afterlight, [ niko v thunderwings ] day 4

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

CHANEL SATO.
gamemakers headquarters, day 4.

The first tribute at the peak, that's the only person Chanel had asked to be in charge of. Her baby, her little piece of this arena that she's most proud of; it took Tallis weeks of last minute engineering to put together the ribbons of gold through the sky, figure out a way to make the massive boulders defy gravity.

She hadn't expected it to be Niko. Boy by himself, picking up stragglers just to drag their towards death. She'd thought it'd be Adan Finch, or one of his friends, but it's like Sloane knows that's what Chanel wants. She's doing everything in her power to make sure it doesn't happen. Sending in ships while tributes are sleeping to move them against their will, uprooting campsites and leaving kids stranded where they weren't before. Chanel can't imagine waking up like that, going to sleep somewhere she decided was safe just to wake up in danger.

It's worse than someone holding a knife to her throat. At least they would do it to her face.

Her fellow gamemakers do it while the tributes aren't looking.

Cowards.

CHANEL.
Are you happy yet?

It's to no ones surprise when she doesn't stick around to listen to what Ruby and Sloane have to say to that. She just throws her hands, feeling like giving up will serve her better. It makes Chanel's teeth grind every time she thinks about how, in another timeline, she might have met Ruby somewhere else and actually liked her. Instead she had to meet her as a murderer, and neither of them is coming back from that.

The swarm is what makes sense. It could have been a boltmare—there's one flying around in the upper region of the mountain, making eye catching dives here and there. The swarm rises up behind it though, a mass of crackling purple cloud, and Chanel takes a shuddering inhale before sitting down at the module to take control of it.

CHANEL.
C'mon, kid. You can do this.

The Thunderwings make a sharp shift, pulling tighter together at the flourish of a button. The gamemakers glances over her shoulder; the second one of her coworkers stops watching her, she'll go easy on the kid. 

THUNDERWINGS ATTACK NIKOLAS,
wings (knife)

DR1HCG3nXXknife
2100 -sc left thigh - 3.5 damage

0/15 HP REMAINING
*thunderwings are
poisonous

knife

[pup]

niko






































Ivy's face staring down at him from the sky was the final twist of the knife in Niko's head at the end of a miserable day. After her death and a shoddy funeral thrown together by a broken soul's crude handiwork, a freezing snowball had struck the back of his head and thrown him off his balance. A mysterious laughter had filled the air, taunting him.

He couldn't find anything of course. It must have been a trick to delay his progress up the hill, so he was determined to not slow down. He knew that if he failed to make it to the top first, the other tributes would catch up to him sooner rather than later.

The mountain's peak offered some promise of peace: if you make it to the top, you can wait for the others to kill each other down below it beckoned to him through the cloudy haze.

Especially after his argument with Itzal (that dick), a break from fighting his fellow tributes would be welcome.

After Ivy's face had disappeared into the night and the storm had once again maliciously chosen to soak deep into his bones, he had stared up at the rain for a while.

As the monotonous rainfall lulled him into a restful state, the day's events replayed in his mind. Itzal's ferocity and Mirage's emotionless fortitude had proven themselves to be stronger than Niko.

Silently, he speaks to his mother once again, just as he had at Ivy's bonsai memorial.

If you're watching, forgive me for what I have to become.

Hopefully Kat will understand too, if he makes it back.

---

The morning doesn't bring much comfort.

At first, he was transfixed by the sight before him. His mouth agape, the floating boulders were akin to a miracle. The light of the sunrise glowing over luminous bridges and the clouds of crackling purple mist appeared to be right out of a daydream.

But when the purple mist started to move closer, the hair on the back of his neck began to stand at attention.

He draws his sword, staring at the cloud, trying to discern what the numerous fluttering shapes could be.

Then something swoops from the sky and slices into his leg.

"Shitwhatthe-" he says, trying to swing his sword at it as the bug flies back into the approaching, viscously loud mass. He recognizes them now as the dragonfly-like creatures which had swirled overhead as he ran from the cornucopia.

He wants to run, but he knows he can't. There's no more room for peace in the world ruled by war. He learned that from Itzal and Mirage in the battle from yesterday.

Recovering from his initial confusion, Niko squares his feet and prepares to strike into the mass.

"Come get me," he yells into the cacophony, challenging them at their own deafening game, "I squashed a spider a thousand times your size just the other day, so you're going to make a nice snack for the pond fish!"

With the cheery thought of zapping the bugs with one of the large electric lamps set on the border of district five, he swings into the swarm, hoping he'll hit at least one of the monstrous bugs.

attacks thunderwings w/ katana
OzXPPXtuM_sword
[miss - he will in fact, not hit one of the bugs]

accuracy reroll
sword
[1052 -- Shallow Cut on Forehead -- 4.5 damage (Sword)]

---

sword·sword

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

CHANEL SATO.
gamemakers headquarters, day 4.

The Thunderwings were her idea, dragonfly creatures that could tear apart the world with the electric purple gaseous clouds they leave behind. Chanel had read about them year ago, failed muttation turned back of a lab experiment, left to rot in a corner of the Capitol until a gamemaker like Sato expressed interest. She hadn’t really meant to bring anything to the table, but at every turn someone’s eyes bore down on her and the anger that rose up always made her think about Beck and—

Chanel is a coward, too. No matter how many times she throws hate stares at Sloane and calls her a no-good, traitorous kiss ass, Chanel does what she says. Every time. Terrified of what might happen to Hailsham if she doesn’t.

The irony is never lost on her.

CHANEL.
Go for the middle.

It's a whisper, barely audible over the sounds of her fingers tapping keys, running codes and algorithms she wish had never been invented. Nikolas manages to cut away a chunk of a few, and Chanel listens with alarm to the buzzing of dismay and anger that seems to rage out of the Thunderwings. Odd creatures, a pack with one mind rather than a thousand small creatures, stabbing at its middle makes the noise crescendo. Purple smoke clouds around Nikolai, trying to blind him as the bugs go to take out his eyes.

THUNDERWINGS ATTACK NIKOLAS,
wings (knife)

WO|pYR6px3knife
roll

11.5/15 HP REMAINING
*thunderwings are
poisonous

[/quote]
knife

[pup]

niko






































doing a quick filler because today is going to be a bit busy.

---

As the Thunderwings dive at him, Niko jumps to the side, barely avoiding another attack. The trainer at the mutt station back at the training center had told him something about swarm-based mutts, but he couldn't quite place it. Hit from the sides, maybe? Or was it to avoid the sides and go right for the center?

All he knew was that he need to strike quick, and he needed to give a show so that he can avoid having more mutts sent after him for the rest of the day.

"Is that all you got?" He calls out into the crowd of dragonflies, coughing on the purple smoke.

"Hey, bugs!" he raises his sword to prepare another attack, waiting until he could find a larger than usual bug. "Come here so I can swat you!"

attacks thunderwings w/ katana
t6CcmefQhrsword
[1155 -- Shallow Cut on Cheek -- 3.5 damage (Sword)]

---

sword

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

CHANEL SATO.
gamemakers headquarters, day 4.

He holds his own, bless the boy, and Chanel could kiss him for that. She doesn't know what she's going to do if one of these children dies at her hands, is going to end up on her floor at the bottom of a bottle and Beck isn't going to be able to stop her from drowning. She's already shivering with it, a constant cold creeping up her spine she doesn't know what to do with. She can't run from it; she can't use it; she's just trapped, prisoner in her own body, making choices she wants to choke on.

CHANEL.
Close. You can do better, Niko.

She tries not to grimace as the creatures wings attempt to slice at his skin, make him rot slowly through tiny wounds. He coughs on the clouds of smoke they leave in their wake, clouding the area around him with their strange, electric crackling. He can't see it, but it stirs static in hid body, makes Niko's hair stand up straighter as the swarm does its best, listening to half hearted commands from a gamemmakers who'd liked to see this poor child live another day.

THUNDERWINGS ATTACK NIKOLAS,
wings (knife)

TEiox1MXMJknife
block 0.0

7/15 HP REMAINING
*thunderwings are
poisonous

knife

[pup]

niko






































doing another filler because studying is destroying me rn

---

- kicks one of the thunderwings away as it does the sc
- swings sword a few times into the swarm
- coughs on the gas and thinks about how this is nothing like what he’d be smoking back home
- prepares to attack again: "Hey bugs, try a little harder! The gnats back home are scarier than you.". Boom, roasted.
- the gnats back home are, in fact, not scarier than these

attacks thunderwings w/ katana
3xVqPM|VOnsword
[]

---

sword

[gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin.]

CHANEL SATO.
gamemakers headquarters, day 4.

The Thunderwings are terrifying, but beautiful in their strange way. With every one of Niko's movements, the swarm does what it can to match him, adjust for the space the he left and now occupies. Chanel watches them sweep around, only leaving their shifting formation when Niko successfully manages to slash away another lot of gossamer wings. Thin as air, they flutter down to the ground, spinning like helicopter seeds towards the boys feet.

CHANEL.
Suck it, Sloane.

The Head Gamemaker looks up at Chanel as if she could hear her from across the room, eyebrow raised. Chanel vows to make the next witch in one of her stories look just a little bit like she does in that moment. Awful, delighted, ready to rule the world.

THUNDERWINGS ATTACK NIKOLAS,
wings (knife)

U4TMdtEprcknife
sc stomach 4.0

3.5/15 HP REMAINING
*thunderwings are
poisonous

knife

[pup]

niko






































doing another quick filler because studying is still destroying me rn

---

- swings
- hates the shallow cuts
- cmon just die already

attacks thunderwings w/ katana
QeejTd|h93sword
[]

---

sword