the kids are not alright | niko & ivy, day 2

[pup]

The spider queen falls to the ground.

Niko collapses.

His vision is swimming in and out. The poison is racing towards his heart.

The pain is searing him, but he can't react. He can feel the fire in his veins, but he can't scream or cry out. His breathing is labored but the venom makes him feel like he's floating away. The sky seems closer than usual and the rain feels soft on his skin rather than cold and bone-chilling.

The water from the stream consumes him as he falls, the waves lapping against his chest as he struggles to stay upright.

Another canon fires in the distance.

Again, it's not him, but it might as well be. It would be a sad way for him to go and he could see the ethereal headlines now: Boy from Five Killed By Tiny Spider, Capitolites Laugh, Sister Mourns.

His sister.

He forces himself up and tries to pull himself to the edge of the water. "A little help?" he croaks out to Ivy, but he's barely able to tell the state she's in.

Somehow, he makes it to the land. That's when he allows himself to collapse.

Bouncing in and out of consciousness, he barely notices the parachute knocking him in the head.

"Ow," he mutters absentmindedly and takes a moment before realizing what it is.

Popping the pill in his mouth and swallowing hard, he can see the changes almost immediately. The world stops being a neon circus and he can sit up.

The floating feeling recedes, but now all he can feel is the pain coming from the various gashes on his body.

Groaning and running a bloody hand through his hair, he pushes himself against a large rock so he can sit up and survey his surroundings. The mutt is collapsed in a heap in the water bed next to him, it's legs still twitching ominously. Dark blue lines of toxins flow from the creature and are consumed by the waves, drifting downstream to infect some unsuspecting fish.

Ivy doesn't look like she's in too great of a position herself.

"You hanging in there?" Niko says, trying to raise his voice to reach her, but all he can manage is a dry croak. His hair falls back in his eyes unceremoniously, and he shakes it out of the way so he can observe the girl he just fought side-by-side with.

[F/A -3]
[leisure -3]
[collects things]
[antivenom]
[other stuff in maint]

---

bean

[kaitlin]

[revel latimer, 11b 🔍 jay]

IVY.

You sink into the ground.

Chest heavy, shoulders racking with each ragged breath, you're worn out. Spear clattered to your side, the creature's thick, mucus-like blood coating the steel. You aren't sure if you ever want to touch it again, to hold the weapon in your bloodied grasp and take something's life with it. But you know that's not how this, the games, pans out. You're going to pick it up and bury it in the skin of another, all while telling yourself that you'll be forgiven. That it was for a reason.

Maybe you'll have to kill him too. The boy from Five, he's gasping for air over by the rocks, his word gleaming crimson in the sun. But you don't want to do that, do you? It's just Arwen's voice echoing in the back of your mind, taunting you ("Well that was silly"). He's your twin, a mirrored reflection of you, and that's what you're afraid of. Of becoming like him, a killer.

("You're already one step closer to that, sis").

"You hanging in there?"

Five's voice rings out like a broken record, shattered and shaky. He doesn't sound too good, you note.

You look up at him, eyes raking over his own. He's in worse condition than you, a hole ripped into his cheek, blood seeping down the side of his face. Your stomach gurgles, if you'd eaten anything in the past day then it might've risen to your throat.

"I'll manage," you say airy, your breath still coming back to you, "I'm Ivy by the way, from Twelve."

[pup]

It looks like she's missing a finger or two, but she's looking at him in a way that makes him think he's doing worse than his adrenaline's getting on.

He touches his cheek, where he thinks she's been looking, and his hand comes away a bloody mess.

"I'll manage," the girl gasps out as Niko grabs his katana and cuts off a piece of his shirt.

"I'm Ivy by the way, from Twelve."

He cuts off another strip of fabric from his shirt and places the katana back on the ground. Pressing the first piece to his face to staunch the bleeding, he tries to manage a grin. Laughing away the pain had worked when a peacekeeper had punched him in the gut back in district five, but with the blood flowing into his mouth he must have looked insane.

"Niko," he says, starting to recover his voice a bit, "Five."

Holding out the non-bloody cloth from his shirt to Ivy, he gestures to her hand. "Looks like you're missing something, try to stop the bleeding."

After passing the rag off to her, he leans his head back against the rock. They sat next to the river for a moment, two confused souls. Bean appears from the stream, back to its glowing self now that the fight is over and the waters have calmed.

"I don't really want to kill you," Niko says with a small laugh, trying to keep his tone light, "And if you're determined to not kill me, I guess we might be stuck together for a bit."

---

bean

[kaitlin]