DAY 0 - Morning

[islandiastaff]

[Good morning, contestants!

One moment, you were receiving a mysterious envelope marked "Greetings from Islandia". The next moment, you're waking up on a beach.

Twenty-four people are scattered across the sands of a beautiful tropical beach, all somewhere in the middle of waking up. To your right, a sunrise over a gentle sea. To your left, dense, vibrant jungle.

There are two signs of civilization here! One is a shipwreck, about half of a good-sized ship emerging morosely from the waves. The other is a wooden sign at the edge of the jungle, showing simply an arrow pointing deeper into the island. Looking a bit closer, there is a narrow but well-maintained path into the jungle.

Welcome to Islandia!]

Comments

[collateraltsunage]

[Right, but before she gets to the food, she's now going to stare at the palm trees]

[And start touching them]

Amazing!

[#priorities]

[carptricks]

[whyyyy is this lady touching a tree]

. . . it's a tree.

[collateraltsunage]

[Because she's sane. Definitely]

I've never seen anything like it... What kind of leaves are those?

[carptricks]

. . . palm leaves.

[ooookay yet another weirdo for his weirdo list]

It's a palm tree. You must not live anywhere tropical.

[collateraltsunage]

I've never seen so many plants... Or so much water.

[THIS IS SO NOVEL probably even Vash couldn't ruin this]

[Probably]

[carptricks]

[Vash ruins everything]

Eh? D'you live in a desert, then?

[collateraltsunage]

[A very true statement]

I suppose you could call it that, yes. [STILL FEELING UP THAT TREE]

[Meryl, contain yourself]

[carptricks]

. . .

Sooooo, how's it feel? Touching a tree.

[he asks casually, but there's a hint of sarcasm in those words]

[collateraltsunage]

[And that's her cue to compose herself! She straightens out with a huff]

I'm to understand you're from a different world that has these luxuries. Am I right?

[carptricks]

["luxuries?" he arches an eyebrow]

You could say that, though there aren't any palm trees where I live.

[collateraltsunage]

You shouldn't take it for granted, regardless of whether you have these specific trees.

[s2g]

[ Lord, are you trying to test him? s'almost like home. he stops walking, watches her feel up the palm tree a minute.

yeah, that sure is the shortstack, alright. so where's the big one? ]

Oi, you insurance girls're here too?

[collateraltsunage]

[Novel foliage aside, that voice is not one she's expecting to hear. She abandons her new friend to whirl around]

--Mr. Wolfwood?! You've been brought here as well?

[She hasn't seen hide or hair of Milly, on the other hand]

[s2g]

Looks like that's the case, don't it?

[ a magnificent shrug. hard to see the tension coiled in his back under all that black cloth, and he's always glad for it.

as an afterthought, ] Oh, yeah. Spikey's here, too.

[collateraltsunage]

[Something in her facial expression twitches, like she's just been reminded of something distasteful]

Yes... I'm aware.

I haven't seen Milly anywhere. [A beat] I don't suppose you have?

[s2g]

Nah. She's a little hard to miss, too.

[ he stuffs his hands into his pockets. there's sand in them. there's sand everywhere. but, actually— ] You sure she came with you?

[collateraltsunage]

... Yes. [To put it nicely] And rather loud, at that.

I'm not. [She frowns, puzzling this over. Apparently they'd been chosen randomly. So either Milly hadn't been brought here, or she was elsewhere.] I woke up alone. And I've only seen you and that imbecile.

[Three guesses as to who she's referring to and the first two don't count!]

[s2g]

[ there's a quick show of teeth. a grin, too wide, as if Wolfwood felt like grinning just yet. hard to tell, but now that he's moved away from the ocean, the captive spell it held over him has also broken, and all that's left in him is a deep-rooted suspicion he's gotta work to hide.

honestly he's just jiving for a cigarette or something stiff to drink. ]

That guy said something about it bein' random, who ended up here. Guess you got unlucky.

[collateraltsunage]

[Joke tags aside, this guy really is sketch as fuck. Or at least, Meryl's getting the feeling that something is odd. Not that she knows him particularly well.]

I could say the same thing about you, Mr. Wolfwood. It's an interesting coincidence, the three of us being brought here.

[s2g]

[ for a second, he sounds less saccharine, more brooding (tm): ] Yeah.

[ but it passes and he's back almost instantly to grinning, casual, fakey faker priest. the image of a bus on the horizon and the Punisher hot against his spine in the back of his mind. ] But we've had stranger. Besides, I don't mind gettin' away from that desert for a while.

[ actually, he does. he minds it a whole lot. Gunsmoke's little more than hell wrapped up in godforsaken barren packaging, but it's where he needs to be. where Knives and the Guns still are. but as long as Vash is here, Wolfwood needs to be here, too. ]

[collateraltsunage]

You don't mind getting kidnapped for a so-called competition by a mysterious man with a mailbox for a head who refuses to provide a straight answer on how we've been brought here, among other things.

[Sharp and flat, just like she is. Rather, his current demeanor is more familiar and thus pushing her buttons, as she doesn't like this kind of behavior anymore from this weird priest than she does from a certain idiot]

[Now that the novelty of the foliage and water has worn off, she's also gone back to her default state: judgmental]

[s2g]

[ another quick show of teeth. he wonders if she feels it, like they're in a prettied-up cage, surrounded by the kind of stuff he figured they'd only ever see if they made it to Eden—and all of it way beyond the scope of what he or she or Vash know how to deal with. they can't swim. it's too hot here, like there's water even in the air and it's slowly drowning them.

they're stuck, whether they like it or not. ]

If ya hadn't noticed, they didn't leave a whole lotta room for argument.

[collateraltsunage]

[She's already feeling her patience dwindle. She was hoping to get a little more out of him than blithe attitudes and facts she already knew.]

[Why is she even talking to this guy]

Yes, I've noticed. [Clipped!] Are you intending to play along then, Mr. Wolfwood?

[s2g]

Until some other option crops up.

[collateraltsunage]

I see. [She kind of wonders what said option would entail]

I suppose we have no other choice at this point.