hope you choke / perry, day 1

[calla]

The whole stuff falling from the sky actually happens way sooner than she expects.

She's already worked the whole sponsorship angle before the Games started. Played nice with the rich people. Made them laugh and titter as she shovelled scathing remark after scathing remark on the pile of losers that was supposed to be her competition. Popularity? It's never been a contest. It's not cocky if it's true.

And lo and behind - Perry only makes it a few steps into the creepy, gloomy, (terrible smelling, like holy shit, why) woods until something falls directly onto her head.

"Wha-"

She jumps, hand flying up because umm?? It feels like someone just chucked a brick directly at the back of her skull, you've got to be kidding me. Hasn't she suffered enough already? She cradles the back of her head and frantically scans the treetops, dutifully ignoring the way the branches overlap and reach for her like gnarled fingers -

"Alright, nice aim, come on out asshole."

There's no response.

"Cas, if that's you out there, I swear. I'm not dealing with this sneaking around shit again. I'll gut you."

Still nothing. Perry spins around again, trying to track any kind of movement from within the gloom, but there's nothing. The weak sunlight filtering in glitters off of the black tar spilling from the trees. It falls down them in rivulets and gathers in nasty puddles on the ground, shining like miniature oil spills. There's a box sitting innocently in one of the puddles near her foot. Not suspicious at all.

She grabs it, wipes the tar off with her fist, and then opens it, obviously.

Bad decision!

A stream of shadow shoots out of it - bugs? Holy shit BUGS?? WHAT IS THAT?? WHAT - and she nearly drops the stupid thing, flinching back immediately. It stings as the mass swarms her. "For fucks sake- WHAT-." She flaps her free hand at the shadow (BUGS?!?) and tries not to lose her goddamn mind at how quickly her luck's turned. Then, just as soon as it happened, it's over. The silence of the forest comes back, oppressive and creepy as ever.

The skin of her shoulder's raw. Her head hurts. Some blonde bitch stomped on her foot on the way out and Perry's already cringing at the massive bruise she's probably gonna have. Shit, what if she has a concussion now? She doesn't know the signs of a concussion.

"This is the worst day of my life." She moans. Then she points up to the sky, accusatory, "This is the WORST day of my life!"

She glares at the inside of the box. The sparkle that hits her eye only makes her feel marginally better. There's a ring sitting in it. All that for little piece of jewellery.

It is kinda pretty though.

She pulls it out and slips it on, tossing the box over her shoulder. It suits her pretty well actually. Maybe the day isn't so bad after all.

With that very cheery thought in mind, Perry takes another step forward. Only to put her foot directly in one of the tar puddles. Annoyed, she glances down. Tries to pull it back out.

She's fucking stuck.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

She viciously yanks her foot out of her shoe and reaches to pull it out, muttering the whole time and hopping around on one leg. Then something decides to ominously crack in the underbrush. She freezes. Narrows her eyes at the thought of the box-thrower.

"This isn't funny, asswipe. Cut it out, face me like a man."

collects some goodies
gryphon attempt 1/3
0k|HX2NN2F1-4

1-4

[calla]

The whole stupid forest shudders at once. Perry glances at the trees uneasily, then at her shoe in the muck. It's probably not worth it, right? They don't even have great ankle support. Her life isn't worth a shoe that doesn't even have great ankle support.

But she doesn't even get to consider it for long, because the 'shuddering trees' thing happens again, and then this giant grey thing steps out of the gloom, and Perry screams.

It has wings. (WINGS?? Really?!?) And a beak. (Dear lord, it's going to peck her eyes out. She's standing her on one leg, agonizing over her lost shoe, and she's going to get her eyes pecked out.) It's got claws. (Are those talons? Of course it has talons.) Not to mention that it's kinda huge. (Really huge.)

Its giant ugly head swivels to one side and it stares at Perry with a single unblinking eye. The iris is a sickly yellow colour, like bile. She tries not to think about the fact she can see her reflection in it.

Perry, to her credit, puffs herself up, sounds a lot braver than she feels.

"Alright." She clears her throat, "Alright, what the hell are you supposed to be then?"

Maybe she can yank the other shoe off and throw it. Distract the thing. Shit shit shit, she should've grabbed that kid Larissa found and dragged him with her - Bellamy something or other, some kind of alliteration. She could've pushed him out in front of her, tripped him maybe if he didn't go willingly, his sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain. After all, it's the pretty ones that deserve to get the furthest.

"Hey, uh, you like the taste of boy?" Yeah, maybe this could work, it'd be doing Larissa a favour too, "I know where there's a real annoying one. Probably tastes like frog legs."

gryphon attempt 2/3
880LWdyVca1-4

1-4

[calla]

The creature twists its head again, to look at Perry with the other eye. She holds her breath. Then, in the strangest turn of events, it starts to purr.

Or at least, Perry hopes that it's purring. It could be growling.

"Oh, you like that?" She tries, "You wanna go eat some boy?"

It preens. It's talons dig scores into the dirt as it shifts its weight from claw to claw. It looks like an overactive puppy all of a sudden, nothing like the giant monster that was prepared to peck her eyes out and then eat her alive five seconds ago. It shakes its neck out once, gunmetal feathers fluffing and then resettling, and then it trots forward.

Perry hops back instinctively, but it just cocks its head at her. It reaches down delicately to the tar puddle and takes hold of her stuck shoe in its beak, then effectively rips it out and drops it at Perry's feet.

She's immediately smitten.

"Oh you're not bad at all, are you? You just wanna eat some boys, huh? You wanna kill some men?" It cocks it's head and leans down to let Perry scratch at its feathers, "Who's a good girl? Who's a little man-eater? We should go find you a little snack, yeah?"

Oh hell yes. Wait until the others see this. Totally worth the possible concussion.

Perry slides her shoe back on and starts to lead the way, already gushing to the monstrosity about how much fun they're going to have, how much chaos they'll cause. She stops rather abruptly when they hit a sign stuck in the muck, weathered but readable - "Don't stray from the path."

"You know what, let's go the other way."