{we're all mad here} all vs. jabberwocky {day 6}

[Lulu]

Please read the following rules carefully before beginning to post, as this fight will work differently from other fights.

• As there are only 8 participants in this fight, posting order still applies. Do not stray from the order you fall into round 1 or you will take 8 damage.
  
• The jabberwocky has 70 damage and can attack twice per turn, but as with all mutts and tributes, it can only be attacked TWICE in one turn itself. The rest of the time, you are free to attack each other.
  
• If you are attacking another tribute, the only two attacks in one turn obviously applies as well. The jabberwocky's attack on a tribute counts.
  
• There must be two deaths before you are permitted to flee this fight. It can be two tributes, or a tribute and the jabberwocky, but as this is a large fight there must be two. Do not forget this and try to flee early.
  

Good luck, tributes, and may the odds be ever in your favor...

She was the most beautiful, powerful, and deadly creature in all the land, or at least that's what she kept telling her. The strange human woman with the curly hair and the slightly crazed look in her eyes who'd kept her imprisoned in a massive cage for a long, long time and whispered to the beast whenever she came by to visit. You will kill, my dear, and kill soon, she hissed, her human voice reaching the jabberwocky's acute ears. At first she believed her, but after countless days spent locked in the tight cage, Maleficent grew angrier and angrier. At last she began to plot her revenge... but then they let her out.

Here in this sprawling span of an arena she had her own nest, in which were her precious, shining obsidian-black eggs. There were three of them, to be precise, and Maleficent was not about to let any of the insolent humans running around near her new domain tread anywhere near her little darlings. She would rip them limb from limb, taste their sweet blood running down her throat, see it glistening on her talons... but the one time they did come close, she'd been out of their nest, and she was furious that she'd missed her chance when they returned.

But the opportunity came again just a few days later. Maleficent was crouched low in her nest, watching as a swarm of butterflies chased a pack of humans into the vicinity of her nest, and luckily she was ready and willing this time. The jabberwocky gave her eggs one last protective glance and took to the air at once with a bloodcurdling screech. She flew straight for the humans, her spiked tail careening at one and her razor sharp, frighteningly long talons slicing at another.

[Maleficent attacks Emery, talons (sword)]
[dice=200+1000]
[severed right calf at knee 9]

[Maleficent attacks Cassie, tail (flail)]
[dice=200+12000]
[broken rib 7]

[/color][/blockquote][rand=9121335444506258853891956852749787098210537806217923690588213503]

[Cato]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 1f1f1f; border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] Jim McCoy

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 141414; border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 5px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 20px 0px 0px 0px;] district three . male . tribute of the 65th annual hunger games

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 000000; border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] "Dialogue" "Hearing" Thoughts Narration I don't know what to do anymore. To be honest, I kind of feel lost. Beatrice got her head severed right in front of me and I couldn't save her. "God damn it. Beatrice why couldn't I save you!!!! I'm a weak bastard. How am I alive when you aren't?" "Get. Out. Of. My. Sight." Oh yeah. I forgot. You hate my guts Bea. Probably glad that you don't have to deal with me anymore. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you were cheering on my death now wherever you are. No good will come with me shouting out in the air, yet it will help me relax a bit. Shouting in the air might even help my ever-growing insanity. My legs give out on me. It would seem that I wont be able to continue on. Storm would be ashamed of me now. I'm so sorry Storm. I've tried my best. "J-Jim, bro, y-y-you are the last Jay here. Fight for the Jay’s. R-r-remember wh-wh-what I said: I-if y-you don’t have anyone to f-fi-fight for, f-fight for my family." Storm's last words come back to me. I don't know what I can do to make him proud. I wont be able to make it home to his family. I still can't believe that all of my allies are dead. That fight with those girls had to have been the most insane thing ever. Before I could figure out what to do next, I turn around to see Sticky's skull get obliterated by the girl from five. I still remember that bitch from ten breaking my arm. Her friend from twelve stabbed me in my arm. The excruciating pain that followed had to have been the worst in my lifetime. More than when I lost my thumb a few days ago. What's wrong with me. Everyone I care about has died. Funny thing is that I don't care about myself. Maybe I might live. Doubt it. My attention is snapped back into reality when I hear a noise. I must of dozed off or something because now i'm at some nest. At this point, I am getting used to the distractions. I grip my sword. A parachute lands in front of me. It turns out to be tar. I coat my sword with it and light it on fire. -Jim attacks Emery- -uses fire making to light sword on fire- [dice=200+1000] 1051 -- Deep Gash on Cheek -- 8.5 damage [dice=50] Minor Burn +2

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://oi44.tinypic.com/166j62u.jpg); border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 246px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[rand=25262686262853095527732905569981912413231073812592216632927815179]

[Deleted]

I a g o
I z a r – M c C l a i n e

•••

The world had gone from heavy rain to stillness in the middle of the night. I had turned and run from Ewe, leaving him to die. I guess I should’ve felt something for the boy that had spent five days protecting my back. Only emptiness sat in the place of sorrow. I had been itching my palms, resting in a thicket, awaiting the time when the anthem began to boom. The first face was that of Sticky, and my heart pounded—no Ewe. Had the gamemakers decided to go out of order? But then there was Scout, her little face and tangle of blond hair in the sky. We were—the two of us, Emery and I—we’d turned and run because I had dragged her (though I will not deny that she tried her best to get away for her own skin, and not because I had told her). I spent the night in silence, not wanting to think of how I’d left behind the boy that somehow lived.

Perhaps I’d miscalculated. Rarely wrong, I didn’t think there would be a need when there were so few of us left to feel anything. I had wanted Emery by my side because she was a fighter, she was the girl that was most like me. My choice had been one of necessity and because there were so few of us left now. Sampson, did he still see me as his savior now? Did he see me as the one that stepped in for his life and all the good that I had done for him since then? I should have felt shame at that moment. I should have thought that the world was better for me to have been dead or dying and sent straight to hell. But there was nothing to this, no horrible end for me. Just the pitter patter of rain and the two of us huddle up close to one another. I felt a heavy sleep drift over my eyes and a gray wash over me.

The beeping of a parachute woke me. Another jar of tar, almost as though mocking me, had been sent. Four times I’d tried to light the world aflame, only for it to sputter out in front of me. It was just my luck, it seemed, that the world didn’t want me to burst into flames as Emery had done. I looked to Emery for a moment, and thought of our hands together. I thought about how warm the two of them had been, how my stomach had turned, and how my eyes had met hers. I never knew a girl like her in district eleven—all of them were sad or dour, or too serious. What was I feeling for her then? If the world were different, maybe I would have known something different. We were here, somehow, still alive. I stood, bones aching, and shoved her away. No love to be lost here.

I guess I should’ve expected a surprise for all of us with so few left. The giant jabberwocky was the biggest thing I’d ever seen—barring the sixty-first Kraken—and came down on all of us with a strike. We had been walking without sound, and I had just turned to hush her when the whole world seemed to explode. Such is the story of my life—nothing but explosions, and unfulfilled expectation. When her leg came out, and the boy from three came soon after. Then the girl with flaming red hair, but not fast enough for the bird. I dodged left and saw all their faces then—faces of the same that had started. Were they here to send me to hell? Well, they had better do it before I did it to them.

“I never finished my promise,” I growled, getting up from the ground. I charged Cassie, sword high, lit with tar and ready to strike. If my fire sputtered out now I would be a hopeless case, as all the other elevens had been. There was no time to see Ewe, to strike the boy that had survived and become a living ghost. I had already learned about revenge from Shadow—it earned you nothing but death. I just closed my eyes and swung, like a wrecking ball.

[Iago uses tar and match to light glaive]
[Iago slashes his flaming glaive at Cassie]
[dice=200+13000]
[dice=50]

[/justify][/color]
[rand=89228002144955133276201062835753101417563157156111561502714175731]

[florentine, d4b ❁]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/eXgitGQ.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 10px 10px 0px 0px;]

[/blockquote][/center][/td][/tr][/left][/table]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: b8b6bc; border: 303045 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 10px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] QUEEN LUCY THE VALIANT | HIDE AND SEEK

[/color][/font][/center][/td][/tr][/tr][td][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2863/11064405943_6dee20c4aa_q.jpg); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 120px; height: 120px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: ffffff; border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 260px; height: 120px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕

[/color]
LUCY PEVERELL[/color]
♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕[/color][/font][/center][/td][td][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5484/11064594134_30e0df51ec_q.jpg); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 120px; height: 120px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;][/td][/tr][/table]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: b8b6bc; border: 303045 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 10px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] I AM NOT NAIVE | CURIOUS | STRONG-WILLED | I DO BELIEVE

[/color][/font][/center][/td][/tr][/tr][td][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/eXgitGQ.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][/left][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: f6f1f5; border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 10px 10px;] if there was a better way to go then i would find me i can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me be kind to me, or treat me mean i'll make the most of it; i'm an extraordinary machine Yesterday, you forged a path to the sky and played amoungst the stars. Saffron clutched your hand and you promised to hold onto each other until the world came crashing down around you - and you held tightly to your crown and took in every inch of your kingdom, knowing that your rein cannot possibly last forever. The cannons ring out, a slow and steady countdown to the end. (Whichever way it comes, it's coming for you. There isn't a way you can possibly buy more time in the branches, and so you move forward with the morning light, ready to fight once more.) In a way, it seems monotonous and neverending - the felling of friends, the sickening tearing of flesh and blood that you are sure will never be washed away - and yet you know that all too soon darkness will fall. Either death or victory will follow, and either way you are certainly not ready. Could anything truly prepare you? "Sunrise," you breathe, thankful for the bitter morning air. (It may well be the very last you taste.) You smile; counting the survivers in your mind and dragging your hands through your tangled hair. You rise the others - shaking them gently, careful not to startle them as you coax them from their nightmares. It hurts to see the glint of fear in the eyes of those you have grown to love as they awaken. (It's alright, it's okay, I wont hurt you, it's alright.) The strap of your bag digs into your shoulder as you haul it high. You wonder if it is perhaps heavier than you are; you examine the bones protruding from your paper-white skin and feel the notches in your spine. (Still, though, you are strong enough to lift your head and draw your sword and press on through the day, ready to kill as many times as you must.) You climb the giant birdsnest quickly, surveying the landscape - it seems that in the mountains, more snow has fallen to replace the footsteps you left when you fled days before. The crimson stains in the perfect ice have also disapeared, marks left by the fallen so quickly erased. Tears clutch at your throat, but you force them back and think of Cerise; she never cried, for she was strong and brave and fearless. You do your best to be the same as you begin your sixth day of living in the grasp of neverending terror. (You feel as though you are shaking deep in your heart, and yet your cheeks are rosy and your eyes shining - a true Queen, you suppose, hides her sorrows.) For Peter, you pretend to hold courage where you have none, and you hope that he is thankful. You pray they are all watching back home, and you have given up longing for their approval. Even if they hate the person you have become, you understand you had no choice. (Saffron understands, and yet your moments together are slipping away with every passing second.) As you clamber higher, you reach for her hand and hold it. Immediately, you feel safer. The illusion of secutiy melts faster than soft snow in your bare hands. Threat is everywhere in the arena. You know this all too well. The faces of your seven subjects are familiar and displeasing; it does not comfort you to see the scars on their skin, despite that they make your path to the end more simple. It is the beast attacking them, however, that frightens you the most. Truly terrible, it is your every nightmare gazing upon you with wide and frantic eyes. (And you watch in utter horror as your fellow tributes lunge with their weapons not at the awful beast with claws and teeth but at each other, the children who pose threat to their journey home.) Don't they know that the biggest threat here is the stilling of a heart and the ceasing of thoughts, rather than the girls and boys who battle for their train ticket home? You wish you could pretend that it was desperation and sorrow in their eyes, but you watch them. The only emotion that pulses clearly from Iago, from Jim and the others is a sickening bloodlust you know you have held, too. (Only Saffron seems to remain immune, for in your eyes she is pure and deserving. Perhaps you know somewhere in the shadows of your mind that she cannot possibly be good, for you have seen her sins. And yet you hope, because someone else's hypothetical sanity is all you really have left to cling to.) The scene reminds you of a twisted tea party - and it seems you weren't invited. "I'm so tired of this," you whisper to Saffron. You're tired of fighting, and yet you're sure that no matter how this ends, you'll be fighting for the rest of your life. (There are worse ways to die, than to die kicking and screaming and believing.) i seem to you to seek a new disaster every day you deem to me due to clean my view and be at peace and lay i mean to move, i mean to prove in my own way, and say i've been getting along for long before you came into the play i am the baby of the family, it happens, so

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][/left][/table][/center]

[attacks jim with sword]

[dice=200+1000]

[severed arm, 9.5]

[/font][/center][rand=40030933590605855355934086721390535827267053537073545117152389139]

[Deleted]

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."
- Vonnegut

It turns out the tiny teddies from yesterday were actually vicious monsters. Funny how such innocent eyes could hold so much bloodlust, not too much unlike the youthful faces that surround me – particularly Iago’s. I’m a monster too, aren’t I? I haven’t been acting much like one as of late. There’s no point of being one, really, when everyone thrown into this place becomes a monster by automation. Besides, why should I give my parents what they want? Why should I be the victorious Career that comes out alive just so they can shower me with their nonstop exclamations of praise, coated with a thick layer of false love? I don’t need anybody pretending to love me.

However, at this point, the thought almost seems welcoming. This fantasy where love actually exists, where victory is rewarded, where things actually mean something: it seems so much more comforting than the limbo of meaninglessness that I’ve deemed my mind to. And still, love means nothing. Family means nothing. I mean nothing too: just a little less nothing than everyone else here, because at least I’m aware of my own insignificance. So when Scout fell to the ground yesterday, I felt nothing but an elongated moment of guilt for even tricking myself into thinking there was something to cherish in her, something to respect and thank her for. Yet, in reality, she meant about as much to me as the teddy bear she had killed. All I need to do is get the fact into my head – the fact that I’m already dead, that in a few days I’ll be dead again, that this sequence of death after death after death is just the way this sad little world will always work.

I need to remind myself that these people mean nothing. There’s no knights, bishops, and rooks on this chessboard. No, there are merely pawns and no winner. The difference between me and most of them is that they probably have families back home that love them more than anything, but it’s about time that they understand that all of that is meaningless. Love and all that other idiotic crap is only meant to shield our fragile hearts and minds from the eminency of death. None of it is real, but can we at least pretend?

We are all driven to the same point: the bird's nest, with a giant muttation standing before us. Before I can even respond to this grand sight, my calf is sliced straight off of my body by the bird's great talons. A cry escapes my throat, and I quickly used my sword to hold myself up as another tribute comes running towards me. I look for Iago -- i search and search and search and i cant feel anything and why cant i feel anything im supposed to feel something where have my feelings gone its supposed to hurt wheres my leg its supposed to hurt its

"Iago," I murmur, looking down at where my leg used to be. "It's supposed to hurt...it's supposed to hurt, why doesn't it hurt?" I don't know what I am, but if anything, I know that I want to feel something just like every normal human being on the planet. I pick up my sword because if just for a little bit, I want to pretend like feelings do exist. If only for a moment, I only want to make people hurt, hurt, and hurt some more for trying to hurt me, for thinking they could. Too bad no one ever taught me how to feel.

[attacks Jim, sword]
[dice=200+1000]
[Deep Gash on Left Forearm - 8]

[uses tar & firemaking]
[dice=50]
[Moderate burn - 4]

[/size][/blockquote][/justify][/blockquote][rand=37963227275758984277892664540559915839728899300140102637629024684]

[Deleted]

Cassie Radke

[/font][/center]

Besides the threat of a mental breakdown, everything seemed to be alright. I wasn’t hurt any more than I had been a few minutes ago, and for once, I wasn’t the one fleeing in terror. Every single day in this arena I had been fleeing from an undefeatable enemy, but today, I seemed to be okay just sitting here. The other three had stopped slugging it out, the boy yelling something that I didn’t quite catch as he ran off into the distance. The three of us just sat there, and for once it was nice to sit in silence—not that I could change that if I wanted to. It was definitely strange not being able to talk, but it also gave me the ability to think whatever I wanted about others without the consequence that usually came when I couldn’t hold my tongue. I didn’t really have much to say anyway, none of it was really important. Just the amount of hatred I had for a couple of others and cries of wanting my brother and home. But no one wanted to hear that now did they?

I hadn’t been expected to make it this far you know. I was expected to be gone within a couple of days, and I had believed it. I had been completely sure that I wouldn’t make it past the first day, and so consequently I didn’t really have a plan anymore. But somehow, I was still alive, at the cost of many others. How many were left now? There were the three of us, the boy who had run off, but beyond that, I didn’t know. I didn’t really want to know, because if was to somehow make it even further, I wouldn’t want to know how many I would have to kill.

I had never really known about nightmares and the actual fear that struck with it. The two other girls, I had gathered their names were Saffron and Lucy, and I had made a small camp in the trees, and at this point, I would rather trust them than be alone. They were close, and they reminded me of Shadow and I in a way. They had that unfailing trust that I longed for again, and really I felt out of place among them. I had slept a little ways away from them, my back still against one of the hard trees that towered above us. I had surprisingly fallen asleep quickly, the dark sky above me welcoming me to the hell I didn’t know I was going to experience.

Maybe three hours into the night (or maybe it was four) I awoke with a deep inhalation of breath that would’ve knocked me backwards if the tree hadn’t been there. I rubbed my eyes and put my hands on either side, trying to calm myself down and tell me the ground wasn’t actually falling away. I don’t remember everything about the nightmares, but I remember watching people die. Hope, Brendon, Sticky, and also Shadow. Their cries varied from soft to bone chilling, the visions of fire and blood flowing freely through the cracks in the ground. I remember running, praying I could leave them behind. When I had thought I had run far enough, I skidded to a stop, finding Shadow beside me, and for a minute I was relieved. I remember embracing him, but he slid through my fingers, his curly blonde hair fading back into the fog that was now engulfing us and blinding me in particular. I had fought through it, and when I could see again, I turned and ran back into the fog I had just left. The torn up body of Shadow was hanging limply from that stupid trap, and the sound of him hitting the ground was an explosion in my mind. My body was now heaving, trying desperately to take in air that wasn’t there. The familiar trees of the forest I was now in began to rise up around me, but instead of solid ground beneath my feet, there was blood. Swimming was not an easy for me, not that I’ve had much experience. My head began to slip underwater, the copper taste bitter in my mouth as I attempted to spit it out. Nothing was helping, and I began to slip under. Drowning, what a way to go.

As soon as I was welcoming death, I came to. There was no river of blood, no drowning; we were, in fact, fine. The morning sun was a welcome site, and with that I packed up my things and followed the two girls.

What hell could we possibly be walking into now?

The bird’s nest that towered above us was enough to send a chill down my spine, and what made it even worse were all the people that surrounded it. Before I could even tell what was going on, a pain spread all throughout my torso. Then, as if that hadn’t been bad enough, there was that boy again, saying something about a promise and striking at me with his weapon. His now-on-fire weapon I might add.

[attacks Iago Izar McClaine, flail]
[dice=200+12000]
[Bruised Right Collar Bone; 2.0]

[rand=1783989823888987351514007244259126430227840319276002009541029110551]

[shrimp]

[bg=040201][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,500,true][atrb=style, border-radius: 30px 30px 30px 30px;] “SCOUT-“ No Scout no it wasn’t supposed to be you no Scout get away from it no Scout no no no. Slashing, screaming, crackling in my legs, screaming in my ears and all I can see is red, red, red pouring down onto my hands as I stare with trembling limbs and fall with a CRACK as something lands on my head and I can feel the warmth rushing, rushing, rushing and everything’s too fast it needs to stop. Scout, where are you? I need to help. I need to get you away from them. Scout- The word’s populated by black dots and I can barely move and out of the remaining ear I an almost hear the desperation in Iago’s voice, the pitter patter of feet. You can still save her come back come back come back we have to do something she’s dying she’s dying. She’s dead. I expect the worst when I’m alone with the pack of monsters. Let them tear me limb from limb there’s nothing I can do now. My last thoughts are of the ocean as it pulls back and forth, its slow cycles nothing like the frantic heartbeat, the rapid breathing, the whimpers that echo from my weak, weak, weak body. You’re sickening. You couldn’t save her because you’re worthless. It’s your fault – you should have watched more closely, you should have hit the bear instead of leaving it to attack. You should have could have would have done something but you didn’t. And I can hear the heaving, feel the warmth of bitter wine – no it must be vodka instead; the liquid’s clear – down my cheeks because I can’t do it. I couldn’t save her, couldn’t even save myself. With eyes clenched shut I wait for the tearing of skin. But nothing comes. My eyes open to see her, twisted on the ground, barely alive. Alone. And I crawl to her, hands grasping the ground and scraping themselves on branches and roots as I pull myself slowly towards her, my leg (it was never a leg to begin with) agonizingly throbbing. I reach her, I place her head in my lap, I hold her hand as she goes out with the fight she’s always had from Day One. You deserved better. The girl whose mother died from the Capitol’s hands, the girl who talked as much as I did and loved, loved loved, wiped out with a slash to the throat. “Y-y-y d-d-dsrvd…. More. S-s-s-sssorr.” I can feel her hand on my cheek, touching my face for the first and last time before her cannon finally fires. Scout's touch is soft, ghostly - too gentle for someone like her. The rain is cold on my neck. It must be lukewarm on her cold skin. She should be warm, just like District Eleven, just like her home. This is our home now, though. I stay with her until it grows dark, watching the blood wash away from her neck, removing the hair from her face. It’s not good enough. I’m not good enough. You were too good for this place. Scout, you were the only person here that I could call my friend, the only one who I could trust and now you’re gone and what am I to do? I never said I wasn’t selfish, and I know I miss her for so many of the wrong reasons but there’s one reason that I know is right. I push myself away, placing her head gently on the ground, crossing her arms. I spy her pocket-watch and out of impulse I take it. “I never told you how overly sentimental I was.” And truth be told I never told you anything, yet you trusted me. You told me your life, I let you die. The needle and thread hurts just as much as yesterday, but I hurt so much more that I don’t even care. The baby food is mushy and disgusting I don’t care. It hurts to move, it hurts to feel. It just hurts. Before I leave her, I place the harp in her lap, curling her hands around the strings as if she’s about to play a tune instead of etching her soliloquy in her mind. “I hope it’s happy Scout, wherever you are. I hope there are no teddy bears.” I pack up my stuff, walking (ha, since when could I ever do that) away with her pocket-watch gripped tightly in my hand. The beanstalk still towers in the distance when I stop, watching the hovercraft arrive to take her away, snatching her in its talons, fading from view. In a way she’s going home, I guess. In another way she isn’t, she’ll never get back. My mask is soaking wet, ripping apart at the seams; I throw it away, watching it land on the ground with a sickening plop. There’s no need to pretend anymore, is there. No one’s here to see me cry. I can’t sleep; instead I lie awake as the anthem blares, lighting the sky with Sticky’s face (I only knew him for his name, sadly). I stare at Scout, her eyes alive and angry. I wish I.. You know. I know she had to die eventually; all of us do, especially here. It shouldn’t have been now, though. It should have been later, after I had fallen, me with my useless leg. She had already proven her worth to the demons, already had been ready for victory. I’m barely holding on. I’ll make it up to you, somehow. I don’t know how. But I’ll do it – I have to. The butterflies sting me awake and for a second I’m confused – Butterflies don’t sting, what are these? – but I have no time as I try and try and try to escape their terrible, annoying wrath and by the time they fade away the last of the beanstalk has been hidden behind the towering tree, the huge bird’s nest ever in view, only this time accompanied by a – oh my god. It’s a monster, a dragon with wings and anger and talons that swipe Emery Moreno’s leg off like it’s butter and a tail that smacks itself into Cassie Radke’s chest (all of us are here; it must have been the Gamemakers, bored with the death of a twelve year old girl). I can slay it What are you talking about Ewe of course you can’t. I must. Or do I? No, there’s no use putting your pride before everything else now. You have to fight for Scout. I have to fight for her, for she gave me so much and I returned so little. And if it means losing my dignity, then that must happen. It already vanished when my blade swung towards the first kid I saw. {Ewe attacks Saffron; glaive} [dice=200+13000] {Shallow Cut on Left Calf; 3.5 damage}

[rand=540827445738705402492111989667889884241084188406304290939849211972]

[✨ zozo.]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/XOLzyBb.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 160px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: e8ebee; border: 000000; solid 0px; width: 1px; padding: 1 1 1 1px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/RqgNKFF.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 159px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[/left][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: f0f4f7; border: 000000; solid 2px; width: 322px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] SAFFRON LOWE

[/color]
DISTRICT TEN[/b][/color]

“but there are some things, child, that you should steal. that you must steal, if you have enough love and courage in your heart. you must snatch freedom from the hands of the tyrant. you must spirit away innocent lives before they are destroyed. you must hide secret and sacred places.”

[/center]

✖ - ✖ - ✖

[/color]

The morning breaks early and escorts us from our kingdom at the hands of a new dawn. Hands locked together (I feel safer with Lucy's hand in mine than if my axe were in it's place) and wielding weapons in our backpacks and palms, we march towards our destiny laid out by the minds of others.

Two faces flashed in the sky last night - one familiar, one a stranger. I cannot think of the night when I see the most familiar face I know here sprawled amongst the stars for dwelling on things that haven't happened yet is silly and irrelevant. Or maybe I won't have to - but as much as I care for Lucy, my first real friend I made a promise to my sister that I would try to be brave. I just don't know if I can be brave enough to come back home again.

We scale the mountains and birds nest with ease, the wind catching at my limbs and hauling me upwards towards the sky. (I am weightless, I am air - and home is on the ground. I will not forget that, and I will not stop falling until I reach the earth.) Up here, it's easy to forget about everything below. About the children fighting for their lives and the fact that I'm not going home and the people I've left behind and the ones I have to look after (Cassie reminded me too much of Paige to hurt, with silent words and a brave face).

But as easily as my ascent comes the downfall, five angry faces ready and waiting for blood. They dance in a cacophony of limbs and blood and the blurred in-betweens, souls clinging to their bodies and clawing out the life in others. And above us all, shrieking and crying for disturbing her home, is a beast like nothing our imaginations could have dreamt. A citizen of nightmares, it slices off the Career girl's leg as easily as Lucy stole that boy's arm - and again, as she cuts the coward's arm off, just like his brother.

"I'm so tired of this," Lucy says. And I know how she feels - my body aches with exhaustion and my mind fuzzes at the corners, already drifting off into a never-ending sleep. I have awoken in a new place, in a new life, with a new sister to protect and a brand new kingdom to rule. A new place to steal away sadness and lock souls into a box where they can slumber forever, with nobody else to hurt them. I can keep them all safe, let the weight of this arena hang around my neck and drag me back down to reality again.

"We can go to sleep soon" I promise. "It'll be over. I swear."

I must steal myself away from this nightmare - and hopefully take my life with me, too.

[/size][/color][/font]
[/td][/tr][/left][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/q3jZjZq.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 159px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: e8ebee; border: 000000; solid 0px; width: 1px; padding: 1 1 1 1px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/Gp0xBSJ.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 160px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[/left][/table][/center]

attacks [iago] with [axe]
[dice=200+11000]
Shallow Cut on Right Bicep -- 3.5 damage

[rand=3552784002386033523664578516036272959948314586654333366377488709986]

[Lulu]

The small, pitiful humans were ignoring her. Here she was, a beautiful, powerful, massive creature hovering above them, and they weren't even trying to fight back. On one hand, Maleficent was pleased; after all, it meant she could wreak all the havoc she wanted to, she could kill them all, and they wouldn't even send one single blade at her in return. She could instead watch them destroy each other. But on the other, she was offended; was she really not worth their time? Maybe this will get their attention, the jabberwocky thought, and gave another horrible shriek as she dove at her insolent prey.

[Maleficent attacks Jim, talons (sword)]
[dice=200+1000]
[dg forehead 9]

[Maleficent attacks Lucy, tail (flail)]
[dice=200+12000]
[miss]

[/color][/blockquote][rand=986538639990612947015108563937247965532328933477423623273940756917]

[Cato]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 1f1f1f; border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] Jim McCoy

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 141414; border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 5px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 20px 0px 0px 0px;] district three . male . tribute of the 65th annual hunger games

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: 000000; border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] "Dialogue" "Hearing" Thoughts Narration I decide that I've had enough of the living. Is that the best you got? I don't know what will happen. Its a new day. All of my allies are dead, but there's a new reason for me to continue on with the fighting. That reason is for me to fight for Storm's family. I owe it to Storm to make it out of here alive and become the victor. I will have to kill innocent children. I already have, but this time it will be in cold blood with no provocation. Only one will survive and I intend to be that one tribute who survives. I will go home. I'll make it back to Storm's family and show them that he didn't die in vein. Yet the pain I feel when that bitch from twelve severs part of my arm off hurts like nothing else that I've experienced. There isn't time for me to do anything except let out a cry of pain when the girl from hits me with her weapon. The flames practically dance on my head. I grin at her. "Thanks for that attack. I needed a makeover." I intent to leap at the girl from one who I attacked. Yet when I turn to see the jabberwocky in all its might, I laugh. I point my sword up in the air, the flames flickering along the metal. "Is this all you got? Come on you Capitol bitches. I expected something tougher than this cuddly teddy bear." The jabberwocky will end up attacking me if I live long enough. I don't really care anymore. The Capitol wants me to play by their rules? Well they'll get their wish and then some. "Sorry about that one. I just expected that piece of shit jabberwocky to be tougher than it is. If you kill me, please give me more of makeover before the final blow is delivered." -Jim attacks Cassie with flaming sword- [dice=200+1000] 1055 -- Deep Gash on Left Thigh -- 8.0 damage [dice=50] Minor burn +2 damage

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://oi44.tinypic.com/166j62u.jpg); border: 000000 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 246px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[rand=2694352704869746821822327514790798370412409641664224096515929871]

[Deleted]

I a g o
I z a r – M c C l a i n e

•••

We’ve finally gone and done it.

[/color]

Despite our best efforts at resistance—some more than others—we’ve become bigger monsters than the beast that has been beset upon us. I never had my doubts. Emery and I were likely the first to go of this group. She with her fists, me with my wanton bloodlust. I’d fought to show all of them that this wasn’t a game so much as a war: even in your dreams this will follow you, until the last moment that your hurried breaths no longer come out your lips. I still hold fast to my scorched earth policy. I may join the rest of the faces in the sky, but not without laying waste to all those around me. Send me to hell,[/color] I think, staggering back from the girl from ten’s axe. But I’ll be there waiting for you when all is said and done.[/color]

What do I cling to, now that I am so close to the end? It’s a thought I couldn’t muster on the first or second days. The image of District Eleven still drew revulsion. And yet every night underneath the stars, the hazy images of home grew clearer. The picture of my cousins, of Sampson, of Deval, of Nekane, of Levi and all the rest—they were all sitting at the table, with a seat empty at its head. Those yellow waves of grain, the green stalks of corn, and the running brook that trailed down along the Izar land, all of that went from blurred colors to crystal clear. What do I fight for?[/color] A scream erupts from the boy from three as he wails at the capitol, and I stagger toward a figure on the ground.

“Emery!” The tug of war between myself has reached a fever pitch. I had left Ewe to die when his leg had given out, but I could do no such thing to her. For in all the madness, there’d been just one to scratch deeper than the surface. It’s stupid, and it’s dangerous, but I can’t get over the truth. If anything, I am honest. [/color] Emery will be at my side whether the two of us die together, whether I am bleeding out in front of the jabberwocky, if she is to fall then I will carry her body to the ice cube and show her the truth. She isn’t alone, and she isn’t stupid. She’s a monster, she’s terrifying, she makes me wish that I had never met her. She is the only one to make me question, to recoil at cutting out eyes and slicing tongues.

[Iago swings his flaming glaive at Cassie]

[dice=200+13000]
[result:Severed Right Forearm at Elbow -- 9.5 damage]
[dice=50]
[result: minor burn +2]

We both know that even if we get the crown, it doesn’t mean much more than the hollow victory that has come with it. I wonder if any of them still think they’re noble after all that has transpired. What children we all were before the games began. Some undoubtedly thought they were good, that they would at best do no harm. Other relished it because that filled the void of having to answer to consequences. But here and now we all must stare into the face of the monster, and with its beady, black eyes, stares back at all of us. What does it say when instead of working to kill this monster, we instead turn on one another to spill as much blood as we can before running away?

I slide down next to her, and shake my head at her question. “It’s not bad, it’s not.” I whisper out, knowing our time is short. “Get up and fight, Emery!” I grunt out as I reach an arm around her shoulder, and with my legs push upwards to steady her. You bleed, I bleed.[/color] Sampson’s voice fills my head as I stare into Emery’s eyes. What’s does it say about me that the only one I’ve felt close to is a terrifying girl whose fists have literally made someone burst into flames? We’re just two sadists, lucky enough to have each other until the bitter end. I move my lips to hers in an instant, and hold. I pull back with a grin. “Now show me how much of a bitch you really are, Emery.”[/blockquote][/size][/justify][rand=36155086942017083032918411772698405181832611560816549976193346083]

[florentine, d4b ❁]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/eXgitGQ.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 10px 10px 0px 0px;]

[/blockquote][/center][/td][/tr][/left][/table]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: b8b6bc; border: 303045 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 10px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] QUEEN LUCY THE VALIANT | HIDE AND SEEK

[/color][/font][/center][/td][/tr][/tr][td][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2863/11064405943_6dee20c4aa_q.jpg); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 120px; height: 120px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: ffffff; border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 260px; height: 120px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕

[/color]
LUCY PEVERELL[/color]
♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕[/color][/font][/center][/td][td][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5484/11064594134_30e0df51ec_q.jpg); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 120px; height: 120px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;][/td][/tr][/table]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: b8b6bc; border: 303045 solid 0px; width: 500px; height: 10px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] I AM NOT NAIVE | CURIOUS | STRONG-WILLED | I DO BELIEVE

[/color][/font][/center][/td][/tr][/tr][td][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/eXgitGQ.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][/left][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: f6f1f5; border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 500px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 10px 10px;] if there was a better way to go then i would find me i can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me be kind to me, or treat me mean i'll make the most of it; i'm an extraordinary machine They battle so easily, with a reckless abandon that screams out for intervention. It looks almost like a playground brawl that's tumbled forth without autority - nobody stops to breathe and ask themself what they have become. (You know better - you know that in the dead of the night, when darkness hides their tears, they all weep for the children they left behind in the Capitol. You promise yourself that in silent moments, they pray for their sanity and mourn their morals. All of you are surely the same, beneath the pretence of good and bad.) It's easy to doubt this when you see their eyes; so hollow and meriless, you want nothing more than to run until you can run no more. And yet, you remember Peter's words. He was clear, and you have no choice but to follow them. For him, for Susan and Edmund, for Ivana and Cerise, for Cassie, for Saffron. For yourself. (Your kingdom, it counts on you to be Queen until your last breath leaves your chest.) "We can go to sleep soon," Saffron promises you. "It'll be over, I swear." You are truly exhausted - overwhelmingly so - and yet you cannot help but wince at her words. Sleep, recently, has been fitful, restless periods of darkness laced with nightmares. The only true peace, you fear, will come with death. It's too much to consider that soon enough, both you and Saffron may fall with your empire and finally rest. (Do you really want to live forever?) Saffron, of course, is your candle - she is a flickering flame in a land of mistruths and shattered trust. She has been untouchable, your protector, where others have failed. So far, she has been the only one to keep her promises and stay resolutely by your side. (You know it cannot last, and yet you plead with whatever is out there to give you more time, more words. More treetops and more kingdoms and more eternities. It's never enough, Lucy, there's always something else to ask for.) It's then that Ewe Saw - the boy from District Four - lunges toward Saffron. A child who was once a villain becomes a monster in your mind. (For the first time, you are truly afraid. Because he laid his glaive on her. He dared to mar with your beacon of adventure. (She is the only way you can reason with yourself that you are the heros in this story. While she is by your side, you cannot possibly be the cruel ones.) "No!" you cry out, tasting panic in your throat - it's metallic, like blood, but without the threat of death. In a way, it's more dangerous. You are not hesitant or careful with your own life as you run forward, desperate to save Saffron. She has fought for you for long enough, been your sheild and your saviour when pain clutched your heart. Perhaps today, you can repay her. "Don't you dare touch her!" You do your best to remind yourself who you are - Lucy Peverell, fearsome killer, a girl who has cut away limbs and laughed at death. You are Queen Lucy the Valient, and you will do your best to behead any subject that stands in the way of your only friend. There are people between you and the girl you intend to save - no matter the cost - because you never lie, and never do you break your promises. (Until the very edge of forever, you told her, and it's not time, not yet.) "Get away from her, all of you!" It's not time to sleep, not yet. i seem to you to seek a new disaster every day you deem to me due to clean my view and be at peace and lay i mean to move, i mean to prove in my own way, and say i've been getting along for long before you came into the play i am the baby of the family, it happens, so

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][/left][/table][/center]

[attacks emery with sword]

[dice=200+1000]

[shallow cut, 4.5]

[/font][/center][rand=25528875598683953573140709195286428345092805102473559732350986451]

[Deleted]

my head is spinning spinning spinning spinning iago saying something its not hand on my shoulder standing standing brown eyes i like brown eyes rolex had brown eyes fight emery emery thats my name god i dont want it to be my name my leg and my cheek and everything kind of stings but it doesnt hurt i dont think it doesnt hurt lips coming closer wet tongue in my mouth – ew ew ewe get it out! It feels like someone just poured a full bucket of cold water over my head, my incoherent thoughts being pieced back together by the kid who’s basically sticking his tongue down my throat. Iago pulls away just as the little district twelve girl manages to get a hit on my forehead. The spinning in my head ceases, total fury replacing the utter confusion from only a few moments ago. I bring a hard and furious hand across Iago’s cheek, using my sword to balance myself upright.

“What the fuck was that?” I scream at Iago, trying to keep from falling as I recover from the slap I just served. So weak – so weak that a little use of the arms leaves me out of breath? Sadly so. “You’re gonna get us both killed, you idiot!” I shout between heavy breaths with the little energy I have left. But the energy is growing. Everything’s coming together in a blanket of fury not unlike the fire that crawls across my sword. That fire – that fire that’s in Iago’s eyes and on my sword and scattered across Hope’s body the moment my fist made contact with her arm – fills my head with a feeling I haven’t known in so long: anger. I’m angry – so angry, so ready to hurt someone, to hurt them in the way that I’m finally starting to hurt. The gash on my cheek, my severed leg, the kiss that felt all too much like Rolex’s lips on mine – it all hurts so much, so very much. And somehow, that in itself is the biggest relief I could ask for.

Although, eugh. The fact that Iago just shoved his tongue right into his mouth has left a disgusting taste that I would really like to rid my poor taste buds of. A look of displeasure across my face, I spit several times at the ground, but the flavor doesn’t go away. Ew ew ew. Iago – the psycho kid who cuts out tongues and eyes and…kissing me? Disgusting. I bring my candy bracelet up to my mouth and start chewing at the remaining beads, hoping the sweetness will wash away the bitter taste Iago left in my mouth. However, my teeth close over the last bead and for a few moments, I merely stare down at the empty elastic band over my wrist. It had been a joke in the first place – to tease all the stupid tributes who bring their lockets and family tokens into the arena, thinking it will somehow connect them to the people they love. But it looks like the joke’s over. It looks like it’s all over, really, unless I get a better grip on this sword.

I scan the five others around me and something seems different, off almost. I hate him; I hate them all -- I hate them for loving and feeling and having families back home that care about them and maybe, just maybe, I can hurt them and everything will feel a little bit better. I need to kill these people. That is my one, single job here. Forget the whole “screw the Moreno family over” plan and the entire “I can still win even if I don’t survive” act because right now – right now I just want to live. I want to live and feel and let this fire of anger engulf me for at least a little longer before I stop feeling again. I look for an easy target and seeing someone more injured than me only a couple of feet away, let my hand slip away from Iago’s shoulder. Doing my best to balance on my single leg, I bring my sword out in front of me and put all my weight into the weapon as I throw myself upon the boy.

[attacks Jim, sword]
[dice=200+1000]
[Stabbed in Forearm - 8.5]

[Fire]
[dice=50]
[Minor Burn - 2]

[/size][/blockquote][/justify][/blockquote][rand=26180218835361322857948625460267784644734580069815744169079698622]

[shrimp]

[bg=040201][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,500,true][atrb=style, border-radius: 30px 30px 30px 30px;] We're spineless, all of us (after all, isn't this why we're scurrying around like the rats we are while the monster - no we're the monsters- the creature flies overhead with its shrieks that rattle my sense and shake my bones?), and this Jabberwocky knows it there we go teacher the only time I listened to your droning about creatures and look here is the thing you mentioned, a fucking Jabberwocky, thanks so much that one time I went to Career training just helped me so immensely. Maybe she'll be humane and eat us all before we further regress into, into I don't know whatever comes after despicable. Thank god Scout isn't here, she would probably be fighting the Jabberwocky or at least defending someone unlike me, who's just leaping to and fro to avoid attacks and just barely graze Saffron Lowe with my weapon. Two cannons ring out and I see Cassie and the boy from 3 (McCoy. Jim? James? No it was Jim) on the ground, blood oozing out of the vestigial structures that once held freedom and I swear that I would have puked if I hadn't already seen Emery lose her leg or Hope burn to a crisp or that District 12 boy lose his head - we've gone through too much to turn back, to pretend that we're pure and innocent and whatever parents expect their children to be at fourteen thirteen twelve. We've gone into the deep end and can never escape. So for now, we might as well revel in the darkness, in the addicting liquid that rushes into our lungs and slowly drowns us. Scout would approve, I hope. Scout would do whatever it took to get back home, to see her loved ones faces one more time. And she would have done it too, I just know it, if it hadn't been for the bears that attacked her once with fleas, twice with a rip and a final third time with blades that aimed towards her throat. I still see the image burned in my mind, the spattering of droplets across the ground, the gurgling as she struggled to breathe, the stomping of retreating feet, the sound of my head ringing like a gong. He should have gone back for her. We should have gone back for her. And I did, they didn't. Respect is something that I only give to those I trust, to those I love, to those who I would do almost anything for; Iago has none of it, Emery has none, and I most certainly hold no respect for myself, a hypocrite at heart, knowing what's wrong but choosing to swim deeper down this path and sooner or later I'll run out of oxygen and sink down down down. For now though, I'm doggy paddling through the waves, and while I'm here I might as well drag some others down with me. None of us are good anymore - no, our slivers of darkness have turned into full fledged strokes on a paintbrush, marked with a precision that I'll never be able to match. I can see them out of the corner of my eye, lips locked and cheeks smacked and if I'm going to be a jackass, a weak coward who refuses to face the greater danger, who decides that winning is more important than beating the higher power what is that though? The Jabberwocky? Maybe it is, but wait no, no it's not. I might as well do it to the largest rat of them all. "Hey dickwad, did'ja miss me?" I smirk, I swing. {ewe attacks iago; glaive} [dice=200+13000] {Deep Gash on Neck; 10.0 damage}

[rand=919498790177037328186245372119534934902496291586322031335578461686]

[✨ zozo.]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/XOLzyBb.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 160px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: e8ebee; border: 000000; solid 0px; width: 1px; padding: 1 1 1 1px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/RqgNKFF.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 159px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[/left][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: f0f4f7; border: 000000; solid 2px; width: 322px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;] SAFFRON LOWE

[/color]
DISTRICT TEN[/b][/color]

“but there are some things, child, that you should steal. that you must steal, if you have enough love and courage in your heart. you must snatch freedom from the hands of the tyrant. you must spirit away innocent lives before they are destroyed. you must hide secret and sacred places.”

[/center]

✖ - ✖ - ✖

[/color]

I barely slept last night. Something pulled me from my sleep and snatched me from my dreams, forcing me to wake up in a nightmare time and time again. The flail in my hands swings at whatever it can find and dances across skulls and breaking bones, nightmares seeping from their cracked heads and snapping limbs. There were kids in the 62nd who awoke to nightmares and were forced to attack each-other - is this what that was like? Waking up to a horror worse than your own subconscious imagination? This is terror of the worst kind, I'm sure of it. The only way to break out of this entrapping shell is to kill the monsters that try to keep you here forever. It's a fairytale gone wrong - if you die here, there's no way out.

We are a melody of unforgiving eyes and violent intentions, a lullaby to send us to a permanent slumber. There's a song back home that I used to sing - quietly, of course. It wasn't one of the bad songs, songs that Peackeepers drag you by the neck to an ill-fated end for uttering aloud, but it pays to be cautious anyway. It told of working, of building a home, to be dutiful to your work and family. I never really understood what it meant until now, as I'm fighting with everything I can muster to make them proud. I want so badly to be there for Paige, for Momma, to get out of this alive one bloody step at a time. Now I'm fighting for Lucy too, my fellow Queen and my best friend.

Maybe if I do go home (slim chance, but in this place I've got nothing left but hope) I'll build a home for them, one where nothing and no-one will be left behind. I'll keep them safe. I'll do whatever I have to do, even if it means I have to start by getting out alive, by killing 23 others so their lives are safe.

Boom! Cassie falls. The only song I sing is one note - a shrill, petrified scream.

Boom! The coward falls, too.

Lucy screams a familiar song, one I've sung a thousand times to keep her safe, and even in this cacophony of danger I realise our duty. To keep each-other safe, to keep the children - the souls - of our kingdom protected after they're stolen away with the sound of the canon. I'll snatch them back and banish anybody who tries to make our kingdom fall.

So I swing with shreds of sympathy at a faceless body and begin my duty.

[/size][/color][/font]
[/td][/tr][/left][/table]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/q3jZjZq.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 159px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: e8ebee; border: 000000; solid 0px; width: 1px; padding: 1 1 1 1px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/Gp0xBSJ.png); border: e3e2f2 solid 0px; width: 160px; height: 160px; padding: 0 0 0 0px; border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;]

[/left][/table][/center]

attacks [iago] with [flail]
[dice=200+12000]
Broken Rib -- 7.0 damage

[rand=56455447617918257188826964702457118847355246543887744211207609624]