Survival Of The Fittest

(Jack Anderson continued from It's Kind of a Lot )

In some respects, it was hard to imagine how the palm reading could have gone much worse. Crystal had apparently managed to both piss on and piss off Dani, resulting in Jack running after her as she stormed out of the Church. That separation had led them up a path (Jack effectively led by Dani) that found them, to his surprise, ending up at a...hot spring?

Jack blinked as it came into view. Two days worth of poor sleep (two lost nights...the first day didn't really count in that respect, since the jerks running this had at least ensured everyone got a nicely-drugged sleep) and lousy nerves meant that he wasn't really at his sharpest, so he did a double take at the sight.

"Is that what I think it is?" he said, noting the steam coming off of the water in the lousy-skewing weather on the island. The prospect of a warm-to-hot bath after the last few days was something Jack found himself relishing all of a sudden. It might be an utterly stupid move in any horror movie...but hell, Jack just wanted...needed...someplace to relax for a bit. Possibly more than a short bit, too.

((Dani Bird continued from It's Kind of a Lot))

Dani was… annoyed. Just annoyed. Ever since what happened yesterday at the church, she had been something of adrift. She had stormed out, angry and started wandering around the town, stewing in her own rage as she was unable to get satisfaction and just unleashing her fury on Crystal. Kaede and Jack had followed her so she wasn’t alone, even though she had wanted to be able to properly process her emotions without company. Still they followed her, interacted with her, and steadily her anger morphed into just annoyance at her over all situation that carried onto the next day.

Still, she pressed on and eventually found herself hiking up a mountain. Why she did that she had no idea. It was dumb and she felt dumb wasting her energy going up a mountain. But at least she wasn’t alone. As annoying as she found it at first, she began to appreciate her hanger ons’ continual presence nearby.

And at least it wasn’t Crystal. Fuck that bitch.

She bristled at the thought of Crystal, nearly not taking her surroundings into consideration when they approached what looked to be a hot spring. She stopped, focusing her attention on the geothermally heated groundwater and the steam rising into the cold winter air. As if to remind her of her present situation, her aching muscles became more noticeable and the bite of the below forty air nipped at her. She shivered in place as she stared at the spring, which sang as silent siren song that promised relief from the cold and the aching.

“Yeah, I can hazard a guess what it is you think it is,” Dani replied, bringing her hands to her arms and rubbing to warm herself up a little.

“Yeah, I can hazard a guess what it is you think it is."

Jack paused for a moment in thought at the sight of it.

Yes, it would be stupid to go for a swim. If something happened, he'd probably find an afterlife as the butt of way too many jokes for a while. But...

What the hell...

"Want to go for a swim?" he asked, after some hesitation. "I...it looks relaxing. I think I could really use it."

Dani blinked and looked away from the warm, inviting water over to Jack. She raised an eyebrow at him, her lips twitching into a smile as she gave him a look. It wasn’t a look of judgment, questioning the intellect behind the idea. More it being a look of questioning whether or not his question is an honest suggestion or if he was trying to get something else to happen with the excuse of going for a swim.

If it was the former, she couldn’t blame him. It was damn cold, everything ached, and the warm water did look that good. If it was the latter… She also couldn’t blame him. After all, she was hot. She knew this, he knew this, pretty much everyone as far as she was aware knew this. What straight guy wouldn’t want to see what she’s got going on? She'd figure there would have been some who would probably say she was reading to much into it and was being vain, but guess what? She's alive and the people who'd say that are probably all dead now, so who gives a damn what they would have thought?

She smiled at him, almost teasingly.

“Is that supposed to be an oh so subtle way to get me to undress?” She said, turning to face him with a hand on her hip. “‘Cause, word to the wise, I usually prefer my dates taking me out to dinner first.”

“Is that supposed to be an oh so subtle way to get me to undress?”

Jack looked slightly embarrassed at...well, either the unintended implication or being sort-of called out on it.

“‘Cause, word to the wise, I usually prefer my dates taking me out to dinner first.”

That got a chuckle out of him. Jack dropped his bag and fished out a ration bar plus a tin of crackers.

"Well, then dinner is served..." he said, breaking the bar in half in its pack and then handing half of it to Dani, before dividing the crackers between them...

"...but unless you were planning to swim in your clothes, I...guess it would kinda be a necessary part of the deal. So, up for dinner and a swim?"

Or perhaps dinner and a show, for the folks watching at home?

Dani couldn’t help but laugh as Jack pulled out a ration bar and a tin of crackers at her joke about being taken to dinner first. It was certainly cute, in a way. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to take her out for some French food. An energy bar and some crackers on an arctic island is probably the best date she is going to get for what may possibly be the last days of her life.

“I guess I could do dinner and a swim,” she said, taking a cracker and bringing it to her lips. “Beats turning around and trekking back down to where we came from.”

Of course, in part she relished the opportunity to try to talk with him alone. Felt like she never got the chance with the others hovering around. He was a nice enough guy, and he was interested in her enough to actually stick with her. The least she could do, she figured, was humor him with all this “date”.

Jack smiled and nodded at her accepting his offer, taking up a cracker as well. "Dinner for two it is," he said, sitting down. The prospect of just being able to relax for a meal with someone was something that he...well, he was allowing himself to relish it. Not having to deal with a bunch of other people looking to go all murder-y on other students was an added plus here. It was literally just dinner-and-a-swim.

"I might also have a pair of Reese's Cups in my bag as well for dessert...so I guess that's a three-course dinner?" he said, briefly rummaging in the "other duffle bag". After a second, he produced...

"Sorry, Reese's Pieces, not cups. Still, dessert to go with dinner?"

Hey, if this is the best I can do here...it's not too bad, all things considered.

She moved to sit next to him, eating the whole cracker. Feeling the chill of the stone she sat on, she scooted closer to him as she ate a couple more crackers. The close proximity provided little heat, but heat was heat and she was cold. She eyed the water, each passing second making it more inviting. But she can wait a little bit longer.

“Normally I don’t eat sugar,” she said in response to the offer of the candy. “It can cause some phlegm, which can really affect my singing. Back home I try to maintain a pretty strict diet so my singing abilities are at peak performance.”

She eyed him a little, then smiled.

“But given the situation, I think I can cheat on it a little.”

“But given the situation, I think I can cheat on it a little.”

"What's life if you don't live a little?" Jack proffered.
Then he grinned and poured out about half of the Pieces into the cracker tin as it was emptied before joining in on the eating, doing his best to enjoy the...

...well, the food itself was shit, but at least he had company for it?

Jack passed the three-course dinner of nouvelle cuisine (at least portion size if not in preparation or presentation) mostly in silence, somewhat pressed for conversation topics. None fit well, given the situation. Finally, though, he muddled something out over their (absolutely delicious given the bland rations and so on) dessert.

"So...what's your favorite movie?" he asked.

((Kaede Tsurumi continued from It's Kind of A Lot))

Kaede didn't like this. She didn't like this at all. She didn't like that people were dying, or that they were dying at each others' hands, and she especially didn't like that she was alone. Yes, she knew that she had done this by choice, because she wanted to explore the surrounding area for a bit to see what it was like, but with nobody around to make her scared of looking stupid, she was now scared that someone would come out and try to kill her. Why not? Other people had died. Heck, they'd died due to reasons having nothing to do with being murdered.

So it was, funny enough, a bit of a relief to return to find Jack and Dani just casually talking as if Kaede wasn't there, since well, she hadn't been there. Kaede didn't even say anything. She just hung back and let Jack and Dani do their thing.

Dani took one of the candies and popped it into her mouth. Her face cringed a little bit as she ate it, not really caring for the taste of it. She wasn’t going to complain, though, as he had offered and she accepted it. Plus, it wasn’t like she can be picky when it came to food.

“My favorite movie?” She repeated. Pretty basic question, but she suspected he was having a hard time thinking of something to talk about. “Well, I guess my favorite would be-”

She stopped as she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. Her head snapped in the direction, spotting Kaede as she arrived onto the scene.

“Oh, Kaede! You’re here!” She said, smiling at her newly arrived friend. “We were just enjoying some dinner and were going to swim afterwards. Wanna join us?”

Jack looked over at Kaede and, after a brief pause, managed a smile as well.

"Oh, Kaede? Haven't heard of that one..."

Ba-dum tish!

Dad jokes aside, he gestures for Kaede to join them.

"We'd just gotten to dessert. Reeses Pieces, the height of fine dining on this island..."

Which...well...it was.

"You're welcome to join us."

They were going to enjoy a swim. It was quite cold out, so she didn't think that was wise. To be honest, she also didn't think it was wise to venture out without several layers of bulletproof material, but then again.

"Sure. Why not?"

On the other hand, as she sat down on the available space, next to Dani. The candy would at least be somewhat appetizing. "Did anything I need to know about happen, or were you just hanging out?"

“Eh, not really,” Dani replied, giving her friend a shrug. “Just taking time to eat and then go for a swim, I guess.”

She looked at Jack, eying him for a moment. She supposed, overall, he was a charming enough guy. Perhaps not the kind of guy she’d normally go out with, but she figured she could do worse. Not that she was swimming in options, but she wasn’t that picky to begin with. A cute guy was a cute guy. Plus, in a life or death situation, getting a guy to be willing to possibly do what she wanted with just a little incentive was a massive boon.

She looked at Kaede, smiling at her friend. She also supposed, if Jack was going to be of use to her, then she might as well share him with her best friend.

She smiled to herself and leaned over to Kaede, whispering into her ear, “I think we can benefit from him. So just roll with what I do.”

She pulled back from Kaede and turned her attention to Jack. She smiled at him and leaned towards him, bumping against him. She hooked her arm around his, pulling him close to her.

“Sorry that our ‘date’ was cut a bit short, babe,” Dani said with a flirtatious tone. “But I’m sure you don’t mind Kaede joining us for a swim, do you?”

Dani might not be swimming in options, but at least she had options in swimming?

“Sorry that our ‘date’ was cut a bit short, babe, but I’m sure you don’t mind Kaede joining us for a swim, do you?”


Jack sighed ever so slightly and nodded. "Not a problem." Turning to Kaede, he gestured around. "Welcome to the party..."

And then, meal mostly done, his attention slid back to the spring.

"Well...er...shall we?" he asked, gesturing to the warm-looking waters.