It was too hot, even with her winter coat off. The sun beat down mercilessly on Imogen’s tender Irish skin; she could practically feel it crackling into burnt red pork rind. Of course, her getting heated in a metaphorical way didn’t help either. Between the confusion, stress, and fiery anger she felt like her brain was melting. All around, barring Frankie, most of the others seemed nonplussed. They offered one another encouragement, and in Victor’s case, condescension. For a moment Imogen gawped at him. Had she gone insane? Was her reaction really so strange? She wanted to find somewhere dark and alone, away from these tranquil lunatics and that damnable scorching sun. More than anything she wanted to wash her face, to scrub the heat and coarse sand and emotion from her features to render her as clean and presentable as always.

Unfortunately, this beach offered neither shade nor solitude, and the water did not look okay in the slightest. So Imogen moved to the next entry on the list of things that might make her feel better.

“Don’t you recite all that rubbish at me!” Imogen snapped at Victor. “Oh, it’s ‘sink or swim’ is it? How about ‘we’re all in this together’ or ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ while you’re at it? Just sayin’ the things they say in movies when it all goes to shit isn’t gonna magically make everythin’ okay!” If she could see it properly, Imogen would have pointed out the island’s opposite shore on the other side of the trees at this point, reminding the others just how small this place really was. “Get ourselves out of this situation? Hah, come off it! We’re totally at the mercy of whatever stranded us here. You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about…”

At that point, Sofia flared up again like a bad rash, awakening with almost comical speed in total ignorance of the headwound she gave Daniel in the process. Perhaps an avid watcher of survival island shows, she straightaway began assigning people tasks, which at the moment meant sending most of the boys to find the weird girl who left earlier. For her part Imogen didn’t know who in their right mind would give this dumbass the time of day, considering what her dogged insistence on her social experiments had gotten them. She did not expect that Sofia’s pretension of leadership meant that the other girl would see Imogen’s breakdown as a problem to solve. In trying to solve it, Sofia immediately made one of the classical blunders: telling an angry person to calm down.

For a moment though, it actually seemed like it worked. With her eyes fixed on Sofia, Imogen inhaled deeply through her nose, filling her lungs to their maximum capacity. Then she let it out.

“AND WHAT PART OF ALL THIS IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME CALM YOU FOCKIN’ EEJIT!?” she yelled with her eyes squeezed shut and her hands clenched into fists, quickly going red in the face. “What d’you mean survival? We’re stuck here! There’s nothin’ we can do! Might as well keel over and get it over with! Who the hell died and made you the boss anyway, huh? You’re the reason we’re in this mess to begin with! This whole bloody stupid Icebreaker shtick, read the damn room! Didja think we’d all just play nice and be friends? Maybe getcha some extra credit? You miserable-”

At that point, Maive’s bawling reached such a fever pitch that Imogen noticed it, and it stopped her train of thought in its tracks. She opened her eyes and whirled around to face the source, only to stagger and nearly fall down herself. All that yelling had made her lightheaded again, and in a flash the energy she’d put into being angry drained right out of her. In its place came a surge of guilt, propelled straight to her heart by the sight of Maive crying her eyes out. All of a sudden Imogen felt terrible. More terrible than before, anyway, which was saying something. Even if she did catalyze this bizarre turn of events, Maive almost certainly hadn’t meant to, and she’d been confronted with the exact same nightmare scenario as Imogen, only without the wherewithal to take it out on anyone else. Plus, now that Imogen had made someone cry, she probably looked like a massive jerk. If she didn’t already. Despite all her pent-up anger, Imogen never wanted or intended to be a bully. The thought that she’d hurt someone else undeservedly never even showed up on her radar. What an absolute mess.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered, taking an unsteady step away from Maive like she’d just dropped and shattered some fine china. “I didn’t…didn’t mean to…” Her leg wobbled out from beneath her and she sank into a sitting position, her head swimming. “Damn it,” she gasped, holding her head. “Why me…?”

And just like that, Sophia woke up with not much fanfare. Well, except for just headbutting Daniel, but this just seemed par for course with her remarkable sense of poor timing. What he did not expect was her starting to order them around as if she had any better grasp of the situation than them. As nice as he tried to be, even Victor could not get over his first impression of her and well, let's just say that it wasn't as kind as one would hope. From the first meeting, he saw her as careless and bumbling about with everything that she did. Someone that was quick to give up as soon as her own plans went to pot if their first meeting was any indication.

"I was going to look around anyway, so sure." The last person in the world he wanted to take orders from was from Ms. Youth Leader, but he'd be a hypocrite if he went against her given what he said about working together to get off the island.

Victor was just about to walk away from the group with the other boys to go make sure that Verity didn't get lost in the forest or did something that would injure herself when angry glasses girl unleashed her vitriol towards him. Well, not just him, but towards the Sleeping Cringe who had just woken up. The so-called leader of the group made the classic blunder of telling someone who was clearly in emotional duress. She just went on and on, saying so many things, deriding them with cruelly and yet not offering anything constructive to their situation. Imogen was just bellying up already, giving into her base emotions to just curl up and die when the tough got going.

Maive suddenly broke down sobbing something fierce, which brought back the angry Irishwoman from her fit. Even the situation got to her. He couldn't blame any of them, really. After all, he wasn't much better than them.

There really was not anything he could say in this situation so all he could do was catch up with the rest of the guys who were heading to check on Verity. The heat of the sun and dry sea breeze was soon taken over by the humidity and the shade from the canopy. For this kind of ecosystem to thrive, there had to be an abundant source of water and wildlife to maintain the natural balance.

They eventually did catch up to the gremlin and not even missing a beat, she was telling, not asking, for one of them to give their swim trunks to her. Victor blinked a few times, processing her demand. Yeah, he'd rather not be going around with butt cheeks facing the sun and dick in the breeze. He was going to politely turn her down, but then Orlando decided to offer him up as tribute. The Frenchman's cheeks adopted a slight pink tinge which was pretty obvious given how fair his skin was. Sure, he liked the stage, but this was not the kind of stage that he performed on.

"We're in a jungle, use some vines instead. Now can we stop fooling around and actually get a lay of the land?" He was quick to change the subject for he feared his partially clothed status. He already was turned into her living clothes hanger, but he certainly did not want to become her wardrobe.

There was a strange moment that passed as Victor’s words lingered in the air, the last of the trio to refuse Verity. That open hand of hers closed into a fist, and that fist of hers…

…laid at rest by her side.

“Mhmmm.” Her eyebrows lifted up along with her chin, the smile that stretched to the corners of her face cat-like in nature. “How unreasonable.”

But by the way she about-faced immediately, feeling for a length of vine that was still flexible enough to be tied with, still sturdy enough to hold her weight, still weak enough that she could tear apart to an appropriate size, it looked as if it had been Verity’s first choice as well. The choice she would have taken from the get-go, if the second choice hadn’t been the funnier one. Couldn’t lose one’s sense of self just because they were stranded on an island, after all. The situation wasn’t nearly so desperate yet.
Though perhaps they would become desperate, depending on what happened in the next ten minutes.

Verity squatted down, measuring out a loop of vine roughly her width, and tied it together. Braided that loop with another length of vine. Then a third. A fourth. Her fingers moved slowly but assuredly, building up a loop that grew stiffer with each iteration. The fourth was done, and then the loop itself was twisted into a double helix, which she set her bare feet against.

A strange feeling, to have a half-dozen bumps dig against the arches of her feet. But it was flexible enough, and the lack of stretch would be accommodated by the increased friction. Now, it was just a matter of her body.

Waddling over bowleggedly, the pale-skinned girl set her hands around the trunk of the tree, one on the far end, one on the near end. Main purpose was to keep her body perpendicular to the ground. Her feet rested at the base of the trunk, soles pressed against the surface alongside the twisted cordage. Her eyes, set on the prize. Her mind, having forgotten the others around her. What was it like again…

“Frogs.”

Verity stood up.

Leapt up.

Landed into a crouch.

Stood up.

Leapt up.

Landed into a crouch.

Stood up. Leapt up. Landed into a crouch. Stood up. Leapt up. Landed into a crouch. Stood up. Leapt up. Landed into a crouch. Stood up. Leapt up. Landed into a crouch. Stood up. Leapt up. Landed into a crouch.

A splinter in her palm. She’d have to pick it out later. Better than the pinching of her skin, caught by the twisted vines. Her soles were tough enough though. Tough but malleable, able to get a feel for the bark that shoes wouldn’t have. Shoulders were shaking more though, and in some lizard part of her brain, she could feel how insane it was, to stand like a mountain goat on the sheer side of a cliff. Except she had no hooves, and it was a tree instead.

Huh. That explained the goat story.

Two stories ended too short, and it was almost a relief for Verity to reach the top, to be able to grab a branch with her hand. She stood up, looked back down, and once again smiled at those beneath her. A two-story drop would be uncomfortable on all of them, alas. They were saved by their bony, fleshless frames.

The video she watched had the beefcake twist a coconut off, smash it open against the trunk, and then guzzle it right then and there, atop the tree, but Verity’s own sense of stability was perhaps not quite there yet. So she settled for only doing the first bit, reaching for the green fruits, twisting them methodically, and then tossing them down at the trio below.

“Catch.”

A fun experience, to be sure. A real tropical experience, even! But not something she’d want to do more than she had to, so Verity just…kept at it. Twisting them off and dropping them down. Emptying the tree of all but the smallest of the batch, whistling a tune all the while, until it was all done and there was enough to possibly feed people with if the coconuts actually had anything inside. Now, there was the other conundrum.

Getting down, from a logical and mechanical perspective, was easy.

But mentally? Gravity was a bitch: fun to fight, hell to work with.

...

Of course, Verity wasn't stuck.

This all just required some mind-gaming.

---

Thankfully, nobody acquiesced to Verity's weird request, though Victor did suggest something with vines that made Daniel the slightest bit wary. What the hell was she going to do with vines that she needed pants for? Actually, that was pretty solid dream logic, so maybe that meant he'd be waking up soon.

His question - which he really didn't need answered, honestly - was answered regardless moments later, when the girl threw herself at the tree in an attempt to climb it. He almost yelled at her to get down, but to his surprise, she was actually decent at it. Danny watched in perplexed awe as she hopped her way up the palm one weird movement at a time. Not that he was a physicist or anything, but it didn't even seem possible. All he needed her to do was outright start walking up the tree to confirm his dream theory, but unfortunately she remained just inside the realm of plausibility just to spite him. This dream sucked.

As the coconuts began to rain down, Danny immediately raced backward, leaving the fruit-catching to the other two - one head injury was enough for today. Possibly two, depending on whether or not he really did take a rock to the head and die back at the dockhouse. To his chagrin, he couldn't even get mad at the tree-climbing psychopath either; that was food and water they could use right there.

Oh, god, they'd have to find food out here. If a boat didn't pass by quickly, they were fucked; this island probably didn't have enough resources to sustain two people, let alone nine kids who didn't know the first thing about survivalism. They'd probably end up eating Mav first. Or Sofia if she cracked one too many bad jokes.

He needed to get the fuck out of here.

That feeling of his stomach twisting itself in three different directions at once sunk in with a vengeance. The one he gets when he has to tell people he doesn't like girls. God, what a pathetic comparison; imminent death weighed against getting called a fag by a teenager. He was suddenly hyper-aware of the thin sheen of sweat on his skin - was that already there from the tropical heat or had it just formed? He hadn't noticed.

"Don't suppose you can see where we are from up there," he called up, not even believing the hope in his own voice. He doubted her vantage point provided anything they couldn't see from the shore, but Danny didn't exactly trust his less-than-stellar vision to take in a comprehensive account of their surroundings. Yeah, yeah; he could've completely missed something. No one pointed it out because it seemed obvious. Even broken glasses girl still had one functional eye over him. Ugh, this sounded like a cope even before the thought had finished. Turning back to the other two boys, Daniel barely restrained himself from pleading, "You guys didn't see anything back on the beach either, right? There's no, like, weird little cabanas on a nearby island we can call for help at?"

His voice had quivered a little. Idiot.

"I think," Danny abruptly muttered as he turned his gaze downward in thinly veiled horror, "I- I think I'm freaking out. Sorry, sorry. We should... get back to the others."

---

The clear slap across the face seemed to make the boy more quizzical than calm, though at least he wasn’t frantically trying to grasp onto answers.

For Victoria, all of the chaos around her seemed to make her get a sense of calm. Had Frankie not shambled over asking her questions in a manic state perhaps she would’ve gone fully catatonic. She had to thank him for helping keep her head clear at some point, though given the expression on his face and the lack of a reply of any kind, she was certain it was not the time. She took a light breath as she jumped to her feet as she looked at the island more clearly for the first time since she awoke to its sights. She closed her eyes, inhaling the smells of the island, as she commented on the situation.

“None of this makes sense, so we have to focus on what makes sense. The rest will come after.”

She looked over to Imogen and Maive, and then back to Frankie.

“Other people need our help. We can’t afford to… you know. C’mon.”

Victor didn't really know what to expect to be honest. When he suggested vines, he thought she was going to stuff rocks or something to create a makeshift flail or something. Instead, he just watched her tie vines together until she had made... sandals? Whatever she was doing, she was committed to doing it herself since she was not interested in getting them to assist in her endeavor.

He watched her with equal parts confusion and intrigue as she waddled her way towards the tree. Verity was looking upwards with her focus completely honed on her prize, completely forgetting that she wasn't alone. Then she just started climbing. Actually, it was more like hopping. Frankly, it was actually impressive; Victor never would've never actually expected someone with her rather unimpressive physique to actually be able to have the strength and stamina to make her way up a couple of stories. That and he was not really expecting a rich kid from HAGAY to be able to do any of the skills she displayed.

Then the coconuts started to rain down.

Victor was quick to catch what was in his range. It was either that or get his head split in half by an errant coconut. Under other circumstances, this actually would be quite fun, he thought to himself. Really, having an island to themselves to just goof around on was something that a lot of people would have loved to have. It was just a shame that they were stuck on an island in the middle of God knows where and had to fight for their own survival. For his own sake he kept his own thought to himself, especially since everyone was barely keeping themselves together.

Daniel was struggling and try as his might to hide it his trembling voice gave himself away.

"I'm going be honest... I think we're the only humans here," said Victor to Daniel. There was a clear distinction to what he had meant. The people on the raft that he had seen when he fell through the water looked human. Well, the only one he got a good look of was the valet. The eyes of that man were nothing he ever had seen before; a shiver that traveled down his spine when even thinking about that cold golden eye. Something screamed in Victor that the valet was only human in form. Why would there be humans in whatever that place was on a bloody raft with a desk on it and one of them dressed like a hotel valet? Either Victor had seen too many movies, or he witnessed something that typical people weren't meant to see.

That was assuming that they were nearby. He was only running on the assumption that everyone else saw what he saw because for all he knew only he saw it. With all the adrenalin and panic, he did not even think to ask if they had the same experience as him.

Victor dropped that train of thought though when Daniel asked if they could go back. The poor boy looked like he was not about to drop to his knees at a moment.

"We'll drop you off at the beach, but the rest of us will-" Victor cut himself off when he realized something. Why was not Verity back on the ground? Surely if she was able to climb up the tree that she could get down. There's no way she was stuck in the tree like an overzealous cat that climbed too high up.

He looked up the tree to the coconut girl and asked, "Uh, can you get down?"

---

Victoria's resolve was more or less as strong as the others, with the desire to immediately get to it. And she was right, but it still frustrated him. He wanted to find a way out, but as she had said, none of it made sense. It was for them to make sense of it, and if there was anything he was convinced of, he felt as if he had nothing to contribute. The others had the confidence and headspace to really make a difference. They were tenacious, and brave, and determined to make light of the dark situation they'd found them in. Perhaps he could've been too, but the shock of the experience had weighed so heavily upon his mind that he remained but a hopeless individual, one that no student around him could've relied on.

"How am I supposed to make sense of it, if you just told me none of it makes any?" He muttered, albeit a little bit bitterly. He had incorrectly channelled the frustration, rapidity and speed toward the others, when in reality he had aimed it internally. It hurt to be so pessimistic, and it did little for the others, but shaking that visceral experience was not an easy feat.

He looked down as she suggested they go to help. There was no way around it. If he said no, he'd have been left there, perhaps even to die, if they were so willing. It was dramatic to even consider such a factor. But wherever they were, he was so greatly untrustworthy of them all - the way they all slipped into working mode, as though they'd done this before. That's what worried him the most. Had he stumbled upon a secret society, or a cult of sorts? No one could know. No one knew. Everyone had no idea. And those that did, they must've kept quiet about it. That paranoia leeched off of him.

He sighed, there was no way to really figure anything out without moving. To him, it was a sure way to walk into death, but it was better than sitting by the desolate sea, that called to him with harsh words. So what did he do? Well, he sat up a little, wiped his cheek as the sting still remained, and just nodded. He didn't sulk, nor did he make a fuss, but deep down, he was back where he was again, following others, and he had that lingering worry that once it was over, if it ever was over, then he'd fade back into the winds.

"Well...I guess there's nothing else..."

---

Crying is a strange thing. So many thoughts went through Maive's head that, really, she couldn't pinpoint an exact one. She had an inkling of what made her cry, but couldn't quite put it to words if she was asked. It was more that she was thinking in feelings. When she finally felt the hand of someone else, she instinctively reacted.

Maive's arms wrapped around Sofia's torso as the crying girl grasped for comfort. Anything at that moment would have done.

Then Sofia became acutely aware of a bizarre fact about Maive.

Her diminutive stature didn't mean she was weak.

No.

She was condensed.

Like a vice grip, Sofia was now being fully assaulted by the most brutal hug she must have ever experienced. Two neodymium magnets had suddenly found each other and connected. Sofia's shirt had suddenly been blessed by a deep imprint of Maive's crying and snotty face. Her feverish wailing changed to sobs. Then, it changed to deep breaths and hiccups.

Finally, Maive let go. Her glasses were smudged. Her eyes looked more like coloured marshmallows. She desperately wiped the remaining snot off her face using her forearms.

She'd bury it. It didn't matter if it was a hatchet or her own feelings at this moment. Sure, she was alone and confused. But she had to be strong. She always did.

Suddenly slapping both cheeks, Maive looked to the trees. She took one last deep breath.

Rather than acknowledge what Imogen had said, Maive turned back to Imogen. Her face wasn't that of embarrassment, nor was it full of sorrow. Now, her cheeks were red from determination--at least temporarily. She stretched a hand towards Imogen. Thankfully, all of her snot had been wiped on her forearms and Sofia.

Orlando

---

When Victor said she could use vines, Orlando didn't expect her to actually do it. It took him far more time than he liked to admit to realize that no, she wasn't making a skirt out of vines, but some footwear instead. They were good too, taking into account they were made out of literal vines and leaves. He would have asked her to make him some if she were just a little less crazy for his tastes. Honestly, that could be said for all the girls on this island except for Maive. Shorty here acted like she was the queen of the world and nothing could hurt her, the glasses girl looked like she was one comment away from killing someone, and Sofia was, well, Sofia.

Crazy girl, and Orlando realized he really needed to start learning some of the names of the people he was stranded with less he blurts out the nicknames he called them in their head, and started to climb a nearby tree. He had to admit, her core strength was nothing to scoff at and her technique was good too. He tried to look up to see what was her objective and saw some coconuts far above them. Right, food and water, necessary things for their survival, it would seem that, under all her quirkiness she had a good head over her shoulders to think of that. Orlando started to look for more coconut trees when one pelted him on his right shoulder. "Caralho!" He shouted and hastily took some steps back as he grabbed what he could and dodged the rest, thinking her early assessment of that girl was correct, she really was crazy.

Soon after, the coconut apocalypse stopped, and only the sounds of the jungle could be heard. It was flirt... no, his name was Danny if he remembered right, who spoke first. He didn't look the part, but it seems he was more shaken by the events that happened that he led on. Orlando couldn't blame him, he was sure he was going to throw up the moment he was alone and it was only his pride that fueled him along.

Danny spoke again, this time with more nervousness showing, and it was Victor who answered him. He supposed he should add something too, even if the last time he tried to cheer someone only made the guy flap his gums at him, but well, it would only help them to have more people with a cool mind, or at least not being a ball of panic and whatever emotion Sofia had. "Hey no need to apologize amigo, you were brave enough to come here with us, you already did more than the rest", he said with what he thought was friendliness in his voice. It was Victor who reminded him that there was a missing member of their little group. He looked up and saw shorty in the same exact place that some minutes ago, with no signs of trying to go down, yet with not one iota of fear on her face. Orlando hoped that she wasn't thinking of jumping on top of one of them, the last thing they needed was two injured people and honestly, with all the things she already did, he could imagine a scenario where that happened. So he gave her the only help he could in his position: "Just climb down the same you climbed up but this time put one hand under the other and slide down with your feet when you need to! just uh, don't lose contact with the tree". It was like he did it when he was young, and he had a lot less confidence in himself at that age that coconut girl, she should be fine... but just in case he whispered to Victor: "hey, you think we should y'know, get under the tree to catch her if she falls or something?"

What was the situation here?

Verity was up perhaps a good seven or so meters on a coconut tree. Her feet ached from the vine-woven straps she had looped them around, from the surface of the palm tree she dug into the soles. The squatting position pulled at her inner thigh muscles, and she could feel the sweat building in her hands.

What was her situation here?

She was fine. The mechanics were simple. She could still hear the words of the people beneath her. She had strength to spare, at least enough to make it halfway. Better to descend completely though; she was just wearing a bikini, after all. And if she fell here, no one had the phone to call a hospital to send her to so she could spend a worthless amount of money to get all her bones and organs back into place and maybe buy them off of people who don't need them if she really had to.

Which was to say, Verity wasn't going to fall. Indeed, she was so confident in all this, that she extended her legs once more. Hopped up once more. And climbed up to the very top of the palm tree, her hands grasping onto the limbs as she lifted herself up into the dense growth. From below, Victor and Orlando would see her form disappear within the fronds, until only her face peeked out. Only her mouth.

Only the same unreasonably confident smile that she perpetually had.

And then, Verity descended. Swung from a branch to catch the trunk between her feet, then stabilized her positioning with her hands. Dropped her feet in and out, breaking down her fall into several short ones as the vines scraped and teared against the rough bark. The burn was in her own palms now, calluses reddened by her haphazard method. It definitely wasn't as stable, as secure, as her way up, but wasn't that the way for all climbs? It took ten seconds for her feet to touch the dirt once more, and the pale-skinned girl was happy to peel her wraps off her feet. She lifted them up one by one into a shaft of sunlight, admiring the dark red marks that the vines had left behind. Circulation felt amazing now, as did the freedom of being able to rotating her feet, flex each digit individually. Her palms came next, and she pulled the splinters out, flicking them into the brush like unwanted pests.

There'll be bruising for sure, and she could go for a footbath, but for now...

"Well, there's that." Two claps. The others were flocking over now. Flies to food, but her expression expressed none of the disgust that such expression would have impressed. It settled instead upon Orlando, then bounced towards Victor. "Gonna go exploring?"

A final, offhand glance towards the most nervous of them all. The flirt.

Figures.

Time to do the last thing from that video then. Picking up a coconut, Verity weighed it in her hand, admired its green-ish sheen, and then smashed its husk against the side of the tree that birthed it. Spiderweb fractures burst out its surface, droplets of sweetened water dribbling out to snake down her fingers.

But she didn't partake, and instead tossed it over to speedo-boy.

"Drink. It's hot."

With most of the fight gone from her just from the realization of how badly she’d screwed up, Imogen wanted to sink into the sand, her hope drained away like rain in the desert. She’d reached a dead end with no way out, and there was nothing she could think of to do to solve any of the problems that hounded her. Ever since she came to that fateful conclusion, she had strived to live each day in caution, temperance, and control, avoiding anything that could cause conflict or bring any sort of misfortune down upon her head. Never good, never bad, just ‘fine’. Reaching out for high notes just hadn’t been worth the possibility of hitting the lows. What good could she possibly have found out there, after all? But now misery had befallen her regardless. Maybe it was karma, built up over the course of years to come crashing down. The wolves that once snapped at her heels had fallen so far into the background that she stopped running, and now they caught up with her. Despite doing her very best for so long, little as that might be, Imogen was going to die here, more disliked and alone than ever.

As she sat there in the sand, her face in her hands, Sofia approached her. Her apology and excuse weren’t airtight, but Imogen didn’t have the energy to snap at her anymore. Besides, weren’t the two of them just the same, in a way? Imogen also lashed out in an unconstructive manner, after all, and far more vehemently too, only to unintentionally -but understandably- make others feel bad. That said, was Sofia still to blame for all this, and justifiably so? Absolutely. But Imogen knew she’d been a jerk. The embarrassment stung her even more acutely than the still-hard-to-process realization that she’d somehow appeared on a deserted island. Maybe. Either way, the fact remained that she’d broken character, and in a rather dramatic fashion too. There had been a lot more pressure behind that damn than she realized, and it burst with such power that she didn’t know if she could put it back together again, at least not in the same way. But was there any point to picking up the pieces she’d held together for so long? If she was going to die anyway, didn’t she deserve to be herself for once?

Of course, her real self wasn’t an asshole. At least, Imogen hoped it wasn’t. Outspoken and impulsive, maybe. She wanted to be someone who meant what she said and said what she meant. But she didn’t want to hurt anyone, not really. Even if it helped in the moment, she wouldn’t feel any better in the long run, and considering how she felt right now, ‘long’ was probably an overstatement. She knew she needed to make amends, and so what if it hurt her pride? Not like she should have any pride to hurt in the first place.

Imogen rubbed her eyes, took a deep breath, and got shakily to her feet. She turned to see Maive, still a blubbering mess, but now locked in a powerful heartfelt embrace with Sofia. Imogen blinked, her brows upturned. Was Maive looking for some sort of support or stability, no matter the source? Was she thankful that Sofia got them into this mess for some bizarre reason? Could this be the startup of an elaborate wrestling move? Or was it…forgiveness?

All of a sudden Imogen found her contemplation time at an end as Maive turned her way, extended a hand to shake. Imogen almost recoiled from the proffered limb on instinct. If Maive meant to forgive her too, Imogen really didn’t deserve it. She’d made quite the uproar taking out her frustrations and couldn’t reasonably blame anyone if they communally decided to shut or out, or band together and chuck her in the ocean. Her cheeks reddened with the embarrassment of guilt, and for a moment she hung her head. If Maive meant it, though, Imogen owed it to her to accept. Though a small girl, Maive had chosen to be the bigger man. That took more guts than anything Imogen could remember doing. She pushed up her glasses, took a few steps forward, and shook Maive by the hand, secretly glad that it -and its owner- weren’t as snotty as they could’ve been about this. “Thank you,” she mumbled, her voice small.

Beyond this, she couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to do. Might as well follow along with the others. If they left to find Team Coconuts, she’d trail along, smoldering quietly.

---

Daniel still didn't understand how they could possibly be this calm, but their words of encouragement at least gave him something to focus on. Orlando was right, he was still doing better than the blubbering messes back on the beach, and walking back there to mope with them would probably only make him feel worse. He'd hoped to distract himself with whatever task Victor was insistent on them performing, but all they seemed to accomplish was taking note of the bleakness of the situation. At least they had a miniscule amount of food now.

Speaking of food, another coconut flew at him, this time from ground level rather than a lofty perch on high. The cracked fruit splashed a bit as it made contact with his chest as though it were a football before he caught it properly in his hands. Daniel raised a quizzical brow; Verity - who had evidently extricated herself from the tree - somehow made it sound unappealing. Who wanted a hot drink on the beach? Still, they couldn't really afford to waste it, and the boy promptly put the coconut to his lips to slurp from its innards.

"Uh, thanks," he mumbled sheepishly after he'd finished, wiping away any remaining dribble from his chin, "All of you. I'm good now. I think." He wasn't, but they didn't need to know that. And if he kept himself distracted, they wouldn't. Because they'd all be back home soon. Yeah.

"So, what were you saying? We should look around?" Danny focused his attention squarely on Victor now, internally hoping with desperate fervor that the other boy's confidence came from a plan that could get them out of here and not because he was a crazy person like Verity. His rapt interest didn't last very long, as the rustling of foliage nearby immediately drew Daniel's gaze like a startled deer. Sofia had mentioned animals, and while that would solve their woes about food, he had no idea how they'd manage to kill one, especially if it was dangerous. Was this island even big enough to support dangerous predators?

Thankfully, nothing jumped out at him abruptly. His eyes instinctively narrowed as he strained his vision into the not-so-distant distance, only to promptly let out a relieved exhale as he spotted movement from definitively person-shaped figures. They must've come looking for Verity after the trio of boys didn't return swiftly enough.

"Ah, hell, here comes more Sofia orders. Unless somebody already strangled her," he grumbled as he waved away his earlier train of thought. If she didn't have an explanation ready, he really didn't want any part of her hysterics, especially since the swimmer had just calmed himself down. He could feel the beginnings of a headache tingling at the base of his skull already, though he wasn't sure if it was the stress or if he was already dehydrated and really did need to drink that coconut.

---

As Daniel drank, Verity watched him. For immediate reactions, delayed reactions, to anything odd with the coconut water.

He looked fine at a glance, of course, but she could wait regardless. She could wait for a good while, especially if Sofia really had spotted water as well. A spring, indeed, that Verity somehow missed while she was up on her tree. That was good news too. Someone else could drink from there too, and she could continue to wait in comfort to see what would happen.

But the silence was a more curious thing. It came suddenly, the stilling of seagulls and insects. A silence to stoke up a ringing in her ears, a silence that encouraged her to take a step closer to the tree she had climbed up upon, encouraged her to check her surroundings slowly, looking for a sign of something that wasn't just vegetation.

And of course, she too was prepared to ghost.

After all, Verity had prioritized food and water over weaponry. And though there were many things that she has done and wanted to do, punching an animal to death wasn't one of them.

---

Maive was happy that Imogen took her hand. Anger was painful and scary. As was the guilt that came alongside. It was always something that Maive tried to avoid. She was just glad that everything seemed to resolve in some sort of catharsis. As for Sofia's reaction, Maive did indeed have the best hugs in Europe.

That's what her parents said, at least. Usually moments before they had to take a few minutes to catch their breath. She always wondered why they did that.

The two squads managed to reconvene at the coconut trees. Maive was glad that everyone was back together. Though, she was also a little glad that not everyone saw her crying fit. It was a moment of weakness, that was for sure. Unfortunately, her eyes still looked like confectioneries.

Maive took a backseat to the more adventurous members of the group. Honestly, she was tuckered out from her fit of crying. A less emotionally exhausted Maive would have been aware enough to worry about the vanishing soundscape. Unfortunately, this was a Maive that had just gone through a torrent of emotion. She'd need a moment to recover. A nice seat made from dirt and trunk found itself home to Maive. She'd take a little rest before the group decided to gallivant (though that word was probably the exact opposite for anyone who wasn't named Verity) further.

Orlando

---

Of all the things he expected coconut girl to do, climbing up even higher was admittedly second on the list, and it was then that Orlando realized that in the short time that they have been acquainted she had a tendency to forgo common sense and do whatever strikes her fancy. He had to admit, in a situation like this, that aspect of hers was strangely comforting. Seeing her act like this was a run-of-the-mill situation took some of the weight of being stranded on a seemingly deserted island with no way to contact the rest of the world... as long as he could put the gravity of the situation out of his mind that is.

Happy to do just that, he watched as Verity climbed down, rather haphazardly if someone asked him, but it got the job done, and she had shown she was gutsier than your average rich girl, some scraps here and there probably didn't faze her. She asked them a question and after looking at Victor, shrugged and answered "Seems like the only choice we got, maybe we'll find some more fruits to eat or something". There were lots of coconut trees here, but they didn't really know how much time they'll have to wait for help to arrive, so finding more things to eat seemed like a priority.

With that in mind, he tried to juggle the three coconuts he managed to catch in his hand, and wondered what they should do with the ones in the ground, perhaps asking the rest of the people on the beach to help them carry them. But where? Maybe looking for a cave to stay in should be their next move? Or at least a place they could be safe if it rained, not like it looked like it would at any rate, the rays of the sun still could hit them even under all the foliage of the forest after all, but better be safe than sorry and all that.

Daniel, now with an opened coconut in his hands courtesy of Verity, reassured them he was fine now, and he nodded at the guy, giving him a quick smile before shifting his attention to the beach, where he could see the rest of the guys and gals trailing behind Sofia, her awkward cheerfulness a contrast to the gloom the rest seemed to carry, not like he could blame them, he too would look like that if he had to listen to Sofia trying to cheer people up.

He took a quick look at each of his peers. Maive looked the worst, her eyes red and puffy, probably the result of that episode with glasses girl, Imogen. His feelings of shame and guilt at not intervening resurfaced and he gave Maive an apologetic smile. Next, he focused on Frankie, more precisely on the slight redness on his cheek. Did he hurt his face with something? He wondered what could have been when a strange person entered his field of view. It was a black-haired girl, the tallest of the group too. He did a double take, was she with them the whole time? He was about to ask just who she was when he thought about it and realized he would look like an asshole if he did that, so he just keep quiet, his eyes quickly going over Imogen, who looked calmer now that she got some of her anxiety out of her system.

Sofia's words got his attention, a spring meant drinkable water right? At least that was what cartoons have taught him, or did that only apply in deserts? His thoughts were interrupted by a sound, or rather, the absence of it. Back in his home, Orlando had learned that silence in a place where noise was the norm, like the streets of Brazil, or in this case a jungle full of insects and other similar things, only meant trouble. He didn't expect a shooting to start out of nowhere, but just in case he gently let the coconuts in the ground and took a rock out of his pockets.

He didn't expect a rock to be of any help against a large animal, but well, at least the act of grabbing it helped him soothe his nerves a little.

It was quite the curious thing to see. Conventional wisdom would suggest that in order to go downwards, they would have to climb down. 'What comes up must come down' though it seemed that the concept did not exist in the mind of that cracked gremlin stuck up in that tree like a cat. It was bizarre how she was able to just treat the situation like it was just another day, as if it was a normal thing to do to wake up on a mystery island and then climb up a tree to get coconuts like she was grabbing produce from a supermarket. Rather than a comfort, Victor found himself a bit unsettled that she either was detached from the reality of the situation or she just didn't care.

Just like she did not care for her own personal safety. Verity decided to take a page from a George of the Jungle and climb down the tree recklessly. Sure, it got the job done, but he found himself holding his breath hoping that she did not fall because it was already bad enough that they were in this situation, it was another to be in this situation while she had a broken leg. Still, it was quite impressive to see her make her way down the tree. She definitely was tougher and outdoorsy than any of the rich kids that he had met at school.

"Uh, thanks for the food, " said Victor to the rich girl plucking splintered bark from her hands. After all the effort she had gone through, it was only appropriate that he would express his thanks.

She followed up asking them if they were to explore the island and Orlando already beat him to the punch, so the Frenchman just nodded in agreement since there was not much else to add. They needed to find a more consistent source of food and clean water that can sustain their group as well as shelter if they were going to survive long enough to get off the island. At least that's what he should've been thinking about. What was going through his mind was a completely different story.

This situation was an impossibility; one moment they were on a brisk English shore at night and then they woke up on a sunny tropical beach ripped out of the Caribbeans and that was not mentioning what happened in-between getting from point A to point B. It wasn't a dream either; he was painfully lucid. There was a clarity in his thoughts and sensory perceptions. He could feel the individual grains of sand between his toes, the salt licked humid breeze of the beach, crunching of foliage beneath his feet, and the smoothness of the young coconuts that he caught. He could hear the caws of seagulls, waves crashing, and the cacophony of insects crying in the jungle as the backdrop to their conversation. He was far too aware of his surroundings and his awareness of space was just as clear as ever. All of this was real... so where were they?

His train of thought, however, was broken by Daniel who desperately looked at Victor as if he had any sort of plan because yeah, he would most certainly have anything resembling a bloody plan after being transported through what he could only guess was a portal when they hit the water, or maybe they died, and hell was literally other people. It was beginning to feel like the latter. What was he supposed to tell Daniel? That he had no master plan to get off the plan and that his apparent confidence was the only thing keeping him from crumpling into a fetal position.

Well, he never got the chance due to Daniel's attention being whisked away to the rustling of foliage like a nervous squirrel. He dropped the coconuts and picked up the branch that he was holding until the hail of coconuts courtesy of Verity. His grip tightened around it, prepped to strike at whatever wild animal that came his way. Well, it probably wouldn't actually do much damage though it made him feel better, like a toddler with a safety blanket.

Thankfully, depending how one would look at it, it wasn't an animal, but Sophia and the rest of the entourage. Personally, he would've preferred a wild boar over her.

The rest of them did not look like they were in tiptop shape. Maeve looked the worst, her eyes red and puffy from crying after Imogen laid into her. There was a tinge of guilt for not stepping in to try and comfort her. Actually, he really was a bit of a jerk to just walk away from her when she was sobbing. He just wanted to get away from the situation. Whenever there was a chance, Victor knew he should apologize. At least Imogen and her made up if their hand holding was any indication. Then there was that blonde boy who the last time he checked did not have a cheek that was redder than the other.

Everything was normal until Victor noticed that there was one more addition to the group that he did not recognize, a black-haired girl. Was she always there? He thought to himself. Actually, it was a question of how he did not recognize her because this girl was crazy tall by comparison to the rest of the girls. Not wanting to be rude, he only took a quick glance at her though shifted his gaze away as staring is quite impolite. Still, had she been there the entire time? How in the world did he not notice her with her black hair against the pale sand? He noticed Verity and that girl was camouflaged. There was not a chance in hell he was going to ask something like that, however.

Victor grabbed his own coconut and took page from the wild woman's book and smashed it against the tree, splintering and the sweet water trickled out between his fingers. He took a sip and despite being a tad messier than he would've liked, it was refreshing in this humid heat. It was stupid of him to relax though because as soon as he felt like he could take a rest, an eerie silence hung in the air. The cacophony of sounds ceased to be.

An icy chill ran down his spine as a sense of dread weighed his stomach down like a block of lead. Unsurprisingly, Sophia was ignorant to the deafening silence that now enveloped them and claimed that she saw a spring. If this was like the movies and shows that he grew up watching, it meant clean water. They had a means of survival and yet, the read did not leave.

He placed his hand on his chest, trying to remember that warm sensation when he was sinking in the darkness, the comfort that he felt when his being was slipping away. Hey, disembodied voice. If you weren't an auditory hallucination, I could really use some guidance to get me out of here alive.