Roleplays after Red Alert: Part 2

Ry
Ry casually strolled back up to his bedroom, not bothering to even try to take a shower in his damn bathroom. His face was covered in scratches, ash, and dark smudges, but he wasn’t worried about it. The water STILL wasn’t fixed, so now it had a weird scent to it and he’d had to use his ramune bottle to keep it from leaking on his floor any further than it had. BUT he wasn’t up there to get a shower or a change of clothes, nah; he was up there to get his elbow pads, knee pads, and his skateboard, Noose.

Yanking open his suitcase, he glanced up at his wall and shut one eye, measuring the size of it as he pulled out his skateboard. “This will do nicely…” He mumbled to himself, standing back up and exiting his room. “I’ve got all the paints I need and everything for it!”

This day wasn’t actually horrible for him and he’d blown up two things—one thing of his own intent and he’d heard Chris complain about it, so it much more sweet tasting.

Making his way down and out of the hotel, the noose logo on his skateboard facing outward while he carried it under his arm, he dropped his skateboard on the pavement, strapped his kneepads and elbow pads on, and stepped up on it.

Testing the way it felt under him, he pushed off, strolling down the road calmly. This was actually the perfect place to skateboard; there were no people here to bug him, no cars to stop him, and no worries about how far he could go without getting taken off the road by some fuck.

Glancing over, he noticed a railing that led up to a building, but the handicapped railing was much better since he knew he could propel himself fast enough to make it up the railing and over the drop next to it.

Twisting his way over to it, he quickly increased his speed with his foot and leaped up, turning his board sideways to grind up the railing. The sound of metal against metal was deafening but nostalgic to Ry, who’d not touched his skateboard in months.

Making it up to the top of the railing, he jumped, holding the bottom of his board and did a twist, landing back on solid ground.

Turning around to see how much air he’d cleared, he noticed another contestant, who he’d just jumped over in the process, standing there.

Shit…

“Well, you almost experienced a Marie Antoinette kind of headache,” he told the person in front of him, not flashing a bit of concern about nearly decapitating them.

Gaile:
Gaile was walking back to hotel after an exhausting challenge. Her face and her hair was tinted with smoke, her knees were scraped and her eyes were red and watery from the panic attack she’d had inside the Parrot’s building. She was strolling along, practicing some deep breathing exercises to calm herself down when a figure went flying overhead.

Gaile’s eyes were wide as recognized the figure to be Ry. He appeared to have taken off and flew completely over her.

"AHHH!" she screamed and covered her face with her hands. She was still shaken up from the incident with Selene during the challenge and this hadn’t helped much. When she heard him land on the ground a little bit farther away, she carefully lowered her shaking hands. She tried to put on a smile to show that she was not angry. She liked to think that Ry and her were friends after all!

"I-I’ll say! That could’ve been mondo bad." Gaile exclaimed. She tried again to smile.

"H-Hi Ry. W-What’s the ‘haps?" she stuttered. Her voice was still slightly shaky from her fright.

Ry calmly moved back on the skateboard and pressed his foot on the edge, sending the rest of him sliding off the board and the board shooting upward. He shifted his weight to the foot pressing on the board and tilted his head at Gaile, knowing full well that his skateboarding couldn’t deliver a fright like that…

The only time he’d actually scared/hurt someone was when he fell off his board and it shot right into the back of the head of some poor sap, which was worth the wipeout. After staring at the Nineties girl in thought, he cleared his throat, trying not to give away his above content mood from blowing up a building. The thought sent a momentary smirk on his face, which was gone in flash, replaced by his normal exterior of ‘fuck everything and Its mom.’

“I would say so…but with you dead, then you wouldn’t be nearly as shaky. Normally, I know what’s going on, but Dennis had me running all over the place, blowing up buildings and fucking shit up…so I can’t tell what’s gotten you so shaky and out of character.”

He used that term loosely since he knew that she wasn’t anywhere near out of character with the nineties thing, but he was rather pointing out that she’d lost her cheery disposition. “All I really know is that you guys lost and Mallory fucked everything up for our team…” Yeah, he’d seen her go running away from their building and he planned on ruining her the next chance he got.

She was a metaphor in his head…. When he’d almost won the art contest but people pointed out his hair, clothes, and eyes as a way to make the judges sway more toward the other kids… “Well, that’s if you wanna tell the freak.”

Gaile nodded at Ry when he talked about blowing up the buildings with Dennis.

"Y-Yeah. I saw. You dudes make quite a team. R-really got stuff done." Gaile said and twisted the purple scrunchie on her wrist.

When Ry showed interest in knowing what had made her so shaken up, Gaile felt a small, very small pang of happiness, but it was very quickly squashed by the after effects of her panic.

"Y-You really wanna know? Y-you care? Rad. I’ll tell you. Uhm. Well. D-did you hear about how Selene like totally abandoned her team and took off? She ended up in our building and sh-she like pounced me and was acting way too much like a—-d-dog." Gaile stuttered, tugging now on her scrunchie at the memory.

"I-I don’t care for dogs.. I’m actually quite afraid of them.." she whispered staring at Ry’s feet.

"W-We think it was Todd that brought her over.. It was Benny’s sunglasses that attracted her and we found them in Todd’s pocket.. I just. I’m still freaking, and am mad confused and exhausted and covered in smoke and debris." Gaile explained getting a little bit louder.

"Also you’re so not a freak. As if." she said.

Ry raised an eyebrow about her comments toward Todd. He’d actually talked with Todd before the first challenge and the guy seemed like he wouldn’t do something like that. In fact, Ry knew the guy wouldn’t do anything like that… He was like a…more ‘I’m a man’ version of Dakota.

“I guess the guy isn’t as big of an idiot as I thought… Kind of funny to say that, but I feel like he actually listened to my advice…compared to some people.” He muttered the last part begrudgingly. “My team is great when we separate the two week links and put them in their element. Don’t tell Bitchley I said that, though…or she’ll try to undermine me.”

After a few well-needed moments of silence, he crossed his arms and gave Gaile a ‘how can you think that?’ look. “Todd? Honestly, the guy is obsessed with memes, making friends, and being ‘cool’ to everyone else. Why would you think he’d do something like that to you guys? The guy didn’t automatically call me a ‘freak’ when I was talking to him before. If I were to classify him as something—it’d be a giant teddy bear. Plus, Benny’s sunglasses aren’t even worth Todd stealing. If he was going to do something, then he’d of just used HIS OWN. Let’s be real here? How in the world did Todd go anywhere near your building when he was attacking the other team? How did Todd attract Selene with Benny’s sunglasses when he was running around? How did Selene attack you if not for someone being close enough to you to reflect light?”

Coughing, he covered his mouth, still feeling the effects of being around smoke for too long…plus, his body still ached a bit from falling to the ground. “Can’t you think of something suspicious that happened..? Something revolving around a certain….girl on your team? Was Ashley near you when Selene attacked?”

Gaile listened intently as Ry spoke about Todd and nodded.

"T-That’s the thing! I’m not sure how the whole sitch happened, or if he was the dude who did it! A-All I know was I got attacked by a d—I mean, S-Selene." Gaile exclaimed.

"I-I don’t think that Todd would do it, but then who else would have done that? And why were the glasses in Todd’s pocket? I’m just super confused, and my memory and thoughts are still kinda murky." she continued.

When Ry asked about Ashley, Gaile looked up from the ground.

"A-Ashley? N-No. She was outside getting water with Dakota when it happened. You can ask him. They were together and that’s why they had to come find me when the building was crashing down."

Ry calmly shook his head at Gaile once more and tightened his arms around his chest, not liking her explanation or believing it was Todd. “The only way that you could have been in danger of being attacked would be if someone was able to slip those glasses in your pocket to draw Selene’s attention. What if I told you that I saw Benny standing near your building, asleep, with his flame thrower? What if I also told you that there’s no way that you could have been attacked unless someone was near you long enough to slip those glasses in your pocket? Now…if Todd wasn’t around you guys, then how would he have done that?”

“What would a nice guy like Todd, who didn’t make me feel like I was some sort of monster, do something like that to you, a girl who makes everyone feel welcome?” He then thought quietly to himself and looked at Gaile with a sudden change of feature—one of more hurt quality. “Why wouldn’t a girl who called me a freak, weirdo, ugly, and unwanted try to sabotage your team and ruin your chances of winning to get a guy who was well-liked framed and out of the game? Why wouldn’t she slip sunglasses she could have stolen while getting water in your pocket? Why wouldn’t she want you to get attacked by Selene while the fire was building up to a large mass? Why wouldn’t she go out with Dakota at the same time to get water, leaving you to fight the flames alone?”

The hurt look was quickly disguised by a more firm and monochrome one again. Ry wasn’t one to display his emotions about ANYTHING, but it was starting to take a toll on him to know that Todd was taking the blame or something that bitch was guilty for. He could feel it in his bones that Todd was innocent.

Gaile tugged lightly at her hair.

"I’d say I believe you." Gaile stated calmly. But her calm certainly didn’t last when she began to feel like she was being yelled at. She dropped her 90’s lingo and looked Ry dead in the eyes.

"Oh no. You think that I think Todd did it..But I-I don’t think that I do. That is, I don’t think he did it.. I just don’t see how Ashley would have done it.. I’m not saying that I don’t hear you and don’t think she could have.. I just am confused with how she did.. Also how did she know I’m afraid of dogs?! I didn’t tell anyone!" Gaile cried, tears starting to well in her eyes. She felt guilty all of a sudden, guilty and confused.

"You’re looking at me like I’ve insulted you. I’m sorry. I’m just confused. I believe you but I have no explanation as to how she did it.. "

Ry suddenly dropped his shoulders and hugged himself, looking away. “No… No, it’s not you… It’s just… It’s just Ashley reminds me of everything I’ve been forced to experience for a majority of my life…and she’s just going to get a win today by eliminating someone who deserves the money more than she does…” He lowered his eyes and bit his lip, not feeling well now that he was talking about his feelings.

“Look, I just know that Ashely did it,” he suddenly changed the subject, voice softening and avoiding eye contact with Gaile. He felt like he was doing what his dad always did and he really didn’t want to start using that tone on other people. Shit… His emotional standpoint was starting to tilt all of a sudden. Normally, he wouldn’t give a shit if he’d made someone sad or cry, but for some reason he cared more about some people here… It was dizzying.

To push his mind off that thought, he quickly put his expressionless face on and shoved away all his emotions, not wanting to get dragged down anymore. If you don’t want anyone to see you’re in pain, then just shove your emotions away and keep them hidden again.

“She must have gotten Benny’s glasses when she went to get water one time or another, then she came back to you and slipped them in her pocket, somehow getting Dakota to get water with her. I don’t think she was meaning to traumatize you with Selene being dog-like, but more so that she could cause you to be unable to put out the fire while you struggled to get the tiny terror off you.”

Gaile heard a shift in the tone of Ry’s voice and started to calm down a bit. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and took a deep breath, ready to listen to what he had to say.

"I understand what you mean, Ry.. I’ve had to deal with mean people too. I’m sorry you had to go through that…But you really p-promise me, it’s not me? O-ok." she stammered.

As Ry spoke, it all became clear to Gaile that it really was possible  Ashley could have done it. Ry made is sound like it was so easy, and the fact that Gaile was afraid of dogs was just a coincidence. A very annoying, inconvenient coincidence.

"I-I believe you, Ry.. I do. I just can’t believe she’d want to sabotage her team.. She’s so focused on our team performing well." she said.

Ry wouldn’t look at Gaile anymore and just shrugged like he normally did when he didn’t want to talk about feelings with other people. Though, it was normally only with his teddy that he did that, but he felt it applied here.

"It’s not you… It’s just…me." He stated bluntly, glaring at the ground and tightening his grip on himself again. "I’m just… It’s nothing; let’s forget about it." He didn’t want to continue this conversation anymore because he felt like he was tearing himself apart and being selfish for talking about himself.

The lessons he was taught to keep him from doing this needed to stay sewn in. He took his mind away from it by thinking about Ashley and he looked at Gaile.

"I’ve seen the way Todd looks at Ashley, to be honest… He looks at her like she’s more of an enemy than a teammate. Ashley knows that he suspects her, so what better way to get rid of any suspicion than to cut them out? If she’d had the chance to make it look like an accident, she’d of killed him, too."

'And now that Todd's gone, that leaves me and the Baroness to be cut off….' He thought, eyes narrowing.

"I’m next on her list… Look, Gaile, you have to promise me something, too. No matter what, you cannot act like you know what Ashley’s done or like we’re friends when she’s around." He choked on that sentence and his eyes widened.

Did he really just flat out say friends? Oh god. He probably just dug himself a grave by trying to say that he was worth something.

Gaile nodded as Ry started to elaborate and hesitated. She understood what he meant and decided she wouldn’t want him to talk about something that made him uncomfortable. She wouldn’t want that for anyone. If he wanted to talk to her about whatever he kept so buried deep inside, he’d come to her on his own. Not all people could be as open about their feelings as she was.

"It’s ok,Ry. You don’t have to talk about it." Gaile mumbled.

When Ry started talking about Ashley, she saw that he was returning to his normal comfort zone and that made her feel better. She listened as he spoke and nodded.

"I know you’d like for me to say that I hadn’t noticed the way they look at each other…but… I have. It’s obvious and I’m no idiot. I can see it very clearly. I just ignored it so we could try to be a better team. Guess it didn’t work when one of your teammates has a hidden agenda of their own." she glanced back at Ry’s feet, not wanting to see the look of disappointment that was surely in his eyes.

When Ry said that he was next on her list, Gaile snapped her head back up, her blonde brows furrowed and her teeth clenched. This was a feeling that Gaile didn’t have very often, or like.. She was angry.

"NO." she whispered coldly.

She shoved her balling up fists into her pockets to hide them as she continued to listen to Ry. Her ears perked up when she heard Ry say a certain word. “Friends” “We are friends.” It was midsentence, but it meant the world to Gaile. A small smile formed on her face.

"I can promise you that, Ry." she stated and wiggled her fingers in her pocket, pulling out a red scrunchie and gently reaching over for Ry’s arm. She then carefully placed it in his hand.

"You’re my friend, and I’m gonna protect you. As long as I’m still in this game, you will be too. I just won’t show it around Ashley. You don’t have to wear that, just keep it in your pocket and know that I’ve got your back." she said determinedly.

Ry felt a bit grateful when Gaile let the whole ‘feelings’ thing slide under the table and then off a cliff. Nobody needed to listen to him start to whine about his problems… Nobody wanted to either because he just wasn’t worth it. When he was little, he was always told to never share his feelings with people because they wouldn’t want to hear him anyway, so he did keep them inside. At first, he didn’t really think that was a thing, until he met people and got told to shut up for talking about being sad.

“Well, I know you’re not an idiot, but some people don’t pay much attention to negative things around them… They like to shove it aside and continue on to be happier, then claim they knew exactly what was going on later when they didn’t. I’m content that’s not the case with you, but…it won’t help Todd…” He doubted that everyone else saw the way Gaile did. Todd was probably already on the chopping block… Poor guy, even though Ry would be over it by the time he finished ruining Ashley’s room.

Ry’s eyes went up from the ground finally when he heard Gaile’s tone suddenly change. No? What’d he do wrong? Did he say something to actually make her mad? What was it that he’d done? God, what did he say again?

Then her tone changed again to one happier than the last and Ry’s form visibly relaxed. It wasn’t the first time a girl had been able to pin him, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last since he wasn’t very athletic. Gaile could probably take him down, honestly.

When she moved toward him, however, he felt himself want to move back, until he felt something on his arm and his gazed shifted to it. On his scarred arm there was now a red scrunchie on his wrist. What?

Looking up at Gaile as she spoke, he felt a strange feeling in his chest. What…? “Pro…tect me?” He asked, face suddenly becoming a little weird looking at her words. Protect him…? It felt weird and his chest was aching now.

“Me…?” It was the fact that it was him that anyone was offering help or protection to. HIM: the person who was told it was his fault he was beaten up by homophobes, the person who was suspended for ‘provoking’ a fight when he only told someone he was gay, the person who was always the problem…

The feeling was too much and he put his hands over his face, tears uncontrollably going down his cheeks.

Gaile was feeling 100% better now. It was almost as if she hadn’t ever been as panicked as she had been at all.

"Yes. Protect you. You said Ashley was after you and I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. Not on her account. I care about you. You are worth more than that." Gaile said.

She noticed that he had started to cry now and knew she had probably gone too far, but she couldn’t take it back. She didn’t want to, either.

"I’m so sorry that I’ve upset you." she exclaimed, unsure of what to do in this situation.

Why the fuck was he crying now…? He never cried in front of people…and here he was, crying like a little bitch in front of Gaile. Why couldn’t he control his emotions…? He’d been in such a great mood when he’d gotten to blow up buildings with Dennis earlier and now he was crying his eyes out.

When Gaile said she wouldn’t let Ashley attack him and that he was worth something, he felt himself start to shake and his tears increased, making him feel even worse about crying in front of her.

Nobody’s ever told him he mattered, except Dakota…and now here was another person telling him this… Why did people care about him?! He was just some emo under a willow tree back home, so why do these people—complete strangers—care about him?! What was he even worth? He wasn’t worth losing a million dollars for…

Suddenly, he heard a voice, his own voice, through the tears. He realized that he was now whimpering and making those embarrassing noises people made when they were full-blown sobbing. He was sobbing… Fuck.

He let his hands drop to reveal his face. “I-I can’t be wor…worth it!” He told Gaile, moving back a few feet, trying to control his emotions again. “Never…I’ve never mattered!” He told her, looking at his arms in complete agony, his chest feeling like it was one fire.

Gaile was fully under the impression that she had upset Ry. She had pressed way too far and now she had no idea what to say or do except stand a distance away and apologize profusely.

"I’m so sorry. Oh god I’m so sorry." she droned with her hands up in front of her. She felt the need to run, to get out of that situation but for some reason her feet couldn’t move.She had made someone who had just admitted after a while of struggling that they were friends and turned around and hurts him so badly that he’s bawling in front of her.

Gaile was about to burst into tears herself when Ry finally said something she could understand.

"W-What? Did you just say what I think you said? D-did you really say that you can’t be worth it? That you can’t matter?" she questioned, calming down now she knew Ry wasn’t upset at her.

"E-everyone matters, Ry. Everyone. Everyone from the popular snobby kids that have never had to work a day in their lives, to the homeless men, women and children on the streets. To the self absorbed jerks at school. To the freaky 90’s girl who can’t manage to live with her own time. And yes, even you. The guy who got written off way too soon as something he’s not. You also are worth it. You matter." Gaile found herself preaching. She knew it wasn’t gonna help but she just HAD to say it anyway.

Ry couldn’t stop crying for some reason and it was making him annoyed at himself for being so whiny. He had to stop crying… He had to stop crying… He couldn’t let Gaile think he was crying because of her doing something or saying something.

He reached back in an attempt to yank his hood up so he could try to hide his face from her, but he realized that he’d turned down the idea of getting changed into his normal clothes. Staggering a bit from backing up, he continued to sob loudly, not sure how to stop himself from doing this annoying thing.

When he heard her telling him how much all these people mattered, he felt his eyes well up with more tears now, making him collapse on to the ground suddenly. He just couldn’t stand anymore, so his naturally powerful legs just gave out and he was now on the ground, covering his mouth with his hands to try to stop the sobs.

Everyone… Everyone mattered? How could someone like him matter to people? He was always someone that everyone wanted to forget about… He’d realized that fully when he’d turned 12 and from that day on had ruined his arms with cuts that his parents just sighed at, thinking he was doing it for attention.

“N-No… I can’t matter… It’s not possible to mat-atter!” He said after a few minutes of unrelenting sobs. Moving his hand, he grabbed on to the red hair that pointed toward his sternum, tugging on it for comfort. “N-No…No…No…. It’s not…possible. I don’t matter…” He sniffled and wiped at his face furiously enough to leave red marks. “I’m just an unwanted thing! Even my parents say so!” He cried out, never having admitted that to anymore before. It sounded so weird and forced, but he’d finally said it.

Gaile was still freaking out inside as she watched Ry collapse on the ground and continue to cry his eyes out. She wished so badly she could run away from this all, but she knew that if she did it would be too awkward to talk to him again. All she could do was stand there tugging her hair with one hand and tugging and twisting her scrunchie with the other.

"Oh no. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.." Gaile continued to drone on. She was just about to try to run off when Ry once again said something that caught her attention. Gaile’s green eyes went blank, and all she could do was blink in shock.

"Your parents said that to you?! Well, your parents are wrong. So. SO wrong. You deserve way better than them. I hope you can realize that." she continued. She knew that her words of encouragement would not help his tears but she just had to say them anyway. It was what she did. She always was the encourager. She cared about literally everyone.

"I-I’m sorry." she whispered again prepared for him to lash out for yet again hurting him. This was SO not how she wanted to treat a friend. To make him cry and collapse on the ground he is so upset. She felt like a bully, and the very idea of that made Gaile’s heart break.

“N…Not your fault…” He managed to choke out while he was taking in some seriously dangerous sounding breaths. If he could just stop crying…then he’d be able to pretend this never happened, but that was proving to be so difficult for him…

Ry noticed the way his crying and standing was affecting Gaile, so he decided that it was time to try to shove his emotions down the drain. He couldn’t risk showing this to anymore people… He had to find a way to repress these emotions! What did he normally do to repress them!?

He normally ran off and cried his eyes out for a while, then drew a picture of wherever he’d cried at…then he’d go to sleep and wake up the next day, feeling dead inside, but much more emotionally stable. He HAD to get into that mindset NOW, though, so he took a serious amount of time controlling his breathing.

“Dead puppies… Dead puppies… Dead babies…. Babies on fire with dead puppies underneath…” He chanted while mumbling. It was a weird calming method he had, but most people had their own little kicks. If he could just think about something like that, then he’d be set.

After what felt like an eternity of mumbling to himself, he managed to yank his emotions back into check, cheeks stinging from the inability to stop it sooner. “I’m…I’m sorry you had to see…see that…” He told Gaile, avoiding eye contact completely.

“I…don’t normally do that, and it’s something I shouldn’t do…” He told her, standing up once more and gripping his wrists tightly to keep himself afloat, but the shaking just wouldn’t stop even though he’d managed to stop the tears from falling anymore.

Gaile saw that Ry was starting to calm down and even managed to say that it wasn’t her fault which made her feel a bit better. She decided to just wait it out. She didn’t want to leave him upset. When he finally calmed down he seemed embarrassed. Gaile showed him a tiny friendly smile.

"Don’t even worry about it, Ry. It’s good that you did that. It’s healthy actually to let out whatever feelings you have bottled up. I hope you feel better." she stated.

"Oh and I’m honored that you felt comfortable enough to break down like that in front of me. I just hate that I MADE you break down. I was just trying to be nice." she said and kicked at the ground.

Ry gulped down the rest of his emotions in a breath of air and nodded to Gaile, not sure how this could be healthy to anyone… It made him feel like he’d just done something dirty, even though he was technically filthy from the challenge. “I’m not comfortable crying in front of anyone…” He told her, glancing up at the sky, the sun was starting to set in the distance, which made him feel a little calmer.

“Normally, I just bottle them up and forget about them, then make a bunch of pictures of dead things and places to calm down… Kind of the only way I’ve ever been able to calm myself down…”

When she said that she made him break down, he shook his head in disbelief. “It wasn’t you… It’s society, honestly. I’ve been told to never show my emotions, to bottle things up, and other people have made me feel like I’m not a valid human, even making me want to jump off several buildings…each year they get higher.”

He took some more deep breaths, then sighed. “Thanks…you and Dakota are my first friends,” which was the truth and nothing but it.

Looking at the scrunchie, he remembered something and reached into his pocket, retrieving a small stone with different shades of pink and purple on it. It was the whole reason that he’d taken so long to get up when he’d fallen during the challenge. Honestly, he was going to get up even without Dennis’s help.

He stared at it for a few seconds, then slowly held it out to her. “It’s not much, but I…I give people rocks when I like them, so…here.” He tried to say it sincerely, but it didn’t really feel sincere enough. “I’ve only done this once and it was with Dakota, so…it’s hard to sound…pleasant? If you don’t want it, then that’s okay… I know it’s not really a good gift…”

Gaile nodded as Ry spoke.

"I just hate that society makes people feel that way. That someone made you feel that way. I don’t want to upset you again but I can’t help but feel that no one deserves to feel less than anyone else. No one is better. No one is worse. That’s all i have to say about the matter."

When Ry said that he and her were friends Gaile smiled. That was all she wanted.

"I’m so glad you’re my friend, Ry." she said.

When Ry held out the rock to her, she laughed happily and took it from him. She held it up to her face and grinned at it like an idiot. She then clasped in her hands and held them to her chest.

"I think it’s beautiful. If this is what you do when you like someone then I will treasure it always! Thank you, Ry." she exclaimed with a warm genuine smile.

“You mean that…?” He asked, looking at her in confusion. Glad… Someone was glad…that he’d done something. He’d always accepted those ‘yeah, good for you’ sarcastic looks that he got when he did something, so this feeling was beyond unfamiliar.

“Thank you…” He mumbled, eyes going to the ground once more. “Just promise that you won’t tell Ashley where you got it from? She’ll target you next and I really don’t want you to end up losing because of her sabotaging another challenge and making you look like the enemy…”

Ry was pleasantly surprised when Gaile actually accepted the rock. He didn’t really remember how Dakota had reacted when he gave him the stone, but he felt like he didn’t really think anything of it.

“I found it during the challenge when I was nearly crushed by your building, so I guess it makes sense that I give it to you. It’s the second most dangerous situation I’ve been in when I found a rock.”

"Of course I mean that." Gaile stated with a grin.

She held the rock in the palm of her closed hand, filled with bliss. The cold smooth texture was very calming to Gaile. Especially when she knew why she had it.

When Ry warned her about Ashley again, Gaile nodded understandingly.

"I won’t tell a soul. In fact, I’ll keep it in my pocket so no one can see it or know that it’s there but you and me. Hopefully, I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon." she assured Ry.

When Ry told her how he came to find it, Gaile giggled.

"The second most dangerous situation? What was the first?" she laughed.

Ry almost smiled at what Gaile said but held his mouth down in its normal expressionless state. “I’m…glad,” he replied, playing with the scrunchie and the bracelet Dakota gave him. Okay, so he DID do one small change with grabbing the bracelet, too, but he couldn’t just let it sit there, catching dust.

“That’s good… If rumor gets out that you actually ARE my friend, then you’ll be in trouble… Heh, being friends with me will bring everyone who wants to trouble…” That was probably true… Especially since most people avoided him like the plague because of his weirdness and death obsessed craze.

When Gaile actually asked about the most dangerous time he’d decided to bend down and get a rock, he raised his eyebrows in surprise. Nobody ever really asked him about his past nor did they care to. This was almost like a new territory for him and it was sort of like jumping off an airplane, thrilling.

“Well, when I was 12 years old, my family moved to Hawaii because my dad is in the military… So, naturally, I go to the beach one day and decide to draw the waves when the water starts to pull back. I’m from Canada, so when the sirens start sounding, I get really confused, wondering where the tornado is coming from, but I don’t really give a crap and go back to drawing.” He started, unsure if that made any sense.

“The next thing I know, the waves are coming back toward the island and I’m just casually drawing the picture while people are running from the beach and screaming on their way off. The next thing I know, my mom is yanking my arm and pulling me toward the safety of inland…but I trip and fall flat on my face. When I look up, she’s screaming and running away and I’m on the beach, alone. I look over and there’s this faintly glowing blue rock, apparently dropped by some poor sap…so I reach over and grab it as I hear the roaring waves get closer and closer…then I manage to pull myself up and raced toward the inland, jumping over the wall that conceals the beach.”

When he finished the story, he felt a little embarrassed about how poorly he told it. Oral stories probably weren’t his thing… Actually, telling stories wasn’t his thing…

Gaile shook her head when Ry was talking about how people would come after her if she revealed she was friend with him.

"I don’t really care what they would think. But I know that you do, so I will comply with that." Gaile said and stuck the rock into her pocket carefully.

Gaile was amazed to see Ry loosen up a bit as he talked about his past and how he found the blue rock. It was very satisfying.

"Oh my gosh! You stopped in the middle of, what a tsunami, for a rock? That’s amazing! I can’t believe you got away with that! You must have some killer reflexes! What a story!" she exclaimed and laughed joyfully.

"I’ve never done anything like that… Unless you count winning a battle against a 44 year old neck beard man for a limited edition Charizard at a con once." she giggled. She only liked pokemon indigo league, but charizard was her favorite pokemon of all time.

“Thank you,” He told her once again, trying to understand her thinking on that. If she told anyone about him and her being friends, then she’d be on Ashley’s target list….and then she’d be forced to give up her chance at a million dollars and a lifetime sup—Okay, he needed to accept the fact that he was the only one who was actually here for the paint, too.

“Well, yeah, but it wasn’t a big tsunami, so I don’t really count that as much of a tale to tell people.” He almost smiled when she mentioned his reflexes, which he’d always been proud of since he’d avoided having a….nut cracker moment when he’d messed up on grinding. “I do pride myself in those reflexes…”

He couldn’t believe she’d enjoyed his boring ass tale about his tsunami story. “Wait, you battled some guy for a Charizard? Well, nothing wrong with that, but what’d you do? Battle him with your Gameboy or did you answer trivia questions…? I’d never be able to do both… I always screw up when I do well at something.”

Gaile grinned at the memory.

"Oh I’m sure you’d be fine if you had been put in my situation. It was my second con, and I was super excited because I finally had saved enough money to actually shop while I was there. When I got to the little kiosk, I saw it sitting on a table. It had a sign on it saying it was limited edition and I had enough money to get it, so I went to grab it. This weird man saw it at the same time and started running to get it before me. So I ran and as well and we both grabbed it at the same time. We played a bit of tug of war with it, and then a the kiosk owner came around and took it from both of us. He told us to battle it out or neither of us would get it. So he challenged me to a pokemon trivia challenge, to Indigo League! HE THOUGHT I ACTUALLY WATCHED THE CURRENT SEASONS." Gaile laughed victoriously.

"I of course won with a near perfect score and took it home with me. It’s okay cause I bought him a Raichu and he was happy."

“That sounds intense…” Ry mumbled, not sure how to really express how he felt on that. He’d been to about three cons in Canada, but they were all pretty boring and he’d gone as Miku Hatsune for one of them, which he had to admit didn’t look too bad on him. “I forget facts pretty easily sometimes, so I would have lost that challenge in a flash…especially since I don’t like people who look like they could crush me challenging me. The paranoia would have made me crack into a slight mental freak out, then I’d be frazzled by the time it was a trivia thing.” He shrugged, not entirely sure if that was true since nobody ever challenged him…except Ashley and he normally felt no fear with her. “I’ve been to a few cons myself, and I cosplayed at one. It was pretty boring….” He admitted.

“That’s just me when I’m not on my meds, though. Do you still have it in mint condition?” "That’s so awesome! I’ve never cosplayed at a con, but there’s really no need when you dress like I do!" she laughed.

When Ry asked about the Charizard. Gaile nodded.

"Of course it is! I got it a nice case and everything! It’s on a shelf above my bed in my room. It’s one of my favorite collectibles." she exclaimed with a proud expression.

“That is true… Everyone would assume you’re either some unfamiliar anime character from the nineties or your own OC from the nineties.” He nodded in understanding to that, wondering if he could actually get his own unique style one day to go to con.

Nah, he’d never had a great fashion sense anyway… He’d always been told he looked like a ‘Hot Topic Disaster.’ “There was no point in dressing up, though. Most people didn’t even acknowledge me and when they did, it was kind of disheartening to know I was a boy…”

He tilted his head at her sudden pride of a collectable. He’d collected dozens of things, but he’d only been truly proud of something that he’d made by hand. Maybe he should start making collections of things…. That’d be nice.

“You got a case for it, too? That’s interesting.” He meant that in the most genuine way, even though it didn’t look like it. “I haven’t ever bought a case for something, but I did buy a frame for one of my art pieces.”

Gaile decided to skip over the fact that no one acknowledged him at cons for fear of upsetting him, so she just went “Aww. I’m sorry.” and moved on.

When he asked about her case, she nodded.

"I’m quite proud of it. It’s a great addition to my Pokemon plush collection! So far I have Charizard, Pikachu, Squirtle, JigglyPuff, Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Eevee. But I want them all, though only the ones from Indigo League. I’m not a fan of the new ones." she said.

"What about you? Do you like Pokemon?" she asked.

Ry shrugged, not caring much either way… He’d gotten some nice merch there and won third place in a contest about cosplays, so he didn’t feel that much distress over being ignored; that was his every day, anyway.

When she asked him about liking Pokemon, he felt a twinge of annoyance at himself. All these years, he’d been doing so much math and science homework and studying that he’d fallen out of line with Pokemon and hadn’t even picked it back up.

“Well, yeah, but I’m WAY far behind because of school and AP courses in my school…” He sighed in disappointment. “I want to get back into it, though, which I plan to do during my summer since I heard it’s supposed to be record temp most likely. I do have plushes, figurines, and games back home, though, and some of the Japanese cards from my visit it Japan.”

"Great! That will be a good way to spend your summer! You know all the seasons are on netflix? Netflix is really a goldmine of all your favorite old and new shows and movies." she babbled cheerily.

"You went to Japan? That is so cool! What was it like? I’ve never traveled out of the country though I want to go to Italy." she asked.

“I’m surprised you know about Netflix,” he joked, at least attempting to…. “Just…um…joking, so you know.” He’d never really made any nice jabs at anyone before, so this was all new ground to him. His talks with Dakota had all been serious; no jokes, so he was severely lacking the skill to play nice in joke form… “I don’t really make those, um, not smart ass jokes a lot; still not used to friends, so…you’ll have to understand that I don’t really mean anything in malice.”

Thinking back on Japan, a sour expression fell across his face, obviously not enjoying the memory. “Japan was okay; they were really condescending to me and my mom since we are Korean and she was a female…” He shook his head at the thought of being talked to like he didn’t even know the language. “I speak Japanese and Korean fluently and they treated me like I was some kind of idiot there… Though…I guess it’s not really all of Japan that did this, but there were racist people that were there. The scenery, food, shopping, and hotels were great, though. There were also signs up in stores that did not allow anyone who was not ‘full-blooded’ Japanese people to enter. It’s a place to visit, not a place to live for me… Maybe it was because I was only five and nine when I visited…”

Gaile laughed at Ry’s joke.

"Oh yeah, dude! My homegirl Leah showed me Netflix a few years ago. It forreal is my addiction. Like they have so many good old shows on there!" she replied with another laugh.

She stopped when she heard Ry starting to backtrack about his jab.

"Oh no no. Don’t worry about it. I got it was a joke. It was a good one too. You did good for your first nice jab. You should try them more often!" Gaile said with a smile.

When Ry began to talking about his poor experiences during his trip to Japan, Gaile frowned a bit. The things that he and his mother had gone through were terrible and it made her sad.

"I can’t believe that places are actually like that. It’s so sad. I’m glad you got to enjoy what you did of your trip though!" she said.

“I watch Netflix a lot, honestly, but my parents want me to learn a ton of mathematics and chem terms….so when I do watch it, I’m always forcing myself to study in the meantime. If I don’t learn the terms, then my parents flip out and tell me about how much of a waste of space I am.” He sighed at the memories of when his mom was home for that one month to teach him how to cook. He burnt ONE thing and she flipped out, calling him a disgrace.

“It’s stressful, so I kind of don’t get to watch it as much as the hours on it would suggest. During Christmas and summer, though… That’s when I get into it.”

When she told him that she got his joke, he felt himself relax again and almost smiled when she told him that he should do it more often. “Nah, if I do, then it might turn into those ‘is he joking’ moments that I get a lot.” Nobody knew Ry’s humor well and sometimes Ry liked it like that, but now he wanted to make it clear when he was joking. Losing one out of two friends would be a jab at him; laughable for Ashley, though…

“Well, history makes it that way, I suppose. Japan is extremely hated by Koreans and my family was disowned by my mom’s side when she married my Japanese father. The older generations don’t like me because I am a mutt—Japanese and Korean, so I was, naturally, disliked by my grandparents.” He shrugged as if it were just some small thing, which he actually felt like it was. So what if some people he’d never met didn’t wanna see him? When he did see them, they threw things at him, so why should he care when they start to need help in their old age?

“Anyway, you’d love Japan because of all the items in the stores related to Pokemon. Plus, all the really well-made and artistic items from series are there and way more cheap than online would try to suggest. That forty dollar Kunade figurine with the piano was only ten bucks in Japan when it was nearly fifty online.”

Gaile laughed at Ry’s comment about why he doesn’t nice jab more often. And listened as Ry talked more about Japan. Hearing how he was treated just because he was Japanese and Korean made her feel bad for him.

"I’m sorry to hear that Ry." she whispered, not wanting to make her friend upset again.

When he starting talking about all the things being sold in Japan being cheaper, Gaile’s eyes lit up and she made a mental note to check out more Japanese shops online for things.

"That sounds amazing! I’d really like to go there one day! But first Italy! I’ve wanted to go there since I was really little. It’s just so beautiful in the pictures." Gaile said with a smile.

Ry gave a simple shrug to that sorry and looked at her dead in the eyes. “It’s not your fault.” He then looked toward the smoldering buildings in the distance. “It’s not like anyone can help it; I mean, I guess Japan kind of deserves the hatred since they did cause Korea a bunch of grief… So I should just accept what they throw at me since I could never know the pain they faced…or something along those lines; that’s what my mom told me anyway.”

When Gaile talked about Italy, he tilted his head. “I’ve heard about that place…and I kind of do want to go there. I hear it’s got some amazing wines and I would love to give them a shot,” he jokingly said, lifting his hand up like he was holding a shot glass. “Ah, but you probably don’t drink often.” It was a poor assumption of him, but he didn’t want to assume she did drank a lot just because of the party.

Gaile nodded sympathetically as Ry finished talking about Japan. But when he started talking about Italy and how he’d like to go there too, her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Really? That’s a good reason to go. If you’re of drinking age. I’m not sure if we would there." Gaile laughed.

When Ry asked about her drinking, it took a moment to remember the spiked punch at the cast Christmas party.

"Oh yeah I almost forgot about the party! THAT was quite a night! And you’re right, I don’t drink that often. It’s because I’m a TOTAL lightweight! One Smirnoff Ice is enough to get me really tipsy. Aunt Jodie blames my short stature." Gaile explained with a giggle.

“I’m pretty sure that anyone who goes to Italy is of drinking age when it comes to wine,” Ry told her, unsure himself, but he wasn’t going to rain on his own par—well, put sunlight on his own parade since that’s worse than rain in his head. “I’d rather go there and enjoy the wines than stay here and listen to Lavender whine about being pranked.”

Ry snorted when she informed him about the party and nearly forgetting about it. Maybe she’d gotten drunk? He couldn’t remember if she had or not.

“I’m shorter than you are, Gaile, and I can drink a whole bottle of vodka and still need to get more in me to feel a buzz, but that’s because I’ve built up a tolerance over the years.” When he’d first found out about alcohol, his parents had left their ‘special’ cabinets open. When they’d gotten home, Ry informed them that he’d tasted every last one and enjoyed it.

“I’ve been drinking since I turned 13 and I still have a 4.0/5.0 GPA, so I know how to handle myself. I’ve even got liquor in my room under my bed.”

Gaile giggled and nodded at what Ry had to say about Lavender.

"I just can’t even imagine that right now. Like, can you actually see who would make the merge? I’d like to say I could but I don’t know. You’d make it for sure." she said.

When Ry talked about his heritage not matching how her family used to live, Gaile nodded.

"I don’t get why my family decided to live that way honestly. They weren’t hippies or anything. I HATED living like that. You know that they wouldn’t let me get vaccinations either?" she asked.

When Ry talked about what happens when he gets drunk, Gaile smiled and laughed.

"Aww that’s kinda precious! You turn into a care bear or something!" she laughed.

Ry thought about the merge and slowly shrugged his shoulders. “Um, I kind of see me making it there, but at the same time, I don’t. I see you, Dakota, Bitchley, Arizona, Dennis, Kiki, Matt, the Baroness, Bailey, maybe me, and perhaps Derby making it to the merge… The others are too physically weak, conceited, or prideful to make it that far. They’ll cost challenges and make the teams turn against them.” He shrugged, not trying to sound harsh.

“I couldn’t see myself living that way…” Ry muttered, looking up at her. “My parents may hate me and wish that I was gone, but they still buy my love and keep me healthy to avoid getting arrested, fined, or their reputations getting ruined.” It was the honor system, honestly. “What kind of parents don’t get their kids vaccinated? Don’t they understand that guy’s findings were butchered to fit his standards, meaning they’re asinine and completely bogus?”

When Gaile told him he was a care bear when drunk, his face turned red and he quiclkly shook his head. “Iie! I don’t turn into a weird creature like that! I just become weird and…hug sometimes! It’s not a care bear at all! I’m not precious; I’m freaky and weird!”

Gaile’s eyes lit up excitedly when Ry listed her name in the group of people he could see making the merge. It gave her a great sense of satisfaction knowing someone believed she had the ability to make it far enough in the game.

"I can’t believe you think I’d make it to the merge! Like, you’re pretty much guaranteed, but ME?" she exclaimed.

When Ry talked about his family, Gaile nodded. She was a bit unsure how to reply to his statements, other than saying that she felt bad about the buying his love. At least they cared enough to make sure he was healthy. Not like her parents.

"Yeah. They just weren’t crazy about the idea of injecting their children with unknown chemicals. Of course, if I had gotten the chicken pox or whooping cough when I was little, I would’ve been screwed. Heck, they may have even believed that vaccines cause autism which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!" she cried.

Gaile laughed as Ry got all defensive about his drunk state. He could deny it all he wanted, but she would always think of him as a Grumpy Care Bear. She just knew that he had a heart and soul somewhere in there. Gaile held her hands up defensively and giggled.

"Ok dude. Whatever you sayyy." she trailed off the end of her statement, followed by a few chuckles. She had a sly grin on her face.

“I don’t think I am. I mean, if you can trick Ashley into thinking you’re not my friend, then you’ll make it to the merge without a doubt, but as for me…” Ry rubbed his arm and shook his head. “I have dug my grave and stepped in it. I know you say you’ll…protect me, but… If Ashley can trick my team into thinking I did something wrong and deserve to get eliminated, then…then I’m done for.”

Ry huffed softly at the fact that he should have just left the bitch alone on the first day he was here, but if he’d done that, then he wouldn’t know how to keep others safe. He SHOULD be concerned with him making it to first place, but he’d made two friends…and friends do stuff for each other, right? “If I make it to the merge, it’ll be because Dennis screwed something up, T didn’t do anything to help during a challenge, and Lavender chose her looks over the team…”

When Gaile moved on to her family and not liking chemicals, he sighed loudly and ran his hand through his bangs. “I hate parents who do that shit. I actually hate most parents because of how they raise children. If a doctor says to ‘get your child a vaccination,’ then do it. I can understand when it first comes out being extremely wary because there are repercussions, but after years of proven research that it has more positive results than negative, you’d think they’d learn to accept it was a known quantity of preventing death. Besides, what’s worse your child dying a horrible and painful death or developing Autism?” He took a deep breath, leaning back. “Even though it’s been proven to be a hoax…”

Ry’s eyebrow twitched slightly when he knew Gaile was joking about believing he wasn’t a care bear. He wasn’t caring… He was only doing this stuff because they were pitiful, right? He was protecting others from Ashley to better himself in this game, right? RIGHT? Shit… Maybe he was getting soft. “I know you’re joking and that makes it sting even more.” He told her, crossing his arms and huffing like a small child.

Ashley:
Ashley was leaned up against a building, arms folded across her chest. She was watching the street in front of her for no particular reason, it was just something she liked to do when she was bored. Plus, you always got good leverage when no one knew you were watching. So far she’d seen the Baroness, Mallory, and Lavender walk by, none of them doing anything particularly noteworthy. Lavender was in a huff though, presumably from all the soot coating her precious locks. Ashley was planning to head back up to the hotel in a couple of minutes, when she heard a thudding noise from behind her. With a metallic screech, Ry ground along the railing above her, plummeting to the ground right in front of Ashley’s face. It was a little unexpected, but Ashley could roll with it.

"Nice moves, Henry," Ashley said sarcastically. "Let me guess, you’re self taught?" She cocked an eyebrow at the boy in front of her.

Ry’s eyebrows furrowed at the oh-so familiar voice of a rooster having sex with a frog… Oh wait, that was just Bitchley making a smart ass comment about his skateboarding. His lips tightened into a straight line, not sure if he wanted to make her choke on vomit in his mind or simply make her wish she’d fallen off her high horse long ago.

He chose another route and crossed his arms, raising a tiny eyebrow right back at her. “No, I learned how to skate from my boss back in Ontario, Bitchley.” This new nickname was sticking really well in his head, so he didn’t even hesitate to use it. Until she addressed him by Ry, he’d call her it until the day he died.

"I’ve been skateboarding for three years, so kindly—oh, wait, that’s not a word you understand; I’ll change it to just ‘fuck off,’ then." He was in no mood for this bitch and her idiotic comments. "My only regret right now is that I didn’t give you a Marie Antoinette haircut; it’d fair better than that travesty on your head."

As much as it pained Ashley to admit it to herself, Ry’s comments really did hurt her. He seemed to have a way of being rude without any tact, unlike what she usually did, carefully placing her insults to watch a person’s self esteem crumple. She had to resist the urge to run her hands through her hair again. She actually did spend a fair amount of her time on looking presentable, and attacking someone based on their appearance was a low blow. And calling someone a bitch was uncalled for. Cursing at someone was unoriginal. But it always did betray a sense of anger, which was always something she could use. But saying she didn’t know what ‘kind’ meant, that stung her deeply. She gritted her teeth against that sharp pain, masking it with another one of her humorless smiles.

"Really? What kind of boss was that?" she began to retaliate, but her voice came out a bit differently than she wanted. It had lost a bit of its harsh edge, though not enough to be noticeable, and so she forced it back on, straightening herself to as tall as she could get and using her height advantage to look down on the boy. She switched her tactic slightly. "Where were you working, a skate park? A minimum wage job? Or an ‘internship’, where they make you work for nothing?" She scoffed. "Well, it looks like you haven’t been on that board for three years, hopping around like that. But practice makes perfect, so maybe if you keep wasting your time skateboarding you’ll gain those valuable skills that are completely useless once you get out into the real world."

"If you even touched this thing, then you’d be on your ass, crying to your parents, Bitchley." Ry retaliated, feeling his confidence grown once more but he really wanted to be away from her. "Ya wanna know about my life? Wow, that’s a first coming from someone like you: a lonely little troll who knows how to press a spacebar." He’d been annoyed with her ever since he’d been unable to burn her hair off.

"Anyway, he was a bum boss, who paid me $10.25; a big surprise, right? Well, unlike you Americans, we get paid a much more financially stable rate," he didn’t care much for her attitude about his job, nor did he care for her at all, so this was going to be jam packed with insults at her. "And if you must know, I would be working harder on my skills if it weren’t for the fact I fell down when your building was collapsing. Nice leadership, by the way, remind me to nominate you for President of your countr—Oh, wait, you’d just cause the economy to crumble; much like the building you were supposed to be protecting. Maybe instead of working on your AIM for head shots, next time you’ll aim for the fire."

Yeah, Ry hadn’t seen the bucket to Jillian’s head happen, but his conversation with Gaile had revealed some stuff about the whole situation and he knew that only a bucket could have been thrown without causing bleeding of some sort to Jillian’s head. BUT he figured Ashley would believe that he saw her if he was right about it.

"Now… Would you fuck off? I don’t have time to give you a fuck I don’t have."

Ashley rolled her eyes, as Ry’s insults were getting a little more basic and less specific than he’d been talking about earlier. “Oh, that’s real original, Henry. It’s comments like that which totally make me go start crying or whatever. It’s just so  rude  to call someone a troll when they’re in the middle of a halfway intelligent conversation with you. The halfway was my half, just so you know.”

Ashley mock clapped a few times when Ry mentioned his ‘amazing’ job. “Good for you, Henry. With all that money, though, I would think you could afford some skateboarding lessons.” Ashley paused to laugh sharply. “No, of course not, you were too busy spending it on… what? Matches for your pyromaniac side? Knives to set up all pretty on your shelves? No wonder you don’t have many friends, must be hard when you can’t invite people over to your house without worrying about scaring them away. And at least I  try  to lead my team, not like you. Your team is such a mess, I’m sure you haven’t even attempted to be their ‘great and mighty leader’.”

When Ry mentioned headshots, Ashley froze for a second. He had to have seen something, though she didn’t know how he could have. Still, Ry didn’t have any proof, and there were no other witnesses. Not like those sunglasses in Todd’s pocket, which were some pretty solid evidence. Knowing that the only way to deflect suspicion was to act innocent, Ashley switched her frozen stare to one of deep thought. “Head shot?” She questioned, looking almost too confused. “Ohhh, you mean Jillian? When someone  stole my bucket  and hit the poor thing with it? That was quite the shock, but she’s doing just fine now.” Ashley blinked over at Ry, innocent eyes wide open. “Why do you care so much about what happened to Jillian, though? I mean, I didn’t see  exactly  who took my bucket. And you  were  running around setting fires. If, say, I was filling up my bucket and I was distracted, who’s to say I didn’t glimpse you stealing my bucket to sabotage our team? I would  hate  for that to be true, though.” Ashley gave Ry a simpering look, but her eyes burned with hatred.

“Sweet burn; no pun intended,” Ry sarcastically replied, shaking his head in mild amusement at her side of the conversation. “Too bad your intelligence is as piss poor as Chris’s creativity… You also have the ego of Texas, so of course you’d think that you even stand a chance to have intelligence on your side.” He shrugged, not looking like he cared about she’d have to say in retaliation to that. “If you had an ounce of intelligence, you wouldn’t have sabotaged your own team and just waited a little bit, hm? Then the polar bears would have lost and you’d still have a bit of respect from your teammates.” He told her, obviously mocking her inability to understand that he’d talked with her teammates.

Ry shook his head at her and crossed his arms, raising his eyebrow, and ignoring the slight pang in his chest from her low blows. This was an annoying concept that he couldn’t tell her about his newly made friends…because they were on HER team. “Why do I need friends when I have the ability to ruin other people? Also, I spent the money on new art supplies, sheet music, and ways to fix up my grand piano, not that I haven’t also purchased a new knife and lighter with my money before, but what can you do when you need self-defense and your medication, hm?” He didn’t care much for this part of the conversation, so he decided to end it right there.

“Anyway, good luck trying to act like that will do ANYTHING to hurt me in the future… I have eye witnesses that can back up that I was nowhere near the water pumps…. If I wanted to ruin your team’s chances of winning, I’d of done something more drastic than steal your precious bucket. If I were near the water pumps with YOU around it, I would have burnt you to a crisp.” He shrugged again, happily telling her this, a smile appearing on his face. “You’d have never spoken again and I would have gotten off on ‘accidental’ burning… Tsk, you’d be surprised what you can get away with on this show, hm? Also, if you weren’t near the water pumps, I would have turned off your water pressure… That’s how you win a challenge dealing with fire, idiot.” He waved his hand and tilted his head. “You can go ahead and tell everyone that I successfully maneuvered around to ‘sabotage’ your team, which will just make other people more wary of me and my team happier that I managed to ruin you, even though people would have eye witness accounts of me NOT being near the pumps.”

Ashley ignored Ry’s comments about her intelligence as best she could. It was all the same things he’d told her before, so even though it was harsh, it was old and didn’t really pack as much of a punch. Ashley found his comment about being able to ruin other people to be quite amusing though, because thus far, he hadn’t shown all that much cruelty towards anyone. More of just annoying bluntness, but Ashley kept that to herself so she could focus more on the matter at hand.

"Well then, good for you. I’m sure everyone will find Dennis to be quite the reliable witness to your not sabotaging our team, especially since you two are on the same team. FYI, I have eyewitnesses too, so I wish you the best of luck trying to accuse me." Ashley didn’t  really have eyewitnesses specifically, but at the very least, she knew Dakota and probably Gaile would back her up. “Such violence, Henry.” Ashley shook her head at the boy in front of her. “It’s too bad you didn’t do either of those things, guess you were too busy lighting matches with your arsonist buddy. Maybe next time, you’ll try harder. I do so love a challenge.” Ashley’s eyes sparked at Ry threateningly. “It seems like we’re at a standstill though, with our both having witnesses and all. I guess that’s more proof of Todd’s guilt then, since I doubt he has any witnesses to save himself. Why don’t we leave it like this, and you can run on back to the Pandas before you get burned.”

Ry stood there in silence and nodded in content at the fact that he felt more complimented by Ashley than insulted now. “Well, hope your eye witnesses are more than just your teammates because that’s all I feel you have….” He muttered, knowing full well that her threats were extremely hollow like her brain. “You know what? I won’t hesitate next time since I would have gladly done it to you had it occurred at the time… Too bad I was more focused on not getting crushed by your shitty leadership skills and claiming second place with my teammate.” Then he went silent for a few moments, listening to what she said about Todd and that’s when he felt his mind go into a newer state: anger.

Todd hadn’t been a dick to him the first day he was here, apologized to him, and treated him like a human being…. Now he was standing in front of a fucking bitch while she mockingly stated that Todd was likely to be eliminated because she knew something about the whole ordeal.

Instead of a new comeback, smart ass comment, or anything like that, he stormed over and slammed his foot directly down on hers, his legs being his strongest part of his body, and made sure to grind his foot into hers with extreme force. He wouldn’t’ be able to break it…but he was going to leave a giant bruise on her foot that she’d regret the next day. “I. Told. You. To. Fuck. Off. Didn’t. I?” He asked, glaring at her in the eyes, then moved back a few feet. “You’ve got two options, Bitchley: you can leave with your tail between your legs or you can stay and I kick your ass….” He KNEW she knew about Todd and he wasn’t going to let her off easy.

"Same to you, Henry. I’d say teammate witnesses work for me better than they work for you, though. And I’m glad you’re going to go all out next time, may the best of us win." Ashley was ready to have a real challenge this season, and Ry was as good of a person to provide that as any. It would make her victory just that much sweeter.

Ashley watched Ry’s mood flip right before her eyes. His eyes were starting to burn, and Ashley didn’t know what she’d said that would make him like this. He never got this way when they were exchanging insults, so something else was a touchy subject for him. Ashley was just running over what she’d just said when her foot was filled with a crushing pain. Tears sprang to her eyes uninvitedly, and she noticed through the blur that Ry, in his blind rage, was attempting to smash her foot into the pavement. “Damn it, Henry!” The girl yelped out as the boy finally got off her foot. She swiped at her eyes quickly, hopefully before Ry had a chance to notice the tears which had been seconds from sliding down her cheeks. She didn’t look down at her foot yet, she didn’t want to see what damage had been done.

As Ry talked, Ashley’s face began to flush with anger as well. How  dare  he attempt to speak to her that way? Snarling, Ashley reached forward and grabbed the boy’s wrists, spinning him around and slamming his back into the wall behind her. “Listen up,  freak .” The girl snapped, grinding Ry’s hands into the rough concrete wall above his head. “Don’t you  ever  touch me again, have I made myself clear? And don’t you dare threaten me either. Or I swear, there are worse things coming. Things worse than just being eliminated. Do we have an understanding?” Her breath was hot on his face as she leaned close to him, tightening her grip even more. “Can your simple brain understand this, or do I need to say it again?” With that, Ashley released Ry roughly, her backward motion serving to slam him into the wall one more time.

Straightening up to a painfully full height, she took in one more heated breath before turning and walking briskly away, her teeth gritted. Her foot burned with each step, but she never slowed. There’d be time to tend her wounds later, both physical and emotional, alone in her hotel room. Hopefully Henry had gotten the message though. She felt like she couldn’t have been more clear.

A few tears made their way out of her eyes, and she swiped them away roughly, her hands digging into her cheeks as she walked onward.

Ry had been so caught up in his own thoughts about how he’d engage in attacking Ashely if she tried anything that he didn’t even notice her run over and slam him into the concrete wall. It took him completely by surprise and he let out a loud gasp when the air was knocked out of his lungs. Then he felt the pain in his wrists as they were forced above his head, the concrete piercing his hands like iron. This fucking bitch was trying to break him.

Slamming his eyes shut, he took this time to steady his mind and regain his breathing, not catching everything she told him in that time. Now she was threatening him and telling him that he would be sorry if he messed with her again. What she failed to know about Ry’s pockets were that they had more secrets than the Fort Knox Gold Vault, so he stayed silent, keeping his pained eyes shut.

His jaw tightened as he felt the pain still increasing with her long winded speech, which he found pointless. “Fuck off…” He managed to squeak out from his lost breath… She was lucky that he was trying to regain his breath and that his hands were pinned or he’d of grabbed out his knife, razor, or various sharpened pencils to stab her with, no problem.

This only proved to venture his hatred for Ashley and he once he’d regained his breath, he felt himself slammed right back into the wall, causing him to slide down the wall and sit against it to regain himself once more. If she’d of stayed there just ten seconds longer, he would have kangaroo kicked the shit out of her for trying to pin him down. He lowered his head down and coughed viciously while his lungs painfully refilled once more and yanked out his razor to hold in his hands just in case she tried to come back.

“I hope the next challenge…is running based, bitch! Let’s see how much your team likes it when you hold them back and cause them to lose!” He coughed, leaning his head down and wishing he’d stabbed her on the first day here.

Baroness
The Baroness whistled a merry shanty as she marched down the street with a confident swagger. Her team had just won the challenge, and, despite being a bit sooty from going out and attempting to burn down the other team’s buildings, she was tickled pink! But what captain wouldn’t be after seeing her team win?

Turning a corner on her way back to the hotel, she closed her eyes and smiled giddily as she recollected today’s events; not only did she get to metaphorically sink the other team’s ships, but her team won right after eliminating Alexandria! Unfortunately, because she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going, she ended up walking right into something…or someone, and promptly fell right over. Despite being a bit dazed from the minor impact, she opened her eyes and noticed she walked into one of her fellow competitors. “Avast, who be ye!?” She asked, rubbing her back from where she fell onto the side walk.

Ry:
Ry groaned from the ground as he felt the collision hit him dead on. What the heck was with people and bumping him these days? If he’d wanted to die by something, it’d most certainly NOT be through bumping into someone and falling off a cliff.

Glancing up, he saw the person he’d met through bumping into on the first day: The Baroness. “Hey, how about tomorrow, we don’t bump into each other, okay?” He sarcastically told her, mood obviously spiked up from its normal standpoint.

Soot and ash were gleaming on his cheeks like a trophy to him, and he’d not lost today like he’d been planning for. Hell, today was great compared to a majority of his life! Blowing up buildings, doing it on sheer impulse, his favorite color being played out today, Dennis and Lavender not being Twats, and his team would have won had it not been for Mallory…

Mallory’s going to get it when Ry finds her… If she dared tried to play the whole ‘well, you guys were using things from your pockets!’, Ry would strike back with how she managed to trick out her gun if not for the tools she used for making her bombs. He’d knock her off her high horse.

"Well, it looks like I was wrong about your team being a bunch of losers…" Ry told the Baroness, not feeling a bit of remorse for saying it. "Great job on winning and junk."

The Baroness groaned as she got to her feet, and, although annoyed she fell, she was glad to have recognized the voice. “Arrr, ahoy there Ry!” She warmly told him as he looked up at her. “Phew, it ain’t Ashley…” The pirate quietly sighed to herself, happy it wasn’t the one person left in the competition that she hated.

Not getting his sarcasm, the Baroness snickered at Ry asking them to not bump into each other. “Blimey! Somethin’ mighty fishy be goin’ on if it happen’s again! Ain’t this twice we’ve ran into each other?”  She replied, noticing he was in a happier mood than normal but not paying much mind to it. The soot and ash Ry was drenched in didn’t matter to the Baroness, after all, they got to burn things to the ground!

When Ry said he was wrong about her team being a bunch of losers, she felt her blood temporarily boil. “D-did he just insult me ‘ands?” She thought, unsure of how to feel since he apologized for the insult. “Oh, yer complement be mighty ‘preciated! Ye crew ain’t too shabby either!” She perked up, trying to not focus on the fact Ry thought her team was a bunch of losers. “Woulda’ won had yer buildin’ not been blown to smithereens!”

“We were about to head over to your building after we finished with the Polar Bears… Too bad  someone  bombed our building. Shouldn’t there have been a rule about being ‘out’ and not being about to do something like that to another team?” Ry asked, feeling like it was extremely unfair. The fact that Chris felt the need to allow something like that to happen must mean the show isn’t getting enough ratings and he’s hoping for some confrontation.

“I mean, all’s fair in love and war, and I use the fake word ‘love’ loosely, but it seems like that should’ve been a rule Chris established…” Ry hated Chris even more than he thought he did and wished he’d thrown the can at where Chris was, BUT killing the host would lead to him going to prison, no money, and no lifetime supply of paint.

“We were lucky that I didn’t get knocked out by that Bitch’s building…” Ry told Baroness, eyes visibly narrowing. “I’m glad you’re not her, either. I really am not in the mood to deal with her shit right now…” He wasn’t going to let her ruin his content mood with her stupid ideas on sarcasm and smart ass wise cracks…

“Anyway, congrats and all… Would have been great for my team to win or our teams to tie, though. We’re kind of on the brink of collapse and I think that if we vote off Kiki sometime, then we’ll be in for a world of exhausting arguments between Lavender and a brick wall…”

The Baroness had a feeling Ry knew what answer she would give him. “It’s Chris matey. He’d’ve probably let Dennis burn some’n just cause he thinks it’d be funny n’ good fer ratin’s. This show be havin’ Drama in the name fer a reason!”

When Ry mentioned he almost got knocked out by a building, she winced. “Arr, bein’ knocked out woulda’ sucked like bein’ a fish in the Sahara.” She tried to make small talk with Ry. Trying to change the subject, the Baroness smirked and told Ry, “Are ye glad that the Parrots be up fer elimination today? That wench might be packin’ ‘er bags n’ walkin’ the plank!”

"If I were in yer shoes matey, I’d be votin’ off the less helpful one. Can’t be havin’ a slacker on yer crew; if they ain’t pullin’ their weight, feed ‘em to the fish like chum!"

“Yeah, but…” He sighed in annoyance and bit his lip. Damn, they were really close to winning this stupid challenge, but then it had to go down like that. Oh well… it’s better than last place he supposed. Looking back at her, he shrugged. “I guess Chris has to get good ratings on a show that is probably going downhill, huh? Little prick about it…” He muttered, crossing his arms and heaving a sigh.

“I’m glad that they lost, but I have a feeling Ashley’s going to weasel her way out of this elimination…” He tsked in aggravation, glaring at some unknown object like he was waiting on it to burst into flames. “She always will with her fake ass personality and the fact that Gaile and Dakota might not really believe me when I told them about her earlier.” He wanted to get them to listen to him, but he didn’t know how… “I’m more anxious because I don’t want anyone on that team to go….besides her.”

Ry coughed at the last part of the Baroness’s sentence and nodded. “Yeah, I have in mind the least helpful person on our team, so I won’t go easy on any of them when it comes to skills. Even I have my useful points, but that person does not.” He wasn’t going to say names in fear they’d be overheard.

"Me brother Markus be sayin’ he gets worse n’ worse in tryna get them rattin’s, let’s just hope he don’t maroon us on an island in an attempt fer ‘em." The Baroness tried explaining, hoping Ry would understand what she was getting at.

She slowly nodded as he explained a bit about Ashley to her. “Y-yeah, ‘er crew seem pretty merry sans that old sea-hag, be hopin’ they realize how she is n’ vote her off!” The Pirate chuckled. “I be thinkin’ it’s her goin’ home, ain’t nobody on their team screwed up, n’ I think most of ‘em don’t like her…I know we ain’t be liken her, but who do ye be thinkin’ ‘ll be forced to walk the plank?” The Baroness asked Ry, curious at what his answer would be?

The Baroness simply shrugged when Ry explained who on his team was weak. “Seems fair ye vote ‘em off n’ all matey, can’t be havin’ no swab’s not pull their weight!” She had to think for a moment about who the least useful member on her team would be, but couldn’t really come up with an answer. “Now that Alexandria be gone, ain’t really got much of a clue who be me weak ‘and.

“You mean like Pahkitew Island? Yeah, I’d of swam off that island and never looked back with the fact that they were risking their lives with an obvious psychopath…” Ry responded, eyes showing some interest in the subject. “Or I would have simply offed her myself… To be honest, her being crazy and evil wasn’t too mysterious and that’s excluding the confessionals. If he were to throw us on some island, then we’d know that he was desperate for the ratings, but with Ashley being a bitch, Lavender being pretty, and Dennis being Dennis, we won’t have to worry about something like that happening… Plus, we have a pirate, a nineties girl, and a girl who is handicapped. This season has representation for the fans and enough strange things going on to keep us from being marooned to some island…”

Ry shrugged his shoulders slowly and looked back toward the smoking buildings behind them. “From where I was standing with the rest of my team, after I’d blown up your building, it looked like they were stressed over something that was happening… Todd was looking like he was frantically trying to explain himself… If Ashley isn’t discovered, then…it might be him.” He hated to think it’d be him since Todd hadn’t been a dick to him the first time he saw him.

“Well, your team did have some qualities that helped you when, so I guess you don’t really know until the team screws up, but I don’t know how my team will react to the next challenge… We only got so far because we separated the two biggest idiots on the team.” He moved his hands aside for emphasis. “Hopefully, we don’t have them together in the next challenge. Maybe I should talk to Kiki about keeping them apart for as long as we can.”

"Don’t think I watched that season….there be wench addled in the head there? Think that ‘xplains why Chris let the ‘er on then!" The Baroness asked, noting the curiosity in Ry’s eyes. She couldn’t help but snicker when Ry mentioned all the unusual people competing this season, even if it was a jab at herself. "Arr, ain’t every day ye be seein’ a walkin’, talkin’ pirate with yer deadlights! Suppose all of us together’d be good fer ratin’s, yeah!

The Baroness grew concerned when Ry Mentioned Todd might be eliminated. “W-why’d the guy who obsesses over that there tumblrbox be ‘liminated? He ain’t done nothin’ wrong has he?” She didn’t really know Todd all to well, but doubted he had done anything wrong. Especially not with Ashley being on his team.

She stayed silent as Ry explained his team’s predicament. “…Ye be an addlepate t’ not keep ‘em apart. Should seriously talk with Kiki n’ that other feller, what’s their name…Tay? ‘bout it, less ye wanna get one of ‘em ‘liminated next time.”

“I don’t really see why he let me on this season… Honestly, I feel like he just ran out of interesting people and grabbed the first thing he saw.” Ry admitted, wondering how he even got in the mix. Once he submitted his audition tape, he was pretty sure he’d get a rejection letter from the show and be back under his willow, feeling a bit ashamed that he’d even tried. “But you’re right about the other thing; it’s not often we see anything like you or the others on here…”

When the Baroness asked the question to Ry, he merely shrugged his shoulders about it. “I don’t know what happened with the Parrots. All I know is that Todd looked really scared and frantic and everyone was giving him this look.” His shoulders shrugged then sagged. “I don’t think any of them understand what a bitch she is, so they’re likely to vote Todd off. Though I don’t think it’s his fault that their ‘leader’ was unable to keep the flames down since she was SO able-bodied about everything else. Hope she goes home…”

He didn’t bother correcting her on the name because he was sure it was pointless by this point. “I want to talk to Kiki about it because she’ll enforce the rules. Although, I did have a chat with Dennis about keeping the pranks to the other teams during challenges and he seemed to listen today…which makes me wonder if he actually took my advice or just didn’t have the time.”

The Baroness stayed silent as Ry explained his uncertainty of being chosen for the show. “If ya ask me matey, they chose ya cause maybe they just like ya? Most teens love a lad of darker nature if me time browsin’ me lil’ brother’s BookFace or whatever ya call it proves.” The Baroness tried to reassure him, not wanting Ry to beat himself up. ” ‘sides, I be like’n ye well ‘nough.”

The Baroness sighed heavily when Ry mentioned that Ashley’s own team doesn’t seem to see her for who she actually is. “It be bad when two from different crews see a sea hag fer what she is when ‘er own hands don’t….” She muttered, a glimpse of anger visible in her eyes. “So someone who be innocent ‘s gonna go dance with Jack Ketch cause of Ashley?” The Baroness asked. “If there’s one thing I be hatin’, it be a traitor, n’ that be exactly what Ashley is; nothin’ more than a cowardly, traitorous, swab!” The Baroness spat out in disgust, not pleased with Ashley in the slightest.

Not seeing a need to, she didn’t comment on the third part of what Ry said.

Ry shook his head and looked at her in disbelief. “I don’t’ really understand why they’d choose me over Alexandria… She was an idiot and that’s what the show really needs in a season. I’m just…an emo? Besides, I’m sure that there are more outcasts and loners that were far more interesting than I am out there…” He couldn’t really see himself being on this show, even when he’d received the confirmation letter and brochure for a ‘luxury stay at a 5 star hotel!’

“I don’t have a lot of evidence to hold against her, though, but I don’t think Todd deserves the boot…even if he did do something foul.” He closed his eyes and sighed, annoyed with the circumstances. “If he does go home, then I will ruin Ashley’s room and make the rest of my or her stay here a living hell…” He glared down at the ground, knowing that he was probably her next target now. “I’m probably next on her vendetta, though… I kind of told her off and said that I knew she was a ‘fake bitch’ the first day we got here…” He sighed once more and kicked a random rock with his foot.

“She’s going to try to get me kicked off as good as she can…”

"Belay that bilge talk!" The Baroness demanded, unsure why Ry insisted on beating himself up. "Arr, they be lettin’ ye on cause they think yer interestin’, ‘er maybe ‘cause they can see somethin’ ye don’t!" She preached to the boy in an attempt to make him feel better about himself, chuckling a tiny bit at the end. " ‘Sides, what maters most, lad, is that ye be here fer a chance at booty n’ fame!" Truth be told, She wasn’t actually all that surprised she was accepted. Her little brother told her that the show seemed to attract strange and unusual teens across the globe; perfect for The Queen of the Seas herself!

She quietly listened to Ry explain how he feels about the elimination ceremony tonight. “The sea hag deserves it fer treatin’ people the way she do! There be three things a cap’n shan’t do; don’t insult another Cap’n’s vessel, don’t kick a sea dog when they be down, n’ don’t let yer crew take blame fer yer own accord. If she were one of me own ‘ands, she be swabbin’ the deck fer breakin’ all three of ‘em!” The Baroness ranted, vigor in her voice. “If she ain’t be ‘liminated tonight, there be ‘ell to be, can tell ye that much!” She pouted, arms crossed, shifting her position slightly to reflect her anger.

Ry looked at her with a raised eyebrow, wondering why she tried so hard to defend him when he didn’t really deserve it. “Why should I stop talking bad about myself? It’s true what I say about myself and I can’t see anyway around it; all my life has been this way, so I’m content with knowing that I’m not anything other than another person that has no success…” He shrugged his shoulders, not even sure why he’d actually joined the show. His hopes and dreams all got ruined, so this one was FAR from being one that he could accomplish. “Yeah, I guess that part matters… I’m really in it for the paint, but no one else understands that part. I actually doubt that they remember that’s a reward.”

“I’d have loved to see her get what’s coming to her during the challenge. I was going to send fire her way, but I didn’t have time before their building started to collapse and I nearly got crushed… Ugh, I was so close to doing it, too…” He groaned, eyes widening in annoyance. “Too bad that she’s a sneaky little bitch… I hate her; she’s the first person I’ve ever nicknamed something so dumb sounding: Bitchley. It just fits her every step of the way, and she. Won’t. Stop. Calling. Me. Henry.” He growled, nails digging into his skin. “I should freaking do something the next time she does something even remotely bitchy; I will do something… She’ll be limping to the elimination from the amount of damage I want to cause to her…”

The Baroness sighed heavily. “Maybe ye should stop talkin’ bilge bout yeself cause some lubber’s n’ Cap’ns see ye as more than a blaggard? See ye as more than a lonely whale driftin’ in the sea…see ye as a bucko, if yer willin’ to be one…” The Baroness explained to him in an attempt to befriend him. Ry had arguably been one of the more interesting people she met while here, and was eager to take him under his wing as a cabin boy, or at the very least, a close friend.

When Ry mentioned the paint, and the fact that most people forgot about it, the Baroness mentally screamed, as she was one of those people who forgot about it. “So, I reckon ye be of the artsy type if ye just want paint?” The Baroness asked, genuinely curious of if Ry was an artist. “Ain’t really be knowin’ of any artists, but me momma makes bouquets at a nearby flower shop!” She replied back, trying to find some common ground with Ry.

"Shiver me timbers, ye nearly got yerself a trip in !" The Baroness gasped in shocked, learning that Ry could have actually died during the challenge. Quickly changing the subject, the Baroness snickered. "Still, woulda showed the sea hag some good if yer got t’ go through with yer plan. I ain’t be liken her, ye ain’t be liken her; be thinkin’ she needs to be keelhauled fer the way she be actin’…" The Baroness began to ramble on. Remembering what she was talking about, The Baroness perked back up. "Say, what ye plannin’ on doin’ to ‘er?"

Ry shrugged at the Baroness’s suggestion, not feeling the same about her ways of viewing him. The way he’d always viewed himself had been negative, even when he was young, he was told he was weird…so he became known as the ‘weirdo’ of the classroom, which some people thought was ‘class clown,’ but quickly and judgingly found out was not the case. “A lonely whale?” He looked at himself, poking his stomach slightly. Okay, so Ry did have an issue with weight gain, but he didn’t really tell anyone about that. His doctor told him he was on the cusp of being normal weight for his height. “A bucko? Like, a crewmate? Are you trying to form an alliance with me…? I mean, I won’t reject it since you are pretty well-liked and strong, but with me?”

Again, Ry shrugged at the Baroness. “I haven’t won anything with my art, but I would like to have a lifetime supply of paint to fit my fancy… I would never run out of paint and I could literally design my white clothes with any color I want… It’d be a dream come true. Well, not entirely, but it’d be a start.” He looked toward the smoldering buildings calmly. “Well, you should hire an artist when you go to build a ship because the best ones look chic and are extremely durable against storms. If your ship looks great but sucks when under an attack, then you’ve got yourself a yawn adrift…”

Then when she mentioned what he was planning to do to Ashley, he looked at her, his face full of a mysterious mischief. “I’ve got tons I’ve got planned for Bitchley… I’m thinking of asking someone to help me out when I want to enact my revenge. Maybe I could ask Dennis to help me…” He sighed, doubting that he’d see him again. That guy could really vanish into the city. “But I’d accept any helping hands that could keep a secret.” He put a tiny finger up to his lips, smirking cruelly. “If Todd goes tonight, then Ashley’s room will, too.”

The Baroness nodded when Ry caught onto what she was getting at. “Aye matey. We be on two different crews, yet also different ones from Ashley’s. Together can be placin’ a Black Spot on ‘er! Since we both got a thing ‘gainst her, figure we should ‘least take ‘er on together!” The Baroness explained as to why she would want to be in an alliance with Ry, giddy and bubbly at the idea of it. She was glad Ry would accept it, after all, it’s better to take on a person you hate with none other than another person that hates the same people! Not to mention that it was in her best interest as Co-leader of her team to try and forge as many alliances in case things go awry as she can!

"As long as ye enjoy doin’ what yer doin’ I ain’t got no qualms ‘gainst it." The Baroness explained to Ry as he told about how he never really wins anything with his art. Filled with pride, she pointed to herself and grinned " ‘cerse, that be why I’m a buccaneer n’ all! Love livin’ the life!" She added, snickering. When Ry told her about what she should do when she building her ship, she shrugged. "Me vessel’s been built fer a year now, just ain’t got a chance to sail in it! ‘specially fer the past few months when I found out I be ‘ccepted on the show…." The Baroness explained with a pout, upset she hasn’t been getting her fix of the sea.

The Baroness couldn’t help but grin at Ry’s mischievous expression when she asked what he would do to Ashley. “Be like’n that nickname ye gave ‘er. Suits ‘er well~” The Pirate snickered with glee. “I’d help ye with yer deeds matey, but ain’t really fer destroyin’ a person’s quarters, least not without wantin’ to plunder….” She explained, trying to reassure Ry that despite liking his offer, she wouldn’t want to do the dirty work herself. “Sides, I be celebratin’ with me team! We be havin’ a mighty feast fer our grub tonight!”

Ry waved his hand about the whole different teams thing and smirked at her. “Who cares? I’ve already got two allies from her team on my side and I’m currently trying to work about getting to the other two…” He wondered if he should add in the names of the two, and decided to do it. “I made an alliance with Gaile and Dakota so far…and they both are well-warned about that bitch and her sneaky ass ways… I just hope they don’t get the noose before she’s gone…” He muttered, eyes narrowing. “She’ll be the one hanging if I see to it.”

He nodded slightly at her story about her ship and thought back to his many unfinished projects waiting at home and the one in his room. “I know the feeling of not using something for a while…but I usually distract myself with another project or something in the meantime.”

Ry let his smirk drop to a grin. “I think some people are using it in their heads at least, so it’s not like I really invented it… I’m probably just the first person who’s had the guts to tell her it to her fucking face.” He nodded once more to her story about her team’s win and nearly let out an annoyed sigh that he wasn’t quick enough to set their building on fire. BUT he decided to hold his tongue on that regard. “Well, it’ll be when she’s down getting herself something to eat later anyway, so it won’t take long at all to rip her pillows, spray her bed in red paint, and rip up her things.”

He held out his hand to her. “As long as you’re here, then we should shake on this alliance. Ya know, make it official?” He didn’t’ know if she’d really care for official stuff, but he figured it’d be better than leaving it in the air.

"Arr, that be quite smart!" The Baroness complimented Ry after he explained that he had alliances with members of Ashley’s crew. However, she quickly changed her tone to a more serious one. "But ye best be sure they ain’t say nothin’ bout it; If I found out two of me ‘ands be traitorous to someone I don’t like, they’d be shark bait!"

She smirked when Ry explained that he can relate to her issues of not being able to do something he loves. “Aye, glad to see we be two fish ‘n a school then!” She chuckled. She quickly glanced up at the smoldering buildings in the distance, but focused herself back on Ry after a few seconds. “I tried distracting meself, ye can only make so many bouquets befer ye crave goin’ back to the sea matey.”

The Baroness didn’t really respond to what Ry was going to do to Ashley’s room since she didn’t plan on joining him, but when her ears and face visibly perked up when he mentioned “alliance”. “Aye matey, we best be makin’ it official!” She told Ry, extending her hand for a hand shake. “Though….I ain’t got nothin’ with me to give ye n’ fully seal the deal ‘less ye want’ me ear ring…” She started to ramble on, disappointing that she couldn’t give Ry anything to completely seal the deal. “But, if I catch’ye after night’s vale falls, I’ll give ye somethin’ from me quarters ! Got plenty of swag from the challenge yesterday!”

Ry shook his head at the Baroness, though he felt uncertain about Dakota. “I explained to Dakota and Gaile about not telling Ashley anything about me and them being friends, but…I don’t know if Dakota would remember to not tell her…” The uncertainty made him shift his weight from one foot to the other. “He might tell her…which worries me a little, but I’ll give him a note so that he’ll remember it better.” He nodded slowly, thinking about that plan. “I’ll ask him to write it on the back of one of the pictures he took of me.”

A thought crossed Ry’s mind about things he’d seen yesterday when he’d explored the city by himself. “Well, I did see this pond when I was exploring the place yesterday… It wasn’t really big or anything, but it had a boat that was made of something NOT wooden. I can’t really say how well it’d float, but you could always give it a shot; you might as well do it before Ashley finds it and puts a hole in it or something to spite you.” He shrugged, unsure if she would but he had a sinking feeling she might do something to spite one of them; he felt that it would be him.

Ry shook her hand firmly, then quickly let go, wiping his hand off on his dirtied shirt. He knew it was dumb, but he really hated the feeling of touching others. Maybe it was just the thought of wiping gasoline in his eyes or something right now. “Hm… Alright, you can come by my room when it fits your fancy, I suppose… I’ll probably just be painting or drawing, so I really won’t be busy.”

The Baroness simply nodded her head as Ry talked about his fears in Dakota. “Givin’ him a note be smart if yer worried.” She told, noticing his shift in weight. ” ‘specially since he seems t’ love his picture-box.” She added with a smile.

When Ry mentioned the pond with the boat in it, The Baroness’ eyes lit up like stars in the night sky, her entire expression metaphorically radiating a warm, passionate glow. “A vessel be a vessel so long as they ain’t filled with bilgewater!” She replied giddily, bouncing from foot to foot with her hyperactive excitement. Pausing for a second she looked upwards at the sky and had to think. “….Arr, bloody ‘ell, weather ain’t be to good fer sailin’. Can feel somethin’ startin’ to come through…but I’ll be plunderin’ that ship once I get a chance!” She, at first sighed, but quickly perked back up to finish, still beaming.

The Baroness paid no mind to Ry quickly wiping his hand; she never was one to care about a person’s faults. “Arr, that’ll do matey! I’ll be seein’ ye when I be gettin’ the chance! Godspeed Ry!” The Baroness saluted. She then started to walk back to her original destination; the hotel.

“Maybe I should write a note and have him take a picture of it… That’d be way more beneficial to him… He’d probably not remember it if I wrote it on the back of a picture, so taking a picture might help him better.” Ry groaned at the complications in this: Ashely could find it if she went through his picture album OR Dakota could forget that Ry wrote that on the back of a picture. “If there IS a deity, then fuck him or her or them for making it hard on Dakota’s memory… He doesn’t deserve to be put in this position with a bitch on his team, who’d stab him in the back at the first chance she got. THAT is why I need to get rid of her… I don’t want her to hurt anyone…”

Ry wondered if she’d meant the cold front that the news had been warning them about before he came here. He’d been packing his bags for the conditions that were likely to hit here, but some of them looked like it’d be pretty iffy, as the weather mostly was here. Just a few days ago, he’d been wearing shorts and a T-shirt outside, but now he was slightly chilly. “Ah, the weather is going to weird this year… Mostly because of the weirdness of this place; it’s not as cold as Toronto, though. Though that boat is probably more a of a paddle boat when you have no winds to sail with.” He wanted to add on to the end that she could pretend, but he figured that might get him an unpleasant scolding.

He waved to her as she left the area, not one for hasty good-byes, unless it was Ashley. “Have fun at your victory dinner…” He was envious that her team had won because of Mallory and her hasty pocket action, but he wouldn’t hold a grudge since none of the team seemed to have a bad bone to pick with him yet; well, Benny might dislike him… “Hope Ashley gets what’s coming to her…” He muttered viciously.

Dennis
Dennis lit up a match from the stash he had brought to the competition, as he stood behind a corner on the floor of the bedrooms.

"Oh, fire, my old friend, we met again, huh?" He mused to himself as he watched the fire burn on the match.

He heard footsteps. Pulling out a can of hairspray from his pocket, he aimed it towards the fire. Once the person turned the corner, he would spray the hairspray to shoot out a stream of flames in front of their face to spook them. His usual demented grin crossed his face.

Gaile
Gaile’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of someone’s door slamming. She had been laying in bed, wrapped in her Pokemon blankets like a burrito, taking a long after-challenge nap. Her wet towel was still hanging on a chair from her shower to remove the soot and ash and lord knows what else had gotten on her during the challenge. Letting out a tiny cute yawn, Gaile sat up and stretched.

* ”What time is it anyway?”* she thought to herself.

She then reached over to her bedside table where her pink tamogotchi was sitting and checked the time by pushing the middle buttons.

"5:35?! I’ve been asleep for hours!" Gaile exclaimed and hopped out of the bed.

She had slept for the whole afternoon after the challenge, and after missing lunch and dinner, she was pretty hungry. She shuffled over to her closet and stuck her shoes on her feet. Ready to walk over to the hotel kitchen and fix something to eat. After eating a delicious meal of a PBJ, carrot sticks, and ranch dressing, she took her dishes over to the sink and began to wash them. She slipped the purple dish gloves over her tiny hands and squeezed a little dish soap on her plate. She then turned the knob to the faucet and turned away to get a sponge from the cabinets. There was a slight rattling noise and the next thing she knew, to her horror there was a huge stream of water spraying water all over the kitchen! The sink was beginning to fill rapidly with water and bubbles from the soap. The faucet was laying in the sink where it had fallen off.

"Oh no! On no no no!" Gaile cried and rushed to the sink. She turned all the knobs try to stop the water, to no avail.

"WHAT EVEN HAPPENED? OH NO." she cried as she rushed back and forth in a tizzy to find something to stop it. She grabbed a big bowl from under the counter to try to stop the water, but it filled and started to spill over onto the floor. Gaile was getting soaked, her hair clinging to her head, bangs flat and plastered to her forehead in wet blonde strings.

"UGH." she moaned and grabbed another bowl and a mop bucket which also filled with water and began to spill out. She then grabbed the mop and tried to mop up the water, but still the faucet hole continued to spray. The mops was just spreading the water and soap everywhere. The bubbles continued to flow from the sink which couldn’t drain fast enough.

"OH GOSH." she cried and continued to rush around, panicking.

Dennis:
"One two—"

"WHAT EVEN HAPPENED? OH NO."

Dennis lost concentration with his paddleball and missed the incoming paddle. He looked around for a minute before shrugging.

"One two three—"

"UGH."

This time when he missed, the ball flew back and slugged him in the face. Standing up from his room, Dennis got up and went to go to the source of the noise. The kitchen?

Peering into the kitchen, Dennis stared at the mess for a moment before bursting out into laughter, “WAHAHEY. Nostalgiette, what the hell’d you DO?!”

Gaile jumped when she heard someone speak. She seemed to have attracted someone with her panicking and noise. She turned to see Dennis standing there staring at the mess with his usual wide up-to-no-good grin. The first thought that came to her was that he had loosened the faucet as a prank. She glared at him and held the mop. But then she remembered where she was.

"If I knew any better, I’d say YOU were the dude responsible for this. But since I know this hotel is mad old and abandoned I’m gonna blame cruddy plumbing." she explained with a snicker.

"The faucet came like OFF. It’s sunk down in that sink!" she cried and pointed at the full and running over sink.

"Ohhh why do these things always happen to me? I’m a good girl. I shouldn’t have any rank karma." she moaned and continued to try to mop up the mess.

Dennis hopped up on one of the cabinets and bounced his paddleball up and down, just watching Gaile try to mop up the mess.

"Mannn, I wish I did this," he lamented, "It woulda been so rad! Or I coulda. For me, it’d be Tuesday." He shrugged.

He peered towards the sink, before blankly (and purposefully knowing that wouldn’t help) asking, “Did you try turning the sink off and on?”

The Black Cupid couldn’t help but snicker at a combination of what Gaile sais and her situation at large, “Kuku. What’s karma got to do with it? Fate likes to screw anybody over. It don’t give a shit if you’re an angel or the queen of hell itself, yo.” He nodded, faux-sagely.

Gaile forced a laugh at Dennis’ joke. When he hopped onto the table she lost all hope of him helping her. She had to do this herself.

"You’re funny, dude." she said staring at the ground as she mopped.

When Dennis started talking about karma not caring about if you’re good or bad, Gaile shook her head.

"I’ve been raised to believe that what goes around, comes around. It’s was either be nice, or my momma would open a can of whoop ass on me. But you can believe what you want to. Besides the point of karma, it’s just nice to be good anyway.” she continued and started to realize that mopping was only making a bigger mess. She flopped her sopping wet bangs on top of her head.

She realized that she had to fix the faucet to fix the problem and rushed over towards the sink to retrieve the faucet, slipping in the water and falling on the ground. Gaile screamed as she fell.

"I know, right?!" Whether Dennis genuinely didn’t catch Gaile’s forced laughter, ignored it, or disregarded it remained to be seen.

He openly rolled his eyes at Gaile’s virtuous spiel, spitting back with a drawn out, “Booooriiiing. Doin’ good gets ‘ya nowhere. Gotta have as much fun as you can as often as you can.”

As he watched her slip and fall, he cackled, “Kyahahaha, like that! Watchin’ this is fun!” However, this was when he noticed that he’d have to tread through what was effectively sewer water sooner or later. He gave out an annoyed groan as he hopped off the counter and bent beside Gaile, checking under the cabinet, not bothering to help her up.

"If yer gonna fix the faucet, you need a wrench or somethin’," he spoke matter-of-factly.

She knew that Dennis wasn’t gonna help her up. So Gaile slowly and carefully pulled herself up from the floor. Now thoroughly soaked like she had just gotten out of the shower. As she stood up she laughed.

"I guess it’s a good thing, that I find being good and doing good things fun then, huh?" she asked and tried to make her feet stick to her rubber jelly shoes, instead of sliding around in them. When she became stable enough to stand, she planted her feet down and stared at Dennis.

"I’m sure am mad glad YOU enjoyed that!" she said sarcastically and flipped her now pin straight bangs over her head and out of her face.

When Dennis said that they’d need a wrench to fix the faucet, Gaile nodded and pointed where he was looking.

"There should be one under the sink cabinet and if not there, maybe in the custodian’s office." she explained.

Dennis blinked at Gaile’s sarcastic remark and replied, “You’re welcome!” Whether he understood her sarcasm or legitimately didn’t was up in the air.

He bent low and began to rustle around underneath the sink, replying to her “good” spiel with, “Man, you find weird things fun, Nostalgiette.”

He banged his head once he found the wrench and stopped for a second before pulling out from underneath, “How the hell did you even do this anyway? I might wanna take notes, keheh.” He wasn’t the most skilled at trying to stop plumbing long enough to replace a faucet, but he decided to give it a whirl.

Gaile shrugged her shoulder’s at Dennis’ comment about her liking weird things. She then winced when she heard him bang his head under the sink.

"You cool, under there?" she asked concernedly. When he came out unharmed her question was answered.

"Don’t get any ideas." Gaile joked with a laugh.

"And FYI, I didn’t do anything but try to wash the dishes. I like, turned on the water and the faucet just fell off and into the sink! Then the water just started pouring out! I think the plumbing is just rank from this hotel being abandoned. I’m like, really afraid to try to turn off the water. I don’t wanna make it totally worse." she explained.

Ashley:
Ashley ran her fingers through her still damp hair as she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button. She’d just taken a well-deserved shower, and she was finally feeling less grimy from that last challenge. Now it was all behind her, and she could just enjoy the elimination ceremony. As the elevator dinged and the doors opened, Ashley stepped out into the lobby. She was planning to just head out the doors, to wander the streets for a while before it was time for a certain someone to be eliminated. Suddenly, she heard a shriek coming from the kitchen, and a trickle of water seeping out into the hallway. Curiosity piqued, Ashley decided to go investigate, looking in the kitchen doorway at who else but Gaile, soaked to the skin. The ditzy girl had somehow managed to break the sink, and Ashley was tempted to leave her to her wet misery. She forced herself to step into the room, however, because as much as she hated it, Gaile was a teammate. Better to try and earn a favor point or two before the elimination.

"So, what’d you do?" Ashley asked Gaile once she was through the doorway. Pondering the niceness of that statement, Ashley inwardly groaned. "I mean, can I help with anything?"

Gaile turned abruptly when she heard Ashley and when she did the mop turned with her and knocked over the bottle of dish soap from the counter.

"Great." she groaned.

When Ashley asked what happened, Gaile pointed at the overflowing sink.

"The faucet like totally fell off and water just gushed all over the room!" she exclaimed with wide eyes. This just wasn’t her day.

As she continued to mop the floor, Ashley asked if she could help. She snapped her head up and looked at her with hopeful eyes.

"Damn skippy you can! Do you know how to fix a faucet?" she inquired pointing at the sink.

The water in the room was beginning to rise, and Ashley’s shoes were starting to get damp. Ugh, she really didn’t want to do this. Groaning exasperatedly, Ashley stepped forward more until she was directly in front of Gaile. “I don’t see how it just fell apart, but we’ll see what I can help with. That’s what teammates do, you know, they help each other.” Ashley gave Gaile a meaningful look before tucking her locket into her shirt and stepping in front of the sink. At least she was already kind of wet. Reaching her arms into the sink, Ashley rummaged around until her fingers closed around the faucet. The water was splashing around her feet, and Ashley turned to shout at Gaile over the sound of the water gushing out. “Gaile! I need you to be mopping!”

Turning back around, Ashley examined the faucet she held in her hands, lifting an arm to block the water from her eyes. The bottom was all rusty, and the sink was corroded with even more of the reddish material. There were also several bolts missing, which was probably why the faucet had fallen off and the sink had exploded. “Gaile!” Ashley cried out again, swiping the water off her face. “Go find me some bolts. Just bring all the sizes you can, and hurry up!”

Gaile looked up from mopping when Ashley yelled at her.

"I am mopping!" she cried out and continued to spread the water with her mop.

When Ashley asked for bolts, Gaile nodded and dropped the mop to find some.

"I’m going across the hall to the custodian’s closet. I’m sure there’s some in there!" she explained and rushed over, nearly slipping a few times on the way out.

When she returned from the closet she had a big container of bolts of all sizes. She also had found a wrench in the closet and was holding it in her other hand.

"Here, Ashley!" Gaile exclaimed and handed the items to her teammate.

As Gaile rushed out of the room, Ashley tried to press the faucet down in place. The rust was making the two pieces fit together awkwardly, and water was still gushing everywhere, but at least the water wasn’t spraying right in her face. When Gaile arrived again, Ashley snatched the tools out of her hands without saying thank you. She lifted the faucet back up, and the water started gushing into her face again. Growling, Ashley leaned over the countertop so that the water was only spraying onto her back, and she started forcing bolts into the empty sockets on the faucet. Too big, too small, too short, too long. “No, no, no, no!” Ashley threw the bolts onto the ground if they were no good, and the room echoed with the rush of water and clang of metal hitting the floor. “Gaile, come help me look through this box! Hurry up!”

Ashley finally found one bolt which worked, which she tossed onto the counter. “Gaile, I need…” Ashley flipped the faucet around and counted the blank spaces. “Four more of these. And I need them right now.”

Gaile nodded when Ashley asked her to find four more bolts in the box. She took the right bolt from Ashley and started searching in the remaining bolts for four more just like it.

"NO. No. No. Crap!" Gaile droned as she searched and set them aside. After searching through nearly the whole container, she found the bolts she needed. They were all at the bottom for some reason.

"1.2.3.4. Rad!" Gaile cheered as she checked them when compared to the other bolt. She then handed them all to Ashley, careful not to drop any.

Ashley stood off to the side and folded her arms as Gaile rooted through the box. She wasn’t going to mop the floor, and Gaile seemed like she was handling the search just fine. The water level on the floor was rising again, and the pair’s shoes were thoroughly soaked. When Gaile  finally  found the bolts, Ashley clenched her fingers around them possessively.

"Gaile, I need you to be mopping the floor!" Ashley said harshly as she snatched up the wrench and went to work. The wrench was the right size, thankfully, which made Ashley sure that the sink had broken before. Plunging back in, Ashley forced the bolts through their respective holes, the new ones from the box gleaming in comparison with the old ones, which were beginning to rust up. Pausing first to swipe her wet hair off her face, Ashley leaned over the sink and slammed the faucet down again, the water now pouring over her hands instead of her face. As quickly as she could, Ashley screwed the bolts in, pausing after half were done to yell, "Gaile, I need you to be helping," before finishing the job. Several minutes later, the faucet was relatively stable, the sink was still gushing water, and the floor was soaking wet. "We need to turn off the water. How can we turn off the water, Gaile?" Ashley turned around, demanding an answer.

Gaile paused her mopping for a moment and gave an exasperated look and straight mouth when Ashley had her back turned. She then shook it off and continued to mop the floor as directed. It was already too late to stop water from getting outside the kitchen. Her feet were starting to slip around in her rubber jelly sandals and her hair was completely straight now. She’d have to freshen back up before elimination.

Gaile turned again when Ashley called—er rather ordered for her to be helping her. Gaile gave another quick look of exasperation when Ashley had her back turned and then rushed over to help her somehow. The mop fell to the floor with a splash. She started to peer over the sink, but then turned and grabbed the mop, continued to mop back and forth without looking and turned back towards the sink.

"We can probably just turn the knobs, now that the faucet is back in place!" she explained and reached over to turn one of the knobs.

As Gaile made her way over to Ashley, Ashley noted that she dropped her mop. “Gaile, you need to be mopping. Why aren’t you-” Ashley cut off as Gaile picked up the mop, scooting it back and forth aimlessly. When Gaile reached forward for the knob, Ashley reached over her for it, not willing to be overshone by the other girl. “Let me do that,” she said demandingly. Yanking with all her strength, Ashley jerked the water knob to ‘Off’. Then she flipped around and slid down to the floor to catch her breath, as the water slowly trickled off above her. “Gaile, you should mop more. It’s really wet in here.” The girl thudded her head back against the cabinets and groaned, lifting up an hand to wring out her hair.

Gaile breathed a sigh of relief when the water stopped. She had been battling the sink for 10 minutes now and was officially exhausted. Thank god Ashley stepped into help when she did or Gaile would have surely collapsed.

"Thank you sooo much, Ashley." Gaile said and squeezed the water from her hair.

Lavender:
Lavender glanced at the alarm clock that was in each hotel room. “5:35pm already?” She asked herself. She set her phone down on the end table, making sure to plug in the charger. “I’m way to invested in that Kim Kardashian game.” She commented. She walked out of her room and stepped into the elevator. “Time to get myself some food.” She told herself as the doors opened, leading to the lobby. She got out of the elevator and made way to the kitchen area, where she heard a panicked voice. Confused, she slowly walked into the kitchen to find one of the contestants covered in soap and water. At first she smirked, which led into a giggle. The giggles soon turned into uncontrollable laughter. She covered her mouth, trying to hold it in, but to no avail. “What… what the…what the hell did you…do?!” The beautiful girl asked in between each laughing fit.

Gaile turned when she heard Lavender start to laugh. At first Gaile felt angry and upset, but when she thought about the situation it was quite laughable. She must have looked ridiculous all sopping wet with straight hair and clothes clinging to her.

"The faucet, like, fell off as I was trying to wash dishes. It’s in the sink!" she said and pointed at the overflowing sink.

"I wanna try to turn the water off, but I don’t wanna make it worse. This abandoned hotel’s plumbing is really bunk." Gaile continued and ran the mop back and forth through the room. She almost slipped a couple of times.

Lavender slowly made her way to the sink, hoping that she wouldn’t fall into the wet floor. As fate would have it, her shoe got stock on the mop, leading her to trip, sending her to the water coated ground. “YUCK!” She shouted, obviously not amused. “This is so gross!” She got up, trying to brush off as much of the water droplets as she can, and finally made her way to the over flowing sink. "Yep, the faucet is in the sink." She confirmed. She grabbed two paper towels, and laid them on the floor. She put her knees on the paper towels so her knees wouldn’t get wet. She opened up the cabinet underneath the sink, showcasing the sink’s pipes. "Do you know how to work with pipes?" She asked the 90’s girl.

Gaile winced as Lavender fell into the soapy water. Of all the people to fall in, it had to be her. She watched and tried to think of how to fix the sink as Lavender searched the sink cabinet. When she asked Gaile is she knew how to fix pipes. Gaile shook her head.

"I don’t, but I can totally give it a try." she told Lavender determinedly and crouched down beside her. I think there was a wrench in there somewhere.." Gaile mused aloud and searched for the wrench.

Baroness:
The Baroness, now mostly cleaned of soot, ash, grime, and whatever else she may have accumulated on her during the challenge, was making her way to the kitchen to pick up a quick snack in the form of a tray of lemon squares she sneaked into the fridge so she can enjoy them for later. Still whistling from how today’s challenge went, she was halfway towards the kitchen when she heard someone shriek “WHAT EVEN HAPPENED? OH NO.”

Thinking something was wrong, she rushed towards the source of where the sound was coming from; the kitchen.

"UGH." and "OH GOSH." Were soon followed by. The Baroness couldn’t stand by and let something bad happen without at least knowing who was in distress!

Marching her way into the kitchen, she did not expect to see Gaile frantically running around like a chicken with it’s head caught off as the kitchen started to flood. “Arr…ye know, if ye wanted to go fer a swim, there be a pool on the roof!”

Gaile jumped when she heard the Baroness speak. She had believed she was alone, but she had probably worried her with all her noise. She laughed at the Baroness’ joke but then continued to try to mop up the mess.

"The faucet broke off and water just went everywhere! I haven’t the slightest of how to fix this, so I’m trying to keep the water from getting out of the kitchen." Gaile explained.

In her tizzy to mop the flood, she managed to lose her footing and slipping, falling to ground with a splash.

"Blimey! Jack Ketch must be lookin’ down on ye t’ do this t’ ye n’ all! He be a bit of an addlepate if ye ask me!" The Baroness exclaimed as Gaile explained her situation. "I be pretty good with a wrench if ye can find one, more than happy to help ya’ lass!" She added, not wanting to watch the water leak all the way into the lobby!

Her eyes grew wide when Gaile slipped and fell. Quickly, she ran over to the 90’s kid and helped her to her feet. “Careful lass, ye ain’t be wantin’ to run over water smartly less ye wanna hurt ye’self!

"Wipeout." she groaned from on the ground. She gladly took The Baroness’ hands to help her up.

"Thank you so much! Yeah, that was a mad stupid move. Boy am I embarrased. Let me see if I can find you that wrench." she said and carefully walked to the sink and looked in the cabinets under it.

"Aha, score!!" she cried and pulled out a red toolbox and found a wrench. She then handed it to The Baroness with a pink face.

"I have no idea how to use one of these." she stated with a giggle.

The Baroness gladly accepted the wrench from Gaile. “Thank ye lass, let’s see if this ol’ sea dog can fix yer lil’…problem.” The Baroness exclaimed as she rushed over towards the sink. Blocking her eyes from the stream of water, she glared at the sight she saw.

"Arrr, this thing be more rusty than a french prison cell!" The Baroness said, displeased at the state of the faucet. It appeared to be layer upon layer of rust, with at least three bolts missing. "I better shut the water off befer I do anythin’ else…" She muttered to herself. Feeling that the water was warm, she gripped the wrench over where the hot water knob used to be and, upon getting it’s inner workings, twisted it, hoping it would stop the water. Unfortunately, she turned it the wrong way and even more water poured from the sink-turned-fountain.

Gaile watched in horror as the sink began to spew even more water. She started rushing to mop up the new oncoming flow of water before it spread outside the kitchen. Every time she stepped or moved the mop, an audible splash could be heard. The water was rising.

"Try turning the other way?" Gaile suggested. Her bangs were now fallen flat on her face, completely covering one of her eyes. The flopped up and down as she pulled the mop back and forth.

"Awww fookin’ ‘ell!" The Baroness shrieked as water gushed from the sink like the blowhole on a whale. She probably should have expected that to happen, but it was quite easy to fix. Gaile confirmed what she was going to do; The Baroness turned the wrench the other way, and sighed with relief as the water stopped pouring in.

Wiping her now drenched forehead, The Baroness sighed with relief. “Ain’t that just some bilge, spigot fallin’ off n’ all!” She laughed, aiming the question towards Gaile. Truth be told, The Baroness actually enjoyed the experience, getting completely drenched for the first time in the past month. Smiling ear to ear, the Baroness took the wrench out of the hole. “Now that we be gettin’ to the root of yer problem, we best be puttin’ it back on! Be needin’ some lug-nuts ‘er bolts ‘er whatever ye lubbers call ‘em!”

Gaile nodded when The Baroness told her they needed bolts and racked her brain for where she may be able to find some. First she checked in the tool box she’d found the wrench. There were some nails but no bolts.

"Rats! None here. Wait a minute. The custodian’s closet! I will be right back! It’s across the hall!" Gaile cried and rushed away to find the bolts. She almost slipped a couple of times again.

When she made it in the custodian’s closet (the door was unlocked) she searched the tool area and found a big container filled with bolts of all sizes.

"Radical! These will work like a charm." Gaile cheered and ran back over to the kitchen.

"Here you go!" she called out and handed the container to The Baroness.

The Baroness’s face showed visible displeasure when Gaile nearly slipped a couple times when searching for the bolts. “Poor lass….” The Baroness thought as Gaile nearly flopped on the ground like she was on a slip ‘n slide.

After a few minutes of waiting, water thankfully not flooding into the room, Gaile returned, giving a sigh of relief towards the Baroness. “Arr, thank ye lass. Let’s be hopin’ there be bolts the right size here!” She chuckled loudly, sticking her hand into the container and trying out different sized bolts to try and reconnect the sink.

The Baroness exhausted the majority of the bolts that did not fit to a separate area of the container, But lo and behold, she eventually managed to get the faucet bolted back onto the actual sink. Wiping the sweat from her brown by a mostly dried area of her hand, She carefully turned the knobs of the faucet to make sure it wouldn’t fall back over. After waiting patiently for a minute, she gave a hearty chuckle.

"Yo-ho-ho! Yer problem has been fixed lass!" The Baroness called out to Gaile, shutting the sink back off then turning to face the 90’s kid.

Gaile watched delightedly as the water finally stopped pouring out of the sink. She laughed and gave the Baroness a big smile.

"Thank you soooo much! You are so rad for helping me!" she cried. She wanted to give her a hug as well, but she knew some people didn’t like that.

She then looked around at the room and realized that the sink had made quite a mess.

"Oh. Well I better start cleaning this mess up!" Gaile giggled and went to grab some towels and to wring the water from her mop.

The Baroness couldn’t help but laugh as well once Gaile started to herself; the whole ordeal they just went through was quite laughable, after all. “Arr! It be no problem lass! Chris be floggin’ us all if we flooded the galley!” She chimed in, giving an explanation as to why she just didn’t leave Gaile to her own accord.

"If ye want I can help ye swab the deck." The Baroness said with a shrug, not having anywhere real important to be until the elimination ceremony.

Gaile cocked her eyebrow in confusion.

"Flogging? What is flogging?" she asked.

As she continued to mop the floor and lay towels, she heard the Baroness offer to help. A huge smile spread on Gaile’s face.

"That’d be rad! Thanks girl! You’re such a good friend." she gushed. She then searched the room for something for her to do that wasn’t totally gross and handed her a towel.

"Everything is soaked. I’d just like dry..everything." Gaile giggled and continued to mop.

The Baroness noticed Gaile’s confusion at sighed. “Be a type of punishment lass…” She explained.

The Baroness quickly turned that sigh into a smile when Gaile allowed her to help, handing her a towel. “Mighty ‘preciated!” She exclaimed as she started drying the floor with the towel; it quickly soaking up a section of water like it was a sponge. “Arr, this galley be wetter than The Bay of Fundy durin’ high tide!”

Gaile nodded and laid another row of towels down on the floor to foot shuffle and wipe up the water.

"It really is! I’m mad grateful that you helped me out! This is way too much for me to handle before time to leave for elimination. It’s been quite a day as is." Gaile sighed and wiped up the floor by the stove top.

Jillian
”Where is it… where is it?” Jill was lay on her stomach, half her body under the bed, trying to find her nature books. After finding out from her team that she’d been unconsious for most the challenge, she’d decided to pack away her things, as she’d been sure that the team would vote her off. Startled, Jill heard a noise from someone behind her. She ungracefully tried to pull the upper half of her body from underneath the bed, sweep some dust off her legs and make her skirt a respectable level. ”Uh. Hey- hi…” Jill muttered, embarrassed, without turning to face the mystery person.

Ry:
Ry was drenched in sweat and tired, but he’d managed to go to the kitchen to wash a lot of the soot and ash from his cheeks with the….whatever it was called; water squirter? Sure.

After successfully washing his face, armpits, and his arms, he walked up to his room to go grab his comfort item: Asuka, his gloomy bear plush. It’d been a while since he’d talked to her about the fact he’d done something remarkable in his day.

Making his way up to his room, he threw his skateboard and pads on the bed, not caring much for the way they landed, even though it was neat looking. Adjusting his skateboard to logo up and his knee pads and elbow pads placed in parallel alignment to the board, he felt more satisfaction.

After replacing the gross clothes with his hoodie and regular T-shirt, he reached out to his neatly placed pillows and grabbed his gray gloomy bear, her neck adorned with a green bow with teal polka dots. Hugging the bear gently, he sighed to himself, breathing in the scent. “Oh, Asuka-chan, what a day…”

Okay, so he wouldn’t tell anyone he talked to the doll because judgement, but he didn’t feel like anyone cared when he spoke sometimes…

Perhaps, he didn’t really have much time to just sit here and talk to her… Hell, he knew that Chris would start the eliminations once he finished his fancy ass dinner, so he got up from his bed and leisurely made his way down the stairs.

Stopping in the stairway, after some exited chatter to his beloved possession, he noticed that one of the contestant’s door was open and he heard some scuttling going on inside their room.

Walking over to their room, he noticed that it was Jill, who was evidently packing her bags. When she got up and said her salutations to Ry, he knit his tiny eyebrows and tilted his head. “You’re quitting?”

Jill snorted in exasperation, as if the idea of her quitting was more absurd than the sight of her scavenging on the floor. ”O-of course not! But the team… well, they’re, uh, obviously gonna vote me off after the days ch-challenge…”

"Honestly, I don’t think you know the half of it, Jill… If anyone’s going to be execut—eliminated, it’ll be Todd McFramed…" Ry told her, having talked it over with Gaile, eyes still feeling the burn from his crying fit.

That’s not happening again… He scolded himself. “Look, you shouldn’t pack up so soon anyway… If you vote against Todd, which pisses me off to say, since it was obviously Bitchley, then you’ll be clear.” He informed her, feeling a well of annoyance building up in his mind.

"Besides, you are technically quitting if you’re packing your bags up like you’re just going to waltz out of here," he tapped the door frame calmly, then played with the ears of Asuka. "Did anyone seem like they were angry with you? Because everyone was being really sympathetic when I saw them after I blew up the Penguins’s building."

Jill looked into Ry’s eyes for a minute, ”Gosh… I guess you’re right! I don’t want Todd to leave though, even if he did sabotage us!” Jill whined, the tips of her ears pink, ”What are you talking about anyway? W-who’s ”Bitchley”?” Jill returned her gaze to Ry’s eyes, ”Uh, your eyes are red. Are you okay?”

“Todd didn’t sabotage you guys… That’s the issue.” Ry replied, leaning all of his body on to the door frame, not feeling all that up for standing. “Todd was FRAMED for what happened, but you guys are too…stuck with Bit—Ashley, thinking she’s some sort of goddess, that you can’t see the truth behind her evil ways…” He stood himself back up straight. “Too…bad you already casted your votes, though…” He mumbled.

He stopped cold when she mentioned his eyes and he looked toward the floor for a few minutes to try to think on an excuse.

Ah, duh, you were in a fire.

“It’s from the smoke and ashes from the challenge,” he lied, not wanting to get caught. “Your ey—!” He paused, knowing she’d been unconscious for a majority of the challenge, then caught himself. “Your teammates’ eyes are red, too, so it’s not like it’s some spectacle.”

He, then, caught sight of her pink ears and decided to change the subject. “So… Someone likes Todd a little much, hm?” This wasn’t his category. In fact, he’d never talked about this kind of stuff with people EVER, but if it got the content off him, then he’d do it.

”Todd wasn’t framed… I’m sure, he was just acting a little stupid is all… I mean, I know it doesn’t add up, but… listen, there is no way Ashley did it, at all!,” Jill bit her lip uncertainly, ”Why would she sabotage her own team member?! Plus, she’s my friend-… yeah, friend!”. Jill studied Ry’s face again, ”Anyway, are you sure you’re okay? Your eyes are really red, uh, and your face is kinda blotchy… And your eyes are kinda puffy too… are you, uh, ill or something?” Then, remembering what he’d said about Todd earlier, Jill continued, ”We’re just friends! It’s nice to have someone to talk to once in a while!” she said, face completely red, ”Uh, anyway, it’s not as if you’ve not had a crush before, hm, Ry?”

Ry nearly sighed in exasperation at her wording of this situation. How could she be so naive about Ashley…? Then he remembered that he was really the only one who’d really had any experience with just…watching people from afar; a friendless watcher. “Look, I know you want to believe those two things, but I assure you that Ashley is a bitch and Todd has to be innocent…” He wanted to explain further but he felt like he’d already dug enough holes for others with his meddling. “You’ll find out on your own….” He told her, feeling physically exhausted anyway. Maybe Jill would find out before she got kicked off. "Also… I’m fine. I was just really in the flames with Dennis, okay? We went directly into the fire and burnt down the Polar Bears’ building. Maybe I have a headache or something…" He shrugged, trying to shove the concept aside. "Ahaha…" He said with a monotone drawl on it. "Six years ago…but I don’t really think romance is that great; it just leads to getting hurt. Anyway, it’s not like I’d like anyone here…" He muttered. "So you admit to the crush, huh?" He lifted a tiny eyebrow, pondering this.

Todd:
Todd was on his way back to his room, sure that his team were going to vote him off, even though be knew he’d done nothing wrong. With his head down he tripped over his own feet and caught himself on the closet thing, which happened to be a bedroom doorframe. He turned his head up and saw Jillian sitting on the floor by her bed with her bags around the room. “Uh. Hey- hi” she muttered. “Hey-ya Jill, whatcha doin’ here?” He said as he looked around the room.

”O-oh, I’m just… packing my stuff away… I mean, I’m sure the team are gonna send me off… after fainting today and all… even if they do think you sabotaged us, y’know…” Jill bit her lip, worriedly, ”Uh, hey, can you pass me that alarm clock there? I need to pack it away…”

Ashley:
Ashley was walking down the hallway towards her room. It had been quite the exhausting challenge, and she was coated in soot and ash…which was admittedly a bit ironic. Still, it wasn’t so bad. She could go and take a shower, and then be all clean for Todd’s inevitable elimination. No one would believe him about not stealing the glasses, the fact that they were in his pocket made him instantly suspicious. Plus, he didn’t act all that innocent either upon being ‘found out’. Suddenly, Ashley noticed that the door next to her was wide open. Pausing, Ashley poked her head in the door to see Jillian rummaging around under the bed. Well, now was a good of a time as any to get on the girl’s good side.

Knocking briefly on the doorframe, Ashley took the liberty of just waltzing in Jillian’s room. She was certain the shy girl wouldn’t mind too much. As Jillian stood up, Ashley crossed in front of her and sat down, sprawling casually on Jillian’s bed as if she and Jill were good friends. “I see you’re already up and at ‘em.” Ashley gave a tight-lipped smile, sizing Jillian up while she did so. The girl seemed to be doing just fine, as Ashley knew she would be. It’s not like Ashley wanted to give her a concussion or anything like that. Jillian was a good, loyal teammate, no sense in knocking her out for too long. Ashley looked down, suddenly noticing that Jillian was surrounded by a bunch of stuff. “So, Jill, what’re you up to?”

”Me? I-I’m just, uh, looking for a book,” Jill was still wary of Ashley after the days challenge, but still continued, ”Y’know… J-just packing away… after today’s challenge, the others are sure to vote me off… for fainting like that, y’know?”

(missing responses)

Lavender:
Her mind still dazed from the last challenge, she opened up the door, thinking it was her room. “Can’t wait to-” she stopped, noticing half a body on the floor. “Yo, get out of my room!” she stated. She quickly wished she could take back that statement when she saw none of her own belongings in this room. "Wait a second,"  she thought to herself. She walked over to the door, looking for the room number. “Heh”, she awkwardly chuckled, “This isn’t my room after all.” She turned her attention back to the girl. “So uh, what exactly are you doing?” She asked.