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

[Celestial]

Shani woke up late in the day, having slept poorly. She had not had much food, owing to the discussions of the day. Five fish, several coconuts and a couple of fruit would have been fine for a human but for an angel who had to fuel their flying, it was just one meal. There were always the bodies. Truth be told, when nobody was looking, Shani did fly down to where the captain was still lying and considering taking a few bits. But she resisted. They had agreed on a no-cannibalism rule and she was going to abide by it, unless she had no other choice. When you're on an island with people who are almost as paranoid as yourself, it did not take much to set them off. So she left the body alone for the gulls to eat. Unless she caught a shoal today or found some big game on this island, she would not last very long.

The angel hopped out of the tree where she was sleeping to the souds of mourning, crying and a very obnoxious, loud moron. She growled as soon as she heard him. Before she went over to join them, Shani grabbed the spear she had made a few days back and harpooned herself a few fish from the air before skinning them, gutting them and eating them raw. She did not have time for a fire. There was a lot of commotion and she wanted to see what was going on. Once she was done, she washed her hands and face in the sea before flying over to where the sounds were coming from. It was a fairly small island, if the noise was loud enough it could be heard anywhere. And Mina's scream was very loud.

Shani landed, only to see Cassie's dead body. She stopped and just stared. How...how could anybody..? Her mother was dead. And now the daughter too. If this was somebody's idea of doing her a favour, it was sick, even by angel standards. Danielle was leaning over her, trying to wake her up. Shani thought about pulling the girl away but she did not see any point. Let her keep thinking that. It wasn't any of her business. The hippie was muttering something and from what Shani heard, she was oddly making sense, although her staring at Mina was a little unnerving.

She did not know Cassie very well. But the girl seemed sweet and kind, completely undeserving of the tragedy that fell upon her. Shani, unlike many of her older counterparts, never lived in a church or had anything to do with religion but, owing to her being what she was and how humans saw her, she still said a prayer under her breath.

When Shani looked up, she growled. Thomas leaning over Cassie and trying to hog all the attention for himself . He was like toxic green wallpaper in a morgue: attention-grabbing, inappropriate and tasteless.

And then he started talking about her. Shani half-folded her wings and in an angel, that meant run. Run far. She was ready for a fight.

"Rabies? Typhoid?!? Why should me having wings make things any different?! Has it not occured in your thick head that I am a sapient being just like any human!??!!" she hissed dangerously. If he said anything else, she was going to snap. It did not matter how sombre or respectful she was going to be. If she did not take something out on him, her nerves were going to burn out.

Shani did not even smell the campfire smoke. She was so distracted by her rage.

[Avery]

Nelly is not at all surprised by the latest body. After her experience in Netwaffle, it only seems natural for a second murder victim to show up so quickly after the first one. That said, the rest of the survivors seem slightly more perturbed. They scream and run and cry, like chickens with their heads cut off-- then, like the insolent fools they are, some of them get distracted by the distant smell of smoke.

Hmph. Nelly has no time for such antics. For that matter, she always doesn't give a flying hoot about yesterday's decision to not partake in cannibalism. These people are too mushy and sentimental-- well, beyond that Thomas guy, who just seems to be a loon. Oh well. A loon isn't always such a bad thing. After all, he's doing a grand job of diverting the attention from her.

With a meaningfulness to her step, she walks over to Cassie's body and presses a hand to the cold skin.

"I am taking this body for a private burial," she announces, then starts to drag it away. A few people follow, but she turns and clarifies, "Private. A private burial. This girl and I had such a connection, as you all saw yesterday when I uh, helped her poor dead mother. Now, leave us be!"

[Lizzie]

Sam had calmed down considerably.

Oh, I guess you're asleep.What a funny place to sleep in!

"She's not sleeping..."

"I saw that other girl... Sam, is it? I saw her running and screaming, do you know what's wrong with her?"

"Danielle, she's dead. Cassie is dead. That's why I was screaming," she said clearly, smoothing the hair away from Cassie's face.

"...Does anybody, by chance, happen to have a rabies immunisation injection? You see, after talking with that winged thing yesterday I feel that being correctly immunised against rabies and typhoid is imperative..." Thomas said. Blahblahblah. Yadda yadda yadda. Sam had zoned out, and only caught that little bit.

"TomTom, you idiotic child, Shani is as much of a person as you are," she muttered quietly. She was so sick of Thomas and his silly... sillyness. Louder, she said to Hunter, "I see it, too. I'll be over in a se--"

"I am taking this body for a private burial. Private. A private burial. This girl and I had such a connection, as you all saw yesterday when I uh, helped her poor dead mother. Now, leave us be!"

Shutting up immediately-- she had talked more than usual anyway-- Sam followed Nelly, curious as to what the lady could possibly be doing. She didn't feel that great about letting Nelly be with the bodies.

[Alyssa]

The day the survivors landed on the island, Camille had immediately wandered away from the group, distracted by a particularly odd-looking beetle.

She walked along the beach for a few hours in pursuit before it occurred to her that it might have been safer to stay with everyone else, but it was no good to worry now.
Night had fallen, and it was too dark to think about finding her way back.
She was starving, having been forced to leave behind her sandwich days ago on the sinking ship, and her body ached from walking all day.

And she still hadn't caught that stupid beetle.

Camille decided to lie down in the still-warm sand to try to get some sleep.
She did not have to wait long, as her exhausted body welcomed the rest eagerly.
As consciousness slipped away, she thought about how she'd ended up here in the first place.

It had been her mother's idea to send her on the cruise.
Something about wanting Camille to meet some real friends for a change.
I do so have real friends, she thought hotly. They just so happen to be invisible. Air is invisible, but do they doubt that? Nooooo.

She'd spent most of her time on the ship apart from other people, preferring instead to talk to her best friends, Herbert and Alfredo.
The pair were two shape shifters she'd met in the cereal aisle at the grocery store.
Camille and Herbert had reached for the same box of Cap'n Crunch, and from that moment on, a fast friendship had formed.
While Camille could see and interact with them, Herbert and Alfredo preferred to stay invisible to everyone else.
While some passengers found it a bit unsettling to see a girl laughing at two rather melty ice cream cones, Camille was just glad to be having fun with her friends.

When the boat sank, the three had, strangely enough, been acting out their rendition of the Titanic.
Camille had borrowed several life vests from the ship, and had fashioned them into a makeshift raft.
Right in the middle of her dramatic escape from the doomed pretend ship, she realized that the actual ship was doomed as well, and that she was in very real danger.
She hefted her raft over the side of the boat and floated around in the water for a while, watching the chaos on board.
Then, noticing a solitary group of survivors escape, she followed them to shore.

Camille yawned and opened her eyes to find a very large, colorful bird roosting on her stomach.
She poked its head, and then screamed when the bird let out an ear-splitting shriek.
Fully awake now, she scrambled up onto her feet and surveyed her surroundings.
It was mid-morning, and the light of the sun allowed her to see everything she hadn't the night before.
Thankfully she had stayed mostly on the beach, and the trail she had made was still visible.
Noticing a particularly ferocious growl coming from her stomach, Camille decided she had better return to the rest of the survivors to see if they'd been able to find food.
She called Herbert and Alfredo, and the three began the walk back together.

A few hours later, Camille found what she'd been looking for.
She told her two friends to wait for her, that she'd be back soon, and started running towards the group collected on the beach.
She stopped short, however, when she realized that she'd never talked to any of those people.
She had to get away before they noticed her.
With panic setting in, she dashed into the nearest clump of trees and scrambled to the top of one to watch the proceedings.

She saw a body of a young girl lying in the sand, and people surrounding it, and wondered what had happened.
"I wonder if she's just sleeping," she thought aloud.
"Of course not, stupid. Look at all that blood," Alfredo said, suddenly appearing next to her in the tree. He'd never been one to sugar coat the truth.
Herbert said nothing, but pointed towards a nice-looking girl who was wandering about near their tree.
The girl, who seemed to be near Camille's own age, had been trying to wake the corpse, as if not being able to fully grasp reality.
She looked a little confused, but surely she knew more than Camille did.
She decided to get her attention, and opened her mouth to call out.

"Pssst" was all she could manage.
The girl looked preoccupied and didn't seem to hear her.
"HEY," she said loudly, and waved her hands to try to get the girl's attention.

Bad idea.

She fell from the tree in a heap at the girl's feet.
Ignoring the muffled laughter coming from her two more coordinated friends, Camille rose stiffly, testing her limbs for injury, and then extended a hand towards the girl.

"Hi, I'm Camille, but you can call me Camille."

[Ginz ❤]

Sam had now returned to where Cassie and Danielle were. She looked calmer as she spoke to her.

"She's not sleeping..."

Danielle tilted her head in confusion. How could she not be asleep when she clearly wasn't awake?

"Danielle, she's dead. Cassie is dead. That's why I was screaming,"

"No... it's not possible!" She said. "It just can't be..." her voice trailed off. She decided she didn't want to be near the group of people that had gathered around Cassie's body anymore. Danielle's defense mechanism was simple. When something was too much to take, she ignored it, hoping it would go away. It never worked, but that's what she did anyway.

It was really hot in the island. Danielle decided to look for a big palm tree that gave a good shade to rest below it. She was walking towards one that looked really nice, when suddenly, a girl she had never seen fell at her feet.

It had all happened so fast, Danielle didn't have time to react. The girl spoke first.

"Hi, I'm Camille, but you can call me Camille."

"Hi, I'm Danielle!" She shook Camille's hand, and then stared at her for a few seconds. She looked like a nice person. Danielle was quick to trust people. "Are you okay? You fell from the tree," she said, pointing out the obvious as usual.

[Luna]

She'd gone out to cry about her mother. All she wanted was to mourn her loss. She'd chosen the wrong place at the wrong time.

She knelt down and cried, burying her hands into her face. Then something hit her. The pain in her head. Her mind blurred. What was that?
She fell into the sand from the blow. What was that? Her face was full of sand when she felt another blow. Her last thought hit her like a ton of bricks. Or was it that rock that actually hit her head? Ironic.

"I am dying. I am being murdered."

But then her thought lightened.

"At least I will see my mother. I won't be alone ever again."

One final hit and she went into pure blackness. Death.

-------

Cassie's eyes rolled into a lightness, and flash of light like no other. Then sand. And her. Her body.

Strange. She thought, looking at her corpse. Aren't I suppose to be in you? How did I get this kind of angle?

She looked down at her arms and misty legs. See through.
The realization popped into her mind as she remembered feeling the pain of the rock and looking at her bloody, cold head.
She was dead.
It was overwhelming, seeing herself dead and murdered. She had predicted that there was a murderer on the island. She had known. But she didn't expect to be killed. Not this fast, and not at her age. Why did they kill her? She was a teenager, still a child, really. She looked around. At least they didn't kill one of the actual children, she was thankful that the murderer had the sense not to kill a 10 year old. She sighed, looking at her hands and body. She had to tell someone. How, though? She was a ghost! Could ghosts even do that?
She sat for a while next to her body, poking at it, but her hand fazing right through like she was some kind of ghost or s-- Oh, right.
Then someone? Even in her ghostly form people scared her, and she fled behind a tree, watching as a girl came and tripped on her body. She jumped as she saw the girls expression and scream.

"MOONFLOWER? GREGORY? MINA?! HUNTER! DANIELLE... CALISTA?"

The girl was running off, and Cassie went into the trees, chasing her from an invisible spot, going through the trees like they were nothing. Her last call made her stop, and it hurt.

"CASSIE..."

Cassie sighed and watched the camp, and all the people gather.
A girl, seeming not so smart, came up to her body.

"Hi! Your name is Cassie, right? Oh, I guess you're asleep.What a funny place to sleep in!"

She whispered from her distance. "Yes, that's me, I'm dead. No I'm not sleeping, what?"

"Oh, you must be cold! I'm sorry I don't have a blanket I can lend you. I saw that other girl... Sam, is it? I saw her running and screaming, do you know what's wrong with her?"

"I'm kind of dead, that's why..."

She stared at all the people jumping up and screaming and yelling, making her go farther into the trees. People were coming up to her body, and she sensed something about the hippie girl that made her want to float over to her. She seemed like she saw things in a different light. Maybe she would be able to see h-- Oh god not this guy again.
It was the guy who never stopped talking. Thomas. She hated him, and growled at every comment he made about her, acting like he did anything to help her and saying he knew her mother. It made her angry. He was defiantly the first person who she was going to haunt and scare.

"Shut up, you jerk, you did NOTHING to help me." She flew out of her hiding spot, closer to him, but not making herself visible to people, nor them being able to hear her very well. The ghostly girl pointed her finger out at him. "You think you did anything? For all I know YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME."

Mist flared out of her eyes harder then it usually did. She looked around and noticed a man, Hunter right? come up to look at her body.

"Oh Cassie, I didn't know you that well, but you were a lovely girl. You will be greatly missed."

That made her smile a little. At least someone wasn't panicking or talking to her corpse like a insane person, no offense Gregory.
She watched all the people talk and yell, and got sad very fast. She saw that lady, Nelly, start to take her body away.

"I am taking this body for a private burial," she started to drag Cassie's body away. "Private. A private burial. This girl and I had such a connection, as you all saw yesterday when I uh, helped her poor dead mother. Now, leave us be!"

Cassie flew forward to Nelly. Something in her made her trust Nelly less.

"No, no, what are you doing?" Cassie said to her and put a hand out, stopping herself unevenly with her new ghost legs. It was taking some getting use to. She made herself clearly visible to everyone, if they could see her at all.

[Yoyti]

Gregory was sitting on a rock casually, basking in the sunlight. "I don't suppose anyone will object if we eat her mother now?" he asked, grinning. "Not that that's going to help anyone here trust me." He got up and started walking around. "Cannibalism aside, we have a murderer to weed out. But first, I'd like to have a word with Mr. Thomas Everington."

He grabbed Everington by the collar of his shirt. "I have learned two things about you, cake man. Primarily, you are an idiot. Secondly, you are most likely not the murderer. You are putting yourself out there. You are too forward. Perhaps you hope to be killed? Maybe you think that, if we execute you today, it will by your friend, the murderer more time to kill us off? I won't accuse you of anything for certain, but you have to put a defense out there!"

He dropped Thomas' collar, and turned to the group. "Call me crazy, if you will, but we're going to be picked off one by one unless we find the killer or killers. We're on a deserted island. A small group will survive the best, in the short term. And as a message to you murderers, in the long term, you are going to die like the rest of us!" And he turned back towards the rich moron. "So don't act so cocky."

"Miss Saelune, some dramatic music is in order, if you will. And winged lady..." Gregory trailed off. How could he politely ask... he decided to drop the pretense. "How do those magnificent wings work? What's the measurement of them? How often do you need to flap them to rise? To decline? Are they for strictly horizontal gliding, or can you swoop and dive? And if you can swoop and dive, how far a distance? How long can you fly before your wings tire from exhaustion?"

[Deleted]

Mina stepped back when Camille fell from the tree. She instantly yanked Danielle's arm away.

"I wouldn't trust her if I were you," she said. "I mean, she did just happen to be here near where poor Cassie was murdered. If you asked me, I would say she had something to do with it."

Just then, Mina heard a voice. A strangely familiar voice. Almost as if...no. It couldn't be.

Then she turned, and saw the ghostly outline of what appeared to be Cassie.

Mina gasped. She had never believed in ghosts. Souls, perhaps, but ghosts...not so much.

She didn't know exactly what to say to a ghost, even though she had a million things she wanted to. She wanted to tell Cassie something to make her feel better, first of all. But what does one say to comfort a ghost? "I'm sorry"? For some reason Mina didn't think that would go over too well. She wanted to ask about Cassie's mother and if they'd reunited or anything, but she knew that would probably make her feel worse.

For now, she remained tight-lipped, ignoring Gregory. She didn't feel like singing. Instead, she turned back to the smoke, beginning to walk toward it. She was suspicious of it.

Ever since she'd been stranded, she'd been suspicious of a lot of things. Things she might not be suspicious of had there not been murders.

[Celestial]

She could not say how much the mathematician made her happy. His beatdown of Thomas was truly an amazing moment. Even though Shani knew he would not stop and that she would have to still beat him senseless one day, she still loved watching him get the talking to he deserved.

And furtermore, he made incredibly good points about the whole situation. Shani nodded in agreement. Even though the mathematician had seemed crazy when they first arrived, he seemed ok now. Her mind would have asked whether that was because of the recent deaths, pointing to him perhaps being the murderer, but the satisfaction overwhelmed that. When he asked her about her wings, Shani was more than happy to respond.

"Well, I'm not particularly sure of the physics of it but...my wings are about two and a half metres long, I fly like a normal Red Kite so I need to flap them as many times as that bird does, including gliding, swooping and all that jazz. And flight time varies depending on how hungry I am. Angels have hollow bones and a ridiculous metabolism to keep up with their wings," Shani said, with more than a little boastfulness.

Once she had finished, she saw Nelly was taking the body away. This time, she ought to follow her, Shani thought. Once there were no more distractions, I definitely will. But once she saw that Sam was already taking care of it, she relaxed. No point in wasting precious energy flying.

Instead, she noticed the new girl who had arrived that had introduced herself as Camille. Now, Shani was careful of strangers but she decided that it was best not to show it. So she smiled and waved.

"Hello, Camille. My name is Shani, pleased to meet you," she said cheerily and bowed, spreading her wings out. It was best to appease a suspicious person for now so you would not become their next target.

She turned around and finally saw Cassie's ghost. This was interesting. Shani was always an atheist at heart, having never seen or met or even had any contact with God, despite seemingly being one of his servants. Well, this seemed to resolve a few issues she was having.

"Cassie! What is it like being dead? And did you see who did it? Anything?"

[selmette]

SPOILER: Click to show

"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."

Selm blinked and her breath caught in her throat. "Um," she said hesitantly. "Okay. Sure. Why not."

She followed Moonflower's line of sight as she glanced up at the leafy canopy above them. She found herself transfixed by the sheer placidity of Moonflower's gaze. With a stinging sensation in her heart Selm realized she'd never be able to maintain the same everlasting sense of serenity; she'd never be able to maintain such an unwavering faith in her own whimsical notions.

Lost in her desolation, Selm jumped slightly when Moonflower asked her to step back. A coconut landed on the soft sand directly in front of her with a subtle plop. She payed little attention to the collision immediately afterward and instead tuned into the din at the island's shore. She strained to make out other voices amongst Thomas' senseless ramblings, but found herself frustratingly unable to hear anything that wasn't his obnoxious voice.

Her brain processed the words but perceived it as little more than a high-pitched persistent buzzing in the back of her head. It was loud and constant and distracting and drowned out all her other senses. She couldn't focus on anything for more than a few minutes. It drove her mad to the point where she began to shake involuntarily and her vision blurred and her heart rate sped up and she just felt pure consuming uncontrollable rage and--

She pressed her palms against her ears and took a few slow, shaky breaths and tried to recall the anger management methods that had been recommended to her. No more doctors. No more therapists. No more psychiatrists or psychologists or counselors. No more help. She could handle herself perfectly well on her own, thank you very much. She wouldn't let herself get back into the rut she'd fallen into. The shipwreck was a new beginning

"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?"

She gazed longingly at the tranquil scene before her; miles and miles of unexplored territory. If she'd ventured just a little further the other passengers would be out completely out of earshot, out of sight, and out of mind. But in order to truly convince everyone--herself?--that she didn't need any psychological help, she'd have to confront the source of her anger.

She nodded silently and headed towards the shore.

Selm sat with her back against the trunk of a tree, arms folded, blankly observing the islanders. She hadn't slept the night before due to insomnia. She was far too overwhelmed with negative thoughts and energy for her mind to rest. She felt a bit fatigued, but apart from that and the steady metallic hum echoing in her skull she felt fine. Or at least, she felt like she would under ordinary circumstances. News of a second murder had quickly spread among the stranded. She thought it curious that she hadn't encountered either of the bodies herself yet; although she had no particular desire to.

She was feeling rather lethargic at the moment. Spending all night listening to Thomas' incessant rambling(and then obnoxious snoring once he finally fell asleep), along with the aftershock of events had kind of drained her. She'd had the sense not to go wandering around the island in the dark when a murderer was on the loose, so that was still something she needed to do. She hadn't spoken with most of the other shipwreckeds, but she wasn't feeling very talkative. The only thing mildly productive she'd managed to accomplish in the past 24 hours was the solar still she had set up; she was quite proud of it, but it wouldn't be useful until tomorrow morning.

It suddenly crossed her mind that she was possibly the only person in the world who could manage to isolate herself from a dozen others who had been stranded on a relatively small island. That realization was enough to motivate her to start socializing. She went up to talk to the girl nearest to her and hoped something might come of it.

"Hey," she said to Melanie. "Real shame about Cassie and her mom, yeah? I wonder what kind of heartless monster here's got the guts to do that kinda thing. Repeatedly."

[Draco]

Q relaxes in his little "hut" (a few sticks and palm leaves, not much, but it's better then nothing). He was hungry again, and had a nice crab on a stick sitting next to the fire now.

"Island food, wonderful thing, but still needs butter."

He stretches back and sips a new cocktail he made from his trunk.

[gold]

Captain Dean Comwell was not pleased to hear that Cassie had been murdered. What was the point in killing her? What had she done? She was an innocent young lady who was mourning the death of her mother, and some monster had gone and killed her.

In the end, this was what drove him to start the Investigation. After arriving onto the scene of the crime, he took a quick look at the body. This girl... she didn't have a LifeAlert. How unfortunate.

"A-HEM. I am Captain Dean Comwell. I am hereby leading an Investigation on the murders going around on the island. I would like everyone to give me an alibi on where they were last night. I would also suggest that we execute any suspicious figures! How does this sound?" He said, completely oblivious to any nearby campfire smoke.

[Jayeee]

Thomas laughed. “Oh, isn’t it funny. It thinks it’s a human. This is positively perfect. I cannot wait to show you to my friends back home. You can perform for parties and the like. We’ll just tape your mouth closed when you’re not on show; that’ll work just fine. I do look ever so forward to it. You know, this reminds me of the funniest story. One day, on bring your pet to school day, I stole everybody’s pets. Isn’t that just hysterical? They went outside, and being the crafty tyke that I was, I had daddy’s workers bring the truck, and we took every last one. Oh, it was enjoyable. I remember one in particular; it was a ferret of some sort. Oh, it did taste delicious on wholemeal bread. At first I thought how ghastly it would be, eating something that thin, but it was simply divine. Perhaps we can all take a bite out of this thing, yes? I mean, we were all talking about eating each other earlier, weren’t we? And why not save the intelligent beings until last? I was simply appalled when the idea was first put forward. I mean, eating common people, could you imagine? Goodness no, I think I’d rather starve. But then I had to tell myself that it was needed. ‘We must preserve you, Tommyboy,’ I exclaimed to myself, ‘so that others may benefit from all this’. This way I can write about it all in my book. Oh yes, did I mention I’m planning a series of books about my adventures on this horrific island? Of course the opening few chapters can detail my life beforehand, just to make everybody a little big jealous, eh? And then I’ll be plunged into the turmoil that is this adventure. I’ll wow my avid readers with descriptions of a winged creature who ravaged us all, and how only I could tame it through daring feats of heroics. Doesn’t that sound smashing? Oh, I know that daddy is going to love it.”

Thomas laughed again, at Sam this time. “Fancy you calling it a human! How curiously hilarious. You know, I once met a woman who believed that trees were alive; real living things. Doesn’t that just make you almost fall over with laughter? I told her, ‘now, my dear, let me just get on the phone to daddy and all will be alright again’. So in the end, I had daddy call the police. Although apparently the poor thing didn’t make it, something about fleeing from her crime. It was the strangest thing, she ran away claiming she’d done absolutely nothing wrong. I was shocked to my VERY CORE! But wasn’t I amazing? Didn’t I just give the girl the help that she so truly deserved? Oh, I really am an asset to society!”

As Gregory grabbed Thomas by the collar and pulled him aside, the executive of our generation cried out. “Oh goodness, the lunatic is loose! Somebody get some help, and a strait jacket! A. STRAIT. JACKET! Good gracious, what does everybody think this is a vacation? I mean, REALLY, you have one tiny crash and everybody thinks it’s okay to go killing, or worse: touching me with common hands! Good sir, have you no shame? I have just finished mourning the loss of that dear CIA woman’s daughter! DO YOU NOT HAVE A HEART? How merciless it is for you to drag me aside during my time of need. It isn’t enough that we have murderers on the loose, but we also have to deal with you, apparently. Oh, how could you do such a thing?”

Thomas shook his head. “You know, it really is impolite to mumble and mutter in one’s face. I think that once daddy arrives to rescue us, we may just leave you here. Saves filling out all that dreadful paperwork to put you into the insane asylum. A very fair trade off, don’t you think?” He gave a sigh of exasperation as the man continued to talk to him. “You know, I once knew somebody who would never stop mumbling and muttering. Talked in some kind of accent they did, it was very off-putting. So daddy paid for some kind of new surgery, and he had his jaw removed. It was all very technical, but wasn’t daddy nice to sort all of that out! Of course we never saw him again, but no worry. Perhaps you could arrange to have a similar procedure? You do strike me as rather speech-impaired, not to mention the state of your mind. Don’t worry; I forgive your words – whatever they were. Oh, I am just the kindest soul, aren’t I?”

"Call me crazy, if you will”

“Thank you for the permission. Now, what I believe this crazy person is trying to say, is that he is mightily suspicious. He seems to know an awful lot about all this murdering that’s been going on, hmm? Very curious if you ask me. Very curious indeed. But then again, when insanity takes over your mind, it is a pity. You know, I heard that Gregory Merkshire,” he pointed at the mathematician, “I assume that’s you? Well I heard that he used to think he was a dog and bite people’s legs. WATCH OUT, ISLAND-DWELLERS. YOUR ANKLES ARE NOT SAFE!”

Thomas listened to the angel girl talk of her wings and he raised his eyebrows. “Well, something certainly likes the sound of its own voice! I said before, you may recall, that people who talk and talk without ever really saying anything are such a pet peeve of mine. You know, I once had a teacher who told us a story of her personal life. I was appalled. Something about her cat or some such nonsense. Well, you can all rest assured that I had daddy on the phone before she’d even finished. The principal was informed, and she was escorted off the premises. I also saw to it that she had her children taken away from her; I’m certain that they shouldn’t have to be subjected to such raucous storytelling. Going into the adoption system was so much better for them. I hear they live in the forest and eat worms. Such a shame, but certainly better than listening to stories by that foolish woman, am I right?”

“But nonetheless, I don’t think you quite fit the bill for my personal zoo. If you’d like to provide an appeal against this decision, then please talk to daddy. But don’t talk too much. Like me, he can’t stand those who just go on and on forever. So you’ll have to watch your words. Oh and of course I’ll have to make sure daddy and mummy are up to date with their rabies shots. We can’t have you infecting anybody else now can we?” He laughed happily. “Now then, why don’t you just fly along back to your pack of wolves or what have you? The higher beings are trying to have a conversation, and we’d rather not be at risk of disease while doing so. I’m sure you understand.”

Thomas clapped his hands together as the Captain spoke. “Wonderful suggestion, good sir. I am so pleased that not everybody lacks the very basis of common sense in this world. Or at the very least doesn’t carry threatening diseases. Perhaps that winged creature escaped out of the ship from the cargo hold, where it was somebody’s pet. I dread to think who would keep that but I do digress! I was busy trying to get my phone to work so that I could call daddy. I was having a minor breakdown, but nothing serious. I managed to talk myself back to my normal positivity once again. ‘Thomas, lad,’ I told myself, ‘Let’s have no more of this foolish chatter. We’ll be safe back home in no time.’ You know, sometimes I think I should be a motivational speaker. But yes, trying to get my darned phone to work. It was top of the line, but something seems to be jamming it. Oh, I broke my phone at school once and had to go a full day without it. What a horror it was. In the end I had to leave early so that daddy could buy me a new one instantly. I only missed a lecture on human rights, nothing that I don’t already know, eh?”

Thomas moved his head over to Gregory’s ear – the closest person to him at the time. “You know,” he whispered, “I hear that the crash was just a big cover up, and that that Captain Dean over there was the one who really crashed it.”

[Avery]

With great deftness, Nelly throws off her pursuers and ends up alone with Cassie's body in a desolate part of the island. With her trust meat cleaver-- which she always keeps on her-- she butchers the um, beef-girl, and then builds a nice little campfire, roasts the fresh product. Ah, they will have a feast tonight!

By the time she returns to the beach, that crazy, spoiled bloke Thomas is on one of his rants, so she manages to slip into the crowd unnoticed.

"I have food," she announces. When no one immediately looks to her, she adds, "Non-coconut food!"

This grabs the attention of the survivors, and a few begin to approach her. But she stops them short.

"Oh no," she says, "you all wait a minute. This food is not free. I demand payment! And since I'm doubting any of you have cash on your person at the moment, I suppose I'll have to accept items for trade instead." She picks up a kebab of grilled-Cassie and waves it in the faces of the starving islanders. "Come on! You know you want it! Now what do you guys have to prove it!?"

[Rosalie Dylas (Maddy)]

Christopher has spent the night somewhere where there were people, where exactly he had no idea, and what he had eaten for dinner, and who had given it to him, he had no earthly idea. He just went with the flow. He woke up to noises, very troubling noises. He got up, having no idea where anyone was, or why everyone sounded so concerned and distraught and... screamy. He decided to guy towards the sound of voices, that seemed like a good idea.

Along the way he bumped into palm trees, rocks, and other various things, and apologized to them at length, before discovering that they didn't asnwer. Then he felt silly for talking to an inanimate object. Eventually he got to the site where Cassie had been discovered.
"Hello? What's going on?", he asked to no one in particular, and he wasn't really facing anyone. Deciding that he probably wasn't going to get an answer to that, he started to walk.

That has been a bad idea.

First, he bumped into Thomas, and he knew it was Thomas because he was talking non-stop. Christopher liked Thomas, his voice. It was so obnoxious and loud, it grabbed him and made him feel like he was really... really part of the world. It felt nice.
"O-o-oh sorry." Christopher apologized, before half sprinting away blushing. He had ran into Thomas! Oh no, that wasn't good.

It also wasn't good when Christopher bumped into another person. This person was Moonflower, because Christopher would run into people like Thomas and Moonflower. People he didn't want to be noticed by. Of course, he didn't know it was Moonflower.
"Sorry... I am so sorry... please be a person... no a palm tree... I... oh...." Christopher blathered, before retreating.


He felt so bad, just running into people then walking away. Perhaps he should go back. Christopher was about to turn around when, surprise surprise, he ran into someone else. This time it wasn't a bump, but a full on collision. He stumbled back, but thankfully didn't fall.

This person happened to be Nelly.
"Not again.... I am so sorry...." Christopher begged for forgiveness, feeling like a complete idiot. That was how he usually felt when he went out in public.