Staff Survivor II Game Topic

[Makaru]

I awoke the next morning on bare ground. Everyone else had some makeshift shelter or cover formed of leaves. My lazine... INTENSE OUTDOORSEY MANLINESS preferred to sleep on bare dirt ground in the cover of trees.

 

A rustle.

 

No one else stirred. Once again, I found myself the first person at the party to be awake. Sumiki and Eeko had narrowly escaped being accosted by a Burnak the night before. I carefully reached for my knife... Only to remember that knives apparently exist in the Puffin lexicon as a luxury item. Crazy woman. I would rather have my knife than my pants. I thought of my teammates. Maybe the old bird had some compassion for others after all.

 

I grabbed a nearby rock and shuffled to the closest tree. Whatever was snuffling through the foliage was approaching my position.

 

It crept closer.

 

I could hear its breathing.

 

A Burnak. Could I even fight such a beast?

 

The steps closed in and the shadow emerged from the trunk next to me.

 

I lifted my rock and swung as hard as I could.

 

It is this time I would like to express to you in great detail how fragile the skull plate of a Gafna is.

Edited July 23, 2013 by Makaru

[Bfahome]

No one had wanted to join me. It was fine, I didn't need their companionship anyway. Sniffle.Fortunately, the edge of the forest provided exactly what I was looking for. I grabbed the edgiest rock I could find and headed for a large sapling. I shook it roughly, testing it's strength. Seemed fine.Taking the rock, I used it as a makeshift saw to try and cut through the thin trunk. It was only about an inch or two thick, but the rock actually started to chip.I chose to think of this as representative of strong wood and not a brittle rock.Several rocks and an unknown amount of time later, the trunk was hacked away enough that I could bend and twist the rest of it until it broke. After stripping it of extra branches and whatnot, I took my shoelace and strung myself a bow.It was at that point I realized I would need arrows, too. And I doubted there would be any skeletons around to drop some.At least we could start fires more easily I guess?? Somewhat depressed, I trudged back to the rocks.Seeing that Makaru had just taken out a Gafna with only a rock did not help my spirits.

[Sisen]

I crawled out of the makeshift bed I had fashioned in a daze last night. At some point I had collected obtrusively large leaves and weaved them together with some vines from nearby trees. Draping the vine leaf tent deal and hanging it from a vine to make a tent, had turned out to not be the best idea in the world. While I had slept on the ground with a little new leaf bed, I woke up with bug bites in places I did not know bug bites could exist.

 

As soon as I was safely away from my humble abode I started doing the hokey pokey, sending what looked like a family of flying ants out of my nethers. My stomach started to growl. I forced myself not to think of pie, and remembered HH mentioning something about catching fish.

 

"Mak is Canadian, can't he like catch fish with his bare hands or something? All graceful like a bald eagle, or in this case whatever type of Rahi eat fish."

[Arpy]

Saying that you woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and rejuvenated would have meant lying to yourself, which you did often enough, but as you saw no reason to start so early in the day you settled for just freshed and juvenated.You gravely rubbed the sand from your eyes and stood up and stretched. Actual sand had crept into camp, but your trusty leaf had kept it at bay, so this was just figurative sand--eyeboogers didn't set the same tone, somehow.You pushed your leaf aside and went down to survey the main campsite. You were pleased to see that your leaves had collected some water overnight and that other team members had taken some of the extras for your own use.Most of the crew was milling about. Makaru was skinning and prepping a small Gafna, and Bfahome was picking the choicest ribs to go with a nice bow he had fashioned.You admired their initiative, but you had a feeling going on short trips out for leaves and sticks and waiting for Gafna to stumble upon your camp just wouldn't cut it. The island had undoubtedly changed since Bionicle ended, and it was anyone's guess as to what was out there--maybe it was the cannons, or lack thereof. You wanted to go farther afield, and you had the entire day ahead of you--and for that matter, the day after that. And after that. And after that. You decided to think of it as an extended weekend--a forced wilderness retreat."You see, Scott?" you murmured under your breath. "Wilderness!" You clambered up onto a rock and used your finely honed diaphragm to project across the camp."Friends, BZ-Koronans, Clikit Supertramps, what time is it?"Blank stares. Nobody had a timepiece. Fortunately, you weren't thinking of a time that was on the clock."It's adventure time! Ladies, gentlemen, sundry others, I propose to you...an expedition! One lasting at least a day, with the express goal of hunting the legendary, the elusive, the utterly massive Stone Blocking Lava Ape!"There were gasps from the crowd, many to the effect that its HP was ridiculous and that they weren't even sure it was still on the island. Things had changed, as you said."I know, our chances may seem slim. But if Makaru can brain a Gafna without so much as an ice claw, imagine how much easier the Stone Ape might be, how much greater the victory!""Truly, it would be the stuff of legends, or if not the stuff of legends, a high point in an obscure and specific historical chain of events! One that the bards will sing of! And I studied Old English to the point of having decent reading fluency, so I can translate for them. Also!" You said, struggling to keep your train of thought, "We would most certainly show up the other team."Some approving nods this time."Who's with me?" you shouted. Bfahome jumped right up to join you, clearly unsatisfied with his progress so far this morning and eager to test his bow."Splendid! Let's not waste any time, then. We shall find our lunch as we go," you say grandly. You tore a couple small strips off your leaf and folded them into cups, which you filled with water from one of the collector leaves and stopped with small rocks. You handed one to bfahome."Drink whenever you're thirsty," you told him, "or else every time someone makes a Hunger Games reference."You strode out of camp and further to the east, resolving not to look back and see if anyone else was following you for at least thirty seconds.It was probably best to do this sort of thing before things got really nasty, you thought. Maybe they would write a chronicle about it, though. A biological chronicle. Edited August 3, 2013 by Arpy

[Sisen]

I watched as BFA took off with Arpy and put out an invitation call to join in. There was not anything better to do. I cast a glance around my makeshift encampment and saw nothing but trees, leaves, scattering bugs, and weird shaped bulbous things hanging from trees. "Did I just call fruit weird shaped bulbous things?"

 

It took a few moments for the thought to sink in. Fruit. There was fruit in that tree right next to my tent. What were the chances of finding fruit where I made my bed? It had to be astronomical. Looking closer at the tree, there just wasn't one piece. The entire tree was filled with fruit. It looked so good. I was hungry. The temptation took over. I had to have some fruit before setting out on some grandeur Aprydisical adventure.

 

Of course, the fruit wasn't easily reachable from the ground even if you were as tall as Mak, who was off killing rats or something like that. When was the last time I climbed a tree I wondered, it's just like riding a bicycle. If I fall down, I can just get right back up again... unless I fall from a really high spot...

 

I grabbed onto the tree trunk and wrapped my legs around it, to start shimmying up the tree. Surprising myself, I actually made it high enough to reach out an arm to grab a piece of the fruit. Only something was off... The normal chatter of the native insect life had stopped and it was seemingly too quiet. There I was legs wrapped around a tree, holding onto the bark with one hand, and extending myself out to grab a tasty piece of fruit. Then I heard the hissing.

 

"Please don't let it be a snake, please, please, please-" I got my wish. I noticed the fruit was bursting at its seams. The hissing noise was coming from it. I felt like I was forgetting something important, but I needed to eat something so I could think. What am I forgetting? Fruit. Fruit. Fruit. What was it about the fruit here?

 

"Oh ." A look of shock and terror took over my face and I unintentionally dropped from the tree, not a second too late. The fruit burst to life in an explosion, rivaling that of a hand grenade or another small explosive.

 

"Riiiiight. Exploding fruit. Best not eat that." I started to uncurl myself from the fetal position I had curled into upon flailing and falling. Then I heard the thump, thump, cathump of something hitting the ground. Followed by the sign of hissing.

 

The exploding whatchamacallit fruit started to detonate all around me. I attempted to crawl away but it was too late. The explosions had commenced but I found myself intact. I had not been hurt.

 

"I AM A BIOTIC GOD"

 

I went to push myself up off the ground when I noticed it was crumbling beneath me. I tried to scramble away but the ground itself was fracturing, and I was falling with it.

[Makaru]

I have to hand it to my team. They were really keen on getting stuff on the go a lot earlier than you expected. Probably because I straight up murdered an innocent rodent rahi with a rock, and that tends to be a little noisy.

 

I prepped what little organic meat was on my fresh kill and had rationed enough of it among my teammates. For a low-level xp-farmable creature, Gafna wasn't half bad. And as a bonus, I was able to cobble some manner of axe from the leftover metallic bits. The land provides.

 

A couple of my teammates volunteered to venture into the forest, drunk on my bravery born from blind, stupid luck. I opted to stay behind. I looked at the makeshift shanties that made up some of the camp and the nearby trees just BEGGING to be cut down. Some trees tantalizingly decorated with vines.

 

The morning sun gleamed in my eye.

 

"Everyone out of the #### way. I've got brain full of video games. a fist full of rat-axe, and a head full of sleep."

 

And then Sisen exploded.

Edited July 23, 2013 by Makaru

[Sisen]

I stuck a hand up through the dirt covering me, brushing off my face. It was dark or I couldn't see, or it was dark and that was the reason I couldn't see.

 

"Mak... someone... help"

 

I attempted to yell out for help, but inhaled a bunch of dirt instead. Surely someone had heard me or the resounding loud explosions?

[Bfahome]

Thanks to Mak's ruthless recklessness, I had quite a few metallic bone-ish pieces that seemed straight enough to work as arrows. Not that many, but enough to maybe take down a Burnak or two. Or at least tick them off enough that I wouldn't need to worry about finding more arrows for long.They were just sticks, though, so I halted our little expedition and looked around for some leaves or something to use as flights. They wouldn't be the best arrows around. Nowhere near my favorite Avenger's weapon. But decent enough for a branch-shoelace-Gafna-bone-thing.Within five minutes I had found several decent flights, cut and tied them, and was nocking an arrow to test. Well, not really nocking. More like awkwardly pulling it against the shoebowstring. This was not going to be easy.

[Makaru]

Of course the fruit explodes. That's a totally not crazy and legitimate assumption to make. I grabbed one of the vines and dragged it to the edge of the gaping maw that Sisen had just plunged through. I heard a pitiful muffle, which I assumed was my teammate. The Empress would probably be most cross if I let a teammate die on the second day.

 

I looped one end around my shoulder, tugged to make sure the other end was still tightly secured to the tree and dropped down into about ten feet of hole.

[Eeko]

I was startled awake by an obnoxiously loud series of explosions.I popped up in time to see Makaru repelling down a giant hole. I rushed over and yelled down the hole."Is everything alright down there?"

[Sisen]

I was breathing, at least, for now, or maybe I was dead. Nope. There was someone or something digging me out. I really hoped it was the former. The last thing I wanted was to be part of an explosion and then eaten alive by Rahi. Although... who was to say my team wouldn't eat me alive? Best to not get that far ahead of myself.

 

I tried to let out a muffled "grawalrarldjar." That probably sounded bad, and having another mouthful of dirt was worse. I utterly gave up hope on trying to talk.

 

I wiggled my hands free of the dirt and tried exposing myself a little more. The last thing I wanted was someone stepping on my head in the process of digging me out.

 

As fate would have it, Mak's big foot came right down on top of my Matatu and smooshed it right against my face. Considering I had just been through an explosion, it was the least amount of pain I had been in.

 

Mak yelled back to Eeko, "I think I found one of his legs, let's hope it is still attached!" A sudden tug on my leg caused me to yelp out and inhale more dirt. I felt like I was getting a pat down by a police office or security check at the airport. The bright light of day seared my eyes, with the over-looming halo of Mak blocking out the direct sunlight. He offered a hand and pulled me up out of the dirt pit I had somehow gotten myself into.

 

I started brushing myself off and gave a body check. “Legs! I’ve still got legs!! Good. Arms, hands. Ooh, fingers. All of my fingers. Ears? Yes. Eyes, two, nose eh dirt. Teeth! I've got all of my teeth still.” I spat out some more dirt, I really needed to get this muddy taste out of my mouth.

 

I looked over at Mak and gave him a nod, "Thanks, I suppose I owe you one."

 

He had climbed down all mountain man like using a vine and rescued me. That earned him some brownie points down the road. The explosion itself had carved out a nice sized hole. Perhaps it could be used to trap Rahi, or something to that essence... but it looked like there were holes in the hole?

 

I started to walk over towards one of the holes, only to realize I could only limp and went sprawling as I tripped. Mak grabbed my back just as I was about to face plant. "Why don't you sit this one out and get back topside? If you can climb up there." He grabbed the vine and handed it over.

 

"Send Eeko down and he can come explore these hole things, maybe they lead to a larger cavern of sorts." Mak looked quizzically over the hole in the hole.

 

Upon climbing back up, I realized more than my ego had been bruised. All my joints were flared and aching. I felt like what I imagined an older man with arthritis with arthritis on his arthritis would feel like. My right ankle felt like it could be sprained, but my entire body felt that way. I managed to hobble my way back up with one foot off the hole wall and vine. Eeko seemed to be helping out by pulling me up slighlty via the vine-rope as I went.

 

"Thank you Eek." I patted him and slid over the vine. "Up for some exploring?"

Edited July 23, 2013 by Sisen

[Bfahome]

A loud boom had set both me and Arpy on edge. The way it echoed around the trees made it difficult to discern the source, or even what had caused it. Lightning strike? Explosion? Tufi was angry at someone? All of the above? Either way, we weren't about to go looking for it. We had a mission, and oh yes we chose to accept it.

[xccj]

TMD and I had decided to go off and explore the island. In the middle of the night. Cause that was always a great idea. True, we had a torch, so at least we knew what was within a five foot radius of us.

 

But our expedition paid off, because we found a small stream of fresh water. Sure, it wasn't flowing strong enough to spin a turbine that could power our future distillery... but now there was something we could drink from.

 

Memories of the geographic features of Voya Nui began to return to me. We were on the west side of the island, which had the thinner but longer peninsula jutting north away from the volcano. There was some jungle here, as well as a treacherous mountain range, from which our stream flowed out of. To the north was the Cape of No Hope, which was a pessimistic and totally-not-a-rip-off-of-a-real-place name. The Matoran who labeled locations here must not have been in very high moods at the time.

 

Speaking of which, if I remembered the VNOLG correctly, there should be Matoran structures scattered across the peninsula. Well, except they would've been destroyed when the island sunk into the ocean and returned to the Matoran Universe... but then why was it still up in the ocean for us? Oh, right, not canon. Well, the VNOLG wasn't canon either, so maybe the double loophole would let us find an old Matoran shelter?

 

Of course, these were thoughts that came to me in the early morning. TMD and I decided to camp along the stream for the night, and when the sun arose, we headed back to find the rest of our team. Only I had no idea where our camp way.

 

Hey, it's not easy to navigate in the dark!

 

Edited July 23, 2013 by xccj

[Ta-metru_defender]

"I have no idea where our camp is," xccj said. Great. How were we supposed to find the rest of the Cult of Schizo Kaita's Miracle Cactus? Or whatever we were.

 

"Well then," I said, "streams usually flow into the ocean so if we follow this downstream we should theoretically find them." Unless streams ran upstream in the Matoran Universe. Which we weren't in since we were outside the Mata Nui robot and stuff.

Man. That story got weird.

 

"As good an idea as any," xccj said as he followed the stream. I tucked the unlit Glorious Torch of Glory© into my belt and walked behind him. I was hungry. I wanted breakfast. Figuring nothing to it, I plucked a berry from a bush and tasted it. Not bad, tangy, kinda like poprocks in that they sort of explode a little in your mouth. Eh. Wild fruit.

 

"Any idea what these are?" I asked xccj as I tossed another up in the air and caught it with my mouth — rather gracefully if I may say so.

 

"I was sick the day we studied Voya Nui flora," he called back.

 

"Want one?" I asked.

 

Xccj nodded cautiously and I tossed him a few. Hey. You gotta stay nourished somehow. You never know when something might—

 

—my train of thought was once again hampered when a nektann jumped out of nowhere and threw itself on me.

 

I screamed. In a masculine way that was definitely not high pitched and girlish no matter what xccj might tell you.

 

"Get it off!" I said, my voice similar in pitch to Morgan Freeman (ignore xccj's account), "get it off!"

 

See, nektann seem harmless. At first. Little ball of metal, metal legs, they repair stuff and guard stuff and, as it happens, also attack innocent castaways. It had evil and death glazed over it's metal exterior. I knew it. It wanted to eat me. And devour me. Whole. And then kill me. And it'd only been one day. I still wasn't even sure if we were the Cult of Schizo Kaita's Miracle Cactus.

[Eeko]

"Up for some exploring?"This was it, my chance to make up for the totally manly scream I let out at that Burnak.I grabbed the vine rope, and shimmied down until I met Mak at the bottom."I guess being the smaller of the two of us, I'll head through the hole." I said. I took Makaru's stoic silence as a yes.I climbed into the damp tunnel, and started crawling on all fours. After a few turns, a few green rupees, and one particularly mean rat, I stumbled into a decent sized cavern."Hey Mak!" I called, "You might wanna come check this out!"

[Sisen]

As Eeko descend into the pit, I made my way far away from the exploding fruit tree. I found some of the rodent thing Mak had slain. What was it called a Gafnu? Whatever it was it did not taste like chicken or pie. It did not even taste like what chicken would taste if it was a rat. Maybe it was the dirt. The dirt flavor had to make it taste worse right?

 

I squeezed some water out of the mossy substance that was growing on some of the trees and rinsed out my mouth. It tasted mossy-fresh, and better than dirt. I couldn't help but think to myself, 'Am I really cut out for this?' Bug bitten nethers, explosions, and being buried alive... I guess it could be worse.

 

I gulped down the last of the lean meat substance Mak had provided. Nope. It still tasted bad. The dirt had actually helped the flavor. I started pulling together some more leaves and vines to make a new bed. The last one had been blown to smithereens.

[Makaru]

Sisen went up the vine and Eeko came down. Sisen's incident bore unexpected fruit; as Eeko had discovered. The hole punched into a cavern system beneath the jungle floor. Eeko poked his head in, then disappeared. Then I heard him shout, "Hey Mak, you might wanna come check this out!"

 

I brandished my fancy new Gafnaxe, crawled into the hole to take a peak at Eeko's discovery.

[Sisen]

I gave up on making a new bed. Maybe I would just tie myself up in a tree at night and sleep in it. No. That probably would not work out well. My ankle was still bothering me so I found a makeshift crutch to use as a walking aid. After snapping off some of the extra extremities and wrapping it in some vine, I held up my handiwork. It was a nice long stick that almost perfectly fit into the height of my arm, and had a nice Y shape to rest under my armpit. . It made it slightly easier to walk, so I hobbled back over to the hole to see what all the hullabaloo was about.

 

When I arrived back at the hole, I witnessed Mak's back-end disappearing into the hole's hole. Eeko was nowhere to be seen, so he must have been in their already. I limped over to a tree and leaned against it to wait and see what they found, but curiosity got the better of me once again.

 

Some of the exploding fruit that had fallen off the tree had rolled away from it and not exploded.

 

"So it is proximity based...?" I wondered as I took my crutch and poked it at the fruit. I closed my eyes and sheltered my face, waiting for the hissing noise.

 

If anyone saw me doing what I was doing, they'd probably think I was crazy after what had just happened.

 

Nothing. The fruit didn't hiss. Nor did it explode.

 

"I wonder..." I pulled away some of the vine I was using as a cushion. I tied it around the the end of the stick I was using to holster my arm. I had a little makeshift net type deal going on. I swatted it down over the fruit and turned it over. The fruit was just sitting in my little net doing absolutely nothing.

 

I let out a muffled hmmm. "I wonder..."

I pulled the lacrosse type stick closer to me and the fruit started hissing. "Yep. Deduction confirmed."

 

I swung the stick high over my head and launched the fruit as far as I could, back towards the direction of the beach. "GERONIMO!"

 

The fruit exploded in the distance with no injuries this time around. If worst came to worst, I now had weaponized fruit.

[Noxryn]

Guard the fire, guard the fire he says. What do I do? Prepare deathmatches for those who would wish the fire undue harm? Create a series of questions to be answered before access to the fire is granted? But if I did either of those things, I feel almost certain someone would just throw me into the fire and make their lives a tad bit easier. After all, I very well cannot throw it at enemies and even if I could, I'm supposed to "guard" the fire and not "weaponize" the fire. Yeah I'm complaining about having to do nothing: it's how I roll.

Laying there, basking in the waning heat of the fire for however long it was needed until morning, I kept looking up towards the sky. While everyone else spent their energy gathering wood and so forth, I didn't feel like I had much to do -- sure, I could go get water, boil out the impurities -- unless the water had one of those bacteria things that get more potent in boiling water, but I'm no microbiologist nor chemist -- but no one sounded thirsty. I wasn't even; I partially blame the sudden sundering of my natural habitat (You know, indoors) with being stuck outside. It was like camping. Except camping's worse. Camping sucks. I hate camping. I am never a happy camper.

"I forget... where'd they go again?" I mumble aloud after some time, lazily glancing off to where I believe TMD and his acronomynous buddy ran off to (yes I made up a new word for xccj, sue me). But what were we anyway? Did we seriously decide purely on Schizo Kaitas? I don't particularily care, but I would like my luxury items back. You know: nothing. But the others might've had better food than vermin and better drinks than boiled sea water from the Bionicle-verse that could be filled with something that tasted rancid.

Letting out a sigh I sat myself up, stretched, ignored my hot pink colored kualsi that, at best, kept flying dirt out of my face. Useless mask. Maybe I could use it as a projectile weapon.

or just quote Disney song lyrics loudly, obnoxiously, while doing a tribal dance in hopes the competition would become too frightened of my sanity's disposition to do anything.

Would I, of all people, intentionally blow up a tree with explode-y fruit by running at it in order to gain some sort of edge?

Well, we might just have to find out.

[dviddy]

Somehow it had become both night and then day without our little group leaving to explore. That was fine with me. I don't know if I really wanted to explore anyway. Besides, with all the exploding and fire and whatnot going on here, there needed to be a responsible adult supervising. Luckily I was there to be that responsible adult.

 

Also at some point, TMD and xccj had wandered off. I was slightly worried about TMD, I knew he was not accustomed to having to find his own food, his own way on anything larger than a boat, etc. But knowing that xccj was with him, I was sure he'd be fine. Though xccj would probably get tired of TMD's dementia. He had a tendency to stick with nicknames because his short-term memory was, well, short on term.

 

Spink rolled over, he was "watching the fire, because" he mumbled, rolling his eyes, "TMD thinks someone is going to "steal it" or something. Because Prometheus hadn't already done that once for everybody else. And after wanting someone to guard the fire, he went off with a torch that anyone could steal and bring fire to their people with anyway. Quite silly!"

 

I laughed, and called the group together around the remains of the fire. "So guys, the deadline passes soon. I feel like we've come pretty close to agreeing on "The Schizo Kaita", but Kakaru's "The Schizo Kaita Cultists" has that nice, deranged feel we should also be aiming for. Janus offered "Hulktoro", but I think THAT reference might be a little too dated. Let's keep that one in the paddock where it belongs. So we're looking at Schizo Kaita or the Schizo Kaita Cultists. Any other ideas? What do you all think?"

 

And then Janus said the words. I knew the moment I heard them that they were a game-changer:

 

"I'd settle for that."

 

I looked at him. Dumbfounded by his brilliance. How could I have been so blind? The perfect name, sitting there in perfect sight!

 

"Tribesmen, lend me your votes. The Schizo Kaita, The Schizo Kaita Cultists, or The I'd Settle for That Tribe. Speak now, or I'll decide for us."

[Kakaru]

I waited for a moment for anyone else to speak up. The problem was, TMD and xccj were still missing, Spink was staring suicidally into the middle distance, and Emzee didn't look happy with any of the options since none of them involved cacti. Being phenomenally egocentric, I decided that it was my duty to put my interest before others'."SCHIZO KAITA CULTISTS YO."DeeVee nodded in a very handsome and intelligent way. I knew that he would make the right choice with or without my input. The Schizo Kaita Cultists had a very reverent, cult-like ring to it, like we were the undead offspring of the first great Survivor's spirit, channeling his power and charisma to seize victory in a "black-magic-is-totally-not-cheating" sort of way.I wondered when we would start making the distillery, off-hand. Were we waiting to get our luxury items back with our game-winning name? I couldn't wait to start producing nonspecific, potentially hallucinogenic beverages to preemptively celebrate our success.

[Emzee]

As awesome as perpetually Settling For That (whatever 'That' was) sounded, I wasn't sure if I was willing to abandon my Miracle Cactus insider to this insider.

 

At least most people know or knew of ol' Schizo. And 'cultists' well, ... yeah, need I really explain? Plus I suppose that'll give something to the newbies who came after Schizo's time.

 

"I... second Kakaru's notion," I said glancing reluctantly, "I may very well be the best we have"

[Kakaru]

I gave Emzee a pat on the shoulder."You definitely are the best we have, buddy. Even if I didn't pick your team name, I just want you to know we appreciate you and I'm glad you're on our side."I hoped that sounded encouraging. He seemed a little disappointed that we didn't incorporate his suggestion. Maybe we could plant cacti around the distillery/brewery to make him feel better?

[dviddy]

We waited several hours for everyone to vote. Kakaru and Emzee made the only real votes besides Janus' non-committed voice repeating "I'd settle for that" every time someone mentioned voting. We decided halfway through he wasn't necessarily voting, just saying he didn't have an opinion. Which really, is the best opinion, in my book.

 

Xccj and TMD were still missing. So they didn't get to vote. I figured they'd just have to settle. Heh.

 

So that made four votes for "The I'd Settle for That Tribe." Mine, Janus, and the two who had gotten LOST.

 

Emzee and Kakaru had voted for "The Schizo Kaita Cultists." Which was also a great name. One of the best names. I decided to vote for it as well.

Hey, nobody said this wasn't a "choose all that are appropriate" kind of decision.

 

Spink abstained, he said that without the ideas of glitter, he just couldn't muster any interest. I promised him we'd name a drink after glitter. After all, who builds a distillery and then only makes ONE brew?

 

He said "I can settle for that" which I took as a vote for "I'd settle for that".

 

That made us the "I'd Settle For That Tribe".

 

We decided to be fair, and brand our distillery "Schizo Kaita Cult's _________ ". Where the blank would be filled in with the name of the specific brew. There's be a Miracle Cactus Cider, and a Glitter Bats IPA. And I'm sure we'd come up with more. I wanted there to be an Ale, of course. Maybe a "Percy Ale". Because that's what Schizo would want.

[xccj]

I had a feeling that our tribe was writing history together. . . or maybe just coming up with a name. Maybe Schizo Kaita Cultists or something. That would be epic.

 

Sadly, I could not share my opinion (directly) with them, cause I was scrambling over the rocks and realizing that TMD had been attacked by a Nektann. (By the sound of it, I thought he had frightened a female member, but nope, that was just his girly scream.)

 

I decided to go help him cause he’s a teammate and stuffs. And I might need his mask to start a fire again at some point.

 

The Nektann was on top of TMD, and two of its four legs were pinning him to the ground. He was screaming something about how it was going to eat him, which would be odd because A: It’s purely a robot and doesn’t need to eat, and B: It doesn’t have a mouth.

 

I jumped up behind it and grabbed onto the main body, and with a tug pulled it off my teammate. With surprising agility, the Nektann twisted around and grabbed me with two of its legs. Before I could fight back, it lifted me up and threw me ten feet through the air.

 

I landed hard, and struggled to my feet. The Nektann was now focusing on me. At times like this, I really wish I had my sword with me, but noooo, weapons counted as luxury items.

 

The Nektann charged. I dodged to the side. It missed me. Victory was mine!

 

I tripped. I landed on the ground, and then the Nektann was on top of me. I kicked at its body just before it would’ve struck me, and knocked it to the ground. In that instance, I saw a lever on the back end of the body.

 

“Hey, TMD, it has an on / off switch!” I shouted over. But before I say any more, the Nektann hit me again and threw me through the air. Again.

 

Ouch.

 

[Tufi Piyufi]

Tracking down the tribe hadn't been easy. They'd left an obvious trail, but it wandered too much for Tufi's liking. She repositioned the lumpy bag slung across her shoulders and walked into the modest camp of..."Clikit Supertramps," she announced. "Congratulations, you suck less than the I'd Settle For Thats. You guys get fun and exciting prizes." Tufi opened the bag and dumped its contents in front of her. A spool of unbearably twee crafting twine, a hair dryer, the shell of an original iMac (lime), several vanity-published poetry books, two dozen packs of shoe shine, a hilariously misprinted novelty picture frame, and thirty Crazy Taxi discs tumbled out. These must have been the other tribe's luxury items."Where's our stuff?" came a voice at the back of the group."Evicteesayswhat," Tufi replied. Thinking about it a bit, she threw the burlap sack onto the prize pile."What?""Okay, so I took a look at your stuff, and I'm not sure what game you were hoping to play, but I was hoping for a game that wasn't horribly broken. This isn't later-years Survivor with all the pampering. This is classic hardcore mode." Tufi sighed. "The stuff is useful, really. You just have to actually work at it now."She went back into the jungle, and was gone within seconds.

[Ta-metru_defender]

A switch! A switch! You flip those and awesome stuff happens!

 

"Hold still!" I shouted as xccj completed his arc and landed atop the nektann.

 

"Really?" he asked, grabbing on to the metal robot.

 

"That's great!" I said. "Just hang on..."

 

The nektann was shaking xccj against the ground, as if it was trying to find some loose change in the couch cushions that were my teammate. I leaped at the back end only to be met by a leg to the chest. Oof. But the nektann forgot something important: no matter how flexible it may be, I have reach. And I reached out and flipped its switch.

 

And with that it gave a shudder and collapsed on top of xccj. I pushed it off and let it collapse into the dirt. I helped the boyscout up and thanked him for his assistance. We studied the not-moving nektann. It could be useful... We could prop it up to scare off would-be attackers, we could go all Game of Thrones on it and put its head on a stick as a warning, we could see how metal tastes, we could make armor out of it. Just imagine, the possibilities if were to play on with it.

 

I broke off a largish stick and, using some vine, tied the nektann to it as if it was Han Solo and we were Ewoks. Then xccj and I propped our bounty up on our shoulders and continued on. We were almost at the beach, I could just barely see it peeking out through the trees.

[Kakaru]

It was well past afternoon, and the Empress still hadn't shown up with my bag of toothbrushes or that beautiful novelty picture frame of mine. A little dejected but still convinced of our team's magnificent superiority complex, I headed back down to the beach. As I glanced to my left, I noticed TMD and xccj tumble out of the jungle, both clutching half a stick and a nektann leg. The four-legged drone rolled into the sand unceremoniously.I ran up to them, calling dibs on drumsticks."Nektann don't actually have any flesh," TMD casually reminded me. I narrowed my eyes, recalling my time playing VNOG. I could have sworn everything in the Bionicle universe was made of equal parts muscle and motors. Who cares what Greg said, anyway? Apparently not Greg.I tapped on the hull and its eye flickered noncommittally. It was distinctly off and definitely not likely to come to life and kill us all in our sleep. I turned to xccj."Is it possible to reprogram this junkbot to guard our fire? Also, did you find any fresh water? We need a proper place to set up camp and start building a bar and disco revival club."

Edited July 24, 2013 by Kakaru

[xccj]

While TMD started telling the others of the stream we discovered, I took a closer look at the Nektann. There was a panel that looked like it could be removed, and upon doing so, it revealed a small keypad. Perhaps reprogramming this was possible. "Okay, I've got this," I said, and started to work on the code. "Wait, you're an outdoorsman and a technician?" Kakaru asked. “Aren’t your skill sets spread out across too broad a spectrum?” “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m lacking in enough social etiquette to make up for it.” It took ten minutes or so of browsing through the code, but then I finally found something. “Ah hah. You see, there’s a Boolean in here about attacking contestants. It’s been set to true, but I can switch it around to false, so it’ll leave us alone for now. And with a little tweaking, I should be able to get it to recognize the differences between our two tribes… and let’s just say that its attack Boolean won’t be set to false for them.” Everybody stared at my blankly, like I was speaking in riddles. Well, hey, Velika did first appear on Voya Nui, did he not? “In English, I can reprogram this robot to guard our fire from the other tribe.” Edited August 3, 2013 by xccj

[Ta-metru_defender]

"So we'll follow the stream up, yeah? See if we can find something near a river, open land, away from the water?" I said. I liked the sound of a disco revival club. But the brewery still took high priority in my mind. Perhaps we could barter it with the other tribe for stuff. Like food.

 

"Junkbot, activate!" said xccj with pride as the nektann shuddered to life and began scurrying around our beloved fire. Sweet. Now our tribe had one extra. Wait a minute...

 

"Hey, xccj, if we were to capture more nektann do you think you could program them to build?"

 

"You mean have them do the heavy lifting?" said Kakaru, his brainwaves tuning into mine (though I suspected his thought more of mirror balls than frothy mugs). "And then build stuff?"

 

"I guess I could make them take orders..." xccj trailed off into the deep abyss of Thought. Then he tightened his headband and stood. "I believe I could."

 

"Alright boys, nektann hunting-slash-capturing team!" I said with glee. Sore ribs aside, xccj and my foray into the Harassment and Capture of Local Wildlife had been a success, as evidenced by our new pet. Junkbot was still currying around the fire, stopping every now and then as if to inspect it. "Who's in?"

[Arpy]

Twilight settled in as you and bfahome trekked through the forest. Fortunately, there were no sparkly vampires to be seen--those were so last decade. You had armed yourself with a long pointy stick which might have been a spear if it had had a spearhead and not a mere point.You seemed to recall that the Blocking Lava Ape (there was only one, which clearly made it super special, like a Questing Beast or white stag or something) resided in hollow logs, so you went around knocking on all the hollow logs with your spear stick and without regard for the size of the log.Maybe you'd find a baby. Or something to eat. The two were not necessarily mutually exclusive.You and bfahomeslice reached a clearing to behold the largest log you'd seen yet. The two of you clambered up on top, you tapped on the log most daintily--and it fairly exploded, sending you tumbling back several feet. You brushed off the rotten splinters, got to your feet shakily, and beheld the singular Blocking Lava Ape. It was very old, very grizzled, and still very, very built. Stacked. Ripped. Whatever. It was huge, and the sight of its incredible bulk made your questing enthusiasm vanish faster than a ghost blasted with rock salt.It had seemed a lot smaller in the picture books."Don't move any closer," you told Bfahome. "If we don't get within range, it won't--"The ape roared an unholy Chewbacca-esque roar and pounded its fists. You barely kept your footing as it sent minor earthquakes through the ground. The ape lunged towards you, and you turned and ran like the dickens, in short serialized installments with regular pauses to catch your breath before plunging on. Bfahome was running wilde, so he had considerably more flair.You clutched your stick awkwardly between your teeth and held your leaf above your head in the hopes that a stray gust of wind would pick you up and carry you away from this quest which, you realized in retrospect, was no Gafna-braining.Was that a tree ahead of you? And would it block a Blocking Lava Ape? Edited August 3, 2013 by Arpy

[Hahli Husky]

I had woken up late in the morning to the sound of a dull explosion, and the others' unintelligible yells and screams following it. Having been unable to fall asleep until just before sunrise, I figured sleeping in was the best idea, especially since it was only the second day. Fatal threats were highly unlikely at this point. Unless, of course, you actively sought them out. I yawned and rolled over, passing out again in the middle of planning to get up and help with whatever had happened.

 

The sun was directly overhead when I woke again to yet another explosion. This time I sat up, nearly totaling my crude shelter. "Omigosh who is hurt!"

 

Sisen stared over at me, startled. "Uh. It's okay now?" He looked down at his leg. "Actually, I hurt my ankle. Eeko and Mak went down there a few minutes ago." He indicated a gaping hole in the ground that I could have sworn wasn't there the night before. A few voices could be heard inside, and they sounded all right.

 

"Sweet." There had to be a river or a stream or something around here, especially judging by the lush green forest and the cooked, decidedly non-fishy meat laying out by the now-small fire. I helped myself to a part of the food and stole a couple drinks from Arpy's water collectors. There was a half-gutted carcass next to the meat, already picked through, but there were still a few solid ribs. I breathed in deeply, trying not to throw up the food left in my stomach, broke one of the ribs off and snatched up a small rock. "I'm going out."

 

He nodded. I figured no news of Arpy and Bfa meant good news; even if they were dead, that meant everyone else had a better chance. Working as a team seemed to have translated into "working in very small groups to semi-productive ends." I used the rock to sand the end of the rib into more of a point as I walked. The point was tested by scratching the trees as I went along, though this wasn't nearly as bad as the Charred Jungle usually was. God, I hated that level. Especially on dial-up. Kapura was pretty adorable, though.

 

I traveled about fifteen minutes or so before I picked up the soft sound of water running nearby. Yesssssssss! I raced to the source: a small creek that was no more than a foot deep. I took my mask off and used it to scoop up a good amount of water. If my Kaukau wouldn't let me breathe underwater, it would let me drown myself in it. I dumped the water over my face and hair and instantly felt better. The creek had to lead to a river or something. I shook out my hair and headed back.

 

Sisen was experimenting with exploding fruit (explaining the firing noises from earlier), but other than that, everything seemed the same. I decided to finish parting out the animal carcass while I waited for everyone to remember Tufi's promise and come back. I conversed with Sisen when I wasn't gagging from my work, managing to sand the rest of the remaining ribs into points. I cracked the skull open, then went back to the beach to clean it in the sea water. The stray innards attracted some hungry birds and fish. I sat very still, letting them come closer, looking at my hands.

 

I knew my career as a murderer had to start somewhere.

 

Without getting into even more extravagant details than I have splurged on already, I ended up bringing dead birds, mostly-dead fish (forgive me, Kakaru), and clean bones back to camp. I tucked the washed skull into my pocket for assorted scooping needs. I poked at the dying fire, but I've always been terrible with fires, and I was only successful in making it worse.

 

The sudden arrival of Tufi and her adorable, yet frighteningly cool, voice made me drop what I was doing. Sisen jumped a little as well, and Makaru and Eeko emerged from their rabbit hole (even though we hadn't even heard them moments before??). She dumped out some supplies ... or um ... well, it was more like the assorted remains of one of those decent yard sales that made you an okay-but-less-than-you-expected amount of cash. Before anybody could ask a useful question, the Empress was gone.

 

Stunned silence.

 

I grabbed one of the books and ripped out a page or two. Wiping a bit of shoe polish on them and adding more sticks, I actually managed to revive the fire.

 

"That's really the extent of my knowledge at the moment." I smiled and looked up. "Oh, and I found some fresh water inland! So what are you guys up to in uh ... that hole?"

Edited July 25, 2013 by Hahli Husky

[Bfahome]

Arms flailing, bow barely strung over my shoulder, I shrieked my way through the forest. Heading for the odd diamond-shaped indentations on the ground, both Arpy and I ran across as many rectangular patches of landscape as we could. The Ape was a persistent bugger, though, and before long my vocal cords gave up on expressing my sheer terror and instead decided a heavy wheeze would be more fitting. All I could feel was adrenaline, a buzzing light-headed feeling of "oh my god, I am about to die, get me out of here".

 

Arpy shouted something and pointed to a large tree. Large tree? What did he have in mind? Surely the thing chasing us could climb much better than either of us.

 

I didn't have much time for wondering, though, as Arpy grabbed me by the arm and hauled me between our pursuer and the hefty trunk. I might have shouted a few incomprehensible curses at him asking him why he thought this was a good position to be in, but it was difficult to remember after he abruptly shoved me to the side. Diving the opposite direction, he had split us apart.

 

The Lava Ape hit the tree with all the force it was putting into trying to kill us. Bark splintered, and the tree shook, but the ancient giant would not, could not, be moved.

 

Dazed, I barely registered Arpy's cry of "Look out!" before something landed beside me.

 

It was hissing.

 

I didn't know what it was, but I knew hissing was bad, unless you were microwaving something, so in a split second I had grabbed whatever it was and chucked it as far as I could. A shockwave assaulted my ears as the thing exploded, fortunately a safe distance away. I whipped my head around in time to see my partner-in-crime lobbing something away from himself, too. The fleeting glimpse I got was enough to see that it was some kind of fruit. Then it, too, exploded.

 

Terror gripped me as I looked up. The tree was covered with fruit, all waiting to fall, all presumably waiting to explode as well.

 

"Run!"

 

I can't remember which of us said it, but that's sure as heck what we did. With a roar, the Ape hauled itself up, head likely pounding from the impact it took. It started lumbering after us again.

 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving at the top of the tree. Something falling. Something smallish and round.

 

I whipped out an arrow, nocked, drew, and fired it without even thinking. The improvised projectile flew through the air, connecting with the fruit as it fell. The force my bow imparted drove the fruit sideways, back towards the tree and the Ape. Didn't even see it coming.

 

The fruit hit the beast square in the forehead and detonated, sending a cloud of fruit-stuff all over.

 

It was undoubtedly the single most awesome thing I had ever done. I slowed to a stop because I seriously could not comprehend what just happened. Did I just? Yeah, I think I did.

 

Sweet.

 

At that point I stopped trying to wrap my head around things because an enormous fist had just connected with my gut, sending me flying backwards into my teammate. The Ape had no appreciation for absurdly lucky happenstance, it seemed. What it apparently did have was a cranium made of… not-breaking-stuff?

 

It was difficult to think of suitable analogous material while on the ground gasping for air.

[Arpy]

As exploding fruit dropped all around you, your teammate dropped directly onto of you, and your leaf and stick went flying. The two of you scrambled to another, less volatile tree as the ape advanced. It backed you up against the trunk and opened its mouth to display some seriously beefy molars, any two of which (diametrically opposed) could have crushed your head to the thickness of a wafer-thin mint. Spicy lava ape breath blasted both of you at full force. It was blessedly free of spittle--a small but important mercy, considering you were undoubtedly going to die.You cringed, awaiting the inevitable end to your existence and sad on some level that you were about to pass on after not even two days on this island. And the worst part was...you never learned to read."LUDO LONELY," the ape groaned.Oh no. That thing did not just talk to you. Who would have taught it your language? This island was seriously sketch."LUDO...FRIEND?" it snuffled."I caught you a delicious bass?" you squeaked. Your brain was misfiring on all cylinders.The Blocking Lava Ape swept you and Bfahome up in its fighter-jet sized biceps and lumbered off to a hollow log, where it curled up and promptly fell asleep, a beatific smile on its crude face.You didn't know if being this thing's friend was a good thing, or if you were even its friend yet. Maybe this was a trial period. Maybe the exploding fruit juice had driven you temporarily insane. Whatever the case, you weren't likely to go anywhere tonight. You tried to make yourself comfortable under the beast's arm, and you actually managed to get to sleep after a while.Its snoring wasn't bad, really. Certainly no worse than that of your fellow Supertramps. Edited August 3, 2013 by Arpy

[Janus]

It was night time. I was asleep.

 

I snored and rolled over.

 

Because that's what you do when it is night time. You sleep.

[Bfahome]

Goodness, Arpy was a loud snorer. It was difficult to get to sleep that night, both due to the noise and because of the enormous mechanical primate using me as a cuddletoy.

 

it was a bit awkward, to say the least.

 

Hopefully it didn't plan on holding a grudge, because someone trying to blow up your face seemed like a perfectly valid reason to.

 

Come morning, Arpy and I were both awakened by a great yawn from Ludo (I guess that was its... his name??), who made a great show of stretching before stalking off somewhere.

 

I looked at Arpy. He just shrugged.

 

We probably wouldn't be sharing this story.

 

Barely rested, I strolled through the forest alongside my verbose companion, who was busy humming a little ditty I thought sounded familiar. Well, less strolling and more stumbling over roots, trying to avoid quicksand and the occasional oversized rat thing. How Arpy could have such a cheery disposition in these circumstances was beyond me.

 

"Hey, take a look over there," I heard suddenly. I looked over to see him pointing at a little pile of gravel. "Up for some geocaching?"

 

Mutually curious as to what the little pile could mean, we cautiously approached. You never know where a spider or scorpion or particularly perturbed crabthing might make their home. I leaned down to inspect the oddity. It seemed to be just a collection of small rocks, arbitrarily dumped in the grass in the middle of the forest.

 

I poked it with my bow.

 

Nothing happened.

 

I poked it again because, as a scientist, I needed to verify that the results would be consistent.

 

"Oh, hang on, I think I know how to deal with this," Arpy chimed in, gesturing for me to step back. I obliged, and he knelt beside the mound. He brushing his fists over the tops of the rocks in a sort of pantomimed digging motion. Before my very eyes, an object appeared in his hands.

 

It appeared to be some kind of mask. Gold, with two tall fins coming off the top. It seemed to shine on its own, as if it had its own personal sunbeam on it at all times.

 

I was immediately distracted by the shiny.

 

Arpy said some things but it didn't matter because oh wow that mask was so shiny and sparkly and glowy I wanted to hang it on a wall and stare at it forever.

 

"Oi!" A couple of finger snaps brought me back to reality. "What do you make of it?"

 

"Well," I began, "it's gold and shiny, so that must make it really powerful and significant, right?"

 

Arpy responded by rolling his eyes. "What year are you living in, 2001? Gold and silver are all over the place. I'm pretty sure nowadays they're treated like just another color, like red or blue." Something something "back in my day", yeah. "It'll probably only give us a 3-point boost to how far we can walk or another equally useless attribute. Probably nothing significant, and definitely not something you'd spend weeks on end grinding your way towards with tedious scavenging missions."

 

As usual, Arpy's clear logic rang true. Any person who thought something that useless would be worth spending all that time and effort on was clearly an incorrect person. And I was not planning on being an incorrect person. Not now, not never.

 

Chucking the useless thing into the brush, we pressed on, certain we would soon come across something of real value. Something that might, say, reshape the future of the universe. And by universe, I meant our short stint on this crummy island.

[Janus]

I was awake now (I guess, I mean was that the moon or the sun? The all looked so similar to me)

 

and was informed that apparently during my momentary (okay it was an entire 24 hour period, but whatever) break from reality we had decided to name the team the thing that I was apparently muttering--I'd settle for that. Why did I say that? i guess I thought I'd settle for the name, and possibly living.

 

However I discovered that the empress had decided she would not settle for that, and the win was given to the other team. Already my devious mind was concocting a brilliant scheme to either steal back the assorted junkpile or cuddle my wife (or bonus: Seduce her and get the junkpile!)

 

Issuing a discreet look to both DeeVee and my adorable son Kakaru (which I realized was completely in vain, being that half of my team was catatonic and the other half was running around Tohu knows where) I let them in on my incredibly mischievous bit of trickery.

"So, tonight when they're asleep" I began, narrowing my eyes conspiratorily

"Yes?" DeeVee responded arching a single perfectly etched brow. (Goodness, if only there was a world-class photographer around to capture such a perfect image)

"I'm going to sneak over there and steal stuff, kay?"

 

Both of them stared at me with what I assumed were looks of stunned silence at the sheer audacity and genius of the plan.

[xccj]

TMD wanted to collect more Nektann to work for us. The idea itself wasn't a bad one, but he wanted to start off in the middle of the night. Or at least I thought it was night... I couldn't be sure anymore. Does time flow differently in the Bionicle universe? At the very least, the planet's orbit and rotation might be different than that of Earth. Unless earth physics didn't apply here, because we all know the laws of physics change depending on what solar system you're in. Naw, that would just be a lame cop-out explanation. Anyway. If memory serves, there were various types of Nektann. As far as I could tell, the one we had was a defense Nektann, which TMD had dubbed "Junkbot." It would defend a certain location and attack all "enemies" that got too close. There were many other types of Nektann out there, ranging from simple scouts (might be useful for hunting) to vicious attackers (might be useful in case we ever needed an offensive against the other tribe.) But if we wanted to build the distillery... we'd need a repair Nektann. Edited August 3, 2013 by xccj

[Emzee]

The days in this realm were going far faster than the pace I was used to. It was already the third day and I literally felt like we just got here.

 

At least this meant my shoes were dry now.

 

When news of the Empress’ decision reached us, I couldn’t hide my contempt. Why should we have ever expected Tufi to settle? Especially for ‘that’. Oh well. What’s done is done.

 

I ventured a few yards to the east in search of needed supplies, like wood to make tools and weapons. No one in our tribe has really brought it up so far, but they forgot that this is the Island of Doom – home to some of the most ferocious little Rahi. Even the Fikou here have little pincers. It’s crazy!

 

I looked around at the chaotic landscape. Trees, vines, rocks, and moss were all I could see for around me. I dutifully scanned my surroundings for anything remotely useful. I was woefully disappointed. It seemed that I would have to venture deeper into the jungle.

 

After about five minutes of walking straight ahead, I saw a dull gray, fist-sized rock with my name on it. We could certainly use one of those for grinding fruit, bashing skulls (Rahi skulls of course), a counterweight, and many other things. I scooped it up swiftly, as if fearing that another would grab it first.

 

I will confess that after this point I sort of lost track of where I was going and I realized that I never bothered to tell DeeVee or anyone else on the team where I was headed. I am kind of one of those loner types – I mean, I’m social and all. But for most of my work, I just get it done and move on, focusing only on the task at hand.

 

I really need to stop doing that.

 

So naturally, an hour later, I looked up and noticed that I was deep within the jungle, sun blotted out by the pitch black canopy.

 

I looked down at the supplies that I held close like someone would hold a heatstone in Ko-Wahi. There were some large leaves for shacks, sticks for holding them up and making more fires, a couple of vines, and a few stone pellets. If I could fashion a simple slingshot to take out these Rahi, I think I’d be on the right track for survival.

 

For thing was first though. How was I going to find DeeVee and Janus? Surely they were worried sick? Or surely they didn’t care. Probably too busy concocting their own plans.

 

That’s when I heard that familiar chirping noise pair with the soft ruffling of leaves. And if what I heard didn’t send chills up my spine, what I saw certainly did.

 

Fikou webs!

 

I clutched my supplies tightly, and moved my right foot forward as slowly as I could. Fikou were notoriously easy to underestimate, and I wasn’t about to get bitten or stung.

 

When my right foot touched the ground again, I glanced at the three Fikou webs that hung from the branches over my head. They were all empty! Where did those bugs go?

 

That’s when I heard the chirping again, louder this time, and definitely over my head. A glance upward answered all my questions.

 

“Son of a-”

[Kakaru]

Janus had just explained his perfect plan to me and DeeVee right as xccj and TMD had run off, geeking out about the practical reprogramming utilities of nektann. I assumed that they were off to round up and deactivate more drones. I hoped they wouldn't get killed or the drones would turn on us before we had time to burn the bodies.I cleared my throat and began my best Ron Perlman voice. "Time. Time never changes.""Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the incremental power of rock and bone, sundials have been constructed in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage."In the year 2013, after millennia of consistent 24-hour days, the impatient nature of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of incredible day and night cycles running so fast that some barely had time to wake up before falling asleep once more."But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another deadly chapter of Staff Survivor. For we had succeeded in destroying the linear, consistent nature of time - but time, time never changes."Janus looked at me for a moment before responding."What?"I reached for my satchel, then remember I didn't have it. I reached into my pockets and pulled out a small flask discreetly. Yesterday hadn't been entirely unproductive, I explained. While I didn't manage to speed up the fermentation process of the local flora, I did discover that some of them tasted pretty bad and would give you the mildly upsetting feeling that bugs were crawling on you where bugs had no business crawling. I was no advocate of espionage, but.No, that was a bold-faced lie. I loved espionage. Where did I put my three-eyed night vision goggles?I lowered my voice a bit. "I'm coming with you. I want my picture frame back. And this time-" I nodded up at the sun. "-we should have enough time to pull it off."

Edited July 24, 2013 by Kakaru