you're crashing but you're no wave / v vs t vs c, day 4

[andromache s. ⚔️ [d1b] sucy]

The sun starts to rise, and so does the tension. "You've got the directional sense of a fruit fly," says Nori. I scoff back, whipping around to face her. My braids fan out behind me. They're all mussed up now, frizzy and coming apart from the heat. Every other day so far I'd bothered to fix them up, checking myself in the glint of my weapons' blades, but the Glass Labyrinth has gotten to me.

"New plan?" I start. I'm about to tell her that there's only one plan right now: getting out of this dump. It doesn't matter which of us is in the front. The fuckers in the control room are probably manipulating the walls on us anyways. But I don't get to. The wind picks up, blows so hard that it reaches down between the glass walls, makes it impossibly harder to navigate as sand starts flying. I can hear my friends calling, apologising. I shout back, yelling their names and the only two words I can think of that might help:

"Stay calm!"

I spend the rest of the day low to the ground, cycling through memories as I aimlessly crawl forward. Home. The clothes I left all over my bed before leaving for the Reaping. Pleater's face when Marceline died. Marceline in the snow. Marceline on the beach, at the end. Did they reuse any of that sand this year? I'm still way behind her in kills. 

Eventually I find my way out. New deposits of displaced black sand lead me out of the labyrinth and to their place of origin. The desert in front of me looks like a child's picture of District Twelve. I'm not alone, because why would I be? Two career kids, just my luck. A pair of district partners too, just for good measure. I can't help myself; a laugh is dragged out of me. I wipe the sweat from my hands and readjust my grip on the sword I found in the labyrinth. 

"Nice to see you, Four-heads. Am I interrupting a reunion?"

If one of them dies, good. If both of them do, even better. I've just got to live. But looking at them, Circe and Tide, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't kill each other, right here and right now. After just a few hours of separation, I feel the grip of the oath I made with the girls loosening. We're all alone in the end.

o[kaitlin]

vera activates the 1 free poison station use from the poison ivy sword


vera attacks circe murdock using poison ivy sword

|cUFzWQSScsword

result: block! 0.0 damage +1 poison


vera attacks tide evros using poison ivy sword

sword

result: shallow cut on right calf -- 3.5 +1 poison

vera uses accuracy station day 4 to reroll attack on circe murdock using poison ivy sword

sword

result: shallow cut on right bicep -- 3.5 +1 poison

sword·sword·sword

[d9 kristof parks {ems}]

❦

He spends the roaming around keeping himself safe, but safety means nothing here. Everything is falling apart, and he wants to survive, to stay alive, to win this game, but first, it's about surviving whatever comes his way. Tide keeps Safina in eye range though because he's not ready to lose her. His entire being aches from lack of sleep, but sleep will come later. This is only temporary, until it becomes permanent. Nothing about it makes any sense though. Some time in the morning, Tide realizes it's time to break apart. His heart is heavy, but it's for the best. With only nine people remaining, he knows it's far more important than hitching himself to an alliance to make it to the end.

I am sorry.

Finding his own way is hard, but he has a lot to prove, and it's uncomfortable. This is his moment. His time to shine. So many people have taken it from him, but right here, Tide wants nothing more than to figure out how to make his name known. He wraps the shadowy cloak around his shoulders and creeps through the arena. Everything here is perfect. But even as the wind picks up and makes the visibility impossible, he doesn't stop. Instead he closes his eyes unsure of where this will take him.

They're up to something.

And when it stops, he sees them, and his heart drops seeing Circe, but she's the enemy too. Everyone here is the enemy, and maybe that's why this reunion doesn't hurt too bad. He takes a breath, and he doesn't come out of hiding even when Vera speaks and strikes. I want her to die. I can't stand her. but he smiles and greets her anyways. She's silly for taking on careers, and it's time she learns why.

He doesn't say a word. It doesn't matter. It never will. All that matters is wearing the crown that's rightfully his.

Ashes to ashes, and we all come crumbling down.

credit to fox

had camo activated so negates the attack from Vera

Attacks Vera
bXKnmFLPRSglaive
Miss

Attacks Circe
glaive
13106 -- Shallow Cut on Right Calf -- 3.5 damage


Accuracy on Vera
glaive
Block

glaive·glaive·glaive

[d11a tsiuri dermott ☕ minie]

The wine had been an ugly memory dancing on my tongue. Recalling broken moments from a broken home. Mom was on a bar stool next to Uncle Nicky, whispering words I could never quite make out. They were not for me to hear in the first place, but I had always been at the center of their conversations. On occasion red wine would swirl in between the realm of their glass, dark like the blood they were ready to spill. The two of them drinking until it was their liver they were killing, and their whispered words no longer made any sense.

Alcohol had always ruined everything.

My back was pressed against the cool surface of the glass wall. Hands in my head as I tried to steady the room. An illusion of spinning taking over every sensation. I knew it was not real, my senses were being tricked by the bitter liquid. I could not explain what I had been thinking as I accepted the drink, the music reminding me of the Kraken’s Cove. A melody of something more, something with a story to tell. The red wine sitting on a throne, taunting me to take it with its sweet tune. A sweet rouse that reflected itself in mother. I guess the tolerance for alcohol skipped a generation.

I can’t remember what I had said, but all I know is that I talked too much. Telling Sera tales of a life that had ceased to exist the second I had volunteered. A girl damaged beyond repair, a family smiling in the pictures but when the doors closed at night…monsters came out to play. I talked about my mother, her charming smile and endearing voice. All of the allure ruined when she began to drink, just as capable of violence as my father. Between the two of them I had never known peace, always on the lookout for someone to prove what I had known all along. The only one who would look out for me was myself. Don’t trust a trustworthy smile because all that lies beneath it is a someone looking to get ahead.

“I need to go for a walk”

I finally pushed myself off of the ground swaying in the heat-ridden night to the gentle sound of the wind whistling through the glass walls. Promising I would not be long, I needed to be on my own. Emotions that had been all too well kept for years suddenly had a mind of their own. Teasing and taunting in my mind, the voice of uncertainty got louder. Now it was screaming, pleading for me to listen as it wove a web of lies. I wanted to believe it was lies echoing loud enough for me to hear…clear as the night sky.

Slow steps suddenly picked up pace and began to run with no destination in my mind…deeper and deeper into the labyrinth I had gone. Five minutes surely had passed but Sera was no where to be seen. I had become lost in the labyrinth, a ghost haunting its hallowed hallways searching for a way out. An escape when there was none, trapped forever in a place I would never be able to navigate. Searching for an answer behind every corner, I kept my feet moving. I removed another poppy from my hear, picking of the petals one by one…leaving a trail for Sera to follow. Marking the spots where I had been before, until fatigue took over. My eyelids falling heavy, I swear I could hear my mother’s voice singing me to sleep.

The heat of the sun had woken me up, burning against my skin and reflecting off of the glass. In my palm a crunched up poppy flower, the ones in my hair wilting from the heat. They were fighting to stay upright the same way I was fighting to keep believing in the certainties I knew to be true.

Looking around me, Sera was still no where to be found. Lost in her own labyrinth, fighting her own demons. For if what she had told me was true, a grave robber from six must have enough of her own battles to fight. This could be it, the point where she was no longer part of my life. Pulled apart by fate, but the two of us never were meant to be together in the first place. The lives we had led could have not been more different. Just as it always has been, I was on my own. Fighting my battles with no one else on my side.

The wind had begun to pick up pace, the cool air soothing my burning skin. Gentle at first, but soon became a violent force pushing my body towards a direction I did not want to go. In panic I grabbed myself and began to run. Vision becoming blurred as the sand caught up with me, faster than my feet. There were the occasional short moments of grace, allowing me a quick glimpse as to where I was, but the labyrinth all looked the same.

There was no telling how long it took, minutes or seconds; unable to differentiate in timeless chaos. Stuck in a loop for all eternity never knowing anything but chaos and fear. Fundamental building blocks to turn any human into a killer. If you could find order in chaos then you knew you had made it as a career. Fear only existed in paranoia, never allowing it to settle down in chaos. I had finally made it out of the labyrinth but for what? The storm continued to rage accompanied by a new melody equally as unsettling and inhumane as the rest. It played in the background as the winds forced me into a direction of a familiar face.

Tide.

A cruel joke.

The day before I had killed Sera’s district partner, it was only fair that I killed mine. Tide should have been Sera’s, it should be her weapon…the spear, digging deep into his skin eventually stealing his last breath. That would have been the fair, but nothing was fair in the game of life. It always came down to survival of the fittest. I had few words for my district partner. He was an unknown face with a name. Someone irrelevant in the grand scheme of it all, for he was just another tribute that needed to die. It was easiest to see the tributes that way, dehumanize them into a number. Play a game of whack-a-mole, a stupid children’s game found at the pier. Whack them all down till it was only me who was left standing.

I had not been given any time to say anything before the annoying voice of one of the girls from eight broke the silence. Mixing into an affair she would have strayed away from if she had known what was best for her. Taking the first swing at two career’s was a bold move, however filled with ridicule. Her weapon grazed my skin, leaving behind a paper cut on my upper arm. The pain was close to none, a scratch at best…an annoyance.

“Hi, babe…did no one ever tell you to mind your own business?” Vera only seemed to appear in moments of annoyance. An omen of something, if someone wanted to read into it. She had opened the door to a fight gaining moment. Tide stood there in silence as his weapon was blocked by the armor on my legs. I had decided to take a page out of Sera’s playbook, lighting the tip of my weapon fire. The heat radiating in the already hot weather, my very own beacon of light throughout the darkness that lived deep rooted in my heart.

[Lights glaive on fire]

[circe attacks Vera; glaive + fire]

o4Lf6v8DUOglaive
1-50

[9 +1 blades +2 fire]



[circe attacks Tide; glaive + fire]

glaive
1-50

[block +2 fire]

ELEGANT

glaive·1-50·glaive·1-50

[andromache s. ⚔️ [d1b] sucy]

filling this in rn but just wanted to get the post up!! 

[kaitlin]

vera attacks circe murdock using poison ivy sword

An1JMGd1JOsword

result: + 1 poison

poison wears off

vera attacks tide evros using poison ivy sword

sword

result: 

vera uses lightstep on circe's attack 13193

1-10

[results]

nb: gm dice edit for misrolled light step

sword·sword·sword

[d9 kristof parks {ems}]

❦

Seeing Circe ignites something inside him. She's from home, she's here with him, and here they are battling it out doing the best they can. It's hard to think that one of them is going to die, but Tide knows he'd rather she die since the other option is him. He hasn't done well since he's been. His attacks are off, they're bad, and he's getting annoyed at himself. It only makes sense. That's all that matters, yet he doesn't even know why. Everything is rough, unfortunate, terrifying. Why can't anything go according to plan?

He see the fire on Circe's glaive and he wants nothing more than to run away from it knowing it can cause many problems down the road. Yet it doesn't matter. Everything is never as it seems, and maybe that's the purpose. Maybe nothing should ever make sense. He lifts his head, holding the blade tight. It might save him, but even then, it doesn't matter. Death comes for everyone eventually, and it bothers him, makes him uncomfortable. His parents would yell at him, and Tide needs a humbling, he's overdue for one, but this isn't the time.

He barely backs away. Watching both of them is difficult. It's impossible to know anything when you want to know everything, and pretend that you do. Tide takes a deep breath and focuses. It's hard and impossible. It doesn't make sense, and maybe that's where everything goes wrong. Life fails, it falters and falls, and now he's facing the same thing.

I can't be afraid

Yet his mind races with fear and uncertainty. His body aches. His soul needs a rest, but even then this doesn't matter. It never will.

He spins around, a sly grin on his face.

I am the king, and it's time to make these peasants bow.

credit to fox

Attacks Vera
qUGll5oNhHglaive
3.5

Attacks Circe
glaive
4.5glaive·glaive

[d11a tsiuri dermott ☕ minie]

My weapon burns bright in the endless desert of darkness. No other light burning in hope as we swing our weapons at each other, stabbing into blindness. Their swords and sharp knives chipping away at the armor I had built the days leading up. Never have I felt the feeling safety, preparing for the worse…always two steps ahead. I planned for the worst, even throwing my own ally under the bus to avoid the careful aim of Jupiter the previous day before.

Two steps ahead, but the gamemakers have caught up. Sera was no longer around to take the hits; I could do my best to throw my own district partner to his grave. Attacking him without second thought, the way I had expected Sera to attack Carmen. She had been right all along, just because we wear the same colors does not make us family. Not like family ever meant anything, dark skin casting a shadow against the pale complexion of my siblings. My mother’s voice echoing in my own drawing the final string of distaste. I felt it in every breath and in every step I took. With more to prove than any of them, there was only one option for me…and that meant these two needed to meet their demise.

Vera was cocky, overconfident with someone who had nothing to show for her attitude. Laughing lightly as a distasteful aww leaves her lips. A mockery of it all, a bad joke taking deeper rooted and twisted turns with every second.

Are they laughing now?

I longed for a mother who would be drowning in despair, replacing the one I got with a fantasy too far away to reach. A father who would be sitting by the television cheering me on instead of cursing out every mistake I had ever made.

Fire danced through hot dark night. Sparks resting in the sand and charred skin of my enemies. In another world they could have been friends. Another life where I had learned to love, one where my parents would have taught me compassion. Instead, all I felt was frustration, there was no glory in paper cuts and bruises.

Only when the river turned red, could I begin to breath. A new life would start in the trail of death. I bore the same chains as my ancestors, possibly forever cursed to wear them. Even when freedom was offered, an animal born into captivity would never leave its cage. I could hope and dream all I want, but nothing would ever change.

So, I strike again. A good little girl doing just as she was taught. Predictable in violence, resorting to the thing I know best.

“You think this is funny” I asked the girl from eight. War was not a laughing matter.

[Lights glaive on fire]

[circe attacks Vera; glaive + fire]

q_rUz|hyvjglaive
1-50

[miss]



[circe attacks Tide; glaive + fire]

glaive
1-50

[10 +1 blades]

[circe attacks Vera; day 4 accuracy]

glaive

[4.0]

ELEGANT

glaive·1-50·glaive·1-50·glaive

[andromache s. ⚔️ [d1b] sucy]

"Awww, Circe," I coo. "This whole arena is my business, didn't you know? Maybe you should've waited a couple more years before you volunteered. Your head's not with it." 

My words immediately come back to bite me, as Circe's flaming blade cleaves through my leg. I let out a yelp, dodge to the best of my ability. My leg stays attached, mostly thanks to my shinguards. I grit my teeth, steady my feet in my squelching, blood soaked boots.

"Whoa, never mind. I was trying to be nice." In a way. This is the type of thing I used to say to Marceline when I was in a bad mood, and I wanted our room to myself. It all went right over her head; she didn't give a fuck what I thought, rightly too. Maybe Circe's more sensitive. Elsewhere, a cannon goes off. I look over my shoulder, but I can't see anything. It just better not be Lucia or Nori... or me. I look down. No, I'm still standing. I've watched the Games for years. Sometimes the tributes don't realise they're dead until the cannon fire's ringing in their ears. "Hear that? I wasn't trying to be funny. I was trying to be nice."

Tide Evros brandishes his weapon at us with a foxlike grin. He breaks skin. I snap my teeth at him, a growl brewing low in my throat. I don't know who I am anymore. There's no point in trying to be regular Vera, no point in teasing my opponents with a smile. The only smiles that make sense here are ones like Tide's: sharp, predatory. The energy to smile bleeds out of me, leaving me snarling.

"What?" I bark at him. "You don't wanna dance anymore? Huh, Tide?"

And he's not letting up on Circe either. I can't help thinking about Lucia, wherever she is, whoever she's fighting, and about the oath we made with Nori, and how much deeper it runs, all the way along the train tracks from Eight to the Capitol. He's sick. Sick enough to win this thing. I can't let that happen.

[kaitlin]

vera attacks circe murdock using poison ivy sword

r_i4prmeKesword

results: 4.5 + 1 poison

vera attacks tide evros using poison ivy sword

sword

results: 9.5 + 1 blades + 1 poison

sword·sword

[d9 kristof parks {ems}]

❦

Filler had a long day. Will fill in tomorrow

credit to fox

Attacks Vera
rwxsxfqYlSglaive
3.5

Attacks Circe
glaive
4.5

Light step on Circe's 13025
1-10

glaive·glaive·1-10

[d11a tsiuri dermott ☕ minie]

The cannons go off and the fire burns out. Two lives lost; two lives that had been taken as soon as their name had been called out. Robbed of free will in their last moments, the brutal reality of the games for those who did not choose to be here. There should be a feeling of despair and guilt settling in my chest, that is what should happen…the human reaction. Instead, emptiness took its place, the loud screeching sensation of nothing. Vera can continue to spit her words out, letting the wind carry them far enough for the Tide and I to here. Claiming the arena was hers, it would not be long till she was choking on her own ego, and I would watch her drown in a pool of her own guts.

Everyone thinks they can rule the world if they are delusional enough.

My claim to the throne had been carefully crafted, molding potential to fit a form. The people I called parents, incapable of producing anything else but the worst of the worst. There was the memory of my mother’s pretty lies and my father’s ugly truths. It ran in my blood, gashing through my scalp. The two enemies before me, out for my head. Their weapons never quite hitting the executioner’s mark.

My head pounded, heavy to hold on my shoulders. Last night’s sin leaving its mark, a headache that could kill. Vera’s voice just adding fuel to the fire. Nice. She repeats the word till I could only assume it was the only word in her vocabulary. A word that does not hold any meaning, nice was a word people threw around when they had nothing better to say. A stupid word for a sensation that was meaningless. Nice was only a rouse, a trick but never sincere. It was my mother’s smile when she had just taken an unsuspecting man’s wallet. It was my own actions when father would place a camera in front of me.

Nice was just another lie in the mountain that made up my life.

I looked over to Tide, a brief moment watching my district partner falter under the hits from the two of us. Just another person that would be sentenced to death eventually. Only a matter of the ticking clock the gamemakers have set up.

My feet carried me over to Vera, slowly all of this had become personal. Déjà vu to day one, leaving no room for error. “Nice doesn’t suit a bitch like you.” I smiled at her, a friendly smile…sweet and innocent.

[circe attacks Vera; glaive ]

vZnKtY5y5Sglaive

[4.5]



[circe attacks Tide; glaive ]

glaive

[8 + 1 blades]


[circe attempts lightstep on Vera's attack 1189]

1-10

[fail]

ELEGANT

glaive·glaive·1-10

[andromache s. ⚔️ [d1b] sucy]

A second cannon. I swear I can hear someone scream, a girl's voice not too far from here, but I still can't see a thing. Naturally, my first instinct is to hope it's Safina Roy or Artemis Shei, or that pretty girl from Six Circe was hanging around with. I look at Circe, who's still coming at me, glaive raised so high that it hits me on my stupid, blessed bike helmet. I'd have liked it if it was her, if that final surge towards me was the result of her falling forward, falling down dead, but no such luck. 

"Nice doesn't suit a bitch like you," Circe says, all smiles. I roll my eyes.

And she's right. I am a bitch. My second thought, once the impact of the cannon wears off, is that it wouldn't be so bad if they belonged to Nori and Lucia. That's about as far from nice as you can get. To them, anyways. Does wishing they'd die quickly, by someone else's hand, so I don't have to break our oath, still count as breaking the oath? Maybe I'm being kind. Maybe wishing we all die, apart, me preferably many years from now in a cushy chair in Eight's Victor's Village and them here, somewhere out of my eyesight, is the kindest wish I can make.

But that's a thought for later, for when the stars are fading away to reveal a burning artificial sun. At dawn, I'll be able to see Marceline, hare ears cutting two spikes into the aurora, eyes bright blue and teeth dripping red on her shadow. At dawn, I can cry. For now I have only one purpose: to kill. I've started to take satisfaction from each slash that meets its mark on my opponents. 

The blood doesn't show up as well on the black sands as it did in the glass labyrinth, but I know it's there. If I spill enough, I'll be able to see it clearly. 

"That's enough. You need to get over yourself."

[kaitlin]

vera attacks circe murdock using poison ivy sword

T7tV|KnqEjsword

results: 3.5

vera attacks tide evros using poison ivy sword

sword

results: 4.0

sword·sword

[d9 kristof parks {ems}]

❦

His heart is racing, mind running rampant with so many thoughts. It's impossible to even think about these things. Impossible to know what to do or where to go. Death is calling, and he doesn't want to do anything. His heart aches, but this is what has to be done. This is what has to happen, and it's one of the worst feelings in the world. Someone has to die, and with every passing moment, Tide feels like it's going to be him. His entire body is aching, his armor is falling apart before his eyes, yet it's keeping him alive.

Vera and Circe bicker back and forth while Tide says nothing. Every part of him wants to make it home, to show that he's a strong career, but even that feels incredibly impossible at the moment. It's always been impossible.

I'm just an imposture.

All his life he's tried to prove it wrong. So many times, he's been knocked down, and humbled, and maybe that's what he needs here. A humbling. A moment to show that he's not good enough and will never be good enough. But it hurts. Accepting it. Understanding that things aren't as they seem. His whole body just wants to fall down, collapse.

but I can't.

He grips the glaive and moves around hoping to figure out an escape. He swings at Vera, and before he has anything else, he pivots towards Circe. She's from home, but here it doesn't matter.

I want to live.

credit to fox

Attacks Vera
PIJZGl89Piglaive


Attacks Circe
glaive

glaive·glaive

[andromache s. ⚔️ [d1b] sucy]

"You need to get over yourself," I say to Circe, and they end up being the last words she ever hears. Tide Evros bursts between us, glaive raised high. Maybe too high, because I swoop underneath its arc with ease, with little more than a yelled curse in the wind. On the other hand, maybe just high enough, because it meets its mark smack in the middle of Circe Murdock's head, splitting it open in an instant. 

She was so annoying, I think, as her body crumbles. She's so small, I think, as the black sand soaks up her blood. I'm tempted to crouch down, to look closer at this little girl's brain. I could pick at it, pick up some last remaining knowledge before it leaks out. But Tide Evros is still standing there, with the fatal instrument in his hands. He's been so, so quiet. It's disconcerting. The whole time, me and Circe were snapping at each other, but he didn't rise to a single one of my taunts. 

He's officially the scariest person in here. 

I step back, eyes narrowed, as the cannon fires. The boom of sound makes me feel so small, makes the little space me, him, and the girl who used to be alive feel infinitely closer, even in this wide expanse of dark sand. 

"If you win this thing," I tell him, stepping farther back, sword pointed towards him, "they'll never forgive you back in Four for this. But you had to do it, right?" I smile. "See you around."

And with that, I run. 

[kaitlin]

vera flees the current fight!