to see without my eyes | (winter fae) day 5

[hesper hart 🐺 d9f]

They held Aunt Eurydice's wedding ring in their hands.

"Come," they taunted her, waving it in the air at her like a dog and its bone.

"I-" It wasn't really so much that she made the decision to, but she found herself mounting Icarus anyway. Can they hear it too? Her eyes refused to look, and then an instant later she forgot what it was she wanted to see. What she wanted- she saw it without her eyes. The day, saved.

Everything.

She could smell the flames. She could feel the regrowth. She could feel the peace. All of it, coffers filled. Her father taking this seriously. Her siblings giving her the respect she deserved. All of Panem sleeping safely. Her eyes filled with tears. She was so tired of fighting this place and the nature it tried to pull forth from her. She was so tired of her willpower being circumstantial. So tired of wanting to open her mouth and scream but only being able to urge Icarus forward. Yes, they beckoned, come.

"Wait-" She managed, pathetically, feebly. She whimpered and stuttered, her light flickered for a moment, and then her spine went rigid. They'll make you.

She stopped fighting it.

Icarus carried her in the wake of them for hours, morning coming at last just as the trees gave way to a huge clearing. Larissa realized she'd been here once before. It took her a moment- everything was rotted and slimy now. It seemed the diseased land she saw on the first day was spreading after all. A pity- the place looked nightmarish now in comparison to when the tributes rose into the arena. The area was also strangely segmented in a way Larissa could feel more than she could see. There were boundaries and she knew not to cross them.

What are they turning me into?

A tear streaked silently down her cheek.

Larissa saw a figure standing near the strange archway in the center of the meadow. The ground at her feet had cooled into frost, crisp enough to step on and crunch. The very air around her seemed cold, a mist against the arena's humid warmth. "Ah," Larissa observed, "That's insane."

Winter had come.

Pay your price, it seemed to say. For the first time, Larissa realized she wasn't alone with the creature. Magi was there, and Xaahira, and the girl who'd asked her advice back in the Capitol, Elise. No Perry. No Bellamy. She was afraid to dismount Icarus, lest she lose him too. Her price? Or theirs? The Capitol only ever had one price.

With a reluctant sigh, she unsheathed her sword. The powder blue stains on her hands grew warm and vibrant and the sword hummed awake.

Feed me, it demanded.

"Yeah, yeah," she retorted, "I'm hungry too."

Though she would've settled for a nice baked good, life essence wasn't really her thing. She didn't want to, but she stepped off of Icarus. He didn't immediately spread his wings and take off, so she felt a bit better. A bit less... alone, maybe. Though she knew she would have to be just that in order to survive: all alone. The last one left.

"Have you done it yet?" She asked the girl from 11, "Made them all love you like you wanted?"

Not a single other soul could live.

[ larissa attacks elise, sword ]
xXexzK5o7nsword
[ 9.5 + 1 blades +2 pts reward]

sword

[Hafen d4 ⚓︎ minie]

I did not see Will’s face when the anthem appeared.

Good.

With that last breath of relief that she was still alive, I let myself crash into a sleep filled with peculiar dreams and even curious nightmares. There was no telling if I was asleep or awake, all the senses so intense in their execution that my dreams and night terrors induced a feeling of being alive like never before. The colors so vibrant in an everchanging kaleidoscope with the faces of the fey hidden in the woods twirling about laughing madly as they morphed into flowers, frogs, and fog alike. At first beautiful with every graceful movement; creatures of elegant poise with charming laughter sweet like honey luring me into their world.

Soon the same taste of rotten decay from when I first bit the apple tainted all the joyous madness that was nothing short of amusing. The laughter became a mirror of my own haunted mania, all the lives that have been ruined because I believed the very best version of yourself could also be the worst. The ones giving into the devilish desire, letting your life be controlled by hedonistic wants and needs. The fabulous life of sin and self-indulgence was catching up to me but yet I still would choose to bathe in the horrors of the worst of nightmares.

I had no regrets in the life I chose to live and would do it over and over again every single time.

With that realization of my absolute fulfillment in life, my eyes shot wide open to a singular Fey hovering above my face. I may only be able to see only one, but their voices were plentiful as they urged me to follow them. The promised tales of all the apples I could eat, a place in their court where I could live out the rest of my days a queen of darkness and desire. Their words were leaking with poison, each word dripping their drugs into my bloodstream.

Still in an apple induced haze, I slowly take the pixies hand and let her lead me hand and hand to where my crown awaited me. The life I was destined to lead, the life of the queen, no…the goddess of hell and chaos alike. My destiny was right in front of me, I was never surer of anything as we glided through the arena on what I would soon come to realize were not exactly the promises I thought would be upheld.

With the rise of the sun came the dissolvement of the effects of the hallucinogenics and there has never been a time where I was more disappointed to be sober. I found myself back in the cornucopia without Thomas or Luna in sight. No, this was not part of the plan, what happened to the plan. Did I leave them? Did they leave me? Fragments of memories danced in flashing lights inside my head. Not enough to put the puzzle together and figure out how I landed here without my allies….and oh great, with Larissa Le Roux on a giant fucking bird-like creature.

I felt sober, there was never a sober moment I did not regret so I must have sobered up.

However, sobriety would not explain even in the slightest the ice covered, what I could only describe as frozen royalty in front of me. Eyes hollower than mine, skin glistering like a coat of ice covered her body but did not hinder any movement. Demanding we pay her a price and feed her. She wanted blood, the blood of one of us and that sure as hell was not going to be me.

Almost too lost in my confusion, I just was able to catch wind of Larissa attacking Elise…Elise?! Well, if the ice queen wanted death, she could have hers. There was no one I wanted to kill more in the moment. The girl from eleven threw a wretched party and needed to pay for her unforgivable actions. She escaped me in the bloodbath, she escaped me yesterday as we took mercy on her desperate ally, but she would not escape me today.

Today was the day that Elise Krane died.

"Oh Larissa, darling. I am going to have to politely ask you to fuck off and go kill someone else. If you want to feed the thing, may I humbly suggest the fruit? It really is exquisite." I slithered past my district partner. I was not going to have anyone else have this kill. It was not for the Fey Queen of my nightmares; it was not for the gamemakers, and it was not for the audience back at home. This was personal and I was doing it all for myself.

"One, two, Xaahira is coming for you ", I sang in a low toned voices as I twirled my blunt getting ready to swing.

table by dars

[Xaa attacks Elise; Moss covered club (Spiked blunt)]
v7ERswJ7Bvspiked blunt
14198 -- MISS -- 0.0 damage
(Spiked Blunt)

day 5 accuracy
spiked blunt
14144 -- DEEP GASH ON BACK -- 8.5 damage
(Spiked Blunt) +1 rivalry
spiked blunt·spiked blunt

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

m a g i

Gas, out of time, out of money
You're doing what you can, just makin' it run
(There's only so much I can)

He’d stayed with Lara for as long as he’d been allowed.

For all his time in three, he hadn’t seen death firsthand.

The games had come and gone every year, and though he’d peaked through his fingers to watch the gruesome spill of blood or the shallow last breaths of boys and girls from year’s past, seeing another person’s eyes go glassy and their breath stop brought a chill down his spine he couldn’t shake. He’d held her hand and felt it go from warm to cold. The sound of her voice still kept close to his heart, even if over the four days they hadn’t said much to one another.

Somewhere in the arena there were others mourning, too.

He couldn’t get the image of a Caspian’s head sliced clean from his body out from behind his eyes.

First, that he’d been the one to do it – his sword cutting through flesh and bone – Magi hadn’t thought himself a warrior. Then again, none of them were truly warriors, even the careers. This had all been make believe, and the wrong step at the right time had meant that Magi suddenly became fit the play the part. It didn’t shake the blood that had poured out of the boy’s neck or the gnawing at the pit of his stomach that somewhere, a mother or father had seen their son torn into pieces (or sister or cousin, someone who’d loved him).

And then he’d had to face all of that alone.

Lara for all her silence had shared the weight with him. Now he contended with the heavy alone. His shoulders sagged as he walked and as much as he wanted to speak so that someone might hear him, he’d chewed his own tongue to make sure all of it stayed stuck in his throat. He’d tucked into a gnarled set of roots and made himself as small as possible for the night. That way he could disappear much as he’d done for the first four days of the games.

Voices had whispered out to him that it was time to awaken, but nothing like the other boys and girls in the arena.

Little people, with wings and light had circled around him, snatching the necklace his mother had given him – a set of glass beads – and laughing as he’d tried to snatch them back. As he stumbled over a set of roots they called for him to follow. He lay on the ground in the dirt for a moment, and above, he swore he could see the young woman from one sailing on the back of a beast overhead.

Through the darkness yesterday she’d been one of the others in the fray. If she were headed somewhere, she’d know where these little creatures were going. And though he feared what she might do in crossing paths, he dusted off his boots and headed toward the cornucopia.

The place had come alive by the time he set foot in it again. Still blacked by the blight of previous days, Larissa and Xaa faced off against one another, preening over who would become supreme.

Magi, all shadow, and doubt, watched trying to find the right words.

He’d never much been good at it.

“They took from us and we’re still taking from one another,” He said, more to himself than anything, “And I guess that’s how it has to be.”

They cut into the poor girl from eleven that blood seemed to soak the earth under her.

He took a breath and felt the chill of the waiting winter queen.

Maybe today didn’t have to be his fight. Maybe he didn’t have to add another family’s grief to his shoulders. He kept his sword sheathed.

“It’s better just to get it done, don’t you think, than taunt someone who’s already down?” Magi glared over at Xaa as he started forward, fist cocked and ready to swing. He lunged forward and slipped across the blood that had been scattered. As he tried to right himself and dive again, he circled back toward Larissa.

[Magi attacks Larissa unarmed]

ELEGANT

8_qG|eP0n8unarmed
[result: +2]unarmed

[d7m fraser birk ♚ frankel]

”We need to redo our nails, they are starting to chip.” Elise offers to fix Leo’s nails as they call it a day in the fruit orchard. Elise’s resourcefulness comes into play, nail varnish is a luxury in Eleven but there are ways to stain nails the perfect colour. The fruits that surround them are the key ingredient, blueberries and blackberries with their strong colours. They will do.

Elise picks a bunch, enough to use on herself and Leo, she crushes it up in her palm. ”They will stain purple but at least they will smell nice.”

Mutinies are reserved for the fantasies that Elise’s little brother escapes too. She is exhausted from them; they should be behind her now. Leo promised.

That reassurance is a remedy for sleep, something she has not indulged in for over twenty-four hours. Once their nails sport a new shade, the pair of them say goodnight. But luck is just as empty as her stomach. That itchy scalp of hers…

…it burns.

The skin on her skull feels like it is melting. Elise tugs at her hair and a clump of the dyed blue locks pulls away from her scalp. Elise screeches as sweat rinses across her brow and into her tear-filled eyes. It feels like acid has been poured over the top of her head, but Leo is sound asleep, and Elise saw her empty the jar yesterday. It is not her. She promised.

Elise is on her feet, pacing up and down in the orchard with clumps of hair dropping from her shoulders.

”Follow us, we can fix it for you.”

Little voices speak in union and their owners dance across the sky in front of Elise. They mimic Elise’s movements, tugging at their own head. ”We promise, follow us for a makeover!” It is her only choice. Walk into a trap or be cured of this burning pain that is beginning to wash across her entire body. Elise picks up her spear and basket, looking down at sleeping Leo before she leaves. ”I won’t be long.” She says and the pixies lead the way.

A trap or a cure. Both will end this pain.

A lotion to soothe the sensation. Or a spear to switch it off. She will take anything right now. Elise is breaking and she is beginning to accept that there will not be enough glue left in the world to fix all the pieces. It all lies on these pixies.

It is a trap. She is back where it all began, where Leo took her hand and dragged her away from fierce fists of Thomas and Xaahira. Now she is back here. Without Leo but with Xaahira.

There is Larissa too, onboard a similar beast to the Bronze Beauty she has not seen since Day one. Of course, someone like Larissa Le Roux was able to tame one. Then there is Magi, a guy she has not crossed paths with before until now.

Larissa is the first to bite, but not before a drop of taunts. ”Yes they all love me.” Elise drops the basket, opening herself up. The girl with pink skin, sword like nails, blue dyed hair that is quickly melting and dropping from her skin. The girl who helped kill two of her allies. What a name she must be back home. But at least she has pretty purple clawed nails. ”Look at me, what is not to love. All thanks to your advice, of course!”

A sword strikes and next in line is Xaahira.

"One, two, Xaahira is coming for you ",

”We are not in the school yard Xaahira.” Elise drops the spear after Xaahira’s club knocks her off balance as it strikes. ”I thought we could be friends, you remind me of someone back home. She deserves to get slapped with these too.” She is talking about her clawed hands.

Griffin.

Elise attacks Xaahira | unarmed

84aKKqel2Funarmed

[1.5 damage]

unarmed

[[ retro gm ] angel lí ✨]

       

The frost comes first. It whispers across the grass as if coming from the depths of the translucent, mystical portal itself. Louder and louder, a sudden sharp breeze that sings against your sweating skin. What a relief this sudden chill is against the harsh summer heat.

Yet how quickly your hair raises against goosebump-speckled skin as the portal shimmers. Like riples against the cenote's waters it hums, sucking the warmth from the air - your lungs. Something terrible runs down your spine. A breath in, out. On the exhale your fear corporalises.

And so does She. You know her. What feel like endless nights spent shivering in the dark, craving the memory of mid-year heat. Storms that hammer their balled fists against the roof of the place you call home, screaming and howling to be let in. Falling forwards into the snow, the endless bite that seeps through your skin into your very bones. Hands that turn blue. Corpses frozen over in the streets. Neighbours found still in their beds come morning. The very loss of colour itself.

Winter, she comes with a vengeance.

TABLE BY GRIFFIN 

the queen of winter weilds icicles for hands [ knife ]
spinning and lashing out at the tributes:

attacks larissa
2j8o5mDxvaknife

deep gash, 8

attacks xaahira
knife

deep gash, 8

attacks magi
knife

shallow cut, 3.5

attacks elise
knife

deep gash, 8

knife·knife·knife·knife

[hesper hart 🐺 d9f]

"It chose."

They were foolish to think it would ever fall to them in the first place. They were pawns in the chessboard that was this arena; the creatures before them were queens. The tributes were visitors in their territories. Pay your price, the queen had said. But what Larissa realized she must have meant now was this:

Prove yourselves as worthy.

Larissa stepped forward, away from Elise's dead body.

The wild had a pulse, a heartbeat. It was a system of direct connectivity- Larissa could not step on a patch of grass without the leaves in the tallest trees hearing about it eventually. It knew what it saw in those moments and, being honest, it'd probably been watching them for a lot longer than the last twenty minutes. In fact, Larissa had an instinct now even looking at the beasts that it was their magic that'd lulled her here. It was their trance, their empty promise. When Larissa looked up now, she could no longer see the ashes of the Capitol rising in the distance. Only birds hesitantly deciding to continue their songs now that the commotion seemed to not involve them, and once-green trees slowly withering to rot, and open sky.

"It chose for us."

She approached the creature, her breath hitching in her chest. She fell to her knees- respect given was respect earned, and though Larissa lacked her brother's overconfidence, she was aware that she, too, had been given a crown upon entering this arena. The golden circlet gleamed on her forehead and not the others- except Torian- for a reason. Right?

At the very least, she'd be getting another crown because of this place eventually anyway. So if they weren't equals at current time so what. One current queen to one future one, you know? When the beast did not attack her, she sniffled, annoyed at the tears streaking down her face, and snagged her consolation prize for not being deemed too weak.

She caught the creature's gaze and willed it a silent thank you for not choosing her, then she quietly stepped away, climbed onto the back of Icarus, and went to find her friends.

[larissa claims bag #1 and flees]

[Hafen d4 ⚓︎ minie]

Filler flee because work drained me and I have flights to catch.
[Xaa takes bag 3]

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

m a g i

Gas, out of time, out of money
You're doing what you can, just makin' it run
(There's only so much I can)

It hadn’t mattered what Magi had said.

That appeared to be the theme of the past few days. No one wanted to listen to him, or answer him for what he’d said. But he was used to melding into the shadows or becoming a face in the crowd. Life hadn’t been so bad back in three when the other boys would pick away at one another, and Magi would be at peace with the quiet.

That had been all that remained after Elise fell.

A cannon in the distance. Some footfalls. And then they were gone.

It was Magi, then, staring at the winter queen. Snow fell softly in this corner of the cornucopia. He imagined that had been part of wintertime’s beauty. A serenity brought in death before rebirth. All they could hope for was a better spring.

He drew up to his knees and took the last remaining bag marked 2 with a nod. He glanced at the white fur of the fae moving in the wind. How many more days did he have before he wound up like Lara or Elise? Was he destined to become another in a long line of boys who’s name disappeared into the analogues of history?

He shivered.

Better to think of all the time that remained as a blessing. He had himself, and maybe that could be enough.

Maybe.


[magi takes bag 2 and flees]

ELEGANT