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 Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:03 pm
Who: Annabel and... Chris...?
When: Midnight, when the rest of the cabin is asleep. Day 2
Where: Light part of the woods.
 Of course she'd told the rest of her team she'd stay safe and play it more reasonably; that was the only thing you could say, and keep favor. But really, the woods had plagued her dreams; mechanical roars and falling trees haunted her sleeping moments. Even when talking with Simon, her mind had drifted to the beast of the woods... and finally, at midnight, she couldn't take it. Sliding out of her bed, Annabel had quietly made her way down the ladder, only pausing at the floor for a moment. Looking to Simon's bed, she smiled fondly, tearing a page of the journal she'd pre-written. Folding it up, she placed it next to his hand on the bed.
'Gone back to the Woods. If I'm not back by morning, send help.
-Annabel'
But, really, she knew she'd be back; there was no good reason for her friend to worry. That would be her job. So, she'd left the note; if she went missing, at least the Beavers would know where to start looking. Whispering a quiet 'goodnight' to his sleeping form, Annabel slunk out of the cabin and into the night.
The small light of her nighttime pen did little to dispel the forest's darkness. She tread lightly into the trees, carefully this time; if there were a dart gun around to be found, she'd be ready to hear it this time. And besides that, the Rat b*****d host couldn't constantly be watching the woods. If any time was good to explore, it'd be now.
Despite her earlier episode, Annabel crept on. She was going to figure out what was going on here, if it was the last thing she did.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:14 pm
This area of the woods was much lighter and calmer than the area she had been in before. The darker, camera-filled area had an almost sinister feeling about it. This part? It was a bit dense with trees, but -nothing- like the other area. He had a tranquil feeling about it, and one could hear rushing water a bit in the distance.
...Huh. Rushing water...
The moon was bright overhead, lighting up the forest in places it could come through the trees. The air was cool, but not unbearably so. If one could forget just what island they were on this might seem like paradise.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:21 pm
The breath was swept from her when Annabel caught sight of the reflecting moon, and heard the rushing water- how... wonderful. Still treading cautiously, the Punk Audio made her way toward the sound of running water, the lesson of don't follow the noise still not verified in her mind.
It.. really was beautiful, if you got past the reality tv show, douchebaggy host, and all the other monsterous flaws of the island. Allowing herself a very soft smile, Annabel slowed her hurried pace to that of a more leisurely creeping, taking the time to look around and enjoy the beautiful moment. Here, she could almost forget about the cameras, the life... and relax.
Oh, she'd have to sneak Simon out here some time- this hadn't been terribly difficult to find, and as long as she kept quiet, this could be her spot! That would be great. Cliffs of Insanity? No thank you, she'd keep to the forest.
Even if there was a mechanical monster somewhere in the trees, for now, it was peaceful and safe.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:40 pm
Most rushing water would indicate a river. But here on Wawanakwa the general norm simply didn't apply.
Eventually on her little journey Annabel would happen upon a clearing. It was far enough into the woods to not be found simply by anybody wandering along, -but- it was still in the tranquil and quiet area of the woods. No mysterious beasts here.
The source of the water noise was to be found in this clearing. Rather than a river, it seemed a contraption of sorts had been set up to simulate rushing water. Those familiar with themeparks would recognize it as a type of homemade wave machine, often used to simulate surfing or waveboarding at said parks.
...But what in the -hell- was it doing here?
The machine was obviously running..but was anyone actually riding it?
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:52 pm
Shocked did not even begin to cover Annabel's emotions. Her brow had long-since fixated into a good-ol'-fashioned 'what-in-god's-name' look, as she very timidly approached the unknown object. This... was her beautiful, trickling river? This was the safety spot she'd been planning?
...That was not a river at all. A contemplative scowl had taken her face as she studied the machine, trying to formulate an idea on how any of this made sense. Machines like this didn't just crop up in the woods; it had to have a reason for being here. A crazy host and his massive chef-boyfriend/lover/choice of noun here, the monster in the woods, and now... a wave machine.
...Honest to god, Sherlock Holmes couldn't have pieced all this insanity together. Someone either was incredibly bored, or just outright insane. How did this show even get APPROVAL to go on the air? The producers must've had a LOT of free reign, money, and time with the network. ...Or just be really underhanded. That made sense, too.
But, no. That wasn't the time to think about that sort of thing at all. She needed to figure out why there was a wave machine. Flattening closer to the ground, Annabel quietly crept toward the machine, patrolling with a sort of caution she'd had as a child stalking Santa Claus. Peering cautiously at the machine, she attempted to find any sort of operator or rider in the area.
Maybe, if she kept quiet and kept looking, she'd figure something out about this machine, and these woods. Things COULDN'T stay this weird.
...Could they?
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 6:10 pm
There was no shouting, no random darts. No....nothing. Huh.
The only other Audio in the area was found riding the wave machine, and luckily for Annabel the water rushing was so loud up there that he couldn't hear her...
Yes HE. Rat b*****d host himself Chris McLean was perched on top of a vibrant red and white surfing board, riding the contraption his interns had built. From the looks of things he was a pretty good surfer, apparently his accent wasn't just for show! He looked calm, his sadistic smile replaced with a simple content grin as he rode the waves. Despite being soaking wet his hair was as picture perfect as always. Hell even wet and slightly out of place it looked as if he'd be ready for a photo op at any moment.
And yet...a more observant camper might realize that all the cameras spotted in the area were actually pointed away from the wave machine. Weird dude.
"A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird! Birdbirdbird..."
..Oh god why oh why was he humming THAT song?!
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 6:31 pm
She was gaping. Her mouth, honestly, was hanging open at this point, and Annabel was staring in shock at the television host, surfing away on the machine. Eyes wide, she simply stared- was he... mental? Midnight, when normal people were.. y'know.. sleeping... and here he was, in the woods, SURFING.
..And humming that GODDAMN SONG. Her eye twitched in minor annoyance, but for now, she was too absolutely stunned to do more than stare awkwardly. Part of it, a small part of herself would admit, was admiration- he was... really good at this. And, unlike when he was on tv, he was smiling. Genuinely. Were they filming this?! Whipping her head around to look, she realized... all the cameras were turned away. Huh.
Here, happy, he looked almost... normal. And that same, shamed part of herself- though she would NEVER admit it out loud, even under torture- could see that, when he wasn't torturing them, he could look... nice. Handsome, even.
If Small, Snark, and Douchebag were the sort of thing you were into.
Alright. Maybe this COULD get weirder. Swallowing heavily as she turned back to look at the host, that same small part of her felt guilty for interrupting the one thing that seemed to make him genuinely happy.
But, then again, she'd taken two darts in the a** in two days. There wasn't any room for pity here.
"Gone for a midnight surf, huh?" She called, more projecting than yelling to the host.
Man, did his crazy-a** boyfriend even know he was out here? Maybe he'd gotten kicked out of bed!
That would've been funny.
"Or do you just do this when you're not torturing us?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 6:49 pm
Chris look startled. Genuinely startled. So startled in fact that although it looked for a moment he was going to save himself...he instead totally took a wicked dive into the drink. Wipeout dude!
He was gone from view for a few moments, but eventually the soaking wet form of Chris crawled out of water at the opposite end of Annabel and dropped down to the ground below. The host coughed...god was there water up his nose?! This..this just SUCKED dude. What the heck!
Looking rather miserable Chris stared over at Annabel. ...Huh, it was her. It'd figure that out of all of them she'd be the one to find one of the few places he could actually -relax- on the entire island. Grumbling and struggling to wipe the miserable look off his face he gave his reply.
"It's a hobby dude. I rather like the quiet it provides...or did provide.."
Yeah, not so much anymore now that someone knew about it. If Chris was a betting Audio (which he was, by the way) he'd say Annabel would tell the others about this spot in no time. Maaaan...
Glancing away, Chris reached up to retrieve his board from the wave machine. For a fleeting moment something reminiscent of a very thin scar could be seen, running up his side and crossing over towards his chest. Huh...perfect Chris McLean wasn't so perfect afterall. As quickly as it was spotted it was hidden from view as Chris brought his board down.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:05 pm
And, WIPEOUT. Wincing when Chris bailed from his board, Annabel couldn't help but look away as she tensed, hoping it really wasn't that bad. When she heard the noise of splashing water again, she turned back, watching the water drenched host drag himself out of the pool.
It wasn't her fault she was partially grinning. Really, it wasn't. Usually, he was just an arrogant, cocky b*****d- it was immensely pleasing to see him kicked off his high horse. (Or board, she supposed.) At the comment of his ruined hobby, Annabel's eyebrows raised once more.
"Amazingly enough, Mister Ego? I'm not the bitchy little gossip you're making me out to be. I may hate you, yes, but my life? Yeah. It doesn't revolve around you, no matter how much your huge head might think it does. Hell, I probably wasn't going to tell anyone. Who the hell would believe this, anyway? Little mister full of himself, out surfing at midnight? Not exactly some rumor I'd go spreading on my own! But now that you mention it, I probably could ruin this! Get a nice little group of campers out here- y'know. Unless you DART all of us. But I wonder if you even have that many darts, or how much you'd like getting one shove in your own a-"
In her ramblings, she'd barely caught sight of the scar- had she not been the type to observe people, it would've missed her gaze entirely. But now that it'd caught her focus, her threatening words died in her throat, and she simply stared.
"...scar..."
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:23 pm
During her little speech, Chris didn't seem all that focused. For the most part he was trying to wring the excess water out of his hair and get back to -some- semblance of his normal self. It was times like these he was glad all the cameras were pointed away. As she went on he mumbled to himself, something about some new plan for an even -better- wavepool in a more secluded part of the island. Yeah! Apparently his temporary disappointment at the possibility of this place being discovered was quickly shoved aside at the idea of building something better.
The host was about to respond to the mention of just how many darts he had when a certain word caught his attention. His ears perked, then pinned back. Not the angry sort of pinned back, but the reluctant almost fearful sort of pinned back. It was only for an instant, but in said instant he was almost pitiful.
"I....dunno what you're talking about dude."
Right Chris, just shrug it off! Ears perking back to their normal position he distracted himself with his board. Maybe if he looked busy cleaning it she'd leave the topic alone.
...For a moment he actually wanted to just leave. But if he turned to go she'd -see- it again man...
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:38 pm
Well, god damn. In a matter of minutes, he'd managed to destroy the judgments she'd been building on him over the past two days. Something was definitely messing with the host's mind- nothing she could say right off the bat, but it didn't take Freud to know something was ******** with his head. Still absorbed in her thoughts of its- his- story, she didn't even see him switch back into overtly cocky host mode.
No, no. She had a mission now. There was a reason to his douchebaggery, somewhere underneath the gel-slicked hair, and damn if she wasn't going to figure it out. It wouldn't be tonight, she knew; nobody opened up that quickly. But... if she kept this place quiet... maybe he'd actually be willing to talk.
Maybe it was the cameras that made him a d**k? Not in the the magic-made-me-do-it way, but more in the defense mechanism sort of way. It was the a*****e's facade in literature, through and through. And somehow, that scar had something to do with it.
Her brain was taking over common sense at this point; moving forward as quickly as possible, Annabel pushed herself to stand as tall as possible, leaning forward to gently run a claw on the path of Chris's scar. Any anger that'd been on her face had evaporate, instead replaced with concentration, and admittedly, fascination. Personal space? What was that? Not when there was something this perfect to write about available, right within her grasp.
"Psychological field day..." she mumbled quietly to herself, still entranced with her earlier thoughts.
Thankfully, Annabel wasn't in her right mind at all. She'd likely be kicking herself for this later.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:50 pm
Chris seemed lost to his own world. He was -trying- to ignore her. If he didn't give her attention she'd go away, right? It always worked for him! If someone wasn't paying attention to him he'd find someone that -would-. It was perfect, please please just go away.
Wait..she was coming closer?! Why man WHY? Just go aw---there was a claw on his chest. A. CLAW. on HIS. CHEST. And it was tracing that thing and just GAHHH.
The host's fur bristled and he backed away. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a place to go and as his back ran against the edge of the machine his panic mode hit an all time high.
"Can't keep your paws off me, can you?"
That mocking tone wasn't there, it was more of a broken..nervous...tone. But damn if he wasn't going to try and act normal and trick her into leaving him the hell alone.
Because man -she- wasn't acting normal at all!
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:11 pm
The second Chris started backing away, Annabel bristled enough to rival a cat. Eyes wide, she all but jumped back, stumbling backwards and falling flat on her a** on the side of the machine. Even then, she wasn't deterred in moving the hell away; at this point, she was scrambling backwards, eyes wide with horror and chest heaving.
Not to mention the uncontrollable swearing pouring from her mouth. Not loud, mind you, but definitely within ear shot for the host. God damn this was not good.
"What the HELL!?" She finally snapped, paws firmly gripping the grass as she stared like a deer in the headlights. "You're supposed to be a shallow a*****e, not have depth! Goddamn, I can't resist interesting characters! W-why do you have to have a personality, you rat b*****d?! Can't you just take that title, and be flat?! God ******** DAMN, you're NOT supposed to be interesting! ********. Now I won't even be able to hate you properly!"
Burying her face in her paws, it was obvious that she was turning a bright red; the half-sobbed breathing wasn't doing wonders, ********. I'm so, so sorry. I do that. God DAMN, I wasn't SUPPOSED to do that, I'm supposed to HATE you. I'm so damn sorry, s**t." Breathing deeply in an attempt to calm herself from her breakdown, Annabel looked up to stare at Chris, the borderline of tears on her eyes.
"And before you say anything, ******** you, I'm not crying. I just- I freak out sometimes. Anger problems." Still breathing deeply, she continued, not breaking eye contact. "And I didn't ******** mean to touch you, I just- ********. You suddenly seemed interesting. Like you were kind of nice or something, and didn't just get your kicks from ******** with people's lives. I don't know, I'm just stressed out." Drawing another deep breath, she almost seemed calm once more- unfortunately, something triggered, and she bristled yet again.
"DO YOU REALIZE HOW ******** UP ALL OF THIS IS?! YOU'VE DARTED ME! TWICE! YOU KIDNAPPED TEENAGERS AND PUT ALL OF US ON SOME ******** UP SICKO ISLAND FOR A HIGH-RATING TV SHOW! I'LL PROBABLY BE SCARRED BY THIS! I- I-"
And that's when she fell apart. Unable to fight back the first sob, she quickly bit down on one of her knuckles, desperate not to entirely fall apart.
"You're a sick b*****d, do you realize that? Why the hell would you do this to us?" Breathe. Goddamnit, she needed to breathe.
"A-and you can't even let me hate you properly. You have to actually seem like you have a heart, somewhere. Just.. ******** you, Chris. ********. You."
And she buried her face in her knees at that, desperate to curl into a ball and disappear.
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:25 pm
....MAN WHAT THE HELL. He had just wanted to come out here and RELAX man! This was an -off day-, why the heck couldn't he relax like the campers? BUT NOOOOO, someone had to come find his hidey holy and screw up his little surfing session before bed.
GAH this was only day 2, why oh why couldn't the absolute -craziness- come out later? Sheeeeesh!
As Annabel literally broke down in front of him Chris took to using his surfboard as a shield between himself and her. Hey, if she was going to do any crazy lunges at him he was going to be prepared. The bottom of his board had a life size picture of himself on it. ...Man, narcissist much?
"I understand more than you'll probably ever get dude."
That was it. No stupid remarks about her crying. No jabs, taunts, or hell even remarks about how -awesome- he was even when someone hated him. Just a simple remark that....well coming from him it could mean just about anything.
"Don't seem to remember telling you how to live. It's not my fault you jumped to conclusions dude! I've always been this way...dunno where -you- got your impression from."
There, he was sounding a bit normal now! Not...well not that it was a good thing. But it was for him!
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Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:56 pm
"Denial's not healthy," she choked out, her sobbing settling somewhat as she listened to Chris in return. Looking up, she caught sight of the miniature Chris on his board- were she not in the midst of a godawful breakdown, she certainly would've commented on it. Trying once more to quell her emotions, Annabel couldn't help but wonder if maybe she'd gotten this whole damn thing wrong. Everybody else in her cabin seemed willing to have fun with it. Maybe that's how she needed to try surviving this?
At the question of her impressions, Annabel sobered slightly, shifting to sit so she didn't look so entirely defeated. Draping her arms across her knees, she sat in silence a moment, trying to find a good way to vocalize her thoughts.
"I... that was kind of shitty, huh. Don't go telling people I've said this, but," Annabel paused at this, taking a deep breath and looking away in embarrassment.
"...Sorry I called you, y'know. ...Everything I've called you. Which, is kind of a metric ********, if we're being perfectly honest. I just wanted to read some damn poetry, not get whisked off to my worst nightmare's summer camp, and eat... well. ..Y'know."
Rubbing at her eyes a bit, Annabel couldn't pull her ears up from their embarrassed, flattened state.
"How'd you even get involved in something like this..?"
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