subzero atmosphere. the girls, day 1.

[✨ zozo.]

 

↳ HARLEYROYCE. 

Well. At least we both fell on our asses.

Genuinely thought it was over from the start when I burst out the wooden door and the floor turned to ice. One heart-stopper later and I was falling face-first into snow, skipping the few steps between the door and the ground. At least it cushioned my fall. The shock of the chill woke me up - but my pride was all but gone.

Then Rita did the exact same thing and landed right next to me.

I think this is one of those situations where we don't bring stuff up unless it's important. Like how we won't ever mention that we both ate shit on national television. Don't speak unless spoken to kind of alliance. I respect Rita, and she respects me, and that's that. Just two girls against the world.

The fucking freezing world. Two girls in lime and pink on a white backdrop - yeah, like that ain't the Gamemakers asking for us to be killed off first. I grit my teeth, scowl at the sky, and head into the forest with stomping feet. Leaving the chaos behind us feels... right, despite not being one to run from a fight. Nobody touched us as we fled. I'm hoping that's a good sign. That they know not to test Rita and I. It's their goddamn funeral.

Speaking of funerals: the canon fires, just once, and more footsteps shuffle through the snow. My pace increases, cursing this stupidly bright jacket and just as horrific boots.

"My bet's on Twelve," I say to Rita once the sounds of slaughter have quietened to silence, hands searching through the bushes for hidden supplies. "Kid didn't have an ounce of fight in him."

Didn't stay long enough to see if he put my help to good use, but I'm a realist. He's as dead as a limp rat in the paws of a tomcat.

[ coding by griffin ]

harley scavenges:
BVrjm7ilP71-7

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[sidney]

R I T A

i don't think people love me
they love versions of me i have spun for them

Literally as soon as I opened the doors and took a step, my feet slid out from under me. And onto my ass I went. Down like six full steps, too. That's going to leave a mark. But I jolt upright as quickly as I can, as Harley lands beside me oh, so gracefully. "Get up," I hiss over my shoulder, looking out into the woods beside us. "We need to move. Now." I'm harsher than I need to be, than I should be right now. Harley's trying, I can tell. It makes something in my chest twinge, but I push it to the side as that first canon sounds. She mentions twelve and I snort. "You're probably right," I offer her, darting into the edge of the forest, looking up at that looming tower off in the distance. Maybe there's shelter. Maybe there's supplies. I've watched - studied - enough of these arenas to know. They want us to live long enough to give them a good show, but they're not gonna just hand us anything. We're gonna have to work for it. Or in this case. Climb. "You see that over there?" A hand extended out, I turn back to face her but hope she follows my pointed finger. "The tower." I swing back around and take off in a jog, tossing over my shoulder, "we should check it out."

rita scavenges at the tower!

GOuyZ_evjy1-7

1-7

[✨ zozo.]

 

↳ HARLEYROYCE. 

When they dropped our assess off back in Three along with the cargo, Maxen and I walked 16 miles home in the middle of winter. Shellshocked might have been the best way to describe us, or some other word that meant feeling foreign in a place you had once called home. At that moment I was just cold. Physically, yes, shaking in my juvi uniform - a flimsy tshirt, stained cargo pants, bruises meeting goosebumps. But something inside me was colder than the sub-zero climate.

I had become hardened. Ice itself. And I might have curled up in the snow right there and then and fallen asleep shivering, had Max not been at my side. So I kept on walking, making sure we were at the same pace. I thought if my brother didn't have me to follow by his side he'd probably have given up too.

Hours later and there was our house: but a derilict, broken version of what it was before. Shattered panes in the windows, the front door hanging off of its hinges and creaking in the wind, trash scattered through the overgrown yard. I almost smiled then, teeth chattering and red cheeks aching at the mere thought. It looked like us. Changed for the worse.

How cold it was in that house, even after I'd screwed the hinges tight and taped cardboard over the broken glass. Illegible scrawl in spray paint across the walls, stains on the carpet, needles and bent spoons in the kitchen sink. Frozen pipes, the only water I could find spluttered and groaned until it spilled all at once, splashing me so vigorously the sting of water on my blue skin made me yelp.

Our drawers had been all but pillaged, save for a few scraps of clothing - but I found enough to warm up Maxen and piled all the blankets I could find into one bed. We sat there shivering in the dark, not saying a word, the late afternoon sapping what energy we had away with the daylight.

Cuddled up underneath that makeshift sleeping arrangement I remember thinking that we were miracles. The next day I stole laundry from unsuspecting neighbours and scrounged up enough loose change to buy matches, never mind the fireplace had clearly been taken to with a mallet at some point during our absense. I swore I'd never feel that cold again, and the memory makes me laugh now. If I close my eyes I'm walking through the streets of Three in December. I'm not a miracle. I'm a curse - or cursed.

But Rita spots the tower and just by looking at it I know it's enough to get us through the night. I nod as she begins to jog and I welcome the challenge. I either die curled up on the floor or die falling from my climb up rickety wooden ladder.

One hand on the railling, another, another. A rung creaks at gentle pressure from my foot. Fuck it, I suppose. Hope Rita ain't afraid of heights. Charlotte used to be. But I don't think Harley is afraid of anything - not anymore.

[ coding by griffin ]

harley scavenges:
qW|niRtrP81-7

JK this is once per day, my bad!

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