wanna quit all the time / vera & circe, day 1

[andromache s. ⚔️ [d1b] sucy]

Absolutely fucking not. These sand dunes suck. As I look out over them, they just seem to go on forever. They don't. From my high ground, I can actually see what lies beyond the rolling dunes: a deep, deep pit, and past that; a glittering glass maze just begging to be explored. Whatever they've got in the middle of it is probably well worth getting lost for a couple of hours. Maybe it's a gun, or chainmail, or something like that. On the other hand, maybe they've got some crazy Mutt in there, knocked out but ready to wake up as soon as it senses heat or movement or the stink of desert sweat. I shudder thinking of watching the Tenth Games back on my first night in the Training Center. Could that be why they got us to watch them? Because we were gonna be outrunning some twisted beast in his own home, like the tributes eighty seven years ago? 

No way. They'd never drop such an obvious hint. Right? 

While I'm staring out at the maze, a figure crests over the top of one of the dunes. I focus in on it. It's the girl from Four. Circe. She's young, same age as Marceline was last year, but she freaks me out a little, in a different way to Junie St. James. It's something closer to how I feel about Portia Maybach, who I still haven't forgiven for wearing purple to the sponsorship gala -- Tide Evros, Circe's district partnet, I decided to give a pass, since he'd danced with me so nicely. Maybe if Portia had at least pretended to schmooze, then I would've forgiven her too. Time to see which of the two Circe is more like.

...Truthfully, I don't really want to talk to her, but I feel like I have to. Our stake on the Cornucopia for the night still feels shaky considering the lack of competition.

"Hey, Four," I yell. "You look a little lost. You already getting fooled by oasis mirages? Sorry, babe, you're out of the fish tank now."

[kaitlin]

[minie]

There was a moment of solitude amongst the never-ending waves of sand. Alone with the sun burning against my skin with not much to protect it. An oasis to breath for a short second, with the only person I could count on…myself.

It would only be just my luck that another tribute had made it her business to interrupt my silence. What had made the matter only wore, it was neither of the two tributes I had struck a temporary deal with. Portia was still lost, for all I know she could be long gone. Her bones remaining buried underneath the sand only for someone somewhere to sing a song of a girl who would resemble her only in a metaphor.

A fate granting immortality to those who did not deserve it.

The girl from eight approached with entitlement in her steps and an attitude her voice. Evidently putting herself on a pedestal she did not belong on, who was she even? The sister of another dead girl from eight? There were all too many girls like Vera, my eyes scanning her body trying to assess if she could be a threat in the slightest. A mistake I would not be making is underestimating another tribute, but I was certain Vera would overestimate her own abilities.

“I’m not lost…” I curled my lip as began to match her pace, inching myself closer to her.

“…babe”

My feet dragged the golden sand with me in each step. The way she had spoken, her choice of words hostile, the alarms going off in my head. A familiar uncertainty, the very one that lived between the walls at home. It was only one step away from the paranoid formed monsters of my nightmares. A spiral began to form, a story had found it’s roots in an interaction that could have been as meaningless as wave crashing into rock.

But none of it every really was without consequence nor consideration. A singular wave may only chip away, but eventually over time erosion would leave its mark.

I let Vera play her games of taunts. Unoriginal insults that held no weight, a false alarm. My own facial expression stoic, this had nothing on years of emotional warfare. Overtime I found comfort in it, better to believe everyone was out get you than to be stabbed in your back down the line. But the game was no fun to play when there was nothing to gain.

“You’re in my way.” I sighed as I shoved her with my right shoulder, hoping it would have put an end to the interactions. A final warning; If she wanted to live a few more days then it would be best she stayed out of my sight.

ELEGANT