Takin' Care of Business [Bog Friends Day 5]
Mar 19, 2023 19:43:02 GMT -5
Post by marguerite harvard d2a (zori) on Mar 19, 2023 19:43:02 GMT -5
![](https://64.media.tumblr.com/97dc5c7be1875c94e35fa01b7dbb5f97/0e3ddb668d240381-29/s640x960/0d9039bfcf0da9b60afba2613b56dab27b22198b.jpg)
I t z a l
Well, you're an untamed youth
That's the truth with your cloak full of eagles
You're dirty, sweet and you're my girl
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
![](http://i.imgur.com/IpW5AHT.png)
I “There’s good and then there’s right, isn’t there?”
When night had fallen and we’d nursed our wounds, I’d gone back around again to what we’d been talking about before – that you couldn’t worry about the good or bad you did here, or maybe anywhere, the way things had been. If Mirage had hesitated for just a second, would Ivy have been the one alive today? And if I hadn’t stepped up as a volunteer, where would I have been then.
Probably wondering about my father, cursing him like he’d been the one to choose his fate. And maybe he had – marrying my mother, going out on the rig, staying when he knew the danger – but that didn’t add up to the accident that took his life. No one deserved to die, no matter the evil they’d done. And yet at the same time, didn’t he deserve to live? Didn’t I deserve to fight for what I wanted? To live, to die, in a place like this, we couldn’t choose for anyone else. We had to fight for us, to see another dawn so much as our bodies allowed it.
“I’m not going to beg for forgiveness if I get out of here, no matter what happens,” I said as I plucked at the shredded strands of fabric on my shirt. What use was it to cry over the kids who died yesterday or the day before? Their families could love them or leave them to rot, but I had a duty to keep on living. And for fuck’s sake, that was more an example than anything a victor could do for us, wasn’t it.
The bar sure was low when living like you wanted was the gold standard, huh now?
Mirage wouldn’t ever worry about that sort of thing. Kind of a blessing to have some who could cut through what every else called gray and see the black and white. She didn’t have to offer me comfort when the chill came over the mountains and I didn’t owe her a good word even when she’d been cut up to hell. We would live or die, and we weren’t about to sentimentalize what we had to do.
I’d gotten over my regrets, I think.
I couldn’t have gone my whole life without knowing what happened to my father, for one. No one would have told me the truth, so finding the capitol news report at least gave me a piece of closure I could hold onto. Now – could I have been happy in five, at least a little, for all the years I probably would’ve been live?
“We should double time at the base of the mountain. I bet we can get up half-way if we push ourselves.” I didn’t sleep as well as the night before, so I packed up my bag and was ready to fly just as the sky was shifting from purple to cerulean. After all the cannons yesterday, I had to believe people were trying to lay low.
We’d crept along the winding trail along the side of the mountain when the sunrose, though I didn’t look back. I kept huffing forward, one foot in front of the other, all spite and sour.
“Huh.” I let out all quiet, coming to a stop around a bush into a little outlook that had what looked like a tent someone tried to jerry-rig. I slide the Katana from my side and looked back at Mirage with a grin.
For the first few days, I’d been fight or flight just like the rest of them.
But that was stupid as it was boring. It left us open to attacks from tributes and mutts alike.
There were still far too many lurking around the edges of the arena for comfort. And the only way we could get to the end was for a whole lot of them to go.
I thought of the chickens in the winter. They’d been sick and dying and needed to be put of their misery.
So it was with whoever sat in that tent.
“Let’s make these fuckers squeal,” I grinned. I’d never felt stronger, letting go of the good for the right and becoming wicked for what was necessary.
I stalked close to the entrance of the tent and took a breath. I prayed Mirage didn’t see the momentary tremble of my hand before I forced my way inside.
“Time for your final wake up call, assholes!” That was a cool thing to say, right?
My sword held high I caught sight of the boys together and brought down my blade.
[Itzal Usoa attacks Johnny Scaletta d6 with his Katana (sword)]
fNeQ6WuDupsword
[result: miss!]
accuracy, day 5:
sword
[result: 1066 -- 10 damage (Sword) -- Blades +1]sword·sword