Gold Her Shroud // [Circe's Last]

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

[googlefont="Uncial Antiqua:400"]

a
Lyon

 circe

always pays her debts

△

For a time, there is too much pain to think of anything else.

He carries her through flickering tunnels, both of them drawn to the sound of raindrops. As he navigates the sewers, Circe paws at her things, sorting them one last time. She fumbles with bandages, forcing them into a yawning wound. The pain explodes; consciousness slips. She’s in Gunner’s – no, Elya’s – arms. Her head lolls, one triangular heart beat lost. She hisses awake, repeats the process, until the bleeding is staunched and three beats have been sacrificed.

Orion lays her down at the edge of the river Styx, the rainwater stream lapping at her boots. The current’s push is the first thing she can feel beyond the edges of the empty space in the core. “Is it –” she starts and stops. The pain brings tears to the corners of her eyes. She never realized before just how important abdominal muscles are to: breathing, speaking, living. “Is it clean?” She flicks the edge of the stream with her index finger. “I want to be clean. Please.”

Even though her life is ebbing from her center, Circe manages to be something other than a total burden. While Orion slips off her boots, she puts fingers to the vest and shirt she’s known so well. They leave the pile of cloth at the cement shore, Circe climbing back into his arms. She wonders if the stream is like the ocean Nat Krigel sometimes spoke of. Orion dips her toes, calves, thighs into the cold water. “Don’t be gentle. I don’t have that much time. All the way in.”

Submerged in the rainwater run-off, the arms around her do not belong to one of her allies, but to the other half of her soul. It’s Jaime’s golden curls swirling around her, his singsong voice that echoes in the depths:

Gold shall be your crown and gold your shroud. And when your tears have drowned you, she shall wrap her hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.

Circe opens her mouth to the river of Lyon tears. Orion yanks her back to air. He sits on the cement, reaching for her clothes. “Don’t,” she says, staying his hand. “I want them to see what they’ve wrought. What they’ve mangled.” The haze of pain has receded, and she knows that isn’t a good thing. Her fingers twitch towards her backpack but she knows she won’t find what she wants: Gunner’s flare has been given back to whence it came. She knows then, even though she should have known before, she won’t have an easy death.

She can’t ask Orion to drive a blade into her heart. She’s already asked too much of him: love me, hate me, obey me. Her hands tremble and then go numb, the bandages at her stomach thick with her heart beat. Circe stares up at the open manhole cover, the storm darkening in grey shades. Every stroke closer to black brings her closer to the three-quarter missing pieces of her heart. The pattern of the rainstorm changes, surging. The drops clink as they fall, hitting metal and something else above.

With the last of her ebbing strength and the onset of nightfall, Circe brushes Orion’s jawline. “You can’t forget them. Nat, and Gunner, and Elya. You have to remember them. You have to remember me. I’m a liar and a murderess,” she says, her voice a whisper, “but you can make me immortal.”

Instead of naming herself, she dedicates her last breath to a kiss, settling all debts between them. She leaves one love behind to claim the scattered pieces of her quartered heart.

table by anzie

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

[googlefont="Coda Caption:800"]

lyin

queerkee

d o p p e l b a n g e r

---

△

The mechanical copy is less sure than the others, not younger, but less used. Her hips don’t align perfectly over her hips, causing her to waddle. She adjusts her stride by centimeters but the results remain the same. Determining that crawling would be more stable and more efficient, she drops to her knees to cover the artificial landscape. The rain is no matter. The howling wind and roiling skies register only as pressure and humidity. She lopes as a lioness from the airship drop site, skittering to a halt at the manhole cover.

Queerkee Lyin’s jade green eyes analyze the opening, identifying her target in the sewers below. From her bag she lifts one bronze item. Agile on her hands and knees, she climbs into the opening, down along the slick wall. She somersaults to her booted feet, raising the bronze flare gun to Orion. She does not need to look at him to keep the sight trained on his left eye.

She takes each step carefully on the cement beam, until she comes to the side of the other copy. The girl’s eyes are closed, her naked body askew. The scan completes:

Bruised nose
Broken jaw
Severed finger
Gashed leg and calf
Stomach wound – most likely cause of death

In the few seconds it takes to complete the scan, Queerkee’s hand has come to rest over her own wire-filled belly. She has never seen a copy so mangled beyond repair, in all of her training simulations. She thinks she would prefer being taken offline before such surgery took place.

Her mission protocol initiates: retrieve the body.

But this body is not fit to be retrieved.

She bends, never letting the flare’s barrel waver. With one hand she wrings Circe’s hair dry, then twists it into a bun atop her skull. To keep the bun in place, she lifts the eyepatch, tying it around golden hair. A patched crown for a patched girl. Queerkee fixes her ocular sensors on the pile of clothing, determining that it is useless.

From the backpack she draws the red and gold velveteen blanket. The red side has been sewn with trinkets. She doesn’t need her sensors to recognize the pieces of her muttation brethren: strips of Grim Reaper cloth and the tanned hide of a sinking worm. She taps the fluttering feather, flicks the strands of hair, wonders why this copy would find a strip of leather cloth important. Her mechanical fingers circle around the roaring lion pendant and then reach for the one around Circe’s neck. She opens the clasp, then wraps Circe in the blanket, the sewn red side against her flesh, the gold side catching raindrops.

In one fluid motion Queerkee heaves her copy’s body over one shoulder. She turns to Orion Hammerfell, hooking the lion pendant over the barrel of the flare. She nods as she tips the offering towards him. “Circe Lyon,” she says, the electronic voice converting the name into a new form, an eternal rhythm of k’s and e’s.

Queerkee climbs out of the abyss, a golden shroud cascading over her shoulder.

Mission complete.

---

OOC Notes
table by anzizzle
inspirations:
"remember" by josh groban
"open heart surgery" by beth ditto

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

[googlefont="Uncial Antiqua:400"]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

|Barfs| : these games, my wives, these Games. You already know this but I just cannot express how truly amazed and grateful I am for all of you. We touched something very real with this little alliance that could. You don’t get magic like that in writing very often. And even when you do, most of the time you don’t recognize it until it’s long gone. We got to run with it, all the way from the TC through the doppel ghosts. What a blessing. I am inspired by all of you. Thank you for having me. <3

Lalia: △ <33333 someday you are going to kill a tribute of mine, okay? xD Seriously though, Lalia, this arena was a faaaaaaar better place for having you in it. Thank you for reminding all of us to do the fun thing. The fun thing for me, as it turns out, is being your ally. I loved Gunner La Torre fiercely and hope to see her in some other iteration soon.

Aya: △ <33333 our fearless leader. Thank you for not only talking strategy with us, but also redirecting us to Lalia’s flowchart. You’re so good at taking the pulse of our group and shifting us back to center. Obviously, I enjoy the hell out of your company in general, but there’s nothing quite like allying with you. It was too short, but it was glorious nevertheless. Elyacopia shall rise again. <3

Anzie: Anzizzle! I feel honored to have been among your first allies as a victor trib. We’ve been good friends for awhile now (holla @ 67th), but I feel like these Games helped to cement our friendship. You’re so good at checking in, letting me vent and just rolling with the punches. Nat’s “can you not~” is one of my favorite Games moments ever. Ily! Also omfg THESE TABLES! Thank a billion more times for making all the Barfs visually memorable <3

Cato: Catoe, buddy, if these Games haven’t pushed us to the limit, I can’t imagine what would. xD It has been an absolute JOY to write with you these Games. Hammeron came out of left field for me, but I’m so grateful by the surprise of it. You have been true to Orion’s character through hell and back. Thank you for letting me be true to Circe as well. I am relieved/overwhelmed/delighted that we have happy plottage. It’s definitely a buoy in this sea of grief. Thank you for loving Circe more than she ever loved herself. I won’t forget it. <3

Thundy: hello, yes, it’s your favorite thorn in your side <3 Seriously though, thanks for letting me bug the crap out of you throughout these Games. You were very patient with me and even when you told me ‘no’ you were great about explaining your reasoning. It’s always strange to go from ally to GM/tribute, but I feel like we’ve managed that relationship pretty well. And can I just say I’m still SO glad you’re back from abroad, haha? It’s not the same here without you. Thank you for this arena, for the REs and fights and feels. And most of all, thank you for letting me do this crazy Queerkee thing with my DP. I couldn’t get any of this post to work until I brought her in. So grateful.

Shrimp: thank you thank you thank you for everything. This was one hell of a first games as a GM and you made it memorable. These have been my favorite Games ever, bar none. The return of the doppels was fucking brilliant and broke all of my feels. I think you and Thundy have so much to be proud of, and for myself, I’m really grateful for all of the opportunities I had as a tribute. I would be honored to be in any arena with you as a GM.

Ghosty: Daniel(le)s unite! Haha. DUDE! Why didn’t we talk more before these Games??? Even at the beginning we didn’t talk all that much. I can’t for the life of me figure out why. You have proven yourself to be one cool cat. Thank you for being so kind and zen about our big alliance fight. Thank you for representing the shit out of District Ten. Thank you for playing Hearthstone and ToS with me. It’s been awesome getting to know you better.

Arrows: arrowsbby <3333 we’ve come a long way from mentor/mentee amirite? Top 4! At the beginning of these Games that seemed impossible, but look at you now. Kirito/Kiri has morphed into something crazy and I love watching him develop. You’ve always been very kind to me, and I really appreciate you checking in throughout this last crazy fight. Keep the twincest alive for Keerkee, okay?

Stare: you said it – these Games have been the best for cementing friendships. We’ve been on this site for what, four years? And while we’ve been casual friends, it’s nothing compared to where we are now. Stare are you generous and loyal and intuitive. Your kindness is a beacon in the dark. Thank you for shining a little light on me.

Mylee: ah cmiles, I know now is not the best time for us, but I remain grateful for you. Yes, June tested the limits of our friendship, but it has not broken us, mostly thanks to you. You are an amazing friend because you are patient and forgiving. Most of all, you want people to be their best selves. Thank you for that. I am sorry I didn’t get to interact more with Wyatt, but this last week of interaction has proved to me that you write beautiful things with his prose, and his dialog is fun as hell to play off of. Thank you for sharing that with me.

Python: I mean how can I not thank you when the opportunity arises? Thanks for never being mad at me. I really value our friendship and just, yeah. Thanks for being you.

Charade: <33333 I don’t even know what to say. Thank you is pretty inadequate. I’m so grateful for your steadying influence. You know everything else.

Chaos: thank you, for being there at the end. You knew just the right time to reach out. It’s like you knew it would be hard even though I didn’t? Thank you a hundred times over.

FX (flyss): Damn dude you are AWESOME! I’m really happy these Games formed the foundation of our friendship. Thank you for talking to me about your muse for Preston’s DP. It definitely made me think harder about Keerkee’s. I’m looking forward to future threading. <3

Puppy: dawg <3 </3 you are the coolest. I really feel like we’ve reached an equilibrium with our friendship. Thanks for coming to me with questions and being so chill. Also THANK YOU for the L1ly post. That was awesome and for the feels.

Ani: I had stupid fun with our Shakespearian insults. Thanks for that. <3

Grim: dude I so enjoyed the little banter between Imp and Circe early in the Games. Made me laugh. Thanks for always checking in.

Marree: I feel like if these Games taught me anything, it’s how fiercely loyal you are to your friends. You have their back through and through. I so admire you for that. Our threadage was too short, but I loved our four tribs from District Two. The Quell Twist made for awesome train threading, at least! I’m looking forward to future threads with you. <3

Mattio: yay, another new friendship from these Games! I absolutely adored reading Geo’s posts. He was such a quiet badass and some of the shit he said still makes me laugh. I cannot wait to see your next tribute, my friend.

Cameo: dudette, I’m so glad these Games gave us the opportunity to become friends. Rhyme/Kirito was such an interesting dynamic and I’m so excited to have future threads with you.

Arx: arxy farxy <3 will I ever not love one of your tributes? nOPE! Thank you for being a part of the D10 boy gang. Simon died way too early. </3 But like your other tributes, I will remember him.

Zoe: Zotho <3 </3 damn is it hard to lose a tribute in the BB, as a victor trib, as anyone. I am sorry we didn’t get to see more of Rowan. I remain grateful that we have so many opportunities to interact as writers. I feel just writing with you makes my own writing stronger (like built in IC tutoring, aw yiss). Here’s to future things. <3

Avalon, Pogue, Ali, Aza, Rave, ems, Kire, Rook, RG, and everyone else who reached out throughout the 70th: thank you for being a part of the creation of these Games, from the reaping to the end. I loved reading all of the writing in these Games, and I know they’ve left their mark on the site.

Keerkee out.