WEEK 4 AFTERPARTY

[stanboozled]

[After everything has settled - after all that craziness - Stan stands up, putting the voting box down on the ground.]

Okay, kids. I know you're scared, and you don't know what's going on - and I know it's hard to trust either me or Red with what's happened these past weeks. Hell, with what just happened.

[He takes a breath.]

But I want you kids to know that I'm here for you. I'm not gonna pretend like this is some silly summer camp, because I can't. I can't go back to how I was seeing things now that I see them right - my brain's good at taking a pounding and coming back just as good as ever.

And - though it might not seem like it, Red's here for you, too. We've...talked some stuff out. A lot of stuff. And...

[Stan lifts a hand to his face, rubbing at the bridge of his nose before continuing.]

I can't stop this. Neither can Red. But that doesn't mean we're just gonna sit by and let you kids just die because of some stupid rock. When she gets back, she's - gonna get into contact with someone higher in the organization she works for. And she's gonna ask if we can take this rock thing out. Break it, or - something.

From now on, you kids don't need any tickets to get stuff from me. You can just ask for it, but - I can't stop you from getting weapons, or anything dangerous. An' you're still gonna have to keep doing this, because we need time to contact whoever she's gonna contact, and go through all that red tape. I don't know how long, but -

This? It's gotta go on. And....I'm sorry, kids.

[He quietly sits back down, staring at the flames.

That's all.]

Comments

Burning Clothes

[finalguard]

[ After Stan's confession talk has quieted down, Boa and Nine are going to head to Cabin 4 to remove all remaining clothes from the trunks there.

They'll carry them back and start tossing them into the fire, careful not to actually smother it in the process. ]

And that's that.

[ Boa sighs in relief about that a little.

If you want to talk to him later, he continues hanging around the campfire for quite some time. ]

[itsagazebo]

[Eddie's going to help with the burning. Partly because it fucking makes sense, partly because burning something helps him feel better.

After that's done, he's just going to plop down somewhere nearby his friend and stare at the fire.]

[trashmouthtozier]

[guess who else helped? yep. this guy.

guess who's holding Eddie's hand, now? still this guy.]

Why did they even have clothes in there when there weren't any other people?

[finalguard]

Maybe sometimes this camp hosts larger groups...? They ran it before and all of that.

[ Or they just wanted to actually make it easier for killers but, eh, dreary thought.

Also eyeing those hands, but saying nothing. ]

[trashmouthtozier]

... Needing to go through even more people than they are now?

I hope Red gets back with good news soon. I really wanna take these assholes down.

[itsagazebo]

[Eddie nods his agreement, giving Richie's hand a squeeze]

Me, too. Stan said all we can do is keep going through the motions til they sort shit out.

[linearcrash]

[ Also helping to burn all the clothes. Some destruction of something is helping him chill the fuck out. ]

[finalguard]

We really should have done this sooner.

[ And hell yeah, property destruction feels nice right now. ]

[linearcrash]

[ Rubbing the back his head. He totally forgot about the extra clothes there shhh... ]

Well, we're taking care of it now.

[finalguard]

And we never got it wrong because of this before, so... just in time. Before the idea of fake evidence catches on.

[ Now that it was brought up, even the dumbasses in camp have to be aware of the option. ]

[linearcrash]

[ Well this dumbass is aware so yeah. Everyone else has to be ]

Yeah, it'll make it easier for us to figure it all out, yo.

[ Without the possibility of shoe tampering. ]

Hey, why didn't you bring me up for suspects?

[soylentprotag]

[He's just going to stop and stare at the bonfire they've got going on, before shaking his head a little and using his actual Arc to nudge some of the stuff they missed into the fire. Can't be having brushfires or setting anyone's actual clothes on fire with all this stuff sticking out.

He's also still actually wearing a Cabin 4 outfit, so. Well.]

... I guess if we need extra clothes, we can get it from the shop. Or Stan.

[Who seems to be being very generous right now. He might have to think about getting more of his own outfit back, since Boa's powers aren't about to potentially destroy them anymore.]

[finalguard]

Get them by necessity, yes. With a clearer sense of who owns what and how many of them.

[ Lenka can keep his cabin 4 outfit, Boa is not about to insist he burn that as well. Just making sure that we're reducing some spontaneous clothes-taking. ]

[soylentprotag]

[He's just grateful that there were extra outfits on hand on Monday, even if he can understand why they'd want to take it out on the supplies. If they start burning food or something he'd have to object, but for now this is all right. They'll only regret it a little bit if they run into any clothes-related emergencies somehow.]

That's true. Stan will probably let us get some clothes from home, if we ask him.

[Maybe we'll start seeing some more varied fashion. Lance and Kanji totally died for this new functionality.

He carefully doesn't bring up Week 2 and Talcott taking out lemons in his skivvies.]

[finalguard]

Yeah. Those are easier to identify and we could also check who is missing a uniform in case we find discarded or half-way destroyed clothes again.

Maybe it will make our Saturdays a bit quicker or at least things a bit harder on whoever's next in the run.

[ Not that Boa feels any resentment towards the culprits, he just thinks trials are tedious and unpleasant. }

[soylentprotag]

It's a good idea, for narrowing things down.

[The replacement clothes -- and shoes, this time -- really have been a thorn in their side during trials, though from what Red had said... a lot of the previous culprits or accidental culprits hadn't even bothered all that hard to cover up anything they were doing. This time was just the exception. Maybe... they'll need all the help they can get.

If they're going to keep looking for the truth. Being forced to punish people with death for death.

He's still not sure he's found the resolve for that part.]

What do you mean, whoever's next in the run...?

[homeecspacecop]

Maybe we should just burn the whole cabin. [Chuuta says, after helping out with the burning.]

[finalguard]

[ Huh. Boa had not considered this, but... actually... ]

We should ask if that would get us into trouble.

[homeecspacecop]

... everything gets us in trouble here.

[finalguard]

More trouble than usual, I guess.

[ He doesn't want to get killed because he put a building to the torch, but also fuck these hiding spaces. ]

[homeecspacecop]

Or maybe we could... board it up or something so that no one can get in easily.

[le_mat]

[[Ren comes to watch the clothing smolder]

...good idea.

[Honestly? They should have done this last week]

[finalguard]

It really took us long enough... but we're not murder getaway prevention experts.

[ AND THEY SHOULDN'T BE. Not even for any moral reasons only, also just because they have better things to do. ]

[le_mat]

Yeah, it's hard to put yourself in that thought process unless you're already used to it.

[He sits to poke the fire with a stick]

[finalguard]

[ Meanwhile Boa finds a sock lying fallen down next to a log and tosses it in as well. ]

Today took us forever, but we are getting better... if nothing else.