Betrayed (A Yogscast Cornerstone Fanfiction)

Week 2/ Day 4

It has been a week since the incident with Ross and Kirby. Once she had recovered and was walking around again there was a lot of arguing between the three of them, even a couple of physical fights, until Kim suggested that Kirby leave for a few days to cool off and give Sjin and Ross a chance to settle their differences without her around. Kirby had agreed reluctantly, and she and Strippin left for an extended hunting trip that would last until next Monday. Kim won mayor easily after that executive act. 

That left Sjin and Ross to make up under instructions from the rest of the group. So far, they had just kept their distance in a cold truce, but they both knew they weren't off the hook yet. 

The house was continuing to transform. A third floor was added on and, with the help of Benji, Sjin, and Rythian, three extra layers were added to the smeltery. With all the leather going to additional hang gliders, people seemed a lot more comfortable as Kim and Duncan started making steel armor and swords for everyone. There had been no more witch attacks, but people were still reluctant to go down at night. 

Hat Films mainly stayed out of sight, helping finish off hang gliders and then being tasked with clearing out the slime from under the house. Everyone was pretty tired of the noise by that point, and it was hard to sleep when blue slimes kept oozing up through the floor and attacking people in the night. 

Ross tried his hardest to suppress a gag as he jumped back down into the congealing water with a splash. They were all wearing makeshift wading boots, but still the cold and moisture seeped into his shoes. "Mates, I think I actually prefer gathering leather," he griped, spooning a shovel full of slime into a bucket that Trott would have to gather and dump when he had filled it. 

"Well we could be down in the mines or playing with the shiny new smeltery," Smith mocked, "But no. We're down in this stinking cesspool!" He made a flailing motion with his shovel and sent slime across Ross and Trott. 

They both shouted obscenities at their friend as blue water splashed over them. "Hey! watch it!" Trott moaned, wading over to Smith's bucket and hauling it to the hole they used as a dumping point. 

"This is all Kim's fault!" he continued to rant, ignoring his shoveling for the moment, "I can't believe no one voted for Trott. We wouldn't have to do the dirty work if he was mayor." 

"I thought the hat would work," the walrus laughed, tipping his comically wide brimmed white hat that he had found on a pig last week. 

"Seriously though, we can't keep letting these jokers like Kim and Duncan be mayor," Smith whined, leaning on his shovel, "We're above this kind of work." 

Ross wanted to tell Smith that no one would vote any of them mayor if they didn't get rid of all this slime down here first, but he knew not to provoke him when he was ranting. He continued to shovel slime into buckets, his shoulders aching. 

"We could rig the voting system," Trott suggested, clearly joking. 

"We could rent ourselves out to people," Ross added, laughing at the innuendo there. "Oo, you want three votes mate?" he mimicked, lowering his voice and slurring his accent.

"Rent boys," Trott blurt out, laughing. 

Smiffy didn't join in on the banter. "No, Trott, I think you're onto something here..." he muttered, holding a finger up. 

"I mean, I guess," he shrugged, "We have a three vote sway, if we could coordinate that then we could put whoever we want in the position." Ross could see the wheels turning in both their heads as they started to formulate a plan, all slime removal forgotten.