dressing for revenge | plastics v copycats, day 2

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

<sup>The hunger wakes before I do.

But it isn't really hunger, is it? It's something similar, but then there's the burning. It feels like I literally have acid burns all down the inside of my throat. It hurts too much to even swallow- how the fuck am I meant to fix this?

I know exactly how. Somehow. I have for some time, I think. Since the dead boy on the altar yesterday, since I caught scent of the fountain and the thick liquid being churned over the edges and spilling onto the floor.

I'm on my hands and knees, dry heaving to rid my stomach of something that's already made into my bloodstream.

"What the fuck, Melrose?!" I ask, my head snapping up to the castle's ceiling, to the cameras I can't see and am certain are there. He could've, you know, mentioned the incoming possibility of fucking cannibalism while he was buttering me up in the training center. If this entire experience has taught me anything its that men literally cannot be trusted with, like, anything and, honestly, some of the women are on thin fucking ice.

I cough, wipe at my chin. Breathing through my nose is easier on my throat for whatever reason, so I'm trying to focus on that, throwing the red silk off my body and standing to get dressed at last.

Don't worry, I take my time.

"Do you guys feel-?"

No way in hell was this shit just lying dormant in my subconscious, waiting to come out. I literally usually gag at the mere thought of blood, and now I just keep thinking if I don't get to some soon, I'll die.

My gums are sore, the light hurts my eyes, I feel shaky and unsteady, and when I walk close enough to Kiko to smell her, I have to curl my hands into fists to keep myself from reaching out to her.

This needs to be dealt with. Soon.

I grab my bag and the vial of clear liquid I picked up at the bloodbath inside. Just as soon as I open the door to our room to go and get some privacy, I see a flash of black and I scream, slamming it back closed and flinging myself backwards as quickly as I can.

"There's! Fucking things out there!!" I didn't have enough time to see what they were, just that there were at least six of them and they were small and they were quick. I grab my crossbow and crack the door open to take a peak.

"Ew! They're, like, cats with tentacles! What kind of sick mind would do this?"

I hope for a second that hey might at least be friendly, but I let the one closest notice me and its weirdo little arm attachments sprang to attention. Its back arched and it started hissing, and all of its friends were turning with hungry curiosity already. Shit, shit, shit. I stick my crossbow through the crack and take aim.</sup>

(chichi attacks copycats, bow)
z7ZJY_Hbqdbow
[0]

[accuracy, day 2]
bow
[result]

bow·bow

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

<sup>It burned.

The prick on my finger was still sore, the skin bright pink, crusted blood around the edges. Never did I think I would be in some blood pact with three other girls, especially one of them being a Fray. Never did I think I would still be alive, but here I am.

The memories of the night before are still fresh in my mind and plagued my dreams. The four of us huddled over Erwin's body, our blood slowly dripping onto his body, hands locked in an unbroken circle.

In my nightmares, he wakes and kills us all for defiling his resting place, saving me for last so I can watch my new found friends suffer.

I wake with a fright, and sleep evades me for the rest of the night.

The words spoken the night before are on repeat, even while I lay there with my eyes wide open.

Ties that bind.

Forever more.

End of time.

End of time until it is convenient for us to part ways? Until we were forced to kill one another? Or end of time, even through death? A part of me knew I would not last much longer. Death stands at my door step, just waiting to knock it down. So, in the silence of the cold night, I cross my fingers and pray that my new friends would one day find me in the afterlife.

The pain of yesterdays wounds start to subside as a scratching in my throat makes itself known. It is like nothing I have ever felt and I was growing more and more ravenous each time I swallowed. It was as if my thirst was asking to be quenched, but I had a feeling water would not suffice. I dig my nails into the palms, trying to cause a different pain to distract me from the burning that was ravaging my throat. Frantically, I looked around to see if the other girls were in as much distress as I was.

A door slams. A scream echoes.

"There's! Fucking things out there!!"

"Ew! They're, like, cats with tentacles! What kind of sick mind would do this?" Chichi's voice rings out.

I push the thought of my thirst to the side and force myself to stand. Gently, I brush my black dress off to free it of any dirt it may have gathered during the night.

"Have you met anyone from the Capitol? I'm sure this is their tame version." I certainly hadn't met anyone besides the short occurrences in the training center, but I have watched the Games for seventeen years.

I can only imagine what they're truly capable of.

"Time to put this pact to the test, huh?"

My hands lock around my crossbow and I take aim.

I know my time is coming.

I just pray it isn't now.</sup>

( mereddyd attacks copy cats ; crossbow )
AZlVKTpo6Xbow
( sc on back - 4.0 )

bow

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

When she wakes, there’s a flame burning in her throat. The witch’s lament / the dragon’s song / the cruel and inevitable hunger of Elvena Fray.

And as it dances, rising and falling and filling her lungs with black smoke, she replays firing a steel bolt into a dying girl’s cheek. She remembers the wine red blush, the gush of crimson spilling out of the wound, a scarlet halo forming around a corpse on the floor. There’s beauty in the tragedy, but Elvena only stares down in hard indifference. Her stomach turns at the sight of it, storm over a dark sea, but the nausea never comes.

The fire turns to sandpaper as she swallows, tongue wetting her lips, blank blue eyes staring at the ceiling. Strangely, sincerely, the only thought in her mind is to tear her fingers into the pale arch of a throat, to reveal the arteries and the treasure beneath — and then?

The question bleeds into the silence.

She sits up casually, tossing her blonde curls over her shoulder, wasting no time dressing herself in the layers she removed to sleep. Corset strings snake up her back like ivy, chiffon and velvet and her own raw flesh wrapping around herself; but what’s a prison to the warden? She’s securing Mer’s weapon to her hip when Chichi asks, “Do you guys feel-?”

“Like I could tear someone to pieces, and then devour what’s left of them? Yeah.”

Saying it is the easiest thing. If they want to think her brutal, a threat hiding in the guise of a sister, then let them know that they’re correct. She won’t mince her words, nor her ambitions. “I saw your face when you were looking at the fountain yesterday, Chichi. I have a pretty good hunch about what we’re all craving.” She places the straps of her bag around her shoulders, falling in line to exit the room, only to quirk an eyebrow when the shorter girl opens the door only to quickly slam it shut.

“There’s! Fucking things out there!”

“There’s also things in here, Chichi.”

She listens patiently to her blood sister’s description, failing to match it to a mutt in her memories of the Games. Anxiety swells in the room, tension and suspense, and it takes all of her effort not to roll her eyes and scoff. She watches Chichi and Mer both take the same approach to the situation, firing harmless little arrows through an awful vantage point. “Oh, this is pointless. Just get out of the damn way.”

She drops her bag to the floor, grabbing the flail at her side and hefting the weight of it into the air. When she reaches the door, jerking her head to the side to alert her allies to stand clear, she doesn’t hesitate in kicking it wide open. Then she waltzes right through, felines with tentacles be damned.

“C’mere, kitty-kitties.” There’s no softness in her voice. No joy, no fear, just the indifference of cold, hard steel.

As she swings, she aims to snap their necks where they stand hissing.

elvena attacks the copycats / morningstar
YoecgBDzK4flail
6.5 - +1 strength, +1 mutt tamer

flail

[✨ zozo.]

<sup>This ain't my first blood pact.

I trace the scars - three lines on my palm - with my freshly pricked fingertip. There's something symbolic about dousing the old with the new, a faint red smear across jagged white lines. There's four other kids out there with matching lines, One through Five. How I miss them. I think about Four, my heart hurts, about how alone it is to be just Three without her numbers.

But I'm not just Three anymore. I'm Kiko Verte, District Six, PTS 7. An inevitable '-teenth' at the end of my placement if I'm stupid. I look out at the other girls with matching wounds and think about how we're all just numbers in the end. If I were any good with arithmetic I'd do the math - two times 92, minus Izzy Rodriguez.

My odds are shite. I know that much for certain.

And with a sigh that follows a whole lot of words I haul myself upwards into Day Two, III carved into the palm that grips the silver handle of my axe. My throat's burned all night like the start of a fever, and I swear the faint smell of rose petals haunts me every time I swallow. A dose of water doesn't do the trick, gulping down a whole bottle to no avail as my allies bicker and decipher what's happening to us. These girls love the sounds of their own voices, and even more so when they're raised. I've figured it out, I think - prick in the side of my neck, a thirst like no other, Erwin Morgenstern's corpse pale and nailed to a cross.

I know what a plague tastes like. I know what it is to watch people around you turn feral. Into monsters. For a moment I think about telling them but keep my mouth shut - this could be advantageous. Blood pact or no blood pact, there's only four people in the world I trust with this kind of information and they aren't in the arena with me.

Only when something sharp digs into the back of my leg do I make a sound, a croaky groan against dry vocal chords and the heave of effort as I slam the axe toward whoever - or whatever - decided my sacrifice at the falls wasn't enough to quench their thirst.</sup>

kiko attacks copy cats, axe
7yRkQexiyraxe
3.5

axe

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

copycats
92nd hunger games

You wait for the shadows to stretch across the night before you start prowling the halls of the castle, black fur bodies slinking through the darkness. You and your brood are hard to see against the obsidian of the castle walls, monsters hiding in plain sight while the moonlight bleeds across the sky. It is you and your sisters against the creatures of the games that have been unleashed on this hell, your hell. You are your sisters watch from the comfort of your perches along the railings at first, slip in through cracked windows and make biscuits on the plush red rugs while the tributes sleep. The halls of the castle are long, empty except for the threat you present by sitting in their center. You poke your head in one window, see two kids sleeping in a bed that's too big for them, take stock and keep going. In another room a floor away, there's a dark-haired girl curled up in a ball, tear drops for eyes closed shut in peaceful slumber. You sit beside her, tail swishing back and forth, back and forth, and then prowl away from her, slink out the window to go and meet up with your sisters. You like the look of the blonde one sleeping next to her, so you go back out to find the others, making a quiet chittering noise on the wind outside. It carries, the noise slipping in through an open window as you land in front of a set of open balcony doors. And slowly but surely, you descend on your prey. You had thought perhaps some of the girls would be able to crawl back out onto the windowsill outside, sneak up behind the girls. That plan falls through though when one of them peeks through the door just as you and your lot are slinking up to the doorway they were hiding behind. You lash out at her exactly the way that she lashes out at you, your second mouth dart forward with a flash, teeth forward. In a blink, your sisters match you one by one. You and Sabine's hits aren't long enough though, the reach you have isn't enough to try and match the one's who have distance. Clarity and Nyx find their targets though, and you hear the satisfying crutch of prey getting weaker until their claws. Good. It's breakfast time.

[attacks chiara]

uqp7JW3YA9bow

miss

[attacks mereddyd]

bow

miss

[attacks elvena]

flail

broken femur, 7.5

[attacks kiko]

axe

dg thigh, 8.0

bow·bow·flail·axe

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

<sup>"FUCK-"

Elvena the fucking Mighty comes swooping in and practically breaks the door down. As a reminder, the door was the only thing keeping those fucking things away from us. It's like a kindergartner's nightmare- there is an entire litter of tiny black cats, mewing sweetly and looking up at us. The only difference is that protruding from each of their necks- one on either side- are tentacles which end in open mouths of sharp teeth. Row upon row of them. As I shoot an arrow in the direction of the cats, its tentacles spring straight up, teeth facing me, and I only have a second to move out of the way as it send an arrow of its own in my direction.

It kebabs the back of the black velvet couch behind me, but I can see from the half still protruding out that it appears to be made of some kind of bone.

Mer fires off an arrow and, moments later, is also jumping out of the way from a return attack. Elvena takes out a chunk of one with her flail, and by return one of them swings its tentacle in a similar fashion in her direction before I can hear a crack.

"I think they're-"

Kiko's axe juts out at them, and one of them lashes back at her on the thigh.

"They're copying us!"

They're also closing in.

I think I count four in total, hands fumbling with the claws tucked away in my pocket until I present them on both hands. Gold-tipped, I swipe out at one just as it lunges into the air toward me.</sup>

(chichi attacks copycats, claws)
FX_pIWFrk|knife
[2055 - two severed fingers, 9 + 1 blades]

knife

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

<sup>Two arrows.

One from Chichi that sores past the mark. To be fair, she was just utterly shocked by these mutts coming out of nowhere. She gets a free pass on this one.

One from me.

It barely scrapes the damn thing, but I have no excuses. I'm just useless.

The next thing to fly by my head was the morning star I had given Elvena. A sickening crack splits through the air and I can't help but smile, beyond thankful that we chose a Career to be on our side.

Kiko's axe goes flying and manages to spill some type of blood from the mutts. Seems that Chichi was the only one who was unsuccessful. I have to bite my tongue before a snide remark slips from my lips. I'll bust her later. Right now, we need her focused.

Their attacks are swift, but I manage to duck out of the way just in the knick of time. The breeze of the dart ruffles my hair, probably leaving a knot in the already dirty mess.

Chichi strikes again, this time much more successful than the last as the creature's toes go flying.

"They're copying us!"

The grip on my bow loosens slightly and I look at the others inquisitively. "Okay then what if we just...don't attack? Do you think they would stop?"

But the group grows closer and my worry and instincts for survival follow it. Maybe now wasn't the best time for peace.

After all, I do have nine arrows left.

One of them is bound to hit, right?</sup>

( mereddyd attacks copy cats ; crossbow )
CwGb0jjZsYbow
( sc - 3.5 )

bow

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

Bone snap and overwhelming rage — the copycats spring into action, startled by Elvena's battle charge through the doorway. She barely has the time to register her powerful strike before a tentacle-limb lashes out; witchcraft and mimicry and her own spiked weapon being used against her. When her femur cracks down to the marrow, she falls to one knee, gasping out a single register of the immense pain.

Then she freezes, grips the morningstar by the ball and ignores the spikes tearing into her palm, hefting the weight of the iron into he air. With her spare hand, she grips the cat by the nape of its neck, gazing indifferently at the howling cat-creature. What's a beast to the men she's already shown indifference to killing? The crime aches under her skin, a crack playing on repeat, the only sound in the stillness of her one-track mind. She will do, and is capable of doing, whatever it takes to be crowned the victor.

And anyone, or anything, that stands in her way is just collateral damage.

Let the punishment be fitting. Bone for bone. She slams down the sharp, metal sphere against the mutt's ribcage, and then she rises to her feet. There's medicine in her bag, and she's got energy reserves to spare. Her hurting has never been enough to deter her. She's the girl who sits in the therapist's office and simply stares at him, coldly and surely. Answers his questions with more questions, implores him to analyze the insignificance of his own life.

"They're copying us!"

"Should we just stop attacking?"

Elvena scoffs, lifting her sneer from the broken kitten at her feet and leveling it at her allies. "Only cowards stop fighting — and I'm certain the blood vow we made yesterday stated cowardice was outlawed. Punishable by death, I'm deciding." She drops the ball and quickly lowers her hand to grab the falling chain, spinning her weapon by her side. "They're not copying us, they're just mocking our attack method." She glances down at the bruise already forming on her shin, purple-yellow galaxy behind black ripped jeans, and pretends it's just a scratch.

"We're stronger. Just aim for their skulls, and let's be done with it."

elvena attacks the copycats / morningstar
n0_R5N3CbVflail
7.0, +1 strength / +1 mutt tamer

flail

[✨ zozo.]

<sup>"They're copying us!"
"Okay then what if we just... don't attack? Do you think they would stop?"

There's blood pouring from the gash in my leg, the wound already clotting - but it's not the sight of blood that freaks me out per say, it's the stinging shock of pain. I should be bawling by now, having given up the positive attitude days ago, but no matter how much it all hurts tears still won't form. 

That's the most frustrating part of this whole thing. Not the thirst, the pain, not even the fright of monsters. It's the not knowing. The waking up to healed wounds no medicine should be able to fix that quickly, the burning every time I swallow, the ache of my gums. Even the strange way my teeth feel, edges catching at my lips, a new ulcer every time I grind my molars.  Not knowing what I'll wake up to tomorrow, tonight, today. Not knowing these girls - not really. Not knowing this place. The only thing familiar is the darkness, the forever night - and the fight in me.</sup> 

"I don't know about you," I hiss through teeth gritted, "but I'm not standing around to get mauled to death!"

kiko attacks copy cats, axe
aqaNlNoVj2axe
3.5

axe

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

copycats
43/75 hp

There is only the hunter and the prey, and you refuse to let you and your sisters become the latter. Anger, feral and furious nudges you forward when the arrow you shot towards her ricochets against a couch. Bothered, you hiss at her just as she swipes something across your face. Ever the retaliator, Nyx launches herself towards you, towards the girl, mirroring her movements. Gold slicks across your sister's paws to match her prey's and you snarl, feel your bones shift and lurch underneath your skin, taking aim for the other shooting from a bow. Your tentacles flick around you, summoning weapons from inside your bones until you fling a spare rib towards Mereddyd. You push into the room past her, breaching the entryway and run across the floor until you can leap for the bedpost. Digging your claws in, you climb until you're all the way on top of the canopy bed. Yellow eyes glowing, you can see Clarity and Sabine slashing back at their own prey. With a howl, Sabine flicks her tail out towards the previously sleeping blonde, black fur a flash of serrated metal trying to find purchase. You can see the blood dripping out of her chest from where the tribute managed to make purchase, and you let out a loud howling sort of noise, awful and grating, summoning more sisters. An even match is no fun. You need to swarm them. More copy cats crawl up the castle walls, clamber over the windowsills and take stock of the four feral girls trying to bleed your family. With a hiss, you send two to claw at the feet of the girl with the axe, try to distract her so that she doesn't notice when you leap from the canopy, letting the shape of your tentacle shift until it's as sharp as her axe.

[attacks chiara]

Wpo02PZCzbknife

severed finger on left hand, 8.5

[attacks mereddyd]

bow

arrow deep in hand, 8.5

[attacks elvena]

flail

miss, 0.0

[attacks kiko]

axe

Severed Right Forearm at Elbow -- 9.5 damage

knife·bow·flail·axe

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

<sup>The cat is paper through a shredder- my claws pinch clean through its little paw. I only have a moment to toss it away, and it isn't enough. Its tentacle lashes out at me and, though I cannot see it, the loud POP is all I need to hear to know that this thing just snapped two of my fingers all the way to the back of my fucking hand.

I squeal in fucking rage- "How the actual fuck are we supposed to kill these things if they keep mirroring our god damn attacks?"

It snaps its appendage away and I can't stomach looking at the aftermath. I'm, like, lowkey squeamish as fuck and if I looked I would literally be vomiting on live television and that shit would be worse for my ratings than that stupid ass bow. Which is completely out of the question now, because my ring and middle fingers on my right hand feel like dead weight- completely numb and hanging there between my pointer and my pinky. I still can't stomach looking, but I when I try to straight all my fingers out, I end up looking like I'm saying I love you in sign language. Not great.

If the only way out is through, then we have no choice. I recognize the smart thing to do is to use the environment against them but there's nothing we could really do except- I see a huge bookcase over on the wall. I get up and start running toward it. Maybe if it isn't like stupid heavy or like nailed to the wall I could, like, tip it over and smash the little fuckers?

But just before I get there, one of them steps in front of me.

"Shit!"</sup>

(chichi attacks copycats, claws)
qkRhk2C9XNknife
[its another miss folks]

knife

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

<sup>guess who has a paper do tonight but decided to wait until tonight to start

yes, the answer is me

so filler for now!</sup>

( mereddyd attacks copy cats ; crossbow )
nwEhL_wpXpbow
( arrow in bicep - 6.0 + 1 ranged weapons +1 mutt tamer )

bow

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

<sup>"Relax," she says casually, striding up to meet Chichi and wasting no time attacking the mutt that has her cornered. Spinning, spiked ball right to the face. A girl is a calamity / is an afterthought of a person. She stands on embers, and she never once thinks to cry out in pain. Never has, never will. All these evils are necessary. "Fuck off or die," she remarks calmly to the shrieking beast, closing the distance between her and the bookcase.

"You had the same thought I'm having now, didn't you?" Her eyes meet Chichi's, frigid sea and hot cocoa, and there's a brief moment where her lips rise into a small, quiet smirk. "Or do you just like creating scenarios to be rescued from? Seeking a knight in shining armor, are we?" She laugh-snorts, resting her palms against one of the shelves holding the books. "Think of a way to get the kitties to fall for our trap, and I'll send this bad boy toppling over. Don't worry, I'm willing to stall until I see all of them in the right spot. Imagine how the crunch is going to sound."

She inhales, the same dry white hot hunger scratching at the inside of her throat. "C'mon, we can relax later with a bonfire and mutt-kebabs. Go call the beasties, and we'll finish it." She shifts her gaze to Mer and Kiko, jerking her head in the direction of the bookcase. "Hey, ladies? I don't need the help, but you might as well pitch in. We've got bugs to squash."</sup>

elvena attacks the copycats / morningstar
B8MZpaFH|wflail
miss

accuracy | day two

flail
2.0

flail·flail

[✨ zozo.]

^{oh gee whiz that hurted}

kiko attacks copy cats, axe
kxkUIoSrmOaxe
4

axe

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

copycats
62/75 hp

You dive bomb Chi Chi, leaping from the top of the bed frame towards the girls head while Sabine tries to make ground meat out of Kiki’s ankles. Mer shoots an arrow that lands in Clarity’s hind quarters that makes her SHRIEK, a pained and awful howl emanating as she shoots another bone arrow from the throat of one of her tentacles. She hisses as it sails through the air towards Mer, fighting alongside the blonde entangled with Nyx. Your breakfast is fighting back and it makes you seethe.

[attacks chiara]

Hh897TFTEeknife

miss, 0

[attacks mereddyd]

bow

sc calf, 3.5

[attacks elvena]

flail

miss, 0

[attacks kiko]

axe

dg bicep, 8.0

knife·bow·flail·axe