Survival Of The Fittest

"Ama-WAIT" Lily called out, though it was too late for her to do much to stop her companion.

She could hardly blame her. She'd been on the fence about whether or not she was going to stick around herself, even after opting to step out of cover. Now that Amaryllis was swiftly making tracks, she found having to make a quick decision: Follow after her, or remain with Corbin and Matthew.

Admittedly, it wasn't that hard a choice.

Looking down at the trident, she scrambled to grab it and hoist it back through the window, not wanting Corbin to get the wrong idea. "Sorry... Here, I believe this is yours"

She looked up at the injured boy, biting her bottom lip. "I... Stay safe, okay?" she says, not really sure what else there was to say on such short notice. She did however take the opportunity to look at Matthew as well, furrowing her brow. "You look after him, alright?"

Not wanting to linger too long and lose track of her companion, she spun on her heels and ran away to try and catch up with her.

((Lillian Larsen continued in An Inevitably Bad End))

((Quick post to avoid inactivity))

"Hey, what the fuck-" Matthew began, as the weird Satanist girl popped her head out to say hello. She had apparently patched Corb up, which was cool and good. He was tempted to make a crack about blood magic or Satanism or whatever, but now probably wasn't the time. Something outside distracted her, though, and she called out for an Ama. Amaryliss? Probably. One of the weirder commie ones who posted about how under Mao you'd have infinite sparrows to eat or some equally dumb shit. Fortunately, she had fucked off, and Satan followed soon after her after warning Matthew to keep him safe. Of course he wasn, what the fuck did she expect.

A trident was hoisted through the broken window, and Matthew just kinda glanced down at it before looking back up at Corbin.

"Her and Amarylis? What, did you stop by the DNC on your way here?" Matthew chuckled, reaching down to grab the spear with his free hand and offer it to Corb. It was his apparently, and Matthew had a gun. He sure as shit didn't need it.

Oh.

Before Corbin had to worry about how to introduce Lily and Amaryllis, they had solved the situation for him. Lily had cheerfully poked her head in, happy to make an introduction despite the problem of who she was making it to. Amaryllis, however, had apparently ditched, and Lily had ultimately decided to follow her. They'd left the trident behind, at least, but they were abandoning him, clearly happy to finally have him out of their hair.

He'd roughly expected something like that to happen. They weren't friends, and they hadn't magically become friends overnight. But he hadn't expected it to sting the way it did. Like he was some unwanted gift being returned to the store at the earliest opportunity.

He frowned at Matt in annoyance, taking the trident with his free hand. With how rough things had been for him and how this abandonment left him feeling, even a good-natured joke was poised to rub him the wrong way.

"I didn't look for them. They just kinda... found me."

"See, as DeMarcus would say, as liberals, they have the ability to hone in on the murderous poison in your blood from the vaccine or whatever schizophrenic bullshit he'd come up with today." Matthew let out a light giggle. As politically-minded as he was, there were still some people who were too politically-minded, to the point they were fucking deranged.

"Really though, I'm glad you're OK. Who the fuck, uh..." Matthew just kinda gestured at Corbin. "Who kicked your ass?" There were many ways to phrase that sentence that would have come off as less rude, but he was never one for being anything other than blunt.

"Gravity."

Corbin paused, letting the laconic note hang in the air, debating whether to tell the full story.

"... plus Abhishek, a bit."

"Another one to add to the fucking list." Matthew sighed. Seriously, was it like, uh, one of those fucking stupid high school dramas where everyone was a fucking psychotic weirdo with a serial killer gene or what the fuck those stupid shows were like? Did half the population of Salem have a serial killer gene? Did the dead people accused of witchcraft haunt people and make them murder? Or was it just that people were a hell of a lot more willing to murder their friends when it was them or someone else?

"God. I've been fucking just - I can't wait to shoot one of those motherfuckers! Fucking Katelyn and her 'oh I'm depressed oh I'm gonna murder like five fucking people' shtick." Matthew spat onto the floor, making it very clear what he thought of the people here.

"It's just kinda... fuck, I dunno. There's a ton of them going around murdering people. Seems uh, seems fair that there should be someone going for them." He was aware he was coming off a little... unhinged, but frankly he had to admit he was kind of fraying a little.

Chill.

You're with a buddy.

"So, uh, we gonna get moving? This place probably has shitty beds."

Corbin's good eye pierced through Matt, uncharacteristically wide and uneasy.

"Matt... you're not..."

He shut his eye and shook his head. He knew he shouldn't let that kind of talk from Matt go unchallenged... but Matt was his friend. They'd only just found each other again. Maybe it was all just talk, anyway, bluster in the face of inevitable death. So maybe it was best if Corbin didn't press him.

"Nevermind."

When his eye opened again, it'd settled back into the usual stony gaze.

"You're right. We should go."

"Yeah. Let's go." At the very least, Matthew could tell himself this time that when he abandoned his friend, it made more sense than leaving some dude you gelled with pretty well because he had bad vibes. It just... made more sense, y'know? Corbin had his buddies. Matthew didn't like them, but they'd done a good job of patching him up. They'd keep him safe. Corbin was... understandably a little apprehensive about going around killing players, but that might be because he got fucked up, and really, that was kinda part of it. He'd have to balance keeping Corb safe and trying to kill players.

It made sense that killing players would do a better job at keeping him safe - at keeping everyone safe.

Really, though? Matthew wasn't sure if he was just trying to justify going all one-man army and striking out on his own.

This wasn't just his burden to bear.

But looking at how banged up Corb was, Matthew wasn't going to put it on his shoulders.

((Matthew Bell continued in Ain't That a Kick in the Head))

Corbin followed Matt out, doing his best to keep up. Though Lily ditching him still stung a bit, perhaps it'd been for the best. He was never gonna win the two of them over, that much had become clear. Matt was someone who already liked him, who already cared about him. Perhaps he could curb this bubbling rage, stop his friend from boiling over. Perhaps he could...

...

Well, that was a fantasy. He knew Matt well enough to know better. And... he shouldn't want that, anyway.

Still, it was nice to finally be in good company again.

((Corbin Azinger continued the smell of dust and moonlight))