V8 BKA/BDA Voting: February 2023

[Ruggahissy]

Hello, my beautiful flowers and welcome to February's Best Kill and Best Death Awards. Before we begin, the rules:

1. In this thread, you may post as an anonymous guest to select one student to receive the day's Best Kill Award, and one handler to receive the Best Death Award. Prizes will be given out in-character for BKA, consisting of a weapon and food, and out-of-character for BDA, consisting of a quote from their character to be displayed on the board index until the next BDA is awarded.
2. You may only vote while logged out. You can identify yourself in your vote if you want, but you may not claim to be another handler.
3. You may only vote once, and you may not vote for yourself in either category. Staff can see IP addresses, and we will check them if we have reason to suspect shenanigans.
4. You must provide reasoning with your vote for why you think your choices deserve the award. Votes with no reasoning will not be counted.
5. Don't be a jerk. You can explain why some scenes are your favorites without tearing others down.
6. Make sure that your answers are clear; please don't use any formatting that might cause votes to be miscounted or left out.
7. Please be sure to read every kill and death before voting, please vote for your genuine favorites rather than just voting for your friends, and please don't campaign for awards in the chat or otherwise try to influence the vote.

And your Best Kill and Best Death contestants:

BEST KILL AWARD:

Dawn Montogomery for killing Tenshi Fukushima-Yves
Katelyn Graves for killing Eden Zima
Letitia May for killing Joan Leaven ( Attack , Death )
Katelyn Graves for killing Taylor Thorne
Russell Fitzroy for killing Mildred Platt
Jessica Romero for killing Micah Flanagan


BEST DEATH AWARD:
Grand Moff Hissa for the death of Hector Quayle
BlizzardeyeWonder for the death of Tenshi Fukushima-Yves
Zetsu for the death of Eden Zima
decoy73 for the death of Joan Leaven
backslash for the death of Taylor Thorne
RC~ for the death of Calvin Rawls
Ruggahissy for the death of Mildred Platt
Laurels for the death of Micah Flanagan

Voting will run for four days. Votes will remain hidden until time is up, and the winners will be declared in the following announcement.

[not a robot]

Best Kill: Dawn Montogomery for killing Tenshi Fukushima-Yves. It is not very often that I start out skeptical of a thread's setup and then really come around on it, so I want to give props to the crew in Disappearance of an Internet Angel for that. I have some logistical quibbles and was unsure about having so many people turn up for a death, but I think that everybody in this thread sold it really, really well. The botched amputation is messy, painful, and generally a disaster in a surprisingly realistic way. It's as traumatic for the people trying to give aid as it is for the victim, and Tenshi ultimately dies from their good intentions because at the end of the day, these are teenagers with only a slight idea of what they are doing. I ended up enjoying this thread a lot, and I think it would be an entertainingly cruel irony for Dawn to get rewarded for her part in it.

Best Death: Ruggahissy for the death of Mildred Platt. Comedic characters are hard, and it's doubly hard to have a character that is generally funny and not taken seriously and then sell an emotional end to their story, and I think that Rugga pulls it off very well with DREAD. I always have an appreciation for fight scenes that are snappy and just as long as they need to be, and I really liked the unique start to this one leading into the understanding that Mildred and Fitz reach with each other about their respective losses and grief before things come to their inevitable end. I ended up feeling sympathy for someone who had previously been making me laugh, for the same reason: the world really just doesn't take Mildred as seriously as she takes herself, and she knows it, so she chooses to go out swinging. Awoo.

[camM9q5rDDtGaXHBrW4g]

BEST KILL AWARD:

KILLER: S017: JESSICA ROMERO [Deamon], VICTIM: S068: MICAH FLANIGAN [Laurels]

I think it's probably better if I keep my thoughts at a moderate length rather than as long essays—both for my sake (having to write all of them) and for the sake of people reading (if anyone does). That aside, I thought this was a good scene, and the people involved should be proud of their work.

Fundamentally, this death is the result of a misunderstanding. Joan's death earlier in the thread—from wounds sustained in her previous scene—is the crux of this. Micah ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and suspicion falls on him for a murder he did not commit.

I think the scene does this well. Ultimately, the main confrontation has Micah on one side, pitted against Beatrice and Rebekah on the other. What he doesn't know, though, is that Jessica has a gun in the distance. This situation adds a wrinkle that proves fatal to him.

All his attempts to defuse the situation ultimately make it worse. It's like a game of telephone. The longer it goes on, the more strained the message becomes until the scene has well and truly spiraled out of control. It's a great example of a death by misunderstanding done realistically.

I'll also include a selection of my favorite passages:

Animals in pain do things they don't mean to. They lash out. Cats shred their owners' hands, horses kick their trainers, zookeepers get bitten by everything under the sun. Humans throw fists and scream. It's just what they do. It's generally not personal, even when the animal in question is a person.

But it sure feels that way.

Only now did Rebekah realize that Beatrice was empty-handed. She hadn't brought the axe with her, and Rebekah didn't have it either. The two of them were unarmed, and almost certainly facing down a killer.

Okay, okay.

She put up a hand to the boy. "Easy," she said. "Let's all... take it easy."

"Hey, yeah, we can take it easy. I would like to take it easy."

He glanced down at the dead girl.

"Look, I know what you're thinking, but trust me, I didn't have anything to do with this. She just dropped dead," he explained. "I swear on my family name I didn't kill her."

"First of all," he said, adjusting the dead girl's body so she was lying on her back, "what makes you think I shot her? Did you hear a gunshot in the last few minutes? Even with the announcements, you could probably have heard one."

Micah slowly lowered his hand to his jacket pocket.

"And second of all..."

He reached in and pulled out the pugio. He made sure to leave the sheath in his pocket and revealed the steel blade to the girls.

"...this is the only weapon I have."

Micah pointed the pugio towards the girls, holding it flat and out so they could see the full blade.

"If I stabbed her, this would have blood on it. And it's not like I wiped it clean on my pants or the ground or on her."

Micah took a step forward to the girls so they could get a better look.

"I'll even show you the sheath if I have to. But like I said, I just happened to be here when she died. I swear."

Micah took a step forward and towards Rebekah and Beatrice with the dagger drawn and Jessica had seen enough. She squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled then opened them.

Without hesitating further she pulled the trigger.

MIcah took another step towards the girls, still holding the knife at them. He was momentarily blinded when a bit of light reflected off the knife and into his eyes, causing him to adjust it so he wasn't seeing spots.

Before he could say anything else, there was a gunshot and then a searing, horrible pain from Micah's throat. The bullet entered the side of Micah's neck and exited the other, just missing his collar. The force knocked Micah to the ground, dropping the pugio into the snow.

Micah tried to cry out or gasp, but he began to gargle blood. He arched his back and clawed at the injury, his hands becoming bloody and his blood beginning to spray from his mouth. Micah convulsed for a few more seconds, then fell limp.

In his last moments of clarity, Micah thought about what went wrong. Someone other than those two girls was there and they had taken out Micah. Whether there was someone else in the group or it was a passerby, he wasn't sure. He wasn't conscious long enough to hear any more gunshots or chaos around him. In the end, it probably didn't matter.

He thought back home to the farm. To the weights scattered across his bedroom floor. To the spots on the ear of his goat Guinevere. To his folks sitting on the porch at sunset. To his siblings all crammed on the couch to watch a movie. He should have been there with all of them. The five of them came into the world together. They were bonded for life through that shared experience, and he abandoned them all to go skiing. He betrayed their quintuplet bond by being so stupid and reckless as to go off on his own. He tried to be cautious, but he wasn't cautious enough.

They wouldn't be the same without him, and he felt bad for what he did to them by running off for games in the snow.

He'd wait however long it would take before he could see them again and apologize. He was strong enough to wait.

S068 MICAH FLANAGAN: DECEASED

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BEST DEATH AWARD:

HECTOR QUAYLE [Grand Moff Hissa]

---

I like this scene. It's a good use of a peculiar fact of this island—that there are goats—and the understated comedy is fun. Grand Moff Hissa is quite good at this sort of lower-key humor and demonstrates an understanding of that in Hector's death.

Basically, Hector—who has established and camp and is cooking meat—sees Greg fall down in the distance while suffering from hypothermia. Able to correctly identify that, without help, his peer will die, he goes to assist. A fatal error, we later learn.

In the process of helping the flannel goth, a mountain goat approaches. As Hector akwardly extends an invitation to his camp, he lets his guard down and daydreams. It is then that the goat strikes. It charges him, and Hector falls from the mountain while the goat disappears.

What happened to it, one may ask.

Who can say?

I like the scene. That's about it.

So, without further ado, quotes:

This guy was done without help. Hosed. A whole bunch of them were probably making this same sort of discovery right around now, but sheer dumb luck had brought the lump on the path to the particular slice of the ass-end of nowhere that wasn't as uninhabited as it looked.

Not having to deal with anyone else for the better part of a day had Hector in a reasonably chipper mood, and the obvious distress of the figure perked him up further. Most of his classmates weren't cut out for this. They struggled while he thrived. It wasn't even that cold.

Hector grunted affirmatively. He straightened up, holding the torch by the middle, which he now used to hoist the guy to his feet. Then he started off back down the path.

His movement was slow and painstaking, step by step, but each movement of his feet felt lighter. It was as if traction came easily on the return.

It wasn't from relief to have found someone else. Hector didn't care about his classmates too much. But he was meeting with success, and that pleased him.

Hector lightly hummed to himself, tuneless and drifting in and out of audibility. Ice and gravel crunched and shifted.

It felt like several minutes of walking when he spoke.

"Camp's ahead," Hector said. "Not far."

He gestured with the thicker branch and there it was, visible fifty feet down the path: tall stones, a faint haze of smoke drifting above them, a dim glow of reflected firelight dancing against the side of a boulder.

"Dinner's about done," Hector said. "You can share. Unless you're vegan. Or Jewish."

His brows furrowed for moment as he turned that over again.

"Because it's pork chops," he added.

He wasn't paying attention to the guy anyways. What Hector had acquired, what he now realized he had wanted, was an audience. He was doing well for himself. He was clever. This situation, terrible as it was, was grinding his classmates into paste, while Hector cooked dinner. He could be satisfied with that, but to be able to reach out and pluck someone else from the chaos for a brief time, then shove them back in with a pat on the back once he tired of their presence, felt good. He was in control.

Hector felt so confident that he let his eyes drift closed for a moment. His imagination took him somewhere else, somewhere far away that he'd never even been. The earth beneath his feet was tilled soil, rich and fragrant. Tall, leafy stalks grew as high as his head in neat rows. The sun's rays warmed his face, only wisps of cloud in the sky.

He was in a field—a corn field.

He heard the pitter-patter of goat feet.

The young buck had been watching the strange interloper for a long time.

It had first caught sight of the creature during the waning hours of the daylight, picking its way along the path. It seemed hesitant and unsteady, moving slowly, and the goat had been confused. Was this creature injured? Or was it a predator, attempting stealth? Bipeds did not make intuitive sense. The herd had all paused to regard it, but had then returned to grazing when nothing particular happened.

But later, the creature had found a place to lurk, a sheltered place between stones. It was a place where the goats could easily scramble up towards higher elevations, but this creature did not seem to climb well. The goat was up above, at a vantage point the creature did not seem to realize existed, but still the presence of the strange being caused concern.

This intensified when the creature shuffled around and then did something, and a blaze of light sprang up, and then it did something else, and the scent of death carried on the air.

The goat did not understand this creature, but its presence was unwelcome. It was an intruder, and possibly a predator. Its clumsy demeanor did not mean it was harmless.

The goat had not seen the wolves for some time, but it remembered them. They had been a dire threat, and sometimes they used cunning to hunt for the little ones. Was this creature like that? It had seen other beings akin to this, but only in passing. They had not stayed like this. They had not made dens.

The other goats were further up the hill. Some slept. Others chewed scraggly growth, cropping the alpine grasses just above the dirt. But the young buck watched, alert, and when the creature came near, the goat saw that it was with another of its kind. A herd... or a pack?

There was only a split second to react. The goat had heard movement, but had not expected it to be two coming around the bend. In that moment, the instinct that took it was to defend itself and the herd.

Predator or rival, this beast did not belong here. It would leave, by force if need be.

Finding its footing, the goat lowered its head and charged.

Hector's eyes flew open.

Wide, round pupils locked with horizontal, rectangular ones.

In the flickering light of the burning branch, the goat looked like Satan himself, orange light illuminating snowy white fur and gleaming hooves and thick horns that curved upwards.

The charge was only ten feet. The goat had been standing there behind a rock, hidden from view until a moment before its surge of movement. There was no time, and nothing could have prepared Hector for this circumstance in any event.

He let go of the torch, raised his hands as if to shield himself, holding the thicker branch in front of him. It didn't matter. The dense skull impacted him, and the horns caught him in the chest, pushing the branch against him with a crack, and the momentum rocketed him off the side of the path.

((Hector Quayle continued in Falling With Style))

The goat was gone in an instant. Maybe it spun and ran back the way it came. Maybe it continued its charge down the trail, vanishing into the darkness with all the grace the humans could never dream of. Perhaps it miscalculated and followed Hector over the lip, tumbling out of sight with him like Holmes and Moriarty over the Reichenbach Falls.

In any case, the flurry of movement and chaos lasted less then three seconds. Then the night was still again.

Up ahead, tucked away in a sheltered alcove, a campfire burned merrily. Three pork chops, almost fully cooked, were propped up on spits nearby. A pack, almost fully loaded, lay on the ground, and aside from the typical contents it also held another three pork chops, raw, in a plastic bag.

With the camp's creator vanished, it might as well have manifested from nowhere.

A long time ago, Hector had heard that when you fell in dreams, you never hit the bottom. He'd heard that you couldn't die in dreams, either. You just woke up instead.

That wasn't true, though. Hector had dreamed of falling and of landing. It was just, in his dreams, he flattened out like a cartoon character. He had dreamed of dying, but when he died in his dreams he just kept going, sometimes a ghost, sometimes without even that pretense. It didn't matter, but it was another reason he thought people were pretty stupid. They talked about dreams as if everyone's were all the same.

There was this famous hijacker in the 70s called DB Cooper who jumped out of a plane with a parachute and a bag of cash. Nobody ever saw him again. Some people said he ran away and lived a life of luxury. Some people said he returned to the spotlight decades later as the director of a strange, improbable cult classic movie. Most people said he died. Some of the money turned up on the muddy banks of a river, and that was as close to evidence as there was.

It's hard to find bodies in the wilderness. Sometimes search and rescue operations pass by a place dozens of times, and then years later some hiker finds the corpse of the missing person right there. Everyone wonders, how was that missed? But even small parts of the world can be vast and hard to thoroughly comb through.

Eventually, someone would retrieve Hector, because he was wearing a tracking device. But it would probably take a good long while. For now, what remained was a campsite far above, a thief barely thwarted and three others not trusted, a boy who might as well have seen Sasquatch, and a number of lovingly buried and preserved caches of raw pork that would probably never be consumed by a human being.

[anonymosquito]

Best Kill: Dawn's botched amputation of Tenshi

The most unique kill this round, if you could even call it that, and a horribly tragic one at that. You just can't help but feel sorry for everyone involved, and the idea of Dawn getting rewarded for failing to save her friend's life is too twisted for me to not give it my vote.

Best Death: Mildred Platt

This one was rather upsetting, especially given how avoidable the whole situation was. Solid dying speech, really felt for Mildred right there at the end. Not much more to add really, it was the death that hit me the hardest this month, simple as.

[Ruggahissy]

23 hours, 38 minutes for votes!

[FrancoPistachi]

BKA: Russell Fitzroy for killing Mildred Platt: I like this scene overall but MEDIC really sells a couple of things well in this thread, first Fitz’s shock about getting jumped by a tiny ball of rage, but also his sadness over having killed another person, the detail of holding the squirrel puppet really sold it for me.

BDA: backslash \ for the death of Taylor Thorne: I love how fed up Taylor was at not just being threatened, but also at having to deal with the killer. I could really relate to how their bewilderment at being asked to sympathize with someone who has done something horrific. Also I want to insert a “what are you gonna do stab me?” joke in here but I can’t figure out how

[Niño Brown]

BKA

We’re gonna go with Katelyn Greaves for her murder of Taylor Thorne. Kitty is a character that I have odd feelings and thoughts on and whom I don’t really know where I stand. Do I love her, or do I hate her or do I love to hate her? Is she this apex predator or this pathetic parade of pathos? Regardless of those feelings, what I think is undeniable is the passion, creativity, effort, and enthusiasm put forth in all of her outings. In this outing in particular I felt it was the best complete product with the cleanest execution and clearest conceit of the kills we got this month. I enjoyed the pacing and I felt like the premise had staying power and although the “Did you just stab me?” -Man who was stabbed, joke is a bit gimmicky, it hits hard enough that I don't feel like docking points. I don’t know where the Kitty rollercoaster is leading, but I didn’t mind this loop on the ride and she remains one of the more consequential and pace-pushing characters on the island. Thought it was a solid execution and great job from both Volt Turtle and backslash. Give the cat some nip.

BDA

I am gonna go with Ruggahissy for the death of Mildred Platt. This is another scene in which the clean nature of the pacing and control and clarity in execution won me over. It is a tight 13 posts with little fat to trim and it juggles both the serious and the silly tones with a deceptive ease. There is something wholesome in the foul mouthed Mildred Platt reminiscing wistfully about how her dead friend told her she was too small to blow a guy and her final speech was both sad, silly and sweet. Not much to complain about or editorialize or change outside what I feel could've been a bit more explicit and clearer choreography but on an emotional level, this hit all marks. Good job!

[v=I0JVRcJLea8#t=12s]

BKA - Fitz for the kill of Mildred. I think both Medic and Rugga sell their kids and their actions well, and despite being such a short scene it's also fairly emotionally charged especially in both of Fitz and Mildred's last posts.

BDA - Zetsu for Eden's death. For the same kinds of reasons for my BKA vote, Eden's spiral over the death of his sister and him more or less intentionally committing suicide by cop is some very effective and poignant character work, and I feel like Zetsu should be rewarded for it.

[M E]

Wow time really got away from me on this one, oops, here we go quickfire round:

BKA: Kitty Graves for killing Eden ZIma
Dunno how to really explain in full why, but this just hit really well. I think it's the suddenness coming across so well in the format. I'm a big fan of painting the medium, and going from lengthy paragraphs to a very sudden Eden was cut off by the billhook being buried halfway through his neck. tickles the right part of my brain I guess. You don't just get to monologue at someone with a big-ass bladed weapon, they can cut (snrk) you off at will. Plus the whole scene in general was fun.

BDA: BlizzardeyeWonder for the late Tenshi Fukushima-Yves
Again kinda hard to explain a subjective enjoyment here but I'll give it the ol' college try. I think there's something to be said for the stark lack of fanfare in it, even though it's a slow way out she doesn't get smart parting words, or any sort of drama. Just blood-loss-induced delirium and fading out. It's pretty affecting, for me at least.

[VoltTurtle]

Only a few hours left for votes!

[CHUGGAchuggaCHUGGAch]

it me rushing in last minute again

Awarding my BDA and BKA to the same scene

BKA to Katelyn Graves for killing Eden Zima and BDA to Zetsu for Eden Zima's death

I just really, really like the concept here. Basically Eden is intensely grieving his sister's death, and hates himself for not being able to do anything about it. He happens upon Katelyn and tries to bully her out, but in doing so, is reminded of his own cruel treatment of his sister, and decides that it's time for him to get what he deserves. So, he tears her down in an attempt to tear himself down, throwing insult after insult at her, kicks the kitty so the kitty can maul him for it, and it works.

Katelyn also sells this really well on her end, the progression from her begging for understanding to finally becoming the cruel monster Eden says she is is pulled off really well IMO.

Honorable mentions go to Katelyn's other scene here with Tay, I like the turn from Monster to 'oh god this is terrible'. Also Tay pulls off delirium really well and there's some good prose in there.

Another mention to Mildred's death, I like a good old lying on the ground death speech with your killer, and I'm a complete sucker for 'He was all I had left' scenes, always v effective at tugging on my heartstrings. *awoos sadly*

[Tokomaru Friday]

A blessed Friday to those who observe.

BKA: KITTY FOR TAYLOR THORNE

I've gone up and down on how much I like each Kitty kill, but this month my favorite of the batch is Kitty's kill on Taylor. I like the driving force behind this is that she has decided that everyone is going to die, so she will be the one to do it, and it's the time to try and let go of the ties that bind her. Her previous concerns about being a good person, how those are tied to her dead parents that she hoped to live up to as symbols rather than people and how you can't actually gain the approval of the abstract, and I liked that this had a more personal bent to it since Tay had been a friend of Robin and shed a bit more light on how that went down. That, combined with the panic and finding that it's still difficult despite stealing herself for the task, I think are cool. This is a very strong scene overall and probably my favorite complete scene of the bunch.

Honorable mention: Jessica's well-done and efficient sniper post and the snuggie girls generally displaying the three slumber party emotions at the start of the thread (happy raccoon, gay, suffering).

BDA: EDEN ZIMA Eden edges out as the winner for me because of the fascinating emotions and psychology of this one. There is so much happening here which creates a horrible, deadly soup of emotion that I enjoy. Eden is guilty over the death of Eve and also feels bad for treating her poorly. He comes upon Kitty and berates her because he's sick of her shit, because he wants to tear someone else down to feel a little better, because he wants to be punished for his failures against Eve, because some of what he's yelling at her he feels about himself. He's a confrontational person who is experiencing grief and remorse and ultimately, he gets what he wanted. He wanted to be cut down as penance for his sister.

Honorable mentions: Tay. I went back and forth for a while if I wanted Eden or Tay. Tay's scene, as I said, was very good. The writing and prose are beautiful and I love the motifs of dreaming, almost falling and falling. I did laugh at the stabbing joke. Post 12 in particular has some gorgeous lines. And Danielle's line right at the end is a wonderful end cap to the thread.

[Guest]

Best Kill - Kitty Graves for Taylor Thorne

There were a lot of really emotional scenes this time around, and Kitty's kill scenes are always well done, but this one hit very differently due to the history and backstory that played into it. Volt did an incredible job of showing us a different side of Kitty and a completely different sort of kill than Kitty's had previously, and I'm excited to see how that might impact Kitty's character moving forward.

Best Death - Taylor Thorne

I loved the progression of the scene and the buildup that led to Taylor's death. The history between victim and killer was played off really well, and Taylor's emotions were conveyed beautifully, with a nice touch of dramatic irony with them reconnecting with Daniel at the end, just a hair too late to prevent the tragedy. All in all, it was extremely well done.

[VoltTurtle]

Time's up for the award voting! Will be approving posts now~