Island, Round Six: By a fallen stake...

[Celestial]

Shani saw the guy who was scribbing on the ground staring at her, in particular at her wings. She tried to look like she had not noticed but in truth, it chilled her to the core. It reminded her of why she got on the boat in the firstplace and seemed to feed her suspicions that the good doctor had sent somebody after her. She was sure of it. Was he the guy? He certainly seemed crazy but what if that was just a cover?

Stay focused, Shani, she thought. They were probably drowned. Whoever is following you is most likely gone. You're free. You've escaped. They cannot find you here.

So why could she not shake off the feeling that they would?

Anyway, the guy was distracted again. He shouted something about a pastry man. The angel was not sure if it was a man made out of pastry or somebody who sold pastries but whatever.

"What do you mean?" she asked the mathematician, wandering over to his side. Her instincts told her it was a bad idea to come near him, even if he was not a killer but she could fight. She could defend herself.

[Ginz ❤]

Danielle saw a woman walking over to where she was. There was something unusual about her.

"This is a desert island. I'm sorry, it's not a resort," she said calmly.

"Wait... what? Does that mean we're... stranded?" Danielle paused to look around. "Well, that makes sooo much sense, then! No wonder there isn't anything around here!" Everything was finally downing oh her.

"But the murders!" She let out a loud gasp. "Guys, don't panic, but I think.... I think there might be a murderer among us!"

Danielle was proud she had figured it out all by herself.

Then the woman who had joined them extended her wings.

Danielle gasped again. "You have wings!" She said, as if it was necessary to point it out. "That is SO cool. I've always wish I could fly," she said as she got on her feet and started flapping her arms like they were wings.

She stopped as her stomach grumbled. "I'm hungry. Where are we supposed to get food?" She asked the group at large.

[Avery]

"W-what do you mean y-you'll 'deal with the body'? You m-mean we will hav-ve a funeral or s-something?"

"Oh yes," said Nelly agreeably, getting more and more put off by the crowd. Some of them are eyeing her suspiciously. It's something she should be used to, given her history in Netwaffle as an, ah, butcher, but these folks seem a bit brighter than the Netwaffle ones. They might figure it out if she doesn't something uncouth with the body.

Oh well. Perhaps she can bury this one, give the little Cassie girl the funeral she desires. But then she hears this:

"I'm hungry. Where are we supposed to get food?"

It's the vapid teenager, Danielle, the one who looks like she'd lose her head if it was't attached to her shoulders. This, however, is not at all a vapid question. It's a legitimate one. There is a serious lack of food on this island. One can only survive on coconuts and pithy fish caught from the ocean for so long.

She glances back at the body. Reverses her earlier decision.

"Go have a good cry, dear," she says to Cassie. "I shall take care of your mother, okay?"

Without waiting for a reply, she grabs the corpse by its armpits and begins to drag it away from the onlookers. She hopes dearly that no one will follow her.

[Deleted]

Mina saw Nelly drag the dead woman away.

"Hold on!" she said. "What do you think you're doing with that poor girl's mother?!"

She had to wonder what this young woman was doing, dragging it away as though she didn't want to be followed. She was up to something for sure. If she was going to bury her she would surely not act so...suspicious.

While Mina couldn't fathom what the woman would want with a dead body, she wanted to find out. And if it was something bad, then there was a good chance she might be trying to make bodies disappear - because she was the killer! That had to be the only other reason.

Well, if the murderer was being exposed that fast, then they wouldn't have to worry anymore. They could try to get rescued or something..?

Well, one thing at a time.

[Luna]

"Oh yes," The old lady replied. "Go have a good cry, dear. I shall take care of your mother, okay?"

Cassie looked as the woman began to drag her body away, and she awkwardly scrambled to her feet. She grabbed Nelly's arm.

"T-thank you?" She noticed that Singy lady-- Minny? Mina! That's it. --come up to the older lady.

"Hold on! What do you think you're doing with that poor girl's mother?!" She said, seeming suspicious of Nelly.

"I think she is going to b-bury my mother." She said in a very quiet voice.

[Celestial]

Shani heard Danielle and turned back to her, giving her a small nod in response to her question. Admittedly, she was a little amused and a bit exasperated at the girl's Captain Obvious statement. However, when Danielle remarked with joy and enthusiasm at her wings, the angel sighed and hid them self-consciously.

"Trust me, they are much more trouble than they are worth," she replied to the girl sadly and turned away just to see the suspicious-looking woman begin to drag away the corpse. Mina came up to her and asked where she was going with the body, to which Cassie said that she was going to bury her. As much as she doubted that it was true, she did not want to break the girl's belief. The angel was a firm believer in letting people believe what they wanted. They would learn someday and she did not want to be the one to break the news to them.

Nevertheless, she resolved to follow that woman, maybe not now but maybe when there was another body.

What was she talking about? There were not going to be more bodies. Even though this was the right setting for it, what with the shipwreck and the dead captain, there were not going to be any. Yeah.

Shani let out a small, thin chirp of fear.

[Deleted]

Melanie rubbed her fingers against the glass screen, scanning for aberrations in the software. Alas, she encountered the worst aberration of all: it did not work. Siri had abandoned her.

Siri, her baby.

"This..." she gasped, "This is so, so bad." She retreated to her Blackberry and typed rapidly. "Come on, come on...okay, Googling 'how to fix an iPhone'..."

Nothing loaded.

"Boo, you tool," she hissed. She dropped both phones in her Louis Vuitton handbag, sighing in exasperation. Then she caught sight of a body being dragged along by a creepy-looking lady. She yelped, recoiling at the utter deadness of the body. "What happened?" she whispered to the nearest living human, who turned out to be named Mina Saelune.

[Jayeee]

"This is the worst beach resort I've ever been to!"

Thomas laughed. “Give it time. Once daddy gets here, he’ll have this place fixed up into the best resort anybody has ever seen. It’ll be named after me; naturally. Can you imagine it, ‘The Thomas Everington – of Everington Cakes Limited – Resort and Spa.’ It has a certain ring to it, don’t you think? Well I definitely think so. I’m going to make so much money. And you can of course come and work; we’ll make you the cleaner or something. Daddy and I are always helping the homeless and the unemployed. Did you know that we single-handed lowered the world's unemployment rate. Or was it employment? No matter, either way we’re doing such wonderful things for our world. Without me, I dread to think what would happen to everybody. I am a beacon of light in this dark world, I know!”

When the angel girl walked up to him and enquired about his zoo, Thomas could hardly contain his excitement. He took a big breath. “HELLO, I come in peace. My name is Thomas Everington, of Everington Cakes Limited. I know that somebody like you will never have heard of it, but really, it’s worth taking a look at. We make the best cakes in the world anyway – you simply cannot beat a cake by Thomas Everington and co. You must stop by. Daddy said soon we’re going to expand into all types of pastry and then eventually we’ll start making mobile phones, and computers and everything you could possibly dream of. Oh, isn’t going to be amazing? We’ll buy out every single company in the world, even the Government. And then I can be King. That would be just splendid, don’t you agree? Daddy says that with my education and brains, I could do anything, so why don’t I pass along my prestigious executive role – did I mention I’m the youngest mind in our generation to ever be an executive? – and move onto better things. And isn’t that what life is all about? Moving on to bigger and better, until I simply rule you all. Unless you’re Hunter Harris here, eh? I always find it so fascinating that some people just think getting married is the best a life can accomplish. I mean, REALLY, can that really be all? I simply would never degrade myself to sit at home with children. Could you imagine? No, when that time comes for me, I’ll give them my look of approval and send them on their way into the world. With a maid, of course. But, oh, I have been talking about myself this whole time and not even noticed what is right in front of me. My home zoo will look so delightful with you right in the centre. Yes, I can just picture it now; right in between the lion and the tiger. That way they can try and claw your eyes out through the cage, and we can all get a show! Won’t that be smashing? You really are like nothing I’ve ever seen, which is odd because I’ve seen everything. I even had a book once listing every animal in the world. And did you know, I’m only missing five? Isn’t that excellent? But one thing does bother me, and that's the matter of speech. It seems through some miracle you’ve developed the ability to talk. Now despite being the silent type, I’m not one to stop those who want to just blabber away - but boy, are they annoying – but this is quite an interesting turn of events. You see, I once had a parrot who could talk, but I got bored of him. Always repeating what I said, who could possibly want that? Could you imagine? So we had it for dinner. Oh, it was lovely. Mummy does know how to cook up something special. But talking animals are so last year. Maybe I could get some kind of scarf and tie it around your neck to stop you from talking? I’ll tell you what, let me have a think about things, and I’ll get back to you on a place in my zoo.”

Thomas, panting, raised an eyebrow at Gregory. “Any word on that strait jacket?” he asked to the people around him and laughed nervously. “Kind sir – or madam, I’m not quite sure what you are anymore – could you please KEEP DOWN YOUR INCESSANT MUTTERING!” He turned away and shook his head. “You know it’s shocking these days, some people have no self-respect. Lying around and drawing silly little pictures in the sand. I mean, REALLY, whatever is to become of this world? Once, a student in school tried to tell me that an answer I gave was incorrect, and do you know what? The teacher agreed with him. I was absolutely appalled at such a gross display of lying, cheating and tomfoolery. So do you know what I did? Daddy had the student expelled and the teacher was fired. I hear she’s now working in our factory, isn’t that just the best kind of justice?” He laughed heartily. “Oh, but you mustn’t think that I’ve had things easy my whole life. Did you know that when I was a child, mummy hired a maid, and she made me read a book myself? Can you believe it? I was clasping onto the pages with absolute disgust. She was promptly exiled out of the country, but nonetheless, it is a memory that shall haunt me forever! FOREVER!”

Thomas smiled as he listened to Danielle have her little revelation. “Poor thing, I think my talking to her has given her a little damage to the head. But madam, don’t you start getting any ideas. Until I have made a decision about this…. Thing…. With the wings, please desist on conversing with it in any manner. If I do decide that it is appropriate for my establishment, it will be conditioned not to talk. That is of the utmost importance. So I would thank you to not draw attention to it. Why don’t you just go on over to that strange fool in the sand,” he patted her on the back. “Looks like we’ll need two strait jackets over here. TWO. STRAIT. JACKETS! Goodness, is it impossible to get any manual labour in this place?”

[Deleted]

The brown-haired girl seemed to trust the woman, okay. Now she had it...the girl must've asked someone to bury her mother.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Then Thomas, the cake guy, started his annoying talk, and he wouldn't stop. Mina stuck her fingers in her ears, but he didn't stop. Then he yelled. And after a few more annoying moments, he yelled again.

"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" Mina shouted back at him.

[Robyn]

Moonflower beamed at the sight of Selm's aura. She'd never seen such a vibrant violet before. This girl hadn't been very talkative at all during her time on the lifeboat, and it surprised Moonflower a little when she spoke to her.

"Hey Moonflower. What brings you here?"

"What brings any of us here, man? We're all just caught up in the flow of the cosmos. And yet, we're all so connected. It's beautiful. Life is beautiful," she replied, a far-off look in her eyes.

Moonflower then resumed squinting up at the treetops, looking for any colors or shapes that would be indicative of edible fruits. As fate would have it, the very first trunk she saw barreled up into the sky and ended in a cluster of leaves and coconuts. The good mother earth did provide. She cracked her knuckles and was about to get to climbing when she heard the thick leaves begin to shake from above.

"Oh, step back, dear," she told Selm.

A tropical bird squawked and took off from its perch, and the motion sent a plump coconut sailing to the ground. It landed with a thud in the sand. Moonflower picked it up with a soft smile, feeling very grateful towards the tree spirits. They were so wise.

She was about to go take her newly acquired fruit to a rock so she could crack it open when she felt something bump into her from behind.

"Are you a person? I'm so sorry!"

Moonflower turned around to see a young boy on the ground. His eyes were a lovely shade of blue, but they seemed to be staring past her rather than at her. His energy was kind, though, a pleasant orange vibe. Moonflower grabbed him by the hand, helping him up with all the grace of a bounding gazelle.

"Think nothing of it, sun brother. We all have to walk to the beat of our own hearts, and who knows where that's gonna lead us, right? Could be anywhere."

She let go and tossed the coconut up in the air a little, catching it nimbly. She then regarded Christopher with a gentle expression.

"You wanna go help me find a rock to break this on? It's said that coconut milk has mystical healing properties, hailed by island natives for its inherent powers."

In regards to the look of confusion that crossed his face, she smiled and added, "I've also heard it's quite delicious."

Moonflower looked over her to Selm and called, "You could come too, if you want. The others will probably want to know there's at least one immediate source of food out here, you know?"

With that, she began to hum a lilting tune as she ambled back to shore, heading for the large formation of rocks that towered on the far side of the beach.

[Rosalie Dylas (Maddy)]

Christopher felt a hand grab him and help him up."T-t-thanks.", he murmured.

"Think nothing of it, sun brother. We all have to walk to the beat of our own hearts, and who knows where that's gonna lead us, right? Could be anywhere."


Christopher stared in direction, whether it was where Moonflower was or not, he had no idea. He had a blank, confused look on his face.

"I... what....?" was all he could get out.

He tilted his confused, "Beat what... a coconut...?" he mumbled as she talked, figuring out what she was talking about. "But why do we need healing properties?" Christopher asked, worried he had done more damage to her than he had thought. Though she didn't sound like him running in to her had hurt her at all.

Christopher realized she was walking away, and expecting him to follow. Thankfully she was humming, so he simply followed her little tune. He hoped he wouldn't be running into anyone else, and if he did he hoped it would be a palm tree. Palm trees didn't confuse him.

[Terra]

Calista stared at the assortment of strange items that had washed up on the shore. Mostly the corpse. Whose corpse was that? Where had it come from? Was it someone from the cruise ship?

Her question was answered when Cassie rushed forward and knelt by the body, crying. This woman did resemble Cassie...what if she was her mother or something along those lines?

Calista stared at her, trying to decide what she should do. Should she attempt to comfort Cassie?

But Calista was saved from having to decide when Mina and another woman - the baker - Nelly? - came forward to comfort Cassie, although Mina seemed to be a bit more comforting than Nelly was, to say the least.

Calista watched Nelly begin to drag the body away. What did she mean, "take care of it"? Was she going to bury it or cremate it or something?

The thought crossed her mind that maybe they shouldn't be getting rid of these bodies when there was so little food readily available on the island. After all, they were already dead...they didn't care what happened to their bodies anymore.

Calista considered it. Was it worth risking the potential for getting food poisoning or something from the dead bodies? Was it worth the possibility of angering the other survivors with her suggestion? It certainly seemed like the sort of suggestion her parents would have scolded her for.

No. Don't think about them. Forget about them.

"I'm hungry. Where are we supposed to get food?"

Calista looked around. Another teenage girl, one who had been building a sand castle earlier, had spoken. Calista found her childish manner a bit irritating. This girl had to be at least six years older than her, and she seemed to have little to no awareness of anything that had happened in the past week.

"Well..." Calista gulped. "I was just thinking...I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone...but these bodies...do you think they could sustain us for a little while? I mean, they're already dead...I mean, if I died, I would want to let my body be put to good use, rather than just let it rot..."

She waited anxiously for the expressions of horror that were sure to come.

[Celestial]

Oh, brilliant. Rich moron had began talking, the angel thought. He launched on a long spiel but Shani listed to every word of it, her heckles rising with each syllable that came out of of his mouth. How dare he suggest that she was just an animal? Hell, to him she was less than an animal but rather an object for his amusement. In fairness, it was how he treated everything and everyone. It was just so...lifealert! She couldn't even find a decent word for it. Her wings stood up, half folded in aggression and every feather stood on end. This conversation was driving her up the wall. If it was not obvious before, what with the metaphorical (and maybe literal, Shani wasn't sure) kicking of orphans, it was pretty clear the guy was not religion. Thankfully he did not know where she came from, otherwise he would never hear the end of it. Heck, he might even send her back to the good doctor.

What if this rich moron was the one sent after her? Ok, that was just paranoia. There was no way somebody that blatantly evil could be anything other than what he was. Shani half-expected him to be sipping wine made from the blood of puppies and kittens from their own skulls while sitting on a throne made out of critically endangered species.

For a moment, she considered killing him there and then. Fresh meat for everyone and he would shut the hell up. But on an island where a murder took place this morning, that was the worst possible thing you could do. Shani would die happy but she would still die.

"I'm sorry," she replied, suppressing the urge to skin him alive, " but wouldn't keeping an intelligent being capable of speech and reason count as slavery and is wildly illegal in most civilised countries? Or does your daddy allow you to rewrite the reclaration of rights as well?"

She carefully left out the 'human' part of 'human rights' but she thought it applied. With the exception of their wings, angel could easily be regarded as humans. They had very fundamental differences in their psychology and biology but not enough to classify them as animals.

However, the growling of her stomach distracted the angel from her anger. It was Calista who suggested that they eat the dead bodies. Shani was divided. On one hand, it was a shame to let good meat go to waste and she needed more food than a regular human, having to sustain flight and all, but on the other, eating humans still felt wrong to her despite the fact that she was not human. The angel decided to wait for everyone else to give their two cents. For now, she flew up to a coconut tree and knocked a few nuts down, splitting them on a rock and eating their insides. She'd have to go fishing a bit later, this time farther out into the ocean where there were bigger fish.

[Lizzie]

"Love makes the world go round," Moonflower said. Sam nodded idly, watching as Cassie found her mother.

"HELLO? I'M ON A DESERTED ISLAND. HELP ME."

"That life alert isn't going to work, you know, Dean."

Sam rolled her eyes, then reached out a hand toward Thomas, and ended up pushing down on his shoulder. She had been mostly silent while the rest of them talked and obsessed over Cassie's dead mother. She was, however, unfazed by that. Instead, she was a bit angry.

"That was uncalled for, jerk!" Sam pushed Thomas backward with the hand on his shoulder, then continued, "She's living, just like you and me."

She went back to being silent, sitting back into the sand with a bothered but distracted expression.

And you thought Moonflower was weird.

[Deleted]

Mina didn't reply to Calista. She sighed instead. Kids these days...such vivid imaginations. Which were good to have; Mina herself had taken some inspirations from myths and things for her songs, but why was it sometimes so...brutal? She could remember when she was ten. She had written a short play about chinchillas squabbling over the better kind of chinchilla food. Eating dead bodies hadn't crossed her mind at all, as far as she could remember. Well, every child was different...

"Thank you," Mina said, turning to Sam as she pushed Thomas down. "Someone needs to keep that walkie talkie quiet. I'd like to try to make the best out of a bad situation, and he's just making things worse."

She began to walk toward the rock formation where Moonflower was headed. It did look relaxing. She picked up her unfinished music piece and began to hum what she'd so far written down. Perhaps that mysterious - Mina could have called her mythic - girl had a pen.