frickin' bats!!! // plastics day 3.

[✨ zozo.]

There's so much blood and most of it is dripping down my hands and chin.

And my neck. And my arms. And my leg and my back and my head. Guess they didn't like the taste of their own medicine, grabbing one of the flapping bastards and ripping its whole head off. I don't even know where that came from, and when the chaos died down and we were standing there in blood and dirt I looked at the girls as if to say 'I don't know, I just... lost it.'

But instead I just smiled - manic, red between my sharpened teeth.

"They taste kinda good, you know," sucking out the last bits of liquid from the morsel in my hands. "Better them than us... right?"

Maybe I've gone insane, or maybe they've made us insane, but at that point I dropped the bat's corpse and followed it down to the floor with a groan. I'm half-dead already, wounded unlike anything I've ever felt before, but hey. At least the burning in my throat's gone.

For now.

Focusing on the positives, y'know? Numbuh Three style. I missed it!

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

I'm not sure how long I'm out, but I'm guessing it isn't terribly long because no one acts, like, super surprised when I sit up. Do they think I just, like, tripped or something? Like? And then I realize no one is paying attention to me because Kiko is-

Oh.

Oh.

Kiko has blood dripping down the side of her chin and she smiles, clearly relieved. Clearly better because of what she's just done. I want to cry. I was to gag. I want to throw myself off this goddamn cliff. Because in that moment, me literally laying there, having just fainted, with a giant wound in my neck, watching a girl be happy about having blood in her mouth, the only thing I can feel is intense jealousy. I need that relief, too. And even though a part of me fears it won't be enough, I cannot bring myself to go even this far.

I look down at one of the many we killed in the attack, and consider it for a moment. I want to. I know I do. They know I do. But I can't. I cover my mouth with my hand and push the dead bat away-

"I just-"

I can't.

"Now that we aren't in danger, it's kind of died down," I lie hoarsely, clearing my throat. I stand and walk over to the thin pathway that had brought us to this landing in the first place, and I keep walking until I'm too far away for them to hear me cry.

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

"Yeah, a lot better." She glances up casually at Kiko, taking in the freshly drained creature that is hanging limp in the other girl's hand. She can smell that same scent again / can feel that same pull on the other end of the rope / but she only tightens the bandage around her chest, stitches the deep cut, moves on. Call her spoiled, but if she's going to satisfy her thirst, it certainly won't be a rat with wings that serves as the main course.

When she stands, she ignores the little cracks in her armor, the tears in her skin. There are moments when her entire body burns, just as raw and aching as her throat, and there are other moments when the wind blows cool and she can bury her thoughts beneath the chill. She stares at the cavern walls, at her bloodstained fingers, and all she can focus on is, how much longer until I have my crown? Even here, even in a hellscape, she asks herself the same question over and over. It's never been a matter of achieving it. She feels sure in that.

But she wonders who she'll become when she finally has it; wonders who exactly Elvena Fray will reveal herself to be when she no longer has something to aspire for. Despite the emptiness in her hands, and the risk that comes with going off on your own without protection, she watches Chichi dismiss herself from the situation and take off down the same trail they used to get here — and she stares, and she waits, and then finally.

When the blur of her fading image goes away, and Elvena is left with only the wanting, she chooses to follow.

"Kiko, Mer, how about we put the bats away and get a fire started? I'll be back." She starts down the path, glancing over her shoulder all at once impassively, mischievously, and knowingly. "But don't wait up."

[gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕]

Blood.

It was everywhere.

And Kiko didn't even look like Kiko anymore. Head to toe she was covered in blood, some old and dried, some new and still shining crimson. The worst part about it? Looking at her made my mouth water. Well, not her but the blood that covers her sent a shiver through my spine that I just couldn't explain. My fangs grew, my eyes grew wider, and all my senses seemed to be on over drive. Then she bit into one of the dead bats.

And I practically lost it.

My mouth started salivating, but I did my best to hold it back and prayed that there wasn't drool on my chin. I could see the other two struggling as well, but I looked down as Chichi mumbled something before changing the topic.

"Now that we aren't in danger, it's kind of died down" says Chichi and Elvena says something in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah. For sure," I mutter while gently kicking a dead bat on the ground around with my boot.

""Kiko, Mer, how about we put the bats away and get a fire started? I'll be back." Elvena's voice wakes me from my trance.

"A fire, yes, sure." A bright smile crosses my face and I begin to pick up branches and other supplies. And as per usual-

I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.

mer does things in maint!!