but you won't see it :: [crass knuckles, day 3]

[pogue]

The sun feels almost treacherous by the time they leave the mines, carving their way out in flesh and too much blood left over, rubble and brimstone falling at his feet as he finally spills out to the icy earth below. His eyes curse him for what feels like an eternity, adjusting to the sudden change in scenery as he flips over onto his back to take in the nothingness above him.

Gray looks back, empty and lifeless- an ocean above waiting to swallow them whole. A staring contest ensues for a moment there, waiting for Hugo to clamor his way out of the tunnel behind him. Catching his breath just to lose it again, listening to his heart beat and hammer inside of his own chest. Feeling, for once in his life, alive.

He laughs. What sick fucking irony is that?

He pulls himself up from the ground to a bizarre look from Hugo, lost sanity tethered to the ten braincells they share together. Brushes himself off like it'll help, only to finally realize that he still hasn't let go of Jett the bat, all dinged up from where he'd slammed it into the wall in response to Marguerite's lunge towards him. His fingertips bend nails back into place from where they never came, over and over again until he's left once again with a new, hardly improved version of his playground mace.

"So that... what the fuck was that?"

He returns the bat up to his shoulder like he's lounging, twinges of pain shooting through his system from the way the rocks and rubble pierced and marked his body within the caves. He pulls the duffle bag from his back and dusts off the sand left over on its surface, rummaging through it for something, anything useful for either of them.

"You hear any cannons when we were in there?" 

He almost doesn't want to know the answer, looking out into a sea of ice and white begging to turn red.

[Scavenges Mines Exit]

bJ1g_fAXzs1-7

1-7

[alex 🐺]

Moments pass and heartbeats echo just like the walls shudder and break all around them, but finally - fucking finally - they burst out of the Mines and I want to kiss the frozen ground, let my lips seal to the earth if it means that we can sleep safely for the night.  

We'd been outnumbered with our backs exposed and our fronts threatened. Harvard and her allies exhaling malice and vengeance with each breath, making me lightheaded, staring right in her face and daring her to throw a punch. I'm not ready - my reliance on Axyl is straining, a weight on my shoulders like an anchor dragging me down.

Axyl doesn't seem to mind what had happened back there, but it feels like there's a hole in my chest where my heart should be. I'm not sure if it's an entrance wound or an exit wound, but it's funny how they both probably look the same.

"So that... what the fuck was that?"

"That was bullshit, that was. Some good old fashioned bullshit in the form of a five foot nothing nobody." I'm angry, angry at myself for rising to her bait when she dared step towards Axyl.

This feeling isn't new. I crave him like I crave the slice of a blade on my skin, thousands of tiny pinpricks scrawling words I dare him to speak against my chest. It's like an itch, a burning, crawling rawness beneath as if something is trying to claw its way out. And just when the urge to hide and burrow inside me rises, I press it down, knuckles flashing white and bile breaking through my lips. 

"You hear any cannons when we were in there?"

I rack my mind for a memory that doesn't exist, but I shake my head, my free hand running through my hair, pushing out dust and flecks of stone. It's a fool's errand - if we ain't covered in snow, we're covered in fucking rocks and debris. Maybe Harvard was right - maybe I do look like I need a shower after just days in here.

"No, no one's died in too long."

I don't elaborate. I sure as shit don't need to. We've all been granted a reprieve from the killing fields and the arena begs for blood.

[scavenge roll and actions in maint]

h|dSqws3_M1-7

1-7