Help? [OPEN]

[Margaery D'Blieux]

Margaery could feel every single stone beneath her feet as she made her way towards the camp. She would have preferred to not be barefoot and clutching a pair of broken heels in her left hand, but she had to act the part. That included looking like a spoiled heiress who was in a plane crash, and that character did not include the clothing of someone who knew they would end up on an island. Therefore she simply ignored the beginning ache in her feet and the restricted feeling her legs had in her pencil skirt.
She caught sight of the the slightest reflection of herself in a puddle of water she passed and had to praise the make up team on a job well done. With tousled hair and a smudge of dirt on her cheek, she looked as if she had truly spent the last two weeks on an island. She had even agreed to a small scratch along her collar bone as long as they had made sure it wouldn't scar. She thought the slight smear of blood really added to the authenticity.

As she neared where they had told her the camp was, her expression of slight disinterest morphed slowly into one of meek distress. Her steady steps took on a slight stilted rhythm which wasn't hard given her feet were already giving her grief. She already let herself slip into the person she had been hired to be. The closer she got to the camp, the closer she got to the victim she was playing.

"Hello? Is anyone else out there?" Margaery called out into the surrounding trees. She might know there was a camp out there, but no one else was supposed to know that. Her employers had made that perfectly clear. They had also made what would happen if she failed perfectly clear. It was an island and accidents happened.

[Adrienne Angela King]

Adrienne’s eyelids fluttered open as light streamed through the door of her makeshift tent and hit her square in the face. At first the significance of this didn’t occur to her, but slowly it dawned on her that she’d slept through to daylight. What’s more, she was awakening peacefully instead of being jolted by a horrific nightmare that would only prove to be real. Indulging in a small smile, she sat up and pushed a hand through her distressed locks. Raymond was already gone of course, probably out exploring as he’d taken to doing recently. Addy was more content to stay near camp.

Though she was undeniably pleased that the nightmares had stopped, she couldn’t suppress the disappointment that she was still stranded. She had really hoped—however irrational that hope may be—that they would be rescued by now. Didn’t somebody knowthat their plane went down? With a very unladylike grunt Adrienne crawled out of the tent on her knees and stood up. She brushed the dirt from her knees and held a hand up over her eyes like a visor. Though she was opposed to leaving camp just for the sake of leaving, today seemed like one of the days she would need to bathe, and maybe change into one of the clean outfits that the other survivors had been collecting. It made her shudder to think of wearing a dead person’s clothing, but she couldn’t stay in her own sweaty, grimy clothes forever.

"Hey," she called out to one of the men by the fire pit, "Where’s the stash of extra clothes?"

The man gave her only the briefest of directions, pointing out one of the tents and telling her that supplies were inside. Thanking him, though he didn’t deserve it, she stalked over to the supply tent and crouched inside. From the pile of clothing she pulled a green t-shirt and some denim shorts. Everything was stained or singed and definitely worn, but they were also clean. Satisfied with her choices, she backed out and started off in the direction she’d been told to go for bathing. All they’d said was to walk straight until she found it. Some directions, but it was all she had.

As she neared the edge of camp a voice floated to her ears, a questioning voice that seemed lost and alone. Adrienne knew that survivors had been staggering into camp since the very first day. At one point she’d been one of them. She guessed they all found it at their own pace. Addy moved in the direction of the voice, pushing through some trees until she found the source.

The girl did not look like someone who belonged on an island. Au contraire, she looked like she belonged in a million dollar mansion; if it weren’t for the cuts, scratches, and dirt that is. Adrienne would peg her as some spoiled rich girl, totally out of place in this situation but certainly in need of help. Addy had reservations about talking to the girl but supposed she couldn’t ignore her now that she’d stepped into the open. So, pushing her pre-judgment aside, she strode forward.

"Hi," she said lightly, "Looking for some life out here?"

Word Count:536
Notes:

[Margaery D'Blieux]

Margaery's look of surprise was almost genuine. It certainly looked that way anyway. She didn't have to fake the quick turn of her head to the response. Perhaps if she was going to have to live on this island she should learn to be more observant of the surrounding area. Although Margaery was by no means a stranger to the outdoors, she had never been somewhere so wild before. Extreme sports yes, hiking in the forest no. Give her a base jumping assignment and she could go forward with ease, have her attempt to navigate a jungle and she was a bit lost. In fact, she was glad to have found the camp.

The first sweep of the girl's appearance let her know it was one of the survivors and that she was either heading off to change into the clothing she held, or had just changed out of them. Margaery ignored that the extra clothing might be from someone not lucky enough to survive the crash. She had known coming into this job what to expect. Sure, she didn't relish the idea that people would die, but she was quite good at compartmentalizing when she had to. Plus, this job could be the job that made her entire career. Sure she had family money, but what was that compared to her legacy? To step out of her parent's shadows and tower above even their reputation.

All of these racing thoughts lasted only a second. She didn't hesitate to contort her expression into a relieved one. She was a survivor now, she was one of them.

"So there are others? I thought... I thought I might be alone." She spoke softly dropping her shoes and raising her hands to wipe at her eyes. No need to actually cry, she figured that might be overdoing it a tad. She was not on some over the top soap opera. They had told her to make it real.

She let her hands drop after a moment and simply looked at the other woman. she wondered what impression the other was getting. On one hand the vapid heiress would be less suspicious, but it also meant people were less likely to confide in her or include her in important happenings. Her job was to be integrated into everything here. She decided on the spot how she would play this.

"I was staying close to the beach in case help came." She spoke, leaving the implication that she had figured no help was coming and so had taken her chances in the jungle. Some vapid rich girl would have clung to the belief someone would rescue her. Margaery wasn't about to wait around to be rescued. If she was to be respected enough to be let in she couldn't be some simpering girl child. She might not make many friends this way, but she at least would be taken seriously.

[Adrienne Angela King]

First impressions can be wrong, but it was hard for Adrienne to remember that as she stood facing this stranger. Her eyes swept over the girl, taking in the various dirt stains and scratches. For being pitched out of a plane, the girl still looked pretty fabulous. This fact, seemingly insignificant, only served to deepen Addy’s initial dislike for the stranger. It might be unfair to judge someone she didn’t know, but maybe the girl reminded her too much of people she used to know. Maybe she was too much like those spoiled girls who worried about nothing more than idle gossip and throwing away money.

Addy had always hated those girls. At the start of her life they came and went through her own home, slipping upstairs in the dead of the night and out the door in the morning thinking that they’d been slick and no one noticed. After her escape from her father their evil took a new form as they gossiped about poor, less fortunate Adrienne King the Tease. Her hands clenched into tight fists for a moment while she remembered but then she returned her attention to the situation at hand and forced herself to relax.

"Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you," Adrienne said quickly, shifting her bundle of clothes from one arm to the other, "There’s quite a few of us actually. We’ve set up camp back that—"

She stopped speaking when the girl let her shoes fall to the dirt and raised her hands to her eyes. Good lord, was she crying? From this angle Addy found it hard to tell, but tears would fit right along with the image painted in her head of an inane rich girl. If the girl was crying, Adrienne felt a surprising lack of sympathy for her and was almost glad to see that she’d be dealing with some suffering in her life. When the girl dropped her hands it became clear that she hadn’t been crying at all, and though it didn’t rise far Addy’s respect for her went up a notch.

"I don’t think help is coming anytime soon," Addy said grimly, "But as I was saying we’ve set up a camp back that way," she pointed in the direction of camp, "I can take you there if you want. You’re quite welcome."

Word Count:390
Notes:

[Margaery D'Blieux]

The other woman didn't like her. That much wasn't extremely difficult to figure out. Margaery had to keep herself from smiling at the thought that clearly her persona was working. She didn't need everyone to like her, less drama for the show if everyone liked her. In fact, she figured once she got settled she could even see just how far she could push her new camp mate. She's sure that would make for entertaining television.

Nonetheless, Margaery made no move to pick up her useless shoes. They were nice, but she was being paid enough that she could buy new ones when she got off this godforsaken island. She also took the opportunity to lean down and pull a rip up the seem of her skirt and make it easier to move in. She had to stop herself from taking a moment to admire her nails. They had been artfully chipped in order to look as if she had been here the whole time and Margaery was all the more impressed with how thorough the people dressing her had been.

When she straightened up again she responded.
"Yes, thank you. I think I've had enough wandering alone in the jungle for the rest of my life." Her eyes drifted to their surroundings again and she noted that although she knew there were cameras, she could not see them. She disguised the short search by raising a hand to remove a bit of hair from her face. It helped keep up with her rich girl act and gave her a moment to assess where she wanted to go with this.

"I'm Margaery." Was the brief introduction. She didn't give her last name mostly because she didn't feel it was necessary. People who were in business might recognize the name since her rich girl persona wasn't far off the mark and her father did own a pretty well known shipping company, and Margaery wasn't ready to share that. If she went around blurting her cover story to everyone, she would never come across as genuine enough to not get caught. She also didn't mention any nicknames, mainly because they might be one of her biggest pet peeves and she did not want to have to suffer through weeks of being called 'Maggie' or god forbid 'Mags'.

[Adrienne Angela King]

Help would not be coming anytime soon. Adrienne realized the truth to these words the moment she spoke them. For as long as she’d been here she had been holding out a hope for a rescue, because someone somewhere had to know where they were. Now she was hearing something different ringing in her ears: that she would be here a while at best and possibly even forever. It was entirely possibly that nobody knew where their plane had gone down and might just give them up for dead. She visibly shuddered at the thought and drew her attention back to the present.

Adrienne tried to disguise her animosity toward the woman, but the truth was that she wasn’t very successful in that. The rigidity of her posture and tautness to her voice gave away everything. Still, she tried to remain polite if not welcoming. With a soft cough, Addy scratched her arm and glanced at the ground. There was already certain awkwardness to meeting people on this island. She wasn’t sure what else to say or do now.

"I can imagine," she said idly, "I was lucky to stumble across camp within a few days, and even that was more than enough for me."

While the other woman’s gaze wandered around their surroundings, Adrienne took an opportunity to look around but saw nothing of interest. The wilderness all seemed to be the same, dull and woodsy. When she’d finished her brief survey she realized the stranger had introduced herself and Adrienne had hardly been listening. What was her name? Margaret? No, Margaery.

"Lovely name," she commented honestly, "I’m Adrienne."

Word Count:270
Notes: Kinda short, sorry but I’m sooo busy lately.

[Margaery D'Blieux]

Margaery knew that it was mainly her act and appearance that was causing the dislike she could sense from the other woman, but she couldn't help start to feel a little animosity herself. Perhaps it was a reaction to the other woman's behavior, but more likely it was because she could already tell they were just too opposite to really have much in common. Something just rubbed her the wrong way about the survivor and she made no effort to contain her own narrowing eyes when she noticed the other hadn't even really been paying her much attention.

"Adrienne is lovely enough as well." She knew mot people with names like theirs preferred nicknames, but she was going to use the other woman's full name. If it bothered her all the better. Her words were very light for a conversation stuck on an island, but shock does that to people and Margaery found Adrienne's speech frank enough for hers to pass. In fact, under her instructions, she had been clearly told not to act like some frightened woman-child. Apparently survivors tended not freak out as much as one would expect. Margaery had been able to study a few of their mannerisms in the two weeks she was supposedly wandering alone. She hadn't seen this woman, but in her dislike she didn't mind much.

"Missing anything important in Japan?" She asked. Her tone belied nothing more then slight interest and could easily pass as just a poorly thought out question from someone with little tact. However, Margaery couldn't help but bring up what could possibly be a sore subject since it didn't do anything but bring up the horrible clash and what people may have lost in it. Call her spiteful, but it played in well with her character so she might as well make herself happy as well. Turns out spoiled rich girls and catty actresses could draw from the same phrasebook.

As Margaery waited for a response if she was going to get one, her own mind thought through her carefully crafted cover story. If anyone were to ask she was on a business trip for her father's company. It wasn't too far from a possible truth anyway. Her father had truly wanted to integrate her into the company, and Margaery had grown up at his hand learning every manipulative CEO trick in the book. Nonetheless, Margaery had decided to take those years of practice and use them towards an acting career. One her parents had most likely disapproved of. She couldn't be sure due to the fact her parents were only ever supportive when people were watching, and people were always watching. You couldn't have a major company that dipped into everyone's business and not expect to be under the microscope. It's why being in front of a camera effected Margaery so little. It was really just one more level of scrutiny.

((OOC: No problem!))

[Adrienne Angela King]

Adrienne had never been skilled at concealing her feelings about people. Try as she might, the truth always seemed to shine through. So more likely than not, she was sending clear, hostile signals to the other woman. She knew¡Xon some logical level¡Xthat Margaery had every right to return more of that same attitude, but when her eyes narrowed and it was clear that the animosity was mutual, Adrienne found herself suddenly pissed off. Her lips pursed together for a brief moment while she held pack the snappish remark she longed to dish out. After a moment the tension relaxed and her lips curled into a false smile.

"Thank you," she said tightly in response to the comment about her name. Normally she preferred Addy to her full name, but she reserved that for people she was friendly and/or familiar with. They may have only met, but Adrienne could tell already that things between her and Margaery would never progress to that level. In fact their relationship would probably remain reluctantly polite at best¡K or not.

Call her too suspicious, but Adrienne detected something more than a casual interest when the girl brought up Japan. It sounded almost as though she were purposely broaching the topic in order to bring memories of the crash to the surface. Addy¡¦s eyes narrowed slightly as she thought this but she was careful not to show any signs of emotional distress over remembering the crash. She would not give this Margaery that satisfaction.

"Nothing too important," she responded calmly, "my brother and I had just planned a vacation. We did lose money on hotel reservations but that¡¦s neither here nor there at this point."

Word Count:281
Notes: Still short, but I¡¦m also crazy busy with college starting soon and can¡¦t spend as much time on these as I¡¦d like, but I wanted to be sure to give you something. ƒº

[Margaery D'Blieux]

Margaery didn't miss the tells of hostility. Every small twitch just made her widen her all too innocent gaze and smile slightly wider. Never too much that she left scared survivor behind, but enough that she was sure the other would see that the feeling was completely mutual on her part as well. She could already tell this would make for good television. After all, every show needed a good pair of enemies. She wondered just how far she could push Adrienne before the other woman would blow up at her. However, she pushed those thoughts aside. Building the animosity up too fast wouldn't read real to everybody watching. She had to let it build slowly.

Adrienne's reaction told Margaery that her comment's meaning and intention had not gone unnoticed. Only after she knew it had worked did she change her expression slightly to one of concern. She tried to look as contrite as she could pull off without looking fake or over the top.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried. Sometimes I don't think before I speak." She said with a small guilty frown. Of course, she was lying through her teeth. She never spoke a word without carefully considering every single thing about it. The day she slipped up was the day she quit her job and go back to living at home, and that was never going to happen. Especially not here when a slip up meant a more dangerous fate then simply getting fired.

"I hope your brother is alright." was the next thing Margaery said. For once she was slightly genuine. She didn't like that people had been injured and killed in the crash. Of course, she also didn't feel particularly bad about it either. Anyway, a stray thought of how a brother could be useful in this ploy of hers was interesting. She wondered if he would make as good an enemy as his sister or if she would have to go another route. Either way the possibilities were something to be considered.

One thing Margaery had to give the other woman credit for was how calm and collected she seemed even with Margaery's small barbs. It was something she could respect since she herself liked to remain cool under pressure. Perhaps the other woman could even learn a thing or two about acting while she was here. Margaery figured being stranded on an island with people you don't always like or trust would make anyone better at concealing their true thoughts.

((OOC: Like I said it's no problem. I started classes Monday, so I definitely get it.))