paralyzed] opalperi

[Wonder]

PERIDOT m y l e r
∞

[presto]

He'd grown impervious to the sight of blood and death.

What kind of world was this now? Had it only been three years ago that a young Peridot Myler was uselessly tripping over his own two feet, polishing rubies and diamonds in his father's gem shop in the corner of the market district - how things had changed so quickly. The control station had almost become a sort of home away from home, the multiple televisions set up standing tall covering as many camera angles as could possibly be given. After a couple of days, Peri could have told anyone the exact details of any of his tributes, their bone structures, the small pimple emerging from under their chins, that was just the world that he lived in now. Consumed by all too real reality, a challenge almost beyond anything that he had ever faced before.

Almost. In dreams he still tread through fields of black onyx, cutting his feet and listening to cheers of his name. Well what now, Little Boy, what are you to do now? Life was just so full. Time seemed to be the only thing he had now, the tables turned so quick. A chill swam down his spine remembering every moment that he spent counting how many potential hours he had left to live, transferring them into seconds because it made it seem all that longer. Every hour had one thousand two hundred seconds to keep going - and now he had so many hours, so many days, so many years. All spent mostly in solitude.

The only people who really were present in his life were the victors, who swished in and out depending on where they needed to be. An occasional recognition between each other. A simple hello here are there. But they all had lives outside of these Games, outside their yearly commitments. Mace and Julian had each other, and the kid - who was Aranica's, so she had that. Arbor and Topaz had their great little friendship, but Topaz also had her husband and Arbor had his alcohol. Klaus and Lethe were great friends, and Cricket had her circus friends. But he had no one. Just his house, his mother, and the family shop that despite that untimely death of his father he continued to work on with vigour.

If there was a legacy for the Myler's, it would not be the Games, it would the wonderful shop that stood centrally in District One. Peri would make sure of that.

However, it was difficult running a shop all by himself. Peri really hadn't needed to finish his education to a point, the money from winning was enough to support him for a life time, not that school had ever truly welcomed him in any sense. But - it would have been nice to maybe learn something that lay in the field of business, his mother tried to help out as best she could in her fragile state but Peri really didn't know if she would make it much longer. The death of his father and the risk of his own life had really sent her off the edge, and yet he stood unphased by it all. This was life now. Constant understanding that yes, perhaps they all would die, and that was bound to happen, just move on and keep breathing.

Yet, there was a rush. A sense of adrenaline that Peri hadn't felt since leaving the arena at least once a year as he stood tall in his seat of the control room. Not like he actually had any power over what happened to his tributes, all he could do was flip through controls and pray that his tributes would be able to do what they were trained to do. Well, most of them. Opal and Xanthus had both shown such intense promise, it wasn't even a surprise that one of them had come out alive. Thank you, Wes. He thought to himself. Friends were his guardian angels, they watched over his tributes, kissed them goodnight from the stars. Thank you, Kiera. Whether or not the warrior spirits were enforced into his tributes, or were already there - Peri knew his friends were up in the stars happily watching, happily helping, though he wished with every fibre of his being they would talk back.

It was only about a day until Peri had seen Opal out of the arena, leg missing yet still smiling. Staying the corners as not to disturb her, Peri allowed Topaz to coach her through whatever she might be going through. He didn't have nearly enough life experience to help the girl out, though she seemed fine. Always happy.

What was that like?

Little Boy, you should be happy. I know. I know.

He stayed to the shadows, he watched like a hawk. Peri could draw her outline in his sleep, not that he had been graced with much lately. He had tried so hard to be a good mentor, but had he really been a good anything. A watcher, perhaps. What could he be?

I could be a good friend.

"Hello Opal, congratulations."

Good enough.

[/presto]

[cass]

opal shore.

Sighing softly she pulled the blanket higher, she tugged it up and over her head, wanting to let the world sink back into that peaceful darkness that meant night had arrived. At the moment moving, and well, doing anything just drained her. Yesterday the idea of waking up had made her stomach twist. When an Avox had greeted her with food in hand she had almost thrown up. Even after telling them to leave her be, because she didn’t want to eat they had stayed. The Avox had refused to budge an inch until she had eaten the plate set before her. And even then lifting the spoon had been so tiring that half way through the bowl she had just given up, allowing the young, brunette Avox to feed her. She was a pretty enough girl; her hair framed her face, reaching down to her shoulders. It was dead straight not a single curl in sight. She had a fringe, and her skin had the lightest of tans, not enough to look brown, but enough to make sure you didn’t think she was albino. Her hands were steady, and Opal tried to not look her in the eye, her growing pride unable to admit she was so tried she couldn’t hold a spoon.

That had been yesterday. And that had been after Topaz had paid her a visit. That had been great, fantastic even. Opal had had so much fun speaking with the older victor, but it had left her more exhausted then she had felt in a long time. Regardless of that fact it sure had been worth it. Topaz Ross was an incredible woman and it had delighted Opal to be able to speak with her, and it had been so incredibly odd to have the older victor apologies for something she need not be sorry for. By the end of that long speech she had been thoroughly tired and as soon as Topaz had left she had almost fallen asleep. When topaz was in the room, though, all her exhaustion had evaporated; speaking with her had been rejuvenating, rather than energy sapping. Opal had only glimpsed Peridot once or twice in the past few days, but as if yet the younger victor of district one had not made an appearance or spoken to her.

Today she had managed to eat by herself, but the continuous draw of the day was starting to bore her, let alone tire her. Every time she’d try and fall asleep there’d be a new sound to interrupt her as her heart rate picked up and as her mind began to spin. She’d try to think of a thousand different reasons why there would be movement outside her room, she tried to reason out why it wasn’t coming to kill her, and would instead just pass by. Then as the sound faded into the background she’d lean back onto the bed and close her eyes, holding them tightly shut, mind trying to ignore the gentle hum of the infuriating machinery. It was annoying, after a while you began to forget it was there, but then you’d once more realise it was there so you’d have to start all over again, and it was an endless cycle that was slowly driving her insane. The bed was so comfortable that when she fell asleep she’d not wake up whatsoever, but it was always the problem of tricking her body into feeling safe and secure, into feeling calm enough to just let her mind be free so that sleep would claim her.

It was always easier at night, but when the lights were on Opal couldn’t sleep. As much as she felt like it right now she couldn’t. The first few days had been a buzz, whenever she had awoken there had been less than a minute before the cool tinge of the serum as it spilled through her veins before she was forcibly dragged back under. Besides no one had come and seen her or spoken to her so the day was long, boring and rather pointless. Sometimes she didn’t mind it, but today she was really in need of something to occupy her mind, sleep would not come, and so her best option was to talk. Talking to herself, however, was not the smartest idea, especially after everything she had experienced, she did not need people thinking she was some weirdo. Yet, back in district one she had often spoken out loud, speaking to her plants, more so to herself, as the plants never responded and if she proposed a question she would find herself responding, tricking her mind into simply believing the plants had. It had hardly been her fault that the habit had occurred, she did have enough friends to speak to and no one could live in silence, especially if you were as lively and bubbly as her. So her own voice had become her companion in a conversation.

The door to her room slipped open and Opal looked towards it in relief. A surprised smile brightened her lips as Peridot Myler made his way into her small room. "Hello Opal, congratulations." Her smile brightened and she pulled the blankets down lower, before dragging herself into a sitting position. ”Hello Peridot, and thank you! It is great to finally see you. What’s up?”

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything
You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground

[/justify][/size]

[Wonder]

∞

♛ peridot myler; ♛

She was just so bizarre in comparison to the rest of them.

He stood tall in front of her, as to create some sort of dominant impression that probably never even really existed within him. Throughout his life, Peri had never been particularly threatening; however, the Games seemed to change that. Luckily enough, the rest of the victors knew otherwise. He was a wimp. Through and through, there was nothing wholly special about him, nor ultimately scary - just simply a boy who had received career training and succeeded. Any sort of success story was welcome to the training centres. Yet, the horrid monster that he had been depicted as throughout the Games was nothing like the man he'd been.

Peri remembered watching the recaps a year after his adventure. A year or so was enough time for healing, he supposed. There was some deep part within him that called out for the voices of his once friends, and to see their faces once more. This had proved only to be a traumatizing experience. Recaps only seemed to like to look at the Argos as the bloodthirsty, killer alliance - the ones that were always out for the kill no matter what. Maybe that was the case after all. But for sure, Peri wasn't the one who stood amongst the rubble cat calling and cheering on the loss of lives. He didn't paint himself with blood and laugh in flames, he was simply a boy trying to live.

And after all of that, he was simply a wimp. Despite this, he had seemed to find his way among the victors. It was a weird little clique of humans, a bunch of people who had survived. Simple as that, against all odds, they had lived. After two years, Peri had accumulated a sort of support group with them. Lethe, Topaz, they'd become close friends - and yet Peri looked at Opal and just simply didn't know where she fit. As if they weren't already a bizarre puzzle, their broken puzzle pieces stuffed into each other. Here sat a girl who was just ever so different.

The perfect picture of a victor. Smiling and cooperative, generally happy. She was exactly what all of them wished to be and yet weren't. How? How after all of that, the arena, the killing, the death, how could she be so pleased? How did she survive? ”Hello Peridot, and thank you! It is great to finally see you. What’s up?” How did you live Little Girl, when so many others before you had died? How could you live and be so happy? Oh Little Girl, there is so much more going on then you even know.

All of a sudden his attention was dropped to her leg - it didn't even look a little bit off. The whole thing had been chopped off. Peri himself had watched the whole scene, howled as it flew off. There was absolutely nothing that he could do behind a series of monitors except be a spectator. He thought for sure that would be the third time he lost a tribute; but she had lived, she stood here today. That was the injury that killed Kiera. Just how strong are you Little Girl, to survive an attack that killed a God? Kiera had fallen, died by chopping off her own leg, and yet before him stood a girl that had survived. Damion Winters had also died from it. Time and time again that was a fatal attack. Time and time again losing a leg had proved fatal; Opal Shore wasn't even human, so what was she?

"I just uh -" The aquamarine stone on his neck grew warm, Kiera's token. Ever since his Games it had remained on a necklace next to Aria's wolf token, a bit of Bran's collar, and his very own opal stone. A warrior stands in front of me, and Kiera is well aware, what she couldn't survive - Opal did. What an odd sense of foreshadowing he had had back then. The first tribute that he would bring home was named after the stone he had brought into the arena. If that wasn't some sort weird twist of fate then he didn’t know what was. Who would they bring home next? Aquamarine? Wolf? “I wanted to see that you were fine, I mean, that leg – is it alright? Are you alright? Do you need anything?”

Maybe he talked too much, maybe he just needed to stop altogether, but some weird part of him felt responsible for Opal Shore. “You know, we’re always here to talk. Topaz has way more experience than me, that’s for sure. But uh, I’m good at some stuff.”

[/blockquote][/color]

[cass]

Her eyes trailed to her leg as she swung around to face him, he pointed it out, asking her if it was alright and she nodded her head, unable to find the right words to say how horrid it truly was. Her eyes stayed glued to his, that bright, ever present smile fading at the edges, until it was just a tight line. Every time she glanced down at it she was struck by the memories that trickled in the back of her mind. She was reminded of that searing pain, of the feeling that came with an entire part of you being lopped off and being thrown away from your body. There was something unimaginably horrifying about seeing a part of your body – something that had been glued to you for sixteen years – meeting its end in the dusty ground. She hadn’t tried to pick it up. In her mind she had struggled with the gruesome idea of stitching it back on, and hoping that it wasn’t gone, that maybe it was just another cut that would heal over time. They had been thoughts that had sunk into her head past all that pain, past the stabs of searing white hot agony and blood that gushed form the wound. Some part of her brain had been certain that she was going to die. She had seen people fall and succumb to that kind of wound and she was sure Xanthus had finally ended her.

Thinking about it all now she would have been pleased to be killed by him. She would have been happy to know that he had ended her life, before going on to win the title that she had stolen from him. There was not a single trace of doubt in her mind when she said that. She knew that Xanthus would have won, and the thought that she was the only reason why he was dead consumed her daily. Where she expected her nightmares to be filled with a screaming Akasha – burning to a crisp right in front of her eyes all because of her – or even the dead, bleeding, battered body of the girl she loved she was greeted with Xanthus. The biggest regret she could and would ever make. Not even the sight of Drace’s or even Yaa’s lifeless body stirred any feelings within her. She didn’t feel bad about their deaths, and as horrid as that sounded she truly didn’t. Maybe she was psychotic for thinking that way and feeling nothing when there should be some kind of ache there, but she had enough pain and agony to last her a lifetime thanks to her stupidity in killing her friend.

There was no hesitation or doubt or pause when she thought about how much she deserved the pain that she had received. Her leg was gone, she was never going to see it again, her hand had almost suffered the same fate, butt hanks to a pair of gloves she had been wearing it had been spared.

The smile had dropped completely from her lips and now when she looked at Peridot she simply listened to what he had to say. Once more she nodded her head, a simple, but effective response to his invitation. She liked Peri, he seemed honest and sweet and eager to give her a hand. Opal appreciated that he was willing to help her and be around when she needed advice or even someone to just talk to. Slipping out of the bed she stumbled over to a chair, her feet slipped out from underneath her as she reached it, but she was quick enough to prevent her body from crashing onto the ground. Instead she landed with a loud thud onto the chair, her face reddening with embarrassment. She hadn’t meant to let her body fail her in that manner, something as simple as moving to a chair shouldn’t be too difficult, but the fake leg was useless in her opinion. She couldn’t function properly without her real one. It would take time to get used to it.

”You all must think I’m crazy, walking around, smiling like a big idiot all the time.” She offered him the smallest of smiles, it was completely devoid of warmth or humour. ”I don’t know, I feel like I have to explain myself, the reason why. I don’t want you all thinking I’m some psychotic idiot that enjoyed her time killing innocent people. Because I didn’t.” She sighed heavily; carefully she raised a hand, her fingers gently touching the dark skin under her eyes. They shook as she moved and she quickly moved them back to her lap, clamping them tightly against one another. “I’m just trying to make the best out of a bad situation. I want to be happy with something I have for once. I don’t want to mop around and be sad all the time because I survived and twenty three other kids didn’t. I feel like if I don’t try to at least be happy and make this into something good then all of their deaths – Xanthus, Locust, Erik, Motel – will be pointless.” She averted her gaze, her eyes trailing around the room.

”I… I don’t know if that is the right thing to do. Or if it is just crazy.” Her brown eyes flickered back to Peridot and she meet his gaze, her eyes pleading with him to tell her that she wasn’t, to reassure her, to calm her shaking body and beating heart. For once she could not muster the energy to smile, and she did not care.

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything
You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground

[/justify][/size]

[Wonder]

∞

♛ peridot myler; ♛

"And this is the fool," The card was decorated in such a beautiful fashion, it's designs flowing to every border of the thickened paper. A young man tipping his hat sat upon a throne with a series of bells and whistles glued to it. His face was painted with spades and clubs in a thick charcoal makeup as he smiled. Maliciously hinting that something rather devious was about to occur, but that it was not yet time - he was only there to remind you that at any corner, any turn there was a little trick and prank ready to happen. At any moment, one can be glued to the floor, or falling off the tall building of a Capitol skyscraper. He dresses in a unitard, made of pure black, that was the general theme it seemed, his skin invisible, covered in a thick layer of clothing, it just added to the general mystery of what it withheld from the player. "You needn't both about him, we take him and his partner out of the game entirely before we start."

Zircon Myler dragged the black joker card across the dining room table, searching the deck for his counterpart, partner in crime. Hidden among the fifty-two others sat a man who mirrored the other. Entirely the same, but red, and mirrored - painted in hearts and diamonds. Red and black, contrasting, two jokers plotting death, sitting on the corner of a rickety table, next to the elbows of a sickly man. He shuffled the deck of cards between his roughened hands, they left skid marks across the cards as they briskly passed his sand paper finger tips. Long days at the office had caused Peri's father to not really take as much care any more as he used to, gloves - they were really too expensive to maintain and it was just all easier to do operations with no thick protection to hinder his hands. Peri often worried about his fathers health, but inevitably it wasn't the toxic chemical fumes from the cleaning fluids that took him out, was it?

"Son, a good man always knows how to play cards." It was one of his father's best pieces of advice that he ever gave his son throughout his life, any man should know how to entertain guests whether it was just simply a magic trick, or a quick round of go fish. The ability to be a good host was always important to his father, to always be strong. Strength was a concept that really was built by society though, his father was the strongest man that Peri had ever known, and yet the reaping had caused his heart to stop strong, if only he'd waited just a couple weeks longer to let it give out. He would know the fate of his only son.

Peridot Myler lived, but caused his own father's death. One bit of the gene pol, for the other. It was the ultimate sacrifice. Peri often thought of his father's cowering figure, shuffling cards, struggling as he lectured the importance of being a gentleman, while the two gentlemen trapped beneath a paper-constructed prison looked deeply into every bit of conversation. The jokers always listened, constructed plans. And when the time was right, they took their revenge, and struck out. One should know better than to take cards out of a deck where they belong; yet, this was the world he lived in now. A world of richness without the company of his father, the contrast. Life was not simply red and black, it was an array of suits.

A laced smile lived permanently, it seemed, on the face of Opal Shore. Stitched into place by an impressive seamstress, one who certainly knew her stuff when it came to piecing together a puzzle. It was all a child's game, after all. Win or lose, it was always an important matter to be sportsmanlike, and remain a good host. Opal knew her stuff, how to keep being the ray of positivity, a beacon of hope within a sea of despair, the shining queen of diamonds, overlooking her subjects with a bright outlook. Her surface shimmering, constantly - but Peri watched her as her walls came crumbling down.

The shimmering diamond was merely an optical illusion, just a stronghold. The queen wasn't protected by her rooks or bishops, those games were much different to the game of cards. Just simply surrounded with a bunch of cowardly grins and puppy eyes to make everyone believe that everything is fine and dandy. Bottled up in little rocks, fizzing ready to pop. Everyone knows that nothing can cut a diamond, they are strong and powerful, everything hidden away is just meant to be locked away for years without anyone coming to help in any fashion whatsoever.

But though maybe she was the Queen of Diamonds, she was simply an Opal, just Opal. The girl who lived through the games just as Peri had, experienced the exact same turmoil and torment, had lost friends and love, had lost so much that it was simply unbearable, and yet she chose to trod on the unbeaten path. That was the most admirable thing of all. Peri was absolutely useless, just dimly walking around, hobbling down the beaten tracks following in the footsteps of alcoholics and drug addicts and self-loathers - but it all seemed so easy to be miserable and unapproachable. Especially when being painted the monster that the Capitol has.

There's an image to maintain, there always has been. The feast that the Capitol has on the living souls of victors is endless and excruciatingly painful, and any method to numb the pain must be.. miraculous in it's own front. Peri watched Opal rant and couldn't help to smile himself as she lost hers. "Maybe you can call me crazy too," he laughed heartedly, the warmness filling his belly, though not uncontrollably - "You've probably figured out what the rest of us are going to spend the rest of our lives trying to apply." Sighing, he shuffled over to a nearby armchair and patted the seat next to him, this was a discussion that would take a while. Death was not a casual conversation between two chums, so much as a joint partnership, mutually accepting actions and inevitability. Aria, Wes, Bran, Kiera, Demeter, they were all dead. Somewhere up in the stars and Peri would join them one day, but for now he could only clutch on to his memories, he was the King of Hearts. Trudging dangerously on the line of over-zealous, and over-caring for things that are on longer present for him to take. "You're not crazy, Opal. You're a victor, it's shit we all have to deal with - and you, well, you've probably got it better than the rest of us." Except Cricket, she has a tiger.

He cared too much, but did too little. His father pulled out the jokers, but perhaps he should have pulled out the king - it would have caused a lot less heartbreak.

[/color]

words: 1171
ooc: lulz told u 2dai[/size]

[cass]

“You’re a bitch!” The boy sneered, fingers wagging in front of her face. To other boy’s held her tightly by the arms. They stood in front of her little garden, in front of the Shore house. No one was home today. All her siblings were training at the training centre, her parents were working, and she had been left alone. But then she had never minded that. She would have preferred to build a small place to sleep in her garden so that she might never ever have to step foot inside that house again. That way she wouldn’t have to walk past mocking sisters, cold stares and angry eyes. She wouldn’t have to suffer any of that, and instead she’d be able to keep her plants as company and her siblings as a figment of her imagination. She could have pretended that none of them existed, that all that was left in this world was her and her plants. After all they were her family, they were her children and she’d protect them with her life. Just like any mother would protect her kids.

She was fourteen years old. Her attackers were somewhere between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, she really couldn’t care less. In her mind it didn’t matter how old they were, they just always seemed to be stronger than her and they knew how to make her hurt. They’d showed up today because yesterday she had decided to turn up at the training centre. Mother had forced her to go, saying she wasn’t a career, and therefore not part of that family if she didn’t train once a week. And as usual these three assholes had been there to warn her that if she stepped foot inside they’d come and killer her. You know, seeing as she wasn’t a proper career and all that bullshit. She’d ignored them in her wisdom, pushing past them, her mother’s threat a lot more powerful than their attempt. She had not believed they’d actually come, but here she was now, nose bleeding, lip split, her left eye swollen shut and maybe two or three broken ribs.

It hurt to breathe, a lot. It hurt to breathe from her nose, it made her chest ache, but when she tried to breathe through her mouth nothing happened. She’d bitten her tongue, and there was only drool and blood coming out past her lips. One of the boy’s twisted her arm and she let out a cry of pain as she was forced roughly to her knees, which, unsurprisingly were bruised and cut.

“At leaft I dun neesh tah guish to basc un ghual” She replied as best as she could. The guy in front of her seemed to understand this, and all it did was make him really angry. But instead of hitting her he stepped into her garden and Opal Shore tensed her entire body, throwing herself forwards and against the two people holding her, but they held on tightly. “You don’t like this do you?” He grinned, his eyes shining with malice, and then he bent down and tore a plant from the ground and then another and another and another, and even when she was screaming, crying and begging he didn’t stop until her entire garden had been destroyed. Then they left.

And Opal cried.

---

How many times had she faced that situation? It was something that had almost become expected in her life. It was where half the scars on her face, hands and legs had come from. The other half of her scars was just a reminder of how brutal spending your life mending plants could actually be. Every time she had spent weeks rebuilding her garden, making it as beautiful and perfect as it had been before it had been destroyed. Growing everything back up to its original beauty, making it tall, elegant and grand just as it had always been, it was hard work, but she always persisted. That year it had happened two more times and by the end she had given up on training in the training centre. Instead she sometimes went in the evening, every now and then, just for an hour or so, creeping in as best as she could before sneaking out. Her assailants never seemed to be their later at night, it seemed that they had preferred the morning times, but then most people like them preferred to rise early and party at night. Opal was far from someone who preferred to do anything else then sit in her garden.

It was crazy how even though you could feel so much pain in your own body it never compared to the ache that could split your heart in two when something you loved was destroyed right in front of your eyes. It was crazy how bleeding and broken people could somehow stand after being bashed, and yet watched someone they love die in front of them and suddenly their entire body can’t seem to move.

Peri beacons her over to the chair beside her and taking in a deep breathe she gets to her feet and stumbles rather unceremoniously across to the chair. Again her leg almost slips out from underneath her, but she catches herself at the last moment. Her body seemed incapable of following direct commands, it was tiring already, but she wasn’t ready to go back into that silly bed. Besides, she was eager to learn how to properly use the plastic thing that had replaced her real leg.

”I can’t say I’m not glad to hear that.” She smiles warmly at him, finding herself falling back into her old mood, and being unable to let herself drown in her own self-pity. “So, Peri, how have you been, lately? I can’t imagine all of this has been easy for you.”

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything
You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground

[/justify][/size]

[Wonder]

∞

♛ peridot myler; ♛

He watches over her gently as she comes to sit next to him, carefully and slowly - it was clear she had yet to really put much practice into using her leg and he felt rather poorly for making her get up. It seemed now as if it were a bad idea in general. But maybe, maybe it was a good thing too, she would have to get used to it eventually. There was a lot of travelling coming up for the young victor in the next year, the whole country of Panem was hers for the taking, but she couldn't do that on a bum leg. The Capitol preferred the illusion of sheer perfection, and if that standard wasn't met they wouldn't be pleased. In theory it was supposed to be his job to make sure she fit the image and yet Peri was sure that he himself hadn't been the clear crystal image of the first male District One victor in ages.

Maybe that's why they needed so much editing, just to make sure that what they wanted to get across was shown vividly. A monster on two feet, the man with the glaive, who will kill anyone. A little boy with a broken leg, an innocent child in a bloodbath, his very own ally. If Peri had become what the Capitol had wanted him to be, the man that stood tall and killed whoever came across him, well, he would be Wes. Maybe that was really the idea all along, Wednesdae Drummond of District One, the perfect god of a boy with no mistakes and a sword that pierced through diamonds - Peri wasn't that, and never would be.

Opal, she would make it. Whatever they portrayed her as, it was quite as good as her personality. Ruthless, yet kind. An odd combination, just a girl who didn't originally didn't think she could make it but ended up coming back home. Fun, quirky - in love with her plants, simply put. There was no doubt in his mind that Opal wouldn't become the Capitol's sweetheart in this next coming year. The latest district one victor was definitely adaptable to whatever came her way and that was clear. For that, Peri couldn't help but to loathe her. She came from a wealthy career family with a lot of notoriety, people would come to appreciate that there was a Shore victor whether or not Opal was the toughest of them. Hell, Peri had been Emerald's mentor, and had met Phenakite in passing, they weren't the type of girls one wanted to mess with. And he was nothing, there were no siblings, the Myler name wasn't really one of great honour. The Myler name was, 'Oh, don't they have that little shop there? On the corner of market street?' No one was buzzing with excitement when he was reaped, it was a celebration of the Dempsey name.

His mentee was absolutely everything a career district called for in a victor, yet he couldn't hate her as much as he partly wanted to. "I'll be honest with you Opal, it's a little rough." Peri choked out, half-chuckling as to make light on the situation. Another district one victor just shoved him right out of the little bit of spotlight that was remaining on him and left him to deal with the aftermath of having killed his friends and being alone in the world with no one but his mother. The Games were all he had left, coming every year and trying so hard to get whoever was there out of the arena, to make it back home. He'd spent nights upon nights sobbing when he lost a tribute, only to realize that the wound was even greater when he brought one home. "It's lonely once you're out of the public eye. Luckily, the rest of the victors are pretty kind." Some didn't even interact with him, Peri was sure Julian and Mace thought he was a total idiot. Klaus always looked to shy to even walk over, Cricket was off on her tiger. "They help out if they see you're having a tough time."

The world had been rather kind in that way, every night he could go and whisper to the stars and be reminded of friends. Peri had people like Lethe to rely on if times got tough, just hanging out on the roof on the training centre, Arbor who had been more than friendly as of late. Even if he hadn't been as trusting, less willing to open up to the world than he was before. There was a group, there were people who had gone through every bit of misery he had and still made it out the other end doing well. "I'll make it though, I've always got my mentor." Topaz. "And I'll always be yours, even if we become, well - if we are friends. I'll still be your mentor."

Was that creepy? Probably. He was shit at this.

[cass]

Her entire life had consisted of being over-shadowed by sister who were faster, better, smarter and stronger than her in every single way. Not only were they more skilled with weapons, they were prettier. They had the physique of a warrior and yet with a touch of make-up and the tugging of a short cropped dress they were beauty queens. Where they flourished in their beauty, where it spread across their faces, lighting up to touch an entire room Opal had sat in her garden. When they danced and moved and dragged boys all over the place she picked up leaves, putting them in bags, before digging her hands nice more into the soil to care for the beings that were her life. Sometimes she would look left and she would look right, sometimes they would be there, giggling like school girls, tugging boys behind them with gleefully grins as though they were about to be satisfied. Other times they would walk home alone, but they would never stop to speak to Opal, they would never ask her to come with them. Rarely would they tell her to get up, more often than not they would scowl, snarl or demand that she clean up.

Sometimes she would ignore them and then at other times she would follow them, picking herself up and moving into the house as they picked at her appearance and told her how filthy she was. It was the only time she ever received any kind of affection from them and soon their insults and cruel words became her only way of communicating with them. It was cruel how their words became terms of endearment to her, and sometimes she wanted them to say such things, because in the end it would remind her that these people were her family. These cruel, harsh people were her sister’s and brother’s. Then it would morph within her and she would fall under the foolish illusion that it meant they cared about her. They must, right? They wanted her to look better? Didn’t that mean they cared how she appeared?

Now when she thought back on those moments and those comments she knew why they had said it all. It had never been because they had cared. It had never been because they had wanted her to look better for her own needs, but simply because of appearances. If she was ragged, ugly and filthy it affected them. If she spent her days playing in dirt it affected what others thought of them. It was how it had always been, though. It was always about making sure you were the strongest and the best, and if that meant picking up siblings that could possibly bring you down you did it, you did it with disgust and revulsion but you still did it. It was selfish and yet Opal had loved it, because in those few hours she had felt like she had a family.

Looking at Peri for the briefest of moments she envied him. She knew what he had. He had a family; he had a home out of the spotlight where his mother probably didn’t expect the moon from him. Had her family been like that? Had they been loving caring and everything she could possibly dream of them to be. In her head Peri’s life was the perfect one. One where he had a family, where he had a life where he was out of the light, where people didn’t expect so much of him and become so disappointed in you. Where your siblings didn’t tell you you were going to die, where your parents didn’t bank on your life, when you didn’t shun siblings for dying. Peri had something she so desperately wanted, he had piece and quite, he had a tiny little shop where he could live, where people could forget him. Opal wanted to be forgotten, she wanted to disappear into the distance and pretend that the world was something she was simply watching spin around and around and around. If people could for just a moment forget she existed maybe then she could breathe, maybe then she could forget what had happened to her, she could fall into a sleep where affection wasn’t insults, where her best friends weren’t twelve inch tall fucking plants. Where she hadn’t killed everyone she had loved and instead she had a name that would slip from your mind and parents that would tell her that they loved her.

One was the last time anyone had said that to her? She couldn’t even remember what the words sounded like to her ears.

Something comforts her as he speaks, the way he says it is lonely, the way he says there are people who have her back. There is something completely and utterly desirable about being forgotten in a manner that meant there were people still out there that cared about her. Looking at Peri she can’t help but smile, a toothless grin, but bright nonetheless. Even know she had one more friend then she had ever had before the games; even know she had a thousand more kind words to lighten her heart than she had ever heard before. No one before the games had told her she was kind, helpful or special. No one had ever smiled at her with something close to kindness; she loved the way Topaz’s eyes had crinkled at the corner’s, the gentle touch to her lips spreading a warmth through Opal that she had never felt before. Even Peri’s soft, friendly words were warming her heart. She found nothing creepy, or odd about them. But then she had never had anyone offer to help her in that way.

He isn’t snarling, snapping or scowling. He is smiling and he is offering me friendship.

Springing forwards in a surprising show of agility she wrapped her arms tightly around Peri, squeezing her eyes tightly closed she forced back the few unexpected tears that had sprung up. ”Thank you, Peri. Thank you so much.” She whispered.

Friends, family, what did it matter. Peri, Topaz – all of them were the closest thing she had ever had to feeling like she had a family. Just a few kind words, just a hand to hold and a shoulder to lean in, that was all she needed.

ooc -- just lemme know if the hugging thing is totes not cooool

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything
You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground

[/justify][/size]

[Wonder]

PERIDOT m y l e r
∞

[presto]

There were moments that he hung simply by a cord, swaying backwards and forwards with straying chords that are threatening to snap - he feels like this most often when he is visiting the Capitol. Everything is made of plastic and fake promises, smelted together by the teeth of the unwilling and forged on crushed hopes and dreams of the imaginative. In his worst nightmares, Peri imaged a locked door, bolted shut, iron, that when swung open revealed a room of only tongues, flat and nasty, rotting and smelly. Peri had often smelt the lingering smell of corpses, and he knew that the surplus of tongues that hung together were not only a representation of what could eventually happen should he choose to disobey, but a reality that existed within the confines of this terrible city state.

Each night, clawing into bed with fragile arms, he hated every second of it - the lavender scents, the comfy pillows, the lavish drapes and perfect white wash walls. It was all an image of perfection with an underlying taste of guilt and hatred, everything here was built to undermine and create discord. There was a distinct separation between the life he used to live, and the life he lives now. There would never be a time in which he could accurately tell his mother how it was to live in the Capitol for three months at a time, or explain the real reason that they got the money every year - there was no way anyone could go from so much to so little on a frequent basis. It was all ridiculous to him.

It was the Capitol that made him uncomfortable. But not for the crimes that he himself committed so much as the crimes they made him commit. If there was a God out there to judge him on the main indecencies, he would be a glutton, full of pride and vanity, embodied by wrath. Spending hours upon hours in the mentor rooms, just watching screens hoping for a little bit of change, but not all that much of a change - he was sloth, hardly moving. And this place, all of it was too much.

Right down to Opal's plastic leg. It was all fake. Every part of him was glad that he sustained no injury whatsoever that required the Capitol to stitch him up to the point of giving new limbs. Sure, there were tons of victors out there that possessed some sort of helping mechanism - but they wouldn't ever need to owe Peri for his Games. They owed him the four lives of his friends, not fives fingers, or a single pinky toe. He couldn't even imagine what it must be like, a parasite almost sinking into your skin - does she even recognize the fact that it isn't her, any more. She isn't entirely herself.

But neither are you, Little Boy. Neither are you.

She smiles and hugs him, he twists himself into her hug - but he doesn't quite know what he's supposed to feel. Mentally checking that every bit of her that was touching him was of her own thought, each hand she was born with, her mind was trained by her garden - she is a human, she is here - she is hugging you. The thoughts come in processes, there wasn't much that he knew in the department of affection, just simple kisses here and there, a hug maybe once. Peri knew how ecstatic Opal was, and he felt it too - a new friendship, and yet the thought of this was all too fresh and new and - hugging? Did he even hug Aria goodbye?

With his right hand, he lightly patted Opals back, balancing himself with his left. Every moment that it lingered he felt more and more awkward - how long were these supposed to last, he wasn't all that positive, really. A few seconds? Inhale. Their breaths rose together, synchronized, the victor and her mentor. "I-I have to," looking longingly to the door, Peri waited until the hug had gone on for what seemed like eons, it was time to leave. Get out of here.

Get out of the Capitol.

"I have to get going Opal, sorry." Peri wasn't sure how to feel, or to visually emote. Happy to leave, sad to leave? "You have to do stuff as well, probably. I'd check in with Topaz." Untangling himself from the mess of limbs, he gave the happy Shore girl one last look before rushing through the doors. She was a token for home, but from the Capitol. He could only find friends in the place he hated most.

[/presto]