Staff Survivor II Game Topic

[Sisen]

I nibbled over some of the fried bird HH provided. Mainly just so I could sneak away one of the larger talons. It wasn't the size of a velociraptor claw or as sharp, but hey it would cut through stuff at least raggedly. I took off my long sleeved shirt and started to work on it.

 

"Good bye sleeves, may you no longer protect me from sunburn." I wiped away a fake tear and took the talon to the the threads of the shoulder sleeves. After some cutting and bleeding, my shirt had been butchered into a sleeveless hooded shirt. On the upside, I had two makeshift bags to carry around.

 

The supplies the Tufi Empress had provided us were not the expected ones, but who needs a bag when you can make your own? The other team must have settled for some lame name or not really worked at picking something out. Whatever. I agreed with HH about following the water inlet , but was startled by Mak and Eeko arising from the hole. There was an odd glow about the two, or rather coming from behind the two. They dropped a few pair of light stones on the ground with the other assorted supplies we had received.

 

I took a small portion of the twine and cut it loose. I needed a way to secure the bottom of my sleeve bags. I tied the bottom of the sleeves and made two bags. I took a few of the fish bones and hooked them through the opened top of the bag, and used them as makeshift hooks to hang from my belt. Earlier I had noticed that there was what appeared to be an unripe version of exploding fruit? I grabbed a dozen of the smaller ones and dropped them in to test the strength of the bag and it held. I decided to take it along, maybe it'd come in handy later or ripen and explode me to bits.

 

My ankle still hurt and I had to make use of my walking stick, but it was good for a lot of different things. I took two of the random Crazy Taxi DVD's and smashed them to pieces. The group gave me some weird looks but I proceeded anyway. I handed one pile to Eeko, and split the other pile between Mak and Sumiki.

 

"Uh... yeah.. I think I explained that in my head and not aloud? I was thinking we should leave a trail for BFA and Arpy to follow us, but then I realized the other tribe could follow us. We're gonna use these to leave a fake trail. Eeko you should leave a fake trail down and over through that hole cavey thingy. Then Sumi and Mak can leave a trail away from the water."

 

HH spoke up, "Oh that reminds me I marked the way to the water inlet. I've been thinking too. Eeko can catch up with us, and we'll hike through the water trail so we don't leave tracks." She scooped up the items we had been rewarded with and placed them back in the bag. I grabbed some of the loose bones we had left and dropped them in my bag, the talons or other tidbits could be useful later on.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Sisen

[Sumiki]

I really hadn't been paying that much attention to what had been going on. I had done what I had needed to (or had been roped into doing), but generally speaking my mind was ... elsewhere. It began when I realized I'd never get those stuffed farm animals back. I didn't take it poorly, but I had become somewhat apathetic towards the game which I had willfully signed up for, and began to wonder if doing so had been a good idea. At least I didn't lose anything of real importance. Like blue cheese. I really could go for some blue cheese right about now. But enough about that. I had a job to do now: Sisen had given Makaru and me a job to do: spread bits of old Crazy Taxi DVDs around the island. Of course, I still thought that Makaru would better serve the team by just standing up, looking across the island, and telling us exactly what the other team was doing right down to the status of the zippers on their pants. He'd get tired, I suppose, and no one else could spell him at that duty - for one thing, no one else can breath as well as he can in the stratosphere. Enough head ramblings, though. I had my eyes on that old iMac case. Perhaps I could fashion a hat from it yet ...

[Ta-metru_defender]

Let us observe the nektann. Notice how it scurries around, never leaving a small area. While unprovoked, the nektann is a harmless creature, content to look around and simply go about its day of doing nothing. Fascinating, really. The colors on its abdomen serve several purposes. Primarily, they are to attract the interest of a potential mate. They also help differentiate between classes. But mostly the mate thing. Xccj and I were after repair nektann, mostly. Crouched in the jungle we could see in a clearing the green-colored scout nektann failing at its sole purpose of scouting and not seeing us. "How's your scouting?" I whispered to my fellow acronymed friend. "Good enough," he whispered back. We were like schoolchildren in the back of class discussing how awesome the Bohrok were. "Think we could follow its tracks back to the nest?" "Do robots even have nests?" "They have to come from somewhere," I pointed out. "C'mon, let's take it. Delta formation. Same as last time." Xccj chose not to point out that 'last time' involved us wrestling a nektann to the ground. My ribs also decided not to protest as I launched myself at the nektann. I'm pretty sure that's how I got one of the first dents on this Akaku. Xccj came running out of the woods towards me, like Tom Cruise in any Tom Cruise movie. He slid to a stop just next to the netkann and flipped the switch. Abruptly the metal beast beneath me shuddered and collapsed. "Hey TMD," xccj said, "I don't see any tracks." "What?" I looked around and, sure enough, there were no tracks. It was as if the scout nektann had been here for months, just waiting to be stumbled upon like an old website. "Well. Darn. Now what?" Xccj opened up the nektann's panel and began poking around. I sat on top of it and began munching on berries and postulating theories for the eerie day/night cycle we seemed to have. "I've got an idea!" xccj exclaimed. "We can make the nektann come to us?" "Huh?" I asked, shelving my thoughts. The bit about having a contestant twelve-hours ahead of everyone else would have to wait. Now, what xccj said went over my head. Mostly. It was boolean this, modifier that, if/then and so on. What I write here is a translation of it best I can muster:

If we make this nektann broadcast itself as damaged, repair nektann should come to it to try and repair it!

"Xccj, you're a genius! Can you do it?" In reply the boyscout began typing or programming or something into the side of the nektann. Then we waited. Eating berries and discussing the finer things of life, women, stars, not-dying-on-a-god-forsaken-island-where-everything-was-trying-to-kill-you (as it happens neither of us had been to Australia), and, of course, Voya-Nui.

 

Around half-an-hour (again, I'm not good with time estimation) there was a rustle in the leaves. And the rustling grew louder. And louder.

 

Then from the jungle around us a dozen repair nektann appeared. And launched themselves at us.

 

I couldn't believe it.

 

We had been attacked by repair nektann.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Ta-metru_defender

[dviddy]

Janus, Kakaru, and I were awesome. We got ourselves all sneaky-ready, and went to go find Emzee to bring him with us. He was part of our more-important-than-everyone-else-cirlce, after all. But he was missing. That kid, always getting in trouble. I told my close cohorts how Emzee was the craziest of partiers, and how over-the-top he got. We all had a good laugh, remembering all the times Emzee had engaged in silly antics at staff parties.

 

Good times.

 

We hadn't seen the Empress, so we assumed she was too stunned by the brilliance behind our name to award us our spoils. We guess that meant the other team pandered more to her preferences. Oh well. I remember the first Staff Survivor, and remembering how the least trustful member in that entire production was the Empress herself, somehow felt like we weren't missing out by not winning. In fact, what the rest of our team didn't know, we decided to discuss amongst ourselves.

 

"So, this raid. It is only possible because we didn't win, right? That means our secret, never-before-hinted-at-totally-not-a-retcon plan worked! The other team won, and if we know the Empress at all, she probably pulled one over on them. Which means they're content thinking that's all there is, and we're aware that we're still missing awesome stuff. Which gives us the advantage. We can probably snag their stuff too, because if I know Tufi at all, and after all these years I believe I do, there's no way she gave them all their stuff back for pandering to her tastes. She may give them the win, but she knows terrible pandering when she sees it. Throwing the name competition was brilliant, and it allows us to name our forever-distillery after the Great Hero."

 

Janus and Kakaru nodded. Our plan was our secret. We had written it in the sand and not allowed others to see it. Maybe we'd done that during one of the nights.

 

We prepped for our raid. We kept waiting for Emzee to return.

 

But he didn't.

 

"We're going to have to go find him, I think. We can't let this be a horror movie cliche."

 

My teammates nodded. They were good teammates. I liked them. So good-looking and intelligent! Man, we really were the best of teams.

 

We decided to go find Emzee, and postpone the raid until nightfall.

 

If it ever became nightfall again, of course.

 

Janus hoped it would. But only if he could get his wife back. God, I swear that guy is so tsundere. All tough on the outside, but soft and creamy all emotions and feels on the inside.

 

Man I loved that guy. And his son. And my sonnish figure. Wherever he was!"We should go find him."

[Hahli Husky]

We finished gathering up the stuff we wished to take. Arpy and Bfa still hadn't shown up, and at this point, I thought we had a better chance of finding their picked skeletons in the jungle than waiting for them to return. In an amazing and heartwarming display of ~ productivity ~, everyone geared up for their jobs. I grinned.

 

"Go ahead and start out," I said, pointing vaguely. "I'm going to stand here for a minute and listen for the other team. Just in case. I can't hear anything while you guys are here making racket. After that, I'll catch up, okay?"

 

They soon disappeared into the foliage, though not before Makaru had turned back and narrowed his eyes at me for a second. I pursed my lips in response, and he turned and left. I waited until I couldn't hear their footsteps or the crackling of branches.

 

Honestly, it was good to clear other human voices out of my head for a moment. For a game on an uninhabited island, there sure was a lot of talking. But I had another objective.

 

I moved down closer to the beach. They hadn't said a word when I grabbed the entire bag of Walmart returns from Tufi. I placed a couple cans of shoe polish, a few of the Crazy Taxi discs, and one of the poetry books on the . I traced a heart around them in the dirt. Then I laughed and drew a crude picture of what I knew was Kakaru's Daiso dollar store picture frame, and then a winking face.

 

I ran after my team, catching them easily. "I think I heard very distant noises, but I'm not sure whether they were voices. Ah we're almost to the stream now! Just up here."

Edited July 25, 2013 by Hahli Husky

[xccj]

The four repair nektann attacked me and TMD. Luckily, I had had the forethought to arm myself with a weapon. It was a stick. But it was a really BIG stick. Or, at least moderately sized. I swung my stick at the cloest nektann. It broke in half. The stick, not the nektann. "Okay, I have a strategy for just such an encounter!" I said to TMD. "What is it?" TMD asked, as he dodged an incoming robot. "RUN!" It was totally a strategic retreat, as a way to lure the nektann into an area where we could better disable them. My high, shrilley voice was just a means to egg them on. Had nothing to do with being scared out of my Kanohi. Edited August 3, 2013 by xccj

[Tufi Piyufi]

Attention competitors:Please make your way back to the starting point for your first Immunity Competition of the game, which will start later today.

[Emzee]

I reflexively dropped all the materials I had gathered and rolled to the side, just barely dodging the three spiders who descended upon me. I narrowed my eyes in contempt before glancing to my right. A small but dense rock from my gatherings caught my eye. Meanwhile, those slimy bugs hissed and moved their front legs pensively. I could almost see the teasing grins on their faces - or whatever you call that area where their eyes are.They were toying with me. Really? Me?I rolled again on my side to my right, deftly grabbing the rock. "Don't mess with Texas," I growled before beaming the center spider with the rock.With a loud 'clank' the Orange Pakari it wore flew off. The other two spiders hissed and stepped back in surprise.As I anticipated, the bugs skedaddled. 'I think it's time I just turn around', I thought as I walked over to retrieve all the supplies I had dropped. Once I had everything (including a Fikou corpse) I turned on my heel walked back the way I came.

[Ta-metru_defender]

“Are nektann waterproof!?” I yelled as xccj and I ran through the jungle, leaping over logs and around trees.“I don’t think I like where this is going!” xccj shouted back.Then suddenly we stopped. We’d ran out of jungle. And land. In front of us was a cliff. Not beach, a friggin’ cliff. I didn’t even know Voya Nui had cliffs.“The beach’s right over there!” I pointed a mile east of us. Behind us we could hear the nektann getting closer and closer.

“We’ll have to jump!” xccj said.“Like karzahni we will,” I replied. Wait. Jumping off a cliff into the ocean. This was an important part of any jungle/island/1890’s Wyoming adventure story. We were so going to do this. “Alright Sundance, I’m in.”I never got the chance to find out if xccj got the reference as I grabbed his arm and got a running jump off the cliff, yelling a certain word as we fell into the waterWe hit with a tremendous splash. For a minute I wondered if I was dead but I quickly realized that that was the usual response to falling into water. I was able to swim to the surface so all my bones were probably alright. Awesome! I surfaced only to be smacked over the head.“Are you insane!?” xccj said.“It worked!” I said with a big grin as I trod water. What a weird past-tense. “Look out!”Xccj and I ducked under water as four repair nektann splashed down around us.“Hey look, they float!” I prodded one.“Awfully convenient.” xccj grabbed two of them, holding on to them like someone using buoys as floaties.“Grab those and let’s get back to the beach.”

[Noxryn]

The fire died. Oh no. Such a shaaaame.

Anyway, with the fire dead there hadn't been much left for me to do outside of throw rocks into the air and make drawings in the sand with sticks. Or dirt. Was it sand or was it dirt? Were we on a beach or deeper in the jungle-y parts? No idea, but I didn't feel like taking a look around to find out. Nasty surprises.

But so far, so good. Well, not necessarily. Everyone ran off in their little groups to do whatever they felt like doing, I vaguely recall a raid from one person but exactly who that person was I don't recall. But I didn't want to go, so that'll show them losers (not really ilu).

Catching food wasn't my style. Namely, I can't spear fish with blunt sticks and I don't eat bugs. But no one else went out for food foraging, so I supposed I was in the clear -- can't take down giant, man-eating monsters without someone to use as a shield, after all. Even a little shield: Sisen would would make a great little shield. Too bad he was on the other team.

Instead of being helpful, granted everyone else was doing who-knows-what, I wandered across the island and picked flowers. Picked greens that looked vibrant and lively. Picked random berries that may, or may not, be poisonous. I didn't know, I'm not a botanical expert. But I sure wasn't about to eat any without first watching someone else eat them (and after waiting a few hours to see if they succumb to death).

No matter, after so much random wandering and picking of flowers -- many of which I chose to adorn my mask with, because it's the best thing to do -- I inadvertently found myself back where we started. Or at least I think so, faint markings of footprints and all that. But for now I chose to stay here because why not -- I had flowers, berries, and hours upon hours of entertainment that can be granted through just a single stick and some dirt. And while my dirt drawings may have been bad, I liked dirt drawings. Added some sort of creative atmosphere. Well, in my opinion.

But where had everyone else gone?

Were they all dead?

Am I all that's left?

If that means I won, that'd be pretty cool.

[dviddy]

Janus, Kakaru, and I had barely set off to find the dashing and daring Emzee when we spotted him coming towards us.

 

"Rescue successful, guys!"

 

We high-fived in the best way possible- loudly. It felt good, man.

 

We then just hung out, waiting for nightfall, or the Empress. Whichever came first.

[xccj]

So it turns out Nektann can float. But it turns out they aren't waterproof. When TMD and I hauled the repair Nektann out of the water, their circuitry had all been fried by their little swim. So I wasn’t going to be able to reprogram them. But we could still salvage them for parts. The metal could be useful for crafting tools or weapons. How we could pry off the metal without any tools was a whole other question. TMD and I dragged two of the Nektann up the beach with us (they were light, but not light enough that we could drag all four with us) and headed towards our camp. We had swum ashore near our landing site, so I kinda knew where we were this time! Soon enough, we sighted the rest of our teammates, who all seemed to be up and active for once. Maybe we could actually do something as a team! Like karaoke! Or something. Edited August 3, 2013 by xccj

[Makaru]

I was just about to finish my fake trail of broken cds when THE GREAT VOICE of the Empress instructed me to head back to camp. I admired my work. There was NO WAY anyone would fall for it, but if even ONE person came across this trail, it would be worth it.

 

I was told to make a decoy trail from the water away from camp. But the direction was left to my discretion. I pounded each piece into the ground with the butt of GAFNAXE, spacing them further and further away each time. It led to a small grove of trees, and past that grove was a nice sudden drop-off into the barren lava gorge. No intelligent person would fall for this, right?

 

Giggling, I made my way back to base camp.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Makaru

[Arpy]

Ludo had vanished into the local fog like a gorilla in the mist, if a gorilla were three times bigger. You’d dug around and discovered that Bfahome was far too distracted by shiny things—and not even the right kind of shiny things. 2003 gold was the best gold, and everything that came afterwards was a pale imitation. Including that mask. You had an okay tale and maybe a new (if reclusive) friend, which you figured were good enough to bring back to camp. You had no idea how to go off the sun’s position in the sky, but your afro was keenly attuned to the island’s wind patterns, so you were able to follow the breezes back to the disturbance caused by the rocks where your team had settled. They’d considerately scarpered off without so much as a note, leaving only some shoe polish, some Crazy Taxi DVDs, and a book of Keats’s poetry. You guessed your group hadn’t won the least-sucky name competition. You nabbed the poetry book, because Keats and Yeats were definitely on your side, and thought on how to find your team. More light-scattering shattered DVDs glittered and littered the ground in trails away from camp—clearly false paths meant to distract those overly susceptible to shininess. Speaking of whom-- "Avert your eyes!" you commanded Bfahome, who had already gone scampering along the rainbow road. "The trail's a fake!" He looked forlorn, so you decided to make it up to him somewhat. You gathered a handful of the fragments and tossed them in front of you as you followed the cunningly disguised trail of shorn flower stems and stick drawings that you'd found weaving across the island. “She told me to walk this way!” you screamed in your best Steven Tyler. “Walk this way!” Edited August 3, 2013 by Arpy

[Hahli Husky]

The rest of the gorgeous Team Clikit Supertramps shrugged and headed down to the beach, hair blowing attractively in the breeze, sun-burnt skin glistening.

 

Whatever

[Emzee]

I raised an eyebrow when I saw TMD and xccj walk up and join our team of four. They both looked like they had quite an adventure of their own.

 

"Welcome back" I asked as I set all the supplies (logs, twigs, vines, pebbles, large leaves, and some rocks) down on the ground."What were you guys up to?"

[Bfahome]

Arpy had shiny things.

 

So I followed him.

 

I nabbed a few CD shards here and there, not because of how shiny they were, but because they looked like they'd make wicked arrowheads in the future. And that would be very shiny.

[Sumiki]

I looked at Bfahomie and realized that he must have no idea what he was doing. Then again, no one else did either, so it was all good. ^{_{blue cheese farm animals}}

[Tufi Piyufi]

With everyone nicely distracted by the awkwardness and boredom, Tufi struck from the edge of the forest."Greetings, everyone. Presumably everyone," Tufi added after a half-hearted headcount, "Welcome to your first immunity challenge.""I'll start you off with something simple. Each tribe needs to build a fire. That's it. First tribe to build a fire wins immunity for the week." She held up a wooden carving of Hapori Tohu. "The loser tribe has to send somebody home, and they will be known as the first loser. The loser of losers.""The way you're going to build these fires is through the magic of teamwork. Each member of your tribe needs to post, working on the fire, until all seven members have posted. For clarity's sake, identify your tribe at the beginning of your post. The first tribe to accomplish this wins. That's all there is to it. Now go!"

[Bfahome]

As one of the Clikit Supertramps, it was my sworn duty to make sure none of us would be forced to something something camaraderie something.

 

Fire.

 

Fire was shiny, right?

 

No way was I gonna let this one slip by.

 

"I've got something!" I cried, whipping out my bow and holding it out. "We could do that old trick with the rubbing the sticks together, and use the bow to spin the stick on the other stick. That way we can stick together and stick this out."

 

I'm pretty sure my team got the stick.

 

Er, rather, got the point.

 

The pointy stick.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Bfahome

[Sumiki]

"Clikits Supertramps, assemble!" I said to no one in particular. To this, my fellow castaways looked on in a peculiar mixture of terror and regret. "Ehm ... I thought I had a lighter on me, but that must have been confiscated ..." I trailed off as I searched my various pockets. No lighter to be found. "Anyway. I support the stick idea thingy." To show support, I ran over a little ways and grabbed a small, lonely stick. "Let's stick it to 'em!" Groans emanated from all around at my horrible pun. Little did they know that they were going to have to get used to it.

[Ta-metru_defender]

I quickly filled Emzee in on xccj and my discovery of the freshwater river and reprogrammable nektann, then we and the rest of the I'd Settle For Thats got to work on the new fire. In the vein of the Death Star II, Mk. II, and Terminator II, it would be better than the first. It would be the Anduril of fires, forged from the remains of the old. Without a word I removed my Akaku and handed it to xccj. Who wouldn't want more smokey detailing?

[xccj]

Build a fire? Team I'd Settle For That already had a fire roaring back at our camp... oh wait, it had burned out. In fact, our loyal Junkbot Nektann was still patrolling around the ashes. Okay, time to make a new one. The sun was up (had it always been there?) so I could easily recreate the magnified sunlight technique again with TMD's Akaku mask. But a heat source was only part of the deal; we still needed fuel and oxygen to get the flame roaring. "Yo," I shouted to my teammates. "Some of you need to gather some firewood or other stuff to burn. Then I'll need a few of you to blow gently on it while I heat things up with the Akaku." Hey, I may not be the team leader, but gosh I know how to start fires! As we got started, I began to hum to myself. "I will start the fire. It will always be burning, so long as the world keeps turning..." Edited August 3, 2013 by xccj

[Emzee]

This would be a snap. Team I´d Settle For That had already built a fire, and learned from our mishaps. This process would be flawless. I'd make sure of it. "Yo," I heard xccj call out to us, "Some of you need to gather some firewood or other stuff to burn. Then I'll need a few of you to blow gently on it while I heat things up with the Akaku." "Would some of those supplies I carried over here suffice?" I replied, gesturing towards the pile of rocks and wood. I didn't intend to use the wood I found for fires, but they would probably work. They were a lot thinner than the firewood we typically used, and they weren't the most driest pieces. Fortunately, Tufi didn't say we had to build a big fire. I immediately went to my pile of stuff and began digging through it, tossing out the driest pieces of wood I could find. After about two minutes of searching, we had about six logs, varying in size and thickness. "Start with these, xccj," I said to my teammate. I then turned to DeeVee, Kakaru and Janus. "No time to lose. I'll remain here and help get the fire going," I said to them, "Someone can stay here while two of you can go find more wood" My spirits, momentarily, were rising. That is, until I did a headcount. "Hey guys, please tell me Spink is here and we just aren't noticing him for some reason"

Edited July 26, 2013 by Emzee

[Hahli Husky]

I dug around in our somewhat-useful bag of stuff. "So uh, Clikit Supertramps. In addition to the sticks ..." Sumiki was already busily gathering more like the beautiful lover of blue cheese farm animal hats he was. Sitting down, I pulled out the picture frame and tossed one of the books on the ground. Hurriedly popping the glass out of the middle of the frame, I nodded to the book. "We need some balls. Paper balls. Also some grass or something."

Edited July 26, 2013 by Hahli Husky

[Makaru]

"All right, you gosh dang Clikit Supertramps. Be right back."

 

I took a constitutional back to a small plainsy area near where I was putting up the fake trail. Something I had taken care to notice beforehand. HH wanted grass? She gonna get grass. Normally, finding grass dry enough for good ol' fashioned wicking and kindling would be a bit of an issue.

 

But this is Voya Nui. The official plant things that are dead and dry.

 

I bundled as much dry vegetation as my long arms could carry and brought it back to base.

[Janus]

It was all or nothing, the I'd Settle for that's were counting on me--we needed that fire started as soon as possible!

 

Without waiting another second I tore of my shirt and threw it on the ground. For some silly reason Emzee raised an eyebrow quizzically and asked something along the lines of "are you brain damaged?" Clearly he didn't understand how combustion works. See, I'm so hot that the air around me would combust and turn into fire! But for some reason it wasn't working--Kakaru's adorableness must have been muffling my hot. Drat, I love the little dork, but that just wouldn't do!

 

Sidling across the beach to where I knew my lady love was, I grasped her around the waist and whispered softly"Hey baby, we can make some fire of our own"

 

Then DeeVee grabbed me by my ear and threw me into the woods to get firewood.

 

Doesn't anyone around here know science???

[Arpy]

You were kind of ridiculously excited to find your fellow Clikit Supertramps hard at work on building a fire. Fire meant hot water for a bath. Maybe even a shower. You smelled like Blocking Lava Ape, but you were thinking more along the lines of Old Spice. If only someone would drop a convenient little deodorant parachute in a calculated act of sponsorship...In light of the need to generate light (and heat, you supposed), you decided to save your special sleepover tale for later and focus on the task at hand."Hey everybody," you said as you rummaged through a burlap sack Hahli Husky had found somewhere, "Shoe polish is flammable, isn't it?"You started sticking sticks into sticky shoe shine with gusto because you were just that much of a team player. Edited August 3, 2013 by Arpy

[Noxryn]

As an I'd Settle For That, I clearly would not settle being sent home. Well, if I was who would really be the loser then. I mean, come on.

 

Anyway, I decided to pitch in my effort and my help in the form of motivational phrases that may, or may not, have made any sense.

 

Initially, I thought we were just going to set Janus' shirt on fire, but I chose to do the other thing and pick up some smaller kindling -- y'know, dried leaves, twigs, the souls of children -- to help with the whole starting deal.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Spink

[Sisen]

The Clickit Supertramps were on fire, well not yet actually. The glass from the picture frame was perfect for starting a fire.

 

"Just like brutalizing and terrozing ants as a kid, I always say." I crumbled up a few pieces of paper from the book into balls, and a put a flat piece on the ground. It was all about getting the angle just right and not moving until the paper started to burn.

 

A tiny pinprick of light was focused on the center of the paper and it started to slowly turn brown and then black. Pfoosh, or whatever the crackling sound burning made. I added in a few pieces of grass to start kindling the fire more, and prepared to add on the paperballs for good measure.

 

"Eeko, all you man, add a little shoe polish and start stacking on some of those twigs"

[Kakaru]

Nearly every other member of I'd Settle For That had run into the woods to gather combustible materials, so I set about preparing a place for the fire. I began with Emzee's rock collection, which I arranged in concentric circles on the ground in preparation for a basic alchemic ritual which may or may not involve rubbing sticks together, taking our shirts off, and even using a magnified source of heat.But everyone knows the most important part is the summoning circle. Where did they all think fire came from?

Edited July 26, 2013 by Kakaru

[dviddy]

As a member if the I'd Settle for That tribe, I made fire happen.

 

Because we were all so hot.

Edited July 26, 2013 by DeeVee

[Eeko]

"My fellow Clikit Supertramps" I announced, "Please stand back."Everyone stood back as I threw a shoe polish covered stick onto the fire.Final score:My ability at starting a fire: 1My ability not to burn off my eyebrows in the process: 0I was willing to call that a win.

[Tufi Piyufi]

Eventually, seven people were able to produce one fire. This miraculous feat was then repeated, but it was much too late. Unless it was a failure signal fire, of course."Congratulations, I'd Settle For That! You've just won Immunity!" Tufi held up the wooden Tohu, and seconds later it was snatched out of her hands by a giggling Janus. Absolutely nobody was surprised. "You guys are safe for the week. Clikit Supertramps, one of you will be leaving the game this weekend. Now would be a great time to suck up to the members."After watching fourteen people try their hardest to make fires, Tufi just wanted out of there. But she couldn't leave with everybody watching. There'd be no drama, no mystery. She needed a good distraction. It didn't need to be flashy or complicated, just..."Look, it's an impossibly big robot!" she shouted, pointing out over the water. While everybody figured it out, she dashed back into the forest, out of sight.

[Arpy]

You fell to your knees in disappointment, then to the beach. Team I'd Settle for That (Seriously? you thought. They should have settled for something else. Like Catan.) had beaten your 'it' clique of superb tramps by scant minutes, and now one of you would be leaving the island.As you rocked back and forth in a fetal ball of denial, working sand into your 'fro, you were consoled by one small thought: your team may not have burned first, but you burned brightest. Especially Eeko's eyebrows."Look, it's an impossibly big robot!" Tufi said, pointing towards the ocean.You sat up and immediately swiveled to look out to the bay. You were really, really hoping for a Jaeger, but then you realized that Voya-Nui was apparently inside a giant robot of its own as of 2009 or sometime and that you were probably in Mata-Nui's kneecap or something and that pointing pretty much anywhere would have led to an impossibly big robot. Also that you needed coffee.Momentarily tuckered out from all this realization, you turned to debating just how earnest Tufi had been when she'd said that now would be a great time to suck up to the members.For your part, you trusted that any distant observers would hold and subscribe to some kind of idealistic prime directive against interfering with primitive cultures--which your lot definitely was, fire, DVDs and shoe polish notwithstanding. You didn't have warp travel. That was the main thing. Edited August 3, 2013 by Arpy

[dviddy]

You reveled in your victory. You knew it was mean, but you'd sat there, waiting for Eeko to get close to success, and then casually, almost without effort, started your fire and snatched victory from the other team.

 

Immunity?

Yeah, you'd settle for that.

 

Victory?

 

Yeah, you'd settle for that.

 

Not having a name that obviously pandered to the Empress' interests, but instead recalled an obscure in-joke amongst a small handful of people and was also perfect for joke set-ups?

 

Well, you guessed you might just settle for that.

 

Suck it blues tramps.

[xccj]

"We're so hot," DeeVee said again. I rolled my eyes. "DeeVee, stop standing in the middle of the fire." But yeah, it looks like we had won. It had been a close race, but our flames had gone up mere seconds before the other teams. Maybe now we could get back to hunting Nektann... y'know, important stuff. Edited August 3, 2013 by xccj

[Janus]

Upon discovering that we had won I decided a celebratory bout of shirtless firebending was in order (Hey if Zuko can get away with it, so can I!) Unfortunately this display of jocularity attracted the ire of the most terrifying creature imaginable--my wife.

 

With eyes cold as steel (that was also frozen) she strode across the beach--and I could swear the fire went dimmer in her presence.

 

Moving faster than light her hand whipped out and grabbed me in a grip as strong as iron, and before I had a chance to scream I was taken into the woods.

 

There nobody could hear me scream (because they were celebrating/mourning too loud)

[dviddy]

I watched Hahli Husky drag Janus away, and though he acted terrified, I knew he liked it.

 

That couple. I swear. So adorbs.

[Sisen]

If you weren't winning, you were losing and being a loser was not all that fun. However, in the grand scheme of things your team had accomplished a lot even if this challenge had been lost.

 

"Well... on the upside there will be one less person to hold us back next time." Of course it was anyone's guess to who would be the first to go.

 

I am hoping the first person to go is not me. I don't want to have my heartstone ripped out by the Empress and fed to the local wildlife.