god help the children | girls vs wendihoes vs hollow

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

The end is near.

They can taste it.

The loud one isn't loud anymore, pulling herself up the stairs in a desperate plea of survival, a horse with a gimp leg approaching the farmer holding a gun. And the blonde, an alleged friend, seems to be the farmer in this instance, shouting words of beratement instead of helping. It is a sweet harmony which makes the children giggle.

She speaks of violence like it is something she's impervious to the effects of. She carries herself like she's a decider of fates, rather than an executioner following commands. Like she's in her current position because of her own effort, and not because someone else is currently dragging themselves up the stairs by their belly. Effort. What would she know about effort? It is the chief difference, the children think, between themselves and her.

"Pathetic."

They aren't looking at the one who is crawling. It's the blonde they're turned to in that moment.

And then they look back at the others: the smart girl and the fearful one.

Of the four, it's clear which is currently the easiest target, but does that make it worth it? The closest one could march over right now, pick the girl up by her hair, and slit her throat. But it'd be easy. Too easy, when they could make the tributes do themselves.

Effort. They demand more of it.

They point to Harley just as she pulls herself up to the top of the stairs, their eyes now on Maggie.

"Finish."

A group of them stationed behind the smart girl prods her forward, poking at her with their knives.

"Now."

[Hollows attack tributes who have not had actions made against them this round]

Marguerite
uPSO_T4h3Jknife
[8]

They stand the loud girl up on her feet to face her end, holding her upright so she doesn't topple back down the stairs just yet. The one with the familiar voice holds a handful of Harley's hair by the nape of her neck, leans in and whispers directly into her ear with the exact same cadence as before: "I won't be there this time-"

knife

[✨ zozo.]

harley attacks the hollows, axe
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Harley kills the thing that stole her brother's voice. One easy swoop, clean and simple, and its tiny little body slumps to the floor beside her.

"Go," she croaks, axe clattering to the ground but still in her hands - too quiet to hear, too hurt to care.

"Just go."

Is she talking to Rita? The other girls? The children? Maxen? Who can really tell. Harley can't, anymore. Not really. Because she's so tired. She's so tired and it hurts, fighting to stay alive. Fighting. Staying alive. All of it.

Pitiful. She just wants to be left alone to die in the dark. Alone, at least, Harley can go quietly with a little bit of dignity left.

Alone, she can meet Charlotte in the dark. Take her hand. Leave together with the girl she used to be. The girl that died with her mother, her father, her old self.

Alone. Without...

Max. In the dark Harley coughs up a sob that twists her diaphram so painfully that hot, stubborn tears drip to the floor with the blood she spits up from her mouth.

He'll be okay, Charlotte thinks. He was okay without you before -- two siblings, allowed to be just that. Just children, their own lives and identities and interests. Charlotte and Maxen, not Harley and Max. And he was okay, wasn't he? They both were, before. He didn't need her back then, and he's old enough now to not need her anymore. Max hasn't needed his big sister for a long time now.

But I need him, Harley thinks. Charlotte sighs, but in a kind sort of way. They're together now, side by side, watching through a set of eyes as Maggie and Ines stand over her body.

Harley grits her teeth and Charlotte simply breathes through her nose.

No more, Charlotte asks. No more suffering. No more.

Harley doesn't know who she is without the hurt, without the anger. Without the suffering she so clearly deserves.

You're me, Charlotte says. Isn't that so bad?
No, Harley thinks. No, that ain't so bad.

"Do it," Harley's voice croaks, eyes locked on the two girls above her as she bleeds out on the ground. "Go on, then." A challenge. A warning. Fierce, 'til death does she departs.

A canon fires. Is it hers? Who knows.





With one final glare, Charlotte Royce closes her eyes.

gorgeous table by pogue!

axe

[sidney]

r  i  t  a
jakov

It takes Rita a good few seconds to realize tears are streaming down her face. She presses at them, pulls her fingers back as she glances down and sees wet. Harley falters again, taking blow after blow from all angles. And there's nothing Rita can do. She's pinned down, sword in hand, but they just. Keep. Fucking. Coming.

The other girls won't let up either, taking their licks where they can get them. When her ally isn't looking, or defending herself from these creepy, multiplying children, they pounce. Hungry for the kill - for a canon to sound as they take the final strike. Rita won't forget them. Or their faces. They're burned into the lids of her eyes now. The looks as they aim to eliminate her for good.

Rita won't forget them.

Another little miscreant appears beside her, then another, and another and - her sword connects with a neck and it dissipates in a huff. Only for one more to take its place from around a corner. They were relentless.

Do it. Go on, then.

It's not loud, but its as if the room stills so she can hear it. The moment it happens. A memory forced upon her in the moment, and it starts repeating immediately. The final hit. The swish of a blade. The sound of her only friend from the start exhaling her last breath. Over and over. It won't stop.

She lunges out at the mask before her, a strike misplaced. Meant for someone else. In a different time and place. Rita promises to be there. And when that moment comes, she won't miss.

[ rita attacks hollow ]

TC0sxdn6v4sword

[ if this is a miss it will be so funny please!! fuck it isn't its a dg on calf, 8 ]

sword

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

m a r g u e r i t e

Something's got a hold of me lately
No, I don't know myself anymore
Feels like the walls are all closin' in
And the devil's knockin' at my door, whoa

I’m going!”Marguerite growled back at the hollows. In all the commotion, Rita must've hung behind her, and aside from the glance of a knife through the air, Ines had disappeared into the darkness.

Harley offered no rebuttal to Marguerite’s strike. Not even camera worthy anger for Marguerite doing what had been told to do. Instead, she curled into an almost a quiet resignation for a young woman who hours before Maggie believed could not have imagined dying in darkness.

Maggie reached for pity, searched for the haggard figure of empathy, and drew only the cool indifference that telegraphed across her face.

None of them mattered anyway.

Even the careers from the bloodbath who ached to show the world their superiority were just window dressing. Their stunting may have drawn the eyes of viewers, but who cared whether they lived or died? Not Maggie. Not Ines. Not anyone who had half a brain to realize that there could only be one at the end of all this.

Which didn’t mean she wanted to torture the poor girl on the floor. She wasn’t a monster, not the sort that pulled off fingernails or chopped off toes for fun.

“Keep still and save your strength for whatever comes after this,” As she spoke, Maggie’s finger twitched across the leather of her glaive’s handle.

She didn’t believe in any god, let alone one that could subject children to consequences of a war fought a hundred years ago. It didn’t mean there couldn’t be anything after all of this. She just figured she’d never know, and for a girl like her, death would lead to another shiftless existence.

At least she was used to it.

Marguerite Harvard would never sit still, in this life or the next. And that was okay, she left her peace on the sidewalk of a cul de sac several lifetimes ago.

She had to move.

Had to finish this.

She twisted the blade within her grip, and with all the mercy of a woman who’d lost more than been loved, swung into Harley.

[Marguerite Harvard attacks Harley Royce with her glaive]
KQsyFo5EBdglaive
[result: Shallow Cut on Right Shoulder -- 3.5 damage]

[Marguerite uses self defense on the previous attack from the hollows]
3-8

ELEGANT

glaive·3-8

[Cait]

still at a wedding so take this filler! im so sorry I will write this as soon as im home, big love 🖤

ines attacks harley | throwing knife

RIYXMPGD5qthrowing knife

GRIFFIN

throwing knife

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

filler so ppl can flee / leisure <3

[sidney]

r  i  t  a
jakov

filler flee ):