if I'm burning a bridge, let it burn

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Nobody liked that. Least of all Cassandra. For the third time now, they had been forced to piece together a murderer's puzzle and send that murderer to their death. And while most probably didn't like Sugarplum near the end... Cass couldn't find it in her heart to be mad at her motives. After all, how long did she wait for others to give up on her? Leave her behind?

...She can't sit on those thoughts forever. She needs to do something with her time, and her hands. Rapunzel stepped up last time, now it's her turn; there's still time left in the day, enough to head to the depot and start preparing a note that gets slid under every living person's door in the club.

Meet me down at the beach for a bonfire. Drinks and snacks are provided, but you can bring your own.
Let's try and cheer up, or just burn things.
- Cassandra

And, true to her word, there's a pretty nicely raging bonfire set up on the sandy shore. Along with a cooler or two of drinks and snacks from the depot.

Not too many sweets though. Who still has a sweet tooth after that?]

Comments

[tadaishi]

[There's a bonfire, but there's also a bunch of fireworks nearby. Tadashi's grabbed some of the better (and more illegal, in the United States, at least) selection and spends a lot of 'party' time dragging them to an area close enough to the bonfire to not be isolated but far enough that stray sparks won't set off the bunch.

When it gets darker, he'll start setting them off.

Fireworks aside, he's either sitting by the bonfire or on a beach towel with a slightly sandy stack of paper and a smaller stack of origami cats beside him.]

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

[ While he's working on the origami, the other prime suspect for this week's murder wanders over and just sort of. Watches. ]

Did you memorize how to do that?

[ She's not sure what the alternative is, but she's also not sure how to start conversations, so it all balances out in the end. ]

[tadaishi]

[Murder suspects gotta stick together! Especially after being cleared of murder.

It's okay if she's bad at conversation. He's going to hand her a paper cat anyway.]

Years ago. Mom would make them and I never really appreciated them until now.

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

[ She takes it, holding it delicately and just sort of. Giving a little experimental tug to part of it, to see how well it holds together. ]

And you don't have to cut it at all?

[tadaishi]

[Well technically, the cat's face gets weird if it's not taped together, so he's actually cheating and using tiny bits of tape so it keeps its shape.]

You have to cut the paper into a square first, but that's it. Or tear it if you're good at that.

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

[ it's valid he's valid

She doesn't push her claws out, but she does look at the back of her hand. ]

Huh. That's impressive.

[tadaishi]

You'd be surprised what you can make just by folding paper. Cranes are popular, and paper stars...what's up?

[Oh yeah, she does have claws. Is she worried about them for some reason?]

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

I just... I think it's nice to make something like that without cutting it, I guess.

[ She turns the cat over in her hands. ]

It's not what I'm used to.

[tadaishi]

Ohh, I see what you mean.

Do you want to try? It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

Sure. You're... going to have to tell me what to do, but I guess you figured that out before offering.

[tadaishi]

I could write the instructions down, but there's not much fun in that.

[Also it'd be super weird to offer her the chance to learn, only to make her read instructions.

He hands her a square of paper.]

Follow along, I'll show you the steps.

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

[ She takes the paper and nods. ]

Okay.

[tadaishi]

So you fold it like this first, then like this.

[Demonstrating the first two folds, showing her each one for several seconds before he moves on to the next one.]

After that, you want to fold it like this. Watch carefully, it's more complicated.

[He goes more slowly on the third one, folding it and then unfolding and refolding afterwards.]

[nobodylikesyouwhen]

[ She follows along! Luckily, even though she doesn't know a lot of things, she's a fast learner.

She nods when he does, careful to follow along with the fold as best she can! ]

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[You know, it's funny. When explosives are handled carefully and not being aimed at you or your friends... they can be kind of pretty. Cass wanders on by as the fireworks start to launch, watching the show for a quiet moment, punctuated by bursting colors of light.]

It's almost a shame about being forced into murdering each other. This island could be... not so bad.

[Maybe.]

[tadaishi]

[They can be, and it's an interesting concept. He thinks that by now, he should be scared to touch the fireworks or almost anything around the island, especially after three days of listening to awful voices in his head.

But he's not, and the fireworks are sort of calming to watch.]

It'd be nice if we were here visiting...voluntarily.

[A stray spark lands near them and he quickly tamps it out with his foot.]

I wish we could figure out a way to gain some kind of advantage here.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[They are calming, as long as Cass didn't think back to the sight of their porcelain culprit being smashed to pieces with a brick.]

I got shipwrecked on another island for about a month and it didn't have a club or a theater, or a fancy laundromat. But it was better than this.

[More freedom, relatively speaking.]

I can't think of anything besides trying to take control of the island. Or working together to get away from it, before they pull out another motive on us.

[tadaishi]

The second one seems like a better idea. We don't even know who we're dealing with outside of the Genie. Who they are, what they're capable of...just that they have terrible taste in entertainment.

[Who gathers people up to kill one another? It's like the worst reality show.]

[feudalladyshandmaid]

They're definitely not someone I'd want to be friends with. And this whole time, I just keep thinking... 'why'?

[All of this trouble, when you already have a genie?]

It just doesn't add up. There must be another reason for all of... this.