we found shelter in the woods and found savage acts hilarious

[dmboogie]

((Abe didn't really get art.))

Fuckin' like, art-art, the type of art that people used to jerk their brains off, not like, all-encompassing-media-art. He understood stories, tried to tell one himself occasionally, you didn't have to make a two-hour long Youtube video essay to figure out why people liked stories.

Art, though? Like, it was just pictures. Images. Sometimes they looked real pretty, and like, you look at the statue of David and after you're done pointing and laughing at his shrimp dick you can respect the craftsmanship that went into it, but like, in the end, it's just a big statue of a naked dude. He couldn't imagine having opinions about that.

The art exhibition was nice, because it gave him an excuse to think about shit other than winning and trees for a while. Whole lotta thinking about trees, the past few days. At one point he even tried to climb one, half outta boredom, half outta some half-assed ambush pro strats, but he fell on his ass and realized that if he wasn't careful, he'd fall on his leg, and break his leg, and he needed his leg, so he shouldn't do that anymore.

Being distracted was also nice, because it meant he didn't think about how Jonah was dead now, and he'd long-since devoured any of the evidence that he'd met him, so really he could just pretend that he hadn't, right, and even if he had, well, he'd said 'bye forever' and meant it, because it was the best for everyone, and he'd been right when he said it and thought it, so shouldn't that be enough? Everything was still fine.

Abe was so fine that he was currently lying on the ground in the middle of an art exhibit, but calling it an exhibit was kind of generous, because it was just a bunch of long-rusted metal sheets that had been nailed into the nearby trees, and "INDUSTRY" was written on one of them, and like, what the fuck was he supposed to think about that, huh?

[Deamon]

((Forrest Quin continued from Hell and You))

"What I'm saying is, next time, don't say shit like that."

After spending a whole day alone with her, Forrest was starting to become fed up with Christina. She had given some speech about what they had to do or whatever and Forrest couldn't bring herself to give a shit. It was all just words and words were empty as fuck, to be honest. Forrest knew that Christina couldn't rightly go anywhere on her own. What would she do? She certainly hadn't managed to find a group prior to joining her. She also didn't seem to be able to handle a simple social situation. So for all, she talked a big game but all it was. Her and her piddly knife weren't going anywhere.

For her part Forrest had been as good a partner as one could hope for. She had been well-behaved, polite and hadn't laughed when Julien was announced as dead. That didn't mean she enjoyed her company. Frankly, she was growing to hate it. But she was also stuck since she only had one functional arm and no weapon to speak of. Not after Amelia had sprinted away into the fucking bushes like the victim in a horror film.

Speaking of, they hadn't found any sign of Amelia, which was bothersome. Forrest was sure she would have been able to get the gun off her before she did the hundred-meter dash away from them. Forrest had given up hope of finding her, both due to the headstart she had and the fact it had been a whole day. Whatever, she was probably dead.

And now she had ended up back in the stupid fucking art exhibit full of all the faux intelligent bullsh—

Forrest's thoughts and feet stopped dead as she saw a figure lying in the middle of an exhibit.

Not just any figure.

It was Abe.

There was a brief moment for her where everything was silent. Then a buzzing started in her head and her face twisted. Her body started shaking and suddenly she was running to him. All of her other thoughts and plans were forgotten.

She was a pretender, but in that moment she was real.

[decoy73]

((Christina Rennes continued from Hell and You))

Forrest had just told her off. Whatever. While Christina felt like she was having to apologize for being right, she just nodded at what Forrest said. She wasn't going to start a fight now. It would get Forrest pissed off at her, and leave her alone, or worse.

In other news, Amelia was who knows where, Erika was coming close to hitting the record, Justin and Blaise were getting up there in kills, and Christina hadn't been able to shake off the feeling the she was starting to feel bad about this. Like she wanted to go home and yell and Jessica and Stephanie for fucking too loud (no shit). Like she wanted all the suffering to just stop. And they were in some art exhibit, but who really cared about that.

What was more important was that Forrest had stopped moving. Christina was ready to grunt at her to move when she saw the guy in front of them. It looked like Abe - Forrest had mentioned wanting to find him. What she also noticed was the gun. A big, fuck-off gun. She was simply hoping she'd get to be behind it, and not in front of it.

[dmboogie]

Holy shit, someone was running right at Abe, good thing he was always alert, always dancing on the edge of the knife, always had his gun by his side, in his hand that was lying at his side, its cool metal a cool reminder of where he was, because he wasn’t fucking camping, that’s for sure, good thing he had practiced coiling like a spring so he was all ready to jump to his feet and ready his gun, pointing it at-

Forrest.

He was pointing a gun at Forrest.

He wasn’t stopping pointing his gun at Forrest.

Abe’s mouth was dry. So dry. When’s the last time he had a sip of water? He had plenty of water. Probably. He stopped counting a while ago, because he could always get more, right? Haha. He swayed at little. He was still pointing a gun at Forrest.

He looked at Forrest, who he was pointing his gun at. She was still alive. He never really believed that they’d meet again. Well, he had, for a while, before he met Axel, and especially before everything with Axel went, haha, y’know. He’d already had his good things quota. He was still pointing a gun at Forrest.

“...Hello,” he croaked.

[Deamon]

Forrest slid to a stop when Abe jumped up. He had a gun and it was pointed right at her.

Somehow she had managed to avoid having a gun pointed at her for her entire time on the island. So, of course, it only made sense that the first person to point one at her was her boyfriend.

It didn't feel great if she was being honest.

His eyes widened in recognition but the gun stayed raised.

She didn't move any further.

It somehow all fit together so well. In another reality, Abe would have shot her in a panic and that was how she would have died.

They stood there, facing each other.

An infinitely short distance between them.

Her eyes felt wet.

But the gun was still pointed at her. When she spoke her voice came out quiet and soft.

"Hey."

[decoy73]

Oh, great.

Abe had that sweet gun pointed at Forrest. Whom Christina didn't have any ill feelings or fear towards. This was not

“...Hello.”

"Hey."

Okay, that wasn't as bad as expected. Things weren't completely going to shit.

"Uh, hi?" Christina put her hands ... up. She was either going to apologize to Forrest or rail her out afterwards, depending on what happened in the next fifteen seconds.

[dmboogie]

Oh, haha, whoops, someone else was there, Abe hadn't even noticed, that was pretty sloppy of him, huh?

"Sorry. Nerves. Y'know. Good to see you," he said, lowering his gun, mouth pulled tight in what could be mistaken for a smile at fifty feet away. He wasn't pointing the gun at Forrest, anymore, and that was great, but it also gave him an idea.

He pointed the gun at Christina. Maybe it was Christina. He didn't know the twins, but also, like, who cared?

"You give a shit about her, babe? 'Cause I sure as hell don't."

[Deamon]

Forrest looked between Christina and Abe.

Decisions.

They could be a group of three or Bonnie and Clyde. Not exactly a hard choice. What did Christina bring to the table? An extra body sure, but she was bad in a group and only had a small knife. Abe had a gun, and had clearly been successful at navigating the dangers of the island by himself.

Did she give a shit about Christina?

Easy question. She hadn't given a shit about her from the start.

She looked back at Abe once more before her gaze settled on Christina. She shook her head.

"No. I don't."

[decoy73]

Christina's nerves subsided and intensified. On the one hand, the gun was now pointed at her. Put pragmatically, Christina could recover from Forrest's death, but not her own (no duh). Then, her nervous smile dropped at Abe's words.

"You give a shit about her, babe? 'Cause I sure as hell don't."

And then Forrest drove it home.

"No. I don't."

Then it turned into a scowl.

"Fucking seriously?"

[dmboogie]

Cool, cool cool. Abe knew Forrest wouldn't let him down. Well, he didn't know that, he didn't know shit, he knew that it was bad news to be around her, because if he was around her he was thinking about someone that wasn't him, but, like, maybe he hadn't really been all that committed to the bit anyways, or at least not committed enough to seriously pretend that he could walk away from Forrest.

It probably would've been better if she'd died before he got the chance to see her again, but. Whatever.

Probably-Christina wasn't taking the news well, which meant she had a very fundamental misunderstanding of the situation she was in. Abe clicked the safety off, because he'd had the safety on before, because he was king rat, not a bush mouse who shot Beryl in the chest, but it was time to get unsafe, finally.

"Yeah. Seriously. I'm a nice fuckin' guy, don't worry, I won't shoot you as long as you get the hell outta here," Abe said, wondering how many people would actually need to die for him to inherit Jonah's former title.

[Deamon]

Forrest took a couple of steps so that she was beside Abe. Her allegiance was clear, Christina acted all surprised and righteously angry like it would make any difference.

Abe turned the safety on his gun off and the meaning was clear.

She didn't need Christina anymore.

"You heard him."

[decoy73]

Abe was still pointing the gun at her, and Forrest ... wasn't kidding about this. She was willing to throw away an extra number for no fucking reason whatsoever.

Click

"You heard him."

Her jaw set. Deep breath.

"Fine." She ground out as she turned on her heel. "And I'm not sorry, fucking cunts." She concluded her statement with a one finger salute.

((Christina Rennes continued in Go Let It Out, Go Let It In))

[dmboogie]

Haha wow the probable Chris was pissed, like she didn’t realize how easy it’d be for Abe to just give that trigger a lil’ squeeze, get his one out of the way nice and easy, but there better ways to say hi to your girlfriend than murdering someone in front of her, like, he hadn’t done the best job, because he’d definitely pointed his gun at her for a solid thirty seconds, but he still could’ve done worse, y’know?

He let out a deep breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding. All the fight-or-flight shit faded and he felt compelled to just like collapse on the ground for a while, but like, Forrest was right there, by his side, and that was pretty alright.

Abe flicked the safety back on, lightly tossed his gun on top of his bag that was on the ground in the middle of the exhibit, finally turned back to look at his girlfriend.

“Nice to have that over with, haha,” he said, like he’d just taken the trash out instead of telling someone to fuck off at gunpoint. His biggest regret was not trying to rob Christina of everything she had before she scampered off.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” A normal person would have hugged her there, but Abe had always been pretty bad at initiating affection.

[Deamon]

Haha she was mad. It was understandable. After all if your friend, no they weren't friends. Acquaintance, no that wasn't right either, still too strong. Human. If the human you were traveling suddenly with decided to ditch you for someone else you'd probably get mad. Almost like with Connor. That fuck.

She said she wasn't sorry which...alright? Not sorry for what? Existing, being present, giving them the middle finger? Forrest didn't get it and she didn't spend any of her limited brainpower trying to decipher it. But she was gone and that just left Abe, Forrest and his gun. Not a bad trade if Forrest said so herself, definitely beneficial for her. Her eyes followed the gun as it left Abe's hands and glided through the air. So close. But on the bright side, the person she was with had a gun now and that person wasn't fucking wack like Amelia turned out to be.

Abe turned to her and she got to properly analyze his face for the first time since she had found him. He seemed to be doing about as well as she was, which was to say not great. Not great at all. He at least didn't appear to be a walking skeleton, like she had become.

He said he was glad she was okay but didn't do anything else, which was awkward.

"Hey, me too," Was the best response she could think of as she leaned forward and rested her forehead on his shoulder.

"How you doin' buddy?" She murmured.

[dmboogie]

As Forrest leaned into Abe, he simultaneously became aware of a bone-deep weariness but also a small relief from the longing he’d felt since the word ‘go steal some shit’, and he sighed, placed his hand against her back, and for a few blissful moments he held her without thinking of much else.

But then, well, she asked him one of the many questions he didn’t really want to answer, and he’d been carrying that shit in silence for so long, well, not counting Jonah, he’d talked to Jonah, but Jonah’d been a one-time slipup, right, but why the hell would he say something to Jonah and not his literal girlfriend? And Jonah was dead now, so the number was back down to zero, so it was fine to call a do-over and pretend that being honest with Forrest was just the one-time-weakness-thing, right?

It was a pretty shitty justification, but Abe’s willpower was also pretty shitty, so it’s not like it mattered. There was no universe where he lied to Forrest, in that moment, and he had to live with that, no matter what that implied about his chances of, living.

“Could be better. Been alone for a few days but before that… I spent a long time with Andy. Axel. Hel. You probably heard how that all turned out, right,” he said, fighting back a nervous ‘haha’ for once in his life.