joke that might have eased the tension, were the situation different.

But guns make everything more complicated, right?

The person that demanded the greatest attention, however, was still Violet, who was now crying and begging while she looked up at him and…

Thomas could only think of what an asshole he was, pointing his gun at her.

No no no no no, not the time for another pity party for you or for her. Just because she is crying doesn’t mean she stops being a danger. She still has a knife, she was just maybe confronted with the corpse of her victim, and you just shot at her.

But Violet was also a person who was now dealing with a bunch of fucked up shit and he was pointing a gun in her face!

Thomas took a deep breath in and let a shaky one out, lowering the pistol, but keeping it at the ready. He could try to have some empathy or pity, even if he did not have the power to trust.

“Violet, I am… I’m sorry. Just- I’m not going to shoot you, just do what you have to, okay?” He said, not sure where to leave that statement.

“I’m just going to go help my, uh- Sakurako.” He followed up quickly, slowly making his way over to Kyle’s would-be rescuer while never letting his back face to Violet.

As he extended his arm to Sakurako, he briefly considered making a crack about him offering an arm when what she really needed was a leg, but it didn’t feel like a good time for that. In fact this seemed like the exact opposite of a good time for that.

“How’s the leg holding up?” Was all he did ask.

The whole mess continued in front of him. Violet was on the ground crying, Sakurako off to the side laughing at a joke only she got at the moment, Thomas was doing Thomas things and Kyle, well, he was busy being dead. And kickstarting this whole shitfest, but it wasn't like Sean could blame the dead guy for it. Someone had sent him down from where he came from, for a joke or a clean up? At this point he couldn't tell with his classmates.

So, something was going on up there and Sean was trapped inbetween that and this place. These cliffs that had felt so safe and comforting had now turned into a corner for chaos and he was in the middle of it.

It was as if fight or flight was going through his head except fight had left for vacation and flight was working overtime. The only thing keeping Sean grounded was Thomas and Sakurako, otherwise he would have bolted, no feelings were worth the amount of bad juju this whole mess was projecting.

As Thomas apologised to her and turned to Sakurako, Sean had to turn away from it all. He couldn't stand to look anymore. His sight drifted over to the top, to at least keep watch as all this happened around him, but something caught his eye for a brief second as he turned away.

A figure of someone he had wanted to see days ago. Someone he had hoped he'd run into to get some answers.

Someone who always had a bad habit of showing up when shit hit the fan.

"Oh, you gotta be fuckin' kidding."

Is this a joke to you?

In order to successfully joke about Survival of the Fittest, really sell that shit, you had to be the kind of person that saw the humor in other people's suffering. Or at least, the sort that could laugh at how ridiculously awful things could be.

Sakurako was in stitches at it all.

The fountain of laughter she'd become was paused by a sigh of relief at Thomas's coming closer. The gun was still pointed at Violet, but-

"Splint's still working okay. My fault for trying to sprint like a dumbass."

Her hand reached for his, fingers lacing in his once more. She shouldn't be smiling, he might think she approved of him holding up the girl, even if it was for their safety. It snuck on her lips anyway, defying sense. Violet's conundrum was out of her hands, and was it cruel to want her gone? Besides Sean being able to have closure, she'd ruined everything bringing this stupid damned game back on her mind. Hell, if Kyle falling from the sky wasn't a sign for her to get lost...

They weren't friends. She was okay with that.

"What's up, Sean? More trouble?"

As if it could be anything else.