Survival Of The Fittest

My vote for both BDA & BKA is from the same scene, with Salem Fox for killing Billie Sommerfield.

This scene was absolutely dripping with tension the whole way through it, from the initial interactions that let an unsettling air build up whilst Salem's exact intentions are kept a mystery to the reader, to the trickle of more and more deliberate actions taken to inflict terror - and their impact on Billie as she travels through the faint hope it's nothing to realising exactly what's about to happen. I almost wish there weren’t so many direct references to horror movies, because it so perfectly captures the feeling of that genre and medium that drawing attention to it takes just a hair out of the immersion I felt in the scene, but enough cool things are done with the framing that it never becomes an issue.

There were tonnes of little fragments that just stuck in my brain reading through this too, that I don’t feel equipped enough to analyse why, but want to shout out a couple just as cool little turns of phrase;

“no amount of desensitization could make up for becoming a character in one of those stories yourself”

“He paused there for just a moment, just long enough to let the crossing of the boundary sink in”

The conclusion is also spectacular, Billie’s determination and resistance in the face of someone who holds a huge power imbalance over her in many ways managing to leave a final mark for Salem to remember her by, and Salem immediately reacting with full force the second he realises his dominance is not absolute. It highlights the flaws of the victor, and the strengths of the vanquished in the last moments, and was a great way to round things off thematically.

Excellent work Skraal & backslash!

BKA - Salem Fox

Our weird little creepy guy does it again. Salem and Billie and by extension Zee and Skraal put together a fun and tense scene here as Salem prods at Billie then decides to lure her too her death in a drawn out way seemingly for his own amusement. Salem despite being a dead behind the eyes shark or maybe because of it really nails the creepy factor of how he makes a protracted scene of things and Skraal writes Billie’s response to that well.

The nice little clincher of the scene is that it’s not clean, Salem gets overconfident and Billie immediately punishes him for it, it’s a small act of defiance in the grand scheme of things but it’s always nice to see the bad guy eat a little shit.

BDA - Andrew Lapson

Ow, oof

This death is fun in both a gruesome way and in the use of an environmental setup from another character. I love the choice of Andrew not just piercing his foot but also getting stuck in the hole also makes the scene that much more gruesome and makes the decision that Andrew has to make that much more tense.

Adjective does a great job selling Andrew’s thought process and attempts to escape building up to his eventual hopelessness at the situation at the final decision he makes.

A really good oneshot and memorable close to a quieter character.

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