Dissension

[Applesintime]

Naive. That's all Matthew could think. These two were just hopelessly naive. To a fault. If Katelyn or someone with murderous intent came up to them they'd rather offer their hands and get a knife in the gut for their troubles rather than run away or fight back. At least Jack had some balls.

"I don't need to 'get to know' Katelyn to know she's a fucking psycho. She draws those weird as shit pictures that look like she traced them from an ISIS execution video, she hangs around with the SOTF freaks who probably spend their whole time jerking off to videos of people dying, and, oh, she literally was the first person to pick up a weapon and start killing people! Robin, no less. And sure, I didn't like the dude, but he's not someone who'd start a fight. Katelyn, on the other hand..." Matthew trails off intentionally, leaving his belief as open as the trapdoor.

Now for Molly. Mean gossips. Mean fucking gossips. Because the organisers of a terror attack who forced children and young adults to kill each other had the same level of severity as a bunch of mean girls gossiping among themselves and making rumours up about people. What, a thousand people or so had died? A bit of a fucking understatement.

"What do you think I am? I would have stopped you and got your name before I started shooting, I'm no goddamn cowboy." Honestly, Matthew didn't really know what he would have done if someone'd just burst in running and startled him that way. Maybe he would have shot without thinking. Maybe he'd have done what he said he would. But that didn't matter, because she was trying to equivalate what would have been an accident with Katelyn and Janice and all the rest of the people here looking around and jumping with joy at the chance to start murdering people.

"I'll defend myself from anyone coming at me or anyone who's got a penchant for murdering, Lucio. You can go and shake Katelyn's bloody hands and award her a medal if you want, but I'd rather put one between her eyes."

[ViolentMedic]

Molly didn’t say anything.

Because if she said anything to Matthew, she’d have to say that Lúcio was right, at least in that there was no way nine people had killed in cold blood because they enjoyed it. That Matthew couldn’t assume he had self-control and no-one else did. That Matthew was different, somehow.

And if she said anything to Lúcio, she’d have to admit that Matthew was right, at least with Kitty and Janice. That they didn’t really have the leverage to take these chances. That maybe being careless while approaching Aracelis was a bad idea.

So she said nothing. She just held the sword tighter and stared at a damp patch on the opposite wall, her silence damning them both.

[VoltTurtle]

"Tch."

Lúcio couldn't believe how vindictive Matt actually was. He always thought better of the boy than what his reputation as a bully suggested, but Lúcio wasn't always right to be optimistic.

"Fine, man," he said, defeat sinking into his vocal chords. "I won't argue with you anymore about this, else we're just gonna be talkin' in circles."

He cocked his head to one side, crossing his arms and raising one eyebrow.

"I do have a question, though. A little hypothetical for you. For the sake of it, let's say rescue comes for us, and both you and Katelyn are still alive on that boat. Would you put one between her eyes then, even though there was no need to defend yourself anymore, or would you let her be?"

He titled his head to the other side, one corner of his mouth curling into a smirk.

"I wanna know, so that I know the real man that I'm speaking to."

[Applesintime]

"That's a pretty fucking big if. But... no. No point then. That's not self defence, that's not protecting somebody else. That's doing the exact same thing as her. Murder. If we're lucky, the DA will get off its ass and start prosecuting for murder. But we all know they won't." A hint of frustration creeping into his tone, Matthew stared back at Lucio, not having time for any of his shit.

"Just make sure you do make it to that 'rescue', yeah?" Matthew put up his hands to make quotation marks, clearly not believing that anybody was gonna come and get them outta here. The dudes who had saved people a bunch of years ago were gone now. Wasn't gonna be anybody coming in to save the day and kick ass and kill all the terrorists. "Going around looking for murderers is only going to invite trouble. What makes you think that Aracelis is willing to murder everyone else except you two just because you're friends?" Coming from that angle, Matthew thought it naive. If you were playing with the idea of winning, your friends are just obstacles. They'll die anyway. May as well be you who gets the credit.

[ViolentMedic]

"So, um... you don't think rescue's coming, huh?"

That was obvious enough from the quotation marks that Matthew had sketched in the air.

"If you don't think rescue is coming, but you're condemning the killers, then your goal would be... to die, wouldn't it? Since you can't leave without one kill? Or is it okay if they did it first? Even though if no-one did, we would have all died this morning?" She tilted her head. "Would you be okay with walking away from this alone? I'm sure the terrorists have confetti all stocked up for you?"

Fuck it, they're throwing all the hard questions in her vicinity. If she had to think about all this....this bullshit... then they had to hear about it.

"I mean... like, whatever, though, right?" she said awkwardly, fiddling with her hair. "I'd rather hope for rescue."

She glanced at Lúcio.

"Um... you know, I don't... really feel safe here anymore, you know?" Those last words were a mumble, like she was hoping Matthew wouldn't hear them.

[VoltTurtle]

Well, that was better than nothing.

Lúcio pushed off the wall, laying one arm across Molly's shoulders and getting in close to her. He wouldn't say what he was really feeling or thought about Matt, at least not to the boy's face, but he wanted his sister to know that he understood where she was coming from. Her words stood on their own, and she was right, and he didn't need to add to them.

"Rescue will come, amigo," he said, confidently. "You can be sure of that."

He grinned, optimism and idealism indefatigable as ever.

"As for Ari," he made sure to use his pet name for her, and to say it as affectionately as he could, "she's not like that, alright? Whatever happened, I'm sure she had some good fucking reasons for what she did, and whenever I find her, I'll keep her out of further trouble, alright? And if I'm wrong and she does merk my ass, then you can tell me 'I told you so' as much as you want in heaven."

[Applesintime]

"As I said, Molly, if a fucking killer goes for me I'm not just gonna whoop and cheer and give them a big hug, I'm gonna shoot them. Simple. I'm not gonna go around and start shooting everyone I see like some crazed psycho, though. Don't get me wrong, it'd be nice if someone came to pull us out of this shithole, but that's pretty much not happening. So I'll keep myself and my friends safe."

They were gonna die. Matthew'd hear their names on the next announcement. And that would be that. Barely concealing a frustrated sigh and disguising it as a deep breath from all the talking he'd just done, Matthew moved to grab his duffel bag and sling it over his shoulders. Lúcio was frustratingly optimistic, thinking that friendship would trump any desire to win that Aracelis might have. Honestly, Molly posed a good question: what did Matthew want to do here? Live? Go home? Die in the cause of killing some killer so he didn't have to end up murdering someone innocent?

Stepping up the stairs, he paused at Lucio's last remark, letting it distract him from that question.

"Isn't a good reason to kill anyone in cold blood."

And up he went.

((Matthew Bell continued in KILL THIS ARROGANT MOTH ER FU CKER))

[ViolentMedic]

Oh. He’s gone.

Well, how safe Molly felt had gone up now that the gun was out of the room.

Rescue would come for sure. She did hope for it, but she wondered how rescue happened. It had happened before, hadn’t it? She knew Marian’s whole idea of trying to take a collar off wasn’t right… but the footage was always delayed, so signals to the camera wasn’t right…

She hoped someone else had the answer to that question.

She opened her mouth to ask Lucio what their plan was with Aracelis. But the confidence in his voice when he said that Aracelis would never do anything like that would… be difficult to argue with. So that isn’t what came out.

“So, um… you want to stay here and warm up a bit? Nice safe hole in the ground?” She rubbed her hands together, the sword hilt resting in the hook of her elbow with the point touching the ground. “I hate the snow… why did I want to go on a skiing trip again?”

[VoltTurtle]

Lúcio breathed a sigh of relief when Matt had left. Despite Lúcio's bravado, there had been a gnawing fear in the back of his head that maybe Matt himself wasn't too far off of snapping. Pushing his buttons like that had been a dangerous move, but one that Lúcio was happy with in hindsight. His optimism hadn't been unwarranted, and that was a positive sign going forward.

"I convinced you to go," he replied to his sister, "I thought it'd be fun."

He tilted his head to one side, stretching out the tensed-up muscles in his neck.

"You probably don't remember because it was a few months back, but I guess it means I dragged you into this mess, huh?"

Lúcio frowned, only to force a smile shortly thereafter.

"Rescue's coming though, I know it. And yeah, we can warm up here."

[ViolentMedic]

“Rescue… yeah...” If they could stay alive until then.

Molly didn’t remember Lúcio persuading her at all. She could see it, though. Her dilly-dallying over, like, oh maybe I should do this or that or whatever, and Lúcio being like, girl, Molly, come on. This’ll be fun.

Would it have been better to have stayed behind alone, and had Lúcio here on his own? Would it be worse to watch her parents freak out about one of their only boys? To have to be the one to comfort her little sisters?

She just waved her hand vaguely. “Ahh, I’m sure it wasn’t the only reason? Friends are here… and all that… Besides!” Molly shrugged. “Who would have guessed, you know? Who kidnaps people in the winter?”

She sat down, considering the matter.

“Though I guess… who kidnaps people just to have them do this? I mean, ransom us or something, you know?”

She bolted up again, having heard a scuffing sound nearby. She saw a rat scurry further into the dank basement.

“Ew. Ewewew. Rats or cold… what a choice, huh?”

...Still better than the cold. At least for a while.

((Molly Oliveira continued elsewhere.))

[VoltTurtle]

Lúcio smirked, equal parts playful and mischievous.

"I dunno about you, but I'm down with the rats. Cold doesn't care about you, but rats have friends and family just like us."

He sat down next to one of the barrels, crossing his arms and resting his back against it, even as the cold of the floor bit at his legs.

"Hell!" he exclaimed, "I'll let them crown me the rat king!"

((He was not, in fact, crowned the rat king.))