Young Writers Society

Rydia

The music playing on board the cruise ship was the music of swans and reminded Heather of her favourite scene from the Swan Princess where Derek finally realised he loved Odette.

Of course, he then went on to tell her that only appearances mattered, but that was beside the point. Boys were stupid sometimes.

"Hey, @Iggy!" Rydia tipped her captain's hat to a jaunty angle and let her good, sturdy boots steer her in the direction of one of her crew mates. Even though this was a full house party and she wasn't exactly captain of this ship, she would be a mindless, flesh-eating zombie before she let anyone take her hat away.

"What do you need?" Iggy asked as she hurried over to meet her halfway.

"I think we need the music to be more lively," Rydia said reluctantly. "Nobody's dancing. Well, nobody except @StellaThomas..."

Iggy turned to look and gave a sad nod. "Maybe we can play something modern for a little while." She touched Rydia's arm gently and the not-captain gave a sigh and a nod before heading to the port side of the ship.

"Hey, so what's going on?" @Aquestioning asked, suddenly appearing beside Rydia. "Something adventurous? Something totally fun?"

"Oh you know me, it's always fun when I'm around," Rydia said with a slight smirk.

__________________________
OOC: Boat crashes tomorrow! Until then, enjoy a day of peace upon the ship.

fortis was hiding from all social interaction as usual. She had staked out a spot underneath the snack table watching the dancers (or the "standers" because it seemed only one person was dancing) huddle in their little groups. She popped a grape in her mouth then stuck the empty stem in her pocket. She poked her head out from beneath the table, ready to get some more snacks when she ended up face-to-face with @Carina who was reaching for an Oreo.
"H-hi Carina... nice day isn't it?" she asked, a little startled. She should have noticed Carina approach the snack table.

Auxiira

Auxiira was having a whale of a time. Not dancing. Dancing was a social obligation that made her look a fool due to her lack of gracefulness. No, she was having fun speaking French with @Blues, and giggling a little at the slightly dazed faces of the YWSers who happened to hear a snatch of their conversation. Which happened to be about the menu PDF Blues had sent her the day before.

"Mais franchement, Blues, qu'est ce que j'en sais de ce que ta mère aime manger?" Especially at fatboydeli, or whatever the restaurant had been.

"Ben je sais pas, t'aurais aider?" The mistakes brought a smile to her lips every time.

"Pu aider, chéri." Auxii glanced over at the snack table and wondered what she could eat on there. There were even MonsterMunch. Which were strictly off limits, but then @June was turned the other way...

A calamity on the other side of the room made her turn that way.
"Ah. Is @SparkToFlame's puppy here?" Puppies were cute and adorable. Auxiira could feel the gravitational pull even though she hadn't managed to catch be it a glimpse of the puppy. She gave up resisting and traipsed across the room towards it. Over the dance-floor. As the music changed to something a lot more upbeat and... Danceable.

Yubbies glanced around the deck of the ship, eyeing the various people aboard. She noticed her matcher, @blimeylimey217 across the sea of people, leaning against the railing. Yubbies cautiously walked up and started a conversation, smoothing the the thin layers and folds in her shimmering gold dress.

"So my twinsie matcher friend," Yubbies began, "How goes it?"

"Decently," Blimey replied, holding a cold soft drink in her hand. "I'm just tired. So much excitement."

Yubbies searched for a new topic. "You play the violin right? Did you bring it with you?"

"Yeah, I did." Blimey smiled.

"Well, I brought my guitar. I would play it right now, but I'm afraid people would laugh at it."

Blimey smiled at Yubbies's predicament. A harsh salty wind crossed the deck and swirled skirts. "Your guitar isn't that bad!"

"The guitar I have is tiny, pink and has hippie stickers all over it! It looks so awful!"

"It's not that bad! Besides, You should see my music stand, it's COVERED in stickers!"

"I think it looks simply amazing, especially with littlest pet shop and pooh bear stickers covering it!"

We watched the salty waves dance up and down, secluded in our own tiny world for a few minutes, debating and talking about pooh bear characters.

"Pooh Bear is awesome!" said Yubbies, laughing a little.

Blimey laughed too, the sound echoing over the water. "Yes! He was my idol when I was little!"

"Yeah," Yubbies sighed, stretching her arms, brown hair being tossed in the warm wind like the waves below. " but I like piglet, too."

Blimey nodded emphatically. "I like tigger!" she said, laughing a little, "and Kanga and Roo! "

"Owl and Eeyore!" Yubbies cheered, getting into the spirit of things.

Blimey clucked her tongue, shaking her head wistfully, the (tropical?) sun lighting up her face. "Rabbit...eh..." she giggled happily, "He's the curmudgeon!"

"Yes, yes, rabbit certainly is!"

They shared a look and burst into true laughter, guffawing and slapping backs, tears squeezing out of our tightly clenched eyelids. Just as the laughter was receding, they shared another look and burst into another round of belly-laughs. This went on for another few rounds before it finally ended. They were short of breath and red-faced.

"That was fun!" Blimey cheered.

"I forget why we were even laughing!" exclaimed Yubbies. Music was playing, one person dancing, @StellaThomas, they thought. The music shifted into something a little more modern and Blimey pulled Yubbies onto the dance floor. "I don't dance!" cried Yubbies.

"Relax, it'll be fun!" Others were joining them at a rapid pace, so Yubbies lost herself in the music and started moving to the beat.

Rydia

As the music livened up, so did the dance floor and Rydia smiled to herself at a decision well made. She watched @yubbies21 break out a few moves and smiled to herself as @Lava tried to drag @Nike on to the dance floor. "Go on, it'll be fun!" Rydia urged as she passed by them on the way to the snack table. Mmmm.

"Yes, it's a very nice day," @Carina was telling a plate of oreos as she nibbled on one of the glorious snacks.

"Uh, Carina? Are you talking to the food?" Rydia gave a nod to her crew mate as she waited for a turn at the chocolatey biscuits.

"Oh, I was just talking to @fortis here," Carina replied with a smile. Rydia looked closer and sure enough there was someone under the table!

"Oh, hey there, fortis, what are you-"

Suddenly a siren broke out across the ship and there were loud exclamations of surprise combined with a splintering CRASH and the beginning of screams. What the-

"What's going on?" Rydia asked as she hurried toward the commotion with many other close on her heels. "What's happening?"

"I- I think the ship just crashed," a stunned @SageN explained.

"We're going down!" @Birkhoff echoed, sounding almost excited.

"Alright don't panic everyone. Let's get to the lifeboats." Rydia stayed on-board until her loyal second-in-command @Charlie had rowed aboard and then she threw the ropes out to him so they could secure the sinking ship as much as possible. Some of the more impatient YWS'ers zip-wired down on the ropes once they were secured to some sturdy, island trees.

"We'll repair the ship and soon be on our way!" @Nate promised as he stepped up next to Rydia.

"How bad's the damage?" she asked quietly.

"We'll be here days," Nate admited from between his teeth as he flashed a smile for the benefit of the crew.

GriffinClaw laughed out loud as he watched the horizon tip sideways. The boat was sinking! He grabbed @SushiSashimi333, who had been complaining about the lack of seafood.

"Look at this!" Griff grinned. "I told you this would be fun. Just look at the carnage!"

He gestured to some of the YWS'ers who were looking thoroughly terrified. @racket and @herbgirl were among them, screaming and generally contributing to the chaos of the situation, even if it wasn't that scary.

Sushi turned to him with wide eyes.

"You think this is a game?" she cried out in surprise. "Honestly, Griff! This is serious." Then she narrowed her eyes. "Griff, you didn't cause this, did you?"

"Me?" He stabbed a thumb to his chest. "Oh no. Haha! But I wish."

Sushi rolled her eyes at Griff's odd, but common, behavior.

"Hey, let's go grab some snacks before we go. I don't wanna be hungry if we are stranded." Griff suggested.

Sushi nodded in agreement, and they watched in amusement as @fortis slowly crawled from beneath the table and handed them some Oreos.

"Thanks, fortis!" Sushi gushed.

Griffin was busy petting @KittyCatMeow, until she bit his hand.

@Seraph strolled past, and called for them to join him in getting off the ship. @DreamWork fell into step beside the trio as they prepared their zip-lines.

"This is gonna be so awesome!" Griffin hollered, and leaped off the edge of the boat, out into thin air.

Kitty couldn't figure out why @GriffinClaw had started to pet her, but she bit him anyhow. This was how conflicts start and ended ever so quickly. She grinned in joy as the deep, red blood started to flow out of his hand.

Still, beyond Kitty's own pleasures, the boat had sunk, and many YWS users had gone crazy. @Blackwood, who was covered in footprints by the panicking users realized his looks and hollered in surprise.

"This is gonna be so awesome!" Kitty watched as the completely insane Griffin jumped over the boat. Shrugging, she started licking her paws that were covered in salt water as she slowly walked off the boat with the rest of the calm members. @SushiSashimi333 was among them.

Noticing @Nate and @Rydia inspecting the boat's extreme damage, Kitty trotted over to them, interested herself. She could hear a few mumbles of groans. "This piece here must've been tossed away by the waves... I can't find it..."

"Why not?" asked Kitty, surprising the two workers. Worried looks immediately came down on their faces.

Nate spoke up, "It's fine, I'm sure it'll wash up eventually." Kitty was still not satisfied.

"Look, I'm feeling alright, and I don't care if the boat sank. I just want my fish, so will you just tell me where the fishing rods are?" Kitty asked. She sort of messed up in the last sentence, but she let it pass.

This time Rydia replied, "All of our wooden boxes had to be tossed into the sea in order to lift the weight off our boat to avoid it sinking any further including the one filled with fifty fishing rods." This couldn't have been a lie, so Kitty started poking around, then realized something.

"If we're going to be here for more than just a few days, we're going to need some shelter, food, and water. This means we need teams to retrieve these. Also, a small group to explore the area. WHERE ARE WE ANYWAY?" Rydia and Nate glanced at each other and nodded.

"Right, do you mind organizing that?" asked Rydia. Kitty quickly shook her head, then ran off.

Well being trampled upon had been a considerate misfortune as it had destroyed Blackwood's best shirt, but nether the less, the lifeboats had been launched and the citizens of the cruise were now being rapidly washed along the ocean.

Looking back at the wrack was depressing, the fine boat made its last beautiful sight before it exploded in a magnificent fireball.
"I say, that was an exquisite demise" Said @CowLogic as he squinted through his monocle.

Meanwhile the lifeboats were meeting a less than exquisite event. A storm had suddenly started to brew and the seas were getting rough. The separate lifeboats seemed to drift further and further away from each other, but still in the same general direction. Soon a horizon was spotted.
"Land Ho!" yelled @megsug, as she pointed to the island.
Several lifeboats had already washed ashore and it seemed some people were already getting their bearings on the shore.

On the shore people were beginning to pick up supplies that had come aboard with them on the lifeboats or washed in with the waves. @ShadowVyper was being extremely organized and taking charge in placing objects into useful supplies and useless supplies piles.
Meanwhile @niteowl was nervously glancing into the dense bush of the island.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." She said, her voice trailing off.

D.D
D.D. had been in the storage hold of the ship for the majority of the former cruise. He didn't like to dance or talk to people and usually just hung around, seeing what they had to say until something interested him. Not much interested him, so he took a slice of cake down there and his laptop and sat there, tapping the keys in the dark while munching on the cake.

When he saw that the hold was filling with water, he tried to go back up, but the hatch was closed and sealed shut. He threw down the cake and made his way to the side of the ship, when he felt a rumble. They'd hit land. After a while, he'd decided that the water had stopped gushing in so badly, so he popped open a panel of the ship, which drifted away into the ocean to see @Rydia and @Nate surveying the damage.

"Well, hello there," he said. He climbed out, laptop in hand and looked around. "This doesn't look like the party."

"It's not," said Rydia. "We were marooned and Nate thinks that the damage may be worse than we thought."

"That's not good. Good thing I have this," he said as he held up the laptop. He sat in the sand and opened it up, desperately looking for an Internet connection. "If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll get to your request within forty eight hours!"

Waking up with a headache was bad. Waking up with a headache on a deserted island was worse. And waking up with a headache, on a deserted island, with some strange man lying on you took the cake.

"Geroff me!" Iggy yelled, using her feeble strength to shove the heavy guy off.

"Mrfmm?" @veerenvks mumbled, rolling over and falling face-first into the sand. He immediately jumped up and spat water and dirt out of his mouth.

Iggy snickered evilly and sat up, taking a look around. Some people were already up and searching for scraps, while their loyal leader @Nate tried to get his laptop to work.

Iggy made her way over and knelt down, a hand gently landing on his shoulder. "Nate. It's no use. There' s no wi-fi and even if there was, the laptop is soaked."

"No, you're wrong. You'll see." Nate muttered, picking the laptop up and shaking it roughly, causing a bunch of sea water to fly about, soaking her shirt.

Iggy sighed and stood up to look for @Meshugenah. Maybe she could knock some sense into him.

She didn't see Mesh anywhere, but she did spot @Rydia and @Firestarter pulling people out of the water, @Carina eating chocolate (no shocker, mind you), @themessenger searching for things in the sand, @Aquestioning floating on a piece of driftwood, and @Alpha and @Seraph trying to sneak off.

"OW!" Alpha screeched as a shoe knocked her in the head.

"Get back here and help us, you two!" Iggy yelled. "And gimme back my shoe."

Once her shoe was back on, Iggy made her way over to @Rydia, stopping once to glare at the guy who ate dirt earlier.

"Whaaaa?" he yelled as she shoved past him to get to @Rydia.

"Heather, what's the plan?"

Kitty looked around, and as she attempted to fix the clustered groups of users to be put into specific teams, it was impossible. Deciding to do something else, she decided to take it into her own paws to find what was going on.

Suddenly, a large odd-looking creature... wait no... what was that? Kitty slowly backed away, and she hid behind a nearby tree.

"I smell intruders, Garnet. Humans." The other creature, Garnet, licked his lips.

"A tasty snack, but you can go get 'em. I'm saving my belly for the juicy computer dinner. See you around, Phian!" Phian nodded and headed toward where the ship crashed.

Well, if it wasn't hard enough to notice that the creatures may or may not be a species similar to bots, it was much harder for Kitty to realize that the very same species was trying to eat YWS up in a day.

So Kitty ran, outracing the other creature by nearly a mile and burst into the beach where the users were getting settled. She most likely created a huge amount of noise since everyone stared at her in confusion.

"RUN!" she screamed to no one in particular. No one ran until the creature suddenly gripped Kitty by her scruff and smiled behind her.

Not many were fazed and only got the message moments after. "205...206..." The "bot" started to count how many meals he could eat as Kitty helplessly struggled under the bot's powerful grip.

Eventually, @Iggy, @Blackwood, and @Rydia were leading the other members on their way. Kitty supposed that maybe having nine lives would actually help.

She felt the bot strangely eat her, digest her, and feel the end of her. Yet, she still lived inside that stomach.

Cutting open the bot's stomach with one claw, Kitty managed to get out, shake off all the guts, and run away from the other bots that were now surrounding Kitty.

What was going on?

Rydia

As @KittyCatMeow hurried off to organise a group to collect supplies, Rydia started to realise that there wasn't a lot more which could be done aboard the ship. She stayed just long enough to catalogue a few of the materials they were in desperate need of when @ddman18 climbed out of the storage hold with laptop in hand.

Rydia explained the situation to him while @Nate was distracted by a particularly large problem he had just discovered: the steering mechanism was bust. That was going to be a priority.

When Nate did turn to join the conversation though, his eyes latched on to D.D's laptop and he suddenly darted away to the captain's quarters, most likely to rescue his own.

"Nate - that's the wrong side of the ship, it's probably three foot deep in water by now!" Rydia called after him. She turned to D.D with a shrug. "I'm going to join the search and rescue. I'll zip-wire down, it's probably fastest. You may want to go a different way..."

"What, this?" D.D held his laptop up and grabbed a slashed piece of rope from the deck. Rydia watched with a bemused smile as he tied it against his chest. "Not a problem!"

"Alright-" Rydia smiled for perhaps the first time since the crash and then led the way down to the long line for the zip-wire. No wonder some of the writers were opting for the lifeboats instead.

"I need to get down there," Rydia said apologetically to @JabberHut who was manning the line.

"Of course, sure! Nobody minds if Rydia cuts in do they?" There were a few grumbles deep enough in the back of the queue but mostly it was very orderly considering the continued sinking motion of the boat. "We'll get everyone off nice and safe so just hold on-" Jabber turned back to her with a nod and held out a strip of sturdy sail cloth. She looked guilty for a moment.

"I figured getting everyone off safe was the priority and @StellaThomas is so good with a needle and thread-"

Rydia cut her off with a nod and a hand on her shoulder. "You did good," she said, feeling a little guilty that she had made the ship and not its people her priority.

"I might need his laptop- see he gets down safe-" Rydia indicated D.D with a quick gesture before wrapping the sail cloth over the length of rope and zipping down to the sand.

The beach was a dump. In all the movies when people got washed up on shore, the beaches were clean and beautiful but on this one you couldn't take a few steps without treading on some old piece of junk. What was that... a tape cassette? And that was an old record player, man. What was this place?

Rydia quickly found @Firestarter and was pleased to see he had organised a search and rescue team already. Without saying much, she joined him in the gruelling work and for the next half an hour they helped guide lifeboats up to shore and rescue anyone who had gone overboard.

"Heather, what's the plan?" Rydia looked up at the familiar voice and realised she didn't have a plan. She had a sore bank from stooping low for such an intense period of time and she was soaked through from the ocean spray with a light film of sand and salt covering her body.

"We need to set up a shelter." That was what they did in films and books, right? And found food and sharp implements... Rydia had never thought she'd be doing this herself.

"I can help with that," @Iggy offered. Rydia turned to Jack who gave her a nod, understanding that she was needed elsewhere.

"Let's see what we can harvest from this junk-" Rydia waved a hand at all the strange items across the beach. "-and everyone needs to give their sail cloths to Stella so she can sew them together to make a covering of some kind." Her own was tied about her waist but she un-did it as they walked.

"Where is Stella anyway?"

Suddenly there was a commotion and Kitty was telling people to run but from what, Rydia couldn't see at first. Then it all became clear. Oh no! There were bots on this island!

"We've got to move everyone," @Blackwood said, joining Iggy and Rydia. Together they managed to persuade the general population to move away from the bots and those who were trained in fighting grabbed up items from the technology junk pile. Rydia considered a typewriter for a moment but as much as it would be poetic justice, it looked like it weighed too much. Instead she armed herself with a rusted, metal bar. It was hard to tell what it used to be but it looked like a weapon now.

D.D

D.D watched as @Rydia zipped down to the beach and landed with a gentle thud. He looked to @JabberHut and approached him. "Don't mind if I cut in line, do you?"

He shrugged at D.D. "All she said was to get you down safely. She never said when." At that, there were angered shouts and complaints for him to go the back of the line and wait like the rest of them. "You're going to have to the back. Sorry, bud."

"I have valuable resources," D.D mumbled as he walked to the end of the line and waited, impatiently tapping his feet and fiddling with his thumbs. The line wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and he needed to get down there. Sure, he wanted the other writers to get down safely too, but he couldn't swim. Especially not with the laptop. "Hey, everyone! I heard @VeerenVKS set up another zipline over there!" he yelled as he pointed to the other side of the ship. The side that wasn't submerged, of course.

The other writers scrambled to get to the other, nonexistent zipline. Before some of them realized what he was doing, he'd already made it to the front of the line. "One sail cloth, please." D.D grabbed a cloth from Jabberhut's outstretched hand. "Thank you."

He made his way down to the beach, screaming. He didn't like heights, either.